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Season 5- Episode 23- The Episode We Talk About Eddie (6 Nations Round 1)
31 Plays3 years ago
It is another action packed episode from those fools in America. On this episode, we finally have a glance back at all the player movement that's been happening and discuss the exoduses in Devon and New Zealand. YES, this is the episode where we finally get into Australia making a coaching change. Oh yeah, there was some pretty decent action with the rugby on the weekend too. We cover the action in Cardiff, London and Rome, including one of us teeing off on a certain commentator in Rome. It's all this and so much more, stick those feet up and get cozy, enjoy!
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Ask us questions via Twitter: Jarrod- jdyke8man & Ben- admrablsnackbar, and #AskTFRY.
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Transcript
Introduction and Tone Setting
00:00:02
Speaker
It is... The Fantasy Europeans. My name is Jared Dyke. I wanted to say it's stupid and let's move on, but then you kept going. I'm Ben Glauser. I don't like any way anybody gambled that. Collusion! Collusion!
Welcome and Rugby Match Excitement
00:00:27
Speaker
Hey, everybody. Welcome back. It is the fancy rugby. Thanks. My name is Jared Dyke. I'm Ben Glauser. Let's go. We got, we got loads to talk about, even though there's only three matches this weekend, because as promised, we're going to weren't that important matches or anything. Nah, not at all. We're very good either. I had to break character there that no, they were excellent. You shut up. Yeah. Right. Um, we.
Podcast Promotion and Social Issues
00:00:58
Speaker
Find this on your favorite podcast app, share, download, rate, review. Oh, that's good. This is dangerous. It's a storm alongside her as we all love storm along. Right. 8.8%. So, Oh, let's go.
00:01:15
Speaker
I'm gonna be loose tonight night night then. So that is going to be interesting. If you stick around for the fantasy quarter, the FC is going to be fun.
00:01:32
Speaker
Oh yes, of course. Uh, fire, good friend, George, the fancy rugby geek coffee. He got back in action this past week. If you didn't notice, uh, boy, it was, it was a big one too. We had real kinds of fun stuff to talk about. We had super real, we had, um, there was a predictor pool and there was also, um, the pick four, which we all, I think a lot of us got involved in. So lots of, lots of stuff to cover and he did it all. So yeah, make sure you support him by buying him a coffee or beer.
Book Banning Critique
00:02:02
Speaker
As always, there is no discrimination on this podcast, nor should there be in sports or in life. It's been a big, and I know it's here in the US and where else it is, I don't know, but the banning of books, and I'm not talking about just like,
00:02:19
Speaker
Well, it's a lot into the new books, but still like anything that's older that portrays things a certain way. Thank you. You bunch of conservative dickheads. You know, you know, if you're not white, you're not straight. You can't be in a book, basically. Right. Exactly. That's basically what it is. It's like we don't want to teach kids that it's OK to be this way. And not only that, and I get. At least so in Florida, this is happening where
00:02:47
Speaker
The governor is saying under penalty of prison, teachers and librarians can't have specific books which do not meet his political approval in their classrooms for display even. And what the fuck? There's a lot of people that like to do this thing in history and they usually end up coming out the bad guy.
00:03:10
Speaker
Right. And here we are. What makes me really pissed about it is that you don't hear anything from anybody about it. Like it's reported in the news sometimes.
00:03:21
Speaker
But it's not as if like Joe Biden had to say to the union last night. Did he mention that? Because that's something that's important that's happening in our in our union right now. Indeed it is. And and I don't think you know, whatever I have things to criticize him about, of course, but that's that's kind of a big thing, right? This should be something that the people in charge of our country should be railing against. And it's just not happening. And that's that's the stats. Scary, to be honest.
Societal Changes and Discrimination
00:03:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:51
Speaker
You know, there's, there's a particular, uh, fella that was the leader of a country and did this type of thing. And I'm thinking it was Hitler. And I'm not going to say that this guy is exactly that, but fuck, we're on our way there. That's the point. They didn't start with the end goal, right? They started, they, they, they moved the needle, they moved the needle and a lot of it started with, and fuck you look at the, the, the, hold on to me.
00:04:21
Speaker
You can do it. So it's like the let me get it right. First, they came home by Pastor Martin Mueller. Like first, they came for the communists and I didn't speak out because I was not a communist and they came for the socialists. I didn't speak out because I was not a socialist and they came for the trade unionists and I didn't speak out because I'm not a trade unionist.
00:04:42
Speaker
And then they came for the Jews. And then they're running the same goddamn playbook, right? Communism socialists, obviously, are around here anyway. Unions are down. There's a good reason they're under attack, right? And now we're talking about different segments of society that are under attack. And it's blacks, indigenous, you know, pretty much anybody who's not a straight white Christian. Like, this is not sphere mongering. This is what's actually happening. And
00:05:11
Speaker
I'm glad Jared brought this up tonight because that whole I was not a Jew part. That's what I'm seeing right now is the same people who aren't speaking out about this stuff won't speak out when it's my turn or your turn, Jared. I don't know what they would have on you, but I'm sure they'd find something. They can find Pawnee, I'm quite sure. Right.
00:05:34
Speaker
Who's going to speak up for us if nobody's speaking up for the people that aren't being spoken up for now? And that's, to me, the scary part. And that's why we have this segment, because it's not cool. They get their way, people die. We get our way, and everybody actually can just coexist peacefully, and nobody's forced to do things they don't want to do. Yeah. I like the notable difference there. And one of them is everybody doesn't die. Right. How hard is this? When people say, pick a side, those are the sides.
00:06:04
Speaker
You can't kind of straddle the line there. So, you know, pick the right side. Yeah, please. Sorry for ranting on that. It was worthy. It was worthy. It was worthy. It's meaningful to me.
Fantasy Rugby and Community Engagement
00:06:23
Speaker
not well just as meaningful i'd say a little bit more meaningful but still just as meaningful as rugby um and i guess our patreon account yes our patreon account yes patreon um yeah get get it in while you while we still have fantasy rugby for the prem drink more uh yeah yeah i'm hoping we can find an answer soon because
00:06:49
Speaker
while we're talking about it a little, I do want to dive into a little bit. We had people talking about fantasy teams during Six Nations, like number one, that is cool. And that is great. And you want fan engagement and you want people to talk about it more and more and more. That is such an easy thing to do. And again, I don't love
00:07:13
Speaker
I'm not over the moon by any whatsoever with the with the Six Nations official and then obviously the automations series as well. Don't love it. But God damn, if that's the only thing that I had to play for prom, I would do it in a heartbeat and I'd spread the word like wildfire. And I guess the way I would put it is I don't love the I don't quite love the game itself, but I love that they have it.
00:07:37
Speaker
And it's fun to do like yeah, it's it's not it's it's kind of It's I mean it's interesting take on the on the fantasy team and it's kind of similar to TRM but Yeah, it's it's it's done obviously a different way the points are Can be a little silly at times But that's the kind of what makes it fun because it's not like oh this guy's gonna have a good game You don't know because the points are so freaking weird. Yeah, so a little wonky sometimes, right?
00:08:06
Speaker
It's still good, but it's still good. It's in its engagement. It takes, you know, I have the Six Nations site up on one of my tabs for the next month plus. It's just going to be open. So that means it's, you know, like constantly, you know, ads and stuff like that are going to do whatever. Yeah, it's you want that kind of engagement premiership.
Player Transfers and Team Dynamics
00:08:33
Speaker
And if it makes us all a bunch of King dorks, I'm in, I don't care. Hey Siri, show me how to out yourself as a complete knob without telling everyone that you're a complete fucking knob. Like, come on. The funny thing is that it's like, it's mostly players, people who have played rugby in the past who do it.
00:08:52
Speaker
And the people who were saying that have never played rugby before. So that's like you're going to call us doors. Like first off, if you it's kind of the way because somebody calls you a dork on a rugby pitch that you laugh. That wouldn't be a that would be silly. So yeah, call me a dork. I don't care. It's fun. I mean, I have my I have my issues with that with that show. Yeah. Yeah, I swear. And I'm not trying to like pump us up or anything like that.
00:09:22
Speaker
We came in and they like...
00:09:25
Speaker
dislike that we were in that chat. So they just threw that out there. I was like, really? Like, what? Because we got everybody excited about, you know, Six Nations fantasy. And Six Nations. Yeah, there's like six nations in general. But yeah, Six Nations fantasy. Like, it only helps. There hasn't been much conversation about like, you know, in that chat about even the premiership. It's like they kind of never saw somebody post something. But it's like actually started people started talking about the rugby a lot more. So
00:09:53
Speaker
That's actually kind of nice. And yeah, fantasy. And that's part of the engagement to it. You want people to talk about it, you know? Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, just let's talk about it. Don't knock engagement. Yeah, don't. If everyone's having a good time, there's no reason to be a poopy pants. Nope. Everyone's having a good time. There's no reason to be a poopy pants. Everyone's having a good time. Everyone was having a great time. Everyone was most definitely having a good time. Okay.
00:10:23
Speaker
Let's go to our, yeah, I'm looking at the, I was just looking at the eventual Hugh Jones try. We'll get to that in a second. Yeah. I have the Italy, France match on. I've already watched, we watched that one. Yeah.
00:10:38
Speaker
Anyway, let's go to the transfer roundup because we promise we won't do that. We haven't talked a whole lot about things. There's other things to talk about like coaches and stuff as well. So we'll get there. We won't spend an enormous amount of time on this, but it's worth it. Right. Because there's some big names that we'll be talking about for next year coming in.
00:10:59
Speaker
changes the face of the league in some ways. So let's start with Bath. Obviously the big name is Finn Russell coming in. Yes, Finn's 30 at this point, but still he's Finn. And I don't think age is really going to stop Finn Russell for a good another five years.
00:11:19
Speaker
Right. Because I mean, even even this, you know, in the England match, he wasn't like making plays with his athleticism. He was making plays with his distribution, which was fantastic. And that that's going to take a while to go away. Even if he, you know, he becomes like, you know, he could he could be Jimmy Gopp earth. But I think I think a more creative version of Jimmy got birth. But same kind of thing if he wanted to, because he has fun doing it, too.
00:11:47
Speaker
That's the best part. He's one of the like that's I love watching him because he's having fun and making it fun. And Beth, this is what I mean by changing the face of the league to bath. Oh, I mean, yeah, they're what? They're not really losing much either. And nothing on the way out that's really of note. And they have so much talent to do. So, yeah, I'm good. Yeah, I'm excited to see see what they bring just just with the finish change.
00:12:18
Speaker
like Bristol we we got news actually this week of one new name that's already that's coming in we already know Maylands is coming in yeah Revolvo is coming in though yeah he's obviously going to be the ideal replacement for semi but right
00:12:37
Speaker
Just another, another pain maker in the backs. And this is a, this is, so this is what's so great about the Drua team as well. This is getting more of those guys noticed and obviously it's getting them all play time, which is great. You know, that's only going to help Fiji, but it's also getting these guys more notice. Like they're not playing in some shit kicker league. Right.
00:12:58
Speaker
They're playing in super rugby. Yeah. It's a notable league. It's not, it's not nothing. And to, and for these, and Revolvo was definitely one of the more standout guys. No, no question. So yeah. I will definitely try and acquire him on my FRD team. Exactly. Yeah. Well, there is, there is, there is super FRD. So that's right. That's right. We'll still get that. We'll get that.
00:13:19
Speaker
the outs for Bristol. Rads is hurtful. It is. You know, Porter's only there temporarily as is as and Whiteley's gone now. Door Joyce is a big name, obviously. That's that's a big name that. Yeah. But they've got guys who can replace him. They do.
00:13:36
Speaker
They do. No question about it. No, no disrespect to Joe Joyce, but he's, you know, he's also, he's 29, he's going to be 30 and he's, he's had a great career there and. He's the king of Bristol. Yeah. He always will be too. So, um, yeah, that won't change. Right. That will not change. Um, always be, um, be loved there. So.
00:13:57
Speaker
whatever, like, yeah. And then they have guys who can play. And that's the other thing is you, the guy like that, you don't want to end up rotting on your bench. That's not right for anybody. So you do right by him and you know, tell him, you know, look him in the face and say, this is where we're looking in the future. And if you want to look elsewhere, look elsewhere. And obviously that conversation was had and he made his decision and that was, you know, I like it. I think he'll do well with Conact too.
00:14:23
Speaker
He's perfect for Irish rugby. Yeah, he'll be great. He'll be great. Down to Exeter. It's the exits. There's no luck on incomings. There's almost none. No. You know, it's a sign. We've said it before. It's a sign.
00:14:43
Speaker
You know, Joe Simmons going to Powell. Sam Simmons going to Montpellier. Kirsten's on his way out. Yuruz is on his way out. Van Heeran's already left. Yup. Kinda thick he's out. LCD out. Harry Williams, nothing. He's worth a fucking thing. He's out. Right. You know. Like.
00:14:59
Speaker
And they, but they signed Hodge, which obviously- They kept Hodge, which I was a little shocked by at the same time. Like, okay, you did one smart thing. Congratulations. Yeah. I just don't get it. Like, I mean, I get it because it's like, I don't, I don't think they have a great culture there. And you can tell because of the chat, they still do. That they, you know, they're not honest. And yeah, I don't know. Do they do?
00:15:26
Speaker
As much as Rob Baxter wants to blame Saracens for things, and he still does, I think even in the midst of all this, he decided to bash Saracens again. Because it's the one thing that he can know that people will be like, yeah, fuck Saracens. But at the same time, it's like, yeah, but kind of fuck you too. So it's becoming that way, which is cool. Right. It's like you're really bringing this up again. Obviously, you're fucking something up. Agreed. Agreed, agreed. Yeah, something that's not up.
00:15:56
Speaker
Major moral issue by by any means it's ongoing still let's put it that way and it's not like these guys are old like Sam's 28 Simmons is Joe Joe is 26 goes 26 Which that's kind of like that should be an alarm right there like mm-hmm Okay, you know dumbass Davies 32 move him on Harry Williams is useless move him on LCD He was gonna move on after the whole cup anyway, so whatever that's that is what it is because he's pretty much He's gonna be done at the international level. So I
00:16:23
Speaker
So yeah, he's going to go off somewhere else. Like, but Sam Simmons and Joe Simmons, that's the crazy thing is those are both potential England players. And they're both like, yes, you know, whatever. I'm going to go make some money. Like they would rather do that than play for England and play for and play for Exeter or like attempt to play for England. Like it's just a.
00:16:44
Speaker
I don't know. Unless Sam is figuring that he's not really going to be in the mix for the next World Cup anyway. Joe's never been in the England eye, unfortunately. I do think there were seasons where he should have got a shout and he didn't. Agreed. But why are they not what they used to be anyway?
00:17:00
Speaker
They will. Everybody's going to figure it out. Yeah, that's true. Really? Everyone's going to figure it out in their home. They've held on to this group for probably a little too long, really. Yeah. Well, that's the thing. Like that's the problem is that, you know, you've been relying on you, was in Christian for so long. And it's like neither of them are very good. Like, what are you developing? Why? Why? There's like capstick. Why didn't he get more playing time? Why? You know, like.
00:17:27
Speaker
Is he going to rely on these people yet? I'm not certain, man. If he isn't, if he hasn't gotten extension yet, I would be on the way out the door power him. Right. Maybe he can, maybe he can be that guy in the back row for them now, but. Yeah, no, it looks like Hodges. Well, at least for now Hodges, they're, they're only.
00:17:45
Speaker
Yeah. So, hey, it kind of, it's one of these, I'm not, like, I'm kind of shocked to see it, but I'm not surprised. And especially as the exit just kept going on. It's like, yeah, okay. That all that makes sense. Yeah. It just seems to be a snowball here. Yeah. She keeps going and going.
00:18:06
Speaker
Let's go out to, let's have a look at the guys out at King's home.
Impact of International Player Movements
00:18:10
Speaker
Mercer coming in is obviously the big one. He's terrible. Wait, no. Wait, the opposite of that. The opposite. Ready made replacement in the England squad potentially as well. Oh, please. That's so delicious. Can he come, can he play for them in the, in the World Cup because he signed with, with the, yes. Baller move. It's up to the, that's up to the Steve Barthwick. Right.
00:18:36
Speaker
Seabrook on the way out, which I didn't realize how young he was. He's 24. How is he 24? I agree. I agree. And that's what caught me off guard there. Because he plays like a 34 year old. Sometimes he does. Like he's not so fast. He's not so athletic. But he's like Keiji and Wiley, like a veteran. So I figured it was in his 30s. That's nuts. Yeah.
00:19:02
Speaker
Well, that's pretty much, and then Clostro obviously done a good job of, they've already brought in McWigan and they've been hanging on to as many guys as they can. Yeah. The Harlequins big name coming in, Joe Launchbury. That's going to just make their, make their life infinitely easier. It'll make it easier. Yeah. But I don't know at 30, you know, 32 what.
00:19:25
Speaker
It's a veteran. It's a veteran president is a veteran. It's a guy that's done a lot of good both for Was and for England in his career. So right? Oh no, you look for that. Yeah, right. I know. No disrespect intended. It's just that I'm looking at the his style of play and Harlequin style of play.
00:19:42
Speaker
So that makes me wonder what we're going to, you know, how much are we going to see of them? But at the same time, like you said, veteran presence, Luis can't stay healthy, unfortunately. So it's like you need a leader who's, who's around. Yeah, or not banned. Right. That too. Will Porter in as well. That's an interesting one because you have steel and you have shaltama. I wonder what that says to those guys.
00:20:05
Speaker
I mean, have you watched them play? I don't think much more needs to be said to those guys. So it's obviously a knock on the head like, hey, we're bringing in this young damn good scrum half. Right. To play, you know, to potentially take that nine shirt when Danny care decides it's it's it's time. And that's and I think that's the right because he's very much a Danny care type player. So let Danny care train his replacement and because. Jaltem has shown flashes.
00:20:33
Speaker
Steel has been okay. Yeah. It's definitely gel time over steel though. Yeah, I agree. And even, and, but I would take Porter any day over. Yeah, I think I would too. I agree. Yeah. To me, the big thing with, with Harlequin is the guys who are leaving. Yeah. Big ones. Martian and Tommy Allen. We'll call low. Right. And, and Bassett who's gone since he's got there. Yeah. Um,
00:21:03
Speaker
So yeah, I don't know what like leaving is also another shock like 26 years old, like still young. It's kind of that happened before. Did that happen before?
00:21:18
Speaker
And he was fired and say, I know, I know where you're going with this. Yeah. And then maybe that's part of it. It is, you know, it is because he wasn't getting the look. So it's like, all right, well then I'm out of here. Yeah. So part of it easily could be have that fair. We'll talk about, we'll talk about the impact of that in a little bit. Lester ins and outs all over the place, but the big one, they're getting some back three players, uh, half the roles coming in. Yeah.
00:21:48
Speaker
And then we're, we got, we got some outs. Like we, obviously we know Wiggles is done. Freddy's out. Uh, those are some big ones. Nadello's already left. Hagerty's already left. So really it's not losing a ton. That's no disrespect to those guys, but gaining some decent players was kind of touted as.
00:22:13
Speaker
potentially being somewhere around the England squad, which- Yeah, but Bassett and Hassel Collins. Hassel Collins is huge. Yeah, they need that. That's going to be huge. And Bassett too, because that's another, it's the one thing that Exeter lack right now is really depth at wing.
00:22:35
Speaker
And this is instant, not only the front line, like your top line starter, but Bassett was a good, even if you just use him as a rotational winger, because he's, you know, he's in his thirties now. He's not getting any faster, unfortunately, no disrespect again to the doggy. I love him. But like, he's going to be a great depth player and a guy to have around to also mentor Hessel Collins in a way.
00:23:01
Speaker
his basset was like this close to being him. And it just never really panned out. So definitely helped provide some perspective to the young man who's right now would prefer to wear brown pants out there. Yeah, sometimes. Sometimes. Sometimes. Let's scroll down to the place that Castle Collins is leaving.
00:23:25
Speaker
Yeah. Not a ton coming in as of yet, but they don't really. Yeah. They could use, they need another 10, although maybe Jennings takes that over. It would be great. Um, their centers are pretty tight. Yep. But yeah. Losing hustle Collins and parts of Collins and part and part is not an amazing loss. Parton.
00:23:44
Speaker
I think of Tom Barton from like, what was it, three years ago or so, where he was on fire. And that's the Tom Parton I know they want to see again. They haven't seen him. And then, you know, Arendelle rolled around and that was kind of the end for Martin. Yeah, exactly. It's like, we got this guy who does what you could do occasionally. He does it all the time. And he's a little bit better in a bottle, too, on top of that.
00:24:06
Speaker
Yeah, because Parton can be that, and maybe Saracens can get him to that again. We'll see. Up to the tune.
00:24:17
Speaker
Not much, not much other than McGuigan's leaving. Like that's the guy's already gone. So, and he's, yeah, obviously he's gone already, but point being, he's out and that's kind of the news and everybody like they're still, they're just not a club that runs on a big budget. They're definitely one of the clubs that will always not be well under the cap. So they don't, right. Not one to worry about too, too much. Exactly. North Hampton, not a lot in.
00:24:46
Speaker
But notable in Langdon and Odin daw being the two, two big ones, uh, cause the, cause they need more help in the midfield. And Odin daw looked really good for, for wasps before he was there. Yeah. I was, I mean, it's, he's in Japan just making some cash right now, but we back. Um, I liked Langdon in a lot of ways. I didn't realize he was that young. Mm-hmm.
00:25:11
Speaker
for the sake of you consider who their backups are right now, because Sam Atavacy has been hurt for a bit. And it's definitely shown up. Yeah. And it's just not what he used to be. And no, he was never that good. But he was usually solid. But and they don't have Hartley anymore. And he obviously he's long gone.
00:25:32
Speaker
Just they need somebody not named Sam out of AC in case Sam out of AC is broken hurt or having a bad, bad year. Yep. Well, the other that's a, that's a hell of that's a, that's a nice little, little bit of cover that they got there. I guess the way I'd put it is Langdon is, is around Jag. I think Jag is a little bit harsh for him.
00:25:50
Speaker
But that's still a big step up from anybody else the Saints have. Absolutely. Yeah. I think with some good coaching, because the one thing we know Northampton can teach is how to attack and that's pretty much every player that's out there. So with that, I think you'll learn how to be a little bit more dynamic with ball in hand and
00:26:12
Speaker
in attacking because he's he's already a good defender. He's a decent thrower of the line out. So really the last thing he's got to develop is just the attack. Yeah, the Duhan run. It's so it's still fun to watch. I can watch that a few times and still fun to watch. I
00:26:36
Speaker
Oh, because I was when I was rewatching it, I kind of stopped every line break kind of mid line break. And I was watching. I was like halfway through that. And I was. But that's when I realized, wait a minute, this is the place he scored on like I'm like, holy shit, because he was like, yeah, he was running kind of into some trouble. And yeah, I was like, wait, he scored four or five. That's how amazing it was. Even when I'm rewatching it, I'm like, oh, right. This is what this is. Yeah. Just made five people miss. Oh, really ridiculous.
00:27:03
Speaker
All right. Sale sale. Nothing. Joe Simpson's already retired. Ryan Mills is already there. Could there be more on the way? Yes. Yeah, but I would bet. I would hope. They're kind of going to get a new a new player in a way when their prime returns because George Ford, I think, is going to be healthy. Right. And this will be the first game, first action he sees since becoming a sale player. So yes, that would be interesting to see. Now that now sale are scary.
00:27:30
Speaker
Yeah, that makes them, as long as Quirky's healthy, that's really scary. Seri's, not a ton of action. We know Max has left, obviously, that's sad news. Yeah. Tom Willis. But wearing black and red is going to be fucking awesome. Because you know what, Saracens don't have enough of it, and that's clutch players who... Back row players that just destroy people. Right.
00:27:59
Speaker
Right. And they need another guy who will get a turnover at the drop of a hat. Like, yeah, you're looking at Theo, Tom Willis, and Ben Earl as maybe a six, seven, eight right there. Have fucking fun with that. Yeah. It's pretty nuts. Yeah. You know that somebody's going to be leaving. I get the sense that it might be Jax, which sucks. But it also might be. Yeah. I think Jax is retiring. It also might be Billy. So it could be. Yeah. We'll see.
00:28:27
Speaker
I think they held on to. Daily Earl and Jinx, I know that the two of those guys are a little older and they actually extended chicken as well. Oh, which is nice. He I. He's on his own. He's yeah. Mallon's leaving will give give him more time to. Yeah. Yeah, we have. A few others we can talk about internationally,
00:28:55
Speaker
The two that come to mind for me right now, and actually, I just saw a couple more that that hit, but that's post World Cup. Mwunga's gone to Japan. Oh, yeah. Fucking everybody's leaving for Japan. Right. And and a post World Cup that makes sense. But Mwunga's already gone. Yeah. He he would rather play in Japan and not worry about playing on the World Cup for the All Blacks, which.
00:29:17
Speaker
We know the All Blacks culture has kind of gone downhill for a while now, and this speaks highly to that. And not highly, I mean, doesn't speak highly of it, but it speaks loudly to it. There we go. That's the one I'm thinking of. And it's not good. It really isn't.
Rugby Policies and Coaching Changes
00:29:35
Speaker
So this is to me where a lot of where like the Belichick type coach kind of does something where it's like
00:29:43
Speaker
you have these rules that you make. And then when you start breaking them, because you think you're above the game, it's like you have the rules for a reason. And wasn't, I don't, I haven't memorized legacy somewhere, apologies, but which rule was don't be a, you know, no dickheads allowed? No dickheads, yeah, somewhere around seven or eight, I think. And it's like, well, look who you got, you know? You got a bunch of guys, like there's quite a few guys on the team who are just dickheads.
00:30:11
Speaker
Yeah, Frisell and Reese being the two main ones. Big ones for me. And it's like, why? You have tons of wings, you have tons of back row players. Yeah. And honest to God, you have one of the better, like, you have a ton of back row players, but you also have one of the better
00:30:35
Speaker
players in the world that can go from walk to back row and that's Scott Barrett as well. So should you need a bigger body at six? He is unquestionably for me, gotta be one of the names that goes right. Also list, not named for Zell. Right. Or Peter Gus.
00:30:50
Speaker
But, well, Peter Guss is on the left. And he left, too. Right. Yeah. But that's the thing. Like, why would you not keep him around? Yeah. Like, you'd choose the dickheads over the guy. And I'm losing it because I haven't thought of super rugby in a while. Who's the center who left? Was it La Mape? La Mape. Yeah, that's right. The big hurricane center? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he's playing for Tonda now.
00:31:16
Speaker
Right. And yeah, you just like push guys who you could really use away. And for what? Not good. Yeah, it's it's a little sad in a lot of ways. All the players who like it was Aaron Smith. He's he's going next year. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Bowdoin's going. I think there's a couple more chiefs that are going up, too, like Retalek's going now. Yeah.
00:31:44
Speaker
They're gonna, I get the sense that, so there's still a scary outfit when they have their day. But I get the sense that after those World Cup cycle, they're gonna have to really address something because I don't know if they're gonna be that scary ever again. Unless they change. The mystique won them so much.
00:32:09
Speaker
Just that alone, because you're playing again. It's one, you know, you know, you're like, you see the Haka and it's less the Haka and more that you, that that's the real truth of it. You're playing the, the all blacks and that's something now it's like, okay, you're playing the all, but it's tough team. All right. We got to play our, we got to play our A game and we'll win.
00:32:26
Speaker
It's not, uh, boys, if we don't play a plus and then some, we're not winning this game. That's what the hot, that's what that used to be just playing New Zealand and it's not there anymore. No, it's not Peter Gus. Peter Gus is the example of why the new rule exists for
00:32:47
Speaker
being able to switch your country allegiance. And people wanna bitch about it, but they're mostly old heads. It's for reasons like that. He gets picked once and he gets dropped forever and then he can't play for anybody ever again. That is ridiculous. There's a line between, okay, you kinda got the screws put to you and you didn't put enough effort in to try and get more caps.
00:33:17
Speaker
This to me is very black and white and falls on the side of you got the screws put to you. And sometimes it's in the middle in this gray area. Okay, fine. I can live with the stuff that happens in the gray area to help out players like PDGUS. Yeah. And there should be a pathway to play for, if you have
00:33:41
Speaker
the possibility of playing for multiple countries, if your eligibility allows it, you should be allowed to. Yeah, that's absolutely the way it should go. And especially if you get fucked over like that. Yeah. Why would you limit players and teams because of that?
00:34:00
Speaker
I understand international rugby has this sacredness to it, but there's still no need to have guys like Ian Foster, Eddie Jones doing these things to these players where they pick them once and they drop them for the rest of their freaking career. They're not eligible anywhere else because they have the one fucking cap. It sucks. If you even look at soccer, and this is not quite the perfect fit either, but
00:34:26
Speaker
You have to, because more matches in footy are considered friendlies. But if you have a competitive match and you're appearing at, then you're committed to that country. But if you appear in a couple of friendlies and you're like, fuck this, you could switch allegiances. Once you get to five, you're done. And then it also screws you, and we'll get into that in a little bit too, but like Cameron Redpath.
00:34:54
Speaker
He goes and plays for Scotland and because that's where he might play and doesn't look like that's going to happen. I mean, he's still in the squad, but yeah, he's in the squad and there's much to there'll be injuries. He'll be in. Right. And he'll grow as a player, too. Like might not be this cycle, but then, you know, the 2027 cycle, he might be a major part of that because he's still really fucking young.
00:35:19
Speaker
Um, so he'd be something that he'd be a player that should be in the England camp, but he wouldn't because what the fuck he wouldn't go. Like, why would he play for Eddie? Because that's a, you know, he doesn't want to be a one and done or he wants to be somewhere and develop. And that's not Eddie's thing. Right. And he made that decision before this type of role was brought into. Right. Exactly. Because it was like, all right, I got no choice. So I'm just going to do this. Yeah. Like, yeah.
Eddie Jones as Australia's Coach
00:35:45
Speaker
And then.
00:35:47
Speaker
Obviously we had the coaching changes. The big thing we haven't talked about in terms of coaching is Eddie signing for Australia. And if you've been wondering when we're going to talk about that, here it is. We haven't, we didn't have really, we knew we were going to take at least 10 minutes to talk about this and we didn't really have 10 minutes to spare before. I don't, I think it's a bad move. I think it's a step down from Renny.
00:36:12
Speaker
I thought ready was doing a lot of good things and I know it's like it's hard to see that. Yeah, but he's. But who do they have so and that so that now I go back to like you know I was talking with that about this with one of my players the other day and it was it was a interesting conversation because it was like. Eddie. Likes his guys at you know at certain positions on that, but like who's he going to pick at 10 like? God, I'm terrified about who's going to pick.
00:36:41
Speaker
And who's going to pick it? Who's going to have at nine, Nick white? Like you really think if Nick white team is going to threaten an English team? Like, no, Nick white's not that good. He's not that good. I mean, he's not bad, but he's not like he's not at a prem level. Like he's not a great there. So he had his day at the prem and he was good when he was there. He's right. He's not there anymore. He's not there anymore. And
00:37:09
Speaker
Yeah, like who's gonna develop like they've got a lot of kids and Eddie loves playing mind games and fucking with people and it's like, is that gonna work with these kids? All the old people, all the old players that used to play for Eddie from Australia are like, yeah, you know, these kids are gonna be in for a wake. I'm like, I don't really believe in that shit really. Yeah.
00:37:33
Speaker
Is he going to make them better players? Because what? He's going to run into the ground and hurt them all? That wouldn't be a first. Beyond that, too, who's he going to make better? Who did he make better from the England camp? He didn't even let international players make mistakes. It was you get 20 minutes to show me something. If there's something I don't like, I'm pulling in. You're never going back in again. Right.
00:37:58
Speaker
And that impacts the performance downstream of that now. And we'll get into it when we get into the game. But how many players did England put out there who just haven't played enough, but showed that they can do it at the international level, and yet they have 10 or fewer caps?
00:38:20
Speaker
Sometimes only one and it's like, or not. And it's like, why, why do you have in, in, in the, even though the guys who had all the caps, like the Ben Young's, he was in the way out there when he played, like Dan Cole wasn't couldn't move around the pitch. Like he was a strictly Scrum to Scrum guy. Like none of the old head, you know, obviously, you know, um, no,
00:38:46
Speaker
and May had a ridiculous amount of caps, which meant that a guy like Ali Hassell Collins has not been capped yet.
00:38:57
Speaker
And, you know, March hand has 13 caps because we got to, you know, we have to bow the altar of, of to a laggy and slate who neither of whom really contribute all that much at the international at the prime level, either. Like game changing players never got really a chance. Yeah. And now that they're getting a chance, there's going to be making mistakes. So it's like, what's going to happen there in Australia? Like, are you going to start limiting the young players and just trusting the veterans for this? Because they're veterans aren't that fucking good. No.
00:39:23
Speaker
No, they're veterans with the exception of the few and far between. Like I would, I would call him to be all day. Yes. I think he's a very, very good center. He makes any TV. He pops into better. He does. But is he going to get, is he going to be allowed to carry the ball? Oh, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I'm a little worried about what they're, what, what these guys expect of this. Exactly. That's, that's what I'm wondering. Like what, what are you getting? Are you getting a guy who like,
00:39:52
Speaker
I don't know, begin the ego filled. I'm just gonna pick my guys and fuck everybody up and I don't care what the product looks like it's like, well, when you're losing games that's kind of the problem. Yeah, and you're not blooding players. No, and I know I know.
00:40:08
Speaker
Rennie was working on something. And like I said, I think he was not going to be a great World Cup cycle for Australia. They didn't even let him ride it out completely as the coach. So it's like right. And I comparatively compare. If we compare like Peaback to him, Peaback was hands down the worst of the two. And I think he was one of the worst international coaches we've seen for a while. And great. And it's going to take got a little while to get that going.
00:40:36
Speaker
just bringing him in the players are so fucked there so but yeah yeah so in terms of the two of them and yes i know that they both lost to italy but really are on the up if we haven't noticed uh
00:40:50
Speaker
And yeah, if I have to put it, we still had some great performances out of Australia this year, if I'm not, they managed, they did, they won one, that was an ugly game, but those were all ugly games this summer, the England games, but they beat, they won the first test against them. They, they beaten, they should have beat the All Blacks. They beat South Africa, like, yeah, they, they did. How can you fire a coach who beats South Africa?
00:41:18
Speaker
Right. Because you know who can't beat and like so you're hiring you fire a coach who beat South Africa and you hire a coach who can't like with or couldn't with England. Yeah, have a damn hard time. I think you won one of the autumn games with them. Right. I mean, come on. But
00:41:41
Speaker
Yeah, it's no Renny Renny had a thing going. And I think he's going to kind of like changing that is not the best idea. So I don't know. I fuck Eddie. You know, Eddie, if he's smart, he just continues doing that because that's what the players are used to. And it's working rather than no, we're going to change to my system, which. Hey, if that happens, then England won't have to worry about beating them in the knockout stages. No.
Wales vs Ireland Match Analysis
00:42:10
Speaker
Let's go to Six Nations, Wales, all those folks. Let's go to Cardiff and Ireland. So I'm going to go right into it. Of the six countries, Wales were the most dog shit. It really were. And I don't think that's a question. No, they were terrible.
00:42:36
Speaker
Compared to the others. I mean, that's not with the exception of 20, 25 minutes. Where I am just really fucking dumb. Right. I mean, really fucking dumb. Like committing really coasting. They were like, yeah, we're done. Let's let's, you know, try to have fun with it. And it was like, no, that's you can't do that in a competition like this because, yeah, even whales will work their way back into it. Yeah, I.
00:43:05
Speaker
And the intentions were clear between the two of them. I'm not... I get the psychological battle that happens with players on the field when you feel like things are just going sideways. Does three really change your mindset that much? I'm not convinced it does. Maybe I'm nuts, but I don't think it does.
00:43:28
Speaker
I, if I'm like, if I'm a forward, especially, um, and, and a front row forward at that, you know, how angry I would be at the work, all the work that we had to do to get us down here. We're down two tries already or three tries or was it, was it two or three? Um, penalty was 14 minutes. So it was, yeah, they're down two tries already 14, nothing. And you're going to give me three points. And not only that, but now that the, uh, we're going to be back in our own end.
00:43:58
Speaker
Cause if I'm not mistaken, um, sexton had a penalty like, yeah, 19 minutes. So five minutes later, then it was the low intercept. Yup. And then it was another penalty from sexton. And that's game. He also converted. So it was like, bye bye. That's game. Doesn't matter what. And if you thanks, I have three, we have three points for that. Like it's so demoralizing. It's so demoralizing for, for a forward and their forwards are already.
00:44:26
Speaker
hurting as it is in this matchup. When you know the other teams forwards just outmatch you, it's already a sad state because you know you have to work that much harder throughout the match.
00:44:44
Speaker
to see, yeah, to work that hard and then, you know, Hey, three points. Yay. And it's like, what the fuck are you doing? Like, let us score a try. Like, just give me the fucking ball. Run it in. Yeah. Yeah. It's maddening. That's a forward perspective for you. Yeah. It's.
00:45:07
Speaker
And I didn't. And every time whales seem like they were going to get going, they bottle it. Anytime they were in a good position, they bottle it with the exception of the Williams try. That was about it. Oh, also, did you see the Tipperick face get our eye gouge? I didn't I didn't catch it live. So no, me neither. But I saw I saw it on going around on the Twitter's today. Looked or maybe it was yesterday either. It looked kind of nasty. So I don't know if he's getting cited for it. I have no idea either.
00:45:37
Speaker
Like, I don't, I don't win Jones. I love, God love him. Not a 60 minute player, more of a 20 minute player at this point, but like, who else do they have? That, that was, you know, obviously I had that question. Jenkins is probably your best answer at this point. Yeah. Who actually didn't play too bad. No. Beard, I didn't, I don't, he's like a ghost out there. I don't really see him doing much.
00:45:59
Speaker
Don't tell Squidge that. Like, I mean, I want to like, I exactly like, I don't see it. Maybe I'm just looking in the wrong places, but you know, I'm looking at what Chasm did and I'm looking at Adam Beard and I'm like, no, there's one player here who.
00:46:19
Speaker
gets my rugby would up like that's it's it's not him he's just he's a Jag and you know doing the line do basically he and look a toji played like poo this week too so he was kind of they were you know both a little bit on the invisible side but still at least a toji made makes his tackles and doesn't look overmatched yeah and he's also
00:46:42
Speaker
world-class. He is world-class. So raise on. Right. But if we're talking about Adam Beard as a world-class player, come on now. Right. That's that's where I'm going with it. Yeah.
00:46:54
Speaker
And for the Irish, really it was that, what was it? 20 minute period. And you had guys like Henderson, Porter, Aki, just giving away hammerhead penalties. Porter was actually getting penalized a lot. He was. That was unhelpful. He was lucky he didn't get carded. Yeah, there was a bunch of different ones, I guess.
00:47:13
Speaker
So kind of the illness one crept in and that's what made it look like it might get interesting for a little bit for whales. And then that final try that everybody that carried the ball looked invincible. She and was a beast, Hanson Love, Ben Fleer finished it with a walk in basically like, yep. I was like, that's the end. And it obviously stemmed a little bit from the card, which I thought
00:47:36
Speaker
of the two, three decisions that people were barking about. Porter on Adams was not a tip. Adams jumped into it. Can't jump into the tackle. And there's a line, I get it. That was definitely jumping into the tackle, though. So I know Porter's already down, so you can penalize him for not being on your feet, which is what he did. So congratulations, Dick Skin. You got one right. Yeah. Yeah, that's actually, that's one thing we need to talk about. Dick Skin. You got all three of those right, honestly, in my opinion.
00:48:07
Speaker
Don't say the word yet. Don't say that word yet. Put a hex on us here. But he Anderson was, was reckless, but it wasn't right. Dangerous per se. I'm okay with the penalty only. Yeah. And then, yeah, the way, the way the Liam Williams thing was, has been refereed to yellow. Yep. And that's, that's where it's at. Yeah. That was perfectly. That's right. Exactly. That was standard operating procedure there. Right.
00:48:38
Speaker
I bet you have the same answers I do because there's obviously a lot of iron that excites us. The one guy that excites you on whales. I'm thinking. I guess like, well, Lewis reset it and he's not on the pitch. Well, same position. Well, then real dire. Yes.
00:49:06
Speaker
And like, not that Josh Adams and, and Sanjay don't excite me because they're already established. I know what I'm getting out of them and I like it. I can't wait to see what, when it's resammit and dire out there. That's going to be fun. That could be fun. I agree. And is, is Joe Hawkins that much better than Nick Tompkins that Tompkins can't be in this team and improve it?
00:49:34
Speaker
I think, especially if you're going to have the just non-attack that whales have, you really want a defensive specialist out there at 12.
00:49:47
Speaker
And it's like, especially look at that back line, look at the rest of them. I mean, Dan Bigger can be a distributor in theory. North at 13, any of those back three players that we were just talking about. And yeah, you're good. If you have a crash ball player that can play defense, that's what you want there. Because that's the one thing you're missing is both of those things. Everyone else is good in space. You need someone who can really
00:50:14
Speaker
you know, attack the shoulder and gain, you know, five or six meters in the tackle each time. Hawkins, I don't, I remember him getting stood up a lot, driven backwards a couple of times. And I thought he was kind of a liability in defense. So like, that's, yeah, that's where I would go with it. I go to get form his tackles. Yeah. There you go.
00:50:38
Speaker
Tackles success rate of 64% is not amazing. No. Not in the middle. Not in the midfield. Not against this team either. Yeah, you can't do that against this team. They can't be given up those kind of, you know, missed tackles to McCloskey and Ringrose. That is...
00:50:55
Speaker
I thought McCluskey played really well. He did. You know, it helps something your opposition can't make a fucking tackle. Right. It does. It does. But he he's one of the he is. He is that hard nose midfielder that makes life miserable on anybody else because he just runs at you and it's not fun to tackle. No. And yeah, it's not the first or the second.
00:51:13
Speaker
It's the it's like the fourth or fifth time when he comes at you like, God damn it, we're still doing this thing. Yeah. And then when it's like 70 minutes and you're like, he's still doing it. Yeah, no shit. Oh.
00:51:27
Speaker
Oh, that's the we stop yet. Yeah. I'm done. I fucking get it. I'm already sore. Well, you just say I got low and I wrapped you up like I've done the first 10 times, but I haven't really done so much the last five or six and we call it a day. Yeah. So well done, Ireland. That was. Yeah. A near complete performance from them this weekend is going to be fun.
00:51:56
Speaker
Let's go to the one I've had on the background over here, Calcutta Cup, England and Scotland at Twickenham.
England vs Scotland Breakdown
00:52:04
Speaker
The doozy of a match, number one. How good was this match? How well played was this match overall? I was saying England fans won't say so, but that's different story for a different day. Yeah, but whatever. This was an excellent match. This is an excellent display of rugby at a high level. Great.
00:52:23
Speaker
So yeah, it was a little loose, but that's the way it that's, that's also good rugby. So deal with it. Like the looseness is part of the appeal. And it's also why we had what 50, 50, almost 60 points scored. Yeah. Right. That stuff. That's fun. Yeah. It was great stuff.
00:52:45
Speaker
And both teams played really good rugby. Yeah, they both and both made mistakes, but that's going to happen. That that happens that both teams made mistakes. You know, Ireland made mistakes. It happens. I don't know why England fans get all like, boy, well, Dombright had like two or three knock ons. Yeah. And that's because he was everywhere and people were kind of feeding him last minute. You know, it worked really well when Marcus did it. It's just he's got to be like, that's that's that telepathy that the two of them have now because they're playing on the same team. But but Dombright has seven caps. Yeah.
00:53:15
Speaker
Yeah, it doesn't make sense. The game is still super fast for him because he might have a cap or two a year. Like, he's not used to it. It still takes a little bit more time to get used to it, especially starting and playing 80. Well, he only played 56, but playing more than half. Fuck. Yeah. That's right. There's a lot to it. He still had a lot of good things he did when even after he decided to bottle a couple of carries. He had a couple turnovers. He had some really good tackles.
00:53:44
Speaker
and did some really good rolling away when the referee was talking to him, where other players wouldn't have done. So I thought he worked on the floor, which is something that you can't that won't show up on the stat sheet, but it needs to be noted when it is, you know, right. Yeah, I will say one of the one of the knockoff wasn't his fault. It was
00:54:02
Speaker
on the kick and his guys were backing up to him and he's like, dude, are you getting this or am I like, right? And that's a decision on both, on both players, really. So 50% indication. Right. But it's to everybody. Yeah. Yeah. Cause I think it was, it was a Toge. He was going to go up for it. So better tomorrow for, to me, that's the more experienced player has to make the call and didn't, didn't work out right. So I don't know that you got it. Yeah. Um,
00:54:29
Speaker
And Ollie Hassell Collins was excellent. Give me a couple, like, so whenever you watched this match, you know, the times that it worked out poorly for England was when they kicked and Scotland caught the ball.
00:54:48
Speaker
And Hassell Collins in mainland started out that match just kicking perfectly just boom right down the middle where they weren't grass. Yep, and it looked like and I think I noticed I think second half I started to see Scotland when it was an obvious kick situation would have four guys back there.
00:55:01
Speaker
Which that's, that was a killer. That's actually what helped them score the final try. And it was, again, it was a kick directly to a player and can't do it. Like when they kicked and made it bounce, yeah, they would get the line out in their end and that's how they were scored. That's how they took the lead. And then they stopped doing that in the second half. It was a.
00:55:22
Speaker
Right. And that's the defense of the league's kick that that do hand scored off of. Yeah, the bad kicks were taken advantage of by Scotland, no doubt. Right. And that's the difference of. You know, yeah, the team that kicks more wins, but it's what type of kick, how good are the kicks? All those things, if the kicks are dog shit and they're all fucking box kicks that are seen a million miles away, is it really worth it?
00:55:48
Speaker
Right now, because because and the the first vendor Mervitry came because of the the line out where they got the line break off of fast. It was feral, by the way, when I saw it was him on the roof. Yeah, it was tackled down. I was trying to decide if it was feral or Martian was supposed to have that space, but it doesn't matter.
00:56:04
Speaker
Yeah, no, it was absolutely feral who was supposed to have it, but he wanted to take a whack at Finn. I kind of don't play them for it. Yeah, it didn't work. Finn's actually too good for that. He hadn't noticed. But that was off. Like they had the penalty because I think it was Hassel Collins kicked directly to a player or somebody. Yeah, somebody kicked directly to a Scotland player, kicked it back to Hassel Collins, and then they got the penalty at the breakdown.
00:56:33
Speaker
Yes, I remember that. I remember that penalty. I was like, Ooh, that's probably the worst thing Castle Collins has done today. Right. And because he kind of went down. I think he was either he went down too early.
00:56:45
Speaker
Or if there may have been, I don't remember if that was that or the neck roll on. No. Okay. Okay. That was the hassle. Collins going down too quickly and kind of running too, too into a guy into incident into space. I don't think it was at least was put that way. Yeah. My brain's fuzzy. And so it was like all these things added up and it was just not, you know,
00:57:06
Speaker
just a couple of mistakes and then defensive lapses that Oh, the Ben Curry missing that tackle on Ben White. That was that was criminal or he took it. He went inside on like he went to where Ben White was never going to go. There's no room for him to go there and he couldn't pick the ball up and go to his left and Curry went to his left and just gave up the outside. It's like
00:57:27
Speaker
What are you even wearing? We're even running, dude. Yeah. Yeah. Make a better angle than that. And he did. Yeah. And he had his troubles and loose team around then, too. Yeah, there were a couple of line breaks that I think where he was kind of loose at the, like, off the scrum and stuff. I didn't like what I saw there. So I saw that he was sent back. And that's tough. He'll get his opportunity again, though, because they've got a good coach in their system.
00:57:55
Speaker
I think he needs a little bit more seasoning before he's ready to continue at the international level. Right. So of the players that we don't see a ton of at international level between the two teams, I'd say the, and there's probably other names that I'm missing here in terms of what people consider, but just from the list I made, Cione, Chasm, Malins, White,
00:58:20
Speaker
Ludlum, Hassell Collins and Dom. All pretty good match should definitely see more action. Right. Kyle Stane, I don't get it. Yeah, I don't know. Luke Cosby was a little bit of a ghost. And like you said, Ben Curry was, he had his problems. Right. Really, you know, if you're going to have
00:58:39
Speaker
giving up a try and committing a couple of knock-ons. I think I'm going to take the knock-ons and live the fight another day. Exactly. Because he was in position. I mean, he was in position and support. He just got to get those, you know, iron some things out, right? And or, you know, and then the the kickoff, they got it or the, you know, the restart, they got to.
00:58:56
Speaker
work on the communication, but that's what, that's, that's what happens when guys don't have caps. The communication isn't, isn't there. Cause they're not sure. You know, it's hard to take charge of the situation, although they should be able to Tom brand as a fucking private club captain. Yes. He should, he should be able to, but yeah, it's still, he's, it's a different level. And we had, so obviously we, I don't think we can ignore my dog. Yeah.
00:59:29
Speaker
My dog's an idiot. We had Duhan who was...
00:59:34
Speaker
otherworldly. We were talking, people were talking about him at the world. Did he not play in 2019 for Scotland? Am I making that up in my head? Like I thought he was there, but it actually makes sense that he wasn't because they were so crap. They were like, hold on. Let me see when he started playing for Scotland. No, in 2020. That's when he started playing for. Okay. Well, that makes sense then. All right. Yeah. Fair enough. Yeah. Cause he was probably,
01:00:02
Speaker
Yeah. OK, that makes a lot of sense because he played at Edinburgh till. Oh, it's all 2021. That's when he went to Worcester. Yeah. All right. That makes a lot of sense. So, yeah, seeing him at the World Cup is going to be awesome. It is. I mean, and Scotland, you know, so enough about England. Scotland played so fucking well. They did. They held up. You know, yes, they England had them in attack.
01:00:31
Speaker
dead when they were playing quickly. They had Scotland dead to rights. But England still like to kick the ball, you know, and when they do it poorly, Scotland just really knew how to take advantage. And that's such a big one on where we're staying like that. Yeah, no heat that. Yeah, that that interworking didn't quite work out that well. No.
01:01:00
Speaker
No. I have to say like in when it comes to their second row, like if you're going to have Richie Gray who actually played out of his skin compared to what we've seen out of him before and Grant Gilchrist like aren't those two guys kind of similar? They are. Like don't you want something a tiny bit of change?
01:01:22
Speaker
Like, and I'm, and obviously there's might be a tiny bit of change, but like more, maybe a little bit more than that. And then you have Fagerson who's almost the same thing. Right. Really? And I get it. They were all, all three of them were defensively great, but like you need a ball carrier and I'm not sure any of those are ball carriers right now. Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, isn't mish hurt and, um, the other funny named fellow.
01:01:46
Speaker
Darge. Darge, yes. Sounds like a South Park thing. Darge. Like, without them, I don't know what else they have. Although, Bradbury. Why isn't he there? Everybody refuses to pick him, so. Yeah, I don't see why, because Vegas and
01:02:09
Speaker
He was pure. Yes, defensively great and does some of the grunt work, but you already have. You need more at an international level from your number eight. Right. Like we saw and I know Don Brandt had again, Don Brandt has knockouts, but he still got through the same amount of work. He was more impactful in a lot of ways. And but that's the thing, too, is when you have the guys who are just going to do the grunt work,
01:02:31
Speaker
that the more guys you have doing that, the fewer guys you have who can chase. And that's one of the reasons that England really had Scotland in attack when England had fastball and were really moving it and really pressing the Scotland defense. They were winning more often than they were losing, which is why you take those knock ons. OK, that happens, but we'll reset it and do it through the same thing and we're good. They were able to do that because Scotland didn't have anybody to really fetch.
01:03:01
Speaker
Like Crosby, as you said, was okay. Jamie Ritchie was, was a tackling machine. And I don't know his stats, but, um, they're in there. But yeah, he, yeah, no, I agree. Jamie Ritchie was earning his, his, his armband for sure. Right. He's. And it's, but it's like, you need someone else who can. He's a little more dynamic than anybody else in the, in that back row.
01:03:27
Speaker
Yeah. And unfortunately we didn't see the same thing at Crosby that we saw when he played against Sarri. So that's disappointing in a lot of ways. Cause I thought we would see that a lot more and it was not to be, uh, yeah. Yeah. Which he had. Oh, he had 11, 11 tackles in Vegas and had 24. Yeah. I got 20, I got 26 on this one. Oh, okay. Um, um, Oh, wait.
01:03:58
Speaker
I don't know. I guess I'm looking at the fantasy stats from there. Oh, I'm just looking at, I'm looking at official Six Nations. Oh, weird. Yeah. Why do they have different? Yeah. Well, it's the same thing as like with FRD and Prim. Those are, those numbers are going to be different too. Yeah. At least FRD shows up all the time. Create Six Nations. Their site usually is on point. They usually don't screw anything up. So. Okay. Yeah.
01:04:25
Speaker
Yes, 20 odd tackles is fucking phenomenal. There's no denying that. He helps set up the figures and helps set up the winning try. So yes, that's great. But again, you just need a little bit more dynamism from your number eight international rugby. And if you're not going to get it from your number eight, you need it from somewhere else. And I don't know where Scotland gets it right now. So that's a little bit of a head scratcher for me in a lot of ways.
01:04:51
Speaker
Nothing. And I, and I don't think Jack Dempsey brings it either. No, but the thing is it's, I can't knock it cause it's working. I mean, they, as a unit, they play. So here's the, this is. Fuck. This is crazy. Just to say this about a Gregor Townsend team. They played better than some of their parts. Some of the whole. Yeah. Like they, yeah, you're right. They have all these guys that you're like, yeah, but.
01:05:18
Speaker
It worked, they played a very, you know, good game and listen yeah it helps that I mean their back line is ridiculously talented and that that that helps a lot to cover up some for some things but it's still there like they like you'd still generally would need a better pack to put on a performance like that so
01:05:39
Speaker
Um, yes. And you don't, but you don't want to bank on that every time. Right. Right. Cause there's now, now if, if another team takes away option A, if, you know, they, they play some solid defense and fit in and, you know, pick to touch instead of kicking right down the, the touch line. Um, and in a place where Duhan van de Merver lives. Um, no joke. Yeah. Don't do that. Kick to touch. Um,
01:06:07
Speaker
Yeah. Kick to touch, kick to space. Don't kick right down somebody's freaking neck, man. It's not going to go well. Bad idea. Bad idea. They'll make you pay. Yeah, it's a little bit of a cheat code, but they've got that cheat code, so now you've got to react to it. Don't kick it anywhere near them. Yeah. I know.
01:06:32
Speaker
The one good thing that stain and hog both did, and they, they cocked it up together. I'm pretty sure. Oh, yeah. The little line break down the sideline. Yeah. Like, Oh, yeah. I, I, I was almost like.
01:06:49
Speaker
I was waiting to see how they screwed up, honestly. I'm so cynical. But it's like, I don't think this is the game where a Stein or a Hogg score a try. It doesn't seem like that game. You know what I mean? And it wasn't. So I was like, OK, look, we know that this is what this segment will prove.
01:07:10
Speaker
if it's going to be this kind of party or if we got ourselves like an actual game. It's going to be that kind of party. Yeah. Um, and as it turned out, yeah, no, they're not, they, they are what we thought they were. Yeah. Agreed. Let's, let's go to Rome and I did not have this on my being a board as a
Italy vs France Performance and Potential
01:07:33
Speaker
match. Like I knew really would come out with some passion and some, and some intensity, but to run,
01:07:41
Speaker
defending Grand Slam champions to the end. Five points close. I definitely did not have that down. And they probably could have won this game, honestly. I mean, fuck, they had a line out in the five meter line. Yeah. And that's that was game. And yeah, they fucked up them all. They did. But they had the opportunity. It was there and that they earned it. Like, that's the that's the that's the kind of the heartbreak for a team like this because it's
01:08:08
Speaker
And in these games, they'll figure out ways to close that out. And yes, they won some games recently, but the more times they put themselves in those situations, the better it will be for them overall. And if I'm an Italian rugby fan, I am encouraged by Michele Lamoureux's interview afterwards.
01:08:32
Speaker
He's like, yeah, we were passionate and we were very, we were full heart, but that's not gonna win you games. So we need to be more accurate. And I was just like, he wants more. And I am so excited if I'm an Italian rugby fan right now because captain demands more than what you saw and you saw a damn good performance. So I'm impressed. That what else is there to say that it's down to margins now between you and Fred, like this whole,
01:08:59
Speaker
going in for a five meter mall try that gets held up or that gets held in the mall. That's something that would happen every time when Italy played France. Like every time they had that opportunity to out turnover, like, oh, we got something good. All right. No, turn over. Fuck.
01:09:17
Speaker
Now you own, like it's happening at the very end of the match. And that's like, okay, that's it is we got to make sure we close this out. Really? Like we can't let down our guard at any point. Like you learn from it and, and to know that that's, that's the difference. Oh, it's so encouraging.
01:09:35
Speaker
Because again, that's that that's that France team. That's one of the favorites to win the World Cup. We were talking about the Mystique. This is where Italy knows we have to play our A plus game plus some. That's the plus some that last small. Yeah. And but to know you played your best game and that's enough to be in the game. OK, we got like that's oh.
01:09:59
Speaker
It was bumpies. People are saying, well, France committed so many penalties. Italy forced them into a lot of those penalties. Don't take the credit away from the Italians. They forced them into those penalties a lot. A lot of it was, and yes, Italy bit themselves in the butt a couple of times. I'm sorry. Oh, fucking. Oh, I'm sorry. I have to get into this. Dowie Morrison, you are a fucking asshole using the word suicide. Fuck you. Fuck you and fuck the horse you rode it on.
01:10:26
Speaker
Shut up and shut up forever. You're an asshole for using that in any context in sports. Go fuck yourself. Jesus Christ.
01:10:34
Speaker
Sorry, I had to get into that. He was also kind of a, he was also a douche the whole, I can't. He's a douche anyway, and that's not, so it shouldn't be surprising, but it's still, it's incredibly fucked up. Like you're, this is your profession. Find another fucking way to put that besides suicide. You're a fucking douchebag. And I hope, I hope that you never, never, ever, ever have to experience that in your life. And if you have, and you're still using this term, then you're even dumber than I think you are. Period.
01:11:04
Speaker
Fuck that guy. Yeah, there's no need to. I mean, there's no need to have him calling games anyway. No. So. No. Hold on. I know. I thought we could just where we take like. Like self sabotage. Yeah. Like that is the easiest way to put it without bringing in anything like that. Like do not compare anything in sports to an event like that in someone's life that happens like.
01:11:31
Speaker
You're a fucking idiot. You are somebody that makes this world worse with the words you use. You stupid, stupid fuck. Oh man, I almost threw shit through the window when I heard that. I was so mad. So fucked up. Sorry, I had to get into that. Yeah, understood.
01:11:55
Speaker
OK, I'm inside. How how good was Lorenzo Canoni? Yes. Let's get it back into the Italian. That's what made me happy. Right. Yes. And they had ambition. And yes, Canoni was great. And Rex was otherworldly. I thought Rex was one of the best players on the weekend alone in this game. Like. And you just got to find him a partner to be a tiny bit better. And I didn't think he was that bad, but he wasn't bad. You know, I think the son of his partner was basically Canoni.
01:12:24
Speaker
Yeah, in a lot of ways. And it worked pretty well because I don't well, I don't think France knew what was coming there because he had a lot of gaps to run through. They they were keying off of other players, obviously. And Kenoni took a major advantage of it for almost 70 minutes. Yeah, Alan, I thought played a hell of a match himself. Yeah, he he was.
01:12:52
Speaker
The boots were letting them down for both him and Barney. Everything else was great. Those were the things that were letting them down. And it was it's a little bit of nerves, probably a little bit of experience in a game like this at this level. It'll come. It'll come. Because here's the thing. Here'd be my question to you, sir. Well, if if he had hit his conversion. From the proposal, try.
01:13:22
Speaker
You're kicking for points at the end of the match, right? Instead of the corner, right? Because it's that'll give you the win or no, it'll give you the time. Give me the tie. I I'd have a hard think about that. I would too. And I can appreciate someone not going for the tie. And that's the thing. Right. I could too. But it gives you that that option anyway to.
01:13:43
Speaker
Cause man, that would be, we probably end up with the same result, but point being is it's, it is more helpful if he's able to, you know, conversions were kind of the problem for a lot of teams this weekend, you know, Ramos had his T his kicking boots out. If Ben wasn't amazing and neither was Farrell in the second, the second match in the first match, like.
01:14:05
Speaker
Biggs had issues and so they were trying all these things. Yeah. Yeah. They were perfect in the first match. In the first match, they were good. Okay. Well, you know what? When there's only two from Wales, it's hard to keep track. Exactly. I think that you had a good day off the tee, but yeah, you only had two, so. Yeah, one penalty, one penalty. Yeah, it's actually not a good one too, though. But anyway, so, and for the French,
01:14:35
Speaker
It's probably a little bit of a tear your hair out type of stuff for them because we saw in this game, both sides of how good and how bad they can be. Like we saw some brilliance from Intimac, unquestionably, like with the foot, just putting it on dimes.
01:14:57
Speaker
I'm just. Yeah, it was it was brilliant. And I mean, obviously, Charlie Bear was was fucking amazing on his try to. Yeah, I there was so like every every play you look down that that list and you're like, they all. They all had a great game, and then you also look at them and you're like, you know what? Oh, I remember him fucking that up. I remember him fucking that up to like, but.
01:15:24
Speaker
Again, if we're being fair, we judge them by the overall play, not just the worst or their best. They all played pretty well. That's the thing. It's not as though France played a terrible match that kept Italy in it. They both played.
01:15:45
Speaker
To the, you know, throwing their best at each other, both these teams. And it's just cool that Italy's best is a little bit better than we've seen from them in the past. Right. Italy held the ball the most. Crazy. It says a lot. Yeah. Yeah. France played a hell of a match. They, you know, that was one of those like, this is going to help them too. Cause they're, they're getting pushed or like, you know, Italy are a damn good team.
01:16:11
Speaker
They're not, they're not anything you can look past now. And, you know, France went in there and won on the road when they could have, this could have been their, this could have been their French match and they, they chose to, they still played out of their minds. I mean, they were, what, they had three tries in the first 30 minutes. They were, they were showing up. Yeah. Yeah. So like,
01:16:39
Speaker
good on Italy for making that match, especially, you know, with the penalty at half. And it's like, oh, you know what? We're not out of this yet. This is not one to turn off. They needed that one, right? I was watching it. I'm like, they need something before they go into the break. And they're in this. Yeah. And thankfully, they did it. And I don't have a whole lot of things to say against Matthew Carley. My only criticism ever of Carley is that he's
01:17:08
Speaker
Super strict. He's kind of a dick. Yeah. You know, great. But for this, it was somewhat it was someone else who I thought was a Foley for this. So I was expecting like a whole bunch. I was expecting of. Yeah, I was expecting the referees to be assholes. And they know you're right. Same same comment from from from Dick Skin. I have for Carly that they acquitted themselves at acceptably.
01:17:37
Speaker
Yeah, I can't I it wasn't much to find I would like to see them ref like this in the prem Yeah, same. That's that's my comment. Let's make it positive It's like to see this level of performance really consistent basis for both of these referees. Yeah, and last note
01:17:54
Speaker
We can't forget about what's up in his try. He be altered to get it down. Come on. That's not a nobody. That's not a nobody. That's one of the best number eights in the world. And so here's the thing. Varney saw it too.
01:18:12
Speaker
He did. He realized what was on the other end. He's like, all right, I need to exploit this. They took a look at each other. They saw, they, they, and went for it. Like they, that's good. First off, that's, that's great chemistry. But second off, that's good teamwork. Ben Young's.
01:18:32
Speaker
Oh, hey, look, that guy's going to make a wrap around me. OK, cool. You know what I'll do? I'll just stop and wait my time. And oh, wait, now he's he's already there. Oh, shit. Now I got a kick. What the fuck, dude? Like, yeah, I remember that one going, oh, that's what are you doing? You made the same. It was the exact same lines that were being run. And he just hung mailings out to dry. And it's like, whereas Varney,
01:18:59
Speaker
You know, you're going to tell me that Varney is, is right now is a better Scrum half than Ben. I guess I am because that's like, he's the one who was able to help see that play, make that play. And obviously, you know, fucking amazing Capote. So that finish and, and to be able to have the athleticism to make that play just right. Well done, sir. Very good. Very good. But, but yeah, I had to make sure we talk about our Scrum halfery here. Cause a little bit. Yeah.
01:19:28
Speaker
Yeah. Good. As far as mine's going the weekend, the Barney wasn't the worst. No, no, I'd venture to say that he was, he was in there. Yeah. The third or fourth, depending on how you want to rank Connor Murray. Right.
01:19:44
Speaker
Yeah, I think we can just chuck the Welsh nines to the bottom. They were pretty poor. And honestly, nothing against him, but then Fort Fleet. I don't know. It was this, what, eighth cap or something. He still has less than 10. So, and he's 21. He had a little bit of the white line fevers. He had a little bit of the... I don't know how else to put it. There was a lot of... The jitters, maybe.
01:20:09
Speaker
Yeah, jitters. Like he was really trying to, he was pressing to make a play rather than just making the play that was there. And that's, you got to work that through. But that's what happens when you, when you have one guy with 121 caps, who's not. International level anymore. Right. Yeah. And the, and on, on Bamport Fleet, I thought it was the one knock on him has been his service. I thought that was perfect.
01:20:34
Speaker
It was. There's at least that. There were a couple. But it was like when he was trying to do too much and he kind of threw a shit pass to somebody who wasn't expecting it because they didn't know what the fuck he was doing. Not on the same page. Right. And there was that. But other than that, like when he when he wanted to go somewhere, like that was his ability to run. Like I remember when people were talking about Harry Randall and how out of shape he was because he was behind the play.
01:21:03
Speaker
That was very evident to me now watching Van Porte's league get around the pitch. There'd be a line break. They'd go 30 meters up across the entire field and he's right there feeding that ball out like it's nothing. What a... Yeah, his work rate and then throwing a good pass off of it. Amazing. He's going to be a great scrum half. Let's get him some more caps.
01:21:32
Speaker
Sure we will. And Alex Mitchell, who can play at a similar level also. See him probably this weekend. Giggity. All right. That's fancy pod for us, our rugby pod for us. Just the rugby pod. Fancy pod's coming up. That's coming up. We are going to get into that. We'll go over to the fancy corner. I feel like I've had more than Ben and I definitely haven't.
01:22:00
Speaker
If you're not coming over to the fancy corner, we do appreciate you hanging out with us. Fancy rugby podcast at gmail.com. Questions tweet at Ben or I rankings will be out again on Friday for these guys. I will do something next week with boom bust. I just got caught up with bullshit this week. Um, so I'll do something next week and compile kind of the two weeks window here. We've had with, um, with six nations before we dive back into prem. But other than that, um,
01:22:28
Speaker
Appreciate you all for listening to us and enjoy round two of the other rugby and we'll see you all then. Have a good one. Later.