Georgia Double Header - Scotlands last warm up games 31st August and 6th September

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So after a mixed bag in the first two games, we now face a difficult away trip to Tiblisi followed 6 days later by hosting the same team at home at Murrayfield.

With the travelling involved, a 6 hour flight apparently, as well as a Georgian team with a lot to prove playing in front of a crowd of 50,000, this ill no doubt be a serious test and an indication of what playing in a hostile environment in unpleasant conditions will be like. A dress rehersal for the Japan game in many ways.

So who does he play first up?

The squad is being finalised after the away game, but you would imagine that he is not going to want to waste any spaces on players that he has already made his mind up about.

He certainly is not going to risk any injured players, so that rules out Thompson, Skinner, Seymour for sure, along with the possibity of Taylor, Bradbury, Gray and we are not sure if Brown and Johnson will be fit either.

I am going to assume that none of them are ready to travel and have a stab at a team along these lines:

1. Reid
2. McInally
3. Fagerson Z
4. Gilchrist
5. Cummings
6. Wilson
7. Ritchie
8. Fagerson M
9. Horne G
10. Hastings
11. Graham
12. Hutchinson
13. Jones
14. Maitland
15. Kinghorn

Subs
Berghan
Turner
Nel
Toolis
Barclay
Price
Horne P
Harris

Not a great performance, but then the best teams quite often get held in to close games before pulling away at the end. Put it this way, if we stick in 60 terrible minutes against Japan and pull away in the last 20 I'll be over the moon.

Cummings was good, but again let's not get ahead of us. I think Georgia are one of those teams that get better by wishful thinking that rugby is changing more than anything else. I don't think they're actually very good.

So 5 injuries, not sure how serious any of them are yet

Heuer27 wrote:The worry is the injury to Ritchie. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him being diagnosed with a fractured cheek bone. We only have two proper sevens on the squad. If he goes down can Matt Fagerson cover adequately?

He didn't look happy coming off.

Barclay would be my 2nd choice open-side.

Would prefer Bradbury was called up, we need some more bulk in backrow.

TheMildlyFranticLlama wrote:So 5 injuries, not sure how serious any of them are yet

And the idiot interviewing Wilson said "it looked like everyone got through it unscathed" - what game was he watching!

Toolis' looked the worst. Ritchie's could be bad. Problem if they're concussions is they're going to have to fly out to Japan before the full return to play is protocol is concluded.

Of the injuries; Blarehorn looked pleased with himself at the end so he was probably kept off just to be safe, Mbawsa on the other hand looked thoroughly miserable, he might be very unlucky and one Fagerson might have done well out of tonight's game. I didn't see Ickle Jonny go down injured and thought 40 minutes might have been pre-planned for him. If Thompson has another concussion, and we all know about the cumulative effect of concussions then questions may very well be asked about his future in the game never mind travelling to Japan. Toolis caught a nasty one and could well have a broken nose, but two weeks before Ireland so he should be travelling.

Shrek and Ragnar struggled. Both may well have lost their starting places ( with Ragnar dropping out of the matchday 23).
I think if Chuckles is fit then Turner is third choice: but the way Stewart is playing Turner may not even be third choice at Scotstoun.
Jonny looked good for 40 minutes: Cummings looked very good for 80.
The back row did well but no-one really stood out.
Aldi Price was value for his try, but was he any better than Frodo last week?
Has Frodo ever scored a try like Wee George's? I'm not being facetious: Frodo never snipes up the side and teams don't need to defend too close, George keeps them guessing.
Haircut gets pass marks, but didn't really convince. I'm sure I'm not the only one who greeted Johnson's try with, "If he'd thrown that pass at Parkhead Glasgow would be champions right now." Still, he seems to be learning.
SuperDunc and Johnson look to be solid. Which they'll need to be against Aki and Ringrose.
Seymour started poorly but got better as the game progressed.
D'Arcy gets better every time
Blarehorn made some smart passes. He's learning too.

Both the unworthy centres did well. Horne put in his tackles and scored a try. Harris was unflashy, hard-working and dependable.

All in all a good night's work.

jimbopip wrote:
Shrek and Ragnar struggled. Both may well have lost their starting places ( with Ragnar dropping out of the matchday 23).

I'm what universe did they have starting places?? Dell is vastly better than Reid and Berghan showed Fagerson how to scrum - we even held our own when down to 7 up front late on! Nel is by a long way our starting 3 though.

reallybored wrote:

Heuer27 wrote:The worry is the injury to Ritchie. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him being diagnosed with a fractured cheek bone. We only have two proper sevens on the squad. If he goes down can Matt Fagerson cover adequately?

He didn't look happy coming off.

Barclay would be my 2nd choice open-side.

Would prefer Bradbury was called up, we need some more bulk in backrow.

Do you think he has shown enough to suggest he still has the legs to play seven. I think he is too slow now. Thompson looks a bit slow, Bradbury and Wilson too. The only pace left is Watson and in Japan I’m not sure that is going to be enough. It will be a big blow if Ritchie is lost to injury.
The other injuries didn’t look too bad, just knocks hopefully.

Heuer27 wrote:

reallybored wrote:

Heuer27 wrote:The worry is the injury to Ritchie. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him being diagnosed with a fractured cheek bone. We only have two proper sevens on the squad. If he goes down can Matt Fagerson cover adequately?

He didn't look happy coming off.

Barclay would be my 2nd choice open-side.

Would prefer Bradbury was called up, we need some more bulk in backrow.

Do you think he has shown enough to suggest he still has the legs to play seven. I think he is too slow now. Thompson looks a bit slow, Bradbury and Wilson too. The only pace left is Watson and in Japan I’m not sure that is going to be enough. It will be a big blow if Ritchie is lost to injury.
The other injuries didn’t look too bad, just knocks hopefully.

Toolis really didn't look on a good way.

JG and Blade were precautions for tightening hamstring. Both have hardly played so maybe not surprising.

Concussion for Blairhorn and Toolis and a potential facial injury for Ritchie.

On the face of it JR and BBT look like the ones to be worries about.

Just back from Murrayfield. Will need to watch it again but my impression was that the error and penalty count was horrible, and once again we found ourselves plagued by silly unforced errors. Handling was generally poor, and the scrum just didn't function. There is literally no point to Gordon Reid if the scrum isn't solid.

On the plus side Taylor got 80 minutes, and Graham and G Horne looked sharp and ready. It's tough but I don't think Seymour makes the 1st XV. Horrible dropped ball in the 1st half. Hard to judge individuals in the pack. Grant Stewart made an impact from the bench, and Blade had a couple of nice steps and offload, but all in all it was pretty mediocre until the last 20, when Georgia fell away. George Horne really must make the match day squad, such a sharp impact sub.

Shame as I thought Toolis showed up well.

I'd say it'll be most likely that bradbury replaces toolis as a utility lock/br, basically skinner in reverse. If Ritchie is buggered then fagerson will also go, he's covered 7 before and all of our hookers can at a stretch but hopefully won't reach that level of desperation

I wonder if the citing commissioner will be looking at Mbawsa's injury. He won a penalty turnover at a ruck and gave the Georgian (second row I think) lots of verbals as they left the ruck. The Georgian did not look at all impressed. It was one, maybe two breakdowns later that the injury was sustained. Might be it was a totally accidental occurrence.

You get the impressikn that Nel and Dell may well be playing s lot of rugby during this WC

None of the other props really seem to be making much of a case to challenge their starting slots.

That may end up being the position we are weakest in and most vulnerable to injury

BigGee wrote:You get the impressikn that Nel and Dell may well be playing s lot of rugby during this WC

None of the other props really seem to be making much of a case to challenge their starting slots.

That may end up being the position we are weakest in and most vulnerable to injury

Harsh on Berghan - he's not as good as Nel but I wouldn't be too disheartened if he had to replace him. He will hold up our scrum. I'm not convinced Fagerson would!

Totally agree on the loosehead side though.

Half full, half empty?

Shrek and Ragnar had their shorts pulled down and their mahoosive backsides skelped very publicly last night.

However, the Georgian front row is up there with the best. They are all paid lots of spondulicks to grind it out in the T14 where props have to be very good just to survive.
If they had had nightmares across all four matches I would be agreeing with you. They didn't, but neither did they really convince that they should be the first choice pairing.
Toonie's choice of five props gives us a problem: we will use four in every game so either Shrek comes on at loosehead with Berghan at tight, or Berghan comes on at loose with Ragnar at tight. I think it could be very attritional for the props but Russia and Japan shouldn't really cause our front rows too many problems (whoever starts) and all of our props have lots of experience against the Irish.
So, half -full or half-empty?

Zander is good in the loose, but his scrumming continues to let him down. His feet are back to far snd any hslf decent LH knows that and will exploit it.

He is still young dsspite hsving played a lot of pro rugby already but until he improves his technique, he is going to fall short of the best THs

He has probzbly fallen bzck to third chouce now, despite probzbly being the bedt of sll of them in loose play

Change your keyboard or put your specs, Gee!

Typing on mobile phone is not my strong point but you are right, am a bit blind as well!

I’ve always found Ragnar to be frightfully over-rated on here. Berghan is by far a better all round prop to have on the bench.

Geordie Reid is just confusing. we must be the only top 8 nation at the WC carrying a player who isn’t even fully professional???

If Ritchie is gubbed then Maggie will be called up and JB will play at 7 (at least against Russia). JB would also cover 6 and 8 from the bench.

If Toolis is gubbed, could we really see tiny Tim at the WC again? Frightening.

It’s not all gloom though. Wee Horne again showed what he can do. If Glasgow are going to persist on having him play second fiddle to Aldi Flakey Price, then George needs to move onto a club that will play him each week.

Good game for Scotland. It was attritional, however Ritchie and Toolis are likely the only ones not to make the Ireland game and were not necessarily going to be picked. If Ritchie is done, Bradbury travels and Wilson covers OS.

I am not sure that Turner is better than Stewart. Turner was given the benefit of a doubt missing most of the season with Glasgow and absence may have saved him from losing a place.

Z Fagerson probably lost the bench spot against Ireland in favour of Berghan. Reid could have probably got a pro contract but he wanted to return to Glasgow/Ayr and that limits the pool of clubs that he can play for. He will be on the bench. Dell is our best loosehead by far.

Are we sure Cummings shouldn't start against Ireland?

Back-row is going to be interesting. Thomson looked solid at no. 8. Watson is nailed on. Barclay was better than Wilson by far before the injury and now I am not overly sure.

We have a good rotation of SH's. Would like to see G Horne on the bench with Hastings. I think Hastings just plays better with G Horne.

Hastings - Johnson - Taylor did not seem on form. All have work to do. Johnson and Taylor need to spend some time on the practice pitch getting used to each other.

Maitland and Hogg are nailed on. On form, Graham is the other wing. Seymour has been a class player but he has been inconsistent since the Lions tour. Kinghorn is playing better but I don't trust his defense.

All in all good game with work to be done.