Non-Wallaby RWC Warm Up Matches

[Rebel rouser]

Taqele was involved in all 5 tries!

Yup, a good showing from him. Although the extremely selfish denying of a certain try to Leali'ifano a pretty big blemish.

I love how Leali'ifano then makes a statement by gift-wrapping a try for Ellis. He is all class. It's a shame we don't get to see what he can do in the 10 jersey for the Wallabies this year

 

[Highlander35]

Scotland Squad

Backs: Sam Hidalgo-Clyne (Edinburgh Rugby), Peter Horne (Glasgow Warriors), Damien Hoyland (Edinburgh Rugby), Rory Hughes (Glasgow Warriors), Ruaridh Jackson (Wasps), Sean Lamont, Henry Pyrgos (both Glasgow Warriors), Matt Scott, Greig Tonks (both Edinburgh Rugby), Richie Vernon, Duncan Weir (both Glasgow Warriors),
Forwards: Adam Ashe, Kevin Bryce, Mike Cusack (all Glasgow Warriors), Alasdair Dickinson, Ross Ford, Grant Gilchrist CAPTAIN (all Edinburgh Rugby), Richie Gray (Castres), Jim Hamilton (Saracens), John Hardie (unattached), Stuart McInally, Willem Nel (both Edinburgh Rugby), Gordon Reid (Glasgow Warriors), Alasdair Strokosch (Perpigan), Hamish Watson (Edinburgh Rugby).
B Team Backs remain, and in fact even more B team before with Visser and Fife out for the uncapped Hoyland and Hughes.
Forwards are about the same. Nel, Dickinson and R. Gray in for Welsh, Grant and Harley is an improvement. Ashe, Hardey, Strokosch and Watson in for Cowan, Denton, Blake and Barclay is a negative in the back row for mine.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

PSA has made the inevitable 12 changes for the return match v Ringinland:

15 Scott Spedding, 14 Yoann Huget, 13 Mathieu Bastareaud, 12 Wesley Fofana, 11 Noa Nakaitaci, 10 Frédéric Michalak, 9 Sébastien Tillous-Borde, 8 Louis Picamoles, 7 Bernard le Roux, 6 Damien Chouly, 5 Yoann Maestri, 4 Pascal Papé (c), 3 Rabah Slimani, 2 Guilhem Guirado, 1 Eddy Ben Arous
Replacements: 16 Benjamin Kayser, 17 Vincent Debaty, 18 Uini Atonio, 19 Alexandre Flanquart, 20 Yannick Nyanga, 21 Rory Kockott, 22 Rémi Talès, 23 Gaël Fickou

http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,3551_71899,00.html

 

[Highlander35]

Scotland name the Squad to play off against the Azzuri.

15 Greig Tonks (Edinburgh Rugby) – 5 caps
14 Sean Lamont (Glasgow Warriors) – 94 caps; 12 tries, 60 points
13 Richie Vernon (Glasgow Warriors) – 21 caps
12 Matt Scott (Edinburgh Rugby) – 26 caps, 3 tries, 15 points
11 Rory Hughes (Glasgow Warriors) – uncapped
10 Duncan Weir (Glasgow Warriors) – 18 caps; 1 try, 5 cons, 6 pens, 1 drop
9 Sam Hidalgo-Clyne (Edinburgh Rugby) – 6 caps
1 Gordon Reid (Glasgow Warriors) – 9 caps
2 Stuart McInally (Edinburgh Rugby) – uncapped
3 Mike Cusack (Glasgow Warriors) – 1 cap
4 Richie Gray (Castres) – 44 caps; 2 tries, 10 points
5 Grant Gilchrist CAPTAIN (Edinburgh Rugby) – 9 caps, 1 try, 5 points
6 Alasdair Strokosch (Perpignan) – 44 caps, 2 tries, 10 points
7 John Hardie (unattached) – uncapped
8 Adam Ashe (Glasgow Warriors) – 5 caps
Substitutes
16 Ross Ford (Edinburgh Rugby) – 86 caps; 2 tries, 10 points
17 Alasdair Dickinson (Edinburgh Rugby) – 44 caps, 2 tries, 10 points
18 Willem Nel (Edinburgh Rugby) – uncapped
19 Jim Hamilton (Saracens) – 62 caps; 1 try, 5 points
20 Hamish Watson (Edinburgh Rugby) – 1 cap
21 Henry Pyrgos (Glasgow Warriors) – 14 caps; 3 tries, 15 points
22 Peter Horne (Glasgow Warriors) – 8 caps; 1 try, 1 con, 1 pen 10 points
23 Damien Hoyland (Edinburgh Rugby) – uncapped

McInally finally gets his cap third time around, last weeks bench props get the start, Richie Gray makes his comeback, entirely new back row to see how they compare to last week, swap of the scrum halfs, Weir get's a chance to show he's Russell's back up, Vernon and Lamont get another shot to show that they are the ones for last 1 or 2 back spots.​

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

^^^^^^^^ John Hardie (unattached)....... lol.

 

[Highlander35]

Yeah...

I don't get it. I really really don't. OK, Fusaro is too small and Roddie Grant is the Beau Robinson of Scottish opensides.

You've got Watson, Blake and Cowan already there, and even if you want to just talk Scottish Scottish Opensides, there's Barclay in the Squad, and Kelly Brown outside it.

I don't mind bringing in players who want to play for Scotland, whether it's through residency or ancestry. Maitland, Visser, Nel, Strauss, Blake, Watson, Cusack etc. But to pick up an injury prone, out of contract Kiwi who's not even a starter for his Super XV side, and parachute him into the national team when neither Pro12 side wants him on their books...

I like what Cotter's doing in terms of changing the performance, and the style but some of the personnel decisions are flabbergasting to say the least.

 

[Highlander35]

Italian team:

Italy: Masi, Sarto, Benvenuti, Garcia, Venditti, Allan, Palazzani, Vunisa, Zanni, Minto, Bernabò, Geldenhuys, Cittadini, Giazzon, Aguero.

Bench: Ghiraldini, Rizzo, Castrogiovanni, Bortolami, Bergamasco, Violi, Canna, McLean.

 

[boyo]

FRA v ENG
FS2(HD) Sat. 4.30 pm
FS2(HD) Thu. 12.00 pm

 

[Bairdy]

France's forwards have utterly dominated the English forwards in the first half. 15-6.

A lot of the English pack's first game in weeks and it shows.

 

[Highlander35]

Italy 12-16 Scotland

Haven't watched anything yet, but just glad we've got the monkey off our backs for grabbing a win.

 

[Omar Comin']

France held on to beat England 25-20

In other games Japan beat Uruguay 30-8, and USA just beat Canada 41-23.

 

[HighPlainsDrifter]

France's forwards have utterly dominated the English forwards in the first half. 15-6.

A lot of the English pack's first game in weeks and it shows.

Cipriani was tremendous off the bench and staked a strong claim for inclusion in the Eng 31 .....if he can be just as good off the field - he's in . The French looked great for the first 65 minutes .....suspect the French bench may be a problem going forward .

 

[Highlander35]

Highlights from Japan v Uruguay and Scotland v Italy.

https://streamable.com/7hgr

https://streamable.com/6dkr

 

[Marcelo]

Italy 12-16 Scotland

Haven't watched anything yet, but just glad we've got the monkey off our backs for grabbing a win.

I heard it was the worst rugby match in history

 

[Highlander35]

Not a surprise. Can't remember ever having a quality match against the Italians.

Reckon Cotter will have seen enough of some of the boys to make the required calls, and the big guns will be rolled in for next 2 weeks given we've got the long break before the first game.

 

[Omar Comin']

The (lack of) highlights certainly support that!

Hopefully the world cup doesn't have too many dire games like that one. The sooner world rugby adopts the NRC points system (or close to it) the better IMO.

I actually thought Uruguay would lose by more. Maybe they'll be able to keep England and Australia under 80.

 

[Highlander35]

North America derby highlights.

https://streamable.com/senv

 

[the sabanator]

That's England's worst performance for quite some time, probably good for them to get that out of the way before the RWC.

It'll be really interesting to see who they pick as their centre pair. Jonathon Joseph has the 13 sewn up, leaving a few candidates for 12: Burrell, who by all accounts wasn't great in Paris, Barritt, Burgess, Twelvetrees & Slade. Burgess probably doesn't have the technical skills to start at 12, Twelvetrees isn't test quality, Slade's probably too raw, leaving it to a two horse race between Barritt & Burrell. They really miss Tuilagi

 

[Highlander35]

Here are the highlights anyhow.

I understand why they pick Billy V, but I wouldn't, he's very very good, but he thinks he's better than he is, and consequently tries to do everything himself and does some very stupid stuff, the flying high tackle, not listening to the ref at the breakdowm time, losing the ball in contact etc.

 

[GunnerDownUnder]

Edinburgh 31-16 Romania