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Season 3- Episode 8- Adios 2020 (Premiership Round 4)
28 Plays5 years ago
It is your favorite American rugby knuckleheads back for their final official episode of 2020 (although keep your eyes out for the Festivus special). This episode we talk about UAR's findings of their investigation into Matera et al, have what seems to be a periodic chat about ring fencing and discuss Wales do in their engine room with the recent departure news. Of course, we also recap the action from the Premiership, the happenings in Champi-Yanks League and have a look at start or sit for this weekend's action. Pop a beer and join us for the final episode of 2020.
Ask us questions via Twitter: Jarrod- jdyke8man & Ben- admrablsnackbar. Send us your thoughts for the show and questions for upcoming shows via e-mail fantasyrugbypodcast@gmail.com. Don't forget to send us your questions to be discussed on Episode 100 next month!
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Transcript
Emotional reflections and listener engagement
00:00:08
Speaker
Hey, everybody. Welcome back. I'm Ben. Hopefully, this will be a much cheerier one this time around. I'm really sorry about sorry about all the tissues, guys. It had like we just learned about it. So I think that's why it was so bad for me. It was fresh. That was fresh that day. Right. I was like, I'm going to be a wreck, aren't I? Still extremely raw.
00:00:35
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, still is. But yeah, yeah, that was that was hard. That was that sucked. Plain and simple. I struggled to talk too. So it's like, all right, I got to force myself to say something to bail Jared out. Yeah, you did. Yeah, you definitely you definitely picked me up on that one. I was going well on my on anybody's end. No, it was not. But more festive this occasion. Haha. Yeah. Let's let's drink.
00:00:59
Speaker
You want to find us wherever your favorite podcasts, rate review, all that stuff. We love to hear from you. Like Ben said the other week, let's know how you found us. Yeah. Yeah. Where did you find us? Yeah. Where'd you dig us up? I want to know where the hell you found us because you were looking in the wrong spot.
00:01:27
Speaker
especially the ones who we see every so often of a mass download from one location and be like, all right, would you listen to what you like? Somebody hears and sometimes if you subscribe to a podcast, having heard of it, like if you hit subscribe, if you have the room on your device, all of them go.
00:01:49
Speaker
That was a bad choice. Yeah, not quite that. This is not this is not what I meant to do. I'll take the downloads. But yeah. Yeah. Thanks for the boost. Yeah. Oh, man.
Community shoutouts and fan interactions
00:01:59
Speaker
Thank you. Always, always, always check out our buddy, the fancy rib geek, George, especially after a weekend like last weekend where we were looking at two cancellations. That's talking about things that sucked. He had himself a hell of a week, too. So yeah, you had a good you had a good choice on TRM there.
00:02:16
Speaker
And I think he won FRD in our, in the, the, did he finally win, win in prom? Jeez him. I think he did. We'll talk about it a little bit here. Yeah. But yeah, buy him a coffee, buy him a beer. Men's deserving of it. Speaking of TRM, make sure you grab your upgrade to the RPA.
00:02:32
Speaker
are benefiting from tiara upgrades now and you know it's really cool to see guys like ethan waller on there you know i love seeing that uh who else was on there lambert was on there i was like that's really cool like this is this is the type of stuff that can help
00:02:48
Speaker
propel this type of thing forward. Um, you know, in the grand scheme of things, rugby is still very small, but this is something that can help because people are fancy. You and I talked about, um, when we were talking with Sam, like people are fancy nuts here. So yeah, let's, let's keep it going. It's a big thing. If you get, if you can get into it here and that's a big thing to have player interaction too on all formats. I was thinking about that, not just related to that. So we're talking about props here, right? Ethan Waller doing the fantasy. Um, uh,
00:03:18
Speaker
Jamal Ford Robinson constantly on Twitter, constantly posting just fun, fun stuff. Like here's why it's fun to be a rugby player. And like, even he'll make fun of himself with the whole, you know, the Gloucester winning and the champions cup, and he's like kind of walking while everybody else is in the big pile. He's like, I was in that pile in spirit. That helps engagement and helps, you know, especially, I think especially props need that.
00:03:46
Speaker
need to there needs to be a connection to props. Otherwise, all you see is the big goofballs who do stupid shit on the field. What's going on behind it? Yeah, definitely. And engagement with what's his obviously now what's his face is part of a podcast. Gens. That's the one thing I know the words here. He isn't he is a character. Interesting character. There's no doubt about that.
00:04:09
Speaker
Yeah, if you need to dive into some, you know, interest with some of these guys, definitely. The guys like that are definitely the ones that need to help the support along as well. Right. Be the ambassadors. Exactly. As always. Speaking of, oh, we're not getting there.
Social issues and rugby culture
00:04:26
Speaker
Not going there yet. Black Lives Matter, as always. You know, it was related. It was on Christmas here in the US. There was a
00:04:35
Speaker
a suicide bomber that went off, but people were really reluctant to call it what it was because the dude was white. I was like, yeah, he was also a subscriber of QAnon theories. I was like, OK, so he was batshit crazy, too. So right. Domestic right wing terrorism. We can say it. It's not. But it's not just, you know, but but no, he's he's a loner, a lone wolf.
00:04:57
Speaker
Yeah, he might have been a lone wolf, but it was a suicide bomb. He put a few people in the hospital, he leveled a city block and probably put some businesses out of business for a little while, if not permanently. And that's bullshit, man. Yeah. Call where it is. Right. And that definitely relates to Black Lives Matter because a lot of, you know, a lot of shit gets dumped on people who aren't white. So, yeah.
00:05:20
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Black or brown. They would have totally called on a suicide bomber. Right. You know, right. We're not we're not going to be French referees and just call it on one side. We're going to call it right down. No, no, no. The field is not tilted. Yes. Not how it works, man. It's not how it works. It currently is tilted. Let's put it back to level. Shall we find to meet? No, it's not fun. Yeah. All right.
Milestone episode plans and Argentina rugby controversy
00:05:43
Speaker
pod 100 is coming up. We're going to have some fun. We have some questions to answer on it, which should spark some conversation. And if we can manage to broadcast this, then maybe they'll spark some questions on YouTube, which will be kind of fun. So we'll do our best with that one. No promises.
00:06:01
Speaker
At the very least, the recording is going to be up, and you'll be able to have a laugh at our stupidity later on. And you'll probably hear from the boss on this side here. Oh, my! Yeah, uh-huh. Cross your fingers. Or, wait, nope, that's not what you want to do. Never mind. Okay, to the new cycle. Wasn't a super noisy week, but...
00:06:31
Speaker
Ruby Argentina has reversed, not reversed, but they completed their investigation into Matera and Co. They're going to hold off reinstating his captaincy until he does some training. And really, I don't care what kind of training he does. You can't be okay with
00:06:52
Speaker
the stuff that Mattara and the other two guys were laying down as an organization like this. People still don't respect you for reasons like this. Yeah, it matters. Yeah, it does. Captain C matters just because he's a good player. There's plenty of players who on that team, Nicholas Sanchez,
00:07:14
Speaker
He's the one who's like, you know, as much as I mean, Tara was, was the heart of that, that team that beat New Zealand. Nicholas Sanchez scored every single point. So like there's a, you know, there's other players who can, who can have that captaincy and would deserve it just as much. Right. So I think that might be the, the, I would.
00:07:35
Speaker
choose that course of action where there would be a multi-year plan to get Matera back on. He's still young. There's no reason to shut him out from it forever. But let, let someone else have a shift. Yeah. And you know, the, so they're not giving it to him right away. And he has to complete this course actually. And they still haven't said he's definitely getting it back to their, to their credit. They haven't come out with that, but still.
00:07:58
Speaker
You make that whatever corrective action pretty simple, although maybe it's going to be heavy-handed, which it should be, but generally. It was to start with. It actually was. Then they pulled it back so freaking quick. It's like, well, then you didn't really do it. Whoa, when did this happen? You didn't even have time to let it actually take effect before you went. No way. Never mind. Not doing it. Yeah. Rethink.
00:08:26
Speaker
No, no, no, no, no, we think get the fuck out of here. Yeah. Anyway, so Ruby Argentina's got a few things to fix. Yeah. Maybe, um, I know P show is a bit, it really wants to be involved with road rugby, but maybe he needs to go back and have a little help with, give his country a little help. Cause there's a problem. And I'm sure he would be right on the ball to take care of it because he's, he's seeing it all. So, and I definitely would have voted for him over Bill Belmont, not that Bill Belmont hasn't started, uh,
00:08:54
Speaker
turn certain wheels that need turning, but I think P show would have been a little bit better, but that's just me. It's another conference.
Premiership challenges and player decisions
00:09:05
Speaker
It's a conversation that comes up for the premiership almost yearly, if not, but you know, semi-year semi-annually.
00:09:13
Speaker
ring fencing. And, you know, and I wasn't necessarily in favor of it. pre COVID. Yeah. But right now, I think, you know, having a club, you know, you're gonna have a club that drops in May, right as of right now. Right. And
00:09:31
Speaker
Their finances are already fucking tits up. Sorry for using that phrase. But yeah, they're already frigging backwards. So to send somebody down to the championship with the clubs going the way they are and after probably competing in the prem as hard as possible and probably putting in some cash to compete in the prem up until the point they get relegated, whatever team it is. Ew. It's almost fortunate that Saracens were relegated
00:10:00
Speaker
So you didn't have to worry about it long before. Yeah. You didn't have to worry about a club really that wasn't prepared for it. And maybe, you know, if it was a team that was on shaky ground, like, I don't know exactly how the London Irish seem pretty good. They just opened a new stadium and all that. They would probably be OK. I don't know where Leicester are financially. Well, Wofford Grove just got a new sponsor that doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. Yeah.
00:10:31
Speaker
So who knows, right? It's just Saracens though will survive. But ring fencing, I'm not opposed to the idea anymore, as you said. But I like the idea of relegation. I think that it should still be in play, but it should be something like the club coming up has to have a certain amount of
00:10:57
Speaker
financial and on-field success and can challenge any number of, like there has to be like an actual challenge match. You have to prove, you know, show you're better and you belong in the, in the prem coming up, not just, you know, cause we, it is there's, there's 13 prem teams really. And maybe 14, if you can bring up with pirates or maybe healing, healing. Um,
00:11:21
Speaker
Yeah, that dude's done to shoot total money into that probably healing instead and just say here here's your 14 prem teams and we're going to deal with that. Yeah, I think dealing with that for a couple years probably the best action just to stabilize everything and I'm not saying that, you know,
00:11:41
Speaker
I think you can, in a way you can almost help the RFU by telling them, these are the clubs that you need to help stabilize the friend clubs are fine. These are the championship clubs, you have to help stabilize these guys, and let them go belly up, you know, because look what happened. I mean, everybody
00:12:00
Speaker
London Welsh wasn't that long ago. I think disaster is a very terrible word to use in this situation because disasters are things that usually lose lives. But that was just a shambles of a season. They got one effing point and I think it was a losing bonus point that season and that was it. They were atrocious and
00:12:26
Speaker
The club, the state of the club was just as bad. So yeah, they don't want that. And nobody wants that again. Nobody wanted London Welsh to do that, but they weren't paying attention and this is the stuff that happens. So, that's how it goes. So yeah, well, I think for a couple of years, stabilize everything, get RFU to help.
00:12:53
Speaker
as best they can with the championship clubs and not be pissed in the money. Trust me, there's some money that's probably going places it doesn't need to go. So that would be probably the best answer possible and then readdress it in a couple of years. That'd be the idea I think at this point. And kind of shocking news, I know this is not necessarily our usual territory, but Jake Ball,
00:13:21
Speaker
He's gone, he's leaving. He's going back to Australia. So he had a fourth child on the way and his wife is back there now cuz he was from Australia. And she's back there now and that's where all their family is. And he wants to keep playing but at the same time to ask her to come back and to ask the family to come back.
00:13:44
Speaker
I mean, probably having been around the family for a while now because of COVID. And, you know, Australia is doing a lot better than Wales is at the moment in terms of the whole pandemic situation. And they're not going through Brexit down there. No, there's also that part.
00:13:59
Speaker
There's also that part. So, you know, it's, here's the problem. Just as purely as a rugby point of view. Jake Ball, you do what you do. You're taking care of your family. All the best, dude. Go get them. It was fun to watch you try and eat Faf the clerk. That was the fun part. That was nice. What was the meme when you finally get a hold of your little brother? I was like, yeah, I see that.
00:14:28
Speaker
But here's the problem that Wales is about to have, and they probably have an answer somewhere in their ranks, but I don't know what the answer is for them. Alan Mun Jones has probably done it. I don't think he's even going back to Osprey's next season, after this season. I think he's going to shoot for the Lions, and if he doesn't get there, he's done. Yeah. And then Jake Ball now leaving. That was two of their best locks right there.
00:14:54
Speaker
So hold on. I mean, that's tough. Roland's isn't half bad, but I'm not sure at the international level. He's not those guys. He's not ball. No, he's not. He could be any. And I think you I think you will be. Yeah. He's an excellent player. He's very young. I think he didn't need like 28, though. Well, I thought he was I don't think he's that young. OK. Well, in that case, he's got a little bit going to do. Don't listen to me. I don't think don't just don't take my word for it like that. Let me see if I can find him.
00:15:24
Speaker
But anyway, you know, Hill is there and that'll probably be kind of the incumbent there. And after that, I'm all out. I don't know who they can who they can lean on, really. Yeah, I think that's that's a it's a big loss for them.
00:15:42
Speaker
in so many different ways. He's 29. Roland's. Oh, shit. Okay. So yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That's not something to groom for the future. He's the this is this is what you got. That's a band aid. Okay. Yeah. I mean, not a bad band aid, but no. He'll do but hey, maybe this is maybe this is Wales opportunity to move away from, you know, being from that that, you know, slower pace, smash it up to the type where they you know, they
00:16:10
Speaker
through the thing where they take the ball and they put it somewhere else. Not just the middle of the field from howling it through the air. Um, yeah, it moved the ball essentially. Um, that's a crazy idea. Um, that actually worked really well for them back when they were the number one ranked team in the world. Right. Um, they kind of haven't done that since. So no. And I'm, I'm sure Wayne Peaback's going to have a hell of a thing.
00:16:34
Speaker
after this Six Nations. You know, the time between Auto Nations and Six Nations is not as long as you think. No. So to rejig right now is probably not the best idea. Post Lions, there'll be a lot to think about, no doubt. Yeah, at least they have time to work towards the next World Cup. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Again, I'm in favor of anybody that's a new coach to their role in a World Cup cycle, firing them after, you know, a year and a half.
00:17:02
Speaker
It's kind of ridiculous. If you get to year two and a half, and shit's kind of going still going sideways. All right, reconsider. You know, you still have a little bit of time to to get a get a jolt into your team and so on. But yeah, so I still subscribe to that. So give me back time. I'm sure he's gonna be fine. As long as he doesn't keep doing more involved. All right. Hey, let's go to permission action. My goodness.
00:17:25
Speaker
Yeah. Do we actually had games, right? We had some. We had two thirds of the games. The shit, man. Yeah. The shit already. Like people talk about, oh, I don't want to do this anymore. I don't fucking want to do this either. Right. When people are like, I don't want to do mass. I don't want to. I don't either. Like I do it because I, we need to, I don't do it because I fucking enjoy it. Like what the hell is wrong with that? Like I'm super happy about all this shit. It's like the fact that this is what you have to do to get through it. So.
00:17:55
Speaker
Yeah, people got to be smarter. But shit, like fuck. Anyway, we did have some rugby and we had some pretty entertaining rugby. Should we fast forward to like halftime or shortly after halftime of this Quinn's Bears match and talk about? Oh, yeah. Well, let's forward to halftime because that first half, the first half was not good until the very end. No.
00:18:24
Speaker
It was a lot of like, you know, the time of rugby we've been talking, it was a little bit of a little Scotland kind of rugby that Bristol were playing. And reportedly, Pat Lamb goes into the locker room and says, fellas, we're the Bristol Bears. We play a certain way. If you don't want to play Bristol Bears rugby, the bus is right outside. Feel free to get on it. He had no problem telling people where to go. We are going to play with players who want to play our way.
00:18:53
Speaker
You know, as a good captain does, even though he'd already done it a little bit, he stepped up, uh, Stephen Lewitt, too. Yeah. And my goodness, he and Dan Thomas together. We're going to have some fun. Yeah. And they did.
Team performances and coaching impacts
00:19:04
Speaker
And yeah, once they open that, once they open that up, it was great. I mean, unfortunately max mail-ins had to leave the match early, but.
00:19:11
Speaker
How much of a pain the ass is Owen Lloyd to tackle? He is, you know, you look at him and he's not the biggest guy out there and that doesn't necessarily mean shit, but you know, you get a little worried about seeing him out there playing fullback, but he just knows how to make things miss. Like he just dodges it just enough. So even if you get a good chunk of him, he still isn't going to go down too easily.
00:19:35
Speaker
No, he's smart. And that's what I like to see is that the players are getting smarter than they're like, and I try to coach this a little bit starting with this is like, you know, when you go into contact, nobody's in control, really, you know, when you take contact, you know, you never know what can happen if somebody hits you just right.
00:19:55
Speaker
all of a sudden something can happen that you're not expecting and now you're down and your team's in a bad way. Not that you're hurt, you're just, you're on the deck instead of breaking through or doing something good. And so it's like, no, if you just run a line where it's like, yeah, maybe take a little bit of tech contact and just veer off and absorb it or prepare for it and anticipate it in your line so you can stay in bounds and in play and stuff like that.
00:20:26
Speaker
Shit like that's, you know, Lloyd gets it already. So, and players don't get it that young. Usually not until they, usually players with his talent don't understand that until they start losing their speed and then realize, oh, I have to be smart. I can't be this dumb. I need to do something else besides this. And so that's really what separates him from others is that he's just smart. He puts himself, he doesn't put himself in a bad spot. Yeah. That's for sure.
00:20:55
Speaker
As much as you know, we can talk all day about the beautiful beauty of that Bristol Bears second half especially. I have to scratch my head a little bit with with gustard, you know, there seems to be a discipline problem number one. And in a vacuum, Ross Chisholm or Tyrone Green?
00:21:24
Speaker
Look, I haven't seen Tyrone Green much, to be perfectly honest. Tyrone Green.
00:21:31
Speaker
I've seen enough of Ross Chisholm. Yeah, I've seen way too much of Ross Chisholm for my life. Yeah. Yeah. And you have so many options, even without him, even without Aaron Green. You've got plenty of options there. You know, Martian's barely played. Like, I get it, he's getting weeks off, but like even the weeks he's getting on, he's playing like, what, 20 minutes, even when he was with England. So it's like he's not playing on the plane in 80 minutes. So. Yeah.
00:21:59
Speaker
I'm just not understanding what's happening with some of his decisions and like, and then Smith, how Marcus Smith is doing the things he's doing with fucking nobody around nothing. Yeah. He's got no help. No. I mean, the other thing was like, and you saw it and you know, he got really annoyed and you can see how annoyed he was like pulling ox Dom brand. Like, what are you doing? He was your best player on the pitch.
00:22:24
Speaker
He wasn't doing much though, but he was better than anything else that they had out there. Are you kidding me? Like Marcus Smith and him were the two best things that happened that game. Well, I will say, um, Louie Lina actually played quite well. He did. He didn't play really well. Didn't play too, too badly for a guy that just got thrown into the fire. Um, but, and you, you could select.
00:22:42
Speaker
Don Brandt was gonna eat the camera. He was about to fucking wreck the guy holding that camera because he's like, excuse me, can you please go away? And I get that. I'd be annoyed too. Like, if you need the close-up shot of Don Brandt, like, take five steps. Zoom in. Zoom. Come on. Zoom. That's really basic. Like, yeah. But yeah, just...
00:23:01
Speaker
Yeah, other than Yeah, they got to get they got to get these guys some help. Because right, you know, cares good. That's fine. Brownie can be solid and kind of guide it. But there's, there's too many holes in this team right now. They just don't have the depth at all. It's a problem for them. Right. And
00:23:17
Speaker
that defense that Gustard is famous for is only going to go so far. It did him all right first half because Bristol went into a shell, but once Bristol busted out of that shell, all bets were off and later. So it's a problem. Gustard's got a lot to solve. Yeah, because I mean, even you look on the other side, you look at the other side of the field,
00:23:42
Speaker
And as you said, Max Malins went down early and me at a Logan comes in and tears it up. Yep. Did quite well. And it's like, that's depth right there. That's what, that's what, that's a technical term. Um, people in the biz know. Um, and it, it generally means that you have players who can fill in who are, who are actually decent and it doesn't seem like Quinn's do, um, sometimes not even at the top spots, which, uh, well, although right now that, you know, everyone outside of.
00:24:11
Speaker
Marcus Smith is either a backup or like a rotational player. So like all their back three are rotationals and you can't tell me that their 12-13 wouldn't be.
00:24:27
Speaker
a policy gay and Martian if if they had their weather druthers and there's somebody but there's somebody else 13 that they spend it right Esther Hazen too so they have guys who could do it but I don't know where they are yeah I mean I guess they've been dinged up but in that particular position but man go starts got a lot to think about 2021 here especially if he wants to get back to the semi final which is well always talk about so
00:24:56
Speaker
Well, you know, Gloucester found a way to make extra play like poop. I don't know how exactly they did it, but they did it. And this is probably off the back of that nice little win that they had against Ulster. Yeah. Gloucester are figuring things out. Yeah, I think they are. And, you know, and we'll see. We see it with WOS as well. The injection of youth seems to be something that's helped them quite a bit. Chapman,
00:25:23
Speaker
Evans isn't very old, but Moyle has done quite well. Jordan Reed has done quite well. Jordan Reed. I don't know why the hell. Even the kid that made his debut, Werner, got two of them in line because he ran a good old Scrum half line. Those are good. Yeah, they are. Plus I checked.
00:25:38
Speaker
And Nettle Taylor. Yeah, the kid just comes off the contract. Hell yeah, man. And Ackerman, I think he got himself a starting job because Ackerman was shitting the bed and he got pulled at halftime. He's just, he's, I don't know if not having dad as part of the club is kind of getting to his head, but man, he's been a shell of his former, of himself, basically since lockdown. Yeah. You know, so it's, it's a problem.
00:26:02
Speaker
But, uh, Valra Pava Ruskin too, on the other side has been big fella terror. I wish it was fun to see Gloucester Gloucester props on the loose, uh, or Pava Ruskin breaking through the first half for Robinson. I wanted Jamal to score somebody lose a hippo. Yeah.
00:26:20
Speaker
It's on the field over here at Sandy Park. But they're talking about how many teams he's played for, which is amazing for first off that he bounced around that much for his talented player as he is. But I think he's I hope he's found a home here because he seems to be happy. He seems to be pretty happy and it's working out well.
00:26:40
Speaker
But yeah, a team like that, though, you know, you look at Chapman and Evans. So let's say, you know, six weeks ago, you and I are talking and we're saying, you know what? It's Gloucester. They're going to be starting Chapman and Evans. Is there nine and 10? I'm not sure how we're going to fucking pay money for that. Yeah. It'd be like, oh, no, no, don't want. Now it's there. Can we talk also? Because I want to mention it. It's a little thing. Lloyd Evans, the kick pass to Jack Singleton on the wing early.
00:27:10
Speaker
Good hands from singles. They don't practice that. I can tell you, I can promise you they do not practice that. That's Lloyd Evans knowing his player out there.
00:27:22
Speaker
waiting for him. Yep. And, and trust, trusting each other. And that's, that's really, you know, as much as, you know, people bag on Cipriani, that's Ciprianian to say, you know, I'm going to trust you over there to make a play. And, you know, sometimes that works. Sometimes it doesn't. And Evans obviously learned from him enough to take to try it. Yep. So yeah, and then, you know, on the other side, I have plenty of good stuff from from Exeter, obviously, they found a way they got out of their own damn way. And
00:27:52
Speaker
They scored on their own yellow card. I think that was kind of the wake up call like, you've been hit over the head with a frying pan. Are you ready to play rugby yet? And they finally did.
00:28:07
Speaker
Talk about guys that probably, we backed on him a little bit. I still don't get Ian Whitten. I really don't. No. Ollie DeVoto, fine. He's solid. He doesn't do anything super flashy. He runs good lines. Yeah. Yeah. You know, he does a good job of supporting Joe Simmons and making sure that Joe Simmons has space. And then he doesn't actually miss very many tackles, believe it or not, even though he doesn't look like he's much of a house. He doesn't. Ian Whitten, like big body, but just not useful, you know?
00:28:36
Speaker
You know, just not useful at all. And I just, I don't see what's different between him and Tom Hendrickson. And I know Slade was hurt and banged up. So whatever, but I don't see the difference between me or what makes him so much better. Like.
00:28:51
Speaker
You want to talk about experience you've got. Do you see the players you have around this pitch? You do not have experience. No, you know, you do not need that. You've got it. You know, you know, Woodburn is not young and he is quite good. I mean, obviously hog end up coming off, but, you know, Scotland's captain, for God's sake.
00:29:08
Speaker
I don't get it. I'm completely at a loss for why you're like Tom Hennigson over. I don't get it. Yeah, he's so much better. But anyway, that's that. Yeah, the Simmons brothers did the Simmons things and that's what they do.
00:29:26
Speaker
Simmons has a shit game, but he also got over twice. Yeah. So he's still, he's still finding the line. What are you going to do? What are you going to do? Um, that's why he's my, my eight of the year, our eight city. Yeah. And gray and gray and Skinner, you know, the two blocks just.
00:29:41
Speaker
No problem. I guess Skinner needs to play more. Yeah, I like him. Well, I mean, it's tough to, you know, it's really tough to get him and Hill in the same team. You know what? It's not because it's easy to say, hey, Dave, you don't do anything. You want to talk about a guy that looks like he's got a piano on his back or he's got something on. That dude is a hunchback. Skinner can play it at six. He could. I mean, he has before he has before and yours is a lock. He should be. And not not it's not a six at all. Sure.
00:30:11
Speaker
So if you really wanted to, yeah, you could get all three of them on the field. Yeah, I think. Hell, Kirsten's a lock. Yeah, I think in an ideal world, you could have probably Skinner at six and when he's healthy, Vermeelan at seven. Yeah, Vermeelan. Two of those guys. Or Armand at seven. Yeah, I know. It's a little bit big, but...
00:30:35
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Beats the shit out of me. But Exeter get the job done. They get the bonus point as Exeter does. And that's how that's all she wrote. Battle at the bottom, which is really weird to think about. And, you know, Boyd's talked about just it's just a dreadful 2020 for Northampton. It really is. It is. Going out with a high at the very least. They needed it. And was Lewis Ludlam happy at the end of that? Yeah. He's like, thank you, Cod. Right.
00:31:03
Speaker
That dude needed that win. Yeah. He's quite good. Yeah. And just like I was saying about Worcester.
00:31:16
Speaker
getting through the line and then dropping the ball. And they didn't know what to do. Like white line over here that we're supposed to get over it and put the ball down. Right. Promise that that's what you do. I guarantee you that's what you do. And there's ways around it that the coaches have, um,
00:31:36
Speaker
if you wanted to really help your players with it. And the fact that they're not is frustrating to me as a coach to be like, why aren't they fixing the, if you're one step away from being, I mean, Worcester really are one step away from being a championship team. And it's scary that that's the truth.
00:31:53
Speaker
uh because of how bad they are right and they have they they have some great pieces we talked about them yeah i look at this back three and i i really like it i do too and i like their centers i like everything about them even sarl as a 10 filling in as a 10 played played quite well really well um so they have good players but damn they just like
00:32:15
Speaker
literally shit themselves as soon as they've crossed the 22. Just kind of stopped doing that. Leaving a trail of poop. All the way from the 22 to the spot of the turnover. Right, wherever the fraction was. Oh my god. Yeah, not good. And Northampton weren't that much better, they just gave themselves more opportunities.
00:32:37
Speaker
Yeah. And they, and they, and they, they kind of, yeah, they kind of bite at the time. They, they probably let a couple slip by. Um, Alex Mitchell, any idea where he might've learned how to run that scrum half line? Uh, they used to have a guy.
00:32:57
Speaker
Yeah, I'm sure he gave him a few pointers on that one. That was a really good line. Obviously, he got himself over the line, but he's so much more dynamic. And, you know, we talk about
00:33:08
Speaker
How much we liked Henry Taylor, you know, when he left, uh, Saracens, Alex Mitchell is the best nine on this team. When, when both are on their game, it's still, it's Alex Mitchell. It's gotta be, you know, and I'm not saying that Henry Taylor is bad by any means whatsoever. He's somebody that would be started on a lot of teams. Right. It's like a Bristol situation with Randall and urine. Um,
00:33:32
Speaker
Randall's is far away better if he's on his game than you're in whatever be when he's on his and then no disrespect to urine. It's just Randall's that much better. Same thing here. Mitchell is just outstrips him if he can, if he has it together. It's just like you got to get it together kid more often. Right. Absolutely. And then man, the match damn bigger.
00:33:53
Speaker
Just looking, looking really good. And this is, this is what this team needs. They, he needs to be willing to say, all right, get on my back. I can carry us to a few wins because I have that ability. And he does. Yeah, he does. He needs, he needs to continue to do that. The forwards will take care of their jobs. Nick is equally causing trouble as we talked about before. He did.
00:34:14
Speaker
Yeah, that's what he does. You know, they're, they're two locks that usually play ribbons in the sequel are awesome. There's a great lock pairing that most people would kill. They would. Yes, though. Yeah, they have some they have the forward pack, Ludlum is leading the charge in the back row there.
00:34:30
Speaker
they have some guys, they just need to Harrison back is extremely helpful too. Yeah. And it's not because he's necessarily that great of a player, but he is a huge part of their leadership. He's not their captain anymore. But he, but people still turn to him and they still looked at him. He's got a couple of England caps to his name or at least one. Yeah. And that's not nothing either. So, you know, he has some experience in there. So that's, that's a big part of it. And he didn't fuck up like Aiden or like, you know,
00:34:56
Speaker
When Harrison touches the ball, you can be pretty comfortable that something good is going to happen with nothing bad on the back end of it. Unlike certain other dates that you're not thinking, all right, what 50-50 issue is about to happen right here? Something really good or something really bad? You know it's going to be something that's not bad at the very least.
00:35:14
Speaker
The needle is going to be on the positive end. It's at the end of this. Yeah. So advantage Alex on this one over Ethan. Yeah. And we'll see. We'll see if we can get Waller versus Waller round two on the back end of the season at six ways. But Saints take this one.
00:35:32
Speaker
And then to the Sunday game, um, sale was was pick up a really big win. Um, that was needed. Yeah. What's up. They needed it. Yeah, they did. They really did. Um, this was,
00:35:46
Speaker
This was the, and this is what sale does to teams and they just get teams out of their game. They really do a good job of it. They find a way to their defense just suffocates the shit out of you and you don't have space. Well, it's, yeah, I mean, it's almost like they were saying it in the, in the first, and I,
00:36:08
Speaker
I had a, I have a serious bone to pick with the same, same idea is that wasps were so flat because they were expecting, you know, the first phase to get to a certain, you know, the first, you know, the forward crash across the field, the first forward attack to get positive meters. And then they'd attack off the back of that. And, and a lot of these coaches, you know, it's the same idea of you have to have go forward ball to have quick ball and you have to have quick ball if you want to go wide. And it's like, that's not true. You just have to go to depth.
00:36:38
Speaker
And, you know, we saw that with with that first half of wasps just needing front football and not getting it. And it's like, if you base your attack off of something you're just not going to get
00:36:52
Speaker
I think that's a situation that answers itself in the result. I want to do this, but I can't do it. Okay. Well, you need to go find something else to do then. Yeah. There you go. Oh, God. But they figured it out. They got themselves sorted. Atkinson got through, which was great. The young boy knew who he was picking on. He was like, ah,
00:37:20
Speaker
They have fat guys here too. I'm gonna run around on this one instead. It's like the water boy. You look down the down the guy. No, no, no. That's my bitch. Yeah, he knew what he was doing.
Memorable game moments and controversies
00:37:31
Speaker
So good on the kid for getting over the line. Good for him. And hey, Barret Bassett got through. Oh man, he should've. Dude, where did cement shoes come from? Who personally had Josh Bassett on that run? All the money in the world. Josh Bassett scores that.
00:37:50
Speaker
Yeah. So it was, you know, when somebody says that it's like video game stuff, that's usually a good thing. In this case, it was like, you know, in certain videos, you ran out of the turbo. Yeah. You ran out of your boots and you're just like, Oh, fuck. Here they come. Shit, shit, shit, shit. Go, go, go, go. Yeah, that's exactly what it was. You ran out of his boost notes. Take your hand off the boost button. It'll go.
00:38:18
Speaker
He was like walking by the end. You have to also figure he went from end to end to end. This did not just happen. He's not unfit.
00:38:36
Speaker
He is a well toned man. I do say so myself. He's not a fat man. He's not an out of shape guy. He's he's got a little, you know, just he just cover a lot of ground, but he covered a lot of ground and pooped out 10 meters from the wrong time, man. Oh, man. And, you know, we'll roll and started that, too. That came from their own 22. And right. He found the right guy in Robson. And I was like, bye. Like he got Robson got the ball. I thought this was I thought Robson was through.
00:39:04
Speaker
I was like, see you. And then he's like, oh, here comes Bassett. All right. Bassett will finish. No, Bassett won't make it better. Robson, he was he was fresh, like, let him finish. Yeah. Oh, man. Is that Kiber Iggy's injury? Scary as hell. Absolutely scary. He was standing up in the lost locker room. Yeah, he was later on. Thank God. So.
00:39:25
Speaker
Yeah, because you don't know what it was already said they're not going to play them this way. Well, you heard tempo say like doesn't make for good watching. We're not going to know it. I was like, that's smart. And actually, I watched it today for a different reason. But I was like, you know what? I because I didn't see like nothing on any of the replays because like they even I they did show that replay once.
00:39:47
Speaker
And I just didn't see anything in it. And at that time, I think I didn't realize that Kibergi was injured down. I thought when he kind of just flopped there that it was one of those embarrassed, like, some, no, I'm not here. I'm in a hole in the ground. Nobody look at me. I'm not here.
00:40:08
Speaker
So I thought that's all it was. But no, when I saw it today, it was like, no, that was like, and it's a play that happens like 100 times a year in a league. Not terribly often, but not infrequent.
00:40:26
Speaker
I think it's just the leg to the head and the head to the foot. Yeah, it was probably not pretty. So yeah, I'm in favor of making that call when you feel like it's going to be a little cringe worthy. I'm OK with that. Yeah, no, that was that was fine. That was a good call.
00:40:42
Speaker
It's just and it wasn't ugly. It was not didn't make for good, good viewing. But it's just, it was innocuous. It looked innocuous at every and every other angle. It was like, okay, what the hell happened? Except for that one. It was like, Oh, that's what happened. That's what happened. She knew guy for sale, causing problems.
00:41:05
Speaker
That's going to be a problem come line-out time. It is. For a lot of teams. It is. That makes for a nightmare, but he made a pretty good impact. I'll say that. On the other side, there's, well, for sale also, they have a new player who kind of shit the bed for them.
00:41:23
Speaker
um in in wiese uh yeah he did not play well he had almost as many missed tackles as he had tackles that's not a great day that's not good you know uh dugdale came on for him right but all right yeah i wish i had to come off like i think they showed that stat and it was like guy going yeah i think it was like the next break to stop it you're playing wiese came off i don't think i had anything to do with it as far as like the stat being up on the screen but i think it was uh
00:41:49
Speaker
uh somebody um in sales coaching staff saying see this this isn't good that's not a good thing get him off gotta go um i mean and the guy playing the other flank still still does some things really well including tackling
00:42:07
Speaker
Yeah, out of 20 opportunities, you got 19. Doesn't miss very often. So yeah, don't run it. Tom Curry, whatever you know, and in the bad thing is he'll pick it, he'll poach it too. That's the thing. He'll tackle you and then he'll take the ball gets the ball. Yeah. So penalty. Yeah. And then
00:42:26
Speaker
Marlin Yard is scoring tries now? Who invited that guy? What's going on here? One of them was a gimme. Yeah, still. The other one more or less yearned. Okay, first off, also, that referee pissed me off. Yeah, you said that. I didn't get to that. Every referee decision went sales way. Faf kicks Atkinson in the face.
00:42:54
Speaker
Yeah, that that had to be. Look, that was not natural for the referee to be like, yeah, that's a natural movement. No, he's going up. He's not. No, he just a card. Yeah, absolutely. Had to be at least at least a yellow, but probably a red.
00:43:11
Speaker
Unbelievable. And then just no penalty. Like, nope, everything is fine. Yeah, no, that's not right. The La Bourgeois tackle off the ball that wasn't, like, guy ran into his own player. Yeah, Bourgeois was there, but he was also backing off the tackle. Like, he didn't tackle him. I don't know what he's supposed to do, honestly. Right. DDP had an intentional knock. Yeah, the knock's in the tackle. More referees are picking up on it. We need all of them to pick up on it because
00:43:39
Speaker
There's something natural and unnatural about making a tackle. And some of these guys are definitely making some very unnatural motions to make sure the ball doesn't get away. And it was subtle. And even the comms didn't see it. But I saw it very clearly. I thought it was it for sure. I was like, that's going to be a knock, isn't it? But there was not that one. But later, right at the end of the first half, Dendupriya came in with a swinging arm headshot and tackle.
00:44:06
Speaker
absolutely clear he wound up and just followed through right to the neck area.
00:44:13
Speaker
And I was like, how did the, you know, how did the ref or the TMO or the, the side judge or the TMO saw that? I'm like, that, that was obvious. So yeah, there was a lot of, I was a little bit annoyed by that. So I'm, I'm happy that last came back in the end to take it. They, they, they deserved it. Yep. Yeah. Nope. And that was, trust me, I'm just as happy for them. That was a, that was a, that was a tough one that they needed very badly. Okay. Um,
00:44:43
Speaker
Let's, uh, let's do the start and the sits. Oh yeah. The week ahead. Hopefully we get all the matches this week. I, I, I hope so. I hope so. Um, so we got Friday and we got two every day this weekend. It should be nice. That's Saturday, Sunday.
00:45:00
Speaker
Should make for easy watching at least. Yeah. Um, and even, even this Friday one's a little spread out. We got, um, first one at 10, which is about lunchtime over there. Uh, no, not quite. No. Early afternoon. Still nice. Um, and then one at about two o'clock or so. So I guess you and I are going to have to do some moving on, start sitting the morning. Yeah, we will. Uh, I'm sure, I'm sure we'll find out a lot of lineups either. All right.
00:45:26
Speaker
Thursday morning or Friday, Thursday, by last weekday of vacation. So I'll have to sort something out. I'll try to get to in vacation mode. All right. So start six.
00:45:44
Speaker
Which one are we starting? Bristol, Newcastle. Yeah, Bristol, Newcastle. Bristol and Newcastle. All right. So, even though they didn't, so we had to make an adjustment to our points against chart here. We went with average per game now. And so it's, it's actually made some interesting things more clear about like, what they give up per the, like, can you expect a decent game even if these guys are tough?
00:46:11
Speaker
No, or yes. Yeah, at least gives you an idea. Anyway, but also, you know, fudges some things, because obviously, there's more opportunity this past weekend for the teams that played to lose points or gain points, whatever you call it. So yeah, there's there's that. But anyway, that said, Newcastle are a peculiar team in terms of fantasy for toughest never the middling,
00:46:33
Speaker
to not great in TRM. So fly-haves, half-backs, and loose forwards in FRD are the difficult ones to kind of
00:46:43
Speaker
keep your eyeballs on because they could have a rough day. For the Bears, we talked about him, Owen Lloyd, if he's in play, there's rumors that Pietal could be healthy this weekend. So also keep your eyeballs. I love rumors. Yeah, great bar. Oh, man, I miss rumors. Yeah, me too. O'Connor, don't get scared off. He had a bad week last week. It's okay.
00:47:09
Speaker
Yeah, it happens. It's going to happen. He's consistent. He'll come back. Vui could be back this week as well. If he is in that lineup, you are playing him. He is a monster. And there's a good chance he could be at six. So depending on how things... I don't know. With Lewa too, the way he played, you might want to keep him at five. And funny you say that, that could be bait as well.
00:47:30
Speaker
We'll see. Oh, I'm not. Oh, it's expensive. I would not. No, I'm not saying to start the two. I'm just saying that if he plays if he plays to that form, I don't think he can take him out of that six jersey. Right. Jan Thomas still not doing it for me a prop. No, the only prop that's probably worth having for Bristol is Singler or a FOA. And even that's kind of pricey. So yeah. Yeah. So keep away from that.
00:47:57
Speaker
me, I look in, I like him as a player, but he rarely starts. So yeah, having him rostered in either format is a little bit risky. Um, if he starts, he's definitely worth the grab an FRD. I don't know if I can form a TRM, even though he's probably pretty cheap, but just,
00:48:15
Speaker
Meh. Um, on the other side, Bristol are still top four overall in both formats. So tough sledding in front, uh, front row outfits in either format are actually top. They're actually top two against that hookers be double aware. They are causing problems at the line on apparently, um, for the Falcons, um, McGurgan's probably still worth the roll.
00:48:35
Speaker
If you have him, he's probably at least worth getting on your bench, but he might be worth the start too. He's, he finds ways to get points. Elsewise too. That's the good thing about George McWiggin. Ben Stevenson, especially in FRD, he was a mid playing on outside back. He knows what the tri-line is. Cover meters very quickly. So I would give him a look and Greg Peterson's played very well as a lock.
00:48:58
Speaker
especially in TRM, you know, he's not super expensive. He usually plays the full 80 and he's definitely one of the big target guys at line out time. So just keep that, keep him in mind and you know, might be a little biased on my part because he's an eagle, but I don't care. Um, on the other side, Brett Conant is on a downward trend, fancy wise, especially in TRM. Um,
00:49:19
Speaker
he's if he's your 10 in frd all right you probably stuck with him i'm not i don't love it but no but you probably have someone else or yeah right um again micky young same thing played fairly well as a player but as a fancy asset
00:49:38
Speaker
God, if you use your halfback and FRD, close your eyes and hope. And Lago Mulipola is back to being the old Lago Mulipola. Yeah, no, that was a dream. That was a blip. So bench good old Lago and be happy that you've avoided that giant paperweight. Yeah, I cut him finally this week. It wasn't that hard.
00:50:03
Speaker
On to the next match of Wooster versus Harley Quinn's. Quinn's are giving up points to locks, loose forwards, and full backs in TRM. They're middle of the pack to Scrub Math, Flaff, and Midfielder. It kind of still makes them options. Wooster is shutting down loose forwards. Interesting. But they're giving up points to Scrub Maths.
00:50:24
Speaker
But fly-haves in TRM, they're giving them a lot of points, but they're the best against fly-haves in FRD, or at least they will. Wow, that's crazy. Yeah. Let me see if that's still the same. No, they're not anymore. They're down a little bit, but not too far.
00:50:44
Speaker
But anyway, Worcester are shutting down those forwards. Oh, centers and wings. They're also giving up points too. So for Worcester, Hoogarden, we're, yeah, go, go. Go, go, go. Go with them. Start Worcester's entire back line, because they'll get a lot of running meters. Okay. Let's forget your points, especially in FRD, where it's more valuable than PRM.
00:51:10
Speaker
For Quinn's, Marcus Smith, easy. I'd have an eye, honestly, to look to replace Dom Bretton care in your lineups this week. Yeah, maybe. They're both struggling, and it's not just in the premiership. They both were struggling starting in the Champions Cup the last two weeks. So those two have had three weeks of...
00:51:35
Speaker
in a row. Um, and Worcester are kind of shutting those, those, uh, except for scrum halves. Um, but you know, Worcester shut down, lose forward. So Dom Britt might not, not have a good match up there. Um, but, and look to the centers and outside backs of Quinn's, especially if they're, they're rolling heavy, um, with, with a good lineup, um, to fill out your lineups, especially in, in FRD because they'll have favorable match ups.
00:52:03
Speaker
All right. Um, let's go to, cause I gave the order wrong, but that's all right. Uh, we'll go to Gloucester and sail on Saturday. Okay. Um, another tough matchup for thearian whites. Whoopsie for fancy, fancy wise, at least second and third in FRD and TRM in that order. Uh, wings are especially a problem in both formats.
00:52:26
Speaker
Okay. Um, yeah, but that's not like Gloucester rely on their wings too. Oh shit. Oops. Um, so for the guys at King's home, um, Gloucester said Nagel Taylor, if he's playing, I grab him. Definitely. I think he just won the eight Jersey. Yeah.
00:52:46
Speaker
Um, and then Ackerman being pulled at half, you know, you don't generally pull someone at half. Um, let's, they're playing like shit. And especially not for a, what, like 18 year old. He's a, he's a baby. Yeah. So yeah. Uh, so yeah, if he's in play them, um,
00:53:04
Speaker
Could I think the folks at King's home would like you to speak a little louder about Ed Slater? Just keep throwing it out there and don't stop because he is playing out of his brain. He could be playing better. He's doing okay. He's done quite well. I see him do better. Yeah. And he'll be all right here. So go ahead and roll Ed Slater out there. Rapava Ruskin is back. He was not great last year. He is way better this year. I don't know if he was banged up last year or what.
00:53:34
Speaker
or carrying an injury, but he is back and he is here with authority just not to be screwed with. Maybe Duncan Weir makes him feel more comfortable with his hair. Maybe that's what it was. Maybe it was, I just feel weird with this fro. Yeah. The only one. Dude's got it back. So he's, he's here again.
00:53:55
Speaker
LRZ, he was my son of the week last week and lived up to it. Unfortunately, this is just not going to be another good week for him. And I just, I hate, I love the kid, but this is just the wrong week. I'm sorry.
00:54:06
Speaker
Balmain is the wrong prop to start in this match. I know props generally don't do well against sale, but I have no problem with probably Ruskin. Balmain is probably the one guy to stay away from. And Jack Singleton, again, another hooker that's probably going to have a tough day. JP Dapria is a problem for hookers.
00:54:25
Speaker
So that's probably my one concern now. He showed last match that you need other things to do and singles can, but I just don't know if he's going to be able to do another match because he kind of defied the odds against Exeter. So we'll see. There's enough quality hookers out there that you can probably find another one. So that would be my concern with it. On the other side,
00:54:51
Speaker
uh, cheering witzer middle of the pack fancy matchup, those slightly better into your arm.
00:54:56
Speaker
Going off the middle against them is extremely tough. And with Harris back, it's now tougher. So good luck. So for the shocks, GP Dupree, go get him now. He's probably not expensive. And I think he's going to be a staple in this lineup. Honestly, I don't know how they remove him. I think when all the previous are healthy, it's going to be him and the other Jay, Jay Dupree in the middle there.
00:55:24
Speaker
So, yeah, get him. He's going to steal lineups. And line-up steals are a big thing in FRD, actually. So, don't forget. They are. Yeah, they're helpful. And the issues that he caused, probably worth it. Right. Akker should be better this week. He was not good last week at all. No, not at all. He should be much better this week. And then, um, Cobus Vis, I think, will be better. Mm-hmm. One more week, give it. And then, if he takes a poop, then dump
Fantasy league insights and upcoming match analysis
00:55:50
Speaker
him. But, you know. Yeah. Oh, I'm going to try to get rid of him this week if I can. Yeah.
00:55:54
Speaker
Yeah. Um, on the other side, uh, we talked about bait mile and yard. Yeah. I think that's bait. And so just, if you have them in your FRD team or whatever, can't stop you there. Don't add them to your TRM team. It's, it's a one-shot wonder. Um, Rob DiPrio, if AJ McGinty's on the pitch and he's probably going to be, cause he's the better, he's the better of the two tens, no matter where DiPrio deployed, he's not worth it. He's not worth it at all. Um,
00:56:19
Speaker
Curry is usually better in TRM, although he was fairly good in FRD this week. So just keep your eyes peeled on that. Don't be trusting too much on that one. I will say that. He carried a lot. So that's the difference. That's probably what helped him on that score.
00:56:40
Speaker
Oh, speaking of tough defenses, uh, wasps versus Exeter. So, um, we, we know about Exeter's defense wasps, uh, not quite the same level, not bad, but just not, not the same level. Um, uh, fantasy wise, at least, um, or, or, or in real life. Uh, so Exeter players are the ones that have, you know,
00:57:05
Speaker
the ones that you're used to scoring are going to score. And on WASPs, really the ones you're used to scoring are the only ones who might be worth looking at at all. So on the on the Exeter end, their front row, their locks, because both of those groups are
00:57:20
Speaker
We're going to score a try from one of those likely at least one. So Sam Simmons, because he's going to score at least one try himself, Joe Simmons, because he's going to be kicking a lot. At least I've thought running and setting up his brother and Tom O'Flaherty. There's the staples of your Exeter attack and your fantasy teams.
00:57:43
Speaker
run them out this week because they'll, they'll do well on the other end. Yeah, exit or stingy. But again, the points, you're still going to get the points from the team, from the, the position groups that get your points. So what's the front row? Yeah, they're not going to, like, especially an FRD, they're not going to produce without, without Alfrey, Alfie, Barbary, and, and the something to the effect of a high ankle spring for Alfie. So he's going to be out for a little while now for a couple of weeks. Um,
00:58:11
Speaker
but still that they're showing like they can get through. Tom Taylor almost had a himself a try. He had a little bit better, a little bit friendlier pass to him. I'm going to blame it on the past, not on his dick hands. The locks will score. Jack Willis will score. I'm guessing with, with kibiragi, uh, shelved, uh, Ojagu will, will push the pushups back out of the way. Yes.
00:58:37
Speaker
And he's still a fucking terror. So I think he's actually more dangerous out on the wing. And I think against the Exeter wings, he will have a significant advantage there. So even though Exeter or stingy and to the outside backs, specifically to wings, I think, I think a dog would could bounce through that. Literally. Literally.
00:59:02
Speaker
Okay. To Sunday. Let's do, we'll do Lester and bath. Need a team played last week. So we'll see what they roll out this week. I'm going to take my wildest stab at it. Both are fit. Bath are fancy points to save right now. Like besides Northampton leaking points all over the pitch. Back three players go absolutely bananas against them. Eights as well as well. And especially in TRM. So for the Tigers.
00:59:32
Speaker
Nemanina Dolo is back, likely. And this is just a lick your chops matchup for him to roll into. So yeah, go ahead. Genj, if you have him in TRM, you've paid for him, you're playing him.
00:59:46
Speaker
And he, you know, even if Beth are good against props, which they are, he does pretty well in the loose. So that's, there's some guys who just value comes. Yeah, they're, they're matchup proof. Absolutely. And I think he may well be one of them, the baby that I know.
01:00:05
Speaker
I freaking hate this guy, but he's a fancy points machine, George Ford, you're gonna play him. He annoys the holy ever loving shit out of me, but he is a fancy points dude. This is the team to definitely play him against. So go ahead, play him.
01:00:21
Speaker
Oh, on the other side, um, tigers are a rather odd one in terms of fantasy defense, tough in FRD, like top two, I think top three, uh, but extremely leaky in TRM. Like their bottom three beats the shit out of me. Don't know a tough on fly house in both formats though. So, uh, you're still playing creased. So don't worry about that. Um, assuming he's fit.
01:00:43
Speaker
he is one of those guys that's definitely going to always find it because his value comes from the T quite often and he doesn't miss very often. So that's, that's, that's a big old double thumbs up. So we get a double thumbs up. Elliot Stuke is definitely a double thumbs up if he plays. So give him a give him a roll out there. He's he's continuing to find value with this. I mean, really, if
01:01:06
Speaker
I actually like the bath locks that they've been using between it. I was going to say it's not just him, but it's all of them. Yeah, they've done quite well. But if it's him especially, I really like Elias too, so give him a go. Another one that's a guy that's kind of teetering on it, like I need this, I got one more week, otherwise I'm going to need to
01:01:26
Speaker
start seeking options. And it's a guy I love, Ben Spencer. I got to see it soon. Yeah. Otherwise, you're just going to start seeking other options. And he has it. You just got to see it, though. You know, and I'm getting really worried. He hasn't gone for a run in a while. No, he hasn't. Even the champion's cup. He didn't. He didn't do it. So it was pretty disappointing. For the other side of the pine, Koka,
01:01:50
Speaker
Yeah, bye. Got to see it. He's one I got to see it now. Like, yes, he's supremely talented and extremely gifted winger. I got to see it before I started playing him in fantasy. Yeah, sorry. I'm unsure where Sam Underhill's value comes from right now. So I just don't know if he's worth the roll of the dice. He's, again, other guys really talented. I don't know where his fantasy value is going to come from right now. Maybe in TRM.
01:02:16
Speaker
Yeah. Well, TRM, there's value because he makes the shit ton of tackles. Right. And that's probably what I'm thinking as well. Yeah. FRD, not so much because he doesn't run, but but there's that but.
01:02:28
Speaker
he did run a lot in the Champions Cup. He did. So but which was really his first run with with Beth this year. So he'd been away with England. So that was his first real action. So if that's how they're going to deploy him, if that's how he has to be now, his his FRD value just shot through the roof. Yeah, so probably wait and see on FRD. But go ahead. If you haven't, but it's one of those if you have a spare spot for him, like if you have just
01:02:58
Speaker
you know, someone who who's a might score or you know, it's just somebody basically anybody on your pine who you're like, yeah, maybe maybe not. It might be worth to pick up a guy a little too early rather than too late. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you don't want to be that guy that goes, damn it. Right? Like, you don't be waiting for the waivers after the after this weekend.
01:03:17
Speaker
No, no, no, no. Um, yeah, cause you might be too late. Um, and then, uh, Tom do Glanville. I'm not sure where he fits in with this team. He's not been super valuable as a fancy asset. And with the internationals returning, I'm just not a hundred percent sure quite where he's going to be stuck. So, um, you know, start, start seeking other options there.
01:03:39
Speaker
for the last match of the week, London Irish versus Northampton. Saints, as we have been saying for a while now, are leaky, especially around the 910 channel.
01:03:51
Speaker
Irish on the other hand are leaky around the forwards and 10, they're giving up points to 10. But after the outside of that, they're actually really strong defense. So for the Irish, their front row are kind of a must start at this point that they have. They have guys who just run with ball in hand or turn the ball over and crevies just.
01:04:13
Speaker
You got me. Ollie Hassell Collins, Curtis Rona, Loader, maybe even Voldemort this week, if you need to fill in.
01:04:24
Speaker
But I'm hoping they go with Theo Brophy Cruz instead. Yeah, you looked all right the other way. Which would also be a hell of an option if you need a fill-in. Yeah, no problem. On the other side for the Saints, their front row have been producing a little bit lately, so I'd look towards them. The locks, yes.
01:04:44
Speaker
Like not so much as equally in in FRD. No, he just doesn't get points. But but like ribbons. Oh, hell yeah, he gets points. He runs a lot. He's done quite well. Ludlam Harrison also and bigger on the back. Thank God. Really nothing outside of bigger right now. No, I mean, hush. Yeah, he needs a better, you know, I think the best center pairing is hutch and proctor.
01:05:10
Speaker
I agree. Proctor has been amazing too. But I just I'm not sure I see where it's going right now. Right. I'm not sure against this defense that they're the place to be. Okay, starts of the week.
01:05:29
Speaker
I've been rooting for this guy for a while and I really hope he continues to grow even at his mature age, fairly mature age. Um, he's evolved his game to be more and more dangerous for both his club and Wales. Uh, I'm backing him to put another great performance this week against another soft defense. Um, my start of the week for round five of the prem is saints and Wales fly half bigs, Dan bigger. All right.
01:05:54
Speaker
And I'm going to join you in picking the start of the week from your match, not from one of mine. And it's somebody you mentioned also, although
01:06:05
Speaker
Yeah. I'll kind of a little bit in passing as, as, as I did with bigger. Um, but somebody who I think is just going to have a day and, and cause he's again, been, been cooped up a little bit and, um, showed when he was cooped up. Once he got uncouped up, uh, that he will just put down try after try after try. And, uh, as you noted, bath or garbage against outside backs. So, and I need to do a little, that's a good one. Nice. Yeah. That's a really good one.
01:06:35
Speaker
Oh, okay. So the week it's going to be a similar thing for me from last week. Um, I believe this guy is wildly underrated and should be talked about more, although he's gotten more talk as his club's gotten better. Um, and he is, and it's a quality team, obviously a problem. He's going against a black hole for fancy defense, especially in terms of the speedsters for clubs. They just shut this team just shut down three or four really good back, back three players. Um,
01:07:05
Speaker
Sticking with the trend, like I said, my set of the week for round five of the prime is WASP flying winger, Josh Bassett. That's good. Yeah, I agree with that. He was up for, for mine too. And I moved in a different direction. One that's less, I don't think he's going to score. Like he may be someone you still might want on your team, but because you may have no other option, especially with the value that he brings in general.
01:07:35
Speaker
but he's been shit lately. Um, and, and shit on the, uh, um, on the fantasy board too. So it's not even, you know, you said he was mad when he, when he came out and you couldn't understand him coming out, but it was also the third match in a row that at least on the fantasy scoreboard, I wanted to pull him out too. Um, and that's Alex Dombrandt, the dominator.
01:07:54
Speaker
So I think he's going through some shit right now. He may not even start anyway. They may give him a week off to sort some shit out because he needs it a little bit. And I don't know what's going on. His play has not been effective in the past couple of weeks. So he may just need a break. But he needs a break from fantasy lineup is what he needs to do. He might need that too.
01:08:21
Speaker
Okay. Uh, champions league, a quick overview here. Uh, let's go to the FRD league. Um, some results. Uh, Carrick is running riot on all of us right now. You just smashed Justin this week. Um, I managed to rebound finally and pick up a win against, uh, Mark.
01:08:40
Speaker
Although actually, I'm thinking three and one. So that's actually not as bad as I thought it was. Carrick is the one team that absolutely crushed me. Anton got a good hold of you as well. Yeah, I got walked. Yeah, just a little bit. Thumped. Yeah. And then Duncan did actually keep George.
01:08:58
Speaker
winless in this con. Sorry buddy. Oops, a daisy. Um, yeah. And this was a tough one. You know, there was, there was going to be some, please, please, please. Oh, especially my team was, was, was hit pretty hard. So I, I got kind of boned. A lot of people dead, man.
01:09:21
Speaker
Yeah. I'm like, Oh, I get to start when you're starting Aussie Tuala and Kyle Moll against Exeter. No, I played, I played a lineup against Bristol and did okay. He didn't. Yeah. But he did okay. How it goes, man. That's just what happens when you got freaking lineups and
01:09:42
Speaker
Shambles. Yeah. Yeah. What are you gonna do? Let's see. Next week, comment slash this week for we got Ben's going against Mark. I've signed up against Duncan, George and Justin face off. That'll be a tasty one. Hopefully, actually, I think it's Yeah, they're both struggling. Actually, two guys that usually do well on FRD are just absolutely struggling. And then a clash of the Titans Carrick and Anton go head to head.
01:10:09
Speaker
Let's see which one of them comes out. I'm pretty sure that the two top scoring teams in our league right now, I could be wrong about that. Let me double check. Let's see.
01:10:20
Speaker
4.55 and 5.05. Yup. That'll do it. Hot damn. That was his front row was definitely a good pick. And we all sat there. Let's see how that works now. Yeah. I mean, yeah. I'll be barbering out is not going to be helpful. So I guess we'll see how that goes. But we'll see. Still, there's still a lot of points on offer there. Right. There's still plenty there. A little bit of movement here and there in a TRM champion league.
01:10:48
Speaker
Carrick sunk in Champion's League. Three spots. It was a rough week. Yeah. Everybody had a rough week. Except for somebody. Except for George. Fucking George, man. Making up for it over here.
01:11:04
Speaker
God damn dude, that was a hell of a week. Oh, he didn't even do what I thought. I thought at some point I was figuring I would just use the points to take the dead points from the players who weren't playing. And I probably should have. He did not.
01:11:20
Speaker
I think, I think just for the one prop, which was Waller, I wish I had done that. Ethan Waller. Yeah. I mean, I looked at Carrick's team just to be like, holy shit, what happened? He had his front row was Waller, Ocker and the other Waller. So that's a total 12. Oh, no. His second row was Vis and Kirsten, neither one of them did well. Oh, no. Yeah. Don Brandt. His back row was a little better. Don Brandt, Simmons and Barbary Barbary did well before he came off.
01:11:45
Speaker
right? Who guard didn't do well. He had AJ as his kicker and then, um, yeah. O'Connor and, and one of the James brothers. Yeah. Rod, Rod, Rod. Yeah. It's just a bad, bad week from good players. Yeah. It really was terrible teams that you expect as you expect to just lean on the whole time.
01:12:05
Speaker
And a lot of those guys you mentioned there were guys on my team too. So that's, Oh yeah. I had a few of those as well. I had O'Connor. I had Waller. Let's see. What was the magic bullet that freaking got George ribbons. That's a helpful one right there. Yeah. And he had Sam Simmons in there.
01:12:21
Speaker
Slater foul. He had Rapopo Ruskin. Yeah. He went with Van Vic as a spare just to be like, all right, I'm going to take the points. And the points help too. You know, like you did that a lot. Actually, his whole bench was, except for Marcus Smith and Huguard, were players who were just the points, just take the points on the bench. And sometimes it's not a bad idea. And yet, oh, and he had Rapopo Ruskin. Geez. That helps. That helps a lot. Yeah.
01:12:46
Speaker
Yeah. Slater, Barbary and Simmons is his back row. Shit. Yeah. I mean, a lot of his players had big games. Yeah. Randall had a great game. I think that's what's going to happen is I'm going to end up dropping. Let's say we're just talking about Spencer for Randall at this point. Yeah. I have Alex Mitchell. So it's done all right. Yeah. That's a fun one. Yeah. I mean, geez. When does
01:13:17
Speaker
Yeah. Do you just always captain the same guy and say, fuck it? No, but I usually end up making the same decision in the end. Right. It seems like a lot of people did. And I had, you know, people at Simmons, I had Barbary this week. I'm really
01:13:37
Speaker
I feel like if you, there's, there's Jekyll and I do it, obviously, you know, you, you know, the guys that are going to score fairly well most weeks, but there's also the one where you're like, well, how'd he get, how'd he decide to say, you know, go captain Harry Randall or, you know, me Alex Mitchell could really good week. And I had one, I had one week where I captain Marcus Smith, because I knew he's going to tee off and he did. You know, so it does.
01:14:02
Speaker
you know, it can be make it less of a headache because you're like, yeah, it's just fucking on Captain Sam Simmons and story. Yeah, because he's always like, right? Because, because I mean, he's still got two tries. So it's not often it's so he got the overall he was was this point total 29 points, right? So it's 10 points for a try. So 40 of his 58 points were his tries. That mean, you know, an 18 point otherwise game.
01:14:34
Speaker
For Sam Simmons is tiny. Yeah, it's like nothing. 18 points for him is nothing. So that's like a even without a try like that.
01:14:44
Speaker
No, there's like, he usually will produce better than that, that he just didn't do much, but fell over the line twice. That's a bad game for him, but he still got over the line twice. Like, a bad game for Dom Brent, he's towards 12, right? Yeah, that's the difference at this point. A bad game for Sam Simmons is still a fantastic match for just about anybody else. Yes, about. So, yeah, it's hard to do that because, yeah, it's hard. And look, even if you kept and had kick, or Marcus Smith is your kicker,
01:15:14
Speaker
In the end, that's only 14 more points. You know, it's not huge of a difference. 72 to 58. It looks cooler, but it's 14 points. So not the end of the world. No. No. Something like that. So, yeah, I do that kind of justification when I choose my captains and also when I choose a guy, you know, who I'm going to start rather than have on the bench. Yep. That's also true.
01:15:44
Speaker
All right, let's do let's do the pick the picky mms. Yeah, we have more separation, not the not that I can't get reversed in a matter of, you know, especially when we come into, you know, super rugby, six nations in prem all playing at once. That's where shit gets frickin real. That's for sure. No doubt. Bristol in Newcastle. Can the Falcons stay undefeated? No.
01:16:12
Speaker
Nah, yeah, we haven't seen the best. We still, that was, that was a depowered Bristol team. Um, and still, uh, right at the, well, for a half. Yep. A good team. So they did a pretty good job on that. Uh, Western Quinn's man, who, who gets out of their own way. You know, I'm going to take the host team here. All right. I'm going to take, I'm going to take Worcester. Cause I think.
01:16:37
Speaker
Yeah. Quinn's, I think you're struggling a little bit and I don't know what they're going to do to fix it. And Worcester can get lucky. They might. Was an Exeter. Sorry.
01:16:54
Speaker
And unless somebody starts walking, a few more guys start walking through that door at wasps, I'm going to go ahead and yeah, I'm not ready to pick wasps over exit or even at home. Yeah. Gloucester at King's home hosting sale. Um, I feel, I feel a lot better about Gloucester now than I did probably three weeks ago.
01:17:13
Speaker
I do too. You know, so I'm gonna take the cherry mites. I do I will too. I also feel differently about sale than it did a couple weeks ago. No shit. It's not good when you have a director rugby who's like, I'm not really ready for this. Yeah, he probably is. Honestly, he's getting thrown into the fire for sure.
01:17:30
Speaker
he is, but still have a plan, dude. And don't first your first step is to have a plan. And your second step is to never admit that you're in over your head. It's proven. Like, let's just let's just don't stop. No, it's a bad way to start. Yeah, ill advised.
01:17:48
Speaker
Right. At least have some faith in yourself. Yeah, I'm ready for this. My timeline has been accelerated, but I'm ready for it. There you go. That's your point. I don't know. Fuck. I don't like this. Nope. I don't either. All right. Sunday game should be interesting. London Irish hosting the Saints. 2021 means a better Saints team.
01:18:13
Speaker
I think so. Yeah. Yeah. I think they got a little bit of the monkey off their back this week. Um, and, and it's, it's about, you know, you can, it's, it's amazing for your mentality, what that can do. So I'm going to pick them. Yep. And then, um, less two teams that didn't get to play last week, Lester and bath.
01:18:36
Speaker
Really want that to win. Yeah. I mean, I'm not telling you I don't, but I also think that this might be, there's, there's a few bodies coming back for the tiger. So I think they'll find a way to get done as much as that pisses me off. To me, there's a lot of upheaval around that. So I think Beth, Beth have a little bit better continuity there. Okay. So I'm going to go with Beth. I think they're a better team too. I do too. I just, yeah, I want them to be a better team. That's for sure. But yeah.
01:19:06
Speaker
TB determined. All right. Well, whatever. You either close the gap or it stays the same or I open it wide. I bust it wide open. Anything could happen. There's a few options here.
01:19:16
Speaker
Yeah, this is gonna be fun. So make sure that you listen to the Festiva special when it comes out. And then it should make for some entertaining stuff at the very least. Right. And, you know, joy. We want some some joy. We had some really bad shit last weekend. We're going into 2021. It's gonna be a better year, guys. I promise.
01:19:38
Speaker
Don't hold me to it. God, we thought we thought 2019 was shit. And then this happened. So let's just pray and hope so much better. Remember when 2016 was bad just because Alan Rickman died? Oh, yeah. Oh, I mean, I know. No, that's not the 2016. A lot of a lot of bad things. A lot of and a lot of awesome people died in 2016. Yeah, I know. I remember that. But you don't.
01:20:06
Speaker
Yeah, it was still that was bad because a lot of famous people died. Yeah, we know it's bad because fucking pandemics just turned everything air shaped. It's like, right? Damn. So yeah, only only 300,000 people or so in the country. No, something like that. More than no, no, no, no, we want we want we want a better year, better year 2021.
01:20:27
Speaker
definitely for sure. So just keep that positive vibe out there, you know? It doesn't have to be good vibes only, but just try and keep the positive vibe as much as possible. Oh, other than that, yeah, we'll talk to you guys in the new year. Yeah. It's gonna be fun. But you will be back next weekend with more fun, more champion stuff and thanks all for coming along guys. Have a good one. Later. Cheers.