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Season 3- Episode 7- Rest in Peace Marcos (Champions Cup Round 2)
26 Plays5 years ago
First off, if you are a sympathetic crier, you might want to skip ahead of the very beginning or prepare some tissues. In this episode The Yanks say goodbye to a teammate and friend. After we gather ourselves, we talk about the recent news of Leicester and Newcastle being cancelled, a Saracen loanee, no longer being a loanee and the really cheap pot shots a few pundits decided to take at Cips. Of course we run through the action of Champions Cup, including our guess as to how the two pools play out. Of course we have a look at the esteemed Champi-Yanks League and see what lies ahead there with the return to the Prem, speaking of, we tuck in to some more Start or Sit. Come long for the emotional ride with us and have a beverage too.
Rest in Peace Marcos Flegmann. 1990-2020
Ask us questions via Twitter: Jarrod- jdyke8man & Ben- admrablsnackbar. Send us your thoughts for the show and questions for upcoming shows via e-mail fantasyrugbypodcast@gmail.com.
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Transcript
Introduction and Tribute to Marcos Fleigman
00:00:08
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome back. This is the Fancy Rugby, thanks. My name's Jared Dyke. I'm Ben Glauser. Shit, I'm already losing it. We're starting today with a really heavy heart, Ben and I are. Yeah, we lost a teammate way too young. Not the first, won't be the last.
00:00:38
Speaker
Great teammate for, for Boston rugby, um, great player to have a prop. So, you know, he's a good person, but, um, yeah, one of those lethal in the loose, uh, nickname quadzilla because he was just all quads. He didn't want to never wanted to tackle him, um, even in training. No, nobody did, but you always wanted to share a beer with him too. Yep. Um,
00:01:07
Speaker
at the way too young age of 30. Yeah, that's, that's not right. Yeah. Yeah, so. Sorry, I'll pull it together. Yeah, the way too young age of 30. Boston lost Marcos Fleigman, a
00:01:32
Speaker
You know, just a pretty, a really accomplished league player for, especially on this side of the pond at least. National champion, representative of his home country, captain, uh, uh, occasionally of the, the Mexican national team, um, at eight.
00:01:48
Speaker
where he had a position for us. But yeah, it's certainly capable of playing eight. So not necessarily out of position for him. But obviously, you don't captain an international squad for no reason. The guy was pure quality and gone way too young. And that's a loss for our team, but also for the rugby world. Yeah, New England.
00:02:13
Speaker
Knowing when rugby family lost a real good one here. And it's really, really sad. Um, if you can tell by my mood, um, you know, um,
00:02:24
Speaker
Ben and I weren't especially close to Marcos, but when you, when you tried out on the pitch, you know, more than a few times with a guy. Yeah. I mean, you have reason. Right. The only reason was the age difference. He's, I mean, considerably, well, certainly the mid considerably younger than me. Yeah. For you. So, so we just ran in different circles. Um, but never had a probably, you know, obviously we were, whenever we hung out, cause we, you know, I, I did go out even though I was the old, one of the old man, um, always, you know,
00:02:55
Speaker
just someone they wanted to be around. Yeah, he was. He was a good one. And you know, he's just, you know, and we talk about all the things that are out there right now with COVID and all but you got to remember that there's still some other things that are affecting people like cancer. I guess he was training for the Maccabee.
00:03:20
Speaker
And this, I think this happened a couple, this occurred, this started a couple of years ago, but obviously it's caught up to him now. And he had a bruise that he had taken a pretty good shot in the leg and it never, never got better. Kind of find out it was cancerous. So he turned out he had bone cancer, which
00:03:41
Speaker
It's just impossible to find a way to get through really something that deep. And it's absolutely flooring news to hear of somebody like this that was, I only remember Marcos with a smile. I never saw him angry. Even when he was angry, he didn't look angry.
00:04:11
Speaker
So yeah, I'm going way too young. Marcos Slagman, 30 years old. Want to crack my beer? I'm not going to say the same thing. Crack one for Marcos.
00:05:07
Speaker
You know, our thoughts and condolences and then go out to his family and, um, talk to you a little, one's a little tighter tonight, guys. Just a little tighter.
00:05:21
Speaker
All right. Now, I'll try and collect myself and actually do a podcast here. Make sure that you're obviously looking at our buddy, the fancy rugby geek. He's going to be a good one for you all that are getting back into the prem, especially with the chaos that just dropped today. So, yeah, go get him. Go get him a coffee if you would. Hey, find some coffee.
00:05:46
Speaker
Yeah. We're back, TRM. Get your upgrades, support the RPA from some recent rumblings.
Supporting RPA and Social Justice
00:05:54
Speaker
I've heard that they are starting to run out of money.
00:05:56
Speaker
And one of the things that they do with that money is they provide a hotline for guys to talk about like, you know, mental health problems, like when they're having issues with themselves, they use that to go talk to somebody. And I think that's a great thing. And I don't think it should be not funded. So support the RPA as best you can with that. As always, Black Lives Matter with us here. It's not going anywhere. We need equality and we need
00:06:25
Speaker
to recognize the problems that we face in this world, not just here in America, in the world with racial inequality. So we're going to keep talking about it till we don't have to talk about it anymore. Yeah, hopefully sooner than later would be preferable, but I'm not sure that's going to be the case, but we'd take it either way.
00:06:43
Speaker
All right.
Rugby Matches and Player Movements
00:06:46
Speaker
New cycle. Leicester and Newcastle is off. The Tigers have forfeited because they've had a couple cases positive, but the contact tracing was the big problem. Way too many close contacts. Way too many close contacts so they could not feel the team. How is this so much more of a problem this year than it was last year? We didn't see any troubles until
00:07:11
Speaker
Until sale. Yeah. Yeah. No, no kidding. And then all of a sudden now we've had multiple cancellations and two teams pop off for just out of the blue. Yeah. Well, maybe not one so much out of the blue. They were just stupid. Yeah.
00:07:29
Speaker
But it was, yeah, I don't know. It's, I do know that England is getting ravaged by a new form of the virus, which is not good. Right. Sounds like it spreads quicker and just the signs show up a little faster and just, you know, it just decimates people. So yeah, let's continue to and you know, things are obviously. I'll see you in five years.
00:07:55
Speaker
Yeah, I know about to become a hobbit here, or hermit, excuse me. Same difference. So, and curiously, the match has been decided that it'll be five points to Newcastle, but two bonus points to Leicester from what I heard. And I don't know how that works, and I don't know why that's the way it is. That makes nearly no sense to me. No.
00:08:23
Speaker
Maybe, I don't know, because Lester had been a possible relegation issue and maybe that's what they're trying to do is make it not automatic relegation just because you had a couple guys pop sick. I'm sure this will be talked about at the end of the year if they're in the scrap, which they likely will be. So we'll see.
00:08:50
Speaker
Singles, Jack Singleton is staying at King's home. And honestly, I'm not surprised at all. No, I don't blame him either. I don't either. Like he's going to be, the likelihood was he was going to be behind Jamie George for at least a few more years. Yeah. You know, basically the entirety of his career, if he stayed at Saracens and now I love having him and, you know, it's sad. We only got a season out of him, not even, but yeah, he, he belongs there, you know, he's going to have the best shot.
00:09:18
Speaker
at his, for his career overall, playing for a club like Gloucester. And that's where he should stay. So I'm not sad about it. I'm happy for him. He's going to, he's going to be their shoe and starter nine out of 10 weeks. You know, so I have no, I have zero issues with that. It works out for, for everybody. So absolutely. It's in the best interest of everybody. So let it, let's let it happen. That's good.
00:09:43
Speaker
Zero argument out of me. Talk about mental health issues and things that are out there. We talked about Cipriani and the really rough year after 18 months he's had, and we got people that are taking shots at him.
00:10:05
Speaker
Um, I mean, two completely helmets that Ben and I don't like, but it's the kind of guys you expect to, I mean, the reason that we don't like them is because they're the kind of guys who take pot shots of people on the way out the door. Um, and that's pretty low class. So yeah, he left gloss or with immediate effect. He wasn't a good fit there. Um, and he hasn't seemed to find a really a good fit.
00:10:32
Speaker
you know, in the prem where he's, you know, wherever he's been, it's just not working out. And to have that be like, oh, that's all him. No, he's, he is, when he's on his game, he's one of the best in the world. And that still holds true. And it's just that he, the, either the, you know, the players he's with is not a fit, but it has nothing to, it doesn't reflect on him, I don't think.
00:10:59
Speaker
Any more than Lima Sepuaga's complete inability to fit in wasps is a reflection on Lima. Like nobody, nobody's like, Oh, Lima is just a really shit 10 because he can't play a wasps. Um, and he can't even, he's not really fitting in at 15 either. And everybody knows it, but, but nobody's really making too big a deal because they know he's just a great player and it's just a bad fit. But for some reason, Cipriani doesn't get anywhere near that level of, um,
00:11:30
Speaker
It's just common respect, really, is what it is. And people will say, well, Cipriani did this and Cipriani did that.
00:11:44
Speaker
Yeah, okay. Name the last time that you all out there, especially because we're talking about the time he went and got himself hammered and then he went and got himself put in the back of a car. Name a time that you went out and got on the smash and didn't get yourself into just a tiny bit of trouble. We've all done it. Maybe we didn't get arrested.
00:12:09
Speaker
Sometimes we probably should have been. You know, just leave it be. You know, did he did he say something stupid when he was shitfaced? Of course he did. Yeah.
00:12:18
Speaker
I say stupid shit when I'm hammered all the time. Let's be real. You know? Well, we both say stupid shit while we're sober. Yeah, that too. Exactly. Precisely, sir. Precisely. So, you know, just ease off on the guy. And, you know, these aren't two people that I particularly care about. So I do just want to kind of call them out, call it as they are and just tell them to go fuck themselves, really. Right. So that's that.
00:12:43
Speaker
Because we've seen, and especially the, oh, he didn't have what it takes to play an international level. It's like, that's, wait, wait, hold on, hold on. That's suddenly, that means you suck now. I know. Like, you got a cup of coffee with an international team and the coach didn't like you. And not that you were a good enough player, it's that there was just a personal thing.
00:13:08
Speaker
That's not, that happens all the fucking time. That's why guys don't get selected. That's just, you know, who should be selected. It happens. Yeah. Just no. Yeah. I mean, that's the worst. Yeah. Yeah.
00:13:25
Speaker
I mean, we talked about that. We'll talk about that in, I think, one of our first matches. Yeah. Where we had a commentary from an Andy Jones acts recipient. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we did. And that was pretty good.
00:13:42
Speaker
So, yeah, and then obviously, you know, we referenced the COVID cancellations in the permission, but there was plenty this past weekend, too, that ravaged the whole thing. And, you know, Exeter and Exeter Bath, scarlets and Glasgow's matches were all
00:14:04
Speaker
cancels. Actually, curiously, Scarlett's and Toulon was not directly from COVID, but it kind of was because
00:14:14
Speaker
This is probably the toughest scenario to have to kind of figure out exactly and what the punishment is or what the decision is, is not straightforward. Toulon left Wales and went back to France because they were concerned that the Welsh team did not have enough players or we're going to get them sick. Certainly valid.
00:14:43
Speaker
And I'm not saying that EPCR are immune to making bad decisions, but they made the decision that this was gonna go forward. And for whatever reason, they have been given all the confirmation that they needed to say, yes, this match can go ahead. And I don't know what it takes in that situation. So maybe there's some gray area that needs to be defined that too long more comfortable with and
00:15:11
Speaker
OK, but you have to know the consequences that you're doing. Well, they and they did that too long, even said at the time they're there.
00:15:20
Speaker
their statement was something along the lines of, we'll take whatever the punishment is. This is not safe. We don't feel as comfortable doing it. So we're just not going to do it. We'll take the punishment. So hey, good on that. That's been a discussion point recently of people taking punishment that they say they deserve, and then suddenly flipping it. And too long to their credit, didn't pull in Argentina.
00:15:47
Speaker
They've decided that no, they'll take this and live with it. And they'll have to fight harder in the next two couple rounds. Yeah. So we'll see how that goes. But on them, I feel terrible for Glasgow, though, who apparently made the action. They may take action against Exeter because Exeter was so flaunted, the protocols, by interacting with fans. What the fuck? I mean, that's just...
00:16:17
Speaker
wasn't their best decision. No, terrible decision. And obviously, maybe selfish. And yes, yes, bad decision on Exeter in terms of the result of it. I'm not sure, Alaska, we're going to put up a ton of a fight against Leon. No, they weren't. But it just sucks to have that taken out of their hands. Oh, I told them they wanted to play the match and
00:16:40
Speaker
You know, all of that good stuff. And, you know, every Glasgow Warriors fan wanted to watch the match, of course. So, yeah, they wanted to get to watch them get their ass kicked. But they wanted to watch it happen. They don't want it just to be to happen in a back room somewhere. Right. And then obviously Bathware on the other end of the Scarlett's match. So they also had had their match against Laura Rochelle forfeited. So Laura Rochelle won with a bonus point.
00:17:06
Speaker
So it was, and then Toulouse got the upper hand of Exeter and in that pool, especially that being kind of the more relevant thing in this. And as we go through the rest of the round here, we'll talk about it, but oof.
00:17:20
Speaker
Um, that's a big thing right there. That's huge. That's a really big thing. The exit or the way they, the way they looked, um, just simply unbeatable. And so to, to have a loss and to have the full, you know, the 28 nothing points against, they're only 50, they're only 14 points to the positive now, you know, pretty crazy. Yeah.
00:17:44
Speaker
So interesting how this goes. We'll go through and touch on some matches and then we'll dive into a few of the more interesting ones of the weekend.
00:18:01
Speaker
Well, we'll, we'll start with the lost, lost my play. Um, not to say that it wasn't worth, you know, noting or, uh, the watch cause it was to a point. Um, but an early red card kind of ruined things. Uh,
00:18:18
Speaker
Uh, yeah. And it was, there was no, there was no decision to be made really. He wasn't, there was, everything was dangerous about it. He wasn't even looking at what he was hitting. So just every painting, the entire picture he painted for the referees was please give me a red card. And the rep and Andrew race had no problem giving that out.
00:18:38
Speaker
So good on Brace for picking that up and shame on the people that are trying to get super clickbaity headlines with that one, too. Like, I think it was right past I was doing it. Like, come on, man. What are you doing? Actually, we're just talking about concussions. And now you're going to look at the you're going to you're going to stand for that. Like, really, this is right decision all around. Yeah. Get out of here. And yeah, so
00:19:01
Speaker
Well, until you hung around a little bit, Alex Lozowski was trying to do his best to lead that crew forward. And it wasn't a whole lot to leap forward, unfortunately. Yeah. You know, that was a tough crew to have to lead forward
Young Players and Match Highlights
00:19:16
Speaker
against. A pretty decent loss outfit. And, you know, they have the standing mat. The youth on that wasp side. Yeah. I mean, they have this kid named Alfie Barbary. If you haven't heard of him by now, then what rock you been under?
00:19:28
Speaker
Yeah, it's like I keep telling my wife about him. He's just amazing. He never doesn't show up. Every time he's on the field, he could be on for 20 minutes and he owns the game for that 20 minutes.
00:19:46
Speaker
Yeah. He didn't disappoint there. Um, in this match, he just, he was everywhere. Yes, he was. He was very good. But then you look at the other, again, the young kids, the Atkinson's, uh, will Porter Porter. Yeah. They will play extremely well for their first real, real, real serious run out. Um, in this competition.
00:20:05
Speaker
Good on them and you can see, you can see some good things going on with the halfback room and the fly-off room with that team. So it was rightfully on 10 points going forward here. So good on them. So Edinburgh wasn't a classic until Edinburgh just drove them into the ground, really.
00:20:33
Speaker
Yeah, I only caught the last few minutes of it and decided I wasn't going to watch anymore. But oh, right. Totally. But Edinburgh, from what I saw, was extremely impressive and just killing that that like just killing the clock, ending the game after they've taken the lead.
00:20:50
Speaker
That's, you know, just really taking it out of sales hands. Yeah. Um, like they didn't touch the ball. I don't think sale touched the ball in the last five minutes of the match. And that's how you win a game. Rarely really wasn't much. Um, so the, yeah, these, this is a, this is a decent Edinburgh outfit here that, um,
00:21:09
Speaker
don't always win them pretty, but when they want to win them, they'll do it. So good on those boys and getting, getting a, that's a big turn of events for them too up in Scotland because their pro 14 campaign is not going well by many accounts. So that's a, that's a good turning point for them for sure. Oh yeah, absolutely. And then match around the same time.
00:21:34
Speaker
Bordeaux and Dragons, and oh boy. Not much of a match. They were talking about it in the broadcast, and there's a lot to like about Dragons and what they're doing, but it's just at the very infancy of the beginnings, and it's just really hard to watch them right now, which is unfortunate. And right now, they're missing so many guys, so it's almost like their B team. It's not really fair.
00:22:02
Speaker
No, they had a lot of injuries coming in and they had their fly half drop late as well, which was very unhelpful, obviously. Jamie Roberts was not in the lineup either and he provided at least that good old forward ball that you needed every once in a while. You need to get over the game line now and again. So yeah, not helpful at all.
00:22:23
Speaker
One bright spot for the Dragons, Tompkins got over. Good on him, as usual. If you can count on anything, Tompkins is going to find the line.
00:22:39
Speaker
playing or, you know, whose boots Santiago Cordero was wearing anyway, but I didn't recognize him at first, but certainly recognized him scoring three tries. Yeah, three tries is very Santiago Cordero-esque. Yeah, he wore muted shoes, just the same color, you know, kind of powdery blues, kind of mesh uniform. Maybe his other ones got destroyed or something. I don't know, but he ran like he was wearing the bright mismatched ones anyway. He's quite good. Certainly. He's very good. You know, and
00:23:08
Speaker
We talked about the youth that France possesses right now as well. And we talk about Intimac and we talk about Boutier and Ramos, but Jelly Bears and another guy that plays for Leon Carbonell, not Leon, excuse me too long. Great youth in that tent shirt for France and the Jelly Bear is definitely one of those guys that's worth the topic.
00:23:34
Speaker
He is over there. They just have such a good problem to have. I mean, like, you know, they're going to go with Intimac because he's the best of them. But.
00:23:45
Speaker
I mean, that, you know, that just that whole crew is just a lot of talent right there. And how you how you get it all in the field is the other thing. Like you can't necessarily get it all in the field because you don't want to play that many guys out of position. No. Like Ramos can play fullback. He could play 10. Right. Intimac can play center if he needs to. But, you know, so if you can get three of them on the field, that's probably your max. You don't want to try and stick another one at 13.
00:24:13
Speaker
right? No, not really. Because because you want you do want like a runner, someone dedicated to the gas down and not that not that any of them can't. Because they all we've seen some of them do it. Jelly bear did. But from different it's not the same when you're when you're at 13 is when you're maybe following a line inside line or something or taking a loop pass pass and absolutely.
00:24:37
Speaker
Right. Different, different kind of runner than a, than a 10 runner. And then, um, last match we're just going to touch on, you know, Ross and got a scare last week, but they turned on the jets this week. Woo. Just an absolute honking of Harlequin's just. Oh, Harlequin's okay. Oh man. They got bent over. That was hard.
00:25:02
Speaker
And, you know, they fronted up for about 10, 15 minutes, and then Rossigny just took over. And it was just, oh, Mascheno was brilliant off the tee. Yeah, and all the guys that you don't want to score for Rossigny, if you're Quinn, scored. Zebo, Tomah, Talfa, Vanu, like, nope, not good, not good. Tomah just, the first try, Tomah scored just, he just decided, I'm scoring.
00:25:29
Speaker
took the ball and just went around the corner himself. And that is the ability he possesses, which is also why he's kind of a headache. Because you see the games where he sucks and you're like, how is he this bad? And why is he still playing? But you see that you're like, I guess I know why he's playing.
00:25:46
Speaker
Because if you get the good one, you get the good one. Yeah, it's worth the price of admission, 100%. So it's, yeah, just absolute talking. Finn Russell just pulling the strings left and right and got his replacement, even got a try. Francois Trinduc. Wow. Yeah. So it was a bad day at the stoop for Quinn's and Rossing are flying high, as we'd expect.
00:26:15
Speaker
I said it to you, but I don't think I've actually said it publicly. I think that there's two teams in this pool. I think they're going to meet in the final is to lose and wrestling, depending on how things shake out. I think it'll be a, it'll be those two, certainly one of them is making it to the final, but I think it'd be both of them.
00:26:30
Speaker
Rossing will finally come good and Toulouse are just coming to that peak. You saw it the first year, a couple of years ago, where they were back. This is like, this is the Toulouse team that we loved.
00:26:45
Speaker
And then last year we saw another excellent to lose team and they were just that bit better. And then this year, I think you're just going to see, I mean, we've already seen Colby just light up the world. It's super disappointing that we didn't get to see them this weekend again. Yeah, exactly. Like is that, that match would have been just something else. I mean, hopefully we get it on the back end here. This will be the,
00:27:11
Speaker
Unfortunately, this is Toulouse having to go to Sandy Park, and they've been there once or twice already, so not their favorite place at this point, but that's how it is. All right, so let's get into Lester and O'Champton.
00:27:28
Speaker
It sounded like it was going to be an absolute shit show, but Northampton's youngsters didn't do too bad. For the guys that were playing out of position and guys that do not have a lot of experience in this competition, a few guys put their hand up, so I'll give them that. But this wasn't an amazing game.
00:27:49
Speaker
No, not so much. I mean, it was really the, so in the, uh, in American football, there's a new thing that the coaches are doing in recent years where they're trying to make it so that they get the last possession at the end of the first half and the first possession at the beginning of the second. So they can score on the back end of the first half and the front end of the second half. And really two scores in minutes of game player are huge. Um,
00:28:15
Speaker
And Lancer did that. Dave Carney had that dive over with it off the chip, and then James Gibson Park off the scrum to open the second half. That was it. That was either a 12 to 14-point swing. I can't remember if they converted it. But that's huge within a couple of minutes of gameplay. And I think that really is what killed it
00:28:42
Speaker
Northampton. I think they thought they had a shot and then that was really the dagger that was like, we're just not going to beat this team. No. Yeah. It was kind of like, Oh, shit. Yeah. Like, Oh, well, we gave it our best shot, but not today. And then you just have to wait for the knife to twist their next 30 minutes of gameplay. Yeah. Unfortunately, um, you know, talk about
00:29:07
Speaker
teams that have some youth and have some death at 10, you know, once they don't have Johnny section, they don't. And right now they don't need them.
00:29:15
Speaker
They really don't. You know, he can take his time coming back. They were on their third fly half, I guess, because what? They're there. Well, it was going to be Harry Byrne, who is Ross Burns younger brother. And that is that would have been their third choice. But he dropped late. And so Ross Byrne got the start. So he's been the one that's starting out long. And he's even got a couple of island caps to go along with it. So yeah. Yeah. So he's good to go. Not so bad.
00:29:41
Speaker
So it's a, it was a, in the end, it was a bit of a cakewalk for Lancer, but the, but I just wanted to give Northampton a little bit of props because they had some guys that could have just laid down and they did not. And Tom's games got himself over the line. And yeah. And that's stupid, stupid scrubbing call on their own five meter line. Why? Why Waller? Why? What are you doing? Clear it.
00:30:04
Speaker
Just get the ball away from your line. I'm calling your brother and making sure he thumps you next time he sees you. I'm like, what is wrong with you? Make sure Ethan, make sure you give Alex a good whack when you see him at Christmas. OK, OK. This is why you don't make props, Captain. They want to scrum. Sometimes it's not a great idea. Not so bad. Prop. Oh, man, terrible idea. And then King King's home.
00:30:32
Speaker
What entertainment? This is the stuff we've been waiting for for from Gloucester, really, but just from King's Home itself. Like, we just haven't had this type of match yet. And that was great. No, I just didn't know it was the five recall. This was one of the ones with the crowd, right? Yes. So fairly loud. They were and they were in full voice. They were just a fun, fun experience to have the crowd back in some of these and just a better ending to like, how could you?
00:31:02
Speaker
Uh, Gloucester, like you said, they've been struggling, they've been fighting, um, trying to get something positive. Um, and here they, they go and they, you know, come back and, and win here. Um, again, every opportunity to, to kind of lay down to an Ulster team that's quite quality. Very.
00:31:25
Speaker
Very well. And then boom, Gloucester come back and take care of business. Yeah. And it was, you know, it was the John Cooney show for a little while. It really was. And I mean, the guy's pretty good. If you haven't noticed Andy Farrell, if you haven't noticed John Cooney, that guy, that guy's really good. And so I would, I would pick him come February. Just, just, just a thought. Yeah. I, I like, I like Murray, um, but Cooney can do more right now.
00:31:55
Speaker
Like Cooney is a threat every time he touches the ball. And he can box kick too. Maybe he's not as deadly as Murray is with that, but. Yeah, Murray can put it on a sixpence, that's for sure. He's quite good at that. I think the one thing that needs to be talked about, and you and I have noted it,
00:32:19
Speaker
the very poor job of also capitalizing on or lost or capitalizing on that double, a double yellow.
00:32:29
Speaker
How did, how did they not get more? Like it was poorly matched. It was poorly matched. So how they got, they, you know, also were lucky to not concede and be behind even before they ended up losing, you know? And then George Barton, stand up. You're, you've now been written into Gloucester folklore, sir. Not bad kid. Yeah.
00:32:55
Speaker
We had to knock that out early, and now everything else is either, it's either, oh yeah, he's really good. Remember when he did this? And that'll just be part of it, or it'll be, oh yeah, we'll always wonder what might've been, because he did this. Yeah, I remember that. The two centers for Gloucester definitely kind of took over this game between Atkinson and Harris. 12 Trees is great.
00:33:23
Speaker
this is this is still an excellent center partnership and that most people would kill for. You know, Atkinson and Harris both have an ability to get loose and either offload or makes just make something happen. And I think most people would kill for that in the middle. And it's just it continues to amaze me how Chris Harris can do these some of these things at Gloucester. And it's not just
00:33:47
Speaker
It's not just that he's at a lower level here, because he's playing basically the same people he's playing when he's playing with Scott. Quite a bit, yeah. So, you know, the difference is that he's just being used appropriately here, you know, that Goster use him to run at gaps and find them for him. He just makes people miss too. That's just like, that's a special ability that he has. That's not a,
00:34:13
Speaker
That's not a nothing thing. And you and I both noted the last time that we both watched a Scotland match, like he was without a doubt the best player on the field. And that's just how, that's who he is. And he's a little underrated because he's not, you know, he doesn't play, he doesn't do enough flash. And that's really unfortunate because, you know, he does everything that he's supposed to do right plus more.
00:34:36
Speaker
Well, it's not he's never asked to do it, right? They don't they don't run, you know, to pass like multi passes through the centers at Scotland. That's just not what they do. No. So so he never gets the opportunity to run in space there. So, yeah, they're not going to appreciate what he did, everything that he can do if you don't watch him. But, you know, on a club that actually knows how to use him. Yeah, quite, quite good. The boy is
00:35:03
Speaker
So yeah, the cherry and whites get over and then it was, it was elation at King's home and can't say I was sad for it. It was pretty cool. It was fun. It was for a match to watch just the same. All right. And then we got ourselves some Claremont action. And this is, this is the French team. This is what the French team's concerns are always. They find a way to bottle a match. They should win.
00:35:30
Speaker
I'm so mad at this match. I know you are. You were extremely grumpy at this one. I mean, fuck. They were kicking penalty kicks in the second half, if I'm not mistaken. They were. Quite a bit of them at that. And they still won against tries. It was a try match versus a penalty kick. And the penalty kicks win after, you know, because, well,
00:35:57
Speaker
Claremont just stopped scoring in half. They said, okay, we're good. It was 28 to 30 years old. 25th minute. They had 28 points. Claremont did. It's ridiculous. And then they didn't score for the remaining 53 minutes of the match. Apart from a pun, yeah.
00:36:18
Speaker
That, yeah, just absolute bonkers. And, you know, those first 25 odd minutes, they definitely looked like they were the better side. Oh, absolutely. I mean, Slimani just folded. Was it was truly up? And I believe David Flatman said, introduced him to his. I was like, yeah, that is uncomfortable. I think it's uncomfortable. Some uncomfortable places is a prop. And I've been playing something like that, but never that was bad.
00:36:48
Speaker
That was bad. I mean, Salmani's very good, obviously, but I was just like, that looks extremely uncomfortable. No, thank you. A heavy no thank you on that. Yeah. As a prop, you laugh at those because it's not you. Yeah, you're like, thank Christ, that's not me.
00:37:08
Speaker
I'm only laughing because I'm so thankful. It's not me. Yeah. Watching him just get eaten. I was just like, dude, you just got put in a box like that was bad. Oh, man. Yeah. So you I mean, you know, that was the stage at which Claremont were dominating as well. So within and to which to lose credit, he responded and played ended up playing an excellent match. You know, then if there's a talisman on Munster, it's got to be CJ Standard. No.
00:37:40
Speaker
He's okay. Yeah, and he stood up. He stood up when the team needed him the most. Yeah. So it's really hard to say otherwise. And this is, and Hannerhand's a stand-in right now. We all know this. They would prefer to have carburet carburies, having a number of issues right now that, you know, that's an injury problem and it happens sometimes.
00:38:05
Speaker
Um, so it's, it's been very good for, for Henry to at least, you know, study the ship as it were. And he's done a really, he's done a really good job and it's just, it has to be noted what a letdown it was for Clamont. It really was.
00:38:23
Speaker
And just started being super ill disciplined. Yeah. Matsushima didn't barely played. He disappeared. Yeah. He disappeared. I don't understand how that can happen. I don't either. Like what are you guys doing?
00:38:38
Speaker
So it was really, yeah, it's just really disappointing from, from Claremont. You know, this is the, they'll, they'll rue this, they'll rue the show. Now they're going to go, now they got to go to Toman, which is not a cakewalk. And I think they just thought that they had the game one and they went to sleep on themselves because we're ahead of the scoreboard or we're ahead of the time.
00:39:00
Speaker
So we're good. We'll just we'll just score. Don't worry about it. No, they lost the urgency. And that's that's what killed them. Absolutely. And then the last match that we can then never see die. Connick just gave it to their all. But Bristol has so much quality. Again, another club that they went against with bags of quality. And, you know, you can't say otherwise, honestly.
00:39:27
Speaker
But I mean, good on contact for never quitting, but this was, you were waiting for Bristol to take over this match. You really were. Yeah. And right. Cause they, they have the opportunities, um, starting early. They, they, they just weren't finishing. Um, but you know, when you're, when you're watching a team like Bristol, that's what you're watching for. If they get the, the little line breaks in the first half.
00:39:52
Speaker
that's going to become the Piers O'Connor just trucking, you know, what, 50, 60 meters through the defense untouched in the second half. And then of course, Owen Lloyd, because we're selling Lloyd scores because that's what he does. That's what he does. Like, oh, Owen Lloyd, Owen Lloyd, Owen Lloyd. Yeah. Just put it down for a minute and get over under. Done. Yeah. Let's see. When did he come on?
00:40:21
Speaker
He was on. He started. Oh, he started. Okay. So yeah, he came on cause Layua went to the bench cause he was, that's right. Picked up a slight problem in the warmup and they were hoping that he'd be okay.
00:40:30
Speaker
later on in the match, and he did end up coming on, but not for very long. So, Nolago, unfortunately, didn't really do a whole lot. No. I think he's still finding his feet. So... Yeah, he's still trying to... Right, especially an attack. Defense from League is a fairly easy transition. It's the... where it's certainly easier than an attack.
00:40:57
Speaker
where you're expected to keep moving over several phases rather than just one attack per series. Right, just a little bit different. So it was Bristol were good value for the win, for sure. No question about that. It's gonna be very interesting to see where they go from here. They're on track and it really puts the pool stages
00:41:24
Speaker
at a very interesting spot. Because we talked about who's, you know, who could go through and who hasn't. Right now in pool B, if you have less than, if you, if you're ulcer or anybody lower, you're probably screwed. Yeah, at this point. And really exit her and gloss her up against it. They are. You know, Munster with, here's the thing that saves him. Munster didn't get a bonus point on either win.
00:41:52
Speaker
So that fourth spot is right for the taking. If one of those four, one of these other four teams, Claremont, Bristol, Exeter, Gloucester can take it by the scruff of the neck.
00:42:03
Speaker
but they're going to have to put in good performances, both matches, and probably get those points. It's going to be interesting because Bristol, um, they barely lost their first match, right? It was, it was not a barely lost, but, um, they played quite well against Claremont. So we'll see. Oh, that's right. Yeah. They just kind of got, they got kind of overpowered. That's right. Yeah. They got, it was a track race and 13 point win, but still. Yeah. Um,
00:42:29
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, there's still potential for Bristol to get, you know, two wins out of this. And I guess that would be a bonus point when they're winning both these next matches. So it's not just that Chiefs have to worry about, you know, all of the teams and they have to worry about any of them, right? So they have to worry about six teams, not just like two or three.
00:42:50
Speaker
Right. So I think Claremont fall off this, because I don't think they can beat Munster in Atoman. That's a tough task. Nobody beat Munster at Atoman, even in that tough pool that the Saracens were in last year.
00:43:07
Speaker
You know, there was a draw from wrestling, which was the most point somebody is going to get out of that team ever. And so I don't, I think, I think I'm going to kind of out of this now, which is really disappointing. You know, so they'll fall, they'll fall off and get max of 11, but I don't think 11 is getting it over the line. So, um,
00:43:27
Speaker
Well, Conak play Bristol and then Austin. They're out. They're fucking out. Oh, yeah. Conak are out. So that's nothing. That's nothing. Bristol play. You know, so here's the upside. If Claremont get.
00:43:44
Speaker
almost nothing or nothing from that match at Tomin. They might name a really a side against Bristol for the return at Michelle Michelin and that gives Bristol hope. Right. And they could, so you could see, I could see them getting 10. So that puts, that puts anybody that can't get 16 out. I mean, also wouldn't you rather have Bristol in the next round than Exeter?
00:44:15
Speaker
Like start thinking about that, that yeah, strategically. So if, yeah, yeah, if you're, yeah, if you're anybody else, you're like, please, Bristol, when both, when you would cause points and you can, you know, you can shunt Exeter at the very least, you know, cause Exeter are, are stuck on a max of 15. Right.
00:44:37
Speaker
So that'll be very interesting. So I think we can pen, not pen, pencil in, rusting into lose and probably own, probably own as well. Cause I only got to play Glasgow in the return match in France. So good luck. So next. So there's that. And then pool A's definitely a bit of a crapshoot as well. There's one, two, there's three, three on nine. There's five undefeated teams.
00:45:07
Speaker
Yeah. So, uh, it'll be interesting. We'll see how this goes. You know, so to long are definitely not out of it yet. And burn definitely not out of it yet. Anybody below that, forget it. They're done. Yes. Yeah. Oh, well that's ones and zeros. They're ones and zeros. You're a binary at that point. You are out. Um, not in, you're out. I'm not sure. I think Edinburgh can maybe get a bonus point.
00:45:33
Speaker
in at Murrayfield against sale next month. We'll see. Sales defense is still a pain in the ass to get there. So, right. Um, and maybe sale will have gotten a little bit, you know, their, their legs under them. First off, they might have Dan do pre-back. Um, they might have, yeah, it's just having some players back would help. And then, um, getting, getting some time under their coach more than like what, three days before the first match. Not much for the first one here. Right.
00:46:03
Speaker
So we'll see. I'm I would be willing to bet the farm that too long are going to come hard and heavy with this match against Scarlett's on the back end here. So I would put, you know, if they can get that done, then OK, they were shot at getting the knockout and Scarlett's are out. But if.
00:46:23
Speaker
If this, if that, if that doesn't happen, then yeah, too long. Unfortunately, they're, they returned to the top tier Europe. It's going to be a short-lived one. Unfortunately. Um, I think we can pencil Lancer and wasps in, uh, once or have North Hampton on the back end, and then they are playing. Um, why am I spacing on this?
00:46:46
Speaker
Montpellier. Yeah. So put them down for 19 at minimum. Right. So they're over and was really like, they're also playing Montpellier and dragons. Yeah. And it's still the same. Well, maybe at that point, dragons will have some of their players back might be a little bit different. It'll be at the Rico though, which is also a little bit different. So we'll see. Yeah. And Bordeaux, you know,
00:47:13
Speaker
In France against Northampton, I don't see them getting at least getting less than five. Right. You know, not the not not the freaking thumping they just put on Dragon. So, yeah, it really comes down to what. So here's the here's the best match of this pool that could potentially happen is La Rochelle and Edinburgh in the last match pool match. It'll be in France. Oh, nice. We'll see how this goes and what that looks like.
00:47:40
Speaker
If Edinburgh, you know, can get five against sale at Murrayfield and La Rochelle do the business against Bath at the Rec. Okay. We might have ourselves a hell of a finish here.
00:47:52
Speaker
And here's something interesting right now. The difference between four and five is literally one point. The point differential is the lower shelf are 33 points and scarlets are 32. 32. That's it. So I'm guessing that's bonus that that these that that point differential is going to be what decides. Yeah. So they're going to go for every point they can possibly get in these match.
00:48:17
Speaker
It's going to be fun. So yeah, should be made for very fun things. Maybe that's what we watch with episode 100. Oh, maybe that'd be good. So it'd be very interesting. Let's do the champion recap. Oh boy.
Fantasy Rugby Chaos
00:48:34
Speaker
Oh boy.
00:48:35
Speaker
I mean, the chaos of all the buys certainly sent people into a bit of a tizzy. Poor Mark, poor, poor Mark. Yeah, he played a woman and got had to eat that red card.
00:48:55
Speaker
Um, had Harry burn in his lineup and he got dropped and then London, which is the one that got the yellow card as well, I believe. Oh man. Just wasn't happening. And unfortunately I know the pain of having FAF to Clark as, as your Scrum app. Yeah, it's not good. It's not good. And he had the ulcer front row that eight, at least one yellow card. So that's not great either. Um, Ooh, just, just a rough day. You know, only one player on his lineup with above, uh, two actually, um,
00:49:25
Speaker
Rocca and Boros, 16 odd a piece. But it was not going to be enough to get over the line in this one. But the school lines look like... George picks up his first win in an FRD play. Finally, over Karak, 142 in 2009. Anton smashed. Poor Mark. Sorry, Mark. 130 to 135. Yee.
00:49:53
Speaker
Duncan got me 131 to 115 and Ben was able to take care of Justin, who's definitely going to be a threat going forward. So that's only helpful for everybody in the league, 147 to 114. Good number put up by Justin.
00:50:09
Speaker
you went up against the top score of the week unfortunately. Bad luck on that end. Absolutely. Wasn't a bad bet considering he had to kind of rejig and rejig and rejig. A lot of people, yeah. As the rest of us did obviously. Yeah, I was pretty fortunate that I didn't have to do too much. Some of the changes I made, like I picked up Odogwu because I
00:50:35
Speaker
That looked like a good matchup. I guess I was right. Yeah. And then, yeah, just like having ring rose in my lineup before, you know, I didn't have him last week. He was back. It just worked out well. I mean, I had to pick up James and Gibson park. Yeah. And I had to, to, to basically like, I had to rejigger my, my whole forwards, um, new loose, loose season of new front row, which,
00:51:02
Speaker
ended up doing very little for me. Connor Oliver got 11, which is actually pretty good. That's pretty good. Oh, no, they didn't that's that's just his total score. Just nevermind. No, they think they all added up to about 11 points total three of them the loose forwards and I didn't I don't start a lock.
00:51:21
Speaker
No, I didn't start one either. I decided that that was a position I was willing to throw. It helps so much with depth. It's not that you're, you know, you might be missing out on a couple points here and there per week, but you'll make it up on the back end. Unless you have a solid one that you can absolutely 100% lean on. Exactly. Right now, there was only a couple, so I wasn't really willing to throw my, you know, to sacrifice an OB for a lock. Exactly. Like, I'm not going to cut James Lowe yet. I'm going to hold on to him.
00:51:48
Speaker
for now yeah might come in handy in a little while here right um yeah i had i have i have shoes in all and i am so ready to ditch him he's not done well despite the team he plays for just
00:52:01
Speaker
doing almost nothing, very, very invisible on the field for, for them, even in games, they're scoring a shitload of points. So that's, that's not going to happen for me. Um, but we do return to the prem this week for a champion league. Um, so TRM, Anton is leading the way. Justin's holding up the rest of the crew after his unfortunate illegal lineup.
00:52:24
Speaker
Oops, about that. I'm sitting in the middle of the table, Ben's right behind Justin, not too far. Although the difference between first and second is, first and fifth is about about 40?
00:52:41
Speaker
which isn't a lot. Yeah. Depending on depending on how things shake out. Yeah. So it can be, you know, we're only three weeks and we got lots of time to make up here. Yeah. None of these. It's just helpful to have these points now. Yeah. Get your points now because you don't want to know what happens later. Yeah. It's there's there's been a couple of seasons where I've been like, man, if it wasn't for that, if I got 500 points instead of like 380, this one, we that were there right there for me.
00:53:09
Speaker
Yeah, that's the difference in the end. Absolutely. And then matchups in the return to, um, prem FRD, uh, it's going to be Carrick and Justin. Uh, I get to get to take my shot at Mark. Although I got a couple of buys I got to deal with now. That sucks. Um,
00:53:28
Speaker
It's going to be Ben and Anton, and then it'll be George and Duncan. See if George can get off the Schneider in premiership now as well. Cause he's still sitting on a duck if I remember right. So, all right. Um, well, it's going to be. Yes. Confirmed George's own three. Sorry, George. Okay. Um,
00:53:57
Speaker
It's start or sip time and Ben had a little bit of work taking off his plate.
00:54:03
Speaker
I did it anyway, damn it. Yeah, I know. Sorry, buddy. I wish I could tell you that it was worth it, but it wasn't. But which means I will actually leave this off. Harley Quinn's and Bristol at the stoop. At least Quinn's don't have to go too far. Quinn's are middling to tough in fantasy, especially more so in FRD. Mostly soft in the pack, though. So for Bristol, the guys that I'm clamping my eyeballs are Ben Earl. He's back.
00:54:33
Speaker
Get them back in your lineup. Go, go, go, go. Now, now, now. TRM and FRD, absolutely. We talked about them before, and I want to talk about it again. Bubbles! Mr. Byrne. Get him in there. Get him in your TRM lineup. He's definitely worth it, and he's not super expensive either. And this might be a week to give Nathan Hughes a whirl. Yeah, thanks.
00:54:58
Speaker
He's been a little bit paperweighty-ish. He has been. Again, Quinn's are a little soft in the pack, so this might be the time to roll it out there. The rest of the Bristol front row, I don't trust right now, apart from Sinclair, but I believe Sinclair's hurt, so that's not really helpful. And other than that, meh.
00:55:18
Speaker
Andy yearn took a bang, uh, in, in, uh, warmups last week. So I don't like that at all. And so even if he's in, I would. Yeah. Nope. Nope. He's not playing the full 40 by any or full 80 by any means whatsoever. So that, that scares me off of him right away. And probably means he's also not going full tilt, which is less than ideal. So, uh, bank on Harry Randall being the starter. And if he's not, then he's coming in a lot quicker than you're probably going to like if you have, if you have urine.
00:55:44
Speaker
And then Alpate Lue has not done a lot for me TRM wise. He's probably okay. He starts FRD and FRD because he's still not a terrible option. He's a no V. So it is what it is. But that's, yeah, you could do worse. Yeah. Yeah. You could do worse though. Yes. You could be that possibly that Henry Purdy role.
00:56:05
Speaker
Let's see how that goes. As far as Bristol go, they are top four in both formats. So managers, beware. Flankers in back row do well against them in TRM. Tens do well against them in FRD. Oh, what a coincidence. Don't we have a couple of those guys in this matchup? A little bit. Marcus Smith, absolute go. He's been disappointing in Jamie's Cup FRD.
00:56:28
Speaker
Give him give him a whirl. Glenn Young is kind of the is Stefan Levis now, more or less. Yeah, pretty much. So if you have him, yep, that's a that's a go. But he's probably he's probably only 180 or so. And in TRM, so that's probably not a terrible signing if you need a second row eligible player. Scott Baldwin just came to keep taking along in TRM. He's he's usually one of the higher scores. He's getting like
00:56:54
Speaker
30-ish a match or so. That's definitely worth starting. He's 220 odd for your budget. So could be worse. Could be worse. The aforementioned Danny Care. He's a little scary in TRM, but FRD he might be worth, you probably drafted him as your starter. So yeah, go, give it a go.
00:57:16
Speaker
Joe Marshall didn't do too well this past weekend in midfield. It makes me a little terrifying considering he's got CIP a tower sitting across from them along with Piers or Connor who are both probably gonna plug that leak as it were. TRM, he should do fine. He usually does. But FRD, if you can find another starter in the midfield, stay away. And for whatever reason, James Chisholm is fairly highly owned and I have no idea why. I mean, like 5% are up, which is what the standard I was looking at.
00:57:45
Speaker
Yeah, just a whole lot of out of him usually. So I would just pass on that. So are we on to finally on to me yet? Yeah, you finally get to talk. Alright, so we are looking at which one? Sorry, get lost bath versus London Irish for bath.
00:58:08
Speaker
you know, their front row is going to lay up some points because then there's a lot of points on offer from the London Irish. So go with their front row, any, you know, in FRD and in TRM, yeah, pick up, you know,
00:58:23
Speaker
The Obana, all of them, even if it's Walker, they're going to put up points. So don't be afraid to start it if you got them. As well, Sam Underhill has shown something else in the Champions Cup. And I don't see that there's any reason that they won't use him in the same fashion now. And same for Zach Mercer. Those are guys that I think they kind of have to be on the field. And if they're on the field, they should be on your team. I love that dude.
00:58:50
Speaker
As far as sits, Ben Spencer has not been producing too many points. No, it's been disappointing. He's not been running so much. So he's just not producing the way you'd want it to. So I would start looking at other options.
00:59:09
Speaker
FRD kind of have to maybe get stuck with it, maybe keep them on your bench, but find a different scrum half if you can. We'll get you some more points. And then all your outside backs that are not named for a McConaughey, just leave them alone. Fair enough. Leave them alone. And then also whoever's at six isn't scoring too often. So once again, for Beth, leave them.
00:59:33
Speaker
On the other side, the Irish front row, Bather are solid defending front rows, but I think the Irish are pretty much matchup proof as it relates to scoring points from their front row. Who knew? They have runners, so use them.
00:59:50
Speaker
And the outside backs, Beth are 11 in both format. Oh, and nine. Sorry, Beth are 11 in both formats versus nine. So whoever is whoever started nine for Irish, give them a go. Yay, Nick Phipps. And as far as sits, whoever's at 10, 12 and six for the Irish, just sit them down. Don't bother. Probably Meeks and PJ at that point. Yeah. Yes.
01:00:19
Speaker
Right, Exeter and Gloucester, rough one to come off of for Gloucester. They're on such a high and they got to go to Sandy Park. Cherry and whites are a middle of the pack, fancy matchup, especially weak against back row and back three in TRM. Front row fly half and outside backs in FRD. There's some pretty good names. Scotland captain Stewart Hogg is back. If he's not in your lineup, especially in FRD, you're drunk, go home.
01:00:49
Speaker
Um, for Kondo Cordero, if he's in there as well, hopefully I'd really like to see Cordero or Flaherty and him all in the same lineup. That would be amazing. And that would be a back three. I would pay a lot of money to watch. I think Rob Baxter would get off on torturing us by not giving us that. He probably will. It's probably true. He would love to do that himself, but he knows how much. How can I fuck with people today? I know. I'm going to name Ian Whitten on the wing.
01:01:16
Speaker
That's it. That's exactly what he's going to do. You watch. But if Cordero's in, you're still playing him. So go ahead. And then Exeter front row has almost become matchup-proof. Like, they are just, again, this is a team on a tear lookout. So, yeah, whether it's Cow and Dickey or Yandel in there or Hepburn or the absolute batshit crazy, Harry Williams. Yeah, go ahead and do that.
01:01:39
Speaker
And for the wrong side of the coin here, stop playing Jack Monder. He's not good at fantasy. He's a fine player. He's not a good fantasy option. He gets like minus points at scrum half without screwing up that much. Like that's how little he does. Like just no, no more, no more, bad. Okay, I promise you. The Internationals are back. So it's time to ditch Don Armon.
01:02:07
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. He was great while they were in there. But the Johnny's are back. Yeah. Great. Gray's back. Hill's back. Skinner's back.
01:02:18
Speaker
Yeah. And Vermeul is eventually going to become, come healthy a little bit here. So, um, yeah, just, uh, say bye-bye to Don, Don Harmon. Thanks for playing, Don. We like you and all, but nope, you're done. And then, um, he goes, what happened? He goes in the Kovacic hole. Yeah, he does. Poor guy. Um, straightforward. You don't get to play.
01:02:39
Speaker
Janus Kirsten, just been super meh in TRM. Not a terrible price, but just super meh. He's a lock in FRD, so I'm rolling him out there anyway. Still being meh. He's still being meh. But you know what? It's meh all the time for locks. So you play him on the off chance that he's going to go boom as a loose forward. He might be a loose forward, but they're not using him as a runner.
01:03:05
Speaker
And that's really where the points he'll score. Like, if he's not scoring a try, he's not scoring anything. Yeah. So that's the problem. You want to get guys who actually run with ball in hand, like, you know, as we talked about Glenn Young, you know, just because they're a flanker. Look, in the Nick Aziqua, you'd think that as a flanker, he'd get more points, but
01:03:27
Speaker
He doesn't really. Yeah, I don't mind. I don't mind him so much though. I'm not in this situation, at least we're in locks. Locks are just, you know. Yeah. Any lock with a pulse is usually worth a damn. Right. On the other side of the bit, um, the double champs are the toughest outfit in fantasy land in both formats. E. They are bottom floor for, uh, in fly half, um, in TR and non top four and centers in TRM.
01:03:55
Speaker
FRD fly half front row and loose forwards. They're not quite as intimidating. They're not top four. They're not bottom four, but they're not top four either. So at least it kind of gives you a glimmer of hope to find some light. Lloyd Evans is playing really well. I'd play him. I'm okay with it. He's attacking the line. He's doing all the things you want as a good 10 in, especially in FRD.
01:04:21
Speaker
Uh, Chris Harris, he's back and he's beating defenders. Even if he doesn't do much else, he'll beat some defenders and get you some points that way. Um, carrying the ball quite well. He wants the ball. That's the other thing. He wants the ball. He's like, give me the ball. I'm carrying this thing forward. Somehow. I don't know how, but I'm going to get forward. Um, Jack Singleton, absolutely worth it. I know, I know he's going against a really tough outfit, but.
01:04:45
Speaker
If he's on your squad, don't be scared to play him. It's fine. Whoever the fuck is playing halfback. Joe Simpson's hard, I think, right now. Exeter have a minus against halfbacks in FRD right now. That's not good. That is the equivalent of sale against the front rows last year. That is not good. So, bench your halfback against Exeter. So, if you're gonna get cute and try and pick up Barney, try again.
01:05:13
Speaker
Ruan Ackerman just doesn't do it for me right now. No. Big old beggar. Nope. And he's not doing it lately. Olly Thorley.
01:05:23
Speaker
He's not. It's really disappointing. And I love the kid and we know, and we know how much we love all the thoroughly. So FRD, you probably are great to play in because this is somebody that you probably burned a high pick on. Um, and he could go, go for a run, but he's just, yeah, you probably have some better options in TRM. So I would, uh, it's clear for this matchup, especially onto North Hampton versus Worcester. Um,
01:05:51
Speaker
Loads of points on offer here. Lewis Ludlam is producing right now for Northampton. So he's on form. So in TRM, you should be on your team. And FRD, if you can get him, get him. The midfield of Hutchinson and Proctor, I'm assuming, is what it will be. Should produce some points too. And bigger at fly half now that he's back. For Sitz,
01:06:18
Speaker
Big names, Furbank, Courtney Laws, not fantasy producers. No. Courtney Laws is a paperweight, so don't know. That's a heavy paperweight. It is, so leave them alone. And then whoever's at eight, Aidendorf, maybe there. Oh, boy. Those are the two that I've been playing there the most. Right. We don't want them to be pretty. And then on the other side, Worcester.
01:06:45
Speaker
Basically, Northampton are giving up fantasy points, no matter the competition, no matter the opponent. Sip, sip, sip, sip. So basically start Wooster's entire back line. Northampton are last against nines and tens in both formats in the prem. So HooGarden and Weir are
01:07:08
Speaker
Tasty matchups green light. Yeah, and again that that whoever's at center was looking through it was like venter. Yeah Lawrence if he's around yo, yeah Then looking out at even at the wings And tom how who's been producing points he's been pretty good It's all an offer for them. So And then even in the in the forwards no attempt in their bed against flankers. So
01:07:34
Speaker
Yeah, basically anybody else, Mac of Essek players start them. There's no, no, this might be okay. Yeah. If you got them, play them because they're, they, they could go off.
01:07:47
Speaker
All right. And then the only, the only non-boxing day match, um, the sale, sale and loss. Um, yeah. Wasps are actually one of the softest fantasy defenses in both formats, believe it or not. They're dead last against hookers and locks and FRD or whatever the hell that's worth, but still they're, they're, they're finding ways to surrender points. And that's how that goes. Um, JLDP should be a green light, especially in FRD. Again, we talked about locks and the guys playing eight. So yes, the word is yes.
01:08:18
Speaker
AJ should be back in the lineup. So give him a big old thumbs up. He's done quite well since he's emerged as the better 10 of the two. I think it's hard to argue otherwise. COVID's visa has been pretty good as well. So should be all right to go ahead and give him a start. They're definitely looking for that back five to fill in back there. So I think visas are just fine. On the other side,
01:08:46
Speaker
The mini Tyrion, Tyrion Lancer, Jamie Lancer combination, Dr. Clark, just no, just nope and nope and nope. Like he's not been good in either format. Midas points a couple of times. Just stay away. Stay very away. Just not getting it done. Luke James, the fullback. No, definitely in TRM.
01:09:09
Speaker
Okay, an FRD. God, if you're stuck with that, my apologies to you. What's up with that? Guy's a dick, but he might be a decent, fancy asset in your TRM lineup. Jono Ross is probably okay in TRM, but I would not play him an FRD because yellow cards, they take a toll, but it takes such a heavy toll on FRD. And unfortunately, he's just a yellow card waiting to happen right now. And that's just how it is.
01:09:37
Speaker
Happens when you're a dick. Sale are still an absolute pain in the ass to go against fancy wise secondable formats. Their points against FRD front rows is finally in the positive.
01:09:51
Speaker
It's sat in the negatives for a good chunk of last year. But yeah, still pretty scary. Tend to be softer up the middle in both formats and flanker in TRM. So Jimmy Goparth, keep at it. I know he's been a little frustrating for owners and hasn't quite come good. He will. The guys are professional, he's good. He's gonna come good, I promise. Either Willis is a go.
01:10:17
Speaker
I'm all right with that Jack, Jack, especially, but Tom's probably going to be all right too. Um, especially if sailor surrendering points to lose forwards and back rows. Um, the wasp front row was fine this week, believe it or not. Um,
01:10:31
Speaker
especially if Barbary is playing in the back row, especially if he's playing. So this is one of those, this is again, one of those match ups that, you know, on paper, it looks scary because of how good sale usually are against front rows, but they don't go against the front row like this where they have Barbary and potentially augrave injuries are bad enough in the back row. So give it a give it a whirl.
01:10:55
Speaker
Uh, another guy that's been really disappointed is here, Jacob Umaga. And I know he's picked up a knock, so he might not play. Um, or he's going to play sparingly just, but just now not quite getting it done for me yet. Uh, need to see it at this point. And I love the kid, but no, um, Odago at 13 is the place I would say, yes, an FRD, but I don't know what he's going to do in TRM right now. He might be good. He might not be, especially against the sale outfit. So we'll see. Yeah.
01:11:24
Speaker
And then because it's pretty cheap, right? So you don't want it to be a light paperweight that you just can't get rid of. It's like, I don't really want to get rid of them because it doesn't really give you a whole lot back. You know, you do get to transfer so that can at least add up a little bit, but still.
01:11:40
Speaker
So yeah, he's probably worth the go in FRD for sure, though. He's done quite well with that. And because tackles count so much, and there's going to be a lot of tackling done in this, Thomas Young's an okay play in TRM, but man, he's been disappointing in FRD. Yeah. Anybody that's had him is looking at fours and fives, which is really not what you want from your loose drawers. You want like eight, nine plus, you know, in that. And that's been really, really frustrating. So I would play him only in TRM if you have him.
01:12:11
Speaker
You want to start with start of the week? Start of the week. So, uh, this was from one of my matches because the opponent is so just porous in defense. Um, it's going to go to a Worcester player. And because, you know, looking at the two of them, um, who guard is, is the, the.
01:12:32
Speaker
It's not just the hair that makes him more aerodynamic and a better runner. There's other things involved too. So that's why I'm going to have him as my start of the week, because I think he's going to be better in both formats than we're will be. Yeah, probably that he's probably a little faster than Duncan. For my start of the week, ironically, it's on the same team. A big fan of this guy, he's been playing, he's playing the softest fantasy defense and he's going to be
01:13:01
Speaker
a big boost for his club. He'll be ged up after his first stint in an England shirt. My start of the week for round four in the prime is the big Worcester Center, Ollie Lawrence. Also a good choice. Going the other way, sits of the week. I'm going from
01:13:22
Speaker
a match where, yeah, it's 20 years where the defense is just so solid and the guy himself has not really been producing fantasy wise. So I'm going to go with Zach Kiberige because he's got, again, he hasn't been producing well and he's going up against sale.
Fantasy Sports Recap and Boxing Day Preview
01:13:40
Speaker
Leave him alone this week. Tough one. Tough one to do.
01:13:42
Speaker
Same position for me. Another one not been as good and as much as we wish he was, fancy just not been great. His fellow youthful back three club has not helped him out at all really, all having slow starts. Maybe the hex I put on here turns him good. I don't know.
01:14:02
Speaker
Uh, he's playing the best fantasy defense out there as well. Not helpful. Uh, like I said, big fan of this guy, but my set of the week for round four, the prime is Gloucester and Wales flyer, Luis Reese zamat. Rough one. Yeah. For him. He's having a, he's having a tough go.
01:14:19
Speaker
Okay. Um, we got this funny pickup thing where we didn't get any separation last week. Cause the few matches that we picked differently or the one that we picked differently got canceled. Frustrating. Okay. Let's start with the boxing day slate. This'll be fun.
01:14:38
Speaker
I love the boxing day slate. I love watching the boxing day primarily too. So I'm going to have devices all over the place here. Give me, if you have any advice, I'm taking it. It's like in watches sports going on, sporting. Um, yeah. So let's go to the stoop, uh, Quinn's and Bristol of Bristol.
01:15:02
Speaker
Bristol, they're playing better. Yeah. Quinn's need to bounce back and this is not the spot to get it. No. And especially now that Bristol have all their internationals back, GD, Earl, Owen Lloyd, like, yeah, sorry guys. Um, Bath Irish. Uh, I'm going to take the men at the rec from Bath.
01:15:24
Speaker
Yeah, I'm going to go with the home team there. They played a lot better in that match against Scarlett's. Probably should have got the win, but didn't.
01:15:33
Speaker
It's only a question, Mark, if about, you know, if Priestland is, you know, what his status is, if he were if he were fully healthy. Yeah, but I just don't know if he were fully healthy. It would be no question. But I think with him, I don't know, we don't know his status. Yeah. Somebody give us an injury report. It's not crazy to think the Irish could win. No, it isn't. They've played a lot better than they have in years past. So no, there's no it's unthinkable to think that already.
01:16:01
Speaker
Oh, Exeter and Gloucester. Wrong place to go. Wrong team to play Gloucester. Sorry. Pick the guys at Sandy Park, Exeter. Yeah. If this game even happens, I honestly don't know what's going to happen with that. That's up in the air as well. But I'm hearing it's some key players for Exeter. So I'm not sure that they would be fit and healthy to go. So if this match kicks off, I'm going to go with Gloucester. Okay. Fair enough.
01:16:30
Speaker
All right. No tantrum waster at guard the gardens. They've played better. And I think this is where they can finally get the fuck off the Schneider. I'm gonna take the Saints.
01:16:43
Speaker
I'm going to take the Saints too, because they've at least shown again that they can score. The scoring hasn't been the problem. It's the keeping the other guys off the board that's been the problem. And in this case, they have Worcester who will keep themselves off the board. They find a way to screw up all the time. So, yeah, I think the Saints will take it. So even though my start of the week and I'm heavily into starting, I just don't think they're going to take it. Doesn't mean the scoreboard is going to go the right way. Yeah, you're going to run for a lot of meters. Doesn't mean you're going to put up a lot of points.
01:17:13
Speaker
Right, didn't we have a match up a couple weeks in the last championship round when there was a lot of points put up by one team and you know the other team played better? Yeah, it sounds. I think it was Bordeaux against Saints. Actually, now think about it like Bordeaux shouldn't have should not have won that match and they still put up more points than right than than Exeter did or excuse me Northampton did. To the Sunday match to the AJ Bell sale in Wasse.
01:17:40
Speaker
Yeah. Same. I think sale are still trying to find their way through this thing. Um, I mean, they're playing so well right now. They're a good, they're a good team. If sales coaching staff knows what's good for them, they won't start Rob Dupree again. He was not great. He was not great. No, not great at all. All right. Um,
01:18:06
Speaker
Yeah, so there's that. We got some questions for 100 podcasts, so we can at least have something to talk about, which is great.
Engagement and Festival Special Announcement
01:18:16
Speaker
Keep you know, tweet that send it to email, whatever. We'll figure out who's gonna ask him this maybe
01:18:23
Speaker
Maybe my boss will ask, ask him that, or maybe we'll have, uh, our good friend, George, ask him to us or whatever. We'll figure that out, uh, when that comes, but yeah, so that'll be, uh, the weekend of January 23rd ish somewhere around there, assuming things don't go too tits up somewhere. Um, but yeah, um, fancy Ruby podcast at gmail.com. We'll do start sit sheet. This the graphic that's coming Friday.
01:18:51
Speaker
Not that Ben and I are going to have a whole lot else to do because I'm off. I am very much off. Yeah. I know you're on vacation. Very much so. Yeah. Um, so other than that, um, yeah, it, everybody have yourself a safe holiday. If you're celebrating this week, if you were celebrating last week, um, happy holiday to you. Um, we will be back next week with,
01:19:18
Speaker
I think an episode that Ben, I at least enjoy quite a bit. The festival special. Um, um, and I'm, I think everybody else kind of likes it too. It's a different, it's a different spin. Uh, obviously we'll recap the year cause it was bad shit. Crazy. Um, a lot of bones to pick with you people. Yeah. There's some plenty of bones. Um, yeah. So we will, we'll be back next week. Um, and then just, you know, final word.
01:19:46
Speaker
Marcos Fleckman way, way too early. Way too early. So folks, give your give your loved ones a big tight hug and a big kiss because you never know. Never know. Until we catch you guys next week. We'll have a good one. Later. Cheers.