SA Trip

[Tichtheid]

Edinburgh Rugby team to face DHL Stormers at DHL Stadium in the BKT United Rugby Championship
Saturday 1 October (kick-off 1pm BST/ 2pm local) – live on Premier Sports

15. Henry Immelman (18)

14. Darcy Graham (52)
13. Mark Bennett (73)
12. James Lang (21)
11. Damien Hoyland (96)

10.Blair Kinghorn (120)
9. Ben Vellacott (23)

1. Pierre Schoeman (85)
2. Stuart McInally (167)
3. WP Nel (173)
4. Sam Skinner (2)
5. Grant Gilchrist CO-CAPTAIN (177)
6. Jamie Ritchie CO-CAPTAIN (87)
7. Hamish Watson (132)
8. Nick Haining (26)

Replacements

16. Dave Cherry (59)
17. Boan Venter (27)
18. Luan de Bruin (9)
19. Glen Young (13)
20. Ben Muncaster (16)
21. Henry Pyrgos (72)
22. Charlie Savala (13)
23. Chris Dean (122)

Unavailable: Luke Crosbie, Wes Goosen, Jaco van der Walt

[liveinhope]

Amazed-but delighted-to see Bennett fir to play after the shocking "whiplash" he suffered in that last play tackle v The Bulls.Looks like Mata rested though he's limped off in the last two games and good to rest him when we have back up like Haining and Muncaster.
Going to be a very tough game but glad to see not nearly as hot in Cape Town as it was in Pretoria last week (though the players seemed to cope with it remarkably well.)

[Tichtheid]

Amazed-but delighted-to see Bennett fir to play after the shocking "whiplash" he suffered in that last play tackle v The Bulls.Looks like Mata rested though he's limped off in the last two games and good to rest him when we have back up like Haining and Muncaster.
Going to be a very tough game but glad to see not nearly as hot in Cape Town as it was in Pretoria last week (though the players seemed to cope with it remarkably well.)

Also, the game is at sea level.

Vellacott starting make me think we will try to go full hammer and tongs.

[Friday Knight Lights]

Playing some good rugby, matching them for physicality. Really like the kit - think a home with the reverse colours would look good too.

[The Feral Goat]

Competitive, not sure score reflects efforts, we are not quite ruthless and accurate enough, still loads of positives to take from 2 tough away games.

[Martin Bell]

Quick report: http://www.edinburghgunners.org.uk/matchday/reports

Strange to say that it was perhaps the Stormers' defence that won it for them. We didn't really seem to fire in attack.

[liveinhope]

Exactly Martin,we never looked comfortable with their defence either when running the ball or when the forwards tried to make ground.
We should have been much further ahead after 30 mins but ultimately I thought the scoreline was about fair and frankly not really sure we deserved even a point.
Tough watch after the tthriller last week.Maybe we need Sutherland and DVDM after all!

[doedin]

Quick report: http://www.edinburghgunners.org.uk/matchday/reports

Strange to say that it was perhaps the Stormers' defence that won it for them. We didn't really seem to fire in attack.

Agree 100% we struggled to make inroads into the defence all game and the lack of points in first half when we were well on top paid in the end. I'm not sure Kinghorn was 100% fit for the game and we struggled with their rush defence all game. A decent but ultimately disappointing result TBH.

[Trophyhunter]

Backs looked unhinged and frantic . Needed calmer heads building control. Maybe tried to force their more typically dynamic game style when we needed just to control possession through more phases. High press defence from Stormers was begging for clever grubber style kicks into our Winger / 13 channels.

[Pitfitter446]

Noticed the kicking clock was not on screen, they seem to ages with the kicks but accuracy great, pity about the crowd noise.
Didn’t take advantage enough of their yellow/reds, we’d have done more against non SA teams I reckon, penalties cost us there. Roll on next week.

[dolf_lundgren]

It wasnt a great performnce, we really shoudl have been at least one more try ahead after the first 30, where we were all over them. It was foreboding when it took us so long battering away to get a score, compared to how easily they got their first points.

It did seem like they gave away a stream of penalties before their first card, whereas ours was really a first pen in our own 22. I dont think it was that blatant, probably didnt impact that much though.

We did seem to go to throwing the ball wide quite early, and some kicks or straighter lines in midfield might have been better. They have so much power though our runners weren't making huge dents. I thought Haining was excellent, carried and tackled well, he is one of these players who seems to play better against better opposition.

The second half I think we can put down to the second game away in a week in difficult conditions against 2 very good sides. They just shut us out of the game, although when we scored I did think we should have been capable of getting a BP, sadly not.

Its not often you see a SA team taking a prop off after 30 mins as they are being shoved around, Harris really stabilised that for them. Also wasnt until after the game that i realised they had Kitschoff and Malherbe sitting in the stand, so I think they may be able to rectify that later on! Dweba was very good I thought. Roos much quieter than normal, probably down to the work of Haining and Ritchie.

Goalkicking is a bit of an issue without Boff and Kinghorn (who seems to have improved his again). Maybe we should have a look at John Cooney for next season...