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Season 6- Episode 18- Good Rugby, Bad Selections (6 Nations Round 1)
65 Plays9 months ago
On this episode with those American rugby knuckleheads, it's all about the 6 Nations, OK mostly 6 Nations. We are looking back at the big opening round that was, from Marseille, to Rome and Cardiff. We dive into all the 3 big matches and probably annoy some people with our thoughts, hey we're annoyed too, to be fair. In any case, grab something cold to drink, kick back and enjoy.
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Transcript
Introduction and Recent Events
00:00:03
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. A collusion.
Rugby Excitement and Premiership Week
00:00:25
Speaker
Hey everybody. Welcome back. It is the fancy rugby. Thanks. My name is Jared Dyke. I'm Ben Glauser. Let's go. We got a lot to talk about, but a lot to dive into just the same. Some fun rugby this weekend. Some really fun rugby this weekend. Yup. Lived up to the last week of the premiership. Oh shit. Yes. Woo.
00:00:52
Speaker
Find us on your favorite podcast app, download rate, review, share, especially share damage.
Support for Fantasy Rugby Geek
00:00:59
Speaker
Sharing is caring. Yes.
00:01:04
Speaker
buy our good friend, George, the fancy rugby geek, a coffee or beer, especially if you are taking his advice on a six nations column on the actual site. So you definitely, yeah. Yeah. Six nations have decided that themselves to buy George coffee. So you yourself should do the same. Definitely. Yeah. Agreed. Agreed. Finally got around to doing it justice and bought a couple. So
00:01:32
Speaker
And then to do, as always, there is no discrimination here on this podcast and are sure to be in sports
Criticism of NFL and Leadership Failures
00:01:38
Speaker
or in life. Um, the, obviously the Super Bowl is coming up this week and it brings lots of media, but also, um, gives the people that want answers a chance to chance to ask the questions to a one, one Roger Goodell. And he chooses to sidestep them almost all the time, especially when it comes to race.
00:02:00
Speaker
Yeah. And there's been several high profile incidents of pretty much open racism in the NFL recently between Colin Kaepernick, John Gruden, Brian Flores incident. Yep. There's a whole lot of crap that's like high profile and very clear, like, yeah, we tolerate and our, you know, we support racism. Like that's not good.
00:02:29
Speaker
No, no. And he just, you know, he always sidesteps him and says, oh, I don't know what day you're looking at, but I love to take you. You have the data. Shut up. You have the data, jackass. Like there's no way you don't have the data. You're the commissioner of the NFL, which is the currently the biggest league in the world. Like, right. Certainly.
00:02:49
Speaker
See, that's the problem. He's in there because he'll say nothing and because he'll just kind of keep his head down. I mean, he works for the owners and they kind of don't want to rock the boat amongst their other owners. And at some point, that's the problem is we need people who are in the job to do the job that they're supposed to do, not like, I don't know. It's just, we suffer from that as a society. Like a lot of the people who are in positions of power don't do the right thing, right? Doing the right thing is not,
00:03:18
Speaker
part of their KPIs. No, no, no, no, no, not at all.
00:03:24
Speaker
And that's problematic. Yeah. I mean, he's he's second on the shit list to Batman, who definitely works for the honors. I love that. That's the best part of the Stanley Cup championship, whenever it is. Doesn't matter where it is. Batman gets shit out of him. Yeah. But he takes it like he knows he's like, yeah, I know. I'm the guy you boo. Like, I'm a total shit stain. Like, I'm rolling up to what he leans into it.
00:03:53
Speaker
I'm not sure that's something you want to quiet live up to, but we'll go with it, you know? Look, he's well paid. I mean, that's the problem. Like, you know, that's what it is. They all are. You know, like, that's why you and I don't do those jobs because we, no, I get, we get sacked ASAP. Yeah. Or we get sacked in the hurry, man. Right.
00:04:17
Speaker
One of us could maybe do like a Frank Underwood thing and weasel our way into that position without actually getting picked or elected into it. That'd be fun. And then just like be subversive from the inside. I would love that. Trojan horse. All right.
Patreon and Exclusive Content
00:04:35
Speaker
Anyway, make sure that you grab our Patreon.
00:04:38
Speaker
We, I will have the, um, Darrows per point up in, uh, about a day or so, which is tomorrow. So by the time you're listening to this, I might have it up. And then we'll have other things coming as well. Boom. Bust rankings. And then obviously starts it on Friday, but yeah, make sure that you get a Patreon so you can get that little inside track on, uh, how much, how much each player is costing you per point.
00:05:04
Speaker
be nice. And also thank you to our patron Kevin for coming out and hanging out with us for a little bit and making us feel cool for a few minutes. No, I mean, it's always good. Look, it's always nice to be invited to go watch Rugby somewhere. So obviously the band She was fairly well known to us.
Rugby Viewing Experience with Kevin
00:05:24
Speaker
Yes. It's been a spell since we've been there, but
00:05:28
Speaker
It's a, no, it's a great place to watch six nations. And, uh, yeah, any, any, and we always see people that we know there. So it's not like, uh, no, that was not a huge imposition, Kevin at all. Um, it took us all of two seconds to be like, yeah, we're just going to go do this. We do watch rugby. Yeah. Um, so thank you for reaching out though. Better house kicked us out. Yeah, exactly. He did our wives a huge favor. Yeah. Uh, yeah, it was great. Good, good fun. Good, good fun.
00:05:59
Speaker
Well, the one game we didn't watch at the Banshee.
Analysis of Six Nations Matches
00:06:02
Speaker
Let's go to Friday in Marseille. France obviously can't play at home, the Six Nations, and some will say it threw them off, some will say it didn't, but I don't think, they, Gauthier and Co. would not say that. No, I don't think they would say that. I don't think I would say that either.
00:06:23
Speaker
It was like, there's not much you can do when one of your teammates decides to be just a massive hammerhead multiple times, even after he's got a yellow. Like, yeah, the only thing that you could have done real differently, I think was pull Vlums after the first one and just be like, thank God, that wasn't a red. Because, you know, watching a day of there's the emotions involved, now that I know how it all turned out, I look at that, I'm like, you know what, I don't see why that shouldn't be red.
00:06:53
Speaker
Well, the second one ended up being the second one, certainly. Yeah. So it's like, but after that, like, where's the dude? Chill. Like someone's got to get the message to him to just be, be, be cool. Chill the fuck out, man. Yeah.
00:07:11
Speaker
Overall though, they were flat for minute one, the French. Well, they had a nice break. Well, the thing is they had a nice break early and they almost capitalized on it, but not quite. And then a little bit of pressure put the first, it was the first card and then it was 10 nothing down. And then that was, yeah, after that they were flat.
00:07:31
Speaker
Right. But like they started out all ready to go, but it just they couldn't because of a lump says stop literally killed their own momentum twice. Yeah. So. That's that. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, to say that the Gibson Park try came from them. So being off is probably wrong, but like that was a gorgeous play. It was a great. Yeah, that's a try. That doesn't matter how many people are on the pitch. That's a try.
00:08:01
Speaker
No, no. And the impressive thing for France and, uh, France, excuse me, Ireland is one, you go into, you know, you go into the, the bear's den. Like you are, you're in the, you're in the wrong spot. This is the wrong hood right now. And do the things that they've been challenged to do over the years, which is be physical.
00:08:26
Speaker
but also be able to be good at like certain aspects. Obviously the lineup went super sideways in that all blacks, um, quarterfinal, but I would say that they got a little bit of a.
00:08:39
Speaker
I don't know, they figured out something to take from that because they were keying in on something for France, because I have not seen so many spoiled line outs. Yeah. Well, at that, Omani especially was the one that was chief engineer of those things. And they were up something and making life even when Omani went off, they were still causing problems getting up in the air. So coaching staff and players are like all credit to them to
00:09:05
Speaker
find something to key in on for the Lebleu because I don't know if France had a good lineup the whole night. Not really. It's not that the throws were bad or the execution was bad. It was just that, hey, there's a guy in between the ball and the jumper. That's inadvisable. Right. Let's talk about two players, both of which were filling big shoes for one reason or another. Let's talk about Luku first.
00:09:33
Speaker
I don't have a problem with a lot of what Luca did, but I just don't think he has the X factor that the need. And I know he's not going to be DuPont and I get it. You're not going to find him again. He's a once in a lifetime player, but you still need someone that can be a threat. And I was never convinced Luca was going to be a threat. And then service was fine. That's perfectly fine. But you need more at an international level.
00:09:56
Speaker
It was a very Ben White performance. He slowed the ball down sometimes when it didn't need to be slowed down to kind of review his options. It was one of those technically perfect, but within the context of the game, not helpful.
00:10:14
Speaker
Yeah, and I thought their attack actually really, really popped up a little bit. I mean, because that one break that I was talking about earlier, the pressure that came off of a charge down kick and it was just open play that they were like, there was no scrum half involved. They were just shifting the ball, keeping it alive in contact, out of contact, all that stuff. But yeah, I don't think the attack really hummed until Ligarek came on.
00:10:43
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I know they don't want to just kind of throw the towel in or anything like that, the French, but I got to believe that the scales at least tipped a little bit to get like I reckon to the nine shirt. So yeah, we'll find out. Obviously, probably listen to this tomorrow. Right. I just think, yeah, there's like a it would not surprise me if the other guy we're talking about,
00:11:10
Speaker
that we haven't talked about before, but I know exactly you're going to say if he's wearing the same shirt that he wore this past week, if he wears it this coming week. Right. It would not surprise me if Legarek was wearing nine because I. I yeah, I think no, no, not at all. And like I said, I think we still might see Luku at nine. I think they might give him a shot. And then it's going to be a dude fucking.
00:11:36
Speaker
Maybe a short leash possibly. I don't love a short leash, by the way, but I'm just saying, knowing how they are. Right. But to me, a short leash is, look, we know what you can do. Do this other stuff. And if you're not doing it, then we need to get you. To me, it's not like we're tightening them up. It's more like, do the thing or you're off. That's it. If you can't do it, then fine. We'll get someone who will. That's how this works, unfortunately. It's cold business.
00:12:06
Speaker
You will do this. Yeah. And if we don't see it from you, then I've been told that in a match. If you don't see this, we're pulling you. Okay. Because that's what you need. Got it. Got it. Yep. Been kicked in my hindquarters a couple of times to get my work rate up and that's simple as that. But obviously that's a lot, it's a lot deeper than that in this case.
00:12:28
Speaker
Yeah, and then other side wearing green, Jack Crowley. Who? We sure that wasn't, it wasn't Sexton, obviously. Yeah, but he looked Sexton-ish on that burn. Very, very good. Short ball that burn was a peach.
00:12:46
Speaker
Had some growing pains. Had some growing pains. Let's acknowledge that. He's a pup. This is like his second, third start ever. First one ever in Six Nations, I'm pretty sure. So yeah, that's expected. But you can live with that if you see good and you saw good. He handled it quite well. Did Frowley even make it on the field?
00:13:10
Speaker
One minute human on very very end. Good job. So so that speaks well to how well Crowley did because obviously Caref row is there for one reason? That's if things are going real sideways. He's coming off, right? There's no there's no other reason So totally not if they only gave him the you know that Time off when the clock was ready. So yeah, I don't know that that's uh, I
00:13:36
Speaker
That's right. That's just get him a cap. I've been, you know, I'm sure he'll play at some point too to get his shot, but Crowley definitely Lee claimed to that 10 years. Inevitably Crowley will fuck up. And that's the thing people have to understand. Like he will fuck up and people will have to either one live with it or two. Yeah. Maybe, you know, you.
00:13:53
Speaker
live with the growing pains all over again with Raleigh. And that's just how it is. But they live with them at the same time. And then they go into, you know, the World Cup year with two experienced, talented 10s. Yes. There's not a lot wrong with that. You know, and Sam Pendergast is selling the scheme as well. He's definitely younger than the two of them, I'm pretty sure. Yeah. Because it is time to phase out Ohmani, but damn, did he play well.
00:14:22
Speaker
53 minutes. That's what you're going to get out of Peter Romani right now. So here's the thing. Much like we talk about people won't see the World Cup. He's not going to be the captain either. No. Next World Cup. You probably won't see the next World Cup, but... Right.
00:14:38
Speaker
So as much as I'll hammer on coaches that won't phase guys out, there are some guys that will definitely be here. Doris van der Fleer, Baird was on the bench. He'll still be around. Yeah, I know. I don't know if Conan's that old, but I also don't see him getting there. And then I'm on the same thing. The party, though, I see him getting there. Do you see?
00:15:05
Speaker
Did you see what he did with his player of the match medal? No. Oh, he gave it away? He gave it to his brother. Yeah. His brother's got... He's got a disability. I can't remember where he is, but yeah. It was real nice just to see the two of them sitting there and doing that, so I love seeing that. Gotta love it. Gotta love it. Yeah, great stuff all around for the Irish.
00:15:33
Speaker
a wake-up call for everybody else. You are all on notice. This title will not be relinquished very easily from the Irish, I can tell you that one. Yeah, that seems convincing of a grand slam though, considering. But again, there's a lot that could slip up. Totally. I want to say this is the...
00:15:57
Speaker
This is the game like this. France is probably France away is probably going to be their their most difficult challenge. So it's up to them to not to cock it up. Yep. Yeah, let me look. Do you. Teams are. Jacqueline is 31, by the way. Oh, yeah, he is going to be the next one. Yeah, OK, I guess they're at Twickenham.
00:16:26
Speaker
That could be rough. Depending on how England are going, we'll talk about them. That's round four, so that's going to be in March, which means Marcus Smith might be back for that. That could be tough in that case, assuming they play him and actually do shit with it.
00:16:44
Speaker
Yeah. So I think it's, it's tough either way for, um, to say that Ireland are going to be anything but repeats. Right. Will they do a double double grand slam? Don't know, but, um, take a lot to take the title away from just the same France in a lot of trouble.
France's Challenges and Young Talent
00:17:02
Speaker
Obviously that was a huge one to eat and they're going to have to show that they can
00:17:09
Speaker
They can do this, although- Yeah, they can't put a step wrong from here on out. This next matchup for them, Scotland, is not something they can overlook. Up in Murrayfield as well, yep. Yeah, this could be fucking interesting, dude. Who was the most identifiable player on France? Shoot, the most identifiable player on France. Team off the bench.
00:17:35
Speaker
Oh, fuck. Solo. Yeah. Yeah. Solo Tuolagi. Geez. There was no mistaking him. Flying around. Flying around pretty well for a big fellow. Like. Throwing the ball around pretty well for a big fellow. Yeah. 19, 20 years old. Good God. Look out world. This is going to hurt. Yeah. This is not going to be fun. This is all I know. Like there's not.
00:18:03
Speaker
He's just fucking massive. Mm-hmm. I- I mean, he's gonna small it up. Like, honestly, if they, like...
00:18:12
Speaker
They introduced him to Will Skelton and Will Skelton's Saracens. I'm Trishness. Yeah. Guy is going to be. He's still going to be. He's got baby fat on him at this point. He's still a baby, so. It's scary. Yeah. Let him be a wee baby. I know. He'll figure it out. It's just scary because he didn't look out of shape either, so.
00:18:34
Speaker
No, he's fairly fit. He's got that puppy energy. Yeah. Definitely. No need to fit this. You can just go. You go. You go. Just go. Okay. Let's go to Rome next day. Mute. I rewatched this match and muted it as soon as I heard Dowie's voice. I wanted to fucking punch the TV. I was like, well, I just ruined that watching experience. Mute. What a fucking muppet. Anyway.
00:19:02
Speaker
Yeah, I was glad we got to watch this. We didn't even hear the comms. That does give us an interesting experience with that too.
Italy's Performance and Stats Comparison
00:19:09
Speaker
Because we don't need to hear all the bullshit that comes out of the face. Right. Yeah. So let's talk about the Azeri. This was a wonderful performance by them and I wish they had gotten more out of it.
00:19:25
Speaker
And, but still like the Tommy Allen try was marvelous. The Yohani try at the end was great. And then that fricking, uh, the Alessandro Garbisi try all three, like you'd put those in a playbook and say, yes, this is how it happens. And this, nobody would bat an eye. So well done to them. And, you know, so I have to say the first two, the one calm denominator for those was who?
00:19:56
Speaker
Oh, it was the Menicello, right? Nope. Oh, no. The other one. Brax? Brax. Offload to Canone. I'll come back to Garbisi. OK.
00:20:06
Speaker
Nice. I did not notice that. I haven't rewatched that one. Yeah. Back door offload to Kenone, who eventually gave it to Grabisi. And that was a try. It didn't come off his hand. So all the England fans that say, fuck that, chill the fuck out. Right. Also, maybe George Ford should tackle Grabisi anyway.
00:20:27
Speaker
He just watched, just saying, you know, we'll get into him in a little bit. Yeah, that and then the just the silkiness to the way he went out the back to garbage and left it for him. And that spun it wide. And Tommy Allen was it will take advantage. Gotcha. Yeah, because I was noticing Manichelo more as I mean, he was more impactful as a runner. Yes, he is. He's much more impactful. Right. And that's that's that's why it makes a great combination between these two guys, just
00:20:52
Speaker
Really really good center pairing at this point. So I'd be hard pressed to separate them right now, right? Yeah So good on that. I mean good on those boys and and and I noticed that
00:21:06
Speaker
Not only were they were they a good center pairing, but did you notice anything like like I did where Manoncello was running? What whose channel he was running through? Cornet Slade. Yeah. And winning a lot of those matchups. That's what I still don't like. The other thing is when we watch without the comms, really.
00:21:27
Speaker
When they announced Ethan roots is better than that we were all like what the fuck what what kind of drugs these people are yeah. He got so.
00:21:37
Speaker
Ultimate rugby lists them as only like having 37 and the site lists him as like 67. In any case, he got about 30 of them, one on a play when he was somehow the one on the three one with nobody in front of him. And then on a kick return, we got about we got about 25 more. So and those that's the majority of his meters right there. Right. And there's no reason why that's man the match worthy. Right. Because that goes back to the if you're the one out there,
00:22:08
Speaker
You need to be ready to do damage. Putting Ben Earl in the far right pod and putting Roots out there, it's like, no, you've got those flipped. Roots is the guy you put in that pod to bang a little bit. And Earl is the guy who, if he took that one run on the outside, he's running for a try. Roots took it to- Or he's offloading for someone else, but either way. Right. Roots took it to the point of the tackle. Right at the point of contact, took him down.
00:22:38
Speaker
What you can't put on paper, what doesn't show up there, is what that does to a defense. And I'd say the same thing for Slade too. Because he ran to the point of the tackle and no further. Like, Ben Schello ran and kept running. That's to me the difference, right?
00:23:00
Speaker
when you're a defense and you have to account for somebody and or like you have the one that's out there on your left side. So you're attacking one loose forward. And you can be like, Oh, our wing can just take him down. No problem. This fine. Fuck him. I don't care about him. Yeah. Oh, you want to give him the ball? Fine. He'll get 10 meters and then we'll just take him down and maybe take the ball because he's isolated. Like, right? It's not it. You're actually helping the defense. It's low. Look at that cool plate. No, it's actually
00:23:31
Speaker
Not a net positive. No. You're giving the defense confidence. That's not a good thing, because that means they can expend attention and resources elsewhere. Right. So I'll read you two stat lines. Nine tackles, four defenders beaten, 72 meters gained, eight tackles, one penalty conceded, one penalty won, two defenders beaten, 62 meters. I would say the first one is Minicello. Nope. The first one's Earl.
00:23:59
Speaker
Because Earl fuck. Wow. Who's the second roots? It's like there's just not much there. No, no, it's like 10. It's, excuse me. It's only 10 meters difference was the defenders beaten and the fact that you've managed to find a way to concede penalties. Right. And also like, he had
00:24:20
Speaker
as we, as we've mentioned, at least half his meters were easy meters. Like just right. Right. Wasn't space and carried forward. Again, you put this probably about 20 or so that you'd say that for Earl, but then the rest of it, he's, he's grinding away and finding ways to get half, half breaks, half gaps. And that's the difference between the two players and why I would rather have, you know, and we'll talk about whales in a little bit. They're actually, they're actually at two decent ball carriers in the back row, as opposed to here where they really,
00:24:49
Speaker
Nope. Underhill a little bit, but less so, and then clearly Earl. Underhill, I mean, Underhill is basically a curry without the... I mean, he's not quite the poacher, but man, is he a freaking anvil when he... I don't know what the hell. Just a wrecking ball out there. We'll just smash you. And the curries aren't that lethal like that.
00:25:11
Speaker
Um, yeah, Earl's the only four, and I thought Chessa might be a guy who would get some carries, but like, other than that, who's really running? George, Jamie, George, like, you know, I was shocked because England played really well given.
00:25:25
Speaker
the people that I had out there because like Ford isn't the guy that they really want running this attack. I know no disrespect to Ford. He actually ran it very well for George Ford. I was shocked. There is not like nearly the high spiral. There was like actual passing, fairly good distribution. He did make a couple of hammerhead decisions. He did.
00:25:45
Speaker
He did. But, you know, the stuff that they're asking Ford to do there, Marcus Smith is better and even Finn Smith, I think is a little bit better. So and I think he he played pretty well when he came on. Yeah. So, you know, game was gone at that point anyway. And granted, they could have I will say England could have made this a steamroll and because they kept going for all the sad field goals.
00:26:07
Speaker
Right. It wasn't. And that kept Italy in the game and kept them believing. For Italy's sake, the one they missed, like, go for the momentum, you dummies. I know it's only going to tie it, but you're at home. Your crowd will absolutely be buzzing if you can drive this ball over or get it over on the first set play, whatever it is.
00:26:28
Speaker
Right. And the three is not going to get you that. It's just going to be like, okay, cool. We're still nervous. You get it tied and now it's okay. Let's go win it instead of, okay, we're still behind, but we can tie. At that point, they're supposed to win this game. You know, put the pressure back on them that, you know, then maybe you don't get quite get the Yoani try at the end, but you're going to get something close. Although in terms of like the difference in this game,
00:26:52
Speaker
Sad, sad field goal attempt miss number one. Number two, I think Danny care bought the eventual winning penalty because I don't remember which defender it was. I think it was Nico, um, for, or maybe Friday doesn't matter.
00:27:07
Speaker
for Italy pushed him back into the ruck and got the not rolling away penalty for that. So I thought that was pretty bullshit. Yeah. Williams didn't make too many bad decisions. I thought that was stupid. I don't love the fact that he doesn't communicate much during work time, though, either. He just kind of lets it happen. And then if you fuck up, he blows the whistle. Yeah. So it's a little Frenchie in for me. So
00:27:28
Speaker
But overall, you know, no high tackles called. They probably were a couple that were borderline, but overall pretty good. So to say that I just like them know that when I put them someone that I would have again. Sure. Yeah. As opposed to certain other guys. Right. Guys, we've talked about before. One more thing, because this is like everything everybody loves to talk about with England rugby.
00:27:55
Speaker
I was counting and I may have miscounted, but of their contestable kicks, I think there was about 12 or 13. They got three back. Three. That's with George Ford and Mitchell to an extent too. Yes. Yeah, both. We're good at that, but look at who you got chasing it down.
00:28:13
Speaker
Like this isn't- Daily. Freeman, yes. But like, daily? What? No. Yeah, no. Slay? No. No. No, no, no. Poor decisions all around. So, yeah, still out on board though, but- We cannot stop. We cannot end this conversation without talking about the fact that we did see Ethan Root's bum and we did see Tommy Freeman's bum. So, new caps, new bums. It's nice to see you, boys.
00:28:38
Speaker
Did you hear the joke that Gary made about Tommy Freeman's ass? You didn't have the crack in it. You wouldn't know that it wasn't his uniform.
00:28:53
Speaker
That's an Englishman saying that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, roots are kind of the same too. But yeah, definitely. But hanging out too much in the clouds. Oh, man.
00:29:08
Speaker
Yeah, a lot, a lot of, a lot of bum, a lot of bum. I will say Freeman could have avoided his bum if he didn't cut in when he did and just kept going to the outside. He probably would have scored instead. Instead your ass gets shown to the world. Good job. Brutes was in a mall really early and no, that wasn't his fault. It was his, someone else pulling his pants down. Oh yeah, definitely. Not quite as fast Freddy when he had the ball and trying to pick him up at the same time, but still pretty good.
00:29:37
Speaker
Oh shit. Although Freddy was there, I'm sure he was talking to him like, Hey, I know that. Oh, you had your ass shown to the entire world. Welcome to the club. He's going to join the club. There's a pie waiting for you at your locker. Absolutely. Here you go. There's a pie waiting for you in your cap. Oh shit. That was good. Um, anyway, so yes, I loved what I saw from Italy. I think.
00:30:07
Speaker
I think former version, here's the thing about like this Italy team in particular, former versions of this team would have folded and let England just steamroll them. And they really fronted up. They really did. But you know, set piece wise, they still need to clean things up. But what we're seeing now in terms of Italy mistakes is marginal. It's no longer the, oh man, you got to get that right with the exception of few and far between, which is why they lost this game. But still it's more of a,
00:30:38
Speaker
It's more of a, like, yeah. I want to see more from both these teams. That's, that's to me what my, my, my takeaway from this is I want to see Italy continue to grow. Cause this is, this is continue as you're saying, this is more improvement for them. And I think England the same way. I love the way they played. I just don't like the people that they used, but they've got a lot of guys who are hurt.
00:30:59
Speaker
I want to see this team with Smith and Ollie Lawrence, because that's a big difference. And then maybe Chandler kind of self-starting instead of roots. I'm an actual winger. An actual seven. Not that some underhills in the seven, but like they need a carrier at seven. Yeah. So like there's a couple of things they need to turn around. But yeah, they got to get daily off for an actual better wing. Daily should be 13 or nothing. But again,
00:31:28
Speaker
You know, they were kind of playing with it. Dingwall starting, I thought he was adequate too. So that was good to see. He wasn't any worse than two years in that spot. A lot of like a solid performance. Didn't win anything, didn't lose anything. Like that's great for a debut. Yeah, no. And it's the same thing like Ethan. Like I'm not trying to discount Ethan Ritz because what he was asked to do, he did.
00:31:55
Speaker
Boy, I just don't think it was player of the match. No, it wasn't a standout, really. I don't know. It was just kind of like, oh, he was there. Okay. Oh, you were on the field. Congratulations. Right. You get player of the match.
00:32:11
Speaker
We're really going to give play to the master guy that wins lineups and I mean, look, there's 60 meters. Right. There's there's worse because it's not like we saw him later in the match. I was like, Oh, look, Ethan Roots is in the game. No, I already knew he was in the game. I just wasn't impressed with the way he played. There was a period. Between like half and 63 minutes where I forgot he was on the field. Yeah. I was like, Oh, where's?
00:32:37
Speaker
Okay. There's roots. Okay. Got it. Oh yeah. Forgot that guy's out there.
Wales vs Scotland Match Analysis
00:32:43
Speaker
Anyway, um, let's go over to Cardiff. Little surprise squeaky bum time. It took Wales literally 40 minutes to wake up. It did. I thought, and the fuck game was over at that point. And honestly, so did Scotland. I think that problem was slow to Scotland. I'm not sure they, and they, they had a couple of injuries. Richie gray came off early. Um,
00:33:05
Speaker
Crosby came off early, like that was unhelpful for a lot of reasons, but, and then they had the, was it turning like a carded? I don't know. Two of Palazzo got carded too. Two cards, like back to back. Yeah. And that's it. That's the winner. That's what I say. I know there's a reason that the whales found purchase and that's why they had two players or they had Scotland had guys in the bin back to back or two same time. Doesn't matter. And in that time, um, well scored four tries.
00:33:36
Speaker
Yep. So there's your, there's your thing. I would say it's too bad that like. And you and Lloyd came on quickly. Like, um, uh, had,
00:33:52
Speaker
Yeah. Crosby, um, it was Luke Crosby and Costolo hitting in a ruck and it was a total rugby incident. Anybody that says otherwise get off it. Um, total rugby incident and, uh, Crosby caught Costolo and neither ended up playing full 80 either way. So, um, yeah, that's why you on like came on early. Didn't do terribly.
00:34:15
Speaker
Yeah, I mean you can chalk up to 20 minutes playing with 14 players and that's gonna wear on you And I know Scotland won't make that excuse and whatever but and they definitely went to sleep on top of it So right between the two I think it's more the I think what annoys Scotland more at this point is is that they went to sleep I don't think it the two cards that that sucks and yes, that's problematic for the two players getting cards that quickly, but
00:34:46
Speaker
It's, you know, they could have survived that if the players just kept their heads on. Yeah. I mean, first half, nothing like nothing. But it is tough. Who's the leader at that point, though? That's the problem. Because like you said, Crosby's off. Richie's off. Richie Gray is off. Skewman at this point is, you know, 62 minutes or so. Like, they're, you know, Xander's should be off. There's nobody in the pack that's like,
00:35:16
Speaker
leadership worthy to be blunt at that point. Probably not. And so, yeah, you're going to get, you know, Wayne Wright looking really good and man. Like, yeah, they pushed it through their forwards and, you know, except for the dire try, everything was the forward. So this was, yeah, like it was the experience either the at least the talent.
00:35:41
Speaker
Well, Dyer was probably the one bit of good ball movement they had, the first one. I think he got two, didn't he?
00:35:49
Speaker
No, you just had the one. Just the one. Okay. Yeah. So the dive trial, like that was the one bit of ball movement that they had that was quality. Um, and waiting for, for back to Wayne, right? Like I will say he got about 30 or 40 on a kickoff. That was one missed tackle. And then it was just running because everybody else was concerned about Rio Dyer and not him. So yes, he, he took the meters in front of him and you got to give him that. And he didn't do anything stupid with it. He went into contact and did not lose the damn ball. And.
00:36:19
Speaker
No, anything like that, but really, meh. I'm still extremely unconvinced that David Jenkins is a captain. Yeah, I'm not seeing it. Good old Captain Daffy made two huge errors to start the game, and that really put whales in a hole. One was a really dumb penalty, and one was a frickin' knock-on on the six. At the six. Like, come on, dude.
00:36:47
Speaker
Six meters lines, like where are you going? You gotta be the steady hands. Your job is capped and you don't, you know, it's okay. I remember, what was it? Kieran Reed making a stupid knock-on with the could have been an easy try. I think he just like literally just flopped out of his hands. But the thing is when Kieran Reed's not doing that, he's like kicking ass and usually scoring that try. Right. Whereas Daffa Jenkins, when you're not doing that, you're really not.
00:37:16
Speaker
Contributing much in other ways you're hitting rocks. Thank you and making a tackle. Thank you. But yeah, that doesn't count for all that much No, because here's the thing if your tackle count is high, it's usually because the team tackle count is high Mm-hmm, which means you don't have the ball which means when you're in possession not doing much with it and if you're have a I think there's somebody was saying like how many rocks he hit too and it's like
00:37:40
Speaker
First off, a hit ruck doesn't really impress me. I don't know what's the context of that. Is he? Yeah. And that's where he just like, is there a tackle contest and he's sealing it off and there's no real contest or he's bashing someone out of the way. That's like, those are easy hits. It's not like, you know, when you're rocking someone who's already going backwards, it's super fucking easy. It's not like a contact that your body feels the next day. Um, so it doesn't tell me much just from that raw stat. No.
00:38:07
Speaker
No, I want to see me, you know, what impact on the game? Did you did you move the ball up the field? A rock is, you know, anybody should be able to hit a rock. He had wait for it. Seven. Oh, wow. If that's like if you're sitting there telling me that's going to be your guy going forward.
00:38:31
Speaker
Take away, you know, five of those frickin' hit rocks and then carry the fuckin' ball a few more times for me, please. Or don't, because you knocked it on. That's true. I mean, knowing yourself is one thing. But also, Wales not knowing that you may not be fully international qualified, let alone a captain, would be another thing too. Actually, that's what impresses me the most about this, because this is not to me a very impressive Welsh team at all.
00:38:57
Speaker
No on paper, although I like certain guys like I you know, I still like Josh Adams I love fucking love Tompkins and he played very well
00:39:05
Speaker
Dyer, I thought, played well. Dyer's going to be their saving grace, especially with LRZ. Right. Lloyd and Costolo, I thought, played all right until he had to come out. They're definitely moving to all within there. I liked when I saw Costolo, excuse me, thought he could have ran it just a touch more to be a threat. They needed nine. Gareth Davies and Thomas Williams were just
00:39:29
Speaker
messed up the mess. Humps. Right. I believe the word is pumps. They need someone to do that job and it's not you know, it's not either of them. No.
00:39:47
Speaker
What did I see? Yeah, when I had 138 meters carried, I just again, context of it. I'm not sure of it. Not bad. He's a young kid. I'll give him credit. Although he looked a little weak in the, uh, there was an early challenge in the air from stain and stain ripped it away from it. You're a pop. You got, you got old man strength. That's exactly what happened on that one. Um, I will, and I will say to over to Scotland, we, we, um,
00:40:17
Speaker
in that first half, they probably could have made this a much harder game on whales even more so. One, not, you know, kicking for points as many times as they did. Granted, it was only twice, but still trade one of those for a try and you're in business. And they probably left a couple on the board because they were just a little too addicted to cutting in and running inside lines and using that option. When the outside option was on and there was plenty of green, so, and just maybe if they could get rid of Xander Fagerson, that would help.
00:40:47
Speaker
Yeah, and just an idea. Yeah Just get rid of one you don't have to get rid of both just Actually, yeah, one of them would be fine one would be adequate right? That's the thing is I would rather have Xander because these are as this is a terrifying
00:41:07
Speaker
I he does a job. I need a prop. I need a tight head prop. OK, don't do anything else. Just hit rocks and make your tackles. Hey, supposedly good enough for a captain. Right. That's all we need from you. Whereas, you know, I would much rather have a Dempsey in then than a Fagerson. And I'm not really that big a fan of them. Well, they're they're going to they're going to be in trouble with the second row to go. Christ, I think it's still banned.
00:41:35
Speaker
We're Skinner. Is he hurt? No, he played there. He played. Yeah. He played in this game, but because Richie Greg got hurt. He did. Johnny Gray's not going to be healthy this year. I don't think so. Um, there's that. Um, rough spot. Yeah. And Scott Cummings is super unimpressive to me. So yes. Slide Matt Fagerson forward. There's your answer to your second row and not. Okay. Have a, you know,
00:42:04
Speaker
I'd sign off on that. Have a nice dynamic back rower and Crosby's going to be out too, I think. Yeah, Matt Fagerson's contribution as a lock would be much more in line with what he produces.
00:42:20
Speaker
Yeah, if you told me that was a lock stats I'd be all right. Yeah Yep. All right. All right. I mean grand not not much in the meters carry department But I don't care about that so much from from like that would be so nice to have but we're a plotter lock I suppose. Yeah
00:42:35
Speaker
Yeah. Like even Mauro, you're going to not generally have too many meters carried, even though he should. He should be a freaking gazelle and he's not. It's weird. Yeah. Just hasn't been put enough space. Um, Mitchell tried to, I think. I think so. Yeah. Um, we were talking about you online earlier and I'll give him credit. He, the one place that he has struggled
00:42:57
Speaker
in the places that I've watched him play for Bristol when he was there and so on has been off the tee when he's been wearing a 10 shirt or when he's been trusted with it either way. Yeah. He had three or four. Yeah. So he had all of them. All right. So three or four. So pretty good for... Yeah. And the bottom try was, I think, inside the 15. I think that wasn't a great angle. So... That was a, it was a mall over try. So yes. Yeah. Yes. Yes, it was. So that, yeah, that wasn't fun.
00:43:21
Speaker
So, yeah, loads of credit to Lloyd for not completely shitting himself in the situation he was in. And really, when you come into a situation like that, he came in when it was still 27 now. What can you do wrong? Nothing. What more can you do wrong? That's exactly it. Just go, chuck that ball around, try something. Go play a little bit, have some fun. We're already getting our ass kicked. Play a little footy. Have some fun with the ball in hand and see what happens.
00:43:51
Speaker
And maybe good things will happen. And it wasn't bad. And he did it right. I don't think O'Keefe really impacted this match. I don't recall many times being like, I mean, I do recall a couple of times being like, ah, that's a quiff for you. Yeah, there's a couple of times where you're just like, all right, fine. That's your normal shit.
Praise for Rugby Refereeing
00:44:13
Speaker
Right. There was no like, oh, man, this game would be so much better with a real ref.
00:44:20
Speaker
competently done Ben O'Keefe. Yeah. Maybe someone's finally heard us. Cause really the overall, the refereeing on these three were competent, not amazing, but competent. Um, I think they got the big, big decisions, right? Yeah. And yeah. Like I think Dick Dixon actually let a couple of things go that in the prem, he would have easily checked. So like, I think he definitely is raising his game at the international level to
00:44:47
Speaker
You know, just hit that standard in the prime a little more often. Right. Like, um, please. Yeah. Williams did okay. And, and O'Quiff did okay. Like, yeah. All right. And again, fucking entertaining matches, all of them.
00:45:02
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. It's weird. You'd think a 21 point game wouldn't be that entertaining, but it was. I mean, it was it was close right up to the to the last, like 20 minutes. Yeah. Say that she and try was kind of like, yeah, OK, that's. Yeah, that's the end. Calvin Nash fell over. Good for him. Yeah. Yeah. A couple of a couple of debutante tries. Yes. Yes. Or first try, you know, cherry pop and tries. Cherry pop in. Cherry pop in.
00:45:32
Speaker
Yeah. So overall good. Do you figure out why Willem Dafoe was in the stands for whales yet? I don't know. Cause I'm not even sure he's not Welsh. Just seems odd. That's all. I'm sure the comp said something and I just didn't hear it. Right. I'm sure they did.
00:45:58
Speaker
All right.
00:46:04
Speaker
Oh, do we want to? It's not on the thing, but then there's not too much to talk about with it. But the PWR match. Oh, yes, we do need to do that. Thank you for reminding me. I told you. No, there wasn't much. I mean, it was the Ellie Kale Dune show and that was the end. Right. Like, wait a second. She changes up her hair. That's that would be that would have been the highlight of the weekend, except for the fact that she then scored what, four tries?
00:46:29
Speaker
The last one just to fuck you like oh by the way And this is mine too And the nine realized it right away. I think it was the nine, but whatever and I was like, oh shit but one thing we can't talk about in this match it because it concerns us in general is the performance of some of the Eagles like Paris writing wonderful
00:46:54
Speaker
Good to see Nick James still sucks. We know if you've listened to this back during the World Cup, you would know I'm not a fan of hers. There are a lot of players I can live with. She ain't one of them. She still looks like it's the same criticisms we have of Kyle Siqueira. She looks like an American club rugby player, not a professional rugby player.
00:47:19
Speaker
It's not putting in the work and it's showing up in the production. Right. That's more the thing. Looks are one way. I mean, look at Jimmy George. Yeah, Jimmy George, same thing. I don't care about looks right up until the time when I see how you play it. I'm like, well, you're a fat shit and you're not playing well because you can't get around the pitch.
00:47:41
Speaker
Like that's in general, like she's not a fat shit. She's just overweight and needs to tighten it up a little bit and really like put the effort in off the pitch, not on the weight room and on the track. Either or. Somewhere, somewhere where it can help. Yeah, it's just she's not good. So right. If they pick her again for this kind of a cop, I'm going to fucking lose my mind. Right.
00:48:06
Speaker
And who was that 13 for sale? Hang a towel. I, oh, she's, you know, I've watched her several times and there is zero doubt. She is extremely talented, a very good player. There are days where I'm just like, she looks
00:48:22
Speaker
very lost and or disinterested. And to me that is just, again, an unprofessional thing. Like, don't look so disinterested in the game. If you're getting your ass kicked, that's when people are going to notice the most if you've gone and gotten disinterested. Right? Look at Wales. Look at what they did. All they took was them, you know, staying with it and Scotland went to sleep and they got back at themselves back into it. But if they, it's not like you had, um,
00:48:47
Speaker
Fuck. What's it like? Owen Watt can throw in a pass to Kyle Rowe for a try. Like, you know, that was terrible. Oh, awful. Like, like, like there were a couple of times I just threw it blatantly forward. Yeah. And like the problem is, like, that becomes
00:49:09
Speaker
Uh, you're, you're putting that in the referee's head that the other thrown forward passes and the Rigoni caught one that was obviously clearly forward, but like they're going to spot it because they're like looking for a forward pass now. Um, just not, not professional, not helpful.
00:49:27
Speaker
No, not how we behave in this household. No, and it's too bad because I really like Paris writing and Benson's on that team too, isn't she? So it's like, I really want to cheer for that team. Howard, I'm a huge Katana Howard fan and just I want to cheer for that team, but good God, they're just...
00:49:47
Speaker
They're not doing things well enough at this point. And that's sad. And I'm struggling mightily with the, uh, the, um, the hair change from killed on. I don't, I don't approve, but I know it's not for me, but I just, you know, I, I get it, but I like her hair a lot. So I don't like it. I mean, it meters fucking identifiable, but now you just gotta look for the braids instead.
00:50:17
Speaker
Yeah, that's the other thing, is now I have to look for something different. It was like, did you see that big mess of hair? Like, okay, there's Kilda. That's Kilda. Now it's like, let's say different. Or Abbey Dow, maybe. But wearing a Quinn's uniform, it's definitely Kilda. It's definitely Kilda. Yeah, now I got to look for the...
00:50:36
Speaker
for the braids. Yes, you do weird as you do. I struggled to get used to it. But I guess I'll live quins will maybe have a nice fat wake up call this week as they walk over to the stone X. Yeah, it's not gonna be the same. No, no, no.
00:50:54
Speaker
is written in series ran riot. So it's gonna be fun. It is. I may be featuring some Saracens in my lineup. Yeah. Any update on when Harrison's going to be available again? I do not know.
00:51:11
Speaker
Lame. I don't like it. I don't like it. I haven't been consulted. I apologize. Uh, it's too bad. Well, I mean, I'll give him a little credit. She's been carrying the club with not a whole lot of complaints. So I, you know, but there's a difference between her and, and England's an usual 10. So just saying, just say anyway. All right. So with that,
00:51:43
Speaker
We're going to tune out of this. Um, we're going to head over to the fantasy corner and we are picking the draft order for our super rugby champion league draft. So you can tune in over to that. Um, if you're not heading over there, enjoy this opening that next round of 16 and we'll talk to you all very soon. Later. Cheers. This has been the fantasy podcast.
00:52:13
Speaker
If you'd like to ask a question or leave us general feedback, email us at fantasyrugbypodcast at gmail.com. You fart, you die, by the way. Yeah, exactly. The tiki-tacking this kind of absolutely pisses me off. Be sure you check out our Patreon at patreon.com slash the fantasy. Yeah.