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Season 4- Episode 6- When You‘re An A**hole and Everyone Knows It (Premiership Round 4)
34 Plays4 years ago
It's your favorite American rugby dopes, and we are ready for you to spend some quality time with us. On this episode of TFRY we dig into yet more embarassing actions of coaches here in America and just how bad it truly is. We also dive into similar things going on over in the Premiership with everyone playing the blame game. And, Front Rows Can't Do That? We, (Ben especially) begs to differ! We also get into the disappointing performances by a pair of nations in RWC Qualifying (not to take away from what the opposition did by any means) and what is to be done for the Eagles to secure a spot in France. Yes, of course we are going to also wrap all the action from Round 4 in the Prem and oh so so much more. Crack a beverage and join us on this week's episode of TFRY.
Our Patreon subscription will be in the Fantasy Corner show notes this week OR you can stop by one of our twitter accounts tomorrow and get involved there, we finally did it! Twitter: Jarrod- jdyke8man & Ben- admrablsnackbar, and #AskTFRY for all fantasy rugby questions.
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 & Podcast Engagement
00:00:08
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome back to this advanced rugby game. My name is Jared Dyke. I'm Ben Glauber. Let's get into it. We've got lots to roll through here after another exciting news week for the news cycle here. A lot of good rugby this weekend. A lot of bad rugby. Give me a fucking beer. I'd have a beer. Download rate review us. Check us out on your favorite podcast apps.
00:00:35
Speaker
Send us feedback on the email address. It's in the show notes, so you can always feel free to just get that up. You respond. Promise. One of those weird ones is going to send you an automatic voice email reply. We don't have that ability.
00:00:49
Speaker
No, we don't, we will reply. Although I guess we technically have the ability, but we're not willing to put in that type of work. No, we're putting work other ways. Yeah, way better.
Rugby Community & Social Issues
00:01:02
Speaker
By our friend, George, the fantasy rugby geek of coffee. Make sure that you get that. If you are anywhere near the top of your table, one of the reasons you're there is likely because of his tips. So get yourself onto that real quick. Yeah.
00:01:16
Speaker
And also, grab your TRM upgrades, because one, start sits and all that good stuff, and who's on by? Very helpful. And two, you're supporting the restart rugby, which while not perfect is certainly more than has been done in the past for player welfare and such, especially with- Right, these things, these things need to get their legs under them, right? They'll do the best they can for a little bit. They'll take care of what they can, and then as it grows,
00:01:44
Speaker
they'll get better and they'll do more. It's great that they're starting it. Let's keep it going. Big ups to the rugby community for recognizing mental health awareness this past weekend. Lots of people wearing loose head stuff, which was really cool to see. I was really a big fan of that.
00:02:05
Speaker
And one of the ones that made me smile the most was Rachel Burford. I was like, oh, yes, yes. Get her on board for sure. Yeah, I would. I kind of, you know, it's one of those that's expected in a way, but not not expected. Like you can't you can't really expect them, but it's like, oh, cool. Rachel's ran out. Of course she is. Like, I should have questioned. It's a dumb moment. Oh, yeah, of course. Of course. Why am I why am I not surprised?
00:02:35
Speaker
All right. And as always, Black Lives Matter, there is no room for racism on this podcast or ever, no matter what. And brings us to events on this side of the pond. Shocker of the day! Because that never happened. We never come on this side of the pond for this, do we ever? This is, you know, really. And here's the fucked up thing about the really, like, if you really want to know how fucked up the situation is here in the U.S.,
00:03:03
Speaker
This John Gruden thing should be a massive, massive story. It should be huge that what exactly he was doing, how you're saying, how wrong it was, and all this stuff.
00:03:19
Speaker
when he was and they you know they're trying to frame it as when he was a coach of course this is all happening when he when he was at ESPN or at least these emails or when he was at the ESPN and it's like and there's other emails and that the NFL isn't releasing it's like and it's not Gruden it's every fucking everybody everybody yeah but like that's how fucked up it is that it's not a it's like it was a story for a couple hours in the I'm talking about like outside of sports news on like you know the the major news outlets it's like
00:03:47
Speaker
Yeah, this happened. He was racist. He did a bad. He did a racy bad. And now you have to go. And it's like, no, he did. He was like he is and will never probably never won't be, you know. Yeah, it's like he was massaging. He was he's the typical exactly what you thought that fucking hardo asshole football coach would be everything you think they would be. And you know why you think they're that because they are that 90 percent of them are.
00:04:13
Speaker
Oh, there's like, he cultivated a whole thing about being an asshole, being chucky. He, he, he like patterns himself after a serial killer doll. Like, he's an asshole and no shit, he's an asshole. And most like, I could probably name five coaches and I'm being,
00:04:33
Speaker
Like I don't follow football nearly as much as I used to American football. Um, but I know off the top of my head, I could probably, I could probably name off the top. I had three coaches who were not like that in the league.
00:04:44
Speaker
and there may be a couple, a handful more.
Racism in Sports Discussion
00:04:47
Speaker
And it's like the guys you would, like, I mean, Tomlin seems like a standup kind of guy. He seems like a guy who kind of has no time for any shit like that, stupidity. It's not worth his time. Pete Carroll, the same thing. He might, like, I was thinking about that. Pete Carroll, there was like national outrage around that because his players were getting money, same kind of thing with Sarris, right? He was too good to his players.
00:05:12
Speaker
And you think about that in terms of then a guy like John Gruden, who while in charge of an entire organization's football, or like the players, the staff, all that stuff, he's anti-gay, he's anti-woman, he hates black people. How is this person in charge of people and responsible for their livelihoods?
00:05:41
Speaker
Well, the the Glazers aren't exactly everybody's favorite person either, who own the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And of course, the Davis who own the Raiders. So, you know, really two peas in a pod. Those those two families are so. And of course, we're all around the Washington football team, which is what we're going to see about the Washington football team. If you don't know, first off, Google around their cheerleaders and what they were doing there and probably still are.
00:06:10
Speaker
Um, they're, they are a fucking trash organization. So yeah, all these, you know, these three teams are going to have shit like, you know, those kinds of coaches. Yep. It's, it's pretty poor. It's pretty poor. And the thing about it is, and I think that the ultimate like.
00:06:26
Speaker
He really is a dick. There's nobody coming to bat for him. Nobody. They're all just letting it go. There's nobody coming to his defense. So that tells you everything you need to know. You got to love it. The Raiders put out a statement. I think it was the Raiders. Somebody put out a statement.
00:06:41
Speaker
there was a there was an anonymous black player on the team who was like, you know, you got you know, I'm okay with it. And it's like, okay, first off, yeah, an anonymous like, no, none of that happened. That was them trying to. That was probably Gruden putting like, you know, with one of his media buddies saying like, Hey, can you say that this was said, something like that helped me out. Yeah, so God willing, he'll never work in football ever again. So
00:07:09
Speaker
Oh, he can't, he can't. Was it Samuel Ocho, I think? Or Emmanuel Ocho. Emmanuel Ocho, yeah. I was saying something along the lines of,
00:07:20
Speaker
if you look at what's on the back of our helmets, if you look at what's in the back of the end zone, it's all like, you know, we stand up against racism, like we are against racism. It's lip service. It is lip service. He's like, but this is what, you know, this is before, like, you got to do it. Like, he cannot coach another game. Nope. And really, like, if nothing else, it's lip service, but you got to
00:07:43
Speaker
You got to back it up when it's in the big, you know, if you if you skip out on this, then nobody believes it at all. Right. Yeah, definitely. Nobody. And that's that's the bullshit. They're covered. They're still covering up the like 90 percent of the other coaches who are exactly like that. Mm hmm. Yeah, it's pretty shit. Yeah. Pretty shit.
Podcast Expansion & Rugby Politics
00:08:00
Speaker
Slightly more positive news. Our Patreon drops tomorrow. Isn't everybody just excited? If you're listening to this, it's probably our I mean, it's already active. So we may not have tweeted it out, but
00:08:12
Speaker
Yeah. If you want to, I guess you got to get that in the show notes. I guess we'll put the Patreon on the show notes. So you'll have this.
00:08:21
Speaker
Yes, yes, yes. And if you're not, if you're not getting this to list tomorrow, you can probably check our Twitter feed. It's out there. Yeah. But it's it's, you know, we're going to grow it as we go. It's something that obviously I've been working on some analytics. So it's going to be a lot of things, again, on running lines of, you know, what, what do they score? How do they score when they start? How are they doing lately? How are they doing against other players at their position? And how are players doing
00:08:50
Speaker
Against the opposition, yeah. Right, against the opposition. Is he better than what they normally give up or does he get shut down by good defenses, things like that? Right. And then we'll have some team stats. They're attacking defense numbers at each position. So go check it out. There's a free kind of preview right on the site with last year's player stats. So you can kind of see what you're getting yourselves into. There's a little bit more information in this year's
00:09:19
Speaker
But yeah, it'll do to see what you can, what you might get without, without having to pay. Yep. And then of course we have plans to make other things a little bit more involved. The season is probably not going to be an example of it, but yeah, we definitely have some good plans going forward. So we're, we're excited about it and hopefully you guys are too.
00:09:40
Speaker
We appreciate anybody that hits that button and subscribe. Definitely. And our prices may be off. Just get the monthly, not the low ones. I'm trying to get a season pass, and I'm not sure how to make that happen. So there's an option that's like $25 a month. I mean, please do that, but don't do that.
00:10:00
Speaker
We aren't worth $25 a month. I can guarantee you that. I mean, please do it, but yeah. Well, if we see that, we'll reach out to you and let you know you fucked up. Yep. Yeah. Cancel and we'll subscribe you for free or something. Yeah. Okay. We'll give you the $5 a month option. We'll get you the right thing.
00:10:23
Speaker
All right, moving on to moving on to the other the unfortunate the more unfortunate things. Oh, even more. Yeah. Yeah, I know. Right. Exeter and RFU basically just trying to.
00:10:34
Speaker
Everybody's pushing blame around and it sucks because it takes one fucking person to take the goddamn responsibility. But unfortunately, what this says to me is there's no decent people involved in this whole thing right now. And that really is just so disheartening. It's so disappointing. It's like the Gruden thing too, in a way, because nobody wants that deal. Things like this.
00:10:55
Speaker
are perpetuated and then made worse because they're accepted when nobody stands up. And I do appreciate what WASPs did, but now it's time for them to pull the trigger because they were saying, we're not sure we want to see if there's a
00:11:13
Speaker
you know, a league wide and RFU wide response to this and then the league and the RFU are like, we're not gonna step in. It's not right, but yeah. And the prem kind of said the same thing. So it's like, okay, somebody's got to step up and ban it.
00:11:31
Speaker
Obviously, and the joke of a PR stunt they did this past weekend, which was hilarious with as many players as they have that don't believe the pandemic was actually a thing and that COVID isn't going to hurt you and the vaccine isn't worth it. It's like, okay, so how many of these QAnon fuckers do you have in your club? Because I got questions.
00:11:56
Speaker
So I wanna move on to the other thing, because this to me is a valid question, and I don't know the answer. Please, because I am an American, so I'm ignorant of a lot of world culture. And I try to fix that, but this is one that has made its way through, I guess, the gap. The Saracens Fez, I don't understand how that's exactly problematic.
00:12:25
Speaker
Dr. Who wore a Fez? I don't have the answer. I mean, here's the thing. They've slowly backed away from that cultural type of branding. Mascot's still a camel, which is probably the biggest problem right now, but they stopped using the camel on social media.
00:12:45
Speaker
which was the smartest thing they probably did so far. They went to the black and red dots instead, which probably makes a lot more sense. That's still the mascot and they still have like a plush camel in their thing. Honestly, it looks like they're going to start moving more towards like the wolf because everybody obviously knows that about the wolf pack defense. So,
00:13:08
Speaker
I think they're going to start to move towards that. And if they don't move fast enough, then everybody's going to take notice. I promise you that. Yeah, I just don't understand why it's like, I mean, yes, it's it's something that's from another culture. But I think that there's I'm not sure how racist that is more than it's just like. I don't know. I realize that there's yes. And there's there's all sorts of pejoratives using the word camel about people from the the Mideast region and all that.
00:13:37
Speaker
I just yeah, I don't like I see the like, again, I don't know exactly who wears fezzes. I think of Turkey more so than than just a religion or anything like that. And I don't see this having like bigoted overtones. So I could be wrong. But at the same time, yeah, if that if there's insensitivity around it that I'm not aware of, fine. I don't I don't give a fuck. I don't have connection to these things. Like it doesn't matter in the law. No, it doesn't matter to me.
00:14:06
Speaker
Yes, move on. Fine. Keep the keep the club and get away from the imaging. That's all it is. That's that's really all it amounts to is, come on, keep your club and move away from the imaging. It's not hard. It's like you pay people to fucking do this shit for you. Like, let's go. Yeah. Did I miss that part? Like, right. There should do this type of shit. Right. There should never be a no. We're not going to do that yet. It should just be OK. Fine. Fuck it. It's not worth the fucking fight.
00:14:32
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's not. It's not. And no, especially if you're alienating any sort of base doesn't matter how small or big. It's it's unhelpful in so many ways and
00:14:41
Speaker
All right, let's go on to the fun shit, because I've been staring at this line in the agenda for so long. We've got to get to it. The front rowers don't do that. Yes, they fucking do. Of course they do. Of course they do. Have you not been watching? So people have been maligning the front row and the dark arts for so long that they didn't realize that they're actually now breeding like rugby players who can do that. Yes.
00:15:12
Speaker
And fuck, I mean, what a display of handsmanship and tri-scoring noses for the line from the front row this weekend all around. The best has to be Sarah Byrne. Oh yeah, that was great. Like 1A, 1B with her and Collier, but I'm sorry. Byrne did so much more with that.
00:15:40
Speaker
play. It was like, yeah, she did a lot more. The fucking the dummy chicken wing and then the and then the past the other way where everybody was like, what the fuck is she? Oh, she's throwing it right to the player who's going to score like, yeah, good fucking thrill. Yeah, it was a great it was it was a fantastic job. Right. And then the collier. Yeah, I mean, that was fun. That was just plain old fun. That's all that was. And to watch it.
00:16:07
Speaker
Oh, yeah. And if they were so happy for like, I mean, yeah, obviously, you know, they all knew we're very, very aware of what was happening. Really? Joe Marchant, as soon as the whole that defense bought the dummy, he was not even looking to support as a as a potential you are. And he was just cheering him down the field. Go, go. Telling him with sound down the field. Absolutely. Yeah. Brilliant. Brilliant. And what it is.
00:16:37
Speaker
And then a couple of hooker tries. We had Gabriel O'Gray with that, that pick off them all. Um, that was, yeah, that's that was the one that set up Kim Rugee's try. Um, yeah. Oh, yeah. That was great. Just gorgeous. And he almost got another one, got away with another one for, for pizza too. So that was really nice.
00:16:55
Speaker
So just, yeah. And we're missing some, too. But those are the to me, those were the big three. Right. I mean, Genj had a fucking stormer. So of course he did. What else is new? But that's like, you know, oh, Sinclair, Kyle Sinclair, because he and, you know, we'll get to it in Bristol, but like so many Bristol players disappeared that it made it hard to like pick out good performances. But Sinclair's just casual, like, you know, hands like, you know, kind of like Dom Brant had on the
00:17:25
Speaker
Um, it was the green try, um, where he just kind of tipped it through. You don't expect that from an eight. Yeah. I might've had line-up, but yeah. Yeah, it was line-up. Um, Sinclair's doing that as a three, you know? Right. Um, and just dishing. Very different. So love seeing the front rows. Um,
00:17:43
Speaker
just doing awesome things. Cause I, I always enjoy doing things that nobody expected from a position. Yep. Yep. But I can also tell you that Ben's not as happy as we'll call you.
00:17:56
Speaker
No, no. I acted like I was there. I've been there before. Yeah. Yeah. We'll call you for a while. I would do the smile on the break. Like when he threw that dummy and everybody bit and he had that huge gap and just the smile, his face just boom. Yeah, I did. I would do that. That was always fun. But then it was like, all right, down to business. I got to
00:18:19
Speaker
I can't swear that out. How are we scoring this try now? Absolutely. So we're getting some international teams released, although I think some of these are going to change as the weeks go on. I certainly hope so. So Wales have released their international squad.
Rugby Comebacks & Upsets
00:18:37
Speaker
The big name that's on there that a lot of people are, you know, raving about, there's a couple, but one of them is Gareth Anscombe making his return, which is, geez, long overdue. You hope he can make the best of it because, you know, just, it's been a long road back for that name to get back here. I really hope so. And he is a fantastic player, so it's just really, it's been really sad to see him where he's at, you know.
00:19:00
Speaker
And you haven't had anybody to replace him, but they have one, two, three. They have four tens on their roster. They do. And it's come pretty slim, bigger and sheer and shitty. Yeah. You might be sliding some of them on the 15 or 12 or something. Yeah. Yeah. And be guessing that one.
00:19:21
Speaker
And then. Christ Chinsa. Yeah, that's another one. I don't know where. Yeah, coming east from Exeter. That's about as close as you get to that. Yeah, that's a huge get. And and he's what, 19 has had an amazing, amazing. It's one of those, like, you know, you live in interesting times as a
00:19:51
Speaker
Pretty nasty curse. Um, chances had an interesting life. Um, and, and to be, you know, where he is now, um, this is awesome for him and good for whales. Cause he'll be, he's in their system now and he'll have every opportunity I'm sure to have a nice long career with whales and they'll, they'll, yeah, they'll treat him well.
00:20:12
Speaker
Yeah, I'm sure I'm sure they will. Hopefully, better than they treat their women. Was it? I can't remember. Somebody said that there's God and Christ in the same second row in Wales because Ellen Wynn. Oh, God, OK.
00:20:30
Speaker
Oh man, okay, all right, fair enough. And also Scotland have released theirs, although theirs is definitely going to be more of a tentative squad because I think we'll see some changes when they hit the official international window when they can have their English and French-based players released, but there's some interesting things in here. Obviously, you know, Stains only got one cap, so that's a little interesting to me.
00:20:55
Speaker
Yeah. It's a matter of who's going to play 10. Like we're going to have fricking James Lang play 10. Like what is going to go on with that one? So I'm lost on that one. Yeah. Um, I'm not sure. So, so it's only, I think it's only for one match, thankfully. Yeah. Yeah. Who knows? Give, uh, I'm thinking, yeah, I was thinking King horn. That's my, that out of all those players, I think I'd have to go with him at 10.
00:21:20
Speaker
Yeah, that'd be interesting. I think McNally will be back around, which is nice to see. He's been a little in the squad, unfortunately, and he probably is their best hooker, but he's also a converted back row, so he might be a little undersized for some people's liking, but I'm not really worried about that myself. Yeah, I wouldn't worry about that.
00:21:41
Speaker
Um, so it's, you know, it's mostly Glasgow and Edinburgh, but we have a sales C shark on the squad, which is interesting. Uh, I don't know where the hell you pull that one out of, but I guess he's got a Scottish grandparent or something. Yeah, it's, it's a grandmother. I think I saw, I saw something on the Twitters. That's how it was.
00:22:01
Speaker
So there we are. I also heard that it was a good get because it's someone who wasn't going to, you know, probably could have gotten a spring box look, but probably wasn't going to get it. So it wasn't going to get more than a cap or two. Yeah. So one of these like good moves for for both the player and and and Scotland. Yeah. And if I seem distracted that the U.S. is playing right now for World Cup qualifying. But speaking of World Cup qualifying. Big old raspberry on that one.
00:22:30
Speaker
I just, I can't. I thought we were past this. I really did. I thought we were at the point where it was like, you know what, we'll qualify. We're still the best team, the best non-Argentina Western hemisphere team, like should be hands down, not a problem. And they lost a shitty match to Canada. Like they played four matches now against Canada and Uruguay.
00:23:02
Speaker
They're two and two, but it's not, the two wins were not, they played, in that time, maybe, what is it? You know, four matches, they played a match and a half of good rugby. And it was the- The first half a year going off all the second Canada game. Right. Yep. And then this, this, fuck, yeah, it's just fucking gross. Yeah. It's an embarrassment.
00:23:32
Speaker
They look amateurish, and they're not. So I'm super disappointed. I know Gary Gold's disappointed, but... Oh, he's extremely disappointed. He knows. And, you know, just referencing the US match itself, like that, they didn't even get off the plane. I really couldn't tell you they did. Maybe for five minutes, it looked like they did. About it. Yeah. And that's really disappointing. Yeah.
00:23:58
Speaker
It's just not they got to be better than that. And they've got they've got enough good players there. Like I was angry because they eventually they did bring on Greg Peterson. And I thought he should have started. And I was like, fine, get a good like, let's get a play like a real rugby player there. And I think you were like, you know, easy there because I was like, I'm not insulting who they took out.
00:24:19
Speaker
Yeah, it's the fact that like Peterson always fucking shows up. Yeah. And the last like four years, I'd say Pearson's really shown up every time his number has been called. So. And I got to be got to be honest. Savetta only looks good when he's playing next to Peterson. He's probably true. He's not good on his own. He's not good enough. He can't be. Yeah, he can't slot in and elevate his game. He
00:24:44
Speaker
Yeah, so. Agreed. It just wasn't enough effort out of the boys. No. And I'm so overwhelmed at 10. Like, at this point, it's anybody but Will McGee. Like, I'm sorry, he might be an OK or a quality MLR 10. But at that point, like, that does that's where it stops, honestly. Yeah. His OK is probably his best.
00:25:08
Speaker
at this level, honestly. And that's terrifying. So, Luke Carty should have been the 10 from the start. Honestly, he probably should have been the 10 in the last game. But holy shit. It's really sad. And then, you know, couple that with the real sadness of the first time since the inception of the World Cup, we will not have Canada at the World Cup. Yeah.
00:25:31
Speaker
I as mad as we are, we at least still have a shot. We have to take on we have to take out Chile and make sure that what they did to Canada, they don't do to us. Right. But wow. It's like I feel bad for for Canada. Canadian rugby fans, not so much the team like they're they're they just have the organization can pound Sam. Oh, yeah. They're they just. I saw something like, you know, basically like.
00:25:57
Speaker
saying that Canada was on the upswing until they installed this new coach. And ever since then, it's been going nothing. They were like, I think showing the regression that the team was undergoing. And it's like, that's not just funding. That's not just, you had the wrong people in charge of that. Yeah, that's what it comes down to. Because you've already built it up. It's there. Now it's regressing. I thought they had a more solid foothold than the US did.
00:26:27
Speaker
So you thought. Full of you. Right. Yeah. Very disappointing. Can I apply for the job? Yeah, I know. I'll do it. Like the US is in quicksand, but Canada is like just free. They're already buried up to the next point. It's pretty sad. No, no, not at all. So US will take on Chile next spring. And maybe we can maybe we can not suck it up.
00:26:56
Speaker
I'm so fucking embarrassed. It is sad. We should be able to say, all right, we don't have AJ. We have another plan. And we didn't. It was really embarrassing. I thought we were over this whole thing where, all right, we have one player that we lean on entirely. And we didn't. It's really sad. Yeah. Really, really sad.
00:27:22
Speaker
Yeah, nope, I'm over it. And I'm really annoyed. And I hope the entire US rugby organization is. Hopefully AJ will be back for that. We don't have to worry about. Yeah, I hope so too. I mean, we saw the difference he makes, but like, hopefully Gary kind of comes to a census and says, Oh, well, McGee kind of sucks. Let's put card again. You know, like, like after the performance he put in at headquarters this past summer, how did you pass on him? Mm hmm.
00:27:49
Speaker
I'm still baffled as to that. Like the dude played amazingly and Will McGee was on that squad if I'm not mistaken. So he saw Moore and Luke Carty to put him up against one of the best teams in the world, but then decided, nah, I'm going to put Will McGee at 10 when it comes down to the chips being on the table.
00:28:08
Speaker
I'm lost. Gary, I'm lost, man. I am a huge fan of you, but I am lost on that one, dude. Yeah. Like, fucking explain to me, please. Stop talking to Eddie. Yeah, no shit, right? He doesn't know anything about tents. Don't listen to him. Oh, shit. All right. Speaking of tents, let's go to the stoop and the triumphant return of Marcus Smith. Oh, my lord. I...
00:28:34
Speaker
Are you not a detained? Like, oh my God, it was such a great match for him. And unexpectedly, as much as playing time, he wasn't supposed to get. I know. But I want to put this in perspective, because let's be fair first. Tomasa Allen was not playing a bad game of 10. He was doing it. Like they had their opportunities. There was the forward pass to Dom Brant.
00:29:01
Speaker
that took a try off the board earlier in the match. It's not as though they weren't scoring or threatening with Tommaso. No, I don't know. But then- He's just special. Look at the fucking timeline. Okay, because I wrote this down. Do you mind if I go through this? Go for it. All right. Tommaso goes off at 25 minutes, right? It's 21.5 bears at the time.
00:29:28
Speaker
I'm sorry, it might be 21-0. It was 21-0 at the time. Because Linus scores. Two minutes later is Linus' first try. And then Shidi pushes the lead to end the half. So like, you know, just 13 minutes. I think again, there may have been another just allowed try or something close to it before the half. I can't remember exactly what it was.
00:29:50
Speaker
47 minutes line a try. 50 minutes. Esther Hazen. 55. Oh, then there's yellow. Yeah. After that. 55 Northmore scores. 56 Collier comes on. 57 Collier goes over. 62 Esther Hazen. 71 Smith. Scott Steele almost, you know, does hit. He came close. And Don Brandt's to finish. Like, that's just
00:30:14
Speaker
tries, tries, tries, like, fuck. And I never realized that's not just down to Marcus Smith. And again, Tommaso played well, too. But fuck, Marcus Smith made, I mean, who else is making that kick to yourself play? Who's doing that? It doesn't happen. So yeah, and that's really not being fair to Dom Brandt, because he was ridiculous.
00:30:44
Speaker
No, I mean, he's just he's he's another he's living. He's living in another world. I swear to God. OK, so so here's my thing. And they talked about Eddie wanting their eight to punch holes and get some good ball over the game line. That was what he said. Rugby is not that that that's what your locks do now. Like everybody's more athletic than they used to be. That that's the way this game is going. So you're eight like.
00:31:11
Speaker
First off, Dom Brant can do that if you want, but why would you waste him there when you could have a lock do that and then have a Dom Brant out on the wing with the tip passes and his ability to finish too? And he can be a jumper in the line out. What the fuck can't he do?
00:31:31
Speaker
Yeah, he's a tough guy to really find a problem with at this moment. And put it this way, who out there has a skill set that can match him? I give you Sam Simmons can do what he can do, but even Sam Simmons can't do what Dom Brant was, or doesn't do what Dom Brant was doing. No, it was pretty, it was like, that was one of those days where you're just like,
00:31:56
Speaker
I hope everybody's watching because this is the guy that needs to be playing for England, hands down, without question. Anybody that's as different is not watching the right game, honestly. And to me, there's so many matches where you lose because sometimes, well, because you're like, oh, man, if we just had a guy who could do this in this position,
00:32:17
Speaker
If we had a guy who instead of being the, you know, because I'm the guy who crashes it, you know, it's late, late match, you know, you're down need to try. And you have one of those eights who's only a whole puncher, right? You need him to be a distributor because he's in the line and you have an overlap on the outside. And he's like, fuck it, I'm going in. And how many times does that lose a match for you? A lot. Yeah, no, you gotta be able to give that last pass. Having somebody who can do more than
00:32:46
Speaker
You know something like that. That to me is the rugby player. How many how many tools you have? There's like a thing in baseball, five to a player. Yep. And that's huge. Even if you take someone who, you know, you want to hit her or slugger or something like that. But no, you've got this guy who might hit like five fewer home runs, but he can field and do all this other stuff. I'll take that guy. Right. Yep. And run the bases and shit like that. Yeah, I'll take that guy. Correct.
00:33:09
Speaker
That's what, to me, what you want from a rugby player is the guy who can do it all. And that's Alex Dombrandt right now. Right. And I mean, Marcus Smith would contend that he could probably do most of it, too. Well, you just can't do the physical shit that Dombrandt can do. Yeah, but he's got a man. I mean, that chip and chase, man, good, fantastic vision to just realize I am in a hole, but oh, look at all the space back there. As long as I can get this kick through, I'm probably going to score. And he did. I was like, oh, boy, this guy.
00:33:39
Speaker
Naughty, naughty boy. Naughty boy. Filthy. Yeah, absolutely just blinder and off the bench. Loved it. Loved every second of it. On the other side, Bristol started out really well and then just disappeared. They just went into a shell.
Game Highlights & Player Performances
00:33:58
Speaker
I feel like Bristol, if they feel the current, they'll go with the current.
00:34:05
Speaker
They're kind of adrift. If the current's taking them to a loss, they'd be like, okay, I guess we're going this way. They had opportunities to punch back and just... They were meek. Not quite. Yeah. Lots of solve over there, Bristol. Lots of solve. Let's go over to the first Premiership match at the Stonex. It's funny because...
00:34:29
Speaker
TRM still has a list of his Allianz. Nice try. Slow start for the for the home squad. Very strong start for the for the visitors. Very. Lots to be happy about if I were them. Mike Brown gets over in his first game. Looks really good on top of it all. So I don't know. Had a had a bolder of a try. It was a great try. That's that.
00:34:52
Speaker
I turned this game on and put the US game on my laptop because I was just so fucking annoyed. Like I was like, all right, I haven't watched this because I was playing club. I was playing club and like, or watching club, whatever it was. And I was like, I need to, this is pissing me off. So I'm going to put on something that is going to entertain me at least because this is not entertaining me right now. Although we haven't said yet, full credit to Uruguay for what they did. You know? Yeah. So just to get backtracked with that. I digress.
00:35:19
Speaker
Um, yes. Um, it was, yeah, it was a slow start, but the, the, the series eventually turned into what they, what they remembered, how they're supposed to play, you know? Yeah, they did. Um,
00:35:32
Speaker
It took them it's taken to take them a little bit. They're kind of, you know, going to be sluggish. And they had the card early. So and they survived the Maitland the Maitland card fairly well. I don't think it was amazing. But, you know, they they they they were they managed to just hold on for as long as I could. And that was that I think that I felt like that was the game. They shut it. They they clearly were willing to get beat on either the other side or the inside with that. But they were not willing to let
00:36:01
Speaker
Rod want to be their demise. Yeah. They were making him work on those kicks, really. And that's that's a lot of work. Right. Which is how you and that's how you you know, you beat that kind of team is you say, OK, we're going to take your best weapon and neutralize them.
00:36:15
Speaker
as best we can and see what you got. Elsewise, and we're like, OK, well, we've got Mike Brown. Great. Hey, fuck, that's good. It's not bad. No, it's not bad at all. But then, yeah, as you said, Sarri's just kind of like, oh, yeah, we'll wake up. Let's take care of it. You know, it's yeah. And they did a good job.
00:36:34
Speaker
eventually pulled their heads from from between their teats. You know, the front rowers woke up. That's for sure. Especially Mako and Jinx. They were both, they were angry men. They were very angry men. Jinx should have had two. I think only had the one. But they, I mean, they got the penalty try, but still. Yeah, close. It was close. Right. Yeah, I like seeing Mako and Jamie and I'm still
00:37:05
Speaker
We got enough back growers that are coming through that we can replace them. Yeah. I think Swinson needs to, it needs a break. I think he needs to be a once every three matches kind of player into the facts. Yeah. I realized that he was there. You're pulling, you know, you're, you know, everybody fucking loved him last year and that makes sense. And that's fine. That's a championship. Um, he's, he's,
00:37:24
Speaker
Yeah, this isn't his, you can't do this long-term. You can't be, you know, and I know Maro's coming back and then the rotation will, but you can't- Yeah, I have a pleasure. We'll see him this week. I got to see Ezekiel at lock two, once Ray can come back. So I think- Yeah, I think it was just a matter of rotation there with Ray getting a break and-
00:37:45
Speaker
Yeah. You know, Sean Morfela and Andy Chrissy are good to come off the bench as well. So it's not a big deal. Oh, absolutely. I'm just, yeah, Svensson needs to go back to the rotation. He was dragging them down a little bit.
00:37:56
Speaker
Yep. Yeah. And then we saw Max Malins. Oh man. Like the year away and him, him and Ben are also like the year away just did him so much good to continue to play at that high level and to play the expansive rugby that Bristol likes to play. And now they see so much things so much better. And it's, it's still, it's so great to have him on the team right now.
00:38:20
Speaker
I think that is also an understated contribution to Bristol's problems. They don't have Cione or Rod Roger right now. I mean, they won't have Cione at all, but they'll help Rod Roger later. But Maylands and Earl did so much for them.
00:38:42
Speaker
Something contributed, yeah. Yeah. It's hard to replace that, you know, because they were good support players and they also kind of were kind of star players. And I think there's a couple of players on Bristol now who are kind of looking around to be like, oh, can I, like, how do I do that? Like, wait, and where's that guy now? And I don't think they've sorted that one out. Yeah. And likely they were counting on that log out too.
00:39:07
Speaker
And he's not available right now. So yeah. Yeah. Thanks to solve there. Happy to see Maylon's and Ben back in black. Although, OK, that did fuck me up, though. Good to get colors. Yeah, I was like when they're like coming to kick off and like that players in red and the Newcastle being black, right? No, it would make sense that the salaries would be in the red and the Newcastle be in the black. It totally fucked me up at first that it was the opposite.
00:39:38
Speaker
Yeah, totally, totally screw you up a little bit with the visuals there. Yeah. Let's go. For the people who don't know, you know, especially if you're overseas, we don't get the game. The game doesn't broadcast until like five seconds before kickoff. So we don't get any of like the lead in. It's just like, oh, there's lots of, there's a lot, lots of annoyance with me on that one, but that's different story for a different day. Did we have one this, was it this week or last week? It was one that started like two minutes in. I was like,
00:40:01
Speaker
For sale, yeah, one of the sale matches. Fucking, it was so annoying. Fucking peacocks. I'm going to take it away from them, please. Anyway, let's go over to Brentford. Irish and Tigers. You know, there's a lot that, and I hope it's being stayed over on the other side of the pond here. We're in the homeland here. But it seems as if the armband for one Ellis Genj
00:40:30
Speaker
has just made him come up a whole nother level. And that should be terrifying, number one, for the premiership. And number two, it should be terrifying for people that are playing at an international level against him right now, because now, also now, there's a headache at Loose Head in England.
00:40:47
Speaker
Mm hmm. There's a headache and anybody that says otherwise is fucking lost because there is like like if he honestly right now on form, he gets the loose head shirt for me. Absolutely. You know, I can't. Who else? How can you? No, no. Who else? I mean, I think you know, you have to realize you're talking to or you're listening to two massive Macavunal poll. Absolutely. We might not be the biggest fan of Billy. We love Mac. Oh, yeah. Yeah, totally. No doubt. No doubt.
00:41:17
Speaker
But Makko, Makko too, is not what he, you know, he's not what he was five years ago, or four years ago. Still a fantastic loop set, no doubt. Right, right, no doubt. But Genj is just one another. And also, you got to think, Genj, you play Genj for like 60 minutes. And yeah, he can, he could play another one. Makko is playing 80. You could play 70. You could play 70 if you wanted to. But like, you have Genj, and you say, you don't just burn yourself out in 60, or, you know, 50 or 60. And then you bring in Makko on the back end of that. And he blows his tank all the way till the end.
00:41:45
Speaker
Yeah, that's what there's nothing more to think about. And the story right there. And OK, I want to see if while we're on the subject of Lester Front Rose, Nick Dolly. We've been talking that's not just the tries because, yeah, when we saw with Tom Dunn last year, you know, you get you get on the right team and you know, with a good mall and you're scoring tries from the hooker position, it's great.
00:42:16
Speaker
But Nick Dolly is excellent in the line out. Yes. I don't think he's through. We've been talking about the bad line outs lately and how bad the hookers are. Yeah. And Jinx is having his troubles right now. Oh, yes. I don't know what's going on with his throws right now, but man, it's a struggle.
00:42:37
Speaker
Nick Dolly was was just fucking on point. Mm hmm. Just just very, very good. And yeah, him and Montoya, that's not fair. That's that's right. That's really rough right there. It's really rough right there. Yeah, he didn't lose a single lineup last weekend. Nick Dolly.
00:42:59
Speaker
Right. So that's good. That's good. And, you know, he does have some great targets as well with Levenberg and Wells and Green in the middle there. And even, you know, Rafale and Martin when they contribute as well. So that does help. But all that said, you know, we've seen some really good jumping, jumping crews suffer because the thrower couldn't get into them. So, you know, Nick Dolly is getting the job done. And there's nothing is fucking easy. So
00:43:26
Speaker
Yeah, I could get getting a guy to getting the jumper to where he needs. Right. That's not, you know, that's yeah, that's easy. The throw, you know, getting the throw there accurate, the right angle so that the defense can strike it away. Like, correct. There's so much to that throw that really makes the play that that that a lot of these hookers aren't doing. And Nick Dolly is doing it very well. So right. And, you know, it felt like Lester
00:43:52
Speaker
could have cruised home with this more or less. And maybe I'm sure any Lester fam would tell you that they didn't because their heart was in the throat that have to match. But you know, it didn't ever feel like it was threatened. But that to me is okay. So I do want to say that I
00:44:11
Speaker
I mean, I get the reason to keep, you know, the, the kicking for the posts with, um, Oh, with Ford, but like you have such a great, like if you're just saying we have such a great line out, go for the fucking jugular, you know, that they, this should never have been a contest for Lester. It was one of those, you know, the same kind of like the, um, Eddie Jones style of we're going to, you know, use, you know, take the points when they're on offer and, and hope we can just, you know,
00:44:41
Speaker
shut down, choke out the other team and end the game. Win the game. This was only a game because Lester kept it close. They had plenty of opportunities for points that they just decided to pass up and just take the three. Also, do you not want your bonus point tries? Plus, I checked those are valuable in standing. I realized that
00:45:06
Speaker
You know, they have a relatively young coaching staff that's not really experienced in the ways of what you have to do to stay top of the table, but they got to sort that out quick.
00:45:14
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. But they, they remain top of the table, just the same because they've been able to keep the victories going. And we'll see, we'll see what comes up in the future here. We got, they still got some, some tough matches coming forward here. Let's jump over to King's home. And this was an entertaining match when it shouldn't have been. And I'm sure George Skivington will tell you that right. But, um, I will give, let's give the, the tens that played for sale credit.
00:45:43
Speaker
And they got thrown into, they got thrown right into the fire. Tom Curtis and Karen Wilkinson like didn't do anything special, but at the same time, I'm not convinced that they lost the match for this team. So that said, yeah. I mean, you can't know they're, they're not, they're not in the, they're not good enough or experienced enough to be in a position where you can blame them for a loss. That's they're in a position where the, the rest of the team has to pick them up. It doesn't, it's not the other way around. It's not that they have to play out there out of their minds. They just have to do their job.
00:46:13
Speaker
the rest of the team has to pick up for them and guide them as much as they can. You know, help them help you. Yeah, help me help you. Right. Yeah. And we saw a little bit of the glosser of old. At the end? Yeah, a little bit. Well, I mean, it's a little bit there, but... Give it up three tries in the last 10. Yeah, that's great. And things that we're not used to seeing is, you know, the glosser line out and all that stuff, but at the same time, like,
00:46:42
Speaker
the entertaining stuff that we expect with the likes of one Louis Reesamit. Yes. Oh, that Lester. Okay, sorry. I always go with older than... Okay, got it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot to, you know, maybe get someone older than Johnny May on the other side and you got something going. No, but they...
00:47:10
Speaker
I think there's a lot to like about cluster right now. They are back to that. Can strike from anywhere and they'll attack. Yeah. And it's clicking. That's really what the problem's been. It just hasn't. And Hastings has definitely been a big contributor to that. We can't ignore that. He has.
00:47:33
Speaker
So and then on the other side, the contributors that they've been Adam Hastings. Right. Yeah. So Scotland pick up a phone on the other side of the coin. Raffy Quirk, guys. First try. Awesome.
00:47:47
Speaker
You know, and they were clearly, this is a team that's clearly missing two to Prius at least. Cause you know, talk about guys that contributed right away, especially, you know, return from South Africa with, with a point to prove more or less, I'd say. And, and both of them, I'd say approved, especially Dan. Yeah. Yes. Very Dan. He, he's kind of good at his impacts. He's all right. He's kind of good. And they, Hey, they had a chance to win this.
00:48:14
Speaker
They did. And that's that's credit to Sanderson's crew and the fight that they had. It was. It is. I mean, yeah. Yes, I thought that. 74th minute they score. Dan Duprios scores a try and you think, all right, they're going to make this close. Then just war gets one along with Ruan Ackerman getting the card yellow. Yeah. And then Tommy Taylor gets over after the line out.
00:48:37
Speaker
You know, yeah, I think this was I think this was the only 10 minutes of the match I saw. So I mean, it might have been the only 10 minutes worth watching. You never know. So but shit, I was I didn't think they were going to make it that last one because, you know, they missed the Gus War conversion and that was an easier kick than the. Oh, yeah, I knew they were going to be in trouble when it was put down in the corner. I was like, but it's still like a bitch of a kick.
00:49:01
Speaker
Yeah, it was. I did have some vicarious fun watching Gloucester fans kind of poop themselves. Oh, yeah, they were definitely like.
00:49:10
Speaker
Squeeze and hold. And then, you know, they missed and they were kind of like, all right, are we allowed to win this? Did we actually win? Did we win this? All right, fine. It was like it's one of those relief rather than the celebration. Right. Yeah. Lucky boys. Lucky, lucky boys. Going over to Devin. Other than the stuff about the club itself, anything to add, because this was just
00:49:38
Speaker
This was just not good from Worcester. That's unfortunate. Yeah. Exeter didn't even make a hundred tackles as a team. That's bad. Pretty terrifying. Yeah. Kavecik. How mad... Because Matt Kavecik played a good match. And by good, I mean he played a fucking cracker of a match.
00:50:08
Speaker
And nobody, no, none of the fucking Worcester guys picked him up. You know, he's he's stealing ball, making line breaks, looking for an offload. And guys are like, Oh, I thought you had that. No, you know, I need to finish for dipshit. Right. He's got a seven on his back. You have a number in the tens. Fucking run and catch up, you know, like he's not that fast either. And he's outstripping them exit or defenders coming back on him. So.
00:50:35
Speaker
You can outstrip them, like go help him. Fuck. I always, I was so mad at Worcester. Absolutely. With every right. Um, two guys I want to throw out there. Um, Simmons and Facundo.
00:50:52
Speaker
you know, it's not it's not it's not news. But yes, they were good. So they're fucking excellent. Yeah. So not really, not really a new thing. And Skinner was running like he had a point to prove when he came on to so he has been really good the last couple years. Just fantastic. I, you know,
00:51:15
Speaker
I always want to see more of him whenever I see him play. Same, same, same. All right, let's go over to the CBS for the Sunday game and then we'll wrap this up. Definitely disappointing for Northampton State. Augur was probably lucky to avoid a red CMK. He did get sanctioned, so he'll miss three weeks.
00:51:39
Speaker
CMK was feeling a little generous that day. Like, like I said to you, I think if he was in, if he was in more of a pissy mood, I think you would have definitely seen red. Yeah. Whatever happened that day, CMK was feeling good about it. So I got a little lucky with us. We got laid Saturday night. Something to that effect. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, lots to like about both teams.
00:52:06
Speaker
Dan Robson's A Man Possessed, which is not news, just kind of, you know, an observation. If he doesn't play, if he doesn't play, not, I was so, you and I know a particular Brit and I was talking to him on Saturday and he's just like, if I fucking see Ben Young's at nine for England, I'm going to scream.
00:52:28
Speaker
I was like, I feel you, man. There's like six or seven better scrumhaves right now. Dan Robinson is one of them. In his opinion, he would like to see Dan Robinson start and Harry Randall come off the bench. I don't disagree at all with that opinion. There are other valid opinions, but that one is a good one right there. That's also a good one. Yes, I agree. You have to do worse than that. You can do a whole lot worse than that. And Vaya Pafita.
00:52:56
Speaker
Talk about a man possessed, like, just what a huge and, you know, you have to believe that Brad Shields had a piece to do with him coming over because he's been immense. Yeah. Do you think do you think this is kind of what we're going to see from the future here? I don't remember him being this that like I remember having this kind of game in New Zealand, but I could be wrong.
00:53:24
Speaker
I mean, he was he was always quality. It was never it was never anybody that like every time I saw his name on the sheet as a hurricane supporter, I would be like, yep, that that he should be on there. He should definitely be in there. And if he wasn't, I was like, you better be on the fucking bench. And if he's not, I usually thinking he's hurt. So he was always one of the first names that went on the team sheet, whether he was wearing four or five, six or one of the substitute churches, he was usually on there.
00:53:47
Speaker
And I'm usually not mad about it. So, yeah. And we're going to see a lot of them anyway. Yes. Oh, yes. And don't tilt that for a second. Well, we'll talk about that. I'm talking about what happened at the end of the match. But we'll get to that.
00:54:02
Speaker
Yeah, we'll get we'll get there in a minute. And Sam out of AC like talk about a guy that's just taking taking a shirt and putting his name on on the tag, as it were.
00:54:19
Speaker
I don't know who else, uh, should have that two Jersey for a while. Who's taking the two Jersey off him for a while for Northampton. I don't know. You know, I really don't. I don't see anybody else. Mikey Heywood would have been a name, but he's not been around consistently enough. So. And fish ain't ready and fishes. He's 25, but he's still not, um, just not quite there. Not there.
00:54:40
Speaker
Yeah. And it was, you know, it was interesting to see, and I was wondering if we'd see this Frank Lamont coming on the wing. And certainly that is one of those, you know, things that you can't necessarily measure, like being able to play two positions well at that. You know, he's a quality scrum out, but he's also a very good wing and Rebels know that too.
00:55:04
Speaker
They used him quite a bit in both situations. So, yeah, I would expect to see a lot of that from Northampton with, you know, maybe seeing three backs on the bench with two half backs and him playing the wing. Or in this situation, you know, they need somebody that can do both and he can do both. So they named an extra forward to the bench. Can we talk about the tactical error that Northampton made, though, that lost them? Yep, I agree.
00:55:30
Speaker
So, Agree gets the yellow card. Now, bear in mind that he came in for an injured Tom Cruise, who was out, like he had the HIA, failed the HIA. He is no longer eligible. They have no backup hooker. They have no other front row available. So, call for a scrum, get uncontested,
00:55:55
Speaker
and lose another player. They would lose another player. Yep. So now you're 15 on 13.
00:56:01
Speaker
And and you have an uncontested scrum right in there, you know, five meter line like that's that's a try. That's a try. Yeah. And instead they oh, no, they did. They ended up getting the try. But that was it. And then you could have played 10 minutes with 13 guys on the opposition. Right. So it's more than just that, because because then, you know, got birth kicked a penalty. So it was really only five. Like that swing right there. That was it. That was game.
00:56:29
Speaker
you know, the Northampton needed to do more with that yellow card situation and that would have, you know, the calling for a scrum would have done that and just poor gamesmanship on Saints Park.
00:56:43
Speaker
Agreed, agreed. No argument here. So saying to get a bye this coming week and get a chance to try and figure themselves out a little bit after starting pretty well in the league to be said. Um, but yeah, that one's going to sting for a little bit. So if on a yellow card to a forward, especially a tight five forward, yeah, always call for a strong. Yeah. You likely don't have a super viable, um, option coming in.
00:57:11
Speaker
Right. And then you're also taking someone else off. You're taking a faster person off the field. There's so many reasons to do it that way. And I wish more teams understood that. Yep. I agree. I agree. I, but I can tell you that I've seen that miss many times, even at, you know, high school and club level. So yeah, this is where it is. Um, uh, by the way, I don't want to be Worcester because that's who they play off their bi-week.
00:57:37
Speaker
I, yeah, just not looking good for Worcester right now. It's not going to be good. It's not going to be good. Okay. So, um,
00:57:49
Speaker
fancy rugby podcast at gmail.com for any questions. Uh, we, we do appreciate you guys hanging out with us. This was a little longer than usual, but we had a lot to get through. So thank you for bearing with us. We still kept it under 60 minutes. Um, Patreon show notes, catch it there. Um, if you need to want to hear a little bit more about it, then catch the next pod for the fancy corner. But other than that, um, if you're passing on that, we'll talk to you guys next week. And we appreciate you guys so much for listening and have yourself a good one later.