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Festivus Special
33 Plays7 years ago
Welcome back everyone! We return with a special Festivus episode! We talk about grievances, feats of strength and our top 5 moments of 2018. Moments include things from the Spring Bokkes, the Fijians and of course our very own U.S. Eagles
Twitter jdyke8man & admrablsnackbar
Email questions at fantasyrugbypodcast@gmail.com
Music by Royalty Free Music provided by http://www.soundotcom.com
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Transcript
Festivus Episode & Real Talk Preview
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey guys, it's Jared from the Fantasy Rugby Yanks. Just wanted to let you guys know that this is a special Festivus episode and then you can catch the real talk on the episode tomorrow. Thanks for joining us.
00:00:17
Speaker
What's up, everybody?
Welcome to 2019 & Rugby World Cup Discussion
00:00:19
Speaker
Happy New Year! It's the Fancy Rugby Yanks podcast. My name is Jared Dyke. I'm Ben Glauser. And we are happy to welcome you back in the New Year. Hey, it's 2019. That means the Rugby World Cup is... 261, we just said? Yes, we just said 261. Yeah.
00:00:33
Speaker
So opening day of the web cup and then six days later, the English take on the Americans and in a game that the US hopes to just not get absolutely pummeled. Yes. So welcome along. We're recording from just outside Boston, Massachusetts. It is Tuesday is New Year's Day. Thank you for joining us. Hopefully you've missed us a little bit at least.
00:00:53
Speaker
Hopefully everybody had a good holiday. Hopefully you're not too hungover. Yeah, good lord. Thankfully I'm not one of those people.
Podcast Availability & Listener Feedback
00:01:01
Speaker
Don't forget to check us out on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, make sure you rate us, make sure you give us feedback, and make sure you email the show for any questions, any feedback that you have.
00:01:12
Speaker
So, first off, I have to say a nice thank you to my client. She probably doesn't listen, but I don't care. My client, Erica, because we asked for beer, she delivered. Thank you, Erica. We got some alchemist, vocal banger, and heady topper here, and it is to both our delights, so we are happy to pour ourselves a
00:01:33
Speaker
a nice beer. Yes. Now to settle in for the stuff we were drinking before was bad. But no, this is certainly an upgrade. Yes. So yeah, thank you to my client. And thank you alchemist for making some damn good beer. Yes.
Draft Rugby Announcement for Super Rugby
00:01:51
Speaker
Don't forget, we're going to do draft rugby for the super rugby season. I will try and set that
00:01:57
Speaker
draft this week for anybody that's interested. And if we don't get enough people to join, then I will just join a random league and we can poke fun at people that we don't know. Exactly. I love doing that. Yeah, it's easy. It's way easier. Well, that's what people do on the internet when they're, you know, hiding behind the keyboard, man.
00:02:16
Speaker
Good luck finding me. I'm behind seven proxies, asshole. I'm not that complicated.
Festivus Explained: Grievances & Feats of Strength
00:02:24
Speaker
So Ben had an idea to start the show off, and I was certainly happy to do it. A little fun for the end of the year, the new year as well.
00:02:37
Speaker
It's a little thing from Seinfeld. I'm sure pretty much everybody listening should be familiar with the concept of Festivus. If you're not even a Seinfeld fan, I'm sure you've heard of it. I find it to be a great non-denominational concept. It involves an airing of grievances and feats of strength.
00:02:58
Speaker
And so I told Jared that we need to air some grievances just to get them out of our system and kind of flush them going into 2019. And then also show our strength. And airing of grievances is easy, especially for people like us. But the feats of strength. And how do you do that over a podcast? Well, you say something nice about something or someone you don't like. So this is going to be interesting.
00:03:27
Speaker
So I guess I'll give my first, I guess what we will do is wear our grievances first, yes. And so we'll go through our grievances and the way I said it was because we're primarily dealing with with Premiership fantasy rugby for now, we'll have one grievance against the Premier, something in the Premiership.
00:03:52
Speaker
uh one against something from world rugby from just general and then um Something that's the the bitchers choice is what I called it, you know wild card anything you want Wild
Controversies: Leicester's Alleged Steroid Use
00:04:04
Speaker
cards are dangerous. So yeah wild card bitches so uh, my uh, my premiership grievance Is against lester?
00:04:15
Speaker
Oh. Who is surprised? Who? Raise your hand if you're surprised. If you've been listening. Raise your hand if you're surprised. If you've been listening. Yeah, I didn't think so. That should be no surprise. They just need to lay off the goon juice and the steroids. You look at their front row and against and not, you know, I'm going to give Cole an exception here because he actually doesn't look it. But you look at the. He's ripped to smithereens. He is. But he looks, he looks, at least he could be, he could pass for natural.
00:04:40
Speaker
Um, but don't give me youngs and Bateman and some of those other guys. They're fucking they're they're roided out and they're out of their minds. Yeah. Yeah. Well youngs is batshit crazy. Well, yeah. Well, why do you think that? I mean, might have something to do with it. So, uh, you know, we, I've Jared and I have both played against and I'm sure all of you out there who have played have played against people who are roided up and just, there's no, there's no need for the, some of the shit they, they bring to the, to the, uh, to the table.
00:05:10
Speaker
Yeah, we've played against teams that, you know, especially the, you know, the packs don't even bother trying to tackle. They're just swinging fists at people. And that's just not fun. And it doesn't bring good shit to the game. So among the premiership, that's my grievance is against, uh, against Lester for, for being fucking goons.
00:05:31
Speaker
fair enough. For world rugby. I'm still really miffed about I think it was the EPC are finding that Romanian rugby union team for that. The game again, the match that had to be canceled against Northampton to miss our Saracens. Right. Because
Criticism of Romanian Rugby Union's Fine
00:05:51
Speaker
It's just that they're, they're a second tier organization. They're, they're struggling. They're trying to get, you know, get their feet off the, on the ground and try to, trying to make something for themselves and just to set them back out of, you know, spite, it seems just cause for a fucking snow storm that they couldn't control. Yeah. Some other natures in everybody's control, right? That's dickish. That's not, that's not good rugby culture to me. Uh, so, so I got, I got a bit against that.
00:06:17
Speaker
And then my wild card is going to Perpignon for signing Patty Jackson.
00:06:26
Speaker
And just a little too soon, boys. I know. And I won't go there. I just wanted to, that's my, that's my, that's my wildcard. There are a few fans that would probably argue with you about that. And I understand the argument. I really do. I just think maybe, maybe give the guy a little bit more of a break. There's not many that are against you in that, I promise. I'm one of them that's not, trust me.
00:06:50
Speaker
I'm sure. So what do you got? All right, my so my agreements is premiership. This is a general general standing. Control the mother effing spending. Control it. Yeah, you got to, you got to stay pat, you know, the the organizations in rugby,
00:07:08
Speaker
That are at the top end top 14 World Rugby Premiership. They're not known for their control. They have to Be the example right they and and it's different because I understand most the players don't have dual contracts and in this league Like they do in the pro 14 especially especially citing that and even in like
00:07:30
Speaker
Um new zealand rugby just you know, you gotta you gotta control the spending um, I know some people are coming here because the spending is good and There's a different problem to address in that but right see south africa Um, that's a that's a that's a universe problem. That's not a that's not a world rugby problem That's not a premiership problem. That's a universe problem that needs to be addressed at a different time by a different group of people, right?
00:07:56
Speaker
And we've been talking about it the past couple of weeks. So right it's uh, yeah Cutting yeah, the spending is out of control. We got to make sure this thing is solvent boys Yeah, you got to keep this going for a long for a long period of time would be preferable. Yeah and then So my my issue with road rugby, and that's one that's a little leftover, but I still have a bloody issue with it when they change the eligibility residency eligibility from three to five years
00:08:25
Speaker
They made that decision two years ago, and it was absolutely the right decision. It stops guys from moving around ridiculous amounts like, oh, I'm not going to be in this team, but I'm going to go move to this place and get residency there in three years and I'll play for them. Well, that sucks. It does. That really sucks.
00:08:45
Speaker
You're killing someone else that worked hard to represent their country. Yeah. And now, all of a sudden, you're going to jump ship and slide right in. Yeah. Again, to me, that's a good call. That was a good call on their part. Right. But what do you got?
MLR Expansion Concerns
00:09:00
Speaker
But here's the big fat butt on this one. They changed it, but they said, oh, wait, we're not going to enforce that until after the 2019 World Cup. And I was like, ah.
00:09:11
Speaker
one step forward two steps back it is um yeah i'm not gonna i'm not gonna to carve them up too bad for that because you're you're changing that rule right before you know people may have done or you know people may have it may make people ineligible who maybe didn't do that i mean i'm sure it's making you know
00:09:27
Speaker
I'm sure people did it. I'm sure people did it. For cynical reasons, but it also kind of hurts people that didn't exactly do it like that. So yeah, I accept that grievance. That's a good one. What you got? What's your wild card? My choice, and you know this one pretty well, is to our friends here in Major League Rugby.
00:09:52
Speaker
Slow the expansion down, please. Excellent call. Pretty, pretty please. Listen, the biggest and best leagues in the world aren't more than 14 teams. Super Rugby has 15, I think, and that's it. And they have their own issues to address. Yeah, they do. So that's not even a good example. Top 14 and Pro 14.
00:10:13
Speaker
That's the most that there is right now sure that needs to be the line. That's the end no more No more than that because you're talking about so many So such a dilution of the talent and we saw it when we watched you and I watched I think it was an Austin and a Houston match and
00:10:29
Speaker
with none of the international players on the team. No Canadians, no Uruguayans, no Americans, none of them. And it was bad rugby. It was bad rugby. It was like, oh, why am I watching this again? And that's an example of what is going to happen if you continue to dilute the talent pool to that level. I get it that you're going to get some influx of players that are interested in this MLR thing. It's not going to counter it enough.
00:10:55
Speaker
And just like we said when we watched, we were at that Freejax versus Rugby Union New York match a couple weeks ago, where you could tell the level of play from the people who belonged to the MLR and the people who didn't. And that, yes, I agree, because you're going to kill it. It's not, you're going to kill the talent level of each team and it's just going to concentrate.
00:11:15
Speaker
Thailand on certain teams. And then it's just going to be, you know, get a couple of super teams. Right. I mean, obviously, Seattle and Glendale were the two best ones last year. And it was obvious. Right. But you're going to get those other teams that that'll that'll creep in there. You know, the Austin or whatever, whether we're one of the other ones around Utah, I think.
00:11:34
Speaker
Right. You're good. And the Utah has, I mean, cause of the Mormon aspect, they're going to, they're going to have all the Islanders they want, but at the same time, um, you know, it's still be nice to, to get talent around, around the league, not just on a handful of them. Yeah, no, for sure. The expansion needs to stop. I know they have expansions planned for next year and it needs to be capped right there. Don't, don't, don't get crazy. I know you have cities that want teams. You should have thought about it. Honestly.
00:12:00
Speaker
Yeah. And I'm not going to go into any, I'm not going to air any laundry against the Freejacks, but they have a ways to go ahead of their, I'll say it that way. They have a ways to go ahead of their debut next year. So work hard, Freejacks. I'll be there supporting you. Likewise. But I'm nervous right now.
00:12:20
Speaker
right well let's put it that's an expansion team and assuming they're not the vegas golden knights yeah it's pretty much you know they're going to be an expansion team as they are exactly it's okay um onto our feats of strength oh runner up flow rugby oh yes yes absolutely flow rugby suck a lot less runner up but that's okay it's a it's a it's an honorable mention yeah it is actually i was gonna i was gonna have that myself too so okay so we agree on this we agree on
00:12:45
Speaker
So feats of strength. I have two. One a little bit longer than the other. You're gonna be surprised to think by one of them. French referees. I'm going to compliment French referees here. Because I actually like what they're trying to do. I don't like the way they execute it, and I don't like the way it turns out. But I think it could work better if we had a better rugby culture.
00:13:14
Speaker
Um, and of course if they were more consistent That's that's the big problem is they'll let they'll let some teams just play especially the the the underdog So if you have a clear favorite and an underdog it seems like the french do everything the french referees do everything they can to make sure that this is still a good game for a little bit So yeah, we talked about that and that you know that part I don't like I don't like the impact on the game But I do like the idea of you know what?
00:13:39
Speaker
whatever just happened, we'll let it go. Let's play rugby. And I don't like that coaches don't work with their players on it because you'll see some players like, Oh, I didn't expect that. That ball just popped out of the rock. Oh, we had a hands in and the referee's like, fuck you. Just play on, let's play rugby. So I like that concept of it where let the players decide the outcome.
00:14:02
Speaker
I'm always for that so I do like that. I wish I just wish they did a little bit better So I'll give them the credit for that aspect of it For my other feet of strength. There's a player that that Jared and I both love to hate on because
00:14:20
Speaker
He's kind of a dirty asshole. He's not terribly talented overall. But he gets penalized a lot. And part of the reason he gets penalized a lot is because he has a huge fucking afro on top of his head.
00:14:37
Speaker
Yeah, it's kind of hard to miss and it's hard to miss dude if you're gonna be You know it kind of on the line slash dirty or just slash ill-disciplined player you kind of want to Kind of want to fit in right so so Ashley Johnson, you know don't make yourself
00:14:53
Speaker
Visible like one of the great things about macaw richie macaw is that he knew how to cheat He knew how to cheat, but he also you don't know we you don't see him. You know he's not like very visible He's just there all of a sudden. He's there and you're like. Oh, how'd that happen? With fucking Ashley Johnson you see the head come you know it's because it's freaking giant I See that guy it's very easy to spot
00:15:17
Speaker
So I don't like Ashley Johnson, but I do actually love his hair. I think that's a badass haircut. Beautiful haircut. It is spoken from a guy that doesn't have any hair. I don't have any hair, but I am of Jewish descent. I could never grow a Jewfro.
00:15:32
Speaker
It's just my hair didn't quite do it do it that way So so and I had friends who could and oh man, I envied them a little bit So Ashley Johnson, I love your hair Do something with it while you're playing. Yeah, so that you don't get caught every single time you do something stupid put a damn skull cap on Be done with that onto you. All right, so sticking with the wasp theme
00:15:57
Speaker
I will say something about something nice about a coach that I Consider he's not a cowboy, but he's a frickin whiner. All right, my goodness So he's a coach somebody needs to yeah. Good lord. Is he ever? This could go any number of ways I have an idea Die young
00:16:23
Speaker
Okay. Listen, I have my issues with you, but I can appreciate one thing is you've raised yourself a fantastic rugby son in Thomas. The guy is hands down the best seven on that team. He's one of the best sevens in the league. The guy belongs on an international team somewhere. I don't know where he's eligible. Technically, I'm sure he's eligible for Wales. I'm sure he's eligible for England where he would fit into those two teams. Good luck. But
00:16:49
Speaker
Still, I think he's a little harsh on him by not always playing him and making him really earn everything. But at least he makes them earn everything. Yeah. There's a certain other player out there whose dad coached him. He could have the world's worst game in the world, especially with a backup that the backup that he had, who was of international quality and wouldn't pull him off till the 75th minute.
00:17:09
Speaker
Yeah, and so there there's there there is definitely something good about that in die young. I will 100% given that you know, he's He's a complainer to complain to complain but he's definitely done very well with thomas and has taught him well and has showed him the ropes and made him really earn everything and not just like handed him out because God knows as a lot of people that have that happened to them and they're just giving everything and it's like
00:17:37
Speaker
Now I just hate you and your dad, right? Yeah, it's a good way to to to fuck up the the team culture and chemistry No, and so good good on him for not doing that. He doesn't he has enough trouble with chemistry on his team to add that into the mix Yeah, you wouldn't need that. No most most players on
00:17:54
Speaker
Was would be like where's thomas? Yeah, so he he's uh, he's a good he's a good player i'll give talk i'll give diang that and then A guy i've started to poo on a little bit more recently is john mitchell Okay, the us old coach. Yeah kind of left us a little high and dry for the bulls. Yeah, which didn't make sense but also this was part of the nigel melville fiasco between
00:18:19
Speaker
His leaving and not holding up promises that he promised and you know, John Mitchell's like well I was hired by Nigel Melville and it's basically the only reason I was here It's like great. So now you're leaving too, right? Thanks a lot But I'll say this left us in good hands with Gary gold Gary gold has done an amazing job since he has been he really has and I'll give John Mitchell this The England defense has looked a shit ton better since he took over that job and I'll give him that he's not Tolkien
00:18:44
Speaker
No, oh good lord Good lord. Yeah, we can we can spend a whole podcast talking about that guy and not in good ways We don't we don't need to put that amount of juju bad juju out there right now for the record Um, I did I did want to add a coach in here, but I I actually couldn't find anything nice to say about steve diamond Yeah, especially after this past weekend. Yeah, I read that then it was like nope. You're not even on this list. Well, you didn't do it
00:19:06
Speaker
So there, we have aired our grievances. We have performed our feats of strength. Hope you enjoyed it. I hope you understand. If you have your own, please let us know. We'd love to hear what you have out there.
Favorite Rugby Moments of 2018
00:19:19
Speaker
By the way, Mrs. Sharon is very disappointed in you for your foul mouth.
00:19:25
Speaker
Well, I, you know. Although, to be fair, she missed it. She missed me calling somebody an asshole. Yeah. I was like, wait a minute. I tried to keep this. I did my best for like three weeks, not to curse. Listen, there's an E on this thing for a reason. Exactly. If you have an issue with it, then maybe just don't listen around the kids. And Sharon, I fucking love you. Yeah. Don't pay attention.
00:19:47
Speaker
Um, all right. So let's do um, let's do our five favorite moments from 2018. Yeah, let's get right to that There was a good a lot of good stuff going on in rugby this year Yeah, so but so I actually had a little bit of a difficult time to choose from I did too There was about seven or eight that I wanted to put in and I'm like, yeah Yeah, but I fine. I think I narrowed him down to my definitely my my top five. Okay, so
00:20:10
Speaker
Why don't you go first? This is your baby. All right. So number five for me, we'll go five to one. Number five for me was my first high school season coaching. I really enjoy it. I've wanted to do this for a long time. Basically since I graduated college, I wanted to coach and coach kids.
00:20:31
Speaker
This was my first full year in charge. It didn't go that well, but it's going to take some time. That wasn't just you. That was just a lot of things going on. There's a lot of things with that. But yeah, so that didn't go well, but that's OK. I really enjoyed it just the same. Number four was, of course, us getting our own professional league here in the United States. Majorly rugby kicked off and it was a very good season. There was a lot of great rugby to watch.
00:20:57
Speaker
A lot of great, a lot of good things come out of it. The things that we wanted to come out of this were guys obviously getting noticed by the US national team, but also guys getting noticed by teams in Europe. Yeah. You know, you had a policy guy and what was his name? Campbell. Yeah. Get contracts over here and in overseas. And there's been a couple more that they've gotten since then. So that's really, really good stuff. That's that was really happy. I was really happy to see that. Yeah. Oh, and then our our buddy scored a winner against the team.
00:21:24
Speaker
that had another player from a team that we don't like. And that was really cool. And he also scored off a shit throw from that guy. So that was really good. So that was that was kind of the highlight of said season for me personally. But that's OK. Number three.
00:21:42
Speaker
Ireland eating the all blacks in Dublin and the emotion that was put into that game Yes, and just the feel watching that game and if if as long as you're not a Kiwi fan or as long as you don't hate the Irish and you didn't have like some sort of fine tingle or some sort of emotion come out of you from that game, you don't have something wrong with your soul you like Don't have a heartbeat like I swear to God
00:22:07
Speaker
I mean, even if you do favor, um, New Zealand, you still got to give it up for, for the, for everything that Ireland put into that match. Yeah. They, they, they poured it all in. And that was on my list. We'll get to it too. Um, number two, Chris Wiles with the ultimate send off at Twickenham scoring a double. The second one, which was a huge one because Exeter were about to overcome, overcome series with a, with a big comeback and he shut him up with a big, a big second try.
00:22:35
Speaker
So, Wild's getting two to more or less end his career. He played one match this year, just weird. For fun. Basically for fun, and it's like, he doesn't have any wings, do you? Okay, I'll play, but really, that was his big send-off, and that was a great send-off. You couldn't send him off any better by me. He had an encore, but that doesn't count. Yeah, the encore was, yeah. It was like a B-list song, basically. And then, number one, our boys, AJ McGinty and the United Stingles,
00:23:02
Speaker
winning their first match against a tier one nation, Scott, beating Scotland in Houston. That was so great. I will come clean. I didn't watch the match live, but you better believe I went and found it and watched it afterwards. But I looked it up on my Twitter and I was with Bill. Yeah. And Ollie. Disco. Yeah. And I found, cause Ollie's half, half Scottish. Right. Right. So I was looking down and I was like,
00:23:30
Speaker
So we were in my car to go home, and we had a DD, the boss. We jumped out of the car to go tell Ollie, as we were absolutely ball-bagged, two of us. And we jumped out of the car to go tell Ollie.
00:23:49
Speaker
U.S. beat Scotland. And he's like, what? No way. He could not believe that came out of our mouth and was actually true, sure enough.
00:23:59
Speaker
Scotland had missed a conversion on what would have been the winning try to lose to the U.S. and AJ McGinty had a party. He had a great day. He took over the match in the way that he has to in order for the U.S. to do well. There were some other guys that stepped up big time. Leseke had a nice game. Tafete had a nice game.
00:24:22
Speaker
Hammer size had a nice game But yeah, so that was a that was a damn hands down the best moment for me Obviously the US are now sitting what 12 13 in the world now, which is the highest they've ever been I like it, you know us and
00:24:38
Speaker
Teams like Fiji are starting to kind of climb up and not not be pushed around not be bossed around anymore So that's that's only good for rugby on top of it all it is And as we mentioned last week, you know rugby coming big in the US would be huge. So That that's that was definitely a big moment and definitely a step forward for for us rugby. Well done boys million percent boys
00:25:00
Speaker
So my top five. Hardly enough, that that U.S. Scotland was was number five for me. OK, so that's right. And we'll go down the list. Ireland, New Zealand was number four. And my my my third is Fiji versus France.
00:25:18
Speaker
Yeah, all right. That's a good one. I like that one. I had that on my list somewhere. That was in France. That was them traveling. But there's a lot of Fijians that play in France for French teams. If not, they're over here. And they're over in England. I wish I was there sometimes.
00:25:35
Speaker
Um, but yeah, that, that's, that was just an excellent match and, and just an excellent result for again, another, um, tier one and a half to, to, to, to, but, but taking it to, to France. So I just did a good moment for, for rugby within the world. Yeah. I had a, I had that on my list, but I knocked it off. Obviously my, my, my, my bottom three, my five, four, three were all underdog wins. So that that's because those are just, those are always always great. My number two.
00:26:06
Speaker
I'm going to name a player. And if this is the first time you've ever heard of this player, I will not be shocked. And if you're out there, that's the first time you're hearing this person's name, that's the problem. So I want to honor Rochelle Rocky Clark.
00:26:21
Speaker
who retired this year from international play. 37 years old, a prop from England, 137 caps. Not only is that the most in international women's history, it's the most in England rugby history. So most cap player for England of all time, Rocky Clark, also a World Cup winner. So well done to Rocky Clark. Cheers, Rocky. Cheers. I have a little sip for you now.
00:26:50
Speaker
And, uh, great job on your career. Yeah. And that's something that we should, you know, gotta acknowledge that. Right. Gotta acknowledge that part of the game for sure. And my, the game without them, my number one moment, which also ends up in being involved with an underdog win is Sia Kalisi.
00:27:06
Speaker
becoming yeah, see, see, yeah, I call easy. Well, that's how I that's how I think of him anyway. Yeah. But becoming the first black springbok captain. Yeah, it's huge. I was on my list too. I ended up knocking it off. And then you debut with a win over England. Yep.
00:27:25
Speaker
So, that's an amazing moment. Fantastic for South Africa for working towards getting things right. And you couldn't have picked, I mean, Khaleesi obviously isn't some, they didn't just give him. Right, it's not as though he's an undeserving captain or something like that. He fully earned that captaincy. Guy does everything for the Stormers too, and somehow they still lose, but like, I mean,
00:27:51
Speaker
The guy is just immense in every match any plays don't ever comes out of it not looking decent if not good And there aren't many South Africans that I like as far as players on the rugby pitch So guys like Bucky's blood that walking around it's hard to like him sometimes. Yeah, and but I love Khaleesi I love watching him play. So so congratulations to him. Yeah, absolutely and well done Yeah
00:29:25
Speaker
Yeah.