HEC P1: Edinburgh Rugby vs Racing Métro 92

[Draggs]

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Murrayfield - 14/12/2012 - 20:00
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[psychic duck]

That Edinburgh 10 Piers Francis that played tonight is absolutely awful. He missed 4 from 5 penalties, and didn't just miss them, he missed them by a country mile. His general play was also abysmal.

Apparently he's a Kiwi project player for Scotland, but on the basis of this performance he certainly won't be getting any international caps, not even with Scotland.

 

[Draggs]

That Edinburgh 10 Piers Francis that played tonight is absolutely awful. He missed 4 from 5 penalties, and didn't just miss them, he missed them by a country mile. His general play was also abysmal.

Apparently he's a Kiwi project player for Scotland, but on the basis of this performance he certainly won't be getting any international caps, not even with Scotland.

Dan Parks...

Image a backline of Francis, Visser, Shingler, Maitland, amongst others...

 

[Darwin]

That Edinburgh 10 Piers Francis that played tonight is absolutely awful. He missed 4 from 5 penalties, and didn't just miss them, he missed them by a country mile. His general play was also abysmal.

Apparently he's a Kiwi project player for Scotland, but on the basis of this performance he certainly won't be getting any international caps, not even with Scotland.

We do have a couple of very average 10's floating around, but you can't blame us for Francis. He is English.

He only moved to New Zealand a couple of seasons ago to play rugby, and quite frankly he wasn't good enough for ITM Cup level. He struggled to get game time in his first season for Auckland, and wasn't really any more impressive for Waikato this season. If I remember correctly he actually had one really good game, but the rest of the games I saw him play he was poor. He actually looks ok when he runs the ball, but he seemed obsessed with kicking the ball away (usually with silly little chip kicks or grubbers). I'm surprised he was used as the first choice goal-kicker for Edinburgh, as I can't recall him ever kicking at goal for Auckland or Waikato (somewhat surprising given his obsession of kicking the ball away in general play....)

 

[Peat]

Dan Parks...

Image a backline of Francis, Visser, Shingler, Maitland, amongst others...

They were trying too, but you mean and nasty Taffs stopped them!

Replace with Ansbro and Seymour. Oh. And Heathcote.

 

[psychic duck]

Here is a video of Piers Francis' awful performance for those who missed it. Good luck to Scott Johnson if he's considering him as a possible replacement for Shingler. His passing was sub par, tactical kicking was sub par, and his goal kicking was woeful and basically cost Edinburgh the game. Will be interesting to see whether he can rebound from this.



On a sidenote, the one time capped All Black Ben Atiga has contributed nothing to Edinburgh as yet. He hasn't been especially bad, but he's just been anonymous every time I've seen him play, and the centres Matt Scott and Nick de Luca are both being preferred to him as first choices at the minute.

Apart from WP Nel who has been decent, Edinburgh's signings have really paid off for them.