Recap: Edinburgh 9-7 Victory Over Stade Francais at Murrayfield

Edinburgh 9-7 Stade Francais at Murrayfield

Mossy once again picked up all the points in what was a fairly enterprising display from the home team, despite the low score .

Jim Thompson—who must have been emotionally all over the place after the applause for his grandfather, the late Bill McLaren—was probably the standout back for me.

It was also hard to argue against Greg Laidlaw’s MoM performance at scrum-half that saw him dart Edinburgh seriously close to the Stade line on a couple of occasions.

Jim Hamilton was very industrious for a man of his size and seems to have upped his workrate in the loss considerably. I reckon it could force a tricky decision for Robbo as to the make-up of his pack against France with Al Kellock, Richie Gray and Nathan Hines in good form too.

Special mention should also go to returning vagabonds of various descriptions: Malkovich was able to conduct one of his darting runs, but with Edinburgh’s new look back row in support, he didn’t actually turn the ball over.

On the opposition team, Hugo battled valiantly at scrum-half providing a (mostly) crisp service, and his new-found versatility may see him on to the bench for Scotland at the very least.

Good to see Simon Taylor back from injury, too. For the last 20, he seemed to be relishing taking on his old teammates at his preferred position of No. 8 and must have been vaguely perturbed to see a small ginger open side filling the shirt he held for so long.

Back in his day, they used to work around the No. 8 with Hoggy, Callam and Taylor all competing. These days it is the seven shirt that hold the embarrassment of riches.

Edinburgh: Paterson, Robertson, Cairns, De Luca, Thompson, Godman, Laidlaw, Traynor, Kelly, G. Cross, MacLeod, J. Hamilton, MacDonald, Rennie and R. Grant.
Replacements Used: Webster for Paterson (52), Houston for De Luca (41), Jacobsen for Traynor (64), Ford for Kelly (52), C. Hamilton for MacLeod (64) and Newlands for Rennie (33). Not Used: Young and Samson.

Stade Francais: Beauxis, Gasnier, Messina, Bousses, Camara, Mieres, Southwell, Roncero, Szarzewski, Gerber, Palmer, Pape, Haskell, M. Bergamasco and Leguizamon.
Replacements Used: Bastareaud for Bousses (47), Slimani for Roncero (66), Kayser for Szarzewski (50), Ledesma for Gerber (58) and Taylor for M. Bergamasco (52). Not Used: Vigouroux, Barraud and M. Bergamasco.

Scoring Summary
Edinburgh: Pens: Paterson 3.
Stade Francais: Try: Pape; Con: Beauxis.

Biarritz 41-20 Glasgow
at Stade Aguilera

Glasgow played some excellent stuff for 60 minutes, scoring one of the tries of the tournament in the process and putting the expected home victory in serious doubt.

With the impressive Richie Gray going off at halftime, the under-powered pack was then obliterated by substitutions as the strong Biarritz bench took serious advantage of Glasgow’s second string deficiencies.

Sadly, Biarritz prop Campbell Johnston is not from Jedburgh— he has an All-Black cap. Just another antipodean whose parents came over all nostalgic when dishing out the names.

Pluses for Scotland though: Thom Evans looks back on form, Low, Kellock, Cusiter and Parks seem to have maintained theirs going into the Six Nations (just keep Dan away from the high ball/pitch). The three Bs back row was an infuriatingly dominant force at the breakdown for most of the match.

Minuses for Scotland: On this display, the second string just aren’t good enough. To be fair though, this is the second string that Glasgow have had for a while, and the young players leap-frogging through (Gray, Jackson) look like they will be good enough given game time, which must come soon.

Biarritz: P. Couet-Lannes, T. Ngwenya, A. Mignardi, L. Tranier, I. Bolakoro; V. Courrent, Y. Lesgourgues, E. Coetzee, B. August, M. Moala, P. Taele, J. Thion (capt), M. Lund, T. Hall and I. Harinordoquoy.
Replacements Used: Balshaw for Couet-Lannes (66), Hunt for Lesgourgues (54), Hughes for Coetzee (71), Terrain for August (71), Johnstone for Moala (45), Carizza for Taele-Pvihi (67) and Alaxndre for Hall (70).

Glasgow: B. Stortoni; R. Dewey, M. Evans, G. Morrison, T. Evans; D. Parks, C. Cusiter; J. Welsh, D. Hall, M. Low, R. Gray, A. Kellock (capt), K. Brown, J. Barclay and J. Beattie.
Replacements Used: O’Hare for Dewey (56), Jackson for Parks (64), McMillan for Cusiter (65), Tkachuk for Welsh (61), Thomson for Hall (59), Turner for Low (41) and Eddie for Beattie (59).

Scoring Summary
Biarritz Tries: Coetzee, Ngwenya, pen try, Lesgourgues. Cons: Courrent 3. Pens: Courrent 5.
Glasgow Tries: T. Evans, Cusiter. Cons: Parks 2. Pen: Parks 2.