Podcast: Episode 175 – Fatty Meats

33 responses

1. As someone who frequently supports the SRU on theoffsideline and enjoy winding the SRU conspiracy theorists up. Finding out about the facebook group was hilarious. Some of the stuff they come out with is absolute bonkers.

2. As an aside, is Johnny Gray injured? Not seen his name on Exeter team sheet so far.

   1. Baxter mentioned in an interview a couple of weeks ago that Gray had a shoulder clean up op in the summer, so was not available yet.

3. In our opening autumn test we’ll be facing an Australia team on a four game winning run who look to have found their groove with the return of Cooper.

   It should be a fascinating game, Australia are likely to have a lot more cohesion given the Rugby Championship and our lack of summer programme, I think we’ll have to be at our very best to get any sort of win.

   1. Oh I would entirely agree in that you always need to be good to beat a side above you in the world rankings, nothing new there ! I disagree that they have the upper hand. A winning run could be in our favour. They will be confident of a win, have a sound game plan and all that. Which is the way we like it.

      As the great Mike Tyson says, ‘they all have a plan till they get a punch in the face.’ You will not find that wisdom in the papers. But players know the power of that dynamic : disrupt, divide, conquer. Mature players know what I mean.

   2. Other than the “extra” Tonga test the week before , that is .

4. Good win for Glasgow yesterday but Edinburgh 😞. Game in the bag and they threw it away 😣

   1. I think they threw it away in the first 20 minutes. Must have been 4 or 5 times we had them under pressure and threw the ball away or gave away a silly penalty. Players should know when NOT to try that outrageous offload/pass or try to win back a lost ball illegally.
      That said, 2 points away to a resurgent Benetton is not the end of the world.

      1. No, it’s not the end of the world. But the total lack of direction from 10 is a worry. I’m not convinced by Kinghorn at 10 either. The leadership issue is a legacy from the Cockerill era. You look at Ryan Wilson’s leadership and whenever he plays his team has clear direction and cohesiveness. That’s what Edinburgh need to develop quickly this was a really disjointed performance and the front row is no longer the weapon it has been.

5. Nigel Carolyn heaping praise on Ross Thompson –

   “he has a triple threat: he’s got a running game, he’s got a passing game and he’s got a kicking game. It’s about selecting which one to use at the right time.

   “he just needs that little bit of balance. When he figures that out – and he’s going to figure it out, because he has a feel for it – he’s going to be world-class.”

   Let’s hope he fulfils his promise because no world class team doesn’t have a world class FH and Scotland have been spoilt by having Russell after years of rubbish. I like Hastings but not sure if he’ll become a truly top-class FH or not and there’s not too many other prospects in the pipeline.

   1. Did you see Hastings play against Worcester? He played very well IMHO

      1. Agree, I believe Hastings has the most potential. If you’re talking triple threat his passing and kicking are excellent but he is the most elusive broken field runner of the three.

   2. FF: I do not agree with you. Hastings ran the show on Saturday . I am with Sam L on this , AH has a lot going for him and his broken play is excellent. He is also a great tackler. Scotland are fortunate to have Hastings and Finn. Thompson is emerging and no one will dispute his potential.

      World Class ? I do not agree with you , every team does not have a World Class FH. They cannot all be ‘world class’ , if they were all the same standard , none of them can be the ‘best'(which is the definition of WC) .

      Only a few are truly world class, Dan Carter perhaps. Is the point not to save it for ‘gods’ of world rugby , such as Carter.

      1. All 3 of them are brave tacklers. Hastings took a couple of high balls last week as well. Now that just might be something we will need this Autumn.

   3. What is the difference between ‘World’ and ‘Top’ Class ? Who needs pundit and paper talk ! Anyone can see, with their own eyes Thomson has potential and he is getting a lot of experience.

6. I expect thomson to make his Scotland debut vs Tonga. I assume exiles won’t be available. Thomson looks a class above Jaco, Kinghorn and Weir.

7. When is the autumn squad announement?

8. Team for Scotland i would go with

   Loosehead: Rory Sutherland, Oli Kebble, Pierre Schoeman (Uncapped)

   Hooker: George Turner, Stuart McInally, Fraser Brown

   Tighthead: Zander Fagerson, Simon Berghan, Javan Sebastian (Uncapped)

   Lock: Jonny Gray, Scott Cummings, Sam Skinner, Cameron Henderson (Uncapped) Richie Gray

   Backrow: Hamish Watson, Jamie Ritchie, Matt Fagerson, Rory Darge (Uncapped), Josh Bayliss (Uncapped), Nick Haining

   Scrum-Half: – Ali Price, Ben Vellacott (Uncapped), George Horne

   Fly-Half: Finn Russell, Adam Hastings, Ross Thompson (Uncapped)

   Centre: Sam Johnson, Matt Scott, James Lang, Chris Harris, Huw Jones, Mark Bennett

   Outside Backs: Duhan Van Der Merwe, Kyle Steyn, Darcy Graham, Sean Maitland, Stuart Hogg, Cole Forbes (Uncapped)

   Assumings

   1. maybe, some of these need to start getting some game time.
      Kebble, Sutherland, Sebastian, Z Fagerson, Gray, Skinner, Watson, Haining, M Fagerson, Price, DVDM, Maitland not played yet this season.

      Huw jones has his work cut out to get more game time and find his form.

      of course this could all change over the next few weeks.

      I think we will see Bhatti return at least for the Tonga game, Blade Thomson has been playing well, Ashman still needs to be capped, Gilchrist has been good, I think Ryan Wilson could come in to cover 8 for the Tonga game depending on how M Fagerson and Haining’s injuries go.

      assuming the exiles are excluded for the Tonga game my 23 would be.
      Schoeman, McInally, Bergan,
      Gilchrist, Cummings,
      Ritchie, Wilson, Darge,
      Horne, Thompson,
      Johnson, Tuipolotu
      Steyne, Forbes, Graham

      Bhatti, Brown, Nel, R. Gray, L Crosbie, Vellacott, Kinghorn, Lang.

      1. Horne won’t start ahead of Velacott – Price will have his work cut out too!

   2. I was at the Worcester v Gloucester match and Davidson was a cut above, best forward on the pitch.

      Sebastian ? Really , you are on the wind up, again. You do know he couldn’t get a game for Ayr when he was assigned there !

      1. Tight head is probably our biggest issue at the moment. We have developed depth pretty much in every other position and we now have possible loose heads queuing round the block but if Zander is ever out or dips in form, we will struggle in the scrum.

9. Given his good form for Sarries, hopefully Tim Swinson will earn a recall

10. Assumings all return from injury in time, here is my squad for the Tonga match on the 30th.

    Decided against giving too many new guys a cap with an eye on this being a run-out for the Australia game the following week, 2 new caps in Vellacott and Schoeman on the bench.

    I would look at capping Forbes, Tuipolotu, Thompson and Darge against Japan on the final week.

    Stuart Hogg (Captain) – Darcy Graham – Chris Harris – Sam Johnson – Duhan Van Der Merwe – Finn Russell – Ali Price – Matt Fagerson – Hamish Watson – Jamie Ritchie – Jonny Gray – Scott Cummings – Zander Fagerson – George Turner – Rory Sutherland

    Huw Jones – Adam Hastings – Ben Vellacott – Nick Haining – Sam Skinner – Simon Berghan – Fraser Brown – Pierre Schoeman

    6 changes from the last international against France and 2 positional switches from starting to bench (Haining and Skinner)

    Dropping out: Grant Gilchrist, Scott Steele, Ryan Wilson, Alex Craig, Dave Cherry, Oli Kebble

    1. Doubt the English based players n Finn will be released for this match Neil ….

       1. Assuming that’s right and also news that Cummings out for 6-8 weeks, then second row and fly half options a lot more limited. Gilchrist & Gray Snr and then Thompson and Weir probably come into the frame. Possibly some new faces in back 3 too. Squad selection could be interesting to say the least.

    2. I would add Rufus McLean to the new caps.
       Arguably more to be gained playing new caps against Aus and SA as I cant see us winning either of them anyway. Great experience for new caps.
       We need to beat Japan and Tonga for sure.

       1. You cant see us beating Aus or SA at home? Why?

          We have been pretty decent this year, 3 or 4 points between Wales and Ireland from winning a grand slam (with a side weaker that what will be available for the AI’s)

          First wins away to England And France in how long?

       2. You are right , we finished 4th one above England. We must be desperate to get on the pitch. Then the lions came fumbling along.

       3. SA are an excellent side and were far better than the Lions when they got their match sharpness back.

          Australia are a much improved side from when we beat them a few years ago and have just beaten SA twice back to back and played a sequence of high level Rugby Championship matches. We on the other hand will have trained together for a couple of weeks and played the mighty Tonga.
          We were good in patches last 6N but ultimately placed around the mid table. Hardly SH beating form.

          We have arguably our 2 best players Hogg and Russell not in great form going in and our starting lock out through injury. Do we even know what our best team is? Aus and SA do…

11. at last someone posts a realistic assessment of Scotland’s chances..the bookmakers
    employ full time odds makers to draw up the odds line and Scotland are currently 10/1 to win the 6 nations..5th of the 6 countries. Bookmakers would be cleaned out
    if they were to quote odds which were wrong. The exchanges have similiar odds.
    Of course Scotland could win the 6 nations but realistically they have a less than 10% chance of doing so. Do you know a bankrupt bookmaker?

    1. Nah we’re going to win the world cup.

       What’s the point of thinking we can’t?

    2. Bookmakers if they are running a book properly and not themselves gambling really just reflect the amount of money riding on each outcome. If I have £90 being bet on Fury to win and £10 on Wilder (assuming draws aren’t possible) then I just set my odds at 1/9 and 9/1 and whatever outcome I break even, then if I shorten both slightly I am guaranteed profit. Bookmakers can of course gamble themselves if they think the money being bet is materially wrong.

       Just need to question whether the average weighted expectations of success is accurate or not, it might be, or it may be that Scotland after decades of not winning are underestimated.