Scottish Rugby Stuff

[iINDOMINUSxx]

Scottish Rugby

 

[iINDOMINUSxx]

Hogg Might not be able to play for scotland in the autumn tests http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/24495463

 

[Tony Manx]

Hogg Might not be able to play for scotland in the autumn tests http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/24495463

He would be a huge loss..huge..........

 

[iINDOMINUSxx]

yep it would be

 

[iINDOMINUSxx]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/24539181 alan solomons is rugby's sir alex ferguson

 

[iINDOMINUSxx]

scotland squad for autumn tests

Backs:

Mark Bennett (Glasgow Warriors) Age 20 Uncapped
Chris Cusiter (Glasgow Warriors) Age 31 Caps 62
Nick De Luca (Edinburgh Rugby) Age 29 Caps 38
Alex Dunbar (Glasgow Warriors) Age 23 Caps 3
Max Evans (Castres) Age 30 Caps 35
Tom Heathcote (Bath Rugby) Age 21 Caps 3
Ruaridh Jackson (Glasgow Warriors) Age 25 Caps 21
Sean Lamont (Glasgow Warriors) Age 32 Caps 79
Greig Laidlaw (Edinburgh Rugby) Age 28 Caps 21
Sean Maitland (Glasgow Warriors) Age 25 Caps 5
Henry Pyrgos (Glasgow Warriors) Age 24 Caps 9
Matt Scott (Edinburgh Rugby) Age 23 Caps 15
Tommy Seymour (Glasgow Warriors) Age 25 Caps 2
Duncan Taylor (Saracens) Age 24 Caps 3
Greig Tonks (Edinburgh Rugby) Age 24 Caps 1
Tim Visser (Edinburgh Rugby) Age 26 Caps 12
Duncan Weir (Glasgow Warriors) Age 22 Caps 5

Forwards:

John Barclay (Scarlets) Age 27 Caps 41
John Beattie (Montpellier) Age 27 Caps 24
Kelly Brown (Saracens) Age 31 Caps 58
Blair Cowan (London Irish) Age 27 Uncapped
Geoff Cross (Edinburgh Rugby) Age 30 Caps 22
David Denton (Edinburgh Rugby) Age 23 Caps 14
Alasdair Dickinson (Edinburgh Rugby) Age 30 Caps 27
Ross Ford (Edinburgh Rugby) Age 29 Caps 68
Chris Fusaro (Glasgow Warriors) Age 24 Uncapped
Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh Rugby) Age 23 Caps 3
Ryan Grant (Glasgow Warriors) Age 28 Caps 10
Jonny Gray (Glasgow Warriors) Age 19 Uncapped
Richie Gray (Castres) Age 24 Caps 31
Jim Hamilton (Montpellier) Age 30 Caps 48
Rob Harley (Glasgow Warriors) Age 23 Caps 5
Alastair Kellock (Glasgow Warriors) Age 32 Caps 55
Scott Lawson (Newcastle Falcons) Age 32 Caps 38
Kieran Low (London Irish) Age 22 Uncapped
Moray Low (Glasgow Warriors) Age 28 Caps 21
Pat MacArthur (Glasgow Warriors) Age 26 Cap 1
Euan Murray (Worcester Warriors) Age 33 Caps 56
Alasdair Strokosch (Perpignan) Age 30 Caps 35
Tim Swinson (Glasgow Warriors) Age 26 Caps 2
Jon Welsh (Glasgow Warriors) Age 27 Caps 2

 

[iINDOMINUSxx]

visser called out of scotland squad due to injury http://www.scottishrugby.org/news/13/10/29/player-update-tim-visser

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

More restructuring proposed by the SRU with six semi-pro regional franchises.

http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/40764024

I'd love to hear what the rationale behind this is. Presumably an attempt raise the standard of play that fringe / young Edinburgh and Glasgow players are exposed to? And try and get a foothold in geographic areas where rugby doesn't have much of a foothold? Strange they can stump up the cash for this while not officially denying they might give up on a Scottish 7s side because of finances.

And what the hell are the Scottish "Midlands"? West Lothian, Stirling, Dundee? A "North and Midlands" side could almost literally play anywhere in Scotland!

 

[Big_Grumper]

I saw this and was intrigued.

 

[ajwffc]

As I understand it Scottish Midlands is the older name for the central belt?
If you draw a line form Dundee to Dumbarton you get the northern border and line from Ayr to Dunbar gives you the southern border.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Some positive financial figures from the Scottish union. I think the likes of Dodson and Scott Johnson deserve a lot of credit at a time when the Oz, Italian and North American unions are showing how bad management can really hurt the sport.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-40826731

If they can somehow just get their act together with Edinburgh. Their attendances are simply woeful given that home tests against NZ and Australia in the same city sell out almost instantly.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

The restructuring of Scottish domestic rugby continues with bids submitted by 12 areas / clubs to be elevated into a newly created professional tier of 6 teams (to strenghten the playing environment for players on the fringes of the Glasgow and Edinburgh Pro14 sides).

https://www.google.com/amp/www.bbc.co.uk/sport/amp/rugby-union/43600664

The significance of this for the Pro14 is that no bid was even received from Scotlands third city of Aberdeen - which is incredibly disappointing. The mood music from the SRU is essentially that there is not now, nor ever will be, the prospect of a professional club in Aberdeen in the Pro14.

Of the submitted bids only Dundee (4th city, but 90mins drive from Aberdeen) is one that in any possible scenario could be envisaged as transforming into a Pro14 club further down the line. The next biggest towns are Ayr and Stirling, both of which are far too small and have no significant neighbouring populations.

If Dundee don't get one of the six spots then the SRU are missing a huge and possibly last opportunity to spread the game outside of the central belt.

 

[higgik]

Agree, especially as the Dundee bid has council backing and is a joint bid by 2 clubs.
Seems to be a Pro 14 club in development.
As for rest, 2 from Glasgow, 2 from Edinburgh and 1 from Borders would give a good spread.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Agree, especially as the Dundee bid has council backing and is a joint bid by 2 clubs.
Seems to be a Pro 14 club in development.
As for rest, 2 from Glasgow, 2 from Edinburgh and 1 from Borders would give a good spread.

Of the bids I'd like:

- Dundee (population centre and close to Perth which is also a reasonable size. Well outside rugby heartlands)

- Stirling (attracted over 3,000 I think for a Glasgow preseason game, again not rugby heartlands)

- Ayr (consistently performing well, again away from rugby heartlands and okayish population)

- Melrose (branded as Border Reivers to broaden appeal in the key historic area of rugby heritage that has lost professional rugby)

Then one from Glasgow and one from Edinburgh (although I'm not sure why anyone would follow such a team rather than the Pro14 side).

Ideally I would have liked Livingston (to attract West Lothian and Lanarkshire) and Aberdeen. That would have been a very promising six, but it wasn't to be. Maybe it can be revisited in five years or so.

I do think this is a vital step though and probably the only person up here who supports it outside the SRU. I also really like that the SRU are not slaves to the old vested interests and will radically shake things up if they deem it of long term benefit to the sport.

 

[rob39]

The thing about Ayr is there ground is on prime real estate land, and could go for many ££££ if they have the notion to sell, possible relocation is in the center of Ayr at Dam Park with easy transport links. Ayr are a consistent team with a good setup. Other local teams at Marr, Kilmarnock and Cumnock all having good seasons so the player pool is potentially good for future development.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Cockerill contract extended to 2021. Well deserved and it'll be extremely interesting to see what he can do with signings and then in terms of further improving the team using players he has selected rather than those he inherited.

 

[rob39]

So we have the 'Super 6' - Ayr, Boroughmuir, Heriot's, Melrose, Stirling County and Watsonians. No Glasgow team, Dundee miss out so no team from north of the Forth and only 1 borders team. Just hope it doesn't turn out to be a 6 team play each other a million times bore fest. Is it the best fix.............time will tell
Plus Pro14 looking at a development league https://theoffsideline.com/pro14-investigate-development-league/

 

[higgik]

So we have the 'Super 6' - Ayr, Boroughmuir, Heriot's, Melrose, Stirling County and Watsonians. No Glasgow team, Dundee miss out so no team from north of the Forth and only 1 borders team. Just hope it doesn't turn out to be a 6 team play each other a million times bore fest. Is it the best fix.............time will tell
Plus Pro14 looking at a development league https://theoffsideline.com/pro14-investigate-development-league/

Heard that it will be round robin of only 10 rounds plus play offs.

Disappointing no Glasgow Hawks, and no team North.

Will probably mean Caledonia academy will have to move further south.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

So we have the 'Super 6' - Ayr, Boroughmuir, Heriot's, Melrose, Stirling County and Watsonians. No Glasgow team, Dundee miss out so no team from north of the Forth and only 1 borders team. Just hope it doesn't turn out to be a 6 team play each other a million times bore fest. Is it the best fix.............time will tell
Plus Pro14 looking at a development league https://theoffsideline.com/pro14-investigate-development-league/

I am crushingly disappointed with this. It was an opportunity for the SRU to be bold and try and move participation beyond the narrow enclaves of it's Edinburgh private schools and the borders. At least Boroughmuir is a state school so kids might get a crack of the sport regardless of their financial and social background (assuming the school doesn't have a wholly wealthy catchment area).

When the only professional club in Edinburgh can only get 3000-4000 people a game on average, who decided that it'd be a great idea to create 3 new semi-pro clubs within Edinburgh to compete with this struggling fanbase? Particularly when the SRU's own guidance said they shouldn't pick more than two teams from any of the four main areas. I guess after the RWC bidding process the SRU just love to ignore official guidance... even when it's their own!

The absence of the Glasgow Hawks isn't the biggest issue for me, rugby fans in Glasgow have the thriving Warriors and Glaswegian kids can aspire to join that club. I can sympathise why some of the press are focussing their disappointment on that. It is the absence of the Dundee bid is a hammerblow for the medium to long term prospects for rugby in Scotland's 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th cities that lie north of Edinburgh.

Melrose is absolutely tiny (population around 2,000) and there'll be few from neighbouring towns who travel to matches there. It had to be a joint borders bid, with ground share, to have any chance of garnering respectable crowds and interest in the area.

The SRU will understandably say they had to go with the 6 strongest and most stable bids, but I find it hard to believe that they couldn't have offered assistance to bids in important areas in order to ensure they were competitive.

At least Ayr and Stirling made the cut, both relatively new territories and both with a bit of a hunger for the sport. But I really do think the SRU are happier picking foreign born players and players emerging from their own narrow school base than they are with opening up the sport to wider sections of the domestic population. I find it all a bit maddening and my affiliation to the Italian Union won't be being tested any time soon it seems.

 

[rob39]

Glasgow Hawks asking for an independent review due to the Edinburgh trio, apparently contravenes SRU's own rules. Also SRU still looking at how fixtures will be worked out and with who, potentially welsh regional U23 squads. Below article is an interesting read
https://theoffsideline.com/well-done-mr ... tarts-now/