Edinburgh V Cardiff Blues

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Edinburgh V Cardiff Blues

At Meggetland, 7.45pm.
Referee: Dudley Phillips (IRFU, 42nd competition game)
Assistant Referees: Peter Allan, Graeme Marshall (both SRU)
Citing Commissioner: John Kirk (SRU)

TV coverage - nope!

Edinburgh

15 Jack Cuthbert

14 Sam Hidalgo-Clyne

13 Matt Scott

12 Andries Strauss

11 Tom Brown

10 Harry Leonard

9 Grayson Hart

1 Alasdair Dickinson

2 Ross Ford

3 Willem Nel

4 Grant Gilchrist

5 Izak van der Westhuizen

6 Mike Coman CAPTAIN

7 Cornell Du Preez

8 David Denton


Substitutes

16 James Hilterbrand

17 Wicus Blaauw

18 Simon Berghan

19 Ollie Atkins

20 Roddy Grant

21 Sean Kennedy

22 Carl Bezuidenhout

23 Sam Beard


Cardiff Blues

15 Dan Fish, 14 Alex Cuthbert, 13 Cory Allen, 12 Isaia Tuifua, 11 Chris Czekaj, 10 Gareth Davies, 9 Lewis Jones
1 Gethin Jenkins (c), 2 Kristian Dacey, 3 Taufa’ao Filise, 4 Lou Reed, 5 Filo Paulo, 6 Macauley Cook, 7 Josh Navidi, 8 Robin Copeland

16 Matthew Rees, 17 Thomas Davies, 18 Scott Andrews, 19 Bradley Davies, 20 Ellis Jenkins, 21 Lloyd Williams, 22 Simon Humberstone, 23 Dafydd Hewitt

Oh my god, what an irritating result. How can we be so inconsistent?

A try bonus point, what the hell is one of those? Have i stepped back in to 2008?

Good work Blues   

Highlights here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thzTYs6ibR0

Edinburgh pretty much gifted most of those tries on a plate - shocking defending.

The defence of that driving maul score was as limp wristed as it gets.

Fair play to the Blues!

I was quite surprised to see the driving maul working for the second game in a row. It's never been an area of great focus from the blues but it seems there is some real work going in to it recently.

Just seen on Twitter that Edinburgh were responding to some complaints about Meggatland -


Pitch too small

Ground too cramped

Panemonium trying to get a bus home, with bus stops crammed and people waiting up to an hour for a bus with spare seats


Was anyone at the game able to confirm these things? I have played on that pitch many times and it was probably about average size as far as pitches go, but is much smaller than Murrayfield.

I had to work sadly so was unable to make it. Doesn't sound like the fan experience is particularly great there, but equally it could be the Facebook brigade making the complaints. They complain about everything.

Hugely frustrating result, particularly leaking soft scores. I had hoped Solomon's would have been able to rid of that rather Bradley-esque trait by now.

Oh well, we're not going to be in Europe next season. Better get used to that.

RDW_Scotland wrote:Just seen on Twitter that Edinburgh were responding to some complaints about Meggatland -


Pitch too small

Ground too cramped

Panemonium trying to get a bus home, with bus stops crammed and people waiting up to an hour for a bus with spare seats


Was anyone at the game able to confirm these things? I have played on that pitch many times and it was probably about average size as far as pitches go, but is much smaller than Murrayfield.

Absolutely no idea about the substance of the complaints, but if their team had run in half a dozen scintillating tries and nilled the opposition I doubt they would be complaining!

I was at the game. The pitch is about average size for a club ground, but very small in goal areas, could also really do with a few more metres width to make for more expansive pro games. Facilities are poor, one thing I noticed where there were 6 portaloos for the Ospreys game (beside the stand) there were 3 for Cardiff leading to overlong queues. More importantly site lines are poor with the crowd size on Friday add another 600 for Munster and it will be really difficult for many to get a good view.

I actually left, from the clubhouse end, just after the Du Preez try and got on a bus straight away, but given the frequency on Colinton Road at that time could see it being a real problem.

So in summary not a good experience and if they're planning on playing games there next season they'll be one season ticket down, at least.

I think it has given people an eye opener about

A - how good Murrayfield is for everything other than size

B - the problems that will occur going to another venue.

Everything you mention above will be the same for Easter road, Tyncastle (both of which are far too small pitches) and most likely Meadowbank.

Make that two season tickets.

What they'll probably do is not tell you where the games will be played whilst the season ticket offers are available, and once you've bought and paid for the ticket, then announce that the friendlies will be played in the Borders, the 1872 fixture in Perth and games against Munster and Leinster in Skye and Uist respectively.

Don't worry though, there'll be a slow and poorly organised bus service leaving Edinburgh in the middle of the working day on each occassion.......

RDW_Scotland wrote:I think it has given people an eye opener about

A - how good Murrayfield is for everything other than size

B - the problems that will occur going to another venue.

Everything you mention above will be the same for Easter road, Tyncastle (both of which are far too small pitches) and most likely Meadowbank.

I don't think either football ground is an option Tynecastle has too small a pitch ER is just about big enough. However both have much better match facilities, food, drink, toilets and good site lines in proper stands sheltered from the weather. Importantly both also have good transport links back to the city centre something Meggetland definitely doesn't.

funnyExiledScot wrote:Make that two season tickets.

What they'll probably do is not tell you where the games will be played whilst the season ticket offers are available, and once you've bought and paid for the ticket, then announce that the friendlies will be played in the Borders, the 1872 fixture in Perth and games against Munster and Leinster in Skye and Uist respectively.

Don't worry though, there'll be a slow and poorly organised bus service leaving Edinburgh in the middle of the working day on each occassion.......

Sooooooo prickly and precious! They're two beautiful spots!   

They are indeed ASBO, two of my favourite places.

justified sinner wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:I think it has given people an eye opener about

A - how good Murrayfield is for everything other than size

B - the problems that will occur going to another venue.

Everything you mention above will be the same for Easter road, Tyncastle (both of which are far too small pitches) and most likely Meadowbank.

I don't think either football ground is an option Tynecastle has too small a pitch ER is just about big enough. However both have much better match facilities, food, drink, toilets and good site lines in proper stands sheltered from the weather. Importantly both also have good transport links back to the city centre something Meggetland definitely doesn't.

Agreed - I've said from the start that the football grounds are not an option. There's no way the SRU would pay a football team.

Saw brief TV highlights and the burger fan seemed terribly close to the pitch with temporary fencing and the in goal area seemed tiny - was concerned that players would run into the hoardings behind the post. But seemed a good atmosphere despite the home teams loss. Edinburgh needs a 10 / 12K stadium - not the 5k of Meggotland or the 80 K of murrayfield. maybe time to develop Meggetland ?

looks like the Chief has taught the Blues forwards how to rumble a rolling maul.................................

Bluedragon wrote:Saw brief TV highlights and the burger fan seemed terribly close to the pitch with temporary fencing and the in goal area seemed tiny - was concerned that players would run into the hoardings behind the post. But seemed a good atmosphere despite the home teams loss. Edinburgh needs a 10 / 12K stadium - not the 5k of Meggotland or the 80 K of murrayfield. maybe time to develop Meggetland ?

looks like the Chief has taught the Blues forwards how to rumble a rolling maul.................................

and they wonder why there's an obesity problem !!

The van was so close to the pitch I thought the winger was going to order a burger !

For me the obvious answer to a permanent home for Edinburgh would be a 10k seat staduim on the back pitches at murryfeild. This could share a lot of facilities with the main stadium thus would be fairly cheap to do. It could also be done in stages ie a 3000 seat stand on one side this year, another the next.

With you on that TJ.

Again it just comes down to money - the SRU might not justify the cost of a new stand when Murrayfield is lying empty.

That works for me. Top priority is for the pitch to be no more than a 30 minute walk from my office or home. The rest is just smallprint.

I'm sure they'll take that into account when looking for options FES - proximity to your house.

You not got a few acres they could use?

RDW_Scotland wrote:I'm sure they'll take that into account when looking for options FES - proximity to your house.

You not got a few acres they could use?

Sadly not. In fact you can't even swing a cat in the plot at the back of my house. I've tried.