Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Season 2- Episode 34- The Geek & The Yanks (Super Rugby Aotearoa Round 3 + Super Rugby AU Preview)
28 Plays5 years ago
It's your favorite American Rugby kuckleheads, with a special guest! This week's episode features our friend The Fantasy Rugby Geek, otherwise known as George. He joins us to chew the fat on a load of material. We talk about the player movements and the semi-retirement no man's land that the financial issues of clubs seem to be forcing some players into. We cover the issue with London Irish coach...or Gloucester...or...well either way George Skivington. We go over what Dave Rennie's options are with RA's current predicament in their player exits. And of course we talk Super Rugby AU, Super Rugby NZ, all the goings on in between and what Draft Rugby might be up to during this 7 weeks of overlap. Kick back, tune in and enjoy a laugh on us.
Follow our friend George via Twitter: frugbygeek or his website: https://fantasyrugbygeek.com/
Ask us questions via Twitter: Jarrod- jdyke8man & Ben- admrablsnackbar. 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.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction & Guest Welcome
00:00:08
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome back. It is the Fancy Roby Yanks. My name is Jared Dyke. I'm Ben Glauser. And today with us, we have a very, very special guest. Long time coming. The man, the myth, the legend. You guys know him as the Fancy Roby geek. Welcome, George. George Haas. Thank you, guys. It's an absolute pleasure to be joining you today. It's been a long time coming and, yeah, delighted to be a part of it.
00:00:29
Speaker
You've been great at supporting us all the way through. We appreciate all the work you've done to bump us up and give us a wider audience. It only makes sense to have you on. Absolutely.
Promoting Positivity in Fantasy Rugby
00:00:42
Speaker
We're all here to spread the good word of fantasy rugby. Anybody else who's fighting the good fight alongside me, they're good friends of mine.
00:00:53
Speaker
You know, let's continue spreading the word. Yeah. Be nice to each other, right? Yeah,
Local Beer Selections & Connections
00:01:01
Speaker
absolutely. I was telling George earlier, Ben, did you have a little light flickering earlier?
00:01:08
Speaker
Thunderstorm or anything. No, no, not too much. We're pretty strong over here. Generally don't lose power. But yeah, it was bad. I did Those things sounded like they're right on top. Yeah. Yeah, if you've never been that thunder and lightning storm We just had a doozy. So it's not fun Let's drink some beer. Yes. Well, it's open Don't have to ask never ever I know that
00:01:32
Speaker
Obviously, make sure that you find us on your favorite podcast app. Review us, rate us, whatever, and give us a one star. We don't care. We're not begging for five stars by any means, but we just wanna know what you guys think, as always. What are you guys drinking? I have a fairly light one, pale ale from our local brewery, Night Shift. Ben, you still sporting Jack's Abbey? Yes, you are. Yep. Attababy. Anything local over there, George?
00:02:01
Speaker
Yeah, actually I'm drinking a bison beer, seaside American pale ale. It was a couple of old guys who I used to work with in sports tech. They basically quit their jobs three years ago to set up a beer shop down in Brighton. Okay. They're doing amazingly well. Like they've, they've set up a bar, set up a pub since, and they've got about four or five beers now. It's really good stuff as well. So shout out to buy some beer. Nice. Yeah, I love it.
00:02:28
Speaker
Awesome. Yeah. Local stuff. We support the local stuff around here as best we can. Although Ben ran out of his free jack sale. I did. It was rather expensive to get in the first place. Well, in the method, you got it. Yes. True. Yeah. I mean, if you buy just a six pack of it, it won't be that expensive. Right. The problem is you can't right now.
00:02:50
Speaker
Are there none over there? No. At the one by you? No. No, I don't know how much. I don't even know if they're still brewing it to be perfectly honest at this point. Yeah, maybe it was supposed to be a season thing, which I think the season would be just about over probably this week, I think was supposed to be the final. Sadness. Yeah, sad. Super sad.
Community Support & Advocacy
00:03:11
Speaker
Yeah. Um, so obviously we have Georgia, we always think, and we also want to thank, um, TRM, uh, the rugby magazine. They are awesome dudes. Um, Ed and company here do a really good job with their fantasy game. And, uh, Ben and I have been fans of theirs basically since the word Joe and we started doing this a couple of years ago. So, uh, yeah, definitely shout out to them and for the way that they treat us for sure. Make sure you check them out when shit takes back up. Um,
00:03:36
Speaker
Yeah, and we'll always emphasize the Black Lives Matter movement on this show. There probably won't be a time when we don't at this point. At this point, yeah. Basically until things change, which may not be in our lifetimes, but with a little bit of luck, hopefully it does. But yeah, we're definitely in support of equality for everybody. 100%. Yeah. All right.
Rugby Player Movements and Transitions
00:04:00
Speaker
Now that that's over, let's get to the player movement.
00:04:03
Speaker
Uh, the saddest news of all, Brad Barrett's leaving his hair since at the end of this season. It was, yeah, you knew, I mean, everything ends, but, but not like we were looking forward to this one. No, definitely not. I mean, it's, it's good that he's saying it out to the end of the season. At least, you know, you will get to see him play again. Sure. There are others who weren't so lucky. Exactly. Yeah. You know, we've, yeah.
00:04:32
Speaker
basically had to walk away. And yeah, he's done. He didn't go to the, I think he was just like, I've hit the point. I'm done. Yeah. Yeah. And he's, he's walking away, which really sucks. Um, and it looks like, uh, Jamie Gibson might be kind of on the edge of calling his a, his a day. You know, um, that's really unfortunate. I really liked Jamie Gibson since I, certainly since I really got deep into the premiership. That is a big, big boy. Um, big boy, big tackle. Like you always used to rack up the tackle stats.
00:05:00
Speaker
Yeah. So it looks like he's, he's at least moving on from North Hampton. Um, yeah. Might, might just be done TBD. Yeah. Kind of sounds like that. Cause it doesn't seem like North Hampton were the catalyst for that. It's like that. He just said, Hey, I'm, I'm leaving. Well, it's interesting that, you know, near these announcements, you haven't actually seen that they are retiring. So, you know, maybe a trip out to Japan or even to MLR could be, could be an option.
00:05:29
Speaker
Oh, maybe we can get Barrett over here. Get Barrett to New England. Let's go. Start that campaign right now. No, I'm sure, I'm sure he is ready to settle in with the family and just not have to be run all over the universe for a long time now.
00:05:43
Speaker
But hopefully we can send him out on top with the Champions Cup, which those fixtures at least the weekends been announced in is the weekend of my birthday So let's go sessions. Let's go series Yeah, Nick Tompkins is going on loan over to dragons Hopefully he can help them because they've struggled mightily in the last last couple seasons despite some really good talent on that team Yeah to me that actually the surprise there is that it's not permanent
00:06:10
Speaker
I agree. Because you'd think he'd need to maintain his contract there now to stay with Wales internationally. Yeah. I don't know what Wayne Pevac's rules are. That might be what it is. Possibly. I mean, I was under the impression that the Welsh regions would be looking to hold on to the internationals.
00:06:33
Speaker
You know, who knows under on the pivot, it might be a different world altogether. But you know, Ben, I was with you. I was expecting it to be a permanent deal. And I saw the headline and thought, well, yeah, that makes sense. Right. Yeah. Well, maybe we'll maybe we'll make it permanent after alone. Maybe we'll decide to buy him anyway. Yeah, that's definitely an option on the on the table, I think. And then
00:06:55
Speaker
I think this happened last week and we skipped over it and shame on Ben and I, Will Hooley, the Saracens, man, I just became an even bigger Saracens fan. That was like almost in me, I think it was like the morning after we taped. Okay, that might be true. It was not announced until after our show last week.
00:07:15
Speaker
Oh, sure. Yeah, that's another American connection to Saracens. Yeah. Makes it real easy as Americans to root for them, seeing as they seem to collect them. Yeah.
00:07:26
Speaker
They always have a token. It's going to be fascinating to see the makeup of their squad next season. Yeah, I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop on something for Owen Farrell. Yeah. Everything I'm seeing is saying that a lot of these guys are just sticking with the club, whether that's teams don't want to sign him for just a year or take him as a loan, or I don't know what it is.
00:07:49
Speaker
or just general loyalty, the hell is that in sports? Who is that? Who knew? Yeah. I guess like Farrell wouldn't want to leave England just for at risk of his international. They don't make a difference for that. And then if Farrell is moving on loan somewhere, I assume his salary
00:08:09
Speaker
would go into the salary cap of another team. So I guess the big earners at Saris probably don't want to go anywhere. And the other clubs probably don't want him because they probably can't afford them. Yeah, that's a possibility for sure. And I'm not going to skip over the last one I have here, but Courtney Laws looks like he's leaving Northampton. Rumor, not confirmed, just a rumor. We'll see, we'll see. It sounds like he might be calling over to France. Maybe he's calling on the good.
00:08:39
Speaker
That baffles me. Who all of a sudden have loads and loads of cash, apparently. Yeah, who knew? I don't know about that one, man. That's, I mean, that's, that's a move that I will say this, that's a move you may make to end your career. So maybe that's exactly why. Um, but then we're also seeing, uh, I saw rumors about, uh, in between leaving Quinn's or a similar destination over in France. I'm not sure exactly where, but that, yeah, that broke.
00:09:07
Speaker
the end of last week and they were talking about this could happen today. I'm actually a quince fan myself. Sorry to say that, I am a quince fan. We all hold it against you. But you always have that Exeter match.
00:09:29
Speaker
That penalty tried to end it. I was, there aren't too many times where I'm going to cheer like that for the Quinn's. So yeah, that's true. I was definitely shouting up and down for them. I was, I was not sad that the exit exit or loss that came by any means whatsoever.
00:09:45
Speaker
Oh man, yeah, we'll see. That's weird.
Leicester's Player Contracts & Transfers
00:09:48
Speaker
That is weird. He's a talent and they've got quite, they've got Chris Ashton, who's probably going to cost a bit. He's old. You know, why would you want to keep hold of him when he got a talent like if it's coming through?
00:10:02
Speaker
Yeah, I think, to me, I'm not a huge Yibitoye fan, only because I don't see his game as very well-rounded. No, it's not. Excellent in attack, but you ask him to take contact, either in attack or defense, and that's not his thing. He'd rather do something stupid than take that contact. And that, to me, I'd like to see that
00:10:24
Speaker
developed. I don't think France is the place to do that, though. So it's an odd move on his part for my standpoint. They showed that run. He made it against Claremont over and over again, I think, on social, which was an amazing run. But as a Quins game, I have very bad memories of that game, particularly Ethan ripping into France.
00:10:47
Speaker
Throughout the game. So, you know, he's going to need to toughen up if he's gonna know Austin France, I think yeah and then there's the questions around Lester right now Yeah, like that. I saw something like a third of their top side or something like that might make cancel their contract. Yeah Including their internationals. Yeah big names
00:11:15
Speaker
Big names. They could be clearing out that brutal front row of theirs. Yeah, that is not my favorite front row by any means. I like Cole, and that's about it. Everything after that, forget it. I could leave it for sure. There are a lot of front rows I'd trade for that one, including some backup front rows. Speaking of Leicester, did you see another player they signed last week?
00:11:37
Speaker
One for the commentators, Harry Potter. Yes, yes. Australia. Yeah. Yeah. Because we were talking, we talked about, we, uh, we pointed him out on our, um, our super rugby draft and I was just like, is this real or no, it's real. Yeah. Of course he has to come to England and now we get all right, dude. You got the short end of the stick on that one.
00:12:01
Speaker
blame your parents. Yeah, at this point, I mean, you know, you do the math, how old is he? He's like, they had to have known like that had to be. That was definitely like, it had to be intentional. If you didn't know at that point, not paying attention by it whatsoever.
00:12:18
Speaker
It's just insane to me to think that that series started. I think I was either graduating high school or starting college. It was somewhere around that time frame. And it's like, wait, somebody was actually named after that character, essentially, who is a professional athlete now. Fuck my life. When did I get old?
00:12:42
Speaker
when you turn 40, man. Don't joke about that. I've got that in a couple of months time. It's not as bad as it sounds. It's worse.
00:12:57
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, listen, I poured on because I am the oldest of my group that I grew up with. And that's by a year compared to the last one. There's five of us. First to last, there's barely a year. So when I find somebody else older, I just fucking chuck it all on them. Yeah, that's just how it goes, man. Now I want to see why we became friends. I get it. Yeah, you're the older guy now. I'm not the old guy anymore.
00:13:26
Speaker
Oh, shit. Oh, man. Okay.
Coaching Changes and Challenges
00:13:29
Speaker
Speaking of shit, what a shitty situation this turned into. George Kimmington and Gloucester and London Irish and this saga that has been going on. What in the actual ugh happened here? It seems like there's a lot of communication errors, number one. It just looks bad for the premiership overall. It's another unforced error for the league.
00:13:55
Speaker
Um, how do you not have these things defined? Like, you know, it should be a very clear cut straightforward process. It's to hire a coach and, and it doesn't seem like that, like those structures are in place. No, it's, it's the long line in a comedy of areas coming out the premiership at the moment. And it's, um, no, it's interesting that it's Gloucester who are in trouble here. Yeah.
00:14:24
Speaker
They were on the other side of the coin. So it's just a mess. It's an absolute shamble throughout. Yeah. It's, I mean, I know over here, they literally have something called the tampering period.
00:14:37
Speaker
for some, for sports. Like, and so I think, I think if anything, and I don't want premiership to copy American sports that much, trust me, there's a reason I watch that and enjoy watching that more than I do some of the American sports. But that is some, that is a page they can probably take out and be like, all right, here's your point where you can start talking to people that are on our squad, on our team, on our staff. Done.
00:14:56
Speaker
And like sport like NFL league like the NFL has clear cut rules as to who you can and cannot hire. So it's like if I wanted to go for an like a coordinator level.
00:15:10
Speaker
coach, to be my head coach, you can just do it. Or even a lower level coach. You can't sign somebody's head coach directly unless their contract's up. But how is that not similar? How is there not a similar protocol to say,
00:15:28
Speaker
Yeah, your DOR and your head coach. And if you want to protect certain levels on the coaching staff, you can. But below that, it should be, let's get these guys promoted. People should get that opportunity. You shouldn't take that away. It's just shocking to me that this became a dispute at all. This shouldn't never have gotten this far without there being some clear cut ruling on it.
00:15:56
Speaker
Yeah, it's a weird, this is one of the things where we have to remember that professional rugby is still a baby, not so much, but it's still young. They still have some really dumb things that they don't think about until shit like this comes up. And then they think about it. Unfortunately, it takes these types of stupid mistakes for them to be like, we need to fix this, hold on.
00:16:20
Speaker
And there's probably been some cases in the not too distant past where they've got away with situations like this. And it's only now when they're on a more scrutiny and they've got the venture capital money coming in, all of a sudden they realize you can't get away with this anymore.
00:16:37
Speaker
and social media helps with that too because you know like hey we announced a new coach and the other team can be like uh you did wait what i don't know about that and it's all very public rather than you know maybe a small yeah there was facebook 15 years ago but it wasn't quite the same exactly so you know if they had announced you know if this had happened again 15 20 years ago it would have been
00:17:04
Speaker
maybe an article in the paper after a couple weeks of investigation and now instead we get to see it play out live in real in real time with the team sniping at each other oh good lord that could not like that was just that was just petty high school crap right there it was so funny passive aggressive yeah super
00:17:26
Speaker
very british i believe you have aired oh i believe you have aired oh no look at these it's like a bar brawl over here is that a that's not what it takes to bend to a bar brawl i've seen it it's not it it's definitely a little bit more more up to it but damn
00:17:59
Speaker
Yeah. Just send like, I don't know, just send like Franco mustard and Adam Coleman or, uh, no, uh, to a suey. There you go. Send the two of them and do a bar and just, they went, settle it with a boat race. There we go. Perfect. That's the way to an end, an argument. Yeah, that'll do it right there. And all right. Shit. All right. Speaking of coaches. Um, let's talk about a little bit about, um, Dave Rennie's dilemma.
00:18:19
Speaker
Yes. All right. We've got we've gotten to the bottom of it now.
00:18:28
Speaker
We talked a little bit about last week, but we can get into it a little bit this week, a little bit more with rugby. Oz coming up. Yeah, the get-to rule, he wants to scrap, he's in between a rock and a hard place. He wants to scrap the get-to rule, but he knows it's gonna kill Australia's super rugby, so he's really caught between. It's like, what is the right solution here at this point for these guys? I guess I'm confused about what exactly it means to kill Australia's super rugby.
00:18:57
Speaker
Well, more than it has been, which is a lot of good things. What are we talking about here? Yeah, you have to balance between having a competitive league and having a competitive international side. And do they want to at least have one? Yeah. A lot more important to them. Right. I mean, personally, I would go, I mean, you're still going to like, the rugby will still be good.
00:19:27
Speaker
It won't be, it might not be great. I'm not a big believer in, you know, individual players make a team, especially as it relates to a club. You know, if you have one, just, you know, even if you have just three, you know, internationals on your club, say you're, you know, the Waratahs, and you lose one of them, that shouldn't kill your club. You should be able to backfill. Yes, it won't be as good, but
00:19:56
Speaker
you can still feel the competitive side and maybe get that other person, that new player, some more experience. And who knows, maybe that, you know, five years down the line, there's your international. So I'm not, I don't think that it's going to hurt them so much, but I mean, how much better would they have done in the world cup if they had Will Skelton on the team? You know, and that's just to name one. That's one of a few, I'm sure they wish they had had access to on that one.
00:20:24
Speaker
And that, you know, that star player at the World Cup, Samukarevi, who was just an absolute different guy. He's gone off to follow the money in Japan and, you know. And I'm sure he's not coming back. He would be a great person to have in their team. But you know, there is a lot of young talent coming through. I've been quite impressed with the Australian Super Rugby teams to some extent, you know, a lot of the,
00:20:51
Speaker
You know, the guys are the Reds, the Rebels. Rumbies, obviously, have been... Yeah, Rumbies have been there for a while, yeah. But, you know, it seems to be the younger players are actually coming through now. So this could be a good conveyor belt for talent. And to be honest, the club game in Australia is a disaster at the moment. Anyways, if you look at the numbers of people in the crowds, you know, the bar is quite low at the moment. So, you know, if there's a few other players to go, I'm not sure that's it. That's that.
00:21:22
Speaker
Yeah, they have, they have quite the conundrum that they're fighting with. And I think I heard Horwell talk about it, um, about a year ago on a podcast. Um, they have Aussie rules, they have NRL, and then they have union and they're competing, you know, they're competing for a limited talent pool. Um, and trying, you know, and they're trying to compare themselves to the all blacks and you know, the now defending world cup champions, uh, spring box. And it's really tough. It's not like here in America where we have NFL football,
00:21:50
Speaker
And we're trying to compete with anybody of that level. We're just trying to exist at this point. So for them, it's a whole different ball of wax.
00:21:59
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. League is absolutely huge over there. I've got a few Aussie mates in London and it always surprises me just how big league is and how actually union that they love. Aussie generally loves sport regardless of what it is. But you know, you can see the love for rugby league is, is absolutely real. Whilst union, they're kind of watch what it's on, but yeah.
00:22:25
Speaker
I worked closely with an Australian company a couple years ago, and when I first started on the project we were working on,
00:22:37
Speaker
And I talked about rugby. Yeah, they would bring up League. And it was in Melbourne. This was back before the Rebels. So they were like, yeah, rugby's not really, you know, Union's not big here. You know, you got to go up north for that. Of course, by the time the project, my time on the project was over, they were, yeah, the Rebels that were a thing and they were starting to get into it. But yeah, it was, it's, you got to have it in those, the big metropolitan areas, which is why I think it's great that the Rebels exist now. And they're,
00:23:07
Speaker
they're building that up, but it's gonna take time and effort to really penetrate that market. Because Melbourne is a huge league and AFL city. Huge AFL city. So it's hard to break through that. Yeah, it is.
00:23:24
Speaker
Yeah, Dave Vernon's got a hell of a task. I don't envy him whatsoever. I do believe he might be a little bit better of a coach than Cheka. Not to say that Cheka was terrible, but I think Cheka was past his sell by date by the time the end of this last World Cup came. So I'm not knocking on him. He's a very good coach. I think he's made that very obvious. He did get to a final before, again, but I think he just passed the sell by date.
00:23:50
Speaker
So Ronnie is gonna bring some new enthusiasm, new energy, but so far, so we'll see what happens. Hell yeah. Hey, we get to talk about Fancy Rugby a little
Fantasy Rugby Platform Developments
00:24:02
Speaker
bit. Draft Rugby is trying to do something with this seven week gap where we have some overlap here. Let's be real, their site's not top notch. Their site's not super top notch, but hey, it's something.
00:24:16
Speaker
Yeah, it's some fantasy sports to pass the time. So that's going to be a combination of Australia and Aotearoa, or is it just one of the two? A combination, I think. That's going to be...
00:24:33
Speaker
Because the law changes for Super Rugby Australia alone are going to change how they play. So I'm interested to see how that affects scoring. And would you rather have an Australia player? Because maybe they gain a little bit more points if the defense opens up with the 50-22 and 22-50 rules. So maybe there might be more meters gained. Who knows? Yeah.
00:25:01
Speaker
I was looking at the squads earlier on and I was looking at the Western Force to see if I knew much about who they had on their side or if they had any of the old Force legends. I get the feeling that they're going to be smashed quite a lot. I can see some big scores going against them.
00:25:22
Speaker
You know, if you do bring your Australia players in, at least you'll probably get a few decent scores if you're up against the force. Yeah, I think so too. Yeah, we'll see how that goes. So I'm drafting a few guys on Wednesday nights and it seems like draft rugby is very much in beta.
00:25:43
Speaker
So I think, you know, it's a good opportunity for them. They can roll it out for next year's Super Rugby. This can be a bit of a test run for them, but they don't have a sort of draft center. So you need to do all your drafts offline on a spreadsheet with your mates, build a spreadsheet out, give it to the draft rugby guys, they'll upload it.
00:26:03
Speaker
Um, I think it's going to be a bit of a learning experience but fair play to the guys they I know that they've Been battling on this for about two or three years and you know, they're really nice guys and um, you know, they're doing this With a passion for rugby. So, you know, i'm just happy to support them Yeah, it's clear that they have a passion for it that that much, you know, they they they love what they're doing. It's it's all it's um, yeah, they're they're
00:26:30
Speaker
They're working as hard as they can on it and that's it's appreciated. So let's put it that way like yeah, we you know, we we get frustrated with the site every so often but it's you know, we Jared and I of all people would understand. Yeah, we're there. We're developing something, you know, it's not it's not gonna be perfect that you know, they don't have the resources of an ESPN No to just put together a fantasy site and have it just hum like that. So never you know, we encourage them and
00:27:00
Speaker
We want to be a part of it. We're just hoping that they can continue to make it better. And some of us started our fantasy existence. Not dissimilar from this right here. Right. We did our drafts in a basement and we compiled our points using the newspaper box scores the next day because that's all you could do. We predated the internet, my fantasy experience.
00:27:30
Speaker
Yes. Well, I remember, I remember playing fantasy football in the UK when it started out and you had to call them up and type in the code of all the players you want. So they'd make loads of money by us basically phoning in. Wow. And then you get the scores in the newspaper the week after and that was it.
00:27:52
Speaker
We just had one guy who was the, the league commissioner who had to keep track of all the transit ivory transaction had to go through him. Everything had to get so like, you know, there was a, I think it was like a, there was a, whatever the entry fee was plus like $5 or maybe 10 that went to him for his efforts. For his convenience. Yeah.
00:28:13
Speaker
Totally man, so we'll see I mean it's I appreciate that we have some some Some fancy rugby to talk about I appreciate that they're cobbling something together out of nothing and putting effort into so yeah Like you said, that's they definitely have a path you can't do this if you don't have a passion for it You can't put try and put together a fancy website rugby website for nothing if you don't have a passion for it. So I
00:28:36
Speaker
And the good news is when you're the only game in town, there really can't be any complaints at all. This is true. This is true. I totally agree. All right. So we did touch on the Super Rugby Oz. Let's talk a little bit about a few of the teams.
Super Rugby AU & Team Analysis
00:28:50
Speaker
I will say that Ben and I will be quietly Western Force fans because our boy Marcel Brocke is going to be rocking himself through their squad. I'm sure he's going to be getting plenty of playing time because
00:29:02
Speaker
He's one of the wildly old veterans in a team full of very young, young players. So we'll see how that goes. Him and Thrush, Thrush is saying that, yeah, we might surprise a few teams from here. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see how that goes. I mean, as a Hurricanes fan, I'm definitely, I'm a little partial to Jerry, so she played many, many, many games for them. Was a decent player and even got himself a hint for all Blacks caps.
00:29:26
Speaker
I'm not sure if he's going to quite take these guys. We'll see. That's a lot. That's asking a lot. John Lance is there. That's a bit of a boost. So they at least have a quality 10 to call on and somebody that can also play fullback kind of pinch. So that helps. But I just don't know how this team doesn't get whooped every other game.
00:29:50
Speaker
It's too bad. I mean, I'm glad to see the force back. This was, that was one of the biggest dumb moves that the super rugby made was getting rid of them. Like Western rugby in Australia is dead now because they don't have these guys. Exactly. And that's what we were talking about earlier. They need to protect these rugby hotbeds that are in Perth. Rugby union is huge. So crazy decision. Yeah, no, that was really dumb. I don't know. And really that comes down to rugby odds for not
00:30:19
Speaker
Emphasizing to sans are what a problem that would be for them. Yeah, I think at least well sans are known for making real smart decisions about Definitely not Yeah, like the hell the Kings were doing in there to begin with they were terrible for every year They were in there good Lord, you know now another pro 14th problem, but that's different story for a different day So I would say that
00:30:45
Speaker
You know, I have to say the most frustrating team in Australia has to be the Reds, for sure. And I know some people will say the Rebels because they have a habit of screwing up games that they should win. But man, the Reds are just, they have so much talent. Brad Thorne's a quality coach, and somehow they still find a way to screw it up, and I don't understand. Yeah. Well, like, that's the thing. You don't know which Reds team is showing. Like, that's the difference. Like, Rebels, you'll be like, oh, they should win this game because they're good enough.
00:31:12
Speaker
And they don't. With the reds, it's like, oh, they'll get blown out this week. And then they win by 20. And then, oh, they should have this game in hand and they lose. And it's, so you don't know, you never get a feel for what level they're at. They're the France of super rupping. Yeah, there you go. That's a good, that's a good way to put it. That's a good way. That's a very good way to put it. Yeah. Never know what you usually talented, but yeah, you just don't know, you don't know which one's going to turn up. No.
00:31:38
Speaker
Yeah, so they and you know, I love James O'Connor at 10. I think that switch was always an awesome idea. It seems to have worked out fairly well for them. Hagerty's a beast as he usually is. You know, they lost a couple of guys because of contract issues and whatnot, which is definitely gonna hurt them in this competition. But even still just the team itself, I look at it and I'm like, that is a,
00:32:02
Speaker
That's a great team that's always under achieves, always under achieves. It's really frustrating. If I was a Reds fan, I'd fucking be losing my mind. Yeah. They got Filippo Dalgounou could be back as well. And he's an immense time. That'll be great. That'd be really good for them. Yeah. Solid, fancy start there. Yeah. Tani Tupu, Tongan Thor in the front row as well will be a nice little pickup.
00:32:31
Speaker
Yeah, he was, he's always good. I don't understand. He never does anything great, but he just always puts points on the water. I'm like, how is this possible? He just carries. He's able to get so many extra yards and yards after contact as well. Inertia. From a prop perspective. Yeah.
00:32:50
Speaker
Yeah, I like them. Yeah, and then I'll mention the Rebels. Let's go to the Rebels. They are definitely always one of my favorite teams to cheer for because they definitely play some quality stuff. They play some very entertaining stuff. But again, they don't always put it together and do what they're supposed to. Tomua running 10 is definitely a great thing for them. Why the hell he didn't start more games at the World Cup, I have no idea. But, you know, I wasn't my checker, so, you know.
00:33:19
Speaker
We're going to see Andrew Kellaway who was on fire last season. Well, the first half of the super happy season. You could see if he can keep that up. Cause I think he was on seven tries or so. Something like that. He was at a good rate. I picked him up like on the, on the free agency, I think week one or two and he's just been points machine. Yeah, I had as well. Stupid damn COVID.
00:33:46
Speaker
Yeah, so we'll see how that goes. Yeah, I've, I've, they've got, um, Jordan, your list is, uh, is coming back. He's, it sounds like he's healthy and finally not so freaking beat up that he's going to miss every other game. So that's the upside for them. Um, let's talk about the favorites probably in this competition, the Brumby's man. Uh, I mean, San's lately, a final, no problem, you know,
00:34:09
Speaker
They kept on ticking. They beat your guys there, Ben, earlier on this year. So that was a... Which was, yeah, disappointing. But again, the Chiefs are like that within New Zealand, the same thing at that, you know, the mere curial. Will they show up? Will they not show up? So that was one of those they didn't. No, they did not. No, they did not. And obviously, fighting a monster.
00:34:34
Speaker
But that Brumby's driving more is just such a weapon. In fact, it doesn't matter which hooker they got playing. They are going to get those driving more points. Yeah. Yeah. Grab whatever Brumby's hooker might be out there. So if you got, if you miss Vaynga, grab their backup. Never know. Yeah. Cause you're going to, he'll get on the field and, uh,
00:34:59
Speaker
You know, a late try has earned you the same amount of points as an early try. Yeah, exactly. Facts. Facts, facts, facts. Yeah, we'll see if Dan McKellar gets these guys. I mean, I think they'll win this competition. They're the favorite, but I don't see how they screw it up that badly. So we'll see how that goes. And then the Waratas. You know, they have Michael Hooper, but do they have anything else?
00:35:25
Speaker
Yeah. But they got that, that young winger whose name. Oh, Ben almost became an expert at this. They call him Marky Mark. Yeah, exactly. I haven't said it in weeks, but now it kind of tell us something like that. Yeah. Um, they call them Marky Mark cause nobody wants to knock him out. Yeah. So I mean, yeah, I mean, and that's it. I mean, I don't, I didn't see a whole lot of good coming from their 10 position. Um, and that was obviously,
00:35:53
Speaker
Young fly half will Harrison showed some, some good moments. Um, and he seems to be a sort of a running fly half. So he might be a decent picker. If you, if you don't pick up a fly half early and you're sort of scraping the ballot, a decent pump. Yeah, that's, that's, that's actually might be a good point. Yeah. We'll see. We'll see what happens with that. Um, no, no curly bill now. Nope. Um, now he's gone. Didn't they lose someone else too? Um,
00:36:23
Speaker
I don't know, did they? I can't remember. Yeah. I don't, I didn't hear anything. I haven't heard anything much at least. Yeah. I'm just with all the blood of, uh, right. We just saw the glut of Australia players that have kind of left right at the, right at this restart. The timing was odd to me. Um, here, currently Bill's leaving like two weeks before the competition starts. That's a kind of a kick in the pants.
00:36:46
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, we clearly know where his, his brain is at this point. You know, it's, it's not on his club rugby. It's not on, you know, Australia. It's right. It's on currently built. Yeah. And good for him. He's earned it. And that's how it goes. But just, how is it going to? Yeah. I just wonder how that's going to affect just for continuity alone, the, the, the ties. Yeah. That 15 Jersey might be cursed on that team. I'm just going to say that.
00:37:13
Speaker
So I guess Carl Michael Hunt's probably going to step into it. He might. He's not a bad option. I will say that. He was always, you know, the floor on him was always good. I would say that. So there's that option too. So yeah. So Brumby's for the wind force for the wooden spoon, probably. Yeah.
00:37:34
Speaker
I don't see how it's different. Yeah, Todd's are going to, they won't finish last. Good for that. Hooray. Yeah. Maybe the Rebels challenge. Who knows? Yeah. They pulled themselves together. All right. Let's get to the actual rugby that happened this past weekend. That was a lot better, a lot better than the last couple of weeks. Certainly in terms of pens. Yeah. Not many penalties at all compared to the last couple of weeks. Oh, good Lord.
00:38:03
Speaker
Yeah, that Crusaders game, the week before last, the 27 penalties or something crazy in that? Yeah, it was a lot of penalties in the Hurricanes Crusaders game. Yeah, so let's go to Blues and Highlanders. Well, I saw somebody say that Barrett is very pedestrian, and I guess that's kind of a fair assessment, but I'm not sure that's accurate because you don't know what he's doing in that locker room either.
00:38:28
Speaker
So that's definitely something that you need to factor in and also like you have to worry about Bowdoin Baird like that takes so much attention away from other guys like Caleb Clark and Mark Tullia and you know Yeah, you get you wanty who you always have to pay attention to but you know that Ontario Black's just been flying under the radar and doing everything right So it's like I don't think that's a fair assessment. No, I mean to me Barrett's been Excellent at getting his guys in the right position and like putting setting them up for good months That's why I mean, I think that's why Caleb Clark
00:38:58
Speaker
is on fire right now because he's getting a lot of space afforded to him because Barrett gets that ball and now they have to worry about him attacking and distributing. And that's what's opening up the space certainly out wide for Clark.
00:39:14
Speaker
Yeah. And I mean, playing, playing with a heavy heart too, as best we can. Yeah. Death in the family, which very, very. Yeah. Right. Like, what was his grandfather? Like. That morning. That morning. I don't know how he played. Unreal. That he was able to compose, keep himself composed and play as well as he did. Yeah. He had a real belter, you know, try, try assist. Yeah. Just like.
00:39:39
Speaker
He was everywhere. He was just a different class, everything about him. He just, he looks like the real deal. It's amazing seeing these actual young talents in the blue coming through now.
00:39:49
Speaker
They are also young as well, because you've got... Clark's only 21, Tulare's like 23, Rico's only 23, Foskin's a 2-2, 21. These guys can be dominated for a long time to go. Yes, yeah. And Satutu had himself another great game. Yeah, so shocker. That was a great little kick. I was like, was that... I thought it was Yewani real quick. And I was like, nope, that was not Yewani. Satutu, again, just...
00:40:19
Speaker
He just did everything, his defence at the end, because it was such a tight game in the end. Yes.
00:40:24
Speaker
some monstrous pressure in the the final 10 10 minutes or so in the bleeds 22 and city was into enormous hits yeah i mean and we can't ignore the other back rower that scored two for for these guys probably he's like hey don't forget about me uh i'm here too guys you know don't forget about this guy that's let's play to the all-blacks as well and and i have to give love to sam knock because i've i've been hard on him for a long time and and
00:40:53
Speaker
Boy is he has he turned it around? He's improved. He's improved. He had approved before the break too Yeah, it improved before the break to be fair So, you know, yeah, and it's just it's good to see him because there's been players who were good before the break that are kind of Returning to form he's not he's not one of them. Yeah That he's uh, you know, he's I'm saying by I mean like they were playing a little bit above them They're punching above their weight class and they came back down earth. He's been just continuing to improve and
00:41:23
Speaker
I've made it a point to watch his service and when he has a flat first receiver, he's hitting them right where they are. When he's got an attacking first receiver, he's leading them into the gap. It's really been helping that attack flourish. Yeah.
00:41:42
Speaker
Yeah, he's been a class above what they had last year. And he was part of the problem last year, along with Michael Ruru. Yeah. But thankfully, that's no longer an issue. They have been like Christie to back him up just in case he starts to flounder. We should not ignore the other eight men on the other side, kids. He didn't have a great first half, but he had a great second half. Michaela too. Oh, boy. He's, you know, they got eight men coming out of their ears down in New Zealand, apparently.
00:42:12
Speaker
They really do. This guy was a huge part of that first try that they scored. Yeah, this dude runs just as hard as Tootoo does, and he's just as good. Yeah, he really does. He carries so well, generating so many meters. And in the Brazil in the back row as well, I mean, it's just back row time.
00:42:35
Speaker
with a lot of good talent in that back row for New Zealand in general, but even Highlanders, which I don't think it's as much notice right now with Plexus 2-2, Arti Sevilla, and so on going on over there. But there's a couple more guys I wanted to mention on the Highlanders, because it's not like they played like shit. They had this game and they let it go. Let's be real about this. Rob Thompson, like how good has he been playing for this team?
00:42:59
Speaker
You know very under the radar, but very but very quality, you know, he's he's got some good feet on him He you know, he doesn't quite have the ALB feet But man, he's got some pretty quick feet for a guy that's playing in midfield And then obviously the guy playing next to him or a little closer to him Mitch hunt played really well in this game as well Making a lot of people forget about Josh you wanty, you know, so Which is a hard thing to do And on the other side for the highlighters though Scott Gregory, um
00:43:27
Speaker
kind of awful that game to the point where, I mean, and it's one of those, you know, he's got a noticeable hair situation going on. So it's one of those, you can't be that bad. You can't play that poorly with that kind of hair without consequences.
00:43:44
Speaker
So yeah, absolutely. I mean I just some some three notes in a row I have here uh in the the second half it was like about yeah 55 minutes in right after the uh, the frizzell, uh, try I I was like, you know what blues haven't put gregory under pressure at all this half So you're 15 minutes into the second half
00:44:02
Speaker
in a pretty close match. Um, at this point now you're losing. It's like, you gotta put some pressure on him almost immediately after that. I think Barrett puts a high ball on him. He fucks it up. Uh, Gregory knocks it on. Um,
00:44:14
Speaker
And the Blues end up with a penalty and then score. That's when Papa Lee scored a second. And then right after that, Bryn Gatlin comes on to replace
Match Analysis: Crusaders & Chiefs
00:44:24
Speaker
Scott Gregory. Yeah, probably should have done that beforehand, honestly. Yeah, I'm like, you know, you have a guy who's kind of, he should have a target on his back. You can't waste 15 minutes not putting any pressure on him. And yeah, it was at that point, they're like, yeah, he's got to get out of here. Do we have the news on Sam Gilbert and what's going on with that? I mean, look bad.
00:44:42
Speaker
No, I mean really NCI or for the most part NCI. So I'm guessing the, unfortunately the worst, which is some sort of cruciate ligament issue. That's my assumption too. Yeah. Yeah. He just came down on it. Awkward. Yeah. And immediately lifted his leg and went to deck and all that. Yeah.
00:45:03
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, it didn't look good. Yeah. And overall, the lineups were better in this game, too, I would say. Both this one and the last one. The Highlanders were putting the Blues under pressure, which was what the Blues have been doing the last couple of weeks and with 2P0, 2P0, and the like. Yeah. And so, you know, impressive for the Highlanders to challenge them. They have been...
00:45:21
Speaker
Lineup Kings last couple weeks. So, you know props the islanders for playing their asses off and really they should have had this game, but They should have just Couldn't couldn't push it through in these final 20 minutes Yeah, and I I do appreciate because I I like to talk about it And bitch when they don't but I want to at least appreciate the fact that the highlanders went for the corner They went for the win. Yeah late rather than
00:45:49
Speaker
just trying to tie it up and play for the draw. Or the golden point. Yeah, that's what we were looking at. Kind of would have been cool, but at the same time, I love the guts to go for the try. Yeah, this is what we were complaining about last week where enough team, certainly hurricanes, weren't quite going for the jugular against the Crusaders and they paid for it later on. Yeah. And more drop goals. Both missed. Yeah. And left footed. Both of them went for the left foot drop goal.
00:46:19
Speaker
Yeah, what a waste. I remember just drop goals have been a big part of Northern Hemisphere, Robbie, for many, many years. And I remember just during the Robbie World Cup commenting on the fancy Robbie Geek Twitter about some glorious drop goals and all these Kiwis taking the piss at me saying, you Northerners love your drop goals.
00:46:39
Speaker
And now look at you. Come around. Look what you've done. My kids were really confused watching the game as well because it's obviously on Saturday morning over here about eight o'clock in the morning. So we love watching a bit of Super Rugby in the morning. And they're like, so who's playing? I was like, the blues first islands. All right. So he's in the white. The blues. Yeah. That's not helpful.
00:47:05
Speaker
That doesn't make sense. I'm glad you said that because I was thinking the same thing watching it. I'm like, wait, why? There's a blue team, but it's not the blues. Oh, it doesn't. Yeah, I guess it took me a moment after opening kickoff to sort out who is who. Yeah, I guess it's up to the home team to change kit. So yeah, they were, they were left to have to change out of their blues.
00:47:24
Speaker
Uh, but oh well, uh, it looks like they, they, uh, they made it. All right. So yeah, the, the blues take down the Highlanders, um, and say the favorites right now, maybe we'll see. We'll see. Um, we'll see what happens. Um, yeah, it feels like a two horse race that make that game on the 11th of July is going to be huge.
00:47:42
Speaker
Yeah, next weekend. It'll be a lot of fun. Hell, let's look at the other horse, Crusaders and Chiefs. Yeah, I know. There's a little bit of a... There's a bitter one for Ben. Showed some fight in the end, the Chiefs did. Well, they took out the guy who was fucking up their attack, so... Yeah. Yeah, that helps. Yeah. Yeah. Topaya. Yeah. As soon as they took him out, they got three points with him in for 60 minutes.
00:48:11
Speaker
And then, you know, 10 minutes after that, they scored 10 points. And yeah, and he wasn't like, how many line, how many little line breaks did, did Cruden make? And there was nobody to support him. Yeah. Like even early he makes, he made a quick line break and Tupiah should have been there on his outside, but he was, he was delayed. He was back looking for a pass rather than offload. And
00:48:33
Speaker
That's when um, I can't remember who it was who picked it off for for for the crusaders. Uh, it must have been enter I think um stepped in and and and picked it off in his lane and it's like, you know If you were where you were supposed to be to paya, that's a try like I have oops frustrating as fuck there. Yeah, totally
00:48:52
Speaker
Totally, totally, totally. But again, I will say, despite the really sloppy weather, the lines were fairly clean here, too, for the most part. And still low penalties, too, you know, under that. Like a lot fewer of the... Yeah, it kind of...
00:49:07
Speaker
people fell into their habits late. So there were a little bit more, you know, the, the, the discipline at the breakdown penalties. But other than that, it was, you know, almost scrum penalty or offside or hands in the rocks, shit like that. So it feels like the ref was being a bit more lenient in this game. I know Gatlin was kicking off at full time about good. He's slowing the ball down for the last, for the last try, but he was certainly lenient with the crusaders.
00:49:36
Speaker
I had a feeling that was coming. Listen, I'm not completely arguing against it. I was watching Good U, I'm like, that's a penalty? No way, that's not a penalty. Yeah, I was like- Absolutely none. And Weber was freaking out and I don't blame him at all.
00:49:55
Speaker
I can't get to the ball. I understand. I totally understand. And he had every right to be and they've been they were pretty hard on that the last two weeks, too. So that's the way like it caused all sorts of shit. And it's like, you know, it's not just what he did, but what it caused. And then the situation that he caused by doing it illegally.
00:50:12
Speaker
absolutely should have been a penalty. No defense for the chiefs there. That was unbelievably stupid to just go to sleep and he can't start working the rent. It's not going to change his call. You can yell at him. Yeah, sure.
00:50:28
Speaker
But you got to you got to stay connected enough to You know to to watch out for a quick line out. Um, yeah, although it also I think there was other questions as to whether it touched because it went right into some like photographers and stuff So did it touch anybody the referee seemed to? Say that it didn't I don't know that he got a good look There's a lot around the management of that situation that I just I didn't like Yeah, well not that I don't think it changed the outcome um, but it's just one of those like
00:50:58
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think he did a good job there. I'll leave it at that. Yeah, fair enough. I mean, I will say that it's pretty noticeable that the Crusaders have gotten a huge boost from Sam Whitelock being in there, especially now that we know Scott Barrett's gonna be out for the remainder of the competition. So that's huge. Not too bad to have him to call upon when you lose an all black, I lost one loud black block. I got another one.
00:51:25
Speaker
No big deal. No big deal. Although I will say a guy that doesn't have an All Blacks cap right now that might get one.
00:51:39
Speaker
in the next year or so is Colin Grace. That guy is not missing too much. Yeah, he's not missing much. I was like, Colin Grace tackled that guy and then he tackled that guy. He just got up and kept going. I was like, this dude is a fricking energizer bunny. Good Lord. Yeah. Similar stats last week as well. He was, I think he was about 20 old tackles last week as well. Yeah. He's a, he's turned out 20 tackle games. Like it's a job. Very, very, very simple. Thanks for him. Just tackle and don't, don't stop.
00:52:09
Speaker
So he's pretty he's pretty good Do and I'll ask this to the Chiefs fan Do you think Tonkay? I hope stays on the bench after this this last one here had a double I don't think there's a couple of bad line outs and then he fumbled the last that last goal line opportunity there and that was that's the one thing that he's good at in my opinion his lancer and but it's carrying is amazing so
00:52:33
Speaker
the thing that he's supposed to be good at cost him. So it's like, yeah, but that'll happen. Um, you know, you, you, you're not, just cause you're good at something doesn't mean you're going to be perfect. So as long as you do the things you do well, you can, the team can work around it. Um,
00:52:47
Speaker
But I agree though, the line outs were better. Yeah, he didn't do so hot when he came in. Yeah, he was definitely the downside on that one. Again, that's not my main concern. My main concern for the Chiefs is the 13. Everything else, they've been workable. But, you know, even Anton Leonard Brown's not getting loose at 12. No. And I think it's because he just doesn't have the space to operate because I think teams, especially this past week,
00:53:16
Speaker
I think the Crusaders just ignored Tupac because they're like, you're not going to do anything. So let's just shut down ALB and we'll go from there. Yeah. So to me, the big key for the Chiefs, if they want to have success the rest of the way out, is finding a 13 that doesn't have his head up his ass.
00:53:35
Speaker
Yeah. Do you want to bring, uh, to Momano into 13 next week? Possibly. I would like that very much. Yeah. Yeah. He's on his way out too. Yeah. And you know, you still have all Amalo who's not, you know, hasn't played yet. So you could always at that point bump a wing into 13, do something there. Is he not injured?
00:53:54
Speaker
I don't know. We don't get the news about the players easily over here. So I can't say for sure. I would have thought he would be starting if he was fit. I assume he would be at least in the 23 if he was healthy. So I'm going to assume that he's knocked up somehow. He was in the 23 last week.
00:54:17
Speaker
Yeah, so maybe got banged up. Maybe they were trying out. It's not ready yet. Yeah, possibly, possibly. Or you picked up something in the last week plus. Oh, something else we missed in the player movement. Tyrell Ardern leaving Hamilton going to France. Interesting.
00:54:35
Speaker
another fellow North American on his way to Europe. I mean, he's gonna be, he'll be remembered there for a while. He's been there for a while. He's played very well for that team. They'd call him a funny talker if it was. So yeah, one of the funny talkers down there. On his way over to France, which I mean, I don't think he's from Quebec, so it's not gonna help him, but, you know, he'll be all right. Just the same. No, he's been a good servant to the Chiefs, I will say that, so.
00:55:06
Speaker
I'd speed over in France though, man, that's competitive and it's the Wild West, I swear to God. Yeah, it is. I'm trying to do this. So yeah, man, what else are we going to do? Oh my God. We'll see. But yeah, so the crusaders take down the chiefs and keep themselves at the front. They just look like they haven't been away. That back line is, I believe, considering the conditions.
00:55:31
Speaker
Yeah, just yeah, we have to remember this is this is not this is their winter and it's it's not the traditional winter of snow It's rain. It's a shit ton of rain and it's not fun to play in I would rather play in snow That's me personally, but that's just you know
00:55:49
Speaker
I'm a back myself. I'm sorry to say and just when you have conditions like that, you know, this is not going to be a day for us. Yeah. Um, you know, no longer good to you. Severece like literally every time he gets the ball, you're just like, Oh my God. There he goes. Yeah. And you didn't get any tries, but I think he sets up two for Will Jordan. He said at least the one with Will Jordan. Yeah. No, both of them. He, he, he popped out the high ball. He caught. Oh yes.
00:56:16
Speaker
Yeah. And it was like, yeah, it was, I didn't think anybody was going to catch him there. No, Brad. Well, Brad Weber showed his speed on that one for sure. Yeah. Big time. I mean, if there's a, if there's a faster, I want to see Brad weather and Weber and Cobus Reinach go at it and see what happens. Yeah. 40 meter run off you go. That'd be, that'd be a fun one to watch.
00:56:36
Speaker
So, yeah, here we go. Jeez, we're getting right into it. Now we got four games to pick, man. Unbelievable. Oh, my God! Hey, we're perfect so far. Well, no, we're not. We got off the Schneider. We both got a win here.
00:56:52
Speaker
We got two wins this past week. Thank God finally finally no more losses So yeah, but you neither you or I or has provided separation from each other. No, we will this week. Yeah one maybe yeah 159 and 76 both of us. Yeah. Good God. All right. We'll see it Well this week that we are gonna definitely get some separation. Yeah, because I assume that neither one of us is gonna pick the opposite Some team coming up here likely, huh, but let's look at the first game. I'll just crusaders
00:57:22
Speaker
Thoughts uh The high I mean the highlanders are clearly a You know, they're not the perfect team. Uh, it's hard to say that the crusaders aren't the perfect team. Um so I I think it's going to be uh, you know and We still have the though the home teams are doing are clearly uh benefiting from from that
00:57:49
Speaker
So this is actually crowds, which is nice. Yeah, it is nice. So that's something to factor in. Um, but I, I can't pick again. I don't think I can pick against the Crusaders in this match. There's, you know, especially against the, you know, the two teams at the bottom of the table or at the bottom of the table for, Oh no, I guess Highlanders are in the middle. Sorry. Got them. Yeah, they're imperfect as far as, you know, one-on-one, but I don't see them winning this. So I'm going to go with the Crusaders. I, you know, as George said, that back line is, is,
00:58:19
Speaker
It doesn't have any flaws in it right now. And that alone is going to carry them, I think, in this match. It's hard to find a weakness in many places in that team. And I think under the roof as well, we're going to see some pretty tasty ruppy from them. So I agree with you, Ben. I would go for Crusaders as well. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, I have a hard time to think otherwise Crusaders here. I mean,
00:58:45
Speaker
David Healey, David Healey's coming off the bench. Like, geez, what does that say about how good the rest of them are? Like David Healey, who was, you know, a machine before the break here, still a machine just coming off the bench now. Like, damn, hard to say otherwise.
00:59:04
Speaker
Alright, I was not happy when he came on either. I was like, oh, okay. Well, oh, this is gonna be a problem. Oh Shit All right to Hamilton Chiefs and Hurricanes Well, it ain't gonna take a whole lot of rocket science to figure out who the hell Ben Ben and I are picking this Especially since neither one of us is won a damn game. So I'm gonna back my guys obviously although I think
00:59:31
Speaker
If I was picking with my brain, I'd actually probably pick the Chiefs because they look a little bit better this past weekend. Yeah, this is one where my head and my heart are kind of aligned.
00:59:40
Speaker
But it really depends to me, it depends on who's wearing that 13. If it's Tupiah, then I think that opens the door for the Hurricanes, just because I think it'll limit what the Chiefs can do. I think Gatlin's smarter than that at this point. He should have seen enough now that if it's one match here, one match there, but now it's three straight matches, that Tupiah has been an issue to say the least.
01:00:10
Speaker
I think they'll put someone else in that jersey, and I think that might help open up the attack. And that along with the better discipline that they've shown as far as the penalties. I think that alone should carry them this match. I'm varying towards the Chiefs as well. I feel like the Canes are just looking a bit lost at the moment. They're missing Jordy Barrett. Should be back this week.
01:00:38
Speaker
Should be back this week. Should be back this week. Okay. They rested on the last match in Intishmation of the Buy. So the thinking is maybe he won't start, but he will be in the 23. Yeah. You know, I don't think they're utilizing their best weapons, particularly the guy in the map. He just, he wasn't playing his natural game last time around.
01:01:01
Speaker
No, although he made somebody look silly for the Amua tribe, but it's hard to tackle Lamape when he doesn't want to be tackled. It really is. And that's what he's best at, and that's what he needs to focus on. Agreed. But yeah, I feel like the Chiefs probably have got a bit too much about them. I reckon it'll be close, but I could see the Chiefs taking it.
01:01:28
Speaker
Yep, no, I don't disagree. All right, and then over to Oz for the first Super Rugby AU game. Redz Warataz. These are two teams that you definitely don't know what you're getting. He's going to turn up. Yeah, I think with the Redz being the home team, and I don't think that they've lost nearly as much
01:01:56
Speaker
In in this break as the water toss have Again and they get the curly bill losses. I think that's more Locker room and team cohesion than anything else. Mm-hmm, but that's still that's Still a huge loss and you know the intangibles. Mm-hmm Again, we need to know which Reds teams gonna show up, but I would still go with the home team at this point No
01:02:24
Speaker
Attacking talent. They were putting together the odd good performance before the lockdown. Probably a tiny bit more consistent than the task, although consistency isn't a strong point. I think home advantage would probably take them over.
01:02:44
Speaker
Yeah, I'll bet, it's hard to pick against Michael Hooper, but I wanna pick with James O'Connor. Maybe I'll frame it that way, along with the likelihood of Danganu possibly being back in Hagerty. Liam Wright still on the squad, even though they lost Isaac Rotta. Yeah, I'll go to the Reds for sure.
01:03:06
Speaker
Reds, reds, reds. All right, and then another one, this will be fairly interesting. Again, Brumby's are definitely the most consistent team here, probably the favorite. What Rebels team shows up? Which one? Shows if it's the really high powered offensive machine they know they can be. It's gonna be a tri-fest since anybody's game. But if they fall apart, meh. And I think that the,
01:03:34
Speaker
In this one, maybe more so than the Red's Wartas, I think the new laws around the 50-22, 22-50, you're gonna come into play here. If the Rebels can use that to their advantage and open up space with those kicks, this could become a more, attract me kind of both ways, just could be a wide open game. In that case, I'd go with the Rebels.
01:04:02
Speaker
So I'm going to go with the rebels. How about that? How about that? All right. We might have some separation here. All right. Um, I am going to go with the Brumbies. Um, I have a hard time picking against them right now. Again, consistency. I love the rebels and what they do. Like if I had to pick an Australian team, it would definitely be the rebels, but I just know the issues with their game and mostly just having them turn up.
01:04:24
Speaker
But I mean on their day. Yeah, they're gonna be a fucking tough out, but I don't know I don't know if this is the day that they get done especially where they're With the uncertainty of how Melbourne's turning out right now with a possible with a with an outbreak going on and they can't play at home They can't stay at home. So they're gonna be sleeping in Sydney for a while here. So we'll see how this goes. I
01:04:48
Speaker
Yeah, I'm with you, Jared, that Brumby's pack as well. George, we had a thing. Sorry, man. Not anymore.
01:05:01
Speaker
I'm backing them to take the whole tournament and I think they're going to start off strong against the Rebels. They left when they were hot before the lockdown and I can just see them picking straight back up where they left off. I'm really hoping for, so this is to me,
01:05:21
Speaker
More much more so than than um, out area out tiara. I'll get that right one time. Um To me this is much more of an exhibition style season with the the law changes and and You know that the out euro is a lot more of a yeah, they're playing rugby they're playing however many matches and and and and it's the you know, the same stuff as we were seeing before this is going to be
01:05:47
Speaker
different. It'll be interesting to see how the team, and to me, I'm hoping, and I was hoping for more of it from Aotearoa, just a lot more of open attacking rugby, like kind of leaving it all out there, trying to score points rather than playing it safer.
01:06:04
Speaker
Mm-hmm. So I'm hoping to see a little bit of that from from Australia just saying you know what? Let's see some you know, 40 to 35 scores. Let's you know Let's get some go for some tries rather than yeah, the penalty kick fest that we had last week in Yeah, yeah, we'll see I will say good news for you and I been on the side. I spoke with them ESPN is gonna carry it. I
01:06:26
Speaker
Nice. I screenshot that conversation. So when they come back and say, Oh, we're not caring. Oh, really? You had this guy tell me otherwise. So I am not ESPN's favorite person right now. I will say that right now. I am not their favorite person. But they've been, they, I mean, they didn't really technically, they didn't officially announce it till what, the Friday before the first, like hours before the first match. So, so I'm guessing we'll have the same again, uh, this week.
01:06:54
Speaker
Yeah, we won't find out until Wednesday Thursday that they're carrying it technically but they've been told that yeah They're just trying to get it on the schedule. I was like, yay Thank you. Although I had to ask I had to ask the question ten times because they definitely tried definitely try to dance around it And then finally they're like crap. I actually have to go find this answer And one last bit for me on the super rugby Australia and especially with the 50 22 22 50 rules I had a thought because I was watching this past
01:07:21
Speaker
weekend, watching the New Zealand play, and thinking about those kind of kicks and when you'd see them and how much space there is. And yet, I think, especially in the Chiefs match, there were significant opportunities for it, more so in other matches. But what I also realized is that it's going to be something interesting to see on free kicks.
01:07:48
Speaker
We see a lot of scrum resets, you know, free kicks awarded at like, you know, 10 meter line. All right, we'll reset for scrum, because what else are you going to do? In this case, if you take a quick tap, pass it out, you know, one or two, and then chip for inside the 22. Now you've gone from instead of, you know, reset the scrum,
01:08:08
Speaker
Yeah, I'd be okay with that. It's okay, now you get it out and you kick and maybe you have a line, you know, off the free kick, you have a line out inside the other team's 22. That's something I actually am excited to see if that happens.
01:08:21
Speaker
Um, fewer scrums, fewer scrum resets. Let's play rugby. Yeah. That can play against the road's hands as well, actually. Because Matt Tanua, you know, has a decent kicking game. Yes, he does. That could definitely play to their advantage. It's going to be fascinating. Yeah. Because I, you know, I don't know how many.
01:08:40
Speaker
Coaches have coached this, you know, let alone the players playing it because you have to, it has to come from the coaches. How are they going to use it? And in what situations? So I'm really interested to see how the coaching staffs have trained their players to use it. And if it's going to take a couple of weeks for everything to settle in. Yeah, we shall see. It'll be,
01:09:00
Speaker
It'd be interesting if they use that law for those types of reasons, I will be okay with it. I have more of an issue with the 50-22 than I do the 22-50 just because I don't want to just turn into kicks back and forth because listening to my kids that I coach, they're like, this is the most boring part of the game, like the kicks back and forth. I'm like,
01:09:21
Speaker
I know guys but like if you and some of them are super rugby nerds and they appreciate what's going on there But not all them are so yeah, you know trying to keep the kids involved and trying to keep that that you know theme going Let's uh, let's let's hope that it works out the way ben just described as opposed to just people trying to kick way too freaking much I'm not into that. That's just i'll pass especially if it's a free like a free entry into the 22 is
01:09:48
Speaker
That's a lot for me to stomach at the moment. And I guess the other question is, is there a carry back rule like similar to how it is inside the 20, you know, inside the 22 versus carry back, you know, brought back. So if you have a scrum just outside the 22, you know, could that be used for a 22 50 rule or does it have to be
01:10:10
Speaker
I just don't understand the details of the law. That's an interesting question. I guess we'll find out. There's a lot that we're going to find out this weekend and I'm looking forward to it. Yeah, that there is. Okay, this was a shitload of fun.
01:10:30
Speaker
As always, thank you guys for listening. George, you're the man.
Farewell & Future Plans
01:10:34
Speaker
Thank you so much for joining us, man. It's a, it's a lot of fun. Absolute pleasure. Thank you for inviting me. Yeah. When, um, hopefully when COVID is no longer a thing, we can get some sort of transatlantic, um, you know, you know, visitation going on here and, you know, there's definitely a celebratory trip to England in order for Jared and myself. Yeah, for sure.
01:10:59
Speaker
the game in several days, I think. Several games in several years, yes. No wives. But yeah, so just the same. Thank you, George. Thank you guys for coming along as always. We really appreciate you. We'll be back next week to digest all the BS that goes on in Super Rugby.
01:11:20
Speaker
Australia along with the next round of Super Heavy SRO. Until then, we'll catch you guys next time. You can keep growing this from the long and have a good one. Hit her! Cheers!