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Season 5- Episode 13- What Are We DOING U.S. Rugby? (Autumn Nations)
34 Plays3 years ago
It's a big episode of TFRY and we've got a lot to talk about with lots of feelings attached to the things to talk about. On this episode we are talking World Rugby Awards, primarily the winners and how much we enjoyed them this year. Yes, we spend a large amount of time on the debacle and sham that is USA Rugby, what happened and where to go from here (not towards Edward Jones). Fair warning, we didn't really pull any punches in the subject matter, both at the upper levels and right down to the local level. We also talk about the suspension of the South African DOR and of course dive into this weekend's Autumn Internationals. Grab something to drink, you might need it and join us!
Check out the TFRY Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/TheFantasyRugbyYanks
Ask us questions via Twitter: Jarrod- jdyke8man & Ben- admrablsnackbar, and #AskTFRY.
Send us your thoughts for the show and questions for upcoming shows via e-mail fantasyrugbypodcast@gmail.com. Of course we welcome feedback via e-mail, twitter or by rating/reviewing the pod on Apple Podcast.
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Transcript
Introductions and Humorous Remarks
00:00:02
Speaker
It is the fantasy rugby angst. 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 gambled that. Collusion. Collusion.
Rugby News and Short Week Matches
00:00:24
Speaker
Hey, everybody. Welcome back. It is the fantasy rugby angst. My name is Jared Dyke. I'm Ben Glauser.
00:00:32
Speaker
And it is, uh, yeah, it's a short week in terms of matches, but we've got a lot to cover just the same new cycle did not stop and other things happened. So yeah, we got much to get into and I'm sure I might stop the pod and go get a second one of these mid pod. No, probably after like was our third segment down. Yeah, probably after that. Yeah. Yeah.
00:01:00
Speaker
Yeah, that's going to take some doing.
Podcast Promotion
00:01:03
Speaker
Yeah. Find us on your favorite podcast app. Download a review, share sharing is caring after all. Spread the word. That is a healthy beer. I like that. Spread
Fixing Audio Issues
00:01:18
Speaker
the word. It got Jared's audio issues fixed.
00:01:20
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. I know that like, I thought it was just something going on with like my connection when I was listening, when I was listening to the recap and I'm like, all right, that's not bad. And then I listened to the second one and it was probably going on for two, three pods in a row. So yeah, I thought it was our connection. I didn't realize it was your, it's me.
00:01:39
Speaker
As usual, it's me. I damn it, Jared. What are you gonna do? Yeah. Let's talk about that rather than their sheet, their best fight. We'll get to that in a minute. Anyway, make sure that you buy our good friend the rugby geek, George, a coffee or beer because, you know,
00:02:06
Speaker
He's going to, he's a busy boy. As we've been saying, we got one more round of other nations fancy. So if you've been doing well on that, then he's probably to blame. And if you're not, then blame yourself. Just saying, um, also, and also, you know, he's awesome and he's been doing this for a lot longer than we have. So give him, give him a thumbs up and a little help there. Um,
Stance Against Discrimination and Tragic Incident Discussion
00:02:31
Speaker
As always, there's no discrimination on this podcast, nor should there be in sports or in life. Just another sad, sad day here in the States with, um, the nightclub queue getting, you know, just an awful incident. Yeah. Um, more right wing violence in this country. Shocking. Um, this is where it goes. Like, you know, I get the,
00:03:02
Speaker
the argument behind things like Izzy Folow, like you should be able to have free speech and blah, blah, blah. But the thing is that you cross a line. And when it becomes, when you say things like that are said, like, you know, the, the whole drag shows are groomers and it's not, it's, it's, it's a culture. It's fun. Like these are just people having fun. And
00:03:31
Speaker
you have to make it a thing because you need someone to hate. And that's the essence of, that's why we say no discrimination because any
Preventing Hate Culture
00:03:38
Speaker
discrimination leads, you know, this is where it ultimately leads.
00:03:42
Speaker
So this is why we, you know, it's, it's why we do this segment now, which like, we shouldn't have to, but there's way too much out there that is like, no, it's cool. Like let's discriminate. Let's, you know, it's, it's good to, you know, hate these people. Let's, we'll just make up the shit just to do it. Right.
00:04:03
Speaker
And it's just out of control. So like it's not funny don't like even if you see it in the wild If you're gonna say something like I mean like in on the like the internet or something like that Yeah, yeah, shut it down if you speak obviously in real life, but like you see that on the internet Don't rich. We didn't be like, oh look at this. No, don't look at this. This is wrong. Like shut it down Don't boost it even if just say I look at it because it creates the culture like what gets
00:04:32
Speaker
said the most in our culture is what kind of goes. So even if you're saying it like just it's got to go. We got to stop giving this air. We got to make sure that like the hate anyway, we got to talk about that. It's bad to hate and make that the dominant cultural thing. Absolutely. That's and it's
Gun Violence Frustration
00:04:56
Speaker
Another thing for me with with the guns and you know, because we've had what three shootings in the last like two weeks or something like that here in the U.S. All the ones that made the news. Sure. Yeah, sure. There's probably more of others. There's more. I mean, we see more than one. Like when they add them up at the end of the year, there's always more mass shootings than there are days in the year. So there's been plenty of shootings that we don't hear about. Right. Because it's just not news anymore. It's just what it's what happens. It's so fucked up. Yeah. And.
00:05:24
Speaker
It's a big thing that causes me a lot of anxiety and stress when I just think about how bad it is and how stupid people are about it. There's nothing being done. It's one of those things that if I keep thinking about it, I will legitimately sit there and get angry at nothing. It's just not a
00:05:47
Speaker
And that's what it's designed to do, too. Like, it's designed to get you angry whether you're on one side or the other. And the problem is, if you're on the one side, you end up killing people. And if you're on the other side, people get to live and enjoy their lives. So... Yeah, I'd rather live on that part. Like, why would we choose to choose the side that ends up killing people? So it's got to stop. I love that...
Club Shooting and Heroism
00:06:19
Speaker
I think it was a transgender attendee was probably stomping the guy on his face with a with a stucco or shit. Yeah. Good. Good. Fuck that guy. And I'm kind of glad that, you know, I mean, they put him in the hospital. I'm impressed that they didn't kill him, but I don't think it was for a lack of trying. Probably not. Honestly. No, the one guy was like he was punching him until the until the cops showed up. He was still hit. He said the cops tackled him. Yeah. Like they guess.
00:06:49
Speaker
Yeah, shouldn't it should but these things shouldn't shouldn't happen and we shouldn't be promoting it. No, no, no. Just so no discrimination here.
Privilege and Discrimination
00:07:00
Speaker
That's why we do it. It's not, you know, you got it like we're trying to avoid this shit. Yeah. Right. And that's it. I just and I'm and I'm always.
00:07:09
Speaker
I gassed at people that vote for those that don't, this is a problem. And, uh, and that's why I, you know, Mike, I have to be, uh, you have to try and be civil with some people, but my, you know, my, my mom's just like, well, why can't you get along with these people? I'm like, cause they're fucking assholes. That's why I don't deal with assholes. Well, it's just how it is. They get people killed. Like you have to understand we're, we're, we're hurtling on a rock through nothing.
00:07:36
Speaker
around an unimaginable heat source. We're just, we're in a super, like, we got nothing going on. If you're on like a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean, it's fucking the same thing, right? If you have somebody in the lifeboat who is trying to get other people killed when we're just trying to survive and survive, right? This experience.
00:07:59
Speaker
as best we can. Like you throw them overboard, right? Yeah, totally. That's that's the analogy. That's what these people are. So they're they're the ones who are trying to get everybody killed.
00:08:11
Speaker
on this, this life boat that we have that we do eventually need to get off of before it dies. If we want to survive as a species. So there's a whole like thing here. We need to, we need to, to advance past that. We're going to get off this fucking rock and save our species. Right. Billions of years, but you know, we've got to get there. Long standing.
American Horror Story Recommendation
00:08:34
Speaker
Anyway, sorry, our thoughts and our condolences go to all the victims out there. Absolutely. Nobody deserves that. It doesn't matter who you are. We're not at all trying to minimize that. That's hard. I looked at the bios they put out. It's sad. Right. It's really sad.
00:08:58
Speaker
Actually, and it's funny, so I also, I will do a plug. I never, you know, we never do these. The latest season of American Horror Story just wrapped up. It's on Hulu. It is not horror. There are, you know, scary elements to it, but it is a commentary on the AIDS crisis in the U.S. and how there's, it's completely allegorical towards that and just the violence that has
00:09:24
Speaker
have plagued the gay community for decades and it's horrible and it's really it was really well done and clearly done by people who cared and wanted to make a some so check it out honestly it's a it's a it's a it's a good series and you'll be
00:09:40
Speaker
It's more depressing, but it's it is American horror story and that is American. It's like, no, this is American horror. This is what it is. Right. Yeah. Living in America is a horror for some people. And we need to recognize that. That definitely is stuff for the truth. Stuff with truth. Recognize when you're lucky and when you when you have a. Yeah.
00:09:57
Speaker
when it's not you. When you're in a point of position of privilege for one reason or another. Right. And unfortunately, there are a lot of people that are marginalized here, especially. So it's pretty awful.
Qatar's Discrimination Critique
00:10:08
Speaker
Yeah. Which is why shit like what's happening over guitar pisses me off, too. Yeah, exactly. But it's all connected, right? You let these people get control. You end up in guitar and with all the shit that's happening there. Oh, we're no beer. Like they're turning, you know, oh, it's they're not letting people in with like, even though the one love is in the lab like. Mm hmm.
00:10:27
Speaker
Yeah, they opted to, uh, to a yellow, not, uh, not just, uh, which the, which the federations were all going to be happy to pay. Exactly. But nope. Yeah. Stupid, stupid all around stupids for all around.
00:10:41
Speaker
Yeah. Fucking hell. You all fucking suck. Anyway, still stupid, but slightly less depressing is our Patreon. Yes. So we will obviously be back to doing Start Sits, all that shit this week. Boom Bus will return next week. I'm going to be sitting on my ass for the good majority of tomorrow and Thursday and Friday. Actually, no, Friday I'm going to be at a bar. Nevermind.
00:11:03
Speaker
Oh, nice. Nice. That's a lie. So, yes, we will have all the good stuff coming at you soon. And that'll be that'll
World Rugby Awards
00:11:11
Speaker
be it. I'll be hitting the airwaves soon here. Friday, I'll get you know, I'll get the sheet ready and get that out on the Patreon before I begin, you know, my Thanksgiving celebration. Yeah. Minutes and all that show will be updated. Yeah. And not this week, but I. Yeah, but not this week. I intend on
00:11:29
Speaker
a few more elements over the next few weeks as well. Okay. Mickey mouse that together. Cool. Yeah. Yeah. I have time now, you know, I'm not, I'm not committed to a whole lot other than my job. That's true. That's true. Actually now too. Cause I'm like, my season's over. So yeah. Anyway, um, let's go to other fun things.
00:11:51
Speaker
slightly less, slightly less stupid. What would be awards? Oh, we'll go to that first. Okay. Yeah. Let's go to that first. Much less stupid. Yeah. Let's go. Yeah. That's very stupid. We can get to that later. Yeah. So we have, obviously we can lead with the players of the year, really demand and Josh van der Fleer. And I don't, all, all the candidates were worthy, except for in our, obviously in our opinion, as we talked a little bit about last week was probably,
00:12:21
Speaker
Unright, not rightfully there, not to say he's a bad player, but yeah, only two, what, two international matches all year? Yeah. Yeah. Doesn't, doesn't quite cut it as opposed to. Yeah, you could have done better. As opposed to Van Der Fleer, who took part in, you know, a very good Six Nations campaign for Ireland, an undefeated autumn, and also their first ever win in New Zealand. Yeah. So a series win in New Zealand. So. And he was a huge part of that. Like he, yeah. So very well deserved. Like you don't get,
00:12:49
Speaker
He'd be hard-pressed, especially as a flanker, to have a better year than Van Der Fleer had. Like ever. Legends are made from a year like this. The only one that comes to mind is Richie. And then he's got the World Cup next. He could own the rugby world for a lifetime. We'll talk about what's going on with Ireland soon, but yeah, it's going to be very interesting.
00:13:17
Speaker
Coach of the year, Wayne Smith, again, another another women's coach, which is awesome. Yeah. I love it. And like you got it. I mean, fuck. It's hard to argue. No, I prefer the job he did coming out, you know, coming off his duff and into this and just diving headfirst into it and doing what he did. And obviously the result of it was fantastic.
00:13:37
Speaker
Cause up until then, it's up until like this whole, this run, he had the world cup. I mean, it was easily Eddie Smith for this award. So, um, already Jones. Sorry. Oh, wait. I fucked it up. Ah, God damn it. Now you did a good job. You called, you called him the wrong name cause he deserved it. Edward, Edward Jones, Edward Jones.
00:13:57
Speaker
I don't know. Yeah. Damn it. Anyway, close enough. It's not important. Uh, obviously we don't rehearse this now, uh, two E and Capuzzo breakout players. Fantastic. Once again. And then tries of the year. Yeah. We'll get to where Rodrigo Fernandez came from. Uh,
00:14:19
Speaker
For Chile and then Abby Dow Abby Dow was was was the try in the World Cup against Canada Which I think I did I say that at the time like that could that should be tried? Like I'm surprised it was but at the same time you I mean fuck I couldn't pick a better one and I've Watched a significant amount of women's rugby this year. So yes. Yeah Yes, that you know for for
00:14:48
Speaker
Cause it's more than just for both of them, these tries of the year, it's, I like that they were more than just the try and the try itself was worthy of a, like a try of the year, but the, the context around it and what it meant for, um, for the player and for the team and just the situation, um, find two bigger tries that you won't, you won't.
00:15:13
Speaker
So, yeah, really excellent, excellent offerings. Just fucking sucks at one with the Eagles. Yeah, we'll get to that in a little bit here.
Rugby Controversies
00:15:22
Speaker
Speaking of suck. Oh, Razzie has been banned as we were hoping for last week. And, you know, it's not as long as of a ban as we were thinking, but it's still a ban, which should still be kind of a jarring wake up called the guy like I don't think it is. I think he's I think he's I don't think it will be either. I think this is I don't think this is enough.
00:15:43
Speaker
I think he's, he's, he's fully embraced being the joker of rugby. And it's like, he's willing to burn it all down just to be a dick. Yeah. I just, it's, it's half-assed apology. Right. Was for what, cause I'm, cause Wayne, Wayne Barnes got a lot of many, many threats. It's like, yeah.
00:16:08
Speaker
this is your fault and you are throwing you know you're throwing daggers at him not anybody else and your sarcasm in your tweets was not appreciated i'm sorry and i am like the king of sarcasm so no just but it's like so much no it well because it's bad faith you're being sarcastic obviously everybody knows what you're saying but ultimately you're too much of a fucking coward to say it
00:16:32
Speaker
So it's like the fact that like, you know, I feel like a two game ban isn't really enough, but at the same time, it's the warning shot. It's the you've got one. You've got to do it again. Like do it again and see what happens. And so after they will just. Yeah, like after that.
00:16:54
Speaker
After the Lions tour with the whole shit show that that was in that video and whatnot, world rugby made rules so they get this done faster. He was the very first person to fucking violate them. What does that tell you? What does that tell you? Come on, man. And the problem is that, yeah, but it's encouraging them. It's the same thing as I was saying before. He's encouraging people. He's trying to stoke up anger.
00:17:21
Speaker
And we're seeing death threats against people like, what the fuck, dude? It's rugby. It's not good. Play better. Shut the fuck up like because he's in there. They're always in like everybody is stuck on this. No, he's he's trying to bring back. He wants to be fair. And and he's putting out mistakes. And it's like.
00:17:39
Speaker
God damn it, it's fair. Cause you know, he's only pointing out the certain, he's only pointing out the mistakes that he thinks were mistakes that when he, that he doesn't like it, that they went against his team. It's not in good faith. No. And it's not appropriate. And it's not, it's having an ill effect on the game. It's actually, it's bad for the integrity of the sport. And it's like the, I, I'm at the point where it's like, if he does it again in a world where he bans him for life, which they have every right to do.
00:18:07
Speaker
There's a, there are abuse of officials rules to this. Like they, they're, they try to be lenient, but at some point they have to preserve the integrity of the sport. Yeah, totally. And it has nothing to do with, you know, oh, I, you know, hating, um, South Africa who like, they have the best underdog story ever. Like you could just like absolutely love that team.
00:18:33
Speaker
if they weren't such whiny little bitches about it. Mm hmm. Yeah, if they were a little if he was a little bit better about it, really. Yeah, really. They were making it like because it's like, yes, he is reflecting on them now. That's that's the other thing is it's like, OK, this is what you guys are. OK, like you're that like you really want to be that guy. Come on. No, no, fuck. No. And
00:18:59
Speaker
And I love me some John Smith and he's even saying like, yeah, he's turning the world against us right now as a team, not necessarily a country, but as a team, he is turning the rugby world against us. And again, there's nobody to blame but him. So when you're one of the former captains and he was by all means a great captain, he also raised the World Cup. Yeah.
00:19:23
Speaker
When that's happening, it should be a huge alarm bell. So if it continues to happen, yes, you're right. I think they need to start reconsidering like major repercussions. And I know he's already had a year where he couldn't be part of the batch day stuff. Right. I was going to have a couple more weeks and I'm sure somebody has gotten on the phone with him and said, bro,
00:19:43
Speaker
you've got to sort this out because it can't keep happening, because if you do, and I'm talking about both from World Rugby and from South African Rugby, like, both sides have probably gotten on the phone with them, maybe even the conversation, all three of them, which would be smart. And they've decided, and hopefully they've said to them, like, you need to stop this, because the repercussions could be damning for both him and the country, and you don't want that. You've got a wonderful and personable and potential world
00:20:13
Speaker
figure in Sia Khaleesi as your captain and it's getting overshadowed by him. Khaleesi is someone, he was on one of the news magazines here in the US and people, I had people ask me about him and I told him, he's a wonderful, wonderful player. He's a great person. He's a good representative for our sport. His coach is a fuckbag though and that's pretty much the sentiment of what I've told people. And it's really hard to not say otherwise at this point.
00:20:42
Speaker
And it's funny because, like, you go back a year ago or so, you know, whatever, you know, before the original incident came out and you couldn't find two bigger Razzie supporters. Like.
00:20:55
Speaker
Love the guy. We're super happy that he won. Like we're so so on his side. And now it's like, no, fuck that guy. I don't I got no use for him. He's bad. He's not that I have no use for him. He's actively bad for the sport. So no, no. So those are the first two games he took charge of. He lost. Right. Just saying. Just saying. Yeah. And. Right.
00:21:22
Speaker
Yeah, the guy needs the guy needs to be rained in hard. And I would like to think that South African rugby have their finger on it and are going to make sure that this is the last time it happens. Right. I hope. Right. I hope. All right.
US Rugby Failures
00:21:42
Speaker
Yeah, I'm going to start this with. To quote one Taylor Twelman.
00:21:57
Speaker
I fucking hate U.S. rugby right now. As I said, those of you that saw it on my Twitter, it was raw, it was emotional, but I'm not fucking sorry about it. I am embarrassed, and everybody here should be top to bottom in U.S. rugby, and anybody that's a part of this whole thing. 100% embarrassment. We are such a stupid, stupid, stupid organization, and we got what we deserved. End of story.
00:22:15
Speaker
What are we doing? Are you fucking kidding me?
00:22:25
Speaker
And that's the problem is that, you know, the supporters don't really deserve, like we're getting our ass kicked by our own administration and coaching. And it's just, it's clearly no development. Cause these are, you know, we're now we're getting MLR players in there and everybody's proud of that. But I think they're forced, like they're forcing it. It's not ready yet. We're clearly that they're not ready yet. The refereeing's not to the same, like how many, how many, um,
00:22:54
Speaker
What rocks with the like, uh, um, fuck the neck rolls. Did we see a couple of the US throughout, throughout this quality period? And more often or not, it was because we were late. Yeah. You know, and like somebody was over the top of it. And the only thing we could think of to do was fucking neck roll them instead of like, just, you know, how easy it is to turn over a ball right after it's right after it's been turned over. Like do that. Just go for that nine times out of 10, you'll get it right back.
00:23:22
Speaker
But no, they got a fucking neck roll. And like, there's no the coaching is not there because the players don't know this shit. No. No, like they clearly don't get it. And it's they don't understand, you know, they ask. They will see you. They all will see you. There's enough eyes. They know the game better than you do. They will see you do it. Absolutely. And.
00:23:41
Speaker
They're just not ready for it. And the fucked up thing is what what are these other countries doing that are passing us by? Like we have good athletes and this is true of the women and the men. We have good athletes that are just are not being used to their full rugby potential. No. And then we. Yeah. And then we have our men's flankers, which I don't know who the fuck they are, but all of them can go pound sand. None of them are anywhere near international quality garbage. Every one of them.
00:24:06
Speaker
Every one of them the only the only loose forward that I had a the time of day for For the u.s men was found on shelves Yeah, he was he's okay. He's like he's he should be your 20 and then you're you're okay You're gonna get you're in a decent spot. Mm-hmm. But the fact that he's your eight and you're really your best loose forward is Mm-hmm. How is that possible? We have so many athletes here, but they just don't know how to play rugby
00:24:29
Speaker
And, um, yeah, it's just, you know, it's, but it's, and it's just really like all it's like the guys in the, it's the same, you know, kind of as the, as the women though, is the men who play in the prem actually showed up. Like Greg Peterson was noticeable in a good way. AJ unfortunately was not so much, but that's cause he had no help around him. No. Like when you're not even as, I would take sales back line over hours. Which says a lot.
00:25:00
Speaker
Although the wings in the back three are good, but yeah. Yeah, but still like, yeah, right. I'll do top to bottom.
Systemic Issues in US Rugby
00:25:09
Speaker
And so AJ was raking with them and he can't do shit with this group of fucking mugs.
00:25:18
Speaker
Obviously, Wilson notwithstanding. Yeah, Michy Wilson was fairly good. And, you know, he's being asked to do a lot in what was his third cap, his fourth appearance for the United States. Like, yep, that's exactly. That's a lot. And for a third cap, that was a pretty good performance. Right. Take it. You know, here's the thing. Like, he was our fullback in these in these games.
00:25:41
Speaker
And we fucked around with Marcel Brocke for too long at that position. And I still think one of our best pullbacks was not available, which was Will Hooley. But we just we fucked around with that position for far too long. We tried Will McGee. Piece of shit. Done. Next. Brocke, not fast enough to be attacking back three. He couldn't even be a center. No, he wasn't even in this team, was he? No, he wasn't. OK, good.
00:26:08
Speaker
But it's like, why'd you fuck around with him for so much? He was like, he was a captain and it's like, what are you doing? He's not your guy.
00:26:16
Speaker
We we were rudderless. Yeah. Completely rudderless. We had no game plan. They were talking about plan A and you and I were just like, is there a plan A? Like, what was plan A? Right. Somebody explained to me what plan A was, because if there was one, I couldn't tell. And if the game plan was to fucking like kick for grass, we totally caught that. We were going freaking right at players or in the air, which never really worked. Right.
00:26:46
Speaker
you know, and what, at what point did we actually attack in this game? I don't recall. Yeah. You can't put your finger on it at any point, really. And, you know, Portugal had moments where they didn't, but they also had moments where they did. And they took advantage of the one point where we didn't have a player on the wing and they put it over. Like,
00:27:14
Speaker
just and it's it's not just this game even at the end though even at the end when it was like the 78th minute and we're in deep in their territory and we just dribble it into touch and it's like no don't give them the ball and then we get a penalty out of it like everything just starts going wrong right not because we like
00:27:38
Speaker
Like we just gave away possession and then just shit the bed after that. Like everything you have to do to fuck up, we did. Like not, not even like you have to avoid doing like, you know, just don't go, don't go for a penalty. Don't be aggressive in their end. Just make your tackles and they, you know, don't get a penalty. Nope. Penalty. Okay. Well, not penalty. And, but it all starts with giving away the ball. Like it's the, you know, at the, um,
00:28:04
Speaker
Gene Hackman and the replacements thing, like, you know, winners want the ball. Yeah. And in that that position, you're you're closing this out. You're saying we determine our destiny. We don't give them a chance to determine their destiny. We control it. It's ours. And you give it away. And then you make mistake after mistake after mistake. And it's like that's the fucking the story of this club is that they'd rather let the other team determine whether they win or lose. And what the fuck is that?
00:28:32
Speaker
That's not, number one, that's not a game plan. But number two, that's just, that's crap. And yeah, so let's go to the bigger issue. And it's not just this game. So as shitty as this game was, and it's, you know, it was this whole cycle.
00:28:53
Speaker
And there was the stupid fucking thing last year where US was like, rugby was like, oh, when you haven't played a test match and X run a number. Dude, you're in charge of scheduling your fucking test matches. Like when people were, people were-
00:29:09
Speaker
People were bitching about the ARC being gone. That is not a great thing for the whole region. I don't disagree. But you still can get off your ass and go find another match or two to play at minimum. Find teams to play. Find clubs to play. Find somebody else that wants to play a match instead of sitting on your ass and hoping someone else does it for you. Because that never fucking works.
00:29:35
Speaker
And that pissed me off and then glad it came back to bite us because we deserve nothing less. And I'm just like, fuck you all. God damn it. I'm irrationally angry at this because it was a slow train coming down the tracks and we were just a deer in headlights waiting for it to hit us. And we did nothing but fucking let it hit us.
00:29:58
Speaker
Oh, like the one half of the brain say, dude, we need to get the fuck out of the way. And the one that's controlling everything is like, nah, we're good. Yeah. Fuck. You just couldn't stop yourself, could you? God damn it. So annoying. And it makes us super happy, though, to know that they're thinking about bringing in Eddie Jones. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. People that are voting like so.
00:30:25
Speaker
So to that point of what to do to go forward. Number one, it's not get him. No, no. So we do not have the plethora of rugby players that some people think we do. Not even close. It is very top-heavy. The talent is clearly at the top with the exception of the obvious.
00:30:50
Speaker
The talent we have to pick from is so minimal in a lot of ways. Do we have athletes? Yes, but we haven't made them rugby players. We haven't truly made them rugby players. There were players playing in this last match and at this Reposage tournament that were athletes, but have not truly been turned into rugby players. And that cannot be the thing that we go with.
00:31:15
Speaker
We need to look at youth level, at academy level, you know, all the way down to something as simple as getting like touch rugby and flag rugby leagues going at like middle school. I think middle school is a good place to start. I think elementary school is probably a little bit too much of a reach, although I'd love that.
00:31:34
Speaker
But because, and this is me saying this as a high school coach, still, most kids do not see a rugby ball before high school here, which is grade nine. And that is, yeah, and I've got one kid that saw it when he was young, but that's because he has two older brothers that played for me at that, but not really the point. The point being is that we just, we aren't doing a good enough job of,
00:32:02
Speaker
getting it into the minds of the youth and then developing an actual academy for MLR teams, for clubs, you know, go back, you can go back to the old clubs and see that would have been great to be able to at least lean on if you were some of these old franchise franchises like Raptors, Guiltini's, Zungo, Growney's, like
00:32:22
Speaker
these defunct franchises, if they still had an academy, they'd be useful in some ways. But because we didn't prioritize that, we prioritize bringing in players and not really giving a fuck and just screwing around with shit, there's nothing to draw on from those areas. So those franchises leaving those areas kills rugby in a lot of ways. What I would do if I'm the MLR at this point, then, is if you can,
00:32:50
Speaker
Make it so that your salary cap level is affected by whether or not you have an academy and the size of your endowment of your academy. If you invest in rugby's future, okay, you can have another player. You can have another really good player. It's got to be incentivized somehow, and I know that would fuck over some of the squads, but at the same time- Don't care.
00:33:15
Speaker
I don't care if it's I don't care if it's New England. Honestly, I don't care either. Although they would find one. That wouldn't be a problem. Right? Shit, we like people would put one together for them. And be like, No, we're doing this. We're doing like, I, and me personally, like, I was talking about it with some of my friends and my wife, like, I would see that because I love the the level of coach at as like
MLR Academy System Critique
00:33:38
Speaker
a huge position to
00:33:40
Speaker
you know, shoot for for myself, I would love to be an Academy coach, you know, but yeah, New England is dragging their feet and doing these silly things with the academies and also
00:33:53
Speaker
I'm sure it's a problem with all the franchises, but stop associating yourselves with the dickhead club of the area. We know who the dickhead club in this area is, and if you're from Mystic and you're listening, go fuck yourself. I honestly don't care. I honestly don't care. You guys are dickheads, yeah. You guys are dickheads. Deal with it, all right? Everybody in the area knows it.
00:34:13
Speaker
Right. It's been, again, as we say every time, it's been before they started winning championships. Long before. They've always just been dickheads. Long before. And they have not changed, so. No, I've got old boys from our club that tell me exactly that, so it's not a new thing. Nope. And it's, you know, it's also the fact, the thing, the really thing that annoyed me was there was supposedly somewhere, and I have to get everyone down on record, so that's why they're able to go back on it,
00:34:43
Speaker
but there was supposedly some word about Free Jack's disassociating themselves from them. And then instead they've leaned into it harder, which is really fucking annoying. So it's like, you know, and there are rumors going around that certain players that I know may have to go play for said shitbag club if they're going to ever be considered for a full Free Jack's cap. I was like, that's bullshit because if they're good enough, why the fuck do they need to play for that fucking team? You know, it doesn't make sense to me.
00:35:12
Speaker
Like you're alien, you're alienating people in this area. Don't do that. So if you're also a MLR fan club, you know, a fan of another club, like, I hope this isn't your problem, but I bet you a thousand bucks it is. So those clubs also need to do the same thing. Like disassociate yourself from whatever shithead club you have. If the players are good enough, they're good enough. And, you know,
00:35:37
Speaker
And it's just, and we do want them like, yeah, they can go back and play for this club. It's not a big deal. They'll play with your, you know, with you. Yeah. They'll get their rugby in. Right. Last I checked our, the independence where our feeder team, no, not, not mystic river. Yeah, I know. But so just, they just call it as I see it. Yeah. And then there's so much, nobody wants to play for them. That's the problem. Like that's, if you, most people come away from that club and they're not happy.
00:36:03
Speaker
From what we know, you know, like, I think, I think both it's funny because like, you know, we, we, we don't like the hounds and the hounds don't like us, but it's more of a.
00:36:15
Speaker
informative dislike yeah Like you guys like whatever it's just it's the rival. It's a rivalry. It's a true rival. We want to be better than them and We're like look if if we could have picked anybody and it wouldn't be us like if for Boston if it wasn't it wasn't gonna be Boston rugby We would pick the hounds and if it wasn't if the hounds could could say it if it wasn't gonna be them It would be us and it's like nobody would have picked mystic is nobody fucking likes those bunch of assholes. No
00:36:46
Speaker
Nope. Nope. Pretty easy. Pretty easy. Yeah. Yeah. So it's bad due. Right. And then so the last part is.
00:36:57
Speaker
Number one, we need to clean
US Rugby Leadership Overhaul
00:36:58
Speaker
house. I don't care if somebody just got this job. I'm sorry. You completely cocked us. You can blame the people that came before you, but you're done. Feel free to apply for the job again, if you're good. But it's like, no, everybody's got to go. And when you apply, we're going to ask you about...
00:37:17
Speaker
Bigger questions than they did before because we really know if you were like buying into their system or if you were like actually wanted to do something because there's people out there who want to do something and then get like actually benefit the game and then get shit on by You know the the kind of leadership that we have Yeah, and we don't need a
00:37:41
Speaker
We don't need an Eddie Jones. We need someone, we don't need a name. We need, and I don't know who it is, so I'll candidly say that, we need someone not unlike Kieran Crowley from Italy. I would say we need a Mario Ledesma. Well, he was on the staff, so he ended this year.
00:38:04
Speaker
But I mean, like he remember when when they when he was when they beat the Kiwis. Mm hmm. Yeah. In Australia. Yeah. Like. I remember someone was crying. I think it was him. It was him. OK, it was him. No, no, I think it was me, too. But I think it was him. Yeah, a lot of people. But it's like we need someone like if Eddie Jones did that with the US, would he be crying or would he be like?
00:38:31
Speaker
like yeah he'd be more smug than anything and i don't i then he then that's the reason he would never do that with the u.s like you need someone who is who's fucking committed to get to usa rugby not just to coaching the eagles but you need someone who's committed to usa rugby yeah and you can't be and to me you can't be here
00:38:56
Speaker
Yeah, because I don't know how often we'd see him. He'd have to, I think he'd be, you know, he'd be living elsewhere and come here every few weeks. Right. You just can't do that. It's got to be, you know, and it's down, it's really down to that. It needs to be, so it needs to be a coach. And then you also need to look at coaches, war, our youth systems and like, are you 18s and are you 20s? Like,
00:39:18
Speaker
If we can get, so we don't even qualify for the World Junior Trophy, and we've talked about this before. We don't even qualify for the World Junior Trophy right now, which is the B tournament to the Junior World Cup.
00:39:30
Speaker
So number one, we need to get there. Number two, if we really are serious about developing rugby in this country, our goal should be to get to that tournament. Because that means we will have young talent that is knowledgeable on rugby and can compete with those other countries, which we've seen their youth systems come to fruition. We saw, especially like France obviously being the really obvious answer right now,
00:39:56
Speaker
It's things like that that need to be prioritized, not getting a big name into the coach's seat. It needs to be much deeper than that. And if they don't come in with a bigger plan, then I'm going to do this in generalities. No, you need to be very specific in what you're going to bring in. And if it doesn't have anything to do with developing academies here and getting more, more balls in the hands of young players for both. And really, you know, I think.
00:40:26
Speaker
If they were smart, they put both the men's and the women's jobs kind of next to each other and say, all right, you two need to work together to get the rugby in this country up to another level. Because as it's been said, you know,
00:40:41
Speaker
All tides raise, raise all boats, you know, like, you know, right. A rising tide is going to raise them all. So there it is. You know, there we go. We got there in the end. I'm already well into my beer. We're all into this segment and I am almost finished my beer. So it's going really smooth, smoothly over here. Yeah. Like I said, I might have to touch out and go another one.
00:41:08
Speaker
Maybe I should just grab two to start knowing this. Yeah, but it's where it's at. So it's just so we've got feelings. We're still working through them. We say all these things in the last 15 minutes that we've been talking about this because we truly care about this and the and we feel like the certainly Ben and I and I think we speak for a lot of people that
00:41:30
Speaker
the people at USA, we don't truly care right now. And even if they say they do, it's lip service, you know, we need somebody that truly is going to give a fuck and we don't feel like that. Right. Cause to this point, like, so I was talking with, um, that you, that, um, be you, um, Ellie hired another Ellie who played on the sheep. She, uh, played for the, uh, the us Maccabees as well just this past year. And so we were talking about our stories and,
00:42:00
Speaker
Um, you know, playing the games and all that. And, um, we talked, brought up about like, uh, playing for the national team. And like we talked about and, and, and what it would mean. And, and, you know, that there's a decision that you have to make. And I was like, yeah, my, like my wife and I had the same, we had the same conversation because she played with, she played under Pete Steinberg, um, at Keystone who coached the national team. Like, so she was very familiar with, like, she's been coached by several national team coaches. Like I've, you know, I've represented the U S and the McAfee games, like.
00:42:29
Speaker
We had the conversation about, do we want to either of us or do we want to support one or the other? Do we want to go for the national team? The talk was we would put in a shit ton of work, kill ourselves, sacrifice a hell of a lot. And ultimately, if we make it, we would just lose to whatever team is decent. And it's like,
00:42:50
Speaker
Now the women's team has gotten a lot better since then, but thankfully it's the same thing for the men. And like, why would I, why would I put myself through that? And Ellie, the coach was like, you know, a lot of them in the same boat. Like I don't doubt it. Yep.
00:43:03
Speaker
It's true. It's true. So you need to you have to make like I want I want the like I want the U.S. to I want to coach Eagles from, you know, whether I'm in high school, college men's club, I want to coach people who can become Eagles. And I just never will until the U.S. actually turns shit around because it's not wild. The people I tell I'm like I would tell them about that decision. Like this is what you have to do if you want to make it. This is what you have to do. And this is what the cost is. Right. And, you know, that same vein I had.
00:43:32
Speaker
a young player that I coach that was signed for the free jacks, and he was gonna have to make a real hard life decision. If you want to play for them because the contract was one of those semi professional ones which means he was gonna have to work and
00:43:47
Speaker
and play and train with them. So it would have been pretty hard on him. So he ultimately made the decision that he was just going to go to work and not play. And that's really tough to see. And when you've been handed an opportunity like that, but you have to respect it. And right now, I don't blame him.
00:44:06
Speaker
No, because what's the, what's the, like, especially the way the pre-jack do things. He, he might have a shot of the team in five years. Yeah. So it's like, you'd have to put in that work early. And it's like, at that point, just having to go play for a club team and just have them under your, on your radar or, you know, have a, like a retainer on him or something. Do it that way. Yeah. And then, you know, he has to come to certain training and like that, but yeah. Right. Right.
00:44:32
Speaker
So there's better ways to do it that actually developed the rugby because now instead of, you know, you don't shut them out or, you know, you don't like make the demand, you bring them in. Yeah. And you can do with more people, too. Now they're unemployed. There's all sorts of ways you can fucking do this better. Although, you know, who knows what the the salary rules are and whatnot. Right. Still, there are ways. Yeah. All right. Let's go to the actual rugby.
00:45:00
Speaker
There was some actual road we played this weekend. It was in the automations. I mean, we did kind of talk about the US, but that wasn't really dope. Fuck that.
Wales vs. Georgia Analysis
00:45:09
Speaker
We've covered that to the point where I want to. They tied, they lost. Yeah, it was bad. They covered that to the point where I wanted to. That's the end.
00:45:21
Speaker
Let's start over at the principality. We think we're fucked. I mean, we truly are, but whales are a little bit of a pickle themselves. Do you remember the last couple of years it's been, Hey, maybe Italy should drop out for Georgia.
00:45:38
Speaker
Yeah. Now, Italy and Georgia have both beaten Wales this this calendar year. So in Wales. Right. Who are we talking about now? Right. Exactly. Although just adding a seventh nation would be the best. That's neither here nor there. Yeah. Not not quite what we're getting to yet. But it it's.
00:46:00
Speaker
It speaks well to obviously to Georgia and they've obviously got an axe grind and a point to prove. So they came into this game with said point and they proved it at the very least. I do want to talk about one Welsh player and it was
00:46:19
Speaker
Adam Beard, who, sorry, Squidge, like, no, no, he's not, he's not even a top five lock in the world. Not even close. Not even close. I, I, Squidge is amazing, but he has some shit takes every once in a while. That is one of them. Yeah. That is one of them. So he has human players that he likes. Yeah, exactly. That's fine about it. Like he has, he has, like, of course he's going to like a Welsh player, like. Yeah. But just kind of check your reality. Just a tiny bit. Yeah. Just a tiny bit.
00:46:49
Speaker
But this was honestly, this is probably the rugby that we're going to see Georgia play, which is not the previous rugby. No, but they you can still play better than ugly rugby and get it done. And Wells did. So no, that's the that's the problem thing. Wells like did. I feel like. Wells let. Wells allowed Georgia to control the match. Mm hmm. Very much. And they just didn't really like.
00:47:18
Speaker
I don't feel like they attacked nearly enough. And like, yeah. Yeah, I just didn't think it was, they really tried to distance themselves enough to put the game away and that's what they needed to do. Like a team like Georgia that can only slog it out, you wanna get up a couple tries, right?
00:47:44
Speaker
Like that's the first thing you wanna do. And- Don't let them hang around, yeah. Right. And then they did that, only got one conversion, but then that was it. Yeah, all they got were those two Jack Morgan tries and that was the end for them and not enough.
00:48:04
Speaker
not enough ball in hand for the outside three. I mean, Cuthbert's whatever people are fans and I could care less, but Adams and re Sam it, you know, probably could have had the ball. Although Sam had the ball 11 times in his hand. So that's quite a bit, but yeah, still like get them in space. Not enough. Really. I think most people would agree with that. And it's,
00:48:28
Speaker
Yeah, it's kind of. And wage too much kick tennis. Like the thing is that, yeah, you have these guys who are dangerous ball in hand and then you played kick tennis and it didn't work out very well for them. Like a team like Georgia, they're going to like,
00:48:44
Speaker
They're doing it for two different reasons. And the problem is it's like rock, paper, scissors, because you're doing the same thing, right? We're playing this rock, paper, scissors game, but one of us is playing to, you know, I'm playing for, to paper here. I just want to get territory and I'm going to kick around until they.
00:49:01
Speaker
give me a spot where I could just kick it into touch. Whether it's in front of them, behind them, I don't give a shit. I want to get it to touch way up there. And then there's the other side that's kicking to be like, okay, well, eventually we'll set up a high ball and go and retain it, which didn't never really works out anyway. And then the other team can catch it. And okay. Now we that's, that's as far as we get upfield, right? You know, not, not a full kick to touch, but we'll work on that. And it's like,
00:49:25
Speaker
They're just planning to get to the other side of the field, whereas whales are just kind of kicking the fucking kick to maybe something good will happen. And if you're kicking that aimlessly, the team that's trying to do something will eventually get to doing it. Correct. And Georgia wins. Yes.
00:49:41
Speaker
And we got to give credit to Matakava, the young kid who's playing halfback for them. Nails. Nails the eventual winner. I was like, is this kid going to have the stones to get this thing over? And he did. It was credit. He did. He did. He did. He did. And that's a big situation for, you know, uh, in a big, in a, you know, a big game for his team and, uh, full noise, principality stadium and.
00:50:10
Speaker
I don't know if he plays for Black Lion or if he plays for another European club, but sign him up. He's got something that you can't teach. And that's just that nice cool calm head. And it's really, really good. So I like that. So good on them. And Wales, I know we're fucked, but so are you. Yeah, big time. At least their problems are so much more easily fixed than ours. Oh, I'd say so too.
00:50:39
Speaker
Yeah, Pevac's gonna have to, they're stuck with Pevac, but Jesus Christ. Yeah, just no, just a whole lot of no. Let's go over to Italy.
Italy vs. South Africa Discussion
00:50:51
Speaker
I was, you know, I have to say, I've appreciated about both Italy and France, they've been moving their home games in other nations around. And
00:51:00
Speaker
I will say the arena that they played in here, I think it was in Genoa, that is kind of more what I would hope that they would play in as opposed to the one in Rome. Cause you saw that and you know, if you can pack that to the Hills and make sure it's more, you know,
00:51:15
Speaker
powder blue shirts as opposed to anybody else. It's a fun area to play in. It is. And they started well. They didn't start poorly. They teased me. Yeah, just a little bit. Just a little bit. Let's see what was the timeline here. We had... A rent scored right off the bat. But you're just like, okay, maybe that's a fluke, maybe that's a fluke. And then Capuzzo gets over and you're like, okay, we got a game. Yep.
00:51:42
Speaker
They had, they had a penalty of the try. Yeah. Yeah. The conversion. So, yeah. And it looks like 13, eight at one point 13 11. And then, yeah. And then just start the floodgates opened. And I was like, yeah, there's a try. There's a try. There's a try, including the Colby try that you had to come up for dummy. But currently are in Arden says all over the place. And yeah. In Banami was over. And, but you heard, so we heard.
00:52:12
Speaker
kind of the, you know, the side effect, the repercussions of Razzie in this game with Matthew Carley, who does not take shit and is very sticky by a lot of stuff, basically tells the Ecclesi, like, if this player tells me that I need to call it both ways again, he's gonna leave the field. It's like, aha, and that is, that unfortunately is,
00:52:38
Speaker
what Razzie does. That's the type of thing that comes out of this whole thing. Right. Because he's giving players license to question officials on the match, in the match. And it's like, no.
00:52:52
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's not great. And you know, players will ask about ask about certain things in a game and everybody's asked for a knock dominance and knock on stuff like that. But you just yeah, when you say it, make a comment, like play it both ways or call it both ways as a player. The referee is going to give you a couple eyes, you know. So just be ready to be very, very careful about that. Right. You know, if you want it like.
00:53:16
Speaker
the way I always did it, the way I always managed that as a captain was to call them and be like, look, if that's the standard, then that's the standard, right? That would be it. If that's what we're calling it today, I mean, if the rules we're playing under, good. Let's play under those rules. Then I'd say that's for the team and I would ask that to the officials.
00:53:39
Speaker
You know, it's not, not as much of a call at both ways, but I keep that. Let's maintain that standard. If that's the standard. Yes. I totally agree with that. Cause sometimes they're inconsistent within the game itself and it's not both ways. It's just that that would this, I liked this one. I didn't like even though once, you know, like, but it's like, if, if the referee makes his standard, okay. I think called the whole game to that standard. Yep. Us too. We're good. That helps us. Yep. Well, no, if that's it, if that's it, we'll play to it. That's right. That's the line. That's what you want.
Scotland vs. Argentina and Finn Russell
00:54:10
Speaker
Let's go up to Murray Field. Player of the match, Finn Russell. And it just makes Gregor Townsend cry in his cheerios later. Right. And I love it. This game was such a wash that Stuart Hogg scored. Yeah, right. I had the same thought. Well, there goes that. Well, there you go. Finn Russell, what a fucking performance.
00:54:42
Speaker
Yeah, this is honestly such an important match for Scotland. I think people were taking the Pumas a little lightly. I think that was an excellent side they put out there.
00:54:59
Speaker
This is a yes, this is a side that by all means should fucking even with Finn Russell being brilliant. They should boat race Scotland the way Scotland normally play. Like the scouting team that we've known like from from Six Nations or whatnot. Argentina should just run them off the fucking pitch. And it went the other way. It did. So speaks well to Finn. It really does. And
00:55:28
Speaker
You used everybody, you look at it, you know, two, two centers, two wings score and tries or a full back. Oh, that's it. It's all the back line is four and tries to pull out to red path.
00:55:44
Speaker
Graham had a Hattie and Hoggie, like two centers and you're back three scoring, all represented on the tri sheet. Job well done by Finn. Yeah, totally. I don't think there's a whole lot of argument out of that. So to dig into their forwards a little bit, and we'll talk about the sludging that was happening in some of those afters, but the
00:56:13
Speaker
Inclusion of Jack Dempsey and not Magnus Bradbury in this match really just baffled me because... Yeah, it does. When Bradbury signed for Bristol, we were like, oh, this is going to be great for Scotland. Again, as we said, you know, Cotter and Eddie Jones might be, you know, two birds with a feather.
00:56:33
Speaker
He just totally ignored Bradbury during this. Was Jack Dempsey really that good in this automation that he wanted to play him this last match and not maybe pick up the phone and say, hey, get your ass up to Scotland. We're going to play you this weekend. Not even on the bench. Not even on the bench. I was like, no.
00:56:55
Speaker
that that is that is so shameful in a lot of ways and I hope we get to run in the six nations because the guy's been brilliant for Bristol and Bristol's had a bad season and he's been one of the better players um certainly put his hand up for you know that's starting to break sure yeah starting back I mean I'm looking at this yeah I'm looking at this and Dempsey had you know 60 meters on 10 carries um with free tackle busts but it's like that's
00:57:22
Speaker
I feel like Bradbury has been doing that in a half, although the same carries not so much, but like, I think he's a better carrier than, than six. Yeah. He's definitely a better attacker. And so, and with that, so you, and we talk about balance in the back row a lot too. And you know, you have probably two very similar players in Fagerston and Dempsey, and then you have Jamie Ritchie. So where, which one of those is the ball carrier really? And I don't think you can say it's any of them.
00:57:49
Speaker
no although i mean you know christie's not even the ball carrier on the bench although i'm glad you got a another go yeah but i mean like this is also a team that's missing missing missing yeah they're they're they're missing the mission you wish watson yes and darsh and darsh then those who are the ball carriers uh
00:58:09
Speaker
those are your ball yards probably would be for sure. Yeah. And Hamish can fucking, he's a little bowling ball in attack. Like he puts more effort into his tackling and defense, but Oh, no doubt. But he's still like when he, when he gets it too, like he's no, he's no slouch in it. Um, no, you're right. He is, he is more defensive as an overall player, but either way I trust him as a ball carrier. Like, yes, that's the two of them. And, and Jamie Ritchie with Bradbury in the, in,
00:58:38
Speaker
in the backup or, you know, those four in rotation, you're good.
00:58:45
Speaker
You're alright. I'm doing just fine. I'm just looking at Argentina here. Like, when Alemano got the yellow, you and I were like, not laughing, are you sure? The odds finally caught up. I was like, he's got to get a card soon, doesn't he? He's like, do. Yep, there we go. The universe is okay. The universe is all good, folks.
00:59:13
Speaker
Oh man, I was like, okay, this is weird. It was a second row. It was a card, but it wasn't Lavignini. How does it make sense to me? Nevermind. We saw so many different combinations in this match. We saw 15 on 15. We saw 15 on 14. We saw 15 on 13 and 12. And then we saw 14 on 13. Yep. For a hot minute. For a hot minute.
00:59:38
Speaker
Yeah, it was weird. It was, yeah. I don't know how that worked out, but there was definitely a 14 and a 12 or a 13. It was weird. It was at least a 13, but yeah, it was like, what the hell, man? And the sludging, the freaking Montageo was thrown around first to Jamie Ritchie and then to freaking Juman. When Gallo gets sent off, I was shocked because it should have been, um,
01:00:03
Speaker
Yeah, it should have been Matera. Oh, I agree with that. Dovin' everyone around, like, everybody. Like, he comes in, he shoves Ben White, he shoves, like, he's just, like... Yeah, he's just being a total dick. Total dick. And then he comes over, was he the one who, like, shoved hog or somebody, too? Yeah, whatever was on that afters over there. We started because he shoved again, because he shoved, yeah, I think he shoved hog again, and it's like... Yeah, but not, I mean, and here's the thing for Richie, like, you got to be smarter than that as captain, like,
01:00:33
Speaker
You know, anytime you're going to try and put hands near face, hands near necks, it's not going to necessarily end well. So you got to remember that. And I saw it happen. And I was like, oh, yeah, probably going to be lucky if he gets away with not getting sent to the bin because what no matter what happens, you still have to try and keep a cool head, especially as the captain. And that was just really poor on his part. And, you know, this is a new role for him. And if this is going to be his role permanently, I hope this is just a very minor blip on what will be a better, better, better
01:01:03
Speaker
career as a captain. So hopefully this is just the one and the only. Yeah. Yeah. I think that was just a, I think it's easy to get your, get your, you know, get the red mist in a situation like that. So definitely did definitively did.
01:01:22
Speaker
We got enough to do it though, as you said, if you want to be a leader. Yeah. If you're a leader, you got to not do it. Like, you know, same, same kind of thing with Matera. This is why it's, you know, again, it's not the captain anymore. Well, it's the problem is that's not why he's not the captain anymore, but no, but different story. Right. This is why he will never be the captain again. Cause he does shit like this too. Right. Correct. Correct. Let's go to Twickenham.
England vs. All Blacks Performance
01:01:49
Speaker
So.
01:01:51
Speaker
England play, what, 10 minutes of actual rugby? And they score three fucking tries. And they kick the shit out of the all blacks in those 10 minutes. And it's like, and if that's not, and it won't be because he's too stubborn and stupid and he's always the smartest guy in the room, but if that's not a fucking wake up call for Eddie Jones to open it up and say, oh yeah, let's go for it and like actually play a rugby,
01:02:19
Speaker
I don't know what will be and I felt for the important fleet here because he's got, he somewhere maybe not consciously but subconsciously has it in his mind and knows that Jones is very well known for pulling guys at or before half because they have a bad game. It's not a new thing and sometimes they never see the light of day on England again.
01:02:45
Speaker
I think Jack might have got to the point where he was just in his head too much because he's like, OK, when he was wondering when Eddie's going to pull him more than he was focused on the game. I think so, too. And I feel and I feel for the kid. Yeah. Yeah, you shouldn't have to play with that. But because because Eddie sucks as a man manager and as a player manager, let's be honest about this. He's not a player's coach in any way that says otherwise is fucking stupid.
01:03:12
Speaker
Because he's not that, he's not someone that's going to go in and a young, vampoyfully it's a young kid that's got a bright future and he could be the England nine that they need for a long time.
01:03:26
Speaker
but because he's so young, he doesn't need the freaking sledgehammer. He doesn't need the uppercut to the chin. He probably needs a quiet word in his ear, and he doesn't need to necessarily even have the opposite, which would be the arm around the shoulder. He probably just needs a quiet word about one or two things for him to focus on. And then,
01:03:48
Speaker
when he starts to focus on those and get those right, he can click back into his game. And I don't know if that ever happened at halftime, because I'm obviously not in the room and none of us are, but yeah, for my betting money is not going on that, unfortunately, because that's not how Jones works.
01:04:04
Speaker
But then everybody's like, well, Ben Yanks had a great half. He didn't friggin throw a ball into touch or throw a tweener ball. Congrats your fucking legs. Congrats your fucking legs. Like big fucking deal. Like the frickin the kick over the top, it was like, oh, it was great. I was like, that was nothing. What are you doing? You had the ball in hand in the twenty two stop. Oh, yeah, that was a terrible kick. The one the one time he tried to go for a run to get friggin stuffed by two guys. I was like, what are you doing? Like,
01:04:33
Speaker
Congratulations. He didn't have a completely cock up match. Whoo hoo. If that's your standard, I don't want to fucking any part of it. So at the very least, that means he can come in and really be another. He can provide energy for 20 minutes. He can be a twenty one. That's fine. Like, yeah, that's fine for the future.
01:04:51
Speaker
No, it's not. And you can't be your nine at the World Cup because you need you need someone with with more of a spark over 60 minutes. And then you'll just not think about any little box kick because he's kind of cocked and think about.
01:05:04
Speaker
what kind of game this was for Vin Portley. Yes, he played in Australia, but that's nothing. That's honestly, and I'm not saying anything against Australia, but you know, you're going to be in a hostile environment. You know, you're going to be in, there's something different about playing a huge whole game. And then as you said last week about that Jersey that you see across from you, that Fern and that black, like,
01:05:27
Speaker
That is a different level, despite what this team might be right now, which it's not the best team that's ever been. We know that. Right. Still, it's still which also goes to tell you like you you tied at home an all blacks team that is not up to all black standards, not even close to up to all black standards. Yeah. And you tied like so again, it's not a you know, this isn't something to be. Yeah, this is it's not a good result, ultimately. No, it's nobody. I mean, you the team also in the street either. Also,
01:05:57
Speaker
I will, I will, you know, this is just a standard for me. And this is how I would want to coach and how I think you should coach in a match like this. You don't fucking kick the touch. You have a go at it. What happens if you lose? What happens if you lose to the All Blacks? Oh, they lost to the All Blacks. Cool. What happens if you win?
01:06:23
Speaker
You beat the fucking All Blacks. Right. And not only that, but you scored four tries in the last 10 minutes. Or the penalty to achieve. Whatever. Yeah, you scored three tries in the last 10 minutes and found a way to win. Like, let's get back to win. Instead, we scored three tries in the final 10 minutes, and then we had a tie. It was a good game. Yeah, that was nice. Let's go home. Let's go have tea. Like, what the fuck are you doing?
01:06:47
Speaker
There's fucking no testicles to that at all. Yep. Which isn't really fair. No gonads, whatever. No, like, no guts. No guts. It's just a bad call. And, you know, Eddie made the call and it's like, yeah, that makes sense. It's an Eddie call to make. Yeah. Like we're done. We tied. Good enough. Was there a hint at what part of the All Blacks plan game plan was to you in terms of maybe picking on someone?
01:07:14
Speaker
Oh, they went after Noel so hard. Yeah, I was noticing that, too. I was like, oh, they're picking on Noel. And he he had one moment where he was able to stand up to it. For the most part, he was deaf. No. And the funny thing is they picked on May and succeeded with May 2. But then they were like, but it's so much easier with Noel. Because at first I was like, oh, they're picking on both wings pretty hard. And then they just went at Noel. They're like, no, no, no. This is where we want to go. This is the one.
01:07:44
Speaker
This is the one. It's like the kicker in water, boy. Like, you know, that's my bitch. And it was pretty evident early, too. And yeah, he was getting housed. So again, a couple of told you so is coming over here telling you so again. Or telling you, as I told you so, that's when. I'm going to say this. All blacks had to leave when leave when chamfers out.
01:08:14
Speaker
Ha, that's also true. Just saying. Why are they didn't? Fuck him, fuck him, fuck him. Also, you know how I was talking about the all blacks really need a seven that interjects themselves in attack? Goddamn. Dalton. Dalton. They got him. Yeah.
01:08:38
Speaker
I got him. This is why I was puzzled when they picked Sam Kane and they kept him at seven. You might get another shot at something else here and they may
01:08:53
Speaker
reneged that they got, they got the off season to think about it here. And, you know, cause Kane is not, can't be a true seven anymore because of his name. Right. You know, and that's when they, and they talked about that and how they're trying to get around it. And I think the, the answer is you just, you can't, so you have to stick them on the bench and give the armband to someone else. Yeah. You know, and that's just how it is. And that is the really unfortunate answer, you know,
01:09:19
Speaker
Taz is trying to talk to me apparently. Yeah, I hear him. Come on out. Yeah, it's probably he's just so fucking good with ball in hand and it's, it's so much, it's so valuable spent certainly in a match like this. Do you notice who didn't come on for the All Blacks? Or at least didn't really get a whole lot of run. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah. Came on when TJ frigging cramped up at the end there. Right.
01:09:49
Speaker
And that was it. So yeah, I mean, OK, I'm glad that when England finally decided to fucking attack that it actually had fruit and hey, you can do it. Yeah. So maybe try that this weekend. Right. My two cents. Right.
Player Performance Critiques
01:10:07
Speaker
And that then again, at that with that in mind, you can't have if you going to attack, if you're going to play open rugby, you can't have Jack Noll and Johnny May out there.
01:10:20
Speaker
And he's still going to. Yeah, like they're they're fucking useless, especially, you know, especially like the wings don't get worse now. No. Well, yeah, currently, this is going to be a pain in the ass. Yeah. Oh, also, one other thing that we need to discuss without before we move on from this. Going back to Squidge's comments about Adam Beard. I would like to present it as exhibit a Dave ribbons.
01:10:48
Speaker
Right. Because that boy can play some fucking rugby. Yeah, I'm so glad he's gotten his due here. Fuck, if he wants to play like that, him and Maro are my lock pair. Oh God, anybody but Hill, honestly. Hill was fucking useless this match.
01:11:09
Speaker
he usually is. And again, I gotta say I love the Tom Curry and Sam Simmons six and seven. They've got the jersey numbers flipped, but the roles are right. Yeah, that's fine. And that was excellent. They looked great. Balancing Tom Curry with a real attacking flanker is what you need.
01:11:32
Speaker
Because he's not he's fucking useless in attack. And he even it opened up a little bit of space for him, too. So even, you know, the couple of carries he had, the players are a little bit tired from chasing some other forwards. And he got a little bit of he got a little bit of wiggle to him. So he had a couple of positive runs that would have been just neutrals before. So right. He can't be your attacking flank. It's doesn't doesn't work. No, no, I agree.
01:11:59
Speaker
Um, yeah, let's go to the Aviva and this was.
Ireland's Autumn Nations Review
01:12:03
Speaker
Disappointing in a lot of ways. You know, I, I honestly thought it was pretty trash in this match too, which doesn't shock everybody. It contributed to it though. You know, it did. So it was not a well played match. No, it wasn't, but here's the thing. So the concern for Ireland is usually at this point, they're peaking. I think it's safe to say that they're not peaking.
01:12:28
Speaker
but they're still winning matches. Right. They're still gutting it out. So, because they didn't... Yeah, the score line was good against Fiji, but they didn't play particularly well. Played a really good match against South Africa. There's no question about that. And then this was a really ugly match. And yes, they lost section in semi last minute, but...
01:12:46
Speaker
this is still pretty hideous match with all the talent that they have on display and still found a way to get it over the line. So to say that they're peaking right now is probably wrong. It also means that there's still room to grow and hey, guess what? We're not in a World Cup here yet. So that's the good news for them. Now, if they can finally get past the bloody quarterfinal, that'll be a different story. But I think the, I know that the fricking, uh, the tree looks pretty ugly from one side to the other, the one they're on at least. So it'll be interesting to see. Um,
01:13:15
Speaker
But this is almost like exactly what it might not be what Ireland wanted it to be when they started the automations. But I think it might be what they needed it to be. This is like you've learned you've learned a couple of things this this go around. One is that, as you said, you still have you still have improvement to do. You can still get better.
01:13:38
Speaker
But you can also gut out some victories when you need to against teams that are that you're going to be facing in games where you need to play your best and have that jam to.
01:13:50
Speaker
to play better than them and to not poop yourself or poop yourself last. Yeah. And you're learning that you can keep your plan. You can, you can hold your shit. You can, you can go for a pretty good amount of time without pooping yourself. So that, that right there is key. Yeah. So that might not be what their goal was, but yeah.
01:14:17
Speaker
That's, that's something that's something to learn about
Australia's Tour Criticism
01:14:19
Speaker
yourself. And I give Andy Farrell a load of credit. He could have went with a hand that he's somebody he knows what he has in Ross burn to start. And he didn't know with Jack Crowley. He's like, yep, let's see what you got kid. Right. And not the greatest performance from a first time start from a first time starter ever, but.
01:14:41
Speaker
Still good. Serviceable. Certainly. Like, I mean, fuck, it doesn't matter. You take the jersey away from, you know, don't worry about what the color is. Don't worry about anything else. You started at 10 versus Australia and and and your team won. You did OK. You're right. You did a job. You didn't. You didn't. You know, again, you didn't shit yourself. He didn't shit himself. Nope. Which is that's.
01:15:11
Speaker
There's value there. Name of the game sometimes. Name of the game sometimes. Right. So here's the thing. All this good stuff happened. Bundy came off the bench today, or not today, this past weekend, and they still don't have hand shot. Right. Who's, without a doubt, one of the best centers in the world. So it's like. Bundy scored his first try in, like, years. That is such a very... That try was like...
01:15:38
Speaker
I was yelling at the TV like, can you move the fucking ball? Like, yeah, because they were doing pick and jam and coming to nothing. And I was like, they moved it to fucking players away from the ruck and Bundy gets over. I was like, God damn it. That's why that's why I hate that shit, too. It's like, yeah, listen, this shouldn't be your attack. This should be something that sets up your attack. Right. And it was not what they were thinking. But thank God somebody finally decided, no, let's just move this ball and finally run over. I was like, God damn it.
01:16:07
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, so annoying when that shit. Right. Well, I think, um, wasn't that like, I think they had advantage and Casey was like, I've had enough of this shit. We're going. Yeah, I think so. It's like, fuck you. We're playing the ball. I was like, thank you God. I was so annoyed. I was like, Oh yeah. Kirk Casey was on at that point. So good for him for seeing that and doing it. Um, but yeah, so it's, it's, it's a lot of good for Australia. This was obviously a,
01:16:31
Speaker
That's why this has been a very poor tour for, sorry, good job by Ireland. This has been a poor tour for Australia. I had Australia on my brain. It's got one more to it. If they don't beat Wales after what Wales just did, you gotta call it an epic fail, really. It's time to look inwards. Yeah, and I think you need to just,
01:16:57
Speaker
And yeah, everybody that's like, oh, Bernard Foley, Bernard Foley, no, so much no. Like you need a better 10. Something like that. Oh, well, yes, that is, yes. I mean, but that is kind of a thing in their favor is that, yeah, they don't really have their best 10s available. No, I'm excited to see you. But still, who else you got?
01:17:22
Speaker
Like really what, where the cupboard is, is pretty bare in Australia. I mean, yeah. And I, that's why I appreciate that they were trying to get Ben Donaldson sometime and so on and so forth. You know, maybe, maybe King Quaid comes back. Who knows? Um, yeah. And then.
01:17:41
Speaker
maybe to move it comes into form and for the rebels this year, who knows? Yeah, I think that's, I got some serious answers. O'Connor, O'Connor would be the other one obviously. He's hurt too, right? He's hurt. Yeah. But like, yeah, to move, I would say, I don't know why you wouldn't pick to move or fully for this tour. Yeah, I think now that I'm, I think he was banged up. Okay. I think he's banged up too. So they've, yeah, injury, injuries all over. So it's,
01:18:09
Speaker
Yeah, hopefully. I want to see. Yeah, I want to see. Like this is this is like the tour you'd want to see. He better be fucking hurt. Agreed. Yeah. Agreed. Agreed.
France's Rugby Versatility
01:18:21
Speaker
And then let's go to Marseille. Or Toulouse. Excuse me. It's Toulouse. They were in Marseille last week. France and Japan. Not quite no DuPont, no problem, but.
01:18:37
Speaker
they found ways to get over the line. I think maybe, I think a player that's going to probably be an unsung hero, except if you're wearing blue is, um, mackaloo for, for France. He's come in and had to play. Apparently he can play back row, but he's had to play in the back line as well. Uh, this is the second, you know, second match or always had to do it. And he's, he wears the 21 for that reason because they're like, well, if we can, we're going to put you in the back row, but
01:19:03
Speaker
You can also go play in the, in the back line. And that's, he's had to do it twice in a row, probably not necessarily. That's pretty impressive. Yeah. I mean, ridiculous. That's pretty good. Just the same. So unsung here for them for sure. And.
01:19:21
Speaker
I don't think that Luku did an amazing job filling in for DuPont, but I also don't think he did a whole lot of bad. I think he had one moment where it was like, a little harem scarum, but other than that, pretty good. I'm surprised, I'm honestly surprised, because I know this because I picked Kuyu as my super sub, but I was surprised that Luku stayed on for 70 minutes. Yeah. He didn't play 70 minutes
01:19:48
Speaker
Well, he played well, but like, I think like after 60, then it would have been time to, I would have liked to see that team with 20 minutes of a different scrum half to see what would have happened. And we didn't really get that. I was kind of disappointed by that, but, um,
01:20:07
Speaker
I think who you, I know how much of a spark he can be. And I guess they didn't really so much need it, but at the same time, it would have been nice. As you said, it was kind of clunky, this attack. A little bit. Yep. Which is funny to say about a team that scores 35 points, but they could have put up a whole bunch more than that. They have the firepower to do it. It's kind of surprising that they didn't. Right.
01:20:34
Speaker
The other, I think there's a conversation to be had about the 10-shirt as well, because Intimac was not great, the series necessarily. And I thought Jelly Bear really provided a spark when he came on. I think he came on all three times. So there's a lot of good there, really. I think these,
01:20:58
Speaker
I think, I think that needs to be considered. So, and I'm, I'm, if I'm going to go into the six nations, I'm, I'm watching top 14 very closely and shaping it up very closely leading up to it because the two of these guys are probably, one of these two is going to be your 10 best form wins. Right. Best form wins. And I know, I know, I know Intermax is the incumbent, but really I would not, I would not necessarily say that to give him the shirt, I'd say you gotta,
01:21:26
Speaker
He's got to earn it. Right. So then I'm with you on that. Like it should be an open competition because I mean, they're both great. So.
01:21:38
Speaker
Don't just give it to Mac because he was there first or something like it. You know, it into my and into Mac's been good, but he also I think he needs he could be to the 10 shirt. What DuPont is to the nine. Right. And he's not right now. Like they were on a trajectory to be like the ridiculous nine and ten. You can hear us talk about it a couple of years ago and.
01:22:02
Speaker
DuPont has been every bit what we thought he could be and Timac so far has kind of plateaued. He's kind of been even to the point where he's inconsistent. Sometimes you're like, he does that thing where he did against New Zealand, makes that ridiculous run and starts a trial. But then
01:22:25
Speaker
There's matches like this where you're like, you know, you're 60 minutes in or so. And you're like, is I have not seen into Mac this whole fucking match. Yeah. What the fuck? Ready to go. Yeah. Like, I would like this is this is a this is a match that he should take over. He should just run. And he kind of was like, I'm good. Yeah. It's also it's a very French thing to do, too. So who knows?
Japan's Rugby Progress
01:22:45
Speaker
Yeah. And for the blossoms, it was.
01:22:50
Speaker
There's some really good things to like for them that came out of this match despite the score line. Fafita, I think.
01:22:58
Speaker
is probably someone that you'll see more often than not in their team, if not in the 15, Riley has really put his hand up in this, in this tour. So I give him a load of credit. And you know, that's, that's not mentioning the fact that Katara Matsushima is on the bench for this team. So, um, you know, they, and they, and they had the, they still have to beat it to, to top who came off the bench as well. We talked about
01:23:23
Speaker
how leech needs to, they need to find a way to get leech out of there. And unfortunately, like apart from to Tafu, I don't know who else is going to take that, take that role. So they really, if I'm, if I'm Jamie Joseph, that's one of the big things I need to look for is that, um, Nagare will be there starting nine, probably when we kick off in France next year. Although to say that, you know, they have two quality nines now is pretty cool as well. Yeah. You know, and they have, you know, they started with lead this, this match, um,
01:23:52
Speaker
Yamasawa was nowhere to be found and that he was hurt. And that, again, was a good 10. So I think it's still a lot of good to be seen for Japan. And I just, the passes need to stick. That is the number one thing for them. The passes start to stick the way they like to play. Then it's going to be really fun to watch. And if not, then the last two games are going to be the result. That's just how it is. Right. They're going to, they cannot make mistakes with ball in hand.
01:24:22
Speaker
Right. You got to have that ball, you get, you know, and the phase with it in your hands. Cause yeah, totally. The other team will just, you know, especially once they get possession, like it is, you know, on their, Japan still have to have the side. They're still undersized and it's not to the level that it used to be, but it's to the point now where, so we, you know, a game like this, France, you know, but 10 years ago, France could just.
01:24:52
Speaker
Um, you know, out physical them and we're rolling down the field and put 70 up just being, being physical. So the fact that, you know, France didn't really have that great an attacking game overall. And yet they put 35 up, you know, they kind of did the same, you know, bullying, they bullied 35 points over and, you know, that's unfortunately a step forward for Japan. And I say that, you know, wrecking, saying that's a good thing, even though it sounds shitty, but you know, as the U S I'd love to be in the position where we're,
01:25:20
Speaker
Being out muscle, but and it's only given up 35 points. Yeah No, yeah
01:25:27
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So Japan's going the right direction. They just got to keep, they got to maintain it now. Cause now it's like, you know, they're, they're plateauing a little bit again, kind of like the intimate thing. You got to show the next step and that that takes building that bench. Cause you know, if, if it is the situation where leech retires once he retires and you've gotten nobody to film, you can't even maintain like a, either you go to like an MLR or, you know, USA level six, you're fucked.
01:25:57
Speaker
Yeah, no, so you really need to, you don't need, you don't need a Michael leech, but you need someone who can, you know, take, well, you need someone that can take the pressure off him. Right. You know, that's hands down your best forward. Yeah. So although endurance, I think is, I think is cruising his way to that point as well, but still, still still. Right. All right. That is all the rugby things.
01:26:23
Speaker
We will do the fancy things a little bit here. Anybody that's coming over there, we will, uh, second beer. We'll see you. Oh, I, I'm definitely getting a second beer because I'm on a roll right now. And listen, it's, it's time off over here. So who gives a shit? Exactly. I will be very much delivering our, my, the, the analysis I did while I was sober while I'm.
01:26:45
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Thanksgiving Reflections
01:26:50
Speaker
So those of you that are coming over to the fantasy pod, we'll see you over there. If not, we appreciate you hanging out with us. Fantasy rugby podcast at gmail.com. If you're not coming to the fantasy pod, then you are one fellow citizen of the US like us. Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you have a nice, nice holiday. I know the holiday itself is not great. We'll talk about what we're thankful for next on the fantasy pod.
01:27:15
Speaker
Yeah, not for a great reason that we have this holiday, but I do like to enjoy it by getting together with friends and family just the same. It's the spirit of it. Trying to think of it that way and not why we have it. Try to think of it that way. What's intended to be. I like that. And I think that's a...
01:27:32
Speaker
something we should all do more of is come together and eat a fuck ton of good food. I'm into that. Yep. I saw a tweet this morning that was like, please keep people who are lactose intolerant in your prayers. They are going to make such terrible decisions this week. Someone who's lactose intolerant. What happens on Thanksgiving is you don't say no to a dessert. And
01:27:55
Speaker
You don't always have your pills on you. So I'm glad I'm glad I'm not coming to your house. No, I have my I have all that won't be a problem for me. But yeah, don't forget your friggin pills. This is a quiet. This is a quiet Thanksgiving for us. So yeah, we're not going to like two or three things. And but yeah, back in those days, yes, there were bad decisions. Bad decisions were made. I regret nothing.
01:28:25
Speaker
Man, well, we'll see you everyone over on the fancy part that's coming over there. If you're not enjoy the ruggedness weekend Happy Thanksgiving. Have a good one. Oh later. Yes