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Season 2- Episode 51- The Finale...Finally! (Premiership Final)
29 Plays5 years ago
It's the final go around in Season 2 for those American rugby knuckleheads. In this episode we start off by discussing the unfortunate situation that lead to the BaaBaas match being cancelled. We touch on the final England squad selections, plenty of new faces to be happy for in there. We also talk about the long awaited conclusion of round 4 of the Six Nations with Ireland and Italy. Of course, we talk about the squad of men that completed the famous double trophy lift in the Premiership Final at Twickenham. To conclude the episode, we have a look back at the chaos that was Season 2 of TFRY and many heartfelt thank you's to those that helped us get to this point as well as those that came along for the ride! As always, kick back, crack one open with us and enjoy the Season 2 Finale.
Ask us questions via Twitter: Jarrod- jdyke8man & Ben- admrablsnackbar. Send us your thoughts for the show and questions for upcoming shows via e-mail fantasyrugbypodcast@gmail.com.
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Updates
00:00:08
Speaker
Hey everybody. Welcome back. It is the fans. My name is Jared Dyke. We're in work. Last one, last one for all of three weeks, but last one, we're going to have a nice little break there. So yeah. Oh yeah. Significant off season, mid season. Yeah, no shit. Um, but yeah, so it's, this will be our last one for a little bit and then we'll be back in the driver's seat, uh, free.
00:00:31
Speaker
Pre-pre pre-premium. Wild ride and season two. Yeah. Yeah, it's been a while. We'll talk about season recap a little bit. In the meantime, I'm thirsty, so let's open beers. Not so sure about that. Yeah, yours is maybe this left unsaid. Yeah, it's... Obviously you want... Smells... Smells good.
00:00:58
Speaker
Well, I mean... Smells like the beer it's supposed to be. Yeah. I guess. Hold on. You're going to freak that out. Oh, it's terrible. It's good. Oh, man. Yeah, that's probably accurate. It's terrible. It's safe to drink. Obviously, you want to find us on your favorite podcast app, Apple Podcast, Google Play, Spotify, all the fun places.
00:01:27
Speaker
If you're one of those weird people that doesn't like any of those apps and wants to find the audio version on YouTube, we have one of those usually. So, yeah, have fun with that. Well, I mean, you're kind of out of time for your TRM upgrades, but not out of time for next season. So make sure that you grab a hold of that and you don't have to suffer some sort of shitty forfeit in your league because you came in last place and you were the asshole that didn't get the upgrade. So go ahead and grab yourself one of those.
00:01:56
Speaker
If you haven't done it yet, buy our friend, George, the fans here, everybody, coffee. He did a lot of work this season, like the rest of us in this little tiny universe. Yeah, give him some love. Give him some help. Yeah, he deserves it, definitely.
00:02:15
Speaker
for his work as his work, but also as a pretty good brand ambassador for the fantasy rugby that we all enjoy. So yeah, give him a coffee or a beer. Yeah, for sure. No doubt.
Social Causes and Sportsmanship
00:02:29
Speaker
As always, black lives matter on the show, matters the minimum at this point. So I think that's not unreasonable by any means whatsoever. So we recognize equality, love is love, and a person's a person, man. That's it.
00:02:47
Speaker
The only thing I have to add to that is vote. Yes, vote. If you're in the United States, get your bums out there and vote. Go. If you need help, call us. We'll figure it out. We'll help you. We will provide that service. Yeah, we'll get you sorted. No doubt. But it's too important. And yes, I know it doesn't matter if you like what you're voting for for now. I understand.
00:03:12
Speaker
Yeah. I'm not liking what I'm voting for either, but I'm voting. Same, but you got to vote because you can't bitch if you don't vote, man. That's all I know. I learned that much at least. All right. Unfortunate incident this past weekend or this past week. No Bob-Oz match. That was rather disappointing. There should be problematic for those players, honestly.
00:03:43
Speaker
Rob Shaw should know better. He's been a class guy through and through his whole career. This is not like him to slip up this badly and this poorly. Just no need for it. You can't wait a fucking week, you know, till after the Bob Oz match and whatnot, like be a leader, you know, don't just whatever. And then the young guys, like DeGlanville,
00:04:11
Speaker
Like you have this opportunity. This is a big one. Like these are opportunities you get when you're getting a look, right? And now they've seen what you are. Like this is not the kind of character that I would want to see if I was Eddie Jones.
00:04:29
Speaker
or even a future England coach. It's something I'd be like, well, okay, I have the option of this guy who will allow others to make him irresponsible versus someone else who might act better. That's so problematic and really disappointing. And I'm glad to see how the babas reacted.
00:04:55
Speaker
you know, putting their hands up saying, yeah, this is unacceptable. This is not how we roll. And we're going to, you know, we're going to see if we can carry this match on or otherwise it's our fault. Yep.
00:05:08
Speaker
No, they tried. They did. Um, I will say that, you know, they're, they're, the week of a match, their Twitter feed is awesome to follow. Um, to see Maitland ping Wiggy and then it bounced off him and hit Rob Shaw. And everybody was like, Oh, he did not expect that one. They were, they were, they were playing a indoor version of cricket looked like. Yeah. Maitland just, just whizzed it at freaking Wiggles.
00:05:36
Speaker
Almost killed him. They were like, catch it. Yeah. He didn't really drop it. He more or less almost died. So he's forgiven, it sounds like, for not catching that one. Yeah. It's pretty, I mean, it's usually an amusing follow most of the time, but definitely an amusing follow the week of the boss match. Yeah. For sure.
00:05:56
Speaker
So yeah, that's unfortunate. Well, with that, we didn't get to look at anything that was in the locker for Eddie Jones, but we'll see.
00:06:08
Speaker
We'll see what we got here. He did name a team to conclude the Six Nations and then going into the autumn internationals
Team Selections and Player Performances
00:06:17
Speaker
here. Robson is in, thank God. Right. He had to be in. He played, I mean, we'll talk about this weekend, but he played so well this past weekend, all season. We know the question marks that are already in there that we have. I don't love for a bank in there. He did not play well in the restart.
00:06:35
Speaker
He didn't play well in, he hasn't played well in England colors either. No, he hasn't. I will give you that as well. Glad to see Joe Marchand still in the squad. Yeah. That's, you know, that's promising. That is. And he's there. I think he's done. He did some good work down south and he played well down the stretch too. So, yep.
00:06:56
Speaker
Yeah, he definitely. Oh, yeah. If there was there are a few players in that Quinn's team that were semi inconsistent since the restart, he was definitely not the problem. No. So and then looking at the forwards, Johnny Hill gets the call. He has to. I mean, he plays other people who had to, too. But yeah, but he the damage he's doing all in all respects.
00:07:22
Speaker
You know, the try score, yeah, he can, you know, shove him over from, from two meters out as good as any, anyone, but he's been, um, I mean, extras lineup's been great. And the scrum's been fantastic and he's been tack making this tackles like a flanker and running in the loose, like a flanker. So.
00:07:42
Speaker
Yeah, he's got yes, I think he definitely has to be on the team for the way he played. And, you know, and you have no George Cruz, you have no corny laws available. Well, so, you know, you'll see some new bodies. We talked about ribbons who I personally like as a as a player, you know, me, too. You know, the whole Saints team was just a mess since the restart. But overall, I do like Dave ribbons. I still thought he played well. He was one of the few bright spots for them. So.
00:08:09
Speaker
And then the man that everybody was just throwing tomatoes at Eddie to call into the team. He's finally on the team, Jack Willis. Thank God. Yeah. The kid absolutely deserved to be there. If he wasn't, you know, we talked about a couple of players that were crying shame. Like you can't have too many of them, Eddie. Come on, man. This would have been an unforgivable mistake for sure.
00:08:31
Speaker
Yeah. And it's bad enough that there's no Sam. So you got to have somebody there that's like a bone to throw to the fans who want to see good players over your system guys. Yeah.
00:08:49
Speaker
I agree, but like I don't ever like I don't even ever have to see Ben Young's and George Ford on Lester. I'd be OK with without having to see that little. National team, but well, yeah.
00:09:03
Speaker
Unfortunately, for Ford, he's injured, but that does leave room for more deserving people on the team. Right. And hopefully, they shine and they make him become an afterthought. And that's an okay way for me to see him go. I'm perfectly okay with that. I'm not overly on somebody. I just want, you know, the Max Malins, Jacob Mumaga, whoever, to step in and just unseat him. So, where do you think they're going to play Malins?
00:09:32
Speaker
He's shown the ability to play both. I'd say fullback is probably as likely a spot to appear first, but I'm not ruling out fly half at all.
00:09:45
Speaker
Yeah, I'd agree. I think that the same thing that they did with the Bears, you know, they had him at fullback because he's at least comfortable there. That's something to get, you know, to get you used to the, you know, the play and the level that's expected before you have all the pressure of, Oh yeah. Now you have to run the attack and defense of being a 10. Yep. Oops. Um, yeah. So we'll see what this, uh, what this, uh, what comes with this a little bit. There's some other guys that were assigned to,
00:10:12
Speaker
Uh, reconditioning as they call it. Um, I just saw the names. Why did I move it?
Six Nations Recap
00:10:19
Speaker
Uh, it's not that important. I guess. Um, Oh, there we are. Um, yeah, here we go. Uh, Elliot daily Ford and Marlar are there for conditioning. Others have picked up injuries that would have been considered.
00:10:36
Speaker
Yeah, LCD, Ali Crossdale got hurt, I guess. Well, Courtney, we all knew. Jack's probably like...
00:10:43
Speaker
Josh probably knackered from the weekend. Let's be real about this. Yeah. Two laggies hurt. We knew that. Yeah, obviously. Oh, and all these. And Wilson. Yeah. Mark Wilson. What's up with Mark Wilson? He like fell off this year, fell off the face of the earth. Well, he went to he played like two matches for sale and then the lockdown happened. And then he was actually going. He actually went back to Newcastle. Oh, right now. So there we go. Yeah. That explains a lot.
00:11:11
Speaker
Yeah, so that's why he kind of went bye-bye real quick because he got hurt like right at the end of the World Cup. So, you know, basically, you know, useless to sale for all of three matches, but hmm, whatever. You know, sale Avi, nothing you can do about it really. Right.
00:11:31
Speaker
Let's go over to the Aviva and Ireland and Italy, um, the absolute tonking that it was and that we kind of all expected. Right. Oh, it is. Yeah. You know, it wasn't, it was no shock. It was no shock to anybody.
00:11:46
Speaker
Not even a little bit. No, really it wasn't. I mean, CJ standard out wide was kind of a dangerous thing. That was kind of fun to watch. It was fun to watch. I was like, Oh, this is not a really fun thing to be going against. I would not want to be an Italian wing right now. Get the hell out of here.
00:12:03
Speaker
Yeah, I didn't. It was it was basically a training run for Ireland. We bet. Yeah. Unfortunately, I thought I was disappointed with Italy because I thought I feel like individually they had a lot of good players. They do. I agree. Darvisi looked great. I thought he looked class. They said on the broadcast. And I agree. I don't think his nine did him any favors, though. No. Violi was allowed to go too long. I think there were there was no
00:12:32
Speaker
Italy, we're not even challenging Ireland's defense. There were several times where they're just like, okay, we're going to take a kind of a wide forward crash to the left. And then, all right, we're going to take a wide forward crash to the right. Three or four times. And it's like, well, that's not doing anything. And then they're like, oh, well, now they have to kick because they're not going forward. It's like, oh, no, shit, they're not going forward, not doing anything. It's frustrating because
00:12:58
Speaker
It's not, you know, it's not hard to play some attacking rugby and, and these teams haven't quite figured it out. Yeah. Um, I thought it was really unfortunate that, um, Tito Tovaldi didn't make this team pick up an injury or what, um, I think he may have, that sounds familiar, but I, I don't know. I mean, so we have.
00:13:21
Speaker
Yeah, they had Braley. I would have preferred Braley for sure. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Braley. Absolutely. That's kind of that's where I was thinking. Like when he came on and I'm like, you had this guy who's actually at least at least he said, you know, he's more than serviceable. He's easily a starting nine in in premiership. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm worthy. And the guy that you had in playing was was playing like shit. So it's like, you know what? You got to make it up, make that hook a little earlier. Just a bit.
00:13:50
Speaker
Yeah, if you want to start them, I get it.
00:13:52
Speaker
But you got to bring on rarely earlier than that. When there's obvious chances, you got to put them in before your team quits. Let's put it that way. Because it's Ireland. Once your team gets it in their head that they're not beating Ireland, it's just going to go the way that it went. It's going to go sour real quick. I mean, Hugo Keenan just kind of put the whole nail in the coffin before the half with his double. He could have had a triple if things had broken quite a little bit better. Yeah.
00:14:22
Speaker
Um, yeah, you know, and I, that was the first note of, you know, mine for Italy was way too slow coming out of the rucks. Like I didn't think he was getting there fast enough and getting rid of it needs to know where he's going and be thinking two steps ahead. If you can help it, you know. Yeah. And it just didn't seem to be much thought. It was okay. What's there. I see a forward pod there. Okay. Well, I'm just going to go to them and not, you know, Hey, let's go to my 10 who like, they would turn the corner or they, they chip, you know, do a chip and chase.
00:14:52
Speaker
and it worked out really well. So it's like, okay, figure out what's working and what's not working. And as you said, plan accordingly. It was not to be. No, it was definitely was not. I thought Hayward played well too. I thought he was like, that's the thing he didn't, you know, the stats probably aren't going to show it exactly. But yeah, fullback's tough to show up in the stat line sometimes. Yeah, like, I'm not sure how many how many carries he had, but they were still trying to involve him. And he was kind of making a good headway just
00:15:23
Speaker
couldn't quite break through there. Yeah. Yeah. Um, Pledgeri obviously with like Pledgeri. Yeah. Oh, and I got to say Murray kind of Murray was lucky though, early that with that with his, uh, his yellow was, um, was not a penalty try.
00:15:41
Speaker
I thought that that was a, you know, you're slowing it up with your entire team offside. And, you know, no, all it takes is one pop out and that's a try. I knew it was a yellow. I was as soon as people was over against them. I was like, that's the outcome. I just thought, you know, at that level, again, you're expecting Ireland to know that they're, you know, to ref them like they're playing. They're a professional rugby club and say, yeah, they're they're they're doing this shit to an underdog.
00:16:12
Speaker
you know, kind of cynically, ping them forward. Like they don't need to do that shit to win this game. And trust me, 50 points says otherwise. Right. Yeah. I do. I will. And this is somebody I do not like. Unfortunately, I think we're going to see a little bit more of Matt Carley at the international level because he didn't do so bad in this match. This is one of the best matches I've seen in Murphy in a while. Now, I know it's Ireland, Italy, and it's a complete slog in terms of Italy going uphill.
00:16:42
Speaker
But yeah, it was like, wow. Well, this was a test for him. You know, do you completely shit yourself? And he didn't, so he'll get another opportunity. Yeah. Yeah. Just just wait for it. That might be the best you see. Right. Exactly. He'll get another one. He'll cock it up and they'll be like, OK, maybe not. Or, you know, he'll still get more. But Nigel told you not to do. Yeah, that's true.
00:17:03
Speaker
He'll have to fuck up a few before he gets relegated again. If Craig Jubeir can get more matches and semi-finals and quarter-finals of tournaments. Oh, no. Well, yeah. No, I don't think you got a final. That was a plot. Sorry, I was... No, it wasn't.
00:17:22
Speaker
No, Garces got the final. Garces, fuck whatever. They're all the same. Both African, French, meh. Yeah, there's a few guys. I count you bare as French. Yeah, I know, trust me. I can tell you that there are many Frenchmen that don't count him as French because they feel like he crossed them that game against the All Blacks in 11. So, you know.
00:17:43
Speaker
But anyway, Italy did make Ireland pay for trying to, you know, ram it back down their throat one more time. So good on them for just cutting up for 10 minutes and saying, no, we're actually going to score on you and just kind of give you the middle finger as you walk out the door. So I'll give you that. I'll give him that one. And Carby C looks like he's going to be
00:18:02
Speaker
every bit the role that he should be. Apparently there's quite a bit of talent in that England, Italy U20 set up. So you might kind of see the same deal with what happened with Australia come through to Italy where they go real young, try and blood them early. And then, and even we saw, we've seen it a little bit with France with some of the great players that they have. So you might see a lot of young talent coming through for Italy.
00:18:27
Speaker
Right. And you'll see some new faces in and out. Like just as you mentioned for France, how they tried a prop group that some of them worked and some of them didn't. So they're changing over and it's like, okay, well now they're throwing this huge fucking load at you. Oh, great. They finally saw the other guy was an idiot. Great. This guy's even more of a problem because he's smart. Next. Next man up. So yeah, we'll see that with
00:18:52
Speaker
That's the only thing that can, you know, that that'll hold Italy back for a little bit is they have to find the right combination, you know, get the people that they need and weed out the people that they don't.
00:19:03
Speaker
Correct. Yeah, we'll see how
Weather Impact on Matches
00:19:05
Speaker
that goes. But it's a shame we didn't get any of the other international friendlies that were going on because it sounds like there was some real good stuff going down, especially from the French. So it wasn't even carried over here, I don't think. So that's really unfortunate. Sorry to see that. All right. Let's go to an extremely wet.
00:19:29
Speaker
My goodness, the rain here did not help at all. And it just, it started kind of coming and then it just turned into a bucket, like bucket on bucket on bucket. I was like, Oh boy, this thing's about to get real sloppy, isn't it? And it sure did. Scoreline kind of says in 1913, that's two, that's two finalists that found ways to score plenty of points this year, 1913.
00:19:56
Speaker
Like, yeah, yikes. That's definitely a little scored, despite what it is. And that was, yeah, I think that was totally the fault of the weather, because the teams, like, and you even saw it, they would play with it and then knock it on, like, or become squirting out and tackle. It's one of those, you just, there's only so many phases you can have, either you hit or you don't, and then you're going to turn it over.
00:20:20
Speaker
to a fault. They tried to stay who they were. Yeah, to a fault. It's like, yeah, somebody just want to maybe tap your your nine and 10 on the on the back and say, Can we just play on that in the field and let them screw it up themselves? That's pretty much what I would have done. And like wait for them to wrap them up and we'll deal with it.
00:20:37
Speaker
Yeah, I was thinking the same kind of thing. Wasps played with the ball pretty well and kind of advanced it. But when you start out in your own territory most of the time, you're only going to advance it so far before you, as you said, knock it on. So yeah, I felt Exeter did a pretty good job with that field position battle, like as far as getting as far as they could and then chipping ahead.
00:21:00
Speaker
and being like, all right, well, you know, we'll just chip it into your 22 and you play with it out and make you play it out. And was refused to play that game and they paid for it. Yeah. And that's just, and that was how this game was going to go. You know, only two tries in the whole game, two decent ones at that, but, um,
00:21:20
Speaker
Both of them were backs trying to pick on props. Yeah. They recognize what was in front of them. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And that line by Umaga was pretty sweet. Very good. Just good use of the nine running the taxi line with the wing coming around him.
00:21:45
Speaker
And the defense just didn't react like, uh, yeah, Harry Williams was like, just kind of standing there while, uh, umaga just runs inside of him. Yeah. He's like, Oh boy, I'm not catching this guy. Am I? Like, you know, if you look, if you played sports, you've been in the position where you're just.
00:22:02
Speaker
like you just got you just got fucked and you kind of did it to yourself and you just had that like oh yeah that was i should have done that was my fault um that was harry williams like you could see his face go from like oh look at it oh wait that's my man that's my guy oops
00:22:20
Speaker
Oops a daisy. Oh man. Yeah, and then um, but then slay, you know slayed picked on the two times he picked on tom west and tom willis Yeah, pretty sure it was tom willis was one of the one willis really got caught there that he he got caught defending nobody
Wasps vs Exeter Analysis
00:22:35
Speaker
And yeah, if you're going to pass off that last man as he should have to the wing coming around, I think it was the wing coming around, like, fine, do that. But that means you got to help with that that inside ball. And he just kind of stood there and let his prop get fucked. Yeah, I think.
00:22:54
Speaker
I think Bassett also probably could have helped him out by reading that he wasn't doing that and just said, okay, wait, I'm going to stay back instead of just jamming right to the wing. And I'm going to stay back and see what comes, if somebody pops through. And, you know, M&O was way too late to get over there. He had a bit of a struggle of a day. I will say, Lema Sope-Huagne came on and tried. He really did. You really did. He added three points as soon as he came on. Right.
00:23:24
Speaker
You know, he that that kick he had the so okay saving the penalty kick. Yeah, coming back. Bringing it back in and then launching it down the field. And then they went a penalty like all that, you know, from from inside your own 22 to, you know, tying it up in one play from simple August. So, yeah, real good work from him. Yeah, I thought.
00:23:50
Speaker
Yeah, and I thought Robson should have taken over this game a little bit more because he was definitely their best player out there on the field. And he needed to use that boot more. He's very accurate with it. The few times he used it very well, it was really on point and it put wass in good positions. And then obviously the...
00:24:13
Speaker
The defensive stand, once again, you know, Exeter come up with a defensive stand when needed. And, you know, really, I thought Agrae, I thought Agrae should have broke off to that last mall before. Yeah. And then just, you know, had a teammate ride him into the ground so he could slide over, but... Right.
00:24:32
Speaker
not, you know, and then, you know, you got honestly you get the lineup was in shambles, especially for was the whole match. So to go back to something that's not worked for you, especially with a young thrower. Yeah, well, that was right. So I thought I still think that's the right decision. And I'll get to that in a second. Because I think they're Yeah, the but the
00:24:57
Speaker
The whole concept of that, if you have, so when you practice a line out, right? You practice what you're, you know, the first thing you do at the beginning of the season is your bread and butter. Like here's what you need. And you know, last minute of the premiership final, what do you want your line out to be? Oh yeah. And by the way, it's raining as shit. Do you want to throw all the way to the back of the line out?
00:25:21
Speaker
Really the wind. Yeah. Right. No, like you want to throw, you know, get it to your guy up front and go from there, you know. And yeah, you're going to have to dance around a little bit to get them thinking you're thrown to the back of the lineup. But fucking don't make your your young ass hooker.
00:25:36
Speaker
throw to the back of the line out in the rain. Just stupid. But the decision to go for it, I think, is the right one. Because you say, you know what? We don't go to OT here. Let's put our nuts on the table. And unfortunately, their nuts got hit with the hammer. That's the downside of doing that. Yeah. I mean, I would have been OK with the tap and go there, honestly. That would have been fine with me, too.
00:25:59
Speaker
I didn't think points was necessarily the right thing. If you want to put Exeter to the sword, you have to be aggressive and take them down. You can't just try and nick away at it. And the thing is I wouldn't... We saw Bath try to play that game three times against Exeter this season. You can't play Exeter's game. You're going to have to play your game. And yeah, so I think wasps were right to try to maul it and then maybe throw something off of it. Yeah, tap and go and the...
00:26:30
Speaker
pushover try, that's Exeter's game, and they're going to defend it. So I'm kind of glad they didn't do the tap and go because that's not their game. But yeah, either way, just I applaud the effort, you know, and yeah, the execution was poor, rather poor, poor. Yeah, they did have some good the wasted defend their their lineup, the the Chiefs line up mall quite well. I thought they had a lot of big moments where that looked like they were going to be there.
00:26:58
Speaker
But then, you know, really launch, launching that one, launching Gasco, like the two of them, I was like, where'd these two come from? Where'd you two become good players? What the hell? But, you know, and really for me, and I don't remember who was the man of the match. Was it Simmons? Must've been. Yeah. Okay. For me, you know, you could have given it to Sam Skinner.
00:27:23
Speaker
You could have given it to Skinner though because he was a problem in the lost line against the lost lineup. He stole a lot and spoiled a lot. Definitely gave Exeter more platform than they probably had, certainly for the first 20, 25 minutes after all his steals. So you could have argued that he deserved it. I thought he played really well. And that was, you know, he was kind of the surprise like, ooh, Skinner over Gray, really?
00:27:52
Speaker
But yep, his Scotland teammate had a seat on the bench and not so bad to bring in Gray off the bench. Not too bad at all. Yeah, he was causing problems, so good on him. And I thought, hey, listen, I applaud all the players on the Exeter, the Simmons brothers. Obviously, we talked about Hill earlier, LCD.
00:28:17
Speaker
just Jack Andall, Steenson, I loved Jack Andall coming over to the interview and saying, sorry guys, we gotta borrow him for a little bit. I love that, you know, just that, you know, I applaud the whole squad. I like Ben Moon's haircut, I gotta say. I approve the change. Yeah, slightly better, slightly improvement. But you know, I applaud the whole group. I do not applaud.
00:28:43
Speaker
their celebration, though, of the use of the chant. Oh, I didn't see that. Yeah, stands. I still like I thought you guys stopped doing it. So I got to got to mention that, you know, they promised to stop it because it was racist and then their players are out there, you know,
00:29:03
Speaker
Yeah, somebody didn't get the moment clearly. Yeah, they got it. They got to actually mean it guys. So, but that's, that's it. That's the only, my only takeaway from that. Other than that, the players did a fantastic job. Yeah. All the way through the organization. They are. I'm disappointed since teams and didn't get on. I am too.
00:29:20
Speaker
I'm not disappointed. Witten didn't get on. You didn't need to. No, you didn't need to. Stay on the sideline, old man. Yeah, Steetson should have gone on for that last penalty, I thought. Fuck, have him take it. Be like this. Exactly. I mean, just so much opportunity there just to... Yeah. Yeah, I agree. But yeah, they're what, the fifth?
00:29:43
Speaker
the 15 and permission 14 and the permission to get the double lesser was them and Sarah's and so forth. Good on them. Thanks and do it. They might have I don't remember if they did or not. So they're four or five either way. The story is good of the of where they come from. Obviously, yes, you know, it's
00:30:04
Speaker
the depths of the championship and now they're double champions. So the story needs lots of applauding and the players just, and you look at the players that really did it for them from the championship up. It was the likes of the Steensons, the Yee handles.
00:30:23
Speaker
guys like that, you know, that prop group was pretty instrumental going from one to one from that level to this level. So, yeah, it's a lot. So lots of credit for them and this player group. Yeah, it's really hard to say that they didn't deserve it because they really did. There's a lot they had to withstand in both finals.
00:30:49
Speaker
That rain was not easy. Doesn't matter who you are. It can be an equalizer too. It can be an equalizer. You know, it's not always, but it can be.
00:30:58
Speaker
So good on them. By far. So they were the better team in both. Yes. So that and that's the big thing. It's not that they it's not it's not just that they won. It's that they they were champions. Yeah, they like like, like, you know, everybody thought they would. And that pressure can do some funny things to you sometimes too. So, you know, and but they were well prepared for it on them. And, you know, and we talked about guys that could be world global superstar Stuart hog.
00:31:27
Speaker
you know, gets a double championship, you know, he's never really got beyond the quarterfinal in Champions Cup. So, and now he gets, you know, now he gets a winner's medal. Yeah. He gets a double winner's medal now. So...
00:31:40
Speaker
You can put that in a frame and feel real good about himself for the part that he played. So he did really well when he wasn't dropped on the ball. Two hands, two hands. All right.
00:31:59
Speaker
let's go to let's uh hey but you know what though speaking back to that he recovered so well from that like a lot of there there's players who their season would just be over at that point they'd be so embarrassed to fuck up a few times like that um but uh good on him for he is just reward for keeping his head up yeah he's uh he's a class player no doubt
Rugby Competitions and Predictions
00:32:24
Speaker
Let's discuss the Championks League. We still have invites out there. We have one kind of on the fence. Apparently, he hasn't played TRM before. So, you know, that's all right. No judgment here, man. No judgment here, man. Hey, I think I'm one of two people that have been the Champions Cup FRD before that are on the invite list. So don't feel too bad. Yeah.
00:32:49
Speaker
It's okay, I promise. But yeah, so if you have an invite in your inbox, double check, get back to us because then we got to send out other invites if you're not in.
00:32:58
Speaker
So we'd appreciate that either way. But right now it's Ben, myself, our good friend, George, the fans here, and everybody Duncan from many moons ago. And so we're still waiting on about four, yeah, four more with one on the fence right now. So we shall see. But trust me, do it. If you have the invite, trust me, you're gonna want to hit replies. It's gonna be loads of fun. We're gonna pump you up onto, pump the whole thing up on Twitter all the time.
00:33:28
Speaker
People will be very aware of what's going on in this competition, I promise. So we're going to have a good time with this. Okay. Jeez, we are at Pickham. Six Nations finally wrapping up. Finally.
00:33:46
Speaker
after a long pause. We never thought we'd get here with this and like the finals that we just played. You know, we never thought we'd get here. So we did. So what are the standings for this again? So as of, this is not that long ago. So as I understand it, if Ireland would get a bonus point this weekend. No, I mean, for us. Oh, for us. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the pick. Oh, I'm one behind you. I'm one behind you.
00:34:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:18
Speaker
All right. It'll be, it'll be very interesting here. Um, yeah, so let's start with Wales and Scotland, not more, more pride than anything being played for here, but they are four and five in the table. You don't want to finish just one above Italy if you're, if you can help it. So you don't want to finish second from bottom ever, especially when you know, the bottom's probably a given. That's just how it is. Um, so with that, uh, let's see. Um,
00:34:50
Speaker
Oh, where are we? Oh man. So I have, I have a suggestion. No, since, since I'm one ahead of you, I should pick first. Yeah, you probably should. So I pick first on the first and third game and you pick first on the second. Well, that's, that's going to be easy. Exactly. Um, so I'm going with whales. I didn't know you were going to say that.
00:35:14
Speaker
I'm giving you the free, free view of what I'm going to, who I'm picking. Yeah, I will. I will back Scotland and just hope and pray it works. It works. It's all I know. So we're going to have, there will be no, there will be no sister kisses in this thing. We're going to, we're going to, we, we, uh, we have a, we have a winner here. All right. That sounds good.
00:35:38
Speaker
Italy and England, England is the no brainer here. Yeah. I don't, I don't see England's going to basically just chase points because they have to try and catch Ireland if Ireland don't get a bonus point win against France. So I don't do have a decent points points differential 38, which isn't bad.
00:35:57
Speaker
That's not far behind, so obviously if Ireland loses, it doesn't matter. So yeah, I mean, England could easily close that if they absolutely talk. And they should. They should talk Italy better than Ireland did, to be honest. Right. You're not wrong there. With that, oh, wow. So we did this two years ago and it was an interesting result.
00:36:25
Speaker
It was Johnny Sexton with the billion phase tropical way out at that. So here we are again. He'll be repeating that. No, I don't think he's going to repeat that. That's for sure. That's a tough one to repeat either way. No, but I got France. You are. I got that. I have that. I don't have the feeling he's going to do that in that. I don't think the feeling is going to win.
00:36:50
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, apparently France looked amazing this weekend. So that, uh, I mean, they have good players. They're, they're doing well with, they, they have been doing well within their, uh, their new structure. And I'm going to heart that because it's, it's amazing what it can do. Um, their defense, their defense being very good does not hurt at all. Right.
00:37:14
Speaker
Um, and you know, having a little bit of structure plays so well into their style. So, and again, you defend that well and you attack that well. Um, Ireland, as I said, with, you know, Italy didn't really test Ireland and the few times that they did test the defense, it went really well for them. Uh, so translate that into a team that actually is, is good at attacking and finishing. Right. Um, uh, yeah, I, I, I, I'm going with, with France on this one, even though they're.
00:37:44
Speaker
still liable to French it up that they are. And that's kind of what I need at this point. Yeah. That's kind of what I need. So
00:37:57
Speaker
The upside was obviously that, um, the upside of this whole lockdown thing for the sake is they could order the games in a fashion that kind of makes sense. Wales and Scotland being kind of a semi irrelevant game and put them first, Italy, England, second, you know, England, it's kind of all relying on them to make sure that they win. And then, you know, if they don't win, then it's really a winner take all in the, uh, in Paris. So see how that goes.
00:38:23
Speaker
Yeah. We're going to be so spoiled after this, you know, last couple of weeks of rugby, just some championships going around and high quality matches too. Yep. And here comes the international stuff. Right. And fast. So we'll see. And oh, and you know, what was one year ago today?
00:38:49
Speaker
Although depends on your definition of today, was England versus New Zealand. Yeah, that was absolutely bananas match. Speaking of spoiled rugby. Yeah, I know a couple of countries that are quite spoiled with it. Yeah, that match spoiled us all really cuz that was not what the final was.
00:39:13
Speaker
Right. Then I guess that's where I'm coming from here is that the last couple of, you know, the finals weeks that we've had have been very much not like the World Cup finals, which was just a, you know, nothing, no disrespect to the players. It wasn't as entertaining as it is.
Reflections on Season Highlights
00:39:28
Speaker
No, it was, you know, the really that honestly blamed the South African Scrum. That was their fault. That just turned into a penalty fest with them.
00:39:36
Speaker
You know, it's, it's nice to have much more entertaining rugby. Seems like all year long at this point now. Um, just about, yeah. Well, with, you know, the way, just the way it worked out. Uh, we had a few weeks off, um, and then the super rugby came back and that was, that was nice. But, and then we had this, that was great. Um, and both ended, both ended really well. We're all four, I should say, you know, super rugby, num out here in Australia. Yep. Um, the prem and the champions cup.
00:40:07
Speaker
All four did a very good job after the, you know, while coming back. One of the ones we got through the lockdown here. Right. Yeah, I mean, let's look back on it, season recap. Jeez, there's a lot here to unpack because obviously it's been over a year since we started this whole season with us. Right. Jeez, didn't we do our first podcast in September last year?
00:40:32
Speaker
Yeah, I think so. I think so. God damn. Wow. Yeah. Yes, we definitely did because the World Cup was going on. Yeah. Yeah, it was right before World Cup. It was right before, yeah. It was right before World Cup. God damn. Yeah, because weren't we watching NFL football during one of the podcasts? I think so. Oh, Jesus. Yeah, so it was Delphi, September.
00:40:55
Speaker
My god, yeah, this has been obviously one of the most unusual years but really I will sell I want to pick out and it's not the it's not the performance that happened in the final it's the man that got to lift the trophy in
00:41:19
Speaker
in Japan, and that is the man, the myth, the legend, Cia Colisi. And, you know, defying a lot going on with what goes on in his country of birth and residency and really the world, unfortunately.
00:41:36
Speaker
and just flipping everybody. And really, he didn't even want to do it in a middle finger way. He wanted to do it in a, I want to be happy and I want to be positive and I want to be a good person and really- I'm going to celebrate this and celebrate this for what it means. And if you don't like what it means as a whole, I don't care. Like I'm going to celebrate for every bit of this. Yeah, so really for me, that and yeah, just,
00:42:07
Speaker
And can we talk about the hosts too? What an amazing way to just start a season, start anything, but to have it to be the World Cup and to see it so embraced by the home country in such a different way than we're used to. Yeah, the whole country was excited about it and they wanted to go out and support all the matches they possibly could and it was
00:42:35
Speaker
And the hospitality apparently was amazing. So it was just, it was another level. It was really another level. It was really, it was great. You know, it's, yeah, it's, um, yeah, it was a great world cup. I mean, it's a shame this whole season is going to come to the, had to come to the end. It did in this fashion where we had to fricking delay everything by three, four months, but it's, it's where we're at and we can't do a whole lot about it. Um,
00:43:03
Speaker
you know, for me, I think between the between the Japanese being the Irish in play. That was that was that was a great moment. So many ways. So many ways, you know, the Yerge Wayans being the Fijians was it was a fun one. You know, and really, as a for me, and it was also fun to watch. You know, we're gonna bring it local.
00:43:30
Speaker
Boston beating New York, as it were. Free Jack's beating Rooney in the opening match for, for MLR. Yeah. Yeah. For their debut match. Yeah. To go out with a win as well as be a win, a win over New York. That's season made. Yeah. Everything else is forgiven. Don't worry about it. And there's some, there's some really exciting players coming back. It sounds like they got most of the gang coming back.
00:43:59
Speaker
Um, this sounds like they've got a good environment there. Yeah. You know, that, that they, they got, they got a good group of guys and some other guys, but they got a good, good, good core guys. Yeah. I like a lot of the guys that they, there was so many exciting players that was disappointed that we didn't get to watch them. Um, hopefully we'll get to watch them this year, uh, in person. Yeah.
00:44:21
Speaker
That's a lot of that's up in the air still. But yeah, well, you know, walk is coming back. What kind of I was coming back. John Poland's coming back. That's going to be, that's going to be a whole lot of fun. Larson's coming back as the captain. So that'll be, that'd be fun. I am looking forward to knowing I'm getting a full season in.
00:44:45
Speaker
Knock on wood. Let's get this thing started. Touch wood here. I am ready to be for COVID to be done, but I really hope it is soon. Same. Yeah, me too. I'm not getting bored of it, just ready for it to be done. I'm not going to be like, all right, fuck it. I'm not going to be one of these guys who's going to pretend it is done. No, I'm not either, but I am definitely ready for it to be done. I think everybody else is.
00:45:10
Speaker
We just can't. So I hope we get, I hope we get the, the free Jack season this year. Yep. Same. That would be awesome. So it was a lot of good stuff. Obviously this year, um, you know, we got that, that those two European finals really were just icing on the cake now,
Gratitude and Acknowledgments
00:45:29
Speaker
really. Cause it was, it was, you know, despite the fact that it was an elongate, it was a 13, 14 month long season. It was, you know, there was still some great stuff throughout. And so.
00:45:40
Speaker
to give the just the cherry on top with, you know, with that was awesome. So I loved it. Um, obviously the, the two English teams won, but man, the matches were entertaining as hell. They were. Um, I loved it. And you know, it was, it was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun to talk about, you know, cause we don't, you know, and we'll get into the next subject here, which is, uh, our gratitudes and our thank yous to everybody out there. Um,
00:46:08
Speaker
First of all, this season was another level for Ben and I. We got a little bit more recognition out there, those of you that have downloaded even an episode.
00:46:20
Speaker
Thank you so much. We're doing this for you guys. We're not doing this because we think we're going to get famous somehow. That's just so not in the cards for Ben or myself. Just looking to have, we have fun with this. We think other people will have fun with this. So we hope you do. So thank you for having fun with us. Like I usually say in the show notes,
00:46:49
Speaker
kick back and crack a beer with us. Well, yeah, we'll have some laughs. I do want to say thank you to our friend Sam for having us on the FRD pod this year as well. Despite the fact that that feels like it was so long ago, it was this year. It was this year. So thank you so much for having us on that pod. And thank you to, of course, to our good friend, George, for hooking us up with that. And George for just George came on our podcast, obviously, and
00:47:16
Speaker
That was such a fun episode for the three of us. So, you know, he'll be back, no doubt. Yeah. Because I have to say it individually, too. Thank you, Sam. And thank you, George, because it's nice to talk. It's nice, you know, Jared and I obviously got into this because we like talking rugby. So it's nice to talk rugby with people who like talking rugby. Right. You know, we don't have to do that here.
00:47:40
Speaker
Not to the level that Ben and I are at, that's for sure. So yeah, it was great to have that. And the guy that actually got on with us, Michael, the London Irish blogger, you know, he was a good sport and has talked with us. Fun follow on Twitter. Yes, he is. He's a good follow on Twitter for sure. But yeah, so thanks for letting us tag along onto your podcast, onto your, what was supposed to be your episode for the podcast.
00:48:07
Speaker
Um, but yeah, that was a, that was a whole lot of fun. And yeah, it's just been in, you know, uh, Carrick was very helpful when we were doing our, our world cup teams out there. Um, so yeah, thanks a lot to Carrick. Um, if you ever, he's the rugby analyst guy, he's out there. He's.
00:48:23
Speaker
He was a super lot of help with that one. Thank you, Ed, for the love on TRM and the Ed Kerr, obviously. Ed Kerr, we can't thank you enough, man. You've definitely been a huge supporter of this out there in the social universe, so we really appreciate
00:48:48
Speaker
you just giving us the love you have and bringing us along with you and keeping us in the loop on a lot of things. So yeah, it's been a whole lot of fun for us. And season two got better and we didn't think it would get better. And obviously, who we need to definitely thank is, and believe it or not, this was this season.
00:49:12
Speaker
are the two free jacks that we did our live pod with. Oh, yes. So much fun. Tighe and Tony, Tighe Leader and Tony Prepura from the free jacks. Thank you so much, guys, for hanging out with us and letting us make a fool of ourselves alongside of you and...
00:49:28
Speaker
you know, and getting that out there. So that was a whole lot of fun. And 19 crimes, they they were the ones that gave us a nice booze that we were able to suck back and get a little shitty on. Right. I still I still see them in the liquor store when I go in and I'm like, hmm, but I'm not here for them. So. Yeah, I mean, whatever. I drank wine. I would totally be all over that shit. Yeah. Whatever the hell she gave me, whatever the hell that that woman gave me from them.
00:49:56
Speaker
That was special. I was like, wow, this is, I'm on fire right now. This is, I feel fireworks coming up right now. Good Lord. So yeah, thanks a lot to them. Our, of course, our good friend James, always coming along and hanging out and talking the bullshit with us. And I'm sure we'll get James back on here sometime soon. And then, you know,
00:50:19
Speaker
This is these are people that don't get the notice and will and one actually got noticed this year, thankfully. But, you know, Ben eyes, better haves. Absolutely. You know, wives, they
00:50:36
Speaker
I will say this. My wife puts up with a lot of the bullshit when it comes to this. I am, you know, I do numbers and she's like, Oh, what are you doing? Are you doing like any other person might look at me and be like, Oh, you're doing podcast shit. Get off your ass and go do something else. She respects it and says, no, all right, you're doing podcast shit. Go ahead. Keep doing it. And for that, I, you know,
00:50:57
Speaker
You know, I could easily be doing something else. Instead I'm doing, you know, shit that is not going to make a damn bit of difference but to freaking 20 people probably. What did I just catch you doing on the computer? Podcast stuff.
00:51:09
Speaker
Yeah, it's, you know, it could have been worse. She's cool with it. It's like, so to my yeah, to my wife, Catherine, thank you so much for letting me just be a complete fucking idiot when it comes to this stuff. And, you know, trying to appease 50 to 100 people, maybe, you know, so that's, that's how it is. And, of course, you know, you're Mrs.
00:51:35
Speaker
was kind enough to join us guest guest of the pod. Yeah, yeah. That was that was nice. I've been kind of pestering her every so often because I think she had promised to come on when I made when I when I did it or she said she wanted to maybe try it. So I'm glad I held her held her to it. And maybe she'll come back in the future too. Because there's always this
00:51:56
Speaker
You know, we at the potter are huge supporters of women's rugby. Absolutely. And obviously in an inclusive rugby situation, everyone should be able to play. And I still say that the best team that I've coached has been the women's team that I've coached, who were just excellent athletes. And it was a lot of fun to work with them. And it's good to see because the game has come a long way, especially the women's game.
00:52:25
Speaker
As we say constantly, it long has been the worst players on the men's team that go coach, the women's team, which just sucks because then they don't get the support they need. So I'm happy to have provided that support once I figured, learn my ass from my elbow, rugby wise, so that it can help them a little bit.
00:52:47
Speaker
But yeah, it's a part of the game that we need to respect. And so we tried to bring a highlight to it on this podcast too.
Future of the Podcast and Women's Rugby
00:52:56
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And they put up with our bullshit in turn. They do. They put up with so much shit. You can only imagine. We did the live draft show from Ben's house.
00:53:12
Speaker
You know, we were just making noise and Jess had to put up with it. And you know, we do... when we were doing our shows in person before lockdown, we did it mostly at my place and you know, my wife had to be very quiet, which if you've met my wife, she's not the quietest person in the universe. So she had to do a very good job of being quiet and for the most part, I'd say she gets an A on that one.
00:53:36
Speaker
Yeah, we'll get back to that once the new season kicks off cuz Ben and I will bring each other into our bubble as it were. And we'll live with what few consequences that will be there. Exactly, Jared and I are both, we looked at each other and we're like, we're totally responsible. The only reason that we're not doing it now is because- There's a common space that one of us has to go through in order to
00:54:01
Speaker
to attain that in-personness. So in order to not be too stupid, we had to kind of consider that. Yeah. Like we're doing this as safe as we, you know, safely and that's fine. That'll be good enough. Yeah. So, but yeah, so that'll be fun. Season three is going to be
00:54:21
Speaker
I like to think it's going to be even more. Really, you know, we're going to try this champion. I think it's going to be great. You know, we talk about, you know, we talk about in fancy rugby and it does seem like everybody plays everybody. So you want something different. So hopefully we have something different.
00:54:40
Speaker
calling all United States residents, rugby fans, get your bums to one of our FRD leagues. We would love to get that started. And then who knows, one day we get a live draft going in person all of us. We'll have fun. Yeah, it won't be nothing. It'll be a goddamn good time. And believe it or not,
00:55:05
Speaker
we're going to be facing episode 100 down the barrel next season as well. Um, not counting the specials even still like, yeah, one at a time. Yeah. Yeah. You know, so we're still looking at, um, yeah, we're still, so we're looking at probably a few months from the start where we'll hit it. But yeah. Um, I think we're going to do something live. I'm not sure what, um, I can think of a few bodies that will probably be involved. Um,
00:55:35
Speaker
Yeah. And we'll figure out something and hey, who knows? Hey, maybe we can sell tickets to this thing. Doubtful, but yeah, that's a good pipe tree. That was a good joke, Jared. Good job. Uh, maybe not. Um, so yeah, there's, there's a, there's a lot of cool stuff coming up for the next year, um, for the next season. It won't, it'll be all of.
00:55:58
Speaker
what, three weeks from now? Because we're on the 26th and the first match is the 20th of next month. So by the time this is up, which TBD, yeah, it's going to be pretty, it'll be pretty tight, but we'll take a few weeks off, recharge the batteries as it were. And we'll look at our,
00:56:19
Speaker
We'll get some lead draft scheduled and some premiership stuff sorted and we'll try and at least do a draft, a live draft special. And then if not, then we'll talk more extensively on, on other episodes about like.
00:56:35
Speaker
Well, we're definitely going to do a live draft. We have to, because that's the best show of the year, usually. It is. I'm so baffled at it. Like, why are you fucking people listening to the two of us? What is wrong with you? Good God. You must be desperate if you're listening to the two of us. Fuck. Hey, I hope we give people good strategy, good draft strategy. Yeah, at least maybe give them what not to do. Yeah. Although I did win one league.
00:57:03
Speaker
Huzzah. But yeah, it's fun. So the good news is for you guys, or the bad news is for you guys, this is still fun for us, so we're gonna keep going. Great. Thanks for becoming with us. Thanks for helping us.
00:57:25
Speaker
feel good about doing this too. It's nice to have people that are loyal and listening. Yeah. So thank you for doing that. Thank you for enjoying us. Yeah. Thank you for coming along. All of you. Because at least it makes us feel less weird.
00:57:41
Speaker
Yeah, that's true. I was getting like a few downloads a week. I was like, oh, this is going to be bad, isn't it? We're weird. Oh, okay. Well, okay. There's other weird people. Keep going. So we're close to as normal as weird can be at this point. So I'm right. I'm right. Being weird. Anyway, weird's okay. Yeah.
00:58:00
Speaker
Yeah, so for everybody that's come on, we thank you. Everybody that supported us, we thank you. If we forgot you, we didn't do it on purpose, I promise. But until a few weeks from now, when we talked a little bit of prem and a little bit of live draft and TBD and all that good stuff. Thanks a lot for hanging out with us, you guys. Enjoy the AutoNet Internationals while we're away. And we'll catch you guys in the season three. Have a good one.