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Season 4- Episode 18- The Almost Anniversary (Premiership Round 12)
32 Plays4 years ago
It's those American rugby knuckleheads ready for you to join in on a laugh with. On this episode, we discuss the almost anniversary of our most downloaded episode of all time and the cause behind that (here's a hint, it had nothing to do with rugby). We have a look at the discussions surrounding the upcoming Six Nations and what's being done to be sure the tournament goes forward without issue. We, of course, look back at the week that was in the Premiership, with five matches to dissect and take a bite out of where we see fit, including a certain former English and European champion. Kick back, have a pint of something good and enjoy!
Get the TFRY Patreon https://www.patreon.com/TheFantasyRugbyYanks , subscribe and start getting a leg up on your friends.
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 Podcast Promotions
00:00:08
Speaker
Hey, everybody. Welcome back to this amazing game. My name is Jared Dyke. I'm Ben Glauser. We're in. Let's get going. Plenty to talk about even with a canceled match. So we couldn't stop talking to each other going into this. So we have we have we have words to say. So let's just say a mother recorded. Yeah, but I'm going to need to. Yeah. Yeah. Let's open it.
00:00:33
Speaker
minus where you get your favorite on your favorite podcast app and your favorite podcast, I suppose. Only your favorite. Don't go to a secondary one. Go to your favorite. Download review, as always, subscribe, recommend all that good stuff. All that good stuff. We had one of our our Patreons. We do have a Patreon that we'll talk about a little bit. That was really nice to.
00:00:58
Speaker
get some love for doing well. Our Patreons are pretty happy and it's nice to get some quality feedback about it. Yeah, much appreciate Alex. Thank you so much, Alex.
00:01:13
Speaker
So in the meantime, buy our friend Georgia coffee. Yeah. If you if you're doing well on that, you probably owe it to him, too. Trust me in more ways than one. So buy him a coffee. And if you need to see this buying him a drink, do that, too. That's OK, especially that now, you know, it's the new year. It's time to, you know, it's like a Christmas bonus, too. Right. I gave Georgia a nice little Christmas present. Christmas presents. You know, thank you for the advice because he has. Yes. As much as we have our thing, he's fucked.
00:01:43
Speaker
He started it. He started it. He's partially our inspiration for some of the stuff we've been doing.
Support and Gratitude
00:01:51
Speaker
Big ups to George.
00:01:54
Speaker
Right. Grab your TRM upgrades because as Ben and I were discussing, it'll let you know when you have guys on by and there might be a lot of them this week if you have a good number of exiles. I've got too many spots. So it's helpful to see that right away. Yeah. So if that is not enough for you, then I don't know what we'll be, especially considering that
00:02:16
Speaker
Before we had it, like I can definitely tell you there were a number of times where I went, oh, shit, he's not playing. And either just barely got it in under the gun or I missed it. So it helped me the other week with when Willis dropped late. Correct. I had I just switched switched over to my team real quick right before the game was about to start. Saw that and was able to swap guys in and out. So it is not really helpful for those late last minute drops. They're they're really quick about that.
00:02:41
Speaker
Because it is nice to have that. Which has been happening a lot lately. Yeah, I know. Right. All the last minute drops killing us.
Social Issues and Accountability
00:02:50
Speaker
As always, Black Lives Matter on this podcast. And there is no room for racism. Tomorrow is an anniversary of a source that I wish we didn't have to think about. But unfortunately, it's the anniversary of our most downloaded pod ever. Yeah. There's that too. Oh, wait, that's not what we're talking about. But that's not what we talked about on that podcast that we were so interested in, unfortunately.
00:03:12
Speaker
or it was what we talked about on that podcast, that it was that got so many people to download it. Did we even talk rugby that whole time or did we just talk about it? Oh, God, for a solid 20 minutes, we were into it, man. I couldn't. I like, yeah, like I blacked out during that. Like, yeah, that was totally. Yeah, I might have to go back and listen. I don't know. Maybe I just don't want to. I don't want to be that mad again. Are you kidding me?
00:03:36
Speaker
Well, but I kind of still am. I mean, I am too, but like not to that degree. Yeah. By any means whatsoever. I think it was raw. I was fresh.
00:03:45
Speaker
Right. But what's pissing me off is we're a year later and nobody has been held accountable. And we got some people making some speeches. The leader of our Department of Justice, our Attorney General, Merrick Garland, made a speech today. And it's just the same bullshit. It's that nobody is above the law. We're going to go where the facts lead.
00:04:11
Speaker
I mean, this is what we'll do. And it's like, we've fucking heard that shit before.
00:04:16
Speaker
Pretty sure we heard that same thing 12 months ago. Right. We've heard all of this stuff before. We heard it with Mueller and that went nowhere. Like, we hear this and nothing happens. And then when they say no one, you know, there isn't, you know, everyone, like their same justice system applies to the wealthy as it does to the poor. And it's like, no. Don't believe that for a second. Doesn't, are you fucking kidding me? Could you imagine if, so if BLM had done something like this, they would be fucking dead.
00:04:44
Speaker
Right. Every last person there would have been shot. And and the fucking president who sent them would have been arrested by now. And so, no, don't don't don't don't give me that we have the same justice system for the wealthy is for the network. Get the fuck out of here. So, yeah, that's that's what pisses me off for a year later. And could you imagine if a year after 9-11
00:05:08
Speaker
Bush was like, well, we're going to get there. No, no. So, yeah. So we'll make up another word, W. Right. So, fuck. Yeah, that's that's what pisses me off is that that we're a year past all this, but it's gone nowhere. And these these people are just going to cover it up again. Likely, unfortunately, it's and yeah, that's a fucking disgrace. So.
00:05:35
Speaker
Yeah. As we ask for, you know, for for feedback, could you please send us some like positive vibes for our country? Yeah, I know. Please send. Send us all. Help us all. Put a box, put a box for the ribbon and say hope. Yeah, please send donuts or something. Yeah, I like donuts. I feel better with donuts. Donuts. Cheese makes me feel better.
00:06:06
Speaker
As Ben alluded to before, our Patreon is out there and if you are so inclined to kick the ass of your friends and opponents, go ahead and give it a look. Give the freebie a look and there's obviously, I've been posting my rankings every week. So there's that too. That is free on there as well.
00:06:28
Speaker
give that a look. Which is also good advice. Yep. If you're convinced, then subscribe. If I'm not mistaken, at least for your fly half, your rankings were actually like perfect this week. I'm just saying that we got some value. As much as we joke about, here's your bad advice, it's fucking good advice. So suck it.
00:06:54
Speaker
Well, I looked at it and I was just like, well, because I watched in the matches, I'm thinking, oh, there's no way, you know, Marcus got one. And I'm like, well, shit, how about that? Like, yeah, pretty well on the money. Couldn't ask for better. There was a tie, you know, I don't predict ties, but, you know, on that, you know, got one, two and five right in the middle and tied. Fair enough.
00:07:19
Speaker
Alright, so New Cycle wasn't light, but at the same time, there was one thing that kind of came to the fore and that was Six Nations being hosted by England.
Rugby Discussions and Analysis
00:07:32
Speaker
I don't know about that. I'm kind of a meh on that. Well, I mean,
00:07:42
Speaker
Outside of Italy, if the fans want to come, I'm not sure how it would work for France because you got to travel across a little pond. But it's not that far. I don't know. As an American, distance doesn't fucking mean anything to me.
00:08:01
Speaker
Yeah, I would like to see other teams. Yeah, I'd love to see fucking Ireland at home. Love it. Right. But like I just I don't know when Scotland crowds are going to be mostly silent anyway, so it doesn't. I just I don't like the idea of, you know, this.
00:08:20
Speaker
this presentation that England's like, yeah, we're gonna, it's gonna be awesome here. It's like, okay, why is it gonna be awesome there exactly? Yeah, actually, if anything, I probably know, because I don't know, French, they have problems too. It's just weird. Yeah, England's not doing great. It still might be the best of the options. Right.
00:08:40
Speaker
if they have to do it that way. Yeah, they've said that they'll do matches behind closed doors rather than postpone them because it's really no room. Right. Hello, European rugby. There's no room, remember? So, I don't know. I'm still out on this. I'm not sure about it. But
00:09:01
Speaker
I guess if it gets it done, to me, that's all I really care about. I guess the only thing I'm willing to say, yeah, but if they're okay to play the matches in each stadium, whether or not there's crowds, I know it sucks without them.
00:09:17
Speaker
then I think you do it, you know, like you don't rob these guys of home games. You know, that's just whether those crowds or not, you just don't, you know, because it's not just the crowds. You get to sleep in your own fucking bed, you know, and you get to have your normal routine that you have become accustomed to.
00:09:39
Speaker
when you wake up and that's, that's what I'd be more about than as opposed to, but maybe, maybe that's just me being a little too picky. So I don't know beats me, but whatever.
00:09:56
Speaker
Whatever. Yeah, again, I mean, let's just get it done. Let's play the games. I mean, I want to do no doubt. No doubt. That's that's the first. That's the first thing I want. Let's get those matches played because I'm not sitting here without six nations for the whole late winter or spring. That's what gets you through those dark days. All right. Let's jump into the problem. New Year's Day, AJ Bell and
00:10:24
Speaker
kind of a lackluster performance from the Was and we saw some good things ish from sale. I mean,
00:10:33
Speaker
Not terrible ish. No. And in a lot of ways was kind of played right into sales fans. Right. The way they played. So it's like they're like, hey, giving them this match. Good job, guys. Yeah. Everything's through the forwards. There's no like, yeah, there's there's like except except for the try. Yeah.
00:10:55
Speaker
But they just like it was, it was either nine to a forward or through a first receiver to a forward. And that was it. And it wasn't even like a distance that distance. It was like a full short. Yeah. Or right off the shoulder of the 10. And like, what are you doing? Why? What? Yeah.
00:11:20
Speaker
Like, yeah, it's disappointing, although obviously, you know, we know, umaga was out different 10, although goprith.
00:11:27
Speaker
Goprath reminds me of another guy playing in black and gold who's retiring finally five years too late. He's looking Roethlisbergian out there. He doesn't have his fastball. I'm not sure he has a change-up or a curve either. He wasn't looking at his youngest and spriest.
00:11:53
Speaker
Which really sucks when you know when you play the sale you have to move the ball. Their forwards are too big and strong and tacklish. Well, I guess maybe not DDP.
00:12:07
Speaker
jail who got no didn't getting sat the fuck down oh yeah that was great i mean i mean that's like that's not a nobody either they sitting let's let's remember that like i mean that's well that's what you love about rug because any that can happen to anybody it's not nobody's impervious to that just because you know all it takes is somebody
00:12:28
Speaker
doing, you know, getting you just at the, you know, off balance in the right way. And yeah, you're going acid for tea kettle. Um, but it's great. And then he got up and just shook his head. Like, I can't believe I just let that happen.
00:12:40
Speaker
What just happened? Yeah. But that, to me, was the most like that. That was the most entertaining part of the match. Right. He was was battle like. And that's not to belittle the other things. That was actually extremely entertaining. Right. You know, this wasn't much of anything else coming from us. No. And this could have been.
00:13:01
Speaker
This could have been a nice battle of nines if we'd had the right ones playing in this match. Oh, God. Yeah. I mean, you know, even just Quirk and I think Will Porter or even, you know, God willing, we would have got Robson in this one. But right. That's not happening for a bit soon. But I like how we were both at the same time like, OK, could they're bringing in Gus War because Gus War has played well this year.
00:13:27
Speaker
And so it was like, okay, Cliff had a bad game. He's also played fairly well this year. They've really had good scrum half play sale have, regardless of who they've put in there. But Cliff was bad. And then Gus Warr was coming in. We're like, okay, cool. Maybe we'll get something good. And it was like, oh no, this is worse. Oh, it's my worst. This is not good.
00:13:47
Speaker
It was way worse. It was so bad. It was like, well, we can go back to the guy that was in there before. But it was good enough to win. And that's really all that matters. Yep. So I don't know. Lost her in trouble, too. So yeah, they're they have moved past like kind of got to see it territory to like, or, you know, they were kind of on the cusp maybe to like, oh, they're banged up until like, no, I just don't believe in them. Yeah, I'm not believing I'm believing I'm believing them right now. No way.
00:14:18
Speaker
They have a flash on the pan every now and again, but that's it. Right. They're dangerous. Like you can't sleep on them because they'll, they'll jump up and win. You know, they've won four games, but, and they're, you know, they're, they're point differentials. Oh, minus 10. I mean, that's still pretty good. They're to be four and seven considered. Yeah. Oh yeah. But that just means that like, you know, when they win, they're going to win big. Um, and then they lose. Right.
00:14:43
Speaker
All right. And then the other Saturday game over to Devin and. Yeah, there's there's a lot to say about this, but then there's not a lot at all at the same time. I think that's exactly my thoughts. That's funny, because like Bristol are. It's like there's the flashes there, but they did play also quite wasps ish.
00:15:13
Speaker
Randall and Sheedy kind of had poopers. Time. Yeah, there was there was so much good there, but not nearly enough. No, no, not enough. Not enough at all, unfortunately. You know, and here's the sad facts, like I like Luke Pierce a lot.
00:15:40
Speaker
He should not do another Exeter game. No, he really shouldn't. He shouldn't be doing Exeter games. That was bad. He was poor.
00:15:48
Speaker
There's a thing for the Premier League where you have to basically declare your allegiance to whatever club you follow as a referee so they don't schedule you for those games. And I really feel like we need to start doing that for these because he might not be purposely doing it, but he definitely has some sort of unconscious bias towards Exeter because the two games I've seen him referee against them,
00:16:13
Speaker
he's like anything that's 50-50 has gone to Exeter and even some of the stuff they didn't deserve, they got. So I was like, this might be a problem. So just a thought, maybe not have him referee this team ever again. Yeah, that was, I think he was not, it was, it was bad. It was noticeable as a, you know, yes, we don't like Exeter and I like Bristol a lot, but yeah, no, that was,
00:16:39
Speaker
Poor. Yeah, it was very poor. I will say we if we could see more of the tries like the purdy try that we saw from Bristol, they might be a better situation because that's pretty awesome. That's the thing. There's they you know, they require they need that spark like.
00:16:58
Speaker
I don't know how to say it other than like it's it's it's like a lie versus dead. It's like, OK, you're kind of just going through the motions versus holy shit. You're actually you know, you're really putting strain on the defense and you're really doing something like you're you're you're evading your you know, throwing the ball around that, you know, moving the ball to dangerous people and, you know, creating holes and popping them into them. Totally.
00:17:25
Speaker
And it was like, Radrajra was doing it, but there was, you know, he's gotta have someone with him. Like, that's why it was, you know, it sucked that Pyotel went out early. But like, you gotta have like someone for him to go to, because if the defense can just key on Radrajra and just say, yeah, we double him. It's like, if you can double tackle Radrajra and not worry about the offload, because there's nobody fucking there, problematic.
00:17:53
Speaker
And Purdy was there. Like, so it's like, okay, cool. You know, have those combinations run off of each other. I'd like to see that. So I'm hope I was I was really this would have been made have been a good game if if O'Connor would have been available. That might have been a good reintroduction for him. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, he was on the bench. I thought, Oh, that's right. I wanted them to put him in earlier. That's the whole time. I'm like, put him in, put him in, put him in. Yeah, I think they can go back to him over bed low at this point, at least.
00:18:23
Speaker
Yeah, because he wasn't even the because who came in first. Purdy came in first, but wasn't he did. Yeah, I was kind of surprised by that because I would have thought peers would have come in because they yeah, I still could have done the same thing. Right. Moving guys around.
00:18:41
Speaker
Yup. Yup. Agreed. But Purdy did well. So he shot me up. He should have come in. He was right. He did quite well. I will say, for all the talk that they love to talk about, the center pairing wearing black, Ollie DeVoto got shit house by Harry Randall twice. Stone walled. I was like, you're supposed to be a 12? Are you sure? You got just railroaded by a friggin' tiny 9 at that. 9s are generally small, obviously, but like,
00:19:10
Speaker
Randall is like an elf and completely stonewalled him. I was like, OK, you kind of suck. So I never want to hear you talk about how great you are ever again, because you ain't that good. And in the same vein, like.
00:19:27
Speaker
people talking about how great Jack Knoll is, I do not see it anymore. There was a once upon a time where yes, he was a very, very good rugby player, and he made a huge impact without fucking up in games. He is not that player anymore. If I hear people talk about him for England, I'm going to punch him like that is not the
00:19:45
Speaker
No, no, no, no, no. There's so much better available in the back three. He is not yet. Like just get his name out of your brain. He's not playing for England anymore. He's not even that good for Exeter. Honestly, like he's not. I just don't know who else I can chuck in there. But right. He's got well, Cordero, I think would be my first name. Cordero or what's the fuck? What's his name? The full deck that they could use. They could move him around to Hodge.
00:20:15
Speaker
Oh, Josh Hodge. They could throw him out there. But, you know, Ian Witten. Witten for for O'Flaherty. Witten needs to play. Oh, my God. Really? Like that is your move. Oh, Rob Baxter. That's the thing. Like so. So let's. Oh, let's put this in perspective for Exeter. Right. They won. Fucking for them. For them.
00:20:40
Speaker
at home to a Bears team that played like poo. I mean, that's really it. Like Exeter can win when the other team plays like poo, which Bristol are playing like poo this year. So not a surprise. Saracen's just went in with their heads up their asses. Shut the fuck up. Right. And that, yeah, so they beat them. But it's like, who else are like outside of like bath and
00:21:09
Speaker
I mean, Worcester, like, and being at home, but, you know, on the road, who are they beating this, you know, at, you know, solidly, like, they're going to, you know, what, what opponent is like, no, I don't care, like,
00:21:21
Speaker
I've lost to they've lost a new castle already. Right. They've lost an Irish already. They lost. Everybody's lost a luster. So that doesn't shock us at this point. Yeah, there's there's a lot that's beatable about them. Yeah. And the way they play. So they're going to there's going to be problems getting because like, yeah, I think they get it. They beat, of course, they beat bath on the road.
00:21:44
Speaker
You know, everybody's lost. And they had to inch out that bass game if I remember correctly. It was. Yeah, they only won by seven. That's got a bonus point. Right. Gloucester, they beat 1613. But that was a couple of weeks ago. I know Gloucester had been having some some injury issues. Yeah, they lost at home to Irish. They barely beat wasps on the road. And we were just talking about wasps. Yeah, I remember that.
00:22:08
Speaker
They humped Exeter at home. Okay. You mean Wooster? That's right. I mean, Wooster. Sorry. One of those. Going back and forth between the two things. One of those. Yeah. Beat Sail on the road, but that was probably without AJ. That was definitely without AJ. And Sail did not know what the fuck they were doing at that point. It's still trying to do, but they're more together now than they were before. Right. But Sail and Exeter are kind of the same team, in my opinion. In a lot of ways, yes. This is true. They lost the Saints at home.
00:22:36
Speaker
Yeah, lost to Saints at home. There's some bad losses there. They're not a team that I'm like, I'm not nearly as nervous about them. I'm not upset that Saracen's like, you can tell, right? If I was really scared about Exeter, if this was like three years ago,
00:22:56
Speaker
I'd be like, damn, that would have been a huge one to have. This time it's like, no, it's just a bad loss. Like it doesn't really help exit. I don't think they're going to end top four. They're just not that good. I mean, everybody's out to just about out to even Steven for this. And what are they going to do when Sam is gone? Like he's their only like, it's not just that he's their best player at this point. He's like their only good player. He's their best runner.
00:23:23
Speaker
He's your best runner. I mean, Hogg is good. Hogg's quite good, but he'll be going too, so. Right, he'll be going too for Six Nations. So it's like you're going to have, like Joe Simmons has been just. Has been subpar, that's for sure. Yeah, not Sir quality by any stretch. No, not the old Sir that we've seen. Yeah. I don't know, Flaherty, as you mentioned, you know, Whitten came in for. Right. And can we stop talking about you, Urs? Dumbass, Dave. Entirely. He doesn't do anything.
00:23:50
Speaker
Yeah, Dave, the caveman. Yeah, he doesn't do anything. And they're always like, oh, you're so good. What the fuck? How how can you praise somebody who does so little so much like? No, not for me. Not for me. Never ever. I'm done forever. All right. Let's go Sunday. Up to Wellford Road. Just good old fashioned pacing for Lester against Newcastle wasn't pretty, but Newcastle just were completely
00:24:18
Speaker
Oh, just brought her to less and they had no idea what the fuck they were doing. I did not watch this match. Probably for your own better than mine. It was not pretty. No, I mean, yeah, I saw, I saw where it was going and I was like, okay.
00:24:31
Speaker
Here's here's the thing. And Lester played quite well, especially considering they were missing a lot of guys. Kenny Murray, very volatile to come on the back row. Right. And Nick Dolly. Like, yeah, it was bad. Yeah, it was bad. So I mean, I don't know when the last time he started a lock was, but he wasn't even supposed to. Like there were there were drops at six. He was at six. Right. But he was his originally when the lineups came out, I thought he was on the bench because I was just in there. Right. That's who it was.
00:25:01
Speaker
So, and he had to drop late. That's how Dolly came into. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. And loads of credit to Lester for just putting together what they needed to do to one, get the bonus point when, and two, just take care, take care of business, even with what they have. And you know, a lot of, a lot of teams have not done well with injuries.
00:25:22
Speaker
Right. Hopefully, for lesser sake, this is the only time they have to deal with this level of injuries. You know, they have Vis, who's out, who's out for another week. Yes. That's his, you know, that's his own damn fault. Yes, it is. But that's impressive. I do like that they that they've been banned them for for two weeks because he's just. Yeah, he's a lot of money except talented. He is. And that's the that's the sad thing about him is like,
00:25:48
Speaker
He doesn't need to be that. You know, he has so much more in the locker and the girlfriend's taking a swipe at him, which I'm not sad about. Right. And you know, people got oh, the right people got pissed about that. Fucking I don't know who this AP Cronia guy is, but he needs to shut up. He does. Like, oh, why is he doing that to fans? He's he's fucking poking people. He's not. Oh, no. He's he lost his AP lost his head with with the
00:26:18
Speaker
lion's shit this year. He was actually a fantastic follow up until
00:26:25
Speaker
Erasmus had to be a fucking douche. And ever since then, it's like, I can't, I cannot. No, he's just extremely asshole. And it's like, dude, you used to be cool. And now it's so he he's just super, you know, oh, it's a sapphire. It's like, shut the fuck up. Like, you're not any different than anybody else. Like, just because you're yeah, it's OK, get it. It's your, you know, your country. But like,
00:26:54
Speaker
You're like your guys are as full shit as anybody else. Like if they're dirty, they're dirty. If they're good, they're good. It's not you. They're not above critique and criticism and getting banned for being douches. So, yeah, I AP I can't do it anymore. Like he's he's well off the fucking reserve. He's gone like by a third until until he pulls his head out of his ass. Indeed.
00:27:24
Speaker
Over to Newcastle, though, just here's the thing. There's a good team in this and they didn't have MacWigan or Blahmyer. This match sucked. They're missing a few other guys, but.
00:27:35
Speaker
I look at them and the glaring issue is their 10 shirt. And I don't know how to answer it right now. And it's almost like you have to take the bath and waster out and bite the bullet and let the Hayden Wood character take it and just be like, here, you're going to screw up, but we'll live with that as long as you develop, you know, because I don't I don't think there's an answer coming in from outside for that. Right. And Hodgson and Conant are not it. So.
00:28:05
Speaker
How well did Finn Smith play against Saris? Played pretty well. Played pretty fucking well for a fucking team. And he did it. He did so against... He didn't poop himself. Right. He's not pooping himself. He did a little bit of first. But like, you have to get past that. So just... That happens when you're 19 years old. You know, when you're that young, you're... I mean, if the kids that don't are the ones that turn into absolute superstars. But barring that...
00:28:29
Speaker
Right. You know, and I feel like he's there's no reason to think he can't be a superstar. So it's like, you know, at this point, he's he's showing that whatever, you know, is there is there, but you got to see it and you got to like see it at that level. So why are you throwing out? Yeah. But in Johnson, why? Yeah, I don't know. Unless, you know, it is it is Exeter or I'm sorry, it is Lester. So you might want to you don't want to. And maybe they were just throwing this game away. Right. Which case. OK.
00:28:58
Speaker
So maybe that was Fern's only real goal, and this was not to get elbowed in the head. Well, mission successful. Yeah, exactly. You did it.
00:29:11
Speaker
Oh, shit. All right. Let's run over to King's Home. Gloucester and Quinn's. A tough old Gloucester team made life very difficult for the Harlem Quinn's. They really did. This is a credit to Skivington. He was getting a lot of shit after last year and rightly so. They were not very good at all. But he has
00:29:30
Speaker
whatever it was about last year that set himself up this year, it's set up quite well. And they are quite they're they're much better. They're much better. They're they're not a team. We are playing this weekend. I'm not I'm not ready to fuck with that. At least we're at home. But fuck. Right. You know, there's a lot to like about about that cluster team. I mean, I'll recover. Ruskin is playing fantastic, although he's out of the fucking front row. So he has to come off at halftime. Suspension, suspension and a fine.
00:29:59
Speaker
got to shave his head and eyebrows. Then you can pack down again. Oh, man. No, you didn't just do what I think you did. Ah, don't do that.
00:30:18
Speaker
But, you know, because the thing is, it's such a stereotypical prop thing. So it's not. You just fall two feet and you're in and hold on to the ball. Yeah. I mean, that's the number one. He was able to rock. He successfully fell. Yeah. Not with the ball, unfortunately. Yes. Yeah. Excuse me. But yeah, I mean, and couldn't figure it out eventually. Yeah. Like we talked about
00:30:47
Speaker
last week, how good Tyrone Green is and how he should be in the spring box team. Esther Hazen is putting his hand up and it's really good. Here's the, here's the point where they're going to have a hard time. Like you have DDA, you have, um, what do you do with Esther Hazen? You put him at 12 and you put him at 13. You can. So where does DDA go? He finishes the game.
00:31:12
Speaker
Yeah. And you have to hope that one of these, one of the, honestly, you have to hope that one of those three is okay with that role. Right. Cause I, I, I am, I mean, you know, I just talked about him the other, the other, the other week as my, uh, 12 of the year was, was Esther Hazen. I like him better than DDA. I'm I, I, I think he does a lot more on the pitch and I think he's more valuable, um, in a lot of ways. So I, um, I'm on Andre, I'm on team Andre.
00:31:43
Speaker
I mean, I realize that might not be popular with some other people, but to me, it's not much of a comparison. I'm looking for certain things. I'm not in the mind of Erasmus, certainly. Nobody wants to be there, trust me.
00:32:07
Speaker
Well, he's probably really drunk right about. Yeah, you might be. You might be. But yeah, so there's a term that's used in American sports. I'm not certain if it applies to the European ones. But what we use when we see something like this is the term exposed.
00:32:29
Speaker
And it's not exactly right, but it kind of is where you're saying, you know what, I'm going to like team X has exposed team wise flaws or faults. And really to me, you can see it, you know, it's easier in the, um, it's actually kind of quite obvious when you look at the fantasy scores, which is kind of crazy, but like. Lina didn't do much green didn't do much dominant didn't do much.
00:32:52
Speaker
know, Esther Hazen did a lot, Northmore did a lot, Marchant was active, you know,
00:33:00
Speaker
Kenningham was fucking all over the place, but they kind of, they really shut down Dom Brant and green and line. I kind of came with that too, but yeah, like it's kind of like, okay. And Marcus just didn't have, I probably still not at his best. So yeah, I'm having a seat for COVID. I'm sure. Yeah, it wasn't any elements to that. It probably wasn't right. I don't, I don't think he was at a hundred percent, um, for the match and yeah, it kind of showed.
00:33:29
Speaker
So like, you know, if you tailor your game, I mean, that that that's credit to, you know, the way that, you know, the style of play that Gloucester had and the way they defended. But, you know, if I'm going up against Tarlequins, I'm studying what Gloucester did there and how they played and I'm copying quite a bit there.
00:33:50
Speaker
Yep. Yeah, you probably can probably do that and get away with it. So yeah, loads of great to the gloss German and they sacked up and got themselves a bonus point try at least. So they could, um, or a button. They got into the bonus point, right? To, um, losing bonus point. So yeah, they, it was good. It was great play from them. And yeah, this is, these are also the types of wins that twins have to get.
00:34:15
Speaker
If they want to repeat two, just not everything's going to look like the pretty games. There are sometimes going to be these really ugly ones that you just have to grind out. And that's just facts. Right. That's how it is. Yeah, that's a tough win. Good job. And Gloucester, they look top four.
00:34:32
Speaker
they looked up for. They're looking tough. No doubt, no doubt, no doubt. Over to Franklin's Gardens in Northampton. It had been 6.30, which did not look like how it was going to be for a while. No. It did not look like it was going to get to that point at all for the better part of 50 minutes.
00:34:51
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I never want to see that referee again. Oh, Adam Leal. Yeah, he was not good. No, no interest whatsoever. I'm not convinced that he or his refereeing team knew what they were doing. No, not at all. I can't remember what it was, but they were like, oh, that's a straight blow to the header. Oh, no. Yeah. Was it on Augustus? Was it that one? It was the head-to-head one. Yeah. I'm like, okay. Well, there was head contact and tackle.
00:35:16
Speaker
Okay. Like that's, that's, that's the TMO immediate check, check. Yeah. Like no idea. That's not, you know, that I don't quite blame Leo, although, you know, like quality referee would have seen it right away. Um, but the TMO, where's the TMO?
00:35:33
Speaker
Yeah, I'm good. And not just it was just the whole thing was just he did a poor job. I don't think we heard from the TMO all day. No, honestly, except during that I can't I can't remember I didn't I didn't take the notice to which review exactly it was but
00:35:49
Speaker
It was definitely one where they were like, yeah, OK, that would be, you know, that like they both the legal and the TMO specifically cited an infraction saying like, oh, that's that. And then there was like, all right, well, you know, we'll just play on, you know, do go, you know, nothing. It's like, wait a minute. You just talked about the thing. It was the it was the it was the ability to shoulder charge, but they OK. They deemed it penalty only, I believe. So then they already had a penalty for against Harrison. So, yeah, Billy's going to be a little careful there. Can't be stupid shit.
00:36:19
Speaker
Oh, yeah, that was bad. But it's like I thought there was something else that there was the potential thing. No, because it was something that happened before the deal, the call that was made. And it's like, did you not see that? Yeah. But, yeah, sorry, is really fucking turn it on. Yeah, they they took control and realized that if they can, they just need to push a little bit over that edge and they finally did it. Alex Lozowski.
00:36:48
Speaker
Has there been a more valuable player since day one of this season for the Saracens than Alex Lozowski? I don't have an answer other than him. No, I... I really don't. Covered for fair while he was away. Right. And now he's covering for him while he's hurt. And... Right. There hasn't been many problems, if I'm recalling at least, as far as... Not from the boot. No, from the boot. And then this game where he was tearing it up, like... Yeah.
00:37:15
Speaker
himself over the line. And yeah, and just his vast improvement is just something to put a smile on my face as a Saracens fan. And he's sticking around for a little longer, which also puts a smile on my face. Did he score? Did he get it? Oh yeah. He got the first one, I believe. Oh, that's right. Okay. I got the first one. Okay. Oh, that's right. They didn't get it. I was like, wait, where's the penalty try? They didn't get a penalty try. No. That was the Wilson Croft try. I got it. Turned into the Wilson Croft try. Right.
00:37:42
Speaker
I will notice, I'm just going to throw this out there, that Ruben DeHaas, obviously, we fucking love Rube. Yes, we do. Good fantasy, or good rugby yanks. Ruben DeHaas played 11 minutes.
00:38:00
Speaker
How many points did the Saracen score during his 11 minutes? I think both the Wollstonecraft tri and the Dozier Tri were scored in that time. That is correct. They scored 14 points in his 11 minutes after... Yeah, if there are 16 points in the other 69.
00:38:17
Speaker
And so I bet I'm not. Yeah, I'm I'm I'm doing that for a fact. It was not all Ruben. It was just, you know, mostly Ruben. Oh, man, I thought he was going to get that last one at the end. I was like, Oh, go, go, go. And just didn't quite have the wheels to come a slash at the top of the pass. Yeah. Didn't help. But.
00:38:37
Speaker
Say, Libby, I thought he played very well and I'd like to see more of him. I agree. He was not. No, I see nothing in Vansdale that makes me go. Yes, that's what we want. And this is we're going to be without Ola Davies till February. So I hope he gets a run now. Right. I don't see a reason. I don't see a reason not to start him next week. Right. That's one of the if it's awful after 40 minutes, fine. Put Vansdale in and be done. I can totally take that. Right. But like.
00:39:06
Speaker
We're going to be this. There's no way we have a scrum half like, you know, Wigglesworth that we can 100% lean on right now. I don't believe we do at this point. I don't know what Rube's going to bring. I hope it's the absolute best that we've seen in him, especially playing for the Eagles.
00:39:22
Speaker
And if it is, then you have a lot there for the future. You know, he's what, 21, 22, something ridiculous like that. Yeah. Yeah. So just try it, for fuck's sake. And it's one of the just as we were saying before, it's like a Jag, a known known Jag versus potential who knows.
00:39:39
Speaker
And right. Really? Is the potential that high? No. Or that low. Like, come on, man. There's no way you can't sit there and say. He's 26. If he was going to be, you know, the guy, he would be being the guy right now. He'd be the guy right now.
00:39:57
Speaker
And like, it's not like he can't become a decent backup, but that's his ceiling. It appears. And, and, I mean, it kind of looks like that for Alan Davies right now, too, to be perfect, just be blunt. So it's like, how about we, you know, you need a starter because that's, that's the biggest hole on Saracens. They have studs one through eight and 10 through 15. But there's just nothing at Scrumhalf right now.
00:40:25
Speaker
So, got it. Got something that has to be addressed. Right. And on the other side, like, honestly, what did things bring to this match? I can't say they brought a lot. They didn't, they didn't have much fight to them. You know, they had, what's the total meters? Hold on. That's what I want to look at. Cause I don't like total meters. We're not that high for them. Let's find it.
00:40:54
Speaker
If I remember at least maybe I'm off, but yeah, they did. Well, they didn't seem to, you know, they didn't get too many, too many runs as far as, you know, I don't know how many line breaks they got clean breaks. They only got two sounds only got two, but oh, meters. They got, no, they got, they outgained saris three meters.
00:41:12
Speaker
Okay, so but where did all those leaders go? I only had 46%. Yeah, exactly. I don't know. They was probably, you know, what the Saracens do when they kick, they kick deep. And it's run before a kick. So like, you know, the fucking fur bank takes like 20 meters and then boots it. Well, okay, it's still just a boot. And, you know, it's gonna get booted back down the other way. So right, right. Right. It's not that big a deal. No. So, yeah, it's, I mean, it's problematic in a lot of ways. But like,
00:41:43
Speaker
I mean, if you get 363 meters and only two clean breaks, you didn't really run that much. Right. Yeah, there's a there's a lot. And yeah, I only gained it by 90 meters and considering the service has been turned on until right minute 50. Yeah. All right. So that would be a problem if I was Chris Boyd. Yeah. And they can attack as much as I so as much as I got to go there because this is my my thing. But the
00:42:13
Speaker
the kicking for points when it's not time to kick for points. You know, at some point it's time to nut up. You know the Saracens are scoring a try.
00:42:23
Speaker
More often than not, yeah. 90% sure of it. You have to, especially after your first, you know, let me go to the timeline. I can't remember if it was a bigger, tied it. Okay, laws goes ahead. At that point, bigger's got to go for, you know, they got to go for corner. You know, that, especially late the first 36 minute, go for the corner. You know, show some, put some nuts on the table.
00:42:51
Speaker
Yeah. And I don't like the idea of, oh, it's raining. You have to turn to this sloppy, you know, ugly rugby. You don't have to. If you've one, if you've practiced it and two, if you've got the ambition, you know, you play a little bit open rugby, like Wazowski's try didn't come from ugliness. That came from a pretty decent looking play, if I can remember correctly. Yeah. All the saris, all the saris tries came from, well, except aside from Woolies. Woolies. But
00:43:20
Speaker
Yeah. The Toge tried and they were moving the ball around. Oh, that was great. Saracen's first half were being a little too wasps. They had the same kind of attack. Yeah. One ups, which I'm not a fan of ever. Right. But second half, you know, they opened it up and they did. They did do that. And Saints never, never got out of first gear. No, not sure they did. So, yeah, Saracen's one. So this weekend represents the halfway mark this coming weekend.
Season Reflection and Future Outlook
00:43:50
Speaker
We will, we will be halfway through. It does seem like it's been a while actually. It's been a bit. I mean, September, you know, if I remember her call last year, we started November and we, and they blitzed right through, obviously. Cause it was no prom cup. Um, European was the same European rugby was the same format as this year. So there was less of that. Uh, yeah. So here we are halfway, just about halfway through. Um,
00:44:17
Speaker
And it's interesting to see the table and all that stuff. We'll talk about pick them later on and see where that leads, lands everybody. But yeah, I mean, the big ones on the back half will obviously be, at least for the Saracens, will be Lester coming to town and Quinn's coming to town and Exeter coming to town. Those will be the big ones. So we'll see how that shakes out. And yeah, we'll see. We'll see how those go.
00:44:48
Speaker
damn thing will shake out by the time we reach probably 20 or so. So hold on kids. We almost there. We almost there. All right. So if you're joining us for the fancy corner.
00:45:03
Speaker
Join us there a little bit later on. If you're not, happy new year. Welcome to 2022. It's the same shit as 2021 was, so that shouldn't shock anybody. Yeah, 2020 part three. No, I've seen it referred to as 2022. Yeah, basically. 2020 part two. Fuck that.
00:45:26
Speaker
Part three. Fuck that. Yeah, exactly. It is part three. Yep. Yep. Yep. So anyway, we appreciate you all for listening and hanging out with us and listening to us babble and stay safe out there, too. Shit. I want to mention it. Fucking stay safe from covid. Don't get it, please. Yeah. Take care of the hatches. Get your shots. Right. Good stuff. Good stuff. Well, we'll catch you on the first corner if you're there. If not, we will catch you guys next week. Appreciate you all. Have a good one later.