E
edinburgh_gunner
Guest
I was sadened, but not surprised by the Lions slection this week. To only have two scots in a squad of 37 is pretty poor. Now before people start going about form, how we played poorly la la hear me out.
McGeehan has shown nothing but contempt and disrespect to his country - lets not forget he is a Scot. Or at lease he was so long as they were paying his wage. But I heard that McGeehan made no effort to watch either Edinburgh or Glasgow, and used only Jim Telfer as his guide to Scottish players. Now I can understand why he might not pick Scots based on Scotland's form, but let's look at Edinburgh and Glasgow - who formt he bulk of the Scottish squad. Edinburgh are sitting third in the ML, have challenged every team all the way this season, and put in strong performances in the H Cup and, while this might be my Embra bias, consider themselves unlucky not to have got some better results. Glasgow, too, have had several strong perfomances - most notably the H Cup win over Toulouse - over the course of the season.
So how can it be that our two pro-teams that provide the bulk of the national squad, perform well against other teams such as Ospreys, Munster, Cardiff etc and not play well at international level? Answer: The management. Now this isn't me having anothe go at Hadden, but it was apparant for all to see that Scotland's game plan wasn't working. We did make a fair few very silly individual errors, yes, but on the whole the problem it seems to me, was the tactics. Scotland did not actually take a pasting in any game - infact we competed strongly in all of the games, even if we couldn't finish a fish supper. So if McGeehan was smart enough, he'd realise this, and see that it might be worth having a look at the pro-teams.
Now I'm not saying that the ML and H Cup is the same as playing the springboks. But if Edinburgh and Glasgow are competing every bit as well as other teams that have a large contingent of national players, should that not suggest that Scotland have capable players? This, however, doesn't mean that I think that many more Scots should have gone. Ford, the Evans brothers, Blair would probably gone if McGeehan hadn't been such a lazy arsehole and relied on Telfer solely.
My gripe is not that only 2 Scots have gone (while I think that number could and should have been higher - but only two or three more) but is the fact that McGeehan based the ability of the Scotish players, soley on the perfomance of the national team who were clearly playing a gameplan that didn't work under a coach who had run out of ideas. McGeehan's lack of interest in Scottish rugby, to me at least, is nothing short of disgusting. Scottish players, it would seem, were always up against it when it came down to selection.
McGeehan has shown nothing but contempt and disrespect to his country - lets not forget he is a Scot. Or at lease he was so long as they were paying his wage. But I heard that McGeehan made no effort to watch either Edinburgh or Glasgow, and used only Jim Telfer as his guide to Scottish players. Now I can understand why he might not pick Scots based on Scotland's form, but let's look at Edinburgh and Glasgow - who formt he bulk of the Scottish squad. Edinburgh are sitting third in the ML, have challenged every team all the way this season, and put in strong performances in the H Cup and, while this might be my Embra bias, consider themselves unlucky not to have got some better results. Glasgow, too, have had several strong perfomances - most notably the H Cup win over Toulouse - over the course of the season.
So how can it be that our two pro-teams that provide the bulk of the national squad, perform well against other teams such as Ospreys, Munster, Cardiff etc and not play well at international level? Answer: The management. Now this isn't me having anothe go at Hadden, but it was apparant for all to see that Scotland's game plan wasn't working. We did make a fair few very silly individual errors, yes, but on the whole the problem it seems to me, was the tactics. Scotland did not actually take a pasting in any game - infact we competed strongly in all of the games, even if we couldn't finish a fish supper. So if McGeehan was smart enough, he'd realise this, and see that it might be worth having a look at the pro-teams.
Now I'm not saying that the ML and H Cup is the same as playing the springboks. But if Edinburgh and Glasgow are competing every bit as well as other teams that have a large contingent of national players, should that not suggest that Scotland have capable players? This, however, doesn't mean that I think that many more Scots should have gone. Ford, the Evans brothers, Blair would probably gone if McGeehan hadn't been such a lazy arsehole and relied on Telfer solely.
My gripe is not that only 2 Scots have gone (while I think that number could and should have been higher - but only two or three more) but is the fact that McGeehan based the ability of the Scotish players, soley on the perfomance of the national team who were clearly playing a gameplan that didn't work under a coach who had run out of ideas. McGeehan's lack of interest in Scottish rugby, to me at least, is nothing short of disgusting. Scottish players, it would seem, were always up against it when it came down to selection.
