Pro 12: Edinburgh Rugby vs Ospreys 2nd Oct

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Edinburgh Rugby v Ospreys
Friday 2nd October 2015
KO 18:00
BT Murrayfield

Referee: Andrew Brace (IRFU, 3rd competition game)
Assistant Referees: Sam Grove-White, Stephen Ward (both SRU)
Citing Commissioner: John Kirk (SRU)
TMO: Iain Ramage (SRU)

TV: Alba & BBC Wales

Edinburgh form:

Last 3 Matches
Date Home
Away
12/9/15 Treviso 24 - 27 Edinburgh
4/9/15 Edinburgh 16 - 9 Leinster
16/5/15 Edinburgh 23 - 36 Leinster

Ospreys Form:

Last 3 Matches
Date Home
Away
13/9/15 Ospreys 18 - 20 Munster
4/9/15 Ulster 28 - 6 Ospreys
23/5/15 Munster 21 - 18 Ospreys

Teams:

Edinburgh Rugby

15 TONKS Greig
14 BROWN Tom
13 DEAN Chris
12 STRAUSS Andries
11 HOYLAND Damien
10 BURLEIGH Phil
9 KENNEDY Sean

1 SUTHERLAND Rory
2 COCHRANE Neil
3 ANDRESS John
4 BRESLER Anton
5 MCKENZIE Fraser
6 COMAN Mike (C)
7 GRANT Roddy
8 DU PREEZ Cornell

Substitutes
16 TURNER George
17 DELL Allan
18 BERGHAN Simon
19 TOOLIS Alex
20 WATSON Hamish
21 FOWLES Nathan
22 JOHNSTONE James
23 CUTHBERT Jack

Ospreys

15 Dan Evans
14 Hanno Dirksen
13 Jonathan Spratt
12 Ben John
11 Dafydd Howells
10 Sam Davies
9 Brendon Leonard
1 Nicky Smith
2 Sam Parry
3 Dmitri Arhip
4 Lloyd Ashley (Capt)
5 Rory Thornton
6 Joe Bearman
7 Sam Underhill
8 Dan Baker

REPLACEMENTS
16 Scott Otten
17 Ryan Bevington
18 Cai Griffiths
19 Rynier Bernardo
20 Olly Cracknell
21 Ifereimi Boladau
22 Tom Habberfield
23 Aled Jenkins

For goodness sake. Its so predictable watching this team shoot themselves in the foot after all their hard work. Like the Treviso game, they look passive and half asleep.

Hazel Sapling wrote:How in god's name was that not a penalty try and a second yellow?

Pro 12 ref officiating his 3rd game - I don't think we can even expect semi competence!

RDW_Scotland wrote:Is that 10 penalties against Edinburgh in the first half alone?

What? What's going on? Fairly miraculous that we're only 6 points down if that is true.

If were going to continue playing this kicking game in the second half, move Brown or Cuthbert to Fullback. Ive never seen a fullback let the kicks bounce as much as Tonks did in that first half.

George Carlin wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:Is that 10 penalties against Edinburgh in the first half alone?

What? What's going on? Fairly miraculous that we're only 6 points down if that is true.

We've been awful, but luckily they haven't showed much either.

We had 4 scrum penalties on their line and still no penalty try.

RDW_Scotland wrote:

George Carlin wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:Is that 10 penalties against Edinburgh in the first half alone?

What? What's going on? Fairly miraculous that we're only 6 points down if that is true.

We've been awful, but luckily they haven't showed much either.

We had 4 scrum penalties on their line and still no penalty try.

Dont forget the collapsed maul penalties aswell.

Bloody live scores page on Pro12.com wasn't updating!

So both Scottish sides slightly down at half time.

John envited the flyhalf to score and he did, very poor defending, not doing his international chances any good.

Poor game so far.

Back to the kick tennis. What did Solomans tell them at half time if anything?

Du Preez looks like he is carrying a few more pounds, the leaner previous version was more effective imo.

If this game doesn't improve it'll go down as one of the worst in human history

Seriously, how many penalties can Ospreys give away in their 22 before something happens?

The ref has been poor. To be fair all the semi competent ones are probably at the World Cup.

Can Kennedy please play with a bit of pace? He seemed alright with Glasgow. Does Edinburgh only produce mini Laidlaw's now?

Fowles needs to come on and up the pace.

Coman off, Watson on.

So what we'll lack in leadership we will gain in the player being some good at rugby.

What does Andress bring to the team? Im really struggling to see it.

Finally put some phased together and look a lot more promising!

Poor decision from Dell - he had no support

Imperialbigdave wrote:What does Andress bring to the team? Im really struggling to see it.

Strong scrummaging, not...

Good to see Kennedy try to up the pace but can't help but think if he'd waited the ref might have considered another yellow.

They're due one!

Its clear the team has no faith in their kickers, that they are turning down kickable penalties while only one point ahead. Solamans either has to bring Kinghorn into the squad, or he shouldve recruited a known kicker. He knew SHC would be away with the WC.

Surely a yellow now!

Kennedy does a kennedy special, putting it out on the full after the restart

Tonks has had a good game.

Classic Edinburgh - one man up but look like they're one Nan down!

These players really need to be fined for such basic errors - just as I praised Tonks!

How did we not score there???

Ospreys have yet to win this season and are yet to score a try. Some frightening statistics there. It's either early season syndrome (and wouldn't be the first year they've lost their three opening games) or Tandy with his methods have gone stale - I don't rate the guy personally, but Ospreys do have a good forwards coach in Gibbes.

Grant just had to stick his arm out!

Imperialbigdave wrote:What does Andress bring to the team? Im really struggling to see it.

Try scoring ability it would appear...

Well we're going to win this, but that was truly awful.

Tonks and Watson the only players to come out with credit.

RDW_Scotland wrote:Well we're going to win this, but that was truly awful.

Tonks and Watson the only players to come out with credit.

I was really not happy with Tonks's positioning for fielding the deep kicks in the first half, but credit where its due, he had a tidy second half.

Certainly need a big improvement for Ulster in 2 weeks.

Good to deny the O's a LBP too - can see them struggling this year without their internationalists

Got out of this game what I expected and what we deserved NOTHING, should have had at least one penalty try and more yellows at the end of the first half, the only redeeming feature at that point was how the Edinburgh T/H wasn't penalised for his bind at numerous scrums was beyond belief, no inventiveness shown at all, just hope we can get some of the injured and our foreign contingent at the WC back soon.

Cheeeeesy petes that was hard watching. Still theres something to be said for winning despite playing as badly as that.

Positives:
Tonks' 2nd half
Watson. Kid is a beast and shouldve been at the world cup. Scotlands loss is our gain though.
Hoyland and Brown looked sharp with what little ball they got. Honestly if we used them a bit more I think wed see great things.
Deans defensive work impressed me. For a guy with as little experience as he has being a centre, he doesnt half make a good job of defending the hardest position on the pitch.

Negatives:
Gameplan Gameplan Gameplan. Seriously guys, you need to wake up and realise that the game has moved on from the forward dominated snorefests of 6 years ago. You're grinding out wins which is good, but that was a weak ospreys team and they really made you work for it.
Composure. On the rare occasions we counter attacked and opened the game up, too many players looked surprised by what was happening. I never thought id say this, but Scotland wouldve capitalised on some of the turnovers we won much better. (Scotland probably wouldnt have won the turnovers in the first place though)
Still too many NSQ players who arent justifying their places.
Lack of a confident kicker. It hasnt affected us yet, but its only a matter of time before we start losing games because we dont have a kicker who we can be confident will knock them over if SHC isnt on th epitch. Yes we got all our kicks tonight, but we passed up so many opportunities, and while Tonks is serviceable, hes not convincing.

I'm reading this but don't see Strauss mentioned. Surely he wasn't anonymous and ineffective?

Pleased I skipped this now!

funnyExiledScot wrote:I'm reading this but don't see Strauss mentioned. Surely he wasn't anonymous and ineffective?

Pleased I skipped this now!

He butchered a counter from deep in the first half, and slipped off a couple of tackles. Standard Strauss play tbh.

Why was my comment deleted?

What a bizarre forum this is.

Just watched the Edinburgh game as well. They got the points but boy did they make hard work of it, probably left a bonus point behind tonight on the amount of possession and chances they had. Still 3 from 3, not a bad start!

BigGee wrote:Just watched the Edinburgh game as well. They got the points but boy did they make hard work of it, probably left a bonus point behind tonight on the amount of possession and chances they had. Still 3 from 3, not a bad start!

Glutton for punishment - you were warned!

Ulster are going to be a tough proposition in the next match. McCloskey should be at the World Cup in my view, and he's facing Strauss most likely.....

Hopefully Manu and Beard are back for the Ulster game..

Ulster will run riot if we play like we did tonight.

Although ti be fair our defence looked pretty solid, but that may be more to do with the O's showing absolutely no attacking threat whatsoever!

funnyExiledScot wrote:Ulster are going to be a tough proposition in the next match. McCloskey should be at the World Cup in my view, and he's facing Strauss most likely.....

Strauss to give him credit, did not play that badly and even got a couple of offloads in. It was hard to say anyone played badly, the whole thing was just a bit lack lustre. Anyway play badly and win, that what it is all about, they can and will pay a lot better than that when required to. They did what they needed to last night and no more.

Well that game was a load of rubbish! Ref - you could tell his inexperience not giving the penalty try and missed a couple of other things but no great bearing on the game. Points in the bag tho

Agree with comments on Du Preez - he hasn't been at his rampaging best this season so far.

It's also confirmed in my mind that he's a 6 - he needs a big ball carrier at 8 for him to shine.

Roddy Grant has been quiet too - Watson deserves a start against Ulster.

Agreed on Watson. More dynamic than Grant.