Well, we’ve been doing very little, as you can tell. The Scotland boys have been busy though, at their altitude training camp in the French Pyrenees and then a spot of R&R down by the coast. The lads at Scottish Rugby TV have a job possibly a little better than ours, and were there to film it. Worth keeping an eye on their official SRU Youtube channel for more updates like these.
It was also announced recently that all Scotland’s international matches in preparation for the 2015 Rugby World Cup will be broadcast live, with the Ireland match on Sky and the others on BT Sport.
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Hopefully the training camps have both boosted morale and fitness and we’re ready come the warm up games and then the world cup. Im super excited, both of watching so much rugby on the telly and going to the south africa game at newcastle, but also of our chances. We all know SA will top the group, but with a fully fit squad we can push them all the way and hoepefully not fall into any of the pitfalls in our group. Japan, samoa and the us can all beat us if we have a bad day and they have a good day, so lets avoid that, but im sure we will. Lets play some exciting rugby and show the world we are a nation on the rise in rubgy.
In other news (always wanted to say that) did anyone see highlanders v tahs? Nasi manu was awesome, and naiyaravoro was very, very quiet. Excited about manu and the depth that edinburgh will have next season in the back row, its scary, and id even say deeper than glasgows? Naiyaravoro im sure will have better games, and the tahs werent great and didnt involve him too much.
But back to the World Rugby Rugby World Cup 2015 (love that title, its so ridiculous), come on scotland!
I saw that game and it was amazing. The level of skill displayed by both teams, particularly the Highlanders, surpassed anything I have seen from the home nations at either club or international level. I find that scary. Can you imagine what would happed if Glasgow, or even Scotland, took on the Highlanders. I recon we would lose by at least 65 points. The key think is that these teams seem to play at a much higher level of intensity than ours and their players are much fitter. They laso dont make crazy mistakes such as box kicks that go nowhere, dropped passes etc. That is what separates our teams from theirs and is why I cant see us doing much in the WC.
Duncan Taylors out. Another centre lost to a shoulder injury. Could end up with Vernon, Horne, Lamont and Fife as our centres. A converted 8 and two wingers. Grim..very very grim..
Is there any news on whether any out of Dunbar, Bennett and Scott will be fit? If they can’t play and then one of Horne or Vernon gets injured we’re in big trouble…
Scott has said he’ll be back for the August games. Bennett i’ve seen training in the SRU vids, no contact though. Dunbar’s in the US seeing a specialist. All could be back but its all very touch and go!
As Scafell says, Bennett is apparently back training. I certainly wouldn’t be too upset with a Horne/Bennett pairing for the big games, but Vernon/Lamont as a back-up pairing is far too much bludgeon and far too little rapier for my liking.
I’m hugely hopeful that Dunbar will make it – if we end up with all four first choice centres (Dunbar, Bennett, Scott, Horne) then I will be over the moon, but I would think three is a more realistic hope.
Scott needs to regain form as much as fitness. At his best he is one of our best players but if he plays as poorly as he did when he came back from injury in early spring and through the 6N I’d select Dunbar/Horne Bennett/Vernon.
Taylor was never going to be in the squad, Bennett is back in full training, Dunbar must have a good chance or the SRU wouldn’t be spending £1000s in the USA, Scott could be struggling.
Finally Stuart Hogg could play 13 & I reckon Tonks could play 12
At the risk of being told off for posting off-topic, Samoa announced their 27-man squad to play the ABs on 8 July and it looks ominously strong, if a bit long in the tooth. Weaknesses – if there are any really, is their back row and centres. Strength – undoubtedly their back 3 and HUGE front five.
However, they have a heavy and old pack and Scotland will need to run them off their feet by winning quick ball at the breakdown and moving the ball at pace. If the game slows down we will get hammered.
While we’re not giving you too many topics to post on, we’ll forgive that particular sin!
3 of our pool rivals are taking part in the Pacific Nations Cup in July-August which is going to provide a fascinating insight into how strong Samoa, Japan and USA really are as they will all be at full strength.
Unless I’ve missed something, Samoa will play NZ (8 July), then play the PN Cup (4 games, last one on 3 August) and then one other warm up game against Wasps on 5 September before their first world cup game on 20 September.
It’s an interesting schedule – they’re less likely to be troubled by injuries when the world cup kicks off and will have the opportunity to be together as a squad for far longer than they are usually afforded, but they haven’t got the long window for conditioning the NH teams have and they won’t have played a competitive match in 6 weeks.
Thats the problem- we dont have enough decent forwards. Our boys are big enough but dont play the game at the requires level of intensity. My own feeling is that we will probably beat Samoa abut its going to ber a close game. If we play like we did against Ireland in the 6 nations then I would expect us to lose by 10-15 points.
Samoa are an incredably good team and I fear the worst for our boys.
Samoa do blow hot and cold. However Samoa are going to have a few ex youth all blacks and super rugby players playing now (Nani-williams for one). If our injuries clear up I think we have enough in the tank but it will be very close, if not then we could be in trouble.