Edinburgh Rugby

Congrats to Edinburgh who scraped a win at Ulster over the weekend. Things are looking good if they can still nick an away victory even whilst under the kosh and in front of a partisan crowd.

Mossy seems to have kicked well and Mark Robertson continues to look sharp. Also good to see a World Class drop goal from Phil, I hope he’s been practicing as it's one thing (among many) we could use for Scotland. As long as he doesn’t start trying from inside his own half, a la Hernandez or Franc Steyn.

Glasgow were beaten by their bogey team the Dragons, while in other more surprising news perennial underachievers Connacht beat Cardiff who now find themselves draped over the bottom of the league table.

Catch the highlights show here (UK only).

Meanwhile in the absence of someone stepping forward to fill the role of Top 14 correspondent, I did a bit of digging on Eurosport site and managed to find that Rory Lamont played at the weekend (at fullback) for Toulon in their defeat of Toulose.

Jonny is back to his best, according to Al’s nemesis Freddie Michalak. Speaking of Al, happy birthday for tomorrow big man! While digging I couldn’t see any sign of Hugo at Stade but that is less than surprising given the depth of their squad and recent coaching turnaround.

Haskell seems to have been in Stade’s back row while Simon Taylor was MIA (as was Big Jason for Clermont), and Andy Henderson stayed on the bench for Montauban.

I was hoping to catch the Leinster game this week as I will be down in the big smoke and wanted to see if Edinburgh can make it four in a row and stay atop the table, but alas stupid Setanta scheduling has the kickoff at 630 PM which clashes with an important social engagement. Whatever happened to 3 PM on a Saturday?

A new look Edinburgh team under new coach Rob Moffat will seek a return to winning ways in Cardiff on Friday.

Some of the changes are enforced by injury—Edinburgh still have a long list of injured including Jim Hamilton, Dave Callam, and Ross Rennie—while others like Lions Ross Ford and Mike Blair are rested.

While the bench looks a little youthful/undercooked, look for sevens man Roddy Grant to lay down a marker while Scott Macleod will look to continue his road to redemption in the second row.

We also have Holland’s sole pro rugby player and a new signing from the Newcastle Falcons, Tim Visser, hoping to pin down a wing spot. And let’s not forget the return of Chunk!

Given performances in the preseason it’s difficult to tell if the players will be able to live up to last season's results, but I reckon Cardiff may be too strong for them, especially as they will be smarting after their home defeat to Edinburgh at the end of last season. I hope Moffat’s boys can prove me wrong, though.

Here's the Edinburgh roster set to face the Cardiff Blues: Chris Paterson, Mark Robertson, Ben Cairns, John Houston, Tim Visser, Phil Godman, Greig Laidlaw, Allan Jacobsen, Andrew Kelly, Geoff Cross, Craig Hamilton, Scott MacLeod, Alan MacDonald, Roddy Grant, and Allister Hogg (captain).

Substitutes: Sean Crombie, Kyle Traynor, Steve Turnbull, Fraser McKenzie, Ross Samson, David Blair, and Nick De Luca.

The game will be shown live on BBC2 Wales—see our Scottish Rugby on TV page for details of how to view this (basically have Sky or live in Wales).

Cardiff 14 - 36 Edinburgh

Edinburgh put together a solid defensive performance coupled with some excellent counter-attacking rugby to snatch a record second-place finish in the Magners League with an away victory in the last match to be played at Cardiff Arms Park.

There were a few decisions from Irish ref Simon McDowell that were controversial to the home crowd, but probably helped too—notably a penalty try and sin-binning for the deliberate knock down of a pass to Phil Godman about two meters from the line.

That gave Edinburgh the space needed to keep the scoreboard operator awake and turn the match in their favor.

After a lot of loose play, several knock-ons, and turnovers by both sides in the first half, this period proved decisive.

It was also great to see a Scottish side capitalizing on their opposition's mistakes with a degree of ruthlessness often absent.

Ally Hogg put in a captain’s performance at the breakdown alongside youngster Roddy Grant and was turning over the ball almost at will against a Cardiff side shorn of much of its international talent. Ross Ford and Geoff Cross both had good games too, although Ford missed the odd lineout throw.

Godman marshaled his backs well on the counter in a loose game that suited Webster and Mossy’s style, although he didn’t always get the best service from scrum half Laidlaw in crunch situations.

Nick De Luca popped up everywhere in midfield, putting in some good defensive work and grabbing the interception try that put the result beyond doubt—regardless of the ability Cardiff had to conjure late points that scared Leicester.

To be fair, it was mostly a second string that faced Edinburgh here, the same sort of second string that the bigger clubs can afford to field.

Such second strings allowed the results to go Edinburgh’s way earlier in the weekend (Ospreys losing to Munster and Leinster losing to the Dragons). This is probably a sign that, at least until the play-off system next season, Heineken Cup Rugby is still the bigger prize for the larger clubs.

Edinburgh would have been guaranteed a play-off spot anyway if the system had been in place this year—probably facing Munster or Leinster if the usual one-versus-four, or two-versus-three model is followed.

At the end of the match, as Hugo Southwell came on for his last appearance in an Edinburgh shirt, the heavens above Cardiff opened as if to signal their displeasure not to see a home victory.

However, it was to be Edinburgh and Andy Robinson’s day.

The match was largely forgotten by the locals in a matter of minutes as the Blues and their fans prepared to mark the obsolescence of one of Rugby’s oldest icons in the shape of the Arms Park, and celebrate their current successes past and present at season’s end.

For Edinburgh though, the last trip home from Cardiff Arms Park will be a memorable and very happy one.

Edinburgh blasted the Dragons with a bonus-point victory at Murrayfield this weekend but Glasgow failed to do them a favour by beating an out-of-sorts Ospreys team.

They did deny them a bonus point but the game was marred by Max Evans going off on a stretcher with what looked like a nasty knee injury and another schizophrenic refereeing performance from Irishman George Clancy.

Ruaridh Jackson looked inventive at 10 and kicked most of his points and Lome Fa-Atau had a pretty good game on the opposite wing from Thom Evans.

I have to say that Andrew Henderson looked pretty off-peak when he came off the bench with a couple of poor and late challenges—one of which he would have been carded for if Clancy wasn’t obsessing over sending off as many props as possible.

The Ospreys now move third, equal on points with Leinster. Edinburgh can regain second if both those teams lose next weekend and they manage to beat Cardiff in Cardiff. Unlikely, I know. But Cardiff have a midweek game and must be on their last legs by now—paying for the silly Anglo Welsh Cup.

Meanwhile, Leinster face the Dragons but Ospreys have to play Munster. So third could be on and they are guaranteed to at least equal their best ever finish of fourth.

While he was always an outside chance to be called up to the Lions as a replacement for the injured Tom Shanklin—and it was interesting to hear Will Greenwood mention him as a possibility—this will almost certainly rule Maximus out.

In the same game though, James Hook looked pretty good from inside centre, and he might give the Lions some fly-half cover too.

With Jamie Roberts going off injured in the Munster match last night too the Lions could be looking at another replacement in the centre.

Speaking of which, the Sunday Times reported that former Lions scrum half and backs coach Rob Howley was dispatched to watch Chris Cusiter in Perpignan this weekend—bit of a shame as he didn’t seem to get on the pitch.

Ian Macgeechan went to watch Danny Care who didn’t have the greatest game either. No word if anyone was watching Blair, as we await the rumoured announcement this week.

UPDATE: The Times is now reporting that Rob Howley was in the crowd for the Edinburgh match, which seems more likely. Someone (in the Murdoch empire) got their info wrong.

More transfer news: Edinburgh prop and ex-Borders and Leeds man Gavin Kerr has signed for Sale Sharks on a two year deal, to bring some much needed experience to a Sale team shipping players and coaches left right and centre. There is still no news on Dan Parks’ contract.

This weekend sees Edinburgh take on the Ospreys and Glasgow take on full strength Leinster - I can only hope both of these games are belters. With spots on the Lions replacements list, the likes of Mike Blair, Ross Ford, James Hook and Ryan Jones will be looking to throw in some good performances - the season’s not over yet. Meanwhile Glasgow’s overlooked talent like Thom Evans and John Barclay will be looking to show why they should be on the list too. Ruaridh Jackson again holds the 10 shirt (a selection in place before yesterday’s Dan Parks trouble), it’s great to see him getting a good run of games but with Leinster warming up for their potentially titanic clash with Munster next weekend, this should be a step up in intensity for him. The Ospreys vs Edinburgh game is live on S4C while Glasgow are on Setanta (Ireland). Both games are 7.30pm kick offs, give or take.

Meanwhile the Lions debate rolls on throughout the blogosphere and beyond, I recommend the BBC 606 boards for a laugh. However it seems to be a sign that Geech and co may be going in the right direction that very few selections are being questioned. The main ones receiving attention seem to be Alan Quinlan over Tom Croft, and Harry Ellis over just about anyone. Good to see some Blair and Cusiter fans out there. Folk still have their doubts about ROG’s defence, flair in the half backs and midfield, but with Hooky distinctly not setting the leeks on fire (they probably have heather in Wales too I suppose) and Henson injured, who else do you take? Flood? Cipriani? Phil Godman? Regarding most of the rest of the squad everyone has pretty much said, hmm okay, let’s get on with it. It was good to see Fitzy supporting Ross Ford in the press too.

Enjoy your weekend!

I have to admit it—I’ve always been kind of an Edinburgh man. I like the city more than Glasgow, went to University there, most of my friends live there. So, naturally, I gravitated toward Edinburgh Rugby as a natural home for my supporter’s sympathies—other than the mighty Highland, of course.

It was also pointed out recently that (inadvertently) I had even sustained this anti-Glasgow bias in the header of this site—now slightly redressed. But it seems in all that I overlooked something. Glasgow are actually pretty good.

Currently, they sit second in the Magners League. They are building a passionate and consistent crowd of supporters at Firhill, and Lineen is long past being happy with valiant defeats.

Performance—and results—are starting to matter to him, as well they should. A lot of the focus is on Andy Robinson rebuilding teams and careers at Edinburgh, but Lineen has been quietly turning the ship around on the other side of the country for a few years now, and this season it looks to have started steaming in the right direction.

Failing some sort of Munster miracle game, Glasgow took part in the Heineken Cup match of the weekend—even including Harlequin’s thriller in the Stade de France—against Bath today.

England’s second best team looked like they would have too much class, but Glasgow never gave up and eventually went down, 35-31. If you get a chance to watch the highlights on Sky tonight, I’d recommend it.

On Friday, Ian MacGeechan blamed Wasps’ endless kicking and lacklustre rugby (still enough to defeat Edinburgh) on the ELVs and new interpretations at the breakdown, yet Bath seem to manage quite well. Even Munster, led by kicking machine Ronan O Gara, are willing to throw it about a bit.

Glasgow manage it quite well, too. Kicking ping-pong only works if you’re certain that the other team will kick it back. Bath don’t. Problem solved.

Glasgow didn’t much either, and it gave us an enthralling game of rugby. I hope Geech will sort it out in time for the Lions tour.

Speaking of which, John Barclay is continuing his run of understated but utterly effective play in the tackle and at the breakdown that will hopefully see him as an outside pick for the tour at 7. Tom Rees and Martin Williams are probably ahead of him, but the Six Nations will give him a broad stage on which to showcase his talent. And he’s only 22. If not this one, maybe the next.

Ruaridh Jackson may yet prove the most important find of the season (though we probably won’t really know for a couple of years) in his first professional start at 10. He’s got great hands, a bit of pace, vision and his tactical kicking wasn’t too bad either (and that’s one area he could learn from Dan Parks).

In a Glasgow team filled with sevens players, they were always alive to the counter—as proven by Thom Evans’ opportunistic hat-trick of tries created largely through sheer pace and acceleration. You won’t have heard it here first, but I believe Ruaridh Jackson has a part to play in Scotland’s future.

The one area Glasgow did suffer in was depth, as illustrated by the very last play of the game. After the clock had ticked over the 80-minute mark, Bath were camped on Glasgow’s line with the sustained pressure that had characterised the second half (punctuated by breakaway Glasgow tries).

You felt the last chance for a well deserved—if unlikely—snatched victory was gone. Suddenly, there’s an interception and Jackson is steaming up the pitch—a repeat of his try minutes before that had put Glasgow into twin bonus point territory and announced that this game was far from over.

The Rec crowd go nuts as a frantic footrace begins, and Jackson finds the touchline closing him out. If there’s one man you want on his shoulder, it was Thom Evans, but he had gone off ten minutes previously to be replaced by the slightly less pacy Hefin O’Hare.

So, instead, Jackson chips past the defender, and looks to regather. But the ball bounces into touch, and the Rec breathes easy again. Not bad for a first game—to be so influential on the outcome, and against a World Cup winning fly-half on the other team.

Glasgow never stopped battling, but their class diminished slightly with every substitution (unlike Bath). Still, next time Jackson is stuck on the bench behind Parks, you might not be able to say the same.

Sean Lineen, I am fast becoming a fan.