Cardiff Blues vs Edinburgh Rugby: Pro 12

First topic message reminder :



Referee: John Lacey (IRFU, 54th competition game)
Assistant Referees: Stuart Gaffikin (IRFU), Rhys Thomas (WRU)
Citing Commissioner: Jeff Mark (WRU)
TMO: Simon McDowell (IRFU)

Teams:

Cardiff Blues
15 -Dan Fish;
14 - Blaine Scully,
13 - Cory Allen,
12 - Rey Lee-Lo,
11 - Tom James;
10 - Steve Shingler,
9 - Tomos Williams;
1 - Rhys Gill,
2 - Kirby Myhill,
3 - Taufa'ao Filise,
4 - George Earle,
5 - Macauley Cook,
6 - Josh Navidi,
7 - Ellis Jenkins (capt),
8 - Nick Williams.

16 - Kristian Dacey,
17 - Gethin Jenkins,
18 - Scott Andrews,
19 - James Down,
20 - Cam Dolan,
21 - Lewis Jones,
22 - Gareth Anscombe,
23 - Matthew Morgan.


Edinburgh Rugby
15. Glenn Bryce
14. Rory Scholes
13. Sasa Tofilau
12. Solomoni Rasolea
11. Tom Brown
10. Duncan Weir
9. Nathan Fowles

1. Rory Sutherland
2. Ross Ford
3. WP Nel
4. Fraser McKenzie
5. Grant Gilchrist CAPTAIN
6. Jamie Ritchie
7. Hamish Watson
8. Nasi Manu

Substitutes:
16. Stuart McInally
17. Jack Cosgrove
18. Simon Berghan
19. Ben Toolis
20. Magnus Bradbury
21. Sam Hidalgo-Clyne
22. Blair Kinghorn
23. Chris Dean

Bonus point win, in the rain, in the first rusty performance of the season, can't really complain.

Need to improve in a few areas, but thought the defence was very good in the second half and Edinburgh barely got a sniff.

New signings showed up well - Williams and Earle were very good and Shinger did well.

Good to see Anscombe really threatening off the bench. Hopefully was can get to play in good conditions soon.

Didn't see the game, but would say Solomons has had his day now anyway.

Alan Solomons was a great coach for Ulster, but since then the league has changed a lot. The most successful teams now are teams who play a high-tempo attacking game, either by clearing rucks incredibly quickly or offloading the ball extremely well. Slow rugby is very easy to defend against and gets you nowhere.

As a coach you either adapt or retire.

EST wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:

TheMildlyFranticLlama wrote:So what is old old Alan's excuse this time, the weather presumably?

Too soon to call for Solomons to go? Or 2 seasons too late depending on how you look at it!

I honestly think end of last season was the time for him to go, he is too set in his ways.

While I am at it, Chris Dean has offered nothing in his pro career either.  Just not a good enough player.

Agree on that - can't remember him ever standing out in a game

Ritchie was very poor tonight - he looks as scrawny as ever and made some really bad decisions.

I really don't know what the gameplan was meant to be tonight - a criticism regularly levelled against Edinburgh throughout the Solomons reign!

So Glasgow take down the current champions with a 6 try victory.

Edinburgh do a lot right but don't score and ultimately let a side run away with it.

Dare I suggest it's business as usual for the Scottish teams?


(Too soon?)

George Carlin wrote:So Glasgow take down the current champions with a 6 try victory.

Edinburgh do a lot right but don't score and ultimately let a side run away with it.

Dare I suggest it's business as usual for the Scottish teams?


(Too soon?)

I suppose they turned up wearing rugby kit...

TheMildlyFranticLlama wrote:

George Carlin wrote:So Glasgow take down the current champions with a 6 try victory.

Edinburgh do a lot right but don't score and ultimately let a side run away with it.

Dare I suggest it's business as usual for the Scottish teams?


(Too soon?)

I suppose they turned up wearing rugby kit...

Nope, can't add anything more.

We didn't do anything right GC!

RDW_Scotland wrote:

TheMildlyFranticLlama wrote:

George Carlin wrote:So Glasgow take down the current champions with a 6 try victory.

Edinburgh do a lot right but don't score and ultimately let a side run away with it.

Dare I suggest it's business as usual for the Scottish teams?


(Too soon?)

I suppose they turned up wearing rugby kit...

Nope, can't add anything more.

We didn't do anything right GC!

Come on, we did plenty of things right. We got there at the right time & to the right stadium...ok 'plenty' was an overstatement

That was an abysmal performance from Edinburgh - the worst under Solomons and probably matching some of Bradley's final games. It was even worse than Beattie's commentary, which is saying something (bring back Hugh 'The Don' Dan...).

There was just nothing. Nothing worked. The scrum looked shaky, Gilchrist looked to jump himself a few times with no support and an Edinburgh player was dropped at the lineout at least once.

What concerns me is that Cardiff are behind Scarlets, Ospreys, Irish 4, and Glasgow & Dragons looked better vs Ulster. With Treviso managing to push Leinster and motivated by bettering Zebre, there's a small but very real possibility Edinburgh could be 10th/11th.

If Edinburgh don't get their act together the Murrayfield atmosphere may move on in the second half of the season as nobody would pay to watch tonight's performance.

On a side note, Lacey was awful tonight. The penalty on Watson was a joke (ball had come out the scrum from put in, he picked it up to show Lacey) and the obstruction for the BP try was misses, yet an accidental obstruction (Scholes and Dean) was penalised. Also allowed Edinburgh too long at lineout.

Trying to put a positive spin on things, we maybe expected too much given the mass rotation of players this season and they should get a lot better with time....

Nope - can't do it. It was still utter garbage and we'll still finish 9th!

You do have a point RDW, away from home in the wet with what ended up to be a very inexperienced back row....but despite that, it was just terrible rugby.

Edinburgh missed Burleigh big time yesterday. Playing with Rosolea and Tolifau together in midfield meant that Weir was the only playmaker in the team, and he was at his worst last night - trying to force things that just were not on. Weir was brought in for occasions just like these, to give the team some direction, and he ended up trying too hard.

The Gunners desperately need Manu, Du Preez, Hardie and Burleigh back.

I was going to say the same thing EST - everything went through Weir and he just forced things. Compare that to Glasgow who had several playmaking options at first receiver.

Burleigh is definitely needed and I'd say SHC too as a more controlling 9. Fowles was a strange selection choice - SHC and Kennedy both partnered Weir in the pre-season games yet he picked Fowles. Given that the backline was new and experimental why add in extra unfamiliarity?

If Solomons was trying to show he was happy to rotate this season he's really doing it wrong!

Pro 12 is back!!! And unfortunately, so too is Edinburghs lack of attacking threat.

The Edinburgh backline players have improved significantly yet any attacking attempts were quickly snuffed out by the Blues quick D. Stationary runners when going wide and tactics from the early 2000's such as running onto the ball hard and straight but going no where. It was just so pathetic in that second half.

When Du Preez and Hardie come back it'll sure up the forwards but it looks suspiciously like Edinburgh will once again struggle to add the try's via the backs and rely upon the forwards.

However, I thought Blues would do well. Nick Williams is still a beast and a great signing for them and Shingler looked great as did some of the young emerging Welsh players. Could be a top 6 finish for Blues this year!

I'm just delighted I didn't bother with a season ticket this year. Utter garbage.

EWT Spoons wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:

TheMildlyFranticLlama wrote:

George Carlin wrote:So Glasgow take down the current champions with a 6 try victory.

Edinburgh do a lot right but don't score and ultimately let a side run away with it.

Dare I suggest it's business as usual for the Scottish teams?


(Too soon?)

I suppose they turned up wearing rugby kit...

Nope, can't add anything more.

We didn't do anything right GC!

Come on, we did plenty of things right. We got there at the right time & to the right stadium...ok 'plenty' was an overstatement

I stand corrected. I presume also that we did not soil ourselves and the players faced the right way most of the time, so that's two other pluses.

I only watched the first half, so presumably it all properly went to c0ck in the second half?

What is with Nathan Fowles? He looks terrified out there. Like he actually meant to join a ballet class but joined the wrong queue by accident.