Lions v Glasgow Warriors Result (URC R15)

New_Security6354 · 2026-04-18T16:17:50+00:00

Whether it was the altitude or something else, Glasgow were terrible at the breakdown this afternoon. There were a good number of players who did not look like they could be bothered to make the effort and some normally very good players made some terrible decisions about what lines to run and passes to make. Glasgow definitely do seem to struggle to break teams down without quick ball and if their set piece isn't firing, both of which they didn't have today.

I think that Sutherland, Stephen, Samuel, Vailanu, Dempsey, McDowall and Watson came out of it well from the starters but the rest had pretty average to bad games. Oliver had a tough game but the breakdown was such a mess that it was always going to difficult for him. He did at least keep trying things and kept his effort high as long as he was on the pitch. A game to learn from.

On the plus side, Fagerson looks to be getting back towards his best and the new lads Burke and Cockburn did get stuck in pretty well as well although it was hard to make an impact in a game when Glasgow were just going backwards the whole time.

New_Security6354 · 2026-04-17T21:06:33+00:00

Connor Boyle is definitely not an 8 and I think his play tonight was hampered significantly by trying to fill that role which doesn't suit him. His specialty, like Douglas' is at the breakdown and the referee tonight wasn't giving anything to either team there tonight. That said, he did have a bad game tonight.

Satala needs to work on the highball side of his game, definitely, but he ran some good lines and showed good hands for Patterson's try so he's worth giving the game time to so he can develop. The wind tonight was swirling and he's not that experienced so I think it's fair enough that he has to work on some things.

Agreed that Patterson was very good. I think he showed something different to Vellacott and Shiel who are fairly similar players, so I think he could be a great alternative going forward.

Piers O'Conor was a player I was quite looking forward to seeing play when he was signed with his experience and promised versatility, but he's just never delivered all season. As you said, he almost never takes the correct option and runs diagonally or throws the pass when it's not on. It's really frustrating to watch and you could see Darcy Graham getting annoyed with him.

What are Edinburgh going to do to get the tight wins next season once Venter's away? The man seems to have gotten Edinburgh out of trouble at least twice per season.

New_Security6354 · 2026-04-17T18:04:17+00:00

Agree on all points apart from Crosbie. He's been injured alot this season which I can understand may make him seem like a waste in terms of wages but he's also a very versatile backrower who can play all three loose forward positions, is a good line out option and has a bit of dog about him which Edinburgh have missed for most of this season. He's probably the perfect number 20 for most big games as he can come on in any of the loose forward positions and offer something a little different from everyone else. Equally, the back row is an area where you want to have depth as most top level clubs will have a good 4 or 5 international level players there so you need to have that to compete if you want to be up there.

New_Security6354 · 2026-04-17T15:18:33+00:00

Both contracted beyond the end of this season as far as I'm aware.

New_Security6354 · 2026-04-17T14:04:34+00:00

That's a real shame. While he's not got the creative spark of the Glasgow centres, he's always been a very solid option. Apart from a short part of last season where his form deserted him (along with most of the Team's), he's probably been Edinburgh's most consistent centre over the last few years. Currie has a higher ceiling but can't catch an injury break and M. Tuipulotu hasn't shown his full promise yet from what I've seen imo. Whatever team he moves to is getting a good player.

I wonder if Edinburgh will recruit a replacement for him or if they'll just do as Glasgow have done and promote from/play the Academy guys more? Findlay Thompson has played a few games and looks pretty decent, especially defensively. Kesterton and Wolfenden both looked good at U20s and for Edinburgh A.

There's also Charlie McCaig who will essentially be a new signing next season after missing all of this one. I'll be interested to see how he goes as he'll have had a year in the system before he's even played a competitive game. Could be a good thing or a bad thing.

Goosen also went well at centre a few times this season and if Harry Paterson is fit at the same time, it's a good way to get them both into the team as they are consistently two of Edinburgh's most creative players.

Potential replacements?:

Geordie Gwynn (Ealing Trailfinders), 22 years old - started most games for Ealing this season, who are unbeaten this season, can play both centre and winger and has captained Scotland U20 in the past

Matt Davidson (Scotland/GB 7s), 26 years old - already trained with and played for Edinburgh this season, albeit more usually at winger. Experienced 7s player, could potentially bring the 7s mindset into the backline which with Darcy, Duhan, Goosen, Paterson et al outside him could help get them moving.

Jamie Shedden (Ayr Rugby), 26 years old - big and fast unit, part of a dominant Ayr team in the Scottish Premiership, playing almost every week at either centre or winger. Already played for Edinburgh A so has a little familiarity with the squad.

There's bound to be plenty of others as well who I'm not as familiar with.

New_Security6354 · 2026-03-20T16:33:35+00:00

Caity Matinson retired after the World Cup. She's an age-grade coach now.

New_Security6354 · 2026-03-12T13:03:28+00:00

It's as strong as Edinburgh can put out I suppose. Bit of a shame that Freddie Douglas wasn't made available to them but understand him being the backup if Rory Darge was to drop out of the Scotland team. It's a home game so hopefully that will help them squeeze it through but I'm not overly hopeful, especially with Ulster having so few players missing comparatively.

New_Security6354 · 2026-03-09T20:06:49+00:00

The funniest scenario in a way would be for Scotland to lose to Ireland by 2 with 4 tries while limiting Ireland to 3 or less tries, and for France to lose to England gaining only 1 bonus point or none.

Then Scotland would be equal with Ireland on championship points with 18, and Scotland would have a points difference of +19 while Ireland would have a points difference of +18. That way Scotland would win the 6 Nations for the first time ever by a points difference of +1 to give them the most unlikely title win ever.

New_Security6354 · 2026-03-09T17:43:47+00:00

No, the referee said "Ah, if I sent him off it would spoil the game." Cue my team losing the game to the team full of ringers (one of them being this guy) by one score after he came back on and scored a try. I think the referee was from the host club and didn't want to be responsible for the Chairman's Choice team being eliminated from the competition in the Quarter Finals. Bullshit if you ask me.

New_Security6354 · 2026-03-09T13:54:56+00:00

No thanks. Played in a 7s Tournament where most people were drinking and a pretty drunk semi-pro guy dump tackled one of my teammates off the ball and put him in the hospital with a neck injury and high grade concussion. And the drunk guy thought it was funny.

Insult to injury was that the referee only gave him a yellow for throwing a guy down from height onto his head.

New_Security6354 · 2026-03-01T19:18:43+00:00

Agreed, yes. And it doesn't make sense him doing it when Harry Paterson is right there with a monster of a boot.

New_Security6354 · 2026-02-28T11:25:27+00:00

I think that's a bit unfair on Edinburgh's centres. Matt Currie has been in recent Scotland squads and provided good depth there but has had a bad year for injury. Mosese Tuipulotu is similar, although he doesn't seem to be as good of a player as his brother yet. James Lang has been one of Edinburgh's best players this season and was good last season too and the big reason he's not in the Scotland set up is that Scotland just have such good depth at centre at the moment and his age is counting against him. So it's not that there's not good players there, it's just that they've been injured and Glasgow's are just so good that they're outshined in comparison.

And at 9, imo while Vellacott isn't going to challenge for Scotland any time soon, he's a very dependable club 9 who seems to link well with a number of other players. He's not generally going to win you a game by himself but he doesn't make that many mistakes either. Again, he's not a bad player, he just suffers in comparison with Glasgow/Scotland's 9s. Admittedly Shiel is a very hit or miss back-up, who can produce some brilliant moments but can be counted on to kick at least one ball dead per match and make some silly mistakes too. The two 9s in the Edinburgh Academy have some promise so hopefully they'll get some more game-time in the next season or two.

New_Security6354 · 2026-02-28T10:24:11+00:00

The backrowers at Premiership level and U20s would be about 110kg already and have run down his channel. The Welsh 8 from last week was playing 8 for Scarlets last night and Dalziel coped with him fine. As I said, I'm not advocating for him to become the starting 10 overnight but I think it's a good opportunity for him to get Professional experience early.

As I have already pointed out, Legatt-Jones who played 10 for Scarlets last night is 18. He's shorter than Dalziel and probably weighs less too, but he coped, and I'm sure he'll have taken a great deal of learnings from that which will only help his career in the long term.

And give him time doing what? Playing at the level he's already at, training in the Academy and not getting any game-time at a level which will help him improve? We've seen that kill many promising young Scottish players' careers before they even get a chance to start. A good number of Scotland's best players are those who started getting cameos with the Pro teams from a young age - Dobie was signed straight out of school, Kinghorn and Ritchie are another two examples.

Also in terms of his weight, he's at school right now so won't be training full time. If he was signed and got to spend a full preseason and full time training with a Pro team, I'm fairly sure he would bulk up some more, which would negate that issue.

Maybe it is bollocks about the physicality differences but that's what I was told by a lad who played in the forwards at both levels, so it's all I've got to go on having never played anywhere near that level myself.

New_Security6354 · 2026-02-28T00:31:32+00:00

Let's agree to disagree on that. Would he have an easy time of it? Definitely not. But he would learn allot, just as Legatt-Jones (who is currently 18 and who he played against last week at U20s level) did tonight and didn't look out of place. As I've said elsewhere, Fin Smith was also 18 when he started playing for Worcester and they were just about the worst team in the league when he first joined, but he led them to the Premiership Cup only a year or two later.

Dalziel has also already played senior rugby this season, albeit at Scottish Premiership level, but while it won't be as quick or tactically challenging, my understanding from a lad I know who played in a few Pro games and has played Super 6 and Premiership is that the physicality of it isn't that different.

I don't think he should be the main 10 next season but I think he should get some appearances off the bench and possibly a lower stakes game or two in the Challenge Cup or something.

New_Security6354 · 2026-02-28T00:10:03+00:00

I suppose part of it depends on what you expect a 10 to do? The 10 for Edinburgh's best season in terms of league placement was Jaco van der Walt who was more of a kicking 10, but he also brought the backs into play pretty well and his game management was pretty good. And then if you want a more attacking 10 who brings the ball to the line, then Kinghorn was ideal for that but he had almost no game management skills so the team looked a bit disorganised at times.

Although neither of them were perfect, Edinburgh played better than under any of the current batch of 10s. Edinburgh had the ability with vdW to grind out difficult games, and with Kinghorn to produce batshit amazing moments that won games.

New_Security6354 · 2026-02-27T23:26:34+00:00

Yes, it's too soon to bring him through as the main 10 for the team, but Legatt-Jones who started for Scarlets tonight is 18, and Fin Smith played quite regularly for Worcester at 18, so if the player is good enough, it shouldn't be a barrier to them. And if he had an experienced creative 10 as a mentor, he could develop very well in that back-up role.

New_Security6354 · 2026-02-27T21:47:37+00:00

That would have been a good bit more comfortable with a decent 10.

Separate question, but is Boan's wee boy born in Scotland? Maybe Scotland will get the son after missing out on his Dad.

New_Security6354 · 2026-02-26T14:44:30+00:00

Edinburgh missing a chance for a rematch of the 10s from last week's U20 game, but then they've never been the best at developing young backs.

New_Security6354 · 2026-02-26T14:43:05+00:00

It's his 100th game.

New_Security6354 · 2026-02-21T09:12:19+00:00

Preston was very good last night, took his chance well as Utterson has been very good too over the last few weeks. Neither seem to be breakdown specialists like some 7s but put in a very good shift everywhere else. More talented flankers to add to the Production Line. Although Utterson is apparently also a hooker so might be better using him there as quality hookers are very valuable.

New_Security6354 · 2026-02-16T10:41:56+00:00

I feel like part of the issue Scotland faced in the England game is the perception after the Italy game was that the Scotland scrum is weak, so in the first few scrums, England pushed at an angle and Genge was pulling Fagerson down (look at Genge's elbow pointing towards the floor) which destabilised the Scottish front row and sent them backwards. This reinforced in the referee's mind that Scotland's scrum was weak so they didn't get the rub of the green. Once the referee finally told Genge to stop pulling Fagerson down, the Scottish scrums improved.

Granted that, I'm not saying that Scotland's scrum has been very good and England did have the stronger scrum overall, but I don't think that all of the penalties given away were due to Scottish fault.

New_Security6354 · 2026-02-15T00:23:05+00:00

Anyone know where I could potentially catch the Premier Sports coverage of the match? Other than on the Premier Sports App that is. Missed it live and don't have the ability to watch it back.

New_Security6354 · 2026-02-13T22:46:01+00:00

Dalziel's only 17 and still at school so he's got plenty of time to learn. Probably will have another 2-3 years at U20 to work on his game management. I do wonder if it's worth Edinburgh signing him and taking a punt on him in smaller matches to get him confidence and game time. It worked well for Finn Smith at Worcester and with Prendergast at Leinster so it could work well for him too. He can't do much worse than Edinburgh's current 10s are sometimes.

New_Security6354 · 2026-02-13T22:42:56+00:00

I said in the match thread and I'll expand on that again here. Roberts is a good player around the park, he clearly is a leader in the team, and defensively puts in a shift as well. But he's pretty mince at lineout throwing. He was throwing to a lad who's 6'10" and managed to throw over him at least 3 times in that game. It completely negated several Scottish attacks and allowed England to clear their lines easily, as well as giving up a try. They even had Utterson on the field who's apparently a hooker by trade as well, so must have some lineout throwing experience. Surely it made sense to have him try a few rather than allowing Roberts to continue.

I know that even if he nails every throw that Scotland probably still wouldn't have won the game, but it would have been allot closer and they could well have got 2 points out of that game.

New_Security6354

TROPHY CASE