Lawrie eager for fans to bring back derby buzz
Postponed European matches cancelled
EDINBURGH forwards coach Stevie Lawrie believes it would have been “a crying shame” if his team’s 1872 Cup matches against Glasgow had gone ahead in front of empty stands, and is now optimistic they can be played before a sizeable crowd.
Reacting to First
Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s announcement that spectators will be able to return to sport after a three-week ban because of Covid concerns, Lawrie also said his team would now go all out to attract a capacity audience to their next home game, against Brive a week on Friday in the Challenge Cup.
Both of the festive derbies – due to be played at Scotstoun on 27 December then at BT Murrayfield six days later – had to be postponed after a significant number of positive Covid tests within the Glasgow squad. The restrictions meant that if they had been played then, they would have effectively gone ahead without spectators. Rearranged dates have yet to be announced, but the easing of restrictions has led Lawrie to hope that when they do take place, they can be the showpiece occasions they have become in recent seasons.
“I would hope that with the First Minister’s announcement we’re starting to move to full crowds for a long period and those games can get played
[in front of fans],” he said.
“It would have been a crying shame if they had been played behind closed doors, given the buzz and anticipation.
“Having been involved in them last year, there’s not that same feel [without crowds]. So I hope we can get this Covid situation under control and
ALL postponed matches from round two of the Heineken Champions Cup and Challenge Cup have now been cancelled, while uncertainty continues to hover over the remainder of the group phase.
Following a board meeting, tournament organiser EPCR have conceded defeat in its effort to find a new slot in an alreadypacked rugby calendar for the seven games that could not be staged last month as a result of travel restrictions brought in by the French government. They have decided to record the five Champions Cup fixtures and two from the Challenge Cup as 0-0 draws.
The same safety measures we can have fans, because the buzz is just massive.
“I think they’re becoming iconic games. One of the reasons I got back into coaching professionally was to be imposed on travellers to and from the UK still threaten the final two rounds of the pool stage despite exemptions being secured for what is termed the “pursuit of an economic activity”, relaxing the rules for players, coaching staff and officials.
Clubs travelling to France, however, are concerned about the quarantine rule, which requires negative Covid-19 tests to leave isolation. Any positive PCR or antigen test would lead to a longer quarantine period in the country.
It is understood that the outlook on modified quarantine rules being granted by Paris remain hopeful, reducing the involved in those games. I was sick of watching them in the pub and being jealous of the guys doing well.
“We’ve got Brive next weekend, so we can put in a threat of a boycott by English teams who fear the potential for players being left in France.
Bath, Sale and the Scarlets are due to play European Cup games in France against La Rochelle, Clermont Auvergne and Bordeaux-Begles respectively on Saturday and Sunday. Newcastle, meanwhile, are scheduled to visit Challenge Cup opponents Biarritz on Friday.
For the round two games, rather than issue a 28-0 defeat to one team as happens in the event of an outbreak of coronavirus, it has been decided a scoreless draw is a more appropriate outcome.
Duncan Bech wee call to arms for the crowds to come out and try and fill the DAM Health. So that’s exciting. The players just thrive off that vibe, so hopefully we can get it full for next weekend.”
According to the coach, Edinburgh have a clean Covid bill of health as they prepare for their away game against London Irish in the Challenge Cup on Saturday, which means Henry Pyrgos, Luke Crosbie and Darcy Graham should all be available for selection after missing out on the 34-10 win against Cardiff last weekend. However, there is a doubt over Stuart McInally, who was taken off at half time with a neck/shoulder strain.
“He is undergoing a bit of an assessment at the minute,” Lawrie said of the hooker. “So we might just need to wait a wee bit longer on his availability.”
That bonus-point victory over Cardiff took Edinburgh to the top of the URC table and highlighted the radical change in the team’s style of play since Mike Blair took over in the close season. In common with the head coach, Lawrie insisted there was still a long way to go in the team’s transformation, but accepted aspects of their performances had been extremely pleasing.
“It’s been a great start,” he added. “We’ve played well and we’ve picked up the points. I think probably what’s most pleasing is we’ve picked up a few really important bonus points along the way that have allowed us to get a wee bit of distance between teams that have maybe just picked up the four.
“But it is very much just a start. We’re yet to play an Irish province, and we need to make sure we carry on in the vein we have started.”
Walker proud to sign senior deal with Warriors
FOR Natasha McKay, the next month will feel like she is taking part in the worst kind of adrenaline sport imaginable. McKay has been selected as GB’s sole figure skater in the women’s singles for the Winter Olympics but having avoided catching Covid for the entirety of the pandemic, she knows that if she returns a positive test in the coming weeks, her Olympic dream is over.
It does, she admits, make for a stressful time ahead of the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Games on February 4th.
“I’m being so careful, I’m so paranoid about everything and everyone,” the 26-year-old says. “Things are so strict from the Chinese side – if you test positive any time after the 10th of January then that’s you out, you can’t go, so it’s a long time to have to avoid it.
“It makes the next few weeks very stressful and I just have to be so careful.
“I coach kids and so
I’m asking them all to do lateral flow tests beforehand, I wear a mask the whole time and I’m just so cautious.
“So hopefully I manage to get through the next few weeks.”
McKay, has been dreaming about becoming an Olympian for almost two decades.
Despite not coming from a family of skaters, an invite to her friend’s birthday party at the age of seven began a love affair with the sport that endures to this day.
It did, she admits, take a full year of pestering her mum for a set of skates before she could embark on this path to the Olympic Games but even as a primary school child, McKay had no doubt as to what her ambitions in the sport were.
“The Olympic Games is what I’ve worked my whole career for,” she says. “It means everything to me to get to the Olympics. I’ve been dreaming of this since I was a little girl watching it on television. “I remember watching
Torino in 2006 and watching the American skater Sasha Cohen and saying ‘I want to do that’. So to be at this point now is pretty crazy.”
That McKay is a Dundonian is certainly a stroke of luck. Dundee has established itself as a city which produces many of the UK’s very best figure skaters, down, in no small part, to the husband and wife team of Simon and Debbie Briggs who lead the skating set-up in the city.
With McKay having relocated down south as a teenager, her performance plateaued and she was on the verge of quitting the sport.
However, a return to her home city reinvigorated her and from that point, she has gone from strength to strength, becoming a regular at World and European Championships for GB, as well as becoming a five-time British champion, the most recent of those titles coming last month.
Several of her closest rivals are also her training partners but rather than feel threatened by the strength of the Dundee skating group, McKay is in no doubt the competition has served her well.
“I always think it really helps having someone to bounce off of and having someone to push you on,” she says. “In any training environment, it’s a good thing – you even see it with the little ones trying to do what the girl next to them is doing.
“So instead of not knowing what your rivals are doing and so maybe giving yourself a day off, they’re right there beside you so you never relax because your training partner is pushing you.
“The coaching in Dundee is brilliant. I firmly believe Simon and Debbie are the best in Britain at what they do. There’s a great structure throughout from the little ones right up to the skaters at the top and so it’s a brilliant group to be a part of.”
McKay has one last outing before she heads to Beijing; the European Championships, which begin today in Tallinn.
It will be her final chance to test herself in a competitive environment before she makes her Olympic debut and having scored a personal best in the short programme at the recent British Championships, she is in confident mood.
Having endured a hugely disrupted two years due to Covid, McKay is delighted to be on the Olympic home straight.
“I feel in good shape and I’m excited to get a run-out before the Olympics. The programme I’ll do at the Europeans is probably what I’ll do at the Olympics so it’ll be good to see how it goes,” she says.
“It’s been a pretty stressful year ahead of being selected so it was amazing to be named in the team and be so close now.
“When I get to Beijing, I won’t set too many targets. I just want to have the best skate I can and whatever happens from there will happen.”