This game was nervvy and tight, but Stuart Lancaster’s new England won at Murrayfield for the first time since 2004. Charlie Hodgson scored the games only try, charging down DanParks on Scotland’s line… Heartbreak all round.
The Herald is reporting that Ruaridh Jackson will not be considered for selection for the opening matches of this year’s RBS Six Nations for Scotland.
Cardiff Blues 25 – 8 Edinburgh Rugby
We’ve become accustomed to seeing Edinburgh romp in with tries. Edinburgh are the entertainers. The offloading chancers who have been able to score more than the opposition if that’s what a win needs. Down in Cardiff, though, when faced with the brutes in blue they seized up and played a game they could never win.
Welcome to the precipice. In front of you is a sharp drop. A fall from grace. Behind you is a queue of people waiting to push you off. That same queue of people that always said Scottish rugby wasn’t very good. You always ignored them. Hoping that the glory days would return. Now you have to listen to their deafening chant and you can’t fight the urge to look down…
Here are the teams for tonight in the unlikely event you missed them. Glasgow travel to Connacht with both Jackson and perhaps Weir looking to lay down a Scotland marker after Dan Parks’ return to his “mercurial” ways – and not mercurial like Gregor Townsend used to be. Edinburgh travel to Thomond Park (weatherman Tim Visser reports weather is “rubbish”), giving us a first look at Nick Scrivener’s approach to the under performing capital men/dark knights/gunners/shower, unless you went to Newport last weekend which may actually have been a better plan than going to Murrayfield, in hindsight.
Glasgow: B Stortoni, H O’Hare, F Aramburu, P Murchie, D van der Merwe, R Jackson, C Gregor (capt), R Grant, F Thomson, E Kalman, A Muldowney, T Ryder, R Harley, C Forrester, J Beattie.
Replacements: F Gillies, J Welsh, K Tkachuk, R Wilson, C Fusaro, H Pyrgos, D Weir, P Horne.
Edinburgh: Chris Paterson, Lee Jones, Ben Cairns, James King, Tim Visser, David Blair, Greig Laidlaw (capt), Kyle Traynor, Andrew Kelly, Geoff Cross, Scott MacLeod, Steven Turnbull, Fraser McKenzie, Netani Talei, Ross Rennie.
Replacements: Alun Walker, Lewis Niven, David Young, Alan MacDonald, Roddy Grant, Nick De Luca, Simon Webster, Jim Thompson.
Munster vs Edinburgh, live on BBC Alba ko 1950. Coverage also on BBC Radio Scotland 810MW.
Like the pain of a scab being ripped off, we take a brief look back at the weekend’s action. Anything longer than brief would be overly depressing, like say, watching England hit form just in time for the World Cup.
When you look at the Samoan team there are a few frames that stick out. Namely, those of Mapasua and Tuilagi.
As Robbo prepares to stop being in the crowd at every single Heineken Cup game on Sky and actually name his 33-man squad on Wednesday, he must have a few headaches. Even the distraction of B & I Lions manager Andy Irvine claiming Robbo is in the running for Lions head coach will take some heat away from the fact that some key injuries, poor performances and the inescapable need to select Dan “I’m enjoying the Leek and Mutton pies a bit too much” Parks could make selection a stingy issue.
All of the questions will be answered tomorrow
Scotland battled well but ultimately the plate final was a game too far for them at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, going down to Samoa without scoring a point to finish sixth overall.
I’m not one to create hype (oh ok, maybe a little), but this weekend could be the most interesting in a long time for those of us interested in the perpetual debate over Scotland’s problems at number 10. And I’m not talking about David Cameron.
