Hugo Southwell To Miss World Cup
Out of work and now out of luck, Hugo Southwell is set to miss the World Cup in September after failing to recover from a knee injury.
Tag Archives: Hugo Southwell
World Cup Squad Preview: Backs
The club season is done. The pro-team season is almost over, unless you happen to be challenging for a playoff place (hint: Edinburgh and Glasgow are not). All eyes turn now to the World Cup, at least in this part of the world.
Teams for the Weekend
Mossy returns to the squad for the first time since the Six Nations, and with Hugo Southwell in try scoring form for Stade Francais Chris’ll be looking to reassert his hold on the Scotland 15 shirt ahead of the summer. In-form inside centre James King keeps Nick de Luca on the bench.
Edinburgh (to face Aironi): Jim Thompson, Simon Webster, Ben Cairns, James King, Tim Visser, Greig Laidlaw, Mike Blair, Kyle Traynor, Andrew Kelly (captain), Geoff Cross, Scott MacLeod, Esteban Lozada, Fraser McKenzie, Roddy Grant, David Denton. Replacements: Alun Walker, Lewis Niven, David Young, Steven Turnbull, Stuart McInally, Nick De Luca, Lee Jones, Chris Paterson.
Live TV Coverage: Friday 15th April 1945 BBC Alba
Meanwhile Chris Cusiter is back for Glasgow after almost a year out of action (unless you count twitter and the BBC Pundit’s box).
Team to follow.
Injury forces the return of Mossy?
According to STV news Joe Ansbro, Hugo Southwell and Rory Lamont will all sit out this weekend’s game with Ireland due to injury. Unlike the England Internationals, our exiles were back in action this weekend and Joe picked up a head knock after a collision with Butch James, he has been rested from training as a routine precaution and is unlikely to feature.
Scotland Team for Italy
Scotland team to play Italy in the RBS 6 Nations Championship at the Stadio Flaminio, Rome, on Saturday 27 February, kick-off 1.30pm GMT
15 Hugo Southwell (Stade Francais), 14 Simon Danielli (Ulster), 13 Max Evans (Glasgow Warriors), 12 Graeme Morrison (Glasgow Warriors), 11 Sean Lamont (Scarlets), 10 Dan Parks (Glasgow Warriors), 9 Chris Cusiter (Glasgow Warriors) CAPTAIN, 1 Allan Jacobsen (Edinburgh), 2 Ross Ford (Edinburgh), 3 Euan Murray (Northampton Saints), 4 Jim Hamilton (Edinburgh), 5 Alastair Kellock (Glasgow Warriors), 6 Kelly Brown (Glasgow Warriors), 7 John Barclay (Glasgow Warriors), 8 Johnnie Beattie (Glasgow Warriors)
Substitutes:
16 Scott Lawson (Gloucester), 17 Alasdair Dickinson (Gloucester), 18 Nathan Hines (Leinster), 19 Alasdair Strokosch (Gloucester), 20 Mike Blair (Edinburgh), 21 Phil Godman (Edinburgh), 22 Nick De Luca (Edinburgh)
Not considererd through injury: Chris Paterson, Jim Thompson (both Edinburgh), Thom Evans (Glasgow Warriors), Rory Lamont (Toulon) and Moray Low (Glasgow Warriors).
Pretty much what was expected. Still, the bench looks a little flaky based on recent form apart from the Big Stroker who will be looking to make an impact. What about the likes of Cairns or Grove? The first XV looks pretty strong though, and hopefully Danielli will be looking to make up for a few errors he made in the autumn while maintaining his try scoring form. Congrats also to Chris Cusiter and Hugooooooooo who will be earning their 50th caps. Careful with the kicking though boys, leave it to Dan…
Edinburgh team for Ulster…Blair to Warriors? And a new blogger!
Ha, gotcha. No, Worcester are the Warriors I was talking about. I refer to an interesting article which on reflection is mostly about nothing (something of a Scotsman specialism sometimes) over at the Scotsman speculating as to the employment future of Mike Blair, which I missed this week. Although arguably not missing him at scrum half specifically, are Edinburgh missing Mike’s cutting edge as he recovers from his ankle injury?
Edinburgh to face Ulster at Ravenhill: C Paterson (capt), J Thompson, B Cairns, J Houston, T Visser, P Godman, G Laidlaw, A Jacobsen, R Ford, D Young, S MacLeod, J Hamilton, S Newlands, A MacDonald, R Grant
Replacements: A Kelly, K Traynor, G Cross, C Hamilton, D Callam, R Samson, N De Luca, M Robertson. Simon “Malkovich” Webster is the spare man for Edinburgh in his quest on the comeback trail.
Sky Sports, k.o 8pm tonight (Friday)
News on the blog front: in addition to myself and Al – who has been busier playing rugby than writing about it recently (that and his laptop broke) – we now have a new blogger on the team who is going to do some bits and bobs for the site, concentrating mainly on the club game in Scotland. Confusingly enough, his name is also Alan (distinguishing nickname TBA) so I hope you will all make him feel welcome when his pieces appear over the next few weeks.
UPDATE: Stade bring the crazy (again): Hugoooooooo set for scrum half vs Bath – does this help Edinburgh’s chances of the result they need? (Thanks to Dougal for the tip – may your balls ever be oval)
Scotland A 38-7 Tonga
That’s probably more of a humping than we expected. Listening to the radio commentary it sounds like the Hugo experiment worked pretty well and Thom Evans didn’t seem to get much ball. Listening to Peter Wright is always fun too. Ben Cairns had a stormer, which really puts pressure on Grove for tomorrow so I hope he responds. Great to see 3 attacking 13s developing in the Scotland back line, makes a change from recent years… good luck to the boys for tomorrow against Australia!
Hugooooooing Where Now?
Southwell at fly-half? Never saw that one coming, though apparently he has been featuring at first receiver during play for Stade. Decent enough defence and a solid left boot (some days). Could be very interesting, damn shame its not on the telly. Still if you are in the Borders and have nothing better to do on a Friday night, entry is free and kick-off is at 7.30pm, Netherdale. Someone tell us how it goes – with a bunch of full caps this team should really be able to beat the Tongans.
Scotland A Team: Jim Thompson (Edinburgh), Thom Evans (Glasgow Warriors), Ben Cairns (Edinburgh), John Houston (Edinburgh), Nikki Walker (Ospreys), Hugo Southwell (Stade Francais), Rory Lawson (captain, Gloucester), Jon Welsh (Glasgow Warriors), Scott Lawson (Gloucester), Geoff Cross (Edinburgh), Scott MacLeod (Edinburgh), Richie Gray (Glasgow Warriors), Kelly Brown (Glasgow Warriors), Alan MacDonald (Edinburgh), Allister Hogg (Edinburgh)
Replacements: Andrew Kelly (Edinburgh), Ed Kalman (Glasgow Warriors), Craig Hamilton (Edinburgh), Roddy Grant (Edinburgh), Greig Laidlaw (Edinburgh), Colin Gregor (Glasgow Warriors), Mark Robertson (Edinburgh).
UPDATE: Mike Blair’s ankle injury has kept him off the bench for the full international, so Rory Lawson steps up to replace him (whether he will also assume co-captaincy remains to be seen), Greg Laidlaw moves up to start tonight and Mark McMillan comes into the vacant bench spot.
Hugo Goes to France and Monty Might Not
As reader Derek pointed out in the comments for our last impeccably titled Hugo related post, Hugo Southwell has now indeed confirmed a move to France, in particular Stade Francais where he hopes to find a spot in the team alongside former Edinburgh stablemate Simon Taylor. While the concept of Hugo in a flowery pink shirt would in principle seem awesome, I think he will need to up the consistency of his play a fair bit to pin down a regular spot at Stade.
Meanwhile the Beeb reports that Sean Lamont’s rumoured move to Brive (a club seemingly beloved of out of form Northampton players, having played recent host to Ben Cohen and Steve Thompson) has fallen through and coach Saints Jim Mallinder is now “unsure” of Sean’s future at the club. A decent run in the European Challenge Cup match against Sarries on Friday could help turn the tide.
Huuuuuuggoooooing?
According to this article in the Scotsman, Hugo Southwell might be heading to pastures new. While a move to Harlequins so they could have shouted Ugo AND Hugo might have been better for the amusement of people like me, it sounds like he could be heading to France. Presumably the reason for this is Paterson’s kicking will cement his place in the Edinburgh team, but it leaves them a bit short when Mossy gets injured or is away on international duty. Cairns and De Luca have both filled in at full-back for Edinburgh in the past, and Jim Thompson could follow the example of Colin Gregor for Glasgow last month as a sevens man slotting in at 15 and playing a blinder. From there they get plenty of space to look up and see what’s on, rather than, say, just hoofing it skywards. I thought Gregor did a pretty decent job, and Thompson is physically more what you’d expect a full back to be. Sorry Colin, but you’re wee. Speaking of which, he’s playing 15 again this weekend as Glasgow take on Matt Williams’ Ulster. Ruaridh Jackson once again gets a shot at the 10 shirt and Andrew Henderson returns from injury to take a slot on the bench. Meanwhile Edinburgh take on a Leinster side still featuring plenty of internationals, just not the front line ones. Gordon D’Arcy may take a last tilt at the Lions tour here, and it’s a final chance for the Scottish guys to put a hand up. To be fair, the squad is announced on Tuesday so they’d have to do something pretty spectacular to get in at this late stage!
Anyway, should Hugo indeed be away to pastures new, we at Scottish Rugby Blog would of course wish him all the best.
