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Season 4- Episode 31- It’s Not the Club, It’s the Rugby (Premiership Round 22 & Super Rugby Round 7)
27 Plays4 years ago
It's the latest and greatest! On this episode we are getting right back into the thick of it, first up we talk Six Nations including a fantastic battle that went down in Cardiff, and how the host pulled it out. Then we hit up the Prem to see how the Semi-Final picture continues to develop and take shape, with a special eye on what could be happening at Northampton. We change hemispheres and get into the silliness that is the 20 minute red card for Super Rugby, oh yeah and the one both of us were keeping an eye on in Wellington. Of course, we wrap up with a recap of the happenings with the might Free Jacks here in New England. It's all this, some laughs, some disappointments, so grab a cold drink and join us!
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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 and Show Kick-off
00:00:08
Speaker
Hey, everybody. Welcome back. It is the fancy rugby. My name is Jared Dyke. I'm Ben Glauser. Let's get into it, buddy. We got a lot to cover and we got a lot coming up too. Yeehaw. Yes. Let's get into it. I'm cracking beers. Let's do that.
Drink Choices and Listener Support
00:00:24
Speaker
I am having a vodka tonic because I'm out of beer and I've had rough, like full day worth of meetings the last three days. So.
00:00:33
Speaker
so it's an extra special day so it's vodka good luck yes i wish myself good luck see you see you then tomorrow it's not a lot of vodka so for me um
00:00:53
Speaker
So, buy our good friend George a coffee. Make sure that you give him a shout because it's likely that you've probably been helped either recently with the women's sex stations or you're going to need his help coming up this weekend with Super Rugby and the Super Brew or not Super Rugby. Champions Cup. Yeah, Rugby and Super Brew. I had half that right.
00:01:16
Speaker
So yeah, grab him a coffee or a beer, however you wish to see it, because he's a busy boy and he's earning it. Earning that coin over there.
Rugby Updates and Social Issues
00:01:26
Speaker
Grab your TRM upgrades, obviously we'll be through these two weeks of the round of 16 and then we'll be digging right back into the prem. And yeah, there's plenty of things going around, you know, still got a couple of injuries that we need to keep our eyes on and stuff like that. Good to know when they come back into the fold.
00:01:44
Speaker
Um, also very helpful when things like what happened on Sunday happened, like Tom Pearson dropping. Yeah. Yeah. You know, one of the last minute checking of your team and oh, shit. Would you look at that? There's a red dot. I need to change that. Um,
00:02:01
Speaker
And then as always Black Lives Matter on this podcast, there is no room for racism. And yeah, I mean, there's some, some pretty awful shit going around these days. And I just, I am just like, so I feel so awful for the fact that I get to sometimes sit back and just go, Oh, I don't need to pay attention to that today.
00:02:24
Speaker
Yeah, but it's not always the case. It's not the case for a lot of people. Right. You know, so at the same time, I feel guilt. It's like, fuck. Right. And if you feel kind of powerless too. So yes, I know. I agree. It sucks. It does suck. But even down to like,
00:02:44
Speaker
Cause obviously it's not just, it's not just blacks. We're looking at, you know, trans. We're looking at, you know, uh, yeah. Yeah. And that's getting right up there. Freaking Boris Johnson with the stupid comment today about biological men competing against women. I'm like, whoa, you might want to roll that back just a bit. And now he's actually kind of a muppet. So it doesn't, I don't think that's going to change a whole lot on that one. No. And it's, it is getting kind of scary here. The, the laws that are being passed at the state level. Agreed.
00:03:14
Speaker
So around those things, and they're calling Disney groomers, and it's getting bad. And it's weird because the people who are doing it are people like Matt Gaetz, who we have actual evidence of him transporting minors across state lines for...
00:03:35
Speaker
I mean, long, long story there, but probably the easy answer is he's white. So. Right. But there's also, you know, these are the people who are who are creating and writing these laws that are the ones who are the ones doing this shit like they're not there, you know, they're they're they're trying to point out, you know, trying to point at some other when it's really them that's that's doing this shit. Yep. Yeah, it's a fucked up world, man.
Podcast Promotion and Tournament Discussion
00:04:05
Speaker
Make sure you grab our Patreon. We will still kick on with the super rugby, obviously, as we go through this Champions Cup period. Also gives us time to catch up on all our premiership stuff. Right. And maybe add some functionality to some additional features that have been.
00:04:21
Speaker
kicking around all Duder's head, so stay tuned for that. I might hold off for the rest of this season. Yeah. Introduce them next season. There you go. Taser. But yeah, grab a hold of that because we have evidence and we'll get to it in the fancy corner. But
00:04:41
Speaker
Our old friend Mark, who was like, it's not working. It worked. He had a great week. He did. So there's evidence out there. It does have some gain to it.
00:04:56
Speaker
Okay, let's dive into the Six Nations. And yeah. Well, I guess, you know, if I can claim victory on something that there was there was one, the one game that I thought would entertain certainly did. But of course, I'm getting ahead of ourselves, as I as I do with this conference. France are
00:05:22
Speaker
And Ireland, I just, I don't know what to say to Ireland. There's not much you can say to console them except for they're not that far away. Right. I don't believe so either. You can see it in their one try. You could see like, this is what you guys can do. Right.
00:05:41
Speaker
do it more often and we get to go. That's easier said than done, obviously. But still it's, yeah. That's not easy. That's not a cakewalk by any means whatsoever. By any means whatsoever. Um, I do like, uh, I will say, I do, do want to point out Brittany Hogan. I thought she had a pretty good game for the Irish. Um, and I liked that. And obviously they have the not really a luxury, but they now, they now are,
00:06:11
Speaker
free to experiment because they're not going to New Zealand in the fall. So it's not good, not bad, but it's just what it is. Right. And shout out to to Nev Jones for she was laying the fucking wood. Like she was getting she had a couple dominant tackles and and she's also handy in the loose like like.
00:06:36
Speaker
Yeah, she's a proper hooker, international hooker. So they have they have good, good piece. And Linda Jugang is certainly a proper international prop. Yeah. So the pieces are there. And, you know, Friday, Nicola Friday had a good match. So really a lot of good things happening on the Ireland side. It's just tough to see when, you know, Sanzus is putting a couple over and Geron is everywhere. Yeah. Yeah.
00:07:06
Speaker
And then, yeah. Uh, what's her, what's her face fall? She's 57 minutes, but she's a monster. Right. I mean, they took her out because it was like, okay, she, you know, there's no need to, yeah, there is no need to keep, uh, um, yeah. I don't need you for this match anymore. Let's go do something else. That they're good. They, and they are, they're, they're fantastic. And you know, the, the fricking bolt drawn at 57, like.
00:07:37
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's interesting. Wow. You mean you you're blowing up a team and you get some younger players in there. You change up the lineup a little bit because, you know, maybe you never know. Like there's injuries happen at any time. Like it might be good to get somebody else, you know, a run instead of, you know,
00:07:58
Speaker
not playing players. Anyway, I'm sorry, distracted by someone else. Something else. Something else in there, right? Yeah, because the, the young score map, they brought her into the, that was fairly, she obviously started last week, but that was her first, first cap, I believe. Maybe, maybe I got that wrong, but yeah, Shumble.
00:08:20
Speaker
But yeah, I mean to come on for Sansa was just like really hard act to follow too. It was so typical French that they picked Sansa almost as soon as she came off to as player of the match. I was like, right.
00:08:37
Speaker
There's a lot left. There's 20 minutes left of this. You chose the one you want to go with. I mean, it was a fine pick in the end. Right. There's nothing wrong with it. It's like, really? Again, just so freaking French. Yeah, let's do it early. Call it. Right. Good Lord. Wales, Scotland. What a banger. My goodness. That was awesome. That was entertaining. Yeah, freaking Scotland.
00:09:05
Speaker
I am, I'm very impressed with the, with the way Scotland are able to play in patches both last weekend, this week, all things considered with them. They don't have, they have no professional contracts. Yeah. They have some old GB sevens players and they have some that are playing, um, in the premier 15s, but overall, like the professionalism is definitely not a part of this team right now. And they're still able to put, put some damn good product on the field.
00:09:33
Speaker
Right. Like maybe their public players aren't professional, but they bring a professional attitude and professional ability in some ways that the other ways aren't their fault. It's just that they're not professionals. They're not training as their job.
00:09:51
Speaker
Yeah, the extra conditioning as they were talking about and stuff like that where you can. Yeah, it matters. I mean, obviously, it matters. They worked. They were in control of this match until it essentially kind of fell apart for them, unfortunately. And I mean, it came together for Wales. I mean, credit to Wales for first sticking with it, coming back and getting the dub. Right.
00:10:12
Speaker
Scotland deserved, you know, they had it and then just couldn't hold on to it. Right. Right. For the Welsh, Alicia Butchers, my lord, she is a house. That is one mean lady right there.
00:10:30
Speaker
And silky hands too. Very much a rugby player. That is a back rower if I've ever seen one. Yeah, good sixery. You know, doing the hard yards, not just running in the loose, but also couldn't run in the loose. Yeah, but did the grunt work too. Right.
00:10:54
Speaker
You know, for the 32 minutes she was on, I thought Kelsey Jones was very impactful. They're the backup hooker for the Welsh. That was, yeah, she came in with some sort of attitude. Obviously she wants that starting shirt, so. Right. They have, they have such a one, two punch right there. Caris Phillips, like quality, quality. She's, you know, she, obviously she can pilot them all, which, which that's what they, they like.
00:11:20
Speaker
And yeah, just a great weapon there, but their backup is also quite an impactful player. Yeah, the future is looking good there. Right. I love it. For the Scottish, Lisa Thompson, their 12, has got a leg on her. She can boom it. I was just like,
00:11:43
Speaker
that went a long, freaking way. And she's, she's willing to get in there and get dirty too, which you got to love that as a 12. So yeah, kudos to her. I thought she had a pretty good match, both with foot and, you know, open play as well. So yeah, lots of lots to like about the Scottish.
00:12:01
Speaker
You can only hope that they're getting that they're inching their way forward to some sort of professionalism as well. And who knows what this will be like. And we get to watch this one all over again in the fall, because this is the first match that each team plays in their woke up pool. That will be fun. Good luck to you. Right. So that should be very, very interesting.
00:12:24
Speaker
We didn't go over news or notes or anything, but I do want to mention that there was a huge signing in New Zealand. Did you see it? No. Blackferns brought in Wayne Smith as part of the coaching staff. Oh. Former Roblox coach.
00:12:40
Speaker
Okay. He is one of my favorite coaches. Like from that, especially from that 11 and 15 team, like everybody remembers Sir Graham Henry. Not everybody, not everybody, a lot of people, but not everybody remembers Wayne Smith. And I thought he was, I think he's awesome. So that's a huge signing for them. Speaking of which, did you see, um, the French, all the French clubs are signing referees, like, um, from a plot, I think signed with too long.
00:13:08
Speaker
Yeah, basically, that's teach them to not fuck up. Yeah, like, I'm not sure what's like, but he's, he's coaching. I don't know. I don't know how that he signed on to be there. One of their coaching. I have no idea. I have no idea. That's me.
00:13:26
Speaker
Yeah, so we'll see. But anyway, back to back to the competition.
Rugby Match Analysis: Italy vs England
00:13:32
Speaker
Over to Italy and cheese, unfortunately, just too much too much firepower for England, just plain simple. You know,
00:13:34
Speaker
Um,
00:13:43
Speaker
There were good patches for the Italians, but not enough of it. And not enough of it got finished, obviously. Obviously, they left the doughnut on the board. Not helpful in any way, shape, or form. Right. It's just, you know, Englander machine.
00:14:07
Speaker
Yeah, no, nobody deal just turning out, you know, players left and right. I mean, this is a mostly, this was a mostly changed lineup. There were a ton of changes to this team, you know, both props got changed. Back row was all but changed. Like, yeah.
00:14:23
Speaker
I love it. It was great seeing Shauna Brown. I thought she did a fantastic job. I love her. And I was super happy for her because she got a try. And then, of course, you know, what they bring in Sarah Byrne. Oh, what a scoop from the big lady. Oh, my. What a scoop. What a scoop. Wow. Yeah, that was. Yeah, that's proper property right there. That's right there. Yeah.
00:14:49
Speaker
at its finest. I mean, you got to love her smile too. It's just like she she's loving every minute of it. There's no there's no fake attitude in that smile. She's not you know, she's super happy. It's she's enjoying what she's doing. And that's you know,
00:15:05
Speaker
You know, you're a good prop when you can be smiling out there, too. Yeah, it's not. You never really that good a mood. But when you do stuff like that, you are sometimes sometimes not. Yeah. Sometimes you're like, where the fuck were you? Can you can I just offload so I can stop fucking running? No shit. Do do do.
00:15:32
Speaker
All right, let's jump. Let's jump to our friends in the prem. And let's go to the boys on Friday night, sale and series. And I mean, which team scored tries? Right. That was that was it. That's that's really and it's so it is very cliche at this point. But at the same time, like,
00:16:01
Speaker
It usually works out that way more often than not, like 90% of the time. So there had to be a point. It just annoyed me that Sarri's only attacked once in the first half. It was a bad half. It was a very bad half. They attacked one and they scored a try off of it. And it's like, but then the second half, they come out and they're like, all right, let's just go back and calm it down a little bit. It's like, just fucking run on them. They're not that good.
00:16:31
Speaker
I think Sarri's really played down to sale in a lot of ways. Sale, obviously they're not at their best. They don't have AJ and Robert Dupree is not where it's at. That's not a good 10. That's all I know. And so there's going to be defensive breakdowns, especially on the outside. And they just never really threatened that way.
00:16:59
Speaker
Yeah, no laws in this match, by the way, no laws at all. Ain't no laws. Yeah. Like the challenges on FAF and Alex Goode and, you know, there's that late hit on Morrow. Yeah, just just like, oh, whatever. It's all good. Just play on. Let's just play on. I will say that the moaning of Austin really has got to stop like good Lord. It really does.
00:17:27
Speaker
You know, well, it's a new tackle technique. No, it's not you idiot. They're both just trying not to hurt each other for God's sake. Like good Lord, you know, you can
00:17:37
Speaker
Probably only in both cases and in all cases, really, even down to the good one. But here's the and here's the thing, though, with the that, you know, the the Aladevi is where he got lucky. That could have been an easily a card. Oh, yeah, you could easily caught him in bed. In the end, in the end, it was a three point penalty because they just kicked. They kicked a penalty right from that. And it's like, what, if you'd carded him, would they would they really have gotten more than three points anyway? They probably not.
00:18:06
Speaker
I mean, I know that's not good justification, but the point is, at least he was consistent. It's not as though like the laws were inconsistently applied. It was if you hit a guy late, then all right, you'll get a penalty and that's it. Yeah, and that was it. That's really what all came out, all that came out of it.
00:18:24
Speaker
Yeah, you can argue it back and forth, but really, I think we can all agree that one team wanted to attack for the brief periods that it did. Right. And the other team, kind of less so. And that's how the scoreboard read. Right. And so whatever else doesn't really matter because one team went for it, one team didn't. There you go.
00:18:49
Speaker
Also, Luke James, did you not see what Ben Earl did to Manu Tuolagi? Yeah, don't go that way, dude. Did you not see that? Just hit him from the side next time. Yeah. I love that thing, too, like the bounce. And then afterwards, you could see them after the match having a good laugh. They knew what happened. Boing!
00:19:17
Speaker
Yeah, although he did kind of make up for it with that. He just smushed daily and then took his line and just kicked it too far for Reed. That was their only chance at a try. That made me nervous until I looked at the clock and it was like 77 minutes. And I'm like, oh, you have no shot at this. It doesn't matter. You could have scored that try. You're not winning this match.
00:19:42
Speaker
Yeah, that would have been a lot closer, obviously. Yeah, so that's how it goes. Sarri's all but clench a quarter, semi-final spot, excuse me. So, onward and upward, they'll probably see that Sarri's put out a
00:20:02
Speaker
a rags team against Breve this weekend. And, you know, should they win, then find they'll continue on and continue on putting out the shags. And that's how that'll be. That won't be anything I wouldn't expect to see. It's not like their shags aren't insanely talented. If they really want to run on teams, they still can. Right. We definitely have seen the good ones that they've got. Yeah. Because I mean, they're still going to have like
00:20:25
Speaker
you know, players who could start, like you'll see over to Anvo, you'll see Shagan, you know, you'll see Theo and guys like that, who can fucking play. And Manu, who's not a half bad 10, so. No, not a terrible 10 by any means. Yeah, he's definitely playing 10 this weekend, I would say. Yeah. Up to...
00:20:44
Speaker
We're down to whatever, which direction it is, um, uh, to, uh, six ways. Uh, it's probably down from sale actually. Cause it's like one of the most on the teams to six ways where they made some signings
Rugby Match Insights and Player Highlights
00:20:56
Speaker
this week. And that's really the only news from there. Yeah, for Worcester. Um, yeah, this is not, you know, I will say the difference between the two teams over the season is Newcastle have been fairly consistent in the fact that they've just been very, very close a lot of times. Um,
00:21:14
Speaker
And Worcester have been very peaks and valleys. They've been like great game and crap game, great game and crap game and not always in alternating order. But point being is like they come up with a good one and they don't usually back it up with another one. So that's the problem. And this is the case of that. Well, I mean, you look at it, there's there are two points apart in the standings, but
00:21:36
Speaker
Wooster have given up 181 more points. I'm sorry, the point differential is 181 worse. 181. Newcastle are negative 127, which, yeah, that's going to happen when you get 13 losses. Correct. But that's averaging less than 10 points a loss, not including your wins. But Wooster, on the other hand, negative 308 point differential. Yeah.
00:22:02
Speaker
With 14 losses, you're averaging like 20 points, a 20 point loss when you lose more than when they lose, they lose, they get tonked. Like this? Yes. Yeah. Like this. Like this. That includes their tonking of Exeter. Right. That one as well. So there you go.
00:22:20
Speaker
Yeah, just a whole lot of from the Western team. But this is a little bit. This is what we would hope would happen from Newcastle to a point, you know, like they were primed to break out at some point in some fashion with one of these games because they've they've been close like liquid. Like I said, they're not like, you know, they're they're like they're 11th in the league, and there's 11 pretty
00:22:46
Speaker
You know, there's better than decent teams. Like there's, you know, when they play against good teams yet, they're going to struggle when they play against a Worcester, you know, that, that clear divide dividing line really, you know, um, between Newcastle and Worcester and bath now. Um, yeah, it's, it's big.
00:23:07
Speaker
Yeah, this is this maybe found a new another back rower and we talked about on the other week but Freddie Lockwood for for Newcastle and that's yeah, that would be excellent for them because he
00:23:24
Speaker
He's young, he's got, he's got a long way to go and he's mobile like he's more than just what they're getting from their other back rowers so it brings another dimension to it. At this point, I'm not sure they have a really
00:23:39
Speaker
proper number eight to go forward with. So might be their guy who knows, right? We'll find out. Um, but there's an, and the front row work, once again, the front row union combines to do some great work for the new castle Falcons. Yeah. I think there was a sequence with Davidson, Brocklebank, and, um, and McGuigan all, all getting the ball too, like, you know, the tries, but, um,
00:24:05
Speaker
Yeah, Front Row Union on the move. Love it. Yeah, it's always good. It's always a thing of beauty. A thing of beauty. And, you know, to be fair, the Newcastle attack does function better with Brett Conant in 10. That's not to say that you don't want William Haydenwood for the future, although, whoops.
00:24:25
Speaker
Sounds like that might be a change as well. No, that is. He's gone. He's gone. Oh, is he gone? That's that's official. That's bad. That's bad on Newcastle. Yeah. Honestly, not not what you want. Here's the thing with Brett Cotton. I think it's just Wooster. He does that with that's the thing. I really think it's just Wooster. He does this type of game with because I don't see it. Elsewise aren't usually so.
00:24:47
Speaker
I thought he did a good I think he does a better job of bringing in Carreras and Radwin and kind of bypassing the centers whereas I think Hayden Wood is still, you know, kind of a little bit in the paint by numbers.
00:25:02
Speaker
you know, 10 to 12 or 13. Yeah, it's just, you know, having as a someone who has Adam Radwin in fantasy, you know, I noticed when he gets engaged and when he doesn't. And I felt like, you know, watching this game, although you're also considering the opponent, it certainly seemed like those two wings were were brought into attack a lot more than they they are when when well, Hayden Wood is running the ship. Right.
00:25:29
Speaker
Maybe, maybe. Let's go. Let's go to Devin for however brief of time we need to.
00:25:39
Speaker
I only got I only got I only got to about 65 minutes into this match. So I did get any I didn't watch any minute. Yeah, it was close. But obviously, they opened it up eventually. Yeah, I saw the shickering play where he were hog kicked it to him. And then you were flopped over because there's nobody there. Because that's all you can do. Yeah, it's like, wow, congratulations, you can move.
00:26:02
Speaker
Six inches. Yeah, there was some good stuff. You know, this was a better match than the scoreline tells, honestly. I think Beth just kind of let it fall apart at the end, starting with the Keys try and going from there.
00:26:16
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, there's some really good stuff here with, obviously, Underhill is fan freakin' tastic. Cocoa looks great. Like, Cocoa looks like his old self. Like, really, really good. Oh, I did see that try. That was, well, one of his tries. Yeah, there was one he swooshed Joe Simmons on. I was like, ooh. It was a tackle, but it kind of wasn't. He was like, please just run over me and fall.
00:26:45
Speaker
Well, he ran over him, but he didn't fall. You know, it's just that so there was a lot a lot of good out of bath. Again, I think the scoreline, you know, didn't do them justice. But yes, you know, Exeter were worth it. Hogg was on point like, Yep, okay. This is what this is what this is also what Scotland needed from, you know, the likes of Stuart Hogg.
00:27:08
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that's actually you're right, because it was they scored 14 points in the last 10 minutes. So it was it was a six point. That's right. That's what it did. I did see the end of it. That's what I that's what happened. Like I saw the the steward hog try and I was like, well, I don't need to watch this anymore. And there's that and that's.
00:27:28
Speaker
Yeah, it's so it was, you know, we've been talking about path how they getting better all year. They're obviously getting healthier. Yep, just this is twice they pushed Exeter, but just haven't quite got the job done. Exeter, it's still not the prettiest right we although this wasn't bad. This match in particular, but yeah, still some of it I'm like, what the fuck? And there's like,
00:27:54
Speaker
And I was getting so somebody was giving me a holy hell for, you know, being a proper series fan or whatever the week and, you know, I don't give a shit what team it is I don't I wouldn't care so much that Exeter and series have done battle many times in finals that that wouldn't bother me so much. It's
00:28:14
Speaker
you know, you look at Quinn's and series, they're natural rivals in the premiership. I freaking love watching the Harlow Quinn's. Like, it's not about the club. It's about what the hell they're doing on the pitch. And yes, do I want to make side bets with Quinn's fans like George every time that comes up? Absolutely. Cause it's fun. Cause it's fun and it makes it fun. Right? Yeah. But I want to watch, I want to watch a team that's actually going to freaking play some goddamn good rugby and yeah.
00:28:44
Speaker
you know, there were times where Exeter did it, especially in their double year, but overall, it's just, it isn't, it isn't, you know? No, and that's the funny thing. Like they played expansive rugby that year, especially in the Champions Cup, like really expansive. And hey, if you want proof, you can go back and listen to us talking about them then versus how we talk about them now. Like, I like that there's kind of, if you really want to go see the archives, go check them out. We got them.
00:29:12
Speaker
We appreciate when Exeter, you know, the few occasions, maybe that, you know, the two or three times a year that Exeter actually play proper rugby. It's just, yeah, it's one of those there.
00:29:26
Speaker
They have a Ravens vibe to them. They're just kind of pricks for the sake of being pricks. And they don't really play a style that's going to win in the playoffs. Because as soon as they run into a team that's halfway disciplined, they can't run their primary attack. And they don't really have a secondary attack. Because again, there's no expansiveness to their game.
00:29:49
Speaker
like 95 times out of 100. So that's more what I'm looking for. If it was any other club, they were playing like this crap. I wouldn't be happy with it. No. I mean, listen to us talk about Saris when they play the way they played on Friday. Oh, yeah. That first half was absolutely garbage. No question about that. Bar the one time that Ben Earl was able to fucking score. Like, yeah.
00:30:17
Speaker
But that just made it that just makes me more aggravating. No, I didn't do that. And you choose not to. Are you fucking kidding me? Absolutely. So you know how to do this already. Why are you doing not doing it? Let's go. Come on, man. Fucking hell. So, yeah. All right. Let's don't care about don't care about club care about what the hell they're doing on the goddamn pitch.
00:30:40
Speaker
Let's head down to Franklin Garden. Yeah, let's do that. Saints. Hooray, Saints. Watching them right now, as I said, take down the Saints. Except. Well, no, no, no, no. He took down Lewis Ludlam. I saw them do it. I saw seven of them do it while he was pushing them over the try line. Pat Lamb tears his hair out. He took him down.
00:31:07
Speaker
Oh, shit. Yeah, this is this is more what I was hoping for from Saints going forward here. Yeah, this is proper Saints play. Yeah. Oh, Rory Hutchinson is back. My goodness. That boy is back. Yeah, this is the one that they needed like midseason that just didn't show up. And right. Man, he is back with a vengeance and I love it. Did you see their tweet about the homegrown players?
00:31:33
Speaker
I haven't but okay so let me get to it it's it's fascinating because they said, let me go back to it. Do do do do sorry I was trying to lead into it but.
00:31:47
Speaker
But it was just describing each of their tries. Oh, there it is. So each of our five tries against Bristol were scored and assisted by an academy produced player. Collins from Hutchinson, Hutchinson from Laws, Ludlam from Furbank, Freeman from Dingall, and Collins from Freeman.
00:32:05
Speaker
Good to see Tommy Freeman back there. Not good for bears. No, obviously not. The bears probably wish he'd stayed on the shelf. Yeah, he was red hot when he got hurt and he is back. And that is just terrifying for every team.
00:32:21
Speaker
that has to cover that that doesn't know how to cover the back three well because you know fur bank is a threat let's not deny it you know when he's done for him he is definitely a threat tom collins is on one right now i don't i don't know where the hell is coming from but he's on one you're freeman scoson is good when he's when he's good so right now he's not that great right so you have and slave home we still have all these lights home yeah like that man is a that man is lightning like and you still have
00:32:47
Speaker
Hutchinson and Dingwall and, you know, when he gets healthy, Matt Proctor, like the Saints rival the Queens for backline talent. It's just it's not it's not come together quite yet. But fuck, that's just it just.
00:33:09
Speaker
What do you do about that? You know, they're going to be a problem if they can. You know, I would love to see them finish top four because I mean, fuck that that, you know, Lester Saris, Quinn, Saints, any one of them could win. And it's going to be fucking. It would be awesome box office rugby, just like, you know, last year's last four were were a lot of fun.
00:33:31
Speaker
This could be the same, although instead of just the one Bristol versus Quinn's, you'd get like two fucking bangers. Yeah, that would be a damn fun one. Just the same. Yeah. Imagine a Midlands Derby as a semifinal. No, no, no tension there whatsoever. And a London Derby. Yeah, on top of that. Right. Yeah. I mean, you want to put entertainment out there. That would do it right there. Right.
00:33:58
Speaker
Damn. I agree. I agree. And also, I think we can stop with the Oh, nevermind. We'll go back. Nevermind. I was going back to Rob Baxter and I don't want to. Oh, fuck him. Yeah. I don't need to go there. Let's go over to King's Home instead. And a very interesting one to say the least with Gloucester and WASA. It wasn't took a while to get going, but eventually we got there. Gloucester play with fire way too much.
00:34:24
Speaker
That's, you know, they've, we saw that, you know, their first match against sale, um, held on by the skin of their teeth or something like that. Um, something like that. Yeah. Like they've been playing a lot of games where it's just, they can hold on, they can hold on, but.
00:34:39
Speaker
you know, walks are, are dangerous and they can bite you. And they did. I agree. Yeah. It's, it's really, um, yeah, they, they just kind of do it to themselves. And I'm, I have such mixed feelings about Ben, me and, and this is one of the games that makes me feel like, Oh, he sucks. Cause he was not good. And you know, the, I get the added,
00:35:10
Speaker
benefit of having a player that can kick off both feet. I do. But sometimes the suckage is not worth it. But you know, here's a funny thing. There was only one good scrum half in this match.
00:35:26
Speaker
And to me, it was interesting that that we've seen for the past and we talked about it last week, which is funny. So it actually worked out, you know, they started Will Porter instead of Dan Robson. Porter was not that good. And I was like, Porter looked at this, you know, for in his time, the way Robson has looked as a starter recently and then Robson looked as a sub the way that Porter has looked as a sub. Yeah, it's kind of fucked up there. But yeah, there's also the fact that there's still, you know,
00:35:55
Speaker
They're still pricks, both of them. And they're still, you know, it's, Porter's been learning from Robson at training on how to fuck with the other teams scrum half. So to me, it's not really much of a surprise. I don't really hold it against me in this one because Chapman came in and fucking sucked too.
00:36:13
Speaker
Like, he's been a spark plug for them. He comes in and, you know, it's a firecracker. And as soon as he came in, I was like, oh, that's it. They're winning this game because he's going to come in and be a danger man. And he just fizzled. Yeah, very much so. No disrespect to him, but it didn't click. No. As much as it might not have paid to be a 9 in this match, it didn't pay to be a hooker in this match either.
00:36:41
Speaker
Well, all three of them got cards, or three out of the four of them got cards, I should say. That's right. Yeah, Augurie and Singleton at once. Yeah. And then Frost got one near the end. The double yellow versus Tanner. He's like, fuck you, both. Yeah, I mean, to Carly's credit, like, he told them both, and they didn't listen, so he said, fine, screw you both.
00:37:03
Speaker
Go have a seat. Well, the thing is, hey, referees say that a lot. When the scrum goes shit, they'll eventually be like, look, I'll take this in my head. And sometimes that's enough for players to be like, all right, let's stop fucking around. It wasn't. They tested him and he passed the test. So I mean, no complaints about it. It was hilarious. It's just hilarious.
00:37:28
Speaker
Right. And, you know, it's there's one call that Matthew Carley made in this match that I haven't seen called more than like once or twice this year.
Referee Decisions and Player Performances
00:37:36
Speaker
And that was the attacking player holding the tackler in. And it was Harry Elrington that tried to be sneaky about it. But that jersey, as soon as it gets pulled away from the body, it's real obvious when it happens. That was an easy spot. But thankfully, you know, they've been talking about don't hold them in, don't hold them in. Yeah. And there's still guys that are very cheeky about it and able to sneak away with it. But
00:37:56
Speaker
you saw it and he called it thankfully. So I, I, I applaud that. Cause now not every referee is going to get in a call that when they see it, they'll just tell him to let him go. Right. Nope. Actually that's a penalty. So no.
00:38:11
Speaker
It's funny how much trust you gain with players and fans when you do shit like that. You know, with the double yellow, you know, calling that like you call shit houseery and, you know, player, it, everybody kind of responds. That's like, it's one of those things where, you know, only the like Wayne Barnes's will do that or, or, um,
00:38:29
Speaker
And it's like, well, no, that's because nobody else really has the balls to be like, no, you can't do that. I'm going to I'm going to tell you, no, like we all kind of get away with it. Yeah. But we can't have that. Like not when you're fucking up the. Yeah, you're fucking up the game.
00:38:45
Speaker
Yeah, you screwed up the flow, man. Knock it off. You know, and we've talked about this, these guys before, but I want to pinpoint one because he's had to fight so damn hard to get back. And Jack Willis just had himself a fucking stormer. And I am so glad to see that guy back. And I think everybody at WOS is clearly very happy.
00:39:07
Speaker
20 tackles. He missed not a one. He did not miss any. And it made me a little nervous that he got hit at a really weird angle to start or like early on in the match. And I was like, oh, shit. Oh, shit. Oh, shit. And you just get bounced right back up like there's nothing I'm like. Thank you. It's going to be. Yeah, exactly. Like, oh, we didn't we didn't talk about it, but the Nalago
00:39:33
Speaker
That looked bad. I kind of saw what happened. I was watching the replay. So I hit the replay on it to be like, okay, wait, what actually happened there? And his knee just did not look right. Not good. So you just kind of worry about that now, especially it was the one that's strapped up. So with Willis, you're like, anything that comes close.
00:39:53
Speaker
I'm sure it's the same for him, having been there. I know it's the same for him. So yeah, but obviously we're happy to see this Willis back. This is the Willis we all know and love.
00:40:08
Speaker
the steel at the end from via faveta like that man is a giant and he gets up there so freaking quickly sometimes and that's a it's a ballsy ass move to do that on your own goal line but man if you do it and you get it right it is obviously very beneficial especially in this spot where they're able to just call call a game but damn right
00:40:28
Speaker
I mean, that is one where you're just, yeah. I mean, that's one where you're like, we have this. You don't call it unless you know you've got it. And they did. They were messing with the line out the whole time.
00:40:43
Speaker
Might as well. Nope, nope, nope. Right. So good stuff from the loss and get that they're, they're still got some hopes alive for them, but I don't think they're going to get there, but still at least keeps it interesting for them for a little while. Then over to Brentford and both teams wanted to attack, but only one was able to finish. And that was pretty much the story of the game. Yeah. It reminded me a lot of last week too, for, for the Irish where they, they scored early.
00:41:13
Speaker
and then they just gave up a shit ton of fucking points for no real reason. Their defense is just awful. I don't know where the problem is, although I have a feeling that it's the fact that, you know, Rodgerson and Tui Tui, like, you know, Gonzales can fucking move.
00:41:38
Speaker
But everyone else is just, they've got like Exeter syndrome. They're just, yeah, they're just like, I mean, shit, they're two best runners. Well, two of their three best runners because I was pretty good himself are their props. Yeah. It's really terrifying. And it's like, you know, and Hoskins can scoot a little bit. Would Goodrich Clark's all right? He's kind of handy.
00:42:02
Speaker
But like, you need, it can't be your weapons. You know, it can't be like, oh, cool. Hoskins is getting the ball. Maybe something good is going to happen. It's not, you know. Yeah, not good. And on the other side of it, you have a team with four natural centers in the team, and they're attacking like everybody plays away.
00:42:27
Speaker
Yeah. And they made them look that way, too, honestly. They did. Yeah, like... Shit, they were... No credit away from the twins. I know. Yeah, I love seeing Tiz out there. That's a big one. I'm making chops every time. Yeah, that's gonna be... This is gonna go well. Yeah, I'm in. I'm in, I'm in.
00:42:45
Speaker
big day for the big boy. So yeah, it's, um, Quinn's picking right up. We were talking about last week, how the J with the jelly and the, you know, reintroducing the, the, no, not a problem for the swim, not a problem for these guys. They're good to roll. Hey, do you know the Jones is a 15? Apparently it was to me, but Hey, okay. He did that job very well. And yeah.
00:43:08
Speaker
All right, we'll see what happens if the team actually plays defense on them. Who knows? But just the same credit to him for stepping into that role and making it feel like he had always done it. Yeah, I can't wait till, you know, Rona comes back.
00:43:25
Speaker
from his injury. I think he was, I don't know, at least the way he hasn't been playing. I see that there was a Rona in the lineup. I didn't see him on the field. No, he's been kind of a ghost lately. I have no idea what the frick is going on. No, I don't get it either. Cause Rensburg, like you'd think that Van Rensburg and the
00:43:47
Speaker
gap, like you see the way that the Quinn's 13s are playing. There's no reason why Rona didn't have that, you know, that kind of game with Esther, you know, Renzburg is there, Esther Hazen. They use them the same exact way anywhere they want to, where they really want some physicality. That means he's doing that job really well. So there should be more openings and not seeing people taking advantage of that.
00:44:17
Speaker
Also, I saw people holding shit against Ali Hassell Collins. And it's like, no part of, you know, like the the try that went over his head. That was Rona tackle down. That was his that was he got he got assholed by his his outside center. People are blaming him for it. It's like he got caught in the middle. He had enough. And he did the right thing. He defended the inside man. Yes, he's the more dangerous player. And he made attack. He made Marcus Smith make a ridiculous pass. There's nothing more you
00:44:48
Speaker
You know, it's Marcus Smith, so he did it, but not everybody's going to make that play. Hassel Collins did everything he could for that play. It's not his fault that he got kind of an asshole out there in a two on one situation. Yeah.
00:44:59
Speaker
And a couple of other times he got hung out to dry by his team. It's not, that's not his fault. So don't, don't, you know, he's the one who looks like the asshole, but that's only cause someone else was being selfish and didn't want to be anywhere near that situation. Yeah. Look at what else happened in that play too. Cause it's not always just that guy that was there. Yeah. Not always at least. Um, let's jump over to the other side of the hemisphere.
Super Rugby Match Reviews
00:45:24
Speaker
Uh, Friday night or Friday morning, whatever you want to call it, the ex-heirs and highlanders.
00:45:30
Speaker
Oh, there's that chances, man. Like they did. Geez. Um, I mean, where was the crusaders team last week? Where was this? This, they, they, they were very not dangerous. Yeah, this was not them and making mistakes and just, yeah, like really in a lot of ways uncharacteristic mistakes and
00:45:52
Speaker
Yeah, the Islanders took advantage, but they just couldn't, they just couldn't get the job quite done enough. You know, it was just, oh, so freaking close. Right. Every time. I mean, Scott Gregory scoring, he probably got a few problems here. Yeah, exactly. That's what that was. Yeah. Yeah, that that kind of was assigned to me that the crusade, this wasn't the crusaders team that that showed up last week. This is a,
00:46:20
Speaker
a very different team if they're letting Scotty Greg score. Right. Right, right, right. But yeah, it was they kept it close. I didn't finish the match. I don't think I think I got
00:46:33
Speaker
60 minutes in or so. So I'm shocked that the score didn't change. I was like, Okay, I figured, well, I figured I kind of know where you're going, but not end up that way. You know, you had, yeah, like I said, you had some guys that just couldn't finish for the Crusaders. And so goddamn close. And it's one of those, that's one of those moments where you're like,
00:46:55
Speaker
what could have been and all that stuff. Cause you know, how there's a, having a struggling season. We know we all know this sign. It was not really a news flash to anybody. That's pay attention to super rugby so far this year. And they need, they desperately needed this win. You know, they really did. And it just, you gotta have it when it's called upon, you know, and then you have even, they even had the chance with the red card. Mm-hmm.
00:47:23
Speaker
They even, and it was, it was a red, it was red all day. That's not going to work. I think it was the group that was down. Um, but yeah, I mean, tucked arm.
00:47:34
Speaker
is never going to end well guys just plain and simple and you know you and I were talking about talking about red cards and oh what about if it's an accidental you know something accidentally happens they get red card I'm like that doesn't happen very often right number one it's usually something stupid they get somebody a red card or it's just bad technique in this case it was stupidity because
00:47:56
Speaker
Tucking your arm is never going to end well, man. Like, it's always going to end with a penalty or a yellow or something like that in this case. He made contact, so it's a red. And that's just so... You just never know with these Southern Hemisphere refs, whether they're... I know. Sometimes it was O'Keefe, too, so I was wondering. I was like, I'm wondering. It was a fair play. You didn't even, you know, whatever. It's like that. It's, you know, whatever here. I actually did it, so... But crusade, again, good teams find ways to hang on, even if it's ugly.
00:48:25
Speaker
And that's why the Crusaders are who they are. So there we are. They got done. Fuckers. Yeah, God damn it. Fijian Jua and Taz and a couple really a couple cards. And this could could have been different for the Jua. But really, I have to say, I like the way this
00:48:51
Speaker
Todd's backline is starting to gel a little bit. This young kid, Paige, he's getting it.
00:49:00
Speaker
Yeah, they've been kind of chopping and changing with the 10s because they just kind of had two Donaldson's banged up and Harrison's banged up. But yeah, pretty good. Just the same. You know, and it seems like they're just like, it's not bad. Edmond has been, he's serviceable. Yeah. Insert 10 is basically how it's gone so far. But in the walking into the Wasey is back. Certainly. Yeah, helpful for sure. And who else is back?
00:49:29
Speaker
yeah that guy that guy the hoops hooper drives the boat chief yeah i mean cridge just held on you ever feeling that hoops was on a 40-minute
00:49:42
Speaker
halftime count. So Chris hung on for dear life with whatever the hell he was carrying, and got over the line for halftime. And then Cooper came. I was like, Oh, man, that looks uncomfortable. In a lot of ways, he did not look good. He did not look healthy in any way, shape or form. And it didn't take Cooper long to make the impact. Nope. And that is exactly what everybody has been missing from the war toss, obviously. And I think it's what a lot of Wallaby fans will be very excited to see come back.
00:50:12
Speaker
I'm so looking forward to seeing more of him and Gamble out there. That is just going to be a delight. Yeah. Just Hugh Sinclair shoved into the middle, I think, when the fridge came off. Right. Yeah, not bad. Not bad, not bad. That's a nice little back row with Harris, Gamble, and Hoops there.
00:50:33
Speaker
And then you have guys like Tazano who are in there. And I think Swinton is supposed to be playing back row for the scene, but if he can stay out of the red card territory, that'd be a good idea. That would be smart. Yeah. And, and I do want to just kind of point out the one guy that just has been lightning in a bottle for Drew the whole year. And that's how mostly, and then he's, he showed it again. He showed it again.
00:51:00
Speaker
Yeah, he's he makes like their relative not, I mean, they're not just not ready for prime time yet. Again, no disrespect. It's just it is what it is. But for him to stand out the way he's standing out where, you know, everybody knows he's their most dangerous and really one of their only dangerous options. And yet he still does it is is such an even more of a credit to him. Yeah.
00:51:29
Speaker
Agreed, agreed. Shout out to Tui Draghi, some of some of Audra, our old friend from New England getting time down there, which is great. They talked about him being a significant part of it, but he had had an injury. So he'll get back into it. Yeah, I don't like 54 minutes. That's also seemed kind of like a pitch count thing. Right. Yeah. So good for him. Yeah. Let's go over to Eden Park.
00:51:57
Speaker
And yeah, Pacifica got a big win last week and then they had to eat two straight losses from the Blues. Yeah. It's like both, both B teams and A teams, the midweek team got, you know, actually kept it kind of close. Not so much the, the, you know, the full strength team. Nope. Nope. It was always going to be a problem.
00:52:22
Speaker
Although they did have a couple of debutants of Pacifica. So it's not like, you know, this wasn't exactly an A team for them. Meanwhile, on the other side, this is a team that also, you know, like maybe not Evans and AJ Lamb. But you know, like it's like a team. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. He can play. Sarn Zarn is their normal starter. Caleb Clark.
00:52:49
Speaker
I don't want to talk about Caleb Clark anymore. Yeah, that pissed me off. As you know, I was kind of salty about that on Saturday. That's just that, you know, when we talk about why not 20 minute reds, that's why not. Because Caleb Clark can just feel free to launch himself into the air knee first to the guy's head and whatever. It's only 20 minutes for me. What's the matter? Right? Like,
00:53:17
Speaker
No, that's that. You have to show a concern for player welfare. There would have to be like, if you want to do a 20 minute read as bullshit as it is, there still has to be an option of no, you're you're fucking done. Like, this is that. That's over. Yep. Yeah, I'm not into that either. And and as we've as we've as we've discussed in our good friend Carrick has also discussed
00:53:42
Speaker
this didn't change the game. And even for the 20 minutes that they were down that player, it didn't really change the game.
00:53:51
Speaker
you know, nothing that beneficial happened for Pacifica with that red card, honestly, you know, in terms of how they took advantage of it. So yeah, that argument kind of goes out the window. They didn't score. It doesn't look like I don't think they did. I can't remember. I just can't remember. But and and the blues did. Right. Declan. Right. And one of three. Yeah, stupid. In the red card period. So, like,
00:54:21
Speaker
Yeah, no, the argument's kind of gone for me. I'm not into that either. And then another one that was quite a wrestle here, Reds and Brumbies. Reds get the revenge on the Brumbies after the loss earlier this year and the GIO.
00:54:43
Speaker
You know what's fun? I like watching matches 20 minutes into where they start. Jesus. Fucking flow. Oh, that is just so like there is no other service you would pay for that that would be acceptable. Yeah. Like that level of bad. I can't really think of anything. I can't think of anything to compare to at the moment. But that is just so awful.
00:55:09
Speaker
And you pay for the service and they're like, man, whatever. You gotta be fucking kidding me. And literally what they've done with flow is they've taken the old rugby channel and they've just inserted and left it. And it's like, oh, and they've added ads. Thank you. Fuck you guys too, as well for that one.
00:55:30
Speaker
It's awful. If I don't mind, look, I don't mind ads. What I mind is, you know, when you time them, if you could have somebody just watch the match and then say, OK, here, this is during it like they're taking a penalty kick, throw an ad in there. No, but it's like it's like, OK, here's the line. You know, there's there's a line out right on the five meter line. And it's like, OK, here's an ad. And it's like, no, fuck you. I want to get get give me the goddamn screen back. Yeah. So it's like, yeah, they're they're not they don't do this very well. And
00:56:01
Speaker
They're super expensive too. So at least there's that. Yeah. Oh yeah. No problem. Yeah. Um, you know, and you want to, we want to talk about, you know, red cards don't change things. Uh, you know, the two Lima bread was a red all day. Like, no question about it. Um, what did the Brumbies do in that time? You know, I think they got, I think they got a, no, that's, they didn't get a penalty and that was it.
00:56:30
Speaker
No, they didn't get anything. Okay. So the, they didn't even get there. They got nothing on time. No, the try. Yeah. The try was at 25 minutes. It was before they didn't say, yeah. Yeah. Although they scored a try. They scored one try when it was even for 34 minutes and then they didn't score anything for 46. I can do math. Yeah. You know, upper man. So now red cards don't ruin games. Just bad teams ruin games.
00:56:56
Speaker
Yeah, bad teams, decisions are the things that ruin games. Sure. That's the end of that. Shout out to former MLR player, Cam Clark, getting his first Super Bowl try or at least first coming back. I don't think he's played there before. So for my records, my records and my memory serves me right. But that's really cool. You know, love to see MLR players go on and get things, get new contracts elsewhere and do well. And he got a yellow.
00:57:24
Speaker
Yeah, go on. You know, it's like the Gordie Howe hat trick. Yeah. They call where Missy was a drop. Maybe you were trying to yellow. That's that. Hey, that's a story. That's a good story. A story. No doubt about that. No question about that. So it's a good day overall.
00:57:44
Speaker
Frazier McRae is so fucking good for the Reds, my goodness. He was everywhere. Every time something good was happening for them, especially on defense even, that's Frazier McRae, isn't it? Yes, it is. I was like, God damn it. He's good. Here's the thing.
00:58:04
Speaker
If you have a good, you know, loose forward, I mean, I don't mean good. I mean, you have a fucking great loose forward. It feels like there's two of them. Because it's hard to test. They'll just be like, all right, they made a tackle. Okay. And then they make the next time. You're like, what the where'd that guy come from? Like, and the Reds have two guys like that. And so, you know, when one of their their guys gets a red, it's like, okay, well, then the other two can just
00:58:31
Speaker
Step it up, yeah. Step up and shut it down. You know, they just play normally and then we can all kind of relax a little bit. Yeah, right. Oh, man. And then over to Wellington and, you know, speaking of flow, hold on, before we get before we get to this, I'm going to flow this shit up because it was Saturday night, right? We'd had a long, fun day because we'll then we'll talk about
00:59:00
Speaker
that in a minute, but, um, I was, you know, I was like, fuck it. Let's see what, you know, let's see what went when the matches start and flow says, Hey, by the way, hurricanes chief starts at 10 o'clock. And I'm like, Holy shit, this is excellent. It was like 10 oh seven. And I'm like, so wait, and I think I'll turn it on. And it's the pregame show. And it's like, you know, has that countdown clock in the corner and it's like an hour and a half.
00:59:28
Speaker
to the start, and I'm like, first off, this is like fucking Super Bowl pregame. Yeah, right. Well, that's how they do it down there. Which is fucking great. But I'm like, second off, fuck. I don't want to watch it. I'm going to fall asleep well before this match starts. Definitely. So I'm not making it until 11 30. So just it was just fucking flow teasing me like that. Oh, cool. I can start to the start of the no, I can't. I see the start of the pregame show.
00:59:56
Speaker
Yeah, no, oopsie. Yeah. Yeah. So let's go over to our friends at Sky Stadium and over in Wellington. And, you know, for the hurricane sake,
01:00:14
Speaker
You can't wait till 70 minutes to turn it the fuck on. Like, no, you can't. And, you know, she's howled onto the ball very, very well for a good majority of that second half. And it just killed them. It just absolutely destroyed the hurricanes. They really just didn't get the ball. They couldn't get the ball back and they were booting it away every time. And, you know, got to get the hint at some point where it's like, Hey, dumbass, you had no ball. You need to find a way to hang on to it for a little bit.
01:00:44
Speaker
And they didn't until until already finally said, fuck this noise. I'm taking this and going. Yeah, I kind of saw that coming. I was like, oh, no, it's already OK. Oh, all right. Well, one, two, three, four or five. I think four or five guys got a hand on everything. Right. And care. Like, am I going to be angry about it? I can't. He's good.
01:01:05
Speaker
No, that's what he does. You know, and it was awesome. It's awesome to see a battle at eight like this between him and so a cooler who was again on fire like, goddamn, that guy's good. You know, you said they can't wait till, you know, till till 70 minutes in to turn it on. Well, for me on the other side, I was like, so cool. It came off. I was like, that's big. They I don't know why they took him out. I don't know. But they could bring on, you know, I mean,
01:01:33
Speaker
Sam Kane, but cannon Bashir even could be could pull him not that Caleb isn't he had a fucking cracker to get a good day. He's looking very much like his brother and then that that that excites me a little bit. Yeah.
01:01:49
Speaker
And that was not the threat that he was, but now. But the play, the player who was in his position was certainly until one of Brown. Scoring to open it was was delicious. Yeah. And well, not to open it, I guess. You won't talk about it. No, I want to try to open it was a big old mistake. I mean, it was a perfect timing from DJ. You couldn't do anything about it. It's like, that's just really good timing. And he gambled the hell out of it and it paid off.
01:02:18
Speaker
I was like, oh, bye bye. Jess came down and asked me, well, she's like this Sunday morning. She's like earlier, when you're screaming, what the fuck are you doing? Was Kylie doing something? Was the dog doing something? No, I was watching rugby. She's like, oh, that makes a lot more sense.
01:02:42
Speaker
And that was like, it was a slow developing thing and you could just see him coming. And I could have sworn he was offside, but I was like, that's perfect timing. It was shit. I was like, that's TJ for a nutshell right there for you. It is. And TJ is back. And ultimately, you know, I'm, you know, me as a more of a fan of the game than, than teams. So of course I'm,
01:03:12
Speaker
I didn't, I want the Chiefs to win, but I'm also, that's just a classic TJ, TJ's back. This is good for rugby. I'm happy. Only good, only good things from there. Same thing with the Sevilla try, like, you know, all both Sevilla tries, like this was just a good, this was just a hell of a rugby match. It was a great match. Yeah. I'm in the end, back and forth, you know, but like I said, it came down to that.
01:03:37
Speaker
you know, first 30 odd minutes 30, you know, 25 odd minutes for the Chiefs that they just choke the life out of the game and held on to the ball and
01:03:47
Speaker
They put points on the board all at the same time, too. It's not like they were just down there hanging out. They made it count. So, in the end, loads of credit to them and just their strategy with that last 20, with that first 25 minutes or so. You did see a little bit of that, the Chiefs from last week, where they were just letting guys run unsupported and giving. It might not have even been the TGA try that. I might have yelled at them a little times for all I know. But there was one of the turnovers, I can't remember which one, where it was like,
01:04:17
Speaker
they let, it might've been Quinn just run into like a triple tackle and everybody kind of stood back and looked and said, Oh, Hey, look at them. They're tackling Quinn two pie. Oh, and they're going to just going to take the ball. Okay. And whatever. Fuck it. It's like, how about you fucking rock? There's so much just staring at it. And it's like, you know, these, the,
01:04:38
Speaker
It was a duplexi carifia. I think in one of his early penalty wins and it's like, do you know who that is? It's one thing you can do. He doesn't do a lot, but he does that really well. Yeah. And Sevilla too. It's like, you like, if anything, they should have been working on, on clear outs, you know, quick clear outs. Cause I mean, you know, Sevilla is they're both smart. They're won't, you know, if they get that resistance, they'll know they'll back off. But it's like, if they get zero resistance there,
01:05:06
Speaker
the boa constrictors, they're on that and they're not coming off. Yep, yep, yep, yep. Not too, not too bad in that department. All right, let's bring it into USMLR and the free jacks and the home game, the home game that Ben and I both attended last week, that was a goddamn
Free Jacks Experience and Team News
01:05:29
Speaker
Blast and, you know, first half was a lot of fun. It had everything. Second half, not so much. Yeah. It had the dizzying, the terrifying highs, the dizzying lows. Oh, the Lord did it ever. Yeah. I was like, oh, please no. Yeah. It was, we were pretty relaxed at half. And then there were, the next 10 minutes were not fun. And they made the rest of the game not particularly fun. No, definitely not.
01:05:59
Speaker
There was some things going on that I was not excited about. Not please. Definitely not. No, no, no. But right to sleep. Yeah, defense went bye-bye for a little while. Yeah, until that last try by shoot, who was it? It was DeWitt, Foster DeWitt. Yeah.
01:06:17
Speaker
A good prop try, a good prop hands to the handling, handle it behind himself and hold on, tapping it up to himself. Yeah, it worked. It works. Man, I hope Harry's OK. Friggin Barlow crashed into that post, man. That looked ugly. It did. Ugly, ugly, ugly. That's why they had those fucking post pads there because that shit happens sometimes. You don't want somebody dying. Hopefully it's OK. And we see him again.
01:06:45
Speaker
Um, we'll see if pretty, pretty ugly. Uh, LaRue Milan is continuing like those centers are continuing to be awesome. I have, they have to be like him and Vanderbank just awesome. Um, Milan was the one that's followed up for the tribe to open the thing. Um, but yeah, just really good stuff.
01:07:04
Speaker
Gotta give the kid credit where credit's due. Cam Davidovitz. Wow. Good for you, kid. What a match he had. Local product. Yeah, good for him. Really, you know, just, you know, I can't imagine what the feelings for him were, you know, scoring a try, you know, I think this was his second start. Or maybe third, doesn't matter. His first one at home. Yeah. So, you know, his first home start and
01:07:31
Speaker
Yeah. What a feeling the kid must've felt. He had a cracker of a match. He had a great match and it wasn't just the try. He was very, very good. So to say that, you know, he got it out of, you know, just to be a homer, I think he's wrong. He's played very, very well. And this was kind of the culmination of it so far. And, you know, who knows? Maybe there's things up from here. There's things about teams where when they have guys step up and like that,
01:08:00
Speaker
I'm just saying that those teams tend to do well in leads. And it just seems like there is a lot of that next guy up mentality with the team. I agree. We need a better next man up than Sakara, but he's again tackling down and open up gaps. Oh boy. You and I both ready to throw things on the field.
01:08:26
Speaker
You idiot! Right. And he could do... It's like he can do some things in the loose with the ball, which is fine. He had a kid with some good offloads and some little half breaks. They would have been whole breaks if he was in a little bit better shape. But they're half breaks, and he still did good things with the ball to then give it away to somebody faster than him so they could do better things. So, yeah. And also,
01:08:53
Speaker
Did you see that they released the top 10 tacklers in MLR this year? Oh, really? Who's on the list? Well, top three play for your New England freejacks. Hell yeah, they do. That was one of them, right?
01:09:10
Speaker
He's second. Okay. Um, cause they were mentioning he was there for the leading tackler going into the match. Apparently, uh, Joe Johnston passed him. I thought he was going to be the leader going into the last match, but now he isn't. And number three is your captain, Josh Larson. Yes.
01:09:26
Speaker
Yes, he's not the prettiest boy in the world, but man, he gets the job done. He is a captain. He's by like seven over the next guy. He's at like 134. The next tackle top tackers 127 and then Slade and and and Joe are like way up there. Yeah. All they have to do is keep playing and they got that in the bag. That's between the two of them. Yeah. And then we got one more. There's one more piece of bad news for the rest of the league coming.
01:09:55
Speaker
We're getting better. We're getting better. That's the bad news. Everybody being karate has been has been resigned by the free Jackson. So he was there at the match. We saw him. Yep. And I imagine
01:10:07
Speaker
Unfortunately, I imagine Torello is going to take a long time off. So they're not sure how long he's going to take and he should take as long as he needs. You know, that's really, really awful what happened for him. Um, and so, yeah, so they don't know. This is obviously, this is obviously their break glass in case of emergency plan and welcome back. We're happy to have you back and looking forward to it.
01:10:30
Speaker
Can't wait to see you run wild all over these guys, especially now that, you know, it's not just you that they're worried about. They're worried about a lot more. Yeah. Great. So there's so much to worry about. Oh, this is so dangerous. I love it. I'm enjoying it. So we'll be back at it again this weekend. Seattle will come to town. Oh, can we? Broccoli man will be there. Yay. Ease broccoli somebody.
01:10:54
Speaker
Uh, whip around real quick. Uh, Utah should bring other vegetables and taunt him. That's a good one. I hadn't thought of that one. Bring cauliflower. All right. I got celery. Oh man. Yeah. Somebody's going to do that now. Watch. We should do it. No, honestly, we should do it. We should bring something like play fight with it or something. Yeah. Right.
Coaching Changes and Team Standings
01:11:23
Speaker
So Utah went down to San Diego late on Friday night. Utah fired their coach Sean Pittman. I'm sure he'll be back somewhere coaching at least in the forwards. He's a very good forwards coach from what I understand. Arrows couldn't quite get it down in their first home match in a long time up in Toronto but
01:11:43
Speaker
Good for them. Just the same, you know, that's, that's, that's a lot of good, good going on there for them. Right. Not, not the one you want to debut against. No, it wasn't really ideal for them. Anybody but them or the free Jax is really who you'd want. Yeah. At this point, uh, uh, break me to New York barely eat it out against old Lori. Oh, Lori may be finding some fire. Now that they've had their coach dismissed.
01:12:05
Speaker
Yeah, I also think that rugby in New York is not that good. They might not be that good. Yeah, you might have a point on that one. Rugby in New Jersey. LA and absolutely smash Dallas. Dallas is just not good. We know this is not news. Austin and Houston. Again, I think Houston is a little overrated. People were talking about.
01:12:24
Speaker
Austin isn't bad, obviously. At this point, I'm just kind of happy that we might actually just be good instead, which is great. Not bad about it. And yeah, no change in the standings. Free Jack still sit on top, but with a three-point cushion even. So even if we were to find a way to screw up this weekend, we can get two bonus points out of it and still potentially keep our spot up there. So that's good.
01:12:47
Speaker
Yeah, I think they'll take him though. Yeah, I think we can too. Again, I think I mentioned before I think Seattle might be a little overrated. LA has leapfrogged them in the West. So now that all teams have played eight games, we can kind of see where things actually stand. And yeah, I think that's probably about what I expected for the league. Yeah, I think personally,
01:13:14
Speaker
I think obviously, I think Toronto and rugby in New Jersey should be closer. But they may still be. Yeah, they may still in the end. Other than that, everything looks to be somewhat in order. You know, in San Diego are still a little high. They'll they'll come down a little more. They may come down a little bit. And Utah are going to come up. Probably. Yeah. Give it a time. We'll see where we'll see where things land. The CK will make differences there.
01:13:44
Speaker
Okay. Um, so that's
Fantasy Corner Teaser and Event Recap
01:13:47
Speaker
that. I promise I'll be better about doing my job this time to the next one. Um, but yeah, so that, that is this one we're heading over to the fantasy corner in a minute. Um, if we don't see you there, we will see you next week after we recap this big old round of 16 match-ups that we got going on with the shaping stuff. And obviously women's six nations, super ugly, all the good stuff. We'll see you all then. If you're going to have a good one later.