by The Feral Goat on Mon Jan 23, 2017 10:42 am
My 2ps worth on the evening, thought overall ER and GWC did a pretty good job for first time out.
Myreside experience
Getting to the game/Pre-match – group of us met at a pub at Haymarket to pick up those travelling in by train and then got a 44 bus up to Slateford Road about 1845 bus took less than 10 minutes to get to Slateford Road and it was then less than a 15 minute walk up to the ground. Managed to get a beer and a burger at ground before KO. Will perhaps try park and ride or walk and ride from Murrayfield next time out.
Match – We stood top of the terrace, view was pretty good but could not see North East corner due to TV stand, assume we would have been able to down at the front rope. There was a bit of a buzz around the ground pre-match but this fizzled out after we got a couple of tries and were comfortable, you could certainly hear the different stands cheering at different points though, and would expect the atmosphere to be better with more tension in the match. Toilets as mentioned were not great, large queues on the terrace side, female element of the group were particularly unimpressed. Pitch looked to hold up pretty well but not sure it would do so had we had much rain in the run up.
Post match – 4 of us headed to the Castle bar for a few more beers, others headed back to city centre/Haymarket those heading for the train managed to get back down to the station and catch train just after 2200 not sure when match finished but thought that was pretty good timing wise. Castle Bar was not bad, got served quick enough good size for the amount of people that headed across on Friday.
Overall – Pretty good first experience with room to improve, ER did post a number to text feedback to both positive and negative. If this is to be a permanent move and development two things for me that need addressed are the toilet facilities and more spectator space on the terrace side but they are both substantial developments.
Match itself – Professional if unspectacular for a 7 try performance. Thought It looked like their physicality took us by surprise early on, at the first scrum (I think) we went backwards pretty quick, but as soon as we got a couple of tries things settled down. No real momentum or pace in the game which did us no favours but scored some good tries notably DuPreez and Hoylands among other nice bits of play. Perhaps it was an easy night for decision making but I thought Cochrane led the team well and Ritchie did a lot of work tackling and at the breakdown. Overall good result but will need to be a lot sharper and more clinical against Munster in two weeks.