by royc on Sat Mar 25, 2017 2:08 pm
Edinburgh poor, bordering on clueless at times in the first half, fortunately Scarlets bumbled away in the second half, particularly after Patchell went off, or it could have been a bit of a rout.
There are a number of obvious issues and problems with Edinburgh's play, most of which can be solved, but the time for tinkering is surely over.
That was a pretty decent pack, with 4 international caps among the starters and two more on the bench. Yet they were marginal or second best in about every facet of play - breakdown, maul, lineout, scrum. Yes, they definitely lack on-field leadership and made a few howlers, but the lack of drive and determination says a lot about how they are being coached. I don't think the forwards coach is really cutting it.
I refrained from commenting on the team line-up rather than be negative before the game. But my heart sank to see Chris Dean out at 13, up against Jonathan Davies and Liam Williams coming in off his wing. Dean could be a good inside centre, if properly coached, but he has nowhere near the speed to play at 13. That is why the attack will falter and he will be outpaced in defence. Not his fault he's playing out of position, blame whoever chose the posse of centres. Glenn Bryce is probably the best bet at 13 just now, but the coaching of the backs in attack is pretty dismal. Hoyland and Kinghorn both looked well short of their best, neither of the scrum halves seem able to pass the ball, now Fowles is regressing while SHC is not advancing- Whatever the backs coaching team is doing really isn't working at all.
The defence was equally poor, you could almost say what defence? Davies, Patchell and Liam Williams were running through it with ease, positioning, alignment, line speed were all out at sea. Wilkins is the defence coach and once again the defence was pretty unferwhelming, bordering on embarrassing at times.
Are the players actually good enough? Not really as a squad, they need half a dozen very good signings to be at the races. Looking at Scarlets three-quarters with Williams, Davies, Parkes, Patchell and even Stef Evans, that is about a league ahead of Edinburgh.
Agree with all the comments about coaches, I just don't see any of them being part of the solution going forward. SJ and the SRU may be hoping that Cockerill can knock them into shape, but that is quite a burden on the HC, the assistant coaches are meant to be there to help and input their specialist knowledge, not as trainees who need to be carried.
SJ and SRU also need to look seriously at the squad strength, it is clearly deficient in a number of positions and bringing in a few more journeymen, inevitably in the backs, will not solve anything.