Edinburgh v Bulls Fri 17Nov

[The Feral Goat]

Friday 17 November (kick-off 7.35pm) – live on Viaplay

15. Blair Kinghorn (137)
14. Wes Goosen (14)
13. Mark Bennett (92)
12. James Lang (40)
11. Duhan van der Merwe (77)
10. Ben Healy (4)
9. Ben Vellacott (41) CO-CAPTAIN

1. Pierre Schoeman (100)
2. Ewan Ashman (3)
3. WP Nel (190)
4. Glen Young (26)
5. Grant Gilchrist (191) CO-CAPTAIN
6. Jamie Ritchie (98)
7. Connor Boyle (36)
8. Viliame Mata (118)

Replacements

16. Dave Cherry (75)
17. Boan Venter (50)
18. Javan Sebastian (4)
19. Marshall Sykes (45)
20. Tom Dodd (3)
21. Ali Price*
22. Cammy Scott (4)
23. Chris Dean (139)

Unavailable: Emiliano Boffelli (toe), Luan de Bruin (back), Luke Crosbie (concussion), Matt Currie (thigh) Darcy Graham (hip), Jake Henry (knee), Mikey Jones (ankle), Cam Neild (knee), Sam Skinner (knee), Scott Steele (hip), Nathan Sweeney (hamstring), Hamish Watson (cheekbone).

[The Feral Goat]

Strong squad, hope we can keep winning momentum over this period of home games

[bigparahandy]

Match column for tonight

https://open.substack.com/pub/theburghw ... medium=web

[The Feral Goat]

Good result, bit nervy but ground it out. Think we maybe lose it without the RC though, still plenty to work on.

Need to watch it back on TV but breakdown felt like lottery and struggled to get much off ref anywhere. Surely a pen try at end?

Good to deny them an lbp though ballsy from healy who had a tough night off the tee.

Boyle very good again worthy of POTM really taking his opportunity.

This week and last are games I think we lose last season, bit more pragmatic playing in the right areas.

[The Feral Goat]

Match column for tonight

https://open.substack.com/pub/theburghw ... medium=web

Good blog, forget just how prolific Visser was in some pretty poor ER teams.

[macdone]

Good result, bit nervy but ground it out. Think we maybe lose it without the RC though, still plenty to work on.

Need to watch it back on TV but breakdown felt like lottery and struggled to get much off ref anywhere. Surely a pen try at end?

Good to deny them an lbp though ballsy from healy who had a tough night off the tee.

Boyle very good again worthy of POTM really taking his opportunity.

This week and last are games I think we lose last season, bit more pragmatic playing in the right areas.

I think the ref was quite lenient with us, particularly with Bill only getting a yellow. Pretty happy all round with the performance but more so the result. Will be hard to get any points from the Bulls, Sharks and Stormers this year.

[doedin]

I thought that was an excellent result against a big strong Bulls team. Breakdown was a mess in first half and we weren't looking after the ball well enough. There was also the by now usual number of drops and bad hands. We looked a bit nervous and couldn't get our wide players into the game. I thought Nel was unfortunate being penalized at the scrum given the SA loose head was drilling in at an angle all the time.

Second half we got our game together and the big Bulls forwards began to tire. Whilst Healy missed a few kicks at goal his kicking from hand was excellent. Red card was justified but if without that we were beginning to get on top in the pack. Also good to see our subs make a big impact. Deserved win by the end of it and as said earlier not many teams will take a BP win against the Bulls. Credit to our defensive coach, we have really tightened up our work this season and our game is a bit more pragmatic. Good win.

[liveinhope]

BK had a nightmare first 15/20 mins but didn't drop his head and had an immaculate game after that.His high ball work under pressure was the best I can remember from him.
Turning to the unsung hereos a word for Glen Young.Possibly surprising to have been a first choice all season but he's really developed and makes some huge impacts in the loose .Almost an auxilliary flanker but does his work in the scrum and lineout.I don't think Skinner will just walk back into the starting line up once he's fit (possibly next week?)

[Castlecannon]

Team played well in phases but I am not sure we would have won had Coetze stayed on the pitch . Attack looking better but wingers having to work hard to find space and good lines. Boyle definitely hitting form and Kinghorn Looking Regal when not in clown prince mode.

[dolf_lundgren]

Good but not great performance, I dont know whether we would have won or not if the red hadnt happened, but you never know. We were certainly in the game and some of the decisions after that seemed to be affected. We arguably should have had 2 pen tries too, and could have had our own red obviously.

We competed well in the forwards, their defence was excellent and very heavy hitting, but we stuck at is, Young and Gilchrist doing a power of work.

I still think we lack a bit of creativity in the backs, we have backs that can make things happen, but we too often look to be hoping for a bit of magic, rather than plays to create space. Id like to see us do more of this. Last year we were similar, but with the Kinghorn loop move working well, we dont really have that but there is no reason he cant be at 1st receiver at times to mix things up.

[The Feral Goat]

Got a chance to watch game again on TV, actually thought it was a better match than live. Did not appreciate just how non-stop it was at times or some of the offloads particularly in the phases running up to Mata try. Bulls also played some nice rugby.

Think the backup front row of Venter, cherry and Sebastian was really good.

I like the Bennett and Lang combo

Seeing it back bit surprised Mata did not see red, although Bulls player was going low to high and straight on where as Mata was upright but slightly caught by step, still both head contact and probably red in current climate.

Will be interesting to see what our first choice match squad looks like if all fit and available we still have Graham and Boffelli in the back 3, Crosbie and muncaster backrow, and Skinner and Hodgson in the second row to come

[bignose]

Seeing it back bit surprised Mata did not see red, although Bulls player was going low to high and straight on where as Mata was upright but slightly caught by step, still both head contact and probably red in current climate.

It would have been a red in the pre-World Cup climate. The hidden faces in the bunker spent so much time looking for fractions of a mitigation during that tournament though, that the slight change of direction of the ball carrier is now deemed to be sufficient to reduce it.