joe soap wrote:EWT spoons wrote:Sorry but I think there is a lot of underestimating how important a good half back pairing is, they are the pivots to the team. If you have a 9&10 who are poor then chances are the team are going to be playing badly.
We have a good to very good set of forwards, granted some of them still need to come back from injury, but a FR of Dickinson/Dell/Sutherland (when one of them is fit) alongside Ford/McInally and Nel/Berghan is a very good front row. locks of Toolis who was in the team of the tournament last year (I believe) and Gilco or Bresler is a strong second row.
Our back row is still young, but Ritchie is showing real promise, Watson & Hardie are both very good and Bradbury whilst possibly not playing at his best just now has shown previously that he can be a very good player.
That set of forwards should not be getting dominated or overpowered, and if you have a half decent 9 & 10 combo behind them, then that would be a great platform for our attack. However what we have is a 9 who has lost anything resembling form and a 10 who has barely ever played well.
I know the biggest challenge is finding players who want to come to Edinburgh, because we're a bottom 4 team, but there has to be someone out there better than Weir & Tovey.
no underestimating how important half backs are at all. They are the key pivots when they have something to pivot with. The idea that a magic 10 or 9 can win games in modern professional rugby without good ball presented quickly is delusional. Maybe in amateur rugby, but doubt that these days as well on its top levels
You say Edinburgh have a very good set of forwards. This is demonstrably nonsense, built on a myth a couple of season ago when it was a dominant scrum and decent maul. Where did Edinburgh finish in the league that season?You say they should not be dominated, yet around the park they are, week in week out. They were slow round the park back then and they are slow round the park now, delivering slow ball when they are not too slow to prevent a turnover. You can say there are some forwards who have ability, but certainly not a good pack.
Better than what we have at half back required of course, but lets not pretend the other issues are not much much bigger.
Correct. We got to a stage where our pack was merely competitive but we haven't built on that in the last two years. We lost Coman, Roddy Grant and (likely) Dickinson, while CdP has lost it. That's a fair bit of leadership to replace.