1872 Cup Champions

[switchskier]

So lots of changes for the Connaught game but the team still looks fairly strong for an international break game. I'm surprised that Miller's back instead of Boyle or Darge, but good to see Blain getting a start and Farndale preferred to playing Johnstone on the wing with Taylor starting (though I've a slight preference for Taylor over Dean).

Edinburgh: Blain, Sau, Johnstone, Dean, Farndale, Van der Walt, Groom; Schoeman, Willemse, Nel Carmichael, Davidson, Bradbury, Miller, Kunavula.

Replacements: Cherry, Bhatti, McCallum, Hodgson, Boyle, Pyrgos, Chamberlain, Taylor.

Connacht: Porch, Arnold, Farrell, Daly, Wootton, Fitzgerald, Blade, Buckley, Delahunt, Aungier, Masterson, Thornbury, Boyle, Butler, Papali'i.

Replacements: Murphy, McAllister, Robertson-McCoy, Prendergast, Oliver, Reilly, Robb, O'Halloran.

[Big D]

I'm a little disappointed but not surprised it is Miller rather than one of the young tyros getting a go at 7.

[septic 9]

I'm a little disappointed but not surprised it is Miller rather than one of the young tyros getting a go at 7.

I'm not disappointed because I didn't expect any different from Cockerill.

Worth noting Glasgow had to sign 2 back rows last week and had no lock cover yesterday because Cockerill insisted he had to have Sykes from the Glasgow Academy knowing he'd never get near an Edin Squad until he is 25, and then signed a distinctly below average SA lock

Miller should be fine of course, but Cockerill is a problem, needs his wings clipped

[Adder]

Nice wee game so far

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[Adder]

2 Beautiful tries by Connacht so far.
High tempo stuff.

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[switchskier]

My streams just been cut. Probably for the best. We should not be this uncompetetive or out of form.

[Adder]

My streams just been cut. Probably for the best. We should not be this uncompetetive or out of form.

Vipbox. lc

Edinburgh score on the half via maul.

HT score 23-14 for Connacht.

Weird kind of game. Edinburgh hasn't been particularly dominated but has been punished quite severely.



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[septic 9]

Weird kind of game. Edinburgh hasn't been particularly dominated but has been punished quite severely.

Edin have the most penalised player in the league. AND Willemse.
ref is fussy, but edin fail to adapt

[Soapy]

Another Hodge attacking masterclass tonight. Chamberlain must be wishing he’d stayed at Bristol.

[switchskier]

So Sale and La Rochelle in the Champions Cup home and away. Top 4 make the quarters with 5-8 going into the challenge cup, right?

On current form we lose all four games but it could be a worse draw. Sale are beatable and will give up and play academy lads due to their squad size if they lose early. It will likely be a tortuous game to watch though.

La Rochelle I haven't seen recently but they've got some great players in the squad.

[switchskier]

Teams are up for the Scarlets game tomorrow. Important to break a six game losing streak. Taylor on the wing is a strange look as wouldn't think he has the out and out pace, and there's a sighting of the lesser sighter McCallum on the tighthead.

Might actually try watch this one.

Edinburgh
J Blain; G Taylor, M Bennett, C Dean, J Farndale; J van der Walt, H Pyrgos (captain); P Schoeman, M Willemse, M McCallum, L Carmichael, A Davidson, M Bradbury, A Miller, N Haining. Substitutes: D Cherry, J Bhatti, W Nel, A Ferreira, C Boyle, C Shiel, N Chamberlain, J Johnstone.

Scarlets:
J McNicholl; T Morgan, S Hughes (captain), P Asquith, S Evans; A O’Brien, D Blacker; P Price, T Davies, J Sebastian, J Helps, M Jones, U Cassiem, J Morgan, S Kalamafoni. Substitutes: D Booth, R Evans, W Kruger, J Price, E Kennedy, W Homer, D Jones, T Prydie.

[Mikey Brown]

Can't imagine there's too many more options with VDM, Graham, Blairhorn, Hoyland all unavailable?

[switchskier]

Can't imagine there's too many more options with VDM, Graham, Blairhorn, Hoyland all unavailable?

Isn't this what Sau was signed for? Johnstone's also actually played there previously.

[Big D]

Sau might be with Fiji.

[switchskier]

Sau might be with Fiji.

Turns out his wife has just given birth so he was excused from the match. Probably as well given the conditions.

Pack did well, won countless scrum penalties. But with a red card, and playing against 13 men for some parts of the game, we still failed to score a try. A win is a win, and it did look really tricky, but 6-3 isn't really good enough considering how things played out.

[Big D]

In case anyone missed this:


Rumoured broken cheekbone, jaw and nose for Taylor.

[whatisthejava]

I really think that deserves a BIG ban,

not anything except awful technique but the result is awful

[Big D]

I really think that deserves a BIG ban,

not anything except awful technique but the result is awful

I would say it is a mid level entry point with probably half off for not eating the biscuits at the virtual hearing.

[Mikey Brown]

Yeah I don’t know if it’s just the angle but it looks like the red player makes a head-on-head collision totally unavoidable for Taylor. Nasty.

For some reason though a wayward arm in the tackle hitting a players head seems to be deemed far worse than a full on headbutt. I keep seeing similar things dismissed as “rugby incidents” whatever that means.

[General Zod]

In case anyone missed this:


Rumoured broken cheekbone, jaw and nose for Taylor.

That’s an absolute disgrace. The lad goes high and makes contact with the head. Am not aware of anything to mitigate it because it’s head on head (and bit shoulder or arm on head). In fact, it’s worse. At best reckless, but even then deserves a long, exemplary ban.

[septic 9]

That’s an absolute disgrace. The lad goes high and makes contact with the head. Am not aware of anything to mitigate it because it’s head on head (and bit shoulder or arm on head). In fact, it’s worse. At best reckless, but even then deserves a long, exemplary ban.

such are the WR framework and Pro14 flaccid approach that this will be deemed mid level and get 6 weeks. The player will be very sorry, have no previous so get 50% mitigation. They will find no aggravating circumstances to reduce that 50% never mind add on extra as a disincentive for others.
3 weeks

Rugby still not taking player safety seriously. The whole point of the recent tackle framework was to change behaviour to all tackles below shoulder level. 3 weeks gets a sigh of relief and nothing more. Watch all the games this weekend and see how many high hits - shoulders targetting the ball, choke tackles around shoulders slipping to neck. Nothing has changed, and for certain teams - well that's a big relief as well.

[paddy no 11]

no excuse not to tackle him at waist level there

[whatisthejava]

no excuse not to tackle him at waist level there

Its the decision to go in with the left shoulder, forces head on head - even if he went low with the left shoulder it would be a great tackle.

If he goes right shoulder his head is behind and then its a penalty at max

I still want a BIG ban because the his decision making process is so fucked

[Mikey Brown]

Has he actually been cited then?

[septic 9]

Has he actually been cited then?

red card, no need for citing. Citing is if the officials miss the offence or the citing officer thinks the on field decision (eg YC or pen only) is wrong and that the red card threshold was met.