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Season 4- Episode 35- Mascot Not Talisman (Champions Cup QF & Super Rugby Round 12)
35 Plays3 years ago
It is those American rugby knuckleheads, coming at you. On this episode we have a look at a very big weekend in European rugby including something many of us have not seen ever in Limerick. Obviously we include the action over in France and two legendary clubs doing battle at a legendary park. Of course, we hop on down to Super Rugby as we see the knockout candidates come to the front, including the top 4 that will host home post-season matches. Then, we look at the incomparable Free Jacks and their post-season preparations can begin after their result this Friday, and could they get even better? It's all this and much much more, grab a drink and join us for a laugh.
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Ask us questions via Twitter: Jarrod- jdyke8man & Ben- admrablsnackbar, and #AskTFRY.
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Promotion
00:00:08
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome back. It is the Fancy Rugby Games. My name is Jared Dyke. I'm Ben Glauser. Let's get into it, my friend. Not so much to dive into, but lots of good things to dive into within each match at least. I mean, there was some excellent rugby all around this weekend. Yeah, including. And the first one will kick off within a second here, but yeah. But I need a beer for that. Yeah, I do too.
00:00:30
Speaker
I think all of Cork needs it as well in Limerick. Obviously you want to find us on your favorite podcast app. Download, rate, review, share, all those good things. I have got the final little evidence of Buffalo I'm willing to admit here. Nice.
Sponsor Highlight and Listener Engagement
00:00:51
Speaker
I'm going with the one good thing that came out. The Free Jacks, excellent sponsor since we can't get backsters down here.
00:00:59
Speaker
A storm along is quite good and is readily available, so I will purchase their stuff while I can. Yeah, so make sure that you are helping out our good friend George by getting him a coffee slash beer. The fancy rugby geek, he's
00:01:19
Speaker
It's likely that some of you are closing in on like playoffs and last couple rounds of each of these competitions and it's likely that you'll also be leaning on this man's advice. So do yourself a favor and pay your respects to the man and give him a hand here. Yeah, that is true. It's out of respect. That's all.
00:01:41
Speaker
Um, obviously we're not into it this week, but grab your TRM upgrades for the, the closing rounds, because it's only going to help you, especially with, you know, we could be have some teams that are on nothing. I mean, the last couple of weeks here. So you never know what they're going to throw in there.
00:01:57
Speaker
And it's always helpful to be able to say, certainly players that you might think are playing, they may get a week off. So it's helped, you know, there's, there's been times where I've just been like, Oh, that part, you know, like, um, you know, max mail-ins when he's back from whatever and it's when he's back from international. So it's like, Oh, okay. Yeah. I'm just going to throw him in and then, Oh, nope. He's not playing it. Fuck. Like now you gotta know what it's like. It's just completely out of any plan. You might have the, uh, the dots help a lot. Yes, I do. Yes, I do.
Social Issues in Rugby
00:02:26
Speaker
And as always on this podcast, Black Lives Matter, there is no room for racism in sports or in life. We were just sitting here discussing, like, so which way are we going with this? Yeah, it's so bad. And we haven't acknowledged. I don't believe we've acknowledged Patrick Leoria, who was shot in the back of the head by by a police officer after an altercation, blah, blah, blah.
00:02:56
Speaker
Yeah, we got to fix this so that it's not OK for a police officer to just execute someone, whether, you know, whether they claim it wasn't there was another one of those. I thought it was my taser or something like that. No, there's no excuse for you. You know, with a taser, you don't need a fucking headshot. You're not that was, you know, whatever. Let's let's hope he gets justice. Yeah, it's just can we not can we not just keep hope? Like if justice is the best we can hope for, it's not getting better. No, it probably isn't.
00:03:26
Speaker
Agreed. There's a huge weight difference between a taser and a gun. Like, come on. Yeah. Goddamn. They know what they're doing. It's just an excuse. It's like when you watch The Wire, right? One of the first episodes when it was a prez, hits a kid and takes out his eye, and
00:03:48
Speaker
uh, was it Daniels comes to him and like, just gives him a story to tell. And it's like, this is, this is what happens. And it happens in real life. Yeah. Right. It really does. It's like, that's not, that's, that's not made up for TV. That's, you know, David Simon's experience by reporting on it. Yep. Yeah. Agreed.
Podcast Recommendations and Tributes
00:04:10
Speaker
Also, grab your Patreon, grab our Patreon because, again, as I said before, it's likely some of you are closing into on to final weeks and playoffs and all that shit. And you never know what it could come in handy. And as I said, when I posted the
00:04:25
Speaker
uh, the super rugby sheet this afternoon. Uh, I apologize. I didn't get it out last week. I swear I did. So I went to, and it wasn't until I went and checked the, the Patreon today to upload the, the latest one that I realized, Oh, we didn't, uh, that does happen sometimes. Unfortunately, we didn't get it up. How the hell did that not happen? Um, so I must've not, I must've closed out the tab before I.
00:04:43
Speaker
I hit the right button. So my apologies, but it's up there now. It's up now. And those of you that are involved in playoffs this week, then I'm sure you'll find it handy and we'll get, and we'll get premiership up before next week's round as well. Yep. And then, um, again, I'm going to plug this one more time. Uh, if you're looking for a new podcast and need some insight on what it's like over here for a club rugby, love and rugby involves, uh,
00:05:08
Speaker
a teammate of Ben and I's and his wife. They sit there and talk about a lot of things about Club Rugby in America. And this week's episode is a sad one because we say farewell to our old friend Fast Eddie. And Eddie played his last match the other week while we were out in Buffalo and gave the man a hug and a kiss because I don't know when we'll see him again apart from maybe one more matchup in Portland. But, right.
00:05:34
Speaker
46 years old, the guy's just an absolute club legend. And a beast. I mean, totally will tune you up. And one of those guys who, yeah, the, you know, the prop who can also play seven, like, legit play at that level. It's yeah, he's...
00:05:51
Speaker
one of a kind. His, his head is made of concrete. I swear. Right. It is so ridiculous. So as our shoulders, I'm pretty sure. Yeah, I would bet that I bet. Look, there's not many guys who I didn't want to get hit by in my career. Um, even in practice, uh, Eddie was one of those. I generally work to avoid. There's Eddie. I'm running the other way. Yeah. Yeah. So go check out, check out that with, with Dave Sachin and Eddie this week, it was, uh,
00:06:20
Speaker
If you're, if you're, if you're of, if you've got the heartstrings, they're going to pull like that much. So go ahead and check those, those folks out. Give them a humanized rating cause they're awesome. Okay. Let's dive into the meat of this or you know, the chickpea, depending on who you are.
Champions Cup Quarterfinals Analysis
00:06:39
Speaker
Munster and to lose champions cup quarterfinal and wow. What a way to kick off champions cup quarterfinal weekend.
00:06:48
Speaker
Something I've never seen and I've watched a ton of rugby. I've never seen this in my life. I was sitting here. There was rarely a moment where I don't know what the next step is. This was one of those moments where I was like, I don't know what we're doing for me. I don't know how this works. Yeah.
00:07:05
Speaker
So it's fun to now know that. I've been watching this shit since I was 15, 16. So I was the fact that 20 years of rugby under my belt, and I'm like, I still don't know what the fuck this is. Well, how many times has that happened in that timeframe? Oh, almost none. Because it has to be a knockout stage.
00:07:26
Speaker
You know, it has to be a tie. I have to go. There have to be equal in tries like all the boxes ticked to get us to these. And, you know, we can't just sweep past the match because it was we won't. But yeah, just what a situation making the the with the two leg quarterfinals. Yeah. OK, we're not missing drama. Like that was drama. This was this was fucking drama. This was.
00:07:57
Speaker
Absolutely. Down to down to what late in the in the match and they play zombie and the crowd just like what a moment that was like there was that's like
00:08:09
Speaker
One of those experiences where you're just emotionally tired afterwards, I can only leave that whether you win or lose, you're just probably go home and you sleep for like a couple of days. Yep. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, because I like it's rare that a match can make me like not look away for the entire match. Right. This was it. This was like the edge of your seat the whole fucking time. Yeah.
00:08:33
Speaker
You know, I was watching this amongst some friends that are non rugby playing folk and they were like, this is wild. I was like, yeah, I know it's wild. I've not seen this ever. Yeah. I know it's wild. It was pretty, and we started off hot too. We had two, we had two tries in 12 minutes as well. I was like, all right, Munster are, you know, taking advantage of home team and.
00:08:57
Speaker
as expected to lose not going away. No, that's not a. Yeah, you knew that that was. You know, whether whether. Yeah, you keep scoring on them, they're going to they're going to score back. They're never out of it. No, no, no, no, no. And it's just.
00:09:18
Speaker
It was tense the whole time, no matter what the lead was, honestly, like in, you know, Munster was at one point up, what, 10? Almost, yeah, 10. And even in that moment after that carburetor penalty, you're like,
00:09:31
Speaker
There's so much more to play here. You know, we're obviously only a minute, you know, 57, 56. So yeah, we got a little more than 20 minutes, which is way too much time in a knockout game, especially against the defending European champions. So, but the fact that you can feel the tension the entire time, no matter what the score is, it just tells you everything you need to know about this match.
Match Highlights and Key Players
00:09:52
Speaker
I just feel about the worry Arnold yellow card. I know it was kind of a dice roll. Um, it was anybody's guess, honestly. Um, I thought that was fair. Yeah. And you know, I do. I like Luke Pierce. I don't think he gets it wrong very often. So I did. I did hear the argument that he might've, but
00:10:11
Speaker
you know, in the end, it was probably the right result. Yeah, I think I think there was just there was enough shit house read that it was one of the like in that match, where it's like, you know, so just came in, like, I don't know how long to go. And like, there was a penalty and what the other whoever the team was penalized just like throws the throws the ball away. And she's like, what the fuck is this? And I'm like, that's tame compared to what this match has been. Like, that's nothing. So I think,
00:10:38
Speaker
There had to be a card, of course. It was just a question of what color, and I think yellow was fair. Just send the message.
00:10:49
Speaker
Yeah, it was probably on the money. Speaking of money, Omani, when he came off, I really felt like things kind of just took that slight turn. Downward monster. And we know what a spirit at the very least a spiritual, but also a defensive leader. Oh, yeah. I mean, he's just how is there are there's OK, there is nobody faster onto the ball than.
00:11:17
Speaker
than Peter Armani. There's a lot that are slower. There's some that are like maybe a dozen in the world who are as fast as him. And that was it. It was a game changer for them to have him in there and to lose him. It doesn't matter what you replace him with. It's not going to be someone as, you know, as effective in that. And, you know, that's, hey,
00:11:44
Speaker
to lose score 10 points, as you said, after he comes out. I thought that was the big moment. I'm glad you pointed that out, because to me, that was a huge moment when he came out. It was definitely notable when that... And the one thing I think might be not as noticed in terms of this is just like,
00:12:04
Speaker
what to lose or working with themselves, you know, you have you have a solid front row with that's led by Julian Marsh and you know, Doria out to Gary to start. And then you're bringing in Malvaca, who's also a French international zero by who's probably one of the best loose heads in the world. And David, I knew who no slouch by any means he's a US international, of course, we like David. But still, that's that's a great
00:12:27
Speaker
to have that off the bench and have your lineup, who's probably not your first choice, for the most part, sans Marcia, and to just put in the shift that they did and then say, all right, 45 minutes in or whatever, throw that on. It's like, yeah, how annoyed are you of your mozzarella on the other side? Like, fuck me. Come on. Not helpful.
00:12:48
Speaker
Yeah, a lot to bring on and, you know, outside of like a Craig Casey, who I think is excellent. I do too. It's not as though and perhaps and John Ryan is also quite good, although he's, you know, he's towards the end of the line.
00:13:04
Speaker
aside from those two, I can't think that whoever you're bringing in is better than the, or, or, you know, equal to equal to the person they're replacing. So that's, and that, that's kind of the balance that we saw there, you know, the, the bench wanted, um, for to lose because they came in and made an impact and helped them to win the match and, and.
00:13:26
Speaker
the monster replacements just weren't, didn't give anything extra. It was just kind of a, you know, new guy. Yeah. I didn't see it, but maybe you can tell me if there was a whole lot of shit given to Ben Healy because he missed both of his kicks in the kit and I shoot out there. No, I think that was,
00:13:54
Speaker
That's nice to see, at least. Yeah, no, I don't think there was any blame on that, because, I mean, you know, kind of Murray missed twice or something. Like, he missed once. He missed his 50. He missed his 40. One from the 10, rather, excuse me. Right. I knew that's what I knew. I was like, all right, this is going to be Healy, Carberry, and Murray. Murray's going to get the dead on because his thing is distance, not accuracy, clearly. Right. So that's why they were usually natural kickers, so. Right.
00:14:23
Speaker
So it's like, how can you, you know, you're not fault, they're faulting the wrong person there. No, there's, there's a lot more that could have happened before. Yeah. That kick happened. So I'm glad he didn't get a whole lot of blackboard. It was, it would not have been right. No. And I think that that was class, you know, it was, it was classy. There was no, it was, everybody's just like, okay, that happened. You know, this is such a fucked up thing.
00:14:45
Speaker
Like, it's not like the penalty kicks in soccer where, you know, you see it all the fucking time. This is something, as you said, we don't normally see. So how do people know how to respond? They're just like, okay. Like, we didn't know what the fuck was going on. We can't imagine you did either. So it's like, Mr. Kicks, fuck, that sucks for us.
00:15:03
Speaker
We all lose. We're with you. Preparing for that moment mentally is more what it's about than it is about... We know that these kickers cannot hit these kicks probably, but that moment mentally is not something that anybody's had to deal with for a long time. There's no preparation for that. Agreed.
00:15:24
Speaker
I think teams practice these things. Sometimes, sometimes not, but you can tell the pressure is just so different. And of course, Toulouse is going to be making a return trip back to Dublin and the Viva Stadium because of what happened at Wilford Road later on.
00:15:45
Speaker
I'd say this is, so we talked about how Quinn's are building in Europe. And this is probably an example of the same thing. Tigers have not been here as this unit for a long time. Right. You got to the Challenge Cup final last year, but it's still not the same. No, not the same.
00:16:05
Speaker
So yeah, we're still seeing two teams that are building into Europe will be in Europe for a long time, you said, right? And we'll be at these stages, these quarterfinal, semi final stages, but they ran into the team, a team that's done this almost
00:16:24
Speaker
probably more often than most, I think any other club has been at this quarter-final, semi-final area with Leinster and Leinster gives zero shits about where it's played. They do what they do. And you have this group of players from Leinster, specifically you think of Johnny Sexton and Ty Furlong and James Ryan,
00:16:48
Speaker
Guys like that that have already been here before and just been there, done that. Yeah. Gary Ringrose and Henshaw, same thing. You know, they've been there, done that, and this is not, this is old hat for them for sure. So, and even you look at like, he didn't, like, Vanderflair has been here before as well. Yeah, I mean, they, all of these, these Leinster players have played bigger matches than this.
00:17:11
Speaker
The bottom, that's kind of the bottom line and not many. Right. And not many of the Lester players have played in the game this big. Right. You know what they got? You got your Ashton's, Ford and Young's.
00:17:26
Speaker
You know, some of them, yeah, like some of them, but you look at like, you know, Ali Chasm and Green, Raphael, I don't think Visa, I wouldn't, you know, and Liebenberg, like, you know, obviously not Harry Potter, like, you could just go out and go through the list and be like, yeah, these are the guys, you know, there's a lot of guys, you're counting on, you know, two hands here.
00:17:47
Speaker
players who this is, this is like new for them and a lot more pressure than they're used to. And, you know, just a whole different level of rugby. Yeah. I mean, that's an international team you're playing against, like essentially one through 15.
00:18:04
Speaker
Yeah. Most of those guys have either been on the radar or on the pitch for, if not Ireland, another international team. Yeah. Like Jimmy O'Brien. Has he been capped? Nope, but he's, he's definitely on the list for people that'll be there. And like Ross Maloney is not, I don't know that he's been capped. He's still a fricking rock for this team. Oh, he is exactly. But it's like, that's it. Those are the, those are the guys without international experience.
00:18:30
Speaker
on this team. Yeah, certainly in the first part there. And then you even can pick up the, pick up the phone and call Luke McGrath and Ross Byrne later on and say, Hey, you want to come do this Reese Roddock, same thing. Yeah. It's like, and Dan Sheehan who performed very, very well this past Six Nations. So there's so much to call upon for Leinster and it showed.
00:18:51
Speaker
It really did. And, you know, I'm not I will say the Tigers fought back valiantly and just could not execute. Here's here's my question. Kind of kind of along the same lines as why do you take out Peter Armani, which we didn't quite say, but, you know, we should have been asked.
00:19:10
Speaker
Yeah, well, when you're banged up and hurt, that happens. Yeah, that's true. I guess he did. He had to come off. I couldn't. OK. Yeah. That would make sense. Like he's you're he's got to be eating. Why do you take Chris Ashton off? He didn't he didn't pull him. It was. No, that was maybe a different a different match. Yeah. I don't know.
00:19:31
Speaker
Ashton's like we talked about in the pod last week, like if you want someone to score a try, Chris Ashton's your guy. Yes. And it's like, you need you need to try and I understand bringing Freddie Burns on. But I mean, if I'm taking anybody off there, it's it's Harry Potter.
00:19:49
Speaker
Right. Or even, you know, I mean, there's not so much you can do with you have to take one of the wings off. And I thought it was a it was a very good move, very stoop move to bring in Nadella and play 13. I thought that was a solid
Strategic Moves and Future Predictions
00:20:03
Speaker
move. Honestly, it's not something that it's something that obviously has been theorized left, right and center. But just we haven't seen a whole lot of it. And I thought that that particular moment that it happened was very good. Yeah. Yeah. It goes to their coaching staff for that.
00:20:18
Speaker
But didn't they score a try after that? Ashton scored 45 minutes. Was that the 45? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He scored right after. Right after Nodolo came in. That makes sense. Sounds right to me. I mean, hey, you got a big target sitting right in the middle of the field. You're not going to pay attention to what's outside. Oh, suddenly you give Chris Ashton space? Yeah. I don't care that he's 70. He'll do OK. Yeah. No, he'll get done. He knows what the try line is. Agreed. And for the few times,
00:20:48
Speaker
And they pointed it on the broadcast as well for the few times that. Lesser got on the other end of the field in that second half, because first half was all answer all day. I don't think we, you need to question that, but the few times that they got on the other end of the pitch, they made it happen. They made it count. And again, we talked about execution with less Lester wasn't there. Right. Wasn't there. Simple. It was playing simple.
00:21:11
Speaker
You know, you got to be better than that at this at this stage. You have to do that. You have to. Yeah. And the thing is, they've they've been able to play a little off and still crush teams in the prem. And this is just a different story. You can't play off against against that squad. And I think they did a little bit. Yep. And it's just a little bit. It wasn't like I don't know. Like I don't know that there was any beating Lister. They were on for them. They were on for them. Yeah. So it just is what it is.
00:21:41
Speaker
Yep. And, you know, we again, we talked about this is just learning and growing moments for these, you know, clubs that are returning to the glory of Europe, like Lenser, like Quinn's. Give them time. They'll come good. You know, I know Lester kind of losing, losing some bodies here in the in the offseason, but still fourth wicks in charge now and
00:22:07
Speaker
I think he's got his feet under him in terms of what it takes to get to this point in the competition and what it takes to get to the next stage. You know, you got to figure next year for England's sake, you're going to have, you know, Lester and twins will be back. Saracens will be returning. Yeah, there'll be some interesting things coming out of England next year. Right. I mean, I assume you saw that match. Dave looked. I did.
00:22:36
Speaker
Yeah, they were running riot. Right. My friends are like, is this supposed to happen? I was just like, for me, yes. For everybody else, probably not. Yeah. And that's another one of why I'm mad when they don't play that style. They play a really constrained match or a game. And it's like, you can do that and you choose not to. Yeah, you know, you're choosing not to now. That's why you lose to Exeter. Because you just play closed off rugby and that's right in their hands.
00:23:05
Speaker
Yeah. Instead of just running around them like their Gloucester or Worcester or any of these other teams that are just not. Yeah. Although go to suspect to Gloucester. I thought they played a hell of a match. They just ran into a buzz saw. Yeah, that was a buzz saw. And they should have gotten LRZ that ball more than once. Yeah, that's true. You had to get it to himself to score. You're not going to give me the ball. I have to give myself the ball. Yeah.
00:23:28
Speaker
It would be a good decision. Over to... Oh, yeah. Back to the Champions Cup. Marcel de Flandre. La Rochelle and Montpellier. With Big Will and Little... That was cute. Little Skelts. That kid's about to be very big. Yeah, won't be little for long. He's going to be feeding that kid forever. You know, for the most part, it never...
00:23:57
Speaker
It felt like a match to a point, but at the same time, I was like, I have the utmost confidence that La Rochelle will figure this out. And it's not really, it's just because again, they've been here before, they've already been to the final. And I think this group, this group particular is ready for one last run, because it sounds like it's getting pretty well split up come the end here. So they definitely want to
00:24:20
Speaker
uh them and another team we'll talk about in a second so they're really trying to give this one a go uh yeah but they and and they did they obviously obviously they did um got the job done and
00:24:32
Speaker
It was, I will say this, for them to win, they're going to need the Ohio West to continue to be as high as he ever, if not higher in terms of his level of play, because he was very good. And that's not something that I was ever going to bank on when I saw the Ohio West pop up on a semi-final or a quarter-final when it comes to a team. I think we're just waiting for that shoe to drop. Yeah. It's like, okay, when is this happening? Cause it's going to like, come on.
Player Performances and Coaching Decisions
00:25:02
Speaker
But it doesn't he's been he's been just solid. I mean, you know, that's that's doing a disservice to him. But it's not exactly fair. But I'm kind of waiting like he only has to be solid. So it's like he's meeting that that minimum requirement and then some. Yeah, there's a lot outside of them. So it certainly helps. That does just pass the ball. Everything will be all right. Yeah, everything's good from there. Just pivot it.
00:25:30
Speaker
It was a forward trifist for a little while there, especially with two props, Preso, Vito, and Thomas. Vito's calling it a time at the end of the year, so he definitely is trying to get back to that stage and get one more for the good one here.
00:25:47
Speaker
Okay. And then we go back to why do you take out X, Y, or Z? Why do you take out Zack Mercer if we only... Oh man, he was annoyed too and I don't blame him. He was definitely the best player on the pitch. I used to be a huge fan of...
00:26:04
Speaker
I have no idea what the fuck he's doing the last couple of years, honestly. Like, that is your best player. That's definitely your best forward right now. Why take him off? And he's not gassed. You could see he still got plenty of running in there. Oh, he's ready to go. So, you know, for him to be annoyed, I do not blame him. A single, single pick. And, you know, he's got some decent veterans on the flanks here with Kamara and with Drago, but just, he is another level compared to those guys at this point in his career. He's the one player on your team
00:26:33
Speaker
There that was that was showing that like he could score at any any minute. Mm hmm. You know, obviously he showed that like if he's not scoring, he's he or he could set someone up at any minute like he's your danger, your your biggest danger man on the pitch right now. Like even, you know, Rod says was was not he he was getting bottled up. But yeah, five carries 20 meters like it wasn't his day and.
00:27:02
Speaker
Yeah. Mercer was like, yeah, like, you know, scoring tries. So maybe keep them on. Yeah. Just, just, just a thought, just a thought. Yeah. I, I didn't, I didn't get it. I really didn't. I was just like, yeah, somebody might explain this one to me. I don't think this is a good idea. Anyways. Yeah. Yeah. Mercer had a try and a try assist. I mean, come on now. Yep.
00:27:27
Speaker
Yeah, it's, you know, I mean, listen, he's got frickin, they'll kick themselves for that one, no doubt. Yeah. Because I'm sure he's, he went straight to the gaffers dressing room and said, boss, why? Why so much why? So it's, it would all French final, semi final again, coming up because
00:27:53
Speaker
exactly what we thought would happen to happen on Sunday. And that was wrestling, kind of just toying with the Sharks for a while and then finally putting them away. But the brilliance of some of these wrestling players is just like, that is what you pay to see. That's what you pay the big bucks to see. And it was fantastic revenue from them. Finn, I mean, Finn and Teddy Tom.
00:28:20
Speaker
Like, that's the thing, sale doesn't have anybody who can do anything like that. So, no, that's, that's it. And it was done. Yeah, it was.
00:28:34
Speaker
Well, I knew this was going to be a struggle as soon as I saw Dupree taking the tee and he's done okay the last few weeks. I won't take that away from him, but we both know that AJ McGinty is the better gold kicker when he's healthy. Yeah, it just tells you that AJ is not healthy. He's clearly not that healthy and thankfully they will have this week off and they won't need to worry about.
00:28:52
Speaker
Um, him getting banged up anymore and let that light heal up just a wee bit. Plus I kind of want them for our qualifiers, please. And thank you. Um, but you know, the sharks weren't out of this. They were, they were in this right up until, right up until shortly after, shortly after the half. So I'll give them credit. They, they fought and it's.
00:29:12
Speaker
that you can only play that style for so long without having some sort of pop. And yeah, Tui's try was very good, but it was kind of luck that that was a. Yeah, that was a little. It was a crapshoot, honestly. Yeah. You know, good for him for recognizing what was in front of him and taking it. Right. But yeah, what was in front of him was nobody. So that's kind of. Hey, look at that. Yeah. But you need something more like when Sam James is coming in for Luke James and, you know, Simon Hammersley is your other wing like. Yeah.
00:29:41
Speaker
Yeah, like you don't have anything really in your locker that's going to provide that extra special spark that's going to get you over the line here because in this competition at this stage to grind your way over the line is not impossible, but very unlikely, especially against a team like Rossing on their own patch on the on the carpet. Like, yeah, you got to have something else. And they didn't. There's there's something that my my mind goes back to often in a in a situation like this. And it's
00:30:11
Speaker
George Foreman giving an interview about fighting Muhammad Ali and how he was in there just swinging his ass off and he felt he was connecting and kicking Ali's ass.
00:30:25
Speaker
And then he's like in the fifth round, Ali just whispers in my ear, is that all you got, George? And he's like, I'm done. I got, that's it. Like fuck. Like I thought I was kicking your ass. Yeah, no. You know, like, or I thought I was kicking ass. It's like, yeah, that's, but that's it. Say it like you're kicking ass for you sale. That's good job, but it's not.
00:30:46
Speaker
Yeah, you're not ready. You're not ready to punch at this level. Although that's a different story there, but his foreman was definitely ready to punch at that level. It's just that Ali was ridiculous. Yeah, but it's the same kind of idea. Like this, that's what this matchup was. It was a, except, you know, much more lopsided. Sale just can't, they're not in the same class.
00:31:09
Speaker
No, we both know they're probably a little lucky to scrape by Bristol in the manner they did. And yeah, this is the result. And that's, and that's how it is, you know, well, yeah, it's more of a Brian regal. You're not in my weight class thing. Um, so, you know, and I don't want to hammer onto this match too much more, but just here's the thing. And here's one more thing I want. I want to just kind of point out it is.
00:31:39
Speaker
So it has to be so frustrating if you're a French rugby fan to watch and see what Teddy Tomah can bring out and what the brilliance that he can produce in a shirt, a club shirt, a Rossing shirt in this case. And then he gets put into Le Bleu and just kind of disappears. Well, that's I think that is the difference is is that Tomah is more
00:32:08
Speaker
He needs to be able to just like he's kind of that Danny Cipriani. I just want to do whatever the fuck I want to do to try to do something awesome. Like Finn Russell's in that category, except he can actually. Like it works for play within a match structure and everything, right? Yes, he can. And he can he can make the adjustment of instead of throwing this as a pass, I'm going to pass it as a kick, you know, like. Yeah, he just does awesome shit.
00:32:37
Speaker
And that, that with his teammates, whereas Teddy Tomas does much more of an individualistic, like, I mean, who else can do that though?
00:32:47
Speaker
Um, I did not believe for a second. He got that. And I was like, Holy shit. He got it. Yeah. Um, so yeah, it's just one of those. It doesn't translate like his, his style doesn't, and you can be a great player, but not an international. That's, that's absolutely possible. That's also any players for whom that work, that, that applies. So it's not, yeah, it's, it's just, that's not the, that's not your game. It's a different game. Agreed.
00:33:16
Speaker
So we have our semifinal.
Semifinals Preview and Memorable Moments
00:33:19
Speaker
We have we have a lancer and Toulouse semifinal on Saturday, back of the Aviva. So that the fact that Toulouse were just there makes this even more tasty. Like, yeah, because they even leave or did they just stick around? I mean, I don't I would go home because I want to see I want to see the misses and all that shit. Sure. And it's not that far. No, it's not. It's not like we're going freaking California to Maine or anything like that. Yeah.
00:33:43
Speaker
And then we have an all French final in Rossing and LaRochelle. Somebody that has not won this competition will get a crack because Rossing and LaRochelle neither one of them have taken it. So, you know, I'm all for...
00:33:58
Speaker
You know, I like seeing like dynasties and everything, but I think either one of these clubs winning would be absolutely awesome. Right. Which is kind of cool. That makes that that Lancer and Toulouse play each other because it's like, OK, you're going to have one one team that's been there versus one team that hasn't. You know, it's going to be it's going to be very awesome. You know, and if you if you want to wonder.
00:34:24
Speaker
why France are the best team in Europe six nations wise. I think we have our answer just kind of sitting right in front of us with this semi-final here. And the second best team in six nations this year was Ireland. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Just going to point that out. Right. Just going to point that out. Sorry to everybody else that that might hurt, but, you know, whatever. Deal with it. All right. Let's jump over.
00:34:53
Speaker
to the other half of the hemisphere years and go to super rugby. Oh, before, before we do go leave your, um, we can't, we can't not talk about that. Arendelle try.
00:35:06
Speaker
because I haven't seen it, but I'll let you talk. I text. Oh, I texted it to you. Oh, sorry. OK, so if like Jared, you've been living under a rock, that was it was off a kick. And yeah, yeah, you were on a rock. That's true. What was it? It was off a kick that was it.
00:35:30
Speaker
might have been Voldemort that got it and just kind of threw it into the middle of the field because there was
00:35:38
Speaker
Really, there's what men on and it wasn't gonna go well. It was probably gonna get dragged back into the touch or into- I'm watching it right now. It was Phipps. It was Phipps. Okay, that's right. And then Arendelle just is like, okay, well, I'm gonna run around you. Just turns on the jets. Wow. Oh man. So one thing, I don't know how much it's been talked about, but the finish, the last two people he beat, so he's already run like sprinted 70 meters up the field.
00:36:05
Speaker
And he jukes someone out of there. He just introduces them to the ground. Absolutely. Just not even not even having touched them. Yeah, just broken ankles. Wow. After 70 meters of sprinting. OK, fuck you. Then not only that, then he gets another guy with I can't tell because they cut at the wrong moment. I don't know if he gets the fend off, but he throws enough of it to to put someone else down, too. Like you don't just do that.
00:36:34
Speaker
So, um, apparently Harry and all does like the guy just, all he does is generate box office plays. And, uh, so that's another guy. Maybe he's a, maybe he's a Teddy Thomas type, but, um, like give him a shot. So he's young. So we'll find out. Yeah, we'll find out. Um, but like, this is the kind of rugby that I like watching. It's not like there's guys who are,
00:37:02
Speaker
as fast as him and there's guys who can have that wobble like he's got. There aren't many who have that together and he's young and has that kind of vision. I mean, that's what I like to see. It's the vision too. It's that he didn't run into contact. He knew enough to, and he knew how to get a guy on his ass. Like that's just, if you can do those things and yeah, yeah, you won't be able to do that to every fullback. It's not going to happen.
00:37:29
Speaker
Like you're still putting yourself in such a good position. Very. And your team. Yep. Very. All right. All right. Now we can jump over now to go down under. Yeah. Well, neither Ben nor I could really watch the point where at which the blues and rebels was really a match because by the time we started the fucking broadcast, it was 21 minutes and give or take right as Bentley Christie is scoring.
00:37:57
Speaker
Yeah. He's crossing the, um, into, in goal, right. Okay. So they're talking about like how family Christie's court is like, what the fuck? Okay. Well, interesting. And really that's.
00:38:13
Speaker
If that's all you watch to the match, you'd know everything else you need to know. Because that was it. It was kind of instant replay for another 20 minutes of just blues scoring tries. Left and right and center and backwards and forwards. We can go to hat trick. I think I watched it half time. I was like,
00:38:36
Speaker
See what's going on here. I know what's going on in this one. I gotcha. I get it. Don't need to tell me twice. No, it was it was an absolute demolishing. And yeah, just this is what the blues can do now. And they are. This is this is the blues. Everybody has been waiting for as well.
00:38:59
Speaker
Everybody wanted this to be a thing for a while and there was a while it wasn't and now it is. It definitely is. But as a chief supporter, I don't want this to be happening. Yeah, that's true. Actually, that's true. Nobody does because even the Crusaders got a beat. Yeah, they got beat. So a little Yeah, well, they got to be a little, you know,
00:39:22
Speaker
Tighten the pants about it. Yeah, they definitely do. There's not any separation. No. Well, I mean, they've already, the Blues have already beat them in Christchurch this year. So, yep. So, I mean, there's not a lot to dissect in this match, unfortunately, because it just turned into a track meet. Yeah. So, you know, all we can say is,
00:39:41
Speaker
this is the tape you probably throw out. If you're the rebels, you're like, this is a lot of nothing. That's not going to help us. And you know, even the blues are probably just going to, they're going to watch this for fun, but they're not going to really try and dissect anything. You know, no, you don't like, you just say, Hey, that works. Look at that. That's cool. Like, remember when we trained that like on that, how, how rough that was? Well, there you go. That's, that's what it looks like. You find a couple of moments where you're like, all right, this worked, but this is what could have happened. So just FYI. And that's about all you can do really. Right. Um,
00:40:08
Speaker
Let's go over to Brizzy, Queensland, and Highlanders, the Reds. This is, I think it's starting to turn for the worse for the Reds, and I had a lot of hope for them this year. Yeah. You know, no OC, no Tupo. They're having issues. I mean, they got solid Kailoto back, which is huge for their forward pack. They need that.
00:40:34
Speaker
you know, Daigunu is very out of form. I don't think anybody would doubt that at this point. Yeah, he is.
00:40:41
Speaker
Yeah. There needs, something needs to happen. You know, it's, they can't, they need to be able to find a way to keep, you know, Paisami healthy. Cause he's probably one of their best centers. If he's not their best center. Right. Fluke's try was nice. Yeah, it was, but yeah, I know. I'm trying to get, to get fricking, and they didn't get steamrolled, but man, they got, but this isn't a good highlighters team. No, it's not.
00:41:05
Speaker
And that's the thing like, that's, you got to take that into, you know, you're losing at home like that to a, not a good team. And that's really the bottom line. That's, that's all there is to say, like, that's not, that does not bode well for their future. No, I mean, and I, and I, we talked about the tuge of the pooch, um, Thomas Zumaga Jensen. Yeah. He's probably their best center without a doubt as well. And the fact that he's back is.
00:41:30
Speaker
probably kind of scary for some other teams. I will say that it's, you know, Scott, he's now out into the wing, which might be more beneficial for other teams than the way around. But, you know, like, uh, yeah, I think I'd rather have him, well, he scored a try. So he did, but I think it wasn't a walk-in though. I don't remember. I don't either. Um,
00:41:52
Speaker
You know, Jordy Bataille is back for the Reds, which is helpful. Jock Campbell, his try was actually quite good as well. And that's kind of how it started. I was like, all right, this could be this, this could be exactly what we think it is. And it wasn't. It was very much not. I was like, Yeah, the hell happened, guys?
00:42:09
Speaker
So, Brad Thorne's got to be frigging tearing his hair out, honestly. I have no answers for the Reds right now. And I will give Lawson Creighton all the credit in the world, and none of this is his fault. He's been chucked into a really tough situation. Yeah. He's doing all right. So, you know, not going to shit on the kid. He's done quite well. O'Connor's back this weekend, though. Is he? Yeah. Is he in the lineup? Yes. Sweet. All right. He's starting. That'll be helpful to them at least. Yeah.
00:42:40
Speaker
Uh, so yeah, hopefully with that, they can kind of start bouncing back up the table because they've been kind of tumbling a little bit here. So let's see, uh, over to Mount smart and Moana Pacifica and the war ties and damn it, boys almost had this one. I was kind of pulling for a month. Yeah. I mean, you have to a little bit. Yeah. Um, yeah. It was.
Milestones and Season Improvements
00:43:07
Speaker
But before we get too deep into this, what a special moment it was for Christian Lely Afano to kick over the points with his son right there. Yeah. First, you know, Islander to hit that mark.
00:43:24
Speaker
The fan freakin tastic. That was so awesome. And that was really cool. He will never forget that in his entire life, no matter how the rest of his career goes. So very, very cool to see that. And I'm very glad that that that was able to be be made happen. Mm hmm. That is cool, because, yeah, like he did. The kid didn't know what to do with the team. He's like, what do I do with all this stuff? And they're just like, don't worry about it. We're going to do this thing. You did. You did fine. Don't worry. You're the dad. That's all you got to do.
00:43:53
Speaker
Otherwise, you know, this is one of those matches that the other team is playing up to you. So you have to match them if you're the war toss. And there was a point where it definitely looked like they were going to get shoved over the line and Moana were going to get done.
00:44:08
Speaker
I think, really, the turning point was the freaking TMI Frank and Nico Guillicard that just kind of took the wind out of the sails of Pacifica. And that was the end. And that wasn't the end, but that kind of did it. It kind of was, yeah. Pace scored and the Washington Owasi scored, and that kind of took it away.
00:44:30
Speaker
I kind of took it away right there. Yeah, yeah, I didn't want to be scored right at right after the correct minute later. So yeah, correct. Yep, yep. So it really hurt. But current Pacifica, I'm very glad that they continue to just put up a fight against every team. You know, they're not going out with a with a duck either. They've already got a W Isaiah Parisi, though. Wow.
00:44:56
Speaker
for the war toss. I think he wants a gold shirt. A little bit. He wants a gold shirt. I think so. He's been fantastic for them all year. And this match, she was just absolutely amazing. And it's so hard to be good on a bad team. Yeah. This seems getting better, I will say that. Yeah. This toss team, 130 meters running. Oh, that's true. Yeah, they're doing okay.
00:45:21
Speaker
He had the most fairies and the most meters. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He was, he was, he was on one. No doubt. No doubt. You know, you compare that with, you know, too many towers had 17 carries and 80 meters and yeah. So it's just a slight difference. Just a slight difference. But yeah, so it, it's a, it's a better team for the war ties this year. So I think last year they lose this game unquestionably.
00:45:49
Speaker
That's true. Yeah. And maybe I'm still in that mindset with the ties that they're like, I'm still thinking of them as this last year, the year before, you know, they're actually doing pretty decently this year. And, um, you know, Tane Edmond has been great since really well, Harrison has been, has, has been sidelined and Ben Donaldson's only just come back and he's actually keeping Donaldson on the bench at this point, which is pretty, pretty high marks on him. You know,
00:46:15
Speaker
Well, it's another guy. It's like just, you know, dish it off. And if you, you know, you got the playmakers outside you. And once you open that up now, now you attack. And like he's picking his spots. Well, yeah. Let's go to FMG in Baccadoe and a tough one for the home team. Really tough one.
00:46:43
Speaker
What do you do? Like, I honestly don't know. I didn't think the Chiefs played particularly poorly. Like, it's one of those like, I can't, you know, I'm not, I wasn't down on the way they played. It's just that they fucked up too much. Like, they didn't finish well. They turn it over. They would have this great series of plays and then turn it over and then
00:47:12
Speaker
Brombys would score. And it's like, you can't just like let a team that like the Brombys they're, they're good. They're not, they're not, you can't sleep on them. And they don't think they slept on them exactly, but they made too many mistakes.
00:47:27
Speaker
you know, and the Brumbies were too good about it. I mean, Nick White, like, first off, got to love the two scrum halves that, you know, the one at the end of his career, the other at the beginning, and they both scored just pure scrum half tries. I mean, that Nick White tried. That was just sheer stupidity on the chief's part. They kind of went to sleep at the breakdown. Just they did. Nick White is an asshole. And
00:47:48
Speaker
That was an asshole to try to score. And I don't say that with disrespect. That was, yeah, fuck you. Oh, you think I'm not going to score this try? Fuck you. Watch me score the try. You don't want to, you don't want to mark me? Fine. Fuck you. Yeah. He's been around once or twice. He's going to, he's going to know what to do with that. So, um,
00:48:06
Speaker
And, you know, Priscilla's muckstache at you while he does it. Yeah, definitely. I love that stash. I'm just glad that he did it to the Chiefs. Yeah, it's in Falafenga looking like, you know, they made Falafenga look like a like a true international hooker this match. He was dangerous. And yeah, Chiefs didn't have much of an answer for him.
00:48:32
Speaker
No. I mean, I'm sure every Australian fan will hope that he is playing back the form. I still think there's better answers for them in the long term out there, but probably perhaps in the short term, he could be okay. I guess we'll find out a little bit here. I will say they got better when Gatlin came off, which
00:48:52
Speaker
painful to say, no doubt. It is. He's been very, very good this year. This just wasn't his best match by any means whatsoever. Yeah. Trasket 10 is kind of a scary thing. I don't like trask on the field either. So like, you know, maybe that was a, maybe if they took trask out, it would have gotten better, even better than that. I don't know. But yeah, yeah. Not, um,
00:49:20
Speaker
Hmm. I'm P. Degas. That try was was pretty sweet. Yep. I'm going to start just saying good things. I'm going to go to my happy place here. And he's he's still pretty good last to check. So yeah. And Nankaville is is one of the best and was players in Super Rugby. He's better than he's better than his overrated. Yeah, well, we'll see what what what Foster does come into season here. Although, look, if Nankaville wants to come play for Saracens.
00:49:49
Speaker
Yeah, Fauzi overlooks them. Come on, Alex. We'll take you. I'm not mad about it. Let's jump over to Western Australia and the force and the Crusaders.
Dominant Performances and Playoff Picture
00:50:01
Speaker
We said it last week, I don't want to be the force this week. No. Oh, man. They they just. Yeah, that's a lot of frustrations. There were two hat tricks in this match. Like, well, Jordan was pissed. You could see it on his face. He was just so mad about the way that last match where he just said, fuck this, give me the ball every time. And he made me feel real stupid. I could tell you that much.
00:50:27
Speaker
Oh man. Will Jordan's kind of good. I've banged that job for a long time. He should never leave the All Blacks back for you if they want to win. He's certainly not the worst rugby player I've ever seen. No, he's definitely, I mean, for many reasons I like him better than Reese. Oh yeah. He should definitely be in any team
00:50:52
Speaker
that the all blacks want to be competitive with. So, and I think that goes without saying, um, he just scores trust for fun and anger. And cause cause the games gotten boring out loud. Let me, let me spice this up on the truck anymore. That's all I wanted to do. He was just wanted more. Uh, but the,
00:51:09
Speaker
Was it the first thing I knew you'd try? I was like, he did not get that down. Did he? And I was just like, wow, that's, that's another level right there. That is next level stuff. And it's it, this is.
00:51:24
Speaker
here's the thing that I think that's gonna annoy Robertson is like, this is what they're capable of on a weekly basis, no matter the opponent. And that's going to be something that just absolutely annoys the fuck out of Scott Robertson. Well, the thing is that that, you know, sometimes the other opponent actually has an attack and can, oh, I don't know where the forces was this week. So it's not that they can't, the procedures can't do it. It's that, you know, when the other team had, you know,
00:51:50
Speaker
controls possession and scores themselves and puts you under pressure. It changes the way you have to play. So yeah, Crusaders can do this any week, but it's harder when you have a reasonable opposition. Right. I mean, you look at the back three for the force and none of that is scary. Sean Ralston or Tipine, none of that terrifies you.
00:52:15
Speaker
but not so much to LA, you know, being out, being out is huge for the team. You know, that is definitely their best weapon. Look at the entire back line. Moonga Passatella, you know, finding a new group to re-step, something called a re-stepini or whatever. David Haveli, Bailey Kunzel, Brayden Ennore, Kyle Goodwin, Godwin, sorry, George Bridge, Brian Ralston, Will Jordan, Jake Strahan.
00:52:40
Speaker
there was a distinct advantage at each position. Oh, totally. And that's, and I like, I like some of those ones on the foreside. They're just not developed yet. Yeah, exactly. It's no just, um, um, you know, I do something called a aside. I'm not meaning any disrespect. It's just that this is not,
00:53:02
Speaker
There's an imbalance there. No, I mean, you have one of the best times in the world. You have this is without a doubt their most dangerous back three, in my opinion. And then you have a center pairing that still doesn't even include the likes of Jack Goodyear. Right. So it's hard to say that it's bad. And the best part, I think the best part that the Crusaders did this week because it was their weak point without a doubt was they put Colin Gracian at lock.
00:53:26
Speaker
Mm hmm. That was huge because their locks have been since, you know, the age old, you know, wise man, Sam Whitelock, the locks have been pretty poor. They get Scott Barrett back this week. He's he's offered suspension finally.
00:53:40
Speaker
You know, but, you know, you see Liam Hallamames like, you're not going to win with that. Right. If you're starting that. So the best thing they did was just like, all right, here, you need to like pretend to be a lock for like a couple of matches so we can get an actual right back for, for, you know, the running here. So thank you, Colin. Yeah. Like the five scrums we have in this match. Yeah. And it worked. Yeah.
00:54:03
Speaker
Mm hmm. And then finally, last but not least, jump over to Sky Stadium and in the capital and it's do. Yeah. I only like I say, I only watched about 50 minutes of this because I mean, it just got ridiculous. I saw where it was going. And yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm good. Like I know what's happening here. And to start the match.
00:54:32
Speaker
Fiji and Jura did not have like no opportunities whatsoever. They could not capitalize to save their life. They were, yeah, well, they kept plenty. I mean, the first couple, the first like 10 minutes were played entirely in Fiji's end and Keynes weren't scoring, but Fiji weren't getting really getting out. Nope. And you can only hold off doing that for so long.
00:54:55
Speaker
Correct. So, you know, you have to win some of these battles and then it's no surprise that, you know, Morbi goes over and then Oumu goes over and. You have to respond quickly to that, you know, you can't just give up to two tries in agreed in a couple of minutes and then not respond. And then was it Proctor was the next one? And that was. Yeah, I think so. I think that would try to get that. That makes sense. Yeah, that's it.
00:55:24
Speaker
And then more because over and then more because over and then more because. Yeah.
00:55:29
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I was the Isaiah Walker earlier where he tried when I was like, OK, no, that that's enough. Oh, no, because it was Houston scored to like get open the second. Like I thought I was watching the same. I thought I was watching a replay because I kind of I was I had it on while I was while I was working. And I was like, oh, it's a replay. Like that was seems like a while ago. Why are they reshot? I'm like, no, no, no, that's another. It's not the same. OK, good one. Yeah, that's the barometer is when Justin Sangster gets one over because
00:55:58
Speaker
Yeah, canes are very good producing some some good some players in the forwards, locks have been their weak spot without, you know, and both are locked scored. Yeah, I know. Because speaking of stop me if you heard this one before, hurricanes have a fantastic young back rower.
00:56:15
Speaker
That can play eight. Yes, they do. I I guess I saw he was fucking everywhere. I thought he was just going to like, that's not a hey, I'm filling in. I'm just going to do my job. That's a you know, hey, are you looking on with your kid in the stands? I got your number on my back and I'm going to play like you. Yeah, he really stepped in and did, you know,
00:56:40
Speaker
he had like five times like he had five carries that got inside like the five meter line he almost scored so many times he was so close but then he was smart enough to be like okay i'm gonna recycle it and then they they scored off of it yes like he i real credit to lobster he played a hell of a match
00:56:58
Speaker
Yep, not too bad over there. They are at the back. Yeah, I'm going to do that so you don't have to, you know, it's not Jared pumping his team up. This guy fucking can play. Yeah, he's pretty good. Yeah, I mean, as far as that goes, can we convert one of these young back rows to a second to a fucking lock so we can have some quality locks? Because, you know, as I was just saying, you know, locks are not their thing. Like, walk away is probably my favorite.
00:57:25
Speaker
and he's not that good. So, you know, Blackwell and Delaney and Sankster, nah, whole lot of meh with a spanking of meth. But we did see the return of the man that loves to play on the wing that doesn't isn't actually a wing and that's dankholes.
00:57:44
Speaker
That's always nice to see. He's always, yeah. Yeah, they're going to want him for the run in here. Yeah, and he always makes a match worth watching. Yeah, he's rather good. That's a check in. Nice to have like Owen Franks to call upon, you know, and I know the Franks brothers aren't anything super special anymore, but the experience itself is something that you just love to have in your squad. So I'll give, I will take it.
00:58:09
Speaker
I will take it. I will take it considering we've had some struggles at our proposition as well before, but much better now, much, much better now. And then the free jacks are playing post-season rugby this year, kids. Yeah. And I suspect, yes. Um, they're so fucking good in this. It's not even, I mean,
00:58:37
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, this week was a bit of a, bit of a, a little bit, but I mean, look, okay. Scoreboard wise, technically, was it close? Yes. I never, it never really felt like they were going to lose it.
00:58:58
Speaker
I never really was, it was one of those, like I was prepared if it was a gut punch at the end to like, okay, fuck, they got one over on us. Like we let them stick around for too long and they got, but it's like, I never really felt like that was actually going to happen. I was like, I was prepared for the possibility in a way, but not really. Like if it happened, I would have fucked me up a little bit because I did not have expected it, but. I was not expecting this. What the fuck? No, it was, yeah.
00:59:29
Speaker
It was not, yeah, that was not as, it didn't feel as close as it was. Right. Um, walks going out was obviously a concern. That's a big concern. Although I felt, yeah. Hopefully it's just precaution at this point. Right. Apparently you said like he was not, he's like, nope, not happening. Yeah. He was getting the shit kicked out of him and it wasn't, he wasn't looking too happy. So, um, yeah. Oh, and there was a nice like 20 minute, like,
00:59:57
Speaker
booth or whatever. Yeah. Cause I watched this, I watched this at home and yeah, they were trying to, so the problem is, and this is, you know, down to the shithouse tree that is MLR that TMI was having a hard time hearing the referee like through his mind. So you might need to improve the sound equipment a little bit there, MLR.
01:00:17
Speaker
I'm glad we have this whole thing. It ended up being a no try, so not complaining about it. Oh, yeah, I was like, okay, whatever you did, you did the right thing. I'm fine with it. Yeah, there was a potential intentional knock on New England and the
01:00:34
Speaker
I don't think they could actually queue up the moment the referee was looking for. So that was, again, technical issues. Okay. Not mad about it. Yeah. Not mad about it. But at the same time, got to be a little bit better. Yeah. As the M.O.R. goes.
01:00:50
Speaker
And again, the the midfield for the free jacks has just been outstanding. And it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter the day you pick a day and it could be LaRue Milan, you pick another day and it could be Wayne Vanderbank and they just have been taking turns. And it's been awesome. So I'm really, really excited about this midfield and
01:01:09
Speaker
You know, they're probably going to need to rest at some point. So Jack Reeves is going to have to come in and I still like him and the way he's been injured in the games. So yeah, he's a little banged up. So I just want to get we saw him the other week. Oh, no, I guess he was out there this week. He was out there this week.
01:01:27
Speaker
Yeah, there was he was the week before he was in a sling. I believe it was Jack Reeves anyway that I was I was looking at. I was one of the frigid players who looked. Jack Reeves like maybe just want a new goddamn loose head. Yeah, he was terrible. He was like honestly, this was he like he didn't scrum well and he lost the ball multiple times in contact pens like getting just ripped away and giving away stupid like
01:01:56
Speaker
That's the problem with him is like, when he's good, when he plays okay, like not, no, it was this, I think he gave it away another, he tackled down again and he was like, in their very interior defense and he still tackled down and they ran like a huge line break right through his gap.
01:02:20
Speaker
Like, he does that stupid shit week in, week out. So at least he's got a, you know, last week he was good with ball in hand. He played around with it. This week, he just gave it away. So it's like, that's the one thing you do. You don't scrum well, you lift, I guess, okay. I mean, that's not that fucking hard. You can't defend worth of shit. Like, at least you can go ball in hand. Oh, wait, now you can't, because every time you touch it, you give the ball away. So not, that's good.
01:02:48
Speaker
Yeah, they drafted up like, what the fuck? Why is he your full time? I don't get it. They have better players. Yeah, I would assume at this point newcomers not hurt is hurt and Johnston is just not ready to play 60. Right. Whatever. I think they picked, honestly, I think they picked Alex Johnson kind of off the scrap heap and he was picked them out of retirement.
01:03:10
Speaker
Yeah, might have been drinking beer and having to speed up by the time they signed them. So getting into match shape might have been a tough task for him. So he may not be ready to go the whole thing. And now that they've been winning, they just they're not going to mess with. Right. I think that's the other thing is that he hasn't for all his antics and his mascottery out on the field.
01:03:32
Speaker
And I don't say that with much respect. It's not a good way. Um, it's not talisman it's mascot. Um, they're still winning. And I think if it's one of those, like if he hasn't cost them a match. So no, but there's kind of a point. I don't like that mentality, but okay. Yeah. I still think it would be better to have someone, you know, him play for 40 minutes, like maybe come on a half and then, you know, come on when everybody else has run a little bit.
01:03:58
Speaker
Yep. He's like, honestly, he's a, he is about a 40 minute player now. Like, and that's, that's a step up. He was a 20 minute player, what a year or so ago. So right. So he's, he's, he's.
01:04:12
Speaker
He's improving, but not what you need from a team, not for what they want to do. At this point. Yeah. All right. Um, rest of the whip around here. Um, Utah was able to beat rugby, ATL. Thank you, Utah. 44, 26, uh, arrows lost their, their, their own match against New York. That's not a good way to lose. That's not a good loss for them at all. That's a bummer.
01:04:36
Speaker
Guillotine is just held on against Austin. So the Gilly Bowl goes to LA, I think. LA. San Diego lost to Houston, which I think kind of puts a huge damper into their season in terms of their rankings. And shock of the day, Seattle just absolutely truckstaked Dallas. So no shock there.
01:05:00
Speaker
Yeah, so but with rugby ATL's loss and Toronto's loss, it really puts the prejection prime position. We got four matches left here. We have a 10-point lead on New York. New York will come north one time here, coming up here. So they'll have at least that chance.
01:05:20
Speaker
We are playing post-season rugby. All I want to do is just get top spot here. Get that home semi-final. I mean, seriously, all respect to Rugby New York and Rugby ATL, I don't see either of them coming in here and winning.
01:05:38
Speaker
The ATO comes to town this week, so we'll see if they can kind of shake off. They went to Utah last week, too. That's rough. That is rough. That's rough. That's a tough time. And the West is... And it's a Friday match, so it's like a short turnaround. It's a short week, yep. The West is Austin, Los Angeles, and it's an all to play for at third.
01:06:00
Speaker
It really is. Houston has a game in hand on two of the teams, on the other two teams, but man, it is all to play for at third. Seattle, Houston, and San Diego, all within three points. Yep. Just duking it out there. So that's at least interesting. Yeah. Unfortunately, the East is kind of all but smoking for at this point. Pretty much. You know, Toronto really needed to get that W against New York, and they just couldn't do it at home. Yeah. I mean, at least... Who plays this week? What are they doing?
01:06:29
Speaker
It's New York. We host Atlanta, obviously. Toronto gets Dallas, so they'll have fun with that. Oh, yeah, they'll be all right. Nola in D.C., that's not relevant. Sarah Katz in Utah. New Jersey's hosting Seattle. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see. Legion in Los Angeles, back to the Battle of Southern California. And then we go to Toronto next Friday. Next Thursday.
01:06:59
Speaker
The next Thursday, am I seeing this right? Yep. That's next Thursday or something like that. Weird. Yeah, that would be a Thursday. I had something's wrong there. I hate that. I know they're trying to push that. I hate that. Stop. Maybe that's not good. Yeah.
Conclusion and Upcoming Events
01:07:16
Speaker
It's trying to also play. No, because that's the other thing. Toronto's playing. Like you said, they're only playing Dallas. They can put out a half team. Yeah, they could.
01:07:26
Speaker
Cause it's like, that's not a cool turnaround. Toronto has to play, you know, play and then, you know, within, within a week they play. I mean, free jacks have a short turnaround from, from Friday to Thursday, but Saturday to Thursday is even worse. Yeah. Oh, I would not want to play on a Thursday after a Saturday match. No way. Pass a pass pass pass at my age. Shit. Right. Okay. Um, so that is,
01:07:56
Speaker
all we have for the rugby pod pod. If you're coming over to the fancy corner, I promise I'll be better about this week. It was kind of, I thought, I knew my day was too easy last week. Why does this feel so easy? Oh, wait. God damn. I forgot that. I got all my shit done. How awesome is that? Oh, wait. So easy. Oh, wait. Oh, shit. Yeah. So I promise I'll be better about this week. Yeah. So if you're heading over there, we will see you over there. If not, then and you come back for.
01:08:26
Speaker
just the rugby next week. Enjoy champions cup semi finals. If you're in your final round, you're in your semi final FRD, we'll get you over there on the other side of this. But other than that, everybody enjoy. Thank you very much for stopping by and have a good one. Later.