The Glasgow and Edinburgh General Chat. Discussions are limited to 6 people before 10pm to prevent the spread of Jimboish.

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Another chat thread dedicated to speculation, rumination, and general perambulation through the trials and tribulations of the club from the west with no forwards and the club from the east without a backs coach.

One day we'll have more rugby to talk about!

Some great stuff from Connacht last night, very impressed with how they approached the game.

Edinburgh are in a bit of a hole just now and I can't really see things improving in the short term. This season was always going to be hugely difficult with the international cross-over, and it certainly hasn't been helped by their form falling away even before the internationals left.

Connacht are definitely not the team you want to face during an international window as they always have much fewer players away, so there's less of a drop off in quality. I think we had 17 players missing.

Saying that, there was more than enough experience and quality in the Edinburgh team to put in a decent performance. And performance has been the issue - it's not just that we've been losing, we've been playing pretty rotten at the same time!

RDW wrote:Might be a big dramatic to say but that's probably our league campaign over already! These are the games that make the difference between a playoff spot and settling for challenge cup.

The wheels have fallen off spectacularly for Edinburgh. We had one good half against Glasgow back in 2009 and have been utter guff since.

Fixed that for you

jimbopip wrote:

RDW wrote:Might be a big dramatic to say but that's probably our league campaign over already! These are the games that make the difference between a playoff spot and settling for challenge cup.

The wheels have fallen off spectacularly for Edinburgh. We had one good half against Glasgow back in 2009 and have been utter guff since.

Fixed that for you

What does that say about Glasgow then given we've taken home 5 of the last 6 1872 cups?

RDW wrote:

jimbopip wrote:

RDW wrote:Might be a big dramatic to say but that's probably our league campaign over already! These are the games that make the difference between a playoff spot and settling for challenge cup.

The wheels have fallen off spectacularly for Edinburgh. We had one good half against Glasgow back in 2009 and have been utter guff since.

Fixed that for you

What does that say about Glasgow then given we've taken home 5 of the last 6 1872 cups?

Gotcha! Like a salmon leaping for the iridescent rainbow of the fisherman's lure you bite every time. No wonder they call you Flounder.

It does feel like our clubs have lost the killer instinct at present. Glasgow could have taken that game away from Ospreys and let them hang in. Edinburgh would get opportunities to claw back and Connacht would snatch it away. I only managed to watch the first half of the Glasgow game and have Edinburgh on in the background so only two positives I saw.

1) Johnson looked good and has an argument to return to the international fold. He seemed to be able to find little bits of space when put on the back foot and get back to the game line. He felt like an assured presence and next to Russell that is enough.

2) Blain was good in the bits I saw. Even made a hit on a player going full speed unlike some young 15s (early Hogg, Kinghorn at the moment). He looks ready for more time and will likely get plenty during an international heavy year

Champions Cup Draw out

Edinburgh - Sale and La Rochelle

Glasgow - Exeter and Lyon

Seems a bit familiar with the teams!

I've read the draw format several times and still have no idea what the hell is going on.

I.e. Edinburgh play Sale and La Rochelle, whereas Sale play Edinburgh and Toulon!

RDW wrote:I've read the draw format several times and still have no idea what the hell is going on.

I.e. Edinburgh play Sale and La Rochelle, whereas Sale play Edinburgh and Toulon!

Similarly, if I'm reading it correctly, Glasgow play Execeterr and Lyon while Lyon play Glasgow and Gloucester. Then the top eight teams, on points, go into the knockout stages.

So The Rugby Club versus The Metrosexual Festival Luvvies in the final of the Diddy Cup?

I had a moment this morning when they said Exeter drew Toulouse and Glasgow.

Apparently it is top four from each pool of 12 depending after home and away games against two of the opponents

I don't know why they did not just do four pools of three, winner goes through to the quarter final.

On current form, i am not sure it matters massively who we play!

BigGee wrote:On current form, i am not sure it matters massively who we play!

That can be read two ways;

or

However, Gee, I think on current form we both know what you mean.

p.s. hope you and Mrs Gee are keeping well and you're not rushing back to the front line. You are semi retired you know.

The Tombola may have given us a real boost for the Ladyboy's match; Horne, Horne, SJ, Grigg, Seymour, Tagive, Jones should all be available in the backs and Rob Harley could be playing 4/6 or anywhere he wants in the pack.
Also no Fiji game this weekend so maybe Naknaks too?

Another thriller is going down at Parc y Scarlets tonight!

Huge win for Edinburgh in atrocious conditions.

Talk of Nel's demise appears to be premature - he massacred the Scarlets scrum!

Just watched the Edinburgh game when I got home from work

Far from a classic but boy did Edinburgh need the win. Came at a price though, another pile of injuries.

Still they are off their duck and hopefully will get a few players back from Scotland next weekend to shore them up.

Any win at the moment is a good win.

Blue up home coming up next with a few Scotland reinforcements back so a good chance to build up a head of steam.....before then losing to Leinster the week after!

Injuries are a big concern, particularly another 2nd row man down.

Better to start the season poorly and gather a head of steam than do a Glasgow and win 20 in a row and then bail out of the finals. However, on current form the playoffs look pretty distant.

Just discovered that Rugby Pass have stopped showing the Pro 14 as of the end of October which is a pain.

VPN seems to be my only (legal) option now!

Mark Palmer tweeting that Jaco VDW has flown back to Johannesburg to get married and will return on Sunday, but will have to serve 2 weeks quarantine. This means he'll miss the Blues game next week and will only be released on the day of the France game (by which time he'll be SQ).

As such he'll only be available for Scotland for the Fiji game, but having been stuck in doors for 2 weeks I can't imagine 1 week with the Scotland squad would be enough.

I wonder what Cockers thinks about all this! I'm amazed he's been allowed to do it. It's not like it's a birth of a child or something like that - get married in Scotland FFS.

RDW wrote:Mark Palmer tweeting that Jaco VDW has flown back to Johannesburg to get married and will return on Sunday, but will have to serve 2 weeks quarantine. This means he'll miss the Blues game next week and will only be released on the day of the France game (by which time he'll be SQ).

As such he'll only be available for Scotland for the Fiji game, but having been stuck in doors for 2 weeks I can't imagine 1 week with the Scotland squad would be enough.

I wonder what Cockers thinks about all this! I'm amazed he's been allowed to do it. It's not like it's a birth of a child or something like that - get married in Scotland FFS.

Getting married in the middle of a season.

profitius wrote:

RDW wrote:Mark Palmer tweeting that Jaco VDW has flown back to Johannesburg to get married and will return on Sunday, but will have to serve 2 weeks quarantine. This means he'll miss the Blues game next week and will only be released on the day of the France game (by which time he'll be SQ).

As such he'll only be available for Scotland for the Fiji game, but having been stuck in doors for 2 weeks I can't imagine 1 week with the Scotland squad would be enough.

I wonder what Cockers thinks about all this! I'm amazed he's been allowed to do it. It's not like it's a birth of a child or something like that - get married in Scotland FFS.

Getting married in the middle of a season.

Scant regard for the rest of the boys looking to go on the stag do. Oh wait......

Apparently geoerge Taylor broke his jaw, nose and cheekbone in that awful tackle for which the Scarlets second row walked on sunday night.

Pretty brutal, probably won't be seeing him again for a while.

Ooft that's grim. And to think some people on social media were saying there was nothing wrong with the challenge!

That's going to be a horrendous injury to recover from - he'll probably be drinking from a straw for weeks.

It didn't look very good on the Pro14 show highlights. Looked like a deliberate head butt into his face. Not good.
Nasty cheap shot.

Not sure about deliberate head butt, it was certainly very careless and dangerous though. You would hope and imagine he will get a good few weeks off for it.

Players have a duty of care to each other. His only defence was that he got his body position totally wrong: the resultant injuries will render this defence null and void. The panel will surely say, "Your actions, your lack of care, resulted in these injuries your ban is ...." and it had better be at least the rest of this season.

I think 5 weeks ban is pretty poor?
10 weeks would have been more fitting. It really doesn't send out a strong enough message.
He gets 5 weeks, and George Taylor likely to be out for 3 months I suspect. There's no justice there.

Anglobraveheart wrote:I think 5 weeks ban is pretty poor?
10 weeks would have been more fitting. It really doesn't send out a strong enough message.
He gets 5 weeks, and George Taylor likely to be out for 3 months I suspect. There's no justice there.

It is never judged on the outcome though and probably should not be. A lot of dangerous tackles don't cause any harm yet are still as bad and deserve the same sanction.

It is what it is, he has got 5 weeks and a mark on his record, he won't get 5 weeks if he does it again.

I get that Big Gee, but each should be taken on their own merits, sometimes there's reckless that is a bit unfortunate, and then other times there's just downright reckless that borders on common assault. This one I feel falls into the latter description, and I don't think that 5 weeks is anywhere near enough.
Hopefully he won't be a repeat offender for the sake of anyone who may be on the receiving end.

I just hope Taylor can make a good recovery - they're pretty horrific injuries. Not one to rush back from as well, mentally as much as anything.

The concussion itself could be the thing that keeps him out long term to be fair. He was completely out of it apparently.

https://www.theoffsideline.com/ulster-glasgow-jonny-bell/?v=79cba1185463

Looks like we will be seeing a very different looking Glasgow line up this time around.

Jones, Grigg, Horne G, Johnson and Turner all retained by Scotland (which might give some clues as to toonies likely team choice.

Ritchie Gray is concussed, so unlikely to be playing as well and Ryan Wilson, who played well last week v Leinster, looks like he is injured.

Paddy Kelly and Ollie Smith get name checked, so likely to be seeing some game time.

It is definitely going to be a young and inexperienced team out on monday.

https://www.theoffsideline.com/finn-russell-and-adam-hastings-injuries-open-door-for-duncan-weir/?v=79cba1185463

So Sam HC, kinghorn and Lang main squad cover for FH then and like I said earlier, P Horne is left for Glasgow because they need at least one fly half (god it's nice to be right for a change! )

NeilyBroon wrote:https://www.theoffsideline.com/finn-russell-and-adam-hastings-injuries-open-door-for-duncan-weir/?v=79cba1185463

So Sam HC, kinghorn and Lang main squad cover for FH then and like I said earlier, P Horne is left for Glasgow because they need at least one fly half (god it's nice to be right for a change! )

Oops wrong thread! Well so much for being right

I could save your blushes and move the post...

But I'm a bottle of wine down an it's much more entertaining not to!

NeilyBroon wrote:

NeilyBroon wrote:https://www.theoffsideline.com/finn-russell-and-adam-hastings-injuries-open-door-for-duncan-weir/?v=79cba1185463

So Sam HC, kinghorn and Lang main squad cover for FH then and like I said earlier, P Horne is left for Glasgow because they need at least one fly half he's simply not an international standard flayhalf/12/rugby player (god it's nice to be right for a change! )

Oops wrong thread! Well so much for being right

I know its on the wrong thread, but I've fixed that post for you anyway!

tigertattie wrote:

NeilyBroon wrote:

NeilyBroon wrote:https://www.theoffsideline.com/finn-russell-and-adam-hastings-injuries-open-door-for-duncan-weir/?v=79cba1185463

So Sam HC, kinghorn and Lang main squad cover for FH then and like I said earlier, P Horne is left for Glasgow because they need at least one fly half he's simply not an international standard flayhalf/12/rugby player Glasgow enjoy having one back who has more creativity and invention in his left foot that Cockers will tolerate in all the sides he picks in his tenure at the Luvvies.(god it's nice to be right for a change! )

Oops wrong thread! Well so much for being right

I know its on the wrong thread, but I've fixed that post for you anyway!

tigertatie Careful now.

Anyhoo, in the real world Princess Daughter delivered our second grandchild this afternoon. Mother and daughter both doing well, and looking beautiful. She, the baby, has slightly less hair than Meatball, but it's tidier.

Congratulations Grandpa Jimbo!

Well done Jimbo to you and the family.

Nice to have soon happy news in these difficult times.

Morning lads! We have teeny grandson staying with us while mum and dad are at the hospital. We were informed that Xander not Zander sleep till sixty-six thirty. Well at 5:40 mrspip and I were lying awake like kids on Chrimbo morning desperately waiting for a sound so we could get up. At 6:45 he made the slightest squeak and before I could move MrsPip was out of the bed and sprinting across the landing. She moved like ADHD KID was my initial thought. Upon consideration more like Gethin Jenkins; fast really fast but not streamlined.

Surely you're up at 05:40 most mornings for a pish at your age?

RDW wrote:Surely you're up at 05:40 most mornings for a pish at your age?

No it's 2:40 for a pish. And 03:40, 04:40 too.

05:40 is when I have my on line "Using the quote function correctly" tutorial.

Wtf. What kind of weirdo is up when it’s the first quarter of the day???

The woken state should not be entered until at least after 6. After 7 if possible. And after 8 if yer working from home

Congrats on another jimbo Jnr though

A Glasgow Warriors side showing seven changes from last week’s home defeat to Leinster will take to the field in Belfast tomorrow night, as Danny Wilson’s men travel to the Kingspan Stadium for their first Guinness PRO14 trip to Ulster since April 2018.

The team sees summer arrival Enrique Pieretto make his first start for the club since arriving at Scotstoun over the summer, as the Argentina international packs down at tight-head prop.

Pieretto is joined in the front row by Aki Seiuli and Grant Stewart, with Seiuli one of only three players in the squad to have played a part in each of Glasgow’s outings to date this campaign.

Kiran McDonald makes his first appearance of the season in the second row, as the former Glasgow Hawk starts alongside Rob Harley in the engine room.

The back row is once again unchanged, as club co-captain Ryan Wilson and Tom Gordon pack down either side of Samoan international number eight TJ Ioane.

Jamie Dobie is promoted from the bench to take the scrum-half jersey, with Pete Horne making his third successive start at fly-half.

A new look midfield partnership sees Stafford McDowall come into the starting XV at inside centre, whilst Scotland 7s star Robbie Fergusson is in line to make his first Glasgow Warriors appearance in five years after being named in the number 13 shirt.

Niko Matawalu and Ratu Tagive will start on the wings, with Glenn Bryce starting at full-back for his first outing of the campaign.

On the bench, Lewis Bean is in line to become the 316th player to represent the club after arriving on a short-term loan deal from Northampton Saints to provide cover in the second row.

After his try-scoring performance against Leinster last time out, D’arcy Rae rotates to the bench to join Alex Allan and Johnny Matthews as the front row replacements.

Hamish Bain is another to move to the replacements after starting against both the Ospreys and Leinster, where he joins Tongan international Fotu Lokotui.

Brandon Thomson retains his place in the matchday squad after making his first appearance of the campaign last week, with Sean Kennedy rounding out the Glasgow replacements.


Speaking to glasgowwarriors.org, Head Coach Danny Wilson said: “With our internationals staying with Scotland we have had to make a number of changes across the park.

“Monday is massive opportunity for a lot of our young guys to step up and show what they can do.

“We’re putting out a young fast energetic squad out onto the park and we’re excited to see what this team will produce.

“We know they are going to show up and give their all for the jersey.”

Glasgow Warriors team to play Ulster in the Guinness PRO14, Monday 9 November, kick-off 8.15pm, live on Premier Sports 1. You can follow the action in the Live Match Centre on glasgowwarriors.org.

1. Aki Seiuli (15)
2. Grant Stewart (34)
3. Enrique Pieretto (3)
4. Rob Harley (235)
5. Kiran McDonald (26)
6. Ryan Wilson (C) (174)
7. Tom Gordon (22)
8. TJ Ioane (2)

9. Jamie Dobie (10)
10. Pete Horne (174)
11. Niko Matawalu (131)
12. Stafford McDowall (23)
13. Robbie Fergusson (2)
14. Ratu Tagive (17)
15. Glenn Bryce (29)

Replacements

16. Johnny Matthews (3)
17. Alex Allan (105)
18. D’arcy Rae (74)
19. Lewis Bean (0)
20. Hamish Bain (2)
21. Fotu Lokotui (3)
22. Sean Kennedy (8)
23. Brandon Thomson (25)

Unavailable due to injury: Mesu Dolokoto, Richie Gray, Lee Jones, Paddy Kelly, Leone Nakarawa, Kyle Steyn.

Unavailable due to international duty: Fraser Brown, Scott Cummings, Matt Fagerson, Zander Fagerson, Nick Grigg, Adam Hastings, George Horne, Sam Johnson, Huw Jones, Oli Kebble, Ali Price, George Turner.

As we imagined a much changed side for Glasgow against the high flying Ulster this monday night.

Good to see McDonald back, who looked very useful when we saw him last season. Robbie Fergusson runs out in the centre as well, coming back to XVs after a long time away with the sevens.

Going to be a tall order though and they will need all the spirit of the Leinster game and more to get anything from this game.

Big Mike Cusack, 20 stones of Yorkshire Beef who became an adopted Weggie and eventually got capped for Scotland. One of my favourite Glasgow players back in the day, in his pomp, he used to eat opposition LHs for breakfast.

Good to see he stayed in the game and is doing well in France, maybe he will be back coaching our scrum one day.

I never knew he was involved in the Matt Hampson injury though, that must have been harrowing.

Interview with Mark Palmer in the Scottish Sunday Times


This week Scotland open their Autumn Nations Cup campaign in the Stadio Artemio Franchi, home of Fiorentina FC in Florence. The last time they faced Italy on Italian soil somewhere other than Rome was a World Cup warm-up in Turin in August 2015.

Their two tight-head props for that game had both just qualified to wear the thistle after a three-year residency period. Willem Nel came off the bench to win his first cap, and has since claimed 37 more. The 34-year-old has played in two World Cups and, as last week’s Scarlets loose-head props can attest, is still more than capable of doing damage in the scrum.

Mike Cusack, though, was the starting prop that night, the only time he made a Test XV. In fact, he would manage only nine further games of top-flight rugby before being forced to retire through injury two-and-a-bit years later. This born and bred burly Yorkshireman looks back on his two Scotland caps with pride, but if anything his opportunity arrived at precisely the wrong moment.

Had he been available to Scotland at the end of his first Glasgow season (2011-12), the then head coach Andy Robinson would have been inheriting a man full of confidence and destructive set-piece power. In the words of Gregor Townsend, his Warriors coach at the time, Cusack was “developing a formidable reputation as one of the best tight-heads in the game”.

And yet, when he qualified to play international rugby, just in time to be included in the wider World Cup training squad, he had missed almost two years of club action due to a combination of shoulder issues and a “complex and quite rare” mystery illness.

“I had been out for a long time before that World Cup summer, so it wasn’t ideal,” Cusack said. “But it was still a great opportunity, one I was never not going to take. I enjoyed my time in the Scotland camp and all that went with it.

“The illness wasn’t anything life-threatening, just something that affected me for a good few months. It took a while to get the confidence back and to get back trusting
my body.

“Even so, I got a couple of chances with Scotland and what I did clearly wasn’t enough to get in the final squad. The thing I most remember about that Italy game is the sense of occasion and the fact I was starting. It’s a shame it was my last one — I’d have loved a few more — but that’s just the way it was. Straight after the game, I went to Canada to join up with the Glasgow squad for a friendly there. As soon as that happened, the writing was on the wall. I knew I wasn’t going to the World Cup.”

Still, there is no sense of him gazing wistfully at Nel and wondering what might have been. “We joined the squad at the same time and he’s obviously played a lot more years for Edinburgh and Scotland,” he said. “But I had my games, my problems, and it’s the way it is. I certainly don’t look back and wish it was something else.”

Cusack has enjoyed charting the rise of Zander Fagerson, who was a young pup when the Doncaster man left Scotstoun for a brief spell at Newcastle Falcons in 2016 before returning to Leeds, one of his former clubs.

Fagerson is now the cornerstone of a Scotland scrum that has come on leaps and bounds since Pieter de Villiers arrived as a specialist assistant before this year’s Six Nations. The national side had not had a scrum coach since Massimo Cuttitta, Cusack’s long-time mentor and the man who helped drive his move to Scotland.


Nel made his Scotland debut in the same game as Cusack and has since claimed 37 more caps
GARY HUTCHISON/SRU/SNS
“Nothing ever gets better without working on it,” Cusack said. “The scrum is something that Scotland evidently wanted to improve and they certainly have done. They always had good players, good athletes, but they’ve now got a guy doing the scrum who really knows what he’s doing.

“A good scrum can still get you a long way. It certainly helped South Africa at the last World Cup. Against a really good English scrum, they absolutely destroyed them in the final. Zander was always a specimen, right from when he came in at 18 or 19 years of age. You could always see he had it in him, but he’s really kicked on in the last few years. He always was mobile but he has taken his whole game to a new level. You can see the work he’s put into his set-piece really bearing fruit.”

It was a series of neck injuries that eventually caused Cusack to call it a day in January 2018. Since that summer, he has been forwards coach at Le Havre in the fourth tier of French rugby. With France again locked down, he is temporarily back in Doncaster but the hope is the championship can resume in the early part of next year.

“I’d only been retired a few months when I got the chance to come over, and I’ve really been enjoying it,” he said. “Federale 2 is a good standard, and I’m doing my coaching badges as well as trying to pick up the language. Le Havre is a good place to live, a university town with a great beach. You’re close to all the historic sights of Normandy and only a couple of hours’ drive from Paris. The winter can be a bit bleak, but I did five in Glasgow.”

It is now more than 15 years from the darkest day of Cusack’s rugby life, when he was part of the training ground live scrum that collapsed and saw his then England Under-21 team-mate Matt Hampson becoming paralysed from the neck down.

Cusack has replayed the fateful set-piece “thousands of times” in his head, the knowledge that he was not to blame doing little to ease how bad he felt.

“It certainly wasn’t easy to deal with or to see it happen,” he said. “I was scrummaging directly opposite him, me on the loose-head and him on the opposition tight-head. There is always risk of injury but you never, ever think that’s going to happen to anyone you know, let alone someone who was one of my good mates in the camp. I had shared many a hotel room with him in the games before that.

“It’s crazy how the time has passed so quickly, but he has done remarkable things with his foundation and Get Busy Living centre, supporting other people who have suffered horrendous injuries through sport.”

Nice article Gee, glad to hear coosack is enjoying his time in France and what a magnanimous bloke!

The club selections are as expected a bit thin on the ground but could be interesting. Particularly interested to see how Ferguson gets on for Glasgow. Great to see Crosbie back for Edinburgh, hopefully he makes it through unscathed! Also great to see Blain rewarded for his form too. Long may his learning curve continue!

Hamish Watson rumoured moving to Racing in the summer.

Good move for him and can't blame him - he's 29 now in a position that's not gentle on the body, so will be looking for a big payday at this stage of his career.

RDW wrote:Hamish Watson rumoured moving to Racing in the summer.

Good move for him and can't blame him - he's 29 now in a position that's not gentle on the body, so will be looking for a big payday at this stage of his career.

Good move for him and Edinburgh have some good young talent coming through, he should definitely cash in if the offer arises.

Yep will make Crosbie our frontline 7 with the youngsters coming through in support.