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European Teams Round Up

John Barclay
John Barclay has a word with Referee, Matthew Carley, during Scotland vs New Zealand - pic © Alastair Ross / Novantae Photography

The mighty Captain Scarlet himself, John Barclay announced his retirement from international rugby earlier in the week.

As accolades go it’s a big one: he is probably the best player whose career has spanned the lifetime of this blog.

He will be missed for Scotland even though ultimately over the piece he was massively under-used during that time in the wilderness when Scott Johnson was in charge, and should really have gone to the 2015 World Cup too.

We look forward to seeing him tear it up for Edinburgh in the years to come and presumably moving on to a career as a pundit – something he is already better than Clive Woodward at – with a sideline in jumping out of Stuart Hogg’s cupboards.

Another sad retirement this week came from former U20 and Edinburgh prop Jack Cosgrove, currently plying his trade at the Dragons. He’s retiring age 25 due to a serious eye injury sustained in training.

Other news this week included new deals for Chris Dean, James Johnstone, Pierre Schoemann (Edinburgh) and Kyle Steyn (Glasgow). Edinburgh have taken to not announcing the length of the contracts recently, so if you’ve landed on this post from the future trying to work out when Schoeby-doo is out of contract, it’s not my fault I don’t have the answer. Best guess is 2 or 3 years.

Edinburgh v Wasps

Date: Fri 06 December 2019
KO: 19:35
Venue: BT Murrayfield Stadium

Edinburgh are doing well at the moment, but perhaps you could say underachieving. A draw vs a very strong Bordeaux side at home and a win in Cork against Munster are good results on paper – but the side Edinburgh sent over the Irish sea should have won by more, and likewise they should have got more from a home tie in Europe.

Double headers against Wasps then Glasgow will see out the year and Richard Cockerill welcomes back Nick Haining and Darcy Graham to the team, Haining after a brief ban for dangerous play. That does mean Edinburgh now have several ball-carrying threats across the back row and bench and Magnus Bradbury can still be rested! Also missing out is Mark Bennett but an injury to Matt Scott gives the impressive George Taylor another run in midfield.

In what seems a more regular rotation at half back than previously when both were fit, Simon Hickey is once again handed the reins at standoff and van Der Walt sits the bench. Edinburgh will be targeting more than a draw this time.

Edinburgh Rugby: 15. Blair Kinghorn, 14. Darcy Graham, 13. James Johnstone, 12. George Taylor, 11. Duhan Van Der Merwe, 10. Simon Hickey, 9. Henry Pyrgos; 1. Pierre Schoeman, 2. Stuart McInally (c), 3. Simon Berghan, 4. Ben Toolis, 5. Grant Gilchrist, 6. Jamie Ritchie, 7. Hamish Watson, 8. Nick Haining.
Replacements: 16. Mike Willemse, 17. Jamie Bhatti, 18. Pietro Ceccarelli, 19. Sam Thomson, 20. Viliame Mata, 21. Nic Groom, 22. Jaco van der Walt, 23. Damien Hoyland.

Wasps: 15. Rob Miller, 14. Zach Kibirige, 13. Malakai Fekitoa, 12. Michael Le Bourgeois, 11. Josh Bassett, 10. Lima Sopoaga, 9. Dan Robson (c), 1. Zurabi Zhvania, 2. Tommy Taylor, 3. Kieran Brookes, 4. Theo Vukasinovic, 5. Tim Cardall, 6. Jack Willis, 7. Nizaam Carr, 8. Sione Vailanu.
Replacements: 16. Tom Cruse, 17. Tom West, . , 19. Brad Shields, 20. Thomas Young, 21. Ashley Johnson, 22. Will Porter, 23. Jimmy Gopperth.

Referee: George Clancy (Ireland)

Edinburgh unavailable: David Cherry, John Barclay, Eroni Sau, Luke Crosbie, Rory Darge, WP Nel, Matt Scott, Chris Dean, Fraser McKenzie, Lewis Carmichael.

La Rochelle vs Glasgow Warriors

Date: Sat 07 December 2019 
KO: 16:15
Venue: Stade Marcel Deflandre

Having been dismantled by Exeter and Leinster (2nds) in recent weeks, a tricky away trip to France could be just the rejuvenation that Dave Rennie’s men need, or it could compound things further.

Huw Jones once again drops out of the 23 but the pack looks pretty hefty this week with Fraser Brown, Jonny Gray and Matt Fagerson all back in harness.

Tommy Seymour continues his stint at fullback while Adam Hastings is set to restore some verve at standoff alongside George Horne. Edinburgh will be licking their lips at Glasgow’s recent dismal form and these back to back European games will be vital to try and arrest the slide going into 2020.

La Rochelle: 15. Kini Murimurivalu, 14. Vincent Rattez, 13. Jérémy Sinzelle, 12. Pierre Aguillon, 11. Pierre Boudehent, 10. Jules Plisson, 9. Alexi Bales; 1. Dany Priso, 2. Jean-Charles Orioli, 3. Ramiro Herrera, 4. Thomas Jolmes, 5. Mathieu Tanguy, 6. Zeno Kieft, 7. Kevin Gourdon, 8. Victor Vito (capt).
Replacements: 16. Brendan Lebrun, 17. Reda Wardi, 18. Sila Puafisi, 19. Thomas Lavault, 20. Paul Boudehent, 21. Tawera Kerr Barlow, 22. Brock James, 23. Brieuc Plessis-Couillaud.

Glasgow Warriors: 15. Tommy Seymour, 14. Niko Matawalu, 13. Nick Grigg, 12. Samuel Johnson, 11. DTH van der Merwe, 10. Adam Hastings, 9. George Horne; 1. Alex Allan, 2. Fraser Brown, 3. Zander Fagerson, 4. Scott Cummings, 5. Jonny Gray, 6. Ryan Wilson, 7. Callum Gibbins (capt), 8. Matt Fagerson.
Replacements: 16. George Turner, 17. Aki Seiuli, 18. Adam Nicol, 19. Robert Harley, 20. Tom Gordon, 21. Ali Price, 22. Peter Horne, 23. Kyle Steyn.

Referee: Luke Pearce (England)

Glasgow unavailable: Nick Frisby (ankle), Siua Halanukonuka (calf), Rory Hughes (head), Lee Jones (calf), Oli Kebble (head), Paddy Kelly (hamstring), Kiran McDonald (hip), D’arcy Rae (hand) and Ratu Tagive (hamstring).

Exiles

There will probably be more dotted about, but Stuart Hogg, Finn Russell, Chris Harris, James Lang and Rory Hutchinson all start for their clubs this weekend while Greig Laidlaw, Alex Craig and Richie Gray are all named in the replacements for their clubs. No Maitland or Taylor for Saracens, with SuperDunc possibly picking up another injury last weekend.

38 responses

  1. This Wasps team looks like Dai Young got drunk in a pub one night and declared that as long as he had a back line full of All Black’s he didn’t need a pack.
    Edinburgh were good.
    Clancy is an absolute joke. Just glad his ineptitude didn’t cost Edinburgh the bonus point.

  2. Decent win for ER last night. Not sure who chose MoM but thought Taylor was the standout back despite tries from vdm and Kinghorn. He has added a lot of physicality to his game from last year and is genuine competition for Matt Scott.

    Forwards were excellent. Mauls were good and nice to see us stealing a couple of lineouts from them in our own half rather than just setting up to defend the drive. Scrum was brutal and they had no answer to it. Schoeman really is a beast in the scrum and if anything Ceccarelli may be our best TH at the moment, been excellent this season.

    Would hope to see quite a lot of changes for next week, with a view to having our best XV on the pitch for the 1872 cup. Would definitely be resting Schoeman, McInally, at least one of toolis/Gilchrist. Back row may be tricky depending on availability. Pyrgos should sit next week out as shiel and Groom need game time. Hoyland should get a start next week also.

    1. Rj i would go with:

      1. Bhatti
      2. Willemse
      3. Nel
      4. Carmichael
      5. Mckenzie
      6. Bradbury
      7. Crosbie
      8. Mata
      9. Groom
      10. Van der valt
      11. Graham
      12. Taylor
      13. Johnstone
      14. Sau
      15. Hoyland

      16. Mcinally
      17. Sutherland
      18. Berghan
      19. Gilchrist
      20. Barclay
      21. Shiel
      22. Hickey
      23. Bennett

      certainly not close to 1st choice but plenty of threat & hard graft in that side

      1. Hmm…with Bennett having been rested last week, think he’ll go straight back in. I’d give Hickey another start too, think he gets our backs moving better.

  3. Almost feel like there is no point watching the rest of this La Rochelle/Glasgow game already 20 minutes in

    Clearly Glasgow don’t want to be there, physically dominated as usual because we wont recruit decent forwards,

    Backs have become mediocre, even Johnson has been average this whole season.

  4. Noticed before that when DTH starts poorly, he has lost it for the rest of the match. Change him now.

  5. Extremely exciting second half and will humbly eat my own words.

    It does not change the fact that this side has no chance of competing against the top sides.

    Matawalu brought the passion back into that glasgow side.

    Fraser Brown was my MoM, constantly physical and looked like one of the few who wanted it in the 1st half.

  6. Good weekend for both of our pro teams.
    Shame that unless you were at Murrayfield, it had to be followed on radio. Sounded like a decent win against a side who’re struggling so far this season. Judging by the gathering rage of the colour commentators – even Mr Diplomatic Chris Paterson – Clancy had a shocker. Does he disfavour Scottish teams or is he just not a very good referee?
    Thought Warriors had stacked it after that double bungle on their line for La Rochelle’s second try. Credit to them for coming back like they did, though the last five minutes were excruciating to watch. For club and country, we really have to be better at closing out tight matches when we’re a short head in front. Danger for Warriors’ qualification now I think is that La Rochelle will just stack their hand after only one point from three games, basically surrendering their last three ties so they can concentrate on the Top 14.

      1. Unfortunately, there is a delay of about 10 seconds between the live stream and the Radio Scotland commentary of the match. I’d be watching the match, with the commentators 10 seconds behind the play. Really weird.

      2. It’s good being able to hear the ref mike tho. The touch judge was informing Clancy that Wasps were encroaching on the offside line at every break down and he just ignored it. Then Wasps break into Edinburgh’s 22 and first phase he pings Edinburgh for offside right in front of the posts????

    1. He’s just incompetent, though he occasionally makes a good decision, like remembering to YC the Wasps player who was on a warning. Contrast that with Luke Pearce, who’s usually very good but basically did everything he could in the last quarter to assist La Rochelle, including desperately trying to avoid showing the prop a YC. Weird weekend, refereeing-wise.

    2. If you go on the Erc website they stream the games. you just have to register by supplying your email address and boom done !
      the only drawback is there is no sound but I got round that by listening to radio Scotlands commentary which is quite good. I like Peter wrights moaning and he says it like it is.

  7. The 1872 games are going to be interesting this year. Glasgow have been rubbish but rediscovered something this afternoon in the second half away in France. If they remember what it was might make the rest of this season more enjoyable for their fans.

  8. Does anyone know if BT provide the whole game on demand? Moving house yesterday so couldn’t watch the game live. All I can find is a 2 minute segment. Even Premier Sports can show the games on demand!

    Great result – hugely important game for our season.

    1. I stopped my bt subscription this year, but if I remember correctly they do put the games up, but it takes 24h or so for it to become available.

    2. I can watch full replays on the BT sports app, just go to rugby union and have a look around, it is definitely there and no 24 hr wait..

  9. Exciting finish to the Glasgow game and good to see them tough it out under pressure. What I don’t understand is why they don’t just use channel 1 ball on their own put in, when the clock was already in the red. Price would have just needed to side-foot it into touch.

  10. Any chance of a Barclay special podcast akin to Ross Ford? Maybe in January when there’s is a shallow news week? He still has a lot to offer but given the strength in that area clearly it’s the right decision on many levels. Sad but not surprised. Beating every tier 1 team bar New Zealand is an incredible effort. I do hope some of the others stay through six nations. They’ll be missed more.

  11. Dear all: given recent behaviour I’m fairly close to switching the commenting system to requiring creating an account with a verified email address.

    1. Please do it, or i think i may just make an official account anyway, it’s beyond a joke at this point.

  12. Just a wee bit of good news. Guy who sits next to me at Scotstoun said that tenders are out for a redevelopment of the North stand to bring it to the size of the South. He works for Malcolm. Big Leone was missing for 2 weeks. He was over here seeing his mates. Spotted with Ryan Wilson. Who knows? Glad we got the win, we never make it easy. That said surely with zero bps we need to win all 3 coming up. A hard ask but given the “easiest ” should be Sat, then the 2 Edinburgh games, our key players will all be back to match fitness post RWC.

    1. Haha two Sutherland lads on here. I’m sure you’ll know my cousins from your home village Robbie and Iain ?

      1. No just a stunning place. Glasgow man daft about this team. BP v La Rochelle and it’s game on.

  13. A festive hear ye hear ye ‘Hugh Dan is commentating in the fosroc super 6’. The quality of the game or the TV is not the same as the Pro14 (and we dont rate that) and no Matawalu to get him animated , but he is raising the profile and it is watchable (on playback).

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