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Episode 11; Champions Cup Round 4
32 Plays7 years ago
It’s potentially the last show before the New Year, it was another lengthy one so I’ve timestamped the sections that you may want to skip to. On this episode find out why the grumpy old prop is in such a good mood to start with. We’re searching for a beer sponsor (4:37). A thank you to Eagle Impact Rugby Academy (6:01). We talk flag gate because we forgot to last week (6:38), we touch on salary and salary cap issues (9:46), and of course the games. Ulster-Scarlets (16:29), Exeter-Gloucester (21:26), Cardiff-Saracens (27:45), Glasgow-Lyon (33:46), Toulouse-Wasps (38:34), Leinster Bath (46:16), Castres-Munster (52:45), Leicester-Racing (58:38), Newcastle-Edinburgh (1:02:52), Montpellier-Toulon (1:12:44). Also, we’re starting a Pick ‘Em segment, so we’ll find out which one of us knows more about the teams we’re talking about…sort of (1:22:00). All this and more from your favorite American Rugby dunderheads.
Twitter jdyke8man & admrablsnackbar
Email questions at fantasyrugbypodcast@gmail.com
Music by Royalty Free Music provided by http://www.soundotcom.com
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Transcript
Introduction and Hosts' Background
00:00:05
Speaker
Hey, what's up? It's Nancy Ruby Inc. podcast. Thanks for coming along. My name is Jared Dyke. I'm Ben Glauser. We are recording from just outside Boston, Massachusetts.
European Rugby Scenarios
00:00:14
Speaker
Thanks for joining us. It's Tuesday. We have a lot to get to because it was a pretty crazy week in Europe. There's a lot of scenarios that are going to be played out when it comes back in January. And we got some other things to touch on because we want to be versatile here. You know, now
Sports Allegiances and Rivalries
00:00:29
Speaker
and again. So what's going on, bud?
00:00:31
Speaker
Well, as you said, crazy weekend. Um, and let's, for, for those of us, for those of you who are listening at home, yes, we're recording this from just outside Boston. However, neither Jared nor myself, we're not really for the most part, Boston sports fans. We, we, we, we have, I have adopted since my move up here, the red socks because.
00:00:56
Speaker
I love baseball and I've always liked the Red Sox from back in the day because as a Philly fan originally, you don't win too much. So I felt a certain kinship with them. However, there's another team in town that I absolutely have no sympathies for.
00:01:12
Speaker
And they were playing my favorite football team, which is the Pittsburgh Steelers. And it's been a long running thing. There's a lot of people who don't like the Steelers head coach for various reasons. And one of them is that he always loses to Belichick and Brady.
00:01:30
Speaker
Yeah, I mean which he does a lot of people do that, right? A lot of people do that But there's a long list of that when you're from you know, when you're in the Steelers organization as a coach You're expected to to beat the best or at least every so often beat the best and he's had a pretty poor weekend Pretty poor record against them
00:01:46
Speaker
He's got a Super Bowl. There's a lot of people that would be happy to trade. He's been to two Super Bowls. One, one. He lost the other to some scrub team. I can't remember who it was. Hey-o. Actually, that was to Jared's favorite team. Packers. Somehow our friendship survived that mostly because I don't think we knew each other at the time. No, I don't think Ben and I had met each other
Patriots' Dynasty Speculation
00:02:11
Speaker
at that point. So thankfully, although there was, I did watch that with a Steelers fan and
00:02:16
Speaker
a lot of Patriots fans, and I will say there were more people cheering for the Packers in that house than there were the Steelers. Absolutely. I have no doubt about that. The Steelers are generally not as appreciated by those outside the fandom as inside. Probably not.
00:02:34
Speaker
So they're treated a lot like the rest of the world treats the the Patriots too So anyway, the Steelers beat the Patriots and everyone was happy and and we're starting to hear on the sports talk radio But this you know, the sky's falling. Yeah, they're actually they're they're in denial
00:02:51
Speaker
In along the five stages of grief of the patriot's dynasty because it's over boy Yeah, I mean and they're you're the three seed You're gonna have to either go to Houston or go to go to Kansas City to win the EFC title It's not gonna be easy, but it's beyond that It's not even that what they do this year because they've pretty much written off a Super Bowl this year It's it's what's gonna happen in the in the future. It's it's hard to write it off like that I understand why people are seeing it that way and you know the
00:03:21
Speaker
The Superman number 12 might actually be mortal. Exactly. And that's probably going to be what brings it to the end, obviously, but still. It is.
Podcast Growth and Community Engagement
00:03:31
Speaker
And so it's enjoyable to listen to people seeing reality smack them in the face. Oh, I mean, just to look at the sky is falling stuff. 18 years. Yeah. College kids in the Boston area have never known the Patriots to not be the best team in the NFL ever.
00:03:47
Speaker
I remember when they were bad. Yes. A lot of people do. Anyway, thanks for indulging me there. Made for a great weekend for me. And now everybody turned it off. Alright, so don't forget you can check us out on iTunes and Google Play and Spotify. Review us. Rate us. Let us know what you think. We want to hear from you guys, so please do all that good stuff.
00:04:12
Speaker
Don't forget, also, we are going to do fantasy rugby draft for the Super Rugby season, so if you want in on that, email the show, I'll leave the email in the show notes. We'd love to play against you all, and we'll probably be scheduling the draft sometime shortly, it looks like.
00:04:29
Speaker
Won't be until after the new year, but that's not surprising for anybody.
Rugby Discussions and New Perspectives
00:04:32
Speaker
And I doubt anybody was ready to jump on it that early anyway. Right. What are we going to do to get a beer sponsor in here? Ask maybe? Yeah, I know. So if anybody knows a beer sponsor, please forward them. We don't need much. We just need a six pack that'll last us three shows because we'll each have one a show and we'd be happy to do a live read or any of that crap.
00:04:55
Speaker
So if you know anybody, Wolf Pack Logger, hello. Maybe somebody listens over there. I don't think that's happening. But maybe something local or I'd be down for like an alchemist to throw us a four pack a heady every once in a while. There'd be no complaints there. Right.
Sports Culture and Controversies
00:05:14
Speaker
But yeah, I think the first step to that would be to reach out And so for the in the future we're working on getting maybe one more voice To come on at some point in the new year not sure when it'll happen if it'll happen but you know, we'll give it a shot and if somebody wants to come on and
00:05:38
Speaker
Talk rugby and can withstand the five to ten minutes of point Fantasy point talk that we have and just and then ignore that for five minutes Then I think we'll have we'll have a couple other people not to mention the smell. Yeah, well Dude
00:05:55
Speaker
I do it once a month, whether I need it or not. Wow. That's impressive. But and then I just wanted to throw a shout out to Eagle Impact Rugby Academy this past Sunday. I attended it down at our facility down in Weymouth at Union Point. It was really fun to see the kids run around. It was a top notch clinic put on by these guys. And you can't say anything bad about these guys. And
00:06:20
Speaker
The kids really enjoyed the hell out of it. So I was really pleased to see that. So just a shout out to them because they did an awesome job this past weekend. And to the kids. They've been amazing. We've been working with them for a couple of weeks now, heading into this. So great job to all the kids out there who came out and were working hard. Daring to pick up a rugby ball in this country. All right. So let's get to something that's more relevant to more people than just us.
00:06:48
Speaker
We didn't talk about last week, but we need to talk about it flat gate We won't eat. I'm not gonna wait. I'm not even gonna wait until we get to the bath lancer game We'll talk about this now, and then we'll talk about the rugby. Yes, Bruce Craig Pardon my French, but boy you're an asshole
00:07:03
Speaker
Yeah, that's a dick move. Yeah, and so apparently they said oh it failed the safety standards of um, you know that are required Well, it's the same flag company that makes your flags. So What was different about your flags to to lensters? You know, i'm just not had the wrong logo on it apparently And that's that sucks because one thing that that I hate about american sports
00:07:32
Speaker
is is the culture behind it as far as my team's awesome your team sucks i mean of course we just went over through that yeah but you know but that's different i don't i don't hate people who cheer for the patriots yes i actually don't hate people who cheer for the yankees um well i i might hate them but it won't be for that reason we'll put it that way exactly you actually have to get to know them first and then you hate them
00:07:58
Speaker
But to that, you know, that's supposed to be a kind of put aside, you know, here. Yeah, especially to cheer for our teams. We're not against the other team in so much as we're trying to beat them. That's about it.
00:08:13
Speaker
Yeah. And well, and so the, and the crazy thing is like you watch the Premier League football soccer, whatever you want to call it. Um, they segregate home and away fans legitimately. Like you, if you're, especially the rivalry matches, they have to go through this gate. If you're, uh, you know, for example, the Manchester, the two Manchester teams, if you're at going to Manchester city.
00:08:39
Speaker
you're a united supporter you have to go through this gate right and you have to sit in this section because i just don't want somebody getting the absolute shit kicked out of them and that's that's sad that really is sad and that doesn't happen in rugby thankfully for the most part right with the exception of a few and far idiots there have had far too much to drink but you know so this was really really a bad look for for Beth did you see
00:09:03
Speaker
Leinster's counter to that this past weekend. I did not. So they played at Aviva, the big stadium in Dublin. And 40,000 people attended on the side, sans camera view. No flags.
00:09:20
Speaker
on the side with all the, what that's well in view of camera and any seat that's basically able to see the main camera flags on, they put flags on every one of those seats, gave them all to them. They were waving and well, they were waving with good reason because Lenser had the last laugh for sure.
Rugby League Economics
00:09:38
Speaker
Well, that was expected too. Yeah. We'll get into why and how and all that stuff in a little bit here. Um,
00:09:46
Speaker
The other thing I wanted, I wanted to know, and I only skimmed and, or did I even skim it? Whatever. It caught my eye. I'm talking about the French salary cap and the English salary cap in terms of the French salary cap is obviously out of control. Like it's, it's so far and above the English salary cap. I don't know what either one is, but I know the French salary cap is very high and the English one is much lower and it's very,
00:10:15
Speaker
The French know that they have a problem and because obviously they're the you know, the teams don't know any better the Chairman at too long. I can't remember his name. He's just buying everything left right left right and center that is talented out of out of the southern hemisphere and you know in Simon Europe to
00:10:34
Speaker
And it's obviously not working because they're no longer going to be able to participate beyond the pool play in this competition. And I mean, they're better in France and in the top 14. Sure. Still like it. I mean, it's a it's a problem in general. And you can hear they talked about it on our favorite pod. Yeah. And the other pod, as we go. Yep. That one pod, pod, pod.
00:11:01
Speaker
And Marler was very for like keeping that salary cap really low to keep the game sustainable. And I totally agree with it. I understand. I'm usually very for players getting their money and I still am. But if you want this to be a professional game that lasts until, you know, you and I are old men in rocking chairs and all these players are sustainable, then you have to you have to be considered of that. You can't have every player like Charles Piotow on, you know, a million pounds a year.
00:11:31
Speaker
and you look at the football players the old retired football players now who were talking about and then a lot of them are dying off now this is uh... nfl so american football where they were making twenty thousand a year back in the day or or however much that just simply wasn't enough uh... my grandparents talked about concrete charlie uh... who was uh... chuck bedneric right who actually by um... i know people who played with him back at penn and uh...
00:11:59
Speaker
He was called Concrete Charlie, not because he was tough, but because in the off season he sold concrete. Like these guys...
00:12:06
Speaker
They had other jobs. And they talked about the players today, 20, 30 years ago, saying, oh, they don't know how tough it is. They get paid so much money for doing this. And I started it. Well, unfortunately, yes, you started it. It wasn't anything before you. But that also means that it has to be proven sustainable before
00:12:31
Speaker
It actually becomes, you know, they had to make it, unfortunately. The owners and the players had to build it into something that it was. And this professional rugby is still developing. So as an entity. It's only 20 some odd years old at this point. Right.
00:12:48
Speaker
I mean, that's a lot that's that's a lot shorter than NFL football, baseball, you know, football, European or whatever. It's probably one of the in terms of like how big of a game it is globally. That's a very new professional sport.
00:13:06
Speaker
You know, yes soccer is the most popular baseballs up there basketballs right there And rugby being probably one of those big four worldwide sports that's compared that's popular in many regions, right? And it's still compared to those it's still a very new approach more sports very much a kid right so you have to treat it with kid gloves and unfortunately that means that the salaries are gonna
Rugby's Growth in America
00:13:31
Speaker
Suffer at first until it until it's proven until it has its big boy pants on and has the real big Especially I mean I I can't We can't stress enough how big it would be for for rugby to catch on in America
00:13:47
Speaker
because they start getting sponsorships here, starts getting TV deals here. I mean, you see the TV deal the NFL has. It's absurd the money that's in there. It's unconscionable, but you need that kind of money to pay the players what they really want to be. Well, they're demanding, yeah. Right. So let's hope it gets there, but it's going to take time.
00:14:07
Speaker
Yeah, it's gonna be a lot longer than it is, than it's gonna, you know, it's gonna be many years down the road. These guys are all earning living wages, don't get me wrong. None of them are suffering. Yes, are some of these guys worth money, the money they're being paid? I don't know if Pietal's worth a million a year, but...
00:14:27
Speaker
You just have to, they need to figure it out. And you know what, honestly, if they want to, if the English teams want to put a hard cap on it for a little while and not have it budge much and players don't like that and they want to leave, fine. There's a lot of places that are playing. MLR is kicking up kids. They don't make that much, but you can make a name for yourself.
00:14:51
Speaker
Um, but anyway, there's there's places to play japan pays good money. Um, hopefully some of the super rugby teams can start paying some decent money because Yeah, they're um, they're struggling to problem with but going back to the subject with with too long. They have a team of Essentially the rugby horse. Yeah, that's essentially what they are. They're they're not they're mercenaries
00:15:11
Speaker
Which is fine, but that doesn't that also means that they're not really playing for too long They're just playing for themselves. Yeah 100 and and we get 15 people all doing that it's going to take a special culture to and a special coach to
00:15:29
Speaker
I mean, look at Ashton last year. Went to too long. Broke shattered. But he broke the record for tries. Playing a position he doesn't normally play, but because they were like, all right, well, this is the one position we need, so you're going to play there. Adaps himself, plays there, plays there well. And I mean, he didn't do anything but make a name for himself while playing for that team.
Fantasy Rugby Insights
00:15:53
Speaker
Comes back to sale. Now he's in the England squad.
00:15:57
Speaker
Yeah, it even when you're a decent person you still have The best the you still have those intentions when you play for a team like this of i'm playing for myself here Right and clearly he was and i'm not trying to poop on ashy. I love ashy He played for the Saracens for a couple years did many good things. So i'm not pooping on him, but he's done Well everywhere he's played. Yeah Yeah, I thought I thought him getting put out in the cold was stupid to begin with but yeah
00:16:22
Speaker
Guy wants to get some pay, you know, I get it. Yep. Agreed.
00:16:29
Speaker
To the games! Alright, let's talk some actual rugby and enough bullshit politics and all that stuff. Alright. I'll start everybody cover your ears. I already screwed up once. There's one for me. Ulster Scarlett's. This was a big one for Scarlett's. This is basically like Do or Die.
00:16:53
Speaker
Can't say they put in that good of a performance. It wasn't awful, but it was more about, I think it was more about Ulster coming to play. Everything that was kind of on for them last week, like John Cooney wasn't kicking well, Freddie Byrne, the conditions weren't very good, and the conditions weren't a whole lot better here, but they were better and Ulster were able to
00:17:21
Speaker
do their game a little bit better. Billy Burns cross kicks were magical at times and finding hands of his teammates very,
Match Analysis: Ulster vs Scarlets
00:17:28
Speaker
very often. And even when he wasn't using cross kicks, he was putting pressure on them with his boot. He knew where he knew where to put it. He was doing it very well. I think the try of the of the game has to go to Jonathan Davies.
00:17:43
Speaker
Garrett Davies intercepts, runs like a madman, knows he has no chance in hell at burning his man down the sideline, grubbers through, it rolls, it rolls, it rolls, lands. It's off the post. What? Yeah, I don't remember who it was. There were two player from each team, miss it, one of them, I think Spate might've been the Ulsterman, and missed it completely to either dot it down for a try or for whatever. Knocks off the post.
00:18:12
Speaker
And Jonathan Davies is right there to just slide onto it. I was like, wow, that is just some kind of luck. Just like Mauro Itoji. Was it the lions or was it the England that he used? I think it was England. Yeah, knocked off the sticks. Yeah. Yeah. No, it just rolled off the...
00:18:28
Speaker
Post pads and just sitting there all nice and pretty for whoever happened to be pursuing. And it was Jonathan Davies who's, you know, pretty darn good player in his own, right? Yeah, good for him. Yep. So I was good. Ian Henderson had another great match. He scored two tries. The guy was working his butt off, doing care, taking care. He's in, making hits. The guy was, the guy's a machine. He's out for a while now. What happened? Oh, shoot. What happened to him? Thumb injury. Ian Henderson. Yeah. Henderson. I didn't see that. I just saw that reported today. Oh, yeah.
00:18:58
Speaker
I will say Luke Pierce did one very notable thing and you know, I am Everybody knows that I am one to just like poopoo on reps when I can You know, I yell at him on a weekly basis sometimes Luke Pierce did a very good job and this is one thing that I absolutely freakin hate and it was a retreating player from an offside position John Cooney threw it right into him and
00:19:23
Speaker
on purpose, trying to draw that off-size penalty. And Luke Pierce said, uh-uh, you are not getting that. And I was very happy to see somebody just start to stamp that out, because sometimes it's a player that's kneeling, and sometimes they're actually hurt, and you throw it at the guy, and you hit him in the head. But you know what also? That can start a freaking bunch of handbags after that, and then God knows what happens afterwards. And I think I was trying to just stay out of the way. If he's actively trying to not be a part of it, to involve him,
00:19:53
Speaker
Yeah, that makes you a jerk. I'm glad Cooney didn't get that. I had Cooney in my team. I wasn't interested in him drawing that penalty though.
Match Analysis: Gloucester vs Exeter
00:20:02
Speaker
Bestie being Bestie as he is, was nice and honest. He got over the line, but he knew he was held up.
00:20:08
Speaker
He said, yeah, don't bother checking the TMO. Nice and honest. Yeah, don't bother. So that was very good. But yeah, I was happy to see that when Jones gets a yellow card for Scarlett's, which kind of did him in. It was only a four point difference, but it just didn't feel like that ulcer had anything to really go or Scarlett's didn't have anything to to bring to the table per se. I thought the day again, I thought the Jonathan Davies try was great.
00:20:37
Speaker
But really, that's where it ended. Stockdale ends up skinning two guys off. Billy Burns cross-kicked to kind of put the nail in the coffin, which was, I mean, David Stockdale's playing out of his mind right now. You can see why Ireland are very excited about him. And they have a plethora of young back three players. And then they still have guys like Rob Carney in the locker. So not an awful day for the Irish.
00:21:02
Speaker
Ulster take take all four or all five rather they are currently Where they at? They are their second in their pool and pool for Scarlet's our ou t out having only gathered two points in four matches So they will be playing for pride come the new year. There's worse things to play for Sure on to Gloucester V Exeter
00:21:31
Speaker
This was an excellent first half of a match, and it's unfortunate. We finally saw great sips. He was having a hell of a day, especially with his boot. He was doing a really good job putting Exeter under a lot of pressure.
00:21:52
Speaker
And unfortunately, he took an injury and tried to, yeah, he did his job. He kept Armand out off the tri-line, but, or he held it up. He eventually, I'm going to eventually score it. Right. So, so this game to me was, it was about a couple of things. One, Gloucester kind of, uh,
00:22:17
Speaker
They kind of had a rough day. They ran out of steam. And the Sips injury, I think, took a lot of wind out of their sails. Because everything seemed to be going pretty well. And then they hit that bump. And then they just kept hitting bumps. Yeah, it seems like they could not quite get out of their own way sometimes. No. And the seven scrum penalties are kind of a problem.
00:22:42
Speaker
And it just seemed as though they were they were exhausted by the end and They had two yellow cards, that's not really gonna help them at all. Granted they killed they did hold Exeter out for one of them, but they conceded I think it's considered a total of five I think they actually scored one while Honeck was in the bin, but they also cue up two. So yeah, it didn't help
00:23:07
Speaker
No, it didn't help. And I thought that this was also a good match on the other side. Let's give some credit to Exeter. I liked the way they used Armand. Oh, that's something else we need to get back to. What happened? Fucking Exeter. Now, for those of you who are paying attention,
00:23:28
Speaker
Last week I talked about how I wanted to see Armand in that, that number eight for Exeter traditional, more caring, right. Get, get him the ball more, especially in space. I'd love to see him in that role.
00:23:42
Speaker
It's Friday, I'm at work. Oh no, it was Thursday, because I was at work. And I'm looking up the lineups just to check it out. And I pop over to Twitter, because that's where they're posted first. And I see Exeter's lineup. I'm like, okay, cool, let me check it out, let me check it out. Right there, boom, at number eight.
00:24:03
Speaker
And I'm like, fucking A. They listened. I'm so happy about this. I can't wait until I text Jared real quick. I'm like, look at the R lineup. They listened to me.
00:24:15
Speaker
and jagged i double check i looked at it i'm like hmm that sounds interesting let me have a look uh buddy yeah he's like dude are you yeah hi bud i'm like no i'm at work i'm cool straight and he's like why don't you check that really double check that and i go back it's not even the same goddamn picture they were they had i swear they had them arranged in that scrum and then the back line yeah you did say that and and they had the faces of the players it would we i go back and it's a
00:24:43
Speaker
It's an image still an image, but it's the list of the players from, you know, 15 to nine and then one to eight. Yeah. And I'm like, what the motherfuckers? Obviously, whoever typed that up, got the first one wrong. Way wrong. And within five minutes, they pulled it off and yeah. Well, for those for those of you that are looking for someplace fun to work, Ben, Ben's place apparently lets them drink.
00:25:04
Speaker
No, they don't let us drink uh, but uh either way I was really I was happy to see the way they they used armand in the loose though They they gave I felt like they gave you a lot more more carries doesn't need to be at the pacaberry scrum, right? You don't need to be playing eight. No to to do that But I that was just a brief moment of I thought was gonna be fun. Yeah You mentioned the the card late that the 12 trees penalty uh
00:25:31
Speaker
that to that was um who was carrying that ball that was actually their their their number eight um it was a lot it was law day yeah he went into the side kind of cynically and just slowed that ball down i was like you are off right so that was definitely i mean definitely that but i i was disappointed that it was law day and and not
00:25:51
Speaker
Uh, arm on taking that that run because that was a, that was wide open in space. They were, they were moving the ball around. I think they had had a line break. I really just wanted to see that pop over because the, the last couple of times we saw it last week and we saw it earlier in this match, you give that ball to arm and, you know, around that 22 in space.
00:26:10
Speaker
And he's going to do damage if not put one over. And to give it to Lade, no disrespect to Lade. But tactically, I'd like to see that go to Armand next time. And I think that's a try rather than a tackle other than the card. I mean, they still got the try. They eventually got over. Right. But why leave it the chance? Give it to your best runner in space.
00:26:35
Speaker
But neither one of these teams are out because we have some interesting things going on in the other game. We'll get to it. Right. But man, that's that was not out. They're not out. But it's it's feasible for both these teams to win their last two games and get into the knockout stage. But but Gloucester Gloucester went from second in the in the in the pool to fourth.
00:26:56
Speaker
Right and no matter what that's That's a tough. That's a tough drop. I mean they had they had the uh, the losing bonus point kind of in there So they had first off they looked like they maybe had the game and uh as an option of them Sips got hurt Yeah, the game did not seem to be going their way, but they still had the shot at the bonus point until until that late try Yeah, harry williams getting over at the end pretty much
00:27:22
Speaker
seal the deal. Oh, well. But yeah, but they're, they're teams, there are pools that have second play. Actually, most pools have their second place team higher than the first place team in this pool, in terms of point number of points. So yeah, this is a very wide open pool. It is going to be very, very interesting come the new year. Right. A lot of change in January.
Match Analysis: Saracens vs Cardiff
00:27:43
Speaker
Yeah. All right. Saracens.
00:27:47
Speaker
They're going to be, well, they're going to be pull four or pull three winners, hopefully after this performance. They're one win away from claiming that, I think. Yeah, I would say that's.
00:28:00
Speaker
and they got Glasgow at home in the next round. That'll be interesting. Yeah. No, Glasgow's last. They're at Leon. I meant the last grouping of them. Oh, yes. Yeah, they do. But I think the last game is Glasgow at home. By then, things might be decided, depending entirely on how they do at Leon and how Glasgow do when they play Cardiff.
00:28:26
Speaker
But yeah, so this will be this was This was definitely a champion performance in terms of there was not a lot of great things that came out of this this game But they still managed to get over the line in the end for the four points and keep their hundred percent win record Which is all you can ask away from home Cardiff they put on a good atmosphere you and I were talking about there's their their
00:28:52
Speaker
Navidi and who's the other guy? Was it Williams? Nick Williams, maybe. I don't recall. Bloody hell. But they had their two back rowers going, and why the heck can't I remember who the heck it was? Oh, yeah, it was Nick Williams. Yeah, okay, it was Nick Williams. Because Manoa. Manoa kind of got hurt. Well, Manoa was playing six, so I think they actually would have preferred to have Williams last week, but I don't think he was available for whatever reason.
00:29:22
Speaker
But he is but those two guys were definitely causing problems for the Saracens with their runs They were and they were definitely hitting hitting them hard But Saracens just kept bouncing back and bouncing back and eventually Jamie gets a mainland got over first. He was just
00:29:38
Speaker
He burned him. That guy is fast. I mean, Scotland have something special in him. Next Lions tour, if he's not on it, and I know that's a long, effing way off, but that's like three years away, but if he's not on it, he should be very upset because if he continues to play like this,
00:29:54
Speaker
I know Scotland get like no freaking help with that. No love there. But, you know, they he should get some. He's yeah. He's been an amazing player for the Saris this year. Yeah. I mean, he has been not just this year, but this year he's been particularly impressive. He's come through in some big, big moments for us. Yeah. But yeah. Wasn't the.
00:30:15
Speaker
It was interesting to me that uh, how how little the saris used used mako And usually he's the guy who's getting ridiculous Yeah, that's true. Um, but I guess but when you I see we work I think the two of us were kind of expecting mako to play between 50 and 60 minutes But it would have been nice to see him
00:30:37
Speaker
I'd rather him have played 50 minutes of balls out the way he just to see what he's got. Right. It seemed kind of tentative. They weren't really using him. Certainly not the way they have in the past. And maybe that's just they're trying to get him back into play. But I think that their whole attack suffered because I think there was a little I think that bled out to the rest of the team too. If Mako is being tentative,
00:31:04
Speaker
Yeah, but you know, he's the tone setter. He's the one who says get on my back I'm gonna get these hard meters here as a prop and you guys do some workout out wide out wide Yeah, you could tell I mean Cardiff's defense were just very they're very resistant and scum was trying his best for their attack to pull some strings he
00:31:23
Speaker
I think it was, I don't think it was him that got the chip behind that fish finished, but Maitland was definitely not in position. I just talked him up and now I'm calling him out. He was not in position to feel that well. And I don't think the, for whatever reason, the Saracens weren't ready for it. I think Maitland got caught kind of in no man's land. He wasn't up, but he also wasn't back. So it's kind of, oops, this is probably not a good position for me to be in. They took advantage and got in behind, but in the end, the last lap goes to the Saracens who,
00:31:52
Speaker
I believe a lot of people are touting as semi-finalists among probably two other teams as well and hopefully they can get there. If they get if they beat Leon then they're in the knockout stage and after that they're just playing for positioning.
00:32:08
Speaker
You know, host a match at least. You don't want to be that last pool winner that doesn't host a match. That's really unfortunate. You know, but it does happen and teams that end up hosting matches of this caliber in the first knockout round usually end up being on the victorious side. It doesn't matter who you are. A few rare occurrences of not having that happen, but it is possible.
00:32:37
Speaker
And how about jamie george's man of the match? Yeah, always love seeing a front row as man of the match Yeah, he's I mean he's come back and he's been he's he's been very good since he's come back from england and I mean he he is I don't think it's ever been in anybody's head outside of eddie jones that he is england's best hooker. I just think that he Sees heartly as the captain so he has to start him. Yeah
00:33:03
Speaker
It's okay to have a squad captain Not start, you know, you're gonna in in tournaments like the six nations and the well cup you need You're gonna have to rotate guys anyway So, you know, he doesn't have to start every effing game if he's if he's the squad captain You can still be a leader in the you can still instill power in him right and say hey this is I need you to be a leader for these guys and i'm gonna make sure that
00:33:27
Speaker
They see you as such um, or at least i'm gonna tell them that you know, this is you're one of our guys to lead this team Whether you start or not doesn't have to be he might be their best leader, but he's not their best hooker No, definitely not. No, jimmy george deserves to be wearing the t-shirt when they kick off in japan next
Match Analysis: Glasgow vs Lyon
00:33:43
Speaker
year. Yep, I agree
00:33:46
Speaker
Uh Glasgow they own 21 10 So the warriors so uh speaking of of excellent Scottish players who who should be on the next lion story well hog He should be that's a no-brainer He wasn't the last one just got hurt right to me to me. This match was was about hog just Killing it with his boot. I mean so I
00:34:13
Speaker
And he started off right from the jump showing what he was going to that that that he was going to put this game basically on his own foot. Wow. And right off the bat right off the opening kickoff Hastings has a has himself a run.
00:34:32
Speaker
And off of that, Stu Hogg steps in at first receiver, just little. Not terrible. Grubber through. Little grubber through. Puts Matawalo over for the try. Just boom. Right there. So right off the kickoff, basically. Right off the kickoff. Jeez. They're put down over. I mean, unfortunately, that's a microcosm of Layton right there. And then right off of that, that kickoff, again, Ball finds Stewart Hogg. Stewart Hogg puts.
00:35:01
Speaker
that puts that ball all the way deep into Lyon territory. So you've given up a try, and then all of a sudden you have the ball right back in your own end, right inside your 22. And boom, another penalty kick. And next thing you know, it's like 20 minutes in, and Lyon's down 11-0. And that's pretty much the way this match went.
00:35:26
Speaker
Um, Leon just could never really got much going and, and every time they did, I mean, it seems to be a theme for their, for them in this competition. I also don't know what they're doing in top 14, but.
00:35:37
Speaker
And every time they did, the ball found hog and hog put it deep in there. So it's like... That's not really how it's supposed to work. Right. Now, that did change at halftime because, to be fair, Stuart Hogg's kicks in the first half were wind-aided. Oh, okay. But it also just downpour, second half. Oh, really? Oh, the gods were angry. Scosh, gods were not happy. No.
00:36:05
Speaker
So Hogg's boot wasn't as effective, but it didn't really matter. And the one thing that really, I guess, angered me from a tactic standpoint is you just saw what Stuart Hogg did you in the first half with his boot, right? Using that wind.
00:36:22
Speaker
If you're in the second half and you've got that wind behind you, you'd think you'd kind of want to do the same thing and use that territory. And Leon just didn't. They tried to run it instead of boot it down the field and play field position. And... You know what I'm going to say to that? Play, play, play. Exactly. Thank you. That was my thought. They just wanted to play, play, play.
00:36:44
Speaker
That's all they wanted to do. They didn't actually want to do tactics. They just wanted to go play, play, play. Right. And I was thinking that while I was watching it. So I'm glad you picked up on that. That was the first thing that came to mind on that one. I was like, yeah, it sounds like French to me. And it was. It was just silliness and stupidity. But what are you going to do? Yeah.
00:37:03
Speaker
So ultimately, Glasgow gets the win, keeps pace with Saris. Right. Doesn't get the bonus point. Yeah, that would have been huge for them considering that the Sarisans had not. And while I had Hogg as my man of the match, they gave it to Matawalo, which is fair. He had two tries. He had two, but not an awful choice.
00:37:26
Speaker
Right. It's not an awful choice, but to me, I mean, those were some of the, you know, fall on the ball in the try zone. That's, yeah, you get credit for the tribe, but hog gave you those tries. So at least one of them, if he's running, if he's running like hell on one, at least one of those, then I guess you're going to get, they seem to be pretty much walk over tries. And one was a fall over. So it.
00:37:45
Speaker
Yeah, perfect. I would have given it
Match Analysis: Toulouse vs Wasps
00:37:48
Speaker
a hug. I disagree with the decision there. That's right. You're allowed to do that. It is a thing. Right. But yeah, so Glasgow are chasing Saracens at 14 points. Saracens have 18. Cardiff have four. Leon is zero. They are both more or less out. There's no way 14 points. If Cardiff were to take max points, maybe get 14 points.
00:38:14
Speaker
And I don't think 14 points is gonna be good enough for a runner-up, for one of the best runner-up spots, so. Cardiff can concentrate on the pro 14, or yeah, the pro 14, and Leon can concentrate on the top 14, and they can try and get their butts into this competition next year. Oh yeah, to lose wasps. 42-27 to the Frenchman's. So, keen listeners,
00:38:42
Speaker
to the fantasy rugby Yanks may recall a few weeks ago when I was talking about, uh, wasps using a wide open strategy, I believe against Worcester and saying that it was one of these. Yes. I remember it was one of these, I'm better than you. We're going to out talent you and just play, play, play away from you. Yeah.
00:39:04
Speaker
to me and this is the first time I'd seen I didn't see wasps last round of the champions cup so I didn't see how they played that match this match wasn't exactly I feel like that match against Worcester was training for this match at least the way they played it was the same way it was
00:39:23
Speaker
We know we're not going to be able to keep you off the scoreboard and UJ scored two minutes in. So obviously this was going to... Right. Was that LaRue? Yeah, LaRue. Yeah, thanks. I will say, he's had nightmares in this competition going back to the knock-on against Leinster last year against them, or not last year, two years ago, I think, whatever it was.
00:39:46
Speaker
And yet so they were trying to say, you know what? We're not gonna we're not gonna to play this level. We're just gonna have to score points And so we're gonna have to throw the ball around we're gonna have to try it some some white open play and they did they actually At half they were down 22 20 on the road. Yep against to lose. I
00:40:06
Speaker
That's you can't ask for that's a pretty good half, right? You can't really ask for for your team to put you in a better position than that on the road and then not be winning, especially against, you know, wasps are having a rough year. So.
00:40:21
Speaker
They're struggling to get on the road against, you know, another champions in another good team that this whole leader. This is probably one of those three teams that people are saying probably should be written into the semifinal right away. Really, it might be two French teams and English team and an Irish team at this point. Yeah, just seeing how the way things are going. I will say this to lose are doing things and I read an article on it. They're doing things the right way. And when I say the right way, I don't mean the French way. They're not trying to
00:40:48
Speaker
buy imports not trying to buy not to shit on scott's betting it's not his fault but not they're not trying to buy scott's beddings right and bring them in over from from you know south africa or any other country and have them play you know for them and instead they're trying to bring along young players into their team and and make them make their team better with
00:41:16
Speaker
by backfilling their team with good young talent. Well, yeah, and then, and, and sprinkling in with that thing. They have some, I mean, they've got some good players. Don't get me wrong, but you know, they, they still have, they have a lot of French names on there. Yes. Yes. Yes. Like names that you tone and UJ and do Paul. And yeah, if there's a keep going down the list, the average person that can't speak French as a hard time pronouncing most of your team, you're probably doing something right in France. Right. That's how that's, that's easy way to look at it. Yeah.
00:41:44
Speaker
So, yeah, I like the way that they're doing things. And it was, they were a lot of fun to watch too. I mean, I'm focusing on wasps because we focus a lot. The two of us focus a lot on the premiership.
00:41:56
Speaker
This was about, this match to me was about Wasp standing up and really trying to give too long to lose everything they had and just wasn't enough. And DuPont had an amazing match. Yeah, he was everywhere. He was. More a Allison Chains day than a... Yes, than a Billy Joel day. Not the good die young. Ben had a great idea, but we can't do it because
00:42:24
Speaker
Hashtag copyright um, but uh to play uh, we die young by alice and shanes every time the wass lose and then to play um, Only the good die young when they win wass win by really joel. So yeah And to be fair this was this to be fair. This was good die young Um, but the result wasn't there wrong round team to try that against probably um, probably but uh, really and it was it
00:42:51
Speaker
Oh, so the one thing I had to give a shout out to is the referee, I'm not the referee, I'm sorry, the announcers, for making the Monty Python reference. Oh yeah, I heard that. I did hear that. Wait for thin mint. I was dying. A little bit of... I was dying. Oh man, I heard that and I left. It's gone a little long, so yeah. That's great. Yeah, no, that was very good. One personnel note, no soap waga. Billy Searle starts.
00:43:20
Speaker
Yeah, that's that was played a lot put a lot of of the game, too So I don't even recall and they might have put so blog in but I don't recall him being in there. Um, it yeah, sirl did a great job And I do want to call him the
Match Analysis: Leinster vs Bath
00:43:33
Speaker
kid. I did want to call it the referee and You know, I I love Nigel Owens. What's that? Nige? It was nige and he had a famous he could have he had the opportunity for another famous Nigel Owens moment and
00:43:46
Speaker
Uh, where I was right towards the end of the match, the two props, they were there, you know, there was after they were getting on each other. It was no good. And he calls them over and he's talking to them and they're, they're, they've just been involved in some bullshit. And he's like, guys, you're killing this game. I want to have a good match. We've had a good match so far. Don't fuck it up. We've only got like another two minutes left. So shake hands and be done with it. And they refused to shake hands. Yes, they did. I remember that. Yeah. That's fine.
00:44:18
Speaker
Unfortunately, Nigel made the mistake, I feel like it was a mistake of saying, all right, you won't shake hands, then we'll just get on with it. I would have gone right to my pocket, yellow you, yellow you, get the fuck off my field. Because if a referee tells you, we can't have this, we've had a good match, I wanna show of good faith that we're gonna continue to have a good match for the last two minutes. And if they say no, well then fine, you get to fucking sit for the rest of the match and watch it while the good players play.
00:44:43
Speaker
Yeah, because they were on what, 72, 73 minutes or something like that at that point. Yeah, it might have been later than that. Yeah. I just, I kind of wish that that would have been a legendary moment. Not so much a criticism of him as an opportunity missed.
00:44:58
Speaker
Yeah, um serl came off for soap log at 67. Okay So there you go. So yeah, you played a good tooth. Yeah, really good three quarters of that match Yeah, you didn't play badly by three conversions to penalty heat. He kicked well I'm sure and and I was just poo poo and all over soap water last week for his boot So right serl if serl's putting his hand up then yeah, maybe it's two weeks ago. Whatever it was. Yeah All right. So yeah to lose
00:45:26
Speaker
top the pool at the moment was bottom of the pool. They're done. So be it. But they didn't put it. This is not a typical European performance that was are used to. They need to figure out what the hell they're doing. I think they'll still qualify next year. I don't think they'll be outside the top six. But I think they have to take a good hard look in the mirror and figure out, do we actually want to play some damn rugby this season and play some good rugby? Or are we going to continue to be Jekyll and Hyde
00:45:53
Speaker
Well, hopefully, hopefully they've cleared up the players who don't want to be there. Yeah. Yeah. Others and others. Yeah. I'm not just focusing on Christian and, you know, being ill. I'm sure it'll be nice when Hughes comes back and looks like he got a little hit pointer in the last match. He landed on D darn hard. He came out a little locker room last week on crutches. They could have used him. I don't doubt it. All right. Leinster Bath.
00:46:17
Speaker
the revenge for Leinster, the flag gate. Beth kicked a penalty in the first minute of this, and that was pretty much all you needed to hear about Beth. No, kidding. But yeah, the flags were waving. There were some flags that were getting blown onto the pitch. An answer said something like, it's a one flag protest.
00:46:40
Speaker
For the fifth was a 1500 or something like that didn't make it last week or so. I thought that was pretty funny. That was pretty good Definitely a thing that needs to be noted for Bath No, wonder Hill No, no burns. No coca-singa. No Mercer. No, pretty slim. No top. No Toby fallow It's it's all it's it all adds up. It really does. You know they
00:47:02
Speaker
They lost Wilson in the middle after this one, at the beginning of this one as well.
Match Analysis: Munster vs Cast
00:47:10
Speaker
It was a rough day for them. They have, thankfully they do have Floney in the locker in the Type 5, but their back row is starting to get a little
00:47:20
Speaker
Two sevens, I love. I don't mind playing two sevens on the field. Low and under hill were very effective in that. They did it last week. They did it again this week. They're both definitely the standout players along with a guy like Jamie Roberts who is running hard every time he touched the ball. It didn't always go far because, you know, just ran to a blue wall. Got a pretty good defense there. Yeah, ran to a blue wall there. But I have to say for a long had a nice little shift that turned into a try.
00:47:48
Speaker
For a long Scott, definitely the best tight head hands in the world by by any means and I don't care what you say about your boy Sinclair retired. Yeah Yeah, it's not fair to have a tight head have that good a hat hands like passing and catching wise Like he just he moved the ball like he's a frickin first receiver. I'm like, that's his bullshit
00:48:06
Speaker
You know what though there's no reason so listen to that that same Alternate pod that we were talking about. Yeah, and they were talking about I think it was Marler was talking about Was Adam Jones? Yeah about how if he he's talking about how if he hits 40 rocks a match. He had a good match He had a good match. That's the old and he would tell him don't give me the ball. I'm like first off
00:48:28
Speaker
So I'm a former football player that Adam Jones though, right? We're both former football players One of the things that that brought me to rugby at least got me super excited to play it. I can touch the ball This thing they want me to run with it and do stuff with it I'm fucking in
00:48:47
Speaker
Yeah, and and so it kind of hurts my heart to see that there's someone who has that much talent You know so many other ways say you know what? I don't need this to be a part of my game Yeah, and man, there's not I don't think he coaches his players that that way though, you know, obviously if you have a ball carrying guy like For his for his sake because he coaches at Quinn's he has guys like Marla that can carry the ball for right Sinclair who can carry the ball very well Chisholm Horrible it can be a good ball carrier
00:49:14
Speaker
Um don brant. Yeah, obviously he knows how to how to put the ball down the field when he needs to yes Um, so yeah that that he doesn't coach. That's just how he played it is. It's just I just it's also old school too It is very old school. So I love the the ty for longs of this world who who are like, you know, i'm a problem They're heroes for everybody out there. Um, but yeah, he looked really good. Um again under hill and low were were very
00:49:38
Speaker
Very stand out for them. Underhill muscled his way over the line to get Beth trying to get him going. Obviously, can't. As I talked about that sports car last week. Underhill scored a try and the referee didn't call it back for a stupid reason. No. Oh, that's refreshing. Yeah, right. Yeah, good guy. Smart ref. Yeah. Not French ref. Yeah.
00:49:59
Speaker
Oh man, yeah, not a shitty one at least.
Match Analysis: Racing vs Leicester
00:50:04
Speaker
But yeah, he willed himself over, but man, I was talking about that sports car last week that Leinster were, and are, and can be, and they were. They definitely were. They were very, very good. Sexton just pulling the strings as he does. Six tries, no big deal. Yeah, all tries, no penalties, all tries and conversions for these guys. Five conversions for Johnny Sexton, damn.
00:50:28
Speaker
The freaking icing on the cake was the cross kick that went from Sexton to Burn and Burn. He put it on a dime. I was just like, oh boy. There are people that can't throw that little and use your freaking foot to do that. So this is why he was the world player of the year.
00:50:45
Speaker
He did look for every bit of the part. One thing I do want to point out, James Lowe, his very Johnny on the spot quick tap, try, on the five meter line boat bath, we're walking back and nobody was paying attention and he knew it, so he's like, you know what, I'm taking it.
00:51:02
Speaker
But somebody said, whoever got the pen or had the ball when they were saying when the pen was called for bath, somebody made a good point. If you have a pen called and you have the ball and it's against you, don't frickin' just give the ball to the other team. Either one, hold on to it. Yes, you can be a jackass like that. Maybe you start some fisticuffs, whatever. Or just drop it and maybe see if it rolls kind of far away. I dropped it behind me and then I started walking backwards. I didn't mean to kick it.
00:51:35
Speaker
You don't like it when it's against you but you understand why they do it. I used to hate it. It was a guy on a team I used to play against in college and he is the one reason I tell all the people I coach from here out Do not ever give the other team up the ball on a pen because they're most guys are nice there are the couple guys out there that are complete jackasses that will
00:51:57
Speaker
tap it right in your face and take off. And those are the guys that you'd want to avoid. You don't know where they are, but they're out there and you don't want to give them a chance.
00:52:06
Speaker
But yeah, so LUNSTER, 42-15, LUNSTER, certainly trying to chase down Toulouse. It's going to be a big one. First round, next batch. Round five is going to be a big one. I assume they'll play this at the Aviva. I don't think they're going to play this at the RDS. Oh, you'd want to play it. That's a big one. Yeah, you want to play this at the big park. So that is going to be very, very tasty come the new year. I think, I mean, that's going to be the match of the pool. I'll give you that one.
00:52:38
Speaker
So moving on speaking of now this this actually Flows right into what I wanted to say about cast monster. Oh boy, which is fascinating I'm not sure if that's good or bad
00:52:49
Speaker
Kast used a pretty impressive tactic against Monster. We talked last week about the difference between Leinster and Monster. Leinster being, again, the sports car and Monster being the tank.
00:53:08
Speaker
What Cass did was they used, I called it, I dub it, tactical handbags. Tactical handbags. That's very French. It is. And you have an English ref in Wayne Barnes who's going to try to be as polite as possible during this match. That's Barnesy. That's the English. That's Barnesy.
00:53:29
Speaker
and Cass just every every whistled just managed just found a reason to get in a monster players face and just just give him a little you know how's it going a little shippiness and something about your mother right and Munster did not react well to it shocking in Irish. Irish fevers flare sometimes you know it got them into making bad really bad decisions and
00:53:57
Speaker
and doing stupid shit. So speaking of that, so we go to the quick tap. This is end of the half, first half. Cast is up 10 to 6. And it's been, so Munster earns penalties, then earns a yellow card. And I want to say it was CJ Stander decides to quick tap on the five meter line.
00:54:25
Speaker
because he's he his blood was fucking boiling at that point and so he's like blood to the head yeah and he's like fuck you i'm going to score this try doesn't score the try uh cast turned it over kicked a touch ends a half oh boy and and you just earned uh the the yellow card so you're you're up a man
00:54:43
Speaker
At that point, just you're on the five meter line. You're down 10 six. You have two, only two options that work there to me. One is you kick for points and the other is you're kind of, they were kind of towards the middle of the field. So you, you take a scrum or, or you kick, you know, wherever you are, you, you, you, you're reset with the, with the set piece where you have the advantage because you have a one man advantage. And instead he picks the dumbest option, which is I'm going to tap and go by myself. I'm going to take on all 14 of those assholes because they've pissed me off. They've offended me somehow.
00:55:14
Speaker
That might not have been well, wasn't it the gas nine that was off? Um, yes. Was that a cockpit? Um, I think that was it. I think it was, I think it was cockpit at that point. Um,
00:55:30
Speaker
Cause they did have a, yes. Cause their, their other yellow was the, was their reserve prop. Okay. Yep. There was their nine off. So yeah, do that. There's something you can do with that. Right. That's not a tapping, you know, probably. And then you saw it again about 20 minutes later, um, Barnes awards monster, a scrum penalty kick. And it was in the mid, towards the middle of the field. Again, you have the option to retail. Oh, no, it was, I'm sorry. This was in, um, monster territory, I think.
00:55:58
Speaker
Uh, and take the scrum again and run it out. No, they do a quick tap run at, uh, run it, uh, at cast turnover again. It's like they, they, they really, Munster had a lot of missed opportunities and I, and, and made bad decisions at key times. And I think that was cause cast got in their face and, and really, uh, I got them off their game, got them focused on something that wasn't rugby. And, and, and the monster just didn't respond. How very French. Right.
00:56:28
Speaker
Get you off your game by getting your face and making you commit stupid penalties,
Match Analysis: Newcastle vs Edinburgh
00:56:32
Speaker
right? And barnes let it go too for too long on that one He should have he should have shut that down pretty early and simply didn't so cast again They're like, oh if that's what you would let me do then that is what they would do. Yeah
00:56:43
Speaker
And some referees just aren't on their games, right? You gotta know who you're refereeing. Refs now. Yeah, you know refs usually know that stuff, but still it's kind of a Oops, right type of thing. But so they got a 13-12 win You know cuss did blow in that pool completely open, right? They that was that was huge. They moved from third in the in the pool to second Yep, and they they have every opportunity to possibly you know and
00:57:10
Speaker
You know, Munster is going to have to play Exeter and Gloucester and those two teams are not pushovers. No, they're not going to be pushovers. So this is anybody's fault. That's going to test them. And yeah, this really is anybody's fault. You know, I mean, I know Exeter and Gloucester taking max points. Sounds like either one of them sounds like a tough task against both Cast and Munster because each one of them is going to have to go to one of these places.
00:57:34
Speaker
as we found out this weekend the part the the pitches for The french league are certainly not the standards outside of rossing's indoor weird stadium Which is going to be obviously clean and tidy because it's a freaking indoor turf stadium no shit, but the rest of them like These these pitches were pretty garbage. They were they were getting you could see it the
00:57:56
Speaker
where you could see where the scums were for a few minutes afterwards. That's not easy to do. It kind of plays into both their hands in a way, especially with Exeter being as forward heavy as they are. But still, it doesn't allow you to use the talent you have out wide either, and that can be a disadvantage too. So that doesn't make it easy by any means. That definitely puts a wrench in your game plan. It doesn't matter what your style usually is. It still puts a wrench in the game plan.
00:58:25
Speaker
So moving on from that match, again, 13-12 cast, well done. Now another top team against a team that's struggling, although they did, I hear, hire a coach finally. Rossing against Lester and this
00:58:44
Speaker
It was interesting. Rossing just went up very quickly. Lester got the early lead, but Rossing to me, I think they had
00:58:59
Speaker
figured out Lester's defense and yep two of their tries came off the exact same uh actually no yeah they're they're two of their first three tries came from running almost the exact same line which was this little it was not quite an unders it was more of a they were they were running an overs line but then just cut straight up and cut inside their defender
00:59:19
Speaker
And cut that that interior gap it just ran a long distance. Yeah there when I saw it once I was like damn that was pretty good I saw the second time and I'm like well this game's over Rossings got them figured out. Yeah, isolate them in space attack their inside. They're done and
00:59:36
Speaker
I thought they did a pretty good job of that. Lester didn't respond well. I texted you and we were both watching this match together. Lester seemed afraid at times to clear out a rock. You don't see this very often at the professional level.
00:59:54
Speaker
And I'm not gonna call him out by name, but there's some fucking gutless punks out there who and you know Yeah, you know how I feel about Lester and the best at times This was the opposite. They didn't want to hit they didn't want it They would rather trip over the tackler and be doing this Oh, I can't rock cuz I fell over this guy like that that they were trying to earn a penalty Just that they were like, oh I tried. I just couldn't make it. It's like fuck that dude get get your ass off the deck rock over that ball so your team can win it cuz What else are you playing for?
01:00:24
Speaker
Um, yeah, right. So yeah, it's not good. It's 24 11 and a half. Um, that was pretty much the match. I really was. I watched this one a little bit. Yeah. And I'm not sure. Zebo went off hurt. I'm not sure what his status is. Um, Oh, and of course, then we got to get to, to fucking Dan Cole again, thugging it up as Lester does throwing a fucking elbow to, to a, uh, throat.
01:00:51
Speaker
Yep. What are you guys doing? You got carded for it. Yeah, he deserved it. He was caught. I think I've made it perfectly clear how I feel about Lester, and so that was no great surprise to me. Right. Well, I mean, it's a nightmare at Lester right now.
01:01:12
Speaker
They're desperately seeking an attack defense coach, not an attack coach. Their attack's fine when they're going. But yeah, they're desperately seeking a defense coach. They just can't keep people off the board. I mean, you saw it when they were playing against a fairly depowered Saracen's team. And they scored, what, three long distance tries from wing full back area positions. And they just carved them up. So that's like the biggest, that's gotta be the biggest thing for them. They gotta fix their defense.
01:01:41
Speaker
Yes, especially in space. That was just horrible. They had a little bit of room to operate, Rossing did, and it was going to be a long run if not a try. Oh, yeah.
01:01:52
Speaker
All right. Oh, that didn't see where they are. Rossing again, top of pool four. Yeah, with 19 points. Lester, not the bottom. They're still in third place with with with six. They're still better than Scarlett's with two. But they're, but they're out there. There's no way 16 point. There's 16 points is the best runner up with one to three teams are already at 14. Yeah, then something went went awry. So
01:02:18
Speaker
For sure. Lester are playing up a string here and they will not be missed in the playoffs. Ulster hosts Rassing coming up in this next batch. That'll be another fun one. That's also the round five. So between that and Toulouse and Lunster, that should make things very, very interesting. I'll make for a fun weekend.
01:02:41
Speaker
We'll have to draw straws as to who gets those shit matches. Don't matter. I think I know what I'm going to do, but we'll talk about it later.
01:02:50
Speaker
Newcastle and Edinburgh, big one for Newcastle here, this is their, they're basically, we're gonna be deciding, are we gonna continue on this competition and put effort into it or are we gonna really concentrate and consolidate and just look at the premier ship? I think we know which way that's going. Yep, really, this was, what was the terminology like?
01:03:15
Speaker
If this was artistry, the artist would have had the brush in the hand, but not really painted anything by the time the halftime whistle blew. So I was like, oof, that's not really a compliment. Newcastle did get over the line at that point, but just wasn't pretty, although the try was kind of fun to watch. Hammersley did well to take an up and under, or a cross kick, whatever you want to call it.
01:03:44
Speaker
Smuggled it back to Sanati Sanati and or or to the other one Nikki Ghanova. Sorry. They're both involved Nikki Ghanova Stins one guy goes down tiptoes down the sideline cuts in takes out the the fullback by just basically throwing himself into said fullback
01:04:02
Speaker
Offloaded to sonati sonati sonati is not gonna get caught. He's gone. He's too much of a bowling ball How he's on the wing? I don't know, but he does well at the wing. So as long as it's working I guess they're gonna play him there That was definitely one thing that I noticed is I mean, it's not anything new sonati sonati and making gun of a are dangerous every time they get their hands on the ball, right but
01:04:27
Speaker
And they definitely tried their new castles game plan was definitely to try and get these guys the ball wide in space Where they could do damage? They just I don't think they were doing quite a good enough job of Committing the middle of the defense and every once in a while would happen and then it would go But then they'd find a way to screw up the pass that that obviously is not helpful either So they just couldn't
01:04:48
Speaker
They couldn't, didn't quite have the end product for them. Watson versus John Hardy, who are the two, I'm sure a lot of people in Scotland are screaming for these two guys to be the next two sevens. Hamish Watson's gonna have that seven jersey, but John Hardy, who got let go by Edinburgh last year, now playing against them for Newcastle.
01:05:12
Speaker
Certainly didn't disappoint. He was making some hits. It almost seemed like he and Watson were seeking each other out sometimes, which was fun. That was fun to watch. Watson did get away with a lucky penalty near the end that was kind of the killer blow that ended whatever attack that Newcastle thought they were going to produce.
01:05:30
Speaker
Um had the ball but then got taken off his feet referee still still gave me the award the penalty I don't think he had the ball nearly long enough to to warrant said pen but After a
Match Analysis: Montpellier vs Toulon
01:05:42
Speaker
referee had a look i'm not sure his view was good So that might have done him the biggest favor possible in that in that case But anyway, he he did play well, so it sounded like this is a this was something that was out of the blue. Um
01:05:54
Speaker
Henry Pygos definitely was a huge player in this one. Set up the first try for Edinburgh in the second half with a little chip.
01:06:05
Speaker
well-timed run by Johnston and just scooped it up on the bounce and there was nobody near it for Newcastle. This was off first phase, so that was pretty sad from them, but also very well-planned by Edinburgh, to be fair. It was on a frickin', it was right on a tee, like, just popped it right in the middle of no man's land and Johnston ran right, timed his run, he was already on a running start, timed his run very well to be onside when Pergos kicked it and just was easily gonna be the first guy to it as long as it bounced right.
01:06:35
Speaker
I did. And then to seal the deal for for him, do on by number of gets one in the corner. But it was because of a monster pass that pure goes made it. I'm talking like long, long and got it out there. I think it was it might have been either van der Waals or Johnston just shipped it on to do on by number two. He's got space down the sideline and he's got wheels. So, yeah, he's in. So that pretty much was the clincher. How did flood look?
01:07:08
Speaker
Yeah, he was okay. He was not bad. He was certainly trying to command. You could hear him really try and tell ordering his troops around. So he was definitely trying to organize everybody. So he was doing everything he could as a leader to do it. He's not
01:07:24
Speaker
He's not the best 10 out there, so that's going to be, and he missed a couple of kicks, which didn't help. Certainly missed that first kick off the try, which would have been a huge thing for them to be up, because it would have been 10-6 at halftime. At that point, you hopefully can maybe keep the scoreboard going. Newcastle played too much in their own in the second half. That was kind of their bugaboo.
01:07:46
Speaker
Gil crest from Edinburgh was awesome in the lineup. He every time they threw to him. It's stuck. It didn't go anyway So we I think I think he had 10 lineup wins something like that. Yeah, you did you did very well So those those very good for them and McWiggin didn't start for Nope. Nope. I think they're I think it's part Rusty McWiggin by part also leaning a little bit on Kyle Cooper. They did have tight heads in this game. I
01:08:10
Speaker
Oh, that's lovely. They had two. Amazing. But they also lost some guys. Cal and Green dropped out in the warm up. Johnny Williams was hurt almost within the first 10 minutes. And Negusa, their eight man, came off after. He threw a kind of a, looked like for all intents and purposes, they were going to be able to make a break. And he got the ball in space. I'm thinking, uh-oh. They might do something. Yeah. And instead, he tried to ship it on.
01:08:40
Speaker
through some half-assed passing to touch shortly after that, he came off. I was like, oh, maybe he was hurt. I thought for sure he was just going to have a run. And the second he moved it, I was like, what? What are you doing? Go. No, never mind. You're hurt. Yeah, never mind. You're hurt. And then the one note I.
01:08:57
Speaker
I had. I praised Luke Pierce. I am pooh-poohing on Alexander Ruiz. No arms tackle on Kinghorn. Did not need TMO. It was nothing. What? Comes out of it. It's a rugby incident.
01:09:14
Speaker
So why did we go to TMO? Like I think everybody here that's watched rugby for five minutes saw that and was like, there's nothing in that. There's nothing in that. If this comes out, eventually it sounded like they went from pen, no yellow card to, okay, it's just a rugby. That's like 10 minutes of my life. I'm not getting back. Thank you. So I thought that was.
01:09:37
Speaker
It was the right decision, thankfully. There was nothing in it, so it shouldn't have wanted anything. I appreciate it much better when, I mean, this happened a couple of weeks ago with the, who was it? The Lester card, the Eastman card.
01:09:57
Speaker
Yeah, where the referee didn't see it right away No, and so he's not going. Oh wait, let me check TMO. It was the TMO called in and said hey Yes, let's review this and if it's something that's kind of borderline, especially if it's a you know, possible foul play Yeah, if the TMO is not calling it Then I think the TMO called it down which is the dumb part. Well, then that's really fucking dumb. Yes. It's the really dumb part Check on this. Oh, it's nothing
01:10:22
Speaker
Shut the fuck up there. I didn't, I didn't get to the, I didn't get to the really dumb part. They, yeah, no. So that was bad. Um, but Enberg come away 21 eight. They are in command currently of pool five. This is going to be interesting pool as well. Too long or out.
01:10:38
Speaker
We, it's not a new thing. I'll get to that game in a second. And then Edinburgh's up. Newcastle are at eight. They're still alive. We'll see what they decide to do come the new year. Maybe they get a couple of wins in the Premiership to get themselves out of the cellar and maybe they can have a go at Europe, but until that happens.
01:10:55
Speaker
They're gonna I mean we're talking about two more miracles. They do have a pretty good slump buster coming up. Yeah against Worcester. So maybe that's something that's That can get them on the oh, I'm sorry. I was at the wrong thing. No, they have Gloucester That's how you keep your slump going your cold streak will continue Usually they have a slump extender. Yeah
01:11:23
Speaker
But yeah, so it's like I said 21 21 8 Edinburgh Newcastle had a little bit of bite in the first half. It wasn't pretty but they were still they could have they could have finished this Again, they had and then one other injury Chris Harris who was their other center?
01:11:41
Speaker
Also got hurt So it's Williams and Harris. They actually moved Nikki on about a 13 and Harris inside the 12 Harris Give him credit. He got it like he could have come off very easily. He got it it out Good. He knew his team needed him. Yeah, I think there was one point though where he Was he I think he was a tackler on one of the last one on the last try that he just couldn't get to yeah, I
01:12:03
Speaker
So I was like, okay, I'll give him a pass because he's already caring. He was trying to get there, but yes, he was not gonna happen. He was not getting there. I was like, your injuries definitely gonna stop you from doing that. Sorry, buddy. So yeah, good for him. Hopefully they get at least they get at least get healthy. I mean, you know,
01:12:20
Speaker
As much as I'm I'm I'm picking on them to to be relegated Um at the first for serious i'd rather them be healthy in in that top form than Yeah, then have shit go down new castle last year is better than new castle this year for for the league itself So, you know, that's too bad. I'd like to see more of that same the old the old new castle. Yep and last one, uh, Montpellier and too long
01:12:46
Speaker
This is basically losers out Loser loser. This one is going home and playing for pride for the competition was it Montpelier too long. Yeah Too long by About 20 significant margin. Yeah 34 13 Montpelier definitely with a better better side in this they it was a lot of kicking I mean we're talking about guys these teams did not want to play in their own end and
01:13:14
Speaker
They had no interest in it. Oh, it's in the year 22? Gone. And it was definitely a lot of kicked tennis back and forth, which was somewhat annoying as a forward. I'm like, no! Can we stop this? Please? Interesting for too long, they put Gergadze at seven and he's usually a second row. I was like, oh, that's a bad sign for them. Yeah, that's not a good sign.
01:13:38
Speaker
If, um, if he's playing seven, then they're going to have an issue. Cause I mean, he's a six at best. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe an eight. Cause he, I think he's played there for Georgia. Um, but you know, that's it. I wouldn't, I wouldn't do anything more than that, but you're not going to move, mess them all of that. So still seven. Yeah. I don't know about that.
01:13:55
Speaker
We did one, one bright spot of the match. We did have goody on the comms. Oh, he loves to comment. For whatever reason, he does more French than he does English. I don't know why. Maybe it's part of his contract. Maybe. Yeah, maybe they just mess around him. Who knows? He did play there. He did play in France for a little while. Yeah. Um, but yeah, so, and then, uh, Houston returned.
01:14:15
Speaker
Right. That was good. Yeah. Cause that was a scary injury. Yep. Okay. So he was, he was okay. He was good to go. I think he played most, if not all the match. So that was the upside of that. That's good. I hadn't even checked in to see if he was. Yep. He did. Okay. Uh, Toulon made a very tactical sub, um, about midway through the first half. They brought on Bastero, um, brought off their, their little fullback because this was definitely going to be a game one in the trenches. And I will tell you where it was one. It was the mall by Montpelier. Wow. Going way old school.
01:14:46
Speaker
That's, uh, you don't see malls as the, uh, attacking structure very often in these days. Well, that was their, um.
01:14:55
Speaker
I mean that the conditions dictated that that's what it needed to be. Yeah, and their mall was going fine like well then they have guys Wilhelmsa and Big guy Pika mall definitely doing damage with it You know Wilhelmsa got over for one. I think was it him. Nope fed it to serpentine. That's right Peanut got over after man. Was it a bad kick? I don't remember who it might have been trend duck He's not I have to say trend duck is definitely
01:15:24
Speaker
He is not your top end fly half that you're used to working with at a team like Tuong. They've had, I mean, they had Johnny Wilkinson for a while. That right there is hard to obviously replicate. Exactly. But still, they've somehow found ways to be successful. I don't think Francois Turnduke is going to do them any favors when it comes to Europe. No.
01:15:51
Speaker
bad fly half. Obviously, he's a very serviceable fly half. He's played for France in a lot of big matches. So I'm not going to completely shoot him out the window. But anyway, so he made a just a blunder of a kick right down friend Zostain's throw who really had a
01:16:08
Speaker
Rough start to the match. He had two big kicks that went on on the fall. Okay. I was like, oops. That'll happen. So, you know, he had a couple of disjudgments made up for it with this one, though. He saw like he saw field and he said, oh, I'm running. Eventually got loose and Pinar was there was there for the for the finish. And just that. But that was kind of a microcosm of what too long has done in this competition, really, like just complete bonehead kick, not accurate at all.
01:16:38
Speaker
And JP Peterson was there to tackle stain and made such a half-assed effort to do it. Up high, playing chicken wing bullshit. I'm like, dude. Break down. Break down, put your sugar in. I know you guys are probably friends because they both played for South Africa at one point or another, but no. No. You need to hit that guy. But still, when the poster was made of that try,
01:17:02
Speaker
You know, you have the opportunity of making the tackle rather than getting burned. You're getting called out in the film session for sure. The review session will not be pretty for you. Or for many of the two. Yeah, they brought this guy in. I can't remember the dude's name, the coach. They brought him in from La Rochelle, who had a great run the last couple of years.
01:17:24
Speaker
But and there's something about going from and not all coaches can do it. They go from a smaller ish budget smaller ish expectation team like La Rochelle who played very well the last couple of years. Don't don't get me wrong. Sure. And then you go to too long, too long where they had they won three of these fuckers in a row. They won three European trophies in a row. That is has not been repeated.
01:17:51
Speaker
It's come close a couple times. Saracen's had two in a row. Lenster have had two in a row. I think Toulouse have had two in a row, but not. So these guys, it's a huge, it's a big jump and I don't think this guy's ready for it. The recruitment is obviously an issue if Gergaza's starting at seven.
01:18:09
Speaker
Right, you know as we said as we talked about there it's yeah, we're talking about the French money and right and I'm sure that they at least Made a run at soap laga. You'd think they would have yeah, but I don't know Obviously not successful, right? Whatever whatever it well, they're obviously gonna try and address that problem with the likes of a guy like Artie surveyor But still like you you you can't just you can't see a problem on the field and then try and fix it for next year and
01:18:35
Speaker
Because you're going to have another problem next year. Just because it's not this one doesn't mean it's not a problem. So that just baffles my mind. And then the last little note I have in here, it's kind of a pity tribe, so we gave it to him. But Gregorza was probably offsides. He picked it up. Yeah.
01:18:57
Speaker
I don't I don't know if the law says you have to be the back man at the rock now, but I know that it says you have to have both feet behind the ball. His left foot was way in front. So and it just prevents those little weird pop through the middle of the rock runs. And, you know, it can turn into a pile up at those things sometimes with those. So that's why I think you want to clean that up. Right. So was he was he offsides? I thought so. Referee didn't do it. He was John Lacey. Yeah. Was.
01:19:27
Speaker
Which rough was it that fell down? Was it the Gloucester match? He fell down and the whistle got mudded up or something. That was hysterical. That was somebody we don't like. I thought that was, I was like, whoops. That wasn't Reynall. Hold on. It might have been. No, it was in the Sarries match because it was Garces.
01:19:46
Speaker
Wasn't it, wouldn't it? Yeah. No, it was not. No, it was not because that's that no, because it got mudded up. So that and that and they were on turf. Oh, right. Yeah, that's right. No, I think I think it was the blaster match. It probably was not because you get slammed into by somebody.
01:20:03
Speaker
Yeah, they get slammed into by a flarity. Right. That's who it was. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, so anyway back on top of something somewhere on topic Montpellier when in really shitty field conditions All over it was but the French rugby fields are so terrible though. Yeah, they were talking about it on this broadcast in particular Yeah, they have not caught up to the like
01:20:25
Speaker
Even Lester's field was holding up under the garbage weather, you know, the obviously Aviva is going to be taking well care well care even though, you know, but still that's that's shit. That's a shit pitch. Yeah. You know, I'm just thinking of the weather with shit everywhere. Yeah. The ball is not going to be good. Like the shit's going to go wrong. I mean, it was field conditions are part of that. Right. Yeah. You want a pitch that's going to hold up to that. I mean, you talk about all the money that's getting thrown at thrown from these clubs.
01:20:53
Speaker
Throw some at your fucking bitches. Yeah. God damn. Hey, it's home field advantage. Yeah. Okay. But you're, you know, I mean, Montpellier obviously won at home, but that's, and that's fine. Um, I'd say too long. Definitely drafted a team to possibly take this game.
01:21:08
Speaker
Obviously, they didn't start Bastro, but they brought him on. Guys like Tuya Silva and Nkosi just running hard at, you know, these little bowling balls. They have so much speed. That was almost a perfect team, but they just didn't execute well. So give them that, but that's not how it goes. Yeah. So, yeah. Toulon out, Newcastle on eight. Montpellier at 11 and Burr at 15 in pool five. That's a pool.
01:21:35
Speaker
wide open, but it's pretty open. I'll probably leapfrogging Newcastle. Yeah, so they're now they're now in second. And with that, and they play each other. Yeah, in the next round. So well, that'll be interesting to see what happens with that. Right. All right. All right. So
01:21:53
Speaker
So fun champions champions couple of
Premiership Preview and Predictions
01:21:56
Speaker
weeks. Yep, but back to back to the brand ship back to the prime. So we're gonna start doing something fun and Not that this isn't fun because believe me if this wasn't fun, then I wouldn't be doing it We don't have enough listeners to justify that But we're gonna start doing something a little fun and we're just gonna do a pick them I love the ball picking Oh
01:22:20
Speaker
I love to ball pick them or permission to pick them in this case. So you pick your game, I'll pick my game.
01:22:26
Speaker
So the same thing as we've been doing with the Champions Cup? No, but now we're just going to pick up winners here. So we'll start with the, oh, so we're just going to pick from any of the available teams. Well, no, so we'll just, we'll pick the winners of each game. Right. Okay. All right. So Worcester, Northampton. Yeah. Worcester's at home. Northampton, I think is the better team. I'm going to go with Northampton. Yeah. Um,
01:22:58
Speaker
And the only problem is we don't have good injury reports to dig through. No, we're kind of flying by the seat of our pants. We don't know. This all happens before we know the lineups, before we know anything. Northampton didn't play this weekend. They didn't. No, they got snowed out. They got snowed out against whatever it was, the other Saracens club. Timisara, Saracens, they're out of Romania or something like that.
01:23:23
Speaker
I remember where it was exactly. Sorry if you're a fan of that team. No disrespect intended. There's just a lot to cover, even on the top level teams. My bad. All right, next. Lester Quinn's. Lester Quinn's. Lester at home again. Lester at home again. Yeah, but fuck Lester. Is Eastman back? Nope. Then I'm gonna go with Harley Quinn's. He shouldn't start for them anyway. Should we Tomua?
01:23:50
Speaker
I know, but it's still fuck that guy. Yeah. No, I, um, who knows if, if Cole gets sanctioned for that shit this past weekend, that was maybe a week. He might get a, yeah. I'm not saying he's going to get more than more than that, but that was pretty shit. Uh, Quinn's have been terrible on the road. I'm going Lester. All right.
01:24:08
Speaker
All right. The match that everybody will be parked very, very front and center in front of their TV for probably, you know, series at Sandy Park against Exeter one and two. There are some who may accuse me of bias on this one. But ultimately, I mean, you got to go Saracens. I don't.
01:24:29
Speaker
Yeah, that's at Sandy Park. That's a tough place to play. I'm just not that I'm not sold on Exeter. They're not. They're not. Yeah, what Exeter used to be. And right now, Saracen's should the other have some guys not that are injuries billion tomorrow, the only ones that come to my mind, right?
01:24:49
Speaker
And will Mako still work on his way back in? He played so many minutes the other day. He's fine. But it wasn't Mako. No, you're right. So he's still working his way back to top form. But I think Sarri's are just too much. They're just going to outclass Exeter, I think, on Exeter's home pitch. For me, it's just for me, it's a matter of no Slade, no Knoll.
01:25:14
Speaker
Yeah. And was it Cuthbert? No Cuthbert. No Cuthbert? He didn't play last weekend. I don't think he's going to be available this weekend either. So yeah. Well, thinking with me brain and not with me heart, I'm going to go with Saracens. Yeah, that's kind of where I am. I think, where was he?
01:25:37
Speaker
Cordero I think is gonna be really the the one guy to watch for for Exeter in that match. They'll bracket the hell out of him and exactly so it's just take him away and there's not gonna be much left to To attack right? Yeah, if I didn't say my pick for the first one today you didn't I went with I went with Worcester. Oh, yeah, I'm gonna take the home team
01:25:58
Speaker
I'll take the home team. This is a team that's probably very much consolidating to stay in the premier ship. Give zero shits about Europe because they're in the challenge cup anyway, so screw it. So yeah, I'm going to give the home team the nod. They play well at home too. Sail and Bristol sail at home at the AJ Bell.
01:26:17
Speaker
You go first. I've been going first the last couple of times. I am going to go with the Bears. I'm going Bristol. I think Bristol will continue to figure out how to play in this league. And I like the weapons that sale has.
01:26:33
Speaker
but they just haven't shown they know how to use them very well yet. Maybe Ashton comes to life finally for sale and if it does then I'll be happy to eat my words because I want to see him do well. And I'm looking at this and I just I end up wanting to take all the away teams. It just seems like the better teams are on the road this week. Right.
01:26:55
Speaker
I want to pick sail just cause I'm getting going, going head over heart here. I'd love the way, I love the way Bristol's playing though. Um, they, they've, they've kind of as, as much as Gloucester has captured my, my imagination too. Um, at the top, I see Bristol as a team that I'm, I'm looking for them to, to be making some moves. So I'm going to go with Bristol for this one too. Um, but if I was, uh, I, yeah.
01:27:21
Speaker
I'd have to see the betting line to know who I would take if there was a line. I would assume Bristol would be the favorite just because of the way they're playing. But yeah, I think Salem will make it close, but I don't think it's going to be enough.
01:27:32
Speaker
Agreed. All right. Sunday games. Wasp and Bath. I'll go first. Bath, for me, it's easy. I don't think Marcher's going to be back. I don't think Burns is going to be back. Cocomite. But I like James Wilson. I don't think he, I think Freddie Burns is still very underrated for a 10. And I think he's definitely, maybe he's not the heartbeat, but he's part of the heartbeat of that Bath squad. And without him, I think it's really going to be tough.
01:28:02
Speaker
Wasps are definitely gonna play a little pissed off After this weekend, I think Hughes will be back. Okay, also that so, you know with them having a more balanced back row of Hughes young and shields Kicking the fact that you know, they'll probably be a little bit angry. I think I think I think was take this one I don't like die young but again brain over heart. I'm gonna go with loss. I
01:28:26
Speaker
I, I also, I'm going to take wasps. Um, then that's entirely on form. Uh, Beth, as you said, they're, they're kind of, uh, yeah, they've just got, they've just come home. They're coming home from a long trip to Dublin, going back on the road and they got pumped and Dublin too. So it doesn't help.
01:28:45
Speaker
And wasps have, again, they've put together some, at least this past week, they put together some pretty rugby, some very good rugby, really good attacking rugby, the kind that you haven't seen so much in the premiership, where it can be very conservative at times and attack.
01:29:05
Speaker
I just think that they've made if that's what they found if that's what they want to go. That's the direction that wasps want to go is a little bit wide open. I think they can have the weapons. They have the weapons. So I see no reason why they can't continue that that style and put up put up points. And I think that's what I think this, you know, if wasps make this issued out, they're going to win.
01:29:25
Speaker
Yes. I agree. I agree. They have more in the tank than Bath. I think to me this is probably a race to 25 points. Yeah, probably the first of four tries. Right. Really. All right. So we got that. And then Falcons at home against Gloucester.
01:29:47
Speaker
Well, I know I know mystery Yeah, I I love a lot of the players on Newcastle But man, they are not playing super well at the moment. And unfortunately, this is not where they get back on track I don't believe I think luster take this one
01:30:06
Speaker
And cluster just took a giant shit against Exeter. Yeah, they're gonna be mad. They're gonna be mad. I mean, even if Owen Williams is playing 10 for them and not Cipriani, I still think that they can take this thing. I agree. So that's that'll be that.
Closing Remarks and Listener Engagement
01:30:20
Speaker
So for those that are listening to this, it's almost Christmas time. If you don't celebrate Christmas, sorry.
01:30:28
Speaker
Happy holidays, anyway. So you're not here. No, I'll be out. The mother-in-laws. Oh, boy. Oh, that'll be fun. Yeah, well, I'm getting on a plane with a lot of people that might make me drink a little bit. That's fun. But just FYI.
01:30:47
Speaker
No, I'm a shit flyer, so that does not, this is probably where the majority of my I need a drink type of thing comes from, not so much the people I'm with. It's my wife, my mother, and my wife's parents, so. And where are you going? We're going to California. Oh, nice. I am not a, again, I'm not a flyer, but if you can give me a beer or a glass of whiskey and give me something to listen to and distract me like a little kid, I'm okay.
01:31:15
Speaker
But it's going to be a trick. But we'll get there. We're leaving early in the morning. We'll get there about mid-afternoon. Oh, there you go. And we'll be there until Thursday night and fly back on the red ice. Awesome. I will try to do something Sunday afternoon, Sunday night after the games and get it posted up before I get on my plane. If I don't, my bad. Happy holidays. I hope everybody does have a nice holiday that's celebrating Christmas.
01:31:43
Speaker
If not, just have yourself a good week. Enjoy the rugby. If nothing else, do that, please. Yes, please. Good rugby, everyone. Yep. So make sure you check us out on iTunes. Check us out on Spotify, Google Play. Find us on Twitter. I'll put our Twitter handles in the show notes. E-mail at fantasyrugby.com. There we go. I got that one.
01:32:10
Speaker
But thanks for listening everybody. Hopefully we entertained you for a little while and we appreciate it. Hit us up and let us know what you guys think.