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Season 3- Episode 10- What the Actual F#$@ Prem? (Premiership Round 6)
30 Plays5 years ago
It's the latest stylings of those American rugby knuckleheads. After a big episode last week, we are coming back to earth a bit for this one. On this episode we discuss the postponements and cancellations all over the rugby calendar, as well as other events that could see the knock on from it. As promised, we discuss both Premiership captains and guys that pull on that 10 kit, and where they fall in our minds from best to worst. Of course, we dig into the action from this past weekend including the big ones at The Rec and Sandy Park. Also, included we discuss the happenings in Champi-Yanks League and Start or....wait nope, not that, damnit Premiership. Well, kick back and have a beverage with us, what else is there to do?
Episode 100 is NEXT WEEKEND! Send us all your questions and we'll try our best to answer them, pretty much all topics are on the table to be discussed, rugby or otherwise.
Get at us via Twitter: Jarrod- jdyke8man & Ben- admrablsnackbar. or via e-mail fantasyrugbypodcast@gmail.com.
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Transcript
Introduction & Listener Engagement
00:00:08
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome back to this video, it's my name's Barret Dyke. I'm Ben Glaser. Uh, thanks to all of you who got down with us. I am rather shocked that we get as much as we did. That was
00:00:19
Speaker
Was it really the beginning that got people's attention? I mean, we continue to take the bite out of it as best we can, but I'm not sure that's gonna go well. Yeah, that's not really our game. No, that was definitely way off our game, but it had to be
Focus on Black Lives Matter & Current Events
00:00:36
Speaker
mentioned. Yeah, we do, if you've listened, we do have a Black Lives Matter segment every week, so we do...
00:00:37
Speaker
a surprise.
00:00:46
Speaker
Pay attention to current events, in some respects, at least. And that was just something else. Yeah. Another level, as we say. Yeah, we weren't going to get away from talking about it. No, we had to just talk about it.
Transition to Lighter Topics & Podcast Support
00:01:01
Speaker
Yeah, you got to confront the elephant in the room sometime. Speaking of elephants, let's drink beer. Fuck yeah. I don't think those have anything to do with each other, but... We'll go with it. Obviously, find us on your favorite podcast app.
00:01:17
Speaker
download rate review, we appreciate all of it. I'm sure we'll get a few reviews after. I hope so. After last week, I wouldn't be shocked. One thing I noticed, so if you are a, either, you know, you listened or, or you've been listening, you won't think I haven't really, we have asked for feedback.
Feedback & Rugby Coverage
00:01:41
Speaker
I've gotten some but not a hell of a lot.
00:01:45
Speaker
question I would have is, is there, you know, we, we mostly don't focus on the prem and in Northern hemisphere with some MLR because we're American. What are you going to do? What else are we going to do? Right. But we kind of ignore the top 14 and the pro 14. So if you want, you know, are you interested in that? Cause I noticed a lot of people that, that I interact with or don't really do the prem as much. So.
00:02:09
Speaker
Yeah. Is there, is there more you'd like us to reach out to branch out on and say, yeah, that the pro 14. Well, if we're going to do top 14, somebody get on the whole TV rights over here. Cause nobody's carrying it right now. So there's limited stuff we can talk about with some of these, but it's just nice to know if, if, if that's something people want to talk about. I think the, I think the cycling into the champions cup helps at the very least. So that does help.
Episode 100 Preparation & Listener Questions
00:02:33
Speaker
Um, obviously you want to make sure that you get our boy, um, fancy or geek, uh, coffee, George, uh, George is the man. George will be joining, should be joining us next weekend for a big 100. And if you haven't got your questions in, um, to one for your episode, 100 or our episode 100, whatever it is. Um, yeah, make sure you get those in. You can email us, you can tweet at us, whatever it is. Um, you know, it comes at the end of the show as, as usual. Um,
Rugby Magazine & Fantasy Rugby
00:03:00
Speaker
Get your TRM upgrades. I know we're going to be on a pause here, but still, you know, they're supporting RPA. Great to hear Nick Mullins and Ugo talking about fantasy rugby, obviously. Yes. I believe it's the rugby mag that they play, which is great. So, yeah. It's good to see them. Keep getting that in there. Let's do that. Let's work that in there every broadcast, shall we? There is a TRM for Six Nations, isn't there? There is. There is, and that's not far away.
00:03:28
Speaker
Right, and as you were just saying to get your upgrades, it's incredibly worth it. Six Nations may be a little bit easier as far as knowing who's starting and whatnot. Yeah, but if you play both, you're going to want that for sure. Yes, you are.
00:03:43
Speaker
Yeah, that's going to be a pain in the ass if you don't do it otherwise.
Black Lives Matter & Political Events
00:03:46
Speaker
So yeah, definitely grab your upgrades and you're supporting the RPA, which exactly as we know, you know, mental health and you're supporting TRM, like all the stuff, it's all I mean, TRM and crew are definitely worth it in itself. But the fact that they're partnering with TRR, RPA, excuse me, is just makes it so much more worth it. So yeah, grab your upgrades, go all the way to gold. Why not, right?
00:04:09
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, the RPA is very important in the fact that, you know, they they do provide some sort of support, especially mental health support for some of the players. And if that goes unfunded, then you know, some of these guys are left out in the dark with not a clue what to do. And that's tough. So we want we want that we want to get that. So let's go ahead and support the RPA and TRM. As we mentioned before, Black Lives Matter, as always, just so
00:04:39
Speaker
Yeah, last week was just so overwhelming. Yeah, you couldn't turn your head without having to, you know, with really without really having to one refute some stupidity and two without having to stand up for somebody and be like, No, you are very wrong, sir. So right up. It's fucking talking, please. You know, just how it goes around here some days.
00:05:02
Speaker
Right. It was an interesting incident today, too, involving this, and to bring it back to our other topic, too. During the impeachment proceedings today, which the House, for those who may be waking up to this or are still learning how this is going, the House of Representatives today voted to impeach Trump.
00:05:24
Speaker
And during that time, one of the an activist, a BLM activist from Ferguson, Missouri. Oh, yeah. Back in for the Michael Brown protests. God. She has been elected to Congress and gave a speech where she called out the white supremacy and
00:05:46
Speaker
you know, the bigotry and basically how this is a white supremacist insurrection, correctly identifying it. And as she was sitting down, the Republicans booed her. So obviously, that is just such we have a ways to go. So that's fucked up. But old white men want power and they don't want to get rid of it. And they'll do anything
COVID Impact on Rugby Events
00:06:10
Speaker
to keep it. It's not new. It's just shitty. Right. Just really shitty.
00:06:15
Speaker
It's like you didn't have to say anything. You could have just said nothing. Yeah, say nothing next time. And not, not booed someone who's calling out white supremacy, but of course they can't because of their dicks. Shit, shit, shit rolls downhill. Trust me, it'll, they'll catch it. Don't worry about it.
00:06:30
Speaker
Don't you worry about it. Speaking of some somewhat injustice. Yeah, rugby. Yeah, let's go over to that. Women's Six Nations has been moved. Not our favorite call by any means whatsoever whatsoever. I wish I could say there was another way other than
00:06:52
Speaker
Yeah, that's a lot. That's a door. It's fucked up that the women Six Nations, it moves, but the men stays. Like what's the difference? Why is that? Why is one okay to play and the other is not? Well, we talk about, you know, this, but then like the French government are like, Oh, we don't want to play champions cup and send people across lines. But here's our French team. That's going to go across state lines like another week or two later. It's like, right? What? What the fuck?
00:07:18
Speaker
Somebody tell me how that adds up, please, please, please, please, it doesn't. So, yeah, I mean, I want, yeah, I think if you're gonna postpone one, postpone the other for sure.
Lions Tour Timing Debate
00:07:31
Speaker
I think giving it a couple extra weeks isn't bad, you know, for either case.
00:07:38
Speaker
No, that would be beneficial. It's better to put, like we saw with the prem, you know, and even Six Nations a little bit, you postpone and it's still a quality product later. It's just safer. And we'd rather have it postponed than like interrupted or seeing what's happening with some teams right now where, oh, they have to play without some, like some players are in protocols or have it or whatnot. It's just like, so you're not going to play your best team.
00:08:07
Speaker
Yeah, it's not pretty right now. The answer is out there. And unfortunately, the thing is time and
00:08:23
Speaker
I want to say we have an abundance of it and we, and we, if we were reasonable, we do, but there's so many moving pieces that are going on in the rugby calendar right now. It's, you know, considering, you know, bring it to bring it back to the men and you know, you're pushing back to champions cup.
00:08:38
Speaker
two weeks, the prem not playing any matches whatsoever, which is stupid. At least I believe the pro 14 took this week off and they're playing next week. Okay. So they're, and they already have a truncated season as well. And they know I do. So we'll see, but yeah.
00:08:55
Speaker
And you're going to be pushed up against the Lions tour. And yes, that should happen. Although apparently that's gaining momentum of possibly having the Lions spring box. No, the spring box up. Okay. Yeah, that's right. Which I don't think that's it needs to happen in some way or because to push it back a year and we talk and I don't know if it's been Tyndall or my been law, whoever it was out there on the Twitter verse talking about how
00:09:23
Speaker
how draining a Lions tour can be for a player. And, you know, to play in 2022 with a walk up in 2023, I don't think it's a good idea at all. No, honestly, that's yeah, that's too much to crunch it. And that's really the thing about the Lions tours. I mean,
00:09:41
Speaker
Yeah, just the amount,
Lions Tour Historical Context
00:09:43
Speaker
the sheer amount of matches they play in such a short amount of time. And yes, there's multiple squads, but still, fuck. Yeah. And some players are floating between the two squads too. Yeah. Yep. There are players who will play, you know, a couple matches a week. Yeah. They'll be on the bench for one and start another and it's like, yeah, that's, that's rough, man. That's really rough. So I don't know about that one.
00:10:11
Speaker
There's no good answer at the moment. I wish there was better answers that had come up beforehand. And I'm not talking COVID. I'm not talking just COVID. I'm talking way a long time ago. But they're not there at the moment, unfortunately, and that sucks. I do think
Six Nations Importance & Accessibility
00:10:31
Speaker
it would be kind of cool for the history of it, for the Lions to host. I think that would be kind of neat.
00:10:38
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, in South Africa, I know it fucks with the shape right now. Yeah, I know it fucks with the whole the program, essentially. But and that's not what the lines is about. But at the same time, you can still go on tour in country. You can still Yeah, you can still do the tour. You can still do the other side. It's just it's, it's the way to make it happen without like, yeah, it needs to happen. Whatever, whatever happens, it needs to be this summer. And
00:11:08
Speaker
if it's going to happen and it needs to happen. It's an important thing in the rugby calendar. It's something that everybody looks forward to. You don't want to table this for four years and have South Africa try it again. Because that sucks. Yeah. And they don't want to wait for more years, I promise you. And because they're spring box that are ready to play right now and they want to play against the Lions. You know, those guys that are in the spring box squad. And they may not be there in four years too. Right. That's a big yes. Yeah.
00:11:35
Speaker
And that's why it was such a big deal for New Zealand when they hosted it four years ago. Players were extremely disappointed to be left out of that squad for the All Blacks.
00:11:48
Speaker
That is just such a special moment because you're talking about, you look at the two squads that between the lines visits, the previous lines visit for New Zealand had Dan Carter and Richie McCaw and young players for them at that, like that was Dan Carter's coming out party. I remember it well, because fuck that dude played really well in those matches. So yeah, that is the difference. That is such a huge gap. So you don't want to wait that long.
00:12:17
Speaker
Right. So in four years is, you know, even more is not as bad, but still, you just don't want to wait. Right. And such. So yeah, it's got to happen this
Rugby Player Transfers & Strategies
00:12:26
Speaker
year. And that's that's my that's my opinion. Women's next nations absolutely, absolutely has to happen this year. Because otherwise, you have no prep for these teams for the World Cup in in the fall here.
00:12:39
Speaker
and that'll just be bubble. Yeah, that's got to happen. Somebody get on a TV provider for that here, please. I don't know who and I don't care. And honestly, I will bite the bullet and get flow. Somebody get it so we can watch it here. Seriously. I'm not. It's bullshit. It's bad enough that we can't really watch even the premiership. I watched it last week.
00:13:05
Speaker
Bristol and... He said it was on YouTube. Yeah, it's on England's YouTube page. Is that accessible in this country or do you have to use an affair? Yeah, yeah. No, the IP is not blocked over here, which is part of them at least. That's nice. Okay. Yeah, I watched Exeter and Bristol and they played quite a match last week. Sure.
00:13:28
Speaker
Of course, you know, I don't support the Exeter men, but shit, I got to support the Exeter women because they have four Eagles on the squad, I think, including Kate Zachary, who we talked about a few weeks ago. Yeah, so I will support the Exeter women. That's hard. Yeah, right. I don't want to cheer for Exeter, but I will cheer for them. Okay, fair enough. Right.
00:13:51
Speaker
So hopefully we can get the Six Nations off the ground so these ladies can all have a run because they need it. Not all of them do. Don't want to go into the World Cup cold, not great. Player movement all over the place. All over, yeah. Oh, man. All over the island. All over. We talked about Priestland leaving Bath last week. Seems like that's happening more and more.
00:14:20
Speaker
Tom, Tom Whiteley moving to Bristol from the Saracens. Interesting. I'm not sure I understand the move because that's a crowded screw half room right now. And they have a couple of young nines that they that they seem to like because they play. They play them more often than they play some like the Chris Coke is. I don't see much. Is he alive? I think he's broken, which doesn't help. OK, but doesn't have that they have no problem throwing them out there at the same time does say they believe in him. And, you know, I think Whiteley and Randall probably not
00:14:49
Speaker
two different in age. No, they're not. Yeah, and I mean, you didn't watch
Premiership Tens Performance & Rankings
00:14:55
Speaker
last weekend. Harry Randall seems to be the real deal. So yeah, he's good. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah, it's a strange move. And I presumed Whiteley and Davies were going to be the two guys riding that nine shirt for the Saracens for a long time. But
00:15:12
Speaker
I was wrong. Yeah, it looks like that's not the case. No, it'll be so I assume it'll be yellow Davies for for a while with this and that. So we'll yeah, it just doesn't doesn't make a ton of sense. No, I don't know. Maybe Whiteley's from the Bristol area and maybe wants to go home.
00:15:31
Speaker
Yeah, it beats me. Mr. Whiteley, if you're listening, we have questions. Please explain. Nothing. Hey, there's no judging. We have questions. Yeah, I got to ask. Yeah, that's not the place I would go. That's all I know. Right. That's my thought at least. And then Exeter, losing Tom Francis, he seems to be going... Is that north from Devon? It might be north from Devon. Is it east?
00:16:01
Speaker
Devin's kind of down there and out there so. East to Wales. So either way going to Wales so we can play potentially more Welsh rugby internationally so and that's fine you know I think.
00:16:18
Speaker
I think that Lee can use the quality of the likes of him. Roland's potentially moving there. Priestly moving back there. Yeah. And it's good for him. He'll play. Fuck. I mean, yeah, he's definitely gonna play a lot of that club. He plays okay, but I mean, he's, you know...
00:16:33
Speaker
he's never going to break that they're, they're starting, you know, they're steady starting. No, it's really hard to unseat those guys. So yeah, although Harry Williams isn't a job, but you know, different story for a different day, I suppose. So we have that and then a couple of Quinn's heading, heading north of the border, Glenn Young and James Lang go both going to go join in the Capitol.
00:16:57
Speaker
And they both have been capped by Scotland. So I think it's a good opportunity for a squash rugby to get some of their own players in as much as it's been an exodus. People are leaving. Yeah, as much as it's been an exodus, you know, to get people to go back is obviously going to be very helpful. Right. Yeah. And, you know, Lang will probably...
00:17:15
Speaker
He plays a lot for Quinn's, sometimes I wonder. Yeah, I think he plays a little too much, but... Yeah, so he's definitely going to build up his game in there. He'll fit in excellent in Scotland rugby. He's not a threat to break the line, but he'll make his tackles.
00:17:30
Speaker
Yeah, he definitely does that. So there you go. And Young's very good second row. Yeah, yeah. That's a good get. That's a quality one right there. Showing. He's been all over the fucking place. Right. Yeah, he's played quite well, especially without the piece on the pitch for the...
Leadership in Premiership Rugby
00:17:49
Speaker
Yeah. He's been filming right in without the hitch. So that's a good get. Yep. And then more north of the porter, the lettuce is moving north.
00:18:01
Speaker
Leaving Worcester and going to, going, going home. Worcester. Worcester. Going to Glasgow. So you know who they could replace him with though? Who? Who would be fun? Who would make that team even more fun?
00:18:20
Speaker
Sit out. Yeah. Can you imagine that? Let's add the misfiring magic of Danny Cipriani to a team that just all it is is misfiring magic. It's like when that works. He's got a shot to nothing. He's got to take it. So whatever. And if it works, it works. And it's beautiful. And if it doesn't, okay, we'll try again in a second, but it's nothing that usually stops him. So right.
00:18:47
Speaker
So that's what I was thinking. As soon as I... Wouldn't be unusual. We talked about that. I was like, Cipriani, send them north. Hey, it wouldn't be unusual for DC to... I mean, it's not really going to change anything for Worcester. Like, oh, we didn't score. Big deal. Right, exactly. Could you imagine that reclamation project if Cipriani goes up there and they just put pedal to metal and go and...
00:19:17
Speaker
Um, that'd be great turnaround for them and for him. So that's, that is my, I want that to happen now. I mean, without, without that happening right now, you obviously assume Billy Searle is going to assume the role of the 10 shirt when, when we are does leave. And who the fuck really wants that besides Billy Searle? I'm sure Billy Searle wants it. He's been, you know, he's been a journeyman his whole career. I'm sure he's a band-aid at this point, either way.
00:19:44
Speaker
He's not he's not gonna be the permanent solution. So I like him. I like it. I think I like him more as a center anyway, but that's me. See how that works out. Kindly and what and very well leading us into a little topic that we wanted to talk about last week and we
00:20:05
Speaker
And we kind of alluded to it, um, premiership tens. And we're just, I just want to kind of throw the ball around a little bit here and not get too formal with it. But, um, so let's assume that these are the starters for each team. Bath, Reese, Bristol, Sheedy, uh, uh, Exeter for Simmons, um, Lloyd Evans for cluster, Ford for Lester, PJ for Irish, uh, Marcus Smith for Quinn's right now. Brett Connan's probably the starter for new castle, bigger for Northampton, AJ for sale.
00:20:34
Speaker
Umaga is probably their preferred 10 for Wasp and then obviously we're for Worcester as we alluded to. And there's other names you can throw in there for many of the clubs, although I don't know who the hell's playing backup 10 for Irish, maybe Brophy Clues, but- That's what I would have put there. Yeah, but really, we haven't seen him much there, unfortunately. I think giving him a run there would be good, but we just haven't seen him much there, so.
00:21:03
Speaker
As far as those go, the best of the bunch is probably- Marcus Smith. Yeah, it's gotta be. It's Marcus Smith and it's not close. He can do it all. Let's put it that way. Including, who the fuck did he tackle this weekend?
00:21:27
Speaker
Hold on. Let me figure that out. Wait a minute. Somebody extremely large for the Irish. Was it Cowan? I think it might have been Cowan. It might have been Cowan, yeah. Not even a smart tackle, not one of these, like, I'm just going to put you on your ass. If this is open field, Cowan's at full pace and Smith's like, yeah, you're just going to end up on the ground because I can do that to you. I got you.
00:21:52
Speaker
Um, his, his boot is fantastic. He can run and score tries. Um, he really is the, he does it all. He's the, to me, he's the only complete, he's the most, basically in all phases of the game, the most complete 10 in the game. Yeah. In the prem. Right. Um, second behind him, is it Simmons?
00:22:17
Speaker
So here's the names that I'll throw at you. Here's, there's a lot of them. Reese Sheedy Simmons, Bigger and Ford.
00:22:28
Speaker
Yeah, you know, I almost think AJ deserves discussion there, but I'll leave him out anyway, because that's that is too many people. To me, the Reese and Ford are are like third tier. Okay, I would take Sheedy and Simmons.
00:22:50
Speaker
Really?
Rugby's Exciting Moments
00:22:51
Speaker
I'm sorry. What was it? You had bigger there. Bigger and Simmons. I think. Sheedy's on that. I would put Sheedy on that line with Reese and Ford. Yeah. Yeah. So of the two, one's got international plot. It's the one another one doesn't. Is bigger. One's a fucking MBE. So. Yeah, that's also true. That's also true. Couldn't not say that at least.
00:23:20
Speaker
He's actually listed in my notes as Joe Simmons and B.E. I say whatever, man. Yeah. Rocky Clark lists it in her Twitter profile. Right. I can't say I blame him. Yeah, I guess I will.
00:23:41
Speaker
Only because it's just been recent. I'll put Simmons slightly ahead of bigger, but bigger has played quite well recently.
Bath vs Wasps Match Analysis
00:23:51
Speaker
His career overall in the prem and whatever, a little lacking, but so we'll put Simmons slightly. Yeah, but his international career is better. It's fantastic. He has one and Simmons doesn't right now.
00:24:04
Speaker
But at the same time, I feel like on the international stage, Bigger has played up there with the best. And Simmons, he doesn't always have great matches. Like he's their captain, but...
00:24:18
Speaker
It's more like a Brad Barrett kind of thing where he brings a lot to the table, but he's not the athletic and the big play guy. He's the guy who puts the ball in the right people's hands at the right time. Whereas bigger, you fall asleep on him and he's on a close. Yeah, he's been quite a threat lately.
00:24:43
Speaker
So I yeah, I would go with bigger over over over Simmons, although Simmons has been fantastic recently. Yeah. And then of the next bunch, I mean, it's really hard to ignore Callum sheetie in the way he's been playing, especially recently, you know, he's got he's been he's been the fly half of a team that got to a semi final in the premise, the fly half of a team that won the Challenge Cup. Right? I don't think you can ignore that, you know, you can't, he's been he's been excellent.
00:25:13
Speaker
And he was even an excellent tour again this past weekend against Joe Simmons, outplayed him. So I think... I would put him behind those other two and then probably recent forward is really close.
00:25:32
Speaker
And really honestly, apart from Ford's game last weekend, not this past weekend, the weekend before, I don't see enough from Ford to really say, yes, if Ford were to walk into the US team, I'd still want AJ, the reigns of the US team. That's how I feel about that. So honestly, I think we've just answered our own question by putting recent AJ maybe in that order and then putting Ford after that. That's what I would do.
00:26:01
Speaker
Let's be real. The way sale play when RDP is in there, it's not the same. No. And AJ's kicking percentage has been way better this year. I don't know. Duprios is like career 60, 70 percenter. AJ's kicking close to 90 right now. So, yeah, no. I'm taking that guy. Taking AJ. Yeah, like anything that's in the attacking half right now is a threat to be a penalty with McGinty at 10. And Sam, are they...
00:26:30
Speaker
And he can scoot, and he can scoot now and again. I'm pretty sure they're actually, yeah, he can. And I'm pretty sure they're actually scoring in ways that they didn't like, I feel like their, their defense won them matches last year. A lot of it. Yes. Whereas, whereas now their attack, they're putting up, they're putting up points.
00:26:47
Speaker
So I haven't and I'm not I haven't done any fucking research on this. So I'm probably shooting out the bum. Exactly. So we'll call them scoring being being big scorers last year. Yeah. So
00:27:03
Speaker
and then forward after that and then really it's like a couple of unknowns and and just kind of meh guys there and not to say that all these guys are meh but you know umago's got loads of talent still
AJ Bell Stadium Match Overview
00:27:17
Speaker
has a lot of developing to do a lot i i think i
00:27:22
Speaker
I wouldn't have him as if I'm wasps. I'm considering not having him as my 10 because of how well Atkinson has played. Yeah, he played really well. He's outplaying him and he's younger. I feel like Omaga has gotten a lot of
00:27:37
Speaker
this, Oh, he's young. He's going to, he'll learn. He'll, he'll figure it out. And he's not figuring it out. And Atkinson just shows up and it's like, Hey, I'm just going to do this. And Oh, I got it. I think at this point, you're looking at the league is adjusted to Jacob Bumaga. It's now Jacob Bumaga's turn to adjust back. Yeah. If you can do that, then he will be fine. He will be right. He'll be one of the best tens in the league without a doubt. Um, but he's riding the struggle bus right now. Yeah. He has a little bit. Um,
00:28:05
Speaker
I like weir over him easily right now.
Bristol Bears Performance
00:28:08
Speaker
Yeah. And then, you know, you have the likes of Lloyd Evans, who's been a little bit meh. He had a couple of good flashes, but although that pass you through the other week, you can sail to Harris was really good. They play better with him, though. They do. They have played much better than him. That same thing with AJ. They're not winning, but they're playing a lot better. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever it was with DC,
00:28:31
Speaker
And it might have been kind of similar to the England squad with DC, just they weren't really buying into them for whatever reason, which is the stupidest thing you possibly do, but hey, that's how it is. So yeah, we're Evans and Umaga probably kind of in their own little category there. And like, I kind of want to see more. It's really what it is. And we're, you know, again, we're,
00:28:58
Speaker
They don't score. So what that that's, that's on your, you know, on your 10 lay a little bit as to why, why they're not putting up the ball over the line.
00:29:08
Speaker
Mm hmm. And then, um, Khan and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and
00:29:36
Speaker
that you would take instead of Bonilla starting guys. I'd rather have Bonilla than than the certainly the last two guys we mentioned. Yep, he's pretty good.
00:29:48
Speaker
He's easy. He proved himself at Jaguars too. So and you know, if we want to talk about Maylands at 10. I know. I didn't even that didn't even enter my brain because he's heard. I had I had bed low down there. Okay. If Eden could be an option, but I had bed low. I had bed low as Bristol's reserve 10 at the moment. And Cameron Redpath.
00:30:11
Speaker
who is just showing flashes left and right. And I know he's at center, but he's also what, 20 and basically going to be green to be the next fly. He's a lot younger than I thought he was. I think that's a real mistake that sale made there. Huge mistake. To keep Rob Dupree, who's only going to get older and really isn't that good anymore.
00:30:35
Speaker
over Cameron Redpath, who was definitely got, but he's got bags of talent, and the kid looks lively. And, you know, you want a place you want,
Premiership Standings Overview
00:30:43
Speaker
you tend to be lively, you want, you don't want your tend to just be some, just another guy, you want to, you want him to be lively, and he looks like he's got the, the gumption to say, let's go forward, and let's get this thing done. And who have they, I mean, saw dog woo to doing some things. Like, they've just, it's been odd, you know, to see,
00:31:06
Speaker
like sale, talking towards the end of Dymo's time there about how, yeah, they didn't really build an Academy system. They didn't have any infusion of youth. And they didn't really have anybody they could rely on. They're patching their team together with Safas because they can't grow anybody. And it's like, well,
00:31:32
Speaker
Well, they may have their answer now. Yeah. We didn't, we didn't talk about it before, but we have, you know, they may have their answer to that now with Alex Anderson coming in to, to sell for Manchester, whatever you want to call it. And, you know, possibly putting some sort of, you know, better stamp on, on what there is right now. And, you know, certainly understands how to build a,
00:31:57
Speaker
Yeah, with this time with with the at the formerly known as the Allianz, I'd say so, you know, and he's, he understands what it takes and knows how to put a culture together. I said to you, I do find it funny that Dimes makes the comments he makes when the relegation and the salary cap thing drop, and say I'll go out of the way to hire one of Saracen's coaches.
00:32:23
Speaker
Yeah. So something sort of about that. So you want to make, you want to poke fun at it and the club, but you have no problem snapping up one of their coaches. Hey, on the other hand, I, I guess I have to start, I'm going to have to learn to appreciate sale, but I'm guessing the club culture will change a little bit. I don't doubt
Newcastle vs Gloucester Match
00:32:45
Speaker
it.
00:32:45
Speaker
I can't imagine Sanderson's going to stand for Jono Ross being on that squad. Certainly not captaining it. Or at least him being the fucking tool that he can be. Yeah, no, I don't doubt that for a second. Speaking of which, let's roll that right into Premiership captains. So Bath, as far as I know, is Charlie Ewells.
00:33:07
Speaker
Yes. Bristol, Seattle, Piatow. Oh, no, Luitua. Luitua. Yeah. I knew what I was doing there. Stephen Luitua, Exeter's Joe Simmons right now, Gloucester is, yeah, MBE. Gloucester is Ludlow. Ludlow, yep.
00:33:24
Speaker
Luis. Quince is Luis, but really their on field captain lately has been Dom Brandt because Luis has been banged up. Well, he hasn't played since like one. Yeah, since that first week. Thomas Young's is Lester's captain as far as I understand. Roddersen has more or less served as the captain of the exiles. Mark Wilson is definitely Mr. Newcastle if there ever was one. So. It's close. So there's that Alex Waller for Northampton.
00:33:53
Speaker
Sale, John Ross, Woss, Joe Launchbury and Worcester, Ted Hill. Of those guys, I have to say, and this is definitely gonna be a bit of a bias. Maybe Wilson is the one guy I'm ready to run through a wall for.
00:34:18
Speaker
And I'm not even sure. Compare that to like Brad Bair for the Saracens. Right. You know, and even even Rob Shaw before for Quinn's before he left, you know, there's there's guys that. Launchbury. Launchbury. Yeah, probably Launchbury. I'll give you that one. Absolutely. That's that's I mean, you see how wasps have played with him in the lineup and how much different it is. Oh, it's extremely different. That's true. Yes. No, I'm of all these people and
00:34:46
Speaker
If you're you've listened to the pod, I'm not like the biggest Launchbury fan as an overall player. But that he's more than the sum of his parts like what he brings to the he brings. Yeah, those intangibles that you can't teach a player as a captain. Right. You can't go out of your way to show that you have to you have to have it.
00:35:08
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So I think of the, of the guys I really like on, on that list, um, Lou Attua, Launchbury and Wilson really like those three guys, I could play for it. I, you know what? I have to say Joe Simmons is on that list too. Okay. Fair enough. Cause what he does, like that's, he obviously brings that to the table. Like we, we don't may not see it the same way.
00:35:38
Speaker
And we don't really see Exeter without him. So it's hard to know that much. But damn, if that guy doesn't like I said, he put he gets the ball to the right people. He does his job very, very well. And the people around him respond to him. So same as Launchbury like maybe he's not the Joseph is not the flashiest motherfucker out there. No, but I want him on my squad. And I want him I would. Yes, I think I believe without really knowing enough
00:36:08
Speaker
because as you said, I haven't seen them without him. Yeah, I think he's a brick wall guy. Well, I do think that to your point, the fact that he's so young and is able to command the respect that he does probably does speak fairly highly of it. So to your point, yeah, maybe that's probably something else. I mean, he's not even the best rugby player in his family, literally on a team. Probably not, no. I think most will agree with that at this point.
00:36:34
Speaker
I mean, it's very clear that you ask, you know, any exit or player who the captain is and it's fucking Joe Simmons. So that tells me that tells me enough. The people that look up to him, that tells me enough.
00:36:44
Speaker
Yeah, I like Yule's, I like the Libby's, or Don Brandt, whichever one you want to go for. Rogersson, take him to leave him, Ted Hill, take him to leave him, Waller, whatever. I mean, there's two guys on this list that I would kick in the fucking nuts if I had to play for them. And that's Tom Young's and John Ross, the both of them. No, thank you. Oh, yeah. Thank you.
00:37:08
Speaker
Oh, did I step on you in that ruck? I'm sorry. I think I was trying to clear out over you. How can you sit there and play and like bitch at another team when the captain of your club does the shittiest stuff possible? Like between Young's and Ross, especially Ross. Ross is probably the king of it right now. Like, how can you sit there and bitch about anything dirty that happens at the bottom of a ruck in the middle of a mall, whatever? Like, you can't. And it just it takes away everything that you like.
00:37:33
Speaker
I don't know. I couldn't play for him. End of story. Yeah. Ross is a guy I wouldn't want on me. I mean, actually, both of them. I wouldn't. They're guys who I would not want to play with, let alone four. So those are guys that you got to fish out of fucking bullshit every time. No, no, no. Keep your ass over here. Okay. So that's, you know, as much as
00:37:54
Speaker
props like to be, oh, yeah, we're the top of the food chain. It's like, you know what? There's some guys who you're like, yeah, I'm gonna jump right in the pile for you. Like, no questions asked. Even if they're not the best player, I've proven it. I'll go to the Met for my teammates, but there's certain guys who I've told like, look, you pull shit, you're on your fucking own. I'm not doing it.
00:38:24
Speaker
I had one guy. I'm not taking a bloody nose for your dumbass. It's like one of our teammates we had who was one of those kind of guys got himself into it. Are we thinking of the same gigantic person that you are? Exactly. We thought he was a jumper, but he was like 300 pounds. Oh, my God. That fucking guy. That fucking guy. Oh, my Lord. Yeah. Where did you tell him one day?
00:38:47
Speaker
it was uh we were playing our rival um the wolfhounds and this guy gets himself into a real tight spot and and and one of our other teammates uh this guy matt matty c turns to me he's like ben you know go help him out and i turned to matt and i'm like he got himself into that he can get himself out and that's like you know what yeah yeah fuck that guy like jesus
00:39:11
Speaker
Oh, no. Yeah. There's a couple of guys. You're just like, you think I'm going to go freaking take a bruise rib for your ass? Get the fuck out of here. No way. No way. You deal with it. If you get a red, so be it. But goddamn, like just you're so... Yeah. Some guys are just so dumb and you're just like...
00:39:28
Speaker
Yeah, I'm just gonna let you be I'm just gonna let you be dumb because you're not gonna learn but it's like everybody's so so maybe you know you out there listening to this maybe you don't know this this person we're talking about but you know you know the person we're talking about you know the guy plays for your club somewhere or has played for your club no doubt about it in your mind in the story right and imagine like if you made that person captain that's what it would be like to have John or Tom Young's as your captain so you know like that
00:39:56
Speaker
Can you imagine if this particular person that was on our club had gotten, he got like such a huge head just by getting on the bench of a squad by accident basically. Could you imagine if he was given any authority on the team? No, just no. No, I couldn't imagine that. Get out of here. No, so that's it. Yeah, so my technical feelings of Ross and Youngs are, yeah.
00:40:24
Speaker
So there you go. For whatever that's worth. Yeah. Oh, shit. All right. I guess we can talk about the actual rugby now. Yes. Actual rugby. Yeah. Well, let's start some good rugby. Yeah. Well, let's talk about what was probably the match of the weekend, although I think somebody would argue for another one. But damn.
00:40:44
Speaker
That was amazing bath 44 was 52, you know, and I'll, and I will cop to this. I said this and I looked back on it and I really regret that. I said, like, I said, defense anyone. I'm like, why am I talking about, why did I say that? Why did I say that? This is amazing. This is amazing. We're pitching about, you know, how shit rugby is and how poor and the money to dolo with the thing happens. Body slam on that. Yeah, that was good. That was a good on point right there. And I thought about it before that too. And I was like, why did I say that?
00:41:14
Speaker
He just articulated it way better than I did. Right. But yeah, like, oh, man, this was awesome. Like, I have to show my I have to show my high school team a match. Part of this one for sure. No doubt about it. They will enjoy the hell out of it. They will want them to enjoy it. So how can you not because there's that's the best thing is that like, you know, you talk about defense anyone and and just to because you're not the only one to say it and all that. Right. But like,
00:41:43
Speaker
If you play, it's okay. Long time ago in this grumpy old props life, there was a movie called The Karate Kid. And in that, an older gentleman teaches a young kid who's struggling to fit in in a new place and pissing everyone off, how to defend himself with karate. And there's one move he talks about where he says,
00:42:10
Speaker
And I'm not going to fucking use his, I'm going to say it the way he meant it. Like use our, you know, I'm not going to fuck up the language on it. It says, if you do this right, it's, it's, you can't defend it. And that's, if you play rugby, right. If you attack.
00:42:26
Speaker
the proper way. The proper way? Yeah, you can't defend it. Only for so long, it won't hold up. No. If you do it the way that if you attack the way it's done a lot in the prem where it's, you know, crash ball, crash ball, box kick, that's defensible.
00:42:42
Speaker
that's not that that's that's tactical rugby not not open rugby this was just open rugby and good luck you you know we're going to toss it around we're going to hit that center's channel and then see see what you got you know see if you can reorganize your defense that's really what it is it's about if you you make the defense reorganize enough throughout the down the line and suddenly you've got an overload and you're you're exploiting that that's that's this match that's exactly what this match was i mean
00:43:08
Speaker
You know, started right off the bat with the old man, Priestland. He's, he picked the keys. He looked at what the back line said. Hmm. We got a couple of fatties out here. I'm going to just go ahead and take this for a run and just ran right by him. Put the foot down and go. Yeah. That was, I mean, good on him. That was, that was great. Oh man. Who gave it? Oh, who was it? Was it under Hill that gave him the pass? I think so. It was like, he could have taken it. Like he could have beat those guys. Yeah. You could add room too.
00:43:35
Speaker
He didn't see what was in front of him, but yeah, Reece certainly did. Yeah, I mean, just fantastic match all around. I mean, Underhills, fucking Underhills scored. Underhills doesn't score. No, he doesn't. Brad Shields was alive, apparently. You're like, yeah, my goodness. And- Lima Soppuaga was alive. He played well. Yeah, we talked about him the other week. He has just come into his own, which is great. You hate seeing a guy struggle after a move like this and have to take all the flak for it.
00:44:04
Speaker
God knows, I probably gave him a little bit of it myself. So this is great for him to just see him kind of bounce back and finally persevere. You know, 15 is probably not his favorite position, but he's contributing and he's doing everything he can for this for the WOS squad. So I got to love it for sure. Most importantly, they're playing well, and he's a part of it. Like he's making a positive contribution to a team that's playing incredibly well right now. So that's, you know, good on him. And then we talked about
00:44:34
Speaker
Cameron Redpath. Yes, definitely get him the ball. Yeah. Just a piece of advice. Get him the ball. Yeah, he got some vision to him. That was a great line he ran and he hit that gap perfectly. Yeah, it was very good. And then we talk about elephants in the room. Paulo Adagwoo. What a sensation he's turned himself into.
00:44:59
Speaker
you cannot speak more highly of this of this guy like wasn't great last year very bit part hand got forced by was to play him in a position that he's not accustomed to yeah and he's rewarded them handsomely at this point well he's so it's been fascinating to see his development even through this season
00:45:21
Speaker
His first match this year with them, he just got bounced around a lot. Like it wasn't it wasn't so much that he played poorly because he did well on an attack because that's what he does. But his defensive physicality was was lacking, to say the least, to be completely polite about it. But and so I was kind of like, OK, this is this. I see where this is going because we've seen this before. And we've seen this with wasps before from for their their attacking wings who just don't give a fuck about defense. So familiar.
00:45:51
Speaker
a couple times and yeah.
00:45:54
Speaker
One guy who said he's done with rugby, even though rugby is done with him. Rugby is way over you, buddy. Don't worry about it. But suddenly, Odagu and his physicality, like the plays he's making where, you know, he's physical at two ends, like he's shutting down a lane and maybe throwing a shoulder into a ball carrier and then tracking down the offload, like he's making ridiculous plays and showing fantastic physicality and intent in attacking on defense.
00:46:23
Speaker
Yeah, just absolutely, you know, and then I mean he scored two absolutely brilliant tries, but how good was Josh Bassett's?
00:46:36
Speaker
Ludacris, absolutely, completely Ludacris. I couldn't believe, I was like, he didn't score this, did he? The replay came in, that guy at a closer angle, I'm like, holy shit, he got it. He didn't touch it, he let it go off his chest. All the good things. Yeah, again, and a guy that just doesn't get talked about enough, but goddamn, how good was that?
00:46:57
Speaker
Yeah, just absolutely brilliant. This was an amazing match. Bathlet get away from them a little bit, which was really unfortunate to see because they deserved better. They did get their bonus point to try so they were able to at least recoup that I'm sure they would appreciate a bonus point losing bonus point as well. But it's it's a little better.
00:47:19
Speaker
I saw a lot of good things out of the whole team as well. Falatao has been playing very well the last couple of weeks. I think Bass should be very excited. Unfortunately, he's probably gonna leave and go play with Wales. But hopefully he keeps his form on his way back. Yeah, and then you had that and then you had the meh.
00:47:41
Speaker
at the AJ Bell just I didn't I didn't even met didn't bother. I watched and I watched and barely paid attention because I didn't have to I did not miss much. Yeah, there was not much much to miss. Really? I think I tuned in when when was Beth was at halftime and
00:47:58
Speaker
I don't remember exactly what I saw, but I remember being like, I'm not watching this game. It wasn't, there wasn't much to watch. You know, I was like, look, if this is one of those at the second half, if I, I'm going to, I'll check out the final later. And if they score more than 40 points, then I'll maybe check it. Like combined, not, not, not one team, just combined. If they score 40 points, I think they scored 33. So I was like, no, fuck that.
00:48:24
Speaker
It was a whole lot of nothing. Story of the year, you know, Worcester couldn't finish. They ended up getting a penalty try, for God's sake. Oh, that's the only way they could fucking score is a penalty try? Get the fuck out of here. Yep. So, and, you know, the two people on the sales squad, you probably would just really wish they didn't score. Fafte Clark and John Ross scored. Oh, yeah, I'm glad I didn't need that. Yeah, I mean, this is it. No.
00:48:52
Speaker
Faf chased well and did well to get where he got but at the same time like this is just a ball match and I can't.
00:49:04
Speaker
Yeah, just didn't seem like anybody wanted to really put it by the scruff of the neck really. You know, AJ's boot worked well, and that's really the best thing they had going for them. Tom Curry ended up eating a yellow card as well, and that's part of the reason why. Oh, that's why you got zero points for him. Yes, that's also the answer as well. But that was the penalty try.
00:49:25
Speaker
Okay, so there you go. Yeah, he pulled down a mall. Oh, I did have a question. How did Beaumont fair at eight? Because that just didn't make any fucking sense. Yeah, it was really curious. Nothing that you noticed, but really apart from when DDP is on his game, I don't know what else to do with that eight man position for them. So yeah, whatever. I mean, I was just wondering how they were going to use him like they're not going to can't be a running eight. No, it's just going to be another lock.
00:49:55
Speaker
Basically, it's it was what he was. I mean, glad he's playing, you know, the guy deserves. Right. Guys had to battle a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Where he's at. But for the year. But yeah, nope. Just not not doing a whole lot. And Marlin Yard didn't score a try. What Kelso prize? Shocker of the day. Yeah. Anyway, this is even worth making fun of Marlin Yard about let's go on. Yeah. Next. If there was any questions,
00:50:25
Speaker
about whether or not the Bristol Bears are a thing. I think they got answered. Because they beat so the last time that this happened where Exeter went pointless, not just lost pointless at Sandy Park was Saracens like five years ago. Wow.
00:50:46
Speaker
And that says a lot. And that was probably a quality series and squad at the time too. So that was probably also when Exeter was still just kind of up and coming a little bit. Yeah, they're still turtle heading a little bit. They weren't really on the scene.
00:50:59
Speaker
So yeah, that was great stuff for them. That's an amazing squad that they have there. It's clearly a belief. Harry Randall has absolutely come into his own. That nine shirt's his now. I don't know how you take it away from him apart from the bitrest.
00:51:19
Speaker
Well, yeah, it says it says urine is urine is not bad. And now it's so there was before it was really when we talked about it enough, it was which one's gonna just reach up and grab that shirt. And it's not that we're answer hasn't hasn't answered the bell. It's that Randall's like, no, no, no, no, that's fine, dude. No, that's my yeah. So he's Yeah, and he's done great for that.
00:51:44
Speaker
Right. So, yeah, it's just good stuff from him. And fuck. Yeah. And this whole this whole this whole the whole club played extremely well. So you're a drudra can can hit again still even in short yardage.
00:52:01
Speaker
He doesn't need much space. I don't think he'll understand how much space he needs. It's half an inch and he'll take a mile. And this is an interesting factoid back when John Madden, who was an actual coach and analyst before he was just a video game,
00:52:25
Speaker
Yeah, he was actually a great coach. He's quite a helmet, but he's definitely a good coach. Yeah. Well, he wasn't always a helmet. He was actually really fucking smart for a while. And then he just idiotized himself and it became a thing back before he was stupid. He would, he had it really good. Like he would have insight that there's, you know, he had, there's always these, um, you know,
00:52:48
Speaker
you know, common knowledge, truisms in sports. And one of the things was on the goal line, you need a big back that just powered the fuck over. Madden was the first one to be like, you know what, like fucking Marcus Allen was wasn't a big back. No, he's not. You need just a little bit of wiggle and and and you want a small guy with a little bit of wiggle to get it like gas. And there's semi red Roger doing just that, bringing that to you too. You don't need to pick and go with fucking
00:53:16
Speaker
monster locks, you can just squeeze it out, you know, get it out to a guy you can squeeze through a gap. Nope, it doesn't take much. Just a little bit of power helps. And then yeah, I mean, strong. Yes. Yeah, he's definitely strong. Don't Don't dismiss that he's the dude's frickin strong. Like don't even ask like even give that a second thought like he's absolutely strong. Yeah, and then we had
00:53:42
Speaker
I don't, I absolutely don't blame Sinclair 100% for his reaction. Because you and I have talked about this, the tackle that LCD has been doing of late, and not really liking it. And I don't like it either. Because you get you get half a cleat stuck in the ground. That's a broken leg, your knee, something. Yeah. So I totally agree. And it was right. It was what got a penalty. Was it yellow? It got a penalty. Yeah. And so it was correct. And you know, St. Louis obviously very upset.
00:54:11
Speaker
I used to be more to happen more often. Yeah, at least. Yeah. Ping him and keep pinging him. And then when he if he really does something stupid, then you card him. Yeah, that's. But the reaction was not Sinclair's best moment at the same time. I know. And, you know, I honestly do think it has something to do with the fact that it's like a guy you know, like when you know the referee, it's so much harder to be.
00:54:42
Speaker
Because you're talking, you know, on the way, you're kind of talking to a friend, you know, it's like your club guy who's your club referee, who's who's doing your match. Sometimes you just want to like, yeah, like, dude, come on. But and Sinclair did the equivalent of that, although it was a way more colorful language. And that's really where I draw the line like that. Yeah, that was fucked up.
00:55:07
Speaker
Yeah. And I do like Dixon as a referee, so. Right. What do you make of, and, you know, I know Gens wasn't having it, as he said, but what do you make of him sending off the two props that were fucking around with the scrum? I love it.
00:55:21
Speaker
Yeah, I don't I'm not opposed to it. He said it to them. He warned them. And that's that's that doesn't matter. At that point, you can you can you can't really bitch about it. He said, if you can't do this, I will find you know, we'll bring on two guys that can. He said it to them. And they still fucked around. Like, you got to can't be a helmet at some point, you know, when the referee starts warning you, that's when it's time to put the helmet away. And and, you know, put on the scrum cap instead of a helmet. Yeah, correct.
00:55:49
Speaker
I agree. And they didn't do it. And yeah, ping them. All right. They don't like it. Don't do that. Right. And just and be done with it. And you know, if if it's
00:56:00
Speaker
most referees should be able to pick out which one it was. And really it was both these guys. So it's obviously, cause I think, I think he even said that. I think he's like, since we, those people have been off, we've had great scrums. Like you're not exactly doing, you know, it doesn't, doesn't do you any favors when the scrums get better after you leave.
00:56:19
Speaker
No, that doesn't that does not help you at all. So it's yeah. So yeah, I don't give that I don't get that any credence. He was right to do it. Good job. Just as right as what brace was for calling the five second. Yeah, absolutely. We need to definitely
00:56:38
Speaker
Continue to enforce that one as well because I'm just not having any more of this, you know, eight seconds at the back of the rock like fuck off like let's play God damn it, and also along with that back back to the earlier point we talked about with with the where's the defense right.
00:56:53
Speaker
People keep talking about, oh, we got to figure out how to make scrums faster. Well, these two dickholes are making the scrums slower and the referee's not having any of it. And he pings them and he books them and people are like, I don't like that. Well, shut the fuck up. He's speeding the game off. He's trying to, he's trying to do what you want.
00:57:10
Speaker
You need to correct the behavior somehow, you know, and that's just how it is. Right. The referees that just let countless scrums go down and don't fucking do something about it. Really, I'm in the boat of, all right, you get like one chance to fuck off. After that, you're getting free kicked. And after that, you're getting penalized. End of story. Like there's no, there's the leeway is done. Like you, you are responsible for keeping that scrum up. And I fucking hate doing it too. And I understand. But that's your responsibility. So do your job.
00:57:38
Speaker
And we won't have free kicks and whistles and penalties. We can actually just play. Play rugby. That's what I want to do. Yeah, we didn't come here to watch it or tune in. Somebody said something about that. Big Daddy Scrum. Yeah, there was a referee that said something about that. It was like, I think it was a couple of years ago. I don't remember who it was.
00:58:01
Speaker
just something along the lines of, you know, people came here to watch rugby night, you two scrum and fall on your face or something like that. I don't remember who it was, but it was still fairly funny and on point at the same time. Yeah. Yes. Remember that props. They're not here to watch you dick around with the scrum. They're here to watch some rugby match. Right. Let's let's do that, please. And I enjoy this. I enjoy the shit out of watching scrums. But you know what I enjoy watching better than scrums is good scrums. Good. Yeah. Not bullshit. If you can't scrum, get the fuck off the field. Yeah. Leave.
00:58:30
Speaker
So you're not making the game better. I'm sorry. All you're doing is dragging people down to your level. And that's not the spirit of competition. No, it's not. Kaboom. Kaboom. Let's go up to the north of the border. Correct me if I'm wrong. Newcastle sit on top. Right now. Did I make that mistake? Verifying. No.
00:58:55
Speaker
Well, fuck, my thing is, I guess the table I'm looking at is fucked. Let me go into the... Wait a minute. Let's try again. No, Bristol. Excuse me. Bristol, yeah. I do stand for it. Oh, Bristol. Yeah, actually still... Oh, okay, Newcastle are kind of tied with Exeter. With Exeter. But for the first time in a long time,
00:59:19
Speaker
The top two include Saracen's or Exeter. When was the last time? I can only imagine. It was like, what, 2012 or something like that? Damn. Like, holy shit. I mean, it's a good thing for premiership rugby. I will say that. It is. You want to see
00:59:37
Speaker
You don't want to see Saracens and Exeter running away with the top two spots all the time. Grant, it's great for competition. For the years that those two went at it, it was a hell of a rivalry and it made it fun for those two matches for sure. But you want to see
00:59:53
Speaker
You want to see the new blood coming through you want to see a really cool story like Newcastle getting into the top four right now. Right, you know, and Bristol coming like backing up their, their efforts from last year to this year. Absolutely. And wasps are doing the same. Correct.
01:00:10
Speaker
They still got time so they had a rough schedule so far so when they wait till it softens up a little bit. But yeah, like an exit are looking creaky that's that's another thing that's important that that's important for for a league is not just to have great teams, but have teams that are imperfect. Like, it will be as much as exit or the first few weeks were just
01:00:34
Speaker
out for blood. Boots up, boots up, bums, yeah. Right. Now it's like, oh, oh, it's going to be like that. Well, here's some for you too. Here's your shit sandwich. And that's two in a row and they've been limited to what five and seven. Five and seven each time. Pretty crazy.
01:00:55
Speaker
And it's not that they're, you know, that Exeter are playing poorly so much as they're playing good competition that are not backing down. So it's good to see that it's like, no, it's not, you're not just, this league is not just Saracens and Exeter driven, as much as it would have seemed that way the past couple of years. This is good for the league that Bristol and WASPs and Newcastle
01:01:21
Speaker
especially Newcastle, as you said, fuck. Yeah, great story. And you know, you
01:01:28
Speaker
sales a little too high for my liking. So as our last season, there's a long season, you know, it, and it says these two teams that just had to be next year in the last two weeks, you know, they, they know they gotta, they gotta kill the King. End of story. They know, they know who their target is and they, and they backed it and they, they backed themselves to do it too and do what they did obviously. And
01:01:52
Speaker
They're going to have to do it more than once, obviously, the likelihood is. But yeah, if you want to take down the top dog, you have to bring it. And you can't back down. You can't give a shit what's in their line. You just have to get the job done. And on their home soil, too. I mean, getting back to that. Especially for Russell, like huge. Getting back to that. Huge. Holy shit. The actual topic it had. Yeah. And they're doing it the same kind of way, where the first half is a little...
01:02:21
Speaker
I mean, well, yeah, Rattle scored early. But outside of that, it was still certainly sluggish in the first half. I think that was their only points was the try in the first half. I think so too. And then just... Oh, and we can't just... You know, I know I wanted to move on to the Newcastle match, but we can't move on without mentioning Owen Lloyd.
01:02:43
Speaker
Oh my goodness, how was new Castle Gloucester? Yeah, I want to but like, let's not do that yet. Because Owen Lloyd, how good is he?
01:02:53
Speaker
Oh, like the catch the drop onto the foot and the chase and then he did it again. And then he told it again, like absolutely brilliant, absolutely brilliant. I could, you could not, I don't even know how he does it. And he's not a big guy and he just slips. He just slips you every time. It's that same thing. You know, he's, he's got the, he's, he's slippery and he, but he's strong. It's the strength. It's the, just creating a little bit of leverage and having the strength to, to push through. Yeah.
01:03:20
Speaker
I mean, really at this point, you know, he, he burst on the seam last year and it was only a bit part, but I don't know if there's a good, I don't know if a team that's that Bristol wants to win with doesn't include him at the very least, like either starting or on the bench. It's got to be at the minimum, you know? So back three, back three positions are going to be in starts are going to be,
01:03:43
Speaker
A rare thing at Bristol right now for some people. And just to tie this back to fantasy for a moment, Piers O'Connor right now, although he had a good week this week, he's going to be 12 a lot. And we know that 12 hole is a points hole. It is. Certainly TRM is worth it, but maybe not so much FRD.
01:04:04
Speaker
Yeah, hudo. It's a question, but he may actually and he'll spell, you know, like, I'm sorry, pia tao pia tao is back. I'm sure that'll that'll push him around too. So maybe he'll get some like instead of more hand that would have been O'Connor at 14 this week. So, but it's up in the air. So just be be aware. There's there's like a little warning sign around puruses as far as
01:04:29
Speaker
I'm sure there's a spot for him either way, but you just have to realize where he's playing. Yeah, and then it might limit his points. Absolutely. Agreed. Yeah, let's finally go up to Kingston Park, which was covered with snow at some point. Yikes!
01:04:51
Speaker
Welcome to our world, guys. It's great that they had fans that were like, I'll help. And they're like, we cannot let you help. Yeah. At least they were smart about it. But to the game, more to the game.
01:05:08
Speaker
If I'm out of red, when I'm maybe just reminding that Johnny May, your, your ankles are back there, by the way, just, just, just, just in case you were looking for them, they're, they're back there. And, oh, I'm going to score this try too, by the way. That was ridiculous. The kids he's, he's one of those young back, you know, backline players that this team has, that's just really like,
01:05:34
Speaker
We haven't seen enough of them to really understand what he's got. But man, that's a glimpse right there. Yeah, it certainly is. Holy shit. Very, very, very good bit of play from those from that boy. Was there is there somebody with a better just engine than Mark Wilson?
01:05:55
Speaker
I don't know. I'm not going to answer that because the answer is like, there's there's equals. He's got equals. Let's put it that way. Yeah, he's got equals. That's it. He was I mean, he just didn't seem like he ever ran out of legs. No, just kept going and going. And like, he's like, where did that? Where did is that seven? Where did he come from? I don't know. So many times I was like, what the hell? Here's my problem with you saying that Mark Wilson is a guy who you would run through a brick wall for.
01:06:24
Speaker
Because if he told you to run through a brick wall and you started running towards it, he would beat you there and run through it first. You wouldn't have the opportunity to. He probably would. Wait, wait, wait. Why did I just tell them? Oh, I'm running anyway. Screw it. Why is that fucker taking so long? I'm going to sit around and do it myself. Dude, I took off as soon as you said it. Yeah, maybe that's more to the part.
01:06:49
Speaker
He's quite good. I think you put his hand back up for Eddie too on that one too. You need a guy like that at International Rugby that just doesn't run out legs. You do. That plays in the back row. So good on that boy.
01:07:06
Speaker
It's a shame that there wasn't much that Gloucester got out of this because they didn't play that badly. Right. No, it's such a shame that it didn't this the way this worked out for them. And that's the problem. Like that's their snakebit. It's the same. They're they're in like Worcester territory with that. Yeah, they're getting there. For sure. And it's it's really, you know, certainly frustrating for them, I imagine. I it's time. It is. It's time to go to Seb.
01:07:38
Speaker
They need like Evans gave them a little bit of a jumpstart, but it's it's just they they're not turning over every time yet. They need they need more.
01:07:49
Speaker
You need somebody to get more energy. Yeah. You need somebody to break that half tackle with a step or two and look for the offload. Right. And he'll get the offload or he'll, he'll be the one that gets the step. Right. One or the other. Cause Ackerman's not that guy. He's, he's, he's another like lock at eight, essentially. He's not, he's not.
01:08:08
Speaker
He's a six at best. Yeah, exactly. And that's where he was playing for a long time. I just don't I don't see how this team can continue to expect good things from themselves. If he's gonna play eight, I really don't. And it's just too bad. And I really love Nagel Taylor. I'm glad that Moel got himself a contract as well. Right. That's that's really awesome.
01:08:33
Speaker
And he's doing good. He's got to make a couple of better decisions when he's returning kicks. But yeah, I think you got a lot of people agreeing with you on that. Other than that, no, he's got a lot of like an open play.
Player Potential & Performance Evaluations
01:08:47
Speaker
He's dangerous. He's kind of learning his way around his stuff. You can see which lines are working, which lines aren't. So he's still trying to sort out.
01:08:56
Speaker
how he can fit in at this level. And once he figures that out, fuck, he could be good. But that's always the key for any player with his kind of talent, is whether or not he figures it out. Yeah, most of these guys are. Yeah, Seb will figure it out. He's talented enough to get the opportunities. I'm not sure Moyle is. He needs to get going soon.
01:09:19
Speaker
Otherwise, it's going to be all right. Let's see. He may just be a Jag. So let's see what we got because they have enough back three players that they don't need him to put him out there. No, when they had their full squad. Yeah. Carreras debuted in this game to her for Gloucester. That gives them another weapon back there as well. So just keep your eyes peeled on that one. Last note, knock on wood, but Greg Peterson's play every minute for this club. Wow.
01:09:48
Speaker
That's nuts. So far.
01:09:51
Speaker
That's quite insane as a lock to be doing that. It's not like he's doing it and he's not doing anything on the pitch. He's doing it and he's having, he's affecting the game as well. Especially at lineup time. He's a problem in the air when you're throwing against him and he's a good target. He's getting his carries when he needs them and he's got a good work rate. And he's American, so he's fucking awesome.
01:10:22
Speaker
Yeah. We don't have many reasons to be proud right now. We could be fucking proud of Greg Peterson. I will absolutely be proud of him. He had two missed tackles this week, but that's not too bad. Nobody's perfect. He still had 10 tackles, just the same. Shit. That ain't nothing.
01:10:40
Speaker
Yeah.
Newcastle Falcons Season Performance
01:10:41
Speaker
So Newcastle 22 and luster 10, uh, new castle from the Falcons. They're for real. Um, they ain't going away. They're not going away. Take them seriously. They're not, uh, hopefully hopefully you can keep it up when, uh, when the back half of the season comes around. Okay. And then over to the stoop, um, quite a game we had here.
Quinn's vs Irish Match Analysis
01:11:02
Speaker
Quinn's and Exile's draw at 27 apiece. Wow. I think you mean the Irish win. Irish win at 27. 27. 27. Yeah, really. Quinn's talked about it afterwards. They really feel like this one got away. Absolutely got away. And I agree with it.
01:11:23
Speaker
Yeah. I think you give away a prop try at 78 minutes. Yeah. It fucking got away. And not only that, but they scored four tries and you only scored three. So you didn't even get a, you got one bonus like, or no, you didn't even get a bonus point. No, like it's just, so yeah, really Irish come away with it a little better off because they get three out of this with the draw.
01:11:44
Speaker
Right. So that's good on them. Good on Ollie Hoskins. He's played a lot of matches for the for the prem and marking it with
Individual Player Highlights
01:11:54
Speaker
a try. He had one taken away from him, but it worked. He did two things wrong in this match. One was that well on the day, I should say.
01:12:03
Speaker
One was that little knock-on in the tri-zone or right in front of the tri-zone. And the other was that he cut himself shaving in a way that was obvious on television. Dude, come on, man. How long you been doing this? Clean it up. Clean it up.
01:12:23
Speaker
How long you been doing this, man? What is wrong with you? Any tips? Actually, if you know Ali Hoskins and seriously tell him to get the head blade, I extremely rarely cut myself with it. So there you go. For those of us who don't have much choice and don't want to look silly and have to shave our heads without so we don't have a weird.
01:12:42
Speaker
male pattern baldness kind of thing going on. Yeah, that's that head blade free plug for them. How good how good of a whack did Marler put in on? Who was it? Was it? I don't know. Center's brophy clues. Maybe it was but yeah, probably absolutely. Oh, that looks like it hurt. Like that's, as I said, that's how you separate your ribs. Like, uh huh. Yeah, that that looked like it definitely did some damage and he enjoyed it too. That was the best part. He's like, I like that. Let's do that.
01:13:13
Speaker
I was like, Jesus, he is disturbing. He is such a disturbed human being. But yeah, he put in the hell of a shot. You know, the 910 in this one for the Quinn's was not the reason that this came down to a draw. People will say the decisions made might be kind of on them, but really,
01:13:30
Speaker
There's a whole lot more that could have been done between, you know, yeah, we've had opportunities to put this away and Marcus Smith definitely were a reason that they were even where they were as far as being in a position, but just yeah, they had opportunities and they didn't. And by I correcting something I said earlier in the pod, because now I'm looking more at that line up again, it was to a suey that that Smith tackled. Oh, yeah, there you go. So even that's a load right there. Right. It's even different than Cowan. It's on a whole other level.
01:13:59
Speaker
Fuck. Yeah. So Smith. Smith was just he didn't miss a tackle. He had he was five for five. I'm sorry, eight for eight. Even better. Damn. Right. Eight for eight 80 meters a try. You know,
01:14:13
Speaker
Yeah, three conversions really hard to sit there and put the blame at his feet. I don't think you can. So good. No, no, not at all. And Steel had that excellent little dive over the yeah again. Again, that excellent scrum half tried with squeezing into small spaces. Just kind of sliver and get it over man. Yeah. We saw Rob Simmons make his exiles debut.
01:14:36
Speaker
They've been waiting on that one for a little while, but I mean, I like to see him wallace. Like I said, he made his debut. I didn't really see him play. No, that wasn't what they're still worried about his fitness at this point. So they're slowly into him and I'm sure he's he will make an impact. I mean, right. He got 25 minutes, but he didn't really.
01:14:55
Speaker
No, not a ton of impact off the bench for that case. He only made two tackles, so. Yeah, I'm sure there'll be better days ahead. Yeah, he was good in the line out. That's, that's, that's. Well, that's a big thing that they got him for. Yeah, right. Yeah. Settle him in there. I mean, if, if, if their second row starting is him and, and, um, Coleman, when he comes healthy, it's pretty good, really. It's not shabby. No, not, but not bad at all. Could do worse. Yeah, absolutely.
01:15:21
Speaker
And then we can't dismiss this match without talking about Tom Parton and how well he really played. Just eating up the meters from the back three. Yeah, from the back three position and really, man, I wanted him to score that try so badly. I was like, do it, do it. He totally deserved it. I was really excited. It didn't happen, but yeah. So.
01:15:45
Speaker
I think it's really hard to say, and Homer's been there full back for a long time, but really, how do you keep him out? How do you keep Martin at this point? Homer's not a good full back. I'm sorry. He's probably beyond his day now, and that's just how it is.
01:16:05
Speaker
it's part of this jersey now like how can you like he's legit he was not beating just anybody right i mean this is not a terrible quinn's back line um certainly not defensively i know you know merley's and line are still kind of young but man merley looked like he like tore his hamstring or something shit um
01:16:29
Speaker
Not good. But either way, like the rest, but the rest seems pretty freaking good. And not that they're not good. It's just they're inexperienced. But he was playing seasoned veteran style, like knowing what he could and couldn't get away with and getting away with quite a lot. Yeah, very good.
01:16:50
Speaker
Very good, very good. Homework would never, not never, at this point in his career, he's not going to have, there's no chance of him having that game. So, Parton's got to be your guy. Yeah, he's a solid option at best right now. Parton's going to give you a lot more. Yeah, he's got to have that jersey now, especially because I have him on my fantasy team. When did that to Jim? Yeah.
Fantasy League Updates
01:17:22
Speaker
Speaking of, let's go to the Champions League this past weekend. Ben was able to topple over Duncan. Duncan's struggling in this league, unfortunately, for him. George put up a good score, but man, he went up against the wrong guy this week. Antoni was able to top him. Mark was able to take care of Carrick, and I got my butt kicked by Justin. Man, he almost doubled me up. That was bad.
01:17:43
Speaker
Hi Anton, how you doing? That worked out well.
01:17:50
Speaker
Yeah, just don't don't have the answer for you. Oh, that's right. He will tell him the whole story now. Oh, oh, he only had one, two, three, four, five, six, seven guys out of eleven. Right. He's missing an outside back. He had no outside back, no half back or fly half and no lock, but no lock. Whatever. Fuck that. So basically playing without without three people, but like three.
01:18:11
Speaker
that some of the score, the highest, like, yeah, one out. You need an outside back. And two weeks to eight me up, 26 straight home, 29 for Radwin. I was like, Oh, shit. And then.
01:18:23
Speaker
I had a couple of my centers were both duds. I finished with minus. Yeah, not great. I didn't have it. I mean, yeah, my centers and line of mission finishing with minus just really res, you know, and then my fucking my loose forward options were shite. But Parton Parton won me the match, essentially, although I had some other good scores, it was mostly that and I was really I was I had sat Reese Priestland for Lloyd Evans, which lost me about 10 points.
01:18:52
Speaker
Didn't cost you the game, though. Didn't cost me the game, at least. Although I'm still sitting in top... I believe I'm sitting in top four, top two and... Top two. You're four and two. You're leading... I think right now the top four scores in our league are set for semi-finals, if it were to end today. It's not going to end today, obviously. But if we're to end today, I think top four, the top four scores would be in the semi-final, which is really how it should be.
01:19:21
Speaker
Yeah, I think you're right. Yep. I'm close. I'm catching up, but I have a ways to go. Yeah. A couple of guys had some pretty dreadful starts, but nobody's winless. Nobody's winless, but Anton's not yet lost. So let's see what happens when we finally come back to this. And Duncan is struggling, but he still has more total points than I do.
01:19:41
Speaker
That's, that's something right there. It means he's just playing the wrong guys at the wrong week. Sorry. That happens, man. I've been there. He does have, well, he has the second highest points against next to George. Oh man. Or George. George has the lowest points for highest points against. Oh.
01:20:01
Speaker
Wow. And then TRM. I have a coffee. He needs it. Yeah, definitely. TRM, it's you and Anton sitting. Anton won you two. And then me, right behind you guys, not too, too far. Only, I mean, I'm only 75 points behind Anton and with you between me. So that doesn't take much. That takes the right captain.
01:20:22
Speaker
I was extreme. Yes. I bucked the trend. I didn't go with Simmons this week. I did not either. I was like, well, I have him as my kicker. So why don't I get his kicking points too? So I went with Marcus Smith. Yeah. I smelled a fuck you game from Dom brand and I got it. Oh, yeah. 32. 32. That's a good one. So that was not a bad one either. On the other end. We both had considered Odagu.
01:20:46
Speaker
Yes. I wish I had done it now. Damn it. On the other end, um, the character had a bit of freefall. Like the only person that he's not behind right now is, is Justin who had a, who had to eat a zero. So that's true. Yikes. Um, yeah. Carrick is. Oh, he had, he had Walmart minus six. Oh yeah. That hurts. Cause he's still captain Dom brand. So that, that should do well. And the rest, yeah. The rest of his team actually.
01:21:12
Speaker
He just didn't have any high scores. No, he didn't begin outside of Dom, Brad as well as I thought he would. Oh, he had Radwan. Oh, that was a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one, too. Yep. That's a good grab there. Who did you have the high score of the week? You did. Yeah, I was a top 250. Yep. Yeah. Although Justin had a good one, too. He had 471. He's just struggling from that zero. That's all. Yeah. He had Hoskins. I had Hoskins on my bench. I'm so pissed about that. Me too.
01:21:42
Speaker
But OK, so think about it this way, right? So I had I started Obano Waller as my props and had had Hoskins on the bench. I thought about it this way because I also had was it Tom Willis and I started Ben Earl who only got me seven. And like, yeah, as long as they're on your team, you're you're.
01:22:02
Speaker
you're generally it's not going to be that much different right because like the yeah there's a big difference between um huskins at 52 and him at 26 but waller got 18 so it's like even if i if you switched them it's you know you're gaining 52 points but you're losing nine
01:22:23
Speaker
Like you're gaining 26 points, but you're losing nine. So it doesn't quite work out. It's not as bad as it seems. As long as you have a good score on your team.
01:22:34
Speaker
Yeah, in the 23 for sure. You're not in the 23. You're not really, you're not losing nearly as much as it seems like you're losing. I found where my hole was besides Chris Harris getting almost nothing. Tom was at minus one. Oh, yeah. Yep. Did not forgot about that. Oops. Yeah. Earl Bennerle was my hole with seven. Yeah. Captain. Yeah, at least you didn't do that.
01:23:00
Speaker
I wouldn't captain anybody against Exeter. That's smart idea. As far as like smart ideas go, that's not a good one. Right. So, unfortunately, fucking permership. Why do you got to do this to us? So, we might be back next week. We might not. Oh, okay. Is it possible that they pull the games in?
01:23:24
Speaker
I don't know or if we happen to get enough material. Sure. Right now, I'm not planning on it, but next Saturday, it's gonna be fun time because it's gonna be episode 100. Nice. And it's gonna be a good day for us. So yeah, next Saturday, we're gonna celebrate pod 100 because
01:23:47
Speaker
I don't know how the fuck we got here, but we did. Right. So we're going to celebrate it. But yeah, just it's a good change of flavor and just, you know, something different. So it'll do us some good. And then after that, we're going to start talking about like super rugby in six nations and all that shit. Yeah. So we're getting there, man. Get ready for that. I guess we're getting another live draft for the other one. Show me a person that doesn't like live draft. It's going to be fun. I also had an idea floating around in my head.
01:24:16
Speaker
At some point, we need to do a 15 aside Fox scoring league in one league doesn't care. Don't care which one like dynasty style.
01:24:27
Speaker
Okay, keeper league. Yeah, well, yeah, like a lot, like a bunch of keepers. Okay. And then, but then we'll have to work out what we do for when guys leave and all that shit. But we can, we can at least work that out. And, you know, we have things like Excel and sheets and all that shit now. So we can at least work that out. Even if the system can't hold it, we can at least keep track of it. So I figured that's the way to go with that. So,
01:24:53
Speaker
We'll keep that in mind for maybe sometime next year with either Premiership or Super Rugby likely. All right. You thinking? I like the thoughts. Yeah, it's just different. It's just different because we like different right now with this because like Justin said, once upon a time, you know, everybody plays the same. So you want to do something different, you know, and that's how it goes.
01:25:14
Speaker
But until then, at the very least, we'll catch you next Saturday.
Listener Engagement Channels
01:25:19
Speaker
If you're on lookout for Ben and I on Twitter, fancy where we podcast at gmail.com for questions. If you want to get questions for episode 100, just shoot us a message there or hit us up on Twitter.