Zebre V Edinburgh

Zebre   (closest I could get to a Zebra) V Edinburgh   

At Stadio XXV Aprile, 3.30pm local time (2.30pm UK & Ireland).
Live on Sport Mediaset/BBC ALBA

Referee: Peter Fitzgibbon (IRFU, 55th competition game)
Assistant Referees: Matteo Liperini, Andrea Spadoni (FIR)
Citing Commissioner: Roberto Carra (FIR)
TMO: Carlo Damasco (FIR)

Zebre

15 David ODIETE*
14 Leonardo SARTO*
13 Tommaso IANNONE*
12 Gonzalo GARCIA
11 Giovanbattista VENDITTI*
10 Luciano ORQUERA
9 Brendon LEONARD

8 Samuela VUNISA
7 Andries VAN SCHALKWYK
6 Filippo CRISTIANO
5 George BIAGI
4 Quintin GELDENHUYS (cap)
3 Dario CHISTOLINI
2 Davide GIAZZON
1 Matias AGUERO

16 Tommaso D'APICE*
17 Andrea DE MARCHI
18 Dave RYAN
19 Michael VAN VUREN
20 Filippo FERRARINI*
21 Guglielmo PALAZZANI
22 Kameli RATUVOU
23 Dion BERRYMAN

Not available for selection due to injury: Mauro BERGAMASCO, Marco BORTOLAMI, Paolo BUSO, Nicola CATTINA, Andrea MANICI*, Salvatore
PERUGINI, Matteo PRATICHETTI, Roberto QUARTAROLI*, Giulio TONIOLATTI

Edinburgh

15 Jack Cuthbert
14 Tom Brown
13 Matt Scott
12 Andries Strauss
11 Tim Visser

10 Carl Bezuidenhout
9 Sean Kennedy

1 Wicus Blaauw
2 Ross Ford
3 Willem Nel
4 Ben Toolis
5 Ollie Atkins
6 Mike Coman CAPTAIN
7 Roddy Grant
8 David Denton

16 James Hilterbrand
17 Alasdair Dickinson
18 Simon Berghan
19 Alex Toolis
20 Cornell Du Preez
21 Grayson Hart
22 Harry Leonard
23 Sam Beard

This is possibly the most talked about and anticipated sporting event this weekend, with literally one journalist interested in writing anything about it.  Zebre have astounded everyone this year by picking up 3 wins and, given that 2 of them were against the Blues (   ) and the Blues comprehensively outplayed us last week, this can only mean one thing - an embarrassing defeat for Edinburgh.

Selection wise, despite Solomons usually sticking to the same 15 players playing 80 minutes of each and every game, rumours are Edinburgh's signing of the decade Cornell Du Preez will be rested.  This is definitely a good idea with Glasgow on the horizon.  Personally I think Nel, Gilchrist, Denton and Cuthbert should also be rested, but can't see that happening.

I am literally wetting myself with excitement for this titanic clash of the titans.

Oooft can't wait for this one, the giants of Zebre play host to the titans of Edinburgh, making them both look normal sized..!

Are both of these teams still in the rabo?

but seriously, any TV coverage?

What's with people not reading my threads??

Tattie - scroll up and see!

Great thread, RDW.

AND the Mighty Gibbon is officiating. What could possibly go wrong?

Team up

15 Jack Cuthbert

14 Tom Brown
13 Matt Scott
12 Andries Strauss
11 Tim Visser

10 Carl Bezuidenhout
9 Sean Kennedy

1 Wicus Blaauw
2 Ross Ford
3 Willem Nel
4 Ben Toolis
5 Ollie Atkins
6 Mike Coman CAPTAIN
7 Roddy Grant
8 David Denton

Substitutes
16 James Hilterbrand
17 Alasdair Dickinson
18 Simon Berghan
19 Alex Toolis
20 Cornell Du Preez
21 Grayson Hart
22 Harry Leonard
23 Sam Beard

Worrying to hear about injuries to gilchrist and VDV.

Other than that good to see visser back, and looking forward to seeing the toolis brothers in action!

It's so quiet and peaceful on this thread, like walking through a serene country garden after the hurly burly of the Glasgow thread. Thank goodness the MFL don't go in for that competitive, top of the league stuff. Keep it up chaps  

RDW_Scotland wrote:What's with people not reading my threads??

Tattie - scroll up and see!

You added that after I posted! Bet ya!

on a game related note - Lets finally see what the Toolises are all about.  Its also a nice game to bring visser back into.  Who knows, a frustrated visser could bag a hat-trick here!

Its still a shame that Matt Scott (12) is not being played at 12. Strauss at 12 is not the way forward.

Edinburgh next year need a decent 13.  Still say Bennett could do a job in this department. Or if the weege want to keep him, send dunbar along the M8 and we can have Matt Scott (12) at 12 with Dunbar at 13. We could also be done with a competant 10, please mr Solomons, bring Heathcote up here!

jimbopip wrote:It's so quiet and peaceful on this thread, like walking through a serene country garden after the hurly burly of the Glasgow thread. Thank goodness the MFL don't go in for that competitive, top of the league stuff. Keep it up chaps  

It is very genteel. A perfectly iced Pimms cup of a thread, compared to a pint of Old Moorhen's Scrotum on the Weegie side.


Have we seen the Toolis' bros on a rugby field this season? Very interested to see them. If you were Pappy, with the season well and truly duffed up the bum, wouldn't you be trying to see as many of the players in your mahoosive squad given gametime as possible?

Updated the OP to add the teams and a token "amusing" picture, just before the clamor for me or RDS to do so becomes deafening.  Read in the offy preview that Edinburgh haven't recorded back-to-back away wins in the tournament since September 2009. I mean, FFS.

George Carlin wrote:Updated the OP to add the teams and a token "amusing" picture, just before the clamor for me or RDS to do so becomes deafening.  Read in the offy preview that Edinburgh haven't recorded back-to-back away wins in the tournament since September 2009. I mean, FFS.

yeah, we're actually kinda pish!

Wouldn't this be a better lion to represent Edinburgh
http://fallingintowonderland.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/the-cowardly-lion-from-the-wizard-of-oz.jpg

what odds would I get for an edinburgh try BP win tomorrow?

tigertattie wrote:what odds would I get for an edinburgh try BP win tomorrow?

Same odds as any day, and that includes unopposed training.

tigertattie wrote:what odds would I get for an edinburgh try BP win tomorrow?

Edinburgh about 1.5 for the win 3.6 to win by 13+. That's 1/2 and 13/5 in old money.

Solomons at its finest, Atkins injured who came on: the "rested" du Preez   

This is one scrappy game. And fitzgibbon is one poor ass ref

Edinburgh really are dire today. Lucky it's only Zebre we're playing, most other sides would have put 3 tries on us from that half

VinceWLB wrote:Solomons at its finest, Atkins injured who came on: the "rested" du Preez   

Come on, you can hardly blame him for that. If he had not come on then it was pretty much the whole game with 2 second rows with not one whole pro game between them!

This game is pretty awful though, two poor sides with not much between them

The Gibbon and Clownshoes really are the cream of the crap.

People talk about the Scottish refs being bad but I've never seen Andrew Macpherson make the sort of clangers that Clancy has.

Ooh. Is that Edinburgh 14-6 down at half time?   

Not exactly inspiring stuff so far.

Edinbra haven't looked dangerous (yet) and Zebre are looking more likely to score another try.

14-6. HT

Garcia for Zebre with 2 very low long range penalty kicks. Strange technique but it works...

And agreed that Fitzgibbon should drop the Fitz in his name as that would be more apt at describing his refereeing skills...   

Is a number 8 at second row better than two inexperienced second rows?

RDW_Scotland wrote:Is a number 8 at second row better than two inexperienced second rows?

Definitely. You only get 10 line outs a game. How bad can it be?

That's much better, Hart seems to have brought some urgency to proceedings

RDW_Scotland wrote:Is a number 8 at second row better than two inexperienced second rows?

There is a difference between 2 inexperienced second rows and 2 second rows with no experience!

True!

Matt Scott got bored and decided to score.
14-16 to the Tram Users. Game on.

The Italians are doing their best to keep Edinburgh in this game

Tackling seems to be optional for Edinburgh today

tigertattie wrote:Tackling seems to be optional for Edinburgh today

It has been most of the season!

This feels like a lower league game compared to last night's Weege v Ulster face off.

Apart from his fear of tackling Visser looks to be back, needs more ball but set up Scott for his try nicely.

And an hour gone and Embra are taking their foot of the peddle after barely putting their foot down! Makes for frustrating viewing.

No knock on aye mr fitzgibbon???

Useless reffing.

Fair play to the zebras. They want it far more. Destroyed the Edinburgh scrum there

Lots of taking the ball standing still and going into contact with support too far behind = slow ball or penalties for holding on.

That "tackle" attempt from Visser   

How embarrassing, shocking scrum and no effort from Visser to make a tackle

Did we really just get pumped by the worst team in the league?   

Another Zebre try... 26-13 Fulltime. Very disappointing from Embra.

Look at Glasgow's defence yesterday and look at Edinburgh's today... a gulf in class.

And yes, Fitzgibbon is crud. Really crud.

I noticed Mike Adamson - former Glasgow fly half and 7s specialist now turned referee - was at Scotsoun yesterday wearing his Pro12 reffing attire athough he wasn't a linesman, so was he a reserve ref or something?

Jaysus. This is just horrible. Although it's only fair to allow for a zebra celebration:

A Simply Mesmeric Try wrote:Another Zebre try... 26-13 Fulltime. Very disappointing from Embra.

Look at Glasgow's defence yesterday and look at Edinburgh's today... a gulf in class.

And yes, Fitzgibbon is crud. Really crud.

I noticed Mike Adamson - former Glasgow fly half and 7s specialist now turned referee - was at Scotsoun yesterday wearing his Pro12 reffing attire athough he wasn't a linesman, so was he a reserve ref or something?

Maybe he's given up on a Scottish team winning something and has started supporting the referee?

Horror show here:

End of the season can't come quickly enough for Edinburgh. They have nothing left to play for and are running on fumes. It is easy to forget watching this dross that they have put together some good performances this year and scored some memorable wins.

They don't deserve to be in Europe next year and in all honesty would not cope if they were. Hopefully now they can start again over the summer and start to build a squad, a team and a club, without that pressure.

Solomans needs another year to see if he can make a difference but there is a worrying sense of deja vue hanging around. Changing the coach every year is not the answer though, somehow we have got to try and keep the faith.

It is not doing Scottish rugby any good having one of our teams in this state!

It's a point worth making bigee, Edinburgh have had some very strong wins and performances this year - Munster, perpignan etc. Even the first 1872 leg we were probably the better team.

The problem is we have generally been awful in the rabo.

Without making excuses you can see why it has petered out now, though I do expect that they will have one last fling next weekend just to try and mess up Glasgow's season (it won't work though!)'. They will then loss their last two games and go on holiday!

There has been enough to warrant continuing the Soloman's experiment and some of what he has said about conditioning and recruitment is probably true but he is not going to get the same leeway next year that is for sure and unless he has still got some rabbits to pull out of the hat on the player front, I would still be worried about that squad for next year.

Some of the deadwood is moving on but there does not seem to be anything better replacing it at the moment. Lets be honest though, it is going to be a hard sell to get good players to come to Edinburgh at the moment!

There have been good wins in the rabo: Leinster, Ospreys, Connacht but i think Solomons massively underestimated the strenght of the league and he will be lucky to keep the 7th place.

You can't get away with playing the same 23 every game in professional rugby, other teams have rotated throughout the season and instead of criticising players conditionning Solomons should look at his own mistakes.

Why was Du Preez on the 23 today if he was supposed to be rested? Why was Dickinson on the bench if he didn't even came on? Where is Lewis Niven surely he would have done better than hopeless Blaauw at the end..

Gloucester away too - these weren't lucky win a but very good performances.

We have been awful since the 6N.

Well Glaws and Edinburh will live to fight again in AmlinII.

Monday's Eurotable will look interesting with two Jeff clubs holding up the rest of Europe.

Good to see Zebre picking up another win.

The fight for seventh is going to good. But you do have to wonder how Edinburgh can do great and be on a run and then not beat the Blues at home and Zebre away.

Hopefully witb Visser back they can get more scores

Not seen any of the game today as I was playing but another horrible result. I don't like to compare our game to "wendyball" but edinburgh and hibs seem to have a lot of similarities at the moment. Both have good players but just have a soft core and when the pressure is on they can't grind out a result.

It will be interesting to see what changes are made in the next few weeks, I have been told a few of the edinburgh players are going to be put in the 7s side for the next few weeks and they are not fringe players. So this could either freshen things up or mean we are very weak for the final