Mikey Brown wrote:Yeah he does look handy. I'd got the impression from somewhere he was a wispy, namby pamby, line-out jumper sort of 8 but he looks pretty physical too. Though we could certainly do with a serious lineout option in the backrow anyway if we've got McInally/Brown continuing to be undroppably good in the loose and total scatterguns at the lineout.
We probably have to give up on this idea of Denton/Strauss rounding their game off or Ashe fulfilling his potential and staying fit.
Who would you pick to start in the backrow? Thomson isn't available for Wales I don't think, but Bradbury, Watson, Thomson looks pretty handy, if not the biggest.
Thomson is definitely not available for the Wales game. I'd expect Watson and Wilson to start against the taffs, blindside...who knows? Unless he goes with Denton at 8 and Wilson at 6.
Denton won't be released either.
Doh, that's true. So Bradbury or Richie at 6, assuming Watson starts at 7 in Wales.
We need a back up openside option as Watson takes a lot of knocks and Barclay may not come back too quickly so I expect Ritchie to get a decent opportunity.
I would expect a lot of change between Wales and Fiji games and then strongest team for SA and Argentina. Though with Toony, I dont get the impression he always has a "strongest team" in mind, he sees things on a game by game basis
Wales - probably a 5-7 point win for wales, we ain’t won down there in 16 years.
Fiji - a decent win
Ag - reckon we will beat them by 10, I think they will struggle a wee bit and revert onwards
Sa - probably a loss but could be a win with the crowd pushing them on
I just want to beat SA! Will be sitting with the in-laws and a load of other South Africans, so Satan’s to pay out for a lot of drinks should the unthinkable happen! Every injury we’ve had in the build-up just has me depressed, where by have Etztebeth, de Jager, etc returning from their sick beds. It’s just too horrible to contemplate!
Anyway, I think we can go 4/4 (in a good way!), but as well as depending on toony tombola, it also depends on injuries, as we are in low resource in a few positions already.
I reckon we’ll beat Wales, but also think that Fiji will be tougher than usual. Am looking forward to seeing Kinghorn at FB and as thin as we look in some places, I’m also keen to see how the competition develops in others (front row, scrum half to name 2).
Do you remember when we were going down to Cardiff earlier this year and everyone was doing daft predictions of world rankings, only to look the fool later?
Well, if Scotland beat wales by 16 or more and South Africa beat England by 15 or less, Scotland go to 3rd in the world.
Very hard to know what to expect from SA. We might well win, but that might only be because we lose by 60 to Argentina the week before. I just want to see some consistency in the performances. If we can achieve that and have a look at some of the fringe options too then great.
I think most of the team is fairly obvious, only a couple of positions have more than one decent option for the 23. Who would you all be picking at 6/8/9/12?
Fagerson is playing well and it'd be nice for him to get over his USA (?) experience, I guess it's him, Bradbury (if fit) or Ritchie alongside Wilson for the first game. Watson obviously starts in a first XV, regardless.
I'd like to try the model of having the pacey, running 9 start and a guy available to calm things down on the bench, but I'm not hopeful.
12 is presumably about having a good look at Scott/Johnson with the assumption that Dunbar won't be fully fit, or even if he is he will 100% get injured again before the RWC.
Wing and hooker (and maybe lock) we can hopefully rotate a bit without too much worry.
In Cardiff, I would start with Price and have Pyrgos on the bench - the latter has improved since going to Edinburgh and the selection offers the pace/ pragmatism options. (Not sure quite how to phrase that, but hopefully you know what I mean - I do think Pyrgos offers more than just being a poor man’s Laidlaw).
Not sure if Thompson is permitted to play in Cardiff, but I’d start him at 8. If not, he gets a a go v Fiji.
12 - would probably go with Scott in Wales. There’ll be a few people relatively new to test match rugby down there, so I’d be happy starting him down there and seeing how he goes.
General Zod wrote:In Cardiff, I would start with Price and have Pyrgos on the bench - the latter has improved since going to Edinburgh and the selection offers the pace/ pragmatism options. (Not sure quite how to phrase that, but hopefully you know what I mean - I do think Pyrgos offers more than just being a poor man’s Laidlaw).
Not sure if Thompson is permitted to play in Cardiff, but I’d start him at 8. If not, he gets a a go v Fiji.
12 - would probably go with Scott in Wales. There’ll be a few people relatively new to test match rugby down there, so I’d be happy starting him down there and seeing how he goes.
Yeah. I dislike games against Wales at the best of times.
Loosehead is weird, we suddenly have quite a few options but no clear quality to distinguish them. Dell and Marfo both put in good performances recently didn’t they? Dell still looks too lightweight to me, but I thought that about Dickinson.
Vaguely on that topic does anyone know what happened to Welsh? A couple of us were clamouring for his return, he came back and had a crap game and I’ve not seen him since for Newcastle or Scotland.
Dicko had a low centre of gravity and virtually no fat on him though. I wouldn't class him up there with the heavyweights but he could certainly pack a powerful punch at scrum time a couple of years ago. I've seen Dell get in trouble far too many times and he lacks the size or power to get out of it.
Welsh team looking a bit like this if it’s full strength.
I think unlike the 6N the scotland players should be going into this with a clear eye on knowing that they can beat these guys week in and week out in the pro 14.
Evans
Owens
Lee
Hill
AWJ
Lydiate
Tuperic
Moriarty
Davis
Anscombe
North
Parks
Davis
Liam Williams
1/2p
Our team must look like this
Dell
Mcinally
Nel
JG
Gg
Wilson
Watson
Fagerson
Price
Hastings
Mquiggon
Scott
Jones
Seymore
Kinghorn
Big D wrote:Having seen the team Edinburgh are putting out v Zebre I'd rather the wales game wasn't happening.
It is an absolute travesty. Glasgow are away to Munster as well which is going to be very tough indeed.
The thing that irks me the most is that none of the match/gate revenues are going to Doddie's charity - although there will be collection buckets (how lovely...)
From the looks it it we'll be rolling with;
Dell
McInnally
Nel
Gilchrist
Gray
Ritchie
Watson
Wilson
Price
Hastings
Jones
Scott
Jones
Seymour
Kinghorn
Brown
Rae/McCallum
Allan
Toolis
Fagerson
Horne
Horne
Dunbar...?
