Scotland 6N lookahead

First topic message reminder :

Results in aggregate this year for the national team were:

5 February 2022 - Scotland 20–17 England
12 February 2022 - Wales 20–17 Scotland
26 February 2022 - Scotland 17–36 France
12 March 2022 - Italy 22–33 Scotland
19 March 2022 - Ireland 26–5 Scotland
2 July 2022 - Argentina 26–18 Scotland
9 July 2022 - Argentina 6–29 Scotland
16 July 2022 - Argentina 34–31 Scotland
29 October 2022 - Scotland 15–16 Australia
5 November 2022 - Scotland 28–12 Fiji
13 November 2022 - Scotland 23–31 New Zealand
19 November 2022 - Scotland 52–29 Argentina

P 12 W 5 L 7

I think if Townsend had turned around and said something like the above from NB, that would have been fine

I would not have blamed Townsend to go scorched earth a bit and say Finn has to earn his way back in after his mixed form and behaviour in the last Six Nations. It is a shame as this is realistically the last RWC Finn has the chance to be a starter.

Totally agree Neily, it would allow everyone to focus on the autumn and the rugby.

My 2p as an outsider looking in is we never know for sure what goes on in camp and between coaches and players. Maybe Townsend and Russell get on fine but it's purely a form thing. Or maybe Russell is being a bit of a d!ck and Townsend being correct in omitting him. Or maybe it's other way around. Or maybe a bit of both.
We had similar things with England with Jones and Care, but no-one other than them and maybe other Eng players know for sure what's what.
As fans we almost always take side of the players, especially if it's one we like and want picked and we usually paint coach as the bad guy.

I think most of us would understand dropping Russell in terms of Scotland form at the moment. He's a liability for sure. That being said Toonie has picked a very green fly half just back from a bad injury instead and just not explained his rationale behind it, just a half baked excuse about Finn's club form. Although his form is not the best is definitely good enough to be in the squad so there must be another reason, whether it's to look at other players or because he doesn't feel Finn is a good influence in camp.

It's not so much for me that Toonie is the villain, it's just that he's not really given a satisfactory answer for anyone, players included. I think it just comes across as poor man, and media management.

Apparently (according to someone i know in the know, so take from that what you will), Thompson was picked because for the 1st game they need 2 scottish based 10s. So Thompson HAD to picked.

The next step of thinking was "Russell is genuinely out of form, lets give Hastings and Blairhorn a good run for the rest of the games. Arguably 3 fly halves is already excessive so 4 would be overkill, so lets pick our 3 for the entire series, outwith Scotland who is in better form, Hastings or Russell? It's Hastings".

So Thompson is in for the 1st game off the bench and training experience, Blairhorn is the ozzie starter, Hastings is in for the rest of the series and is in hot form, Russell is dropped for poor form + being a bit of a I play with my 2inch cock and/or disruptive.

In that light its very understandable but Townsend seems to have fluffed the messaging a bit?

The reason I don’t quite believe that is because players drop in and out of the squad every time the international period arrives. Thompson being selected initially makes sense but I’d have expected him to drop out after the aus game to make way for the more established Russell. Having Russell, Kinghorn and Hastings in the squad would be amazing if you ask me. The competition would be really strong for a starting spot, especially with the all blacks coming to Edinburgh. Yet Toonie seemingly wants to go all in on Kinghorn. That may turn out to be untrue and Hastings will start more games. Anyway, it feels like a missed opportunity.

Ach yeh but naw - if you give yourself just 2 realistic 10s to pick from it gives the team consistency. At this point toonie knows what Russell brings. Russell is also (this weekend excepting) out of form.

So why not pick Hastings and blairhorn and inform them both it's between them and he'll give shared game time to both. Give blairhorn Australia and Fiji to start followed by Hastings with new Zealand and Argentina?

Toonie is clearly keen to test out blairhorn, for good or ill so maybe he needs a bit of time and space to just focus on him without the distraction of Russell being in the squad and potentially being disruptive?

"I'd like to talk about how positive Blair has been in the prep for fiji but unfortunately at this pre match conference we have to talk about why Russell was seen in the Hive at 3am on a Wednesday night"

Would there be this much outcry if Ben Healy got picked ahead of Ross Thompson ?

It seems poor Gregor can't win lol

Highland Shaun wrote:Would there be this much outcry if Ben Healy got picked ahead of Ross Thompson ?

It seems poor Gregor can't win lol

Possibly, possibly not. Healy has shown good form for Munster whereas Thompson has been injured. I think it's entirely fair to question toonie's decision making process as he seems to have had considerably more misses than hits in the last 3 years.

Leaving an experienced player out of the squad entirely (especially when he's previously had out of form players in for their experience) for a relatively new fly half and a very green fly half rightfully draws questions.

Like I think we'd all be questioning Hogg's exclusion if he was out of the squad in favour of Arundel (I know he's England now), Hoyland and Smith. All great players who are very capable at FB and probably have had better form over the last season in general than Hogg but do not make much sense otherwise.

Thompson is in due to the silliness of having a game outside of the international window, and only that. On form and talent he'd be nowhere near the squad. I'm not convinced he's the best 10 in the Glasgow squad.

Personally i think he should have been picked for cover, with Russell joining the squad in his place for the other games. That would give Kinghorn a game, and leave our best fly halves by a distance, Russell and Hastings, to share the remainder with Kinghorn as back up.

As an aside, I do remember back to the Hadden and Robinson days when I found myself frequently a minority on these boards defending the coach; they had very little to work with. Toonie does not have that excuse; he's been blessed with the best crop of players in my lifetime. In my opinion, he's wasting it.

Right my advice about the best place to stay to watch the game being Glasgow and then getting the train through, has come back to bite me on the ar$e, with Scotrail being on strike this Saturday. There is a limited service from Glasgow to Edinburgh but that stops just after 18.00 so no way to get back after the game.

Ok, I thought, let's go on the bus. I probably should have thought about that a few days ago, as both the Citylink and MegaBus routes are all completely booked up. I would have had to go to Edinburgh at 06.00 and get one back at 02.00 on sunday morning. I do a lot to support Scotland but that was probably a bit much even for me!

So I have now hired a car, which was surprisingly reasonable, not much more than 2 trains fares in all honesty. It looks like it is going to have to be a dry match for me.

I could use some advice on parking in Edinburgh, as I have not got a clue.

I see there is a park and ride at Ingliston. Anyone got any ideas what that is like, I see it is free and you can pick up the tram there. Is it difficult to get a space there?

Are there any other decent options?

I looked at booking a space through that just park website, but I need the registration of the car I will be parking to do this.

There is a conspiracy making this all very difficult atm

The park and ride at ingliston has loads of space so you wouldn't need to worry about that.

It'd be fairly easy to get parked up in the slateford or Colinton area on saturday, just give yourself a bit of time to find a space (try slateford gait or anywhere in the Shandon area by Harrison gardens) and expect a bit of traffic after the match obviously

BigGee wrote:Right my advice about the best place to stay to watch the game being Glasgow and then getting the train through, has come back to bite me on the ar$e, with Scotrail being on strike this Saturday. There is a limited service from Glasgow to Edinburgh but that stops just after 18.00 so no way to get back after the game.

Ok, I thought, let's go on the bus. I probably should have thought about that a few days ago, as both the Citylink and MegaBus routes are all completely booked up. I would have had to go to Edinburgh at 06.00 and get one back at 02.00 on sunday morning. I do a lot to support Scotland but that was probably a bit much even for me!

So I have now hired a car, which was surprisingly reasonable, not much more than 2 trains fares in all honesty. It looks like it is going to have to be a dry match for me.

I could use some advice on parking in Edinburgh, as I have not got a clue.

I see there is a park and ride at Ingliston. Anyone got any ideas what that is like, I see it is free and you can pick up the tram there. Is it difficult to get a space there?

Are there any other decent options?

I looked at booking a space through that just park website, but I need the registration of the car I will be parking to do this.

There is a conspiracy making this all very difficult atm

I'm Blackhall born and raised and our traditional route to Murrayfield was to walk 'over the hill' up Ravelstone dykes, past Mary Erskine's school then down Murrayfield road. 20 minute walk. You'll start out with many layers in and will have taken most them off by the time you get over the hill! Get a pint at the Hampton before heading to the stadium.

Plenty free parking on Craigcrook Road, Strachan Road and surrounding streets in Blackhall, plus good access to Queensferry road to head out west after (Corstorphine road is always mental after games)

Keep an eye out for an old bloke with a 40 year old tartan scarf - that'll be my old man walking over the hill. One of the disadvantages of living on the other side of the world is not being able to do that walk with him very often now

All the focus has been on Russell so far but I was wondering what we think about the coaching staff? Tandy was a fantastic bit if recruitment after the World Cup but has his defensive system stagnated like Taylor’s eventually did? Has the attack coach Alan-Basson Zondagh added much?

Zondagh was brought in for Blair and I think we've seen edinburghs attack progress and scotlands stagnate. However zondagh has only had the six nations and Argentina to muck about so I think he's still got time on his side.

Tandy still has cash in the bank from his 1st season. This is his 3rd season now so his systems really need to come good. Taylor is still regarded as an excellent defense coach but the players commented that tandy really simplified things when he came in which they really bought in to. Hopefully it's developed a bit more and we see improvements this season.

RDW wrote:

BigGee wrote:Right my advice about the best place to stay to watch the game being Glasgow and then getting the train through, has come back to bite me on the ar$e, with Scotrail being on strike this Saturday. There is a limited service from Glasgow to Edinburgh but that stops just after 18.00 so no way to get back after the game.

Ok, I thought, let's go on the bus. I probably should have thought about that a few days ago, as both the Citylink and MegaBus routes are all completely booked up. I would have had to go to Edinburgh at 06.00 and get one back at 02.00 on sunday morning. I do a lot to support Scotland but that was probably a bit much even for me!

So I have now hired a car, which was surprisingly reasonable, not much more than 2 trains fares in all honesty. It looks like it is going to have to be a dry match for me.

I could use some advice on parking in Edinburgh, as I have not got a clue.

I see there is a park and ride at Ingliston. Anyone got any ideas what that is like, I see it is free and you can pick up the tram there. Is it difficult to get a space there?

Are there any other decent options?

I looked at booking a space through that just park website, but I need the registration of the car I will be parking to do this.

There is a conspiracy making this all very difficult atm

I'm Blackhall born and raised and our traditional route to Murrayfield was to walk 'over the hill' up Ravelstone dykes, past Mary Erskine's school then down Murrayfield road. 20 minute walk. You'll start out with many layers in and will have taken most them off by the time you get over the hill! Get a pint at the Hampton before heading to the stadium.

Plenty free parking on Craigcrook Road, Strachan Road and surrounding streets in Blackhall, plus good access to Queensferry road to head out west after (Corstorphine road is always mental after games)

Keep an eye out for an old bloke with a 40 year old tartan scarf - that'll be my old man walking over the hill. One of the disadvantages of living on the other side of the world is not being able to do that walk with him very often now

Was the playground where you spent most of your days? Did you get shipped off to your Aunty and Uncle in Belair?

I Digress.

Mr Gee, either drive to RDW's old stomping grounds and park then walk or the other option really is the Park and Ride at Inglston for your side. Plenty spaces. Jump on the airport bus and BOOM. Yer there. Or you can of course get the Tram also. Either way, getting to Murrayfield from the West of Edinburgh is a piece of cake. Getting there from anywhere else, not so much!

Just to throw my tuppence worth in here.  I used to park at Ingilston P&R to get to my office and whilst there are several spaces, it does fill up quickly, quite often there were cars having to park on the street next to the P&R due to there being no spaces left.  It might be fine on a weekend, but I going to take a punt here that there are going to be a few people in the same boat with the trains, trying to get to the game.  So, arrive early to avoid disappointment would be my advice.

Failing that on the odd occasion I’ve had to drive to BTMF for a Scotland game, I tend to park around Slateford.  Plenty of residential streets that normally have spaces.  Or there is a tram stop near  South Gyle business park, it should be dead at the weekend and another easy option to get a tram, if the P&R is rammed.  It's about 5 mins down the road by car heading towards the ground so on route.

Thanks everyone for the advice

I think we'll have a crack at the park and ride as a first option. We are picking up our car at 10 in Glasgow, so should be over by 11ish and that will be plenty early for the match which is a 5pm kick off. My son wants to have a look around Edinburgh for a few hours pre match, as he has only been once before, so ideally, we get the tram into town from there.

If that does not work out, we will explore some of the other options, but am sure we'll find somewhere to park, even if we have to walk a bit.

Park and ride will be easy peasy at that time. Using the tram means you can go all the way to the far end of prince's St, get some good pints (all alcohol free beverages in Cafe Royal) nd then get the tram all the way back to Murray field!

Mark Palmer, who in the interests of balance, it should be pointed out is FR main cheerleader i9n the MMS, gives us the Racing view of his omission from the Scotland squad.




Racing 92 are “shocked and surprised” to have Finn Russell available this autumn after his Scotland omission, but hope he can continue his “incredible” start to the season in which has produced “some of the best rugby we have seen since he came to France”.

These are the views of Philippe Doussy, the skills and kicking coach of the Paris club who has previously had stints in the same role with the French and Italian national teams as well as Edinburgh.

Gregor Townsend, the Scotland head coach who has a lengthy back catalogue of clashes with Russell, explained the playmaker’s non-selection by referring to a perceived lack of form, but Doussy is perplexed by this line of thought.

“We were very surprised to see him not picked, because with what he has been doing for Racing at the start of the season, for us it was natural and obvious that he would be going back to Scotland this month — logical and normal,” the 51-year-old told The Times.

“He’s come back to Racing very relaxed this season, perhaps because he didn’t tour with Scotland in the summer and that allowed him to regenerate. Last season was an exceptionally busy one for him in the post-Covid period, starting with the [British & Irish] Lions, then everything he did here.


“He was maybe a bit saturated, whereas at the start of this season he’s in exactly the right place, mentally above all. He has been absolutely transformed, also with the knowledge that he’s about to become a father. The things are surely linked. We have found an incredible Finn Russell this season.

“For us here at Racing in this first period of the season, he has been our X Factor, seriously impressive on every level — his approach to the games, in training, in his individual work and preparation. He has lost weight, does so much video analysis and is always looking for extras after training. Always with a smile on his face.”


In his first match since the Scotland snub, Russell kicked 18 points and set up three tries to help Racing defeat Montpellier, the reigning Top 14 champions, in the French capital last weekend. The 30-year-old fly half has thrived from the tee since taking over as Racing’s frontline kicker this summer, another success which Doussy believes is due to an amalgam of self-belief, ability and graft.

“In the past, he didn’t kick very often for us: we’ve had [Maxime] Machenaud, [Nolann] Le Garrec,” Doussy said. “But we had a meeting in pre-season about our objectives, and he was ready and willing to take on that responsibility, recognising that it was good for him, good for Racing and good for Scotland.

“He’s taken to the role like a duck to water. In the Top 14, he has 30 [successful kicks] from 32, an incredible percentage. He has really grasped it as a challenge, knowing he was up to it, and he has shown that on the pitch — not just in terms of precision, but distance. He has hit a couple from 52-53 metres out.

“He does 45 minutes a day of kicking with me after the main session. That’s what people perhaps don’t appreciate about Finn — the fact he puts in the work.

“With his talent, you could get away with not putting in the work and produce for one or two games. But it’s now eight Top 14 games in a row that he has carried the team on his shoulders by being technically and mentally excellent.

“If you’ve got that level of ability but you don’t put in the work, you don’t last. He produces every week because he puts in the work.”


Racing have proved to be an excellent fit for Russell since his move from Glasgow Warriors in 2018, the year before Doussy arrived at the French club. With Stuart Lancaster set to take over as director of rugby next summer, there has been extensive speculation that one or both of Beauden Barrett and Matthieu Jalibert will usurp Russell, who admitted in an interview with The Times last month that his club future is uncertain.

Russell has admitted that his long-term future at the French club is uncertain
Russell has admitted that his long-term future at the French club is uncertain
ALEXANDRE DIMOU/ALEXPRESS/ICON SPORT VIA GETTY IMAGES
“To give the best of himself, Finn needs to be involved in the project,” said Doussy, whose team go to Brive on Saturday, the same day Scotland face Australia at Murrayfield. “As a leader and as someone with his abilities, he needs to feel like he is right in the middle of things. If he believes in what you are doing, incredible things can happen.

“He has the faith and confidence of the whole club. He’s playing alongside players of an equally high level, and he enjoys a freedom here that he wouldn’t get elsewhere.

“Finn is showing that he is more than capable of being a big part of the next chapter in the Racing story. Of course there is a new coach, and ultimately it’s him who will have the last word.

“We are surprised and delighted to have Finn here with us this month and we just want him to keep doing what he has been doing.”

Tramptastic wrote:Park and ride will be easy peasy at that time. Using the tram means you can go all the way to the far end of prince's St, get some good pints (all alcohol free beverages in Cafe Royal) nd then get the tram all the way back to Murray field!

Screw the tram - pub crawl your way along! That walk is a great part of the Murrayfield experience

RDW wrote:

Tramptastic wrote:Park and ride will be easy peasy at that time. Using the tram means you can go all the way to the far end of prince's St, get some good pints (all alcohol free beverages in Cafe Royal) nd then get the tram all the way back to Murray field!

Screw the tram - pub crawl your way along! That walk is a great part of the Murrayfield experience

Not such a good option if you got to drive back to Glasgow after the match unfortunately.

Ah see i always went to murrayfield from the south so my first pub was usually the diggers! and then it was just straight on to the stadium

Tramptastic wrote:Zondagh was brought in for Blair and I think we've seen edinburghs attack progress and scotlands stagnate. However zondagh has only had the six nations and Argentina to muck about so I think he's still got time on his side.

Tandy still has cash in the bank from his 1st season. This is his 3rd season now so his systems really need to come good. Taylor is still regarded as an excellent defense coach but the players commented that tandy really simplified things when he came in which they really bought in to. Hopefully it's developed a bit more and we see improvements this season.

Interesting I wasn’t aware that Tandy had simplified things from the Taylor era. Shall be funny to see both coaches systems up against each other this weekend.

I would like to see the attack and defence begin to marry up a bit better this autumn. The choke tackle was working well as a way to gain an attacking platform by forcing a maul and turnover ball, but wasn’t as effective this year I thought.

bsando wrote:

Tramptastic wrote:Zondagh was brought in for Blair and I think we've seen edinburghs attack progress and scotlands stagnate. However zondagh has only had the six nations and Argentina to muck about so I think he's still got time on his side.

Tandy still has cash in the bank from his 1st season. This is his 3rd season now so his systems really need to come good. Taylor is still regarded as an excellent defense coach but the players commented that tandy really simplified things when he came in which they really bought in to. Hopefully it's developed a bit more and we see improvements this season.

Interesting I wasn’t aware that Tandy had simplified things from the Taylor era. Shall be funny to see both coaches systems up against each other this weekend.

I would like to see the attack and defence begin to marry up a bit better this autumn. The choke tackle was working well as a way to gain an attacking platform by forcing a maul and turnover ball, but wasn’t as effective this year I thought.

Matt Taylor is not with Australia any more, he keft during the Rugby Championship

Really? thats interesting, i thought he was doing good things with australia!

On a slightly different note has anyone heard anything about release times/days for this weekends scotland squad?

Coms has actually been really quite from the SRU this week, which is unusual. There was a quick update from Tandy and that's been abouf it.

Maybe they thought any prrss expisure would just turn into a 'where"s Finn Fest', which would probsbly have been the case.

Keeping a low profile this week msybe no bad thing.

Surely the team must be out today though, they'll be doing their team run tomorrow. The only reason i can see for delsy is that some of the Glasgow players may still be under the weather

Just seen a tweet

Team out at 14.30

If Scotland win this weekend then expect a lot of the "wheres finn?!" chat to die away

It'll come raging back for any loss this autumn though

Well a few clues as to the team with the announcement of the Glasgow side, which includes: Mclean, Steyn, McDowell and Walker I guess none of them were really expected to be in the match squad, but you never know with Toonie

Australian team is out

Quite a few there I am not that familiar with and surely Jock Campbell should be playing for us!




Australia (vs Scotland, Saturday)
1. James Slipper (c) (123 Tests)
2. David Porecki (7 Tests)
3. Allan Alaalatoa (60 Tests)
4. Nick Frost (5 Tests)
5. Cadeyrn Neville (3 Tests)
6. Jed Holloway (6 Tests)
7. Michael Hooper (121 Tests)
8. Rob Valetini (27 Tests)
9. Tate McDermott (18 Tests)
10. Bernard Foley (73 Tests)
11. Tom Wright (18 Tests)
12. Hunter Paisami (20 Tests)
13. Len Ikitau (21 Tests)
14. Andrew Kellaway (18 Tests)
15. Tom Banks (20 Tests)

Replacements:
16. Folau Fainga’a (33 Tests)
17. Matt Gibbon (2 Tests)
18. Taniela Tupou (43 Tests)
19. Ned Hanigan (25 Tests)
20. Pete Samu (28 Tests)
21. Nic White (56 Tests)
22. Noah Lolesio (14 Tests)
23. Jock Campbell*

There's a special kind of irony that a former Australian playing for Scotland may come against a new Australian cap called Jock Campbell.

Oh boy.. looks like a strong side. Slight weakness in second row due to injuries I think.

Have a horrible feeling we're in for an Aussie battering. It's been a long time since they've pasted us and we're arguably at our weakest in a long time. I expect they'll exploit blairhorns channel a lot.

Well with Dempsey not in the Glasgow side, I think we may be seeing him debuting this Saturday.

I think we will see a back row of Ritchie, Fagerson and Watson, with Dempsey coming off the bench.

Scotland team to face Australia at BT Murrayfield, Edinburgh, live on Amazon Prime, Saturday 29 October – kick-off 5.30pm
15. Ollie Smith (Glasgow Warriors) 1 cap
14. Darcy Graham (Edinburgh Rugby) 29 caps
13. Mark Bennett (Edinburgh Rugby) 27 caps
12. Sione Tuipulotu (Glasgow Warriors) 7 caps
11. Duhan van der Merwe (Edinburgh Rugby) 19 caps
10. Blair Kinghorn (Edinburgh Rugby) 34 caps
9. Ali Price – Vice Captain – (Glasgow Warriors) 54 caps

1. Pierre Schoeman (Edinburgh Rugby) 12 caps
2. Dave Cherry (Edinburgh Rugby) 7 caps
3. Zander Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors) 50 caps
4. Sam Skinner (Edinburgh Rugby) 22 caps
5. Grant Gilchrist – Vice Captain – (Edinburgh Rugby) 55 caps
6. Jamie Ritchie – Captain – (Edinburgh Rugby) 32 caps
7. Hamish Watson (Edinburgh Rugby) 51 caps
8. Matt Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors) 24 caps

Replacements

16. George Turner (Glasgow Warriors) 27 caps
17. Jamie Bhatti (Glasgow Warriors) 22 caps
18. WP Nel (Edinburgh Rugby) 48 caps
19. Glen Young (Edinburgh Rugby) 1 cap
20. Jack Dempsey (Glasgow Warriors) uncapped
21. George Horne (Glasgow Warriors) 17 caps
22. Ross Thompson (Glasgow Warriors) 3 caps
23. Damien Hoyland (Edinburgh Rugby) 4 caps

NeilyBroon wrote:Have a horrible feeling we're in for an Aussie battering. It's been a long time since they've pasted us and we're arguably at our weakest in a long time. I expect they'll do what every international side is looking forward to doing:exploit blairhorns channel a lot.

If Shona and get decent, fast ball they could do some damage.

However, the bench really worries me. It looks as solid as Cruella's career prospects.

Pretty much as expected and a good team.

Cherry over Turner maybe a slight surprise, but not a lot in it to be fair.

Young over Cummings perhaps more so, but we don't know if SC has been ill when down south and to be fair Young has also been playing well.

So Dempsey gets to make his debut against Australia, I wonder how he will feel about that?



Edit - Just seen that Cummings has a broken toe, so likely out for the whole series. That is unfortunate for him but a good opportunity for GY to stake a claim.

That is not far off the strongest 23 we could put out anyway.

Injuries hurt a bit with McInally, Cummings, Darge, H Jones and S Johnson out, however the replacements are not bad.

Skinner, Dempsey and Bennett get a real shot against a strong opponent to put cases forward to stay in the side for NZ. Hopefully they can take it. O Smith and Thompson will get a bit more experience.

Overall, quite happy

Agreed, it's the best squad we could put out atm. Pack looks competitive, Nel to come on in the last 20 with bhatti seems a good plan.

The forward subs look pretty good in fairness

A bit less so in the backs. Hopefully the starters will go well into the game

yeh we are missing Hastings, Redpath and Hogg in that backline which would undoubtedly improve it, not to mention Sutherland and Gray Jr in the fwds. Would result in our bench being a bit more fierce.

Whats happened to Kebble? has he been injured or off form?

Still looks like rain for this one so physicality with a lot of errors might be the outcome

Kebble is off form. Not sure what has happened to him really. The last 18 months he has just not been right. The attempts to convert him to TH seem to have thrown him off his game

Hopefully a bit of run at Glasgow will get him going again

I hate this whole converting of props business - it was the same with Welsh and Low, they came through the system as a very good loosehead and a good tighthead, got recognition there at international level, got told to swap and then they faded in to obscurity.

Looking at the bench again; the front row looks good, not too sure about Glen Young instead of Big Ritchie but it is a friendly and he needs to be tested, Euan Ferrie? it's a BIG step up for him. In the backs I think Toonie is hoping that we're ahead and the game has opened up in the last quarter; Hornito and the Wonderkid could really lacerate a tired defence. BUT if we're losing....

jimbopip wrote:Looking at the bench again; the front row looks good, not too sure about Glen Young instead of Big Ritchie but it is a friendly and he needs to be tested, Euan Ferrie? it's a BIG step up for him. In the backs I think Toonie is hoping that we're ahead and the game has opened up in the last quarter; Hornito and the Wonderkid could really lacerate a tired defence. BUT if we're losing....

Is on the bench. For Glasgow.

Thank you Demo. Somehow I switched Boxer and the new boy in my mind.
Boxer's point of difference is probably his pace and his ability run through gaps instead of into contact.
With that 8 9 10 it could be a very lively last twenty.
However if Blairhorn is found out it'll be over long before then.

https://scottishrugby.org/fanzone/countdown-to-australia/?utm_source=Maileon&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Weekly+27-10-22&utm_content=https%3A%2F%2Fscottishrugby.org%2Ffanzone%2Fcountdown-to-australia%2F

Dave Rennie on the Scottish Rugby Podcast giving some insight on his time at Glasgow and being Wallabies HC.