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Season 2- Episode 38- An Important Conversation (Super Rugby Aotearoa Round 7 & Super Rugby AU Round 4)
34 Plays5 years ago
It's your favorite American Rugby dodos here to have an important conversation with Ben's wife, Jess, finally bringing some intelligence to this conversation. The first 20ish minutes of this episode features an important conversation about what we need to do as a sport if we want to continue to bang the drum that rugby is for everyone. As mentioned before, we are joined by special guest, Jess Glauser, to bring us her perspective with the potential ban that World Rugby are looking to implement. We also include in that same conversation the recent open letter Dan Leo wrote to the World Rugby and what should be done about situations like that. Of course, we did find a way to have a laugh this episode too. We have a look at player and coach movements around the world, including right here in New England. We start to glance forward at the fantasy aspect of the restart in the Northern Hemisphere. Finally, we wrap all the action from both Super Rugby competitions and hear what Ben's gripe is with the Chiefs this time. Settle in and have a listen to some good and important rugby happenings.
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.
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Transcript
Introduction and Sensitive Topic Discussion
00:00:08
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome back. This is the Fancy River Games. My name's Bear Dyke. I'm Ben Glauser. And we have an additional Glauser with us today. Spare Glauser. Yeah, we found a spare one laying out around in the back there. Ben's wife, Jess, is kind enough to join us to have a brief discussion about a topic that I think deserves more than two fat white guys talking about it. Say hi, Jess. Hi, everybody. Yeah. Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
00:00:43
Speaker
Yes. Had to play that. Sorry. I hope that comes through. I think it will. And I had to wake, I had to wake people. I woke people up with that one this weekend. Oops. Oh well. I'm going to show you how many shits I give. Um, but yeah, so it was, um, a tale of two countries in the, in the super rugby, at least I think. Um, don't know how you feel about it, Ben. Well, actually I do know how you feel about it, but not in terms of that. Yeah. I think that the,
00:01:12
Speaker
New Zealand, three of the New Zealand teams acquitted themselves pretty well. Um, and very few of the Australian teams did. So yeah, I will, I will, I will definitely, um, vouch for that one. I would, I was kind of what I was getting at right there. Um, all right. So before we do that, um, Ben and I, Ben and I definitely need a beer.
00:01:34
Speaker
I did offer Jess a beer for this. She said no. She said no. That's all right. We don't judge that. Some people just don't try it out loud. There we go. So where can they find us, Jared?
00:01:50
Speaker
as always find us on your favorite podcast app you know Apple Apple podcasts Google Play Spotify I believe we're on tune in which I believe is the one that Amazon Alexa uses so we're on there too so yeah wherever you think you can find us you can find us there pretty much guaranteed
Rugby Issues and Inclusivity
00:02:10
Speaker
And as always, we want to say thanks to our guy, Ed Kerr and the folks at the Rugby magazine. They're always helping us out. It's getting a little bit closer to that time where we can forward to the app. And yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I've, I've, I've got my hands on it. I've heard. Yeah. I'm hearing things. Yeah. It's jealous. Yeah. It's nice. It's nice. Um,
00:02:34
Speaker
beats the hell out trying to navigate the mobile site on your browser on your phone. And then obviously we want to thank our friend George, the fancy rugby geek. George and I had a quick conversation about how things are going in draft and
00:02:52
Speaker
surprise, surprise, they're kind of in shambles, but we kind of knew that might be happening. What are you going to do? It's a hastily pulled together, yeah, year. Just a wee bit. This year is just duct tape and chewing gum. Oh my God.
00:03:11
Speaker
Totally get it. Yeah, a little wd-40. Holy shit. I gotta have no expectations Pretty much anything. No, I'm I'm all out of expectations. They are just all floating away right now. I mean, oh my god so yeah, and then as always we we are Huge supporters and believe black lives matter on this podcast. Um, you know, I think we actually we've actually lost lost listeners because of this but I don't give a shit honestly, you know You're not for us. You don't want if you don't appreciate that and then
00:03:42
Speaker
Obviously the one of the big reasons that we we decided that Jeff should participate in this podcast is because this particular episode because we did want to talk about some recent goings-ons in the world rugby with Trans women being possibly, you know Just put out and essentially. Yeah, essentially. I mean you band without being a band right now and I got into a
00:04:05
Speaker
I got sucked into a fucking Twitter argument and I shouldn't have done it. I usually don't, but I usually don't. I spotted this. Yeah, it was. I couldn't I couldn't help myself. I'm just like, OK, you are a helmet. Never mind. You're right. You're not you're you're not worthy. Later. But yeah, Jess, you you have either played with or played against these women. And I just wanted to get your thoughts on, you know, what's going on with what potentially could happen with the with with trans women in world rugby.
00:04:35
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I think more recently too I started coaching and there have been a few players that I have now coached who are hoping to one day play women's rugby even though doctors are saying right now that they can't so it's adding a whole other layer for me also because when I first started playing
00:04:57
Speaker
it was kind of intimidating but the more you play with everybody and against everybody you realize that you can tackle anyone. I've gone to some of Ben's practices before and tackled his friends like it really doesn't matter who you're playing against and that's why I think this band is so harmful to the sport in general because we're supposed to be inclusive and so I appreciate the opportunity to come and speak about it because it's
00:05:27
Speaker
something that impacts everyone whether or not you I guess realize it or want to participate in the conversation. Yeah whether you want to acknowledge it or not. Absolutely and I think that the more
00:05:42
Speaker
You know, times are changing, and it's more about how you identify. And if someone is going to identify as a woman and wants to play women's rugby, I don't think we should say no. You know, especially when we have a hard enough time getting what we need. And so we need more people, you know, we need more women in this sport, regardless of
00:06:02
Speaker
biology or whatever else that they want to say they have scientifically like and that's the thing too the science that they're trying to back us up with is very bias and it's a very small sample size so what they have isn't really even worth it so it's just it's bad science it's bad policy it's just not good for the sport yeah no argument on me
00:06:29
Speaker
Yeah. And I mean, I've gone through that journey with Jess too, from when she first started playing women's club rugby and having to play against some of the players, some of the trans women that she's played against. I remember at first she was intimidated. Everybody kind of like, it's something to get used to. Because they do, I mean, the gate is different and there's, it's just, but it's also the mental aspect. But once you, again, as you said, once you hit them once and you're like, oh, they fall over just as easily as anybody.
00:07:00
Speaker
It's no longer really that much of a problem. But we've gone the other way too. Right now there's a trans man that's playing women's rugby, unfortunately, which is a little bit of a problem that I think should be, I would rather that be sorted out than just a total ban on trans. Yeah, no.
00:07:24
Speaker
They do need to figure out their policy in general. I think USA Rugby, it's a gray area and I think they do case by case, which often things fall through the cracks when you do it that way.
00:07:36
Speaker
It's hard when there's no policy. There's got to be a good policy. Having a weak policy that had before was still preferable to what they just did. I don't even know if it was that weak. I remember again, back in the day when we were learning about this, it was like two years post-op, you had to be on the hormone treatment. They do test
00:07:59
Speaker
there were stage gates and then they would let you play and I don't know what the problem with that was unless it was too cumbersome or or people felt intimidated but I feel like that's it's at least fair then they get to play when when when they qualify and now they just don't and I think that's the problem with that then is like again the science isn't there to back any of this up so we don't really know
00:08:25
Speaker
You know, unless you're going to test everyone who wants to play women's rugby and figure out how much estrogen they have in their system, like how do you make these gates that people can get to? I don't know. It's it's so much more complicated than just banning. That's and so we're going the opposite direction. And if World Rugby does it, USA Rugby will follow suit. And it's just not going to help the women's game at all. Yeah, absolutely.
00:08:54
Speaker
Yeah, that's really unfortunate. I feel like that, let's put it this way, when IOC have gotten at least somewhat of their shit together and World Rugby hasn't, then I don't know what to tell you, man. This is another case where World Rugby in general is still kind of a baby and just doesn't know how to get their shit to freaking put together fast enough
00:09:20
Speaker
And obviously, you know, you can make science biased. People are like, no, you can. I'm like, yes, you can. Yes, you can. I don't know what you know about research, but yes, you can. Yeah, absolutely. Demolize and statistics. You can say what you want with research if you want to really have an angle. It's possible. Yeah, but
00:09:41
Speaker
if you don't include everyone in your research, like you can't even, you know, like I said, there's not enough research on trans people in general for us to know enough about their bodies and then how, if they are even different from anyone else's. So we don't know enough to make these kinds of judgments.
Trans Athlete Policies in Rugby
00:09:59
Speaker
Yeah. So the, I mean, this is what the Olympics IOC is right now is they need to declare their gender and not change that assertion, their assertion for four years.
00:10:11
Speaker
which is a long time and demonstrate obviously testosterone levels, you know, X, Y, and Z. So it's a long time, but you know, that's less than ideal, but fuck it. At least they're going to, they're not going to leave somebody out in the cold. Yeah. And the transition process takes a long time. It takes years too. And that depends on the person. Right. True. So it could be, you know, that, that seems, you know, I mean, we're kind of,
00:10:39
Speaker
It kind of lines up with the residency rule for rugby. Almost. Almost. Five years for the residency. Right. But it also kind of makes sense. It's like you declare, you say, look, if you're beginning the transition, you're in transition, four years should be a good timeframe. Unfortunately, that seems to be the process these days. It does take several years.
00:11:05
Speaker
bad so that's actually seems kind of okay yeah i'm all right with that but again it's still better than than saying no yeah see i only have an issue with it i think because that's the olympic level and so when you're talking about say a college club
00:11:23
Speaker
I don't see why they should have the same... Yes? Yeah, that's a good word. I don't understand why it would have to be four years. If I have a player who wants to come play women's rugby, how do we... It's four years as a college career. You can't do that. How can we make this applicable to different levels?
00:11:45
Speaker
I think that should be something that levels of rugby should determine for themselves. We're at a low-level college.
00:11:56
Speaker
As long as it's safe, then that's fine. Yeah, say even if you had everyone on the team agree that they felt safe with it, or if safety is really the biggest issue, then there are ways to go about that. But a ban doesn't even allow us to have these conversations to even figure it out. So that's why it just takes us down the wrong road.
00:12:20
Speaker
bunch of old white dudes deciding what people that are in different populations than their own should do and telling them what they should do, which is, you know, should come to no surprise to any of us, but doesn't make it right by any means whatsoever.
00:12:37
Speaker
Yeah, they're definitely showing their bias and their whiteness. Yeah, just a little bit. Yeah, just a little bit. Oh, good Lord. Yeah, and because Ben and I obviously were talking about would the English rugby scene be the same as the English soccer scene has been? And I'd like to think so because it's the country, not, you know, the sport. So I'd like to think that they'll have something similar going on.
00:13:07
Speaker
I know baseball had guys kneeling left and right and it seems to be something that's more
00:13:15
Speaker
has definitely become the go-to option to say, fuck you. My, my goddamn life matters. And if you don't like it, then too bad, you know, so, uh, I think we're definitely getting to a point where you can't deny people as, as easily as you used to be able to. Like you can't say kneeling isn't all right or trans people aren't okay. Cause it's becoming more acceptable to speak up. Yeah. When bigger organizations start to start to, um,
00:13:44
Speaker
put their hand up for these causes. Um, see NFL and black lives matter. Um, yeah, when it's something like that starts to put their hand up and say, we back this, that needs to be a red flag to all you, you know, racist, bigoted assholes out there. Like this is not acceptable anymore. Wake up, call motherfucker. We are not in the Confederacy anymore. Yeah. And not taking a stand is, is,
00:14:12
Speaker
you know, supporting the oppression. So you have to take this thing. You can't just be quiet about it and hope it goes away. You know, it doesn't work anymore. You know, it doesn't, we, a lot of us did it for too long and I regret that I did it for too long, but doesn't mean I can't change my shit now. You know, and I'm sure a lot of people feel that way. Yeah.
00:14:30
Speaker
And yeah, well rugby, I think that they can't really afford to be alienating people either. No, no, no, especially the future of the sport. Like it's, you can't, you can, you know, one thing that we've always talked about in clubs that I've been on is, you know, it always comes up in the board meetings. What about the alumni? What about the alumni? And it's like, no, fuck the alumni. What we do as a, as a board, as a team doesn't affect them in any way. So.
00:14:57
Speaker
Why are we making these decisions to make the alumni happy when it's against our own interests? Same thing. You know, the old fucks that are, you know, old white fucks that are in charge of world rugby aren't who rugby is for. And that was what the challenge for the head of world rugby was all about. It was, you know,
00:15:22
Speaker
really looked into the future versus preserving the past and they made the wrong decision in that respect. I'm not sure that they picked the wrong person, but. Yeah. Yeah. Between Peasho and Beaumont. Right. Yep. But I, so I've already got a Peasho. Yeah. That's, that would have been my vote too, only because we need something for the future. Now maybe, maybe, maybe the registration, I'm not getting into that at just, you know, as far as for the health of the, you know, the current health of the sport, but,
00:15:49
Speaker
they got to start looking towards the future and really being open because that's, you develop the habits now and 20 years from now, everybody loves you versus, Oh, you're, you're the kind of stuck in the mud now. And then 20 years from now, nobody cares because you're no longer around. It's part of leadership, you know, it's standing up for what's right. And it's standing up again, that inclusion idea. You can't say that you're an inclusive sport when you're banding people, it just doesn't. Nope.
00:16:17
Speaker
It doesn't look good, it doesn't support your mission, and then you start to question the whole organization if they're not gonna stand up. Nope, nope, agreed, yeah. I mean, I have to give the rugby as a community for the most part the credit because we're not trying to shit on
00:16:38
Speaker
rugby as a community, we're trying to just basically call out the big wigs that are a certain skin tone and a certain age. But we are, as a collective, even as the three of us sit here, we welcome everybody into our circles. And most teams that I've ever played on, whether they're stupid or not, everybody that walks through the door is welcome. So in any of the clubs I've ever seen, 99% of the time, there's probably one that I'm missing
00:17:07
Speaker
where that happened, but other than that, you know. And rugby's really important for, I think, anyone identifying or if you're transitioning, and you don't fit in many places in society, right? So society in general, it's not always even a safe place, so I think that you're just taking away a social aspect, you're taking away security, you're taking away so much more than just a sport. Yeah, that's something I'm not sure.
00:17:36
Speaker
so many people consider, but yeah, it's definitely, um, yeah, I mean, we're, especially here in America, we're misfits. It's just, that's what we're at,
Social Aspects and Governance in Rugby
00:17:45
Speaker
you know? Um, so yeah, no, I don't think that's a, that's something that necessarily everybody's considered, but yeah, good point on that one for sure. So, uh, here's hoping. Yep. And the more we talk about it, hopefully the more we talk about it, the more people will listen and, you know, and make the right decision.
00:18:05
Speaker
Yeah, and while we're on the subject We've been kind of late on this Apologies to the to the rugby world. Yeah, we don't we're not on everything every time I wish we were but we're not right it just seems as though there were there were just
00:18:26
Speaker
um consequences for it so um yeah so dan leo apparently had written this letter back in april to alert world rugby it was an open letter to say hey this guy frances keen that you're elevating to a you know representative post in world rugby um
00:18:47
Speaker
Yeah, he's not so good a guy. No. A little bit of a, you know, he who must not be named on this pod from Australia action where he had seemingly bullied a young woman into taking her own life possibly or who knows if it was anything beyond that. But yeah, there was a young lady, Julia Alexander was trying to start a rugby academy.
00:19:18
Speaker
And he seemingly bullied her for her orientation and what she was trying to do. For who she was, basically. Yeah. And she ended up deceased, unfortunately. So why are we elevating these kind of people? Right. Because it comes down to it. Why are we elevating them? Jeez. We got to get that out of this friggin sport, for God's sake.
00:19:45
Speaker
Yeah, and Leo's obviously very concerned with that. And he's also like, we need a bigger seat at the table. Let's knock this shit off. These guys provide so much of the talent worldwide. I mean, look at the five of the best teams in the world. I guarantee you three of them have Islanders on their team, at least three, if not four or five.
00:20:10
Speaker
Okay. So let's, let's consider that New Zealand and in Australia definitely have Islanders on their team. One. So let's. Ireland. Two. Yep. All right. Well, he's not, he's not, uh, he's not close though. Close. You're the right idea. Um, yeah. Um, you know, Wales, England, England and, um, France.
00:20:39
Speaker
Yeah, I think France has. Yeah, I mean, hello. There's no way that, you know, what the hell's his name? Friggin gigantic wing that plays for Claremont.
00:20:54
Speaker
I can't even, Raka, that's his name. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's not, he's not French. Get out of here. It's been a while. No, it's been a while since I've been doing French rugby. Same. Same. That's why I spaced on it. Um, but yeah, I'll, sorry, I'll be right. He's Raka is not, he's not French. Get out of here. You know, so like hell look at the, the U S. Yeah, exactly.
00:21:17
Speaker
I think it's descendant of it. But yeah, if you want to play for the island, one of the island countries, I think you could. I don't remember. Well, look at our whole Utah MLR team. I mean, oh, I know. It's all islanders. It's all the Mormon missionary.
00:21:29
Speaker
Yeah, recruits. Yeah, I agree. So yeah, these countries cannot be so squashed by, for lack of a better term, the colonials, what was the English Empire at one point, just can't be squashed so easily. They need to have a bigger voice. Ben and I talked about a couple weeks ago or last week, I don't know what it was, but a super rugby team in
00:21:55
Speaker
in maybe Suba and how huge of a thing that would be for the island countries to be able to play in the, in the Pacific islands, professional rugby and not leave the fricking place, you know, and that, you know, sorry, you guys are going to have to rely on developing your own fucking talent guys.
00:22:12
Speaker
deal with it. These guys are about to become a superpower, but they want to prevent that. So that's probably why. Yeah. It is that same colonialist attitude. Like, we can take, why don't we just take from them? Like we'll give them the stage out here. And it's like, well, that none of that, nothing gets back home. I mean, I realized that a lot of the, um, the former Islanders who have left do, you know, they, they do a lot for their home communities as they send a lot of money back home.
00:22:40
Speaker
Right. But that's not the same as having a team there and keeping all the costs right there and having the team employees there and all that pride, just like basic, you're playing in your home field, your home turf. Like that's, yes, they should definitely have that opportunity. I, yeah, no argument out of me. I would, um,
00:23:03
Speaker
You know, I would, let's put it this way. Before a team goes into like Hawaii, I wish somebody had fucking backed a team into the Pacific nations. Yeah. Way better. Um, but Hey, I don't, I don't make, I don't make it shit up because you know, that makes too much sense sometimes. I don't know. So yeah, it's, um, yeah. Well, we've got a few problems to solve and it's, the list seems to be ever growing. Um, so it's a, it's a headache for a lot of people, I think. Um,
00:23:33
Speaker
And certainly not for the people that think things are fine. They're not fine. If you haven't looked. Yeah. Yeah. There's there's shit on fire. Let's go fucking put the fires out, shall we? Or at least acknowledge they exist. There's no fire here. I know. We're all fine. We're all fine here. I'm going to I'm going to ignore this fire that's over here, but it's like 10 feet high. No, there's nothing there. There's nothing to see here. Move along.
00:24:02
Speaker
Oh, fuck. All right. Well, Jess, we will let you go. But thank you so much for coming on. We'll let you go do about what you need to do. But this is, like I said, it's better to have a perspective that's not too fat white guys in this case. I appreciate the chance. I appreciate it. Thank you, Jess. Talk to you soon. I'll talk to you soon.
00:24:27
Speaker
oh shit all right well that was awesome yeah i'm glad we got that in um all right so let's go on to player player movement and rumors um the shocker of the century jackson ray is staying put that's harris
00:24:45
Speaker
I knew I was like, when they announced it, I was like, this isn't really news. It's more confirmation. But I mean, no shit, Sherlock. Yes, he's not going to leave his fucking dad's club. Right. No, he's not going to leave. I don't know how much of a market there would be for him outside the club.
00:25:01
Speaker
To be honest, he's a I mean, he can play seven he can play eight. Yeah. Yeah. And he saw he saw that. Yeah. Although I will say that player. I'm just there was a couple of there were a couple of it was a couple of years ago and I didn't know like when he was player player of the for the club from the players, he was player of the club from the fans and he couldn't get a fucking English. I was like, uh, am I doing the math wrong here or what the fuck?
00:25:27
Speaker
Yeah, that was yeah jacks of like five six years ago was yeah He should have been he should he should have an England cap the fact that he doesn't his fucking crime, right? But yeah, he's not that jacks anymore not that he's he's bad. He's still
00:25:42
Speaker
he's still quality. So super club guy. So yeah, definitely no surprise for, for so many reasons that he's sticking around, sticking around and a road. He's actually sticking around too. Originally it was going to be bouncing and he decided, nah, I like it here. I'm going to stay. So yeah, I mean that's, that is kind of, that's impressive because what he's South African, right? So he's England. He's now England capped.
00:26:05
Speaker
Okay, I was just thinking if he's yeah if he's from I'm just saying he would you know He he could go back home and play some super rugby because I mean he I think he was going to or go to Japan I don't know which one. Oh, that's another option. But um, yeah, I mean thank you decided I like this place. I'm gonna take good shit I'm gonna hang around and you know, we talked about the the loyalty of the of the players of recent Alex Anderson even came on to the
00:26:32
Speaker
to their Instagram feed or Twitter feed and put a nice little video out saying, yep, we appreciate that you guys are supporting us throughout this and more or less that the boys are ready to give it a go in the final run in here into the championship cup. And then obviously when championship kicks off the following season, the hope is obviously that they'll bounce right back up. So there's that.
00:26:57
Speaker
And then Jackson and, and, and Roger will help them do that. Yeah. I mean, as much as their club guys, they're probably better than about 90% of the players in the championship. Let's be honest. Definitely will help with getting, um, some of the big name players, you know, weeks off here and there with, you know, so that they're not overstressed or risking themselves for.
00:27:20
Speaker
certain matches that that won't be much of a challenge. Right. Yeah. Just got it. There'll be a lot of rotation. I have a feeling. Yeah. Yeah. In that championship club, you know, you know, when they play the bigger, some of the big, bigger, rich clubs, they'll, they'll put them, they'll front up and put a good lineup up. But the, the, some of the weaker clubs, the minnows of the championship, you're going to see probably quite a bit of change. Yeah. Um, and probably still won't have a problem. Um,
00:27:48
Speaker
So, you know, Ben Lamb is leaving the hurricanes after this past weekend. We'll get to that match in a little bit. Good replacement has been found though. Julian Sevilla going back home to join his brother Artie. I was like, ah, is this a real thing or is this a fucking April Fools? What is going on here? Yeah. So I mean, I don't know if the hurricanes were like working to line this up for a while or if this is just like something that fell in a lap. But,
00:28:15
Speaker
Damn, I will, um, I will jump. I will jump at that right now. Cause they are going to need another, you know, they need a like for like in, in not so many terms. Um, you know, severe for lamb. All right. Sounds like a, yeah. Not hating that. Um, here's another one that I put his name on here because like, wasn't he supposed to go play Australian rugby, Nick white?
00:28:41
Speaker
Yeah. And like that was part of the deal of him getting on the Australia team. And yet he's not in Australia at all. He's not even in Australia. I just assumed that he, cause he stayed in England. Oh shit. Look, maybe, but again, maybe there's issues with him getting there. Who knows? Right. And no, I'm not saying that's wrong, but John, John Lance got there.
00:29:05
Speaker
I'm just pointing that out. Couple other guys got there. So if he had, so I'm, I'm starting to call a little bit more bullshit on Australia's rule with that. Just saying, just saying like, yeah, all right. You know, he agreed to join. He didn't even agree with a fucking team. He just agreed to join super Ruby after this coming year. I don't think he had a team. I don't think he had a team lined up.
00:29:31
Speaker
Well, I'm looking, hold on. I'm just looking now at the rugby passes website. Um, looks like he's coming. Yeah, he's not, he's with the Brumbies. This was actually the 20th of July. He said he's, uh, he's, uh, he's been training this past, uh, the week before. So yeah, he's back. He's in Australia. He's going to play for the Rumbies. Yeah. Oh Jesus. That's a fucking terrifying. Good God. Yeah. So he's not into fitness yet. Um, yeah. I mean, well,
00:29:58
Speaker
I mean, talk about a guy that's not into fitness yet. Like when's Dan Carter playing for the Blues? Like, come on, old man, roll out there for one match. Give people what they want. They needed, yeah. Terry Black went down. So why would they put a 15 to 10? You know, yeah, long story on that one. Right. That's why. Yeah. Local news.
00:30:24
Speaker
This is to no shock of Ben or myself. New England freejacks have replaced their current head coach Josh Smith with Ryan Martin from the Rebels, which I would definitely call an upgrade. Pretty okay. Yeah, I'll call that an upgrade and not to, okay, let's be real, I'm kind of shitting on him. Sorry, Josh Smith was just not gonna be a fucking long-term answer. No, I mean, yeah, that was never the plan. No.
00:30:52
Speaker
you know, he helped create, you know, help build the team. Good for him. Um, but yeah, he was never going to be, uh, you know, as you noted, even, even, uh, Tolkien down in New York was the same kind of thing. We're going to use him to, um, to, you know, get us started, but then we're going to, you know, find a real head coach, our head coach of the future. Um, they did. And they did. They got, um, Yale's guy got, I can't remember his name, but yeah,
00:31:20
Speaker
So it's not, it's not shocking by any means whatsoever that they replaced them. When, when they, they alluded to something coming and I was like, is this the head coach announcement finally? Cause I knew that they were trying to get a new one lined up here. Um, so there's that, uh, not on, not on the, not on my notes, but recently found out that, um, confirmed give a toy leaving for France.
00:31:44
Speaker
Oh, okay. All right.
Fantasy Rugby and Match Analysis
00:31:47
Speaker
So yeah, I think, I think they were, we talked about it and it was, it was possibility. Um, they announced them, uh, so yeah, we'll see how that goes over there. Okay.
00:32:01
Speaker
And so there's a, and as Ben and I alluded to, obviously, TRM, Fancy Rugby, all that shit. FRD has announced that they're not going to include the midweek fixtures in their seasonless and in their match-ups, which is really unfortunate because this was going to just be a fun scramble every other day to see who added and who didn't.
00:32:24
Speaker
Yeah, now you got a it's like um, it's it's the way fantasy baseball for for oh, yeah Exactly used to be which is or still is I guess where still definitely still is it's all it's just open You go and you pick players and games happen every day. Yeah Just go. Yeah, add a pit add a pitcher drop a pitcher Hey
00:32:47
Speaker
Try to hide a guy through the waiver wire shit like that. Yeah, that's all it's all the The strategies are there. It's it's it's it's great fun. But again, if you don't have The infrastructure it's probably not a it's better better idea to play it safe
00:33:02
Speaker
I truthfully tried to, I wanted to go see what was going on with them. And I went back to log in and they're, they just, they didn't even have the site running. They just, they said, yeah, we're shut down. And I was like, wow, you guys can't even keep the site running. Come on. Like, let me go check my team and shit. Like, come on. Yeah. Like we said, gotta maintain expectations during these uncertain times. Somebody get on this shit. Like if draft rugby can one up this site, I will fucking dance because
00:33:31
Speaker
You know, and I've had messages back and forth with them. So, you know, they're probably going to fucking rip me a new one. But it's just like the list of shit that they should have, if they want to be considered a legitimate fantasy site, is long. Yeah. You know, apparently this has been going for at least four or five years or so now, I think. So for them to still have a laundry list of shit,
00:33:57
Speaker
Um, a little problematic. It's a little problematic. And I understand the sports not as popular as say the NFL, but, but yeah, it's not. Yeah. I mean, like you can definitely, there's definitely gotta be a way to piggyback off something. So just sort of search yourself in. Um, so anyway, um, so FRD will be limited. I have not talked to TRM. I would love to know if they're going to conclude midweek or not. I bet you I can get that answer this week though.
00:34:26
Speaker
And who knows we can get a get a special guest on the podcast next week or so lovely Yeah, cuz I think I think next week
00:34:36
Speaker
Yeah. It's close. It's two more. So it's two weeks. So not next week, the week after we will definitely be previewing the restart, um, along with fancy, uh, chat. So keep tuned for that one. You can skip next week if you want. It's okay. We won't, we won't be offended. All right. To the games.
00:35:00
Speaker
start in Australia. Um, so that's it. So yeah, I mean, not that this was anything fucking, uh, you know, really celebrate, but, um, let's go to the school real quick. Uh, war toss 10 rebels 29 force on a donut zero and the Brumby's at 24. Um, let's go to the war toss and the rebels. Um, this was, this was not Michael Hooper's best game. I know.
00:35:26
Speaker
And it showed, it really showed. Man, he had so many errors, and he ate the team yellow card. And I don't necessarily blame him for that. It was probably one really stupid error on his part. Well, he's like, yep, I fucked up. I'm out. I did it. I think the round was like, I just told you, he's like, I know, I'm out of my mind. I know, I know, I know. I'm going. Okay, just stop, just stop. Ma, I'm coming, I know.
00:35:58
Speaker
Um, uh, the rebels had a bit of a scare pre pre kickoff. Uh, Jordan Ulysses, um, went down in a heap and looked like he might not be able to play ends up playing about 55 minutes and a pretty good one at that, honestly. Um, and you know, we talked about, um, you know, Dave Rennie's kingdom for a fucking hooker that can throw, I think he found one, unless he looked pretty good for the most part, I think in terms of those.
00:36:23
Speaker
Um, but yeah, I mean jot even the guy that should be the australia number one fango Looks like he's fucking uh, the swords when it comes to throwing so Not not the best. So if you're I bet you if you put a australia team on the field right now He ulyssa is probably either wearing a two or a 16. I don't know which one but one of the two So I can I would almost put that over there
00:36:49
Speaker
But yeah, let's talk about the actual match. Toss didn't really threaten all that much. No. Even the Newsome try was... It was an intercept. Yeah. And it was like, I don't know what... I'm not sure what the Rebels were doing throwing that pass because it's not like it was a long run. I'm not either. I'm not either.
00:37:10
Speaker
where you going and yeah it was it was it was kind of it was almost telegraphed the the way they were gonna the direction we're gonna go and Newsom just had to figure out which ball he was gonna try and catch basically yeah we figured out all right Hodge to Corvetti this will be a good one see ya times it and doesn't even get touched so I mean credit to Newsom Newsom
00:37:31
Speaker
Yeah, do what he was doing. But but but that wasn't even like they had threatened a couple of minutes, like it was coming off of a period where they were threatening, but that was really the last time that they were really deep in rebel territory, or, you know, really put up a sustained period of attack there, you know, it was just kind of
00:37:51
Speaker
Yeah, it felt like the rebels just kind of worked them to death after that and kind of just kept the ball on their end. Yeah, I mean, to move points to move was good off a tee, which was good enough. Yeah. And that's that's really all they needed.
00:38:07
Speaker
They didn't do anything super special. Lawrence gets over after the Hooper yellow card, gets a little help. Yeah. It's fun to see a scrum have taken that pick off the, off the, off the mall, some sort of like forward or something. Right. Well, we had, I was, I was actually talking, we were watching it, my wife and I, the boss.
00:38:32
Speaker
And she's like, you know, it's funny. I can't say that I actually see you would never see it. Would it be an insult if you ever told a rugby player that they look like a soccer or football player? I was like,
00:38:42
Speaker
might be, but you can't really see that. Even when you look at like the little guys, like Lauren's like, Lauren's look at his limbs. Yeah. He's short, but yeah, maybe he doesn't have the biggest body, but his arms and his legs are huge. Yeah. And that is how, you know, even like a scrum half or even a short flank or a built for the, they're built with legs, you know, even like, um,
00:39:04
Speaker
hurricanes, Wes Houston, his legs are freaking huge. So you can't really see that in those ways. Yes, there's definitely some bean poles that play professional football, professional soccer. Yeah, there ain't none of that in rugby, certainly not to the same level. But yeah, Lawrence definitely fits the bill as he's a rugby player. I don't know what position, but he's a rugby player just when you look at him.
00:39:30
Speaker
This is this was not the most entertaining match by any means whatsoever But you know, I it's it's uh, oh You got to look at the diss a lot of I did like there were there's I mean at least in both matches and they kind of bleed together So sorry, but there was a significant amount of 50-20 twos. Yeah, they were going for that They were going for it and that's starting to and you know, it's starting to creep in but it's also not there. There's it's not
00:39:57
Speaker
change affecting the game i wouldn't say it's one of those like yeah it's like hey you know some of them there was i saw um even i think it was ram actually did what i had said at one point where he missed the 52 i think it was a 22 50 that he tried um and i think the ball went off the wrong side of his foot because it went in um into play instead of out yeah but he had a little like a short line break
00:40:20
Speaker
And immediately chipped as soon as he was through the defense like fuck it i'll chip and then see if I can get it uh Get it to bounce out and it didn't quite work, but recovery, but yeah, right But hey, that's that's I thought that was exciting. I'm like, hey, he's gonna he's just gonna boot it ahead Hey, that's it. That's a smart tactical move. And if there's nobody back there good, right? That's what it's supposed to be right? So I kind of you know, it didn't seem like a cheap way to try it um so far I haven't seen any ones that were like
00:40:48
Speaker
you know, you had, you know, full on attack and you were ready to score it and said, you know, oh no, fuck it. I'm just going to chip ahead and take that, you know, take the line up there. No, it's, it's been more.
00:41:00
Speaker
We're kind of hitting the wall. Let's see if we can, or, you know, natural, organically, let's put it that way. Yep. No, I'm not. I don't disagree. And this is, remember, this is a rule I definitely wasn't a fan of, but it's been okay so far. So I would think of that. Yeah. And even sometimes, you know, especially the wheel line out throws have been going. Oh my God. All it does is end up being a scrum and you kick the touch and you clear it anyway. So it's so many not straight. Right. So many not straight. Yeah, it's been bad.
00:41:29
Speaker
I.
00:41:32
Speaker
Yeah, I will say you got to look at the toss defense in this game when you have two team yellows. Not good. Not good. And so that, that in itself can probably tell the story right there. You have two team yells because of consistent infringement in the wrong end of the field. So that's, that's pretty much indicative of the way it goes. Yes, the rebels do take the win big time. You know, carbide gets one to seal it. Um, he did nope the crap out of do some nope.
00:42:01
Speaker
But yeah, so give it give the rebels a credit 10 10 to 29 They are this is one of the two traveling ever traveling teams in the competition But they're not let they're trying not to let it affect them and it's pretty obvious. I think at least So the other team is ever traveling. Unfortunately is you know the force and you know the force are just you know, I
00:42:23
Speaker
You know, there's, there's not a whole lot to be done against the force against the Brumby's. This was an outcome that was almost written in stone before the kickoff. Um, the Brumby's didn't do anything super spectacular, you know, no, no, no, no, no Alessio he's, he's likely done for the comp.
00:42:39
Speaker
You know, it did start out like it was gonna be a shit show with two tries. Yeah, I mean, first two tries right away. I mean, that was the game. Right. It was over at that point. Because that's what the force have been doing. They've been doing that to everybody else and coming out pretty hot and pretty stiff. And then chailing off at the end because they don't have the fitness. Right. But, you know, you put up 12 points in the first one.
00:43:07
Speaker
10 minutes. Yeah, that game's over because the Forests are going to have to fight back so hard just to get to tie it up, theoretically, if they had done it. It just would have been such a battle to get those tries.
00:43:25
Speaker
And then to maintain, you know, even do more to get a lead and then hold it. That's, that's not them this season, unfortunately. Um, I'd say it was a well done to keep it, you know, basically 12, nothing, you know, 12, nothing at half 12, you know, 24, nothing at the final. Right.
00:43:41
Speaker
That's actually, and when are the last points conceded? 60ish, 60, 70 minutes, something like that. Yeah. So to hold them out, if anything, to hold them out for 15, 20 minutes at the end, when you've typically been falling apart, you know, there's positives to take away from the force. Right. No, I agree there.
00:44:04
Speaker
This was just a case of, yes, they have got all the toughness in the universe. They've got a decent game plan, usually put together, but this is just a case of the talent overwhelmed. And that was just kind of what happened. You know, Pete Samu, he made an impact in the first 10 minutes. That's all he really needed to do. He was, you know, especially that little backhand offload that he did out the back door. That was...
00:44:26
Speaker
that was pretty unfair to be real but so it's it's a credit to the force that they continue to not give up and they continue to put in these these good shifts but you know I hope it doesn't become too demoralizing to them and you know and I hope rugby AUC this and and whatever
00:44:45
Speaker
bullshit is left over in Sanzar and say, you know, we probably could use these guys and probably should just welcome them back and say enough is enough. Especially if you're only going to have potentially two countries in super rugby next year, might as well do it. Might as well fucking do it. You're going to have 10 teams. Might as well just do it. You know, just like stop fucking around and do it. Yeah. And swallow, you know, for, yeah. Right.
00:45:12
Speaker
So yeah, it's a unfortunate result for the forest. They put up a good fight, but still to no avail. And of course the Brumbees are the Brumbees. We'll see what happens this weekend though. It's going to be a humdinger of a match. All right. I'm going to make, I'm going to make a request. What's that? Can we start with the second game first? Because that first game needs to be, I need the palette cleanse because that first game was fantastic.
00:45:36
Speaker
We can go to the second game of the weekend in New Zealand. Thank you. Blues 21, Chief 17.
00:45:46
Speaker
I mean, no, so here we go. So just quick pregame notes. No, so two, two again, and Bowden Barrett moves to 10 because of, um, Ontario blacks absence, although he did make the bench. So beats the shit out of me on that one. Um, if you're healthy, if you're healthy enough for the bench, you're usually healthy enough to start, but not always, I guess. Um,
00:46:07
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, Duffy being Bowdoin's replacement, um, or more or less, uh, Terry, lateral placement, uh, it's a line pretty hard and make sure that he doesn't stop. So give him the credit. Yeah. Um, yeah, he, he had, he, he put in the shift. Yeah. And, uh, you know, Finley Christie did a, did a pretty decent job for them too. So like, you know, that, that's showing, you know, they're not,
00:46:34
Speaker
Their problems at Scrumhalf may be a little bit gone. Yeah, because he had a good game and as a backup starter, he's certainly capable. Well, he queried himself pretty well this year, really, including the previous competition before the lockdown started. Yeah, Christy's been definitely a big signing for them. Obviously, he gets signed from
00:47:02
Speaker
The Hurricanes, once the Hurricanes signed Jamie Booth, they decided he was surplus. So the Hurricanes lost is the Blues gain and seems to be working out pretty well for them. Yeah, on the other side.
00:47:15
Speaker
Uh, i'm kind of i'm kind of getting i'm i'm kind of losing my patience with mckenzie Yeah, losing my patience with dmak on for a lot of reasons. Yeah, um, and you can see he's panicking You can see him Not make decisions. He there was a I think there was a kick this time where he caught it on You know on the short side of the field and decided to just run straight up the field and it's like, uh, that's where all the fucking forwards are
00:47:40
Speaker
like that's where they're all hanging out they're all they're all standing next to the ruck and as soon as that kick is up in the end guess where they're going ain't that far away trust me man and his timing is off when he's he's the pass through an attack he's catching and maybe double clutching before he's throwing a pass
00:48:01
Speaker
He's he's so he's used to having plays happen for him that then they're not happening So he's in the rugby club of a slump and he's forcing it and it yeah, I'm saying a little bit. Yeah. Yeah
00:48:16
Speaker
I mean, do you think he feels like he has to, you know, it's really, it's tough pressure when you have a guy of his talents in a lot of ways for the reasons of, you know, he feels like this is his job to, it's his job to get this team to go forward and.
00:48:34
Speaker
whether or not he's doing a good job of it is obviously, you know, out there, but he feels like this, I have to be the one to get this team going forward. I guess Cruden is there and Trask has done a pretty good job as well. But you know, he, people look at Damien McKenzie and they know he can be damaging from fullback.
00:48:52
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, Trask had himself a bad game. That was the reason he got pulled probably. Right. And he got pulled at half and the chief scored 10 minutes. There are 10 points, like almost boom, boom, boom, right in order to take the lead. So yeah, I was happy to see Cruden come on at half.
00:49:12
Speaker
Also, right before halftime, you spent the last 15 minutes and a half deep inside Blue's territory. Didn't come all the way with a point. No, that hurt. The last penalty where it's like, look, if they had taken three there, and it's 14.10 at half, by the end of the game, they weren't really having much decent play. The Bashir try, yeah, that's great. Hey, so Akula made a really cool pass.
00:49:41
Speaker
And basher did a good job to get over that But it's like they they hadn't really you know after a couple of phases, you know, there's a lot of Analysis and in games for the for the super rugby a tiara. Mm-hmm where they're showing, you know Tries off first phase, you know, yep I saw that you know, two three four phases like four five six and then seven plus seven plus It's got a lot
00:50:06
Speaker
And I feel like you know for in this match certainly live more the Chiefs had the ball the less they were gonna do with it and so it's like they know cuz they lived off of You know line breaks and getting that open play, but they weren't really finding many many gaps So it's like you have to be able to play tight in rugby, which is fucking a Gatlin team can't play tight in rugby like that
00:50:26
Speaker
Yeah, that's kind of unusual. That's definitely unusual. I'll give you that one. Yeah. And so at some point you got to just like, look, take the points. And then that means that, you know, the last, the last bit of the game, when you're down four points and you just score a try, Hey, if you only need one point, that last penalty, the last penalty that they earned and they did that stupid slow tap and go, how'd that work out again? Um, that was a kick for points. That's that's the game. You let the clock go red, kick the points and you go home with a beer. Like,
00:50:57
Speaker
Yes, you do. Yeah, I do want to talk about the Bossier try. Obviously, Bossier himself is acquitting himself very well and making it really tough for Foster to not pick him, should there be an All Blacks team at some point this year. If he's not picked on the team, I will be very shocked.
00:51:16
Speaker
Um, I realized he's got a lot of competition, but on form alone, he's been amazing for this team. Um, I do want to talk about that, that pick and pop because it's a, it's a good variation that I wish I saw more teams do because you know, and you can, you can ask the boss. She'll tell you, I just fucking scream at the deal all day about this, you know, stop ramming your head against the fucking brick wall every time. Like,
00:51:39
Speaker
something so simple as just a pass away from the ruck can get you a little bit, can get the defense a little bit loose. And then yes, you can either go for another pick and go, or you can go to start moving towards the back line, either one. But I just wish more teams would incorporate that variation and stop doing this pick and drive and muscle and the dive at the legs. And yeah, you get an off-sides penalty.
00:52:04
Speaker
Uh, you know probably about 35% of the time because somebody's hands are in front of the last foot But oh god, you end up knocking it on and then you're like, well do we want three or do we want to scrum? And then you fucking do it again. It's like no you're on the goal line Like let's figure out something here when you're half a meter away That's different than what you've just been doing for the last five seconds five minutes like come on They know what's coming and you know, yeah, there's certainty like you have to
00:52:30
Speaker
It's a skill, right? It's not just, if all you do is stupidly bash your head against the wall, which a lot of teams do, it's not effective. It's the ones that have a plan. You say, all right, we're going to get around the second defender, maybe try to keep legs and then try to drive over. Because a lot of those interior defense just dive at legs. And it's like, if we can keep you on your feet,
00:52:50
Speaker
We can use the air on, they're off their feet. They can't do anything. We'll just, now we'll drive you over with the third guy coming in who is way out of position to make this tackle. And it's like little things like that, or, you know, try to drive your, your, um, they almost like, you know, you end up with your back turned to the, to the trial line. Cause you really want to see if you can get your back over the, you know, over the line and, and dot it down, you know, safely in front of you, but on the line or something. Um,
00:53:19
Speaker
none of this ball forward pete gust so acula just being fucking uh that was so selfish selfish fucking rugby at the end there to to knock it on or whatever the fuck it was uh good you held on yeah that's right i wasn't overly convinced that good you released but that's just me
Analysis of Refereeing and Tactics
00:53:41
Speaker
I thought the referee was a little cheeky there. I didn't like a couple of things that the Blues were doing in the line out either. When it was the Chiefs line out, there was a guy at the front swinging his arm up and down and yelling shit. Most referees maybe use you that the first time and they're like, let it go, or they give you the warning. At some point, they
00:54:04
Speaker
tell you to cut it out. Let him do that the whole match. And then the last couple of line outs for the Blues, they essentially threw their line out jumper forward. And which I always was taught was illegal.
00:54:19
Speaker
as far as, you know, you have to bring, you know, if he can't just, you can't throw him over the line. I saw that. To catch the, to catch the, the line out throw. And they did that twice and didn't bring him to, basically didn't bring him to ground. They're like, he kind of fell down on his own. On the other side of the line out. Yeah, generally not a good thing.
00:54:37
Speaker
Right. It's unsafe. Not that it matters for the game, it's just one of these like, I'd like to see shit like that cleaned up because it's not safe and it's just kind of shitty for the game. Yeah. We'll talk a little bit about cleanup agreement.
00:54:52
Speaker
Speaking of clean up though, Webber Johnny on the spot to start the, what was the eventual alamalo try after a pass went very awry. And Webber was there to clean it up and make sure that attack kept going the right way and turned into alamalo. Finally, the trial. Unfortunately, it also turned into alamalo getting an unfortunate injury as well. Cheap shot.
00:55:14
Speaker
I was questioning that. I was, you know, the commentators didn't seem too convinced of it being on purpose, but I, you know, Caleb Clarke's an athletic man. He could have jumped over Alemello. He did not need to fall on top of him. Like, Alemello was already over the try line before he dove.
00:55:34
Speaker
So it's like you knew that to try you just wanted the neem in the in this in the fucking kidneys He just fell over. Yeah, but uh, not fell out but just fell on top of him. Yeah. Yeah I thought there was a little bit of forcing at me but that's again if you're gonna do that That's what I look for because I'm not saying I didn't do that when I played um But uh, yeah There were there were times there's time in a place and if it's like kind of an open play thing like that's a tackle fine that that happens
00:56:04
Speaker
you know, 10 meters back the other way. So it's not on the try, you know, it's not in the, the, the in goal area. Yeah, fine. You got to tackle the guy. You kind of give him a little, you know, give him the business while you do it. Um, in this case, there's no chance for a tackle contest because the tries already been scored. You just flopping yourself on them to flop on them. Um, yeah, I don't, I don't like that. Um, Nope. You're, you're not wrong.
00:56:29
Speaker
But again, that's just me bitching. I have a lot to bitch about from this game. Yeah, I got it as much. Three missed penalty kicks to Tosh. Three. That's not great. Yeah, that's less than good. That's definitely less than good. I think one time a Blues player even was doing the whole, I'm going to try to jump in bounds to save it. It's like, oh no, it's just landing in bounds. Never mind. I don't need to do that. I don't need to do that.
00:56:56
Speaker
Oh and Quintipiah my weekly Quintipiah bitch I saw that but I was like
00:57:04
Speaker
I wonder what Ben's gonna think of this. Gets tackled. The referee's like, oh, it's tackle. Let him go. Let him go. Let him go. And then they let him go. And all of a sudden that ball shoots fucking forward 10 meters. I'm like, what are you doing? How do you play? How does that even happen? Only to Quintupia does that happen. So there we go. Like, does he have pictures of Gatlin? Come on. Oh, man. Get him off the field. I'm done with him. Yeah. Well, at least he was on the bench this time.
00:57:31
Speaker
Right, well, he came in when they were either leading or it was close. And then it didn't help. It didn't help at all. It didn't help. Yeah, unfortunate for the Chiefs. They just seemed to not find the ways to lose, unfortunately. That's just how it's been going, this super-Ruggett hero. All right, let's go to the good game. All right, to Christchurch. Good rugby.
00:58:02
Speaker
Yes, I was the happiest person in the state probably at that time Maybe later on somebody else was happier, but fuck I was so happy that this happened I was very happy to I was last seemed the last team to beat the Crusaders in Christ Church beat them again Yeah, yeah, don't don't know what to tell you on that one and really yeah
00:58:23
Speaker
The law, you know, and we'll get into the details of the match, but no Dan Coles to start. Lamape and Umaga Jensen both have to leave.
00:58:33
Speaker
Like you, there is nothing going in the right direction for the hurricanes and they somehow did it. So that is a credit to this team. And I don't give a shit if the Crusaders didn't play their best match. They had every opportunity to fucking grab it because without a Lamape and you know, he was basically useless for the five minutes he remained on the field after he got hurt. And that looked fucking painful. And you know, Umaga Jensen who played out of his mind for the time he was on the field. He did.
00:59:00
Speaker
He had one, one fuck up that led to a trial. I saw, I remember seeing that, but yeah, I was like, Ooh, bad. Umaga, but he, uh, he fixed it. He did. Oh, he more than I, that guy made, you know, you, you see the young guy making the mistake. You're like, okay, how's, what's he going to do about it? And fuck if he didn't do a lot of that, he did plenty about it. He had an assistant to try. So I'll, uh,
00:59:21
Speaker
I'll give the man credit. He takes after uncle pretty well at that. So I'll give him loads of credit. So yeah, to the game. We talked about guys that, you know, we've talked about a couple of guys that played well. With no dang calls, Amua, you might be an all black. Tell me a better hooker or not, besides dang calls and Cody Taylor, who's the third hooker right now? Right now, I don't know. I don't know if you can not pick Amua.
00:59:51
Speaker
I don't think so. Yeah, I can't, I can't see it either at this point. Right. Like both the Highlanders hookers are played like crap. Um, sorry, the chief's hat, me and the chief has, they're not picking up, and they're not picking up Lou's hooker. Right.
01:00:04
Speaker
I'm lost at who else they pick. So yeah, I think Amua has to be the guy if they go for a third hooker and he's played himself right into it. On the other side, wearing the same number jersey, Cody Taylor didn't exactly have his best game. There's a laundry list of Crusaders who you can go down, you can go down the list and be like, this guy really didn't make an impact in this game. And it's fucking surprising who they are. Yeah. Oh yeah.
01:00:35
Speaker
Um, let me go through it. Let me look at their lineup. So like second, second row was mostly, you know, mostly ghost with the exception of the one white lock grab. He was vanished after that. Yeah. Yeah. He, he, he did saw a little bit early, but that, and then it was kind of it. Um, several Reese will Jordan. Yeah. No, no try for will Jordan. That's a rarity. Right. Like a unicorn. Good Lord. Um,
01:01:02
Speaker
Mowonga did okay. I mean, he got his try. He played pretty well. He played pretty well. He made a lot of things happen for that team. Yeah, but just to see... Right, like, Will Jordan really not doing anything. And that's, you know, Jordan and Severus are... If you can take those two out of the game when you're playing the Crusaders and make sure that they don't get... make a serious impact. Now, oh, that's what it was. Umaga Jensen once, actually, he kicked it up the field stupidly to...
01:01:32
Speaker
It was one of them. I was like, don't do that. Nope. Yeah. Right down the middle. I was like, that is the worst place to kick a ball. That is the worst place to kick a ball right down the field. Not very far. Like, come on, man. In the middle, like between the, you know, I coach all my, my youngins, anything between the 15s and that's even remotely fieldable, not a good kick. All right. Right. Put it towards the sideline or put it over their head. But even that, nothing happened off of it.
01:01:58
Speaker
No. I think it was Will Jordan took it and it was like, Oh, what's going to happen here? And nothing happened. Like you got tackled a couple of meters up the field. Um, and they played on and it wasn't, it didn't turn into a thing. So like,
01:02:11
Speaker
just surprising to see the two guys who usually get loose and have a huge effect on matches. Not really, yeah, not being problem. And Cody Taylor, like you said, wasn't the problem really. No, he's usually a way bigger menace than that. And he was not. George Bridge was a bit of a problem. Oh, wow. You have to just...
01:02:33
Speaker
Oh my, oh my. I was like, I saw that and I was like, I can't be that mad at that. Cause I was like, there's nothing to be done about that. Cause it was a great bit of footwork from him. The ball rolled just right. Jordy went right by it. He's like, ah, shit. Cause it's a funny sheep oblong ball and it doesn't always bounce the way it's gonna, you think it's gonna, and, uh, yeah. And bridge just hustled. You gotta give him all the credit in the world for doing exactly what
01:03:01
Speaker
you know, just never giving up, never gave up on it. So I can make something happen here. And he did. So, you know, loads of credit to him. That's the reason he's in all black. That was fucking well done. There was nothing to be done about that. That was just an awesome play by him. And just like to throw your foot out and hit it and keep stride. Yeah. He's playing a little footy in this time. Right. And it was just a, yeah, something you don't, you don't see players. I mean, fuck, you think he practices that? I doubt it. I doubt it.
01:03:32
Speaker
Yeah, like by accident basically. Like, oh, we're just fucking around. Let's see what happens when I do this. And it works, but it's a load of credit to him. It's just like, it's so good. It's so damn good.
01:03:46
Speaker
um also so damn good the hoose was loose just he undressed bridge there he did he did that for that second one yeah yeah the dummy and then he hit that line real from deep and really hard phrasing um
01:04:02
Speaker
Yeah. Like, cause that, that, you know, they talked about how well that hurricanes attack was looking. I was like, it wasn't looking that good. It was going a lot lateral and who's in fixed it and said, I'm going forward and I'm not stopping until I find the white. So, um, it worked. It was, uh, it was, I mean, good set up pass. Obviously I'm happy. You got the ball out there to UJ. I'm just calling, calling UJ, um, America Jensen and,
01:04:26
Speaker
who's who knows what the trial line is. Yeah. And that's, that's started with that on the line break, um, doing, doing Dean Cole's workout on the left wing, getting the line break and then, you know, pass them all the way across the field for who's to Houston for the, uh, for the trial. I mean, that's, that's just good fucking rugby, not getting in the way. It's excellent stuff. I want to watch the, uh, um, Jordy was, you know, and this is not Jordan, hasn't been Jordy's strong suit in the past, which was,
01:04:55
Speaker
What made the Hurricanes kind of a question mark going into the season overall was his kicking, but he did pretty well. I think he missed one or two, but hit one at half to make it 2117 and then hit one to force it to seven near the end there that.
01:05:09
Speaker
that really made it, made all the difference because, you know, between that and, um, several reefs being forced into the corner as opposed to going down the middle, you know, made, you know, made, made the kick on for Mwanga, who's an excellent goal kicker. Let's, I mean, yeah, it is, it is a little bit unfair of me to say several reefs didn't make too much of an impact, but cause he did score a try, but it's like, you expect that from several reefs. Mwanga mostly created it. So yeah, exactly. You know, Mwanga was, was definitely,
01:05:38
Speaker
the Crusaders best player on this day. And he usually needs to be for them to do well, or you expect him to be as good as he is, but he just didn't have the support staff for the most part in this one. There's a reason that these guys were kind of out of sorts because even they talked about it on the
01:05:58
Speaker
I can't remember if it was either Jace Ryan or Jones on the sidelines. They talked to the Crusaders about like the defense and like they're in their face. And it's, you know, it's what they've been built on for a long time. Plungtree obviously being a big part of that. Now he's going to be the All Blacks defense coach. So look out for that. All Blacks defense, have fun.
01:06:20
Speaker
But yeah, Holland's obviously reaping the benefits of a well coached defense at this point with a lot of guys getting into other players' faces. I do want to point out Mr. Dolman is not a good referee. We both know that now. We both know that now. They were definitely in both ways, I will say. It was definitely some head scratchers like meh.
01:06:49
Speaker
Really? That's... What? Are you sure? Did you close your eyes or something? Like, are you just guessing?
01:06:56
Speaker
Um, I never it's never good when the the ref might catches the referee saying oh i'm trying to get out of your way like you you fucked up If you're in the way, you're already in bad. You're already in bad position, dude Yeah, I did you know and we talked about you know, the the referees and especially in new zealand cracking down On penalties. I I think the crackdown's gone because it totally is I that that's I don't know why but both matches where yep
01:07:23
Speaker
It's like they completely forgot these points of emphasis. Right. Um, apparently crawling on the ground to get a try is now something that's legal. I mean, call me crazy, but hey, um, so Clinton Strange and I are definitely not going to be friends. Oh, that was, oh, he got, uh, he got the grunk. You got tossed from the club though. Yeah. Yeah. He got booted. Yeah. Artie. Yeah. I think so.
01:07:52
Speaker
Who comes in and is like doesn't doesn't put doesn't punch him just comes in and just says alright Here's these advertisements you're going on the other side of them. You sit there stay there. That's where you belong and the rest concurred and gave him The meaningless yellow. I thought it should see I thought I should have been a red cuz a punch is a red Yeah, a punch a punch that draws blood is definitely a red and Jordy was bleeding from his fucking nose. So sorry
01:08:16
Speaker
Yeah, probably should have been a red but that's did they he might get sighted. So Right. It may not matter. Yeah at that point. It's like it's not worth sorting out because the game's over Oh, yeah, and I totally I understand but I just yeah looking at Dolman and his performance That's just one more to add to the top of the fucking pile. So
01:08:36
Speaker
And I also feel so here's another question that i'm realizing you know, just watching This competition and how the penalties are called because you know, they were the referees were instructed to call them tight The the high tackles are not yeah are not being so it seems as well it seems as though they're they're one step
01:08:58
Speaker
more lenient than northern hemisphere where like, you know, uh, up there you do that C-bell tackle. That's, that's, that's according to the laws, high tackle. So there'll be a penalty in here, you know, in, in, in super rugby. That's no, no play on. That's fine. It's been like, Oh yeah. And then like, if you have, if you have that, like, you know, contact to the head, okay, that no, no, no, that's, that's a penalty. Whereas in, in,
01:09:23
Speaker
Yeah, northern hemisphere. That's a card. That's a yellow and then the force it's one step Removed I should say or something where it's like can we get some just some standards that are that are applied equally because that I think you know and I like the way that the they're doing with the the rock because yeah
01:09:44
Speaker
They're trying to clean that area up, man. The big thing about New Zealand rugby, especially once it hits the international stage, is everybody's saying they're coming in from the side. And they have been. And that's what they're trying to police. But the high tackles, I think, are a bigger problem because that's
01:10:00
Speaker
That's getting on those boys. Yeah, they really got to pick the alternative cards real quick Yeah, there were there were definitely some some plays in this match where I'm like, that's a high tackle and the referees like no play on and everybody's like, yeah, that's fine and I'm just I'm like, how is that? How is everybody okay with this?
01:10:20
Speaker
You watching the same competition now? Yeah. Speaking of World Rugby, having to get a shit together. Yeah, no kidding, right? Add that to the list. Right. We got to make sure that everybody's evaluating penalties the same way. Yeah. And before we wrap this match up, I got to give Jamie Booth loads of credit for chasing down Will Jordan at the end there to what turned into the eventual penalty win that
01:10:44
Speaker
got the, got the, yeah. And, um, you know, Jamie Booth was definitely a, a, um, a good piece of the sunwalls, which, you know, say what you will about them. Um, him, a good scrum half coming into a team like this playing with TJ Paranara, you're only going to get better. Right. And he's, and he's done very well. So I, you know, I want to give him that it was definitely his hustle that, um, caused this game to go to the hurricanes in the end, not necessarily, you know,
01:11:12
Speaker
the end all be all, but shit, when you get the one at the end, it's usually nice. Yeah, especially the, especially when it's a kind of almost self-inflicted. I mean, how many, how many times is Moonga doing that kick?
01:11:24
Speaker
Yeah, that was, um, that was, that was really shocking that he had, that he missed that. I thought he had that right. I was like, Oh, that works. I was like getting ready for bonus rugby. I was like, Oh, this, this match. I was like, Oh, I, you know, I was about to pucker up me bum hole, but, um, he missed. So I was like, all right, we just go.
01:11:45
Speaker
Get the ball back. We had like 20 minutes of squeaky bum time in this match. Yeah, I felt like it right So the hurricanes top of the mighty crusaders will see if it can be done again at some point But you know, I don't think the hurricanes are gonna win this competition, but I don't care that was that was the championship right there
01:12:07
Speaker
Oh, all
Upcoming Matches and Predictions
01:12:08
Speaker
right. Let's look at next week. Um, Subaru. We are terroir. I don't want to look at it. She's some crusaders in Hamilton.
01:12:19
Speaker
Well, with my brain as much as I, you know, you're playing the wrong team at the wrong time right now because they're pissed and they're going to be very pissed. I don't want any. I don't want to. Well, that's the problem. The chiefs are on this. They're mad and they're, they're, they're, they're, they're pressing so hard and can't get it. This could end up being, um,
01:12:43
Speaker
Like I could see it being like a little bit of a temperous flaring kind of match. Especially with the way that the Crusaders match ended. A little scrappy there. And there's the Chiefs overall attitude losing two heartbreakers because they can't get out of their own fucking way. That's going to be it. It's going to be the, can the Chiefs
01:13:04
Speaker
like fuck, can we get a spa day? Just go relax, calm down, let the game come to you instead of trying to make things happen that aren't there. You know, like when they play more just flowing rugby, everything is great, but it's when they really are like,
01:13:23
Speaker
I don't know, just get something but I could see this being, it's a quicksand game for the Chiefs right now. They're stuck in the quicksand and the more they're struggling, the more, the worse it's getting. And now they have to go up against the Crusaders, it's Crusaders all day. Yeah, yeah. And then down to four side bar, Highlander's coming off the by against the Blues. Blues get back into the win column.
01:13:53
Speaker
And I don't see why they won't be able to handle this one either. I mean, I will say if I just put out that lineup that they had at the end of the Chiefs game, all bets are off cuz that team knew how to attack. So I will give them that, but I'm still picking the blows.
01:14:10
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, if the Blues are lucky, they don't just fucking hack it up the field to... And let Aaron Smith get loose for no fucking reason. So, yeah, I'm gonna go with the Blues. I think that they'll definitely manage the game. That's the thing, that the Highlanders can be managed if you're smart. And the Blues are smart enough and, you know, whoever they have at 10 is more than enough to... Black or Barrett, yeah. Right, or...
01:14:39
Speaker
Who knows? Oh man. Come on. Give me some Dan Carter in my life. Let's go. Right. So, uh, yeah, like, yeah, we don't know. Um, but any of those players are, are more than capable of, of managing the game for them. Okay. We shall see. Um, jump over to super rugby AU, um, force the two, the two ever traveling teams in this competition, forcing rebels. Um, I mean,
01:15:08
Speaker
Again, this could be the game that the force end up pipping, but probably not this time around, maybe on the back end of the season. So yeah, I'm gonna take the Rebels. They do have, I think they have enough.
01:15:24
Speaker
Yeah. You know, they need to keep it close for 60 minutes and then take the last 20 and blow them away. Yeah. And, and, and the game. Yeah, it's, it's unfortunate, but that's the, that's the season for the force this year. Yeah. I mean, you know, when you're used to playing 30 minutes and you got all of a sudden it's kind of tough. All right. The game of the weekend, Brumbies and Reds. This is, uh,
01:15:53
Speaker
Brumbees are hosting. This will be a hell of one. I know the Brumbees are tough, but I love what the Reds are doing. And I know they had that weird draw on their record and probably shouldn't have won the damn game had they had. Hopefully Bryce Hagerty has his boots back and he can figure out where the hell the goalposts are because he definitely was missing them at least in that tie game. So I will take the Reds.
01:16:24
Speaker
And I'm going to go with the Brubbies. Um, not just because you pick the Reds, but, uh, because I, I think they're, uh, they're going to be a little bit too strong for the, for the Reds. Um, I'm not, I'm not sold on the Reds. They're too mercurial. Yeah. They had the, uh, um, the bi-week, but I just, I don't trust them against the best team in the competition.
01:16:46
Speaker
No, and I totally understand that, but just there's something about it that I like, so I'm going to write it. Can't put my finger on it, but I'm gonna.
01:16:55
Speaker
Oh, so, well, I mean, that'll be, that'll definitely be the game of the weekend for sure. Even in both competitions and pretty, pretty soon here, we're going to have a lot more pick them to do. And it's going to be a fun day. Yeah, that's going to be, yeah, that's coming soon. It's going to be a whole lot of fun. Yeah, looking forward to it. Um, yeah, so it'll be a lot of fun. Um, yeah, I went in, I saw a tweet today from the, from, and it just got me going cause you know, get the old, the, the juices flowing with, um,
01:17:25
Speaker
Oh, from Gloucester rugby. And it was like, let me see if I can find it. Was it the, the wings? Yeah. It was like, well, I just love thinking about some speed here. Yeah. Like where's Matt Bannahan or something like that was also added to it. I was like, Ooh. It's again, you know, Thor Lee, Charlie Sharples, Johnny May, Louis, Louis, resam it. It's like, fuck, I can't wait for it. And no, I'm, I'm, I'm thinking about the bears and I'm thinking about Gloucester and I'm,
01:17:52
Speaker
I'm doing a lot of drooling. Keep it under control. Keep it under a hundred. Okay.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
01:17:59
Speaker
Well, keep your shorts on big guy. Um, until, until then, but, um,
01:18:07
Speaker
Yeah. So tweet, tweet at Ben and I, if you have questions about the show or whatever you want to give a shit, I don't care, whatever. I will do my damn just not to get into another Twitter argument. Um, fancy your podcast at gmail.com. Uh, thanks a lot to, uh, to Jess, Ben's wife for coming on and giving, um,
01:18:25
Speaker
giving the show a little bit more perspective on Black Lives Matter, trans lives, and those that are also lesbian, gay. Yeah. Please help me with all that. I'm so terrible.
01:18:41
Speaker
LGBTQ? LGBTQ, and there's an I, and there's all sorts of, yeah. Okay, so anyway, the depths of that, that you and I have no idea about, so at least she could provide a little perspective. We support it, whatever the fuck it is, we support it. And we appreciate her providing that for us. Other than that, it's gonna be, it should be a, hopefully, a slightly better weekend in terms of competition.
01:19:08
Speaker
We'll find out, although it's hard to beat that Kings appreciate the match rather than that. But we'll be back next week as usual. And until then, we'll talk to you guys later. Have a good one. Later.