Transcript
Speaker: Hey, everybody. Welcome back. My name is Jared Dyke. I'm Ben Glauser. Let's roll in. Big week coming up and obviously big week in the past. So, so much fun to be had. A lot. Yeah. And I deliberately, I feel like forget how exciting champion's cup rugby is. So now I'm like letting myself get excited about it because we're just days away. Yeah. I've seen the match ups and I'm like, Oh, this is tasty. Right. And it's all, it's always fricking delayed too. So it's like,
Speaker: You know, it's well into November, if not December that we get it, you know, obviously the season kicks off in September. So it's like, when will you get here? Yeah, especially as we're now getting into the section of the premise season where it, it's like the dark times. Yeah. It's just like, it's cold up. That ball is a rock.
Speaker: The play with it factor goes away. It's just here. You try to catch this high ball. I won't break my foot trying to get you to knock it on. Catch this falling stone. Right. It's like, uh, I understand that's probably the best way to play in the elements, but it sucks. Yeah. Agreed. Agreed. Agreed. Okay. Um,
Speaker: I think we need beer. That's the one thing I was just thinking. Wait a minute. There's nothing something missing here. Beers. All the beers. Obviously want to check us out on your favorite podcast locations. Download rate review. Send this commentary if you if you feel the need to. That's okay. All that good stuff. We buy our good friend George, the fans who are a coffee or beer, however you wish to phrase it because
Speaker: guy's totally worth it. And also he's going to be the foremost expert on what's coming up in the next couple of weeks, not us, although we'll catch on. Um, yeah, but we don't get a chance to watch all these, all these teams play. So we don't, we don't have a good feel exactly for some of the non -prem teams. No. And as far as a new format too, as well. So that are also that. So he's also that he's the turn too. So grab, so get yourself in with him and give himself a,
Speaker: something deserves like a coffee or beer. Grab your TRM upgrades. I know that we're on a break, but hey, it'll be two weeks and all of a sudden boxing days here and the year we're back into TRM. So get into that.
Speaker: helps restart rugby, obviously, which is a huge thing. And, you know, if you haven't figured out that Ben and I are huge supporters of that, you know, it's not great, but it needs it's certainly better than, you know, nothing at all. And I think it's better than some of the things that are out there as well. So exactly. And then just, you know, support it and it'll grow. Yes, absolutely.
Speaker: Black Lives Matter, as always on this podcast, and there is no room for racism whatsoever. I saw some, some unfortunate thing that I think it was Ashton Hewitt that retweeted like, you know, there was no such thing as racism. And it was a really fucked up cartoon that somebody had made. And I was like, Jesus, like kids are making this shit like, yeah, anybody that spells that bullshit is clearly delusion. Like, my goodness.
Speaker: Yeah. And we're still seeing, you know, the Black Lives Matter movement be required here in the U .S., too, with the trial for this another Minneapolis cop or another Minnesota cop. I can't remember where exactly it's from. It's the one where the the lady just shot the driver and she thought the gun was a taser. And the defense lawyer in her trial is saying, well, if only the victim had complied, this wouldn't have happened.
Speaker: It's like, you know, he he heard her say she was going to tase him. And so it's his fault that he shot her. And it's like, that's that's that's what we're going. That's what we're going with. Seriously. Yeah, that's what they just feel like they can do. They've just blamed the victim. So obviously, there's a lot of work to be done here and everywhere.
Speaker: Agreed. Yeah, victim blaming is it's so fucked up in so many ways. It's so fucked up in so many ways. Like, it's not even just that, like, you know, we're talking about assault victims and stuff like that. Like, I saw somebody say something about in terms of like, yes, I believe a sexual assault victim or, or rape or rape victim first, because I'd rather, you know,
Speaker: potentially believe a liar, a bit of a liar than, you know, side with a fucking sexual assault or a rapist. Like, right. Right.
Speaker: Of the two of those, I'd rather go with the first one. Like, yeah, OK. You might have been a liar and I'll fucking eat you out. You know, I'll fucking eat your heart out if that happens. But, you know, right. That's that's OK. Yeah. I said, you know, I was letting that go. No, you weren't. I saw your face. That's all right. We thought we got some humor on this one. Oh, grab our Patreon.
Speaker: We're not sure what we're going to quite do for champions cup yet, only because it's a new foray for us. Um, but we will try and figure something out. I promise. Um, in the meantime, obviously you can also prep yourself for the coming weeks of TRM and beyond. So that's all always good. And yeah, and we will have something similar for six nations as well. So that'll be because obviously TRM runs a nice, nice six nation comp and we will, we are always about it. Yep. We into it. Okay. Um,
Speaker: There's a lot that we can go through in the new cycle. But the one thing I did want to kind of bring up because I thought I found it to be very important was Simon Milton, winning coach of the year. And that's not like women's coach of the year. That's coach of the year, coach of the year. And that's fucking awesome. Who's going to argue? I mean, speaks speaks to the how well the Red Roses have done this year as well, obviously, obviously. But I mean, look around the rugby world and. You know, who's done better than him and
Speaker: Yeah. They were flawless this year, no? Right. Yeah. Yeah. I'm fairly certain. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, got pushed here and there, but still came out on top every time. So, and when they got pushed technically, you know, a lot of times they weren't playing their, their stars. It was kind of their.
Speaker: You know, they're like, we can, we can, you know, we want to blood some new people or, or at least get them more experience. Yep. Um, yeah, I, I still kick ass. So well done to him. Yeah. And then fan freaking tastic. Only good things to come with that. I believe at least.
Speaker: All right, let's dive into the premiership because we also want to talk about Champions Cup a little bit here. Before that though, before we really dive into the action. What else we got? I think we got to discuss the Pollard situation here. Oh, that's true. That's another one I forgot about. It's more than just Lester signing a replacement. Look at all the talent now that's going to be in the prem.
Speaker: Like they have lost no, but like if, if 40 doesn't move on, does, does Pollard in the, in the, in the prem. There were rumors that he might go to bath at some point might, but that's that obviously that's not confirmed at this point because he's with Lester. So, right. Um, but I mean, if you're, if you're a 10, would you want to go to, would you really want to go to bath? Um, I mean, watching them right now. No, no, no, no, definitely not.
Speaker: I would take a pass on that one. Yeah, but I don't know. It's definitely happening. It's not just rumors or anything.
Speaker: this is going to be, you know, increase the, um, just the playing field and, and, and raise the bar in a league that's already raising the bar in a lot of ways. Yeah. If in fact they're bringing in a 14th team next season, it is not going to be fun sledding for them. No, you know, even, even the bottom teams will give them problems. So good luck. All right. Uh, let's tuck into Friday night, uh, Gloucester and Bristol at King's home. Uh,
Speaker: Fairly good performance from Gloucester. It has to be said. And, you know, we know that Bristol are just not quite themselves in the season. It's not not really a shocker and was nice to see Rad's return. He gave him a spark. But first touch you forget. Right. Right. And that sets it up and led to a try. I'm not mistaken. Like ultimately all of that led to a try. Like they need something. It's not.
Speaker: They needed somebody to just be like, fuck it. We're doing this. Everybody's kind of been a little bit passive about it, but red ratchet is going to be that guy who's like, dude, we're playing rugby. Let's go. Let's get it. Let's get it. Yeah. Just this one, you get a yellow and yeah, then that kind of fucks you up there. Kills all your momentum and geez. Can I say, so my thought, can I have a thought about that a second, which is.
Speaker: There were times in my rugby playing career where you just let the other, I mean, you don't let them score, but you don't go above and beyond to stop them, right? And in this case with Bristol there, they were, at that point, after Raj Rajer came on and they were throwing that ball around and they were suddenly scoring, they had momentum and they were showing that they could score.
Speaker: So at that point, Dan Thomas just don't don't fucking do anything. If they're mauling it in, just let it go. Let them say, hey, you got it fair and square. We're going to go get the ball down in your end and we're going to just get it right back and then we'll play from there. We'll do it again. We're under too much pressure at this point. Relieve it. Just if that means letting them score because they've earned it, let them score.
Speaker: I kind of, isn't that a better result than getting a yellow card? Yeah, but nobody's going to go with that mentality. That's the only thing. But they even pressed them with 14 after that. It didn't work out. So to me, it's like that would have worked out much better if Dan Thomas had just not done anything. And then they come back and scored right away. Do that. Don't go like and I mean that by like getting a penalty try. There's no at that point, once the referee tells you
Speaker: You're fucking around. Like, first off, you've been in your own end for too long anyway. At some point, just be like, you know what? I don't need to go hardo. If they earn it, they earn it. Let's just go play in their end. Right. Sometimes, man. Sometimes. So I think we saw that a couple of times this round. So that's what stuck in my craw. I was like, you know what? Yeah, there were times when I was like,
Speaker: If they're scoring out wide, fine. Five points. I'd rather have that than seven. Let's just go play in their end. Cause we'll give us the ball and we'll, we'll score. Like I know how this works. Yeah. Yeah. It was, um, yeah, just a really unfortunate way for that. Cause they, like you said, looked like they had momentum, like they were getting back to what they were, what we're used to with them. Uh, but you know, credited lost early.
Speaker: They, they freaking rallied hard. Like they were, they were, they were not somebody that people thought were going to take this game. You know, we know they, they played like monsters. I'm not trying to take anything away from them. I mean, they were the ones who were putting pressure on. I mean, they, they built that pressure up to force Dan Thomas into a yellow. So that's, it was good work on them. I just think at the time they were getting outplayed on the other, you know, when, when they didn't have the ball. So, yeah.
Speaker: read, which makes for an interesting and entertaining game. It makes for a much more entertaining game when both teams are a pretty dominant ball in hand. Yeah. Ball in hand. Definitely. And so that's, that's probably pretty accurate there. And the Chris Harris try was baby.
Speaker: It was good. It was the Chris Harris Appreciation Society in full force. I think we'll be paid members soon enough. I guess I'll have that tab. I do have that tab open. All right, cool. There you go.
Speaker: So yeah, good stuff for skivs and crew to leave the, the prem with for a wee bit here. And, um, Charlie Chapman has a nice little memory. Oh, that's pretty. Yeah. That was glorious. I'm so happy that he did that. Tell the grandkids. Yeah. I scored one for my childhood, for my childhood club.
Speaker: bonus try at the bonus point try at the depth. Yeah, the against the shot 14. Last year, shed rocking like, yeah. Yep, yep. Good shit. Good stuff. You'll love to see it. Yeah. Players get their whole careers without that feeling. So good for him.
Speaker: Sometimes I do. Yes, absolutely. All right. Let's go over to Brentford, Irish and Newcastle. All Irish most of the time. I, yeah, I kind of disagree, but the scoreboard says otherwise. Yeah. I mean, 40 odd. I think it's hard to argue with it. I think there's a couple of points there. I think the first and third try, I was not terribly pleased with. I thought there was, oh, there was obstruction on the one, the, um,
Speaker: I was at nine, ran behind one of his own players and it cut off a potential tackle and the ref just let it go and then led to a try. So displeased. I thought, I thought, uh, Irish got a couple freebies. Yeah, they might've would have made the game a lot more interesting, but I mean, it's still at that point, 29, 21. So.
Speaker: Yep. Yeah. I'll shut up. But yeah, I mean, when you're, when you're giving them up by the bucket full, you've only got two of yourself saved the last little brilliant bit of brilliance from out of Broadway at the end. It's hard to really get too upset with it. Right. You know, there was, this is a tough team to play against either way. It doesn't matter if it's, you know, if they're getting help from a referee or not.
Speaker: So, yeah, I mean, little the two Falcons tries were quite good. Sean Robinson making me regret that I didn't start him. But, you know, it was but that that was only when they could get down there. They couldn't get down there enough. Right. You know, it was it was a huge problem. And yeah, it's like the anti Worcester. Yeah. They got down there and did it. But when they they couldn't get down there that often, you know. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, I will I do want to point out, this is a good sign of the way that the game's going. You know, Michael, so the way he went all on to another planet and stuff like, good on the medical staff to just go run on the field and be like, no, no, no, you need to stop whatever the fuck you think you're about to do. Because you, sir, are not going to continue this match. And then and then Nick Phipps got himself knocked silly too. So I was like, Yep, you're done. The both of you.
Speaker: But you know, that is a good sign of the way things are going, because in the old days, like, right, this is like three years ago, even they would have said they would have just let villains like continue on and waited for
Speaker: a whistle to bring them off. They're just like, no, let's just, there's no whistle yet, but we're going to, you're going to sit down. You're going to sit down. Yes. Your team's playing down a player, but you're, you're going to sit cause you're, you're not on another level. I think it was Gary Graham. He tried to tackle on guys head on the wrong side, but which is not a good idea. No, it's really not advisable. No, very, very ill in advise. Um,
Speaker: And one thing i do want to think about and this is another reason that i really want the the medics in the water boys to just get the fuck under the goddamn sideline and in back towards your technical areas. You know the steve mafia try we didn't have a clear view of what the final result was in the best angle possible because.
Speaker: granted, it was the Newcastle referee, uh, medic standing in the way. So it was actually to Newcastle's, you know, demise that he was in the way that if he did, in fact knocked it on, cause he'd call on the trial on the field was dry. Um, yeah, just get, you gotta get these guys off the fucking pitch. Like, cause I would not put it beyond certain teams to like tactically have a medic or a water boy stand in front of the camera so that you couldn't get the angle on a certain play. Like,
Speaker: I'm, I, we know there's teams out there that'll do it. Like a Baxter type thing to do. I wish that wasn't the case, but we know there's teams out there that'll do it. So yeah, more reasons to get these fuckers onto the, onto the sideline. And you know, if they're going to stop play, if you have to, like it's, it's not what's the end of the world. You start with a new scrum, like, right. Especially if it's like a dead wreck or something, be like, all right, you fuckers back over to your technical area, please. And thank you.
Speaker: You know, so yeah, overall tough, uh, tough team to be in, in their home spot. So that's a new castle or still are still sorting themselves out. So yeah, they are. I liked Will Hayden wood. I thought he played pretty, pretty damn well. Nothing to complain about with him. So, uh, good on him. And so maybe a couple of flyhats over there. Now that's, that's nice. Hopefully not Joel Hodgson anymore.
Speaker: Oh, shit. Let's run up to the gardens, Northampton and Bath. This was over in the second minute. Yeah, it was. Good Lord. Just lightning for from all over the place for the Saints. You know, this is a this is this is the Saints team that I was excited about a couple of years ago when they had Reinach.
Speaker: And this is looking a little bit more like that. Obviously, there's many differences, but still, the scoring tries for fun in a lot of ways. Will they beat a lot of the top four teams, apart from obviously not themselves, but a lot of the top six teams? I don't know, but they have the potential to now, at least. They do. They are fun. Their style is open and attacking.
Speaker: They played solid defense. There's, yeah, I mean, they're still not, um, like you said, I don't think they're, they're dominant in the way they play, but they will, you know, it seemed like bath. They'll just eat alive. You know, they'll, they'll take, they'll take advantage of your mistakes every single time. Um,
Speaker: Yeah, they'll just struggle against the more disciplined teams. Yeah, I agreed. You know, the unfortunate thing for Bath is they lost Spencer and Cipriani in a matter of minutes for the whole game. And they only had two back subs on the bench. So they were shafted from the word go. Once that happened, I was like, Oh, what is going on with these two? And I felt felt pretty terrible. Like in, obviously, I don't want sips or Spencer to be here. Spencer looked like he did something to his back, which is less than great.
Speaker: So credit to like Adjomo and Glanville who had to kind of step up in that and cover the two basically the two two roles between between them between you know playing Tannen and the kicker obviously so yeah that puts them in a tough situation right away as the bet for Bath.
Speaker: But what is what is a game with Michael Williams without a fucking card? I said, OK, you're glad you said it because I was going to. So in other news, I saw I saw he was on the TV. I was like, oh, wait for the card. And that's what he started because now he dropped late. I was like, oh, right. We're definitely getting the card. There's way too much time for him to go without getting the card. Fuck. Yeah, dude, like your tackle technique. Come on. The new Lavinini.
Speaker: Yeah, indeed. I agree with that. On the other side, for the Saints, though, the truck.
Speaker: Yes, I am so glad he's thriving. I remember someone saying to play him this week. Yeah, I am so glad that he's thriving now. He's right. There's a great pickup for anybody that's got him right now. I know there's a lot of eights out there, but he's a good one. So and obviously the Saints are very happy to have him. Upgrade on T amount of Harrison, no doubt. Oh, easily, easily. And that's no disrespect to Harrison. It's just that
Speaker: He had his limitations. He's one of those, like the things he did, again, you know, I like to stress this about players, the things he did well, he did extremely well, but the things that, you know, a better eight does more, exactly. And that's, you know, Augustus does a lot more than the limited things. Quite, quite. Yeah, rather, rather enjoying that. But in that, so it was a theme and we'll get to it later, but Dan Bigger getting himself in trouble with his mouth.
Speaker: Not a good thing, man. No. Just shut the fuck up. Just shut up, man. And they're cracking down. You have to see that with your with your eyes. And we'll talk about it more in a little bit. Like, you got to see it. They're cracking down on that stuff, man. Great. You're lying. You're still not allowed to do it. No, you are still not allowed to. I mean, and he was being he was definitely being a prick. So like, let's not let's not pull punches here. He was being a prick. So no doubt that by any means whatsoever. And then this back three was roughing out Dicco.
Speaker: Yeah. I like him better than a lot of the other ones. That's true. Yeah. Other than tempo, better than CMK. Fair. Fair. Okay. Honestly, probably better than folio. Though folio is a little more mild mannered. True. But yeah. All right. Fine. Yeah. He's one of them. He's one of them. And then obviously all the newbies, although there's some newbies I do like. They'll only get a game now and again.
Speaker: Um, the back three for this, for the saints team is just one of those things that is, it's one of those fun things to just watch. Cause they have, they have options. They really do. You know, you have Skosan and Freeman and Furbank at fullback, and then you have, um, uh, sleight home coming off the bench. Like, right? Yeah. Yeah. Not even a proctor in sight and still.
Speaker: Nobody, nope, nope, nope. So lots of good things in front of the saints, I believe. All right, let's, the shock result of the weekend, really, waster 32, waster 31 down at six ways. And the man that we, like we were definitely pumping up last week, Duhan, doing things all over that pitch, man. Doing mean things. I didn't, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Man, he's asked. We need to see this more. I agree. Wooster and we've said it all along. Wooster are capable of this at any moment. They just never do it, aside from this game. And they may have one or two others, but this is one where everything just clicked for them. And if anything, Wasp's looked more Wooster than they did. Yes.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely missing a few things. Although I did not have Dan Frost getting a race on my bingo card. So no, although he's been he's been scoring. He's got some energy about him. I'll give him that. You know, he's definitely got some energy about him. So, you know, guy that came has come through the championship, which is how many times does he have so far this season? He's got he's got at least three more than a few. He's got at least three. He's got four, four. OK, there you go. He scored
Speaker: He scored against Exeter and then he has two against Worcester. So in those, he scored three tries and two starts. Wow. Okay. So if he starts, you might want to start him. Right. Oh, I think that's just the whatever hooker for WASPs. Oh, that's probably true. Yeah. Because they're just getting fed and they're all mobile and they're all just terrors. Yep. I agree. For WASPs sake, hopefully this
Speaker: Unfortunately, the Champions Cup comes at a bad time because it looks like the feet is going to at least miss a couple of weeks. I didn't see what the diagnosis on him was. Oh, I think he just had they were saying it was even day to day potentially. So OK. All right. Yeah, he had just like his leg was just dead. So they were like, well, I'm dead like suck, man. Yeah. Can't do a whole lot. And he's still fucking scored. Right.
Speaker: Because that's the thing, you can still kind of run, you can still kind of do things, but like, there's nothing behind it. There's no power behind it. It's like you can use it, but as soon as there's any resistance, it's just. Yeah, you're fucked. You are fucked as fucked as fucked. Yeah, it was, you know, yeah, like you said, this is pretty worrying for what's sake, like just it took them way too long to get going and to get themselves over the line. You know, they spotted Worcester, a pretty handy lead to start the game lately.
Speaker: Yeah, seems yeah. You know, if if you actually started maybe even like 20 minutes ahead of time, right at the 20 minute mark, you might actually win a fucking game, man, like stop spotting teams leads at halftime. You know, big ones at that. Right. So there's a lot of problems usually. Call me Kookie. Yeah, shit. Just yeah, I like I still have so much potential and it's just not.
Speaker: It's not coming through and that's it's a shame because they should be, you know, this should be a game that they, you know, make Worcester look like Northampton made Bath look, even if it is at Worcester. Yeah, on the fast track, like with this with the stuff that they have available to them in terms of attacking weapons. Yeah, totally. All right. Let's go down to Devon. Exeter and Saracens, the old friends reunite and
Speaker: I don't have a ton of, one, I don't have a ton of complaints and two, I don't have a ton of worry, which I think sums up what you looked at with the Saracens this past weekend, honestly, because really it comes down to one, they didn't score a fucking try.
Speaker: decisions that were made were not good. And two, you know, shut your fucking mouth, guys. Like, goddamn, he's made it clear that he's not putting up with it. Shut up. We we talked about it last week with me about how, you know, what the you know, what the keys to this game weren't. And it was really, do Saracens show up to play or do they show up to just have a moan and and and kind of just go into their shell the way they do? And
Speaker: They went into their shell and they moaned and they didn't come because they outplayed. They completely outplayed Exeter when they were playing rugby. But like. If they just shut the fuck up, they were outplaying them.
Speaker: Like that's it. Their mouths, their mouths put Exeter in great position and took them out of good position. And that's just, there was no, there's no need for it. There's no cause for it to market marsh, what, 30 meters. And actually it wasn't even, it was 50 meters. He marked off like 50 because he was so pissed at, um, was it? Can't say I blame him. And yeah, fine. Cause he was in, it was like inside the 22 to like just outside the other 22. It was like, why are you doing that? Shut your mouth, dude.
Speaker: Yeah. Well, that's that's the bad billy that we don't want. Yeah. Like, oh, you know why you're getting up? You're why you're not getting picked for England. Like, yeah. So it is that I am I am done with a led Davies and even Vencell like. Yeah. Ruben de Haas in there. I guarantee you he's got way more spark than either one of these guys do. I guarantee you that, you know, he's only how old's the house? Twenty two, twenty three. Right. Yes, he's young. Get him the fuck in there. But also the spark. It also means he's not.
Speaker: in the, um, that he's too young to know that they just want to paint by numbers or that like the paint by numbers doesn't, you know, I don't know, some, some, like, I feel like that's where he's the wrong number for the face right now. Like, like, it's just like, okay, well, we're going to run this, you know, we're going to do this, we're going to do this, then we're going to kick. And then there's no, like, I'm doing this. Right.
Speaker: There's no, I see something, I'm going to run something. It's all, okay, well, what does the first receiver want? And what does the, you know, the fly out? It's very passive, at least in how it presents to us. So yeah, I'm kind of done with it. I want to, I want to scrum have to make things happen because they're not, they're not making things happen. If something happens on their watch, cool.
Speaker: Yeah, it doesn't seem like it's going to be that often, though. Right. Yeah, exactly. It's not that hard to defend them because they're not really trying anything. They're not they're not trying to be dicks. Like you look at the Dan Robson type, who's really like even, you know, no matter what, they're doing something to put pressure on the other team. And Davis and Van Zyla are not.
Speaker: They're not really putting that much pressure. It's the other players that are putting pressure on the opposition. And that's not good for us from here. Yeah. And there's a, there's a reject that should have been done in this lineup. Lizowski to 10 put daily at 13. Cause that's his preferred position. Right. Slide max to wing and drop goody to fullback. Right. Right. That is, that is the reject that should have happened. And that would lead to a better attack. And they were talking about how they were toothless and attack, which I don't disagree with. Um,
Speaker: And it's because it's just good. It's not great in that tension. Well, when they decided to attack, they attacked well, but it was so far and you have few and far in between. They chirped at the rough more than they really attacked. So fucking annoying. Yeah, it was. But, you know, and I won't take everything away from from Exeter on the other side. Yeah, they had to do some things and they had to do the job and they did get it done.
Speaker: So, yeah, I mean, they did what they had to do to win. Good for them. And it wasn't terribly impressed with how they played. No, but we were just less impressed. I think the series were just way less impressive. And that's just facts. Yeah. You know, and it's a home team, you know, when when the away team is playing poopy and getting on the bad side of the ref. Yeah, this is this is the result. And it's really, you know, to
Speaker: to have an opponent shit themselves the way Exeter had their opponent do and only win by three points is not, it's not cause for too much celebration. Although apparently it was cause for too much for like a ridiculous amount of celebration on Exeter's side. But, you know, I would feel all right being Saris on this one. Right. Yeah. And I think God, they were celebrating it like it was the fucking final. Like, holy shit.
Speaker: I mean, I was like, guys, I understand this is a big match in a lot of ways, but still only four points. December guys. It's December. And also, aren't you in fifth now, like after the weekend, like you didn't really change a whole lot in terms of your standing. So not really. Yeah. You might've got something over psychologically. Let's do this again at the stone X a little bit and see what happens. Right.
Speaker: Yeah. And you know, this, this still no Owen Farrell. There's still no Jamie George for the Saracens as well. And yes, I understand that the, the, the chiefs have their own, um, the eggs or have their, have their own issues, but like, that's two huge cogs right there. Yeah. I mean, who's, yeah, it's not lions who the, uh, last I checked, right. Um, you know, you started Johnny gray, Johnny Hill and Dave viewers and Don Armand like, that's your,
Speaker: That's your, that's a solid four through seven right there. Right. Right. Right. Right. Like, I don't know who else you were missing. I mean, they, then they started witting, but I mean, things I'm not worried about Voto really that much different. So, I mean, he's at least a little faster.
Speaker: No, no. Ian Whitten does not move for shit. They talk about how strong he is. I'm like, yeah, all he can do is run straight forward. Like, that's all he can do. I don't know if you noticed that. You had like a half -line break or maybe, you know, you actually broke the line, but it was still like...
Speaker: He kind of, he still just got on the other side of the line and they just tracked him down fairly easily, like five meters downfield. It was like, yeah, it's true. Devoto would have been farther downfield. He would have gotten tackled by the fullback, not by the center, who just turned around. You just barely missed him, yeah. Whoops, I missed the first one. Okay, I'll just reach behind me and grab him for the tackle. Jeez, get your old ass back here. No, no, no, I don't think so.
Speaker: So again, I'm disappointed.
Speaker: I'm not worried. No. And I really want to see Ruben de Haas play nine. Yes. Yeah. Challenge cup this week. So in essence, it's a break for the Saracens in a lot of ways. They can play some squad guys. They can play. They can give guys rest that probably need the rest. Maro's right at the top of my list on that one. He needs some rest. Yeah. You know, so we'll see what happens come boxing day. Right. Come on the other side of this.
Speaker: Okay. Uh, Sunday, Watford road, it was another big one and it was quite a, quite an arm wrestle in the end. Um, but, uh, Tigers stay resilient. They're playing so well as a team and, and, um, yeah, I think George Ford was a bad call from that in the match. Cause I would have been, then.
Speaker: Um, shit, I can't, I can barely say it. It, it should have been, it should have been Ben Young's.
Speaker: So to wash your mouth out, man. I mean, what an impact. Honestly, what an impact he had on the game. Yeah, yeah. But like. But because I can't just give him a straight up compliment. Of course not. Selfishly, he had he had some selfish play there. I think he had one his one run off the scrum. It looked fucking great. Ultimately, I don't think Lester scored off of it.
Speaker: Um, it's one of those, like, if you, if you just kind of went with the team, like you went alone and great, okay, cool. If you go alone, score like that, that's to me, the deal or lead to a scoring play. Um, and if you don't, it's just, you're what you've wasted time. Cause now we're just right back where we ended up. And so it's like, okay, cool. He looked good for that, you know, 10 seconds. Um, but it didn't do anything good in the end. So yeah.
Speaker: Either way, he had a huge impact on the match positively. It's not going to take away. It was an awesome play. Just like, you know, hope for better out of it next time. Yeah, right. You know, I think I think they'll be they'll be split, split hairs on this one. I thought the Dom brand trash just Tempest did not affect that at all. No, he didn't. Not even that gap was already there. Yeah, he was gone. No way. I don't care. Yeah.
Speaker: unless the best tackler in the universe came out of nowhere to take him down before that trial line, not a chance. No way. What was the ruling that the prop who was coming from behind him? I don't know. Whatever it was, it was that he got away. But that's it. I'm pretty sure it was a prop and it wasn't Genge. Oh, it was Cole who had a bad... It was not a good way for Dan Cole to ring in 200, I have to say. You get a fucking shit match.
Speaker: But that was kind of what we expected because we thought they would avoid the Cole style of match, which they kind of did. They did. They did. Yeah. But it's like, no, Cole is not going to catch Dom Brant. You're not in the way. You're as much a spectator as Cole is. So just let it go. No, I agree. Yeah, totally. And there was...
Speaker: you know, despite the rain, there were some bits of brilliance on both sides. So that was that was actually something that I applaud both teens for because this could have, this could have been I said arm wrestle, man, it could have been way worse than that. In many ways, it was and you know, it was a lot of I don't want to play with the ball like we talked about at the top of the whole thing.
Speaker: But yeah, there were flashes of brilliance which credit to these two teams in, you know, in December, it's wet, it's not pleasant, but they still decide to do some fun things so I give my hats off to them. Yeah, I just, I have annoyed that Hugh Jones, what did not slot in well.
Speaker: Um, no, not well at all. He did good things, but then just like we were saying with, uh, with row earlier, he didn't give the ball. He just was like, he was very selfish at times when he doesn't need to be like, it's like, and I get it. I think he's trying to prove himself. He's trying to be, you know, Hey, I belong. You guys are all fucking ridiculous. Try scores. I need to show you that I can do it. It's like, we all know it.
Speaker: You're here because that's I mean, he's on the twins because because of that they know that he is it's not a mystery so you don't need to pump yourself up just just play the system if you're not to try a score every everyone understands like that's that's you know, if you're trying to be the cog be the cog and I think he tried to To be a little bit bigger than that a couple times that that he shouldn't have. Yep You try too hard man. You're trying too hard, right? Right. Just
Speaker: It's do your job, ran it in random. So it's, it's Lester staying undefeated, going into Europe. And they talked about it the other day. Um, I'm a boy. I saw the headline, but like.
Speaker: you know, if this was last year, I think they would have been like, they've been happy to be in Champions Cup and just probably passed the past on it in many ways unless they put in a perfect performance with this the way this season's going. I bet you the farm they have got some aspirations to grab to grab another trophy here. So they're up in Europe. So I don't see
Speaker: It's there. No, it's it's set up for them. I mean, their their opponents are are potentially soft. So, yeah. So let's let's let's let's do this. Let's roll right into this. It's going to be fun. It's you know, this is not this is not my favorite format, but I still love Europe. You know, I still truly love this love this comp. So I'm not going to poo on it too much here.
Speaker: So top four from each of the two pools makes the quarterfinal. The next four will get dropped to challenge cup. And then the final four after that in each pool are getting the boost.
Speaker: And I'm going to be sitting on the bottom. Wait, hold on. Is that right? I thought it was top eight. So the way I have it, hold on. I have it open still. Okay. Find that then. Because if I'm screwing this up, please tell me. It is. So the round of 16. So there's the pool stage. Oh, fuck. There's that. And then a round of 16. So that's why I didn't like it. That's why. It's the top eight from each pool. Yeah.
Speaker: and then yeah so it's one plays eight it's a weird it's like one plays eight oh no this that's right two plays seven yeah three plays six like all that crossways yeah right uh i don't like it i don't like it at all but it's going to lead to some interesting matchups that um
Speaker: I think there could be some like three versus sixes that could go the sixes way. Right. Unfortunately, here's the facts, though. We're going to get the matches weight like we had sale versus Scarlett's last year, and then sale versus La Rochelle last year, both of which are absolute shit houses.
Speaker: provided no entertainment value whatsoever. Yeah, there's going to be there's going to be several shit house games, right? Which is why I don't love this format, which is why I hope this is the last fucking year we have to deal with it ever. Right. Right. It's bad. It is bad. Go back to the old one. It was way better. You know, those those quarter final matchups from, you know, two seasons ago now in Europe, every single one of them, you just sat there and went,
Speaker: bring it on. I am so ready. Like I've got everything on my stuff. I'm in, I'm in my company seat. I've got all the good stuff near me. Let's bring on the rugby, you know, and some of these, unfortunately some of these around a 16 and potentially quarter following games are probably going to be a little shite. But let's, let's have a look over defending champs to lose our
Speaker: in the same pool as, you know, obviously both sides are kind of the, both, both pools are pretty stacked in their own ways, but what's their schedule look like? I think it's Cardiff and wasps. Okay. So wasp being probably the more potential issue. If, if wasps put in a competitive side, they may be looking to lick their wounds and see this because they got to get healthy.
Speaker: So, I mean, they may play like, I think you might see like a gop earth at 10. So, but that's their second match. So wasps will play monster first, I guess. So who knows? Well, I guess we'll have to see. Well, we'll know by then, but two loser playing Cardiff first. Well, monster are going to be, they're going to be rocking up, man. Like this is going to be the monster that we all remember that won a trophy or two. And that's, are they, hold on, let me see where that is. They're at wasps.
Speaker: Okay. First at CBS. Yeah. With plot as referee. Ew. Yeah. Who made that fucking decision? It's everybody. Oh God. No, no, no. Never again. All right. So let's, uh, yeah, let's just kind of run down a Claremont bridesmaid, never the bride.
Speaker: their last campaign wasn't great. So I don't know. And I'm not sure. They're fucked. Ulster and sale, they're fucked. Yeah. Ulster, we'll give them a damn good game. Ulster have been running pretty good from what I understand. Right. And sale is just going to beat them up. You can sell that wins. Yeah, exactly. And I'm pretty sure it's sale. Let me see. Let's pull A.
Speaker: Sailor at home. So Claremont visits sale round two. Oh, oh boy. That's tough. Okay. So we'll see how that goes. Um, bath. Forget it. There, there, there's no way fucks. No. Oh geez. Yeah. Nope. Just kind of put that one on the back burner for a long little while there, but friends, I'm sorry. Sorry guys. Sorry. You have to watch this. Yeah. No shit. Um, Exeter.
Speaker: You know, defending champs from last year, I should say. But we'll see. I don't know. They host Montpellier. I think it's going to be an ugly game, honestly. Of course. And if it is an ugly game, it favors Exeter because that's their style of play. And then they play Glasgow.
Speaker: Oh, that's okay. So they should be here in depending on how they do against Montpellier. Right. I think we'll see them in the in the court in the last 16 Glasgow. Sorry, Warriors. I think you're on an Exeter. Yeah, no. Yeah, no. On the outside. Montpellier.
Speaker: Like never, never perform in Europe. I will say that they never perform in Europe. Well, they have Exeter and Leinster, so see us. Yeah. And they're, you know, this is Challenge Cup winner from last year, but just when they get into the top tier, they never perform. And that's just how it's always been. And they're playing against two of the top two teams who have recently won. This is not. No, this is bad. Not going to be bad for Montpellier. Yeah. Saints.
Speaker: they have something to play for. And I think we all can agree with that. If they, they have a huge bugaboo about, and they had that unfortunate result against Porto last year, which was a great match, but, and they were not having, Northampton were not having a good, good year at that point. So, um, might be better results this time around. They've been the, this cruise, the, the majority of those crews been there now. So maybe they can finally get the damn thing over the hump.
Speaker: And they've been playing open and loose lately, and they've been rocking up the points. So that's what you need to do in this in this competition is just freaking you score points, you'll do well. So, you know, they play Rossing and Ulster. Yeah, Ulster is going to make it to Ulster will probably be the match they can get. Rossing at home, man, is Finn healthy? Yeah. So, yeah, it'll just be it'll be
Speaker: They could go anyway for the Saints. I don't know what to do with them. Yeah. I know. I think they may squeak in. We'll find out. We'll find out. Ospreys. Nope. Sorry. Well, Shailen Rossing, too. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. And then wrestling. So they got Ospreys and Saints. Yeah. And they're in their games. So that's tough. That's not easy for. Yeah. So, I mean, I think we'll see them as one of the top four easily. Yes. They're qualifying. It just depends on on how high. Yep. Sale, which sale shows up. I don't think I don't think they're truly thinking about how to play in Europe.
Speaker: True. True. But they have a kind of an easier go of it. I mean, they start with Osprey's, which is sorry, Osprey's fan. It's kind of a practice match. Practice go. Yeah. And Claremont. We'll see. We'll see. That looks like. Yeah, I don't know what to make of Claremont, but yeah, we will find out. They're not doing so hot in the top 14. So.
Speaker: Yeah. I can't imagine that they're in good shakes either. Right. Uh, Laura shell probably going to qualify out of this pool. Yes. Oh yeah. They'll, they should breeze through. Yep. So there's that. And then Ulster, another one of those teams that might qualify and
Speaker: make some noise, you know, that people don't, don't always give them a ton of credit to they've, they've been to a final. Let's also remember that they've been to a final. They lost to one of their, one of their fellow Irish teams, uh, Lenster, but they have been to a final and that was, I remember that final. It was very good. Um, but yeah, so they're playing pretty well right now. So, so there you go. It's yeah, they're playing well. They're going up against, uh, Claremont who are.
Speaker: where are they? Yeah, they're an eighth in the top 14, which is not a good place to be. I would almost make the cutoff, even La Rochelle, because the one thing about La Rochelle is they've scored 22 tries and
Speaker: giving up nine. So it's like, that's fuck. They're just maybe going to get up against some tough competition and that, that kind of justifies a seventh place, but Claremont, you know, being, you know, negative point differential, much more tries against 19 than fifth and scored 15. I'm not, I'm not feeling them this year. So.
Speaker: We'll see. Pool B, Bristol have already been awarded the five points because of issues with Scarlett's and being in South Africa and COVID. And that's unfortunate to see, but that's just how it is. And, you know, it sucks because there, but there is no room in the schedule at this point. So, you really don't want it to be that way. You'd like to see it postponed and played another time.
Speaker: This is not a sport where you can play two in a week and really get away with it. So no, you can't. You know, I wish I wish it was different, but that's just that's just facts, man. Cardiff, again, the just the Welsh reasons haven't done well. You know, I hate to say I hate to keep banging that down, but they're not going to do well this year because they play to lose in Harlequins.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, tough, tough luck on that one. Sorry, guys. Yep. Cast return. Again, another team that just even when they're in the top tier, like Mike Montpelier, never perform.
Speaker: never ever perform. Nope. And they're, they're, they're playing some tough competition too. Um, they play Quinn's, uh, yeah, Quinn's have Cardiff and cast. So that's not, that's not a bad draw for them. Cast have Quinn's in Munster. Sorry. Ouch. Better luck in the draw next year. Right. Um,
Speaker: Connick, I love to root for Connick. I don't think it's going to do a whole lot this year, unfortunately. No. You know, I guess they've been playing... And they've been playing pretty well over in URC, but whatever it is, UCR, I don't know. I don't know if the initials exactly, but you know what I mean. Sorry, that makes me sound like an idiot, but that's not news either. So, but yeah, I guess they have been playing pretty well, but at the same time,
Speaker: You know, it's not, I mean, they're three and four. So, but depending on what you look at for the team too. Right. Although that again, Oh, there's a good one. They've, they've scored 26 tries and given up 12. That's not, that's okay. Now I'm interested. Cause again, again, this, this comp is a lot about whether or not you can score points. So if they can, um,
Speaker: Good for them, but they're, they're playing some, some pretty, pretty tough competition. Yep. I totally agree. Yeah. We'll see what stuff on say bring. Um, nice to see them back there. Uh, Quinn's, we talked about them. They're probably going to have a coast coasting job here. Um, as long as they, as long as they rock up, obviously, which, you know, they will.
Speaker: So we'll see how that goes. Lester, we also talked about them probably qualify, qualifyable, I'd say. So that's probably one of your, well, they should be connect. They should be connect twice. Um, even if they lose week one at Bordeaux, they should probably be Bordeaux at home later. So Lester through. Yeah. So they're through just depends. It's, it's week one. We'll tell them, you know, whether you're coming in first in the,
Speaker: in this pool or in a four to five range. Right. And then we have Munster who are back to prove that this is a team that you don't want to screw around with when it comes to this comp. And I would say that's probably as accurate as ever. And they got wasps. So we'll know week one whether
Speaker: whether wasps are really in it to play or if they're just in it to get a rest and get some guys playing at some high level rugby. Top front say the pink jerseys are back. Finally. Yeah, the champions top is it's nice to see them back on the top tier Europe. As you said, kind of a they got they got a couple tough ones. Connect in Bristol and. Depends, it's I think it's going to be a battle between them and Bristol as to who implodes first and. Yeah, perhaps so.
Speaker: Yeah. We'll see how that goes. Cause either of them could qualify. Um, and I think it's going to be like, you know, neither of them could qualify, but also that if either does, it's going to be because of what happens in the match -ups between the two between them. Yup. Defending camps to lose. We, we seem pretty convinced at this point that they'll be able to get through, um, not unscathed by any means whatsoever, but they'll, they'll get it done. Yeah. It's called a healthy yet.
Speaker: I don't know. Maybe I could link that up one day. Bordeaux, you know, everybody, one of everybody's favorites from the other year. Jelly bear obviously announced himself between this and and his performance with the French team. So, yeah, could be could be for another one team to watch out for. Kind of qualifying here. Right. And they got Lester and Scarlett. So Scarlett should
Speaker: should help put them through. Yep. Yep. Yep. Lester probably not unless they, uh, you know, it's just the fact that they're hosting the first week could help them. That could be huge, but it could also bite them in the ass. Yep. Could do it. Uh, and then, and then wasp, you know, just probably, uh, I don't see them bringing a big team, especially with the injury bug that's bit them and monster and to lose.
Speaker: Um, that's such a shit draw. Yeah. I'm lucky. What do you, what can you really expect from that? Right. I'm lucky. I'm lucky. Uh, and then Scarlett's already off to a bad one. So we can write them off. Yeah. And they're not playing that well anyway. So yeah, it's that it's just not. Yep.
Speaker: So there's that, um, I am not going to be brazen enough to try and predict a winner out of this whole thing right now. We'll see what the qualifiers, the qualifying teams look like, and then I'll have a, have something to say about it. No way I could possibly pull that, pull that one out of the hat right now. Not a chance. Um, you know, my, my, my brain says, uh, my brain says to lose will at least be in the final, but I don't know that for a fact at this point. So.
Speaker: I can't tell you that. I'm not even going to bother trying because it does depend on on quite a bit. Yeah, really, these first two weekends will predict a lot from there. Right. So we'll see. We'll see how we do. Right. And especially it's interesting, again, how the matchups will work, because in some cases you may have better teams and others ranked lower just because of the schedule that they played.
Speaker: So you could see, you know, that, that won't be true of a, of a, a Lancer cause they have fucking cakewalk for them. So, um, that's not a problem. Um, but yeah, for some of these other, other clubs, you know, Lester being one, um, and Bordeaux and, um, you know, Quinn's who just, and to lose, like some of these teams may, you know, struggle, hit a rough patch here or there, and then suddenly.
Speaker: You know, they're but they're but they're all right. They're still through. And now all of a sudden they have a shot. And, yep, play them. Well, it was you. Yeah, sometimes you just got to get to that qualifier. Right. You can get a very friendly path through potentially. Totally. Totally. Just based on luck of the draw. Right. Yeah, this will be fun.
Speaker: All right, so yes, we are doing a fantasy corner. So if you're waiting around for that one and with your thumb up, you know where. It is gonna be dropped. Don't worry about it. We'll have plenty to talk about over there. So yep, that's coming through. If you're not coming to the fantasy corner, we will talk to you next week. Thank you so much, you guys, for hanging out. We really appreciate all the listeners and people that have said so.
Speaker: such kind words in recent weeks, so we do appreciate it very, very much. Until then, everybody have yourself a good week, enjoy Europe if we don't see you on the fantasy corner, and have a good one. Later.
