Edinburgh and Glasgow – Continuing patter version 22 (it used to be a squad size)

First topic message reminder :

With the woes and injuries in the international camp just depressing us, lets look back to the club game.

Possible areas of discussion:
Edinburgh continue to hold the 1872 trophy
Edinburgh are getting a new ground
Edinburgh have a home Euro Champs cup game to look forward to
Edinburgh have a league fixture against the perpetual point givers, Glasgow, to look forward to
BigGee’s proposed Scotland XV for England has 8 Edinburgh players, 4 exiles and 3 Glasgow players so even the International team is starting to look representative of where rugby in Scotland truly exists.
It’s not all bad for Glasgow though as they sit above Munster in the Pro 14 and have Stafford McDowell on their books
Edinburgh have Hamish Watson though

RDW wrote:I think all of Scottish rugby are currently getting smashed.

I am!

Me too. Am back in London for 2 days so conkers deep in Guinness at the moment.

What today had really highlighted is the contrast in styles between Glasgow who score points but can’t defend for toffee and crumble against teams with big packs and Edinburgh who are tough and difficult to beat but struggle to score points.

I’m not sure how it would work but we need to do a coach swap with Rennie and Cockers on some form of consultancy basis

I know a lot of it has to do with the personnel on the field, but jeez man we’re teo polar opposites right now

From a Scotland PoV that should be a match made in heaven - combine the power and defence of Edinburgh with the exciting Glasgow attack. Just a shame it's not that easy!

In other news Duncan Weir is having something of a stormer for Worcester against Quins. I'd struggle to believe in his supposed renaissance but on current evidence there's something in it. I suppose it shows that there's something to be said for giving players a prolonged run in a team, I suppose he's never really had that at pro level competing with Jackson then Russell at Glasgow and then not really being rated at Edinburgh.

Anyone else feeling slightly under the weather today?

Aye not a great day of rugby. Edinburgh lose a game they really should have won, and Glasgow get absolutely gubbed! 

On the plus side means we can both focus on the league...

So Glasgow have
Ulster (h)
Leinster (a)
Edinburgh (h)

And Edinburgh
Scarlets (a)
Ulster (h)
Glasgow (a)

By the sounds of it Ulster played really well yesterday and Glasgow really didn’t. Under normal circumstances I would expect to win both those home games as well as picking up something away at an uninterested Leinster but I’m not convinced we will win any of them at the moment. If we do drop all these games I wonder if those in charge should reconsider Dave Rennie’s position. Having our season fall apart at the end for the second year on the bounce isn’t good enough.

Conversely Edinburgh should beat Scarlets who have completely imploded this season and the Ulster game will be enormous for both sides.

We really could do with you beating Ulster!

I thought we needed something to cheer us up, so here is Mark Palmer's interview with Rory Hutchinson in the Sunday Times.

Nice to see him crediting the Scottish Exiles program for the help it gave him in his career and his desire to play for Scotland despite the benefits of remaining EQ for future contracts. None of us should be under any illusions as to how difficult these kind of decisions are for these young kids.



It was always going to be a make-or-break year for Rory Hutchinson, so when he partially tore the posterior cruciate ligament in his knee five minutes into a pre-season friendly against Glasgow in August, the signs weren’t all that great.

Fast approaching his 23rd birthday and out of contract in the summer, the Northampton centre had only eight career league appearances to his name and wouldn’t be able to add to them in the following four months. Just when he needed a tailwind, it looked like he had been blown up a dead end. Roll the tape forward to this weekend and not only does Hutchinson have a new contract but a Gallagher Premiership Player of the Month award plus a list of admirers that includes the Scotland coaches.


In the wake of his latest eye-catching display in the derby win over Leicester that saw him play distinct but decisive roles in each of Tom Collins’ tries, Hutchinson received a message of congratulations from Gregor Townsend, who won’t mind the thought of having another in-form midfielder to add to the mix for the pre-World Cup summer camp. The immediate and longer-term future is suddenly alive with possibility, but having had a good look at the other side, Hutchinson has a keen sense of perspective.

“I’d say it’s my most consistent bit of rugby in the last three years and I’m just trying to enjoy it without getting ahead of myself,” he admits. “As I’ve seen, things can change very quickly and it’s now about keeping it up. Chris Boyd [the director of rugby who arrived at Franklin’s Gardens last August] told me he was going to give me my opportunity this year, and although I had to wait because of the injury, luckily I took it. I knew I had to really grab my opportunities, really focus. I worked hard off the field when I was injured; I was determined to come back and make an impact.”

He has done precisely that, his classy distribution and individual threat helping Northampton win the Premiership Cup and set up today’s Challenge Cup quarter-final away to Clermont. In five league matches, meanwhile, Hutchinson has made 10 clean breaks and beaten 19 defenders, while offloading seven times.




Although there has been more evidence of his abilities as an attacker than as a defender, he had far the better of his head-to-head with Manu Tuilagi at Welford Road and he’s also been kicking goals, a throwback to his days as a stand-off for Scotland under-18 and under-20. Time was he was playing much more rugby for country than club, and it is this period for which Scotland may have cause to be grateful if Hutchinson is ever faced with a genuine choice about where his loyalties lie.

“They’ve been a massive help to me, Scotland. I don’t know where I’d be without Scottish Exiles, under-18s and 20s. I played a big chunk of my rugby in the Six Nations at a time when I wasn’t getting too much game-time here in the academy, and I’ve loved playing for Scotland. They’ve been great for me.”

Born in Cambridge and schooled in Essex, Hutchinson qualifies through his maternal grandmother, Isobel Fraser, who comes from Glasgow. Growing up, there were frequent visits north of the border, and when the chance arose through his club side, Shelford, to get involved with Rob Brierley’s Exiles programme, no second invitation was required.

Hutchinson was swiftly promoted from the 18s to the 20s for the 2014 Junior World Championship, the first of three he took part in between two Six Nations campaigns. Teammates in those years included Darcy Graham, Jamie Ritchie, Blair Kinghorn, Adam Hastings, Magnus Bradbury, George Horne and Zander Fagerson.

“When you see them going on summer tours and getting international caps, it spurs you on. I’m really happy for all of them, they’ve done so well, and now I just want to be part of it with them. It would be nice to one day be able to play with them again.”

Townsend ran low on centres during the Six Nations, but with Matt Scott, Mark Bennett, Huw Jones and Duncan Taylor now back or returning, Sam Johnson having emerged to such acclaim, Nick Grigg, Peter Horne and Chris Harris clearly trusted by the coaches, the Glasgow pair of Stafford McDowall and Kyle Steyn making waves and Alex Dunbar able to make himself a contender, Hutchinson is realistic about the task ahead.

“With that message last week, it was nice to know he [Townsend] has been watching and I’m on the radar, but most importantly I’ve got to get my head down with Northampton. I’ve only played 11 games this season, so there’s a lot more to be done.”

Hutchinson has done a shift at inside centre for Northampton but, particularly in a Sam Vesty-inspired system that favours “expansive, heads-up rugby”, his pace, step and outside break all look suited to the number 13 shirt. Aside from those obvious qualities, Townsend will have been impressed by the fact he doesn’t seem overly concerned about the implications of losing his English Qualified Player (EQP) status. As it will surely have come up in those successful recent contract talks, we can only assume Northampton are on the same page, despite the financial incentive to focus on red rose-eligible talent.

“There’s a lot of chat about EQPs, but at the moment I’m not too worried about it. I’ll deal with it when it comes to it,” says Hutchinson. “I’m sure that has made a lot of people change their decisions, so I’m not going to think too much about it.”

“At this moment in time, my ambitions are to play for Scotland,” Hutchinson stated simply, speaking to Sunday Times columnist Jim Hamilton on his Rugby Pod podcast last week.

“My mum was raised in England, but my grandmother is very Scottish,” he tells me. “She moved down when my mum was born, and now she lives in Cambridge with us. We used to go up to Scotland to see her and her sister, but now she needs some looking after so she’s down with us. My family have always been very supportive of whatever I’ve done and whatever I do. There’s never been people pulling me in different directions; they’re just happy to see me play rugby.”

Especially when he’s playing like this.

ON TV TODAY
Clermont v Northampton
BT Sport 3, 6pm

Eejit wrote:So Glasgow have
Ulster (h)
Leinster (a)
Edinburgh (h)

And Edinburgh
Scarlets (a)
Ulster (h)
Glasgow (a)

By the sounds of it Ulster played really well yesterday and Glasgow really didn’t. Under normal circumstances I would expect to win both those home games as well as picking up something away at an uninterested Leinster but I’m not convinced we will win any of them at the moment. If we do drop all these games I wonder if those in charge should reconsider Dave Rennie’s position. Having our season fall apart at the end for the second year on the bounce isn’t good enough.

Conversely Edinburgh should beat Scarlets who have completely imploded this season and the Ulster game will be enormous for both sides.

Sounds like Ulster completely emptied the tank in that game and were unlucky not to win it.

It will be interesting to see how both teams bounce back from their games this weekend. Both Glasgow and Ulster are going to be very disappointed in the games, but for different reasons.

Ritchie Gray played the full 80 mins for Toulouse in their away win over Racing and you would have to say he played very well. He will definitely be back in the mix for the WC squad, his form is really coming along

Northampton are getting a bit of a doing vs Clermont Auvergne. Future Lion Rory Hutchinson is playing as well as former Glasgow Warrior speedbump and professional wage-drain Big T.

Taquele Naiyaraspeedbump just got done on the outside big time for that Clermont try.

Hutchinson sets up a cracking Saints try with a beautiful step and a big one handed offload.

Glacial Greg on for Clermont now.

This is some game. Hutchinson sets up another then scores himself two minutes later. Somehow the Saints are just about back in this.

Looks like he's kicking as well!

Glacial Greg does love a point and a boxkick.

Of course it helps when his wingers are bloody enormous specimens.

Might be developing a bit of a mancrush on Damian Penaud. Three really well taken tries.

Okay well just the 13 tries in that game then.

Just watched the rest of this game (interrupted for a mothers day dinner!)

Hutch played well again. He looks very comfortable on the ball.

Some crazy game though!

It should be noted that as fans of the mighty Glasgow Warriors our tolerance towards nonsensical batshit games of rugby should be pretty high but that was just ridiculous.

Sadly these results and the Scotland 6 nations seem to be our norm, and last year was the exception. So how do we move forward, as I think we have stagnated for the last few years, and our golden time is quickly disappearing

I know we have improved and have more exciting players than many a year / generation, but unfortunately so have others and the Scottish 'Lose at any costs', mentality is wearing a little thin

Do they need head shrinker to come it, as it is becoming a worrying habit

I actually think we're finally in a place where the coaches can have a choice at selection and some of these players need to jsut be dropped ti learn thier lesson that in pro rugby they need to be 100% focused all the time.

Shoemann, yer dropped, Dell is starting and Sutherland will bench (it's not like the drop from Shoemann to Dell is a massive lack in quality)

Pyrgos, yer dropped, Sheil is starting with Midly Racist Uncle Dougie on the bench.

until players learn that there are personal consiquences to thier acts of ninckumpoopetry, they'l lnever refocus the grey matter!!!

I see Brown, Miller and Kennedy all off to play sevens in Hong Kong

That might be where their futures lie!

The thing is with Schoeman is that he had put in a colossal performance leading up to that event. If he hadn't done it, and we'd kept the penalty and gone onto win, he would have been lauded for a huge shift.

Does his one moment of madness negate all of that? I bet Cockers has gone through him privately - that incident completely turned the game. Thing is, he has to be accountable for his actions so a dropping would be reasonable but given that we have to win the next 3 games it's a big decision to make. We have an international standard loosehead able to step up, and could put Schoeman on the bench. He'd be a great impact player!

Personally I'd like to see Cockers make a small number of changes this weekend anyway - the players will be pretty emotionally drained after that result. I would bring in Dell, Ritchie for Watson (who looked in a bad way when he came off) and Bennett for JJ. Matt Scott for impact off the bench too. That team would be no weaker than the one against Munster, and will have players desperate to make an impact.

Maybe it's a points system and you get a warning for your first game costing cockup?

Schoeman was probably in line for man of the match until his moment of stupidity. Its the intent that annoys the hell out of me. I've played games where I've butcherd a 2 on 1 by passing the ball forward or knocking on, but these are accidental. I've never cost us a game by sticking a shoulder into someone or taking out an opposition lifter or the like.

Accidents happen, but the decision to be a twonk was a purposeful act by both Schoeman and Mr Piecrust.

If I sat at my work and decided, stuff it, I'm going to delete this database and see if I can get away with it, when I don't get away with it, I'd be out of a job!

As for changes I can see Ritchie having to come in for Watson (it looked like he reinjured his hand but thats just my thoughts) I can also see Bradbury getting a start over Barclay or Mata who both would be knackered after thier exploits. Imagine bringing Mata off the bench to run at tired defenders! ouch!!!

For all this talk or rotation, we know there's a 99.9% probability Cockers will pick the same team and will keep Schoeman on for 76 minutes again.

I like Cockers and he's really bringing the team on, but he really does have a blind spot when it comes to subsitutions.

The perceived/alleged drop in quality between Schoeman and Dell must be pretty narrow. Surely when Schoey is blowing on the 50/55 minute mark, a Dell with a full tank of gas must be a better option?

Now wanting to keep captain Rambo on I can understand, but your two props (flow of the game allowing) should be replaced before the hour is up to get some fresh legs into the game.

They aren't injury replacements anymore. They are finishers as Mr Jones calls them!

http://www.edinburghrugby.org/news/19/04/01/news-hunter-hill-latest-commit-capital

Lock Callum Hunter-Hill has become the latest player to commit his future to Edinburgh after signing a new two-year contract extension which will see him remain in the capital until at least 2021.

Hunter-Hill, 22, has enjoyed a breakout campaign in the capital side’s second-row – making 13 appearances so far this season – and today becomes the 14th player out of the current squad to put pen-to-paper on a new deal.

On re-signing, Hunter-Hill, said: “I’m really happy to re-sign with the club that I’ve supported since I was a kid. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time here and I’ve seen massive improvements over the last two years.

“With the upward curve that we’re on, it’s incredibly exciting to think where the club will be in another two years and I feel privileged and excited to be a part of that journey for the foreseeable future.”

Head Coach Richard Cockerill, said: “Callum has shown great promise this season, while his leadership in the second-row was vital during the both the Autumn Test and Six Nations periods.

“He continues to develop in his position and we’re looking forward to watching him mature further over the next two seasons.”

Former Scotland U20 captain, Hunter-Hill, joined Edinburgh in the summer of 2017 after graduating from the Fosroc Scottish Rugby Academy.

The lock made his Edinburgh debut from the bench in the 48-21 victory over Southern Kings in December 2017 before joining English Premiership outfit Newcastle Falcons on a short-term deal in January 2018 - with the former Stewart’s Melville pupil appearing against Bath in the Anglo-Welsh Cup.

With Scotland locks Ben Toolis and Grant Gilchrist on international duty, and first team regulars Fraser McKenzie and Lewis Carmichael both injured, Hunter-Hill was called upon in the early stages of the season, making a string of impressive appearances at the heart of the capital side’s pack.

The former Stirling County captain made the first of his 14 Scotland U20 appearances against England in the 2016 Six Nations and was a key man at the 2017 World Rugby U20 Championship as the age-grade side secured their highest-ever finish of fifth place.

What a singularly depressing weekend for Scottish Rugby. Our two pro teams manage to lose in two different, yet somehow complimentary, ways - making the suffering complete.

I watched a replay of the Edinburgh game - still not really sure how they managed to lose that one. I know they have a wonderful pack, but a bit of pace on the ball and simple hands would have resulted in walk-in's for the wide men on any number of occasions. As others have said, Pyrgos had a shocker - on a wider point though, this has been happening all season - Cockers must not trust either the backs coach or the players, or both?

I haven't been able to bring myself to watch the Glasgow game and don't think i'll be bothering. I really thought that team would be able to compete, but it looks as if it just highlighted the very worst aspects of our team - we're just far too soft. We need at least one horrible lock and one horrible BR in the off season.

Cockers is playing to Edinburgh's strength which is the pack but yes, there needs to be variety but Rome wasn’t built in a day as they say.

I think if this new S/H comes over and has the ability to pass the ball out of a ruck at pace, we may finally start to see a more rounded game from Edinburgh.

Pyrgos was truly awful at the weekend though. He really needs to have long hard look at where his career is heading if he wants to remain a pro player. Harsh, but true.

Glasgow were shown up at the weekend on just how powderpuff your pack is. As a unit they are bloomin soft. it’s a pacey mobile pack but you just get blown away by the big boys. You need a whole new backrow (possibly you can keep Gibbons if he finds last year’s form again). You need a gnarly 2nd rower to partner Gray but he needs to find his mojo soon too. Most weegies drool about Keeble but I've not seen anything from him on a constant basis to show he's worth of such reverence. If he was SQ now I'd have him well behind Schoeman and Dell.

But yeah, both clubs got a lesson in how to win matches at the weekend. Hopefully the players and particularly the coaches learn from that lesson!

tigertattie wrote:Cockers is playing to Edinburgh's strength which is the pack but yes, there needs to be variety but Rome wasn’t built in a day as they say.

I think if this new S/H comes over and has the ability to pass the ball out of a ruck at pace, we may finally start to see a more rounded game from Edinburgh.

Pyrgos was truly awful at the weekend though. He really needs to have long hard look at where his career is heading if he wants to remain a pro player. Harsh, but true.  

Glasgow were shown up at the weekend on just how powderpuff your pack is. As a unit they are bloomin soft. it’s a pacey mobile pack but you just get blown away by the big boys. You need a whole new backrow (possibly you can keep Gibbons if he finds last year’s form again). You need a gnarly 2nd rower to partner Gray but he needs to find his mojo soon too. Most weegies drool about Keeble but I've not seen anything from him on a constant basis to show he's worth of such reverence. If he was SQ now I'd have him well behind Schoeman and Dell.

But yeah, both clubs got a lesson in how to win matches at the weekend. Hopefully the players and particularly the coaches learn from that lesson!

Let's face it, both teams are well below the standard required of the top 8 best sides in Europe. That being said, despite being 'powderpuff' I think we would have beaten Munster if we had them on Saturday because we can actually score tries, whereas Saracens playing like they did would have mashed Edinburgh into tiny pieces.

The thing is, Pyrgos has shown throughout his career that he is well able to play at a decent pace. For whatever reason, Edinburgh have mainly refused to use their backs and resorted to forward pick and goes - against weaker teams this tends to work, but was shown up for it's limitations on the weekend.

You're right though, Cockers has got a very solid base from which to build from - huge pressure now to make the big boys cup this season, or else all that improvement won't count for very much.

I'm not sure if we need a whole new BR, but there is no doubt we need some hard edged and abrasive individuals - somebody like Braam Steyn would be ideal. It's been such an obvious deficiency for a while now, no idea why the management haven't sorted it out, and in some cases have actively made the situation worse (letting Big Brian go).

Edinburgh off load at least one back rower for next season.

Nayalo is off to Coventry. Probably a good move for him at this stage in his career, he did not seem likely to get any game time at Edinburgh.

On CHH, we've been waiting to see him play and have managed to see a lot of him this season. For me the jury is still out - he's got all the physical attributes but needs to keep developing his game - he's a bit of a big lump just now. He's also been in the boiler room in most of games where we've lost to teams we really shouldn't have.

He looks keen and enthusiastic on the pitch and works hard so hopefully he keeps improving. He'll get plenty gametime next season too during the international breaks.

RDW wrote:On CHH, we've been waiting to see him play and have managed to see a lot of him this season. For me the jury is still out - he's got all the physical attributes but needs to keep developing his game - he's a bit of a big lump just now. He's also been in the boiler room in most of games where we've lost to teams we really shouldn't have.

He looks keen and enthusiastic on the pitch and works hard so hopefully he keeps improving. He'll get plenty gametime next season too during the international breaks.

The good thing with Cockers is he simply won't accept mediocrity in the forwards and if someone is being lazy or not nearly killing themselves, he'll not stand for it for too long.

We're fairly well stocked with Locks at the moment with GG and Toolis being the 1st choice and Mackenzie is an adequate club man. CHH will likely get plenty time playing when the World cup is on. Hopefully Lewis Carmichael can get back into the swing of things too next season.

I watched the Edinburgh - Munster game last night, boy that was one that got away for them, they did more than enough to win. They have got to improve their all court game though, the first time they tried to move it wide from an on the line ruck, they scored, there were plenty of other chances when they had sucked them in and yet could not/would not move it out wide where they were queuing up to score.

Was it just me, or did Charlie Sheil seem way off the pace when he came on eventually. That was the point in the game when Edinburgh were finally trying to open it up and were avtually doing it quite well but he just could not get to the rucks in time to get it away. One of the commentators mentioned it as well.

Hard to know what that was about, surely he is fit enough. Was he injured or maybe just could not get up to the speed of the game that quickly. It did seem to make a difference.

If it was about getting up to the speed, again Cockers has to look at himself for not giving him the chances he needed earlier in the season and in easier games. Why persevere with Fowles all season then jettison him at this stage?

BigGee wrote:I watched the Edinburgh - Munster game last night, boy that was one that got away for them, they did more than enough to win. They have got to improve their all court game though, the first time they tried to move it wide from an on the line ruck, they scored, there were plenty of other chances when they had sucked them in and yet could not/would not move it out wide where they were queuing up to score.

Was it just me, or did Charlie Sheil seem way off the pace when he came on eventually. That was the point in the game when Edinburgh were finally trying to open it up and were avtually doing it quite well but he just could not get to the rucks in time to get it away. One of the commentators mentioned it as well.

Hard to know what that was about, surely he is fit enough. Was he injured or maybe just could not get up to the speed of the game that quickly. It did seem to make a difference.

If it was about getting up to the speed, again Cockers has to look at himself for not giving him the chances he needed earlier in the season and in easier games. Why persevere with Fowles all season then jettison him at this stage?

The way Shiel has been managed is one of the few black marks on Cockers record - apparently he would often travel as 24th man, so he wasn't even getting much gametime for Currie. It's been obvious that Fowles and Kennedy are not up to the job, so I have no idea why he hasn't trusted him to be back up for Henry. There is no doubt he did look off the pace when he came on - an odd one really.

Somoene said that Sheil was darting about like a mad man and was sniping around looking for gaps!!! It's deffo on one of the threads but I can't remember which one.

There was one point though where Sheil was just missing at the ruck. The forwards cleared out and the ball was bascially out, luckily one of the forwards noticed and moved back over the ball to shield it. Then Sheil comes wandering down to the ruck. At the time I was wondering where the hell he was but he may have been under the previous ruck. I've not watched it back to look again.

Shiel has looked very nonchalant whenever he's played - he never looks in a hurry. That's usually how we describe top players - i.e. they always look like they've got plenty time - but in this case I think he is just slow to rucks.

He was caught out against Leinster last week but luckily it didn't make a difference to the end result. I would agree he was also a bit slow against Munster.

Could it be coaching, given Pyrgos is slow too??

To change the topic slightly.. For that dump tackle made by Murray on Pyrgos I was under the impression at the time that the ref hadn’t seen it. The offside line has an article with Cockerill discussing diving and they feature a gif of the tackle which clearly shows the ref was in fact looking at it. That is really poor in my opinion. The minute Murray made that illegal tackle on Pyrgos that should have voided any quick play by Earls. A decent ref would have blow the whistle and warned Murray about his actions before either reversing the penalty or allowing Munster to retain the penalty. Going by the Schoeman foul I think a penalty reversal would have been consistent. However, the fact the ref allowed play to continue means he should have then ignored the Schoeman incident as well really. Always so frustrating when stupid things like this occur in such big games.

tigertattie wrote:Somoene said that Sheil was darting about like a mad man and was sniping around looking for gaps!!! It's deffo on one of the threads but I can't remember which one.

I think that was me! I think the fact that he didn't make it to a couple of rucks at all is a symptom of the fact that by the time he'd got on we were going hell for leather chasing the game and were actually running everything from everywhere. Trying to get to every ruck as a SH under those circumstances is almost impossible, especially if you've been sniping yourself in previous phases which he definitely was. Though I freely admit I may have missed some of the finer points of what Shiel was actually doing through the salty tears of frustration that we were clearly going to lose that match!

I see that Robbie Smith, the hooker from the Glasgow academy, has signed for Bedford Blues in the English Championship. Probably not a bad move for him if it will get him some decent game time at that level. Nothing to stop him moving back up the road if he proves himself.

Grayson Hart has also signed for them, moving on from London Scottish.

Who is George Thornton?

A bit more signing news for Glasgow

LH Prop George Thornton signs up from Wasps. He was a very handy player in our good U20s team from a couple of years ago, been in the Wasps academy ever since and has been playing in the championship.

Not exactly a hardened front row warrior yet, but certainly someone with very good potential, who might be nearly ready to step up.

Eejit wrote:Who is George Thornton?

just answered that for you Eejit!

Makes sense given We’ve lost Bhatti. Another young prop to develop but the first team does need strengthened before next season. As has been discussed elsewhere, a unit in the second row, a horrible barsteward in the back row and Steff Evans will do nicely.

RDW - Pyrgos is reasonably quick to get to the ruck, it’s just that once he gets there, he puts his foot on the ball and starts looking around/pointing/shouting

At 6ft 4 I was never going to make it as a scrum half but I had a very good left hand pass on me (even though I'm right handed - fyi my right hand pass was bloomin awful), anyway, I don't know if it it was my method of exerting minimal effort during games or not, but the thought of running up to a ruck, then standing there looking around deciding what to do when I got there just doesn’t compute. I’d run to a ruck and look at what was going on around me then I’d decide what I was going to do before I got there. Fair enough 80% of the time this was merely to blast over the ruck or pick the ball up and run either left or right, but sometimes I’d decide to pass the ball to someone (as long as they were standing over to the right of me

http://glasgowwarriors.org/news/19/04/03/george-thornton-signs-glasgow-warriors

Interestingly Wasps signed another Scottish U20s LH, Jack Owlett into their senior squad for next season, I hope we have gotten the right one!

Ceccarreli signs on for another year with Edinburgh. He's actually been a solid enough prop for us and even overtook Murray McCallum in the pecking order. He'll do a decent job for us during international breaks.