The Silver Fern

Hello folks, long time no see. I thought I'd say hello during the buildup to the biannual "oh ferfuksakesScotland" event (to be honest it's a lot more frequent than that).

We are struggling in the front row, and that worries me as I think Hames has been very good from what I've seen. Nel broke his arm last week and the next guy off the rank is Zander Fagerson, a young laddie who is very promising but the tight isn't his forte, he is very good around the park and will win a couple of turnovers but despite being a sizable young man he hasn't yet matured into the beast of a scrummager that we need.

However, hopes springs eternal and all that.

After hope is done there is always the Talisker

Pass the Talisker, Martha,there is come celebrating that needs doing

Here is a run down of the Scottish selection, I've focused on the positives

1. Daryll Marfo – there has been a terrible affliction sweeping through Scottish looseheads of late and the last two standing are in this side. There are four players at least ahead of him in the pecking order but he aquitted himself very well in his first cap against Samoa

2. Stuart McInally – a converted backrow player, he has come on leaps and bounds under Richard Cockerill’s tutelage at Edinburgh this season.

3. Zander Fagerson – 21 years old, he already has well over 50 senior games under his belt and will win his 14th cap on Saturday.

4. Ben Toolis – very athletic lineout specialist, is good around the park

5. Jonny Gray – the younger of the two Grays, he is a machine, a real work horse who makes a ridiculous number of tackles. He is adding a bit of carrying power to his game.

6. John Barclay – captain, the veteran backrower is a menace at the breakdown and a good link player.

7. Hamish Watson – pocket battleship, he should not be able to get through as many defenders as he does.

8. Cornell du Preez – at 1.92m and 118kg he was obviously far too small to make it in South Africa so he took his trade north. If he gets his game going expect him to sit a few men on their arses and complete a few sexy offloads.

9. Ali Price – nippy little scrum half who is always looking to put pace on the game, has a decent pass.

10. Finn Russell – ah Finn, always plays with a smile on his face, he is not a game manager so much as a game breaker – watch for a hard flat pass across the defence.

11. Lee Jones – not the biggest winger in rugby, but he knows his way to the line at club level.

12. Alex Dunbar – good over the ball and straightens the line, showed no little power for his try last week

13. Huw Jones – you guys will know him from Super Rugby, has good feet

14. Tommy Seymour – one of our best players, good hard runner, very good under a high ball

15. Stuart Hogg – fast, has an eye for the mismatch in front of him and the pace to get there

16. George Turner – lightweight but very good rugby player

17. James Bhatti – young loosehead learning his trade

18. Simon Berghan – good Scottish stock, all the way from Christchurch

19. Grant Gilchrist – working his way back from injury which stalled a rise to greatness

20. Luke Hamilton – hardyards ball carrier

21. Henry Pyrgos – sigh

22. Peter Horne – best position is a playmaking 12

23. Byron McGuigan – has a fair bit of pace, uncapped.

Jiffy's pick of Ioane as motm was shallow, Sam Cane was the best player on the park by a mile

@hydro11

The thing is, as a prop (retired) I have to admire what Hames did, he knew the ref was on the other side, the touch judge was half the pitch away and there was no spider cam, so he went for it. On the one level I applaud it, on the other I'm outraged!!! outraged I tell you!

@crash

Dod or Doddie is a shortened version of George in Scotland.

My favourite off-field Doddie moment was from the Lions - they were doing media training and being asked questions to see how they would respond, Doddie was asked why he'd been spotted out drinking late in a night club before a game and he said, "Mistaken identity"

"Could you tell us who the B&I Lions player it was then?

Doddie says, "My father is out on tour with us"

Now we just need the ABs to hammer Wales to show Gatland he left behind some talent in June and it will be a good day all round

Congrats ABs, that was a good test match, I thought we might just have made it over the line at the end there, but it wasn't to be.

Hey ho

Hi all.
From a Scottish perspective our tour was all about Japan next year, there are few opportunities between now and then to see who we've got behind the front rank players if they take a tumble before our first game of the tournament.

Scotland's front five in the Argentina game sort of resembles what we'd put out in a competition game, albeit only if WP Nel and the two Gray brothers aren't available. Playing our second choice hooker on the flank raised a few eyebrows, especially when we've got a genuine up and comer in Jamie Ritchie sitting on the pine, but that's Gregor Townsend for you. I guess he was looking at options within the limitations of the squad numbers allowed at the world cup.

We were also looking at where we sit regarding depth across the backline, and to be honest it doesn't look great. Young George Horne at scrum half looks good, though very inexperienced. Likewise Son-of-Gav at fly half looks promising but green. Who knows wrt to the centres? They struggled against the US and ran a really poor Argentinian defence ragged, Huw Jones and Alex Dunbar won't be losing sleep over anything other than their injuries.

Blair Kinghorn was a plus in the backline, he's gone from a callow Edinburgh fullback prone to the odd howler to a pretty useful attacking threat at this level, he turned 21 in January so there is still a lot more to come from him.

Overall, Canada and Argentina were woeful, and so were we against the USA, who were good for their win.

@catogrande said in 2018 June Internationals:

England are looking good too.

Every silver lining has a cloud

@Crucial said in Rebels v Chiefs:

@Tim said in Rebels v Chiefs:

@Crucial Why was that reset and not a penalty?

Gardiner

I was moved to log on and comment on the refereeing of the scrum in this game, it’s truly awful.

@nepia said in MotM vs Scotland:

Special mention to Hames for stamping ALL BLACK all over everything he came near.

I'll watch the game again tomorrow, but the penalty Hames won at the end for Berghan standing up - it looked to me for all the world that the ref got it sooooo wrong and Hames was boring in at almost 90 degrees, then up and under, forcing the tighthead to pop out of the scrum.

If I may...

I have my own axe to grind re Gatland and the Lions, there were deserving Scottish players who didn't make it to the Lions tour, despite us beating Wales and Ireland.
That is the bye the bye, and I'll preface what I'm about to say by saying the UK media, or sections of it is the lowest gutter press imaginable, however...

I couldn't help but think of Gatland's son sitting there on the benches, pulling on his shirt, getting ready to play a game of rugby with his mates and these mates have all seen the front pages and read that his father is a clown etc, that sort of stuff is unjustified. That's not rugby, in my opinion.

That is some sharp shootin there, right in their own foot.

Hi Crucial, yeah it's a relatively inexperienced team, there are some more caps being rested this week who might be considered first choicers or there are injured players out, too.
I think Townsend is trying to build a greater depth.
Laidlaw and Hogg are first names on the teamsheet for me, I'm still not sure what our best centre pairing is but Horne and Jones are our paciest options until Duncan Taylor is fit again.
Up front, Johnny Gray is still only 24, Skinner 22. McInally converted to hooker from the back row and so wasn't capped until he had played in the front row for a couple of years, he's first choice now, though it accounts for the low number of caps up front.
This is going to be a tough evening for us, the Boks seem to be going well this year. It was difficult to tell if the teams were any good in their game against France, though.

Townsend has a reputation for is teams playing up tempo rugby, but the last two games has seen us biff it up in the forwards, playing one-out pick and go, I'm kind of hoping this is so South Africa will prepare for that and we'll revert back to slinging it wide and playing on the counter, we'll see.

@crucial
Ah, I certainly would if I could, but for my sins I'll be some 450 miles away - it's safer that way, it's never a good look, a grown man weeping

@mick-gold-coast-qld said in ABs v Scotland:

Rolled gold rubbish, talisker, you are making it up.
The term is as old as "Pom" and maybe older, it has been around as long as "Kiwi" and "Mick" (for Catholics) and "Frog".
Do keep updating your records, though, on raaaacist, hurty terminology. It must be a fascinating obsession to be sure, it will keep you indoors and at a good distance from normal society.

I've been wondering whether or not to bother replying, but it was niggling at me, so I'll give it a go.

The antiquity of an epithet doesn't make it valid, there are some very old words that are now illegal and using them in a place of work would get you sacked. So I refute that point completely.

Second, it's not about being over sensitive or being a "snowflake", it's about being a grown man in the 21st century and acting like it.
Words carry all sorts of baggage with them, it's not for those punching down to "mansplain" to someone that they shouldn't take offence at a lazy slur.

I don't know if you are aware of a newspaper called the Daily Mail, but it's basically a daily newsletter for the Anglo-centric, borderline racist, homophobic culturally stunted wingnuts who hark back to some mythical time from the 1950s where everything was better (I won't go too far into this, but it's a myth, that time never existed).
Anyway, that paper is often found waling about political correctness and why can't I be an ignorant fuckwit any more?
Any defence of stereotypes and slurs can be found in places like the Daily Mail, it's 70 years out of date.

I'll conclude by saying that we in Scotland have our own problems regarding bigotry between two sections of the community, but we don't have an epithet for English people (don't let anyone tell you Sassenach is an insult, no one has used that for decades and it means Saxon, there are variants of the same word in Welsh, Irish, Cornish and Breton).
The dismissive one-word put down works one way, that's why I and most Scots reject it. There might have been one or some, but I don't know of any Scot who would refer to "us Jocks", that alone should be enough to act like an adult and accept it as a thing of the past.

I really do not have a horse in this race, but I wonder if there is anything Gatland is reacting to, or if he is solely the protagonist here?

Without checking back, his record with Wales will probably be better than Henry or Hansen achieved, certainly the Lions has been a success for him in terms of results.

Good finish, but really he shouldn’t be scoring through three defenders

@crucial wow, thanks.

I'll be taking questions on that in about a month