1872 Cup Champions

[Edinburgh in Exile]

Wow, that's astonishingly lenient by the ref there.

[Big D]

Some god awful stuff by Edinburgh but also some decent stuff.

Paid the price for a 6/2 split when you lose both centres at half time.

And that comical try after getting some momentum was a killer.

[ARM]

watching live that looked like a red card to me. At least a yellow for me.

[Matt Ha]

Wow, that's astonishingly lenient by the ref there.

Shoulder almost removed Hoyland's head. I thought a yellow and if the ref was having a crappy day, a red.

ps Hoyland must be made of rubber.

[Edinburgh in Exile]

Some god awful stuff by Edinburgh but also some decent stuff.

Paid the price for a 6/2 split when you lose both centres at half time.

And that comical try after getting some momentum was a killer.

Agree with all of that, pretty much sums up the season too. Ocational decent stuff sprinkled on a turd.

[Croft_No.5]

How many tries have Leinster conceded in Dublin before tonight? What the feck has happened to SHC? Kennedy was excellent. Quick pass right off the ground. Allen was good and Bradbury, Ritchie and Sutherland will be class. Never recovered from the midfield woes. Definite yellow possible red for the Hoyland non tackle. The intake of breath from the whole RDS crowd when they saw the replay should have told the TMI that it was a bad un. Ref was rank.

[hp18]

Mitrea needs shot for that. Outside of that embra were awful in defence, support was poor at crucial times, SPHC could do with time at the 7s, Kennedy was far better intercept aside though he was put in that place by.... CDP. He could neither catch a cold nor pass wind.

[Big D]

I'd resist any temptation to take SPHC on the summer tour for 2 reasons; he doesn't deserve it on current form and in reckon he could do with a rest. He's been part of the RWC squad an dost 6N squads so has done all the hard yards without the game time. He looks a bit mentally frazzled to me.

The defence was pathetic at times.

[Mikey Brown]

I'd resist any temptation to take SPHC on the summer tour for 2 reasons; he doesn't deserve it on current form and in reckon he could do with a rest. He's been part of the RWC squad an dost 6N squads so has done all the hard yards without the game time. He looks a bit mentally frazzled to me.

The defence was pathetic at times.

That's an interesting point. It's easy just to think about the minutes on the pitch and say we've got to finally get a serious look at this guy and see if he's up to it. If he's really that spent, and it sounds like he's been in dodgy form for a while, then maybe that's a good call.

We really, really need to be looking at other 9 options though. I'm still not completely sure what Pyrgos's level is and Price probably hasn't played enough.

[hugh_woatmeigh]

SHC's biggest problem is that he plays for Edinburgh. He's a rapid scrum half that likes to have the ball in hand.

The rugby, and I use that term loosely, that Edinburgh play doesn't suit him. Edinburgh have been very poor the last two seasons and frankly so has SHC. They're certainly related but it is true that he needs to get better at the scrum half basics.

He's still only 22 and it can be quite easy to forget that. Plenty of time left but I certainly think he'd have developed a lot more at a club that attacks.

[switchskier]

Just watched the match and by god it's frustrating to hear players on the commentary say how important it is to retain possession with the constant implication that our game plan is to wear teams down by attrition.

On the other hand there were some positives in that second half. Kennedy kept things simple and looked a good player again who got the tempo up. Allen looked lively and always likely to make the first man miss and both Ritchie and Bradbury created some holes with ball in hand.

Still not sold on Tovey as a solution but it is amazing how much better having someone who's played ten a lot makes us look. His pass for the first try was superb so credit where it's due. He's playing himself into a contract for next year I feel.

On SHC is was noticeable that he looked comfortable playing in the three-quarters. He 's a very good all round rugby player but some impressive physical gifts. We shouldn't forget that he hasn't been a scrum-half all that long. Last year he made a name for himself playing on instinct and now teams are wise to him he's got a bit of learning to do. A summer off wouldn't be a bad thing I agree.

Also calling captain hyperbole on Greg again. SHC hasn't been bad for two years. Last year he was excellent in his breakthrough year and you can't argue that the style of play has changed much since.

[Cameo]

Looking at the table Edinburgh have a real chance of getting 6th. Two tough games. Win them both and they are definitely there but even 1 win might be enough as the others have tough games too

[Eugene Wrayburn]

Looking at the table Edinburgh have a real chance of getting 6th. Two tough games. Win them both and they are definitely there but even 1 win might be enough as the others have tough games too

SACK SOLLY!!!!

[OptimisticJock]

Looking at the table Edinburgh have a real chance of getting 6th. Two tough games. Win them both and they are definitely there but even 1 win might be enough as the others have tough games too

SACK SOLLY!!!!

In all likelyhood they'll finish a monumental ONE PLACE higher than the previous two seasons. Stellar progress.

[Edinburgh in Exile]

I see Burleigh has been cited for alleged gouging. From memory I'm fairly sure it happened early on in the game.

He fucking better not have.

[Big D]

If Burleigh is guilty then fuck him, he deserves whatever he is given.

Edinburghs season really is a curious one. They handled the world cup period fairly well, despite not losing many players no one can argue that losing 4/5 of the starting tight 5, Denton (at that time) and Hardie from the pack would not have hurt. Would SH-C still have been shite if he had a full pre season at Edinburgh including plenty gametime? Would Scott still have been made of biscuit (rhetorical question)?

So up to the 31st of October they were without some of their best players, as were the rest of the PRO12. They went 4 and 2 in that time, with loses to Zebre and the westies away. Since then they have went 7 and 7 which includes two gimmies at home to the Italians amd 2 gimmies against the weegies .

Defensively, Edinburgh in the main despite last week v Leinster have been defensively excellent, second only to Leinster in that regard (Peter Wilkins is a bit of an unsung hero). But if you are only conceding on average 16 points a game across what is now a good sample size and losing so many games there is clearly something wrong with the attacking game. 7 of Edinburghs 9 bonus points have been losing BPs. Any sort of attacking game could easily have seen even 2 of those turn into wins (Scarlets away and Munster at home stick out as games they "should" have won) and they would have been comfortably in 6th and challenging for a play off spot. There has been a complete inability from Solomons to address the 10 shirt until the SRU handed them Weir for next year and Tovey was brought in. There is no clear game plan other than hope the forwards get on top and let them do their thing.

It has been the same since AS has come in and something has to change. Hodge was brought in early this season and there has been little improvement in the back play. Hodge must take some of the blame but the head coach will be in charge of the overall game plan. Maybe next year will be a last chance saloon but nothing from AS or Hodge gives me any confidence of that. In the last 3 years under AS Edinburgh have won 7 try bonus points in 64 games. That's poor considering the standard of some of the sides (looking at you Italian sides).

Recruitment is another area of real weakness under AS. Whilst he has found the occasional good forward (Bressler and Manu), most of his best forward signings have been handed to him from the SRU; Dickinson, Hardie, Sutherland, Ritchie, Bradbury etc. His backs recruitment has been mostly terrible except those coming through the academy/SRU. He has signed and released 2 stand offs that are now playing fairly well at 10 and 12 in the premiership and the NCP and recently played Super 18. Whilst players often improve when they leave, neither were really given a chance at Edinburgh. Stuart Petrie also needs to step up in this regard, he claimed Edinburgh were a "buying" club but the signings so far have been nothing special really although I am not expecting miracles.

[Big D]

Carmichael confirmed on a full time pro deal. Probably means Alex Toolis will go.

[hp18]

Hodge only joined post world cup.

[Big D]

Hodge only joined post world cup.

That was early in the season they had only played roughly a quarter of all games by that point

In the 20 games (14 league and 6 in Europe) since his appointment one could reasonably expect an improvement in back play considering the starting point.

I wasn't pinning all of the blame on him, AS deserves most of it as it has been the same for 3 years but at the same time DH should not be blameless.

[Cameo]

Looking at the table Edinburgh have a real chance of getting 6th. Two tough games. Win them both and they are definitely there but even 1 win might be enough as the others have tough games too

SACK SOLLY!!!!

In all likelyhood they'll finish a monumental ONE PLACE higher than the previous two seasons. Stellar progress.

Just to be clear I wasn't praising Solomons. He has created a very boring Edinburgh team that is semi effective against teams that are worse than it and vaguely awkward against teams better than them. I'd be happy if they got into the top 6 but it still wouldnt mean I want Solomon to stay

[OptimisticJock]

SACK SOLLY!!!!

In all likelyhood they'll finish a monumental ONE PLACE higher than the previous two seasons. Stellar progress.

Just to be clear I wasn't praising Solomons. He has created a very boring Edinburgh team that is semi effective against teams that are worse than it and vaguely awkward against teams better than them. I'd be happy if they got into the top 6 but it still wouldnt mean I want Solomon to stay

Never thought you were mate.

[Big D]

Nae ban for Burleigh.

[Edinburgh in Exile]

Nae ban for Burleigh.

Good. That's been bothering me.

I see our game has been shifted to a web broadcast, so they can televise the Weeg on the main channel at the same time. I think that's deadly. Now I can watch both. Well played all round.

[Big D]

Nae ban for Burleigh.

Good. That's been bothering me.

I see our game has been shifted to a web broadcast, so they can televise the Weeg on the main channel at the same time. I think that's deadly. Now I can watch both. Well played all round.

Aye far too sensible for the Beeb.

[hp18]

Nae ban for Burleigh.

Good. That's been bothering me.

I see our game has been shifted to a web broadcast, so they can televise the Weeg on the main channel at the same time. I think that's deadly. Now I can watch both. Well played all round.

Aye far too sensible for the Beeb.

Went down like the fecking titanic on the embra board