Review of your club's season

First topic message reminder :

In the spirit of maes' excellent thread last year (https://www.606v2.com/t28791-review-of-the-season-for-your-team):

maestegmafia wrote:I was wondering if any of you would be kind enough to write a few words on how you feel the season went for your club/province/region this year, as for all but a few of us our season is now over...!

In the endeavour to create an interesting thread minus pointless trolling mocking and jeering. It would be the gentlemanly thing to do to encourage a review of your own club before you start to pass opinion on what other board members have contributed as opinions of their own clubs.

can I ask that you take a moment to contemplate how your club has gone over the course of the whole season? A couple of clubs still have something to play for, and all participants in the semifinals that I watched this weekend are to be heartily congratulated for some truly excellent rugby If you have the energy, finish off with a thought about what you'd like to see for next season too

actionman wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:I think Laidlaw has done well for Scotland, which is what I was basing it on. OK I agree he’s not been at his best for Edinburgh, but here’s hoping now that he’s got a single position to concentrate on he can settle down and improve there.

In your post you were assessing the Edinburgh season, and assessing the Edinburgh Players on their poor season, why bring in players playing for Scotland, which has nothing to do with this thread.

Jeez - calm down fella!

actionman wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:I think Laidlaw has done well for Scotland, which is what I was basing it on. OK I agree he’s not been at his best for Edinburgh, but here’s hoping now that he’s got a single position to concentrate on he can settle down and improve there.

In your post you were assessing the Edinburgh season, and assessing the Edinburgh Players on their poor season, why bring in players playing for Scotland, which has nothing to do with this thread.

Jeezo, apologies for mixing things up!

Guys, im pretty sure this guy is Janecory. he started posting about the same time Janecory stopped after being challenged about his strange over the top hatred of Laidlaw.

I think it was more your extreme reaction for a small oversight, on what has been a good natured and banter filled thread!

Visser still finished top try scorer and in the dream team, even though he had a quiet 2nd half of the season

And I think you'll find we're all armchair critics on here - unless you actually play for Edinburgh!

Actionman posts removed - duplicate account

V2 moderation team.

Anyway back to the rugby

Read in the Scotsman this morning (james king interview) that Steven Turnbell has also been released due to long term injury - shame his body never gave him the chance to have a good crack at pro rugby and I wish him all the best

So that means we''re one lock down but I still think we've got enough. Worryingly though only 2 of them are Scottish.

That makes sense - he wasn't getting any game time due to injury - I can't remember the last time I saw him play.

So we have:

Gilchrist
Cox
VDW
Parker
MacAlpine

No world beaters there, but they will do. I thought Parker did ok when he was used, good handling skills for a lock and decent workrate. We'll need more from him and VDW this season, whilst hopefully MacAlpine can continue to bulk up and develop.

Let’s face it – we can suggest all the signings we want but we know the SRU will give us:

A 29 year old English 2nd row from Doncaster knights
A 21 year old South African Standoff released from a Super XV team
Alex Black signs a 4 year contract extension
Marcus Di Rollo makes a surprise return to pro rugby.
A 35 year old Tongan Hooker on a 2 year deal.

Oh wait, that last one is actually real!

All of the above just sound so familiar!

I'm going to practice my rendition of "you don't know what you're doing" over the summer - we need more noise at Murrayfield....

Do we even have a head coach yet??

Stevie Scott and Duncan Hodge – you heard it here first.

It has gone very quiet with all this hullabaloo with the Scotland gig – again I’m not getting my hopes up.

Well it's inconceivable that two major appointments could be dealt with at once.

Knowing Edinburgh as I do, there will be no announcement. Things will just keep drifting along....

I also hope that the slim wins over Ulster and the Dragons haven't convinced the SRU of Scott and Hodge's credentials. We were absolutely humped by Treviso under their charge and beaten by Connacht at Murrayfield. The Connacht defeat was particularly disappointing.

There must surely to God be a coach or two out there with a more convincing CV.

I’d like Scottish coaches to be in there somewhere but I agree that it would be preferable to be under an experienced head coach.

In other news a guy from my rugby team is going on Greig Laidlaw’s stag doo in July (went to school with him), so I’ve asked him to get plenty gossip from all the Edinburgh players when they are drunk!

Your friend should take janecory (aka actionman) along with him - Greg would love that!

I have assumed that there's been a Scooby Doo-style reveal, with Janecory/Actionman's mask removed to reveal Rory Lawson looking angry:

"I wouda gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for you pesky mods".

"Schcooby dooby doooooo".

*Thelma, Mike, Daphne, Shaggy, RDW and Imperialbigdave all laugh*

Actually I thought it might be Chris Leck!!

funnyExiledScot wrote:

Actually I thought it might be Chris Leck!!

Not long before I left the embra forum, they reckoned he was richie rees. And he did have a fixation with welsh scrumhalves until round about the time rees signed for embra.

That would actually make sense! Amusing if true - I've often thought the odd player or two may have strayed onto these boards.

IBD - are you Duncan Taylor??

Well our season has finally ended and after 9 months of toil we got silverware.

How was the season:

Well as always the disruptions caused by internationals have to be managed. The positive side from this is that players get a chance they may otherwise not get. Some - Kitchener, Slater especially rose to the challenge, while others - most notably George Ford - struggled.
We seem to have good strength in depth in the pack, able to cope with injuries to key players and still have a bench that is the envy of most. Morw worryingly is a lack of depth in the backline. Ford is leaving, Bowden has struggled and Matt Smith is a solid player, but does not set the gheart going. Flip side Niall Morris and Matt Tait have come on leaps and bounds over the season. Thompstone and Goneva have done better than expected and if Benjamin can recover from a serious neck injury the options on the wings will be impressive.

We won a very tough group in the HEC, but were consigned to an away fixture with the eventual Champions. Pushed them hard all the way, could have sneaked the win right at the end, but a bounce of the ball allied to not quite being good enough put paid to that. HEC next season will be no easier though.

Overall, mustn't grumble.

Tigers are in a very good position moving forward methinks.

From the outside looking in you've got a great pack (with good depth) and some very effective backs.

Above all else it is a young side with English talent at the backbone:

Tom Youngs, Dan Cole, Geoff Parling, Tom Croft, Jamie Gibson, Tom Waldrom, Jordan Crane, Ben Youngs, Toby Flood, Ryan Lamb, Anthony Allen, Manu Tuilagi, Matthew Tait

Then sprinkle in a few effective foreign signings like Ayerza, Salvi, Goneva and Morris who has really impressed me.

I think it plays into Tigers hands that so many of the French teams are Top Seeds for next seasons Heineken Cup. They have to draw a French team anyway so why not get a top French side (they're unlikely to travel well so guaranteed win at home) instead of say Leinster or Munster who would be a trickier customer.

Toulouse, Leicester Tigers, Edinburgh, Zebre is much easier than Munster, Leicester Tigers, Racing Metro and Zebre.

You've missed out Kitchener, Slater and Thompstone, with Benjamin due to be back on form