So, Edinburgh are home at last. Over the last week we’ve been given access to the Edinburgh Rugby Stadium or ERS as it's being referred to without any sense of irony. Firstly for the open day and then on Saturday for the maiden game at the stadium against Newcastle Falcons. I’ll come back to that acronym later because I have a sneaking suspicion that it won't be around forever but later as I say.
So I’m going to split this piece into 3 parts and take a look at the open day, the match experience against Falcons and then a wee bit about the game itself.
The open day was on Saturday and kicked off at 1pm, well it should have but someone forgot to give the stewards the QR code scanners so it was more like 1.15pm before the gates opened by which time there was a lengthy queue down Roseburn Street waiting to get in. So it was an inauspicious start to the day and this new facility but as far as I was concerned it was mostly uphill from there. My seats are in the Murrayfield stand above the players tunnel but on this day I wasn’t able to access them and like everyone else had to content myself with a seat in the Lothian Stand. I was just west of the halfway line and can report that the view was fine and that the much moaned about pillars really didn't cause any viewing issues.
I was at the Southern Knights game against Watsonians a couple of weeks ago and got chatting to Scott Hastings and even he was criticising this factor of the design.The only thing I have in common with Scott was at that moment neither of us had sat inside the ERS. So at least today I'm a little better informed.
I also stood a while talking to Alister of EdinBru rugby, in aptly enough the standing section of the Lothian Stand, and was taken with how close to the pitch and the action that area was.The training session itself was interesting and the big thing I took from that is just how much of a unit Henry Immelman is. I was lucky enough to also have a chat with Doug Struth before taking my seat and he admitted that he felt a bit like a new father showing off his baby for the first time and worrying what the reaction was going to be. I said that people had to remember what it cost and that a bricks and mortar ground of a similar size would have cost probably 5 times as much.
Talking about proud fathers I also had a chat with Academy lad Ben Evans dad in the fan zone. Ben is a first year professional straight out of Stewarts Melville and will no doubt be hoping to get some game time over the course of the season. Catch him with Heriots Super 6 team in the meantime.At the end of the session like everyone else who had donated their season ticket cash last year I went to the tunnel to hopefully find my and Mrs Burgh Watches names on the wall. I’m still not sure if the picture below is us because my middle name isn’t Philip but if this isn’t us then I’ll need another look.
So all in all a good day and everyone just seemed happy to be there. A week later 6512 spectators pitched up for the very first official game at ERS against Newcastle Falcons. Firstly it was good to see that the QR scanners had been issued to the stewards. Once inside we were able to sit in our seats for the first time and I have to say that my view from this area was great.
The seats themselves are a little tighter than the similar ones that we had at Myreside and the leg room is very reminiscent of
BTM but this is what us fuller figured chaps and chapesses have to contend with at any venue so this isn’t a complaint but more
an observation. However the big screens, situated in the Riverside/Main stand corner and the Lothian/Murrayfield stand corner are nowhere near big enough. From the Murrayfield stand the one in the opposite corner has no value either as a way to watch a replay or to see the match score which runs along the bottom of the screen. The one at the Murrayfield stand end isn’t really visible as you have to look sideways and this is the one time that the stanchions are an issue. I obviously haven't sat anywhere else in the stadium but an acquaintance whose seat is in the east end of the Lothian stand felt similarly. In addition to that the match clocks were barely visible at pitch level and that was something that had been highlighted when the club was still playing at Myreside.
I don’t know if bigger screens are an option and we may just have to live with them but I'd like to think that the match clocks could
get a wee elevation to make them more noticeable. On the plus side the venue already feels much more intimate, more noisy and for those of us cursed with slack bladders there is excellent toilet provision.The fan zone was good but it was a little annoying that if you wanted a beer you had to go to one stall but if you wanted a spirit you had to go to a different stall that was at the other end of the area. Oh and when I say spirit I mean gin and don’t ask for anything but tonic in that gin. We headed up to the clubhouse post match with the promise of a player interview there to entertain whilst we quaffed premium priced drinks. We had been there about ½ an hr when a couple of techs arrived and dismantled the speaker set up. That was the only clue we had that there was to be no Q&A. It was good to see the tradition of closing the bar at an unexpected time was upheld despite plenty of people sitting enjoying their drinks. I understand that there has to be a cut off point. Perhaps that could be advertised. A couple of notices beside the bar would suffice. One last gripe would be the non availability of the car park for season ticket holders. Perhaps that will change. We’ll see.
Overall the first matchday experience was a very positive one and the minor issues mentioned are just that, minor. Most can be overcome. It was great to be there and I’m sure that everyone is going to enjoy the surroundings as we go on.The match itself was a typical pre-season affair. 32 players were named in the Edinburgh squad including 3 scrum halves and to give you a flavour of the way the game panned out all 3 of them got some time on the pitch. Continuity definitely wasn’t the main focus. All the noise coming from Mike Blair seemed to indicate that the changes to the style of play would be more evolution than revolution and that's how it seemed we set out our stall. There were still the 2 yard rumbles but there were also a few tap penalties to mix it up and Ben Vellacott seems like he is going to speed things up considerably.
It was a very unfamiliar looking Edinburgh side and that probably showed in the outcome against a Newcastle side that have really only added a couple of players to their roster and were a couple of weeks ahead in their preparation. It certainly showed in their defence.Two intercepted tries added to their margin of victory as Edinburgh’s handling and timing was just a little rusty.
Jaco picked up what initially looked like a nasty injury and was replaced by Charlie Savala. He always looks to me to have time on the ball but will have to work on when it's on to give an offload and when it may be more prudent to hold onto the ball and take the contact. On the flip side if a pre-season friendly isn’t the time to try these things I don't know when is? The first points at ERS went to Jaco’s boot and although Newcastlle got the first ever try Mark Bennett’s first half effort for the home side was our first try and it was a peach. The result was a fair one and in the grand scheme of things not that important. Would it have been good to win our opening fixture at ERS? Of course, but it was much more important that we used this time to prepare properly for the season ahead. It’s still a day that I’ll remember for a very long time.
Oh, and ERS? I may just be reading too much into this but you may recall that Irn Bru tweeted this picture as a cheeky bit of free advertising. But it was the winky gif that followed in the thread that makes me think something is in motion here. Even the orange in the shirts has become an Irn Bru orange as opposed to a burnt orange.
It’ll be the Irn Bru Stadium before the season end but don’t hold me to that.
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