Edinburgh Rugby v Scarlets, 27 September

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Edinburgh Rugby v Scarlets
 
Friday 27 September 2013, KO 19:45
Murrayfield Mausoleum, Edinburgh
 
Referee: David Wilkinson (IRFU, 22nd competition game)
Assistant Referees: Peter Allan, Adrian Graves (both SRU)
Citing Commissioner: John Kirk (SRU)
 
[Not televised?]
 
A. Teams:
 
Edinburgh
15 Greig Tonks
14 Lee Jones
13 Nick De Luca
12 Ben Atiga
11 Jack Cuthbert
10 Harry Leonard
9 Sam Hidalgo-Clyne
 
1 Alasdair Dickinson
2 Ross Ford CAPTAIN
3 Willem Nel
4 Grant Gilchrist
5 Izak van der Westhuizen
6 Dimitri Basilaia
7 Roddy Grant
8 David Denton
 
Replacements:
16 James Hilterbrand
17 Wicus Blaauw
18 Geoff Cross
19 Sean Cox
20 Hamish Watson
21 Sean Kennedy
22 Joaquin Dominguez
23 Michael Tait
 
Scarlets  
15 Liam Williams
14 Nick Reynolds
13 Jonathan Davies
12 Scott Williams
11 Jordan Williams
10 Rhys Priestland
9 Rhodri Williams
 
1 Phil John
2 Emyr Phillips
3 Samson Lee
4 Jake Ball
5 Joe Snyman
6 Josh Turnbull
7 John Barclay
8 Rob McCusker (capt).

Replacements:
16 Ken Owens
17 Rob Evans
18 Jacobie Adriaanse
19 George Earle
20 Sione Timani
21 Aled Davies
22 Aled Thomas
23 Gareth Maule.
 
B. Form - head to head:
 
22 Played 22
12 Wins 10
10 Losses 12
0 Draws 0
44 Tries 57
33 Conversions 35
53 Penalties 33
4 Drop Goals 1
457 Points 457
26 Avg. Age 25
 
C. Form - recent:
 
1 March 2013
Scarlets 14 - 13 Edinburgh Rugby
 
26 October 2012
Edinburgh Rugby 28 - 29 Scarlets
 
30 March 2012
Edinburgh Rugby 26 - 23 Scarlets
 
Incredible to note that the last three matches have all ended with a margin of 3 points or less.

I believe that she was

It would take a miracle to get Cuthbert even close to the pace of Thom Evans, but if he could manage similar improvements to those made by Brown, then we might just be able to find a use for him covering at 15. He'll never be a winger though, and I've seen no evidence of skills to suggest he can convert to centre.

Margot Wells is a legend of sprint training - Paul Sackey said that she made an unbelievable difference to him. When in full professional training at Glasgow, Thom Evans could clock 11.2 dead for 100m. I'm not a fan of comparing todger sizes but I agree with FES that I'm not sure Cuthbert is quite in the same league.

To put it another way, there is plenty room for improvement with Cuthbert. When he took that interception against Munster is was embarrassing how easily they caught him.

George Carlin wrote:Margot Wells is a legend of sprint training - Paul Sackey said that she made an unbelievable difference to him. When in full professional training at Glasgow, Thom Evans could clock 11.2 dead for 100m. I'm not a fan of comparing todger sizes but I agree with FES that I'm not sure Cuthbert is quite in the same league.

I'd back Cuthbutt over 100m in under 11 minutes and 2 secs

Oops, must say something nice about Embra - I really like their corner flags

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:

George Carlin wrote:Margot Wells is a legend of sprint training - Paul Sackey said that she made an unbelievable difference to him. When in full professional training at Glasgow, Thom Evans could clock 11.2 dead for 100m. I'm not a fan of comparing todger sizes but I agree with FES that I'm not sure Cuthbert is quite in the same league.

I'd back Cuthbutt over 100m in under 11 minutes and 2 secs

Oops, must say something nice about Embra - I really like their corner flags

That's better, and I'm pleased you noticed them. Considerably better corner flags than at Scotstoun.....

funnyExiledScot wrote:

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:

George Carlin wrote:Margot Wells is a legend of sprint training - Paul Sackey said that she made an unbelievable difference to him. When in full professional training at Glasgow, Thom Evans could clock 11.2 dead for 100m. I'm not a fan of comparing todger sizes but I agree with FES that I'm not sure Cuthbert is quite in the same league.

I'd back Cuthbutt over 100m in under 11 minutes and 2 secs

Oops, must say something nice about Embra - I really like their corner flags

That's better, and I'm pleased you noticed them. Considerably better corner flags than at Scotstoun.....

We have a lot more seats in our stadium as well. Spacious. Not like pokey ol Scotstoun where its hard to get a seat

This not on the telly anywhere?

Nope.

Astonishingly exciting game though.

Edinburgh 3-0 up after half an hour.

Jake Ball picked up a yellow card just to relieve the tedium.

3-10

Sounding a bit grim, Tom English slating Edinburgh on the radio.
Anyone there?

6-10 at half time.

9-15 now.

Weird looking game - Scarlets have had two players carded and have scored a try both times during their own sin bin period.

George Carlin wrote:Weird looking game - Scarlets have had two players carded and have scored a try both times during their own sin bin period.

So just like the Ospreys game then  x100

yet another yellow card - this time for Nel.

3rd try for the Scarlets...

Lee Jones needs to be released, he's not up to pro rugby. One of the worst defensive displays from a winger that I've ever seen.

His pixie arse is toast at the end of this season.

To think we turned down Sean Maitland because we had lee jones

Jeez

How was that then? Just looked at my phone now to see the score - grim.

Was only able to listen to the game but it sounded poor. Pundits in the studio had a fair old pop at Solomons as well.

Just read the Facebook comments - sounds like an awful performance?

I was there. Soft tries conceded yet again. General defence was fine, but we still seem to switch off at key moments. 1st try was down to loss of focus as ref was playing penalty advantage. 2nd try was a counter attack off a poor kick and the defence switched off, and the 3rd was a basic error from Jones. That was the game.

Our attack was limited, and we kicked a huge amount of ball, often with no meaningful chase. Liam Williams was class for the Scarlets, as was Priestland. We tried to play a kicking game but lost the kicking exchanges. Not sure the tactics were right.

Disappointing.

Good effort from vdw, basilia, denton and hidalgo-clyne. Gilchrist and Grant were nowhere, and Jones did himself no favours. For all my criticism earlier, Cuthbert was actually ok.

Thanks FES

So was there any improvement from last week? We conceded half the points as last week, but also scored no tries..

I haven't seen the ospreys game, but our overall defence was much better than the munster game. Basilia and Atiga were both big in defence. The real disappointment was the attacking game plan, which was the old school saffa/sarries plan of relentless kick and chase. The only problem was the chase wasn't good, and Liam Williams was excellent, so we kept losing ground on the kicking battle. It was all a bit play by numbers.

It was peculiar, despite having some good individuals in the team, they just looked limp - like a newly promoted team who are slightly out of their depth. Last week it was sloppy as hell, this week it was just flat and devoid of attacking impetus.

The more I think about it the more it feels like they're rudderless. This isn't a million miles from the team that beat Toulouse a couple if years ago (in some ways it's stronger, on paper at least) but there just don't seem to be any leaders out there. Contrast that with Glasgow, who are clearly a tight group, and it's tough to see where that leadership will come from.

Solomons has his work cut out for him.

Solomons has publicly said that they are effectively in pre season mode until the end of October. Its not ideal, but what about the Edinburgh team has been of late, even with the H cup run 2 seasons ago they had their fare share of average performances in the league.

I hope that Solomons is trying to make one or two natural leaders step forward from the squad. Whatever is going on he is a good manager and he needs time to see what the squad is made of and formulate his strategy as to how to take them forward.

Christ this is painful to watch, and for reasons I can't fathom.

When Edinburgh beat Toulouse in 2012, there was a reason that commentators described it is "the greatest moment in Scottish club rugby history" - that's exactly what it was. Edinburgh walked on bloody water that day.

I simply can't reconcile that achievement with these players and their current levels of performance.

IanBru - I agree. Even Laidlaw who masterminded that win appeared to have lost his confidence last season. This team should be better than that - it has to be down to coaching and captaincy