Monthly Archives: February 2010

Scotland Team for France

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Scotland Team to face France: Paterson, T Evans, M. Evans, Morrison, Lamont, Godman, Cusiter, Dickinson, Ford, Low, Hines, Kellock, Brown, Barclay, Beattie
Replacements: S Lawson, Jacobsen, R Gray, MacDonald, R Lawson, Grove, Southwell

Good to see Richie Gray gets a spot on the bench, he Southwell and Grove will be looking to make an impact for sure – Grove is probably most unlucky not to make the starting XV. Still we know that if Morrison or Evans is not up to scratch Robbo will not be afraid to haul them off at the earliest opportunity. No Dan the man Parks in sight though despite recent form – Glasgow fans does this have you worried, or are you happy enough with the Killer Bs reunited at international level?

UPDATE: France: Clement Poitrenaud (Toulouse); Benjamin Fall (Bayonne), Mathieu Bastareaud (Stade Francais), Yannick Jauzion (Toulouse), Aurelien Rougerie (Clermont Auvergne); Francois Trinh-Duc (Montpellier), Morgan Parra (Clermont); Thomas Domingo (Clermont), William Servat (Toulouse), Nicolas Mas (Perpignan), Lionel Nallet (Racing-Metro), Pascal Pape (Stade Francais), Thierry Dusautoir (Toulouse, capt), Fulgence Ouedraogo (Montpellier), Imanol Harinordoquy (Biarritz).
Replacements: Dimitri Szarzewski (Stade Francais), Luc Ducalcon (Castres), Julien Pierre (Clermont), Julien Bonnaire (Clermont), Freddie Michalak (Toulouse), David Marty (Perpignan), Vincent Clerc (Toulouse).

They obviously saw Max Evans in the team and thought, who is the biggest lump they can throw at him?

PRIMO DOUBLE UPDATE: France bench updated 5/2, thanks to Nursedude

Scottish club International Team

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Club International coach Ally Donaldson has named his starting XV and subs bench for Friday nights game against France at Netherdale (7.30 ko).

Glasgow Hawks lock, Rory McKay, Dundee prop Alan Brown and Melrose pair James King (centre) and Fraser Thomson (wing) have all earned their place in the starting XV for the first time. New caps also include Gregor Wood (Watsonians), Alastair Hamilton, Andrew MacMahon (both Currie), Paul Burke and Jamie Hunter (both Ayr) on the bench.

The coaching staff are eagerly looking forward to this game and are hoping to go one better after losing by a point in last years reverse fixture. Club International team manager, Ian Rankin said: “The days of French teams supposedly not traveling well is long gone. This French team will play with the classic French style – huge powerful forwards and lightning quick backs.

“But in this starting XV we have 11 players that faced the French last season, with another two poised to play from the bench who all know what they have to face.

“It’ll be a tough assignment but hopefully we can get a big Netherdale crowd out to back the team. I’ve heard the game is of big interest in the Borders but there are a lot of clubs represented by this team.

“There’s a real connection between the clubs and their players with the clubs taking a lot of pride and pleasure in being represented in the match. I think that’ll be measurable this Friday night.”

Scottish Club International Team to face France: Harkness (Selkirk); Thomson (Melrose), Clapperton (Boroughmuir), King (Melrose), Anderson (Melrose); Wight (Melrose), Snedden (Currie); Dymock (Heriot’s), Burnett (Heriot’s), Brown (Dundee), Kelly (Ayr), McKay (Glasgow Hawks), Dalziel (Melrose) CAPTAIN, Cairns (Currie), Weston (Currie).
Replacements: Wood (Watsonians), Reid (Ayr), Hamilton (Currie), Sutherland (Ayr), Burke (Ayr), Hunter (Ayr), MacMahon (Currie).

Entry is free on the night. Why not head down to Gala and support the Club International lads?

Stroker Out

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Alisdair Strokosch will miss the Six Nations opener against France on Sunday having failed to recover in time from an ankle injury. His place in the team will probably be taken by in-form Kelly Brown given Jason White is also currently injured. This might affect the bench though, as Brown is pretty versatile whereas the likes of Gray or Rennie who are probably in line along with Macdonald are less so. Rory Lamont is still with the squad but will not be considered for selection as he too is recovering from an ankle injury.

A full Scotland team announcement will be at tomorrow around noon and I hope to have it for you as soon as possible after that!

Compress for Success

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It had emerged over the weekend that Graham Lowe, the director of performance rugby in Scotland, intends to review the set-up of the top division. As coaches bemoan the lack of respect club sides get and call out for a semi-professional atmosphere in Scottish club rugby people are searching for alternatives. The main drive of Lowe’s review, it could be suggested, will be to make more money from Prem 1. A concept as elusive as Julien Malzieu (yeah, it’s time to get nervous/excited about Sunday already!).

Scottish club rugby needs a new way to generate excitement. But how do you make it more sexy?! The mainstream ideal tends to be cutting the league down to a more competitive 10 team league. In fact, if The Scotsman is to be believed, the powers that be at Hawks have produced a paper calling for the league to be reformatted to include 8 teams only. This, however, looks unlikely. One; because it is improbable that all the Prem 1 powers will agree on this but also because, two; it is doubtful that Lowe would propose such a grand change so soon into his tenure that could instantly alienate up to 6 clubs as 4 are relegated and 2 denied promotion.

It is obvious that change is needed in some degree. The truth is, however, that cutting the amount of teams alone would not guarantee that the premier club rugby competition in this country is more exciting. More competitive? Definitely. More entertaining? I, for one, am not convinced.

Excitement is what generates more interest. More interest generates more coverage. More coverage generates bigger attendances and more sponsorship. In short, ladies and gentlemen, excitement brings the bucks. So Prem 1 needs to foster the pluralist notion of entertainment and rivalry within a league, preferably shortened to 10 teams. Some remit, Mr. Lowe! You’d have an easier job convincing card-happy Hines that collecting yellows in the 6N is not a good thing.

Would a play-off between the top 4 teams at the end of the season create more buzz? Would a play-off at the bottom of the league create more buzz? How do we get the BBC or STV to show more of our ‘amateur’ games? Craig Chalmers has been saying for months that play-offs (at the top half of the table at least) would not only initiate interest but give local broadcasters a better package to work with. This would definitely seem more marketable.

As well as this theory, Lowe is said to be considering an SPL-style split at a certain point in the season where the top-half teams fight for the title while the bottom-half teams scrap for survival. This would engender a ‘survival of the fittest’ mentality, but seems to lack the market appeal of a shorter play-off product. Either way the mission is clear. Get more punters; thrill more punters; take cash off more punters. As a punter, I’m just hoping the league retains some of its classic rivalries while offering a fair opportunity for teams to earn a league title. And some unexpected high scoring results wouldn’t go amiss, either, thank you Mr. Director!

Premier 1 round-up

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Good old Scotland! Once again the fixture list was all but wiped out at the weekend as only one match in Prem 1 survived.

Stewart’s Melville 22-53 Heriot’s
at Inverleith

In the end this was a bit of a drubbing, and had Stew Mel coach Moffat conceeding, “There isn’t a lot of pressure on us now. I think it’s fairly inevitable that we are going down so in that respect it’s just about us performing and trying to bring through some young players.”

 Stew Mel were the better team, though, in the first 15 minutes or so. They put pace onto the ball and generated momentum from the first kick-off. Ker supplied Marshall well and between them they picked their holes in the first 5 of the game, creating two tries and instilling a sense of bewilderment in the Away side. Luckily for the men in blue and white they didn’t panic. The rest of the first half saw them look after the ball and their forwards made sure the Nails backline had a platform for the rest of the game. Marshall, Ker and Henry all had accomplished games but in the end the disparity in fitness and creativity seemed to shine through. There were  too many tries from Heriot’s to analyse each one (although the pick of the bunch was ‘CJ’ Osazuwa’s rangy slide across the pitch to pop to Douglas for an easy finish).    

 Without a bonus point for Stew Mel are certain to go down but, as Moffat says, they can still enjoy themselves and with the quality they possess will most likely bounce straight back up after a season in Prem 2 (if the leagues retain their current format!)   

Stewart’s Melville: R Borthwick; A Cox, H Lingard, C Marshall, L Steele; S Ker, R Patterson; A Edmonstone, C Mackintosh, R Grant, B Leathes, S Brewster, B Tweedie, L Calder, P Hendry.
Replacements Used: A Statham, S Blackwood, C Sutherland, A Lean, J Gordon.
Heriot’s: C Goudie; B Roberts, M Nimmo, R Mill, A Douglas; R Hutton, G Wilson; A Dymock, S Burnett, W Blacklock, C Osazuwa, P O’Connor, P Eccles, C Fusaro, J Syme.
Replacements Used: F Gillies, M Welch, J Hill, J Alston, G Rutherford.

Scoring Summary
Stewart’s Melville Ker (2), Steele; Cons: Ker (2); Pen: Ker.
Heriot’s Douglas, Roberts, O’Connor (2), Goudie, Syme (2), Gillies; Cons: Wilson (5); Pen: Wilson.
SRB Man of the Match: B Roberts

That’s your lot, I’m afraid!