Sunday, Muggy Sunday. Scotland was catching its breath. An unfancied Edinburgh side had nipped into London and nicked a result over Irish, the day before, winning it after trading blows for 80 minutes. Few would have expected an unprecedented double over English sides, even if something similar happened in Italy the week before.
Glasgow keep on stringing wins together, though, and their 26-21 guerrilla victory here was an emotional one.
It has been confirmed today that Scotland and Glasgow lock Richie Gray will move south next year to take up duties with Premiership side Sale Sharks. The new poster boy of Scottish rugby has quickly risen to be a key player for both Scotland and Glasgow over the last 18 months and it is probably no surprise that he has chosen to continue his career south of the border. Hopefully Richie will be able to continue his development in the week in, week out dogfight that is the English top flight which can only benefit the national team in the long run. Whilst Glasgow will undoubtedly miss his whole-hearted, hard-hitting displays it will create an opportunity for someone else to step into his (what must be!) huge shoes – hopefully a young Scot!
Surprising though is the timing of the announcement, given the Heineken Cup and the need to be one big happy family in the coming weeks. Sale could be forgiven for their excitement though, as for them it is a major signing of one of rugby’s fast rising stars and he should slot into the squad alongside old Glasgow mucker Richie Vernon and fellow Scots Ali Dickinson and Fraser Mackenzie. Who would you cheer for in a Sale vs Gloucester match now?
They’re harsh on their team here in New Zealand.
After the All Blacks humped a stoic Tongan side by 6 tries to 1 with clinical counter attacking rugby but failed to score quite so much in the second half, pretty much everyone I’ve spoken to reckons they were truly, truly awful, or words to that effect. Usually ones rhyming with “hit” or “height”. Graham “Ted” Henry only gave them 5/10. So how then to view Scotland’s decidedly mixed performance on Saturday against a fired-up Romanian team?
3 days to go and the mounting pressure and rise in exposure is inescapable.
RWC 2011 kicks off on Friday with Tonga unleashing the Sipi Tau against the hosts, NZ, and suddenly we are made aware of every movement by every team, every day. It will continue like this throughout the tournament and at a time when every top tier nation is looking for recognition and respect we can only expect more scrutiny than ever before.
(or possibly a cardboard cut out of Jim Hamilton). Scotland’s players have enjoyed an afternoon of training with a difference as part of their preparations for Rugby World Cup.
Richie Gray Clay Pigeon Shooting, picture courtesy Scottish Rugby/PA Images
This week Canterbury (of New Zealand and no longer the Northern Hemisphere) and Scotland launched the new rugby kit that will see our national team through the upcoming World Cup, and beyond. Reaction to it so far seems to be mixed (check out our FB poll to let us know what you think), so I thought I would take a look…
Johnnie Beattie, Sean Lamont and Chris Paterson in the new kit
As Rory has chosen to focus on the backs he has left me with the slightly easier task of looking at the forwards.
The reason this is easier is because Andy Robinson has a pretty samey starting pack and, barring injury, I can’t imagine it will change too much for the first game in the World Cup. So this means the warm-up games against Ireland and Italy will help pick a bench, and the training sessions before hand are hugely important for individuals.
So who is a dead cert to go, and who “could do better”?
Things are set to get tougher for Edinburgh next year with the news that Fraser Mackenzie is leaving the club to join up with Richie Vernon at Sale Sharks. It seems that no longer is it a case of Edinburgh and Glasgow developing young players until they are established test players, now the bigger clubs are swooping to sign folk after just a season (or less) of decent performances. At the moment it really feels a bit like a closing down sale, and clubs with money are scrabbling for whatever bargains they can find left on the shelves.
Well it might not be mammoth, as it’s all in the past now isn’t it and we want to start looking forward to the World Cup, but it will be woolly. Here we look back at the feast of um, something, that was Six Nations 2011.
This season’s Six Nations has been an unpredictable affair (should there be a Le in front of that?) with England dominating right up to the last exchange when they imploded at the Aviva Stadium. Despite this mishap, their players were generally better across the board but rather worryingly only Richie Gray could be said to be nailed on for a spot in this team with few real stand-outs on show. A.D (with a little help from Rory) gives us the team of the tournament.
Al was at a wedding this weekend (no not his own, he’s still trying to talk Mrs Al into a 2015 honeymoon in Japan) so A.D and Rory knocked some heads together – mostly their own – and took a look back at the first round of Six Nations 2011.
With the 1872 Cup kicking off on Monday (1735GMT kickoff, coverage via BBC Alba), we take a look at some of the key team matchups for the game.
…For Scottish pro-team fans, at any rate. But there is still plenty of rugby to be played in the tournament and some of the teams (Leinster, Scarlets, even Aironi!) so far have shown that there may be something of interest for the neutral to watch. Yes, that’s you now…
Ok it might be wishful thinking, but as my esteemed colleague A.D. said yesterday, Edinburgh and Glasgow have largely been written out of the script for this year’s Heineken Cup. And the TV coverage.
Edinburgh continued their poor start to the season with a largely uninspiring home loss to Munster, only narrowly missing out on the victory through the boot of Chris Paterson. Had they claimed such a victory, Munster probably would have been hard done by, having controlled large swathes of territory and most of the possession with one of their standard “efficient but uninspiring” performances.
