Bit of fun

[dolf_lundgren]

No not at advert for Ashley Madison, just thought we are all a bit miserable so we should lighten the mood.

1. Who is your favourite current Edinburgh player and why?

2. Favourite Edinburgh Player ever and why?

3. Favorite Romanian and or Georgian player ever?

[dolf_lundgren]

Ok then if you insist, I will go first.

1. Tough choice, I like Burleigh and Hoyland but the name that gives most of a lift when on the teamsheet is CDP. You get nothing less than 100% and is the swiss army knife of back rows. BY the way we really should have a CDP chant for games, at least it would be easy to remember! CDP,CDP, CDP, CDP.......

2. Easy one, Ross Rennie. We have had very few players who are world class. I hate the phrase "on his day" but given the injury nightmare for Ross it was very apt. When fit an firing he could go toe to toe with any 7 in the world. The speed we could play the game at was several notches higher than when he wasn't playing. Only weakness was a tendancy to panic when on the ball (See Sco vs Eng, a clean break followed by brain fart)

3. Tincu, Romanian hooker who was a wrecking ball of a player, very much in the mould of Keith Wood, he carried the whole team and was a talisman. Would have loved to have him at Edinburgh. Players like him are the whole point of the world cup.

[BigD163]

1. Who is your favourite current Edinburgh player and why?
To be a bit different - Bradbury, I like seeing you players making a positive impact. With a bit of care and attention to his development I think he could be very very good.

2. Favourite Edinburgh Player ever and why? When I was young player at the time who played anywhere in the back row (and 2nd row) I always looked at Simon Taylor as a player I wanted to be like; smart and skilful. Could have been something really special but for the knee injuries.

On form Mike Blair was great to watch too and was genuinely one of the worlds best for a spell.

3. Favorite Romanian and or Georgian player ever? Going to be boring and go for Gorgodze. What a player.

Hmm.... all my answers are back rowers.

[Tichtheid]

1. Dicko. It looks to me that the timing for our scrum comes from Al and we are never as dominant without him, and that is no insult to either his stand-ins or the others in the front row.

2. Chunk. Old Skool. Destructive scrummager and there is nothing quite as magnificent as a prop on a rumble up the pitch, I may be biased in my assessment.

3. Gorgodze, bit of a departure here, I know. He's a bit like Parisse in that while his team wouldn't trouble New Zealand, he'd be the one player to be in real contention for a black shirt

[Tichtheid]

On form Mike Blair was great to watch too and was genuinely one of the worlds best for a spell.

If he'd played in the front row I would have picked him.
Same for Ally Hogg.

[Frenchy]

1. Hamish Watson, probably, although I like the way Tom Brown just seems to quietly go about doing pretty much everything you could ask of him.

2. Matt Scott, just has an uncanny ability to beat a defender.

3. Basilaia is unfortunately about the only I can name.

[GaryIPA]

1. Rambo - nice lad, lots of potential, plenty time .

2. Chainsaw, nothing else need be said

3. Christian Raducanu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cristian_Raducanu

[Wottie]

1. Difficult - Can't separate CDP, WP Nel & Hamish Watson at the moment.
2. Easy - Rory Hutton
3. Mamuka Gorgodze - because I love a bit of indicipline and don't know many other Romanian or Georgian players, other then the one we had, who wasn't very good!

[GunnerRob]

1. Nel is my favorite current player. He so often plays all or most of the full 80mins, score loads of great trys and makes some great breaks around the park. Not too bad in the scrum also
And for all of that, he doesn't shout about it or mouth off. He just gets on with it, as so many of the Edinburgh guys do.

2. Derek Lee - Another one of the 'Old School' players who was great to watch. Have great memories of him and Simon Webster tearing teams apart at Meadowbank. Will never forget the night he took over the kicking duties towards the end of a game. He didn't bother with some fancy kicking tee, but instead made a divot in the ground, placed the ball and kicked it. No messing!

3. Basilaia. Because he's the only one i know and someone said it above to remind me...

[The Feral Goat]

1. Who is your favourite current Edinburgh player and why?
Really like Hamish, CDP, McInally, Ritchie and Hoyland but Bresler gets my vote not flash but love the work he does constant nuisance on the deck, always in the oppos face (think Ritchie may be getting lessons from him) and hits rucks like a train.

2. Favourite Edinburgh Player ever and why?
Tempted to say Visser in his first few season, ignoring defensive frailties, every time he got the ball in attack it felt like he could score, but will go for Ross Rennie as well. As DL said one of the few top class players we have had, hugely athletic, really good rugby brain (occasional misfire noted) looked to turnover ball with ease and had more pace than a good portion of our backs real shame he suffered so many injuries.

3. Favorite Romanian and or Georgian player ever?
Since he played for us and always put in a lot of effort Basilaia

[The Nudger]

Fun! On the Edinburgh Forum?! Whatever next, running rugby from AS?

1) Dicko - Hugely underrated, best Loosehead in Britain, all those pundits going for Jack McGrath after the 6N don't know what they're talking about. Love Nel but he gets too much credit, like all great THs he keeps the scrum solid but its Dicko that's the destroyer!

2) Like many others Ross Rennie - one of the only truly world class players Scotland has produced in the pro era. Shame he was so injury prone. When RR was on the team sheet, didn't matter who we were playing I went to the game believing we would win. I've never actually got around to do it but I have long meant to do an analysis of or win/loss ratios when RR was/wasn't playing. Suspect the difference would be in the 30/40% region.

3) Haralambie Dumistras - Going old school with the Romanian No8 and captain from the 90s. What a beast and great name to boot!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puaUHyk5YZc

Check out the try at about 2.15 - RWC '91 IIRC. #feeling old now

[dolf_lundgren]

3. Christian Raducanu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cristian_Raducanu

Good shout!

[Friday Knight Lights]

No not at advert for Ashley Madison, just thought we are all a bit miserable so we should lighten the mood.

1. Who is your favourite current Edinburgh player and why?

John Hardie one of the best opensides going and seems a genuinely nice guy. To be fair we don't really have any dislikeable characters in the squad as they do all seem nice blokes.

2. Favourite Edinburgh Player ever and why?

For sentimental reasons probably Chunk - he looked the part of an amateur Scottish prop lost in professional rugby.

Mike Blair, Simon Taylor and Ross Rennie because they were probably the only 3 World Class players we've had in recent times.

3. Favorite Romanian and or Georgian player ever?

Gorgodze - aside from Mamukashvili and Baisala he's the only one I can name and for good reason - he's a beast.

[The Chiel]

1. WP Nel - world class and the number of shifts he puts in is astonishing

2. Chris Paterson - can't believe he's not been mentioned. Lovely to watch ball in hand and not a bad kicker as I recall.

3. Gorgodze - for all the reasons mentioned and his play and attitude throughout the RWCs

[disco]

Well obviously:

1. Duncan Weir
2. Al Kellock
3. Shalva Mamukashvili

But if I open more than one eye:

1. Blair Kinghorn. So much potential there - it just needs to be maximised and directed effectively.
2. Simon Taylor. He was just such a natural rugby player, nearly always a step ahead of his teammates who would be reacting to somehting he had almost instinctively anticipated.
3. Gorgodze obviously stands out for the impact he had. Thought about cheating slightly and going for Dimitri Yachvili! But I did like their wee scrum half who became the youngest player ever to play in a RWC game during their pool matches last season - Vasil Lobzhanidze (I'll admit I did have too look up his name!)