By Pitprop
August 17 2005

From the hot and steamy fields of southern France to the cooler climes of the home of Scottish Rugby - Sale Shark travel to Murrayfield on Friday for a pre-season friendly against Edinburgh. Can Edinburgh repel the Shark attack? Pitprop previews the game.
Edinburgh lie in wait next on Sale Sharks’ journey into the new season.

After two good away wins in France without the Lions and the Sebastiens, a flying visit to the Festival City should hold no fears. Or should it? After the Gunners first warm-up game against Leeds on Saturday Frank Hadden, the Edinburgh (and incidentally Scotland) coach said in the Scotsman “I was most happy with … the platform it gives for next week’s game against Sale.”

Really, Frank? After a 12-7 loss?

Scottish Rugby is still struggling to come to terms with the professional era. The imposition of regional teams on the Scottish rugby-following public was unpopular, and it has taken some time for the Gunners, Warriors and now the Reivers to attract support. Success is at the root of the problem – neither the national teams not the regions have provided it, and the game in Scotland lacks cash as a result. Players were retained in Scotland by appealing to their loyalty and until recently, putting selectorial pressure on those such as our own Jason White, who sought to further their career south of Hadrian’s Wall.

Having said all that, Edinburgh has been the most successful of the three regions. They are the only Scottish side to have reached the Heineken Cup quarters, in season 2003/4. Last season they finished 7th, one point behind Glasgow Warriors, in the Celtic League. And while Glasgow lost all of their HC fixtures last season, Edinburgh at least beat Perpignan at home in their final game. This season Edinburgh find themselves in the group of death, with Wasps, Toulouse and Llanelli!

Edinburgh seem to attract the better players too. They have seventeen players (including Paterson) who last term were involved with the national squad, plus Leonelli of Argentina, Satala of Fiji, Blackadder and Hewett (former All-Blacks) and Hodge (former Scottish international). Blackadder’s leadership is legendary, and there is no doubt that Edinburgh perform better with him in the back row. Recovery from a tonsillectomy kept him out of the Leeds game, and, no doubt, his coaching role looms larger now that he has decided to return to New Zealand as rugby manager for the new Nelsons Bay/Marlborough NPC side. Others missing from the Leeds game included Simon Taylor (invalided home from two Lions tours and now carrying a hamstring) and Scott Murray (2001 Lion) in the forwards, and Peter Jorgenson (former Australian international) and Hugo Southwell from the backs. Edinburgh rugby is run on a tight budget, with just 32 full-time professionals, and 4 full-time apprentices, a situation which will inevitably hamper them when injuries make their appearances.

Purely, you understand, as a matter of research for this preview (and nothing to do with the rugby-watching withdrawal symptoms) I journeyed across the Pennines last Saturday to watch the Tykes play the Gunners.
Leeds was no place to be on a day when Old Trafford was attracting most of the country’s attention. But the very rain that stopped play had most effect at Headingley. Persistent heavy drizzle met this reporter and his sidekick on arrival at what was very definitely a rugby league stadium.

Hordes of stewards, a story on Justin Marshall in the programme but no mention of the union teams, and the announcer reading out the Gunners’ team starting at loosehead prop but reading the team out alphabetically!!! Mike Blair at hooker? Pur-lease! Add in Edinburgh’s outlandish decision to confuse your reporter by adopting numbers 1 to 28 issued alphabetically to the playing squad (apart from a couple of afterthoughts) and leaving a number of their more recognisable players on the touchline led to an environment hostile to the scout. I spent most of the first period attempting to figure who was who, and which numbers were playing where!

Fortunately from that point of view, the first half at Leeds was one of the worst I’ve seen, and thus could be safely watched with only one eye. The heavy drizzle was responsible for scores of fumbles, as spilled balls, knocks-on and losses in contact predominated. Ball control was non-existent. Add a fussy ref, plus players who seemed to have forgotten the laws over the summer break, and things didn’t get better. Overall impression was that Edinburgh’s open field defence seemed sound, and that they like to spread it wide with backs who seem to have the requisite skills (in patches) to do so. A back three of Paterson, Webster and Leonelli is a promising strike force. Leeds meanwhile searched for and found Edinburgh’s Achilles heel – the driving maul. The Gunners had no answer to it apart from the usual dragging down, for which they were penalised – often. The game was notable for the fact that neither side kicked for goal from penalties, although there was plenty of opportunity to do so. The 0-0 score line at the break summed it up neatly.

The second half started a little more brightly, no doubt due in part to the fact that the sun had come out. Leeds pressed hard on the attack, Edinburgh forced back into their own territory. The Tykes were playing with possibly their best side out, it being their third warm-up game, but seemed unable to produce any ambition or invention. The rolling maul seemed their only weapon, and they used it a lot. Marshal made one short break but was tackled. On 48 minutes Leeds eventually forced a driven line-out over for Parkes to score. The rest of the scoring took place in the next ten minutes. Marshall made another break, longer this time, splitting open the Gunners’ defence down the middle. He was eventually dragged down by the left post, and when the ball moved right Chris Rhys Jones was there for a looped pass into Snyman’s hands for an unopposed try on 54 minutes, which Ross converted. Edinburgh were finally stung into a riposte. Two minutes later Blair convinced Marshall to cover the open side of a scrum on the Leeds ten metre line and promptly stole down the blindside. He chipped ahead and jostled with Marshall to reach the ball first. It span loose and Hogg was there to plunge over. Hodge, the former Tykes flyhalf, completed the conversion from wide out on the left touchline.

And that basically was that. Edinburgh showed more ambition, but their execution was poor. They moved the ball wide at every opportunity, but failed to fix their opponents, allowing the drift defence to cover back across. They were pretty good at turning the ball back inside, but it was always into arriving defenders. In the forwards the front row was fairly solid, but late on their tighthead was taking a pasting. The locks were athletic, but lost some ball against Palmer and Hooper. And their back row, without Taylor and Blackadder, was little more than above average. Their defence against the driving maul was woeful, and they failed to retain sufficient possession to force their way upfield. Most of the final quarter was spent in the Edinburgh half. Frank Hadden was acclaiming the fitness standards of the Gunners in the press this week, but reports of this game noted their players tiring.

Having been unable to accompany the Grand Tourists (aptly described by the Major I think as those with too much time and money on their hands!!) to Perpignan and Argelès, this reporter was forced to attend the press day (thanks, Swanny!) to seek answers to the question of Sale’s preparation for the coming season. And found Kingsley Jones in a buoyant mood. He labelled the French pre-season tour as “a tough test for guys, new guys, to play Perpignan and Castres in a week, but obviously they came through that test very very well winning both game, putting their hand up, putting in some big performances”. He added that he “was really pleased with all the players, all the new players, all the existing players. It was a great trip off the field as well as on the field”.

Asking questions about pre-season’s progress of Jason White and Barry Stewart produced similar answers. Big Tam “enjoyed it and to win two games in France is massive,…[with] the new guys playing their first games for us to beat Perpignan and Castres was very good.” The Bear, a former Edinburgh player, commented that “the team spirit’s very good, fitness is good. We seem to have a group of Lions who are keen to come back to a team that is functioning well”. Both Edinburgh-born players are looking forward to the game, and have friends and family in Edinburgh who are coming to watch.

Jason was positive – “hopefully we can go up there and win”.

When questioned as to how he viewed the Murrayfield game, KJ replied “it’s a pre-season game we’ve got to keep that in mind. But obviously we start to build now towards the team for Newcastle because, as the Lions found out I guess, you can get caught out, you need to play players together, new combinations.” Can’t argue there! When asked if that meant the Lions would reappear at Murrayfield, Kingsley outlined the dilemma facing both coaches and players – “we don’t want to force them into playing we want to leave it to them … I think its important that they do get some game time. And I think the longer they go without playing the more difficult it will be for them to get a place to play against Newcastle, particularly after the way the new guys came up trumps in France.”
So while there will be some element of experimentation against Edinburgh, it seems that Sale will be strengthening towards their first-choice side.

The squad have their eyes firmly on the prize, the beating of Squeaky’s Mob on the first day of the season to the frantic waving of Albanian flags. But that doesn’t mean that Edinburgh will be taken lightly. On the contrary, with places up for grabs in the games that matter, competition will be fierce, and the Gunners should feel the heat.

If Edinburgh play to the standard displayed at Leeds last Saturday, they will sink without trace this Friday. At Murrayfield however, they are likely to be a much stronger proposition, and if Blackadder plays, stronger yet. Jason White, commenting on the big New Zealander, said “He’s a very good player and I think when he plays he probably raises the level of performance of those around him.” Perhaps he’ll still be on the jelly and ice-cream diet! Several of Edinburgh’s injured are labelled as likely to be fit for duty, so they’ll be gunning for the Sharks too. I still fancy Sale for the win following their exploits in France. If PSA strengthens the side with some of the absentees, Edinburgh may well find it difficult to live with the Sharks. Sale by 15.