The Newsletter That Binds Us

Aug 31, 2020

THANKS & WELCOME: Thanks to all those who have come back after week one and welcome to all those who have signed up this week to the first newsletter dedicated to Scottish Rugby - we want to continue bringing our off-beat take on the game irrespective of medium and we hope this newsletter delivers a unique, humorous and sometimes insightful perspective.

BACK TO THE USUAL GRIND: After last week’s relatively interesting match up between Edinburgh and Glasgow it was great to see both clubs revert back to type and deliver the sort of turgid, uninspiring 1872 Cup match we have all come to know and love…three knock ons in the first 90 seconds set the tone and the rest of the match followed the same tune. The 700 die hard locals who secured a golden ticket to Friday’s match were probably left wishing they lived more closer to Portobello than Murrayfield. Cockerill was uncharacteristically positive when he surmised “It was a pretty average game full-stop” . With a try from Fraser Brown on his 100th game for Glasgow, and a tidy finish from Ratu Tagive, the Warriors took the away win on Friday to make it 2-2 in the derbies this season. Scotland’s premier rugby stats man Kevin Millar crunched the numbers post game and came up with this worldy stat:

The subsequent write ups make poor reading for the game of rugby:

The Offside Line: Visitors Squeeze out Gritty Win

BBC: Edinburgh’s Cockerill content with Pro 14 dead-rubber defeat by Glasgow

Full highlights are here. The fact that forty seconds out of this three minutes highlights package is the handshakes at full time say a lot.

USE IT OR ABUSE IT: After another game which saw the breakdown Caterpillar feature, Glasgow war horse Rob Harley decided to try and pressure the ref into enforcing the law against slow play at the breakdown. See the video of him counting down from three here. Fair play to the old head for even going into the minus numbers, showing the sort of brains not usually associated with over 200 games of professional rugby.

Credit where it is due, Referee Ben Blain gave a turnover for the same offence later in the game. More of this please.

SEE YOU AT CHRISTMAS: So that’s it for Danny Wilson’s men until after the Autumn Internationals and we expect he’s mildly happy with the outcome of the last two games

Zander Fagerson continues to demonstrate the sort of form that could make him a 100 test player for Scotland and if Gatland is watching (he’s not) in contention for a Lions shirt come summer 2021
The starting front five for Glasgow is genuinely world class and in this week’s game appeared to have a doggedness and aggression about them that you might not expect given pride was the only prize. “We beat Edinburgh at their own game” a Glasgow insider said to the Thistle.
Huw Jones at 15: we weren’t sure about this shift initially but Jones has taken the opportunity is his stride and it wouldn’t be surprising to see him hold onto the 15 shirt come Christmas

LETS JUST FORGET THAT EVER HAPPENED: Edinburgh rugby have already briefed the press to say that Friday’s match is ‘already history’, which is a great soundbite, but sadly history can matter. Whilst we imagine there will be numerous changes before next weeks semi final we had hoped to see more from a XV that will make up a large portion of the starting 23 next week. The one bright spot from Friday’s match for Edinburgh was no fresh injuries.

A PRINCE BECOMES A KING: Shout out to our very own Chris “the sweet prince” Dean for captaining Edinburgh on Friday. There will be better days for him, but always nice to see our man getting the acknowledgement he deserves. He always does our name proud:

SRU 1, COVID 0: The SRU must be applauded for hosting the first stadium event in the UK with fans. 700 Edinburgh ultras brought the muffled noise to Murrayfield on Friday night. Even legends of the game were up to speed with the usual Edinburgh gags on Friday night:

There won’t be any fans in Murrayfield this Saturday but the messaging coming out of HQ suggests there could be 15k - 20k come the Autumn international.

ULSTER: Edinburgh’s semi final opponants went down 28-10 to Leinster on Saturday night at the Aviva. The scoreline flatters them a little, with John Cooney adding their only try in the 76th minute. Their two games since re-start (both losses) have seen them come out sluggishly, so Edinburgh will be looking to use home field advantage to come out of the gate flying.

You can read the BBC write up of the game here.

SCOTLAND KIT: The SRU launches a series of new kits this week and it safe to say the ultras were ecstatic.

After a four year campaign of blood, sweat and mostly us getting annoyed on Twitter, the SRU saw the light and brought back the traditional white shorts and navy socks.

We are still not overly sold on the gold piping and as friend of the pod @glove931 pointed out on Twitter there are potential issues from certain angles

FAN EXCITEMENT: Sure its a great kit, but the male model in the SRU photoshoot seemed more excited than most. As Ron Burgundy would say, i’m sure its just the pattern in the pants.

SEVENS KIT: In addition to the men’s home and away kits, the sevens team was given its own alternative kit:

The SRU have categorised the predominate colour as “vibrant raspberry” and are seemingly driving inspiration from that Pringle golf jumper your Dad bought when he has a mild mid life crisis in the early 2000s.

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THE THREADS THAT BIND US: The SRU and Macron marketing departments have used their quiet summer to come up with peak marketing guff for the Scotland kit launch. Channelling their inner Sauron, the SRU kit has been launched under the slogan ‘The Thread That Binds Us” - a shirt that can finally unite the people of Scotland under one banner…but only if you have a minimum £60 quid to drop. We can get on board with the £60 - £70 pound shirt price…we can just about get on board with the £96 ‘pro’ shirt…but what we can’t get on board with is £33.99 for a pair of shorts that give the hint of self urination.

Other items of peak marketing guff include the shirt being made of “Macron designed ARMEVO and Bodytex fabrics”. Unsure what ARMEVO is or why it is capitalised. It was also noted that the gold piping is meant to “commemorate the upcoming 150th anniversary of the first international rugby match”. If anyone can tell us why gold piping commemorates the match we would be thankful.

PRO 12 OR PRO 16 - WHO THE HELL KNOWS: SA Rugby announced this week that the Southern Kings would withdraw from the Pro 14 and suspend playing activities (we are still upset the Southern Kings were sold off by the ‘The Greatest Rugby Company in the Whole Wide World’). Less than 24 hours later the Pro 14 (Pro 13?) announced that due to travel restrictions there would be no matches against South African opposition until 2021 at the earliest. There is only one solution to the problem of losing two South African teams…you guessed it…add four more South African teams.

See this article from the Telegraph that outlines plans to add the Stormers, Sharks, Bulls and Lions to the Pro 14 in 2021…we’re already excited for the start of the 23/24 Pro 32 season with the introduction of a Chilean team.

THE RUSSELL REDEMPTION: The redemption of Finn Russell has now shifted into phase three with an interview in the Sunday Times with Mark Palmer stating that him and Toonie are “talking more and having more of a relationship”. Ultimately, Scotland Rugby needs Finn and Finn needs Scotland Rugby - expect phase four to launch in the Autumn with a photo of Finn and Toonie laughing on the training field (definitely not staged) and a potential Tom Kitchen/Finn Russell Cooking Series on YouTube - ‘French Cuisine with Finn’

COCKERS 2023: “Despite interest from other places, an agreement has been reached” announced Dodson this week - clearly Cockers agent has been receiving a few whatsapps from Premiership Rugby CEO’s and secured a two year contract extension post topping conference B. A hell of an appointment, and surely makes him toe heir to the Scotland national team throne.

SCOTS ABROAD WRAP UP:

Scottish Rugby feeder team and Premiership leaders Exeter Chiefs continued their march towards silverware with two wins this week. Midweek saw Sam Hidalgo Clyne bag a try and the man of the match award in a pulsating encounter vs Bristol Bears. Brilliant to see Sam looking in such good form and he will be giving Townsend and co plenty to think about with performances like this. Highlights of the game are here, with his try at 0.40. Sunday saw Exeter dish out a pumping to Duncan Weir’s Worcester. As has become tradition, Hogg grabbed a try as the Chiefs won 59-7.
Rory Hutchison continued to show his quality despite his Northampton side going down 30-17 to Harlequins. Look at this lovely try and tell me you don’t fancy a bit of that in a Scotland jersey.
Speaking of Scotland centres, Chris Harris made it two in two scoring for Gloucester in their 46-30 win with Leicester. Leicester had Scotland youngsters Jake Kerr and Cammy Henderson on the bench this time out.

THE WEEK AHEAD: All eyes rightly turn to the arrival of Ulster in the Pro14 semi on Saturday evening. Edinburgh will announce the team on Friday lunchtime so keep an eye on their social channels for that one. Cockers will also be out and about in the media - will he continue to maintain the Edinburgh are underdogs?

MORE: David and Alan will be podding later in the week to preview the big game. Matt continue to sun himself in Greece!

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