Edinburgh V Ospreys

Edinburgh V Ospreys

Friday 28th February
Meggetland   
7:35pm KO

Live on BBC Alba


Edinburgh Team   

15 Carl Bezuidenhout

14 Dougie Fife

13 Sam Beard

12 Andries Strauss

11 Jack Cuthbert

10 Harry Leonard

9 Grayson Hart


1 Wicus Blaauw

2 Ross Ford

3 Geoff Cross

4 Grant Gilchrist

5 Izak van der Westhuizen

6 Mike Coman CAPTAIN

7 Roddy Grant

8 Cornell Du Preez


Substitutes

16 James Hilterbrand

17 Alex Allan

18 Willem Nel

19 Ollie Atkins

20 Tomas Leonardi

21 Sean Kennedy

22 Ben Atiga

23 Joaquin Dominguez


Ospreys Team   

15 Richard Fussell
14 Jeff Hassler
13 Jonathan Spratt (Capt)
12 Ashley Beck
11 Hanno Dirksen
10 Dan Biggar
9 Tito Tebaldi

1 Duncan Jones
2 Scott Baldwin
3 Dan Suter
4 Tyler Ardron
5 James King
6 Sam Lewis
7 Justin Tipuric
8 Joe Bearman

REPLACEMENTS

16 Matthew Dwyer
17 Marc Thomas
18 Joe Rees
19 Dan Baker
20 Ryan Jones
21 Tom Habberfield
22 Sam Davies
23 Aisea Natoga

After 2 defeats on the road Edinburgh will be keen to get back to winning ways, with their first game at home for quite a long time now.

Tom Brown being injured has lead to a shift in the backline, where Jack Cuthbert has been shifted to the wing - a position he really is significantly worse at than fullback.

Other points of note are Geoff Cross and Ross Ford starting, having been released from the Scotland squad.

Finally, due to the Murrayfield pitch being a mess the game has been switched to Meggetland - home of Premier 1 leaders Boroughmuir. Will be interesting to see whether a 3000 sellout inside a local club ground has a better atmosphere than 4000 in a 67k seater stadium...

Pack looks pretty decent, nice to see Geoff getting a run out, not really sure about the backs, especially Cuthbert on the wing.

Sadly I can't make it to Meggetland, wherever that is. Off to Glen Coe and Mrs fES has booked dinner, which sadly rules out Alba (I'll watch on iPlayer when we get back....if we win).

Don't like Cuthbert on the wing, you'd think we'd have learned by now that he's hopeless out there. Can't we get Lee Jones back as cover??

Interesting to see Cross start. He needs the game time, so I wouldn't read much into that re: France. Also pleased to see Leonard still getting time at 10, and pleased to see Beard involved. I've seen him a couple of times this season and he looks quite handy.

We've had a couple of narrow losses recently, and could really use 4 points here to avoid slipping down the table. We're much more competitive than we were last season, and hopefully the missing players at the Ospreys will allow us to win this.

Solomons has really strengthened our pack, but the backs need a bit of work in the summer.

It's a shame Farndale or Hoyland aren't playing - I am assuming that is because they are in the under 20s they are getting pumped each game?

Will Nikki Walker ever play another game for Edinburgh??

Looking forward to seeing some of these guys play for the first time, with this the first match on TV for a while. Bezzie and Strauss the main ones.

I haven't seen Strauss play either. Looks like Solomons is going to make him a key player when Scott is away, so hopefully he can deliver more (and not in terms of weight) than Ben Atiga.

I've seen Bezzy a couple of times and he looks pretty decent, not sure whether Piers Francis has a future at Edinburgh anymore. I certainly don't want to see Bezzy and Francis, two NSQ 10s, in the same match day squad next season. Leonard should very much be given further opportunities.

Bezzy has featured well in match reports, Strauss not so much.

It is very frustrating to have lost the last 2 games as it sounds like we were very much in the games and could have won them. A sign of a new squad I suppose, but at least we're not getting pumped week in week out like last year.

If we had won one of this games I think 6th place would have been possible - can't see it happening now.

Looking at our run in:

Ospreys H
Ulster H
Treviso A
Dragons A
Blues H
Zebre A
Munster H
Leinster A

Glasgow - TBC

A lot of those games are very winnable, and if we can manage a win over the Ospreys or Ulster over the next two games it could hopefully give us some momentum for the run of 'easier' games after.

That's a very big 'if' though, and a top 8 finish should be the bare minimum.

Not happy about having to finish with Munster and Leinster, but before that we have 4 winnable games so should hopefully generate some momentum.

Can someone tell me why Coman People is the captain? He introduced me to his friend, sweet Felicity Alexander in the last couple of games. I'd rather see our two Aussie brothers get more game time at lock.

I'll bet that Grandpappy can't wait until next season when he's stripped out the deadwood and doesn't need to see a plank like Cuthbert on the teamsheet. He is dependable and competent at 15. At 11, he has a large sign on his back saying 'please run round me on the outside'.

Looking forward to seeing Strauss. Bezzy will be fine at 15. Ospreys have all kinds of problems at the moment and a number of players missing, so who knows. Let's hope Matthew Morgan doesn't score any more 90 metres tries against us like last time.

I really don't want to see Morgan on the teamsheet at all. Scares the life out of me. I actually think Wales are missing a trick by not using him, but he doesn't really fit with Gatland philosophy for backs, with is that they all have to weigh no less than 20 stone.

I've missed the last two games so have no idea what Coman is like. I do trust Solomons though, and it's been a while since I've said that about an Edinburgh coach.

Were you able to watch the last 2 games GC? Neither the Connacht or Scarlets games were on TV, and he hardly featured before then...

BTW loving the nickname!

Ospreys having problem? They put 70 points past Treviso!

Spreys team is this:

15 Richard Fussell
14 Jeff Hassler
13 Jonathan Spratt (Capt)
12 Ashley Beck
11 Hanno Dirksen
10 Dan Biggar
9 Tito Tebaldi

1 Duncan Jones
2 Scott Baldwin
3 Dan Suter
4 Tyler Ardron
5 James King
6 Sam Lewis
7 Justin Tipuric
8 Joe Bearman

REPLACEMENTS

16 Matthew Dwyer
17 Marc Thomas
18 Joe Rees
19 Dan Baker
20 Ryan Jones
21 Tom Habberfield
22 Sam Davies
23 Aisea Natoga

Good looking backline. Tipuric starts in the pack.

We probably shade it in the forwards, but I do fear that Ospreys backline. Hopefully we can deprive them of much decent ball, and the Meggetland pitch being smaller than Murrayfield will help too.

Hmmm, that's a strong Ospreys side actually. This is going to be tough - two quality back rows on show. Duncan Jones will be a good challange for Geoff Cross.

Small pitch is very handy, more likely that Cuthbert will get in the way in defence.

Anyone going tonight? Would be good to hear what Meggetland is like as a venue. Looking at the map on the Edinburgh website it looks well set up, but still think 3000 people in there is going to be pretty cosy! Must all be standing too - pretty sure that stand can only hold around 500 people.

Edinburgh could really do Glasgow a favour if they could take the points tonight. They are due a performance having spluttered a bit in the last few games. I wonder what the Spreys think is left in their season, they seem to give it up a bit to easily against Munster last week?

It's a banana skin fixture for the Ospreys, they've looked sharp in recent weeks but its the kind of game that Alan Solomons will have Edinburgh believing they can win and targeting- it's intriguing. I think the Ospreys are narrow favourites but there's no doubt over who I'd be cheering for... if Edinburgh do win, it'll be very narrowly.

I'm somewhat surprised and encouraged that Matthew Morgan isn't on the bench, he's a game changer at this level if you allow him too much space. Davies is a good player though. Ospreys probably have even more depth at 10 than Leinster or Munster.

Edinburgh could well target the scrum here this Dan Suter hasn't really impressed me anytime i have watched him and say what you want about Ross Ford the power he brings to the front row is huge.

Should be a good game with for once atmosphere but as already pointed out Ospreys certainly haven't lost any sleep about the prospect of facing Cuthbert (Jack) on the wing.

Notch wrote:It's a banana skin fixture for the Ospreys, they've looked sharp in recent weeks but its the kind of game that Alan Solomons will have Edinburgh believing they can win and targeting- it's intriguing. I think the Ospreys are narrow favourites but there's no doubt over who I'd be cheering for... if Edinburgh do win, it'll be very narrowly.

I'm somewhat surprised and encouraged that Matthew Morgan isn't on the bench, he's a game changer at this level if you allow him too much space. Davies is a good player though. Ospreys probably have even more depth at 10 than Leinster or Munster.

Notch, the general feeling on our board and I agree he doesn't make the breaks at the top level, and when he does make them if he doesn't make the line he does not even look for support, although in the last few games before the Munster game he did, he cannot control a game, his tackling even though it does not want for effort is technically very poor, you could see the difference last week against Munster in Sam Davies's control. As for tonights game our front five consists of a just out of Academy and quite small tighthead, 2nd or 3rd choice loosehead, 2nd choice hooker and 2 very lightweight 2nd rows who really are Blindside flankers, if Edinburgh target those areas, they should enjoy it. If we get anything near parity from the forwards I'd be quite optimistic, especially with the selected back row of basically 2 open sides and Bearman who is a decent carrier with the right platform in front of him.

Wow, sounds like we really should be dominating you up front given the power and relative experience in our pack.

C'mon the MFL. You can do this.  

How can there be empty seats in the main stand at Meggetland????

 

Great Play by the O's... Tipuric really is a good footballer

Scholes has the potential to be world class.

Better, nice play from Hart there

Get in there

Wow, what a drive and what a try.

This gonna be a good open game on a tight pitch

What a difference in Edinburgh. Turning into a really physical team

Absolutely, Mouneimne's influence is really starting to show. Such a difference to our passive defence of recent times!

 

Jack Cuthbert!! Some try that one!

Great counter   embra

What a try all set up by big Jack!
Also liking the physical (south Africa) approach we've shown so far

CMON now O's

Discipline a worry though. Too many penalties and now a yellow. Need to get that sorted, but the approach otherwise has been good

3 is a start...   

I don't fully understand that, it looked as if the osprey's player flopped over a pile of bodies, one of which was Geoff Cross.

Fantastic buildup and another great try fro Hart.

ffs... 1 man up... this is a joke but fair play to embra

Amazingly consistent recycling of the ball. Well done Hart.

Just joined - what did Jazzy Geoff get carded for?

George Carlin wrote:Amazingly consistent recycling of the ball. Well done Hart.

Just joined - what did Jazzy Geoff get carded for?

Having a little rest, on the wrong side of a ruck   

Clean line out from Ford there, get him in the Scotland team!

^ Please don't do this.

Sounds like our pack are giving the O's pack a good old fashioned spanking!

Listening to Denton talking on alba. He says he's working on off the ball stuff. He likes carrying but understands that defence and breakdown work wins games.

Now that's pleasing to hear!!!

Ah, I always forget what a delight the Gibbon is.  

Really hope Edinburgh can get a 4 try win - what a confidence boost that would be.

Both sides flinging it about like crazy! Cuthbert looks full of confidence and putting strong runs in. Need to be careful about taking it in without support with Tipuric on the pitch though, such a classy player

Fitzgibbon