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Season 5- Episode 45- JACKS ARE CHAMPS!
37 Plays2 years ago
It's the season finale for those American rugby knuckleheads. On this episode we are talking ALL about the triumph of our boys in blue, red and white in Chicago. Looking back at the game, the critical moments and the final seconds that were crucial to securing the win. We are also wrapping the year with our season long XV of the year, some obvious choices make the cut. This and more as we sign off on Season 5, join us won't you!?
Check out the TFRY Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/TheFantasyRugbyYanks
Ask us questions via Twitter: Jarrod- jdyke8man & Ben- admrablsnackbar, and #AskTFRY.
Send us your thoughts for the show and questions for upcoming shows via e-mail fantasyrugbypodcast@gmail.com. Of course we welcome feedback via e-mail, twitter or by rating/reviewing the pod on Apple Podcast.
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Overview
00:00:02
Speaker
It is. The Fantasy Europeans. My name is Jared Dyke. I wanted to say it's stupid and let's move on, but then you kept going. I'm Ben Glauser. I don't like any way anybody handled that. Collusion. Collusion.
00:00:27
Speaker
Hey, everybody. Welcome back. It is the fancy rugby. Thanks. My name is Jared Dyke. I'm Ben Glauser. Yes. It's the normal voices this week. Yeah. Back to the man. I can be very dainty sometimes. Very dainty. All right.
Podcast Promotion and Inclusivity Message
00:00:49
Speaker
Oh shit. That whole thing. I'm prepared.
00:00:57
Speaker
This beer was not bread. Jesus. Good thing this is all getting washed up. Find us on your favorite podcast app. Download rate review. All that good stuff. Share. Sharing is caring after all. Sharing is caring. But by our good friend, George, the fans here, we geek a coffee or beer, especially since we're all going on hiatus for a little bit this summer, although
00:01:24
Speaker
And if you were smart enough to captain currently Ardinson in your super routine this week, then I bet you George had that recommendation in there. Probably. I remember right. So yeah. So you're welcome. And also say thank you to him by getting him a bite of my coffee. Right. As always, there is no discrimination here on this podcast, nor should there be in sports or in life. We turn towards the university and the armored wank ball.
00:01:51
Speaker
Yeah, the hand egg has some of the right. Some of us like to call it as well. Yeah, I like rankball better. Yeah, I do, too. But hand egg is actually handy. Yeah, pretty good. But rugby is kind of hand egg, too. So it is. But it's also it's hand egg in foot. So that's OK. That's true. But but that's why the rank is you know what exactly what it is. Yeah. And he's talking about armored rankball. You know exactly what it is. That's the fact. But anyway, we turn towards the university version here and
Hazing in College Sports
00:02:21
Speaker
You know, it's been a longstanding problem, this thing that's going on with Northwestern. And it's like, everybody's aghast when it happens at another place that a guy's been at for a long time. Like, duh. Did Joe Paterno teach us nothing? Right. And here, well, I mean, I don't know if it's the same. I didn't look at the details.
00:02:43
Speaker
But here you have a guy who goes and coaches his alma mater not that long afterwards. So bear in mind also, this guy, Pat Fitzgerald, the coach in question here, he's just a little older than me.
00:03:00
Speaker
he's 48. Right. Right. And I remember him. He was one of my favorite players back in the day. And he was one of those old school, like really, he wasn't, he wasn't good enough to really play in the in the NFL. I don't know that he I know he got drafted. He didn't get drafted late.
00:03:22
Speaker
Right. And I think he might have played a cup of coffee, whatever. And then basically what happened was Northwestern's coach passed away suddenly and they're like, well, he's right. I mean, this guy won like.
00:03:33
Speaker
two linebacker of the year awards, like national linebacker of the year awards, like twice. So he won the four linebacker of the year awards. They were maybe even like best defensive player and two linebacker of the year awards in college. Like this guy was fucking solid. Really good guy. But the thing is when you go and you have traditions and he was from the last vestige of
00:03:55
Speaker
The hazing, like it was it was working its way out by the time I I was in, you know, I was a captain of a team. We didn't do it in high school. Like, right. And even then we were still like, you know, wait, the freshmen had to carry pads or something like that to practice nothing. It's just like, yeah, that's what you got to do. And it sucked when I was a freshman and whatever. And then it was when I was a senior, it was like, nope, we're not doing that at all. We're not sending anybody out. And it was like, oh, these kids are soft. And that was little, you know, that's a little thing.
00:04:25
Speaker
But these guys were like pretty hardcore about it, you know, the couple of years ahead of me. So like, I kind of see where he's coming from and you just never outgrew it, it seems. And that's the thing when you come from, you know, when, you know, it's hazing when you're, you know, when you're neutrals like us, when you're in it, it just seems like tradition, right? I'm sure that stuff was going on when he was there. And he's like, this is what we do. This is what makes us good. Yeah, because Northwestern is so good at football, the College of Ball. But yeah.
00:04:52
Speaker
It's it's like, that's the mentality. And that's the shame of it. That's that's really the to me, the sad part of this is that he's a guy I looked up to for a long time for a long time. Right. I mean, I was in like high school college when he was playing. And so I really liked him at the time.
00:05:11
Speaker
And to see that that's what he fostered is unfortunate. There is good hazing. And not even hazing, I should say. There's good ways of what? Not induction, but just getting someone into a team. Yeah, the little traditions. You have to do something silly. I like in the NFL, they make their rookies sing the
00:05:36
Speaker
their college fight songs. That's funny. That's hilarious. And other stuff that might actually bring you together. It's got to be something that brings you together, not sets you apart. And that's, again, what the no discrimination is. Even if it's by class, even if it's by age, that's still
00:06:12
Speaker
a way of creating division.
00:06:16
Speaker
99% of you are doing everything under control and in good fun. There's the one dickhead that brings it too far. And that's when everyone gets in trouble. And that's why it's got to stop because there will always be that one dickhead. Right. Always. Right. That's how she goes. Yeah. So, um,
00:06:37
Speaker
Right. There's this, it's silly. Don't move past that. You know, the tradition is not tradition. It's just shitty team adery and, and, and, uh, and team leader. Like it's just, that's not what you do when you want to lead a team. Nope. Nope, nope, nope, nope. Um,
Celebration and Analysis of Rugby Matches
00:06:55
Speaker
thank you again to our better halves for, we, we got lots more things. Thank you so that to them afterwards, but, um, thank you to them for being good sports and coming on and.
00:07:06
Speaker
making sure that everybody was thoroughly entertained in our 200 episode. It was a good time. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it a lot. Even though my wife fucking wrecked me a couple of times. She does that sometimes. She does. I need it. So if you're listening, you know I need it. So I'm sure those who heard it were amused. Yeah, no doubt.
00:07:34
Speaker
There's like, I still can't figure out why she married me, but I know why I married her. Yeah, right. Like, you're out of your mind. You're out of your mind, but that's okay. Anywho. Let's go to Chicago. Champion! Yes. Fuck yeah.
00:07:59
Speaker
God, that took years off my life, and I'm pretty sure I nearly broke my hand, counted it on the fucking bar, but... Oh, yeah, when Milan went over, it was like... Oh, elation, and just like... And then, you know, obviously, only a point's different. It's like, fuck and hell, we could totally lose this thing. Right. We could easily lose this thing. Actually, hold on. As we're getting through this, so continue on with a recap, if you will, as I look something up. Yeah.
00:08:26
Speaker
It started hot, like we didn't do anything amazing to get that try. And really, I don't think it was, I don't know if it was more Nanu's fault or if it was Judd's fault with that ball that Nanu ended up cocking up and Jacobson scooped up and scored, but. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you very much for the gift. Thank you kindly later. No problems, you know, have to oblige. Oh, that was, yeah, he was the one who picked it up after Nanu bottled it.
00:08:55
Speaker
I'm blaming Nanu because he had just a terrible game. He didn't have a bad game. He didn't stop there. I watched Ma Nanu play a number of games, a number of games. I'm a Hurricanes fan. Obviously, I watched the international stuff and I've seen him play too long here. That is without a doubt the worst game I've ever seen him play. Yeah, that's one of those.
00:09:18
Speaker
If you're thinking, if you haven't had it in your head that you've retired going into the game, like I'm done after this game, you turn around and be like, you know what, I might need to play another season just to get that out of my system. Like you can't, you can't, you can't end on that. That was a shot. And like, no, just for like, obviously every respect to him. I was just like, I was scared of him.
00:09:39
Speaker
that was like the one guy on their team that was like, that's the one I'm most scared of. And he was the one who was giving it away to us the most. So I fuck that's I was happy about that. Certainly. Yeah. Thank you, God. But it was it was, you know, it was
00:09:59
Speaker
In the first half, I was worried only because I was like, by the end, I was like, shit, we have to somehow play better than this because we got a couple of gifts and we took advantage of them. A bunch of gifts, yeah. If we couldn't play any better than that, we were going to be totally bummed.
00:10:16
Speaker
It was never going to go well. And, you know, because the defending that we had on the Asperger for the first Asperger trial was off. I was like, what are we doing? He knew he knew who he was picking on. He picked on a couple of front row forwards to play with. And then because the way that they do their back to they just split them obviously and maybe don't split them so much. Yeah, not quite as much. But to me, both teams were like just poopy pants because that even that the
00:10:45
Speaker
The Jacobson try happened after a sequence of multiple freejacks bed shittings, where somehow San Diego bed shit worse, like the window to do something stupid.
00:11:00
Speaker
Um, San Diego, get the ball and then just move backwards would lead you would play hold my beer. Yeah. And all of a sudden it's like, okay, well, okay. We messed that up. We knocked it on, but they played it back. They played it away. They they've lost advantage and then they gave it back to us. And it was like that way all the way down like the field until it's right. Um, and then yeah, as you said, um,
00:11:23
Speaker
you know, the Oxburger try came because of bottle defense. Like it was just stupid shit that was allowing both teams to score. And so it was really at halftime, you know, we were both kind of like, all right, we're losing, but we're not, by no means out of it. No, we weren't out of it. It was like, can you play better than them? Yeah. And they did. I mean, they tightened it up, got it close.
00:11:54
Speaker
That's exactly what they needed to do. I think what I said last week was that we're probably not going to know who's winning at 60th minute. We definitely did not. Nope. And it was like, we might know who's winning at 70th minute, which we did not. We did not. And then, yeah, it was, it was extremely late. 36 minutes try. Yeah.
00:12:15
Speaker
What a play just kind of coming out of nowhere like that whole thing was weird because they were like even the comms were saying that the free jacks weren't really spreading the field. And so they weren't really putting that much pressure on the Legion. It didn't feel like although, you know, just being down there and pounding away like at some pressure sometimes there's pressure because you know something is coming and you don't know when it's going to happen.
00:12:37
Speaker
I mean, it was it was just a bunch of one ups, one ups, one ups, and then just one pass, just one, you know, good pass is also one good pass. And Milan beat his man and then beat the next defender to the line. There you go. Oh, like I always know he if he could get by once he bounced off the first right once he bounced off the first tackle, it was like, and actually, I think I'm mistaken. He bounced off the guy outside of it, like who was
00:13:04
Speaker
He showed not his defender. No, he shoved off the next guy and and just out raced his own guy who was supposed to have him. Nanu maybe brought. Oh, fuck. Yeah, that's right. No, he ran into Nanu because he kind of bulldozed. Nanu was kind of standing out a little wider and he kind of pushed him over and then ran like and again.
00:13:23
Speaker
Nanu wasn't responsible for him. So that's not a blaming Nanu thing. It's just he was in the wrong place at the wrong time on that. Right. He was the guy who his inside defender fucked him. Yeah, definitely. And Milan was the one that got rid of the chicken wing to Johnson that created the bell icon try as well. Right.
00:13:43
Speaker
So how Milan didn't end up on the player of the match list, I have no idea. What the fuck Mikey Teo was doing on there. I also have no idea. I don't know if he was watching this match, but he was dog shit. Like player of the match, like Osburger and Patras definitely belonged on there. Patras won it, thankfully. But yeah, like why Teo got on there and not LaRue, Milan, I haven't got a clue. That doesn't make any sense. No, makes no sense whatsoever. That's people knowing names. And not necessarily recognizing what good rugby is.
00:14:11
Speaker
Right, not my tail is not that good. I'm sorry. No reason. I'm not sorry. That's not right. It's I'm not sorry about it. It's just he's he's way overrated by the US people way over it. Yeah. Like they get this bone up their ass about
00:14:27
Speaker
He played a long time, like a while ago, man. He's really good. He played for the, like, okay, how good are the Eagles? Let's discuss where the Eagles are going to be playing this fall, shall we? Right. So let's not make use that. If we're using that as our, oh, no, he's really good. No. You can't use every candidate either. It's the same. It's the same. Also, that last sequence, okay, as front row forwards,
00:14:53
Speaker
we would be remiss if we didn't talk about basically everything that happened after the trial. Yeah. Well, all the, the scrum, well, so.
00:15:04
Speaker
In many aspects, we got a little lucky and, you know, I don't feel dirty, but I also feel a little bit ashamed. Like, if Will Hooley's on the field, he's hitting a drop goal, or at least attempting to drop goal. The Henderson kid was never going to. They faked like he was guessing a four, and he's like, nope, I don't have that in my locker. I'm running. And so, thankfully, but not thankfully, and no, that's a shitty way for Will to go out. That's the last game, I think.
00:15:31
Speaker
So that sucks. But at the same time, it's like, thank God, he wasn't in because he's setting up for a drop goal. And whether or not he hits it, I don't like those odds. Not so much. But yeah, forcing them to either, you know, basically them baking on us, making a mistake or them having to score it was what it was going to come down to. And thankfully, we have a good enough defense. Yeah. Like they got him to knock it on. Not that I thought that was pretty early. I didn't I didn't I don't remember the Legion getting the ball other than
00:16:01
Speaker
they knocked it on. Cause we had- They knocked it on with like a minute and a half to go. And James was actually really good about trying to stop the clock on resets and stuff like that. So I'll give him credit for that. There's still only so much you can do. So they not, the, the free jacks, I don't know the scrum coach. They don't really point them out, pick them out on the, um, what I was, that's what I was looking for to figure out who the scrum coach was. And they don't really identify that in the, in the free jacks page. Um, because that is how you scrum to close out a game.
00:16:31
Speaker
They- Waste one and then- They wasted three. Yeah. They got lucky on that one. Every time the whistle blew, my bum puckered. I was like, ooh, please no. Please no. Yeah, nobody was going down. There was just shit not going right, which is... I guess people went down, yeah, at some point. The first one, because that's what you did. First one it did, and that's what made me nervous. I was like, please no. And then the second one, I think people blew it up before they put the ball. It was just not, yeah, something was fucked.
00:16:59
Speaker
And then I think that's the third one that was basically it. They just waited and they kept the ball on the scrum until he said play it. At that point, the clock was up. And that's just absolute championship caliber rugby right there. That's like tactics anyway. Yeah, the talent has a ways to go. But that was tactics. I ate that up. If you like, you know, I was not in a great, great mood watching this match. And
00:17:28
Speaker
Just because other things. And I was on my feet cheering because. Yeah. Of most, you know, the fact that was the free jacks and because that was like I love watching us could like just close it out. Yeah. Waste a couple. Use the clock like perfect scrum tactics and especially given who was in the backup front row.
00:17:51
Speaker
Kyle. And they really didn't bother a lot. It was solid. Okay. Also, that said, as I mentioned him.
00:18:04
Speaker
Net positive. He played for him very well. Like, yeah, that was what I would hope to see from someone who is playing desperate, urgent rugby. That's that's really why I'll like God in a final show up. Right. Moderately in a final. You need to turn your jersey in. Right. Because that's the end. Like, really, he was he can't do that. Yeah. Because Jared made note of it as we were talking. He's like, yeah, but like,
00:18:32
Speaker
some of the rocks that he hit, he was kind of just hanging out there. Sometimes I was like, yeah, no, go be useful somewhere else, dude. You are, you are a wasted body there. Get out of there. But the difference is that out of those rocks, he would come out of those rocks and be the first one at the next rock and like very, be very important. And I'm like, fuck sake. Like that's, that's good prop.
00:18:57
Speaker
Yeah, you can sometimes you get caught in no man's land. You just another rock because you want to hang out but. To go up and show urgency and hit the next one and then hit the next one after that, like he hit a couple in a row sometimes and that's stuff we haven't seen from him.
Team Signings and Player Contributions
00:19:13
Speaker
So you can't do it in the final. Got to say. Right, at least you know, but that's the thing you did it in the final and that's you know when we when we needed it and.
00:19:23
Speaker
We want and I'd like that's one of those like every, you know, all 23 put in a championship performance. So, well, I'm younger than Jones and touch the field. All 21, 23 you played. I was actually surprised. Yeah. It was bastard and not.
00:19:43
Speaker
Jones that went in, but they, they had to get, he, they, it looked like they were using him for his height and to get up in the air, especially against, um, um, yeah. But overall, like, yeah, like, man, I love it. Uh,
00:20:01
Speaker
Jacobson, what a great addition he was this year. Keys, obviously, Quattro, and Curie Symes, hints. There are a lot of key pieces that stuck around, but the additions that we had on top of it all was really the thing that got us all... Ben Lesage, without a doubt, has to be my favorite song.
00:20:20
Speaker
Absolutely. My favorite signing this year. How much fun is he post game too? He's one of the good people who whenever we go down to the fence line He stops to talk to us. Yes, like he's a good lad. Like yeah, I mean he does talk to pretty much everybody but like There's not many people but he recognizes them too. Like he recognizes like hey you guys He's definitely a fan favorite no doubt. Yeah My second favorite signing is probably Reese McDonald this year. He's been
00:20:48
Speaker
He, he like, yeah, we talked about such a cheat code. He's been, he's been great. Um, you know, signed as a backup 10, but it has been obviously clearly filled the role at 15 did well under the high ball for the most part. I think you have the one mistake and that's it. Like really, that's it.
00:21:04
Speaker
Like there was the one glaring error, but that is it. He, I don't think he had a toe wrong otherwise. So no, loads of credit to Reese and, you know, got a chance to talk to him the other week and express how great he's been for the team. And yeah, we'll say it again on Saturday too. Yeah.
00:21:20
Speaker
Uh, yeah. Party and Quincy, you're all invited. Just don't come be a poopy, poopy, poopy pants and all that stuff. But other than that, yeah. Love it. No neutral or DC fans. Yeah. Go away. You got your guys. You can come to. Yeah. Arrows. Come on down.
00:21:39
Speaker
And on the other side, for Legion, it's not to say there weren't great players. Obviously, Ozperger had himself a day. Cooley was steering the ship quite well. But Evan, he was annoying. Funkyo was... Every time I watched The Rock or watched a tackle, he was there and he took like 10 seconds to get up.
00:21:59
Speaker
He was everywhere, but he just slowly got himself back in and it was like almost deceiving how good he was. Now, I will say, if that's Blair Cowan and not him, that's a problem because thank God Blair Cowan was suspended for this thing too. But, hey, listen, you can't hold anything against that because he was dumb. That's his own fault. Right. He was. That was the well-earned suspension. Yeah. Sorry, dude. And he didn't need to do it. Yeah. No.
00:22:27
Speaker
Yeah, boys take it home. Sorry, Legion. How awesome is that? Rise made, not the bride, not the bride. Free Jax Championship. Yes. Because this is like, you know, as we're saying, this is a good comp, right? This is not, this is not a, I mean, it's, you know, a good second tier comp. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, tier two comp, no doubt.
00:22:51
Speaker
Not quite the top one, but yeah, definitely a two-two comp and still very good stuff. These are some good teams, like the legions are a great team, Seattle's a great team. There's some very good teams in this comp and the free jacks fucking took the... Got it done. The worst trophy in sports is one you cannot drink out of. Yeah, stupid shield. And this is rugby. How do you... I mean, I guess top 14 has the plaque thing, but that's been around forever.
00:23:18
Speaker
This is not. We chose to do this like a bunch of idiots. So that's my one problem. If I had realized that we were talking to the CEO last week before he kind of left, I would have I would have mentioned it. Get it. Yeah. Get it. Come, please. Come. Please, please, please. Yeah. Make this a 35 pound shield. OK, so it's really heavy and you can't drink out of it. What? What good does it do then? Right. What good is it? Yeah.
00:23:46
Speaker
Well, we'll touch it anyway on Saturday, probably. Absolutely. Hold it up and be cool with it. Hopefully get a picture with it. Yeah, that'd be nice. Maybe it's a number. Remember, give your camera to a fucking woman this time. Right, right, right, right. No dudes. No dudes allowed. Yeah. Dudes, we're shitty picture takers. That's just how it is. Right. Okay. Anywho.
00:24:10
Speaker
Now that we've just splooched all over the place with that one. Yeah, thank you for bearing with us there. Thanks for dealing with that.
Season Review and Standout Performances
00:24:17
Speaker
Let's do a 15 of the season. So our effectively our pod season and what we've covered. Which covers a lot. It is quite a bit. And different players will end up in this team for different reasons, whether it's a small reason or a big reason or a single moment that I can think of for myself at least. But yeah, we're going to go through this a little bit here and there.
00:24:36
Speaker
We have players from all quite a wide range of players in my in my team, that's for sure. So that's the beauty of this one. Yeah. So let's start loose head prop. Would you go with. So in this case, I went with someone who really basically was to me the best. Put their foot forward, loose head prop of any comp this season. Although he's had a couple of good, good ones recently, this was a fucking great one, and he's in an national team because of it. And that's that Albert Pavarowski.
00:25:07
Speaker
OK, yep, I can see that. Yeah, I hope I hope we finally get some sort of look. Good God. Yeah. You know, he's been called to that camp how many times and hasn't really got a look. And I think it'll help that, you know, Mako is kind of done. Oh, he's this is definitely Mako's last competition. Right. And so it's like you got Genge, duh. And then and Valor Pavaraskin, who else is there? Obano. Obano's in. Oh, that's probably it. That's probably it. Yeah.
00:25:36
Speaker
But either way, they should, those should be your three. Right. I think so too. Um, so I went Homer ish slash, you know, off the board. Um, I went with hope Rogers who had herself a real, was one of the better teams and was not a great team at the world cup for the U S. Um, but also her premier 15 season was actually very good. She was one of the top try scores. Um, obviously played in the final, uh,
00:26:01
Speaker
almost scored in the final. So, well, actually, she did score, didn't she? Yeah, she scored the one the first try. Anyway, so loads of credit to her. And she was someone I was bashing for a long time about getting herself around the paddock. And she's proven that she can do otherwise. So give her credit. Hope Rogers is my other set for the season. Not bad.
00:26:23
Speaker
Deuce your deuce. We did not plan that. Deuce, no. Double deuce. I went montage.
00:26:36
Speaker
Rewind all the way back to the Argentinians winning in, the Pumas winning in New Zealand and just the seasoning he had for the Tigers as well when they really needed him because Gens was gone and they needed another body in there to just, you know, be that guy, be that force. And certainly I would say that he bled from the front. So I give him a lot of credit and he's still trying to do as best he can for the Pumas. So yeah, Montoya is my two.
00:27:05
Speaker
I went down south. Actually, the rest of my type five is down south. So my hooker this season was a guy who just fucking brought it week in, week out. And even though there's obviously massive competition at that position, I think he's the guy, Cody Taylor.
00:27:26
Speaker
Yeah, I agree with your thoughts there. He was definitely on my shortlist for Hooker. I was like, all right, it's either Taylor or Montoja. I don't know which one. So I was like, you know what? I'll go with Montoja because I figured Taylor is out there too. Yeah. So there we go. Got both of them. He should be considered heavily for all blocks next to Captain when Razor takes over.
00:27:51
Speaker
Yeah, love the guy. Thankfully, as much as we hate flow, we've been able to watch some of the pregame stuff, and there's been a lot of stuff on Cody Taylor that's made me just really like the guy a lot more. Right. It's hard to not like. Yeah. Tighthead! This was difficult for me. Because tighthead's a weird position. Because first off, again, you're the only prop that actually scrums. So that takes away a lot of your movement around the pitch.
00:28:21
Speaker
Um, so it's kind of hard to, to go, you know, to, to really make your mark on matches. Um, so what I did was I kind of went that same thing, like who put themselves in the best position for their national team. And, um, this guy's actually on it, uh, even though it's an Eddie Jones team. So it's like, uh,
00:28:46
Speaker
Okay. What does that mean? And how many minutes is he going to get before he gets pulled? Um, but either way, uh, Zayna Angor with the, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, did a good job, uh, filling, you know, he's got big, big boots to fill, big boots to fill down there with Chupo hurt. Yeah. And he's a puppy and he did a really good job. Yeah. He'll, he'll, him being in the squad will do him more good going forward. Um, yeah, presently, I don't know if it's going to be enough, but going forward, it's going to do him a lot good.
00:29:15
Speaker
I went with, I went with a guy that's 20, really. Yeah, he's a bad bet. I went with a guy that's been very good for his country, very good for his club and got himself a winner's medal to prove it. I went with Tony Antonio. That's a good one.
00:29:39
Speaker
Yeah, just really good player. And yeah, healing ends up coming off at like 50 minutes or so. Right. But those 50 minutes are always dynamite. So, or almost always dynamite. But again, as a three, like 50 minutes, if you're, you know, if you're a
00:29:56
Speaker
a beast of a three 50 to 60 minutes is is it you know if you're if you're coming off earlier than that you're had you might have had a rough one um if you're if you're going more than 60 you're like as a tight head if you're fucking nuts um so and he does you know he he has the potential to do that later but for now yeah that that's still a good place to be and especially on a national team
00:30:21
Speaker
Yeah. Bring the next guy in for 30. You should have a guy you want on the pitch a lot. So you don't wait for them to get too tired before you fall. Engine room.
00:30:38
Speaker
I want to get a particular country theme to it. Me too. And mine has a, this is my, my Homer pic for, um, for super rugby. Uh, it's hard to call him a Homer pic, got to say, uh, Brody Retalic. Yeah. That's my Homer pic, but
00:30:57
Speaker
but being there's so many locks to choose from. So I'm like, okay, here's, there's my chief. Oh, there's so many. There's so many to choose from chief in there. Um, okay. Good. We'll, we'll have a nice mix up of things. Cause mine is still one of the best second rows of the world. It looks like he's, he's starting this weekend. He's going to be healthy and his club appreciates him a lot. His, his country appreciates him a ton. He's definitely the best second row of one of the best second rows in the world. I'd say number one, number two are him and Maro still. Um, Evan, that's Beth.
00:31:28
Speaker
Yeah, really hard. The guy doesn't have a bad game. That's the thing. Unless he gets himself into trouble with the ref. That's it. That's it. And that's rare. He's been so much smarter about it since like five years ago when he was really stupid. Just been so much smarter about it and very just a high quality player to
00:31:47
Speaker
really just enjoy watching. Cause he's, he's so smart too. Like, you know, he rewinds the Quinn's game where he just, he had it all. He had the brain to just pick that ball up at the back of the rock and be like, I got it. He knew what he was doing and it was a hundred percent legal. So yes. Yeah. That's a bit hard to argue with the guy. So my, one of my second rows. Yeah. Um, so sticking with my, my, my Kiwi second row pairing, um,
00:32:17
Speaker
Scott Barrett has taken another step forward. Massive step. Like, he was already good. And lately he's been just other world. Like, like, oh, yeah, you're a Barrett in the loose too. Like, it's fucking crazy. Yeah, nothing more to say about that. He's been too good. Imagine all the Barrett brothers had been able to play. Because I think there's two that don't play at all.
00:32:44
Speaker
Scary. Yeah. So mine. Two two lucky brothers that play at the same time under the same jersey. Yeah. French U-20s. Yeah. So yeah. It should do that. Play as one guy like he does. Frickin just looks like he's a pair of people sometimes. Right. Anywho, who's your other luck? Mine's going to be JLDP from the Sharks.
00:33:10
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. You know, I you look at him, DDP was pretty banged up this year. Mm hmm. They had lost lewd. Yep.
00:33:21
Speaker
and Johnny Hill is not like swapping Johnny Hill for Luke Jagger is not a good swap. That's a really shitty swap. And then the Curry's are all banged up as we're going throughout the season or missing one or the other. Yes, they face John Ross is in there and they have to lean on him. So really,
00:33:43
Speaker
The most impactful for this piece is not really that impressive. No, God. He's got. Well, he had a couple of hold my beer moments this year, too. So yeah, he did. Yeah. With all that, I think he was definitely one of, if not the best forward for the Sharks. And they got to the final. Huge reason why they got there was him. So
00:34:04
Speaker
I'm definitely gonna give him props where it needs to be. He plays for the wrong country in terms of locks, but it's okay. Although he's, no, sorry, he's not. It was the other sale lock who's started. It was, yeah, it was Lou. You mentioned who's starting. Oh yeah, well, he plays all over in Japan now, I think. Yeah. Anyway, okay.
00:34:31
Speaker
back row. I'm putting an eight at six because fuck you. I'm doing it. Um, so my, my eight at six is Greg. He's my eight that works though.
00:34:43
Speaker
Yep. Yeah. As, as far as back rowers go, he's on one of the best teams in the world. He's definitely the best loose forward. He's probably one of the, he's probably their best forward. Yeah. With a few exception. Like I think Martian's probably on the same, same degree. He's up there. Um, but not quite. I think he's, I think Aldrich still let's hear about, and as we were talking about the other week, in terms of number eight that are playing better in the Northern hemisphere, at least I don't know anybody better.
00:35:13
Speaker
I know of one better, which is I put him at eight on my team, but that's. And that's like that's marginal, probably. Yeah. And he's not originally a northern hemisphere. He's just playing there for for professional. Well, and that's different. So that's so that being more like, yeah, more about like who's playing for a national team in the hemisphere that's playing better than I'll do. I know nobody, nobody. So, yeah, definitely in there.
00:35:38
Speaker
My six is, um, this is definitely a Homer pick, but I don't think it's either. Okay. He's my seven. Yeah. No, my seven's another guy that people know, know nice and well, but yeah, Earl, what can you say? Like can play all over the back row. Does everything asked for him.
00:35:59
Speaker
You know, and you talk about player, we talk about players that you want to root for and get behind and, and attract fans. You need players that play with passion and there are not many guys that play with more passion on the pitch than Veneral. And he loves his club. He loves his country and he will dump it all out there for you. And that's, you got to love it. And when he does, he's usually one of the more effective players, if not the most effective player on the pitch too. So.
00:36:28
Speaker
He does it all. There's nothing. There's nothing he doesn't do well. Although I don't think we've seen him kick yet. I'm sorry to put a few kicks through. I'm sure he can. Yeah. I'm sure he can hit a rubber too. Yeah. He just hasn't. He's waiting on that. Yeah, right. So let's see. Your seven. My seven. Band of Flair.
00:36:53
Speaker
Yeah, OK. Yeah, well, because by the time we wrapped up last year, we were fine. Yeah, we were still we hadn't really discussed the New Zealand series yet, and he was a huge part of that when yes, the you know, the grand slam this year. And yes, Lancer lost in the final, but still the one of the reasons I got there was because of him. You got to play the year trophy, play the year trophy on top of it all. Like, right. There's arguments for many people, but
00:37:22
Speaker
None of them will overtake him. May they match him? Yes, but I don't think they'll overtake him. So they've been there. Disappeared in that championship. He did. He did to be fair, but I look at it. I'm thankful. I'm looking at the whole body. I know. I just needed to twist that knife there. No, you're you're correct.
00:37:45
Speaker
So I guess we're we're all settled except for my eight. That was your number. My number eight is a guy who we have in the past roasted because as a guy who could be great and just as too much of a fucking helmet. Yeah, I know we're going. And he has, you know, previous to this year, turn it around a little bit. But this year, front to back, start to finish. Didn't put a foot wrong. At all.
00:38:13
Speaker
at club level, at international level, got rid of the bullshit and is just, to my mind, might be the most impactful eight. You know, like I'll read again, great player. There's some other great eights. But Jasper Visa is just who's when he wants like that. What was the big match where he I can't remember when was.
00:38:39
Speaker
Lester and I can't remember. They brought him in late against somebody. I must have been. Yeah, I remember that. And he's just like, I'm winning this game by my give me the ball. I'm running over three of these people into the tri zone and like. Yeah. That's what he can do. And it's not funny, but I remember that you don't just do that.
00:39:00
Speaker
And he can do that. He can make grown men look like little boys. And it's just that impressive. So for a guy who he's really putting it all together and can even still get better. I want to give him his props here. Yep. Because I like him a lot now, too. You know, he was he was a guy who was like, I want to like him, but he's just doing too much shit to be likable. Yeah. And not anymore. Now he's I find him eminently likable. Yeah, very, very good.
00:39:29
Speaker
one of those guys that you just fear when he's picking up the ball, you're like, gosh, shit, what the hell is going to happen next? Yeah. No. That's a your man call for a lot of people on that. Right. Right. Right. That's what that is. All right. To the Scrum half free. Yeah.
00:39:52
Speaker
I didn't overthink this. I just took an Anton DuPont and yeah, he is still, that's hard to say. He's not the number best nine in the world. I know. I know there are other people that are like, well, you listen.
00:40:09
Speaker
I like Jameson Gibson Park. I do too. He's my kind of number two, but I felt like... Honorable mention, absolutely deserves. Yeah. And I think Gibson Park's getting up there. Nuggie's looking like his old self. If he plays like he did in the Highlanders jersey for the All Blacks, then he's going to be up there too. Right. There's too much of what he has been...
00:40:32
Speaker
Lately so I couldn't yeah, I like him and he played very well this year very very well this year. No doubt Yeah, go on it like really I think he I think he might have a World Cup on his mind
00:40:45
Speaker
Yeah, a couple of them do. Yeah. Yeah. So I went with somebody that got their first trophy finally has had to battle and I mean battle through everything, especially this season. She raised her trophy this year. My nine's Mohan. We lost her. Yeah. You know, just everything she's had to fight for injuries and shit and just, you know, she's she's stuck to her guns too. She's played for lost her for the majority of her life and
00:41:15
Speaker
has never just been like, you know, I'm going to go to Bristol and play, you know, maybe playing a file that way, or I'm going to go to Exeter and play it for series or Quinn's. No, she has wrote it all the way out and she finally got her due.
00:41:27
Speaker
Right. You gotta love players like that in any comp who stick with it. Cause yeah, they glossed her heartbreak. He's been like, meh. They're not great, not terrible. Just nice puddle of meh. So I'm really glad for her that she got to see this through. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. 10.
00:41:51
Speaker
I'm sticking with my, my prem 10 of the year, because he was just that impactful to his club. And I don't know of anybody else who, who was, was that from that position. You know, there's a couple, like I, I, I thought about having Faz here as my, my super homer pick. Cause I thought he was like, no, that's my Jersey. Um, that's my 10 Jersey. Right. Yeah. Bobby dupes. Robert Dupri is, um, just.
00:42:21
Speaker
Yeah, sale is not in that that final without him. No, definitely not. No, they're not in the position they are without him. No, there's no question about that. I went with a guy that has been playing for a very good team internationally and he's also played for a really good team for his club and he won his club as league final.
00:42:44
Speaker
And that was at the death, at the death. And, you know, hasn't, you know, I kind of, I was, the only reason I was hesitant was I was thinking about that semi-final against Lenser in Dublin, but also like, you gotta remember they took DuPont away from nine, which was the stupidest move, prove that Hugo Ma is a complete fucking idiot. But yeah, I don't know what the hell they were doing with that. So,
00:43:11
Speaker
I kind of throw that game out. Other than that, very good for France. Has any question about whether or not he should be playing 10 or 12 and have somebody else play 10 is definitely gone. He's the 10 and everybody else is playing for second banana right now. Whether it's Carbonell or Astoy or Jallibert or whoever.
00:43:36
Speaker
They're all playing second fiddle right now. It's into Mac's shirt. And he's playing for what potential could be the World Cup favorites, so. Right. And he was on my list. He was my guy before I kind of switched over to Dupree. Yeah. So I'm glad that you gave him a shout because he had a good year. The thing that.
00:43:53
Speaker
he was inconsistent as far from what I saw and that's why he didn't make mine because I thought he didn't play to his potential for a lot of this pod year and that's domestic and international from what I saw so that's why I that's why I thought but fuck I'm not gonna I'm not I'm not saying you shouldn't that's why I was like that Bobby dupes was was the guy who he like elevated constantly so he did that was and look
00:44:20
Speaker
Is there any question who's the better player? No, we know who it is. So yeah, mine was purely out of kind of sentiment, I guess. Yeah, much respect. You want to go to the midfield? You want to go to the back three? Let's go to the midfield. Okay. Well, 12. One, two, three. Ollie Lawrence. Ollie Lawrence, yeah. Should be in England's team, like,
00:44:48
Speaker
If he's not on England's team, then they're not wanting to walk out that, or they're not even going to be come close. Let's put it that way. Like he is that impactful. He will make that type of difference. Everybody's talking about Tui. No, Tui is done. Yeah. Lawrence can do everything that Tui can do in circles, like old and busted the new hotness. Yeah. The new hotness. It's just how it goes. Sorry. It's how it cycles. It's how it works, man. It's not, nobody made the shit up. It's just how it is. Yeah. You know? So yeah. Only Lawrence without a doubt.
00:45:18
Speaker
Uh, my outside. Yeah. Did I pick her for one moment and one moment only? Yes. I don't give a shit. You got a, you got a picture of her. Yeah. But yeah, Stacy flow. Yeah. Yeah. She's that, that try in the woke up final, like, Oh my God. I was like, started finished and just poster it, like put it on a poster. Like, yeah. Did something awesome at both ends. Let other people do awesome things. And then start started finish like, right.
00:45:47
Speaker
stayed with it the whole way. And yes, I know she wasn't the only one to make an impact on that play, but she decided to run that thing too. Remember that? She decided we're running this. So you got to give her the credit there and just stay with it the whole way to finish. And yeah, and she also was super impactful to that team.
00:46:04
Speaker
When she was healthy, was there anybody else that was going to play 13 for that team during that tournament? No, no, no, no. She she picked up a knock. But other than that, yeah, she she went back to killing in sevens, too. So, you know, just all around awesome and awesome person. So, yeah, she's worth 13. My 13 from the same country. And. I was I kind of wasn't expecting this before the the name
00:46:33
Speaker
hopped up on my screen as I typed it in. But this was a guy who I, you and I, if you had mentioned this name to either of us, how many months ago, six months ago, let's say, it's more than, you know, further back than they need to go, but given me a good buffer. We'd be like, who? Like if this guy's playing, they're, the Crusaders are in trouble.
00:47:00
Speaker
And that's what I said the first time he got the start because they had, you know, good who got hurt and or was hurt. I hope that some other center was hurt. And they popped in this guy with with a first off. This guy should be in a fucking Western movie, not playing rugby in New Zealand. So Jared knows who I'm talking about, as do all of you, that I'm talking about Dallas McLeod. Yeah.
00:47:30
Speaker
Yeah, he's like storm also played his way. Play his way into a national team. So then earned it. Yeah, I thought he played better. He played better than the guys he was replacing too. So some of the guys. Yeah, definitely.
00:47:44
Speaker
I don't know. So well done to him. Yeah, good. He was his profile. That's that, you know, that's my profile razor in the back. So I had a nongor in the front. Dallas McLeod in the back. Yeah. Yeah. I think he was done. He's gone. Like they're going to try and force it. But he's done. So yeah. And Kain are done. McLeod will be great going forward. All right. Back three. Start with eleven. Eleven.
00:48:12
Speaker
because this guy just dominated the super rugby set. Pretty much start to finish, although, yeah, there's others. And you're gonna, you know, I already chose my Homer, so you know it's not a chief, although there are two chiefs that really deserve to be on this list, as honorable mentions. Absolutely. But to me, Mark Talea. Yeah. Unstoppable. Yeah.
00:48:37
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. He's my lover too. Yeah. Absolute monster. I hope he gets healthy for the tournament going forward here because that's only going to help them. Yes. And he's, and even in, in the fall when he made his debut, like automatic impacts. Right. So got to love the guy and yeah, he's, he's a pain in the ass. Yeah. 14. Ruby. Tui. Tui. Yeah. Good one.
00:49:05
Speaker
Good one. Again, profile razor for the sport. One of the best players in the game. Mm hmm. At a huge impact position and, you know, in with with plenty of other players, easy to get lost in the mix, but she still shines through. She has the personality to back it up to it, which is, you know, that's obviously part of it. She's too much fun. Way too much fun. Yeah. If I look, if I'm putting a team together and I don't pick Ruby Tui, I'm missing something. So something happened, right?
00:49:34
Speaker
Um, so my, my wings have a theme. They're both named Mark. I went with, um, I went with not walk into no Wase. Um, he, you know, I, you wondered like, all right, one of the ties missing sometimes. And he's, he's now number one, he's now like the guy in the back three back there. He's not, it's no, he's not the pop that he was a few years ago when he, when he banged onto the scene and we didn't know who he was. And.
00:50:01
Speaker
nobody could pronounce his last name. And now he's played in a gold shirt. And I thought he played very well in that gold shirt. And, you know, he's only, the only reason he's not doing it right now is because, well, Eddie Jones is his national team coach, that's not his fault.
00:50:19
Speaker
I think, and I just think he's had a great year as well. And I know the toss were kind of poo, but really he just, he's no longer just the funny name. He's actually a really fucking good player. So I enjoy it. And, you know, I look forward to more years with Marky Mark. Although to be fair, he's kind of funny looking too. He's a little goofy looking. Yeah. He's got the fro. He's got that beak of a nose. He looks like the bear kind of thing going on. We know, we know what's going on there, but that's okay. That's okay. And then fully back.
00:50:50
Speaker
I want you to, oh wait, I don't know. Maybe we had the same person. No, we don't. I did say that I'm going home or in every possible competition. There's one we're missing and one position left. And one guy we talked about a little bit at the end of the, uh,
00:51:09
Speaker
Um, uh, the MLR and, and this guy normally attend changed positions and has just been beasting it all season replaced. First off, not only that replacing. A legend in Bodine Waka. Like you don't just step in and take over for Bodine and people don't notice.
00:51:32
Speaker
Reese McDonald was like, yeah, we, okay, we're good. We're cool. Like we, yeah, I got you. Like we, you miss him. We get, um, Patras, um, as the 10 when it would be cool to have Patras and, you know, and boating, although we'll get that moisture. Um, but Reese was just at such class at 15 international quality.
00:51:54
Speaker
I'd say really good, really good. Yeah. I can't say world class because it was MLR. So, but that's the best I can do is international quality. Yeah, probably. Um, I can say this guy was, has been world class for most of the year. Um, Sean Stevenson. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, you know, I, to me of the back three guys, he was the better. And I don't think, I don't think, no, I would did that bad this past weekend. Uh, no, he didn't. But.
00:52:20
Speaker
to me of the back three guys that are in that chief's backfield, he's, he's the one to keep your eyes peeled for. And he's going to light things up and give him some space, give him some time and he'll create. And he's right. He showed that this year, I think. And really he's Gordon. He's, he did score in the final two, didn't he?
00:52:39
Speaker
Pretty sure. It sounds right. We'll go with it. Yeah. So anyway, very, you know, breakout season for him really put himself down as a, as a player that to be watched and should be, should be on Fauzi's list. And if he's done Fauzi's list, you better be on fucking razor's list. He'll be on razor's list. Right. I guarantee, I would guarantee that razor's not going to let someone like that go Fauzi might cause he's Fauzi. Cause he's dumb, but you know, is what it is. Cool. All right. 15s.
00:53:09
Speaker
Great. All right, so if you haven't figured it out, folks, this is the last part that we're going to do for a little while. Yes, we'll talk to you next week. Wait a minute. Yeah, we'll definitely be in for World Cup. Speaking of World Cup, I reached out to Superbrew and they could not divulge.
00:53:30
Speaker
information, but they teased some good things coming. So, um, I'm hopeful and sounds like primer teasing something potentially maybe better. I choose to believe and hope as opposed to be, uh, you know, be a poopy pants and go the other way. Cause it's all we got right now. Yeah. I want to believe I'm moldering right now. Yeah. So.
00:53:54
Speaker
Yeah, with that, well, yeah, we'll be back and we'll do World Cup preview before it kicks off, obviously, to start season six. Who knew? Wow. But anyway, thank yous, of course. Thank you to our patrons. Number one, you guys were awesome. Are your patient for a month or the whole year, we do appreciate you all if you've
00:54:17
Speaker
been a patron for two years now. Of course, we really appreciate you all and really, really, um, yeah. Make me make this a lot easier to do without, uh, as much stress. Yeah. So certainly we, uh, we appreciate you all for doing that, for being supportive of us and downloading, listening and all that good stuff. And obviously we appreciate everyone that's interacted with us on Twitter and has, um, pushed our stuff and, um,
00:54:46
Speaker
giving us bumps here, there, everywhere that we, that we, uh, that we need. Um, yeah. So we, we do appreciate you all for interacting with us and pushing our, uh, our interactions and our, and our engagement higher. Right. We need it. Much appreciated. Um, thank you to everyone that listens. Um, I know not everyone that listens is on the Twitters or chooses to interact with us on the Twitter, but we do appreciate you all for listening and downloading and letting us babble into your ear. And whether you just listen to,
00:55:16
Speaker
think it was the most downloaded episode of our of our pod so far ever which was way back in that heavy season of many competitions fantasy wise but okay yeah yeah yeah if that's the only one you download that's okay we appreciate you anyway and then uh and then yeah everybody that listened throughout the year as well we
00:55:37
Speaker
We like the consistent ones that bear with us through the hard times and the easy ones and the fun ones. Because this is where we're at. We keep doing it and showing up for you also. We appreciate you when you all listen to us and you download. And of course, thank you to our better apps.
00:56:03
Speaker
Yeah, we did that last week. Yeah. Don't worry about it or not be open, dude. You're going to die. He's out of your shot. I'm okay to say it. Yeah. So we know everybody. If you didn't listen to 100 last week. Yeah.
00:56:23
Speaker
we can only do this because they put up with it and because they're willing to accept that okay tonight is such a night where you're gonna go bury your head into a microphone for anywhere between an hour to two hours sometimes which is
00:56:38
Speaker
Yeah, a little arduous and tedious. And then mine on mine on top of it is just like, oh yeah, you're getting the pod now, aren't you? I'm like, yeah, sorry. She's like, okay, I'll come back and bother you in a little, in a little bit of like, yeah, please do make sure I haven't gone and smashed the screen in. But yes, we, we do appreciate the fact that we have some very supportive and understanding
00:57:00
Speaker
wives and people in our life because otherwise, yeah, we were stopped doing this like two years ago. Yeah, at least I would say at the latest. But season one and done. Right, right. Hit it and hit it and ditch it. Yeah, that's all that's that's the best we can do.
00:57:25
Speaker
And we'll, we'll let you know what happens as we get closer to the next year. And as we, as we said, you know, we're going to learn about fantasy comps, what's going on. Yeah. Well, we will, we will always have something to do for champions league. Obviously those that want to bow out, if it's not quite their cup of tea, we get it. Um, but the, there's at least one spot that will be open. So put your hand up everybody. It's fun. Um, you know, it's fun. Um, we will, we're welcoming, we're welcoming in next year, Franco.
00:57:53
Speaker
to division one, I think. I don't remember. I don't have the records from DC. Yeah, I think Franco is coming into division one. So that'll be fun to add another.
00:58:05
Speaker
a new person into the mix and see what kind of bullshit they like to create. But yeah, so until next time, friends. Enjoy the months off. Enjoy the TRC and the warm ups to the World Cup. We will talk to you guys sometime. Enjoy Eddie Jones. Yeah. No, don't enjoy that. Don't enjoy that. Trust me. But yeah, we will talk to you all sometime late August, early September. Until then, enjoy it. And thank you, everyone, once again for season five. We'll see you season six. Have a good one, folks. Later.