Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Season 2- Episode 49-Quarter of an Inch (Premiership Semi-Finals)
30 Plays5 years ago
It is your favorite American rugby knuckleheads back for more banter and rugby chat. In this pod we have a look at Gregor Townsend's Scotland selections, FINN IS BACK, and other names of note. We also have a look at the Premiership Semis from the Ricoh and Sandy Park, and look forward to the resulting final. Of course we talk about the big finals in Europe this week. Finally, we get into the big draw, of all things, down in Wellington with the Wallabies and All Blacks. Have a beverage and enjoy!
Ask us questions via Twitter: Jarrod- jdyke8man & Ben- admrablsnackbar. Send us your thoughts for the show and questions for upcoming shows via e-mail fantasyrugbypodcast@gmail.com. Be on the look out for an invite to our cross-format competition for fantasy rugby competition featuring the likes of us and our good friend The Fantasy Rugby geek. If you don't get an invite, we can get you in on the lower tier so you can get promoted for the following season.
Recommended
Transcript
Tech Frustrations and In-Person Hopes
00:00:08
Speaker
Hey, everybody. Welcome back. It is the fancy. My name is Jared. I'm Ben. Let's keep our fingers crossed that we don't have too many mishaps this week. Technology. What the fuck? Yeah, fucking technology. It's all right. We'll be we back to back to in person once we get back and once we get in our own private bubbles. Yeah. And the corridor is five minutes down the road and not, you know, 30 minutes. Right. Exactly. It's a bit easier. Yeah, a little bit easier.
Return of International Rugby
00:00:38
Speaker
Yeah, wow. Welcome back to international test match rugby.
00:00:44
Speaker
That was so much fun. I didn't realize how much I'd missed it until I saw it. And I was like, this is, yes, yes. I stayed up late. Oh yeah. You said you stayed up to what I was like, I'm going no Twitter and watching the replay in the morning. I was like, give me, let me see 20 minutes. Let me see if I can get the, or maybe the first half. Like I was, you know, like a kid at Christmas begging. And, uh,
00:01:12
Speaker
And then I got about 20 minutes and I was like, okay, this is a good point. Like I think Australia had threatened and threatened and threatened. And then New Zealand was like cleared it with the penalty. And I'm like, okay, that's enough for me today. I guess that's enough.
Podcast Platform Availability
00:01:25
Speaker
All right, let's pop them. Yup. Come here. Obviously you want to find us on your favorite podcast app, Apple.
00:01:34
Speaker
Apple Podcast, Google Play, Spotify. We are a part of Amazon Music now, I think. All the good places to find it. Ready to subscribe, you know, give us some feedback. We did have a little bit of feedback. Heavy Saracen's
Feedback on Saracen's Content
00:01:50
Speaker
talk. We are two Saracen supporters. So, sorry. If you're not aware of that, listen, they don't play until God knows when, because we don't know when the frigging championship schedule is coming out. So you're going to be able to live without it.
00:02:03
Speaker
for at least a month, if not two. So probably a lot longer because we really keep ourselves to the premiership. We do into what's going on in the world. So you really, you really don't have to worry about us talking to Saracens outside of an update here or there for a year. So it'll be okay. Obviously, we'll pump up the lonies that are out there. But
00:02:25
Speaker
Um, right. Yeah. Well, we'll, we'll, we'll dial it in. Promise. That was one last go.
Rugby Ring Fencing Debate
00:02:31
Speaker
Yeah. It was just, it was just a last goodbye and a God, I hope we see it again. Um, it did lend, lend myself to a thought on like, cause I remember talking with, um, a couple of guys, you and I know, um,
00:02:46
Speaker
There might be some ring fencing coming soon. And obviously, Saracens should be a part of that conversation, as should Newcastle and the other teams that are near the bottom as well. Lester should definitely have a, as much as I should. They should be in there. Right, I should on Lester, but they belong in the premiere show. They do, they do. If there's gonna be a ring fence, they belong there. And then there's,
00:03:09
Speaker
And then Ealing maybe or Jersey or Richmond. I don't know. There's all the, there's, there's a toss up really there. And I, and I might be leaving a team out there on, you know, unbeknownst to my own brain. Yeah. There's a lot, there's a lot to talk about with that. So good luck figuring that one out. Fight to the death for the three of them. Some of them, you know, we'll see.
00:03:34
Speaker
Well, if you had your TRM upgrades, you had a nice little preview of what you might get in your stocking, as it were, for your fancy points.
Fantasy Rugby Tips and Results
00:03:44
Speaker
Some of it was accurate, some of it wasn't. Yeah, a couple fell short, a couple of it just way out kicked their coverage. Yeah, absolutely. I concur.
00:03:55
Speaker
But yeah, so if you plan on doing this magical game next year, then I highly recommend that you grab yourself an upgrade right now and give yourself a chance next year to outlast your buddies. You don't want to be the one that's stuck with some really shitty forfeit.
00:04:11
Speaker
Yeah, I'll tell you, both Jared and I did extremely well this past week. I think we were both top 40, right? What'd you have? I was 38, I think. And I was 25 overall. 38, yep. And I can tell you, the upgrades make the difference because some of the decisions I made were because I was like, this guy probably not going to get as many points as this other guy. I'm going to buy into that.
00:04:40
Speaker
Um, the little preview they give you and along with my own analysis, but yeah, it's a very good sanity check, especially if you're, you know, even if you're thinking about it a lot, it helps so much. Yep. Agreed.
Promoting Inclusivity in Rugby
00:04:54
Speaker
Um, also you want to check out George, um, those of you that are probably playing a, um, FRD champions cup final this week, that is your guy right there. Go find him. He will give you the, the, the hidden gems between the two teams and he'll, he'll steer you in that direction.
00:05:11
Speaker
Um, cause some of these guys, I imagine people are going to have to be playing team players off that are coming off the bench from one of these teams. So good. Some of them, like we, we saw our friend who, uh, who needed some advice with, uh, going with delicate. Yeah. Um, that worked, you know, even though he was a reserve, you know, sometimes you're still going to score depending on the matchup. Yeah. Like, you know, you did quite well. Right. He did quite well. Like I said, like I said last week, second highest scoring.
00:05:36
Speaker
halfback that week. Right. Only behind the guy that played in front of him. So, yeah, sometimes that happens. You get that matchup. Yeah, it was a good matchup, obviously, with the Exeter depowering their team.
00:05:49
Speaker
As always, Black Lives Matter, we will never, we just can't state it enough. This is not, you know, we have to do our part, especially as white dudes, because it's not the people of color that need to know this, they already know it. So they don't need to be the one that's shouting it from the rooftops, it's us. So, you know, if you're out there and you're not a believer in this movement,
00:06:15
Speaker
you're probably not the type of people that we want to hang out with anyway. So that's okay if you don't want to listen to us anymore. Just what it is, you know? Yeah. So all we ask is that you promote inclusivity, especially around your own, your clubs and your teams as you go through the rugby universe. Rugby I think does a very good job better than most other sports at
00:06:39
Speaker
keeping that, making it inclusive and being good about tolerance. So let's keep that going forward. 100%. I agree.
Scotland's Squad Selections
00:06:50
Speaker
We had another squad released, international squad Scotland released. The magic Finn Russell has been turned to the Scotland squad. Yeah. Rightfully so. Right. Makes it worth watching to have a 10 who can actually,
00:07:06
Speaker
pull some magic tricks out of his head every every now and then yeah i mean but they talk about it all the time like he doesn't know what he's going to do sometimes right and his teammates definitely don't but they they read off him so well sometimes you know obviously a guy like stewart hogg reads the game extremely well he's going to be able to only benefit from
00:07:25
Speaker
a guy like Finn Russell in the lineup. So gives them a fighting chance in their final six nations game as well as going into the autumn internationals as well. We were talking about the names that were in Blair Cowan's back in, which is great. I thought he played his balls off for the Irish. Yeah.
00:07:44
Speaker
Sam Skinner back in Sam Skinner. Yeah. Bad news is Sam Skinner always seems to get hurt when he's on Scott. I don't know. I don't know where it is. I'm sure fucking broad Baxter would much prefer. He doesn't go on Scotland duty, but hey, you don't turn down a chance like that. So he's there.
00:08:02
Speaker
Scott Steele is Scottish. Yeah. Did not know that. Did not know that. And I pride myself on knowing a lot about this stuff. That is something that was totally up over my head. Did not know that. But hey, whatever. It's all good. Good for him. I mean, you got a lot of playing time at Quinn's because of the restart and the way the schedule is laid out.
00:08:23
Speaker
to, according to Gregor Townsend, made the most of it, as well as his teammate, James Lang, which I found interesting before, before, you know, Townsend was, you know, very shy at bringing in a third fly half. Now he's got four, or at least four guys that can play 10, I should say. You know, I suppose in an emergency, he could have called on Stuart Haught because the guy can basically play anywhere you stick him. Exactly. Yeah. That's what I was going to say next. But, um,
Premiership Final Reflections
00:08:51
Speaker
I'm looking forward to Duncan Weir's big fro in that jersey. Oh my god and the fucking the the tire that's sitting around the middle as well. I'm not one to talk but you know. Yeah but you're not on an international squad so you can't talk. I mean I wish I was but you know. Yeah of course.
00:09:12
Speaker
Chris Harris from Gloucester. We talked about him. I really like him. I'm glad he's getting his shot. Hugh Jones is apparently now a multiple-position weapon. He gets Glasgow. I've been deploying him at fullback quite a bit. Obviously, the departure of short hogs made things a little bit erratic for that position. Yeah, a little unsettled there. Yeah. So, but I guess he's been doing really well there. So,
00:09:35
Speaker
You know, give them credit. That's not an easy switch going from center to fullback necessarily, especially if you don't play it a punch. To be an inexperienced fullback, you can be exposed very quickly. Yep. So, good on him. One name who's not on here.
00:09:52
Speaker
Um, we, we talked about before the hutch. Yeah. Yeah. Hutch. Um, I'm a little surprised. And because I thought, I thought he played reasonably well. I thought he got very little help. Um, nobody would argue that you on that one at least. Yeah. Cause I, I saw him make some, some pretty good moves and just get no support, um, from, from his teammates. And maybe that's him just being, certainly as him being out of, out of a step with his.
00:10:19
Speaker
with his team. But then again, look at who he was playing with. They're like, if you see a gosh doing something right and nobody with him, yeah, I mean, everybody else just fucked off and did the wrong thing. And I think that that ended up hurting him a lot. Yeah, that the team was in freefall, unfortunately, it was wasn't wasn't to his benefit, obviously. No, it didn't help. So you got to go back and get some of his mates, some beers. Yeah, I'd be putting boots up, but that's for sure. Yeah.
00:10:46
Speaker
Gray brothers will be reunited. I wouldn't see a reason not to start the two of them together, honestly. No. You know, other than the fact that you don't know which one's which is necessarily, but I'm sure you can straighten that out with an X on the back of the jersey or something. Make one of them grow a goatee.
00:11:08
Speaker
That's a good one. I hadn't thought of that one. That's a good one. Good thought. I like that. Oh, man. Let's go. Permission to my final school that Rico first.
International Rugby Highlights
00:11:21
Speaker
I mean,
00:11:23
Speaker
You know, I said, I said on Twitter and I'll say it here, you know, it's for all four teams, obviously a huge round of applause to get you this far. There are three of these four teams. I'm not sure anybody necessarily thought they would be here come, uh, you know, at the beginning of the season.
00:11:38
Speaker
Really? Right. Because Bath were struggling last year and even going into the lockdown. Wasps were... Yeah. And everybody knew they were in a wee bit of trouble. And nobody... People thought good things of Bristol, but they didn't know how high they would go necessarily. Yeah. Bristol was like maybe next year or the year after. It was not thinking of them being a... You know, they were... The team you don't want to play,
00:12:05
Speaker
in the regular season, just cause they could, they, you know, on any particular day, they could jump up and bite you in the ass at a point. Yeah. But, uh, they still, they were, they were, yeah, not, not quite thought of to be at this point earlier in the season, not till they got a little bit of infusion of talent. And then all of a sudden that changes a little bit. Correct. Um, so let's get this guy out of the way first, before we get into the games. Um,
00:12:32
Speaker
Safe to say that the two best referees that reside in England are Wayne Barnes and Luke Pierce. Not too many refuting that. Yeah, I'm not going to refute that. I would say that we had one of the worst, honestly. I don't like Matt Carley. As far as the guys that are experiencing game in, game out matches, Matt Carley and Tom Foley go to the bottom of the list for me. Yeah, they're not high for me. Why he got one, I don't know. Yeah, there's someone else who I'm not always
00:13:03
Speaker
The, um, shit. Who's the young kid? Maxwell keys. Maybe, maybe no, not him. I'm not sure. Anyway, there's tempo and there's some other guys that got some part. So some games for time. Um,
00:13:19
Speaker
make peace. Got a few games. He was okay. Ridley needs to improve, but is getting better. Right. I think I still trust him. But the thing is, I trust him. But when he fucks up, he fucks up big. Oh, yeah, it's clear. So you can't put him in this situation. No, you don't want to put him in that situation.
00:13:34
Speaker
They ended up giving it to the guys who were like, they'll be somewhat consistent even if they fuck it up. Yeah, it should have been Wayne Barnes if Luke Pierce was getting the other match. End of story. That other match didn't need Luke Pierce with the whistle and Wayne Barnes on TMO.
00:13:51
Speaker
No, no, definitely not. No. So he was wasted on TMO. Yeah, he was needed there. So I thought that was a poor choice and his inconsistencies definitely played into the game. And there were a lot of whistles, way too many whistles for a game that could have been really entertaining. And it still was, but it just the level of entertainment was lower than we were all hoping for, I think.
00:14:17
Speaker
Yeah, it was it was way too choppy. Like, yeah, like he was he was kind of ticky tack. And for a match like this, you really want the players to just play you want to like the fans, everybody wants to see the players, you know, be like,
00:14:38
Speaker
running with the ball not stuck, you know, you know, slowing it down in the in the rock or, you know, I want to see these guys running, and they, you know, certainly Bristol didn't get off running and wasps like
00:14:51
Speaker
They just kind of worked it down the field and then they scored some beautiful tries. Don't get me wrong. They started off well with the Fekitoa one, that's for sure. Yeah. Who had Fekitoa score in the first try of this match? Not me. I mean, I had him making the first big hit, but not that. He came off. Do you know the news on that? No. The fact that he had to come off right away was not a good thing. He looked really upset. He was not pleased about that. And who else had to come off?
00:15:25
Speaker
Don't tell me, I know words.
00:15:29
Speaker
Jasper came off quick. Tong Young came off real quick, or fairly quickly. Tom West came off early, that's right. No, Sy McIntyre. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, that was it. That was, yeah. So yeah, it was. Sy McIntyre was an early exit too. Yeah. Yeah. Glad I didn't end up playing him. Right. Yeah, it just.
00:15:57
Speaker
This game definitely never got into gear the way we all wanted it to, I don't think. You know, and bears hung around for a while, Thacker's Try, beginning of the second half, kind of made it game on. And then, but then, yeah. And they had, they made it close, and then suddenly it was, now there was the... Yeah. Right.
00:16:21
Speaker
The I think Nick Mullins called him Jimmy the boot accurate description. Yeah Jimmy Jimmy was booting it. He was excellent. Absolutely. Just money. Yeah
00:16:35
Speaker
It's kind of, you know, just a surprise, like how well he's played in that supporting role of that, you know, of his 10. Umaga is like, he's taking, Jimmy Goprath has been, and you see it up and down wasps, you know, you can, Jimmy Goprath is, you know, underappreciated, certainly, especially when it comes to, you know, the other guys on his team who are really appreciated, like the Willis's and the Young's, like,
00:17:05
Speaker
Um, but damn, if, uh, if he wasn't the catalyst for, for so much that happened, um, in that match. Yeah, it was, um, okay. I mean, if, if there, if there's been a more calming influence on this last year, I don't know who it is. I really don't know veteran leadership, obviously. And just, you know, driving it and driving the team on when need be and getting, getting his, when he needed it and.
00:17:32
Speaker
Yeah. And, you know, and the loss capitalized on some, some bears errors too. And I thought the loss defense played very well. Um, obviously the ball, they've all had a couple of big names.
00:17:46
Speaker
And there was, but I also felt like the Bears just had a tendency to one forward off nine and then they'd shift at one. And that was kind of like what they were doing. And they didn't really get much more creative than that. So it was really, it was a little frustrating to watch at some points. Like, all right, you guys, you've done this play about a billion times. I know what's coming. Like you gotta change it up. And for,
00:18:15
Speaker
The shock that it is, they lacked a little creativity, which is not an MO of a Bristol Bears team of late. No, I think just the moment was a little big for them. I mean, you look at the youth on that lineup and they don't really have a Jimmy Gopp earth there or a Fekitoa there to be like,
00:18:42
Speaker
the ship, this and the launchbury, you know, all these guys, they have some good players and they have some. But but they're all kind of fiery guys, and the rest are young. Yeah, I mean, they have that that will be, you know, Lewittu is not not exactly I wouldn't call him a calming influence. That's a bad thing. He's definitely better in leadership, just the same. Yeah. And good trying to get trying to put him the right way. But it's hard. You have these
00:19:09
Speaker
This is like, as we were just saying, this is a bear scene that nobody thought was ready for this year. So to me, this is just experience for them. That was an experience loss, guys who are not quite prepared for that level of intensity. Whereas WASPs, guys, they have enough internationals and whatnot to be really ready for that and the knockout stages.
00:19:34
Speaker
Yeah. Excuse me. And I will give, um, I'll give the boards while low credit. Cause he had a, he had a handle. He had to handle Rod, Rod, the grand, the team probably did it, but really there was some one-on-one moments that he had to at least make sure that Rod Rado was marked and he didn't let him get away. So, yeah. Well, he was like two players with one with that lettuce he had on his head. That was some cabbage. I did think, you know, it, it felt a little bit, um,
00:20:02
Speaker
It felt, there was a point where it felt just right and then he overdid it and that was Nathan Hughes where he was trying to put the team on his back and you got to appreciate that. But then you could tell the moments that it was just a little too much of that. And that's what eventually bit him. So, you know, good on him for early. Yeah, right. Cause he, he, he got the ball free and he wasn't, he wasn't reading his help. There were a couple of times when like Earl was running in support with him or somebody. And he was like, he just,
00:20:31
Speaker
to pop it off. Or he did it, but he was trying to be a little bit more of a hero than he had already been. It's tough. You're in your old house against your old family. You want that W. And he did what he, Hughes did everything he thought he needed, or he had to do. So yeah.
00:20:59
Speaker
Unfortunate for him. I feel bad. That's a tough spot to be in. There came a point where Lamb threw in the towel and got some guys off that he wanted off. You know, he got he got Hughes off. He got Rod Rodraw off because, you know, he wants to win this weekend. So yeah. Yeah. Great time. So.
00:21:17
Speaker
Probably the wise decision, but a wasp well deserved. They're moving on to the final. They looked like a championship caliber team. The wasps did and Bristol didn't. So that's like nothing more to say about that wasps.
00:21:34
Speaker
Definitely not the pushover in this final. No, they won't be. I, I, I would be very surprised if they were, they have, you know, they play three fetchers in the back row that, you know, if you're not careful, you're going to lose the ball. You're going to lose
Rugby Strategies and Refereeing
00:21:49
Speaker
the ball. Either be a penalty or just straight turnover.
00:21:51
Speaker
Yeah, it's going to be fun to see the styles. So let's talk about their future opponents. Yeah. So let's go over to Sandy Park. Exeter 35, Bath 6. Bath got here and really it felt like that was it. Yeah, I wish they had done a wee bit better in playing. But you know, it's... You could see that they didn't have much.
00:22:21
Speaker
They're trying. They're using a little outdated, as in they used all their forwards in tight. And then when they spun it out wide, there's nobody to run like distraction lines. There's nobody to suck in the defense. There's nobody to attack them vertically. It's just a bunch of guys and four guys in a line running at a defense that really only has to shuffle sideways.
00:22:49
Speaker
Yeah. Not too hard to play defense that way. Sometimes they buy. No. So, and, and Exeter is good enough that they're going to, they're going to shut that down all day. So, you know, back had the ball a lot, but they didn't do much with it. So Exeter was like, okay, we'll play this game. This is fine. Eventually we'll get you off your feet and we'll get your penalty. This is what we want. Yeah. And they figured it out. Um, let's talk about the moment that a lot of people are talking about, uh, Johnny Hill yellow card.
00:23:20
Speaker
probably the right decision. And Johnny Hill is also probably very lucky that to live a foul tout duct. Yes. Yeah, for his own safety. But I still think that that that should have something that should have been read. Yeah, by the letter of the law, it was probably yellow. But it doesn't mean it doesn't mean we all like it. I want I really like this kid and
00:23:48
Speaker
Man, I hope he gets his shot soon because there's a lot. There wasn't a lot before, but now there is. There's a lot of young 10s in England right now, but Joe Simmons has played so well for this team. And what the best thing for him was, is there were previous seasons where Baxter fucked around a little too much with Garen Steedson.
00:24:08
Speaker
and probably started him too often or early on. And then he eventually came back to Joe Simmons. This season, it's been Joe Simmons almost from the get go. And that's probably the way it should have been the last couple of years because he ended up starting the final the last two years. So what if, like how he goes from starting the final to being benched, I'm not understanding, but you know, call me Kookie. But that didn't make sense to me.
00:24:36
Speaker
Well, you know, my feelings on Baxter. So yeah, so it's like I said, you know how I feel about the men. So I'm not I'm not terribly surprised. So no, no, I thought I thought Luke Pierce did struggle with referring to Scrum. I thought I thought Harry Williams was having a struggle of a match at Scrum time. I didn't he didn't get pinged for it often enough. You know, and Obama was trying to get Pierce to see what he was seeing and what was happening and
00:25:06
Speaker
Pierce just wasn't seeing it. And we've talked about it before. They say they know how to referee the Scrum. Every referee will tell you they know how to referee the Scrum because no referee is stupid enough to say otherwise. But really, if you haven't played in the front row before, you don't know the dark arts and you don't know what's going on.
00:25:27
Speaker
I can tell you that, I can tell when a guy's hinging on top of me because all the weight's on top of my fucking neck, you know? And I know that's what's happening and it's gonna make it look like I'm going down, but I'm trying not to fricking break my neck, you know? And so, you know, when that's happening, you know, you can just tell the pressure points that are happening. You can tell when a guy's too long and he's just fucking fell on his face, rather. You know, there's-
00:25:52
Speaker
there's a little bit of WWE referee to it. They act like every scrum is exactly the same and it's just not true. And this is something that I heard referees talking about at the development summit. So I know that there's somewhat of a focus on it somewhere, but it doesn't seem to be on the scrum where you have to
00:26:17
Speaker
think about what each team is trying to do. What's the point in the match? Is a team going to try to milk a penalty? So what would I look for there? Or are they trying to get an edge here? Or are they just trying to lock out and play the fucking ball? So if a team is just trying to fucking lock out and play the ball,
00:26:37
Speaker
You're probably not going to ping them unless they do something completely obvious. Other than that, you've got to think, it's the other team fucking around. This team had no reason to dick around. They're the ones who were just trying to lock out. So you don't go down if you're just locking out. If anything, you pop up. Yeah. So you got to know what your target or what your aim is. Yeah. Fucking smart enough to know it's about what you're trying to do, what the intent is for each scrum, and then referee to that.
00:27:06
Speaker
Correct. Yeah. And I wasn't a fan of the user to reset. If it's there, use it. We don't need another reset. No. And then, I mean, oddly enough, they end up resetting and fucking exit or get penalized. So I was like, whatever. I guess that's just to start right there. But, you know, it's like, oh, fuck it. But anyway, the guys that they need to play big were playing big. Johnny Hill, despite his yellow card, played amazingly.
00:27:38
Speaker
Hogg and Simmons both were awesome in this match. Yeah, they all had their points where they stepped up and I even thought Hepburn played fairly well on his own accord. So it is the right result. I do believe we have both the correct teams despite what some of us desired.
00:27:59
Speaker
Moss Exeter. We did this a few years ago, and it resulted in a pretty tasty final going to extra time. So maybe we see the same thing again. Okay. I take extra rugby this year. Yeah. So yeah, we had a wee bit of extra rugby down in New Zealand. That was fun.
00:28:23
Speaker
That was so much
Bledisloe Cup Excitement and Analysis
00:28:24
Speaker
fun. Like I said earlier, I didn't realize how much I missed it until there was on my, on my screen. Yeah. And just, it was great to see my veins. Yeah. It was, it was great to see a crowd, you know, um,
00:28:40
Speaker
I mean, they deserve it obviously. And it was fairly packed house in Mollington. Well, you lived up to its name though. The, that wind was a pain in the ass for most of the game and the rain. So yeah, the rain and the rain started pissing down at some point.
00:28:55
Speaker
Didn't seem to affect the play too much. I thought it. They weren't shy. Yeah, I mean, no, it didn't affect their thoughts, but it definitely affected. Execution a little bit. Yeah, execution. Yeah, plenty of knock-ons to be had. You know, this was
00:29:14
Speaker
This was a big moment for this. This was a big game for the sevens for several reasons. Obviously this is Sam Cain's first game as the all box captain, which is obviously a tremendous honor. And then this is Michael Hooper's 100th test as a 28 year old. Like, holy shit. Right, right. Like, holy shit. What the fuck were you doing when you were 28? You know?
00:29:41
Speaker
Uh, nothing, nothing that fucking cool. That's for sure. I was, I was preparing to play semi international road. Yeah. Right. Oh man. That was, that was, that was my, the highest, that was the highest level I've played that. So yes, when I was 20, that was it, but that was not, that was it. Yeah. That was the end right there. End of the line. That was the beginning and the end. But yeah. So, I mean, and they both, you know, they both play their ball, played their balls off. Um,
00:30:11
Speaker
I will say interesting choice of kickers for both teams. Australia went with O'Connor and the All Blacks went with Geordi. I was really surprised. I don't know if Moonga's leg is not a hundred percent. So they decide, you know, do what you need to do open field, but we'll let Geordi kick at the posts. And really I thought of the two kickers that they had on the field, I thought Australia would have gone with Matt Tamula.
00:30:39
Speaker
But hey, call me, call me nuts. Yeah, I thought, and I, you know, we talked about glowingly how much we like Matt Tamua as a player. Yeah. You know, and I thought- I'll tell you why, why they made that choice. But I think that's kind of six, one, six, one half dozen the other though, between the two. Yeah. Not that I'm confident about. Something that you can, something you can second guess, but not really. I mean, hell, the result worked out all right. Yeah.
00:31:08
Speaker
Yeah, it wasn't so bad. I mean, oh man. And you're still bringing in Reese Hodge for that last kick. Oh my God. How much did he have on that thing? That was like three quarters of the way up the post.
00:31:27
Speaker
Unbelievable. That had so much left to go. I was just like, wow, that thing would have been good from like closer to the 22. I was like, damn. I was thinking that. I was like, holy shit. How much do you remember that? He had the wind at his back. Still. Still, I know. Like just all the factors that were in there. And yeah, and in those conditions with the
00:31:50
Speaker
So like I saw, I did see people asking about, obviously you'd have to ask about why the no, uh, no drop goals and got to figure that that surface is not not conditioned for drop goals by announced whatsoever. So, so even that, and to understand that, to, to then understand Reese, what Reese Hodge had to do just.
00:32:12
Speaker
just a hoof it as close as he did. You're still dealing with a soggy pitch and still, and to hit just that much of it. Wow. A quarter of an inch on the inside, a couple millimeters on the inside and it's through and they win. Deserved to go through, that's for sure. It did, but then just, yeah. But again, neither team really deserved to lose. Both teams deserve to win. Although I got to say New Zealand, Australia were the better team. Yes, I think most people would agree with that.
00:32:43
Speaker
I think really, um, they were so much better. They dominated. Yeah. Uh, looking at the stats they had, what was it? Um, yeah. 61% possession, 61% territory. And then even though it was even the territory was fairly even in the second half, it was 51 49, but it was 72 28 in the first half Australia had and 67% possession. So like the most of the game was the first half was spent in New Zealand territory with Australia having the ball. Yeah.
00:33:13
Speaker
And they just couldn't break through. Right. Just one too many penalties conceded by the Aussies, really. That's what it came down to. And some of them were their own doing.
00:33:28
Speaker
Tupo came in from the side a little. He did that like once or twice, just hitting guys that he shouldn't have. And he knew it right away, but it's like, okay, well. Stop doing that, dummy. Stop doing that, you dope. It's really easy. It's really easy right here. Oh, man. Yeah. How bad does Rico Ioana feel though? Oh, that's right. I know. But you know what?
00:33:52
Speaker
Honestly, because I wasn't sure about a couple of the passes, because I was like, are we going to check any of the passes? And it didn't, so I was immediately a little worried. I was like, I think this should be called back, but they got the right result in the end, no try, end of the half. But it's,
00:34:15
Speaker
So it was what it was. They, yeah, I mean, no, I'm, you know, bone bear dropped from this match late. Really, really hard to knock have, have been Damien Mac as your replacement. Despite the fact he didn't play super well in, um, Subaru, but still too, too good. He wasn't, he wasn't terrible. He wasn't, but he wasn't, still wasn't.
00:34:40
Speaker
Lightning in a bottle the way he has been. He kind of he did the role. All right. I voted would have been shit ton better, unfortunately. Yeah, it was. But it was it was. I mean, we got to talk about the young kids. The kids all made their debuts. A lot of them did. Alessio was the only one. Oh, yeah. Unfortunate for him. Yeah, he was. Well, you know, there's there's a time and a place to pull a pull of a young
00:35:08
Speaker
You know, debutante on that probably wasn't it. Here's the thing. There's two things that happened to no Alessio. If you pull him on that late in that match, either he is the goat. He is considered the scapegoat and like the absolute.
00:35:27
Speaker
complete bellend of the whole thing. And he gets to be the one that takes the shit or is absolutely the hero. I don't know which one. There's no middle ground on that probably. So really, Renny might've done him a favor. Maybe not, but yeah. Well, SEO probably would have taken a droppy. And then he would have shanked.
00:35:50
Speaker
or he would have slotted it, whatever it would have been, it would have been either, it's potentially bad for, really bad for him, even if he slots it, even if. Yeah.
00:36:01
Speaker
that James O'Connor kind of thing, like, oh yeah, I just come in and I wreck the all blacks, no big deal. That's just who I am. And it goes to his head. So. Yeah, you don't want that. Jeez. But more likely is the other way around where he misses it. And he thinks about how it was his fault that they didn't beat the all blacks. And yeah, you don't want that. Yeah. And then, you know, the young kids that were on the bench for
00:36:29
Speaker
for New Zealand. So 2-2, he had to be on this team. He had to be on this team, end of story, by just a bolter out of nowhere. And then Caleb Clark played so fucking well for the Blues this season. And he played so fucking well in this match. Yeah, he did. He was a handful. He was definitely a handful.
00:36:51
Speaker
You know, he was a, he's a unit. He's a big boy. You've got to put him on the ground quick. Otherwise he's going to run through you. You know, that's a, that's a large human to be playing out on the wing. Um, we do need to talk about the other debutante on the wing on the other side of the ball. Diganoo. Oh my goodness. He played amazingly. Yes, he did. He blogs. Oh yeah. Totally, totally belongs on this team. You know, try was a brilliant, uh, you know, and yeah, the,
00:37:19
Speaker
This is the one thing that we know Corabetti can do is finish. And he did. Yes. You know, I still think that he's he made a really selfish play. Yeah. The end of the game that he lost the ball trying to frickin. What are you going to do? Carry the ball up the middle frickin 80 meters, dude. Yeah. Like stop like that. That's the problem. Like that. So the play that he scored on was designed for him to score on it. Like he didn't do any. No.
00:37:48
Speaker
No, he didn't do anything. The slower guy to the corner. And they gave him the corner and he took it by design. It was a good finish, just the same. You got to be that fast to do it. So I'm not knocking him. He's got the ability to do certain things. He clearly does, yes.
00:38:06
Speaker
But I would much rather have a faster, like, I mean, you know, the walk into the was he finishes that like all these a lot of these guys who although I'm not sure he's Australian, but like a lot of the guys you have Ram Ram Ram finishes that. So any any of your fucking wings finish that. So it's really the, you know, what I didn't see him bring to. No, there wasn't too much. So not like Doug and he did was just
00:38:32
Speaker
And Tom Banks looks like you guys have a, Australia have a fullback now to replace. Oh, shit. Who do they have back there? Oh, you mean the guy that plays for harassing right now? Yeah. Beale. Fuck. Yeah. Yeah. He was, he wasn't a true international fullback, honestly. Spanks is a true 15 and played it really well. Agreed. Agreed. Paizami, it just goes on.
00:39:01
Speaker
Yeah. Tuba was a problem. I said, you know, that was...
00:39:07
Speaker
You were very sarcastic in your message. I picked up on it. I picked up on it. I was like, are you saying that he's actually everywhere? Because this is definitely not accurate. Right. No, he was everywhere. Like all of a sudden, he was running. He was taking carries like a flanker. Like just, yeah, I'm going to, I'll take this run. Okay. He wanted every carry. I swear to God. You play over there. Okay. I'll take this carry too. And running in space, doing good stuff. So he certainly belonged on that level.
00:39:34
Speaker
Yeah. He, he played like it and that's for sure. So we'll just occur to that boy. Um, Harry Wilson, another, another one. Oh man. I was so glad to see him out there. I thought he played really well. I really did. You know, you might not have done anything super flashy, but you know, for a young guy's opportunities. Yeah. For a young guy to, to just not get ahead of himself in the opportunity, in the chance that he's got on, you know, in his grasp, I thought he played really well. So yeah.
00:40:03
Speaker
Yeah, he did his job very well when he was called on. I agree. Yeah, we got another one of these to do. It's going to be so much fun. Yeah, I was like, I watched, I'm like, can they play the other one today? Because I really want to see the next one now. Right. So we got one more in New Zealand and then we have
00:40:29
Speaker
Then we have another one over the pond here to over the Tasman to play in Australia. And then we go, then we kick into the rugby championship, which I guess technically could be a, is it a fourth test of the blood flow that they're going to play, which is remarkable, but I'm okay with it. I'm not saying no. It's a four test series as far as I can tell. I'm not saying no. So whatever. That's fine. No complaints. Some out of me, man. None out of me.
00:40:55
Speaker
Yeah.
South Africa's Rugby Decisions
00:40:56
Speaker
And so I've heard, I've heard the unfortunate dirty rumors about South Africa possibly pulling out of TRC, citing player welfare. And it's, I really hope that's not the case, but also South Africa have just been so, yeah, I don't have the words, but they
00:41:18
Speaker
They have been very not cooperative in a lot of ways recently. They're trying to jump ship for anything with, they're trying to jump ship with anything that has to do with the Northern Hemisphere. I honestly don't know, like, and I know Sansar is a bunch of fucking idiots, but they're going to get to the Northern Hemisphere and realize that they're just stupid. So I don't really, what's the difference? How is the travel any better? How is the, what's the difference in player wealth? God damn sure.
00:41:47
Speaker
of the North versus traveling East or West. Right. You're still, you're still going in the completely other hemisphere. Yeah. Yeah. No. Yeah. I don't get it. Whatever. I mean, listen, South Africa has, has made some silly decisions before. Let them keep making them. It's fine. You know, they, all the, all the super OB teams want to pull up, pull, pull back and go to like pro 14 and make it a pro 16 or whatever.
00:42:11
Speaker
Listen, honestly, do whatever you want. I'm okay with it. If I were, you know, and Sanzara has made a lot of really, really dumb decisions. You and I both know this. This is not, and most of the people that have been paying attention in the rugby universe know this. But really, if I'm Sanzara, I'm like, I am so fucking sick of you. Just go. Leave, leave. Go ahead, go ahead. Call their bluff if they want to do it. Let those teams go there. They can deal with it. They can deal with the fact that
00:42:41
Speaker
you know, they're gonna have to travel to the Northern Hemisphere every other weekend, and they're gonna be frigging playing in some pretty miserable weather in like Northern, Northern, Northern Island and way up in Scotland, like have fucking fun. Right. Right. If that's what you want to do, go for it. I'd be happy if the only time I saw South Africa rugby was at the World Cup. Like, okay, I mean, like, like watching them play enough, but they're just it's so annoying. Like even in the super rugby, it was like my least favorite
00:43:12
Speaker
corner of super rugby because it's just not as, the talent is so diluted. Yeah. And I mean, if Razi Erasmus is really worried about it, you know, and part of that is because
00:43:23
Speaker
Yeah. And you know, if Razi Erasmus is really worried about like, if he's worried about his team, not being able to get together because there's obviously a lot of players that would be coming in from Europe, then honestly, if you didn't see the laps for the green and gold game, he's got a lot of really good talent right at his hands in that game. Like,
00:43:45
Speaker
Use that. I know it's the TRC and you don't want to get embarrassed. It's not the World Cup. It's the first TRC after the World Cup. The first one after and the one before aren't that big a deal. Like the middle ones, I get because obviously where they have Alliance Tour coming their way soon, I get it. But you know what? You might as well try some new guys out. There's a lot of good youth, young players
00:44:14
Speaker
in South Africa right now that I am, you know, you and I both think are very excited to see, you know, let her show Yanji's run at nine for a while. Let him go. Right. You know, let my people go. I don't need to see Faf. I like him. He's our eight, but he's not. I think he's overrated, you know. Well, I think I think that's a consensus. Like he does some good things, but
00:44:39
Speaker
Yeah, but it's like they had they have enough talent that's that's coming up in so many places that you had to let him go say fuck it. OK, we'll play with our guys. Yeah, I mean, you know, or if there's certain guys who you can't play with. Around that, but you can do without that, you can do without a lot of the guys who are out of out of country. Mm hmm. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know.
00:45:08
Speaker
All I know is that it doesn't seem like the club teams have their heads up their asses. It seems like the national organization is kind of similar. They both are a little bit arrogant.
00:45:25
Speaker
I sit there and wonder, I sit there and wonder why Sansar is like tweeting all this stuff about South African super. I'd be like, do you really want to save these guys? They they've wanted to get the fuck away from you forever. Just call their bluff and tell them go right ahead.
00:45:40
Speaker
Yeah, and do it. And then when you find out there's no difference, and they come back with hat and hand, which they which they may or they may not. But you know, if they come back with hat and hand and be like, fucking told you you dummies, listen to us next time. And again, I'm not saying sans are as fucking an angel by any means whatsoever. They've done some really, really stupid shit over there over the years. And they still make some continue to make some really dumb decisions. And how much of that is the influence of South Africa? I don't know. I don't know that
00:46:11
Speaker
We do know, we do know, like, I understand, like, like the kicking out of kicking Japan out of, um, right. We, we do suspect that that was heavily influenced by them. So that was that there's that. So, you know,
00:46:26
Speaker
Yeah, take take it what you will, you know, maybe it just becomes ANZAR or whatever it is or ANZAR, whatever it is. You know, it's fine. You know, it's whatever. Yeah, I would I'd so be over it if I was if I was that organization. If I was New Zealand in Australia, I'd be like, bye. Go ahead. Bye. Go ahead. Do do whatever the fuck you're going to do. I didn't like I didn't like Japan and the Puma's or the
00:46:54
Speaker
Yeah, the Jaguars back. Absolutely. And then and then and then and then we could really see, you know, a window for an island team. Yeah, which well that apparently Hawaii, the Hawaii MLR team that was happening and it didn't happen because they pissed off MLR. No, I'm not sad about that, honestly.
00:47:18
Speaker
did the same shit apparently to, uh, to super rugby. They were like, they, they tried. Oh, so they tried to hold their feet to the fire. Okay. But we have, yeah. And they, they try to be like, well, okay. And apparently Hawaii's like the, they talk shit. Like what I saw was somebody from super rugby being like, yeah, you guys are doing the same thing. You just did the MLR to us. Like you, you, you applied. We asked him a follow up with some follow up questions. And they didn't have the answers or they didn't like the answers. Yeah. Right.
00:47:49
Speaker
or they didn't get the answer because they knew the answer wouldn't be sufficient. So it's like, okay, everybody can see that you're dicking around with something, so no. Yeah, so go back and rethink your plan. But yeah, it'd be great to see an island team come through and put them in Suva. I think that'd be awesome. If South Africa leaves, the door's there. The door's there for that. So I see this as a potentially positive net
00:48:18
Speaker
Um, for the whole thing. So whatever. Moving on. Um, okay. Let's go. Let's go to, um, let's, uh, let's have a look at the old fancy teams here. Um, like Ben said, um, both of us did fairly well. And I, I'm sure that the allowing for a couple, uh, you know,
00:48:40
Speaker
people that spaced and not realizing that this fantasy game did continue even still, you know? I'm okay with top 40. I'm not sad about it. I'm not sad about it at all. But you know what? We both scored well over 500 points. Right. So that's, you know, that's probably not that's probably actually not that inaccurate in that case.
00:49:06
Speaker
Right. I mean, and it's, it's still easy to make some mistakes here. Like it's not, I mean, shit, I made, I had priestland as my, uh, my five half cause I was trying to do, you know, pull something, but yeah, it worked out better. I would have done if I had, you know, put a little, you know, thrown goppert in there or something like that instead. Um, but that's, that's so back to mail-ins had 39. Same. Um, I threw them in there. No complaints. Yeah. Yeah. My standards were my, one of my weak point. I had slayed in red Rodra 18 and 15. Oof.
00:49:36
Speaker
Harsh. Yeah, I had O'Connor and Rod Rodger. So 36 and 15. So O'Connor. Oh, that's a good one. Yeah, that was fine. I'm very pleased with 36 out of that appears in one of my centers. Yeah.
00:49:49
Speaker
It really got screwed over by, by Raja Raja and then two of my forwards. Yeah. Yeah. I had Bowie at 13 and her own captain at 14. So yeah, at least he gives you like a respectable player. Yeah. Um, I picked Simmons as my captain. So I got 52 out of the head. It's not bad. It's not bad at all, but I was at 41. So it's like, uh, whatever. I'm not going to,
00:50:15
Speaker
Yeah, Thacker 41 ends up being a really good play at Flanker. Yeah, I was pleased with my three hooker.
00:50:22
Speaker
lineup. I had Thacker at six, Dunn at two, and Cowan Dickey on the pine bench. So they all scored over 30. So I'm pretty happy there. Not too bad. I've already ended up with about 30, 29, something like that. So that's not too bad for him. I ended up having him on the bench. 29. Yeah. I had him on as a starter. Oh, did you nice. Yeah. I had Kibbricki. Oh, nice. That wasn't so bad. 25.
00:50:52
Speaker
So overall, who's your half back?
00:50:56
Speaker
I had Robson as my nine. Same. Yeah. Shame on you. If you were dumb enough to put Jack Monder there, like what were you doing? Yeah. No, I don't. I mean, Sean. What are you doing? Jack Monder is your nine. Yeah, no, don't do that. Don't do that again, kids. Yeah, but Simmons didn't make my line. Which one, Joe?
00:51:25
Speaker
Um, Joe. Yeah. Oh, Sam, Sam was my captain. Joe. Joe was on the bench. Yeah. No, I had him. He had 46. I wish I had happened to him. Honestly. Thank you. Was he the high score of the week? Well, that was with his kicking duties. Right. So, um, what did, hold on. I wonder what, um, yes, it was him. No, 23.
00:51:51
Speaker
Jimmy, the, Jimmy, the boot only had 20. I thought he had, I think he had a shit tone up. All right. Wow. A lot. Yeah. Maybe it was earlier in the, before they, they had finished the points. I think he had a ton. I think he was over 40 or something. So yeah. I mean, I had, we, I think we both had the exception of for you for Joe Simmons. I think we both had all the guys that made 40 points in our lineup. Simmons, Johnny Hill, Thacker. And I had, did you have Hepburn? I had Hepburn on my bench.
00:52:21
Speaker
I had him. I had him in there. Yeah, I had an all-bath front row.
00:52:26
Speaker
Yeah, and you know, I was like, you know what? I'm going to change one because I have a sneaking suspicion that all three of them are going to score well, and I can find another prop that'll score fine and burn in. And in the end, you were wrong about one of them not scoring well, but Hepburn just blew them away. Yeah. No, they weren't. Neither one of them scored terribly, obviously. No, Bono got me 28, so it's like... Yeah, and that's not bad either. Yeah. In the end, I lost 14 points or so, and yeah.
00:52:57
Speaker
Not so bad. Not so bad. Um, have you started picking your squad for the upcoming, for the final yet? I started, but then I kind of just stopped because I was, I, what I did was I cut. Yeah, I did the same. I cut all the, are out because I figured the last thing you want is dead weight. They're going to, people are going to cut them like you and I have. And now, um,
00:53:20
Speaker
Yeah. No, but then they're not going to be worth a damn thing. Exactly. So before they, right. Kind of before their price drops. That way at least you have the, the, yeah, you got that. The real pain in the ass thing of this is you have to pick, um, you have to pick, you have to have two hookers and I don't know which one's going to start for wass, you know? So I think some of those you kind of just, you're going to have to,
00:53:48
Speaker
I have crews right now. I don't know if that's going to be the right pick. Yeah. So I'm not going to pick anybody. I'm just going to hold off on that. I think I have to actually I know I signed Tommy Taylor. Okay, so maybe hang on to him. Yeah, I'll hang on to him. And then if I have to switch, I'll switch at the end. It's not the worst thing in the world. It's just the problem is that a lot of these guys are fucking expensive.
00:54:11
Speaker
There's a lot of expensive guys. You're gonna have to like bite the ball. I kind of bit the bullet and grabbed Mateo Manazzi.
00:54:19
Speaker
Yeah, who's who's a low one, you know, but you can't you can't expect much. No. Well, it doesn't mean I'm going to play on, but you need to fill out the squad just the same. Yeah, yes, exactly. So that's that's that's my advice is, you know, your filler guys. So like I signed Henry Slade. I mean, I probably might switch over to Devoto. Maybe we'll see at the suit again to the lineup is right. Who knows what they could put Hendrickson in there.
00:54:47
Speaker
because he's played super well. You know, we've been talking about him. I doubt it because we'll see with his guys. We'll see what the Exeter team looks like after this weekend, too. Yeah. Right. They're going to be playing some guys that are ready to smash. So we'll see. True. Yeah. Right now, my back three looks like a Flaherty hog in Kibery! And if I don't change it, I'm not going to be sad.
00:55:09
Speaker
Yeah, right now is O'Flaherty, Hogg and Bassett. Close enough. Godberth will be in my centers. Yeah, I think he's going to be in mine too. I'd like to find somebody not named Slade, but I might have to live with it. Exactly.
00:55:26
Speaker
So yeah, but it's a good healthy mix. Like, I mean, I have Simmons again. Well, both Simmons is in. I think they'll be, you know, Umago will get his points, but I don't think he's going to score as well. He's not going to score as well as just Simmons, I don't think. Simmons rarely misses a kick. That's the thing. Like, that's why you make him, that's why you sign him and make him your kicker because he doesn't miss too many of them.
00:55:47
Speaker
So, I could be coming to this curse there. Well, I guess we shouldn't talk too much about it because we have so much time between now and then. Yeah, we got a couple weeks before the final, but... My lineup is mostly set to answer your question. Yeah, I know. I've got six bodies I need to put in there in order to have a legal squad. But, yeah, I think I know who I want to play in my starting lineup, and it's just going to be a matter of...
00:56:13
Speaker
Filling in the back end and if there's any injuries to Exeter after this weekend. Exactly. Let's have a look at this weekend. We'll talk about Challenge Cup first and then we'll go to the Champions Cup.
Challenge Cup Final Preview
00:56:27
Speaker
So Tuon are apparently gonna have fans in the stands because they did sell tickets to this game. French being French, what are you gonna do? I don't think it's gonna be that big a deal, honestly, for the Bristolians. I do think the bigger concern is the squad that's on the other side. It's not the fan in the stand. It is gonna be the likes of Heem, the likes of Tony Takalua, the likes of
00:56:56
Speaker
Parise, you know, those are the guys that are going to be the one that that's what they need to worry about. I'm not so worried about, you know, the bodies in the stands. Yeah. And even and those guys, though, even if even if bears play the way they did this past weekend, they're not playing a team that's anywhere near the quality that they just played.
00:57:19
Speaker
So I think they're. Yeah, you're exactly you're right. I mean, you're talking about the guys that they have to worry about and none of them, none of them are fucking Dan Robson or Willis or Young. Not that was nobody, but, you know, no, he's not, but he's not Dan Robson. No.
00:57:41
Speaker
So it's just, yeah, they just have to, you know, take care of their business. They do their, they handle their business and they'll come home with a trophy. It's not, they just can't, you know, poop themselves. Cause they, they pooped themselves a little bit this past week. They did. I think they started off by pooping themselves a little bit and they never recovered. Right. So they, they just got to not poop yourself there. And you come home with a trophy to their, to their upside and to their benefit. They they've seen,
00:58:09
Speaker
They've seen a match like this already just this past weekend and got the jitters out as it may be. Yeah, I'm sure bearish fans will all be hoping. Don't die. So we'll see. I want Pat Lam and co to come home with silverware just as bad as
00:58:33
Speaker
Pretty much anybody in England because, you know, he's, he's obviously a great guy and has done a great thing for this club coming over from a club, you know, really. And they talked about it a lot. Um, you know, his days in Conak weren't dissimilar from this, you know, trying to put together a team.
00:58:51
Speaker
you know, that nobody really touted, you know, when Connick won it, you know, everybody was talking about Connick was the third, was definitely the fourth most talked about Irish team out of four, you know, and then they, and then they want it. So good on them. And they got back into champions cup. And now, you know, they have some players that you and I both like, and they've done some good things. So, um, and that's because of what he did. So,
00:59:18
Speaker
And he's trying to redo it. He's trying to do it all over again. Let's be real, at a slightly larger level with Bristol going to semi-finals. And let's be real, the premiership is just a tiny bit tougher than Pro 14. I think most people can admit that to a point. And then now to bring them some sort of European glory would be another level.
00:59:43
Speaker
you know, whether it's challenge cup or a champions cup. I don't care who it is. People will bite your hand off for it, so. Yeah, it's still a fantastic trophy to get. You know, you don't get that trophy if you're a slouch. No, no, by no means. So hopefully they get it done and disappoint all the fans that show up. And then let's, so to the home of Bristol to Ashton Gate, Exeter and Rassing.
Champions Cup Final Anticipation
01:00:08
Speaker
Oh my, this is going to be,
01:00:12
Speaker
This is going to be so interesting on so many levels. Um, you know, Brussing many times the bridesmaid, never the bride, you know, Exeter, they've, they've long wanted to reach this, this sort of level, um, to be considered, you know, cause they, they were obviously always such a pain. They've always been such a name in,
01:00:38
Speaker
in England for the last five, six years easily, you know, and they've come from a long way. So their story is, is, you know, very, very, very interesting and very, you know, sellable, by any by any means whatsoever coming from the championship and pulling themselves out of the fire, and doing it in such a way. So it'll be it's very interesting to see how this is gonna play out. And they had this
01:01:05
Speaker
because a few guys that know what each other is going to do, one side or the other, and they are going to be definitely a bit the mercenaries against the majority English team with a smattering of a few internationals in there as well, outside internationals besides England. So it is going to be extremely interesting.
01:01:28
Speaker
The weather's going to be very dependent on this game, I think, because this is not under the roof at La Defense. No, this is out in the elements. So if it's wet and rainy, you can't give an advantage to anybody but Exeter, honestly.
01:01:46
Speaker
If the ball can, if the ball is at least dry, doesn't have to be the most beautiful temperatures ever, but because, you know, we've seen, we saw what Finn Russell did in some really shitty conditions last, you know, last, um, that the beginning of this competition really against Munster.
01:02:03
Speaker
you know, at towing park and he made it work. Yeah, certainly did. He's certainly he's, you know, come on, the guy grew up in Scotland, he's gonna know how to play in the shit. It's just the other players that you need to worry about really, the likes of Teddy Tomah, the likes of Trent, think she won't see all she wants. He kind of knows Baka tower would be another one that I would be a little worried about when it comes to being in the wet.
01:02:27
Speaker
Despite the fact that he's a big boy, he just might not be used to it. Yeah, the pill is it's a different beast than when he gets wet and slippery. And even when it doesn't feel wet, that's the thing about that fun English weather. Even if the ball doesn't feel wet, it's still going to be wet. A little greasy, yep. Yeah. It can be the dew on that grass, man. It can be a little crazy.
01:02:54
Speaker
So yeah, it'll be, I mean, and you look at the match ups one, you know, one through 15, they're all very interesting. You know, you look at the magician, Finn Russell at 10, you know, going against the the young kid Simmons. Yeah, again, another young kid monitor going against the likes of Irie Buran. It'll be, it'll be very, it's gonna be a very interesting take on this one. So it'll be should be should be worth the Champions Cup bill, for sure.
01:03:23
Speaker
So we'll see how it goes. I just don't want Exeter to do the fucking double. Same. Don't want to do double. Please don't do double. I'm not trying to wish poorly upon somebody, but there's just a point where I can't stand that a five year old that owns the team is going to win the goddamn thing.
01:03:44
Speaker
Sorry, I know there are people that like him out there, but he's had one too many not nice actions that- One of them is not us, either of us. Yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry. Pass. Pass. All right, pick him. Bridesmaid, never the bride. And I feel like finally they get over the line.
01:04:10
Speaker
This is, you know, Exeter have been in many finals. They've not been in the European final. And if you think there's a difference, you can ask Saracens. They were not, they, they had not been a European final and they were very disappointed the first time around. And then they finally got over the line the following year. So this is, I don't think this is Exeter's year for this. I think Rossing have been here and they've been disappointed at least once, if not two, three times. I'm going to take the Frenchman.
01:04:36
Speaker
Remind me again who Exeter beat to get here. To lose. To lose. And then but and then Saints. Yes. That didn't count.
01:04:50
Speaker
That was not the same Sains team that qualified. Let's be real. You know, they put in a hell of a shift, but that was not the same Sains team that got them into this qualification spot to begin with. Yeah. And my desire really is to see Exeter lose both. Nothing personal, guys. But
01:05:11
Speaker
that they seem to, but you know what? I guess this is going to tell us what this team actually is. Cause you know, like I said, we said, who'd they get, who'd they be to get here? And they had a fairly, I think they, I feel like they had a fairly easy go of it in the, in their, in their pool. They may have had a challenge. I can't, I can't. La Rochelle was okay. Yeah. And what I remember. And, but it's not the same team that they are now right now as of right now either. So, um,
01:05:41
Speaker
And then they did it. I believe they played Glasgow as well. Right. We're not, we're not good this year. So I feel like they kind of had an easy, easy go of it to this point, which there's, then that's not to take nothing. That's to take nothing away from them because they still had to win those matches and they're still off.
01:05:58
Speaker
fucking talented team. I just don't know, you never know what they're, they may try to play a premiership game because they're at home. Like this may actually change that mindset for them. And if they try to play a premiership game though, they'll lose because as we've seen them try to do that, the champions cup, and this is why they don't advance until this year. They haven't really advanced in the knockout stages or into the knockout stages. So
01:06:26
Speaker
They made lull them to sleep. So I'm going to follow you with Rossing on this one, because I think Exeter at this point, and even so, they've been playing. When they could play expensive games, they still tried. It seems like they try not to. They still fall back into old habits.
01:06:42
Speaker
I think that, that could, beside the outcome here. Yeah. I hope it does. Yeah, we'll see. There's a few players on Rossigno wouldn't mind seeing getting JB's Cup winners medal. I love wanting him off.
01:06:58
Speaker
Simon Zebo is the man. He is. You know, despite how much we want, we wanted the Terrisons to pick on him once he got riled, but that's because he got riled. That's his fault. That's not ours. That's purely tactical, not personal. Yeah, nothing gets it. Nothing gets them. I promise.
01:07:15
Speaker
But yeah, so, you know, I like a lot of the pieces that they have as, you know, as players. So I do hope to get the job done. Yes, this is kind of a mercenary buying, trust me. If you're going to piss them on about that, don't piss them on. You can't piss them on about this and not piss them on about two lawns, three feet, because it was the same fucking thing.
01:07:34
Speaker
It's the same freaking thing, promise. Anyway, so yeah, I think Rossing will get it done. They will find a way. They're sick of being that second place. So yeah, that'll be that. It can be who has the bigger chip on their shoulder for this match. Honestly, yeah, it's true.
01:07:54
Speaker
And blood is slow too.
Bledisloe Cup Review and Predictions
01:07:57
Speaker
Kiwis in Australia. I think Australia missed their window, honestly. They have the chance. Well, you know what? That's the thing. Did they miss their chance? So you look at the way to beat the Kiwis, and Australia did it. It felt muscle in first. Right. Yeah, a little bit of physicality, but just keep the ball.
01:08:22
Speaker
Yes. And play solid defense and hopefully everything else falls into place and they just couldn't quite score. And that's the thing is if you're... I think that that's correctable on their end. I'll find out. But I also think that we saw New Zealand learn a lot of things as the game went on and found some pain points there.
01:08:51
Speaker
They could be a wildly different match to the next one, but it could still be a tie. Like we could see like a 40-40 tie. This is true. You're not wrong. Yeah. I'm just looking forward to it at this point. Oh, I do. I'm excited for it.
01:09:06
Speaker
It's it's in New Zealand. You know, we but hey, last time we saw Australia come up and spank him once. So really put a spank on him. And the other one was pretty tight. So I don't think this is the spanking game. So Australia have more in them, I think. I'm not
Bowdoin Barrett's Impact
01:09:23
Speaker
sure. I don't know what's going to be different about the next TV team other than Bowdoin Barrett. Maybe enough. Yeah. Former world rugby player of the year. Yeah, I'm not I'm not minimizing it.
01:09:37
Speaker
it's a little bit less of a step up from when it's, you know, Jamie McKenzie, he's replacing. So it's like, you know, it's, it's extra, but it's not a whole heaping extra because you're already having a good guide there.
Kiwis' Dominance in Rugby
01:09:48
Speaker
That's, but, um, yeah, I, I, I'm going to go with the Kiwis though. Yeah. Cause you have to. Yep. It's the law. It's, um, it's almost inevitable at some point. Yeah. I mean, this will be a test of,
01:10:03
Speaker
This will be whether or not Dave or any, he's going to keep this team around. Um, I do want to, I do want to mention and God damn it, if this isn't why we fucking love this goddamn sport.
Sportsmanship in Rugby
01:10:14
Speaker
Um,
01:10:15
Speaker
Did you see the video that Australia rugby tweeted out, um, with the wall, he's going into the all black soccer room. No. Oh, it was, this is, this is why we love the goddamn sport. Um, the kiwis, the, um, hooper had gone in. Yeah. The whole, the whole team had gone into the lot to the dressing room and.
01:10:36
Speaker
They gave Hooper a nice bottle of wine for his 100th and the overlay sounds were of other guys palling around, having a drink with each other and just having a laugh because this is...
01:10:50
Speaker
This is why we love this sport. These are two of the most intense rivals on the planet, if not the most. And they're still able to shake hands, have a beer, have a smile, have a laugh. And if that ain't so freaking great about rugby after it's tied. Yeah, I know after a hell of a match too.
01:11:08
Speaker
But those countries are like, these guys, this is a loss. This isn't if you don't win, you lose. Yeah, definitely mismatch. So they're both they're both both clubs are feeling hard done by themselves. Right? Yeah, exactly. Okay, we can we can commiserate on that. Like, let's, let's have some beers. So yeah, it's, um,
Michael Hooper's Milestone
01:11:29
Speaker
Shit, if that's not what makes the sport great, I don't know what it does. That's so cool. But yeah, and again, congratulations to Michael Hooper, number 100 at 20 fucking eight years old. You suck. And I mean that the most endearing way possible.
01:11:47
Speaker
Yeah, and the guy and he goes out there and he just he does it. He does it over again. He does it over again. He gets rinsed in the media and he does it anyway. So that's a lot of credit to him and his motor never stops. The day it does is probably the day he's done. But you know, until it until it does, we'll enjoy Michael Hooper while he's out there.
Upcoming Matches and Data Improvements
01:12:06
Speaker
Shit, we got what, two more of these? That's it. Yeah. And then we're going to take a break. We're going to sort out our new competition. Yeah. We're going to sort out how we're going to collect our data. You know, we try and advance it every time. You know, we made some good progress this season.
01:12:28
Speaker
Get some, get some wrinkles. Efficiency to collect it and no longer doing, I mean, I did it in the most, I did it in the most ridiculous way last year. I was, I was already pot committed by the time I figured out the other way. Exactly. And I was like, shit. So I started doing it for super, but man, I was like, oh, this is really the most annoying way I could have done this. But thankfully we've, we've, we've found some better ways. And even still this year, I picked up a few slightly better ways. I just got to remember to do
US Rugby League Plans
01:12:58
Speaker
it.
01:12:58
Speaker
When it comes to the data come November and there's a little, there's a little like where you and I can both do ahead of time. That'll take care of some of the processes a little bit faster, but we got two of these workers left.
01:13:13
Speaker
And then we'll have some fun on the first one and then the second one will probably be a draft special. And we'll probably have some hands in here. Also, if anybody out there is in the United States and wants to get into an FRD Premiership League,
01:13:30
Speaker
Get ahold of NRI. We'd love to get like a United States league eventually and maybe even eventually get everybody in one spot for a draft, a live draft together. Maybe we can make it a thing going down the road at some point post pandemic. Yeah. When it's safe. When it's safe. We're not that, we're not, we're dumb. We ain't that dumb. Crazy, not stupid. That's the line I dance with.
01:13:55
Speaker
But I hope I fall in the right side of that line every day. Yeah, do my best to at least.
Sign Off and Future Matches
01:14:01
Speaker
But until next week, enjoy the European finals, enjoy the, hopefully we get as just as good a match as we got last week in Bledsoe. And then we'll be talking about the commercial final. But until then, thanks for coming along guys. We'll see you guys next week. Have a good one. Later.