The Offside Line Podcast: The First for Scottish Rugby

The Offside Line Podcast: The First for Scottish Rugby

Welcome to the Offside Line Podcast with your hosts Peter Burns and David Barnes. In this weekly show we examine all aspects of Scottish rugby, from the grassroots level to the Test arena, and discuss the goings on in the wider global game – helped by a regular panel of special guests and featuring exclusive interviews. David Barnes has worked as a freelance rugby journalist since 2004 covering every level of the game in Scotland for publications including The Herald/Sunday Herald, The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, The Scotsman/Scotland on Sunday/Evening News, The Daily Record, The Daily Mail/Mail on Sunday and The Sun. He established the Offside Line in 2016 to provide high-quality, independent and up-to-date coverage of all aspects of Scottish rugby. In 2005 he co-authored Jim Renwick’s autobiography, Centre of Excellence, and in 2008 was shortlisted for Rugby Book of the Year at the British Sports Book Awards for The Accies: The Cradle of Scottish Rugby. He is the co-author of the critically acclaimed Behind the Thistle: Playing Rugby for Scotland and Behind the Lions: Playing Rugby for the British & Irish Lions. Peter Burns is a William Hill Sportsbook of the Year shortlisted author and the managing director of Polaris Publishing Ltd. He has written eleven sports books, including Behind the Thistle: Playing Rugby for Scotland, This is Murrayfield: 100 Years of History in 100 Matches, Behind the Lions: Playing Rugby for the British & Irish Lions, This is Your Everest: The Lions, the Springboks and the Epic Tour of 1997, When Lions Roared: The Lions, the All Blacks and the Legendary Tour of 1971 and The Men in the Arena: England, Australia and the Battle for the 2003 Rugby World Cup. He is also the author of the forthcoming children's book series, Shadow Thieves. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episodes

August 21, 2025 22 mins
Welcome to season two of the Offside Line Pod. Barney and Burnsy are back to preview the start of the Women’s Rugby World Cup and the men and women’s Premierships. They’re joined by Lorna Husband, who is on the ground in Manchester covering the World Cup for TOL.

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Barney and Burnsy raise their bats to the clubhouse as they notch episode 50 of the Offside Line Pod – and they welcome Stuart Bathgate to discuss the Scotland Women’s 2025 World Cup Squad, which was unveiled at the Old Course Hotel in St Andrews.

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July 28, 2025 43 mins
Barney and Burnsy delve into the Lions’ second Test at the MCG and also chat about Scotland Women’s match against Italy, the heart-warming return of Emma Wassell and Rachel Malcolm’s words of disquiet about the team’s treatment by Scottish Rugby.

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July 23, 2025 63 mins
This week the boys dive into Scotland v Samoa, coaching merry-go-rounds, the Under 20s and they review the Lions vs Australia first Test, the First Nations/Pacifica game and preview the second Test in Melbourne.

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After a (very brief) summer break, Barney and Burnsy saddle up again to review Scotland’s loss to Fiji, Scotland U20’s win over Ireland and preview Scotland v Samoa and the first Test of the British & Irish Lions’ series against Australia.

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This week Barney and Burnsy sitting down with Corstorphine, Edinburgh and Scotland back-rower Alex Stewart to discuss her meteoric career so far as well as her recent health developments. A huge thank you to Alex for chatting to us and to Caitlin Gould at Scottish Rugby and Emily Harrower at Edinburgh Rugby jersey sponsor Scottish Building Society for setting this up.


https://www.scottishbs.co.uk/news-media/scottish-building-soc...

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June 12, 2025 67 mins

Now that Scotland’s 2024/25 domestic season is over, Barney and Burnsy team up with their old pals Mark Palmer and Craig Watson to review Edinburgh and Glasgow’s performances and how they are shaping up for next season, delve into R360 once more, preview Scotland’s summer tour and pick their highlights from the year.


This episode of The Offside Line Pod is brought to you by Village Health and Wellness Clubs Edinburgh. Get summer...

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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/4kIijGI


And you can buy Burnsy’s new children’s book he...

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May 28, 2025 50 mins
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.

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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/


Barne...

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May 13, 2025 54 mins
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.

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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.com


And if you are interested in supporting Graeme Smeaton’s insane-sounding golf challenge to raise money for ...

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April 28, 2025 60 mins

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 discus...

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April 23, 2025 57 mins

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, th...

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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 def...

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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 w...

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Barney and Burnsy dive into their overall reflections on the men’s Six Nations then buoy themselves with the action from the women’s edition, give their thoughts on Gregor Townsend’s future, discuss all things URC and the Men’s Premiership and look back on 100 years at Murrayfield.

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March 14, 2025 17 mins
Barney, Mark Palmer and Craig Watson call in from the pitch at the Stade de France to preview the final game of the 2025 Six Nations. Can Scotland pull off a miracle? And where is the title going?

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We’re delighted to be joined by the great Duncan Hodge, who among many other playing and coaching accolades, won 26 caps at fly-half for Scotland and now runs Accelerate Rugby: High performance training. You can find out more at www.acceleraterugby.com


The boys get stuck into analysing Scotland’s Six Nations victory over Wales – what was good, what was bad and where it all nearly went horribly wrong – and look forward to th...

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March 7, 2025 52 mins
Barney and Burnsy preview this weekend’s Six Nations matches with a focus on Scotland hosting Wales and review the latest action in the URC and the Men’s Premiership. What do you make of their predictions? Soothsayers or stabbing around wildly in the dark?

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