Solomons goooooooone

[Friday Knight Lights]

You also have to factor in the league getting slightly easier with the decline in quality of Munster, Leinster, Ospreys and Cardiff (offset partially by the improvement of Connacht and Glasgow).

Solomons definitely improved the squad from the days of Parker, Francis, Leonard, Penn and Gilding. But without breaking the cycle of failure at Edinburgh, and without creating a backline to match our pack.

Piers Francis is actually having quite a productive time of it with the Blues with rumours of a few English sides circling around.

[dolf_lundgren]

I think Francis was an example of what Solly was talking about when he said young players needed to be brought into a stable and preferably winning team. Francis did look poor but then he had little support or strcutre around him. I remember his debut, looked like a rabbit in the headlights, including being made frontline kicker which he never really was.

If we did miss out on a huge talent then many others agreed, he went to Doncaster then to NPC level so its not as if he straight away flourished. Good luck to him though, its not often you see a guy struggle in the UK then go to NZ and make the breakthrough, he has done it the hard way.

[doedin]

Don’t give a tom tit about either, you are sawing sawdust, its all about being in Top 6 and getting into the big boys competition. Danger of disappearing where the sun don't shine with these irrelevant discussions. 8th or 9th are both losers positions in terms of how our league works!

I think you are being a bit bullish about this, whatever happens now happens on top of the improvements Solly brought to Edinburgh.

You can choose to ignore them or rubbish them, but they are still there.

I'm fairly confident he'll pick answer b.

Hang on a minute! You guys are arguing that Solomons has improved the squad and we now have better players (which by the way I agree with in the forwards) and that Solomons has made improvements despite not finishing any higher up the league! Surely if he had a stronger squad than previous coaches it is an even worse indictment of Solomons failure to get us further up the league and into a Top 6 place? In fact finishing 9th last season and then the performance in the first 4 games makes any claim of ‘improvement’ even more hollow.

I honestly can’t understand folk who are happy to accept zero progress in league position (failure to get into the Top 6) over the 4 years of Solomons tenure as ‘improvement’. It matters not one whit how good we think the players are, how fit a squad we have, how happy the squad is, how cohesive the players are, and all these other ‘intangibles’ if we didn't achieve our primary objective, or even get close to it, during the 4 years of Solomons tenure. Its not about taking part in the process its about achieving results - you sound like a bunch of Embra middle class parents at a school sports day congratulating poor ‘Alan’ that despite coming last in the egg and spoon race he tried his hardest and at least he took part and had fun.

For me the two main measures that sum up Solomons tenure is the failure to get above 8th position in the league and the significant drop off in crowd attendances. He failed to use the resources and skills in his squad to anything like their full potential. He failed both on and off the park, get over it.

[Tichtheid]

I honestly can’t understand folk who are happy to accept zero progress in league position

Who has said they are happy with the league position?

[dolf_lundgren]

With Solly now gone, do you think there is any chance we could stop going over old ground? Playing he-said she-said is getting a little dull.

We have got a new coach to moan about now.....

[Friday Knight Lights]

I think Francis was an example of what Solly was talking about when he said young players needed to be brought into a stable and preferably winning team. Francis did look poor but then he had little support or strcutre around him. I remember his debut, looked like a rabbit in the headlights, including being made frontline kicker which he never really was.

If we did miss out on a huge talent then many others agreed, he went to Doncaster then to NPC level so its not as if he straight away flourished. Good luck to him though, its not often you see a guy struggle in the UK then go to NZ and make the breakthrough, he has done it the hard way.

He plays at 12 as well. I just remember I wasn't too impressed with him at the time - but he didn't have a platform and he's now a Super Rugby player so it surprises me.

[Frenchy]

With Solly now gone, do you think there is any chance we could stop going over old ground? Playing he-said she-said is getting a little dull.

We have got a new coach to moan about now.....

Aye, but he's winning games (or a game, anyway). How are we supposed to moan now. Useless git, not giving us anything to moan about.

[02ict328]

With Solly now gone, do you think there is any chance we could stop going over old ground? Playing he-said she-said is getting a little dull.

We have got a new coach to moan about now.....

Aye, but he's winning games (or a game, anyway). How are we supposed to moan now. Useless git, not giving us anything to moan about.

Where there's a will theres a way, we have some extremely persistent moaners on here!

[Wottie]

With Solly now gone, do you think there is any chance we could stop going over old ground? Playing he-said she-said is getting a little dull.

We have got a new coach to moan about now.....

This with bells on!

That's all for now, I need to go and boil another egg for my son Alan!

[Ayton1keith]

Strong rumours coming out of Bristol that Andy Robinson is to be replaced as HC by Heyneke Meyer. Would he be worth another punt as our HC? Did reasonable enough job last time round before he went on to the Scotland job.

[doedin]

I for one would be happy to see him back, the last decent coach we had! However I can’t see him wanting to come back nor the SRU seeing him as a fit.

[BigD163]

Strong rumours coming out of Bristol that Andy Robinson is to be replaced as HC by Heyneke Meyer. Would he be worth another punt as our HC? Did reasonable enough job last time round before he went on to the Scotland job.

I for one would be happy to see him back, the last decent coach we had! However I can’t see him wanting to come back nor the SRU seeing him as a fit.

Not for me. He has done a pretty miserable job at Bristol all things considered. Couldn't get them promoted as quickly as they should have and the side has been woefully under prepared for the league this year. He has done nothing since he has left to suggest he would be good for the team.