Maitland signs for Glasgow!

Sean Maitland to Glasgow

Just had an inside scoop and Sean Maitland is about to be announced as a new signing for Glasgow!!
Brilliant news, a bit surprised that it is Glasgow he is going to as Edinburgh could do with him but great news for Scottish rugby.

Bloody hell. Fab news. Where is ASBO?

I would say Edinburgh need him a bit more than Glasgow too. Especially when the Lamonts, DTH etc come back.

Confirmed where? Not on stuff.co.nz

If true, your backline is looking better and better all the time (scotland, I mean!).

Holy crap is all I can say to this. Forget Blackadder, Forget Strauss, - this is the biggest signing in Scottish rugby history IMO.

I think Edinburgh fans have the right to feel jealous though - of either team I would say Edinburgh were in far greater need of a top quality winger. Glasgow have in their back 3:

Sean Lamont
DTH
Rory Lamont
Tommy Seymor
Stuart Hogg
Murchie
Paris
Fijian guy

That's 3 top class wingers, and 3 top class fullbacks.

Edinburgh have:

Visser
Jones
Fife
Brown
Tonks
Farndale (long term injured)
Penn

That's one top class winger, one massively out of form winger, one young guy and 2 decent fullbacks!

So to me the obvious destination was Edinburgh, but unfortunately he's gone to the weedge!!!

Jealousy aside though this obviously means he wants to play for Scotland - so happy days.

p.s. he can't have chosen Glasgow over Edinburgh because he prefers the city??

chewed_mintie wrote:Confirmed where? Not on stuff.co.nz

If true, your backline is looking better and better all the time (scotland, I mean!).

http://www.glasgowwarriors.org/news/5166-crusaders-star-maitland-joins-warrior-nation

Great news, and a surprise to me - I honestly thought everyone was dreaming when they kept going on about him coming over here, but happy to be proved wrong. When everyone's available Glasgow probably have more back 3 players than Edinburgh but they definitely have a crisis there right now so this will relieve things a bit! Expect him to be registered for the Heineken Cup squad straight away as the one permitted change, explains why Paris wasn't drafted in as cover if this was in the pipeline. Could turn out to be a great asset to Scotland too in time, I just hope he isn't parachuted straight into the Scotland starting XV a la Brendan Laney, but it's nice to know he's qualified and if he puts in the performances for Glasgow then why not!

Confirmed on the Glasgow warriors website. http://www.glasgowwarriors.org/

Really pleased about this signing, knew my tweets to him would work in the end!!!

Will arrive in Glasgow in the next few weeks subject to medical and visa.

OK as a warriors supporter I'm excited but is this fair to Edinburgh?

Glasgow’s league position versus Edinburgh’s, and their performances during the HC this year, probably made the decision for him.

I’m absolutely chuffed with this. This is my preferred potential backline for Scotland’s 6 Nations campaign –

Laidlaw
Weir
Visser
Scott
NDL
Maitland
Hogg

Tasty, tasty, tasty.

I don't want to sound ungrateful in any way, because this has really made my day but how about we top off a great day by signing Robbie Robinson and Grayson Hart for Edinburgh now?

I think it has been down to budget - Edinburgh had none left, Glasgow did. I'd be surprised if he had a strong preference in which team he chose, and I suspect this has been a long time in the making so current form would have been irrelevant.

Just had a thought - see if we didn't get Maitland because Atiga was costing us a lot....

nickj wrote:I don't want to sound ungrateful in any way, because this has really made my day but how about we top off a great day by signing Robbie Robinson and Grayson Hart for Edinburgh now?

Add to that list Lachlan Mitchell from the rebels, great player and can play 11,12,13,14 and 15.

I take it he is immediately available for selection for Scotland? When does he arrive in Glasgow? Can he get a few club games together to get into the 6Ns squad?

Very well done Glasgow

Ye feicin beauty

Nice one, quality player. And a quality poach for the SRU? Scottish eligible?

Scottish dad

Not sure when he will be available to play, he's had a hand injury that has kept him out the recent Canterbury games in the itm cup. I'm sure he said when it happened that it would be around november/december he would be fit to play again.

rekcon he's free to play against the ABs??


That would be interesting...

I know I'm getting massively carried away here but rank outsider bet - Maitland for the lions??

Well good luck to him, Glasgow and Scotland. I take it he’ll be fast tracked into the match day squad v NZ in a couple of weeks just to confirm everything??

Seriously good player, but I feel he might be made to look class due to the other guys around him. This move will obviously test my theory so we shall see!

I'd say If looking at which team to pick, over the last two H-cup games, Glasgow looked the better bet, Ok Edinburgh got the Semi last year, but had a poor Leauge, Glasgow had a good League and looked the better of the 2 so far this year.

Glasgow look think they are still going forward, Edinburgh are stale in league and really humilated so far in Europe this year and going backward.

I'd have picked Glasgow myself, (if given the Choice).

Again Glasgow are the current form team, but I'd be very surprised if this only came about and he only made his decision in the last week. It takes a long time to negotiate terms with the players and they would have to have decided which team he was going to come to a while ago.

Oops two threads on this, could the mods merge or delete this one?

he's a brilliant player.
Stunning signing

yeah this signing hasn't just come about in the last week or so. Talks started again between Sean and the SRU about 2 months ago when there was talk of him getting de-listed at the Crusaders.
The Highlanders were chasing him too but Glasgow and the chance to play for Scotland beat the Highlanders offer.

Edinburgh did most of their signings early in the summer - bet they wish they hadn't blown their budget so early and missed out on him!

Glasgow's were more spread out over the summer so obviously had some cash left.

So jealous!!

Heck of a signing that is!

Well, you'll be very pleased then...

With Visser and Maitland on the wings Scotland should be potent IF the ball gets that far!

caz wrote:Oops two threads on this, could the mods merge or delete this one?

Report your OP and they'll see it quicker

A decent signing and one I can just about agree with, given he's already qualified for Scotland (right?). Surprised he's ended up with Glasgow rather than Edinburgh but, let's face it, Glasgow are one of the most boring teams in Europe so this could really give the team a shot in the arm with a Hogg-Maitland-DTH back-three. Get Bennett back from CA, drop Morrison and reinvest his salary in kicking lessons for Jackson and I'd be entirely satisfied with our backs.

just because he is going to glasgow doesn't mean he is going to pick playing for scotland?

Am I just being pessimistic?

Also, if he does play for us, will the ball get passed 12???????

What wing does he play on?

Will we see Visser vs Maitland in the cup? left winger vs right winger???????

Glasgow with a backline of

9 Cusiter
10 Jackson
11 DTH
12 Horne
13 Dunbar
14 Maitland
15 Hogg

that sounds pretty tasty to me, with players like the Lamonts, Seymour and Murchie around as cover in the back three and Weir and Pyrgos for the tighter games.

tigertattie wrote:just because he is going to glasgow doesn't mean he is going to pick playing for scotland?

Am I just being pessimistic?

Also, if he does play for us, will the ball get passed 12???????

What wing does he play on?

Will we see Visser vs Maitland in the cup? left winger vs right winger???????

Who else does he qualify for other than New Zealand and Scotland? New Zealand won't pick foreign-based players who aren't Carter or McCaw so it narrows things down in Scotland's favour.

Ummm How do I do That?

I did it for you

You just click on that wee exclamation mark in the top right corner and write why you're alerting a moderator.

The SRU are probably part-funding the signing on the basis he WILL be available for Scotland, no?

Topic Merged.

he also qualifies for Samoa through his mum, He's half scottish, quarter samoan and quarter maori.
He can play 11,14 and 15 but normally plays at 14 so he will be up against visser if both are selected when glasgow play edinburgh.

Thanks Notch.

Yes I'm happy. Hope he can cope with our tropical climate tho'!

Thanks Biltong.

Awesome awesome signing. I can't believe he wasn't capped for NZ a few seasons ago given the performances he put in back then.

I expect Sean Lineen might have had a hand in this. Well done sir.

Lineen's salary has more than been well earned if this was his doing!

Are there any other Scot's qualified Kiwis that can be tampted to come over now he's blazed the trail?

Fantastic news, and brilliant that Lineen's new role seems to have had at least one positive outcome!

Yep plenty other kiwi's that can come over that would add something. Robbie Robinson full back and fly half, quentin MacDonald a hooker at the crusaders who are just 2 in positions we could use some help in.

RDW_Scotland wrote:Are there any other Scot's qualified Kiwis that can be tampted to come over now he's blazed the trail?

I seem to remember Callum Bruce's name coming up a few years ago but he left the Chiefs to go off and play in Japan. I think he was predominantly a 12 but could cover stand-off too. With Horne and Scott coming through, we've got options at 12 but Horne's a bit small. At this stage, I do believe Scotland will be better served by having a 12 who can kick, pass and has an eye for a gap rather than continuing with the trend of 16-17 stone donkeys who make no real impact anyway. F*ck knows why Edinburgh are playing Atiga at 12, though.

Maybe he picks Atiga to carry on with the 'no impact' category you have mentioned??

Callum Bruce was scottish qualified but he played 10 mins off the bench for the junior all blacks so is unfortunately tied to New Zealand.