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Edinburgh boss Mike Blair reveals tough selection decisions

By PA
Mike Blair (Photo by Paul Devlin/SNS Group via Getty Images)

Mike Blair explained how Edinburgh’s blistering form this season has made team selection such a difficult task.

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The head coach feels spoiled for choice because of the way his players have been performing in a campaign in which they are currently top of the United Rugby Championship.

Blair admits he had plenty to ponder before picking his XV for Saturday’s European Challenge Cup clash away to London Irish.

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He told Edinburgh’s website: “Selection has been one of the hardest parts of the job so far because players are training well and putting their hands up but guys are performing on the pitch as well.

“We’ve spent a lot of time selecting this side and we believe we’ve got a team that can go out there and challenge London Irish.”

Blair has made four changes to the side that started the bonus-point victory over Cardiff last weekend, with Matt Currie, Adam McBurney, Boan Venter and Nick Haining replacing Mark Bennett, Stuart McInally, Pierre Schoeman and Hamish Watson.

The head coach is hoping they can maintain their fine form at the Brentford Community Stadium. He said: “We were really pleased with the performance against Cardiff.

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“We left a couple of opportunities out there but we really enjoyed the intent and the physicality. Both are important parts of our game and we’ve been building on them in training to bring into this weekend’s game.

“I love the way London Irish play. They move the ball around a lot and are really innovative with what they’re trying to do, with their set plays and scrum play. I think it’ll be an excellent game.”

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JW 2 hours ago
Reds vs Blues: Ex-All Black missed the mark, Lynagh’s Wallabies statement

Agree re Lynagh.


Disagree Beaver got it wrong. Blues made that look easy. It might be a brawn over brains picture though? More in the last point, but, and this may have changed by player selection, the Reds were very lucky this game. Tele’a should not have been red carded as Ryan landed on his shoulder, and both Tate and Jock (was it) should have been yellowed carded for their offenses in stopping tries. We also had a try dissallowed by going back 10 phases in play. We all should have learned after the RWC that that is against the rules. So straight away on this simple decisions alone the result changes to go in the Blues favour, away from home and playing fairly poorly. The sleeping giant if you will. I didn’t agree with the Blues take either tbh, but to flip it around and say it’s the Reds instead is completely inaccurate (though a good side no doubt you have to give them a chance).


And you’re also riding the wave of defense wins matches a bit much. Aside from Dre’s tackling on Rieko I didn’t see anything in that match other than a bit of tiny goal line defending. I think if you role on the tap for another second you see the ball put placed for the try (not that I jump to agree with Eklund purely because he was adamant), and in general those just get scored more often than not. They are doing something good though stopping line breaks even if it is the Blues (and who also got over the line half a dozen times), I did not expect to be greeted with that stat looking at the game.

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Ashley Carson 2 hours ago
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