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Episode 7; Premiership Round 7
29 Plays7 years ago
Finally two voices on here! Oh yeah, there was rugby. Disclaimer; the technical issues we had, made it not as much of a home run as we wanted. Just think when we have this down to a science how funny it'll be to think back about all these foul-ups. We talk internationals & 7 of the Prem.
Twitter jdyke8man & admrablsnackbar
Email fantasyrugbypodcast@gmail.com
Music by Royalty Free Music http://www.soundotcom.com
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Transcript
Introduction and Apologies
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey guys, what's up? It's Jared. I just wanted to apologize ahead of time for the audio on this episode. We got a second person in, but we had a slight hiccup with the second mic, so it's not as high quality as we wanted, and we do realize that there's a few audio issues with it, but it should still be a fairly enjoyable episode if you can stomach the couple audio bugs that's going on. I hope everybody enjoys it anyway and has a good day.
Hosts' Background and Friendship
00:00:34
Speaker
Welcome back to the Fantasy Rugby Yanks Podcast. My name is Jared Dyke. We are recording from just outside Boston, Massachusetts. It's Sunday, and guess what, guys? We got what you've been drinking for. There's another person sitting here with me. What's going on, bud? Oh, do I talk now? Yeah, you can talk now. That whole thing. My name is Ben Glauser. I've been a friend of Jared's since I moved to Boston around 2013, and we showed up to play for the same rugby club on the same day.
00:01:03
Speaker
We've pretty much been inseparable ever since. You want to be my friend? That's basically how that went. We were practice buddies. We were getting through it together. The awful, awful fitness test. Was that the beep test? No, that was the practice before the beep test. We did a whole bunch of other stuff. Oh man. Not enjoyable. Fuck that beep test. Yeah, do a bunch of pull ups.
00:01:28
Speaker
Oh yeah, that crap. Just the baseline. That was the baseline testing. They wanted to do it again like a month later, so. Oh yeah, that's right. It was just not fun. No, no, that wasn't it. So it was, hold my hand, I'll hold yours and we'll get through this. We'll try not to, we'll try not to die with each other. Yeah. Yeah.
Ireland vs. All Blacks Analysis
00:01:48
Speaker
That's a fact. Oh man. So we're going to talk a little bit of international banter and we'll talk a little bit of, um,
00:01:58
Speaker
Obviously we'll talk fancy rugby and what happened this weekend. Matches were pretty damn good and the scores definitely reflected it. So we'll, uh, we'll talk a little bit of that, but I mean, let's get to the obvious thing first fricking all blacks going down in Dublin. That was a beautiful sight. Uh, just for so many reasons, but just the, the play of, of Ireland was, was amazing. I mean, we were, we were talking.
00:02:22
Speaker
Right, absolutely. And not just the old American style of I'm going to run right at you and try to T-bone you, because overall I'm going to take your legs out, I'm going to take your hips out. Yeah, you ain't going nowhere.
00:02:39
Speaker
So if you have your own money here, you're taking your... Oh, man. Did you see the video he tried to celebrate and he forgot he was hurt? It's like, oh, wait, I can't stand. You've all been there before. But not there. A poor guy. We've been in that kind of situation just not on that scale. That poor guy. Oh, my God. A poor guy. He just played his heart out. He did. He played his ass off like 60 minutes and still one minute of the match. Right. And he deserved every moment of that.
00:03:09
Speaker
That was something else. And he wasn't alone. There were, as you were saying during the match, there were five or six guys for Ireland. You could easily aim off. They put in man of the match performances, but there was simply no doubt that it was somebody. I mean, really in the end, it was the two big penalties he had while the All Blacks were attacking that he got the turnovers off of. And they, the kick chasing. Oh yeah. With no hip. Apparently. Made that turn. He wasn't even the,
00:03:35
Speaker
the closest to the ball and somehow he got there anyway. Just an amazing effort there. That baffles me. I don't understand how that man does that type of stuff, but especially on a bad hip. The Irish are relentless and they don't care about themselves. No, that's true. Especially with reckless abandon.
00:03:53
Speaker
I think it was either 11 or even the last one. I think it was 15 Like they played the exact same style and I think it was O'Connell that ended up going out with some sort of injury But I think it was just wear and tear on his body from playing that style so much, but that's what they make you do and
00:04:10
Speaker
You know you can you can weather it for so long, but they've got it's not just their 15 It's their their full 23 that they're gonna use and they're gonna be physical They're not gonna. There's there's no step down when they bring in their bench So no not and you don't get that from New Zealand, but it's not the same style so it's still guys are you know you're coming on with fresh legs, but they're still getting cut out from you because Ireland is just gonna chop you down. Yeah, absolutely no that I mean
00:04:37
Speaker
Would you say, I have to say like, and we're fans of England only because we know so many of the players because we're fans of the series, but would you say that England have the same type of physicality, one through 15, that Ireland
Comparing Rugby Styles: Ireland vs. England
00:04:52
Speaker
do? It's a different type of physicality. I wouldn't say it's the same. I mean, they have guys who will go toe to toe with you.
00:04:59
Speaker
But they're not basing their game around that. Whereas Ireland is just, we will hit the hell out of you and we'll come back for more and we'll do it smiling. It's just a different style. What's really put them over the hump for me
00:05:17
Speaker
is they started really using their heads more. It's not just a physical game. Smash, smash, smash. Which, you know, I hate that game. Yeah, it doesn't matter. Well, geez, the U.S. did it for so many years, we finally figured out how to not do that for an extended period of time. And that's exactly why I hate it, because that's all the U.S. does, is we're just going to try to T-bone you and shove you back and we're going to win meters in contact and in the rock.
00:05:41
Speaker
And that's just not the way the game is played. It doesn't work. It breaks your body for no purpose other than just to smash your body into something. Now we do that for fun because we don't know any better, but we're also not playing international level rugby, so there's kind of a difference in that. Yeah, it's a little different when you're going up against guys that train like that and even when you train like that. So it's just impressive to watch with Ireland that their skill level is matching their
00:06:11
Speaker
their physical approach. So it's not just going to be a 9-6 game. It's going to be a slogfest. It's no longer that boring game. They're going to... 69. We've got to try in there this time.
00:06:30
Speaker
your approach changes a little bit when it's the all blacks in front of you. Maybe the bigger focus is making sure that they don't score 30. Yeah. Well, they've been, I think it was the broadcast yesterday talking about they've been held under like 15 points or under 20 points the last three, basically in their three losses, I think they've been held to under 20 points. And that was like, well, that makes sense. And if that's your goal, if you want to play that,
00:06:54
Speaker
little bit low scoring slogfest. You want to take away your opponent's best feature. Which is their attack by far. New Zealand will defend all day but at some point that's still going to wear them down because that's not what they focus on. They want to attack and if you just shut down that attack you focus on making those tackles the way that the airline did. You're going to have a good time.
00:07:16
Speaker
You
Japan's Rugby Strategy and World Cup Prospects
00:07:17
Speaker
watched the Japan-England game way more than I did, so you can probably speak to what that looked like, especially with some of the... Did Ted Hill play at all in that game? I don't recall. I may have been having a beverage or two. Fair enough.
00:07:34
Speaker
I know he was picked. I know he was picked because that was like the understudy to be picked that game. So but I was just watching that I was more focused on Japan that match because that was really good to me. That was the standout. Yeah was was just the way that they played was a fantastic bit of
00:07:51
Speaker
offensive creativity and discipline. And sometimes when you get into that game and you get into the game where you're going to throw offloads and you're going to shift the ball around, you're going to miss passes, you're going to drop the ball, you're going to throw an offload that you shouldn't. And Japan did an amazing job for, I'd say, 50 to 60 minutes of maintaining discipline with that.
00:08:16
Speaker
saying, I'm gonna throw this pass till you have us trapped and then we'll take it into contact with the recycle. And not making that extra pass, throwing a 50-50 ball. It was really well done, well organized on that part. And that number six, whose name I can't recall. Leech. Oh man. Everybody was saying on Twitter that he played a match. If Japan had won, then it would have been him by far. I would have awarded him out of the match anyway.
00:08:44
Speaker
Yeah, for whatever reason they found upon that, I don't understand it. Right, and that kind of makes sense on some level, but when you're in just a friendly test match, I'd say you give it to the person who played their hearts out the best, and it was inspirational to watch him move around the pitch, and everywhere, when you saw him
00:09:05
Speaker
enter the screen, you knew something was going to happen. And that's what you want to look for in anybody.
00:09:20
Speaker
And I guess, you know, Maro won man of the match. And I was even saying to you. Yeah, he told me that. The Japan style of play just totally took out Maro's strengths. I mean, he will win that ball in contact, in the line out, what have you.
00:09:37
Speaker
And the way that Japan was moving the ball, he just couldn't do that. He got one turnover. He couldn't snatch onto it. Yeah. Yeah. He got one turnover the whole match. And that's, that's a, usually if, if Mara's only getting one, one turnover. You probably did something all right. Yeah. Oh, and England or Sarri's are probably having a bad day. Yeah. That's probably also true. Although England apparently had a bad day up until the time they decided to stop effing around and turn it on.
00:09:59
Speaker
I wouldn't even say they had a bad day. Japan had a great day. I didn't think that England did anything too disappointing. It was just that Japan kept them off balance and didn't let them get settled. So they couldn't get into their own rhythm.
00:10:19
Speaker
playing for field position, but Japan was like, okay, well, we're going to do what we can to just hold on to the ball. Well, they're not a turnover anymore there. I mean, if you, if their victory in South Africa in 15 wasn't enough to tell you that then, you know, this is certainly a game to make you remember. Oh yeah, they did. They did do that, didn't they? They were the first team to win.
00:10:43
Speaker
three matches at a World Cup and not qualified for the knockout round. I was like, ugh. Because they didn't get any, I don't think they got any bonus points in any of those wins. But you know, still hosting their own World Cup next fall is looking better and better for them, that's for sure. They're definitely getting ready to put on a show for their fans. And you gotta love that.
Potential Upsets by Tier Two Teams?
00:11:09
Speaker
They're showing up, they're saying this is our World Cup, we're not gonna,
00:11:13
Speaker
be out early if we can at all avoid it. No, I would tout them to get to the knockout stage in some form. And I'd love to see that. I'd love to see a lot of more, you know, I think this is going to be a World Cup where there's going to be some tier two teams that make it over some tier one teams. Yeah, there's going to be some shakeups at this World Cup.
00:11:34
Speaker
You'll start to start to happen at the last World Cup where the qualifying teams weren't in that third even in that third spot weren't the teams you expected I think Georgia got an automatic qualifying spot if I'm not mistaken and nobody expected that so I mean they had What's his face go God's a gigantic man that he is You know that helps Yeah
00:12:01
Speaker
What was it that Jimmy said last night somewhere out there Bowdoin Barrett still looking for Sam Underhill Did you not hear that when he said that? No, that was yeah, that was funny. I was just like I saw a meme too like yeah Oh, it was just like listen the tried-and-count But just please admire the fact that Sam Underhill made Bowdoin Barrett look silly and yes That doesn't well really the only person who makes Bowdoin Barrett look silly is Bowdoin Barrett and got turned around and right but at what I mean, I'm just talking about more of his uh
00:12:50
Speaker
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha
00:12:52
Speaker
Yeah, if he comes to Boston and finds us, I'll let him beat the shit out of me as long as he signs an autograph. I don't give a crap about that. He can punch me right in the face. As long as he just signs an autograph for me, I do not care. Yeah, please, something to that effect. Oh my God. All right, let's get into the stuff that this thing's supposed to be about. The Fantasy of Rugby here for the Premiership.
00:13:21
Speaker
Double Friday fixture was fun. The last fixture was fun. It was a really good weekend for matches. Yeah, it was a great weekend for rugby. Yep. So let's just go through the dream team. Everything should be finalized. If there's a couple of adjustments between now and the time you hear this, sorry. We're not perfect. Not claiming to be. We're just trying to do our best over here.
00:13:46
Speaker
So, Jan Thomas from Bristol had 55 the prop, Jack Gandal from Exeter the Hooker, he had 48, John Afoa from Bristol, Bristol had a good day.
00:13:56
Speaker
Yeah, I know. Ununfortunate day in the end. John Affohla from Bristol, he had 36. We'll talk about him because he had a couple of nice looking plays. Elliot Stuke, probably feeling a little begrudged by getting sent home by Eddie. He had 48. Andrew Davidson from Newcastle was the one bright spot in their game. He had 43. Tom Lade from Exeter, he had 43. Thank you.
00:14:19
Speaker
Sam Lewis from Worcester, the flanker from Worcester, he had a nice day, 38. Alex Dunbrandt, he basically got handed 36 in some capacity because if you don't know what I'm talking about, we'll talk about when we talk about the Quinn's game, but the flanker, the back rower from Quinn's, he had
00:14:36
Speaker
36. Charlie Macron from Quinn's basically takes Danny Care's spot and does the same exact thing. Gets a nice score at 38. Robert DiPria in his Premiership debut, 35 for sale. Tenkele Nyaravaro, the gigantic wing that's not fair to have. He's a cheat code out there.
00:14:54
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. I picked him up as soon as he was available. Just for this weekend. Yeah, he works. Tunk Kelly and Nairovo had 51. He had one called back, too. Ollie Thorley. Oh, boy. A scintillating try from him and Morgan. My player of the weekend.
00:15:12
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. Ollie Tholley was 52 on Friday night for Gloucester. Nick Tompkins, our boy from Saracens with 49, another great day. Charlie Piatow with 37. Looks like he hasn't lost a step even though he hasn't been in the league into the team for a little bit, but he looks pretty good. And Jason Woodward for Gloucester.
00:15:32
Speaker
You know pilots how good of a night gloss or howdy at 30 34 But yeah, so good. It was a good one. It's this is not a this is not a like top weekend top scores of the weekend because you got to fit it into a team as if You were building a team for you know, like you were playing so that's why it's not everybody because I think there were like five blocks that had 40 ish points or more so but not all more eligible to play
00:16:01
Speaker
flank her or anything like that. So that's how you end up with that. All right. So first games of the weekend, Leicester and Gloucester. Thank you. Thank you. And I both watch this one live. Yeah. I think I'm watching mostly live.
00:16:19
Speaker
Yeah, that was, uh, had to go back and review some of it, but Gloucester was, uh, they were a machine. Yeah. And so how much of that is, is Gloucester really coming on strong plus the internationals and how much of that is, is Leinster just, there's Lester being just a.
00:16:35
Speaker
Whatever the hell they are. I don't know they're they they looked like they were gonna kind of pull themselves out of the Fire here, and then they went to holy hell I don't know like they I think if I remember it they had a good win Yeah, they had a great win in Europe round two at home completely thumped scarlets. I think it was
Gloucester's Performance and Key Players
00:16:55
Speaker
Wet day, but they still they I know George Ford missing I know Ben Young's is missing but
00:17:02
Speaker
They won't call that an excuse. You still have Dan Cole, you still have some players out there that are international quality. They should be able to carry them against a Gloucester team. Let's not make a mistake, Gloucester is coming on strong like you said.
00:17:20
Speaker
They're not Gloucester from last year. No goodness lord. I mean well they they qualified for champions couple last year and that was a huge thing for them I think that really got them to get all these all these names in that they got in and then even with guys like Ross Moriarty leaving
00:17:36
Speaker
Yeah, at least to let Ben Morgan that is ready to go and Slater and they got grubler that came in and I mean, yeah, they found they found more good sips and bad sips, which is good, which is always good Excuse me Yeah, but like but I'll tell you that to me it was thoroughly just tearing them up. Oh, yeah, just tearing them up and There's only so much you can do. It's not as though he he did anything
00:18:05
Speaker
otherworldly, he just ran really crisp, strong lines. Yeah. And picked holes and found them. That second one, he turned everybody around. Yeah. The crossfield run. Yeah. Who was it that was at the 22 still and just like, I'm pretty sure he's still sitting there.
00:18:25
Speaker
Yeah, I believe your words were that he left his dignity at that time. Yeah, I think he was Eastman. That's who it was. Or Kyle Eastman. He's like, Oh, shit. Yeah, I'm not making this tackle. He thought he had support on the inside and nobody there. No, I will buy. Yeah, Thorley just just ran an excellent angle. He changed it so that
00:18:45
Speaker
That neither of the two who were back there. He just had a shot on one on two No, no, you can do about turn on the Jets. Well, the he's they asked him in the post-manage interview What were you thinking doing that run score? Yeah, that's all he said Take the heart out of the opposition run right there. That's how did it ever because it was like
00:19:04
Speaker
They pulled that out from their own 22. Ben Morgan ran it out to the edge of the 22 and dished it to Thorley and Thorley turned on the Jets with space to burn. So he said, yeah, sure. I'd also like to point out the excellent play there, the rugby coach enemies coming out where you had the turnover ball, get the ball two passes away from that turnover.
00:19:24
Speaker
Guy takes the hole. Yeah, bingo ball, baby. And then pops it out to the win. Just real, excellent, fundamental rugby. Get it away from where everybody else is. Well, I guess we got to talk about who scored what. Can't just talk about bullshit all day. So we'll start with the unfortunate losers, Lester.
00:19:46
Speaker
Mike Williams, one of their locks leads the way. That's, that's not a bad thing if like there's more than one. Yeah. Yeah. If he's over 40, it's 20, it's 29. It's not even 30, which is, you know, I try and set the threshold at 20, which is somewhat reasonable, but at the same time, you know, if your top score is 29 that week, there's a chance that that team didn't score a lot of fantasy points to begin with. And they didn't. Tom young's had 25 and Spencer at 21. So that kind of makes,
00:20:14
Speaker
Lineout and oh, yeah, and Fitzgerald had 18. So but those are your top Lineout jumpers and your hooker so okay line out was probably not bad But obviously didn't have enough of the friggin ball to make that really do anything Nobody else going to any points. No and Dan Cole had 23, which is probably the most Dan Cole's gonna score Yeah in a in for fancy as a player
00:20:38
Speaker
I like Dan Cole. I think he's a tough bugger. I will never get into a bar fight with Dan Cole, but as a fantasy player, as a fantasy asset, he is not that worthy. I think he's almost 400 pounds on this website. He is expensive for a guy that's not going to score more than 22-23.
00:20:58
Speaker
That's bait. That's what that is. That's exactly what that is. I agree. I agree. Maybe he's worth it. No, no, no. No, he's not. Maybe worth it on the field, but not in the fantasy. Oh, good Lord. And we found out that Joe Ford is not George Ford. He always scored 18. George Ford scores like freaking, I don't know, I think he always scores 18 and a half.
00:21:21
Speaker
And I'm not the biggest George Ford fan in the world either, so the fact that I'm complimenting him should tell you everything you need to know. All right, let's look at some more entertaining scores. Ollie Thorley with 52. Well deserved. I mean, you run all those meters, you're going to add up fast. And the tries, the tries help too, a little bit. Yeah, a couple tries over the line. That's easy 10 points to add on.
00:21:43
Speaker
And you're gonna do well. Yeah, and he just any and I think he assisted on Woodward's try to Either Woodward Japan hands one of the two so he had to try to still throw that in there on top of it. So that adds up Yeah, super Yanni had 27 not not bad. I mean Decenses. Yeah, that's no that's not okay. Certainly not bad. Yeah
00:22:06
Speaker
Now, Jason Woodward with 34, so I keep looking at it, and every time the back three of this team does well in fantasy, the whole team does, it seems like, because people are just running lines off them, and they're going, they're going, they're going, they're going. It doesn't matter which one it is.
00:22:23
Speaker
Woodward it could be Charlie Sharples who missed this game, right? You know, it could be thoroughly it could be banahan who's who got involved today It could be Tom Hudson who only came on for a little bit at the end So, you know it I think this back three is definitely gonna help this team click on Yeah, I'm kind of excited to see if they throw up If they throw thoroughly and Sharples together out there that's terrifying that we fun to watch that that's a that's a team and especially with a Cipriani team
00:22:52
Speaker
Yeah. Creativity. That could be a lot of fun to watch going forward. Oh, yeah. Yup. Yup. And, you know, they weren't the, the backs weren't the only ones having fun. Ben, Ben Morgan had 31 or 23 rather. Ben had had 31. Uh, Frazier Balmain had 33. Big proper scored one. Uh, Willie Hines scored 30.
00:23:13
Speaker
Willy Hines basically just steps right in and doesn't miss a friggin' beat. And he's been frustrating me. I've been waiting for this and I just couldn't wait any longer, a couple weeks ago. Drop him. So I had to drop him. Bad news for you. Well, of course, who did I pick up for him? Dan Robson. Robson, yeah. That's right, you did tell me that. You did tell me that. I can't do it with signs. I can't do it with how he's not doing anything and waiting for him to show back up. So I'll pick up Robson.
00:23:42
Speaker
And then I'm watching that. Yep. Tom Savage had 27, Billy 12 trees had 24 and Atkinson at 23. 12 trees is a little skewed because I think he had a kick in there as well. And if you don't have Billy 12 trees as your kicker, when he only kicks one, why would you? And I know I probably recommended him last week, but
00:24:05
Speaker
It's obviously clear that Cipriani is going to take the tee from him. He's just earned the trust of Ackerman, and that's how it's going to be. I would wager that Gloucester deserve to be where they are. They're in third, I believe, now, because Wasp did not look good on Saturday. I'll tell you that much. We'll get to that match.
00:24:26
Speaker
But yeah, so I'd say Gloucester are flying high and they're going to take advantage of this international period where they still have the stacked team of guys that could be either playing for England or somebody else, you know, and they're not. So more power to them.
Quinn's Victory and Newcastle's Challenges
00:24:42
Speaker
Right.
00:24:42
Speaker
They've got a lot of England's b-siders. Yeah, basically. Good Lord. I mean, 12 trees has some England caps. He'll never see the field for them again. Benahan has some caps. He'll never see the field for them again. Cipriani, we'll get occasional looks. Yeah. Maybe if he kisses and makes up with Eddie. Right. If we see more good sips than bad sips going forward, maybe that's what we'll see.
00:25:09
Speaker
My neighbors are apparently having some fun with their TV watching. All right, the other Friday fixture, Quinn's in Newcastle. This is disappointing from Newcastle. I have to say, after coming up and beating Toulon and Montpellier in Europe, you figure, okay, they got it back. They got the juices back.
00:25:30
Speaker
What the hell? And the Quinns are, you know, they're okay. They're not the Quinns. They're not the Quinns they used to be. No. They got guzzy now, though. I like a start.
00:25:40
Speaker
but that was a disappointing result. Absolutely. I gotta say, to say the least, it's not as much fun to watch as some of the other matches either. No, no, it was a slog. If you're not a fan of either of those teams, it's... That was a slog, yeah, for sure. It's worked to us. It was, it really was. But yeah, I mean, Joe Marlar started on the bench, which I don't know why. I didn't hear them say anything about an injury or anything like that. Did you pick that up? No, I didn't. Although I haven't been...
00:26:09
Speaker
Paying too close attention to the twins this year. Yeah. Well, I mean so I At one point somebody picked them to go down That's harsh. I'm not sure they're worthy of that But yeah, sounds pretty awful. I mean there's there's two bright spots on the twins that I Look forward to and it's or three. I guess I should say and they're all in the back line It's it's definitely Nathan R. L. Who didn't didn't so I have a great game. It's
00:26:38
Speaker
Brown, who somehow is now out in the cold from Eddie, beats the hell out of me, and Marcus Smith.
00:26:47
Speaker
This kid is not necessarily the greatest decision maker, but he is certainly something that's willing to put the foot on the gas and go. So I'm liking what I see out of that. I actually did end up starting Morris this week because he was a pretty cheap find. Yeah, but then the whole HIA, I got knocked into the next world thing kind of came and hit you. Yeah, that kind of put a damp cloth on that.
00:27:12
Speaker
Well, if you take the guy who came in for him, score Sayili, and how many did Morris get, like eight? Oh, I already clicked off of it. Yeah. Not enough for me to- Not enough for you to be okay with it. Yeah. Yeah. So, okay.
00:27:27
Speaker
Combine the two and maybe you would have had a better score, but obviously that's not that's not how it works We'll go through some of the Quinn scores. The Quinn's had the better day of the two But actually they did not have this high score in this game, but we'll get to that in a second Marla Marla only had 12 off the bench, but not bad for off the bench. Mike Brown had 19 Mo Crohn had 38 basically, like I said, basically just
00:27:53
Speaker
Replacing Danny care like it's nothing dumb brat. Did you see don't see dumb brats try? Yes It's a gift Here's your first Premiership start and there's your first Premiership try damn it. That's not what I was
00:28:11
Speaker
That was bad. Oh my God. So yeah, Dom Brant had 36. Marcus Smith had 29. Max Crompton had 27, who actually was a tactical sub for Elia Elia early in the, in the first half. Apparently Gus Starr was not pleased with, I mean, assuming he's making the decision and not, um, I think Adam Jones is their forward coach or their scrum coach. So maybe he made the decision, but.
00:28:36
Speaker
You might want to listen to something he has to say. Yeah, I would, Jason. For multiple reasons. Mostly because I don't want to get my ass beat. Jack Clifford. So Jack Clifford was a name that I've been waiting to see come back. He had 25. He had a decent day. James Chisholm with 22 and Sayili with 22, like I talked about.
Jack Clifford's Potential in International Rugby
00:28:55
Speaker
I've seen Jack Clifford play for a couple of years now, and he's always been on that. He's been like Kvessic, where he's always been on the edge.
00:29:03
Speaker
Just needs a good push and he'll be over there and he's still fairly young. I think he's only 25 So he's easily got at least one World Cup in him. I think if he just gives himself that shove Yep, because I mean I like watching him play in the Premiership. That's for sure. So hopefully he can stay healthy I think that's been the other problem. He's not always healthy, right?
00:29:23
Speaker
And we see that some guys who are on the cusp, they're fun to watch on their premiership, like we were talking earlier tonight about Cal and Dickey. It's fun to watch the premiership. You get them on the international stage. Just not quite there yet.
00:29:40
Speaker
It's a different animal. It's a very different animal. It's a different animal, it really is. Quinn's basically just played keep away in this game, they really did. It was really all he could do. There is one thing we probably need to talk about for Newcastle, and that was Hodgson's injury. God damn it, of course I friggin' picked him in my team this week. That was my 10, and that was my kicker.
00:30:04
Speaker
Yeah, I made my own mistakes this week, but that's tough to watch when it's your... Yeah. So I know I'm going to have to... And I know I'm going to have to transfer him out this week because he definitely has a broken leg. So that's no good.
00:30:19
Speaker
Tobi Flood had 22. Davidson had 43. He had their loan try, I think. I don't think there was anybody else. McGuagren with 29, a good day. Just completely left him off my team. I don't know how I missed that. I struggle with the format here sometimes, and I just totally scrolled right by his name as an option for both, not only Delker, but on my bench, too.
00:30:45
Speaker
Yeah, I kind of for some reason I I was blanking on some of the guys that are normally start cuz they're usually international players, right? I was looking for the bottom of the back, you know the not the bottom of our guys, but the next year down Yeah, right and somehow just completely missed it. We can oops a daisy. Yeah Yeah Calam green had 27 which Explains why probably is part of the reason between him and Davidson why even quicken had 29?
00:31:11
Speaker
lineup was probably cooking all right uh mickey young i'm still calling it mickey young i don't give a crap how much people wanted to call him michael listen dude you ain't earned michael yet i don't care if you're old that doesn't qualify if you have the option to be mickey be mickey yeah why you want to be michael be mickey um
00:31:28
Speaker
Yeah, there's enough of those. Pedro Betancourt first, I think this was his first Premiership game for Newcastle, not bad. 23, Callum Czech with 23 and John Hardy, his first game for Newcastle with 26. You know, a lot of quality in this Newcastle side for being so bad as they were this weekend. I couldn't understand what the heck. Well, number one, they're bombing, I think it was Mickey Young, he's bombing it back to Mike Brown. Like what are you doing? Why are you bombing it back to Mike Brown? He's one of the best guys under the high ball. To the points.
00:31:59
Speaker
God, I wish he knew that. He might have something else going on here at least. Grubber it or something. Yeah, exactly. Geez Louise. Yeah. I mean, cause I think, Oh yeah. Cause Johnny, Johnny Williams had to pull out of this game real late apparently too. So Toby flood went to 12 and he was supposed to start on the bench. And then, so then they brought in the spiel who's meh. Okay. But not great, which means Toby floods now playing 10 and.
00:32:26
Speaker
let's be real like we saw what toby flood did playing ten for this team before the break and before europe and then hodgson came back and started playing ten for these guys in europe and he he directed the bus pretty freaking well considering he kind of went over to long into long you know and and i love toby flood from back in the day but but there's a reason he was
00:32:49
Speaker
He's not in France anymore. Right. There's news available this week to play for Newcastle. Yeah. And it's just that he's not that guy anymore. No, he's not. No. I mean, he came over, he came back over from France to sign with them and I thought, hmm, this could be interesting. This could be interesting. He's the guy you want on your club. Yeah. But he's not the guy, you know, you don't want him to be the man.
00:33:10
Speaker
If he's the man on your team, you're probably in trouble. No, I think the Newcastle game strategy could have gone a little more forward heavy with the quality they have in the forwards between guys like McGuigan and Green and Hardy and Callum Chick, you know, guys like that, just you could have done a lot better with a game plan. Right, and they were in it for...
00:33:32
Speaker
for way too long. Hurricanes did not put them away. They did not want to put them away. For whatever reason, they were allergic to putting them away. Right. So at that point, why not keep it with their phones and just work your offense instead of kicking away possession and especially Mike Brown. Yeah. Best guy under the high ball in the world, if not top three. Maybe when I'm going to try to run, I'll just a little bit more until all your options are
00:33:57
Speaker
are off the table. Absolutely. Other than kicking it to Mike Brown. Oh, yeah. So that still leaves Dean Richards and Newcastle bottom of the league and Quinn's, you know, they're, they probably won't make top six, but at least they won't get relegated. That's kind of the win-win on that one. I think they'll call it with as many people that initially in the season looked at them and said they might be in trouble. And if they don't, if they can at least, you know, maybe push for that, that seventh playoff spot for Europe,
00:34:26
Speaker
maybe that'll be a win for them. I don't think getting top six was realistic. I think I look at the teams in front of them, I say Saracens, I say Exeter, I say Gloucester, I say Wasp, I say Bath, and then I'm gonna put Saints in that. They played really well this weekend and I was impressed by that. They're starting to find themselves. We'll get to them in a little bit.
00:34:51
Speaker
So yeah. Dean Richards, time to friggin' get that motor going again, man. I don't know what's going on. Alright. Bath and Worcester. Bath, back at the Rec. This is another team that's got a shit ton of quality, despite all the international teams that are playing right now. Because some of them aren't wanted by their international teams, and some of them don't want to play for their national teams. So that's just how it goes.
00:35:17
Speaker
Like casing points to me so rockin to uni like to have a guy of that quality that probably Could put on an England shirt more often than not if you wanted to his compat his his wing partner cocking a singer
00:35:32
Speaker
You know? Yeah. Looked pretty good. He looked alright. He looked pretty good in England shirt, so. But he could easily just be there, so. You know, but the likes of him and Jamie, Jamie Roberts doesn't want to play for, I don't think, I think he's done playing for Wales, so. Yeah. You know, and I don't blame him, his body's pretty beat up. Yeah, he's had a good run. Yeah.
00:35:55
Speaker
That's one of those, back to, you know, some of those mess ups can weigh on you for a while, but to turn around and- The dirt knock on against Toulouse, yeah, and then kind of a, he had a bit of a blunder against Wasp with one of his kicks, if I remember right, that turned into either a try or an opportunity to score a try, so, or at least some points of some sort.
00:36:20
Speaker
But good for him to get back on the winning side. Yeah, I like Freddie Burns. I think he's too high quality of a player, too good of a person to be down too long. Absolutely. So just looking at the scores this week for Bath, big one, Elliot Stuke, 48.
00:36:36
Speaker
Obviously had the Lionel Hummin at least to some point because he and Atwood both had high numbers, and Tom Dunn had 27. So Atwood had 37, Dunn had 27. Freddie Burns had 34, Rockin' Gunguny had 23. Jimmy Roberts not his best match 12. But yeah, they obviously, I mean, geez, I mean, you got Atwood, you have Stuq, and then Matt Garvey is in there as well.
00:37:02
Speaker
was it Bayless that played eight man for them this weekend? He was pretty good. So yeah, not lacking options in their lineup by any means whatsoever. And to be fair to Worcester, they didn't play badly in this game.
00:37:17
Speaker
I watched the whole thing and they could have easily, like their percentage of getting into the attacking third and putting it over the line was high. The problem was they couldn't get in that attacking third more often than they did. I didn't end up watching this game.
00:37:41
Speaker
I ran out of time on my rugby watch. Timer's up. But just looking at the match graph, it just seems as though Bath kind of took a little bit of hold of it and just strangled the life out of the rest of the match. They really did. And they kept blowing a lot of opportunities. I thought for sure, Worcester was going to burn them and take the lead and hold on to it with the amount of times that Bath kept squandering opportunities. But in the end, Bath's quality is just
00:38:08
Speaker
it's still pretty damn high. It may not be, you know, world-class high, but it's still pretty high. So, and Worcester are still a team that people are touting to possibly go down. So you can't ignore that. You know, those, these types of games where you definitely should have had something are the type of teams that get teams down.
00:38:27
Speaker
Yeah, and my rug, again, I couldn't watch this, my rug be, I have to sometimes perform triage, and these two teams where you have middle of the pack and middle of the pack. Yeah, no, no. If you got to throw one away, this is one that you think, okay, I can probably find another time to watch that, and that's fair enough.
00:38:46
Speaker
But, I mean, it's, after watching Worcester against Bristol, holy, I thought, oh wow, they're going to find some forum here and just tear teams apart because they looked really good. I mean, I was like, wow, they don't look like they're going to be stopped by anybody.
Worcester's Inconsistencies and Naiyaravoro's Impact
00:39:04
Speaker
I know Baths weren't very good on the day, but man, they just tore them apart.
00:39:11
Speaker
But these are the games you gotta pick up and when you're not used to winning those types of games are the type that get you sent down. At least we don't have... You may or may not remember the year that London Welsh came up and they only had one solitary point in the standings from a losing bonus point.
00:39:32
Speaker
wasn't even a try scoring bonus point. I think they signed like three guys. They signed Perry Weepoo who, to be fair to Perry Weepoo, he was fat. He got the money and was just like, I'm a good fan. And that was the end. Yeah, that's basically what he did. He was waiting his freaking contract.
00:39:49
Speaker
So, but yeah, at least we're not having one of those situations where it's going to be even last year with London Irish, like it was decided way in advance of the end of the season who was going down. This one, at least there's a little bit of entertainment at the bottom of this. I think this one's going to go for a while because there's no way Newcastle are going to sit down there except at the points they have for this long. So they'll pick it up, I would assume.
00:40:10
Speaker
Yeah, it's a safe assumption at the very least. Well, I guess we got to look at Worcester's scores. They didn't have some bad ones. Sam Lewis had 38, Francois Huguard, my Scrum half had 32, and my captain this week.
00:40:26
Speaker
Anton Bresler had 30, Ryan Mills had 29, Bryce Heem had 22, and G.J. Van Velsa had 20. I like Bryce Heem. Like, if they go down, he needs to find a club in the prepare ship to play with. He really does. He belongs there. Yeah, for sure. Obviously, who guard?
00:40:43
Speaker
Like, I mean, I know most teams, most clubs have a scrum half, but to sit there and say that you don't want friends for who guard is just ask nine. He can help somewhere. He helps somewhere. I promise. Apparently he drives like a white Lambo or something like that.
00:40:59
Speaker
He was on the rugby pod and I can't remember if Goody or Hamilton said something about him driving a white Lambo.
00:41:17
Speaker
I honestly don't think there's anybody that has negative things to say about him. I think you just wish he was playing for South Africa to play for this team. Fair enough, right? Alright, here we go. This is definitely one we want to talk about because a lot of implications. Saints and Wasps, man.
00:41:36
Speaker
Again, we talked about choking the life out of a game and Saints just bullied, lost around the park. They like, I think Soap Walker had, in the first half, I think Soap Walker had one shot at goal and that was it. And he missed it. If I remember right, I could be wrong. Yeah, I was paying more attention to, uh, and I heard of Oro. Fair enough. I was, uh, I was, I was highly focused on that. I, uh, um,
00:42:03
Speaker
He's just, this was the match that I was expecting from him eventually. And then it's there. And it only makes sense that it would be around now. He's been putting in a lot of effort with the Saints in the Premiership Cup as well. Good for him. And really trying to understand what they're trying to do. And I think this was the perfect time for him where he's been able to work with the coaches and learn what he wants.
00:42:28
Speaker
what he needs to be doing. And now there's a little bit less pressure too with all the internationals away. It kind of opens things up a little bit for him. And Boyd did it open up for him. I mean, he had, he had to, he had one call back. Right. I mean, I don't, I think it was, uh,
00:42:46
Speaker
Who was, it was a prop that he got in the way of the referee. And I mean, honestly. To Kelly Maravirl, full speed. Unless this guy was really gonna get a hold of him, which I don't think he was. I think he was Brooks. I don't think he was gonna get a hold of him that much to the point where he was gonna stop him. But I guess laws being laws, that's the call. It's hard luck sometimes. It is. And you know, props are gonna go around screwing everything up for you anyway. Stupid fatties. I resemble it.
00:43:14
Speaker
Anybody that doesn't know we both we both have spent time in the front row But yeah, we had seen I mean by the list of players that are on this sheet with 20 plus points for saints They had a day. Yes I'll go as quick as I can without without
00:43:31
Speaker
Stuttering or mumbling or slurring my words. Naira Arvaro obviously leads the way with 51 Tamana Harrison 17 He's not one of those guys, but he's up there in price. So that's why I mentioned him Andrew Kelly with 34 Grayson with 34 which surprised me and I'll tell you why in a second Cobus Reinak with 33 not not the biggest cobus Reinak fan But proof why a good scrum half can get you points easy Lewis Ludlow with 29
00:43:57
Speaker
Andy Moo 29, Pierce Francis with 27, Frazier Dingwell with 25, James Fish with 24, good for that kid while Hartley's away and Heywood's out. Jamie Gibson with 22 off the bench I think. Waller with 21, Tom Wood with 21, he looks funny with that long hair I have to say. And then Slate Home off the bench in his debut scores a try and he gets 20. I mean.
00:44:21
Speaker
Grayson it actually surprises me that Grayson has such a high score because I don't know if you saw the two conversions that he took from wide angles They were hideous low liners. They did not have a shot. I'm like I could have done that like can can we get I thought for sure Pierce Francis was gonna take the tee from him away faster than he did he made two easy ones right the front but I mean Duh, you could hit those drunk. Yeah, you know
00:44:48
Speaker
I want to mention here, too, that I had started Ben Franks in this match and I was disappointed. He's had a good season off and
Ben Frank's Inconsistency and Wasps' Struggles
00:44:58
Speaker
on. I thought this was going to be one of his matches where he could help get one over the line, especially as they were bullying him around later in the match, but unfortunate.
00:45:09
Speaker
Yeah, you picked it. Well, I mean Waller you picked the wrong prop you Waller had 21 So you pick the you pick the wrong scenes prop well How much is Frank's Frank's 285? Okay, that's not bad. I said up there, but he's been on my he's been on my roster all season because of this time I he's obviously not gonna go back and be playing for the Kiwis. So right now clearly so his brother is and he's quality so I was hoping that
00:45:38
Speaker
that this would be his couple weeks to shine. I mean, to your credit, he has a 40-point game under his belt. He does. So it's not like he hasn't done it before. Because it's a sad reason, if I'm not mistaken. You might be right. Actually, yeah. He put two over on the center. Yeah, actually, that sounds about right. Okay, that makes sense. So his...
00:45:56
Speaker
Pounds per point is 2.9, which is not bad, but that 3PG number that I've come up with, it's 20.6. It's big. So basically, are you overall getting your points for your money at the moment? No. Doesn't mean you won't, but I'm just telling you right now, it ain't happening. Yeah, the thing about some props is that they're hitting this, so they may get 40, they may get 10. You just have to pick the right way. I mean, if your name's Logomilopouli, you might get minus two.
00:46:26
Speaker
Yeah, I know crazy punch James fish 24. I like that. I'm glad you know, it's unfortunate Mikey Heywood's out for the year or virtually out for the year and obviously Dylan Hartley is away Trying to captain England to at least three wins this this international break. So but he started I think he started the first game of this year and
00:46:49
Speaker
because Hartley was kind of banged up and he did all right. I liked the kid. He plays his butt off, but he's, then he's a cheaper, if something needs to occur, that's decent. He's 143. And now I'm taking notes. Um, but yeah, so good for him. I liked that, uh, Frusier Dingwall's head.
00:47:11
Speaker
Yeah, that was his first start. He's played once or twice. But that was pretty good. I mean, the couple of the Saints tribes were scintillating. Just line break and goodbye. No stopping them. I mean, Willie LaRue's not back there to stop him for a wasp. So not to poop on Rob Miller, but there's a big difference between Rob Miller and Willie LaRue. Christian Wade's not there anymore either.
00:47:40
Speaker
Idiot. Awkward. Sorry, Wasp fan. If you're a Wasp fan, I think Ollie's a Wasp fan, actually. I know I didn't look there. I don't think he has a hard folly of them, but I think he said if he had to pick a team, he'd pick Wasp, and he immediately went off my best friend's list.
00:48:01
Speaker
You know this, I don't like Diane. I don't. I love his kid. It's been a conversation had by many teams, by many people. I love that he makes Thomas earn his time.
00:48:20
Speaker
And really makes make sure, okay, there's no doubt that I'm playing not playing favorites with my kid. He's definitely the best. He's definitely the best seven. What the hell he's not why he's not starting more often. As long as he's healthy. I don't understand. He started this game, obviously, because he didn't have a choice. Yeah. But then you look at like when Ford was at Bath, Mike Ford,
00:48:40
Speaker
Ford would have a stinker and you have Priestlin and Burns, both at your disposal, actually not Burns, Burns was still at Gloucester, that's a lie, or Lester, one of those two, sorry. He wasn't there, but you still had Reese Priestlin, who is no slouch whatsoever, probably gonna be in the Wells squad, come World Cup time somewhere, and you have him on the bench and you know your kid's having a stinker, pull him, especially if you're still in the
00:49:24
Speaker
They traded Ford away to Lester and then they eventually canned Mike Ford. I don't know if Mike Ford's even got a job right now. He did go to Rossing or Toulon or something to that effect in France. That's basically what it was. He got sent to the Netherlands. We'll go through the lost stuff.
00:49:32
Speaker
frickin' game, pull him! You know?
00:49:47
Speaker
Have to say the one the one lost player. That's really worth noting 38 Rollins picked him Picked him Call that one a win for me Soap Waga with 12. That was a really rough day for him Thomas young by far Thomas young with 25. He's always gonna be he's gonna be a steady Eddie for As long as he's in the lineup. He's gonna be a steady guy to play I just
00:50:15
Speaker
Look at that. I think he's only played he's only played two games so far this year It's 16 the first game, which wasn't bad 25 this game, you know, he'll come good So don't don't get your self bent out about that one. But yeah So Tom is young with 25 Tom Willis with 21 love of a lava for the Center for wasps with 20 and Tom Cruise your your buddy with 20 as well and
00:50:40
Speaker
Yeah, he made my idiocy surrounding me going in a little bit more palatable. I only lost nine points in the trade. So I'm doing okay. That's not bad. You could have done a lot worse. But yeah, so was fall to fourth, I think now that since cluster had one and obviously they didn't, I don't even think they got a losing bonus point in any fashion.
00:51:01
Speaker
with this one. They didn't give four tries and they definitely didn't get within seven. So, um, yeah, Dye Young is definitely left wanting, uh, after this one. I don't know who they play next, but they might come out angry. I will say that. I would hope they would. Yeah. If they want to, if they want to make top four again, they better come out pissed. Right. I mean, we've, uh, we'll, we'll get to it coming up next, but, but, uh, sale, uh, they've, they, they had a, uh,
00:51:27
Speaker
a woodshed moment, it seems, a couple weeks ago with Diamond. And they've come out firing ever since. So, hopefully, Dai Yong, hopefully, his players are tasting his boot through their ass. That's the least. Yeah. And it came out a little bit more motivation.
00:51:45
Speaker
I mean, good news for WOS fans, he's not taking the Wales job when Gatlin's gone, so that's the upside to that. I thought for sure he'd be taking it, but nope, I was wrong. Surprise, surprise. That's a long list. We don't have any into that now. No, that's a long list, not enough time.
00:52:04
Speaker
Alright sary's in sale. Yeah, this is the good stuff that we like Yeah, it was Man, it was squeaky bum time for a little bit though. I thought for sure we were gonna blow that thing out for sure Dupree It was killing us. Yes, I felt positive. It was one of those where it was getting close but I still felt fairly confident in Saracen's ability to pull it out just because that's
00:52:28
Speaker
That's what they do. When you get your emails from this, every so often they throw in a little one-liner. And my favorite one is the, oh yeah, we're going to chase the ball around for 80 minutes. And in the end, Saracens probably wins. That was a good one. Yeah, you told me that one. That was a good one. But every viewer has a bit of reality in it. So this was definitely that. That's definitely there. Yeah, so for the Saracens, they're
00:52:57
Speaker
It's funny, they're big price guys, not a great weekend. Good with 13, Barrett with 18, Skeleton with 10. Yeah, good he really, he disappointed. I threw him in as captain thinking that he'd be...
00:53:10
Speaker
Yeah, he'd be one of their big weapons. Well, just didn't turn out that way. To be fair, he's got a 76 point game to his name. So I would probably at least be, I'd be at least tempted to do that, you know, with a game like that under his belt. And you know, he's, but truth be told, he's only got one other game above 20. Right now he's got a 30. And that was the game he played fly off when Ferrell was sick.
00:53:37
Speaker
So, you know, it is what it is. But the big scorers, Nick Tompkins, some smart guy out there said that you should pick up Nick Tompkins for a cheap, good play. And god damn it, I love being right.
00:53:53
Speaker
49 for the man Yeah, I I've said it before and I'll say it again when Brad there decides to call it a day I am NOT worried about the center position for the Saracens as long as they keep this kid around He is gonna be magic and I think he'll be wearing an England shirt at some point, too
00:54:10
Speaker
I wouldn't surprise me. It seems like all Saris do is produce national team players. Yeah. Isn't that a fact? I hate that a fact. I mean, they come to 1-8 or 2. Yeah. Oh yeah, we got one coming up here. Tom Wussencroft, there's no Tolofua, there's no George. Wussencroft, 31.
00:54:31
Speaker
This is the layout system at the set at Saracen has was perfected by Now I'm gonna have a hard time remembering his freaking name England coach Yeah, I'm sure you are bloody hell this is gonna piss me off now I'll remember it. But yeah, he's been coached by a by a
00:54:54
Speaker
Well, well no England player in a Saracen's legend who's a jumper and I'm trying to think of this guy make you mad. All right Yeah, I'm struggling like hell with this right now Fourth way
00:55:18
Speaker
Steve Borthwick. Okay. Yeah. All right. Let's go back and big, big, ugly guy. Whatever. If it doesn't sound, if it sounds like shit, we can do it again. But Steve Borthwick. Yeah. So Saracen's lineup was basically perfected by Steve Borthwick before he went to England. And now basically it's just like, it's bulletproof because you just throw whoever you want in there. And as long as the jump, I mean, their jumpers are still quality, even without Cruz, without the sequel, without Morrow.
00:55:45
Speaker
They're still quality. Look at this. Dominic Day, they had Calum Clark in there. Obviously, Jackson knows how to jump. Ben Earl can jump if he needs to. Michael Rhodes is still a quality player. We talked about him. He doesn't do anything spectacularly, but he does everything well. Even then, watching the game, you could see Chuck Berger really
00:56:07
Speaker
helping out and organizing that. Experience guy, yeah. Maybe he's not the jumper, but he's organizing them too and making sure they get their calls right because he's bringing these young guys in. Been around a while. Yeah, he kind of knows the stuff. Yep, so Wilson Croft with 31, Ben Spencer with 27.
00:56:25
Speaker
Definitely a future England Scrum half. Michael Rhodes with 27 again. Scott Berger, he had 25. Lewington had 25. He must be loving life at this area since he's not being a London Irish anymore. I can't imagine. He's another revelation this year. Yeah, I was so glad when we signed him. I was like, he's definitely Irish's best player. And now he's about to come to us with Wiles retiring.
00:56:52
Speaker
And, you know, I was like, oh, shit, who are we going to get to replace him? Well, we basically tripled up on it because we went and got him. We got Strudel. And then we found this kid, Mac Gallagher, who didn't play this weekend, but still is obviously a very good player. So, yeah, Don McDavid, 22, and Johok Boku. The Marl looked alike with 22 with the winner. Right. His game, he was fun to watch coming on. Yeah. And really making an impact late in the game. That was that's.
00:57:30
Speaker
Well, I don't want to compare him tomorrow and call him the next Mauro because that's not fair to
Saracens' Depth and Jackson Wray's Overlooked Talent
00:57:35
Speaker
him. That's a fuck ton of pressure. Mauro turned into a revelation overnight. He went from
00:57:41
Speaker
No one gives a shit, you know what? Anglo Wells Cup to the Saracens lineup in the same year And I think he ended up either starting or playing in the commercial final. Yeah, and you know, that's not that's not like I forget No, it doesn't so but I do look forward to this kid being around and if for whatever reason we end up losing I'm sure Dominic Day and Cal and Clark are frustrated by the amount of game time they've gotten at this club But we didn't know a sequel was gonna become a thing, you know and but these guys just had cut they had
00:58:11
Speaker
have cover. Yeah. They had to. That's the amazing thing. You just bring these guys in who they're talented and and they're they're, you know, it's a competition between them and and and whoever comes out on top comes out on top. I mean, look at Skeleton last year who was a big signing.
00:58:28
Speaker
wasn't prepared to play, simply just couldn't move around the pitch. And this year, he showed the desire, he put in the work and he's a force this year. Maybe you only get 10 points this week, but it doesn't always show up on the stage. He's still a monster. I mean, the weight loss was the biggest thing for that guy. He needed to just drop some poundage because he was
00:58:53
Speaker
We want enormous dudes. He doesn't need to be that enormous. Oh, man. All right, so there was another team in this sale, played their butts off, and probably deserved more than a losing bonus point, but you get what you deserve sometimes, and that's just how it is. James O'Connor had 12, disappointed day for him, but if I have to, Clark comes in, gets 25. Robert Capria in his debut, amazing, 35. Josh Beaumont with 29.
00:59:22
Speaker
Byron McWiggin, not George McWiggin. Byron McWiggin with 26, Bryn Evans with 23, and Ben Kerry, not Tom Kerry, with 21. One healthy Kerry, at least for these guys.
00:59:36
Speaker
They didn't play badly. They really didn't. Their first half was the big moment was the yellow card and the fact that the Saracens got 14 points while they were down a man. Right. Yeah, skeleton goes off and they just put up points against no thing. Yeah.
00:59:53
Speaker
No big deal. We'll just keep going and keep scoring points. No big deal. Good Lord. Like, yeah. Like they asked him at the, at the end in the interview, was that what did it? He's like, yeah, that's probably, that's probably pretty easy. That's what ripped your heart out. And when that happens, it's, it's hard to come back from. Yeah. And I mean, it's the equivalent of getting kicked in the teeth with a steel toe boot. Right. You know, I'm just. And it's, it's one thing to do that against, uh, you know, against decent competition, but when you're against one of the best clubs in the world,
01:00:24
Speaker
It's not going to go well. It's the defending champs. You can't just half ass that, you know? It's just how it is. Yeah. I mean, and sales did a good job. Like you can see they didn't really concentrate their points all that well. So you mean, or that much. So yeah, Dupree had 35. All that's declared. And right. But, but other than that,
01:00:48
Speaker
They didn't have much in the way of high point scores. The biggest bunch was Beaumont Evans and Curry. Those were all forwards. They did a good job of spreading the ball around. If you had a sale player,
01:01:05
Speaker
playing for you this weekend, you've probably got double digits. Now, you might want 20, but on weeks like this, where it's International's Week and you're kind of struggling, you might be scrambling for players, you could have done worse than picking pretty.
01:01:20
Speaker
You know a sound name out of a hat. Yeah, mostly mostly names on those on that on that team sheet did well They didn't play all their subs either. They only I think they left three guys on the bench, too So they really gave it a go. They were not prepared to throw in the towel by any means whatsoever. But I'm one persona to point out is my
01:01:40
Speaker
my Jackson Ray, who, you know, I have a little bit of a man crush on Jax, but he kinda, he's been hurtin' lately. I know he's been injured, he actually has been hurting, but fantasy-wise, his contributions to Saracens just don't show up. So, you know, you go back to the sales team, you can pick any of the sales players, you're gonna have a fairly decent meet, but somebody on the other team, you might be like, oh, there's,
01:02:09
Speaker
you know, Jackson Ray. One Jackson Ray playing for you, but he's not putting up the fantasy points. Right. No, I don't know what's going on with Jack's poor guy. He's just, he's missing some. He's just having a rough season. He's having a rough season, but really like last year, I thought he was going to make the South Africa tour last year. He had such a, to be coach's player of the year and player's player of the year and for Eddie Jones to just go,
01:02:36
Speaker
No, no. I'm like, that is wrong with you. I don't understand it. And I get it. He picks some good guys to go to South Africa, but what's the man got to do to get on the freaking plane? Right. I mean, you pick Brad, he picked Brad Shields ahead of him. That didn't make any sense to me. It made something. I mean, I know Brad Shields is a good player. I, I watched the hurricanes. I understand, but still like he hadn't trained more than a day with you. Right.
01:03:04
Speaker
Whatever. Eddie Jones, you baffle me. Alright. Last one. The match that we watched this morning. Oh, heartbreak for Bristol. Heartbreak. I've lost games in painful ways. That's something else. Penalty try. Penalty try. With the clock red. To give the referee credit, he didn't hesitate.
01:03:31
Speaker
No, he didn't. He knew it. Whether or not it was deserving of a penalty try rather than just a normal penalty, maybe a yellow, and continue on.
01:03:46
Speaker
have alternate opinions as to what he should have done. The fact that he just said, nope, this is what I'm doing. Hey, I'll take that anyway. At least he wasn't indecisive about it. No, it was, this game's over. This is what happened. She's on you. Yeah, no, it needed to be.
01:04:02
Speaker
Well, I think it was the reverse angle. Callum Sheedy. Why is it? Get the back out of the freaking mall. Get the back out of the mall. That's your problem. That's what I love about that tactic though. You bring your backs into the mall and the defensive.
01:04:17
Speaker
Backline says oh, I want to get it some of that because because I got to help my my mates out in that mall defending it and No, just stay out. Just yeah, no No, this is not your domain. No, clearly not. Well, and we talked we talked about, you know Champions finding championship ways to win and you know Exeter definitely did that today Absolutely, you know found found a way just found a way to make it happen even you know, they really were not in this game until I
01:04:43
Speaker
It just felt like they were going to screw this up, aren't they? And then somehow they just pulled out of their freaking backside. Yeah, and I really do feel for Bristol on that because they played a winning match of rugby. Yeah, totally. Absolutely winning match of rugby and to come out on the bad side.
01:05:02
Speaker
It hurts really unfortunate and they only get I think they only got one point in the standings I because I don't think they got four point before tries yep, so We'll go through the Bristol points John O'Foa. We'll talk about him in a second. He looked pretty good Don't follow hasn't done a lot this year, but he did some pretty magical things today John O'Foa with 36 young Thomas with 55 another big game for you young Thomas He's found a couple in two weeks now or two
01:05:32
Speaker
two premier ship launches. The return of Charlie Pia Tao had 36, Andy Yerin had 33, Callum Sheedy had 31, Luke Morin had 28, Nick Haney had 25, and Ed Holmes had 25.
Bristol's Heartbreak and Future Potential
01:05:49
Speaker
Did you see the hands on the prop?
01:05:52
Speaker
For that try. That was great. Says, no, no, I'm just gonna come out here and you stay there and I'm gonna shift it to you and off we go. Beautiful. Just couldn't ask for anything better. You don't find hands on a prop like that. You just don't. It's not fair when it happens either. I think the only person I can think of that has hands like that and that's a prop is for long. That's the only one I can think of.
01:06:17
Speaker
Off the top my head that puts him in a different category for props probably for a long for my own But that was a that was a great try She'd he had a I'll say this come she'd even put it put a statement in saying no, no No, this is my 10th shirt even if being mad against healthy who is not a bad player by any means No, no, no if if he's healthy, I it's my shirt. Yeah, so well, we'll see if
01:06:47
Speaker
if Lamb decides to go with Chidi next week, or if he says, nope, Madian's our guy, we're going to stick with him. He's rotated him mostly though as well. So that's, that might be, maybe that's his method of saying this is up for grabs. So maybe Chidi's grabbed it. We'll see. Makes it hard to deal with the fantasy because, you know, if you want the starter, if you can get it. Yeah, by far.
01:07:08
Speaker
to fill your starter with somebody who's gonna be, or invest too much money in someone who's gonna be up and down as to whether or not they play 60 minutes or 20 minutes. Yeah, it's a pain in the ass.
01:07:22
Speaker
Yeah, Bristol, I mean, the crowd was in good voice. The atmosphere was great, deserved better. Just, you know, being a team that's only come up from the championship, those are moments that just kind of happen. And they'll eventually learn how to finish the job. Hopefully they take this the right way and say, yeah, I mean, they measure themselves against the best.
01:07:44
Speaker
Yeah, one of the best teams in the partnership for the latter a team that's not just one of the best in the partnership They've been one of the best in the last four or five years. So and they they were Bristol at one point and now and they've gone to the top since so, you know, hopefully they can understand and Pat lam's a really smart coach I'm sure he's gonna make this make this right. He said he they were saying on the broadcast that
01:08:07
Speaker
He's basically had a small camp with the Premiership Cup, and these guys gotta remember how to play with sloppy ball, sloppy weather, sloppy pitches. It's not always gonna be pretty, and these guys have been chucking it around a lot too, so that's not gonna play well with a sloppy wet ball in a muddy field. So hopefully they learn. But Exeter,
01:08:34
Speaker
As much as it was painful for Ben and I to watch, they go back to the top with their fourth try, although I think that was their fifth try, that penalty try. But five points for them, they go back top with a premiership, still with another team.
01:08:50
Speaker
with loads of quality even with their guys away. Definitely players that should be on teams. Yeah, Sam Simmons is obviously out. Yeah. I mean, Sam Simmons wouldn't have been out there anyway. Probably would be playing with England. But still, to be doing all that, it's good to see, you know, Armand has stepped up big time to fill that. Don Armand belongs on the England squad. I don't understand what's going on. He does everything well, super well.
01:09:15
Speaker
Well, the problem is, if you notice, we go through this as to who's here and we say, oh, they should be on the England side. What do you take away? Nothing against Dave Ewers, but I don't know what he's doing there. I don't even think Don Armon got the call to the camp. That's the thing. He sent guys away. He sent Rhodes home. He sent Stu Kome. That's fine.
01:09:38
Speaker
Dave, you were still doing there, and why didn't Darwin at least get a phone call to come to camp? That is baffling to me. That's a good question.
01:09:46
Speaker
You know, so, but then you look at, you know, Armin had 35, Cordero who is, he's left the Pumas and wants to make some money and make a living for his family. Good for him, but he's earned it. He's played for the Pumas enough that, and they're not doing that bad, so they'll be okay. I'd say they probably went down in the last couple of years, but Argentina find ways to show up at the World Cup. It's always funny to watch that. So he had 34, Jack Yandell had 48,
01:10:15
Speaker
Salmon had 43, Holmes had 27, Kvassik had 26, Steenson had 23, Lee's had 20. And did I miss Lade? Yeah, you did miss Lade. You had a good day. Yeah, you did. 43. 43. You're going to say, why did I miss that? I don't know. Oh, you know what? I thought I put Salmon for that instead of Lade. Dum-dum. That's fine. No, that should have been Lade. That's 43 for Lade. Yeah, because Salmon didn't play it in this game, I don't think.
01:10:43
Speaker
But that just gives the show what, you know, it's valuable to have a, just like with the Saracens, you have a, you find a team that has a strong line out and you find forwards from that team. Absolutely. You pick them up. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
Kvesic's Career Reflection and Exeter's Strategy
01:10:58
Speaker
And I thought for sure Kvesic was going to be playing eight man for this team going forward and I was very wrong. Kvesic's playing but not in the position I thought he would be. He's another guy I wish would get. When England had open side problems, I thought for sure.
01:11:19
Speaker
Kovacik was gonna get a look and since then it's obviously the likes of Tom Curry's come along Sam Underhill So it's I think Kovacik's time has gone by where his shots gone not to say he did anything wrong I think more people did things right right. It's a matter of timing. Yeah, and right place right time and it sucks. That's how it goes though Yeah
01:11:41
Speaker
It's not a sport for the week. Yeah, no participation trophies. No, no. No, not at this level, no way. But yeah, so, I mean, you look at the Exeter guys that were scoring points between Armand and Lees and Kivasek and Lade Yandl, that's, I mean, that's Exeter right there for you. I think there's only two backs on that one. And, you know, that's it.
01:12:09
Speaker
Yeah, they're 10 in their way. Yeah. So, you know, that tells you kind of where they, you know, what they're doing as a team. They're, they're, we know they love to use their eight man in the loose. Say the least. And their line out is solid. Yep. And they got that finisher out wide. Yeah, that's, you got that, you got yourselves a pretty good road. Yeah. And I mean, they still have the likes of Alex, Alex Cuthbert out there. Phil Dohman isn't a slouch by any means. Yeah. Dohman kind of disappointed me this week.
01:12:37
Speaker
I was hoping for a little bit more. You said he had negative at one point to me. He did. I think it was at half. He had like negative more. I didn't know how. I thought he's been doing all right. But yeah, I think he missed a tackle here and there. Well, I think we talked. I think I talked about with you like they've only got
01:12:58
Speaker
They've got like one back up before this week with, uh, I've only had three backs with big weeks and one of them was Cordero. The other two are, um, Slade and Noel, either of which are on this team right now because they're playing, playing with England. So, you know, that's kind of a oops, but yeah, so that, that is exit or a nutshell though, that, you know, they'll beat the hell out of you in the front and then,
01:13:24
Speaker
eventually try and spin it wide and hopefully it goes over the line. We got to talk about Cordero's try though. It was a one step and then another step and the gap just appeared because he had to have left four or five guys in the dust on that step. It was beautiful.
01:13:42
Speaker
That's when you want to be on the, you don't want to be in the shot for that. No. Oh man, this is going to be on the tape, isn't it? Shit. Oh man, that was going to be on the film. Yeah. I and this guy don't lie, kids. But yeah, he's tearing him up.
01:14:02
Speaker
Every time he gets it he and he knows he plays fullback. He plays wing like he's eligible at both He's got one week two weeks out of seven under 20 and the lowest week of those is 20 the lowest week of the 20s is 23 so it's not like he was just on the edge either so and he's got a 49 he's got 34 to his name and
01:14:25
Speaker
It's it's not a bad idea if you can scrap though the scratch at him.
Player Performance Evaluation and Fantasy Challenges
01:14:30
Speaker
It's 344 for him though his His pounds per point isn't bad. It's 1.8 3pgs at 12.8, which isn't awful, but it's not fantastic either So if you have them in your team, I hope you're starting them if you don't have them in your team Good luck finding that in the budget because I don't know how you would pull that off personally. I
01:14:49
Speaker
I'm going to be looking into some of my internationals that really haven't been producing. So like a Willie LaRue who's been kind of hanging out on my bench. Let's play one game. Right. So it's just a lot of resources to put into some of these guys who are here or there. My South African contingency on my team has not been pulling its weight, but that's just because they haven't been available.
01:15:13
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Well, they played the rubbish championship and then a couple of them get called into the squad that's in Europe right now. And then Willie Heinz has just been hurt, so... Well, you made that mistake on your own big guy. Um, but yeah, so, and I mean, I look at mine, I have Lazowski, and it's not to say that Lazowski is not good, and I have him only because, mostly because he's virtually, he plays fly half, he plays center, he plays fullback, but I mean... And I think he's also kind of an unexpected
01:15:39
Speaker
Selection for England not that not that long term. He's obviously on their radar I didn't expect it to be just yet cuz cuz yeah his last year. He wasn't quite I Didn't think his form was was international quality right so this is more of a Seeing what what promise he's got so right? He was one that would have been on my team this year until suddenly he made that camp yeah, and it's like oh, no this isn't a
01:16:04
Speaker
This isn't a long-term thing. I got to worry about him being missing this year. Yeah, no, he's made camps before. I think last year in the Six Nations, he got a cap or two and he got called to South Africa this year too, but again, didn't make many appearances.
01:16:22
Speaker
Remember right, but I knew he was gonna be on the radar and I'm thinking crap. We're gonna be out Saracen's gonna be out both their usual fly-offs Malins didn't do bad this week for them. But you know what really with everybody else around him. He doesn't have to do anything crazy Just don't screw up right as as the That's one of those guys I sit there and watch don't suck don't suck don't suck don't suck
Travel Plans and Thanksgiving
01:16:48
Speaker
Oh man, holy crap, look at that. We are frickin' right on the, we're well over the time, but I don't give a shit. That's fine, but no, that's fine. Hey, we talked international rugby, we talked a lot of things. It's a little early to talk about next week, unfortunately. Yeah. So for those of you listening abroad, if you are.
01:17:07
Speaker
This is Thanksgiving week, which is why we're doing this a little early. Yeah, we usually do this like Tuesday or Wednesday, but I'm traveling Wednesday. You're traveling Tuesday or Wednesday. Tuesday, yeah, exactly. Not happening. Busiest traveling week in America, folks. If you're listening to this and you're not from the United States,
01:17:26
Speaker
Pray for everybody out there this week. My God. I'm just glad I don't fly. If I have to fly on Thanksgiving, you're gonna have to pay me a lot of money or have a gun to my head. Or I'd better be going somewhere where it's worth it.
01:17:42
Speaker
Yeah, that too. Like, you know, someplace where I'm staying in a million dollar mansion and I'm not going to have to pay for a thing until like when I get there. If the words all inclusive are not in play for where we're going, then I will just not fly. Exactly, exactly.
01:17:57
Speaker
All right. Well, that's all we got for today, guys. Thanks a lot for listening. Those of you that that decided to listen to us banter about this bullshit. But we will be back sometime next week, probably more middle of the week. And we'll look forward to some good matches coming up this weekend.
Final Thanks and Listener Engagement
01:18:14
Speaker
Those of you in the United States, happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. And if you want to email us, it's a fantasy rugby podcast at gmail.com. If you want to find us on Twitter, I'm Jay, the letter J.
01:18:26
Speaker
dike, d-y-k-e, eight, number eight, man, at jdike8man. And Ben, what's, I don't remember yours. Oh, mine's Admirable Snack Bar. Oh yeah, that's right. And there's some letters missing, so I'll have to get that sorted out. I can put it in the show notes. Yeah. There we go. They'll be in the show notes. There we go, perfect. All right, so thank you for those of you that decided to stick around and listen to us, Panthers, thank you so much. Everybody else, well, hopefully you'll get on board soon. Thanks a lot, everybody. Cheers.