Everitt Out!

[doedin]

Sorry to be so negative but the coach has to go! That was possibly one of the most inept displays I have ever seen from an Edinburgh side. Plain awful. The Edinburgh players looked lost, Zebra were by far the better coached team and fully deserved their win. Edinburgh just had nothing despite getting the better of the set pieces. Our attack was just dismal, how many times did Thomson get the ball and didn't have a clue what to do with it or did we pass the ball out wide to a man isolated with 2 or 3 attackers? Did our coaching staff not watch Zebra against Ulster? Price and Thomson were just plain inept, kicking very, very poor, passing awful and no direction for the team. Thomson looks bereft of confidence and never once got beyond the gain line in the whole game!

Despite fielding a team with 10 or 11 full internationalists and a couple of ex Lions in Watson and Price we looked like a bunch of amateurs ... a very poorly coached bunch of amateurs. Everitt has no idea and is making the squad look a lot worse that they are. We will get nowhere with him in charge, he may be a very nice man but he is inept as a rugby coach at this level. Apparently he is the attack coach which explains an awful lot. The SRU need to make a change asap before he does more damage to the squad and demoralize the supporters.

Well played Zebra, better team won!

[Cammo Gunner]

Sorry to be so negative but the coach has to go! That was possibly one of the most inept displays I have ever seen from an Edinburgh side. Plain awful. The Edinburgh players looked lost, Zebra were by far the better coached team and fully deserved their win. Edinburgh just had nothing despite getting the better of the set pieces. Our attack was just dismal, how many times did Thomson get the ball and didn't have a clue what to do with it or did we pass the ball out wide to a man isolated with 2 or 3 attackers? Did our coaching staff not watch Zebra against Ulster? Price and Thomson were just plain inept, kicking very, very poor, passing awful and no direction for the team. Thomson looks bereft of confidence and never once got beyond the gain line in the whole game!

Despite fielding a team with 10 or 11 full internationalists and a couple of ex Lions in Watson and Price we looked like a bunch of amateurs ... a very poorly coached bunch of amateurs. Everitt has no idea and is making the squad look a lot worse that they are. We will get nowhere with him in charge, he may be a very nice man but he is inept as a rugby coach at this level. Apparently he is the attack coach which explains an awful lot. The SRU need to make a change asap before he does more damage to the squad and demoralize the supporters.

Well played Zebra, better team won!

This too

[Wottie]

Everitt was the attack coach but remember he hired his old pal Scott Mathie from the New England Free Jacks into the specialist role on August last year.

[doedin]

I cant work out if not many supporters agree with me or not given the lack of replies ... or is it the apathy is now so bad that folk cant be bothered to respond and are resigned to our fate? There has been more discussion on the Weegies board about how bad we were on Friday than there has been here. Has Edinburgh Rugby just thrown in the towel both on and off the pitch now?

[Chris]

I remain baffled by the lack of posts on both this and the Zebre thread. I had decided to wait for today before posting, as I thought that I might have calmed down a bit. Never mind.

We've been regular attenders - and for all but a few seasons, season ticket holders - since 2001. The arrival of Blackadder and Laney, a sign that the SRU was going to take Edinburgh seriously, was what moved us up from occasional attenders. There have been a few highs, and many lows, since then.

In that time, I can think of few games as bad as last Fridays. Sure, the default was and is under-performance, given the squads we have had, but that really was especially poor. I can't help but wonder why we recruited Everitt. He was damaged goods when he arrived: I wonder who the SRU wanted to attract but failed to get before they belatedly settled for him.

I have NEVER heard an Edinburgh crowd boo like that at the end of a game before. To be fair, we like many others, were on the steps at the back of our Stand when we heard the boos, as like many others we had walked out before the final whistle went.

Fair play to Zebre: they have won two away games in a row, and looked organised in a way that Edinburgh did not. But that was a must win game: historically, one of the weakest teams in the URC, and at home. Edinburgh cannot afford to lose these games.

Looking ahead, two away games at Munster and Treviso, the first during the Six Nations, and the second the week after that finishes, so the latter still with a partially weakened squad. Then the next home game, the week after that: Dragons.

Ideally, I'd like to see the SRU and Edinburgh announce a caretaker situation as soon as possible, or at least an announcement of a change in the summer. Something's got to give: either the coaching team, or ticket sales and thus merchandise, beer etc.

If the SRU are seen to change course, then the season might be salvageable, at least as far as a few good results and therefore next season's ST renewals. Either way, I just don't see a way out of this for the coaching team. That squad had a fortnight's training for the Zebre game, and looked like they met up for the first time ever just before kick-off.

[bignose]

I cant work out if not many supporters agree with me or not given the lack of replies ... or is it the apathy is now so bad that folk cant be bothered to respond and are resigned to our fate? There has been more discussion on the Weegies board about how bad we were on Friday than there has been here. Has Edinburgh Rugby just thrown in the towel both on and off the pitch now?

Apathy. There's nothing more could be said that's not already been said many times over.

Edinburgh have played rank rugby almost for ever. Apparently it was the stadium that was the problem, but that theory has been put firmly to bed as the nonsense that it always was over the past few years. It's not going to change, and there seems little point in adding to the perfectly sane noise here.

If Premier Sports hadn't got the rights to the European rugby then I wouldn't even bother watching Edinburgh from the comfort of my own living room this season. I'm certainly not shelling out money to stand in the cold and have to endure it, but since it's a free add-on to a package that covers some decent games I find myself in some kind of masochistic loop.

Someone make it stop.

[Castlecannon]

Not sure Everitt stepping down at this time is the right option . SRU could second Steve Tandy and Pete Horne into a supporting role with Everitt to work on building more cohesiveness in attack and defence. Everitt for his part might limit his tendency to take refuge in stats and data to review performance elements . Must get tedious in meeting sessions. On the plus side he does seem to care about his players and appears to get on with them well personally . All perhaps points to his strengths in management and player development rather than the qualities required of a driven and winning head coach in the Professional game.

[dolf_lundgren]

Not sure how that would work, basically putting Edinburgh into coaching administration?

I would have thought just moving John Dalzeil into the head coach role would be better. Blair struggled as he was having to do all the contract and management work alongside the coaching and apparently didnt like having to tell players they were dropped. JD has been a head coach already, and Nucifora shoudl be doing more of the conteract and management stuff to help. Horne looks like he is a good coach, so hopefully he can be developed and supported into a head coach role when the time is right, its possibly slightly quick and too much of a risk for Edinburgh at this point.

i cant see Tandy going for it, he will get a bigger job, potentially even with the Lions this summer.

[The Chiel]

I suspect this is too far left field, but if Everitt is to go, and the SRU can't pull in a name ( Toby Booth ? ), they should get down to Rotherham and pick up Harvey Biljoen. He's turned them round from the depths of Nat 1 after taking Jersey to the Championship over all of Ealing's cash, and developed a stream of forwards for the Premiership. I of course accept taking on Head Coach at a full pro franchise is a huge leap, and I can't see the queue round the block for season tickets - but the current policies aren't exactly bringing home the bacon.

[The Feral Goat]

I suspect this is too far left field, but if Everitt is to go, and the SRU can't pull in a name ( Toby Booth ? ), they should get down to Rotherham and pick up Harvey Biljoen. He's turned them round from the depths of Nat 1 after taking Jersey to the Championship over all of Ealing's cash, and developed a stream of forwards for the Premiership. I of course accept taking on Head Coach at a full pro franchise is a huge leap, and I can't see the queue round the block for season tickets - but the current policies aren't exactly bringing home the bacon.

Harvey Biljoen is a decent shout, there 'should' be the infrastructure around ER to make the leap easier in terms of pro S&C, assistant coaches etc

First and foremost what we need is a coach that has a record of getting potential out of players and come and do that at ER. The candidates are those like Biljoen successful at lower level. The Franco Smith types but I don't think our stock is high enough to attract a Smith type coach especially if Glasgow end up looking for a coach as well they will be much more appealing. 3rd option is the super rugby coach looking to progress and get international league exposure.

Clarke Laidlaw would be interesting but why would he come to ER, too soon for Greig Laidlaw as some of his former mates are still playing.

I don't have the answer but if there is no change I am another that won't be at the Hive next season.

[Pitfitter1105]

For the first time in many seasons we saw folk leaving before the final whistle, I was watching the clock too! Attack has no idea, no go forward, who do we blame? If it’s the players why are they getting a game? If it’s coaching it is time to change from the top down, crowd looked very poor, not even to announced attendance figure, it will get worse, first the boos then the non attendance, then season ticket sales will suffer, if people don’t care enough to post here what chance of a cold stand watching your team losing.
The downward spiral is gathering momentum.

[dolf_lundgren]

Looks like we are going to limp to the end of the season. With a freidnly being arranged for the gap between the Munster game and the next one.

Personally I would prefer the time being used to introducing the forwards to the backs as they seem to have no idea who they are.

a real danger of the whole season imploding now, i cant see us getting anything in Munster.

[doedin]

Looks like we are going to limp to the end of the season. With a freidnly being arranged for the gap between the Munster game and the next one.

Personally I would prefer the time being used to introducing the forwards to the backs as they seem to have no idea who they are.

a real danger of the whole season imploding now, i cant see us getting anything in Munster.

Agreed - We are in a bit of a downward spiral now and I cant see us winning many more games for the rest of the season. It will be interesting to see which players depart and I cant see us signing anyone who will excite and draw the crowds in. I can see crowds slumping from here on in apart from the European Diddy Cup tie v Lions.

The SRU really need to step in and do something soon!

[Pitfitter1105]

Can’t agree more. Looked at the friendly game announcement and decided we’ll leave the ticket purchase to nearer the time, don’t imagine it’ll be a sell out.

[Wottie]

John Dalziel announced as part of the Lions Coaching team for Australia. Great result for him and particularly impressive when you think our forwards are not really deemed a strength at international level. Do you think if we all started praying really hard now, he could come back from AUS into the Edinburgh job?
Also, I wonder what Leon MacDonald is doing after his briefest of spells as attack coach with the All Blacks? I do wonder if he was the guy the SRU were waiting for before Everritt appointed? He did wonders at the Blues.