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Season 6- Episode 5- The Difference in Professionalization (RWC Week 4 Pool Play)
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It's the latest and greatest from those American rugby idiots. On this episode we are talking about all the fun in week 4 of pool play including reflecting on some teams who are wrapping up their tournaments. The goods, the bads and the real disappointments. We have a look at the big games that have helped bring us to a fun final week of pool play where it's win or go home for a hand full of teams. Grab yourself something to drink and have a laugh with us, won't you?
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Ask us questions via Twitter: Jarrod- jdyke8man & Ben- admrablsnackbar, and #AskTFRY.
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Engagement
00:00:03
Speaker
It is. The Fantasy Europeans. My name is Jared Dyke. I wanted to say it's stupid and let's move on, but then you kept going. I'm Ben Glauser. I don't like any way anybody gambled that. Collusion. Collusion.
00:00:28
Speaker
Hey everybody. Welcome back. It is the fancy Roby Yanks. My name is Jared Dyke. I'm Ben Glauser. We're in. Let's, let's roll. We got, I mean, not too much to talk about, but we got, um, we got much to dissect. Just the same. Just the same. All right. But it's still thirsty work to do that. Yeah. Make sure you find us on your favorite podcast app, share us, download rate review. Be back. Always welcome. We
00:00:55
Speaker
I'm gonna have to buy new beer next week. This is the last of the, uh, the ones you brought over for.
Shoutout to George, the Fantasy Rugby Geek
00:01:01
Speaker
I'm not buying you no more. So deal with it. Be a fricking adult. I feel it. I feel you there.
00:01:15
Speaker
Make sure that you grab a coffee or beer for our good friend, the fancy rugby geek, George. If you are, yeah, you know who needs to grab him a beer is Stu. Stu is to get him, buy him a coffee for sure. Or anybody who captained Darcy Graham in any way, shape, or form. Not so much. You did that this past weekend. You owe George.
Impact of Professional Contracts in Women's Rugby
00:01:35
Speaker
Even if you didn't listen to him, you probably did it because someone who listened to him told you to do it. Told you to do it. Yeah. Yeah. So either way, either way, Squidge did not, which is hilarious. I thought I saw that tweet and I was like, oh, you don't read George's page, do you? Or you don't trust George. What does that say about you? Right. I did Talia because I was I had a thought and that didn't work out. Otherwise, it would have been. Would have been. Yeah. I use my triple captain already.
00:02:06
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I got one, I got one booster left. Uh, but then you get wasted. Yeah. That sucks. Got wasted. Cause fucking what's his name dropped less. Yeah. Well, you get them all back. Um, come knock out stage though. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Anyway, uh, Georgia coffee. Yes. As always, there is no discrimination here on this podcast, nor should there be in sports or in life. Um,
00:02:35
Speaker
big discriminations going on in pay, as Ben and I were discussing earlier, certainly in the sports world. But I would even say look at what happens, though, when you start to do the right thing. We've been talking for a while about some of these national teams that don't, like Wales, that didn't have professional contracts. Like all their players, if they didn't have a professional deal in the pram or something like that,
00:03:06
Speaker
they really weren't getting paid. And just what, two years ago, they started paying players, they started signing contracts and whatnot. And now like this match against the women's Eagles, they just thumped them. And it was like, you could tell the difference. The Eagles used to be one of the best women's sides around, like top, certainly top three or four.
00:03:33
Speaker
But they'd be, you know, beating like it was them or France, really. And and they would they seem to have the upper hand in that. And now in like a few short years, like Wales is just ready. They're just past them.
Professionalism in Rugby: Uruguay vs Namibia
00:03:49
Speaker
And the difference was the professionalism. That was it was the margins was little things that professional athletes can do that amateur athletes just don't they can't
00:03:59
Speaker
You can't contribute enough time to get it done to be as athletic or hone your craft. So, you know, it's just that little bit. And suddenly now the U.S. is going to be chasing this instead of one of the dominant teams. They're going to be heading more like to where the U.S. is in the men's game. And that's that's a shame. Yes, but good for these other countries that have that have made it the priority to professionalize the game for women.
00:04:23
Speaker
Yeah, we know the whole are. Let's go. Yeah. I know they're actually working towards it. The free jacks are working towards it, which is. Yeah. Makes me happy, but we need it because that's all the individual clubs are help are working on it. But yeah, it's hard.
00:04:39
Speaker
It's hard, but they're not, but there's not enough done already. Right. Which is the, which is, which is kind of what makes it, Oh, it's hard. Well, it kind of throws the excuse out the window. You didn't really start working on until when, you know? Right. We just started working last week. Oh yeah. Okay. Thanks. Yeah. The project was due a week ago, dude. Right. Good job. Bang up work. Bang up job. Make sure that you are subscribed to our Patreon. Um, there is a,
00:05:07
Speaker
update sheet with the points against, um, I posted a free one last week. Um, there's some more detailed stuff
Critique of Italy vs New Zealand Strategy
00:05:14
Speaker
in this week's, but it's for our patrons only. So that's the, that's why you want to go ahead and subscribe to us for that. Especially if you want to kick the show, your friends, the rest of the way going forward. And when we kick into prayer, much, we'll talk about on the fancy corner a little bit more, but yay. Yes. Get in there. Get in there.
00:05:35
Speaker
Okay, week four. This is going by fast here. Make it stop. It really is. It feels like it just started. Make it stop. I don't want to go back to normal World Cup rugby.
00:05:48
Speaker
Well, at least that's the start of the kind of the rugby year. So there's a lot more to go. But no, but like, yeah, by June or July next year, we'll be like, all right, we're, we're rugby down in the line store. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're going to maybe. Hmm.
00:06:12
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, maybe it came out firing, but three cards, one of them being read was not helpful. No, things were kind of unraveling before that, too. Yeah, absolute shit. Disciplined. It just wasn't like they started out. Pretty hot. And then obviously started to score in the first minute, but it
Argentina's Strategy Against Chile
00:06:31
Speaker
just it really unraveled after that. Oh, and then they get on 10 minutes later. Like they they were they were coming out shit hot and then just played stupid from then on out.
00:06:40
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, it was. It was overall just a disappointing display in the tournament itself and maybe which is. Yeah, they had a their or do they have another match or are they done? No, they're done. Yeah, they had a really disappointing tournament. Yeah.
00:07:00
Speaker
Yeah, it's really kind of sad. Look, I know the feeling as a US fan. I know what it's like, but nothing went right. Everything went bad.
00:07:17
Speaker
Like, one of your players gets horrifically injured. You horrifically injured one of the best player, well, the best player in the world. And then, you know, card fest. Like, nothing was good for them. It's a shame. I mean, I'm not like, they played hard. It just didn't go right. No. And it's just talking about professionalism.
00:07:43
Speaker
Most of the Uruguay players are at least semi-professional, if not fully professional. Obviously we know Arrata as he's playing over in France, but in a number of these guys are either playing for Uruguay Sevens, fully paid, or for the Super Rugby Americas team, which is probably about the same level as MLR, maybe a little bit lower. Yeah, I think it's a little bit lower.
00:08:06
Speaker
Glendale team is a little bit lower. Yeah, I think so too. These guys, I think these guys are better. Probably. But it was a clear difference. Some of these Namibian players, unfortunately, have full-time jobs inside of that. Right. There's a difference,
Fiji's Resilience Against Georgia
00:08:26
Speaker
as we just talked about. Yeah.
00:08:33
Speaker
I love the way your energy just sapped out of them too. Like the Namibia team that showed up in the first match, um, wasn't that against, was that, um, I was going to Italy. Like they showed some fire to them and like they were, they were playing good rugby, really trying to, to chuck the ball around a little bit and, um,
00:08:57
Speaker
Yeah, I just feel like they ended kind of sad. They didn't have that same flair. They didn't have the same joie de vivre, I guess. It wasn't like a celebration of rugby for them. It was more like a funeral. And that's a shame. If they had played a little bit more into it, this could have been their game. Yeah, I think so too. And they
00:09:24
Speaker
And I'm not just saying that because I picked them to win, but, um, I was kind of, you know, I think that was the difference. Like that. They just kind of Uruguay really went for it. They, they, they played hard and maybe you didn't fix problems. Like you see, you know, three cards were all for the same
Romania's Challenges and Potential Improvements
00:09:38
Speaker
fucking thing. Yeah. High shots and bad ones, pretty like, right. There was one that was okay. Yeah. Yellow was fine, but I think there were, there was the other one that should have been a red. And then finally the one that was the red.
00:09:52
Speaker
So got there in the end. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, your way have entertained us since they got into, they got back into the World Cup in 19. So this is all, this is just continuing on with their, their journey and they're certainly trending the right way. They got one more game and I don't think this one's going to turn quite the way they want it to go. No, it's like the difference between, um,
00:10:21
Speaker
You know, again, Uruguay didn't have themselves a great tournament either, but this is, you know, they got to win. Like, that's huge. And so kind of the difference in this game for me was.
00:10:35
Speaker
Uruguay kind of clapped themselves off, like happy, like, you know, like, it's one of those, they come off, yay, thank you. And then, you know, thanks to fans as they as they leave. And like, maybe is like clapping the for the, you know, the fans are clapping for them and they're clapping from their stretchers, they're being I know, carted off the field. Like, that's, that's kind of the difference in this game. That's kind of how this game went anyway. Yeah, all their pride, all their pride is on that structure with them, unfortunately, as well. Really painful.
00:11:01
Speaker
Yeah. Really, really painful. But hey, do we got one more match to entertain us with? We'll see. Oh, that'll be good. See how it goes. Yeah. Although. Yeah. All right. Like they'll remember this one. They're going to remember this one maybe for the wrong reasons, but they're going to remember this one. Yeah. All right. Uh, next day, Japan and Samoa. Where the hell's this Japan team been? I would like to know the same thing. Like starting with their first try, which was a little slip out the back from him and out to a lot of shock and they like,
00:11:33
Speaker
that creativity was nowhere near the England game. And why? I don't know, because that's the type of shit that would kill England. And right there, their desire went bye-bye when, you know, things like a Joe Marlar header went, went. Yeah, that's, you know, all that was stupid. But yeah, it was, it was, it was. And Michael Leach being, being like, for a moment, 10 years younger,
00:12:01
Speaker
Yep. Like, if he could bottle this, he could make a fucking mint. Because he's not playing like he's 85 or whatever he is. Yeah, a billion and one. Yeah. Yeah, it was.
00:12:18
Speaker
It made me a little upset because they clearly remembered how to do it properly. And yeah, Samoa still gave him a fight because gave him hell all the way to the end, even though he was down a flare. Stupid fucking... Ben Lamb did not learn that shit with the Hurricanes, tell you that much right now. Yeah, that was not good. Oh, I looked at it. I was like, oh, you are so much trouble, sir. When Ed Fiddo is your remaining wing. Oh, your phone.
00:12:47
Speaker
You're bound. Like even at the MLR level now, Fido is not. He isn't what he was even last year, like the year before this past year when they won. Like he's not. It's not that I'm surprised that he like got picked. He didn't look worse, actually. He didn't he didn't look bad, but like he definitely was. They were picking on him a lot. Yeah. Yeah, they gave him plenty of opportunities, plenty of opportunities.
Australia vs Portugal: Analyzing Performance
00:13:16
Speaker
Yeah. And we have, you know, Matsushima was turning back the clock a little bit. Yeah. Just a lot of really good things. And they lost, they lost Nagare like last minute too. And they were able to adapt to that pretty well. And it's yeah, like I said, it's a little disappointing to see that they remembered how to do this stuff and
00:13:36
Speaker
It took a team like Samoa who opened it up a lot to for them to remember. Oh yeah, we, we do this thing too. Yeah. I just wish they had remembered fucking do it earlier. Just don't know. Don't know. Sad, but yeah. Yeah. So I'm glad Samoa came and brought the, brought the fight to them and.
00:13:54
Speaker
Now this is a Samoa team that people are gonna, it's only gonna get better, especially with one, the eligibility rules now and two, Moana Pacifica, as they get better with age and time, it'll be a fun team to watch and you'll get more players also in it, like Jordan Tafua or Theo McFarland, that are playing at bigger clubs over either in Europe or in Super Bowl either way.
00:14:25
Speaker
But yeah, it's just going to take a little bit more time for them to be able to knock off some more big boys. And I know they beat Japan in the warmups, but this is obviously a lot different. Right. And yeah, they didn't really play all that well either, like you said. And Fiji's ahead of them. Like then both in both places in the national team and then in the Super Rugby. So it'll get there, but they need more of this.
00:14:54
Speaker
Yeah. And also it's hilarious to me that people still thank Theo for choosing rugby over basketball. And it's like, um, thank him. He should be thanking rugby for like, he would never have this kind of experience in basketball. So like, no, I'm not in some more basketball. He's like a, right. He's like a star, like anywhere he goes in a rugby uniform now, right now, right now. Right.
00:15:19
Speaker
Like people will, even if they don't right away recognize what he can do, as soon as he starts doing shit, they'll be like, oh, oh, this is why. Okay. Yeah. This guy you were talking about. Yup. Like, yes. Yeah. He'll kill get in. He's going to get even better. So, um, no, this is this is where he should be. He's right where he needs to be for him and for rugby. And for series. And percent,
South Africa vs Tonga: Team Dynamics
00:15:44
Speaker
especially for centers. Thank you, Dallas, for totally balling that, by the way.
00:15:48
Speaker
Wow. Wow. Yep. Thank you, Dallas. Um, we can thank Dallas a couple of times, but that's different story for a different day. Um, next day, we all need to get too deep into it. Kiwis and Italy. I mean, you talk about sad penalties.
00:16:12
Speaker
Like Tommy Hunt going for three. I'm like, no, everybody's like, yeah. I'm like, no, you cannot beat these guys with kicks. You're going to have to win with tries. Right. And that was history. The rest was, there we go. Yeah, they didn't score in the first half and by that time it was over. Nope. 49-3 at half. Yeah, good thing you got those three points. Yeah, I hope you enjoy those three points. Otherwise it's going to look real bad. Wait, too late.
00:16:40
Speaker
Too late. Like I'm at the point now and I get it, you know, when I was, when I was playing and all that, I kind of get it. But I'm, I'm no longer, like there's certain things as, as like you get more experienced with things where you're like, is that really, is it, you know, 49 three. Like, okay, good. Well, we got three. You didn't get shut out.
00:17:01
Speaker
You know what? I think three points is worse than a shutout. Says you didn't go for it. Because it means, yeah, you could like, you know, seven points. Yeah. Okay. You scored a try. Good. You did something. You committed an active rugby. Three points, you didn't. So like, yeah, I, you know, I do understand the idea of building the scoreboard, but
00:17:23
Speaker
man, you got to, you got to, especially once the all blacks have scored a try. It's not a, it's not a penalty kicking game at that point. And will Jordan had already scored. Will Jordan had already scored. So no, no, no PKs at that point. That was poor. That's, that's Jordan strike rate though, right there. Right. And that's what he does. Yep. Yep. He's, he's, this was a good, right game for him and a couple of, a couple of other guys for New Zealand.
00:17:51
Speaker
Right. Yes, it was. Anton Leonard Brown needed to try. He feels like it's been a while for him. Even in the super rugby, he was he was kind of off and he got he
Conclusion and Patreon Support
00:18:00
Speaker
got one. Yep. Got a good one. The conference back a little bit. Although, I mean, as poor as Italy was, that last try was pretty awesome. From Ioanni between he and Odagu. Yeah. I mean, that's it. Hmm.
00:18:20
Speaker
How do you start Maurici and Brex, rather than Brex and Odago at 13? Look at what happened when he came in. Yeah, I don't know what Kieran Kraut was looking at. And I know Maurici's not bad, but I think in terms of X factor, Odago's got it way more than Luca Maurici. And Maurici was like, I just thought he was absent. It's not about,
00:18:48
Speaker
you know, that he he's not good because he's not bad. But if you have the option to have. Garbisi, Brex. A dog woo. Capozzo, Ioanni and Allen all on the pitch at the same time, you fucking do it, especially against the all blacks, like give him your best shot. I don't think they did. No, I don't think it was right to pull Tommy Allen either, but I guess, you know, that was the call.
00:19:18
Speaker
Cause you can put Capote so back there, I guess, but damn, they got to stop thinking of a dog. Well, it was just a wing. Cause that's, I love that as an outside, I love what he brings as an outside center too. And again, as you said, working with Yoani, do that a lot more often as an outside center than as a wing opposite him. Right. Yeah. Be able to make things happen both ways.
00:19:44
Speaker
So yeah, I mean, anyway, I had a friend or a friend say, I guess, will this be the match of the tournament? I was like, no, this is not going to be the match. Unless Italy pulled it off. It could have been, but Italy just did not show up this game. No. Nope, nope, nope, nope. Because I'm still not sure that the All Blacks are that good.
00:20:07
Speaker
Yeah. It's very slow. Yeah. This is good. They whooped the team that didn't show up, but I still want to- They need to win those games. Yeah. They really need to win them in a fashion like this too. Yes. There can't be a mistake. Yeah. That's why it's almost like, oh, okay, are they back? We'll wait and hold up a minute. Let's pump the brakes because I think- Absolutely. Ireland or South Africa or France would have
00:20:33
Speaker
Largely done the same against the way that Italy team played. So, yep. Oh, and France is going to get their chance. Yeah. Oh, look out. Yeah. Um, yeah. All right. Let's get a move on from that. Shall we get away from the, yeah, let's just move on. Yeah. I'll agree to it. Although we don't need to, we don't need to dive into this one too much further, too further, too much further either Argentina and Chile. Um,
00:21:01
Speaker
Awesome that we were able to see this one on the rugby pitch for a change as opposed to the footy. Yeah.
00:21:09
Speaker
But I think the most we can say is, thank you, Chile, for showing up and playing in the manner in which you did, because that is the true spirit of the game. And I hope that inspires more people in their country to play. That looked like fun stuff to play, despite the fact that they got their heads kicked in a few times. You got to give them credit.
00:21:32
Speaker
I shuttered a thing how badly the US would have done the spot because this could have been the US spot. Argentina would have put up a century on them. They're not good. Good for Chile. Yeah. I know it's Chile.
00:21:52
Speaker
So we can temper expectations and temper and put that with that lens on it. Should Nick Sanchez be starting at 10 for Argentina in this last game? Because this is knockout. They lose, they're out. And hold on, who they play this week? Ben. Ben. I mean, I don't think there's a wrong answer here. Because you could still put, like,
00:22:22
Speaker
You could still have cut at us out there because you can still play the scene or something like I'm not really that impressed with Malia. No, that's that's a that's a possibility as well. So like maybe. But I don't think they're going to do that. I think they're going to put their guys out there. Yeah, they would. I mean, you know, it's I don't know. I feel like Sanchez at 10 gives them a better chance. You just.
00:22:50
Speaker
He is. He's a steady hand. And I know Santi's kind of got the flare about him. But I think Sanchez still possesses some of that, too. I know he's older. Yeah. And obviously can't doesn't have the wheels you might have once once did. But this is also the same guy that single handedly beat the Oblax. So. Right. I'm just confused. About Argentina, I don't know what the hell they are. We've seen him play three matches and I still don't know. What their identity is in attack, really.
00:23:21
Speaker
Yeah, it's like Mateo has been completely silent. Mm hmm. Completely silent. Like, how is he not scored a try? I don't think I don't think he has anyway. I don't think he might have scored since he scored this game. Oh, he scored this game. OK, sorry. But maybe not this game. I thought he scored this game. Nope. I made that up in my brain. OK. Oh, look at me. I wonder if let's let me find this out because I want to see what they have as far as statistics.
00:23:50
Speaker
That's going to be not by players. All right. I'll have to figure that out later, but I just don't. I don't know or I can't score short by teams anyway. How many of those have seen artisans score 10 tries?
00:24:13
Speaker
That's not helping. Yeah. About six or more in this game. Yeah. So they're just not scoring like they should with the players that they have. I don't know what to make of them at all. And that's why it's like I'm almost like start Santi to maybe kickstart something because Japan can be like you can run on Japan. We've seen that obviously.
00:24:36
Speaker
Um, I would, that's, that's what I would choose to do. So to answer the long winded answer is I could see starting Nicholas Sanchez, but I could also see him bringing him on late. Um, if you need to just kind of cool things out, or if you need just a change in energy, yeah, you could be, you could play 30 minutes. If you really like, you know, if you're in a situation where you need to pull your 10 or like just get a different energy at 10.
00:25:03
Speaker
to either close out the game or to to play it tight to win it. Mm hmm. That's that's the way I would go. No, because I would start sound to you to be like, let's fucking go because we got to go. That's to go. Yeah, I think I need to. Mm hmm. Anyhow. Well. Other continuing with the day, Fiji and Georgia. This is
00:25:32
Speaker
Fiji's inexperience in being in this situation definitely showed. But they had enough cool heads to prevail and get the job done. So this is probably one of those
00:25:45
Speaker
near perfect scenarios where you get the job done against a team that was competitive against you and probably was going to be from the start. Now they understand how to finish the job a little better. They were definitely forcing it. There's a line between staying true to your identity and forcing it. I think they went over the line and were forcing it a bit. Nobody wants to see the Fijian way more than I do.
00:26:10
Speaker
but you just have to understand like, it's not on, you know? And I know that's kind of how they like to do it. It's like, yeah, whatever, it's not on, fuck it. But like, maybe just bring that in a tiny bit, tiny bit. But they had so, the thing, so here's where I'm gonna disagree with that because they give themselves so many chances. They flooded, like, they just flooded the zone with attacking chances. And they got over when they needed to.
00:26:37
Speaker
And Georgia just, I don't think Georgia were a threat to really score a try this match. No, probably not. If Georgia really were knocking down their door, because I don't even remember how many entries into the 22 Georgia had, at least before half.
00:26:53
Speaker
They had a 9-0 lead, but it wasn't to me like nothing insurmountable. Again, that's talking about building the scoreboard versus scoring tries. And eventually, Fiji was going to score. They were knocking on the door too many times to just go completely
00:27:09
Speaker
without getting over. You're knocking on that door. You're going to cross the threshold eventually enough times. And that, to me, was the difference here. Because that's their style. So it's like dance with a girl with bronchia. And George didn't have the firepower to really ultimately keep up. So I'm OK with it. Although, you're right, it wasn't firing. I would also like to, and I don't know if you saw this, Jared. So you may be hearing it for the first time.
00:27:37
Speaker
Joshua Tuosova playing with a heavy heart. His seven-year-old had died and he found out before the match and he's staying with the team. He was staying around afterwards to take selfies with fans and stuff.
00:27:55
Speaker
amazing strength. I'd have been, you know, I know I did not put it that way. Yeah, yeah, I agree. Yeah, that's that was really sad to see it was right. And realizing that there's nothing you can do. You're literally half a planet away. Yeah, there's nothing to be done. So I respect the you know, either either way, I would respect the decision. This is, I think, personally harder for him this way. So I appreciate him taking the hard path on this one.
00:28:25
Speaker
Yeah. And I'm sure that couldn't have helped, right? There's got to be a little distraction amongst the locker room for that. So I think some of that went into it too. I think he wants to keep his own distraction before he has to deal with this thing head on. With life, yeah. He'll have to deal with it at some point, but while he's got this to still do that, he can
00:28:50
Speaker
have himself a moment of peace without having to think about it too, too hard. And not that I know anything about it, but I know when you have a child that's sick, it's forever hard on you until if they expire, if they don't, but it doesn't matter. It's still just so hard on you. Sometimes you just, sometimes parents just, you know, they're human. They seek a moment of peace and can't help. They can't be blamed.
00:29:19
Speaker
But now it's not at all But now he's really trying to find that piece because of because of the death. So yeah, I I don't blame him on it either decision Respect him wholeheartedly either way certainly Yeah, good. So good on him for putting in the shift that he did with with that wing on his brain. It's tough Also on a lighter note Roger Rogers not a wing. I don't think at this point new I put nice nice elivu out there
00:29:49
Speaker
and keeps Sammy at 12 or 13. Cause he does so much better there. He just didn't get enough of the ball. No. And the, and all the, all the getting sent to the bin business and so on and so forth. That wasn't helpful either. Um, and then there are guys that don't have many bad days, but this was bad day for Sam out of AC. I don't think there's any way around it. I,
00:30:16
Speaker
When I saw I can have Eric coming in, I was just like, well, this is going to be a relief because this actually is going to be productive now. And he was. Yeah. And it didn't help either that meta VAC wasn't like really at all that helpful in the loose. It was just a really.
00:30:30
Speaker
Oh, just tomorrow. Right. It's one of those. Everybody's look, we've all had that day. We just want to not think of find a hole and crawl in. That was that was some meta basis day. Yeah. That again contributed a lot to it. When you have your line out that you just can't get right. It's hard to get. It plays on your brain the rest of the way, too. It's really. Yeah. But like you're not going to have a good attack off of that. No. So no. Because you're going to think about even if it's good, you're like that when when it finally works.
00:31:00
Speaker
the team's too busy being like, holy shit, we actually want it to like do anything with it. It's like, even when you win, do it right. It's still sucks. Oh my God, what's this? Right. Once you fuck it up too much, the timing is off for everything. Everybody's just ready to scramble, not ready to just do what they're supposed to do. So he had one meter carry. That's very not amazing. Yeah, no bad, bad Sam. Better day, better days ahead for him. And it's okay to have a stinker here. Right.
00:31:25
Speaker
They're much worse spots to have it. And he didn't, he chose probably the okay game to get away with it. Right. Cause pretty much every, every one of his teammates kind of did, except for like Livani Bhatia. He was a wrecking machine.
00:31:39
Speaker
Oh, came in and he's like, I'm going to bowl people over until I'm tired of it and then I'll pop it for the try. Like, yeah, I got this. No problem. That was, that was, um, that was the habosi try, right? I basically just walked in because body had cleared the path. Yeah. Yeah. I was like, Oh, and the offload was delicious as well. Oh, that, that whole, the whole, the way that whole thing got set up, it was like, that is what they've been looking for the whole day. Yes. And it finally came off. Yep. God.
00:32:08
Speaker
uh and also my cover is a better ten than than tele i i'm saying that that's that's has a lot more to do with makava being a very good ten than it does with teddy tele yeah no we know we know tell us strengths and weaknesses he's yeah he's about bang average i think that's probably the most biggest compliment we can give him yeah he won't lose you the game but he won't win you the game no either no no no
00:32:35
Speaker
No, no, no, no, no. You can do worse. You can do better. Yeah. And then you guys really has got a freaking horse leg. Good Lord. I was like, Oh, that, that would have been dead from like 70. Holy shit. That was ridiculous. Banger on that thing. Good Lord.
00:32:49
Speaker
Uh, let's go to very anticlimactic cone to Scotland, Romania, unfortunately. Yeah. Well, I mean, look, I didn't think it was going to be close. Right. But you didn't quite see yellow cards at one point. I think they were down to 13. Like she's right. Uh, where were the cards? Do, did you do?
00:33:11
Speaker
Just looking back through the, uh, um, the coverage. There's like, just starting at the end is like, try, try, try, try, try conversion, try conversion. It's like, holy shit. Yeah. Never, never really sees the last 15 minutes. It was just tries. Yeah. And converts. It's hard to rest the match. Um,
00:33:37
Speaker
It's, it's so hard for Romania and I know they're, they lost, they, they, they fired the coach earlier. He quit. I don't remember which one it was, but it doesn't matter. Uh, not too long before the tournament kicked off. So that was obviously very disruptive. Um, yeah, some of these guys are certainly, you know, playing in lower level professional leagues. And so they're playing for, um, you know, their, their local club. And there's not.
00:34:07
Speaker
There's not much to offer for them, unfortunately. And, you know, some of these guys definitely need to get the fuck out of wherever they are and try and get onto some sort of championship. Hey, we got spots over here in the MLR team. That might actually help.
00:34:22
Speaker
to start that. Yeah, something like that. It's not gonna be perfect, but they just need to get more players in a more professional environment. Because they have shown in results past that they can bang around with some of these teams. Scotland not really being one of them, but
00:34:39
Speaker
if they put in that type of level of performance, then Scotland's not running by them every five seconds there. No, but this is this is the kind of team that that the U.S. what 2019 was actually beat like this is their like B side or show. I mean, there's some there's a lot of their A side in there. Don't get me wrong. But there's enough B cidery because I remember Hogg was on that team that the U.S. beat, too. So it's like.
00:35:04
Speaker
Yeah, they like Scott. First off, that's a testament to where Scotland's come from in the last four years. Yeah, true. More so than than anything else, but like. Yeah, Romania just got like they got. I got boat raced. It was never in doubt, obviously, early. It started early and just kept going pretty consistently.
00:35:27
Speaker
Quite Yeah, it was born early and often it was like Every five or six minutes there others to try her, you know, maybe maybe not more than eight or nine minutes It's for try I think 72 hours ago if you told Johnny Matthews you'd be scoring a try at the World Cup I think you snapped your hammer hand off and
00:35:52
Speaker
because he was the replacement for the replacement. Right. So, it's, hey, you never know. Make yourself available and it can happen sometimes. Right. Good for him. That was a fun try. Yeah, good for him. The setup was pretty, throughout the whole thing, was really good too. Never mind how it got put down.
00:36:19
Speaker
Lots of credit to them for that one. Let's go to Sunday. Australia and Portugal.
00:36:41
Speaker
If this was any other team besides Portugal, I don't know if this would have been that good of a result. The word I would use is unconvincing. Quite. Because if Portugal had hit on a reasonable amount of their chances, they win this game. Yeah, and I think the attack numbers support most of that.
00:37:09
Speaker
Gator said the most meters know that Possession our Portugal had 56% possession. Yeah, I remember seeing that 5528 attack meters, which isn't bad 607 for oh Wait, no, I'm sorry. No, they had no they had meters. Yeah 607 meters Yeah 140 runs
00:37:35
Speaker
Twenty nine defenders were Portuguese. Twenty nine defenders beaten. This time and 11 offloads. That's you should win that game. The. There were one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight players that had three. Hold on. Pardon me. That had three or more.
00:38:04
Speaker
Um, mistackles and seven of them are Australian. Hmm. Corbett a Valentini Donaldson Kelloway now walked in a Wassey Perez. I all had three or more who already had four and so Valentini. So not really awesome in terms of that. No, so speaks well to what they could do in attack for Portugal started off hot with getting bent, bent toward over. Um,
00:38:35
Speaker
just never quite figured out how, excuse me, never quite figured out how to finish. And Australia got, you know, they were, they were almost perfect in their chances in terms of finishing off chances they got. So that was pretty much the balance of it. I mean, Richard Arnold's been kind of stiff.
00:38:57
Speaker
Yes, since he's come to Australia and like he looked very like skeleton me on that try. And that wasn't because he was looking good. It was because of the Portugal just didn't play him as well as they should have or the I don't remember who popped it to him, but it was. Yeah, it was just kind of a misplay there making and making Australia look a little bit better than they are. And that, you know, it's that it's that margin, you know, it's the little bit of player margin that's that that changed that game.
00:39:23
Speaker
Right. Portugal are right there. Like the score was a lot tighter. That doesn't really reflect. Like, I don't think Australia were 34 points good. And I don't think Portugal. Portugal should like 14 points doesn't reflect their the game that they had. So it's a little, little, you know, over enhanced on one side and a little under inflated on the other. So this could do this could go either way next time. Whenever that next time will be.
00:39:52
Speaker
Yeah, whatever it is. Portugal have one more game, I believe. Or do they? Yeah, they do. They play. No, they don't. They play PG. Oh, is that right? Yes, they're there at the bottom. OK, yeah. Yeah, last game we'll play.
00:40:13
Speaker
And that's another one where they like, so this is the other thing is this, this is a potential spoiler game for them. Um, so you got to figure that Australia you're going to come out and, and, and be fired up too. So it's not just that they're playing Australia. It's that there's implications. And again, they're facing implications because if Fiji lose this, um, they're, they're probably out. Oh, yeah.
00:40:42
Speaker
Yeah. Cause the tiebreakers head to head. Okay. And they've obviously got the win over Australia. So they only need a point so they can either keep within seven or score four tries and they'll be fine. But I think, I think it'll be a little easier than that. Thankfully, as long as I keep their heads on. Yeah. Don't disagree there. Yeah. And then, and then, then.
00:41:08
Speaker
South Africa Tonga to finish off the weekend. I mean, Paula's back. That's an upside for them and it's clear the difference between
00:41:21
Speaker
coming up, what's coming up, what's coming off the tee with him and what's coming off the tee with Lebok. Although Lebok had a couple of nice. Yeah. He just needs Andre Paul. I had to put an arm around and be like, I got you dude. And all of a sudden the pressure's off and he doesn't do it. It's like, come on man. Anyway. Um, yeah, there was a whole lot to not like about Tonga. And then there was some to like about Tonga. It was just,
00:41:49
Speaker
I think I'm out on Willy Haveli just overall at this point. Yeah, I mean, I've wanted to like him for some time and I wanted like I kind of wanted to get over this hump, but he was bad this game. He was not good. He was not good at all. Attacking optional for Willy Haveli it seemed. Yeah, you know.
00:42:14
Speaker
Like to me you got to get Celeste Piazzale closer like it's almost yeah, I know it's kind of like putting Alex Gude at 10 and that that comes with its pluses and minuses, but I feel like Piazzale would do a lot better with it and He'd at least present like you got to get in the ball more and Haveli is not helping get the ball to Piazzale He needs to be I would I would think you would be your second receiver option and
00:42:41
Speaker
Yeah, I just, I didn't see often enough except for when he, he stole the ball in that. Yeah. Oh, that was awesome. Yeah. Agreed. Agreed. Agreed. So you think that's what it was or really wasn't that great defensively. And then I don't think he was a good distributor. No, no, I agree with that. Um, before we get to South Africa, um, you gotta give credit to a guy like to bed Tamifuna who's been
00:43:08
Speaker
Since last World Cup, he's definitely been through it a little bit. You know, he was told by his current club, like you're...
00:43:15
Speaker
Essentially, you're too fat. He cut his... He's not that much bigger than he is now. He does resemble a bowling ball in many ways. Yeah, but he seems to be putting it to use. Yeah, he is. He does. But he played, how many minutes? 55. 55, yeah. That's a good shift for him. That's a good shift for him. That's fair. That's what you want. He's productive in those minutes. It's not like he's... He sort of tried to.
00:43:41
Speaker
Yeah, he's not like he's, you know, just kind of hobbling around the field. He's, he's getting shit done. So it's really hard to just like, discount him. So I, I admire the guy for, you know, just basically telling the club that told him he's too bad to go fuck themselves and go on to another one. And, you know, here he is captaining his country at the next World Cup. So. Right. And scored against South Africa. So yeah, good for him.
00:44:04
Speaker
Yeah, scored 38 minutes in to a half. That takes him doing for a tight end prop. And he was he'd been busy before that, too. It's not like he was, you know, some some props are cagey and only really insert themselves when they're scoring opportunities. No idea. Present company included. That was that was not the day that Ben Tamifuna was having. He was being active all over the pitch. And yeah, so for and.
00:44:31
Speaker
It is humorous to see a gentleman of that size do the things that he was doing. But he's good at it. So yeah, I appreciate what you were saying there. Because it's like, yeah, somebody if he's too fat, he gets it done. Shut the fuck up. Yeah. Yeah. I'm never one to judge your shape or your weight. I just want you get the job done. I don't give a fuck.
00:44:54
Speaker
Um, Patrick Pellegrini maybe gets the start in this last game here. So we can get a win. That'd be good. That'd be nice. Cause that, that try signal and Lee gave them at least a spark, even though they were, it was the game was gone, but right. But still damn. Oh, that's true. That, yeah. No, I'm sorry. That was the, that was the trick. Put him in at 10. I figured out the trick. I got it. That was it. Yeah. On the other side. I mean,
00:45:24
Speaker
Not much. I don't have a ton bad to say about South Africa in this game. They did the job. The right guys were involved. We always have time to shit on Billy LaRue.
00:45:36
Speaker
Like it took two defenders just bottling that situation for him to score. So totally like he totally just ran that he, his whole line was wrong. His like, everything was just bad and he got it anyway. Cause defenders were just like, I'm not sure I want to tackle right now. Yeah. They're just, they were smoked and I'm pretty sure one of them was, uh, was, uh, was heavily. Yep. You know, he almost set up.
00:46:01
Speaker
one of the Tonga tries because he balled the cross kick. I was like, dude, if that falls to someone else's hands, if that did not go into touch, he would have been just putting his head into his hands, like what just happened? And it was just something so simple that all he had to do was catch the goddamn thing or let it go one way or the other. It's fine. But other than that, yeah, I mean,
00:46:27
Speaker
No hooker. I was hoping that would burn him. It didn't, but also this is Tonga, not, you know, any of the other top 10 teams. And Fourier played all right. I mean, he wasn't bad. He's always been good in the loose. That's not a mystery. He's good in the loose. That's not a thing. I will say they struggled in the scrum. Yeah, it wasn't great. So I will say they struggled in the scrum. So that's one of those things.
00:46:51
Speaker
Yeah, you're talking about a guy that's been training for what, maybe a month at this position, Ben Stodden, same thing as opposed to somebody that's been, you know, doing this for the majority of the career. Right. There is a difference. Yeah. To me, it's a lot easier for some, like honestly.
00:47:05
Speaker
having done it before and having tried to coach people to do it, I think it's easier to move from like prop to hooker. And yeah, I know you're kind of sacrificing a little bit of running around, but if you have a mobile prop, that's still not a bad idea. Yeah. Yeah. Their whole front row is a fucking mess anyway. Yeah. They're having problems over there. Right. That's why they're putting these guys at hooker in the first place.
00:47:29
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, yeah, I was really kind of surprised that that they gave I would have given for a half and an MVS a half. Personally, because they both need time. Yeah. So to get that side in just just 20 minutes, I wasn't sure about that. Well, he didn't even know. Right. That's that, too. Oh, that's right. You did wait. Yeah, before you didn't even come out. You didn't come off.
00:47:55
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I don't, I don't think that's not even hooked. Wow. Went in the back row when he came on. Okay. Yeah. So, I mean, that is the plus of having a flanker at, at hooker is that they can just go all game. They probably don't need to be replaced. Yeah. They're probably used to it still. And they're not helping at all in the scrum, because they don't know how. No, they don't let the props do the work, I suppose, but still. All right. So.
00:48:24
Speaker
That's the end for that. Um, yeah, we're going to have, we're going to go over to fantasy corner. We're talking official prem, fancy, Ruby game. Yay. They figured it out. Son of a bitch. Finally, finally, as I said, finally. Um, yeah, so we're going to head over there. Um, if you're not, if you're not heading over there, we do appreciate you all for hanging out and listening to us babble. Um,
00:48:55
Speaker
Make sure you get Georgia a coffee and enjoy yourself the last round of Cool Play and we'll talk to you all real soon. Thanks a lot everyone. Have a good one. Later. Cheers.
00:49:20
Speaker
If you'd like to ask a question or leave us general feedback, email us at fantasyrugbypodcastatgmail.com. Too far, you guy, by the way. Yeah, exactly. The ticky tackiness kind of absolutely pisses me off. Be sure you check out our Patreon at patreon.com slash thefantasyrugbyings. Yeah.