This week Cammy is joined by Rory and Rugby World’s Alan Dymock (formerly of this parish) to look back at Scotland’s Six Nations campaign. We look at Scotland’s road to the World Cup (The Rugby World Cup From A Scottish Perspective™) and Gregor Townsend’s summer adventure in the Americas. We also look at Edinburgh’s progress under Richard Cockerill and how much pre-match preparation actually matters.
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7 Responses
Great blog as always guys – a couple of points:
Re the Scot no.8 position, there don’t seem to be any outstanding options at present
Wilson is there for ‘dog’, versatility & lineout
Denton doesn’t seem to have the all round game / poor hands
Strauss is out of favor
Ashe probably isn’t enough of a tackle breaker / beast
Fagerson is too young at present and is more likely pencilled in as a replacement post World Cup for Barclay at 6
Given the above it may be worth giving Bradbury the 3 summer tour tests – he has the physical attributes & looked decent in his one cap to date. It’s sometimes better to settle on a player knowing that they may develop with experience rather than chopping & changing and searching for something we don’t at present seem to have.
Other point is ongoing ‘hands in the ruck’ – lack of numbers coming out to watch Edinburgh, only 5,000 tickets sold to date for a European quarter final with ‘your’ team on a fantastic winning run, this team deserves so much better.
If anything that is what Ashe is – a tackle breaking beast – he needs an injury free run to see what he can do – a fantastic player IMO.
Wilson had 1 decent game – against England, the res showed he just isn’t good enough – the mincing tackle attempt against Italy was the icing on the cake. He’s also only scored 3 tries in his whole pro career – he’s an 8 fer chrissakes.
Strauss caught my eye at the weekend . He looked at his best, took a few tacklers to take him down, he got an easy score , nothing special. He is not the answer , always inconsistent. Worth watching AV highlights, watch Faletau. He was , running lines like a centre , with great pace, We just dont have that type of player yet. Ashe is the only one who could get there , however he seems to be bulking up just now.
Wow, a shout out! I’d like to observe that my point wasn’t that Ireland had a simple gameplan, it was that they’re so well drilled that their team performances are greater than the sum of their parts.
Entertaining podcast as ever, though!
That was an interesting discussion about Toonie’s selection options for USA, Canada and Argentina.
There has to be a good case for giving some players a summer off, reintroducing some who need to get back up to international speed, and bringing some uncapped players in. For the first time in a long time, we have the player strength in depth to serve all three aims.
All I’d add to that is please, Toonie, don’t pick a tour party that ends up losing to the USA or Canada because that would be embarrassing and no good for team or fan morale. Argentina is a different prospect because I’ve no idea what kind of side they will field, and in any case they’re always a tough side to beat at home.
Another good 1hr+ of chat.
Regarding Greeg at 10 in essence we know he can do it so why try it, I’d rather see Adam Hastings given time in the squad environment and maybe a cap vs Canada in June.
Josh Strauss is clearly out of favour for some reason but is pulling up trees for Sale at the moment.
I’m not sure the ‘flying visit’ approach to away games is working or indeed worth persisting with given that RWC19 is in Japan.
Duncan Weir deserves to get a shot at 10 on the Summer tour. He plays differently to Russell but from a pragmatic point of view, if Russell is hooked off or injured, is Laidlaw at 10 the best option?
You mentioned using the Summer tour to test Laidlaw at 10, which while could be a shout could be reserved as plan E.
Laidlaw would be better as a mentor, advisor, For G.Horne, unless it does not work at all.
Weir is a better version of Laidlaw at 10. Duncan has great kicking stats, excellent at touchfinders, can slot a drop goal, is more physical than Laidlaw and probably Russell, and has a cool head on him (something something neck joke).
In a situation where Russell is injured/can’t play you can keep Laidlaw on the field plus Weir or get Price on.
Hastings has had a good few games but hasn’t shown form where he’s ahead of Weir. He should also tour, and probably start Weir for USA, start Hastings for Canada and start Horne against Argentina.
Going by his performances for Edinburgh in the past few weeks Weir is not the replacement 10 we deserve, but the one we need right now.