The Offside Line Podcast

This week, Barney and Burnsy talk URC quarter-finals, preview Glasgow’s semi-final visit to Leinster and review Edinburgh’s season. They also dive into the sevens programme and the newly proposed R360 breakaway tournament and what it means for global professional rugby.You can find out more about the My Nam5’s Doddie cycle talked about in the episode here: http://bit.ly/4kIijGIAnd you can buy Burnsy’s new children’s book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shadow-Thieves-blockbuster-middle-grade-adventure/dp/0008667810Or a special signed edition here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/shadow-thieves/peter-burns/9780008785161This episode of The Offside Line Pod is brought to you by Village Health and Wellness Clubs Edinburgh. Get summer ready and enjoy a club stacked with premium kit, a brand new Box N' Burn studio for the ultimate combat style workouts, plus spanking new bikes in the group cycling studio... ready for action!Gym, swim, throw shapes or get your chill on from just £50 per month. Summer's coming! Get ready to dig out those 'short shorts!'More details at https://www.villagegym.co.uk/theoffsideline/

This week Barney and Burnsy delve into the Melrose 7s, the general state of worldwide international 7s, the Club World Cup announcement, the European finals double-header and preview this week’s URC quarter-finals.

This week Barney and Burnsy break down the final round of the United Rugby Championship regular season and look ahead to Glasgow’s home quarter-final against the Stormers and Edinburgh’s trip to the Bulls. Barney also has a little rant about the Scotland Women’s U20 announcement (and AI) which features this article: https://www.theoffsideline.com/louise-dalgliesh-names-scotland-women-u20s-squad-for-six-nations-series/Barney dives into a preview of the Melrose 7s with Malcolm Changleng and our old pod pal Jamie Lindsay from Breadalbane. You can find out more about the Melrose 7s here: https://melrose7s.co.uk

Fresh from Burnsy attending the Lions squad announcement and speaking to one of the coaches, the boys delve into Andy Farrell’s selection and review the Glasgow and Edinburgh’s contrasting URC performances at the weekend.

This week, Barney and Burnsy look back on an action-packed weekend of action in the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup and make their predictions for Andy Farrell’s 2025 Lions squad selection.They also discuss Barney’s new venture, The Inside Edge, which you can sign up to here: https://insideedgecricket.substack.comAnd if you are interested in supporting Graeme Smeaton’s insane-sounding golf challenge to raise money for the My Nam5’s Doddie Foundation, you can find his page here: https://www.justgiving.com/page/graeme-smeaton-2

This week Barney and Burnsy are joined by Duncan Hodge from Accelerate Rugby to reminisce about playing for Edinburgh against Bath in Europe back in 1996 before previewing Edinburgh’s Challenge Cup quarter-final against the same opposition on Saturday. They also review last weekend’s URC results, Scotland Women’s magnificent victory over Ireland and Ayr vs Watsonians in the Arnold Clark Premiership final play-off (while also discussing domestic player pathways).This episode is brought to you in partnership with Accelerate Rugby: High Performance Training. Their mission is to help young athletes take their game to the next level with coaching programs designed for talented 10 to 18 year olds. You can find out more at www.acceleraterugby.com

This week Barney and Burnsy have an exclusive sit down with Pierre Schoeman to discuss Edinburgh’s recent turnaround in fortunes, his pride in playing for the club and the city and his ambitions with the Lions. They also talk to Emily Harrower from Scottish Building Society about their community give-back programme, analyse Edinburgh and Glasgow’s performances in the URC, Scotland Women’s game against England in the Six Nations, the Scotland U18 teams’ performances, all the action from Silver Saturday at Murrayfield, the Ayr vs Currie Premiership play-off match, speculation around Steve Tandy taking over at Wales and Johnny Sexton’s appointment as an assistant coach with the Lions. For more information on Scottish Building Society’s programmes (including g Tackle Maths), check out their social media channels and the Edinburgh Rugby website:https://edinburghrugby.org/community/take-part-in-tackle-maths/https://www.scottishbs.co.uk/news-media/we-re-helping-school-pupils-across-scotland-tackle-maths

This week’s episode is recorded live at the Hive Stadium, so please accept out apologies for the background noise. We were covering a brilliant event for Edinburgh and the Scottish Building Society, but you’ll have to wait until next week to hear all those bits and pieces. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy this week’s show.This week Barney and Burnsy delve into the horror show that was Glasgow’s Champions Cup quarter-final defeat in Dublin, Edinburgh’s harum-scarum victory over the Bulls in the Challenge Cup, Scotland’s disappointing loss to Italy in the Women’s Six Nations and they preview Silver Saturday and the second Premiership play-off semi-final.

Barney and Burnsy get the show back on the road after a week’s break (Burnsy is still picking himself off the floor after a vets’ tour to northern Italy) to discuss Glasgow and Edinburgh’s success in thelast-16 of the Champions and Challenge Cups, preview their quarter-final fixtures this weekend. They also dive into the third round of the Women’s Six Nations and discuss the Premiership at length, challenging listeners to come up with a new season structure for domestic Scottish club rugby – please email your thoughts on this to contact@theoffsideline.com