Monthly Archives: December 2009

Second Leg Teams / Happy New Year

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Happy New Year when it comes. Here is some team news for Saturday for you to digest while your liver recovers:

Glasgow: B Stortoni, DTH van der Merwe, M Evans, G Morrison, T Evans, D Parks, C Cusiter, J Welsh, D Hall, M Low, A Kellock (captain), R Gray, K Brown, J Barclay, R Vernon.
Replacements: TBC (rumour is Ruaridh Jackson may be given a bench slot, but then again may not).

Edinburgh: C Paterson (captain), M Robertson, B Cairns, J Houston, T Visser, P Godman, G Laidlaw, K Traynor, R Ford, G Cross, S MacLeod, J Hamilton, A MacDonald, R Grant, S Newlands.
Replacements: S Crombie/A Kelly, A Jacobsen, C Hamilton, D Callam, R Samson, N De Luca, J Thompson

Glasgow fans interested in going to the game without braving the drive in our current Hoth-like conditions might like to read this from the Glasgow Supporters Club: http://www.glasgowwarriors.com/gwsc/archives/2009/12/edinburgh_bus.html

Happy Christmas

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Al and I would like to wish everyone a Happy Christmas and New Year, and to thank you all for stopping by every once in a while and reading our ramblings on Scottish Rugby, so here’s to you ladies and gents – we hope you keep coming. Tell your friends! And if you are interested in writing please get in touch. Season of goodwill and all that, why not help out?

I couldn’t find the picture of Chunk in a Santa hat (which I faked anyway), so you’ll just have to imagine his beard is white not ginger. I’ll try and get a report in on the 1872 Cup matches but it’ll be a pretty busy festive period for me (non rugby related) so I might have to wait for a two-leg review on the second or third of Jan. If you can’t go along, they are both on STV this year, perfect veg-out material while you are adopting the Chunk look on the couch post all those roast dinners…

1872 Cup Preview

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It’s the first leg of the 1872 Cup this weekend as matters turn parochial. Brother on brother, blood on blood; Chris on Chris, Thom on Thompson, Brown vs Blair, DTH vs DC, Vernon vs Visser, Cross, Ross and Ross vs Dan, Dan, John and Johnnie, that sort of thing – basically civil war. That sentence would have been a lot easier with Welsh names. The first leg is in Glasgow, the second in Edinburgh and it’s hard to see past the home teams in each fixture. Still, I have a sneaky suspicion that Glasgow will come out the better over two legs.

Edinburgh are struggling (as always) to find a cutting edge and their attacking form seems to revolve around Godman who is treading water at the moment, while Glasgow now seem to play okay even when Parks is having one of his duff days – and even those have been rare recently. While Edinburgh seem to be building a team based on familiarity and combinations, Glasgow seem to be building a team based on leadership (Barclay, Kellock, Cusiter, Thomson, Gregor, McMillan and Grey have all captained Scotland at age group, sevens or international level) and the team seems to be coming together from the increased confidence that brings. Sean Lineen had seen the improvement in Edinburgh and maybe realised he might be under threat if his team didn’t start living up to the promise of the squad he was building having changed from a policy of duff foreigners to promising youngsters, and this season they seem to be repaying him. The “inconsistent” tag still rears its ugly head every so often (second half at Gloucester) but this season they have started winning away, and they just look a lot more confident when their top line-up takes the field. Gallus, you might say.

More importantly – who will the commentators be? Andy Nicol summarises for the Beeb while Scott Hastings summarises AND commentates for Sky. Given they both present on the STV highlights show, I would imagine they will be present, but as pundits, commentators or both? I would imagine it will be the two of them running back and forth between pitchside and commentary booth. Let’s face it STV is short of cash these days so I doubt they can afford to draft in the legendary Runrig soundalike Andrew Cotter (just listen to that tune Murrayfield play at half time, you know, the one about Scotland), and he is probably manacled to the BBC.

Unless STV feels the spirit of Christmas past and signs up Doddie Weir’s all conquering trousers…

John Beattie Snr Talks About Gouging then I Rant a Bit

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Interesting blog post from the big man about life-time bans for eye-gouging:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/johnbeattie/2009/12/the_insanity_of_eye_gouging.html

Some of the comments following his article are enlightening (not to mention some of the stories recounted frightening). It is interesting too how some people (PDV, that loon from Stade) still seem intent on downplaying it or sidelining gouging as an issue – a 24-week ban is anti-French, really? Stade Owner Guazzini should be fined into 2020 by the IRB, till the only pink thing he can afford are those little 2p sugar mice, as should the South Africa coach have been before him.

“”The ERC wanted to make an example of a symbolic player of Stade Francais and of the French team which has never had a disciplinary problem. It’s not normal that a private organisation in Ireland prevents a club employee from working, from playing. It is we who pay him.” says Max. I assume he meant “a French team”. Fair enough Max, if you don’t like it then you can bugger off out of the Heineken Cup too (sorry Hugo, you’d be collateral damage). It’s another example of the French clubs (following what I have just decided to call Tincugate) playing by the rules when it suits them and railing against interference when it doesn’t. We’d miss the French flair for sure, but I’m not sure I would want to be part of a game where people thought that what Dupuy did was okay. Watch this and see if you agree:

One of the BBC commenters suggests 6 months for a first attempt, then a life ban for a second one. Sounds fair to me. Although he was raking rather than gouging by the look of things, Dupuy did it twice in the space of 30 seconds after checking to see if he was being watched. Abhorrent is a good word.

Cardiff Arms Parks?

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Breaking news: rumour has it that Magners League leading points scorer, kicking machine and regular Scottish rugby/Strathclyde Police source of amusement Dan Parks is to sign for Cardiff Blues. At 31, he’s most likely a short term solution to the Blues’ issues at standoff where Sam “Two-dads” Norton-Knight has struggled to fit in (possibly because he is a full-back). Cardiff never struck me as much of a kicking side but I am sure Dan will feel right at home alongside several antipodeans, a Blair and a giant ginger chap. Is that the sound of Dai Young capitulating to aerial ping-pong?

Up this end of the country it frees up Jackson, Gregor and some other youngsters TBA for a run at the Glasgow ten shirt. Interesting, although unconfirmed…

BBC Article

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/welsh/8426303.stmBBC Article

2010 Six Nations Officials

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Here’s the list of 2010 Six Nations match officials for Scotland’s games. Anyone else not wild about George Clancy?

Sunday, 7 February 2010 – Scotland vs France at Murrayfield
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
Assistant referees: Chris White (England),Tim Hayes (Wales)
Television match official: Graham Hughes (England)
Assessor: Tappe Henning (South Africa)

Saturday, 13 February 2010 – Wales vs Scotland at Millennium Stadium
Referee: George Clancy (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Alain Rolland (Ireland), Peter Fitzgibbon (Ireland)
Television match official: Geoff Warren (England)
Assessor: Tappe Henning (South Africa)

Saturday, 27 February 2010 – Italy vs Scotland at Stadio Flaminio
Referee: Dave Pearson (England)
Assistant referees: Peter Fitzgibbon (Ireland), Tim Hayes (Wales)
Television match official: Nigel Whitehouse (Wales)
Assessor: Jim Fleming (Scotland)

Saturday, 13 March 2010 – Scotland vs England at Murrayfield
Referee: Marius Jonker (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Peter Fitzgibbon (Ireland), Carlo Damasco (Italy)
Television match official: Giulio De Santis (Italy)
Assessor: Patrick Robin (France)

Saturday, 20th March 2010 – Ireland vs Scotland at Croke Park
Referee: Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Craig Joubert (South Africa), Jérôme Garces (France)
Television match official: Giulio De Santis (Italy)
Assessor: Steve Hilditch (Ireland)

You can get a full list for all matches here.

Edinburgh Cling On, Glasgow Fall Off

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During whiteout conditions at Murrayfield on Saturday where the weather played a larger role than either of the teams for a chunk of the first half, Edinburgh managed to grab a victory against Bath. It was a pity the snow came in when it did, as both teams were showing a willingness to throw the ball about, but when the ball became invisible in a sea of white it became time for a game of Very Cold Hot Potato (mixed in with a little Dead Ants).

Mossy’s boot saved them as it has so often, and while I have often been reluctant to wade in on the whole Mossy at 10 thing, Godman’s form seems to be on the wane while Mossy seems to have gained a yard of pace, gets turned over in the tackle far less and his tactical kicking is miles better than it was and miles ahead of Godman. He’s surely done enough to be the front runner for the Scotland 15 shirt with Hugo a close second (who honestly believed he would be a regular at Stade?), but is he worth a look at 10 for Edinburgh as so many have suggested? (This is assuming Rory Lamont remains in the injury information black-hole he is currently in). While Robbo has been telling anyone who will listen about Scotland’s deficiencies in the 10 position, is Mossy finally worth a shout, having made his tactical game a bit, well, more Dan Parks-esque?

Speaking of Parks, he controlled the game against Gloucester extremely well in the first half while Barclay led the forwards in a masterclass in frustrating the opposition. For a game with so many Scot on Scot match-ups there was plenty of niggle, and no doubt a sign of what is to come next weekend (worryingly for Edinburgh, the Weej seem to excel in this area). Yet in the second half Gloucester came out and pretty much reversed the situation, bullying Glasgow off their 0-6 lead and the ball and sharpening up their attack enough to take the victory. A raft of late-term substitutions probably didn’t help Glasgow – much in the same way as it buggered up Edinburgh last week – with Cusiter going off and replacement McMillan then having to hide at the back with an injury while Gregor filled in at scrum half. This only served to rob Glasgow of Gregor’s running lines and pace from at the back, which they were already short of  with Thom Evans out. The Gloucester Scottish showed up well too with Scott and Rory Lawson and Al Strokosch showing good skills in attack, although Kellock and Gray were all over Lawson (hooker) at the lineout. And one more thing: does Graeme Morrison ever pass? You’d be as well playing Richie Vernon in the centre, who unveiled the pace that has Glasgow abuzz while the rest of us were initially wondering why Beattie was left on the bench in favour of a guy with two first names…

Weekend Teams

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Glasgow: Bernardo Stortoni, Dave McCall, Max Evans, Graeme Morrison, DTH van der Merwe, Dan Parks, Chris Cusiter, Jon Welsh, Dougie Hall, Moray Low, Alastair Kellock, Richie Gray, Kelly Brown, John Barclay, Richie Vernon
Replacements: Fergus Thomson, Kevin Tkachuk, Ed Kalman, Dan Turner, Colin Gregor, Mark McMillan, Johnnie Beattie, Colin Shaw

Good mix in the second row and great that Richie Gray is well settled into the Glasgow team now. The wingers get a chance to show what they can do, but leaving off the front line chaps suggests either a) they are injured or b) the ball is never getting that far and Parks is going to try and nick all the points going with his boot. (UPDATE: Turns out it’s a wee knee injury to Evans).

Edinburgh: Paterson, Houston, Cairns, De Luca, Visser, Godman, Laidlaw, Traynor, Ford, Cross, Turnbull, Hamilton, MacDonald, Rennie, Newlands.
Replacements: Kelly, Jacobsen, Young, MacLeod, Callam, Samson, Robertson, Thompson

Bath are targeting this one for a win despite almost being beaten at home last weekend. With “Tony” Blair out injured, it will be interesting to see what happens if/when Godman goes off, word is that Thompson has been asked to consider filling in at 10 before… I’m also interested to see if Rennie has the same impact that Roddy Grant has been having recently… here’s to another flowing game of rugby although maybe a little less self-destruction and a little more confidence in the finishing (Cairns should definitely have been able to finish that break last week) would be nice. Where have I heard that before?

Hoggy Out, Rennie In

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Busy week this one! Scottish Rugby is like buses – it makes a mess of Edinburgh city centre.

The SRU have announced that they are withdrawing from bidding for the 2013 IRB Sevens World Cup (potentially the last before it goes Olympic) due to (yet again) a lack of broadcaster interest. And Ally Hogg is to have surgery on a hip that is giving him gyp (see what I did there?) and has possibly been a factor in his form this season not being as good as last – when he played every game of the season for Edinburgh plus two sevens tournaments. On the good news side though, 23 year old openside Ross Rennie completes his comeback from injury into an Edinburgh squad alongside Roddy Grant and Alan Macdonald. Suffice to say, I think we’ve seen the last of Hoggy being shuffled to 7 as he used to be. Although with Dave Callam also almost back Ally might not find the back row slots just opening up for him when he does return, estimated to be sometime towards season’s end.

A Return To Pointlessness

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After a sensible selection of autumn opponents this season, the SRU have gone chasing the big Black dollar again in announcing next year’s autumn opponents will be South Africa (yup), Samoa (yup) and New Zealand’s All Blacks (poo). Other than encouraging the large and wonderful ex-pat kiwi population here in the UK to come and make Murrayfield feel like the Cake Tin for the day (ie mostly filled with New Zealanders) and spend their money on Princes Street, I’m not sure how this helps a developing Scottish team. Sure, you get to “measure yourself against the best” but we already know they are about 7 foot something and we are about 5 foot. After that it’s just a matter of deciding the inches and another loss we fans aren’t really interested in watching, which leads to more criticism of our apathy and poor attendances. “Oh but it’s the All Blacks,” I hear you say. It’s not the 1970s any more where they come by boat, they are over here every year, half their guys have played in the GP or in France and we can watch the Super 14/Tri Nations on the telly (if we want to). Most of the rugby world is over the haka. There is no novelty, and their “kick it then counter attack when they make a mistake” game works worryingly well against a team as error prone as ours still is.

Having run South Africa close a few years back, it should be more about improving to the stage where we can actually beat them – the All Blacks still seem like a step too far in the space of three weeks. Why not play them closer to the World Cup, or just wait to spring one on them in the knockout stages, eh?

It has just occurred to me that I forgot yesterday to mention Glasgow’s great win over Gloucester yesterday…I was away over the weekend so I missed most of the HC action on TV but I managed to catch the Edinburgh game when I got home (decent game, silly substitutions lost it) and wandered along to Goldenacre on Saturday to watch Heriots take Boroughmuir apart. There was some decent stuff played in front of a small but vocal crowd, £10 to get in was a bit steep though I thought…marginally warmer than going to watch Highland…

UPDATE: papers are reporting that in addition to getting beaten by the All Blacks again, we won’t be able to watch either the autumn internationals or the Argentina tour on TV because no-one wants to broadcast them. Apart from possibly STV, which can’t afford to.

Compatibility Issues for Euan Murray

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Rumours are circulating that Euan Murray may be set to confirm a new-found unwillingness to play his rugby on a Sunday, which would rule him out of selection for the tournament opener against. In the past he has been uneasy on the matter or injury has ruled him out, but both Saints and the man himself (that’s Murray, not God) are so far unwilling to comment on the matter. While Murray is undoubtedly one of the top props in the world, this puts Andy Robinson in a bit of predicament going in to his first Six Nations in charge of Scotland. Can he pick someone else (Moray Low, Geoff Cross) without them feeling they are only a place-holder until there is a game on the right day for Murray? You have to hope that anyone who is put in for that match against France will remain there throughout the tournament if they play well enough. But then again Murray does give us an edge in the scrums. Or will Robbo put the foot down and leave him out altogether a la Simon Taylor? Robbo vs God, it’s an interesting battle. Still, at least those folk who rail against Six Nations games at any time other than 3pm on a Saturday can claim him for their side.

There is an old interview done pre-last Six Nations where Murray talks a fair bit about his faith on the Scotsman site that also offers an amusing (in hindsight) Six Nations preview and even some measured debate in the comments.

UPDATE: this has now been confirmed, Murray will indeed be unavailable for selection for the opener vs France on Sunday 7th Feb.

Weekend Teams

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Going to be out of Sky range this weekend but hoping to go along to the Heriots game on Saturday if I get a chance. Meanwhile here are the teams announced so far for the weekends action, plenty of Scots all round and some interesting match ups at 2, 6 and 9 in the Glasgow game. Cusiter faces his closest rivals for the national shirt in his next four games – should be interesting to see how he takes them on.

Glasgow: B Stortoni, P Murchie, M Evans, G Morrison, T Evans, D Parks, C Cusiter; J Welsh, D Hall, M Low, R Gray, D Turner, K Brown, J Barclay (capt), R Vernon.
Replacements: F Thomson, E Kalman, K Tkachuk, T Barker, C Gregor, C Forrester, M McMillan.

Gloucester: C Spencer, C Sharples, J Simpson-Daniel, E Fuimaono-Sapolu, L Vainikolo, N Robinson, R Lawson; N Wood, S Lawson, G Somerville, D Attwood, A Brown, P Buxton (capt), A Strokosch, L Narraway
Replacements: D Dawiduik, P Doran-Jones, A Dickinson, A Eustace, G Delve, D Lewis, T Voyce, T Molenaar

Edinburgh: C Paterson (capt), J Houston, B Cairns, N De Luca, T Visser, P Godman, G Laidlaw; A Jacobsen, R Ford, G Cross, S Turnbull, S MacLeod, A MacDonald, R Grant, S Newlands.
Replacements: A Kelly, K Traynor, D Young, C Hamilton, A Hogg, R Samson, D Blair, J Thompson.

Top Of The Table

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After Leinster’s failure to topple the ever-improving Dragons at the weekend, the Scottish pro-teams go in to the Heineken Cup break first and second in the Magners League table. So congratulations to Glasgow and Edinburgh for that excellent bit of away points-grabbing, in particular the two oft-abused/unsung 10s David “Tony” Blair and King of Dans Parko Parks who both played pivotal roles. What’s more with only each other to play in the league between now and then, there’s a pretty good chance that one of the Scottish pro-teams will go into the half way point after Christmas atop the table, with the other in close attendance – along with the likes of Leinster and Ulster. It’s really great to see the teams doing so well and heading into the second half of the season with one and possibly both primed for at least a decent chance of a playoff spot come the sharp end.

This weekend attention turns to the Heineken Cup. Both Glasgow and Edinburgh need to win all their remaining games to have a chance of getting anywhere, including a possibly shift sideways into the latter stages of the Amlin Challenge Cup (might be a better bet there anyway!). For Glasgow that’s back to back against Gloucester, then the Dragons and away to Biarritz. All of which is in theory possible based on previous events, but still fairly unlikely for a team that has struggled so often with inconsistency. Still the way they toughed it out against Ulster gives me hope. Going out to the south of France with the weather turning a bit and all to play for could make for exciting times though. Good news for them too that Ruaridh Jackson came through an hour for Ayr (at full-back) on Saturday.

Edinburgh also face a team struggling in the GP, Bath (get Robinson on as a pundit!) before taking on Ulster at Ravenhill and Stade at home. With those wacky Edinburgh guys and their love of shirts that look like a tartan factory threw up and throwing it about in their own 22 anything is possible, but I fear “for zem ze vor is ova” and I reckon they will target the festive derbies for a clean sweep instead, maybe giving David Blair some more game time between now and then – he did pretty well against the Scarlets on Friday night. Or is that defeatist talk? On the Internet the walls have ears. Win against Bath at the Rec and I’ll probably change my mind again.

In terms of TV coverage, according to ERC rugby we get delayed highlights of Glasgow on Friday (this I think means “delayed until the round-up show on Sunday night”) and red button for Edinburgh on Sunday afternoon. What do you reckon – We Are The Champions or Mission: Impossible?

Inverness to host Scotland U20

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Inverness Caledonian Stadium will host the opening match of Scotland’s U20s Six Nations campaign against France, and there is even a possibility of a “local” lad being in the frame in the form of a Caithness player:

Scotsman Article

Friday 5th Feb at 7.30, free entry. Wrap up warm. Very warm.

Also, the IRB have announced the ticket prices for RWC New Zealand 2011. More on this at a later date, but don’t worry they are not on sale until April.

UPDATE: And one last little snippet: Scotland have lost their opening IRB Sevens pool matches in Dubai against Fiji and Samoa, but did manage to get a draw against Zimbabwe.

Back to Magners Action

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Anyone else find the Argentina game a bit dull? Okay so we were beaten and probably deserved it on the basis of the utterly forgetful second half. But for me the most exciting things about the match were the following:

  • Being able to move along three sections, thereby getting a decent West stand seat for a tenner and with no-one behind us, standing up for the whole match to get the flavour of a (deserted) terrace / keep warm.
  • Al barking in derision as Scotland’s play grew more inept and their loss grew more inevitable, scaring a young girl so that she jumped out of her seat several rows away. Apologies to you and your family, he did look scary with his moustache though didn’t he?
  • Not having to queue for a beer, due to the overall attendance being only slightly more than turn out to watch Edinburgh every week.

Disappointing, but well done to Andy Robinson for restoring a little bit of hope at one point there. Well done too to Ireland who look like just about the finished article scrapping to a win over the Boks, and also to Australia and New Zealand for nicely finishing off the autumn test period with a bit of, well, rugby. Onwards and upwards to the Six Nations for us, we hope. I reckon we can beat Italy and Wales this year at least, if Gregor can sort our backs out. Robbo seems to know how to get the forwards working, and there’s a solid defence to build around. D-fence wins Super Bowls, but you get the feeling it won’t win you a Six Nations. Would you want it to?

Congrats are also due to Ayr for getting a 28-13 victory over Rotherham in the British and Irish Cup at the weekend. Unfortunately Gael Force and Heriots lost again but just competing in that level of competition should be good for the players and if the surrounding supporters get behind them, maybe increase some revenue for the clubs as well.

On Friday night it’s back to the Magners League for Edinburgh and Glasgow, no word yet on whether Sean Lamont (who had a pretty good Autumn) will be appearing for the Scarlets. It being in Wales and on a Friday it is of course on BBC Wales. A few interesting names on the bench including youngster Ross Samson and back row man Dave Callam (remember him?) back from a long term him injury. Glasgow are fielding a decent strength team including both Evans brothers beside newcomer Alex Dunbar, while they all face fellow Scotland winger Simon Danielli in the Ulster backline.

Edinburgh Team to face Scarlets: C Paterson (captain), M Robertson, B Cairns, N De Luca, T Visser, D Blair, G Laidlaw, A Jacobsen, A Kelly, G Cross, S Turnbull, S MacLeod, A MacDonald, R Grant, S Newlands.
Replacements: Ross Ford, Kyle Traynor, Craig Hamilton, David Callam, Ross Samson, John Houston, Jim Thompson.

Glasgow Team to face Ulster: Bernardo Stortoni, Alex Dunbar, Max Evans, Graeme Morrison, Thom Evans, Dan Parks, Mark McMillan, Jon Welsh, Dougie Hall, Moray Low, Tim Barker, Richie Gray, Kelly Brown, John Barclay (capt), Richie Vernon.
Replacements: Fergus Thomson, Kevin Tkachuk, Dan Turner, Calum Forrester, Chris Cusiter, Colin Gregor, Peter Murchie