New season, new Edinburgh team

First topic message reminder :

Second of the Scottish team's modest pre-season focus.

As before, incumbent or probably first choice in bold, other options in brackets:

1. Jacobson (Yapp, Walker, Allan, Cringle)
2. Ford (Titterell, Turner)
3. Nel (Cross, Niven, Hislop)
4. van der Westhuizen (Parker, Gilchrist)
5. Cox (Turnbull, McAlpine)
6. Denton (McInally)
7. Rennie (Grant)
8. Talei (Basilaia, McInally)

9. Rees (Leck, Laidlaw, Black)
10. Laidlaw (Leonard, Hunter, Tonks)
11. T. Visser (Penn, Farndale)
12. Scott (King, Houston)
13. De Luca (Atiga, Tonks, Cairns)
14. Jones (Fife)
15. Brown (Atiga, Tonks, S. Visser, Cairns)

7s players not included (e.g. Clyne) and not all EDPs may be there. As with Glasgow, lots of known unknowns.

Potential problems are obvious - real lack of potential grunt in the boiler room, real drop in quality between first XV and their replacements and 9 may be a weakness.

The backs have an unbelievable amount of potential - the sheer speed of Visser, Brown, Jones, Fife and Farndale is extraordinary. Can Back bring the forwards up to speed and can the backs learn to tackle once in a while? Can potentially the best back row in the Robocop get even better?

Players to watch: Nel, Atiga, Leonard, Farndale and Basilaia.

Sadly my car has broken down and is going into the garage on Saturday so no trip to Newcastle for me. Will make the Saints game next week hopefully.

George Carlin wrote:I think that my pillow fight idea has merit.

Perhaps worth signing James Downey just in case??

The trains are pretty good FES! Not sure how to get from the station to the rugby ground like...

Public transport?? Seriously??

Mate - I take public transport every day between Edinburgh and Glasgow! Don't get me started!

Last time I was on a train to Newcastle it was 8.30am and I was doing Polish Vodka shots.

Polish vodka shots at 8:30am - isn't that just a standard breakfast in Newcastle?

My car left me standed on the M6 hard shoulder for an hour last weekend. I'll never moan about public transport being rubbish ever again!

Yeah - was a meal deal on the trolley service!

funnyExiledScot wrote:

George Carlin wrote:I think that my pillow fight idea has merit.

Perhaps worth signing James Downey just in case??

+

First team announcement of the season this morning - far too excited! Been far too long without rugby!

What time?

Are Glasgow announcing a team as well?

Not sure - Edinburgh Twitter feed said the announcement would be this morning.

5 people making debuts apparently....

Still no announcement. I'll have a go at guessing a side based on 5 starting debuts and not including June's Scotland internationals (starting debuts in bold)

Jacobsen
Titterel
Nel
Gilchrist
Cox
McInally
Grant
Basilaia

Rees
Leonard
Fife
King
Cairns
Jones
Atiga

Could be all kinds of combinations though, wonder how close I am

Cairnsy is still injured - out til November or something. King is injured too!

Oh well, so much for that attempt! Maybe Houston/Atiga at centre with Tonks at 15 then, and either Basilaia replaced by Denton or Rees replaced by Leck to keep new starts at 5

Edinburgh v Newcastle:
15 Greig Tonks;
14 Lee Jones,
13 John Houston,
12 Ben Atiga,
11 Mike Penn;
10 Harry Leonard,
9 Chris Leck
1 Jacobsen,
2 Titterrell,
3 Cross,
4 Gilchrist,
5 Cox,
6 Basilaia,
7 Grant (C),
8 McInally

Subs - Hislop, Nel, Turnbull, Talei, Rees, Hunter, Visser, Turner, Allan, McAlpine, Parker, Watson, Black, Farndale, Walker,Turner

starting 15 looks relatively strong considering most internationals are missing, which I suppose was the aim of the new signings. Shame its not televised to see how the new guys get on.

Mixed feelings about this team, pretty underwhelmed by the back-line.

Excited about the prospect of Atiga, was under the impression he was a 13 or 15 rather than a 12.

Hope Leonard can impress.

FES - Just so you don't miss any information on him, Bennett came on as a substitute against Osprey at 12 and had a hand in one of their tries.

A few surprises in there - didn't expect Cross to start as he won't be very far into his pre-season. Also, as mentioned I thought Atiga was a 13, but maybe he's been looked at as an option for the 12 shirt. Surprised to see Titterall over Walker, but I reckon most players will get plenty game time.

Looking forward to hearing how the big Georgian, Atiga, Penn and Tonks get on!

reallybored wrote:FES - Just so you don't miss any information on him, Bennett came on as a substitute against Osprey at 12 and had a hand in one of their tries.

Pleased to hear it. Hopefully he'll be making plenty more appearances for the 1st XV this season. Making the bench at Clermont this season would be no mean feat given the options they have at centre. Hopefully it won't be a wasted season.

Like the look of the Edinburgh side. Good to see so many new recruits bedding in swiftly. Very pleased to see Lee Jones back for the get go as well. He and Penn on the wings are elusive runners so will hopefully give the Geordies plenty of problems. Difficult to read much into a first friendly selection, but there are some interesting picks:

- Titterall ahead of Walker, personally not surprised by this. I think on merit Titterall will be Ford's first reserve this season.

- Basilia at 6 rather than 8, I think he's ear-marked at 6 rather than 8 this season, as we have potentially three better options at 8. This could work to his favour.

- Leck ahead of Rees, slightly surprised. Leck's service is pretty good, but I thought Rees would start the season first choice.

- Atiga at 12, not surprised. If he's got average ball skills by NZ standards it'll mean he's a playmaker genius up here. Very much looking forward to seeing what this guy can do for us.

I'm sure the chat on here when Atiga signed was that he was a bit of a crash ball specialist. No bad thing in that backline as we've got plenty piano tuners and not many piano shifters! If he can get us over the gainline then all is good.

In NZ they considered Frank Bunce a piano shifter and he was a better passer than just about any Scottish back in the last decade. I'm not concerned about Atiga's skills or physical attributes, I just hope his heart is in it.

True, and he's a total machine so don't need to be concerned about his physical attributes!

You'd hope his heart would be in it - he's come to the other side of the world leaving his family behind - that's a big step if you aren't really that keen to play!

Season ticket arrived last night.

I almost wet myself with excitement.

Not the best of starts - Atiga pulled out last minute with Sep Visser replacing him. Hopefully it is nothing serious!

And Basilia is in the bin.

justified sinner wrote:And Basilia is in the bin.

Something tells me that won't be the first time this season.

According to the Geordie thread, our scrum was awful. Hmmm.

The twitter thread said we dominated them a few times?

Mate your scrum was very poor first half , improved second but.still second.best.

The other thing though...I wouldnt like to think how many handling errors you had. Specifically from the high ball.

Scrum was poor first 40 Shiells took Cross to the cleaners and early doors Tomas got on top of Jacobson , Jacobson's immediate response was to shake his fist at the touch judge in the motion as to call him a 'W****r'.


Also Lee Jones had a absolute night mare.

All in all a promising start then...

Radio interview with Bradely he says he liked what he saw with the scrum.....


Anyway maybe not a bad thing we were crap - a real wake up call for the guys who maybe thought they were better than they were. I'm assuming the big guns will be out for Northampton.

Going to be a tough season for all teams I think - there's no easy games anymore.

very poor start from us, hopefully it will give the players a shake and get their heads on for the rest of the season.

A few players looked really poor especially Mike Penn and Lee Jones under the high ball, should be a basic skill for a back three player.

Still don't get a few of the signings we have made, especially Mike Penn. He didn't look anything great last night and there are some great young wings in the club game in Scotland who are just as good if not better than him like Barry Mansfield at Currie, Kerr Gossman now at Ayr, Tom Steven the U20s winger, the brothers from Jed and James Fleming.

Hopefully the injury to Harry isn't too bad, any one heard any news?

Obviously first game of the season so plenty to build on, player i am looking forward to seeing really make a big mark this season is Tom Brown, I think he will really push on and push for a back three spot with Scotland this season.