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The 5 players Edinburgh could bring back for Glasgow clash

By PA
The player of Scotland Darcy Graham celebrating after scored during the match Italy-Scotland (Photo by Massimo Insabato/Archivio Massimo Insabato/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)

Edinburgh could have five players back in their ranks for Saturday’s crunch match with Glasgow.

Head coach Mike Blair could have two hookers back fit in Dave Cherry and Stuart McInally while winger Darcy Graham has shaken off a quad injury and centre James Lang is making good progress in his return from a knee problem.

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Marshall Sykes has served two games of a three-match ban but the suspension could be reduced on appeal.

Blair said: “We have a few who will be close – our hookers, Darcy, James Lang and Marshall Sykes are all looking relatively positive for us.”

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Edinburgh lost their unbeaten record at the DAM Health Stadium when they suffered two consecutive defeats against Ulster and European Challenge Cup opponents Wasps but Blair feels they have benefited from a weekend off.

“We played seven weekends in a row and had some injuries but we have talked all season about injuries or illness creating opportunities for others,” he said.

“We trust the guys in the squad and try to work well as a whole squad rather than just a match-day 23 and try to upskill everyone and keep everyone in the selection picture as well.

“For everyone who pulls on the jersey, we expect them to step up and do a good job for us.”

Edinburgh and Glasgow are locked on 50 points in the United Rugby Championship and the winners of Saturday’s final game of the regular season will clinch a Heineken Champions Cup spot next season.

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They will also get a slightly less challenging URC quarter-final with the losers destined to face Leinster away, while the 1872 Cup is up for grabs with Warriors 13 points ahead following their first-leg win in March.

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With so much up for grabs the game has been moved to BT Murrayfield and about 20,000 tickets have already been sold.

Blair said: “The guys love playing at Murrayfield as well. It’s a great opportunity. We have obviously got some internationals in our team but we have some guys who haven’t played that real Test-match intensity at BT Murrayfield. So that will be great for them.

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“Obviously the bigger crowd we get, hopefully the more support we get behind us, the more noise, the more of an occasion it becomes.”

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Tom 53 minutes ago
England player ratings vs South Africa | 2024 Autumn Nations Series

That 2019 performance was literally the peak in attacking rugby under Eddie. If you thought that was underwhelming, the rest of it was garbage.


I totally get what you're saying and England don't need or have any God given right to the best coaches in the world... But I actually think the coaches we do have are quite poor and for the richest union in the world, that's not good enough. 


England are competitive for sure but with the talent pool up here and the funds available, we should be in the top 3. At the very least we should be winning six nations titles on a semi-regular basis. If Ireland can, England definitely should.


England's attack coach (Richard Wigglesworth) is Borthwick's mate from his playing days at Saracens, who he brought to Leicester with him when he became coach. Wigglesworth was a 9 who had no running or passing game, but was the best box kicker in the business. He has no credentials to be an attack coach and I've seen nothing to prove otherwise. Aside from Marcus Smith’s individual brilliance, our collective attack has looked very uninspiring.

 

England's defence coach (Joe El-Abd) is Borthwick's housemate from uni, who has never been employed as a defence coach before. He's doing the job part time while he's still the head coach of a team in the second division of French rugby who have an awful defensive record. England's defence has gone from being brutally efficient under Felix Jones to as leaky as a colander almost overnight.


If Borthwick brings in a new attack and defence coach then I'll absolutely get behind him but his current coaches seem to be the product of nepotism. He's brought in people he's comfortable with because he lacks confidence as an international head coach and they aren't good enough for international rugby.


England are competitive because they do some things really well, mostly they front up physically, make a lot of big hits, have a solid kicking game, a good lineout, good maul, Marcus Smith and some solid forwards. A lot of what we do well I would ascribe to Borthwick personally. I don't think he's a bad coach, I think he lacks imagination and is overly risk averse. He needs coaches who will bring a point of difference.


I guess my point is, yes England are competitive, but we’re not aiming for competitive and I honestly don't believe this coaching setup has what it takes to make us any better than competitive.


On the plus side it looks like we have an amazing crop of young players coming through. Some of them who won the u20 world cup played for England A against Australia A on the weekend and looked incredible... Check out the highlights on youtube.

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