Challenge Cup 21/22

[The Feral Goat]

Could not watch so can't comment, disappointing to lose to 14 men though.

Maybe serve as a reality check and refocus and perhaps see some more rotation of the squad.

[Trophyhunter]

Strange game which we just about deserved to lose. Vellacott needs to be marshalled by stronger control from 10 and As some of his options were misjudged to our detriment. Puzzled by approach to replacement of Moyano . Would have thought it made sense to keep BK at 10 , move the pacey Currie to Wing and put the experience of Dean in the middle with Lang thus keeping VDW available for move to 10 for later in the game.

[The Nudger]

Performance was poor, never really got going. That said we were absolutely robbed at the end. Scrum under the posts, LI tight head drops the scrum clearest pen to us you'll ever see and ref bottles it and gives it to them.

I am so LawrenceBryce angry right now.

Watched it on a stream. We were good with Kinghorn at 10. We were bad with VdW at 10. Because Jaco just is not good enough.

Not convinced at all with Imelmann still.

Sad to say I rather agree with you on Jaco. Seems mad that we're playing a game that really needs a 10 with Kingjorn's skillset to have him as back 3 cover as well. One injury and you get what happened today!

I actually really like Immelman as a player and I think he would have been a perfect player for a Richard Cockerill team. Unfortunately I don't yjink he's got the pace for Blairs gameplan.

[liveinhope]

Vellacott has been tremendous all season but very poor today.Twice awful decision making to kick the ball near their 22-and badly executed.Also two knock ons at base of scrum. 6N chances probably lost now for him?
But we had chances galore .Strange decision at about 60 mins to opt for a line out when we won a scrum penalty near their line.Surely keep scrumming -poss yellow card,pen try-or quck tap and go. Lineout was then driven back about 15 yards and we lost the ball.
Suddenly the Brive match looks a whole lot harder!

[joe soap]

Strange game which we just about deserved to lose. Vellacott needs to be marshalled by stronger control from 10 and As some of his options were misjudged to our detriment. Puzzled by approach to replacement of Moyano . Would have thought it made sense to keep BK at 10 , move the pacey Currie to Wing and put the experience of Dean in the middle with Lang thus keeping VDW available for move to 10 for later in the game.

scrum halfs need to marshall their pack and show game management, not be marshalled. Vellacott has been weak these fundamentals, masked by making flashy breaks behind a dominant pack

[Friday Knight Lights]

Vellacott has been tremendous all season but very poor today.Twice awful decision making to kick the ball near their 22-and badly executed.Also two knock ons at base of scrum. 6N chances probably lost now for him?
But we had chances galore .Strange decision at about 60 mins to opt for a line out when we won a scrum penalty near their line.Surely keep scrumming -poss yellow card,pen try-or quck tap and go. Lineout was then driven back about 15 yards and we lost the ball.
Suddenly the Brive match looks a whole lot harder!

His decision making was very poor. George Horne is not good anymore I think you have to Vellacott over Horne on this season's evidence. But neither fit Townsend's gameplan these days.

I didn't think with the exception of Venter, Schoeman, McBurney and Nel the pack was not good at all. Bradbury came down to earth a bit and Haining was shocking.

Not too worried about the Brive game so long as VdW isn't at 10.

[Weegie]

As I understand it, Edinburgh need to be top 3 in the group, but also top 8 across the groups to get a home match in the knockout phases. The better the overall ranking, the lower the ranking of the opposition faced. Which probably means 5 point wins in the last two matches are needed.

Brive are one point ahead of Edinburgh, so if they are taking this seriously the same applies to them. Friday could be interesting.

[BigD163]

Vellacott has been tremendous all season but very poor today.Twice awful decision making to kick the ball near their 22-and badly executed.Also two knock ons at base of scrum. 6N chances probably lost now for him?
But we had chances galore .Strange decision at about 60 mins to opt for a line out when we won a scrum penalty near their line.Surely keep scrumming -poss yellow card,pen try-or quck tap and go. Lineout was then driven back about 15 yards and we lost the ball.
Suddenly the Brive match looks a whole lot harder!

His decision making was very poor. George Horne is not good anymore I think you have to Vellacott over Horne on this season's evidence. But neither fit Townsend's gameplan these days.

I didn't think with the exception of Venter, Schoeman, McBurney and Nel the pack was not good at all. Bradbury came down to earth a bit and Haining was shocking.

Not too worried about the Brive game so long as VdW isn't at 10.

Chapman may sneak in ahead if some of the 9s.

[Pitfitter446]

Seemed to be a game we could win then several players decided to have an off day, Vellacott principally, but when you have been playing well mistakes do stand out, we don’t know what instructions were coming on with the water boys though, confusing game plan?

[Friday Knight Lights]

Seemed to be a game we could win then several players decided to have an off day, Vellacott principally, but when you have been playing well mistakes do stand out, we don’t know what instructions were coming on with the water boys though, confusing game plan?

I really think it's simple. When Kinghorn was at 10 he played flat, attacked the line and made good decisions. We looked a real threat ball in hand and scored tries.

When VdW played he played deep, crabbed and his passing is not that of a good fly half. And we didn't look threatening and maybe scored one try I can't remember.

Vellacott tried too hard - made a weird decision or two. The pack wasn't as good as it's been. But, if Kinghorn stayed at 10 we win that game.

It's time to play Savala or Chamberlain and thank Jaco for his contribution but he isn't cut out for Mike Blair's Edinburgh.

[Tichtheid]

It's a bit weird with Jaco, he can do it, there were glimpses under Cockers and for the opening part of the game against the Stormers he looked like one of the best fly halfs in the world, he made two tries slipping through heavy traffic and setting quick runners free (Graham and Vellacot).

I don't think he lacks confidence, when his kicking for the 5m line goes awry it's never short, it's always too long, biting off too much. He was the leading goal kicker in the league a wee while back, his consistency in range and accuracy were impressive.
I didn't see Saturday's game so I'll have to rely on those who did, but it sounds like he wasn't the only player to underperform.

[Impega]

Was at the game and left extremely frustrated at having lost it at the death.

In the early stages LI were all over us but the defence was excellent and held them up from close range on quite a few occasions. We were barely down their end of the field in the first half hour and were clinical with the two tries.

JVDW going on at 10 felt like the point at which our attack became less cohesive. I was watching Kinghorn as the change was made and there was a resigned smile on his face - evidently having to move out to the wing wasn't particularly pleasing for him. He almost scored a fantastic try by diving full speed into the corner in the second half but the cover tackle just put his foot into touch.

After losing the decisive try we won a scrum right in front of the posts from the kick-off, and having generally had the upper hand in the scrum there was a glimmer of hope that a penalty could be milked - however, the ref judged in favour of LI. There is a noticeable difference in scrummaging quality when comparing Nel and Atalifo.

Felt sorry for Matt Currie, whom I don't recall getting his hands on the ball at all. One or two people saying they aren't all that taken by Immelman, but I thought he played pretty well - very solid under the high ball and a big old boot on him.

Not that it matters to anyone here, but that new stadium at Brentford is an absolute beauty.

[Impega]

One other thing, which I've mentioned here before - Kinghorn's kicks from hand are incredibly frustrating. He gets massive height on them to the expense of a lot of length.

Various opportunities to get us right up the pitch and into the danger zone are being regularly missed because he's hoofing it right over the stand only 20m up the field!

[liveinhope]

Good to hear about your trip.In more"normal" circumstances I would have travelled down for the game.
Looked like will have at least two injury concerns from Saturday:

Moyano-took his try brilliantly and despite the tv showing several replays no obvious knock when he dived for the line.But his reaction and injury looked bad-knee ligaments possibly?-and one poster indicated he was seen on crutches later on.Great pity as playing well and of course valuable during the 6N period with so many away with Scotland.

Lang-anyone notice that -similarly to our last home game-he was pulled off the pitch by one of the trainers presumably after someone spotting a head knock.That will rule him out of Friday if it was indeed a failed HIA.Again a vital cog during 6N period for us (if he's not in the 6N squad itself).

[Friday Knight Lights]

One other thing, which I've mentioned here before - Kinghorn's kicks from hand are incredibly frustrating. He gets massive height on them to the expense of a lot of length.

Various opportunities to get us right up the pitch and into the danger zone are being regularly missed because he's hoofing it right over the stand only 20m up the field!

On Immelman I think he is solid under the high ball and great positionally but I think he has the same problem you mention with Kinghorn - Immelman's kicking is so inconsistent. He's also quite slow. A huge downgrade from Bofelli.