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Season 6- Episode 19- Return of the Dad's (Super Rugby Round 2)
72 Plays2 years ago
We are back in action friends, we hope you missed us because we missed you. On this episode of TFRY we are getting into it with the action from the Super Round of Super Rugby Pacific. All the action right up until that golden point try in the final match, from Melbourne. We are also talking about the big clash at Queensholm in the PWR and why the club from Devon should absolutely be concerned. Of course, we must talk about THE CHAMPS ARE HERE as MLR kicked off this past weekend including our beloved Free Jacks facing the new boys down in North Carolina. It's a action packed hour plus so pack something good to drink and come along for the ride with 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
Introduction and Updates from Jared and Ben
00:00:03
Speaker
It is the fantasy Europeans. My name is Jared Dyches. I wanted to say it's stupid and let's move on, but then you kept going. I'm Ben Glauser. I don't like any way anybody handled that collusion.
00:00:27
Speaker
Hello, everyone. Welcome back. We are the Fantasy Rugby Yanks. I'm Lachlan's dad. And I'm Rose's dad. So if you couldn't tell, then the hiatus was definitely for the fact that both our wives gave birth to healthy, healthy babies. And that's all we could ask for.
Rugby Hiatus and Upcoming Excitement
00:00:45
Speaker
Fantastic scheduling on our parts, as always. Yeah. Well, considering the week was very dull that week, although was that- Yeah. That was super, was that SuperRugby? No, it wasn't. No. It was, there was the, basically nothing happened. There was no rugby to watch that weekend. That's right. Because there was the Six Nations Bi-Week. And SuperRugby hadn't kicked off yet. And SuperRugby hadn't kicked off yet. So we missed a week.
00:01:08
Speaker
of actual things to talk about. So apologies for that to our fan. Had to pull our heads out of our bums and get our kids sorted over here. Right. For me, I'm just glad we can do it this week. Yeah. Into it pretty quickly. I'm drinking, so. I am not. That's fine. No, I do not. Wee. I'm going to have no tolerance next time.
00:01:37
Speaker
Yeah, you're gonna be next time I do anything you lightweight there chief You lightweight All right, yeah, make sure you that you find us on your favorite podcast app share download rate review feedback always welcome
00:01:55
Speaker
Make sure that you are buying our good friend George the fancy where we geek a coffee or beer, however you wish to see it. Click his buy me a coffee button, especially this weekend because we are action packed this weekend with Super and Six Nations both ticking off, especially. Some people are going to be in big trouble if they don't perform this weekend, Six Nations.
00:02:21
Speaker
I had, I had my momentary lapse of, Oh no, did I not submit it to six nations team? Cause my, my, my iPad had it, but my laptop didn't. So I was just like, Oh, please tell me one of these registered worked out. It did. I almost put myself a little bit. I was like, well, too bad. And you scored pretty well on it too. So you did all right. So that I did that in like.
00:02:47
Speaker
a days after because we left the hot, we left, we checked out on Friday and I was still kind of like, ooh, lost over. It was a blur. Really? I don't
Fantasy Rugby and Analytics
00:02:59
Speaker
know the feeling.
00:03:04
Speaker
Anywho, no discrimination here on this podcast. I'm sure there'll be in Sports and Life. We're in a positive mindset, so we're just going to make sure that we echo the message, don't be a dickhead, and we're going to go right past it for today. Yeah. We're going to just move along. Pass go, click $200. Yeah, so far. Don't be a dick.
00:03:21
Speaker
If you are a dick, you don't get to collect $200. Yeah, absolutely. You go straight to jail. Do not collect $200. Yeah, exactly. Straight to jail. Make sure that you grab our Patreon. Things will be starting to come back into play now that we sort of know what's going on around here.
00:03:40
Speaker
I say sort of, you know, I'm, I'm not promising anything exactly from, from my perspective. I will try and do boom bus. I will try and do rankings. I don't know what I'm going to get done. So right. And I have fair with us. Right. And again, my analytics don't really help until for me at least week three. Um, so I'm going to try to at least set that up. It's going to be interesting for me to set it up because now I'm setting up.
00:04:12
Speaker
Superbrew and FRD. Please be patient. I'm hoping I'll be able to work on a little bit the next couple of days and get it out next week, hopefully. If I don't have it before round four, I apologize.
00:04:30
Speaker
Yeah. Life. Bear with us. Yeah. Bear with us. We're working on it, we promise. I'm not totally being stupid. Totally. Totally. Doing our best. With the Lord gave us. Yeah. Anywho, so...
Super Rugby Season Speculations
00:04:46
Speaker
Oh, we missed the opening round, but we did not miss Super Round. No. For Super Rugby. What a hell of a round, too. And it was indeed Super. This is a... I love this competition. Like, even the shit teams are fun to watch.
00:05:00
Speaker
There's no doubt about that. And each game, outside of the Chiefs game anyway, was quite tight. Yeah, competitive. Some might say the Wartos game wasn't that tight.
00:05:20
Speaker
Yeah, that's because the Crusaders, like you still, and they almost did their thing too, but we'll get to it. Yeah, you want to keep an eye, you want to keep an eye peeled on those guys over there. Right, you can't just go to sleep on that. It's like, they're not dead until the final whistle blows. No, no. One of those teams that you have to beat multiple times in order to point them down. Definitely. Todd did it, that's what we'll talk about later. Yes. But let's start with Islanders Blues and a comment that you and I both made.
00:05:51
Speaker
Islanders might be good. They won't suck as bad as they did last year. I think that's the gist of what we got so far. Yes. As I said earlier, they're fun to watch. If nothing else, they're putting on a show. That's a step forward and a positive for them.
00:06:11
Speaker
And really, I think the blues might be missing Ratsumai Tivuki Meatkins a little bit. See how I did there? See how I got that out of the way? You did. You did, you did, yeah. He's made life hard on obviously the blues and even in last week as well. So, good start to him and life down in Highlander country there. So,
Highlanders' Performance and Strategy
00:06:41
Speaker
So one of the fun things for me or at least one of the notable things for the weekend was obviously the presence of both Joe Schmidt and Razor Robertson at the grounds because where else are you going to be able to watch basically every player or barring the injured that you're going to be able to pick this coming up this summer? Not many places. No. It was the Austen's Tutu show.
00:07:10
Speaker
Yeah, certainly. He's put his hand up. Put his hand up. I mean, because Artie's obviously on sabbatical for a year. They need a number eight. I don't know why it can't be set to do. I mean. There are a couple other options, but not really. There are. No, but none of them are playing in your nearest. Out and out number eights. Tell me who's going to take that spot right now.
00:07:34
Speaker
I, I, I wait aside from Satute to nobody. It's he's, yeah, he's kind of, I think he's got, I think he's got to be razor Robertson's guy for the summer here. Right. Um, I, so let's talk about the other thing that happened before this game. And clearly it didn't matter because the blues did what they did. The, you know, the, they rested from, uh, uh, Christie and, and Rico, like,
00:08:04
Speaker
Yeah. Well, Rico also picked up a, he had a hamstring injury. Oh yeah, exactly. I saw obviously the people bitching about that. First off, Rico had a bit of a hamstring injury and you're not going to.
00:08:15
Speaker
Yeah, you don't want. No, not week two. Right. And first. And the other thing is, yes, Finley Christie is good, but nobody pays money to see a scrum half. There's maybe like two scrum halves in the world that you're going to pay money to see. And he's not. And he ain't one of them. No. So and Funaki played all right in his own right anyway. So he played well. Yeah. What are you going to say?
00:08:45
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, it's silly. It's like I get it to showcase weekend. But you know, like if I'm looking at the Blues, I'm looking at Sittutu, Papalee, Akira Ioani return to look at it. And certainly to Leia and Clark. Those are the people that I'm I'm there to see.
00:09:01
Speaker
And those are the people that were there. Like, yeah, would it be nice to see Rico? Yes. He's he's very good. He's not like the guys who put on a show. It's the two wings for and those loose forwards. That's that's the the key guys. And they all played. So, yeah, I think people just love to complain just to complain. Right. Oh, yeah, no doubt.
00:09:28
Speaker
while we're talking. I like playing but at least for a reason. Yeah, I do too. I know. I'm one for a good wind every once in a while. Talking about guys that are going to need to be replaced and other side has some candidates as well for the All Blacks. Pacatava is obviously playing for that nine shirt. We'll talk about the person I think has it over him, but that's okay. I still like him a lot. The back three for the Highlanders.
00:09:58
Speaker
is going to be a problem. Nurekki's healthy now. Tabatavenawa is in now. He's going to, he's going, he wants to obviously put his hand up now that he's moved to the Highlanders. And as we said, Rachimaituuki Nikens is ready to roll too and make it a point, you know. So I...
00:10:19
Speaker
I think that's probably the one strength. I think I don't know about till I had 13. That's my biggest sweet spot for this back line. Like Reese Pachel actually showed me some things. I was like, Hmm, okay. All right. Like the offload on, I think what ended up being the rest of my to Vookie, uh, Nipkin's try and just
00:10:42
Speaker
I was like, Oh, they showed you how to do that. Okay. Good to know. Good to know. I like this. I like this version of reach. Right. Like I've never seen Reese. Patch will play like this before. So this is, this is a good move for him. So yeah, the, so for me, the only hole in that back line really is Danielle. And I don't know who their other option would be, but
00:11:08
Speaker
that's there. So I'm, yeah, I'm just not sure what they would do otherwise. Do you put on someone like Jonah Lowe and put him at that 13 instead or move some of you guys around so that it's, you know, maybe putting a recce there or something like put a wing. I would put Talbot, Talbot and Alwoy in there over in the recce. Oh, that would be a good one too. Personally, personally. Um, one guy that we, I think we need to talk about before we move on,
00:11:36
Speaker
here from here is um the young kid from uh the uh highlanders that scored his own try and then decided i'm gonna convert it to why not yeah yeah that was he was only on the park for a little bit but in a little bit he did he did some damage so that's impressive give him a little yeah they got some like
00:12:05
Speaker
They have some scoring ability. Their defense is not settled yet, and that's going to happen. That always takes more time. So they're going to be in a lot of fun games. Yep. Yep. That's the truth. That is the truth. I think there were times last year where I was like, I just don't want to watch this Highlanders game because it's going to be gross. Now I'm like, OK, you know what? Yeah, they probably aren't going to win, but they're going to be interesting. And that's better. They're going to be interesting. Yeah, I agree. I agree with that.
Force vs. Rebels Analysis
00:12:35
Speaker
Let's go to the actual host, Rebels and Force. Force let him off the hook, I'd say. Just didn't quite put him away. And like talk about a team that you got to beat a couple times, they didn't do enough to put this Rebels team away, especially while the Rebels are the one home team. And I know their crowd favorably is not necessarily that favorable, if that made sense.
00:13:01
Speaker
But they still this is their backyard. This is their patch. They're going to defend it. They are. And the rebels and these are to me two of the worst teams in this competition anyway. Same. And so force, if you're going to step up and steal one, it's going to be this match. And they were they're leading in half. They had a pretty good lead and. You know, they just they did a lot of just fucking up instead of scoring and
00:13:31
Speaker
Uh, he came back to bite him. Yeah. Couldn't hang onto the walls to save the life in the second half there, especially. No. Just seemingly. Yeah. They, cause they scored. I'm just watching them score right after halftime. So to go up to, you know, to take it out to.
00:13:48
Speaker
30 out of the 34 19 lead. Yeah. And then you just let it all fall apart in a half hour. You let you guys give up 29 points in a half hour. That's can't literally cannot do that and expect to win. Yeah, I mean. Yeah, that was. Yeah, that was right before. Yeah, and then because then. Yeah, well scored.
00:14:18
Speaker
And then, and then, but then Kemeny scored, Gordon scored, Dageny scored, Dageny scored again. Like that was just, that just did it. Like I was like, okay, so are you guys going to try and score again? Like what's going on here? The, the, the intercept that.
00:14:39
Speaker
Gordon's like, you know what? There's one thing happening here. Either they're scoring or I'm scoring. There is no other option here. And he gambled like hell and it worked. So good on him for taking the initiative too. I said it to you and I'll say it again. Apart from his try, which was nice.
00:15:00
Speaker
Josh Kimmy is not impressive. So we were talking, you know, talk about, he had some flashes week one, like he's, he's, he's first off, he's fast. You give him that the ball in space and he'll, he'll take off on you. But like one, get him the ball more in space and to, um, do other stuff now. Like, you know, we talk about,
00:15:25
Speaker
versatility and being able to do a lot of different things. If you can only do the one thing, if you can only run real fast, um, go be a wing, not a wing forward. But yeah, I'd like to see more of him. Um, and this is weird for me to say, but from the, you know, the physicality and, uh, um, and just the grunt work, cause he's got the other stuff, but that the rest, like it's the, you know, the want to that's,
00:15:53
Speaker
not quite there for him yet. No, not quite there. Yeah, just not good enough. Speaking of which though, you mentioned him, Carter Gordon is electric. He's so much fun to watch. Yes, he is. Thankfully, he's cleaned up that hairdo of his as well. Now I can actually look at him without going, what the fuck.
00:16:16
Speaker
What the fuck? Let's go to Harry Potter. Showed exactly why he's playing down on the not on the prem anymore. That that forward pass for the on the easy, like just throw the easy path, just throw it. And I think he bottled another potential try to didn't knock one on instead of scoring it or something like not this week. I don't think maybe last week. Yeah, dude, clean it up.
Moana's Improvement Journey
00:16:47
Speaker
Clean it up. Clean it up. Yeah, it was not good. No, he's I mean, he had a ton of meters, but also like this is like we talked about. This is probably one of the worst teams in the in the competition. So you're going to have space. You're going to have the space. Right. Yeah, this is a competition where space is there and they get the ball to it. So.
00:17:06
Speaker
you're going to look good, but it's now it's a, you know, you can't be wistering in this league. You got to finish. Yes. You know, you know, taking going for a long run doesn't, doesn't count unless you finish in the trial and, you know, in the goal areas and scoring tries. Yeah. Let's go to, let's go to Moana and the Drua like, wow.
00:17:32
Speaker
Holy shit, this is not what I had on my bingo board. Moana has played two good games in a row, and this is not the same team from last year. Not at all. And I mean that with the most respect possible. Yep, definitely. They fought hard the whole match.
00:17:53
Speaker
I mean, I thought drew had it and then I did too, especially when stepped up and yeah, especially with that Awang red one up. I was like, Ooh, this might be enough. That's got to be enough. Right. That's like, that's got to be game, but it was not. They, they fought hard and didn't they win the red card period too? I think so. I'm not going to do the math, but I'm pretty sure they did. I can, I can tell you the second one. Um, but yeah, that was cause Molly scored right after it.
00:18:23
Speaker
Laelia Fano had a penalty kick. Yep. They had two tries. One try. I think Drew had just won it. Okay. That red card period. Maybe I'm wrong or maybe it's about even, but either way they did a good job of managing that time.
00:18:44
Speaker
We talked about it on the broadcast and it's, and it, it is a good point to talk about, to just think about, um, Jones coming in to help coach Moana with their skill set and clean those little errors up and seems to be paying off. Maybe not in spades, but you know, to a point and you know, this is, this is the team that Moana will always mark on the calendar because they're the other team that came in with them that year.
00:19:10
Speaker
you know, the other Island guys, so on and so forth, whatever spin you want to put on it. But so there, this is obviously something they're always going to get up for and couldn't quite get up for it in, um, 2023. So 2024 obviously coming, becoming a different story. Yeah. Taking steps forward. That's, that's what you want to see. I mean, it's kind of, um,
00:19:37
Speaker
Just looking at these two teams versus the force who came back. Did they come back the same year, the year before these two teams showed up either way around this? Yeah. Around the same time. And the four still are not. I competent, super rugby team. And yet these two teams are, are, are showing the hell up. Um, yes. Don't the ball around a little bit, but trying to be smart about it. Right.
00:20:07
Speaker
So, yeah, exactly. They're throwing them, but like, yeah, Moana, I thought they had all sorts of opportunities against the Highlanders last week and couldn't put it away. And we know the Drua can actually win a game here, there. They can sneak it out from some of the best. And then they beat the Crusaders last year. So it's there for them. Yeah. And like,
00:20:33
Speaker
looking forward to see. And then Joe Assisi's coming back, allegedly, this week. Momo, I thought, played pretty well, but I think, obviously, he's looking a little green yet, so. Yes. Yes, I'm sure that. And Ravutamata is a little good. Yeah, he's fun to watch. Zinn's yellow card, but still, fun to watch. Right. Right.
Challenges for the Crusaders
00:21:00
Speaker
Are we at full panic stations for Crusaders yet? Or are we, I mean, obviously the right answer is stay calm, but should Crusaders fans be kind of getting nervy and panicking?
00:21:15
Speaker
I mean, for now, because there's always going to be a year where like the OK, first off, if they didn't see this, they shouldn't be panicking because they didn't see this coming. That's their fucking fault. That's a fact. You know, you don't lose arguably the best 10 in the way. OK, you don't know that he's the best 10, but he's up there. He certainly you're not going to. There's nobody in a class above him. Let's put it that way. And Malanga.
00:21:44
Speaker
You don't lose that and lose maybe the greatest club coach of the last decade or so. You don't lose those two people and then just maintain where you are. It's going to take a little bit of a rebuild and some time for new guys to come together. Yeah, they've got a lot of talent.
00:22:07
Speaker
It's the teamwork that's going to make the dream work and it's just not going to be there yet because they lost too much. There's a lot of new names on this sheet. George Bell is not their normal hooker obviously.
00:22:21
Speaker
Dom Gardner was not a regular last year. Haltham is a young, lovely prospect, but not a regular by any means. He will be soon, I'm sure. They're still trying to figure out their ten. I think they screwed up by taking out Rihanna. I think they should have kept him. I thought he played really well the week before against the Chiefs. That was a tough team he played and he played pretty well.
00:22:42
Speaker
Um, Springer is, looks like this is his shirt to lose. Um, Havelia, obviously we know him. Amu is new to the team. Cebu, yes. Fiaki has not played a whole lot in that shirt. So that's different. Probably returns, but. And let's not forget that they lost Will Jordan to Angel. They don't have Will Jordan this year at all. Yep. So there's, there's a lot of great pieces, but they're not gelled yet.
00:23:09
Speaker
To me, this is forgivable because Bartos played outstanding rugby. They did. I got to say, and to me, I think Tane Edmed is, if he's not the real deal, he's looking real deal-ish. Yeah. I mean, Toss obviously believed it enough that they let Ben Donaldson walk. Right. Right. I don't think anyway, and New South Wales is going to argue with that at this point.
00:23:40
Speaker
Um, one guy for, um, we'll get to the word to us afterwards. One guy I thought they did a better job of feeding the ball to this game as opposed to last week, but need to do it more is Levi Amua. Yes. He got a lot more opportunities. A lot of this, a lot of this attack can revolve around him and
00:24:00
Speaker
He is, yes, you have to manage his minutes, but that's just manage his minutes. Other than that, you know, use him for his skillset. What he is, he's obviously a large fella. He can move and he's got the hands that will let you, um, do some fun things around the park. So get him just a little bit more involved. Yes. Like I said, he's new there. They're still trying to work him in, but man, the more you get him involved, the more like you saw the one where he was able to get rid of it to several recent.
00:24:29
Speaker
more of that will only result in good things. Yeah. Well, let's look at the, uh, the war ties. Jake Gordon obviously is a huge factor in this team and for Australia's sake, they definitely need to look at him and say, yeah, maybe we make sure we bring him along for the ride this time.
00:24:51
Speaker
Yeah, the postgame commentary, the guys talking about him and how like he's often in profit and he sees like he's 30. So he may not make it all the way, but he's going to give it his best. Obviously he did, but they're making fun of him for looking gassed at the end of that long intercept. Right. Yeah. But what it's.
00:25:09
Speaker
It's just the brain in the head that he brings to. The one thing I like about Jake Gordon is he hasn't shied away from being who he was even though he's gotten older. He still goes for that snipe and goes for that taxi run.
00:25:24
Speaker
a lot of nines that couldn't that do that and then get older. They just they stopped doing it. And so they forget. That's what made you good. Right. And I know you don't have the speed, but, you know, one explosive step and a half gap and all of a sudden, you know, someone's on your shoulder. Away we go. So it's not something to get away from. So I'm glad he's continuing to just remain who he is and play his game and not
00:25:52
Speaker
not worry about how old he is, and whether or not he lost his step. Yeah. And because I know when I reached around that age, sometimes you start thinking like, we don't want to run like he had. You start thinking in your mind, OK, I'm using this run.
00:26:09
Speaker
What am I going to have left? You know, there's, that was, that was sixties and he didn't come out. He played all 80. So fuck that, that, that goes to show the, okay. So we'll talk about the, the, um, you know, at Tate McDermott, but obviously when we talk about the Reds, but
00:26:29
Speaker
Harry Randall needs to call up Jake Gordon and Tate McDermott and be like, okay, how are you guys training? How are you guys going 80 and throwing in those kind of efforts? Because Harry Randall is that kind of guy, but he gets gassed and then he's like out for like 10, 15 minutes where he's just resorting to get into the breakdown and passing it and he might be late to the next one. But man, he could be those guys and
00:26:58
Speaker
England would could really use that. So I just wanted to put that on there. Yep. Cause I love, I love Harry Randall, but man, if he could, if he could do the things that they, these guys are doing for, for 80 minutes, imagine, you know, where he'd be and where England would be. Right. A little bit better, a little bit better. Let's look at your guys, chief sprondys.
Chiefs' Dominance and Player Highlights
00:27:22
Speaker
Um,
00:27:25
Speaker
So one, one thing about the Brumbies and they've been, they've been the best team in Australia for the last couple of years. And I know, and we know chiefs are one of, if not the best teams in New Zealand, but maybe the Brumbies don't get to hold that status this year is the other thing. Like this was kind of meh overall for the Brumbies. I mean, Corey tool was a one man show and that's the end. He really was.
00:27:53
Speaker
You know, why? I don't get it. But criminal Eddie Eddie. I I'm I'm I'm aware. I'm aware. I'm aware. Yeah, this team is not as good as the sum of its parts is where I would but I would go. At least they weren't this but it's all it's tough because the Chiefs are that good. I don't know that this is one of those where I don't think you can take it as a as a as a true measuring stick of
00:28:23
Speaker
you know, of where the Brumbies are. I mean, look at last week, they stomp the rebels as they should. So, you know, there's just not a lot, you know, this, this chief's team will pounce on you and just, you know, put it up your bum.
00:28:42
Speaker
And they did. Yes. Yes. Yes, they will. And they will make life very, very hard on you. Yeah. And it doesn't matter which scrum half they use at all, because, uh, rat him ahead to row head one, like they're good.
00:28:58
Speaker
Yes they are. They need to teach Jared profit to tackle properly. What's that? They need to teach Jared profit to tackle properly though. Yeah. Some ugly reds this week. Yes. We'll get to the next one later, but just some bad reds. I was like, ooh, that's not good. When you see it right away, you guys are just stood up, smashing into each other. It's like, yeah, the defender can't do that. Don't do that.
00:29:27
Speaker
Yeah, that's up to you. You know, if the attacker stands straight up, that's their problem. Saw them in half. Right. Call it a day. They're giving you their squishy middle. Take it. Yeah, I know. That's right. They're giving you a rib to tickle. Go and tickle that damn thing, would you?
00:29:43
Speaker
Um, yeah. And then here's the scary thing for the chiefs though. They're going to get in their hour back soon. And that's going to be, you know, family is just a guy. I don't think there's any other way to describe it. It certainly hasn't been anything but that in the first two games and for the majority of his super every career. Uh, so that's just terrifying. So you're going to have problems all over the paddock. Um,
00:30:11
Speaker
I will say I do want to say, you know, might be hurt long term. I know. I saw that that I thought I was hoping it was just cramping. Doesn't sound like it. He came. He came off looking real, real rough. So I hope I hope it's already talking about how long is he going to be out? Not, you know, not a.
00:30:31
Speaker
you know, what's, what's the status or something? It's not, you know, it's not week to week. It's, it's longer than that. It's going to be, it's going to be months for sure. That sucks. Um, Xavier Rowe is someone that has kind of put his hand up for me and I know they basically have a one A and a one B between him and Ratama, but a lot of people had put Ratama at the head of him, but he's obviously staked his claim at this point because he said two starts in a row. They've had two very good games in a row.
00:31:02
Speaker
hard to take it off him at this point. I don't think it really matters, honestly. You play one for 60 minutes or so, and then the other one comes on and just drowns. They can switch off, but yeah, it looks like Rowe is the clubhouse leader, which is impressive, because Rotom is excellent in his own right.
00:31:27
Speaker
So, yeah, I don't know. I I'm not taking just these two games as anything just yet. I wouldn't. It wouldn't surprise me. Radhima starts this weekend. That's a possibility. Yeah. But, you know, they just kind of kept them in for continuity. But either way, he's he's owning it. Yeah, yes, I love it. I love you. Obviously, I love it. But just as a neutral rugby fan from that perspective, too. Yeah, you could do worse than watching the Chiefs halfbacks for
00:31:56
Speaker
for how to play good rugby for about emails or so. Yeah. And then the final was a doozy.
Rugby Rules and Safety Concerns
00:32:07
Speaker
Your heart stopped or start beating in yet or what? Yeah, I did. I didn't, I,
00:32:14
Speaker
did not wake my son up, so that was good. I managed to say that I wasn't loud as wrong, especially that last one.
00:32:28
Speaker
You know, I, I saw the Barrett hit and I thought, I thought for sure. I was like, Oh no, this is not good. And I wasn't wrong. Unfortunately. Oh, damn. That was just not what he's got to be better than that. He is better than that. And that's the really disappointing part. Like, come on, dude. How are you doing? And that's the same. It was the same situation, too, of
00:33:00
Speaker
the guy running fully upright, just cut him in half. It's not hard. No. Yeah. He got a three, he copped a three week ban out of that too. So he's going to miss the big one this weekend. Yuck. And then he'll miss Crusaders as well. You can't put your team in that, that circumstance. No. And
00:33:25
Speaker
I I'll say this, I still hate the 20 minute read. Yes, I really do. Yeah. I don't know. They are adopting it. It's not God. It's not because, as you said, it just creates the situation where the guys are like, OK, if I if I if I do this, it's just a kind of a double yellow. I'm out for the game, but somebody will come back in for me. It takes away a lot of accountability.
00:33:55
Speaker
Yeah. Honestly, do you think that if it was a permanent red, do you think the Kanes win this game? I don't know. Probably not because of the impact that Ryasi had when he came on.
00:34:13
Speaker
I think they would have to reshuffle how they're going to organize this split that way. I don't think they get to, you know, do what they did and they know they have, you know, raspy in their back pocket coming on soon. I think they need to really find a way.
00:34:30
Speaker
And yeah, I think it's tough. Otherwise I think it's tough to say that they get the job done, especially since they, you know, they tied it kind of late and then obviously won it in golden point. So yeah, I do love that. I am very much in favor of the golden point. Please continue this. Absolutely. Um, let's talk about reds for a bit and then we'll get into, we'll get more into the hurricanes. Uh, so here's the thing.
00:34:57
Speaker
One other thing about the reds, but then we'll get on the reds. Paisami and Pattaya, they took an extra, and I see it too many times. They didn't noise the hell out of me. If they're concussed, don't take an extra passage of play to get them off for an HIA because that whole double impact syndrome thing, it's not good. I don't know if you know much about it, but it's not good.
00:35:20
Speaker
Okay, so here's my question around this too. Where the fuck it like that. So we saw in round one, all the the hia's for the mouth guard sensor. Where the fuck was that here? I'm sorry, you can't you cannot tell me that patai is going from a full run to a dead stop. Because he got his head smooshed didn't create some G's that would, you know, alert that sensor.
00:35:50
Speaker
Absolutely. If nothing else. If nothing else, they had to have seen that. There was enough time to get the reading. So yeah, what the fuck.
00:36:02
Speaker
Yeah, it does. It didn't make sense to me. I was like, are we are we looking at this? Like, yeah, if nothing else, I'm confused. Yeah. If you're the first off, you're a matched doctor or whatnot. You see that immediately should be H.I.A. for a hit like that. Hard percent. And then but then where's the date? Like, there's just so much. That I did not like about it. Same. Yeah, I was.
00:36:29
Speaker
pretty bloody annoyed about the whole thing. And I was like, uh, guys, like, what are we doing? Someone, someone, anyone? Bueller. Yeah. Anyone. So yeah, that's, that's a, that's a bad luck in any case. Um, yeah, I dunno. Um, anyway, so on the, onto the red, the reds themselves, uh, Tate McDermott is a, is a wonderful player. And the fact that he,
00:36:58
Speaker
did not start more games than Nick White did is a crime, number one. I'd love someone to slap the mustache off Nick White's face, by the way. Oh, by the way, we saw that. We did see that interview with Joe Schmidt.
00:37:16
Speaker
You've been in your job for three days. You fixed Australian rugby. You fixed Australian rugby. Have you signed a contract with Japan? I have not taken a meeting with Japan. We've heard that before. We've heard that before. That's good. That's hilarious. That's pretty fun. But anyway, yeah. I'm glad he took that. Yeah, I think that'll be rectified. That injustice of McDermott not being on that spot. Agreed. Agreed. So one thing that I got to note is,
00:37:43
Speaker
the front row that makes up this reds team and they started off the match by getting their ass kicked for a little bit, but they rectified it. They fixed it. They and they did really well, you know, and now they have there's some good players in this front row. I have to, it has to be saying Nongor, Fessler, Hodgman, like, yeah, they got some, they got some damn good players in this, in this front row. So I, yeah, I would be very, and this is without Tupo now. Remember that Tupo's on the Rebels now.
00:38:11
Speaker
So you know nasser those the other one forgot and penny rabbi the rabbi giveaway of the he did give away a bad penalty so any not put on in the trial yes he did. That is a not gotta hold on to that prop that's a that's a bad prop.
00:38:28
Speaker
Um, probably right there. You cannot knock it on as you're going over that. So, you know, all these things about people talking about getting kicked out of the front row union for doing, no, no, no. That's the shit that gets you kicked out of the front. Exactly. You're going for a try and you knock it out. No, we don't do that here. No, no, no. That's not that. So that's something a wing does. We don't do that. Um, and so one more note on them.
00:38:55
Speaker
The 10s are going with the youth and I get, you know, Leskis obviously was part of the demise of London Irish, but clearly has brought intentions into.
00:39:05
Speaker
this Brisbane team and just said, no, we're going to do it this way. And I don't care. I don't care if you were the guy, you're not the guy anymore. If you're not the guy anymore. And that's, that's what he's clearly shown by picking Lina and the McLaughlin Phillips kid and trying to build for the future. So I'm, I applaud him for that and just trying to, you know, make this a long-term thing and not just a, you know, a quick fix. Right. And line is, line is good. I don't, I guess.
00:39:33
Speaker
Please. Great. Now the question to me is, all right, when does he sort out Jock Campbell needs to get the fuck off the field? Yeah, Boonie Volo could probably leave the field to ease. Yeah, there's a couple of guys. Yeah, right. So you're talking about these two wings that are just non non factors. Although, Boonie Volo, I'd still put ahead of Jock, but I can't I honestly can't remember the last season that Jock Campbell was like, Oh, I kind of want to see him.
00:40:01
Speaker
It's been a while. Hasn't been many. Hasn't been many. So we talked about, um, the all blacks back row.
Player Performances and All Blacks Potential
00:40:10
Speaker
Braden Jose was a monster in this game. And like, so not, not just like line breaks, but even the simple things of like getting a good number, a pickup and being able to carry his team forward for a good 20 meters off their, off their trial line. Like stuff like that is huge. Ben Earl ish.
00:40:30
Speaker
Yeah, he's pretty quick. Pretty quick. Him and Lakai together. Great pair. Great pair. Yep, yep. That continues. Yeah. So there's a kid that is on in the back three for the hurricanes that came onto the scene a couple years ago and mostly because
00:40:53
Speaker
their tens were all broken, and that was Ruben Love. And now he's kind of made this fullback shirt his thing. And first two games, he's looked great. He has. So two tries here. I don't know what's going to happen when he plays the Blues this weekend, but look pretty fucking good. Yeah, I don't see why that would that would not continue. He's got some, you know, he's not an out and out sprinter, but he's got the pace to do what he needs to do from 15, which you don't need, you know, that you don't need to be
00:41:23
Speaker
winning fastest man competitions, but as long as you get the job done when you get the opportunity and he's been doing that, he's been hitting those gaps and also someone who has that 10 experience, now you have that second distributor too. So he's not just that he's good himself, but he's also helping to distribute too. Yep, very good.
00:41:50
Speaker
Yeah, Brett Cameron turning back the clock a little bit with this whole thing. Right guard. I don't know if he keeps up this up. I don't know how Razor Robertson keeps him out of the nine shirt. No, I don't. I don't see it. Yeah. I mean, you know, there are there are a couple of other candidates, obviously both the the the nines for the Chiefs.
00:42:15
Speaker
fakutava fakutava Kristy's got some experience too. So right there'll be that as well. But no, I love Roy guard. And and
00:42:26
Speaker
I, there would be no complaints for me if he was, uh, he was the nine. Mm. Absolutely. Yeah. And I liked the billowing care character. That's been, he started last week and you backed up this week. So good on him. Yeah. It looks good. And it's also for you in the, in the what's up is a Safo Amua. Um, to me, he's got to be working his way towards owning that two Jersey.
00:42:55
Speaker
Well, he owns the hurricanes to Jersey, especially. Oh, no, I'm talking about this gun. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Well, yeah, it helps. It helps the guys. Taylor will be back this. Taylor will be back sometime this season, I believe. Hmm. You still have Tanki Ajo. Yeah. But then you do need a third option. Right. And I don't. But at this point, I like Cody Taylor. It's also kind of getting up there, isn't he?
00:43:24
Speaker
He is, but I love Cody Taylor and again, I rewind to last year. I don't know who Robertson's thinking about for captain for the All Blacks, but assuming he's healthy this coming summer, he would be one of my top two candidates to put in the ring for wearing the armband. That's fair. That's just my cup of tea on that one and that's how it is.
00:43:48
Speaker
Anywho, so yeah, great. And he's a super round and my heart stopped and then I'm going to go. I kept going again. And we're going and we are beating. Yeah. I'm, I'm just glad they get to go home and, you know, get some home cooking. Yeah. Home cooking. Okay.
Exeter's Tactical Critique and Gloucester's Success
00:44:10
Speaker
Uh, the, let's talk about the PWR master of the week, Gloucester heartbreak and Exeter.
00:44:18
Speaker
Glossel Harper already did this job down at Sandy Park. So honestly, it wasn't surprising that they were able to get this done at Queen's home. So those girls were doing that. We saw Singh return to the team and she's in the England squad for a reason. So you got to give her credit. Yeah, just use the thing.
00:44:47
Speaker
It's kind of, it's a little alarming. It's not very alarming, but it's a little alarming to me that Exeter have been leaning on their forwards as hard as they have. And, you know, this game more than others, but, you know, obviously Hope Rogers got one and to Tussie got two. It's not just that. It's like, look down, so look down the meters carried for Exeter in their back line.
00:45:16
Speaker
you know, Kobayashi had none, basically. Actually, she had none. Look at that. Wow. Your back three had 150 total, give or take. And you really need one of them to be able to say, I'm going to run all over the place and
00:45:34
Speaker
They don't and you know, not only that they had, um, one of their 14 was making all the tackles. So obviously that's also good on gloss prefer making her work and do all the things out there, but still it's like, it should be alarming when your back line doesn't have anybody over 60 meters. Agreed. And you're in your top carrier. Yeah. And that back line is,
00:46:01
Speaker
There's so much quality all around it. There is. There's one that, you know, Tessier, Buchanan, Kentorna, Deutsch, like... Hell, they had only... Whoa. Whoa. Wait a minute. It's a hold up. Time out. Time out from the game. What? Because look who was their top meters carried overall. It was Hope. I know. It was Hope. What the fuck? And she also had the most tackles, which, I mean, credit to her for the work rate. Yeah. Loads credit to her for the work rate.
00:46:29
Speaker
25. It needs to be matched. She had the most carries, obviously. And this is one of the reasons I love Hope Rogers. Her work rate has gone through the roof over the last couple of years. So I really, really enjoy watching her. But while she is a pretty special player, you have other special players in that back line. So what are you doing with that? Rachel Johnson. Why does Hope Rogers have double the carries of Rachel Johnson?
00:46:53
Speaker
Yeah, I know, right? It's like the carries go up the closer you get to the, you know, the pack, the tight, the front row. The front row there, yeah. That's not, yeah, that's very Exeter.
00:47:09
Speaker
That's the problem. And that's why it's a little concerning for me because that shouldn't be how it is. No. There's also why I don't take Exeter seriously as far as, you know, who are they going to win a lot of games in this competition? Yeah. Are they going to finish towards the top of the table? Yeah. Are they going to make the knockouts? Probably. Probably. But I'm not that concerned about them beyond that.
00:47:32
Speaker
No, they have to expand their game a little bit more. If this is what they resort to when they play the big teams like Gloucester Harper, like Saracens, they are going to have problems. Because look at on the contrary on the other side,
00:47:49
Speaker
You still have Emma saying Pip Hendy with 100 plus each, Pip Hendy and her 40 odd. Sarah Becka had 102 and we know what a freaking train she is. It should be pretty alarming when you compare the two teams and the two styles and how this played out in itself. I would be very concerned if I was an Exeter fan because
00:48:14
Speaker
You can't go into this type of shell against these types of teams because they're just going to run around you. We've talked about this before. It's just not a good idea. Here's the thing. You have one of the biggest snipers as well in there with Mohan. She scored the try that basically sealed the game too. Not only is she a sniper,
00:48:39
Speaker
but she scores a big try. Yeah, she's a big game player. She steps up when it counts, but yeah, she's just a humongous pain in the arse, and you can't be a lumbering bunch and think that's gonna go well with her, because the time, you know, she's gonna go quick, go quick, go quick, and the one time you freaking fall asleep on her, she's up, and she's gone, and it's like, I mean, that's kind of how the, a little bit of how the try had. And to me,
00:49:10
Speaker
I like this player, so this isn't so much criticism, but obviously I have issues with players who are professionals who aren't the fittest. I think Lakey George held the team back a little bit this game.
00:49:26
Speaker
She's a good distributor, but if she was a threat to run, she could have just carved up that team. She could have carved up that exit or defense. That's the next part of her game that she needs to solidify is getting her in good running shape. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, compared to other
00:49:50
Speaker
Other times around the league, Helena Rowland from Blackboro had a nice day doing that. Harrison's not a runner anymore, so we can't go there, but like HSN is usually good for a skimp. Yeah. Yeah. People like that. That's what you need out of that, at least to a point. At least to a point.
00:50:13
Speaker
You know you and I coach and I see it with a couple of my players Saw it with a couple of my players last year that were wearing the tent shirt and
00:50:21
Speaker
The second they made themselves a threat to go forward, the pass wasn't something that teams necessarily ran right to. Up until that point, we had a couple of games, both the boys and the girls, where the 10s didn't take off more. And I had to kind of get in their ear and be like, you need to take off every once in a while. Not all the time, but you need to have that threat where you dummy and cut in because teams are just going to ignore you and say, all right, they're passing. We're going to just let you go.
00:50:52
Speaker
Mm-hmm. It does and it does it does nothing for your team. So Yeah, I agree that that's something that she needs to work on no doubt The opening weekend of MLR
MLR Season Highlights and Team Performances
00:51:08
Speaker
Champs returned. We'll be the champs until someone knocks us off. It wasn't gonna be Anthony there, unfortunately. I mean, this is a very cobbled together team. There's no other way to describe it. It was thrown together pretty last minute and half-assed. And that was just never gonna go well. It really wasn't. No, not against this team. Look at the players that the freejacks are returning.
00:51:35
Speaker
Um, I don't, like everybody from one to 15 and beyond, like, you know, um, uh, you know, Martin Molina, I don't recall him from last year. Like, you know, there's a couple of guys that are like may have been bit, bit players and whatnot that are, that are coming back. Um,
00:52:00
Speaker
But, damn, does it really matter? The whole back line is ridiculous. Reese McDonald, I love Reese McDonald. That was such a good showing for him, the hat trick too. But these guys that played, you can see it's still obviously first game and whatnot. But the line break,
00:52:27
Speaker
that ultimately got bungled because, um, Poland came in on, on the unders line on his, his nine support line. And there was a flanker, I think it might've been Ken Davidson getting in there. Like they ran into each other. Um, sorry, David, David it's, um, like that's the, that's shit that'll go away. But like the whole,
00:52:48
Speaker
sequence that leading up to it, I was like, I could see it happen. I could see it opening up. And I'm like, Oh, like, I was celebrating even before they they made the pass for the library, because I like, I saw it. And I know they saw it. Like, that's, that's what's great about this team is that sometimes you can see things on TV that just aren't apparent to the players who are in the match. But these guys are are the pros. And they've worked enough with each other to know, okay, no, I see where the gap is on the defense. I'm going to put it right to the player who's running right through it. And
00:53:19
Speaker
Not much you can do about that for a few of the defense, except plug up those gaps. But again, totally new team. Hard to do. Yeah, it's hard to accept that.
00:53:33
Speaker
and the bastard intercepts because they had a line break. He just stuck his hand out to grab it. Like, yeah, I'm sorry. He probably pulled the old, uh, yeah, on your left and they probably went, Oh, okay. Oh no, not you. Damn it.
00:53:53
Speaker
It wasn't supposed to be you. It was, sorry. I thought it was funny too, because when Connor Robinson, the backup hooker for Anthem came on, and the comms were like, oh, he's a former freejack. And I was like, I don't remember him. And then his first throw, he just wildly overthrew it. And I was like, that's probably how I don't remember him. That's probably why. I mean,
00:54:12
Speaker
We did see quite a litany of, um, hookers roll through the whole, roll through the team, but like, I don't recall him at all. So I take Kyle. Yeah, please.
00:54:26
Speaker
I'm speaking to which that their set piece. I mean first off the free jack set piece was dominant from this so that really Oh man, they just bullied him for the first 20 minutes Micah Felix the Tight head prop the tight head on that team. Yeah for him. He just got abused the first like three or four scrums and the ref was
00:54:49
Speaker
was kind. Marquis Goodwin was definitely kind to him. Very nice. But like, I could see it, you know, as a tight head. You know, you know, kind of how it feels when you're you're just absolutely beat. And you kind of get to the feel of how it looks. And like just the first three scrums even from the setup.
00:55:10
Speaker
I was like, Oh, he's fucked. Um, like that's not turnable on the other side, which was like, it's still not going to help. Look, if you're the tight head and you're just getting your ass whooped, it doesn't matter who's on the other side. That's that like, you can't be losing that, that battle that easily. Um, nope. And credit to him, he came back and kind of showed up a little bit, but, um,
00:55:39
Speaker
Yeah, he got he got his but I felt like it's not I don't blame him. It's not like he's a bad player, but No, he's going up against a really good squad and I'm sorry, bud. This is yeah the someone that's one of those days where you hard day at the office where the other the other prop and and hooker just better than you And you got to deal with it. Yep absolutely absolutely Yeah
00:56:06
Speaker
We will, so we'll go through the whip around of the other games as well. Uh, New Orleans kicked off the weekend by being old glory. That was not a good game though. I don't want those things to do a whole lot of damage. Uh, Houston beat Utah. I had a feeling that I think Houston is going to be tough this year. Um, Seattle and Legion, you know, this is obviously a two teams, Titanic, Titan, Titanic battle, uh, Seattle one.
00:56:34
Speaker
up at home there. Miami and Hounds, Hounds I think will be a lot better this year. They won't be as thrown together. So look out for them. Apparently things were very bad at the Miami stadium though. I was reading some of the guys in our other group there. They were not having a good time on it.
Challenges in Miami and Dallas' Promise
00:56:56
Speaker
And I guess the final, if you go look at the final score graphic that they posted either on Instagram or on Twitter,
00:57:02
Speaker
people were having it, having to go at Miami for a poorly run facility. Apparently. Oh, that's not good. Was it this match? There was a fight at halftime too. Oh geez. Really? I didn't know that. I can't remember. There was one of the matches that at least the guys, uh, the guys on that, on that chat were saying that there was a halftime fight at one of them. I think it was this one. Oh my God. I didn't realize that Chase Shuler Haskin was on, was on Miami. That's cool. I played with his dad. Shut up.
00:57:31
Speaker
How's that feel? That makes you feel great. I came out of my mouth before I realized what I was saying to everybody. That a boy. That a boy. I mean, for their sake, they have Tomas Casares who played for the freejacks, but never made a 15. I don't even know if you ever made a 23.
00:57:54
Speaker
You know, they have some great players, but they also have some gaps that they need to fill. Um, and then Robby returned to LA, but Dallas won. So, um, and I hope the, I hope the Jackals are better this year. I think they'll, I think they will be better. They would, although they were a tough nut, the one game we played them, it was ugly to say the least. I think we won like nine, nothing or something like that. It was pretty bad.
00:58:19
Speaker
Yeah. I'm just right now at this point, I'm not seeing much. I got to see more from the East outside of free jacks. Cause it just looks like, um, you know, barring injuries and all that kind of a walkthrough to the final for the free jacks. And that's not good. It's not good for the. At least the conference final. At least the conference final. Yeah. Yeah. But I don't see any of these teams coming into the four Quincy and
00:58:47
Speaker
But, you know, maybe maybe they signed five. I know. Then they'll freakin mortgage a way to, you know, getting bankrupt and going belly up. Yeah, that's a great idea. Please let me know how that worked out in New York.
Freejacks' Strengths and Podcast Reflections
00:59:04
Speaker
Anyway, yeah, the boys are coming home. Coming home. This weekend at Playing Home Glory. So, for Quincy, here they come. Raising the banner, if you saw the email. Yes. Yes. Should be fun. I didn't even think about that. They're going to have a banner. That's cool. Banner. Banner. Okay. With that. Hey, do you remember how to talk? Because I think we remembered.
00:59:34
Speaker
You did okay. Yeah. Do I think you remembered how to do it. We both we both brought to my to Vookie Neepkins, which is yeah. Really? All day. It's not that it's actually once you get it, it's not that hard. But now I'm like, so double. Whatever. Yeah. Well, we're gonna try and remember how to do the fancy corner thing friends. If we see you over there. Otherwise, have a good weekend. Later. Cheers.
01:00:04
Speaker
This has been the fantasy like the next podcast.
01:00:11
Speaker
If you'd like to ask a question or leave us general feedback, email us at fantasyrugbypodcastatgmail.com. Be sure you check out our patreon at patreon.com slash the fantasyrugbymanas. Yeah.