The worst team in Scotland V the worst team in England

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Edinburgh Rugby v London Welsh
Sunday 7 December 2014, KO 14:00
BT Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh
Referee: Cedric Marchat

*****
As we enter the festive season it seems rather fitting that these 2 teams should play one another.

Since both really emphasise the true spirit of Christmas, a time of giving & being generous to your fellow man...

Edinburgh for instance are obsessed with giving.
Whether it's handing only the 2nd win of the season to a depleted Zebre side, or possession away by the bucket load thanks to the instructions of head elf Alan Solomons, or making the opposition team look like the All Blacks with their unique brand of tackling as often demonstrated by Tim 'tinsel is tougher than me' Visser.

Continuing the theme of giving, our opponents on Sunday, London Welsh are a side clearly struck by the nativity story, in particular the part about 3 wise men bearing gifts & have decided to multiply that by a factor of 5.
Whichever team takes to the field they simply love to give, and currently after 9 straight losses in the Aviva, plus 2, in Europe have a points difference of -372!

So what can we expect on Sunday, well given both sides kind hearted nature it's has the makings of a try fest!

Since a top 6 finish for Edinburgh now seems out of reach like an awkwardly placed bauble, one hopes they'll revert back to their 2012 mindset & really make a crack of things. And show their weary supporters that it is indeed the season to be jolly.

Now much like the wine they should sell on match days I'll leave this here for you to mull over.

Teams:

Exfoliators:
Nick McLennan, Dougie Fife, Matt Scott, Andries Strauss, Tim Visser, Tom Heathcote, Grayson Hart, Rory Sutherland, James Hiltebrand, Willem Nel, Ollie Atkins, Ben Toolis, Tomas Leonardi, Roddy Grant, Mike Coman (C).

Replacements: Neil Cochrane, Grant Shiells, John Andress, Anton Bresler, Stuart McInally, Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, Greig Tonks, Sam Beard.

Sweaties:
Elliot Kear, Rhys Crane, Nic Reynolds, Alan Awcock, Chris Elder, Gordon Ross (C), Paul Rowley, Eddie Aholelei, Nathan Vella, Ben Cooper, Josh McNally, Matt Corker, Ben West, Carl Kirwan, Ben Pienaar.

Replacements: Nathan Morris, Shane Cahill, Jack Gilding, Daniel Browne, Lachlan McCaffrey, Rob Lewis, Nick Scott, Tom May.

Miserable afternoon in Edinburgh - strong winds and pishing doon just now.

Rubbish, it's a lovely soft day after a couple of pints of Edinburgh Gold

At the game, and what a Frak. Interception and we're 10-3 down

10-3 LW after an intercept, let me guess it was a Strauss pass surely?

This awful. Can't believe I showed up for this!!

We are worse than London Welsh reserves, and they have 14 men on the field!

I came down from aberdeen for this!

I have not seen Edinburgh play worse in 3 years of holding a season ticket. There is not a single positive.

Right, so LW are a man down after Crane gets carded.
So obviously what happens now is Edinburgh concede another 3...

funnyExiledScot wrote:I have not seen Edinburgh play worse in 3 years of holding a season ticket. There is not a single positive.

Be fair, it's not like this is a home game.

Oh. Wait.

In a perverse way, I actually hope we lose so that mr "blame everything but me" gets the sack.

For those not able to listen or watch, I cannot stress how bad this is. Even Matt Scott looks rubbish.

Are we seriously going to lose to London Welsh?

Is it wrong that I'm finding this mildly amusing?

Surely to god we can't.

Who was it that recently said the Michael Bradley days were worse??? :p

Good start to the second half. Looks like words were said!

Nel showing the wingers how it's done.

funnyExiledScot wrote:Good start to the second half. Looks like words were said!

They needed to be!

Again better. Far more aggressive from Edinburgh.

Still time for a TBP

We're still losing. ....

Cochrane is on. We can relax.

Jack Gilding is on for LW, and we are still losing!!

funnyExiledScot wrote:Jack Gilding is on for LW, and we are still losing!!

I think this means that the apocolypse is about to start.

Delighted I couldn't make the game.

18-13 Edinburgh - LW

Totally different game now. Whatever was said at half time worked!

25-13

So..... How was that then??

They got there in the end. Keep the faith!

The relegation battle in the Premiership must be fairly intense this season.

Shades of Rotherham Titans possibly.....

First half was a complete disaster. Scrum and lineout aside nothing went right. Second half was a different story. Edinburgh won the 2nd half 19-0 and it could have been more. Much more decisive and direct.

In terms of individuals, the scrum went well and both Nel and Sutherland showed up in the loose. Either would have been a better choice fro MOTM than Grant who for all the effort and running around wasn't particularly effective (in fact I thought the Edinburgh back row were generally poor). I think Toolis has something about him, more so than Atkins who for me looks underpowered.

Hart was rubbish, Heathcote had a nightmare and Strauss was dreadful. Scott had a duff first half but was better in the second half. Tonks made a huge improvement in the second half when coming on at 10 and must surely get a run now. The wingers didn't see the ball but, shock horror, Visser put in a couple of decent hits in defence. McLennan was solid at the back and made one half break, but I don't think he's an improvement on Cuthbert, and I'd like to see Tom Brown moved back to 15 for an extended run.

Agree with most of that fES, apart from McLennan thought he was poor, again. Posted my comments on the banter thread as a general Solomons Coman rant.

It's strange to feel so negative after a 3 try to 1 victory, but not only was this London Welsh - a team who has been pumped in every game this season - but it was a largely 2nd string London Welsh.

Injuries aside it was the best team we could put out.

I obviously didn't see the game but it sounds like the first half was getting as close to bottom of the barrel as we can go just now. The 2nd half sounds more promising, but why did it have to only come after a terrible first half?

Tactically, what is the point in kicking everything and playing negatively when you are playing against a poor team short on confidence, and should have ascendency across the park?

We should be cutting loose and running riot, not playing negatively!

It also sounds like the young Scottish talent stood up well - take note Solomons.

I think Justified posted this in the banter thread, but I fear this result will paper over the cracks.

Nothing will change.  I think Solomans will  take the game as a whole rather than on a half by half basis and won’t change his tactics/personnel to stick with the performance in the 2nd half.  Next week we will most likely start with the same team and tactics that started at the weekend.

It’s a bit like groundhog day, except Solomans is the only one not realising its the same time and again and not working, whereas the rest of us are playing the Bill Murray character and have seen the trend.

I wasn’t able to make the game in the end and as such I can’t really comment on it in any detail, but from the sound of things we were terrible for 40 mins.  I really hope the team learn from the difference in performance from the 1st and 2nd half, but as I’ve said, I don’t think it’ll change.

Incidental, I have recently started playing the new rugby manager game (have a look in the Rugby section if you are interested) and the first thing I did was transfer list the following:

Strauss
Coman
Mclennan
Thompson
Dominguez (still can't fathom why he was offered a 2 year deal)
Bezzy
Atiga
Tait
Berghan
Blaauw

Luckily they all went quickly!

That is a long list of mediocrity that really isn't adding anything to the squad.

I would have liked to actually see Thompson play before judging him as i think he has the right attributes to be a decent winger but that list is spot on RDW, those players don't add much to the squad.

I'd like to see Thompson play too, but given that Visser, Fife and Brown are getting gametime and we have talented Scottish wingers waiting in the wings (literally), it's not that big a deal if he doesn't get his chance.

The Thompson signing was always an odd one with Visser, Fife, Brown, Farndale and Hoyland on the books. An NSQ winger, with no track record to speak of, seemed odd at the time. Also weird that we've had injuries resulting in Hidalgo-Clyne and Sam Beard stuck on the wings whilst Thompson has been fit.

Waste of time in my opinion.