Castres

[liveinhope]

Whilst I can understand the reasons for Sunday's selection its a pity that we probably giving up the chance of a Euro last 16 home tie to increase the chances of URC (and 1872 Cup) points. Its an odd conumndrum,we scraped a Euro (and play off spot) at the end of last season but now we are in Europe we sacrifice the chance of a better Euro run so we can get more league points...in order to get into next seaon's Euro Cup etc etc!
TBH personally I'd be happier to see an exciting Euro run this season (though of course probably would mean we don't make next season's competition).

[The Feral Goat]

Sunday 14 December, kick-off 1pm GMT/2pm local – live on Premier Sports

15.⁠ ⁠Jack Brown (4)
14.⁠ ⁠Ross McCann (15)
13.⁠ ⁠Matt Currie (64)
12.⁠ ⁠Piers O’Conor (6)
11.⁠ ⁠Lewis Wells (4)
10.⁠ ⁠Cammy Scott (22)
9.⁠ ⁠Ben Vellacott (80) CAPTAIN

1.⁠ ⁠Boan Venter (95)
2.⁠ ⁠Harri Morris (7)
3.⁠ ⁠Ollie Blyth-Lafferty (2)
4.⁠ ⁠Callum Hunter-Hill (22)
5.⁠ ⁠Glen Young (53)
6.⁠ ⁠Liam McConnell (11)
7.⁠ ⁠Freddy Douglas (10)
8.⁠ ⁠Tom Dodd (15)

Replacements

16.⁠ ⁠Ewan Ashman (43)
17.⁠ ⁠Mikey Jones (1)
18.⁠ ⁠Paul Hill (20)
19.⁠ ⁠Connor Boyle (42)
20.⁠ ⁠Hamish Watson (180)
21.⁠ ⁠Charlie Shiel (79)
22.⁠ ⁠James Lang (80)
23.⁠ ⁠Wes Goosen (61)

Unavailable: Pierre Schoeman, Duhan van der Merwe, Darcy Graham, Magnus Bradbury, Grant Gilchrist (all rest protocol), Charlie McCaig (knee), Rhys Litterick (achilles), Rob Carmichael (wrist), Mosese Tuipulotu (knee), Tom Currie (knee), Luke Crosbie (hamstring), D’arcy Rae (ankle), Sam Skinner (hamstring), Paddy Harrison (back), Ben Muncaster (knee), Marshall Sykes (arm), Harry Paterson (hamstring), Findlay Thomson (hand)

[The Feral Goat]

Whilst I can understand the reasons for Sunday's selection its a pity that we probably giving up the chance of a Euro last 16 home tie to increase the chances of URC (and 1872 Cup) points. Its an odd conumndrum,we scraped a Euro (and play off spot) at the end of last season but now we are in Europe we sacrifice the chance of a better Euro run so we can get more league points...in order to get into next seaon's Euro Cup etc etc!
TBH personally I'd be happier to see an exciting Euro run this season (though of course probably would mean we don't make next season's competition).

I think the young lads did well when given a chance, nothing to say the others in this weekend wont do same.

Shame to see Patterson injured again hopefully it is short term.

Having been frustrated at us not starting a proper 7 we now have 3 in the squad!
Good to see Boyle back available, hopefully stays fit he looks to have been on the weights while recovering. Currie being back as well is really good news.

Edit: just seen Crosbie and Sykes have both had surgery on injuries.

[The Chiel]

Whilst I can understand the reasons for Sunday's selection its a pity that we probably giving up the chance of a Euro last 16 home tie to increase the chances of URC (and 1872 Cup) points. Its an odd conumndrum,we scraped a Euro (and play off spot) at the end of last season but now we are in Europe we sacrifice the chance of a better Euro run so we can get more league points...in order to get into next seaon's Euro Cup etc etc!
TBH personally I'd be happier to see an exciting Euro run this season (though of course probably would mean we don't make next season's competition).

It's simply indicative of the very large elephant in the room - there's too much rugby all year round, and for a number of games a season nearly all club sides have to field teams which leave out substantial numbers of their best players, particulary those who are racking up international game time as well.

That said, I'm excited to see how this team goes against ( I assume - haven't seen the team yet ) a fully loaded Castres.

[Pitfitter1105]

Does Edinburgh get a say in who and when the players are rested or does it come from SRU? No matter gonna be cheering on the guys on the park regardless, they’re chance to shine and push for the future, watch for us on the telly, hopefully we’ll be the support that’s smiling.

[The Feral Goat]

Does Edinburgh get a say in who and when the players are rested or does it come from SRU? No matter gonna be cheering on the guys on the park regardless, they’re chance to shine and push for the future, watch for us on the telly, hopefully we’ll be the support that’s smiling.

I think if i recall correctly the SRU mandate no more than 5 consecutive matches. Coaches should be able to plan rest accordingly so not all out at once injuries permitting.

[doedin]

Whilst it is good to see the young guys getting a go I cant understand why some of them haven't been given a bit more game time earlier in the season. The thing I find difficult to understand is why throw these young guys into a big match in France without having given them some more minutes this season to get a bit of game time playing at this level first. I know we have had a few injuries but we had the chance to give the likes of Brown, Wells, Douglas etc more of a run out as starters/subs in previous games - they couldn't have done any worse than some of the guys we played! Everitt would have planned ahead to rest our internationals for this game so a bit more experience might have been planned for these guys?

[liveinhope]

Given none of Currie,Dodd,Watson and Boyle have featured at all this season, McCann,OBL ,CHH and Morris just starting once and Wells twice how on earth can they be expected to beat Castres away with that lack of game time!
Interesting to see Toulouse going full out tonight albeit I think they have an easier fixture next weekend and a much bigger and more experienced squad.
Having said that we are almost back to square one with new injuries (Sykes and Paterson) just at a time when the likes of Currie and Boyle are back. Really toiling in the second row where I read earlier even the promising Academy locks McVie and Lindsay are also out injured (on top of Skinner,Sykes and Carmichael.

[The Feral Goat]

I dont see the benefit of chucking all your promising youngsters in at once and getting gubbed. If they had all been given more gametime to date and built experience i think we convert one or two of the really good chances we created first half.

[liveinhope]

ON top of the disappointment another raft of injuries to add to the current huge toll-although largely ignored by the tv commentators looks like we lost Wells,McCann,Brown (all HIA's I think) and also Lang Goosen .There will be no back three players left soon! I think the side finished with Shiell at 15 and Boyle and McConnell on the wings-yet not a word mentioned in our defence on tv.
A quick look at the pool table suggests that even a BP victory at home over Gloucester could leave us needing points at Bath just to make the top 4/5 in the group!