Edinburgh Rugby vs Leinster

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This game has some big, big consequences for that 7th place spot. Edinburgh are one point behind Connacht - both teams have equal wins, and if Edinburgh got a losing bonus point, equal amounts of bonus points. Connacht's points differential is greater than Edinburgh's unfortunately. It seems as if Edinburgh need a draw or a win (and the Ospreys to do a bit of steamrolling) for seventh place.

For Leinster, all that's to play for is 5th or 6th place. No doubt pride will be on the line, but might this be a game to rest key Irish players with the World Cup in mind?

Edinburgh Rugby
15 Jack Cuthbert

14 Dougie Fife

13 Sam Beard

12 Andries Strauss

11 Tim Visser

10 Tom Heathcote

9 Sam Hidlago-Clyne



1 Alasdair Dickinson

2 Ross Ford

3 John Andress

4 Anton Bresler

5 Ben Toolis

6 Fraser McKenzie

7 Hamish Watson

8 Cornell Du Preez



Substitutes

16 Neil Cochrane

17 Rory Sutherland

18 Simon Berghan

19 Ollie Atkins

20 James Hilterbrand

21 Nathan Fowles

22 Jade Te Rure

23 Tom Brown



Hugh Blake is with Glasgow Warriors until the end of the season

Grayson Hart, Damien Hoyland and Jamie Farndale are currently with Scotland 7s



Not considered due to injury

Phil Burleigh (ribs), Mike Coman (head), Chris Dean (knee), ( Allan Dell (ankle), David Denton (head), Grant Gilchrist (arm), Sean Kennedy (shoulder), Tomas Leonardi (head), Stuart McInally (shoulder), Nick McLennan (groin), W P Nel (knee), Matt Scott (shoulder), Greig Tonks (hamstring)
Leinster Rugby

15. Rob Kearney
14. Zane Kirchner
13. Colm O'Shea
12. Noel Reid
11. Dave Kearney
10. Ian Madigan
9. Isaac Boss
1. Jack McGrath
2. Richardt Strauss
3. Mike Ross
4. Devin Toner
5. Mike McCarthy
6. Jordi Murphy
7. Sean O'Brien
8. Jamie Heaslip CAPTAIN

16. Aaron Dundon
17. Michael Bent
18. Tadhg Furlong
19. Tom Denton
20. Jack Conan
21. Luke McGrath
22. Jimmy Gopperth
23. Cian Kelleher



2 legends will be leaving, key figures in both teams. Would be great to see them get a try in their last game.

(If there are any other Leinster players leaving, feel free to add a highlights reel in the comments)


Discussion Points

- Should Leinster risk key players?
- How big a loss are departing players?
- Can Edinburgh get anything from this?
- How do both teams improve for next season?

RDW_Scotland wrote:Alex Cuthbert the Wales winger?

Yeah I meant jack.

Why could Visser not be this physical all season?

If we had to pick a dross pro 12 team of the year surely Cuthbert would make the 15 shirt his own.

To be fair Cuthbert has had a decent season generally!

Soft soft soft

Cack.

You can look back at half of Leinsters scores, and the turning point that gave them possession for it was us kicking away needless ball...

Oh well. We'd have been pumped by glaws anyhow

Madigan motm?? Watson would have got my vote.

Solomans will blame injuries, but he cant keep ignoring the inferior tactics.

We'll I enjoyed that game! Leinster just had too much power and pace.


Watson certainly put down a marker for the world cup

RDW_Scotland wrote:We'll I enjoyed that game! Leinster just had too much power and pace.


Watson certainly put down a marker for the world cup

Dont get me wrong, it was enjoyable game. And I agree regarding Watson. Beast.

As for the game itself, well I quite enjoyed that. Nigel let the game flow and there weren't many penalties at the rucks ( probably should have been though).

Edinburgh generally withstood a very physical Leinster team but for a few frustrating lapses in defence.

Visser had his best game of all season (why didn't he look that interested the rest of the season) and for all the criticism he's had I thought Tom Heathcoat played well.

As I've said before, Watson was superb - how a man relatively small can make so much ground with ball in hand I don't know.

There's certainly been a lot of progress this season from Edinburgh - I'm looking forward to seeing what we can do next year.

Probably time for Edinburgh to end their season, while they have still got a few players standing. It is hard to see that they would have got anything out of two more qualifying rounds, nor that they are really ready for the champions cup yet. The good cup run they had this year has done them a lot of good and all in all it has been a season of progress for them.

They look to have recruited well, even Allen the winger/centre from Ulster looked pretty handy in the Glasgow game today. They also have plenty of decent kids coming through. I would definitely say that you can see a lot more positives than negitives and they are not going to lose so many players to the SWC squad that they could definitely get off to a decent start next year!

Did Watson won a turnover at the breakdown though? Yes he does have great pace and is very strong going forward but i would like him to be more of a fetcher and have more presence at the breakdown.

Beard once again impressed me, which is not an easy thing to do, playing outside Strauss but for me those defensive lapses cost Edinburgh the game and made Leinster look better that what they have been all season.

Also didn't see the point in playing McKenzie blindside, when Grant, Bradburry and Ritchie were all sitting out the game..

All in all a disappointing end to the season as what could have been a great season only turned out to be mediocre.

Also was interesting to see that even with Andress and Berghan the scrum still looked dominant, testament of the good work that Stevie Scott made with the forwards.

Also shows that Solomons really should have rotated more...

Yes Watson didn't get any turnovers but there weren't actually that many in the game - which is saying something given they had SoB and heaslip.

Watson is a hell of a talent though - his only problem is because he lacks bulk he's easy to clear away at rucks, hence the lack of turnovers. He needs to look at Ross Rennie's style IMO - he's definitely got the upper body strength to rip the ball in the tackle more often.

Add a backs coach, a squad rotation policy, a good quality tighthead and a catastrophic injury to Strauss and that Edinburgh side could be really good.

Unlike Glasgow, the shiatsu massage attendees are likely to have a higher quality squad on average next year than this year.

I watched the game on record late last night and I have to say Edinburgh showed us a bit of what has been missing this season, deciding to chuck the ball about a bit and they did it quite well.

Heathcote at long last and far to late, showed what he can bring to the party. He is a very decent FH, but just has not shown it during his year in Ecinburgh. Unfortunately he may well be going down for another year in the championship, which will not do his Scotland ambitions any good at all.

Beard played very well and Visser suddenly looked hungry again, looking for the ball and scoring a good try. Watson and SHC were outstanding again, but we have come to expect that.

There is an attacking side in there somewhere trying to get out!

The downside of that of course is that they reverted back to old ways and forgot how to tackle!

That's what our discussions were throughout the game - 'why have we waited until the last game to actually show some attacking intent?'

RDW_Scotland wrote:That's what our discussions were throughout the game - 'why have we waited until the last game to actually show some attacking intent?'

You might well ask both sides that queskin!

Why, why oh Why indeed.

I enjoyed that game - thought Heathcote, Strauss and Visser probably had their best performances of the season. Nice day for it, good open rugby.

Cuthbert was rather exposed one on one for that first try. There's an art to being the last line of defence, and sometimes not committing early to the tackle and staying on your feet can buy time for other defenders to get back, but if you have no pace on the turn I do think you have to take out the man with the ball, and let him worry about making the pass to the supporting players. He made it far too easy and wasn't even close to laying a finger on the Leinster try scorer.

Solomons has apparently identified a centre as a priority signing, bemoaning the injuries to Matt Scott. Hopefully this means that he's seen enough of Andries Strauss.

funnyExiledScot wrote:

Solomons has apparently identified a centre as a priority signing, bemoaning the injuries to Matt Scott. Hopefully this means that he's seen enough of Andries Strauss.

Hopefully it does not mean that Matt Scott's injury is potentially career threatening. There don't seem to be many positive vibes coming out about it!

I know, he seems to have become the new Rory Lamont. It would be a massive shame were he not to fulfil his potential due to injury. After years of Morrison, Henderson, Laney and Di Rollo, we finally have three decent centres to select from with Dunbar, Bennett and Scott - three players actually good at rugby.

Fingers crossed that his next return is on a more permanent basis. If he doesn't make it back, then hopefully Solomons will see sense and install Burleigh at 12 for Edinburgh for the next couple of years so that he qualifies for Scotland. We need skillful players in the centres.

Not a bad game but I was there with my 4 year old daughter so spent much of the time delaying giving her sweets.  Lovely day for it though.

Vince, I know what you mean about Watson not really generating turnovers.  He doesn't really do much of it but almost makes up for it in every other department.  I'd have him at centre, he's got the turn of pace and skills for it, just doesn't have the expected body shape.

Also, Grant was hobbling about pretty badly at half time so even though he wasn't on the injury list he was pretty broken.  Definitely my player of the season, seems like such a nice guy too.

des wrote:Also, Grant was hobbling about pretty badly at half time so even though he wasn't on the injury list he was pretty broken.  Definitely my player of the season, seems like such a nice guy too.

Careful now, that sort of sentimentality will have you being confused for a Weegie. Next you'll be saying he's world class because he's a leader, and the soul/spirit of the club, and guardian of its ethos, or whatever.

BigGee wrote:

funnyExiledScot wrote:

Solomons has apparently identified a centre as a priority signing, bemoaning the injuries to Matt Scott. Hopefully this means that he's seen enough of Andries Strauss.

Hopefully it does not mean that Matt Scott's injury is potentially career threatening. There don't seem to be many positive vibes coming out about it!

Chat from a few of the players at the Challenge final was that there is real concerns about how likely he is to recover long term, there was talk of him potentially having to retire. Hopefully it's just unwarranted concern and he comes back injury free.

EWT if this is true it is shocking. Certainly the Matt Scott we saw in this year's 6N wasn't a patch on the player who made us all sit up when he first started playing for Scotland. Your heart must go out to the lad, if it's true he must be heartbroken.

Could be just the folk I was talking to being overly dramatic mind you.

He's got a law degree so wouldn't be completely screwed (FES could hire him) but it would be a travesty if he did have to retire having shown so much potential.