Transcript
Speaker: Happy Festivus, everybody. How's it going? We are here to air grievances and say something nice about somebody that we don't like. Hey, this was your idea. Remember that. Would you would you care to explain what the Festivus is?
Speaker: So Festivus comes from an iconic Seinfeld episode where it's a non -denominational, non -religious holiday around the Christmas time where you gather the family around the aluminum pole and you perform feats of strength and you air your grievances. It's a way to clear the air and just get all the shit out to be prepared for the new year. But no tinsel because it's distracting.
Speaker: I did some, my wife sent me a picture from somebody at work. It was a silver pole and it said for the rest of us a sticky note. I was like, ah, that's good. And so I figured we'd bring that into the fantasy rugby yanks. We did it last year and I found it was a very popular episode actually. It's enjoyable. I was actually pleasantly surprised by that.
Speaker: So the airing of grievances, that's pretty self -explanatory. We talk about shit that's annoyed us this year. Or for a while, but yes, mostly for this year. And the ultimate feat of strength.
Speaker: It's saying something nice about somebody you don't like or something you don't like. For instance, last year, I think my feat of strength was to say something nice. I said something nice about French rugby. Yeah, you did. I said something nice about Diane. Right. But the start is the airing of grievances, where you've got a lot of bones to pick with all you fuckers.
Speaker: I got a lot of bones to expect too. I had an easy time figuring out which ones I wanted to put out of here though. I'll let my colleague Jared have first crack at the airing of Grievance's. Hurry, ladies first. Oh, wait. Grievance number one, and this would be of no surprise to anybody that's listened to this for longer than five seconds.
Speaker: We have got some terrible, terrible rugby carrying services over here in the United States. And I am just fed up with it. Like the amount of money that is forked over by those of us that are, yeah, and just the rugby loving public.
Speaker: The United States and these are loyal rugby fans that are like I really want to watch the rugby So I'll bite the bullet and get this service But the the level of which the that the service has been provided Especially by two services that come off the top of my head NBC Sports and flow rugby the level is just so piss poor in terms of just simple stuff like
Speaker: And we talked about NBC Sports doesn't have halftime shows. And oftentimes, they're missing the referee mic, which is really fucking annoying. And it's like, can I hear what the hell this guy's fucking saying? Because it's helpful to know why things are going on. Rugby players like that stuff. I don't know if you notice. And even if you want to watch the replay on NBC Sports, they'd start it like two seconds before kickoff. So you don't get any of the, I mean, you do get a little bit of the lineups. Sometimes. Sometimes.
Speaker: Sometimes it's just like, oh, there we go. We're kicking off. Let's go. Yeah, it's like really nice. So you got to sort out who the commentators are. Especially if there's been a drop in the lineup. You want to know that. Yeah. You know, like obviously we talked about Munster and Saracens in their last game. Peter and Armani getting dropped late. I was like, yeah, we definitely wouldn't have found that out. Right. So it was like, oh, that's annoying. But anyway, and then obviously Flora has just been terrible for many, many years. It's not a mystery to anybody that's been around here for longer than five seconds.
Speaker: It's it's two problems that I really really really would like to be addressed for especially if we're gonna continue to make rugby a thing here, you know people say I went a couple years ago when Saracen's match got over
Speaker: over overruled more or less. I can't think of the correct term here, but did not get aired because they were waiting on qualifying for some stupid indie open wheel racing. I don't know if it was Formula One qualifying was delayed by rain. So that was
Speaker: That was what stopped the Saracens match from being aired. I was so pissed, and this is obviously what caused me to bite the bullet, but just like NBC Sports in general, it's like, come on, and I won't say who it was, but he's like, oh, NBC's committed to rugby long term. Okay, well then you need to show it because you can't be having
Speaker: Delayed qualifying like tell them to go to another channel or put it on your your app or something to be like Oh, if you're waiting for the qualifying, it's gonna be on the NBC app or something like that. That's a simple gives a fuck about If you care that much about open wheel racing you are in the wrong country. Sorry, buddy I know I'm probably in the wrong country for rugby, but fuck all you know, at least let me watch a match is being played right god's sake nuts Not delayed qualifying. So that's the that's the that's numero uno there. I
Speaker: So my first grievance I have is against some commentators and nobody in specific, because it's not something that I've noticed from specific announcers or commentators. I can think of a commentator that I'd love to smack, but that's a different story for today.
Speaker: But so a lot of a lot of sports are changing. And to my opinion, for the better, especially and rugby to me is at the forefront of that, where they care a lot about the safety of the players more than anything else. And that's big because you play fucking 22 matches, you know, in the premier show. Plus, yeah. Plus, plus all the you know, the champions club. Plus, plus. If you play for International Club. Yeah.
Speaker: Just a lot going on. We want to keep the players safe. And what I fucking hate is when you see, uh, something that, that may, yeah, it might've been something that was allowed a couple of years ago, but isn't now for good fucking reason. And the commentators are like, Oh, back in my day, that's fine. No, yes, that was fine in your day, but guess what? It's not, it's not that you're showing your age asshole. Good job. That's all your show. Like, yeah, back in my day, it was fun. Somebody's laying on the other side of the ruck. You fucking boot him. It's awesome.
Speaker: I remember those days. I do remember those days. That wasn't that long ago. No, it wasn't. But they've taken that out, and it was probably a good idea. It's a very good idea. So to me, this came up with the. I'd smash people. The whining about, because it was Skelton gave. Somebody a face wash. Somebody a face wash. Or else, maybe. No. Who gives a fuck? Yeah, you got a little bit of a face wash. It was no big deal. There was nothing malicious about it. It was just a guy getting a little bit of. Yeah, get a little business there.
Speaker: Yeah, a hand of the mug, it happens. And yeah, but like 15 years ago, instead of a face wash, he's getting fucking tread on bad by fucking Will Skelton. And so it's like, okay, yeah, see what Skelton did wasn't dirty, but it also wasn't, you know, it wasn't the nicest thing, but it wasn't the worst thing you could do. But like to go the other way is just like,
Speaker: Some of these hits, like the elbows to the throat that we've seen in the last couple of weeks from runners on tacklers.
Speaker: That shit's got to go. Yeah. And we can have it. Yeah. OK. Back in my day, you could do that. Well, guess what? That's not good. That's how dudes end up with broken jaws and concussions and all kinds of shit. And fucking, yeah, necks and head injuries and shit like that. So we're cleaning up the game from things that used to be. Right. Let's leave the past in the past. If you want us to talk about it, joke about it, like, yeah, they let us do that shit all the time. That's, yeah, OK. That's one thing to do about that, but to bitch about it. Yeah, we could talk about how silly it was, but let's
Speaker: Let's live in the now don't need don't need to bitch about it. I agree Okay number two and this is something that's definitely reared its ugly head in the last few weeks for me And it's just it happened at the World Cup and did it uh oh my lord French refereeing what the actual fuck?
Speaker: What the actual fuck? So here's the thing, we've come to know French refereeing to be what it is. And the thing that baffles me is, how is one world rugby okay with this? And two, how are the French okay with being like the shitty referees? They're just like, yeah, we'll be the shit referees that nobody likes. Why are you okay with that? Do you not have pride or you simply just don't give a fuck? I'm guessing it's the latter, but still.
Speaker: to have the referee on the Saracens batch right now awful just downright awful misses calls left and right and for both sides this is not just a Saracens thing and his decision -making is very timid and very like uh
Speaker: I I don't want to make too many people mad shut up You have the whistle you have the cards you get to make the decisions dude It makes people mad when you don't make that decision when you just kind of like let things play It's like what the fuck dude like tell me, you know, how do I play you? Like I don't know how I? Operate within what you want me to do because you're not talking to me all that shit. Yeah. Yeah Yeah, it makes people like trying to make people not mad makes them more mad. Yeah, it's like just
Speaker: giving a goddamn decision, number one. Number two, be consistent. That is the most frustrating thing for any athlete with any refereeing, and there's some that are always gonna be super inconsistent, like balls and strikes in baseball, just how it is. It's just how it is. And people are like, oh, robot umpires. I'm like, they tried that, and it was basically the same fucking thing, so no. But anyway, back to the whole French referee. It boggles my mind.
Speaker: why world rugby and European rugby are okay with them to continue to be just complete garbage in terms of refereeing and just to be a complete lottery in terms of, you know, especially the breakdown. Like I said with Roman plot, just an absolute lottery at the breakdown. No idea how it's going to be called. And we talked about Garces is very good. It's very bad about like having the field tilted to one side for a half at a time. And it's like,
Speaker: That's not how it works. No, you're supposed to referee as you see it. And obviously there's a point where any referee is going to have a picture painted to a certain point, but they don't get that way. They start out that way. They're that way from the word go. They're not that way after a while. They are as that right from get go. So just French rugby and French refereeing.
Speaker: Europe world rugby just Smack somebody and friggin start, you know slapping some bitches. Please stop rewarding them for it Yeah, stop. Don't give him a goddamn final right Garces has gotten you know Garces wasn't awful, but he's gotten two big finals in the last year I don't think he deserved those especially the World Cup final. I think there were five other guys I would rather have in there besides him. So knock it off Onto my second and final final grievance USA rugby
Speaker: Oh boy, here we go. I was wondering if we're going to get to this can of worms.
Speaker: How long do we have? Yeah. They have no fucking clue what they're doing. No. From on any level. Yeah. Like they don't like and actually we're seeing it. So my wife who is a college coach is seeing and she's called coach of a small college with a fairly storied tradition. So that's kind of cool. But they're still kind of in the national small college association. Yeah.
Speaker: That are they're increasingly moving away from USA rugby. So they're not sipping players. So USA rugby is talking about how oh We're not we're not having as many sipped players and this and that but a lot of high school and college teams are now moving away from the USA rugby Umbrella and kind of making their own Federation of it. Oh, that's interesting right because USA rugby has no fucking clue what no, I agree but If we get away from that, that'd be great. It's such a top -down approach that they have and
Speaker: As far as they want to they want to look good on the net on the international scene and that's fine I like I love it. I love especially the seven there are two sevens programs the men's women's are fantastic
Speaker: Right well Yeah for sevens for sevens the problem is it doesn't translate to 15s and the fifth actually the women's 15s team is pretty fucking good They've gotten better. They've gotten a lot better, but that's also because the women's game is still emerging. So we're kind of We're at the forefront with the forefront of that. Yeah, so so good for them But from the men's side of it, they look they want names. They want names. They want these big they want stud players and
Speaker: and it's no matter where they come from whether they know rugby and they they just don't know how to teach players rugby because um part of it is that they they maintain that football mindset and I think that's kind of where we still are where I get the ball and I run until i'm tackled rather than Hey, I I get the ball and I got five guys outside me or five people outside me might be time to shift it And maybe I shift it and I want to use all six of us. Yeah
Speaker: You know, I agree. I don't want to just run until I'm tackled because that makes it so much fucking easier on the defense. But they want the players who get that ball and they they tote that rock and they put it over the line. It's like that's not how rugby works. No, but they want that. You know, they want the to throw a bunch of money and stuff and resources at developing some of these, you know, the next big thing rather than just developing players overall and taking the best of the of a whole
Speaker: slew of players that actually play with each other. They're spending so much money on these camps and these different groups, like the ARPTs, the American Rugby Pro Training Center, which I'm assuming is USA Rugby funded, at least on some level. And all we get out of that is garbage. When they go to play national sevens tournaments, I don't think they play 15s at all.
Speaker: They get fucking housed and it's like well, what good are you? How can you these are pro athletes and they don't know how to they don't know how to play rugby No, they don't and it's like how can you be a professional rugby player and not know how to play the game? Yeah, trying to get a kind of trying to get a understand the rules and going back to your last bone to pick and
Speaker: Guess who USA Rugby partners are? The fucking French. So no wonder we get shit referees and shit coaches and shit players because they're only thinking about themselves. The referees really need to do a better job of talking to players. Same thing as the French referees. Our referees need to just tell the players what they're playing and what conditions they're playing in.
Speaker: And don't blow the whistle as soon as you see an infraction like they don't know how to play it There's a thing called advantage, right? Or just tell a player who if a player doesn't know what they're doing and they have their hand in the rock Just tell them get your hands out of the rock. Yeah, and In my experience as a referee nine times out of ten. Guess what they do? And then the one player who doesn't then you're like, okay now it's advanced now now you go to advantage and
Speaker: And then, you know, unless it's egregious or whatever, and then you go to, you know, I want to keep that that game moving. They just want to call the penalty and do that. And it's like, can you just like, first off, that infraction wasn't that serious. You didn't really need to call the penalty immediately. At least you could have done this advantage or play it out or warning or something to let the player know that they're doing something wrong. But they don't. They go right to the whistle. And then the coaches, again, it's that same football mindset of let's go out and beat the shit out of this other team like
Speaker: No, no football that doesn't work. So no, it doesn't like But we we need to have more resources into teaching the players the coaches and the referees how to actually
Speaker: How the sport works because i've done all i've i've done pretty much as much training as you can do Right formally with usa. It's almost it's almost not worth it And it doesn't it doesn't really teach you much of anything. No, I I agree with that for sure Um, so so they gotta sort their shit out and and especially now that they're they're they're declaring bankruptcy and really like Good job. It's basically falling apart with them They gotta fix their shit I agree
Speaker: Okay, you can keep going okay, I thought of two No, it was An honorable mention to sure stupid people that gripe about stupid shit on that they think When they think nothing's been done wrong about their team also don't and this is for everybody don't I
Speaker: tweet at athletes when you're frustrated with your fantasy sports teams because that's they give precisely zero fucks about your fantasy sports team. So shut up. If I have added you, it's because I appreciate you. Yeah. Don't don't be. Yeah. Like, and that's that's that's the reason to add somebody is because you like them. If you're going to add somebody, be a dickhole. Positive place, not a negative. Like, oh, fuck you. I was going to. No, no, no, that's not. They don't give a fuck anyway. So it's your point. All right. Onto something nice.
Speaker: And you know feed his strength There's a particular scum half that we have had a lot comes out But I'm picking one of them, okay that I can think of and He's half the clerk
Speaker: Nah, fuckers, I'm out. I know, right? Listen, this is a feat of strength. This is your feat of strength. This is a feat of strength here, okay? I'm trying. I'm praying for you, bud. He's won a World Cup. He's been on a World Cup team, and he looks fantastic in budgies. In South African budgies, at least.
Speaker: So you gotta give him I'll give I'll give him that at least so it's a pretty man Yeah, and yeah, he's these what do we say? He's like a cross between Jamie and Tyrion. Yeah So it's not he's not the worst looking man and he's one He's one a world cup for his country, which is in desperate need of some uplifting. So I
Speaker: I'll give him that and i'll give him the fact that you know He was the starting to come out for said team and he looks pretty damn good in the south african budgies. So i'll give him that one Wow, that is an impressive I I can't beat that feat of strength. I can't because that's just too much Um, but but I will i'll give my own uh to somebody that that fuck For as long as as I can remember watching watching rugby on the uh
Speaker: You know the interwebs and whatnot and the interwebs There's been one particular announcer who you just every time he says something you just like shut the fuck up. I Know this is I think But lately
Speaker: I find myself nodding to some of the things he's saying and being less annoyed by the things that he said. Even when he's right for the wrong reasons, I'm like, you know what? Fuck it. Whatever. Austin Healy.
Speaker: Uh -huh. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I know that's right. You did not a couple times. I have a couple times. So I'm going with this officially and saying, you know what? The guy isn't wrong all the time and he can continue talking for the next. He's got his probably just still this year and he is kind of one of those back in my day. So, so that does apply to him sometimes. Yes.
Speaker: And like I said, he's even when he's he's right for the wrong reasons. So like he he whines about the prevalence of box kicks. And he's like, it's just so boring. And it's like, well, yes, it's boring. I agree. And the caterpillar rocks. First off, they don't take that much time to set up. So it's not like they're taking a minute. It might be like 10, 15 seconds. And right, you know, sometimes now the referees are getting ahead of that and saying play it even before they're really forming started. So so they got to get there. They have to get right. So they pull that ball out and they kick it and it's off.
Speaker: He's wrong. I mean, yes, it's boring. He's right that it's boring, but he's wrong. That's why they should stop doing it. They should stop doing it because they're giving away an opportunity to play their own ball. Like you see a lot of what happens at the Champions Cup. We we talked about that. Oh, fuck, which match was it? The
Speaker: One of yours fuck fuck fuck fuck the two french sides Montpellier to lose Montpellier to lose Um about how it was ballsy to lose to run it out from their own end But we've seen that end and tries a couple times with the saints did it too in their first champions cup, uh match Where they're just you know play it from your own end see what the fuck happens and and and maybe good things might happen rather than You know, if you look if you're doing a box kick to try to reclaim that ball
Speaker: Okay, fine. Okay, but the the box kick one way then the box the other then the box kick back That does get boring just fucking wasting a possession play with the ball Try to do something like play rugby and and so that's that is it Steve Carell meme
Speaker: no yeah stop kicking right so so he's right it gets bored when they do it too much but um they shouldn't stop doing it they shouldn't take it out of the game they shouldn't you know i would like to then take for them to take the caterpillar ruck out
Speaker: Whatever. I think he bitches about that too much, but it is what it is. But again, he's shown a lot more insight recently than he has in the past, and he's being a lot less of a knob. So I will give Austin Healy some credit for some quality announcer chops he's shown. There you go. Isn't that nice of you to say?
Speaker: All right, we have grievances aired and our nice things have been said about people we don't like, feats of strength shown. That was tough. Yeah, so when you're all sitting around with the family that you want to punch in the face, remember your feat of strength and do your best. Until then, make sure that you guys are hanging out with us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, and tune in and catch us on the other side of the Christmas here.
Speaker: and everybody have a Merry Christmas and a Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, so on and so forth. Again, if I missed one, sorry. Happy Festivus. Happy Festivus. And Happy New Year. Happy Festivus for the rest of us. Happy New Year. Everybody have a good one. Later.
