HK Round 5 - Edinburgh V Perpignan

First topic message reminder :

Heineken Cup round 5

Murrayfield stadium
Saturday 11th January
KO 18:00
Referee: Peter Fitzgibbon (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Mark Patton (Ireland), Richard Kerr (Ireland)
Television match official: Marshall Kilgore (Ireland)
TV - SS2 Red button

Group standings:

Munster 14
Gloucester 9
Edinburgh 8
Perpignan 7

Edinburgh team

15 Jack Cuthbert

14 Dougie Fife

13 Nick De Luca

12 Ben Atiga

11 Tom Brown

10 Greig Tonks

9 Greig Laidlaw CAPTAIN



1 Alasdair Dickinson

2 Ross Ford

3 Willem Nel

4 Grant Gilchrist

5 Izak van der Westhuizen

6 Cornell Du Preez

7 Roddy Grant

8 David Denton



Substitutes

16 Aleki Lutui

17 Wicus Blaauw

18 Geoff Cross

19 Ollie Atkins

20 Tomas Leonardi

21 Grayson Hart

22 Carl Bezuidenhout

23 Matt Scott

Perpignan team

[TBC]

All to play for in group 6, with Munster the likely group winners the remaining 3 teams all stand a chance of getting the 2nd place spot, and entry into the Amlin.  Out of all the teams, Edinburgh are probably the only ones that would welcome that just now! If Edinburgh were to manage 2nd place it really would be a remarkable achievement.  The fact that we still stand a chance of 2nd place makes it even more frustrating that we completely failed to turn up at home to a struggling Gloucester team - if we'd won that we'd be fighting it out for top spot just now.

As to the game itself, Edinburgh actually played quite well away to Perpignan, scoring a couple of decent tries, but were undone in the 2nd half by some woeful open field defence. That aspect of our game has improved beyond recognition since then so hopefully their dangerous strike runners can be nullified.  The usual cliché can applied as to whether they will turn up or not, and I hope from an Edinburgh point of view they turn up typically French!

PenfroPete wrote:(from 18:00) – 18:00– Edinburgh v USA Perpignan - Heineken Cup Pool 6 - Sky Sports2 Red Button
Referee: Peter Fitzgibbon (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Mark Patton (Ireland), Richard Kerr (Ireland)
Television match official: Marshall Kilgore (Ireland)

Kilgore, "I love the smell of Ralgex in the morning. It reminds me of victory".

jimbopip wrote:

PenfroPete wrote:(from 18:00) – 18:00– Edinburgh v USA Perpignan - Heineken Cup Pool 6 - Sky Sports2 Red Button
Referee: Peter Fitzgibbon (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Mark Patton (Ireland), Richard Kerr (Ireland)
Television match official: Marshall Kilgore (Ireland)

Kilgore, "I love the smell of Ralgex in the morning. It reminds me of victory".

do the, do the, do the Fitzy Gibbon..........

sorry I'll get my coat.

Congrats to RDW and his now apparent Lackey GC   

Seems Edinburgh have a chance of taking this one. FES you going along to the match?

Sadly not Radge. I have to be up in Inverness this weekend. My family are annoyed with me because it's apparently traditional to spend some portion of Christmas and New Year with your family, and also some business about buying gifts. As such, I'm going home with a bag full of books and other uninteresting items in discounted wrapping paper that no-one will actually read.

Luckily Dad has Sky, so I can just sit and watch rugby all weekend.

Fes I too have family in Inverness which is why I spent the festive season in Essex and will be in Exeter on Saturday. Get your dad to tune in and keep an eye out for kilted terrorists at Sandy Park, his brother Donald used to play for Partick Thistle I believe.

Don't get me wrong, Inverness is lovely.....if you like seagulls and wind.

In fact Jimmy Chung's in Inverness was actually reported to have been caught with seagulls in the freezer. Cheaper and more readily available up there than chicken apparently, and if you smother in MSG inspired sweet & sour sauce, no-one can notice the difference.....

Got a discount code for anyone still to buy a ticket - gives you 50% off if booked before tomorrow night.. pm me if interested

Ross Rennie is down to play for Edinburgh accies in the B&I cup against London Scottish! That'll be some sight and I'm sure will help the crowd numbers.

Interestingly Mike coman is playing too - wonder who will be the Backrow sub? Leonardi?

Mike Coman was signed relatively recently so might not be in the Edinburgh HC sqaud.

I'd say a bench for Cox, Basilia or most likely Leonardi

Cox is playing for Gala, Basalaia and Leonardi aren't any any B&I cup squad but given Basalaia has barely featured since the start of the season it will probably be Leonardi.

We'll find out in an hour or so!

Edinburgh Accies pack has 7 Edinburgh players in it:

Alex Allan
McInally
Niven
McAlpine
Accies guy
Hamish Watson
Ross Rennie
Mike Coman

Pretty handy backrow for a game at that level!

What happened to Hamish Watson?

He was in great form recently and looked really promising?

Anyone think Edinburgh has too many players now? Esp. in the back row

Edinburgh team announced - as expected really, but most importantly Matt Scott is on the bench!!   

Matt Scott - 12

15 Jack Cuthbert

14 Dougie Fife

13 Nick De Luca

12 Ben Atiga

11 Tom Brown

10 Greig Tonks

9 Greig Laidlaw CAPTAIN



1 Alasdair Dickinson

2 Ross Ford

3 Willem Nel

4 Grant Gilchrist

5 Izak van der Westhuizen

6 Cornell Du Preez

7 Roddy Grant

8 David Denton



Substitutes

16 Aleki Lutui

17 Wicus Blaauw

18 Geoff Cross

19 Ollie Atkins

20 Tomas Leonardi

21 Grayson Hart

22 Carl Bezuidenhout

23 Matt Scott

funnyExiledScot wrote:Matt Scott - 12

Naturally

All very much as expected. Pleased that we can another chance to see Tonks at 10, although equally keen to see Bezzy come off the bench.

The 1st XV has been consistently selected, and I reckon that's the best bench we've had for years. Happy days. Now we just need to win.....

Tonks has a real chance here to make a name for himself. Proir to this I saw him as a competent FB. He now looks to be much more than this and although playing outside Laidlaw helps a 10 he has looked comfortable at 10

Perpignan team

http://www.usap.fr/articles-6/114-2229-edimbourg-vs-usap-la-compo/

Is that a strong team? Backs look decent, and will be very interesting indeed to watch Tommy Allan play.

Pretty sure those two blokes on the wings are the ones that tore us apart last time - hopefully our good friend Nematode does his job and nullifies them!

Tomasco Judas Allan?  Hope Tonks plays him off the park!





NBD: I am indeed aware of the irony of this statement given Tonk's place of birth and involvement with England u16's, u18's, u19's & England Juniors!!!  

That team was to be expected, I do wish rennie was playing for Edinburgh instead of accies but maybe its a ploy by the sru to scout lee miller and what he is like against a top class openside I am Tempted to go to both games but I expected a low crowd at murrayfield.

On a side note do any " academicals" know why alex blair is not first choice ? I Thought he had huge potential

Tommy Allan made the right choice.

If you're in a club with Italian coaches and players that can put in a good word for you and you'll get game time (Italy are more desperate than us for a ten) against top sides regularly, why would you turn Italy down? We refused to sign him even on a one year contract and further crowded him out with the Heathcote fiasco. Italy put faith in him and give him a run vs Australia. We wouldn't even start Bennett, Fusaro, or Heathcote against Japan.

WhoCares will confirm but that is not a first choice Perp team by any stretch - quite a few big names rested, including our own Big Al.

Will also be interested to see how Oor Tommaso gets on. To be fair to him, he's gamely given interviews with the Scottish press where he makes the not unreasonable point that Scott Johnson and the SRUs' claims of interest in him did not sit consistently with the fact that neither Scottish club offered him terms of any kind. Would much rather have had him at Glasgow than Scott "Dorian Gray" Wight.

The SRU really is pathetic. Scott Wight is 28 and has hardly impressed. He's consistently behind J&W in the pecking order and is never going to be intl quality, even if he was he'd only have a few years. But the give him a 1yr extension instead of Allan or Miller? And the signing of Piers Francis too... I think we need to put Mr Smiley on the case.

Probably agree I thought he(tommaso) made the right choice but i thought he could of been a useful 15,I think he played at full back a few years ago. With people on twitter suggesting cuthbert as an international full back and tonks moving to 10 Stuart Hogg needs/needed competition. It's a shame that boat has sailed  

Anyone going to watch Edinburgh A v London Scottish at Raeburn Place tomorrow? Particularly interested in how Rambo goes, can he hook, can he throw ? Also a Watson, Rossco, Coman back row will be interesting. Not to mention all the young players in the backs. Sadly don't think I can make it , reports welcome.

Amazingly Edinburgh are 8/13 favourites for this one - ridiculous odds!

Got Greig Laidlaw to score a try at 7/1 - no other bets really worth it.

justified sinner wrote:Anyone going to watch Edinburgh A v London Scottish at Raeburn Place tomorrow? Particularly interested in how Rambo goes, can he hook, can he throw ? Also a Watson, Rossco, Coman back row will be interesting. Not to mention all the young players in the backs. Sadly don't think I can make it , reports welcome.

Is Alex Blair playing, justified?

Sub

According to the programme USAP team has totally changed looks like Hook to 10 Stroker starts and a load of other changes from the earlier team I saw

Come on Edinburgh

and.....De Luca Frak it up

I just saw ford hook the ball... oh my...

Brown gets a try! quite a good game so far!

Tramptastic wrote:I just saw ford hook the ball... oh my...

Thank god someone else seen it. Otherwise I would have thought hallucinations had kicked in

Also I think Fitzgibbon has made up his mind who is winning the scrums

I thought it looked like Dickinson was being dragged down tbh, but then I was always an openside flanker so I have no idea what was going on!

That literally was the worst late tackle penalty I've ever seen - they guy pretty much still had the ball!

Tries for Du Preez and a other for Dougie Fife. We're walking this game!!! 3 tries to the good, 25-9 up with 20 left. Time for a bonus point...

decent weekend for scottish rugby, 2 heinekin wins!

Tramptastic wrote:decent weekend for scottish rugby, 2 heinekin wins!

Shame both teams were already out

Embra can still get an amlin QF spot

Well played Edinburgh. Great 2nd half (particularly the first 20 mins). Thought the back row really stood out. However, De Luca stood out for some of the wrong reasons.

Brilliant, brilliant win!

Shame we didn't push for the bp, but can't complain getting a win like that.

Solomons really is building something at Edinburgh, and he even used his subs!

GLove39 wrote:Tomasco Judas Allan?  Hope Tonks plays him off the park!]

He did!

5 Scottish tries scored this weekend, 4 of them by wingers! Whats going on?!    

Couldn't quite believe I was watching Edinburgh at times there, definitely can't complain about a result like that considering where we were earlier in the season. Some great performances in there, and another assured performance from Tonks at 10. Lovely!

If there was any doubt about it before today you can definitely say that Edinburgh are back in the game!

Plenty players putting their hands up for Scotland selection. Denton, Grant, Fife, Tonks, Gilchrist to name but a few. I think Atkins will play in the A's, he is looking like a really good nab as well and whisper it quietly, Ford seems to have rediscovered his Mojo!

Couldn't find a link to watch this which was pretty unlucky by the sounds of it.

What a good, solid win. Kind of annoyed we couldn't eke the bonus point out of it.

Looking forward to the highlights.

Edinburgh are starting to look like a team again and were well organised in defense today.  Good stuff from Grandpa

Just back from the game, impressive stuff from the squad most players played well. Tonks looks good as did fife and brown in the backs with Denton and ford going forward they had a solid platform. Best moment of the game was when was beuzy or whatever his name is, just came on demanded the ball from laidlaw and 2 passes later Cornell scored. He does not lack confidence however after watching nick de Luca and atiga today I can't see him having the confidence to use his centres anytime soon! O and matt Scott was not on the bench as previously stated   but As previously mentioned Atkins is a good ball carrier