Some Edinburgh fans may still be thinking of the “coulda, shoulda” moments of the semi-final v Ulster, but only four weeks since they got Madigan-ed out of the final, both of Scotland’s professional sides will commence their ‘Pro Somewhere-Between 12-16’ 2020/21 season fixtures tomorrow. (Sat 3rd October)
Glasgow face a trip to Galway to play Connacht on the opening day – for quite remarkably the fourth time in five years – and head coach Danny Wilson has picked an experienced side, boasting 17 full internationalists in the match-day 23.
One man yet to gain full honours, Oli Kebble, starts at loosehead to make his 50th appearance for the Warriors, while we can expect to see George Turner come off the bench at some stage to also represent the Warriors for a 50th time.
Rob Harley and Scott Cummings form the engine room, with Richie Gray on the bench as cover, while co-captain Ryan Wilson plays at blindside, former captain Chris Fusaro, openside and Matt Fagerson no:8 to make up the back-row. New signing Fotu Lokotui can expect to replace of one of them at some stage of the match to make his debut.
The now well established pairing of Adam Hastings and Ali Price start as half-backs, with the brothers Horne their socially distanced cover, Huw Jones continues his fledgling career as a full-back, and a mix of youth and experience, in Robbie Nairn and Tommy Seymour respectively.
Missing from the squad due to possible exposure to Covi-19 are Zander Fagerson and Tom Gordon, and the same issue has occurred over in the east to rule Jamie Ritchie out of Edinburgh’s home game against an Ospreys side led by Justin Tipuric.
Duhan van der Merwe will also miss out due to a shoulder problem, but Richard Cockerill confirmed that he is due to start against Munster next week. Ritchie’s isolation period ends during the week as well, so he should return to training and come into contention should he return negative test results.
Jamie Bhatti takes a spot on the bench behind Pierre Schoeman with Rory Sutherland ruled out, and we may not get to see a direct Tips v The Mish breakdown deathmatch, as Luke Crosbie is given a chance to shine at openside. He’s joined in the back-row by Scotland caps Magnus Bradbury and Nick Haining at 6 and 8 respectively.
With a 100% chance of rain forecast, Cockers will be looking for their physicality to keep Edinburgh on the front-foot and take the pressure of young scrum-half Charlie Shiel, starting regardless of injuries to the experienced pairing of Henry Pyrgos and Nic Groom.
Of Shiel, Cockerill said;
“He’s been getting good game time. Got the start against Bordeaux and played very, very well, so the thought process was that he would have started this game regardless of the other two being fit. He’s clearly got a lot of ability and he’s maturing game by game, so regardless of circumstances he would have started anyway. He’s just got to keep doing good things and being consistent.
“I’m very happy with him. He just needs to keep doing his basics well because his instinct is to play naturally, and there will be opportunities for him to show his flair, but there is 100 percent chance of rain tomorrow night so he needs to get his basics done well to keep the team ticking and playing in the right areas and playing good rugby.”
The crafty Jaco van der Walt will be alongside Shiel to guide him through and dictate play ahead of a backs unit filled with international 7s experience.
Chirs Dean and Olympic silver medallist Mark Bennet make the centre pairing, and Darcy Graham and Jamie Farndale play on the wings, with Damien Hoyland completing the outside backs.
“We need to make sure we get our basic things right, the weather conditions are gonna be a factor. It’s a game for winning against the weather conditions. The good thing is that before lockdown we played the conditions well, we won all our games when it was wet and windy and we’ve got to produce our best wet-weather game and just get the result.”
Glasgow Warriors: 15. Huw Jones, 14. Tommy Seymour, 13. Nick Grigg,
12. Stafford McDowall, 11. Robbie Nairn, 10. Adam Hastings, 9. Ali Price ;
1. Oli Kebble*, 2. Fraser Brown (c), 3. D’arcy Rae, 4. Rob Harley,
5. Scott Cummings 6. Ryan Wilson 7. Chris Fusaro 8. Matt Fagerson
Replacements: 16. George Turner*, 17. Aki Seiuli, 18. Enrique Pieretto,
19. Richie Gray, 20. Fotu Lokotui, 21. George Horne, 22. Peter Horne
23. Ratu Tagive (*making 50th appearance)
Edinburgh Rugby: 15. Damien Hoyland, 14. Darcy Graham,
13. Mark Bennett, 12. Chris Dean, 11. Jame Farndale, 10. Jaco van der Walt,
9. Charlie Shiel ; 1. Pierre Schoeman, 2. Stuart McInally, 3. Simon Berghan,
4. Ben Toolis, 5. Grant Gilchrist, 6. Magnus Bradbury, 7. Luke Crosbie,
8. Nick Haining
Replacements: 16. David Cherry, 17. Jamie Bhatti, 18. WP Nel,
19. Andrew Davidson 20. Hamish Watson 21. Dan Nutton
22. Nathan Chamberlain 23. George Taylor
25 Responses
I have to call out John Anderson for a moment, who claimed on The Max,
that Pierre Schoeman is now Scots Qualified…
Is this true or is he not Scots qualified until the summer ?
John ?
You also said Leone Nakarawa is a former world player of the year, is this true John ?
You’re right on Schoey, and Naks won the same European Player of the Year award that Hogg and Russell are up for, but hasn’t been World POTY
Good to see Hoyland and Shiel getting the opportunity to back up their recent good performances. Not sure what is up with Kinghorn but he seems a bit adrift atm. An area where some fans have expressed a degree of concern is that Cockerill relies to heavily on his most established players. The coming internationals should also yield opportunity for less established players to throw their hats in the ring.
Anyone else’s premierplayer tv keep cutting out as the programme resumes at 17:00 ? Poor showing from premierplayer.
Ryan Wilson is a penalty magnet !!!!
He’s been awful today. Can’t believe Fusaro was subbed off and Wilson is still on.
Wilson has given away stupid pens & knocked on when in good position, however the amount of Glagow unforced errors would bring tears to a glass eye, the Hastings kick (on Glasgow advantage) that lead to Aki 1st try a “lowlight”….. however some incisive back play has made this an excellent 2nd halfs’ entertainment. Jones looked excellent. However Glasgow simply cannot make the amount of errors and expect to win.
Yup. Warriors threw it away. Some baffling decisions being made, too, like opting for a lineout rather than a scrum in our red zone. Hastings lucky to stay on the park with his high tackles (wouldn’t be surprised if he’s cited for the one in the build up to Aki’s second try). Still, the internationals looked good.
Reffing was suspect , they were offside a lot. Another average performance from Ali Price and I do not understand why Hastings was hoisting it high in the last 10 mins. Surely hold the ball and allow them to offend to win it . Bad decision making by hastings.
Who was the ref?
Result was nothing to do with referee
Looked like a team with promise but needs games together.
Getting on the front row subs and Horne on 20 minutes earlier could have made a difference aswell.
Kebble solid in scrum
Fagerson looked powerful
Price had a good game
Hastings overall good but a few silly things, good defence
Grigg was good
Jones overall a 7/10, desicion making in attack could of been slightly better, needs to learn how to pass to wings. Tagive & Nairn dropped balls 3 times from his low or to flat passing.
Sorry. You mean Nairn and Tagive could not keep up with the speed of Jones. Excellent performance from Jones. Lets hope he gets that Premiership offer soon.
I thought Hastings undid all his good stuff with bad stuff, he kept high tackling.
Jones was best Glasgow player, the Tagive pass (under extreme time pressure) wasn’t great. Nairn at fault for his fumbles.
Grigg played well, I’m not his biggest fan but fair play.
I could easily fall out with Shankland
Its hard being a Scottish rugby fan
Turned the game off after Ospreys’ second. Edinburgh looked jaded. Something doesn’t seem right there.
Feeble from both Scottish sides in to-nights Pro14 matches. Just can’t do the basics.
Both teams bad, really bad!!!! No wonder Scotland are 3rd tier in WC draw.
Well.. Darcy Graham put his hands up for a lions place at least. Only player who has turned up.
He made an effort , always does, but Lions place ! take the glasses with the tint round the Borders off . These islands are full of plucky wingers and with James Lowe qualifying this year, there will be a few others to add to the list. Now he has big game experience and he is yet to be capped.
Really really poor by Edinburgh, a litany of mistakes.
Perhaps Crosbie & Bradbury going off affected Edinburgh but I agree with TeamCam – something doesn’t look right.
Darcy Graham the only bright spark
Poor conditions, Ospreys brought all their lions for a change, Edinburgh without Ritchie, Mata, Sutherland, Pyrgos, Groom,Kinghorn, DVdM
Seems like they are really missing pyrgos control… and possibly Matt Scott at centre.
I concur with that also. Something definitely looks very wrong.
That was more like the Huw Jones who won the Currie Cup . With some big names and big egos out the way, he can get on with showing us how good he really is. In the forwards, It was 2 very old stagers that shone, Harley and Fusaro.
Edinburgh look tired nothing really to say.