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Season 6- Episode 2- A Master...Class? (RWC Week 1 Pool Play)
76 Plays2 years ago
It's another edition of those American rugby knuckleheads. On this episode, what else are we talking about but the opening round of Rugby World Cup pool play? What exactly is a masterclass? How good were those Flying Fijians? We talk about this and a whole lot more. Get a drink and join us, won't you?
Check out the TFRY Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/TheFantasyRugbyYanks
Ask us questions via Twitter: Jarrod- jdyke8man & Ben- admrablsnackbar, and #AskTFRY.
Send us your thoughts for the show and questions for upcoming shows via e-mail fantasyrugbypodcast@gmail.com. Of course we welcome feedback via e-mail, twitter or by rating/reviewing the pod on Apple Podcast.
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Transcript
Introduction of Hosts and Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
It is the fantasy rugby hunt. My name is Jared Dyke. I wanted to say it's stupid and let's move on, but then you kept going. I'm Ben Blossom. I don't like it way anybody can with that. Collusion. Collusion.
00:00:26
Speaker
Hey everybody.
Trying New Podcasting Software
00:00:27
Speaker
Welcome back. It is the fancy road BX podcast. My name is Jared Dyke. I'm Ben Glauser. We're giving a new software, a world this week. Hopefully it's better than the last one. The last one was pretty dogshitter for honest, but Hey, we're trying. This one seems pretty good on our end anyway.
Importance of Listener Feedback
00:00:41
Speaker
We'll see a, we'll see all the production is later on after a beer or two smoke, say smoking while you got them. Make sure you share us with your friends on your favorite podcast app, download rate review.
00:00:54
Speaker
Feedback, always welcome for usual.
Podcast Feed Concerns
00:00:58
Speaker
Whew. And if this if this thing works, the podcast feed might disappear for like a day. So just FYI, so nobody panic. It'll come back. Everybody panic. Everybody panic. Flee, flee for your lives. Or just chill out. Or just wait a day. Take a deep breath.
Fantasy Rugby Advice Humor
00:01:21
Speaker
Uh, make sure that you're buying, buying a good friend, George, the fancy or would be geek, a coffee. Um, lots of people probably did well this weekend. And those of you that didn't listen to George's advice, shame on you. You're probably at the bottom. Although I'm at the bottom of one of our leagues, I think. And yeah, I feel, I feel official. Yeah. Something like that. It's bad. That's a weird one. You never, cause it's just, I feel lucky that I'm not. Let's put it that way. It's bad. We'll, we'll get to that when we go to the fancy corner. Um,
Ongoing Discrimination in Sports
00:01:52
Speaker
And as always, there is no discrimination here on this podcast, nor should there be in sports or in life. Well, there's continued discrimination in sports. Shock of the day and shock of the day. It's the National Football League. Who knew who saw this coming? Can't imagine why. I near fell off my chair, Jared, near fell off my chair, especially if anybody named Jerry Jones is involved. Right. Well, we know how this goes. Yeah, it's going one way and one way only, unfortunately.
00:02:21
Speaker
Right. And this is coming from a lawsuit from a former NFL media reporter, Jim Trotter, who is black, would speak up to, you know, NFL officials and owners and stuff about racism and trying to get them to hire more black people into positions of power just to, you know, because
00:02:49
Speaker
they're shut out and everybody knows it. With comments like this, we know why and we know how. Apparently, the bill's owner said something along the lines of if the blacks feel like if the black people, these players can't handle the way it is, they should just go back to Africa.
00:03:11
Speaker
Hey dumb ass. I'll tell you the first thing that's wrong with that. We brought them over here as slaves, you dumb fuck. You really need to go back to school. I don't know what school you went to, but they need to be disavowed or whatever it is. Just disbarred. Yeah, no. No, no, no. It's just amazing to me too because I remember people have made these comments for as long as I can remember.
00:03:39
Speaker
At one point when I was like 18, you know, I'm stupid because everybody every boy at 18 to 23 years fucking dumb, you know, no offense to the ones who are still there now. You're dumb. You get over it. You don't know it now. You don't know. You are dumb. It's OK. Not in every way, but about certain things. And it's but it's like when you get older and you get out and you actually see the world
00:04:06
Speaker
Usually you gain some fucking perspective. And actually, I shouldn't say usually because it doesn't seem like many people do. This guy has probably been literally all over the world. I'm sure he has. What how does he like how do you still not be able to see from any perspective other than your own like that? Like that's the only way I can see it. And just to have that. But this is what the NFL considers acceptable from their for their ownership and.
00:04:31
Speaker
You know, Jerry Jones has made similar. Jerry Jones's name came up in the lawsuit, too, and he's made similar comments. Shocker of the day. Right. So.
Critique of NFL Leadership and Racism
00:04:40
Speaker
I I do love football for what it could be. But damn, like the NFL just as Jared well knows makes it really, really hard. Yeah, my I've. It's definitely taken a backseat and I will be the first one to validate this. I used to be a huge NFL nut. Yeah, like.
00:05:01
Speaker
glued to the screen every weekend watching, you know, Red Zone and and Sunday ticket and all that. And there was a point where I just I got to my breaking point and I was like, no more. Yeah. Yes, I played the fantasy game because I want to interact with people and my friends. And I want to know what's going on because my business, I need to be able to talk about everyday things. And unfortunately for
00:05:27
Speaker
myself, that's an everyday thing. So I need to at least know the score and like who did well and who didn't. But me watching is probably going to be a once to twice a season thing, honestly.
Preference for Rugby Over NFL
00:05:38
Speaker
And that's usually because somebody else that I'm with has just said, I said, Oh, I'm going to, you know, we're going to watch the game.
00:05:43
Speaker
I'd rather just bite the bullet to hang out with my friends or to hang out with people I care about and watch it as opposed to be like, no, fuck this. I'm out. So that's probably the only reason I do it. Yeah. And I'm like in that heading in that direction anyway, especially with rugby being so prevalent. It's now that we can actually watch it here, especially Sunday, I watched all the way to the last game and that took care of most of the day anyway. Yeah. Catherine, I hopped on a movie after that and that was it. Bang. We were done.
NFL's Financial Dominance and Need for Change
00:06:12
Speaker
Yeah. And I, what I was watching the Steelers game with what Fiji whales, I guess on the, um, on the, on the three o'clock game, three o'clock, um, welcome game. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. That was, that was starting, um, in the middle. And I was like, finally, I'm like, yeah, whatever. Like I, I, the rugby game was a lot more interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. So, but yeah, NFL needs to sort their shit out. Cause that's like,
00:06:41
Speaker
It's, it's amazing. Yeah. They just have all the money, which sucks too. Yeah. Also, yeah. They just, they're too big to fail, but like, it doesn't mean they can't improve, but they won't just, yeah, it's really ugly. Sometimes, unfortunately says the business of sports sometimes. Yeah. And that doesn't mean, okay. It's just, unfortunately it's how it is. And I wish it was different and I want it to be different. And I do what I can, but I'm one person. Yeah, exactly. All right. Um, different note.
00:07:09
Speaker
Uh, make sure that you are jumping into one of our rugby world cup fantasy leagues. If you haven't yet, um, if you're on the site, but you haven't joined our league, go ahead. Um, there's a pretty little tweet that I'll retweet later that'll have both leagues in it and you can jump on that. All right. Shall we, shall we dive in? What? Oh, there was, oh yeah. That's right. There was a little bit of rugby this week. A wee bit. I currently have a France, New Zealand on
00:07:39
Speaker
on the screen. Oh, also that in the background, because that was I. We'll talk about it later, obviously, but I was going to watch. I still want to rewatch. I don't still want to rewatch England, Argentina. I kind of want to watch it. I almost it's one of those like it was a train wreck for me, so I kind of want to watch it again to see if it was if I was just annoyed, like, like once you know what happens, sometimes it's like, oh, it wasn't that bad. But at the same time, I don't want it. OK, anyway, this was the game of the week. That's why I kind of
00:08:07
Speaker
had of it on here. This was to me, my favorite match of the weekend. And it was the first one. Yeah. Big time. And obviously big time plays, big time players. Yeah. Matchups all over the place, too, with this thing. You know, when you at least start a kickoff, you know, you had Taylor and Mashaan. You had the two second rows that are both world class. You had the number eight, two of the best in the world without a doubt. Yeah. The nine same thing. Tens less so without Intimac. But Jolly Bear still obviously very good.
00:08:36
Speaker
Um, the center pairing was very intriguing to me as well, especially the thirteens, Figue, Ioannoni, two of the best thirteens in the world. And then that, you know, the, the wings, especially Talia, Jordan Barrett against Ramos, Penno and Villa, like, yeah, just really, really mouthwatering stuff all, all around. And, uh, well, we know how it ended. Unfortunately, unfortunately for some, um, yeah, I think there's nothing through everything they had at France. That was evident from the, from the jump.
00:09:05
Speaker
And then it just the French class. Took over in the second half. I don't think the Kiwi score in the second half. I don't think they did. Yes, they did. OK. The second try. Oh, right. Right. He's good. He is good. He's really good. He's really good. I think so. I love the Kiwi's game plan from the get go. Number one, just pedal the metal. Let's roll, you know, rock and roll the whole way. Unfortunately, I think one of the things and this is the thing, but one of the things
00:09:35
Speaker
that was not playing to the advantage is how moist the ball was because of the temperature and because of the humidity.
00:09:44
Speaker
And yeah, what the stuff that they were trying that when they, when it comes off, they dominate, wasn't coming off because the ball was so slick. And that's, that's not something that they haven't adapted to before, but they just didn't this game. So it was one of the many reasons that they didn't win. So, um, the other reason in my, in my head is definitely, they got this one, right? Gregory Aldrich player of the match, like.
00:10:09
Speaker
Just what a house, you know, took us, took one good stinger and then, and then got back up and said, I'm good. I got it. Yeah. Almost just made him angrier. Like, all right. I think it did. Honestly, I was like, Oh no, this is not going to go well. Is it for anybody? No. Yeah. What do you have? Yeah. Yeah. You'd set your 12 carries and yeah, it's 31 meters on that. Wow.
00:10:34
Speaker
Beat a couple of defenders. He had a couple. He had a bunch of tackles, too. Yeah. Oh, he loved the tackle charts. He and Ali Vaughn were top two. Jeez. One miss each. Wow. And he had two turnovers. Yeah, exactly. It wasn't just. Yeah, it wasn't just the tackles. It was the he did just did did work all day. That is that that to me is a line that reads of a perfect second row or second row. She's back row. Sorry. Yeah. Back row like that. You could call that a back row master class.
00:11:05
Speaker
something like that. And he played all 80. That's the other thing. Like he played all 80. It's you didn't he didn't just say, no, I'm good. I'm good. Like I don't need that. I'm good. No, he played all 80. And he's just a he's just a wonderful player to watch on top of it. Like I gushed over him early in the year, but like, holy crap. A fella is just a goddamn monster. I don't know.
00:11:36
Speaker
I don't know any other way to describe him honestly. So yeah, hats off to Gregor. He did decide that my trademark scrum cap is not worth this humidity. I am chucking this thing off. Right. He figured that one out very quickly. Yeah. A lot of players did that. Like, didn't Maro come out even with that without it? Oh, he just went straight without it. Yeah. Yeah. A bunch of players who normally wear the cap didn't. And then Van Der Fleer, right? He didn't wear one either. He did not. No. When he came on. He played the d-time too. Yeah. Hot, hot.
00:12:06
Speaker
So, and we have this. And it's, it was so intriguing to me with these two teams matched up because they kick for the same reasons where they're trying to find gaps and they're trying to find spaces. And, um, obviously the, the most success went to, um, France, not to say that all blacks couldn't find any, but most success obviously went to them and we're able to get a couple tries died down and you know,
00:12:36
Speaker
The ultimate problem is when you have a Thomas Ramos on the other side of the ball and your New Zealand and you give away with the year, 14 penalties, something like that. I would say of the 14, I think nine of them were on the wrong end. That's too many. You know, you can dig yourself out of eight, nine penalties with five, six of them being in the, you know, you're attacking and it's frustrating, but you can get away with it. But if it's on that side of the,
00:13:05
Speaker
field and you have a Thomas Ramos that has the tee, you've done yourself in. No good, man. No good. Plus these guys can score tries too. Yeah. That's how many try at the end.
00:13:21
Speaker
But that's, that's the thing is that both these teams use tries to put pressure on the other team. It's like when you have the, the threat of the scoreboard makes your defense that much better. Cause now they have, you know, New Zealand had to really ball out like you were saying. And then, you know, it wasn't just the passes though. It's the ball and like so many lost balls in contact throughout, throughout the tournament this weekend. Um,
00:13:45
Speaker
It just puts a level of you have to be perfect if you're going to score a try or even sometimes you can throw a forward pass and score a try. But that doesn't matter. Like it's you still have to do it, you know, and complete it. And. Yeah, like that, I think that at this point, like the kind of talent and. And better team play one out. Will Jordan did not help himself, by the way. Will Jordan like had multiple opportunities and like he kept
00:14:16
Speaker
being on the wrong side of that aerial collision. This is the first time I've seen Will Jordan where I'm like, dude, you're a dick. Like, stop being a dick. Yeah, when he's not done well, like. Yeah, he's not even done well, but it was like he's being actively negative. It's never seen the first. The first challenge he made in the air was kind of that middle middle of the line. It's like, all right, he went up and got it. And yeah, it came down. You know, the other guy came down awkwardly, but it was OK.
00:14:43
Speaker
He didn't go the right side of the fence after that though. He went the wrong side and that's when things went real bad for him. He had a penalty and then he had a card and got a...
00:14:52
Speaker
Appellity that probably wasn't actually his fault, but because of the previous infringements, you just seem to be the offender anyway, which sucks, but it's how it it's human. It's how it is, you know, it is. But speaking as a ref, I know I like when I see one number of contents consistently doing the same thing after I've told them, like, stop doing this. You're not getting you're not getting any sympathy. It's no, I don't do it at all. Stay away from that situation. You're done. You stop.
00:15:20
Speaker
That guy. Over there. Knock it off. Right. Yeah, he didn't help himself at all. Trying to find Ramos' kicking stats for the day before we move on. I want to know exactly how many penalties he was looking at that landed in the wrong end for them. Why am I stupid? I feel stupid right now. Don't respond to that.
00:15:49
Speaker
I didn't say shit. But the fuck you didn't. I just thought it very loudly. Yeah, we had 17 points. I can see that. Oh, there's the players. There he goes. Give me that. Oh, yeah, that's not helpful either. OK, I'll look for it in more detail later. OK, anyway, move it on. So let's go to.
00:16:19
Speaker
Right. That's a bushy kill. He kicked five penalties. He kicked five penalties. I think he missed one. Yeah. I think he missed one at least. Okay. So you had half the penalties that you committed in the attacking half. That's with a guy, Thomas Ramos is a talent. That is a terrible idea. Yeah. Terrible, terrible idea. Okay. Next morning, Italy and Namibia. It started fun. It did. It did.
00:16:49
Speaker
Like, I feel like all the, all the underdogs showed up for the first five, 10 minutes. Yeah. You know, that's all you can ask for, right? Oh, poor guys. Yeah. I mean, in all, in all seriousness, you know, this is not a, this is a team of players that all play at a professional level now. So that's a step in the right direction for a country like Namibia. And it's just a matter of.
00:17:17
Speaker
You know, getting them another probably cycle to get up to speed and get them to playing with, um, probably a little bit more discipline, number one, but number two, just being able to be more accurate with the stuff they actually want to do and attack. And you could see, I don't know which passage of play it was. It was one of the first ones where they had that there was a ball out wide and.
00:17:38
Speaker
Yep. Opportunity to make a line breaker, at least to gain some serious meters into the 22. And then it just went into touch. I was like, oh, it's just those little types of moments where it's like, no, and just like, get away. Yeah. And didn't the 14 almost have a try, but instead of diving down and oh, no, this was, no, this was the next year. Think of another game. Yeah, we'll get there. Sorry. We'll get there.
00:18:00
Speaker
different 13 can see 13 penalties. It only had nine penalties to be foul. So yeah, they weren't squeaky clean. No, they weren't perfect by any stretch. No. But but they were good. Yeah, absolutely. I think it was Lorenzo Canone. Why isn't he being called Florence Delalio? That's funny. That's funny. He's good. He's so good, Delalio. But you know, I'm putting my good stamp on him. Yeah, I mean,
00:18:28
Speaker
I think we knew that after the Six Nations. Right. But just confirm now. Exactly. He's not taking a step backward. There are people who have taken steps backwards. He's not one of them. No, I love it. And Roddy took a step up. I love I thought he was doing great. He didn't. You know, he had a couple of errors and whatnot. But I thought he acquitted himself well in the end, the M.L.R. Yeah.
00:18:51
Speaker
And we even played pretty well for the brief time he came in. So, right. I'm not trying to discount him, but no, but he didn't start. So not trying to cut him, cut him back or anything like that. Yeah. And then how about fricking. Oh, dog will. Finally getting in there, finally getting on the line over the line. Like I should have had a test try years ago. Right. I really want to see Brexit 12 and him at 13.
00:19:21
Speaker
I might get that at some point. I, I demand it. Cause I want to see how, like that's a physical fast explosive and offload ish potentially right. Center pairing with Capozzo and Yawani. Yeah. Yeah. That'd be great. Yeah. And whoever they want to put that back there full, full back, whether it's Tommy Allen or Bruno or whoever, you know, to be great.
00:19:51
Speaker
And the other another sub for Italy, who I think should play as a starter when they're want to put their best 50 on the field is Zuliani. Mm hmm. Man. And I I saw it in the war games, too. It's not just because he scored. I'm not saying that I saw it in the war games. And I was like, this kid's got, you know, he's
00:20:15
Speaker
He's not Lamoureux, but he's still a good seven, just the same. He's a different type of seven, but he's still worthy of being on the side of the scrum. With Lamoureux, I think that's a damn good back row between the two of those guys and, you know, only at eight. I think that would be appetizing to say the least. Yes, sir. Yummy. And then we won't spend too much time on this one. I got to your place.
00:20:41
Speaker
Had you were you the one that said Romania scored? Jesse? Yeah, Romania's. Yeah. Yeah. They scored first scored. I was like, Oh, OK. And it was great try, too. And yes, it was really the nine, I believe. Yeah. Just a sweet line break. Run a good nine line. Yeah. Perfect. And that was about the best for better. Stop the count. We're done. You no need to continue.
00:21:10
Speaker
Yeah, Gibson Park scored like two minutes, literally two minutes later. Yep. Yep. On the fifth. Yep. And then Keenan. Oops. And then Byrne. And the Gates row. Yeah. And then and then and then. I got to say Sexton acted like a dick after he scored that try. Like he slid with his hand trailing it. Like you don't have to slide like it was not a good technical slide from him. He didn't protect himself. And then, you know, somebody he was also he slowed up.
00:21:40
Speaker
Like you did. I think that's the biggest thing I would have. Yeah. Slowed up like an idiot. Right. So, yeah, the guy's going to come and chase you like you. He'll be like they'll they'll name like the National Square, like around the capital after him, if he does something like if he gets sexy in the World Cup. It doesn't matter if it's still eighty to eight. Like he still will get like all sorts of honors. Yeah. Dude's going to try to stop your try. So get over yourself. Yeah.
00:22:09
Speaker
Groucho man will be out of here soon. Yeah. He did. He did play well though. Like, I think this game was the best Island can hope for in terms of the 10 shirt. They got sex in minutes. He played well. He didn't come off. He didn't come out with any injuries or nothing major. And they got Jack Crowley, some time, some significant time too. It's about what? 20 odd minutes, 14 minutes, something like that. So yeah, 15, 14 buzz buzz. Perfect. As you can ask for in that situation as well. So, um,
00:22:37
Speaker
And Peter Romani played amazingly. Who knew? But he still never smiles. No. If he lived, he would just be less grouchy. He would ever lift like the World Cup or something. He'd just be slightly less grouchy. They don't buy this week? No. Italy's on buy this week, actually. Italy's on buy. I knew one of the teams who just talked about doesn't have a game this week.
00:23:07
Speaker
The Azuri. All right. Let's go over to Eddie's current team and Australia, Georgia. Australia did the business. I. I don't know if there's much beyond that we need to dive into terribly. It wasn't unimpressive. It was like they actually played a fairly kind of openish match. It wasn't just highball. So here's the thing that I like is that Carter Gordon
00:23:38
Speaker
is basically the only option at 10. So Eddie can't drop him for like a, let's say a George Ford, who's just going to put up a high ball the way he likes it. So you can't really control that. And so Gordon not having grown up being that actually runs an attack. And I thought he ran it pretty well. He got Ben Donaldson, like was a finisher because I feel like because of the way Gordon piloted that attack.
00:24:08
Speaker
Yeah. And that says a lot, you know, I mean, no walking in the was he was also, you know, did well, but that try was, was pretty sweet too. He was excellent. Yep. Um, I mean, again, it's against Georgia who are not ready for, like, I guess the way I'd say it, yeah, they're not ready for prime time. This isn't there. They're not as bad as some of the other teams we were, we're discussing here. Um, certainly not well discussed next week too. Exactly. Um, they're not Romania or Namibia, but they're also not, you know,
00:24:36
Speaker
You're not even I wouldn't say maybe Japan, but obviously different styles, but kind of that level of yeah, you'll beat the bad teams, but you're probably going to get tonked by the good teams still. And Australia did the job, you know, they won by 20, which is fair. That's about how if. If they're freaking back, if George's back three could not make so many air brain mistakes, right? They would have had. They would have had a way better shot, at least.
00:25:04
Speaker
but you had, you know, the really hands are frigging try to what wasn't too low, but eventually yeah, two boats, aren't it into a try with the assist and then I was like a water boy here. You take right. Okay. Yeah. That was definitely a water boy. Ask like, here, you take this and I'm going to kill you. No, you're not. No, you're not.
00:25:31
Speaker
go to deck if anything else. Really, you should have passed, but your last option, don't just chuck it about. Like, go to deck. And then- Tabut Saza. Saza, yeah. Like, two. He owes everyone a case. Like, holy shit. Like, he had two. He had the one that he chipped through that he should have just put his ears back on, and that went
00:25:52
Speaker
real sideways, real fast. And then the one where he just had to freaking dive. And he leaps in the air. Like you don't have to jump over anybody, just slide in. Slide, slide, get your feet up and slide.
00:26:03
Speaker
That is like textbook, how you get that done without getting driven into touch or in scoring it still. But I will thank him because that was, as I said, exactly as he did it. I was like, I already have it written down. The first thing I'm doing with my, I'm coaching now, I'm head coach. The first thing I'm doing with these college kids is we're going to learn how to finish the try.
00:26:25
Speaker
We're gonna score the try and then we're gonna work backwards into ticks to creating it But the first thing we're gonna do is slide into the tries Right and they're all like yeah, I saw that it's like don't do that. This is how we're gonna fix that So thank you for for that that helpful lesson to the BU kids God oh man
00:26:49
Speaker
But I mean, would it have made the difference? No, but it would have made it more competitive. At the same time. But that's what's keeping you back. Yes. Would it have made a difference? Yes, actually. Because if it's 2935 towards the end, yes. Perhaps, yeah. I mean, yeah, they made the 80th. So the last try was at the death. Right. No, but that's still a... You're talking a different language at the end.
00:27:13
Speaker
If you had two tries, you don't have them. There's more praise to heap onto Georgia in that too. And it gives them the confidence into the next games as well. So yeah. Yeah. And they've got, they've got, they've still got a couple of tough ones. So it's going to need all the confidence they can get. Okay. On to Sunday. Cause there's no other Saturday matches. Yeah. I would love to do that, but I think we need to be at least semi-fair. Yeah.
00:27:41
Speaker
Get into this and we don't need to spend a ton of time on it. No, I. They won, so I'm not going to try and rain on the parade too, too much because they won. And I think that's what's got everyone. I think the change in result is what everybody's got as everyone feeling so great about it. Right. But I think you just need to take a look at it like. Somebody made the comment to you like.
00:28:08
Speaker
They didn't say that in 2003. Okay, well, you played the same rugby that you played in 2003 that you played in 2007. You went to the final, you lost. Then you did it almost the same way in 11. You got knocked out in the quarters. And then 15, we all know what happened. And then you changed it a little bit with Eddie. And then you had, so you went to the final 2019. If you're trying to stick to the same rugby, you're going backwards still.
00:28:36
Speaker
Like I think we need to understand that you have to evolve and you don't just evolve eight years on. You need to evolve like four years on like, come on. Right. So if this is what your game plan is to stick with the whole way through, I don't see good things happening. And one more thing, and I will step back, but consider this. What is the biggest competition for rugby eyes in England right now? Football.
00:29:06
Speaker
Right. Premier League football. Yeah. Okay. And how, how much, how much of a struggle is English rugby right now? We have three clubs that just folded. Yeah. Prem numbers aren't awesome. Like the clubs are all struggling. Like we need eyes on these games and we need kids watching these games saying, I want to play that. And I understand you're in a World Cup and you need to get the job done, but that doesn't mean you need to just resort to high balls, drop goals on the five meter line. Right.
00:29:34
Speaker
And penalty kicks the whole way. Like you don't have the problem next weekend. So if you play well, you might be able to stave it off. But the following weekend, there is going to be Premier League football on at the same time as rugby. And to try the here's the thing. If you can't pull eyes away from Premier League football for a world top, you're never going to do it. So you need to put a product on the field that the kids are going to want to also go, oh, I want to play that sport right now, because after that game on Saturday,
00:30:02
Speaker
I bet you there are very few that say, yeah, I want to play with this team. There will be some because there will be some. Right. But I'd say the number is definitely exponentially less so. Yeah. Like. There's nothing different about this match versus. The past six nations versus the you know, a lot of previous matches, you know, where where England loses games, they should win based on their talent and
00:30:33
Speaker
there was no difference. And to me, you're on the five meter line and you kick a drop goal. That clock better be red and you better be two points down. Otherwise,
00:30:46
Speaker
Otherwise it's, it's, it's just kind of sad to me. He's like, Oh, we got three points on them. It's like, well, you know what? As I said earlier, it's the tries like at no point that, and it is to me a completely, this, this is more Argentina just shitting them. Absolutely shitting themselves. Agreed. Absolutely. Just putting themselves up and down the pitch. Um, just not taking advantage of opportunities that were there. Like it wasn't like the, the England defense was hounding them. They were just.
00:31:17
Speaker
being silly and taking bad penalties. Cinti Carreras' yellow was like, what are you doing, dude? You have to like just, yeah. They just needed to play it straight and just do what they've been doing. And they would have been fine. Because they can score tries. I mean, Cinti is a game breaker. Both Carreras' and Bafelli and Malia, like these guys can go.
00:31:47
Speaker
And they just never clicked. And that's why, you know, that's why they only scored the 10. And, um, I think that was, you know, the, if you score nine times, you have make put, you know, you make nine scoring plays and you only have 27 points. That's, that's bad. You're at, you know, like Argentina had two scoring plays. It came in with 10 points. Like.
00:32:14
Speaker
If they had played a little bit better and done a little bit more, they, they win that fairly easily. Like I don't think England really put that much pressure on, on Argentina. So they're not through the scoreboard. Yeah. I mean, you look at the territory, it's only 3% going that way. It's just Argentina totally spitting the bit at the end there. Yeah. You know, not getting it done. And on that half, right. And that, that should tell you a lot. Yeah. It's.
00:32:45
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's and the other thing is just a conundrum. England is let me let me see if I can see it in here, though. Attack. Clean breaks. England had one clean break in the match. One. And you know who it was? It was the.
00:33:03
Speaker
What's his butt down the sidewalk? Alex Mitchell taking it off the, off the, uh, uh, off the rock and, and running a sneaky pass and running Ellie daily into touch and then giving him the ball. That was, yeah. Right. Well, not well executed there, but that was your only clean break of the day. What the fuck are you doing? Right. There's no rug. There's so like, it seems like their, their plan is to take the rugby out of rugby and hopefully we can win on the scoreboard and
00:33:30
Speaker
Yeah. Like you can't play rugby by not playing rugby. You're not going to win. You're not going to win rugby contests by trying to stop playing rugby. Eventually, you're going to run into somebody who plays rugby. Just a matter of do you run it into the pool play in the quarterfinals and the semis of the finals? And as it turns out. England keep running into teams that play rugby. Shocker. Yeah. And you're going to run into those teams here, too. So. Right. And one more thing, and then we can get the fuck on.
00:33:59
Speaker
I rewind myself to another major tournament. Yarrows in France, where Portugal won, and Portugal's coach was like, I will take your criticism and the trophy. They did win. But holy shit were those matches off of the watch. The only reason they were exciting is because it was Yarrows. If it was another match, forget it. It would have been fucking awful because most of them went to palates. Yeah. Yeah. Just ugly as shit. So like the New Jersey. That's what we're going for here.
00:34:27
Speaker
then yeah, I'm out on English rugby and happy to be so. Right. It's like, yeah, the New Jersey Devils in hockey where they were like, literally kill the game and then wait till the other team gets bored, makes a mistake, and then they score. And it's like, and they're like, we don't care if it's boring, we win. Well, okay, but this is a product we're trying to entertain. Yeah, you do still have to entertain a little bit. And they tell me rule changes based on that because they're like, we can't have you doing this to our product anymore. No, absolutely not. Yeah, no.
00:34:54
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, yeah, in the end, you do have a small responsibility as one of the biggest rugby playing nations to put a decent product on the pitch because this is becoming a business and if you want to survive, then we have to get eyeballs on it and that's how it happens. Indeed. Let's go to Japan, Chile.
00:35:14
Speaker
Everybody, you know, a lot of our American friends were like, Oh, I hope Chile loses. No, no, I do not want Chile to lose. We lost fair and square and we sucked. Like there's no question about it. We were dog shit for those, for those qualifiers. I am glad Chile is there. They deserve it a hundred percent. And you know, you got to give them credit. They fricking.
00:35:33
Speaker
They balled out in this one as best they could. Right. Considering that they've never been to a rugby world cup before. This was pretty damn good. Right. And the other thing is they beat us. We're worse than them. If they're that much worse than everyone else, what does that say about like, I want them to put in a good showing so that at least it's like, okay, well, the U.S. that makes sense. If the U.S. could beat them, we get it. Maybe the U.S. is as bad as we thought, although they are, but you know. They are. So it just makes us look worse.
00:35:58
Speaker
And plus fuck USA rugby, like they need, they need so much reform that it doesn't, it's. Yeah. Us looking worse. Doesn't, you know, I'm not, I don't have any bitterness about losing to Chile, like or Portugal. Like, yeah. Nope. You guys are better. Good. Go for it. Nope. Yeah. You, you, you're there for, for a damn good reason. Yeah. Fernandez got, he called his name beforehand. So gotta give you credit. You called his name beforehand. And if this, if there's any match that he was going to show, I think it would be this one.
00:36:29
Speaker
Yeah, and he did. I was I was happy to see that right off the bat. And it was I thought they were going to take it away from him. But thankfully, they didn't. There was there was nothing to take away. You know, I think they thought it was a knock on. It was knocked backwards by Japan. So, yeah, all good. Right. But he he did it. And Dan, look at us. He must play for that. Yeah, he plays for that. The.
00:36:58
Speaker
super rugby Americas. Yeah. The sub-nem or whatever it is. Yeah. I don't know how to pronounce it. So I'm sorry if I butchered it, but hopefully he gets a look somewhere else. That'd be nice for him. I think he should have more eyeballs on him after this tournament. But yeah, I mean, and this was interesting, obviously right up until the half and a little bit afterwards, but then
00:37:23
Speaker
The class of the Japanese just overtook him and that was, that was the end. I was like, I mean, you're done. I guess this is what it like when it happened. It was like, okay, Michael Leach scored in this game. That's, that's the kind of game it was. Like he scored a long try to, he outran people. So I think to me, that's, um, yeah, we're not quite there yet. Leach is doing that to you. Sorry. Nope. That's, and that's again, uh,
00:37:53
Speaker
amount of frickin amount of fakataba. Okay. Could this be a coming out party for him? Yeah. You know, he's by the large lad and seems pretty mobile. Right.
00:38:09
Speaker
I might go looking at his way if I'm looking for lock help sometime that Warner Dern's. Holy shit. That is a tall drink of water. Holy shit. Yeah. Whereas he's playing for he's playing for back Black Ram right now. So yeah, over in Japan. So he might get a pretty good call. We'll see. It's a damn good. It's damn good call for somebody from France or roevee or someone can pay him. You are see.
00:38:38
Speaker
be a good, that'd be a good yet, in my opinion. And then South Africa, Scotland. Good game, not quite what I was hoping for personally, but what happened, I also kind of thought was going to happen at the same time. So, you know, it wasn't a total shock the way it happened. No, just I was hoping for more. I thought it was going to be like a 15 point difference makes sense to me.
00:39:08
Speaker
But 21 total points doesn't that this is this should have been. Yeah. Should have seen more from from these guys. They would have had seven more if Darcy Graham fucking passed. Oh, he owes everyone a drink for sure. He does. Oh, didn't need to do that. Like just no give. Give. You have two more guys out there. Give you dummy. Right. I can appreciate backing backing yourself. But if you do that,
00:39:35
Speaker
You do so at your own risk and you got to know you're going to be punished if you do that. Exactly. Like, okay, you make that decision, you score and he didn't. So. Did not. You get, you get the frowny face. Yeah. You don't get the, you get the frowny face. You do not want the frowny face. I mean. You're a wild star. Yeah. Territory. Not to, not, I mean, not shocking. It was mostly South Africa, but like, yeah, I just,
00:40:05
Speaker
Great. I mean, freaking creativity box. Oh, man. That no look kicked out. Oh, that is spicy. That is spicy right there. That was delicious. Use the eyes of the sieve and said, no, it's actually going this way, guys. Slide a hand. All that shit. Wonderful. Wonderful. Wonderful. Watching that live, I thought he was I thought he just saw it the whole way and was like had had framed it that way. I thought he meant to do like I didn't want him to be meant to do it, but.
00:40:30
Speaker
I didn't see the no look until the replay. And then all of a sudden I was like, okay, that play just got that much cooler. You took a good play and made it amazing. Yeah. Real cheeky shit right there. Absolutely. Yeah. And you know, to credit South Africa,
00:40:50
Speaker
in so many ways, the guys that they needed to keep quiet, they kept quiet. They kept, you know, they kept screaming from getting to too much go forward. Do you want to do nothing to on was going nowhere that the, you know, the senators went nowhere. I think Graham and Kingard probably had the most room and they couldn't quite do enough with them with now. And to me, I think the difference, the crap out of fin to do so well. And to me, the difference was fin and. He went into a shell a little bit for me.
00:41:19
Speaker
wanted that short ball too many times. And to me, Finn Russell's game is taking that risk going out the back, even if it looks like it's a terrible idea and completing it anyway, because that's what he does. Yeah. And when those get complete, they turn into great things. So, yes, you're in a rugby world cup game, but you're also not expected to win this game either. So to me, he he needs to take a few more risks and send more of those balls out the back to, you know, get his team on the front foot. And unfortunately, he just went for that short ball one too many times. And yeah.
00:41:49
Speaker
That, that to me was a, was a big difference. Yeah. You know what you do. You do things like that risk reward. The risk is worth the reward. Like, come on, man. Anyway. And then without a doubt, one of the best matches we're going to see for a while. Entertaining as hell. Oh my God. Wales Fiji back and forth. We go.
00:42:19
Speaker
Matt Carley sucks. I agree with one, but the second, the Ravi try, uh, yep. Nope. He hit deck. He's got a release, but I was, I was in to the Maui try. That was a try for me.
00:42:36
Speaker
So for me, that was both either a try when he scored it or if you're not going to allow it to me that that was clear. No, I clear no arms penalty. Oh, man. I think White House was on the TMO shame on you asshole. Yeah. Well, I think the arm kind of. No, he was tucked the whole like the whole time. He was just looking to talk. And then, yeah, he swung it out at the end. Never McNeese was the McNeese was the TMO. You're right. Yep. Good to know.
00:43:03
Speaker
Yeah, just awful. And that's Matt Carley for you. He'd love us to say no, no try. Yeah, he loves to be a party. And to be fair, he was ready to award the try to who was a rabbi. Yeah. Yeah. But it was McNeese who said no that time. This time, I think I don't think he's had a chance to say anything. And on the Maui try and Carley's like, no, this is what I see. Shut up. I'm done. And it was like, what? But awesomeness. Fuck you.
00:43:33
Speaker
So, yeah, that was just that was just loud. That was annoying. And Dan Bigger chewing out. Oh, two guys, two guys, two guys. Yeah. North for being dumb and selfish and taking it in when he shouldn't have. And he gave away a penalty. I don't blame him for that one. It's like, you dumb fuck. I've been like, and this is the last go to. So he he's like, he's ready for it. He wants it. You know, maybe turn down a hair. But right. Yeah. A little bit. And then.
00:44:02
Speaker
I mean, he's got a point on the second one for sure. Like get the ball the fuck off the field, especially against this team. Yeah. Don't let them score a freaking cheap one. Right. Come on. I guess that would have made the difference. Otherwise. Yeah. They need help. So here's my question. Was this the best when was the last time Wales played this this good, I should say. You know, Wales can be a funny fickle little thing where they
00:44:29
Speaker
They match their opponent. Yeah. And that's not necessarily a good team. It means they can win a lot of games, but that's not necessarily the sign of a good team. You got to be more consistent than that. And Fiji brought the noise. So whales to their credit brought it right back. They had no problem answering the bell. Right. So I mean, that was my question because I think Fiji and the way Fiji played and again, the pressure that they put on whales to make sure they were scoring points made made whales better.
00:44:59
Speaker
Right. Like I don't think Wales would play that well against an England because it was like, Oh, we're, we're just kicking. Okay. We'll just kick that. No big deal. We'll just play what you're doing and that'll be fine. And, and we don't need, you know, maybe, maybe we'll win. Maybe you'll win. We'll see. We'll just have to find out at the end. In this case, it was, Oh no, we got to play. Otherwise we're losing. Um, and you know, obviously, you know, when, when Wales play like Ireland and France, it's not like they, they really have much of an option. This one was no Fiji could beat us, but we, we
00:45:29
Speaker
should beat them. You know, if we are who we are. We got to be our at our best. And I think that really brought out the best of whales. I hope we see this whales the rest of the tournament, because this is we do this and they have a shot. Yeah. Now that changes things, you know, the drop of a hat. And if Gatz hasn't going to have him playing like this, then right. I'm excited about it. So here's the thing. I can tell you how damn bigger
00:45:58
Speaker
had a masterclass game. I can tell you exactly how, because he distributed. He counterattacked. He put effort into everything he was doing. He was chasing down guys in tackles and just sticking his nose in there where it probably doesn't belong, but he didn't care. And just trying to lead from the front, he kicked his goals. That is how his game was a masterclass.
00:46:20
Speaker
And that is the difference between somebody just saying it. Yeah. And something actually having a reason and or proof as to why it was. Right. Like if I if we put together a 15 of the first round, bigger would probably be my my fly half. He'd be up there. He'd be he'd be in the he'd be on the short list, certainly. Yeah. Ford Ford would not. That's the weird thing. No, no. And I think in the most people's 15 of the round, Sammy Rodriguez goes into the centers because easily.
00:46:47
Speaker
I don't care about the last drop, that was painful for everybody. That's the really shitty thing about sports in general. He had such a wonderful game, but he's only going to think about, and unfortunately some people else will also think about, that drop. And that sucks for him. But that's the beauty of sports too.
00:47:07
Speaker
like saccharin kind of thing, but it's like, did you see the shot of, uh, from, from behind of that with you, you could see all the Welsh fans in the stands with their hands like over their mouths or on their heads. They're all just like, Oh no. And like, it ends before the, they, they, they, you know, they see what happens. But like, I was, it was just. They knew they were in trouble. They were like, Oh no. Like I've been there very badly. Right. Like you've been there. I've been, I was there on fourth and 26. I was in the building.
00:47:37
Speaker
Sorry, Jared. I had my towel in my mouth. What's going to happen? Looking around the stadium and seeing everybody else like that. Yes, sometimes it goes your way and sometimes it doesn't. That sucks, but it is great. He had a fantastic match. He did. To be fair,
00:48:00
Speaker
That pass should have gone through the hands. It shouldn't have been directly out. Yeah, it didn't go right out there. So it was kind of unfair to put him in that position. And it didn't even make it. It bounced. And with the slick ball, it's hard to judge. So no, if you can't make that pass, don't make that pass.
00:48:14
Speaker
Yeah, that's that's the live and die that you have to. They have no problem making those bounce passes either. Right. And maybe that's something they can eventually clean up either game. I think it's good and bad because, as I said a while ago, like what it is about a ball on the deck that makes human brains go for a few seconds. I don't know. But it happens. So sometimes that's to your advantage. In this case, it obviously was not. Yeah.
00:48:40
Speaker
Yeah. So, I mean, he was right. Cause he was, he was, the Roger could have walked in, but they still could have gone through the hands and had this, had a better result. Probably one more conditions to the, the ball being slippery, the deck being slippery, like just kind of sucks, but yeah, good showing for Fiji. Hope they keep this. If they keep this up, they can still make the, uh, the knockouts and be dangerous. Very dangerous. Yes. Yes. Yes. Um,
00:49:10
Speaker
Uh, Catherine, send me costumes for Halloween. All right. Um, anyway, so that's that, uh, one more thing before we go. And it's something that has to be said, but shocker there. We got to say that all the time. Anyway, like NBC, I just, I want you to not cover the game at all or to do it right. Cause what you're doing right now is being stuck in the middle because you're either trying to be cheap or whatever, but like.
00:49:38
Speaker
Come on, give us some team news, anthems, all that stuff. I don't need Dan Lyle and Alex Corbusero sitting in their homes with a shitty backdrop behind them that's been clearly been folded out that morning and talking into the camera right up until kickoff. Right. And have you seen the replays? Have you watched any of the replays on Peacock? No. They're not there. They actually do the team news. They do the anthems. You can actually see all that stuff. So it's like you have that available and you're choosing to put these MOOCs
00:50:07
Speaker
And, and no, no offense. I actually, you know, I, I like both of them. I do too. I think NBC is just doing them a disservice at this point. That's all. Right. And Dan, they, they got to get Lyle some makeup because he did a little bit. He knows what he's doing. Um, um, and, uh, he's been around the block, right? He's, he's, and he probably knows how to put on California helps probably knows at this point, he's done it enough. He knows how to put his, his own makeup on for, for TV.
00:50:35
Speaker
Lyle does not, and it shows. He looks like a, you know, it's just, it doesn't look right. Someone helped the man in the house. Someone help him out. Cause like, if you're going to do it, at least it's so you're not really looking like, you know, it looks just whole half-assed, not even half-assed, half, half-assed. I know half, half-assed. So yeah, you have pick it up.
00:50:59
Speaker
Push it all, push everything further back 15 minutes. You're on CNBC, which has nothing on at those times. Like, one of them was paid programming for flux sake. Like, come on, push the paid programming back 15 minutes. You'll be fine. There's nobody watching it at that point anyway, except old people. And they're probably just half asleep watching it anyway. Like, just come on, man. You can do better. I know you can do better. I believe in you. Do better, please. I'm pretty pleased with sugar on top.
00:51:25
Speaker
Or just NBC, even if you're watching on Peacock, we get it, we get that. And it's like, why not have them do this earlier and then lead into, so we can see the teams, we can see them come out, we can see the anthems. Because I didn't, we were just talking about the choirs, I had no idea what the fuck they were talking about. And honestly, seeing on the replay today, when I was putting France, New Zealand on,
00:51:52
Speaker
like the New Zealand anthem, yeah, it was one of those like, what was it? Great taste, awful execution. Like it was a really good, like it sounds beautiful. I love the idea. It's awful though. Right. It's not for this event. Like it's a cool thing and I love that they did it, but like we can, we can be done after the first round now.
00:52:12
Speaker
The novelty is nice. But let's get back to the fans singing and really pumping it through the PA. And that was one thing that I had the issue, one reason I had the issue with, like, imagine France, Stade de France, opening night on Friday, and what kind of noise that would have generated and the energy that would have produced. And I feel like it was just a little bit of a dud, unfortunately. Everybody be quiet for the kids.
00:52:42
Speaker
Right. Oh, no, that's not that's not how we do this. You know, and there was a couple couple of anthems like you can tell what part they were on because like my different people were different. It was like, oh, yeah, this is a headache. They need to stop. I appreciate the idea. Sorry, kids. This is not your fault. This is right. This is rugby Francis. Well, that's the adults. That's theirs. The children have failed. Sorry. Absolutely. All right. Cool.
00:53:09
Speaker
Okay, friends, we are going to head over to fantasy corner time. Talk a little bit champion actually can start sitting all that jazz. Um, if you're going to join us over there, we'll see you over there. If not, um, enjoy around two, we get introduced to a few new teams with, uh, some more Portugal, Tonga and Uruguay getting back into the action. Um, and then a few other teams are going to take their break. So sit back, buckle up. We got Thursday game this week. So that's awesome. It's going to be fun.
00:53:39
Speaker
But yeah, if you're not joining us at the fantasy corner, enjoy yourself week two of the World Cup, and we'll catch you guys next week. Have a good one. Thanks everyone. Cheers. This has been the fantasy rugby yanks podcast.
00:53:54
Speaker
If you'd like to ask a question or leave us general feedback, email us at fantasyrugbypodcastatgmail.com. Too far, you guy, by the way. Yeah, exactly. The ticky tackiness kind of absolutely pisses me off. Be sure you check out our Patreon at patreon.com slash the fantasyrugby. Yeah.