Steve Tandy

[Big D]

New Wales HC.

Hes a decent bloke so wish him all the best except when playing Scotland.

[Cameo]

Yeah, good for him. Hopefully we get some kind of payout too, though don't know his contract status etc.

He'll be a loss as my impression is he's made a real difference. However, I'm not too disappointed as I see it as a chance to do something a bit different in defence, whether it is adding a bit more rush defence into the mix or just focusing more on chop tackles and turnovers rather tham this holding the player up to slow things down thing.

McGuigan from Sale is interesting. Don't know if he has the experience needed but seems to be rated and wemt with England this summer.

[Big D]

Yeah, good for him. Hopefully we get some kind of payout too, though don't know his contract status etc.

He'll be a loss as my impression is he's made a real difference. However, I'm not too disappointed as I see it as a chance to do something a bit different in defence, whether it is adding a bit more rush defence into the mix or just focusing more on chop tackles and turnovers rather tham this holding the player up to slow things down thing.

McGuigan from Sale is interesting. Don't know if he has the experience needed but seems to be rated and wemt with England this summer.

Was a significant upgrade on Matt Taylor although that wasn't hard.

[Mikey Brown]

I'm not too disappointed as I see it as a chance to do something a bit different in defence, whether it is adding a bit more rush defence into the mix or just focusing more on chop tackles and turnovers rather tham this holding the player up to slow things down thing.

McGuigan from Sale is interesting. Don't know if he has the experience needed but seems to be rated and wemt with England this summer.

This is where I'm at. I think Tandy made a big difference and gave the defence some confidence, but it's still quite passive in general and against teams who can rack up the phases with big carriers (SA, France, Ire) we always ended up looking horribly outnumbered. Can we combine a more aggressive (can you say 'creative' regarding defence?) approach and maintain what works for us in attack and counter?

It will be very interesting to see what direction they go, but it's hard to think there's a wealth of options out of contract to choose from.

I believe McGuigan is already earmarked for a permanent England role, but I'm not sure if that's comfirmed yet.

[Donny osmond]

Good luck to him, apparently the Scottish guys with the Lions are sorry to see him go, and if true that's a big statement of his player management abilities.

Regarding Scottish defence though, I can't recall being amazed at how good our defence has been over the last 2 or 3 years? Happy to be corrected, but it feels like teams aren't struggling to score against us lately? There are improvements to be made there, I think.