Filling the gaps in the pretty accurate write up:
- Peter Horne took his try superbly. He saw a line and took it, the Doncaster defence couldn't catch him.
- The grubber kick forward tactic worked all night.
- Good hands throughout plus lots of pace. Apparently at one point Doncaster was screaming that Thom was offside, but it got pointed out that he does actually run that fast.
- Really good defence, not only did they cover well but 2nd guessed what the opposition were doing. Basically Donny had never seen a blitz defence before and couldn't cope, and we moved smoothly from blitz to drift when the ball did occasionally move wide.
- Forwards loose play excellent, even Ed Kalman joining the line.
- An interesting tactic I'd never seen before from opposition penalties inside their half - station defenders at intervals down the touchline. It made their outhalf kick shorter than he wanted. Won't trouble the Sextons and Joneses of this world, but Phil Godman will have kittens when he sees it.

However:
- Lineouts weak until Ally came on
- Scrummaging unconvincing, though as ever you can't see the whole picture from the sidelines. Allegedly the ref was out of his depth and gave a load of stuff the wrong way.
- Still messy clearing out rucks. Need to sort that out before Munster.
- Props don't look great, seemed to improve when Welshy came on. Hopefully will pick up when Moray comes back.

So if we can actually get the ball to the backs, we'll do well. Big positive is that all the new guys look good, no weak links at all in the backs.

ajp! "props don't look great, seemed to improve when welshy came on" only seemed! no, no, credit where its due, AJ no half measures, "did improve when welshy came on". maybe aj we should get a big blow-up plastic hammer and attack the coach every time he leaves welshy on the bench. that maryhill place is full of violence.

Um, Welshy stood out because the rest of them weren't great. Even then, Welshy nearly got carded immediately after coming on. He had more spirit about him, needs to direct it better.

Justin looked particularly poor - the scrum was collapsing too often.

But I'll defer judgement until better connaisseurs of the black arts (i.e. JimC) see the team.

The other worrying thing is that we tried rolling mauls 2 or 3 times and made a complete mess of it. The maul split in 2 a few times. We can defend them on this evidence but please Sean don't try it ourselves until we've learned to do it.

ajp! welshy stood out because others around him were rubbish? really? "he had more spirit about him" yes your right, he did, irrespective of those around him! i think its called HAVING THE EYE OF THE TIGER.just keep the big blow-up plastic hammer handy i think we will need it. i couldn't imagine what its like to live in such a violent place as maryhill.

Eh?

Good crowd for a pre season even for a league game, hope the game V Wasps will attract at least the same in Glasgow...

They were charging £5 entry, they had a band on in the corner, a pipeband (from Scunthorpe of all places) wandering around playing "Scotland the Brave", a Knight mascot and about 20 teenage girls doing dance routines. They have the longest bar in Yorkshire under the stand and loads of pie, chips & gravy. I'm not sure all the crowd knew that much about the rugby but talking to them people said that it was a fantastic night out for a fiver. It was certainly a lot of fun. They got about 5,500 for the Leeds match last year and their average attendance is a fair bit higher than ours.

Not sure you can replicate that in Glasgow as it's a fully fledged club with loads of teams, and let's face it there's a bit more to do on a Friday night in Glasgow than Doncaster. But it certainly shows you what can be done and I wish them all the best in getting into the GP.

Thanks for your comments,

About crowds, I'm not sure if there is much to do in Galashiels on a Friday night, and an area like the Borders with great culture of Rugby did not attract people for the Celtic league, and I remember a game on tv in France in the HC Borders V Biarritz was a poor crowd.
Anyway, I think strongly that Rugby in Glasgow could be a success in the future!
I know, Iknow, there is soccer, but Toulouse is a success at Rugby of course, but a success in soccer too.