While I was away stuck in the wilderness, it seems quite a lot has happened on the rugby front:
- Scotland suddenly became good at Sevens and may yet be allowed to play in the Commonwealth Games. Well done to Greg Laidlaw and the team for their Plate tournament victory, and defeating some Sevens heavyweights along the way (South Africa, Fiji, Argentina).
- Perennial lawbenders the Ospreys won the Magners League final, and Leicester won the GP.
- Andy Robinson fell out with the Guinness Premiership.
- Scotland aren’t touring NZ again, ever. I don’t really have a problem with that at the moment, but AD has a much more balanced reaction to this debate below.
- They are touring Argentina this summer though, but captain Chris Cusiter is still suffering a knee niggle and is a doubt so he may not be
- Edinburgh signed a foreigner, Worcester number 8/blindside man and all-round Fijian lump Netani Talei. He joins Alex Grove who is also on loan till January. Scotsman reports have them targeting Argentine lock Esteban Lozada, too, ahead of their reported interest in previous Puma skipper Carlos Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe. Both signings are current test internationals.
- The very same Alex Grove has been named in a useful looking Scotland XV (uncapped) to face Japan tonight at Murrayfield (free admission). The full team is: H Southwell (Stade Francais), S Lamont (Scarlets), N De Luca (Edinburgh), A Grove (Worcester), S Danielli (Ulster), P Godman (Edinburgh), M Blair (Edinburgh, capt), A Jacobsen (Edinburgh), R Ford (Edinburgh), M Low (Glasgow), R Gray (Glasgow), J Hamilton (Edinburgh), R Vernon (Glasgow), K Brown (Glasgow), J Beattie (Glasgow). Replacements: F Thompson (Glasgow), G Cross (Edinburgh), S MacLeod (Edinburgh), J Barclay (Glasgow), M McMillan (Glasgow), M Evans (Glasgow), J Thompson (Edinburgh).
Please head along and support the boys if you are in the Murrayfield area tonight. I don’t know if there will be broadcast coverage of any sort but I’ll have a look. It might be on the radio but there is nothing listed.
UPDATE: found this on the Scotsman site: “The game, being covered live by BBC Radio Scotland will be the fifth non-cap international between the two countries, Scotland winning two at Murrayfield and one in Tokyo between 1976 and 1986, but losing the fourth meeting, in 1989 in Tokyo, 28-24.”
UPDATE: The news confirmed it’ll be on BBC Radio Scotland, 810MW. Didn’t look very busy, bout standard crowd for an Edinburgh game!