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Season 4- Episode 27- Sorry, We Just Couldn’t Shut Up (Premiership Round 19 & Super Rugby Pacific Round 3)
36 Plays4 years ago
It's a doozy of a pod, and it wasn't even that busy of a weekend...or so we thought. On this episode, we start by recognizing the amazing women of the rugby world for International Women's Day, and of course, our favorite Saracen's player. We then look at the decision to not promote anyone from the Championship, and the discussion around that. Of course, we go from back to front in all the matches from both the Prem and Super Rugby. So hang on tight, grab a glass...or a bottle and try to enjoy with us.
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Ask us questions via Twitter: Jarrod- jdyke8man & Ben- admrablsnackbar, and #AskTFRY.
Send us your thoughts for the show and questions for upcoming shows via e-mail fantasyrugbypodcast@gmail.com. Of course we welcome feedback via e-mail, twitter or by rating/reviewing the pod on Apple Podcast.
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Transcript
Introduction and Humor
00:00:08
Speaker
Hey, everybody, welcome back. It is the Nancy Reggie. My name is Jared Dyke. I'm Ben Glauser. Finally, we're on our way here. The difficulties try to decide. We're trying to put the kibosh on this thing, but we will not be denied. Stupid computers. Damn technology. All right. Fuck are they good for? Yeah. Got it. This is for you, Anton. Why would he say I missed that?
00:00:30
Speaker
said something along the lines of when he cracks open a beer, he thinks of our pod now. Oh, yeah. So next time I drink jotty black is when I think I can say that much right now. So yeah, by by our friend George fans who were geeky coffee, he's very busy boy this week, obviously, with all the other competitions going Six Nations, Super Ruby, TRM, all that stuff.
Rugby Support and Social Justice
00:01:00
Speaker
You know, I saw something, somebody said something really nice about him the other day, like, oh, you know, I follow your picks almost like to a tee, not to a tee, but you know, he uses George's advice to, to try and better his team, obviously, which is really awesome.
00:01:16
Speaker
Yeah, you could do works. Although looking at his team in TRM. It might be one of those do as I say, not as I do. Yeah, no, but so yeah, that's great to see. So yeah, buy him a coffee and I'm sure he'd gladly appreciate it. TRM upgrades also, especially with the Six Nations and Prambles kicking off this weekend. Don't need to go getting those lineups crossed.
00:01:45
Speaker
No, you don't. Although, do run isn't playing in either. So no, he's not. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. That's often across him. This guy here is dead. So yeah, grab those and then obviously you support restart rugby as well. So that's also very much a help. Black Lives Matter, as always on this podcast, and there is no room for racism, sports or in life.
00:02:14
Speaker
We had, what was it? What did I just see to you? What was it? What was the case? I was looking at this dome movement and I was trying to think of the kid's name. That was shot a few years ago. But yeah, basically it's, it's same story, different chapter for black lives matter. We're always looking at, you know, cases that aren't pursued as hard because of, you know,
00:02:40
Speaker
Yeah, a young black person being shot or killed or whatever. And, you know, police either were involved or they just don't want to, they just don't want to search for it as hard. It's like,
00:02:52
Speaker
I, so what are we doing with like why are we funding police if they're not right, stopping crime, they don't stop crime. You want you wonder what they don't show. Yeah, like, it's not right. It's not as though we can, you know, the police are actually helpful in this situation. I think we need to recognize that and maybe change how we prioritize.
00:03:17
Speaker
There was a, there was an issue right out in your backyard for, I think it's still going on, but it was, it's less so, but, um, young girl that really, they really just kind of threw the case out and didn't think anything of it. I was like, uh, that sounds way fishier than just a toss out to me. I don't know about you guys. I think this needs to be a little bit harder to investigate. So, you know, just thought, just a thought.
Patreon and Rugby Magazine Updates
00:03:42
Speaker
Grab our Patreon. Obviously, we are very appreciative of our patrons, and there's something new up there. As of today, which admittedly, it has a few bugs that I'll be working out, but I wanted to get at least something up, and it does have decent information, and you can see where it's clearly bullshit, like where it says... I think I was sorting through some of the teams, and it was like someone's average start was...
00:04:12
Speaker
130 minutes and I'm like, that's not accurate. You had 130 minutes of playing time and only one start. I didn't change that to appearances. So there's things I'll have to find as to what went wrong, but I wanted to post.
00:04:27
Speaker
certain things. Yeah, I don't know if you're if you're looking at average starting minutes at this point, you know, for for for frd you're not you're doing it wrong anyway. No, we'll do that. It's not it's not exactly. It's not like TRM where there's the 60 to get what, like three extra points for you play 60 minutes. So that matters. No, it doesn't really matter how many minutes you play per start in.
00:04:49
Speaker
So more matters that you're scoring points when you're on the pitch. That's the important part. Right. And we do have, you know, average points per start or per appearance. And I think even for start, too. And then that's on there. Points per minute, which is big, because that'll know. That's a good one. Yeah. Someone, even if they come off the bench, you're still going to score points. It's not, again, it's not like TRM where, you know, the more points you play, the more minutes you'll probably accrue.
00:05:13
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Right, right. So that'll be good. Six Nations should be up there too, although I'm sure there's a bug or two in that one as well. I tried my best. I tried my best. I'm not the mad scientist at Venice, so I just do what I could. But hopefully it's useful just the same.
00:05:34
Speaker
So we do, since we're not doing the megapod like we will, we will next week, we do have a little bit of time to discuss other things.
Women's Rugby and Community Impact
00:05:41
Speaker
Yesterday was International Women's Day and
00:05:44
Speaker
yes, there are women that should be celebrated all over, but especially to the rugby women in the universe. Yeah, I mean, we we lost a legend this past year, a great, a very great rugby woman. And that was just so sad. And we and there was so much celebration for her. I just want to see that more over the top continued, because they deserve it just as much as anybody else. Absolutely. Like that. That was great to see. I didn't expect it's not that it's not that I
00:06:13
Speaker
didn't know her, her impact on the USA rugby world. But I didn't, I didn't expect that kind of outpouring. It goes to show how much more visibility the sport has. And, and also how much, you know, people are, you know, will recognize that kind of greatness around. And that's also how many lives she touched too, that it was, it was high profile Eagles. And now they have more of a platform. So it's like a, it's building, it's a, it's a,
00:06:41
Speaker
Yeah, it's building sickly, sickly and exponentially, like, good ways spiraling out, which is the way we want to go. Yeah, keep doing keep going. I saw Jess Hayden say like, there's nobody that puts more energy into such a waste of time than somebody that says that somebody that tells you they don't care about women's sports. Like, that is such a fucking useless waste of your time. Like, why would you why do you need to do that? What is it inside you that feels that you need to do that?
00:07:10
Speaker
Obviously, it's not true. If you took the time to post something about it, how many times I've opened a Twitter thread and been like, what the fuck is this? I don't care about it. You know what I do? I don't care about this. I just close the thread and move on with my fucking life. What the fuck is this shit? Oh, I don't care. I'm moving on. Yeah.
00:07:37
Speaker
We have to at least mention and it's dated. So, the, the all blacks in their posts.
00:07:47
Speaker
do you cock that up? It's such an easy win. Oh, with Reese. Yeah, Jesus. Such an easy win. And but not even just with Reese, the whole tone of the post was like, Oh, yeah, it's true as well. Hey, women, thank you for cooking, baking cookies for us for after the night. No, that's not that's not what this is like. Celebrate your black ferns. Like that's, that's what you do. You celebrate like you you elevate
00:08:11
Speaker
you know, the women rugby players in New Zealand, and because they deserve the respect. And yeah, if you want to do a follow up post about and thanks, you know, thank you, like do kind of a thread, you know, but first and foremost, you got to make those they make those things now.
00:08:26
Speaker
I don't know who, how do you make that mistake in this day and age? Yeah, whoever's on PR is getting fired. They didn't, yeah, you can do better than that. It's not that, there's no excuse anymore. It's not that hard. Especially with Piki kicking off last weekend as well. And super W like, yeah, that was pretty cool.
00:08:49
Speaker
So yeah, they were all over the place. Right. They get halftime. They're promoting the women's matches. Like, you know, you watch the super rugby and they're talking to the women at halftime and things like that.
00:09:03
Speaker
they're promoting it before the match and all the other previews that they were doing. So how do you miss that? But they did. They did. Good job. At least they put Frizzell on there too. Right. And that's the other thing. He puts every recent act like he dummies.
00:09:22
Speaker
Like, come on, man. We know, we know, we know there's a problem here. Like, you don't, you can't just ignore it. Right. Like, just think, all right, which one of these, which one of these idiots should we not put in? That one. That's the one. I saw something about the, the London Irish. They're like, do you realize what they didn't do on the international women's day? Right. They didn't say anything because they're like, yeah, we have a, so that's not really going to work. Not really going to work.
00:09:49
Speaker
Yeah, it's they the ratio would not be positive for them. No, the response would be quite poor. But yeah, and then obviously, we'd be really dumb to skip over the the Allianz Prem 15 favorite woman
Player Highlights and Performances
00:10:05
Speaker
of the month. That was Ella Kelter. Hell yeah. Player of the month. US Eagle recently. Like, yeah, she's she's taken to the prem like a fish to water. Yeah, clearly settling in quite well over that. She's been playing 12.
00:10:17
Speaker
Yeah. And she's been, she's been kicking too. So yeah, she's been taking the kicks, which hadn't occurred to me. It was part of her skill set. So clearly I either just didn't know it or she, it's been one of those hidden talents of hers that we didn't know. Right. Yeah. Taking the kicks off the tee. Good for her. Fantastic. Fantastic for her for having that, that, uh, ability. It's not like she's a, you know, she's, she learned, had to learn a lot about rugby as she came over from hockey and it's like, true.
00:10:45
Speaker
You know, nothing like kicking off a tee in hockey. So no, she was ready for it. I think I remember hearing interviews. She did play footy soccer in high school, but that was a while ago. But that's still at this point. That's that's well within the back of her brain at this point. Need to kind of pull it out.
00:11:01
Speaker
But yeah, good on her. We love seeing that. KZ was that once, I think. And I won't be surprised if she gets that again at some point too. So the other bit of news that we can probably get into a little bit is the decision to not promote anyone from the championship to the prem.
00:11:24
Speaker
I don't like it. And I know I've not been super supportive of the championship teams, but at the same time, I want to see a way for every championship team to be viable to the prem. And unfortunately, the thing is the prem doesn't want to help. And that sucks. And neither does RFU. And RFU would be very, very smart to try and do that because
00:11:46
Speaker
You know, there's all the fucking idiots are like, oh, there's no value in the championship. How many players that are playing in England shirts and abroad elsewhere have left their mark on the championship like and developed down there? You know, you see you see it all the time. You know, players are seeing. Yeah. How many how many times are we seeing players like. Get, you know, during six nations this time of year, come up and kick ass and stick around. And we even see some.
00:12:16
Speaker
Oh, who's the hooker for Wasps? Dan Frost. Dan Frost. Like, I don't know, we're taking the prep by storm. It's like, that's not terrible rugby. And Christian Judge, who's been
00:12:29
Speaker
It's solid. And I'm sure I could keep naming them as they come to me. But the point being that there's decent rugby to be played there. And what do we always say? What's that three word phrase that people talk about when you're trying to expand this whole thing? Grow the game. You talk about reaching out to kids and building for the future. It's called growing the game.
00:12:56
Speaker
Like, you know, you should be looking to expand. You should be looking to develop more. There's obviously the talent for it in England. There's 14 prem, there's 14 prem teams worth of talent out there. And, you know, low, they don't have the facilities right now. Okay, well, then let them develop it.
00:13:18
Speaker
you know, they might, you know, get screwy here or there, you know, you'd go up, go down. But I'm not, I'm not a huge fan of eelings, but like Doncaster apparently is good enough for for an England international match, but not good enough for the prem, which sounds pretty fucking backwards if you asked me. So, you know, just kind of, you know, don't look at what the right hand is doing, I guess, but shit.
00:13:41
Speaker
All right and I think I saw a stat somewhere about you know average attendance and there's like four teams that average over 10,000 and it's like then what do you need a 10,000 seat stadium for? You don't, you know and I've always and I've said it about you know we've talked about very much about this when it comes to like our league here like
00:14:05
Speaker
Yeah, you don't need a huge stadium. You pack it over and over again until all right, we actually we actually can viability expand and yeah, but it's still a great atmosphere. Like, you know, you even talk about look at like the revolution, the the one revolution, like they play at Foxboro Stadium. That is 60 to 80,000 CC. They only open up for the bottom from the bottom up. It's still pretty empty. Yeah, even that last year wasn't so bad. They were pretty good. But
00:14:35
Speaker
regularly, it's empty. And then you look at the park out out West, which is Portland temperature. It's one of my favorite teams to watch because
00:14:43
Speaker
That place rocks. It is so much fun to watch that stadium. It's not 60,000 seats. I think it's like 28,000 seats. In comparison, that's half. They pack it and they don't care to expand it. They know we can pack this and make the house rock. And nothing will excite a player quite like their home state and just absolutely bouncing. It doesn't matter how many
00:15:09
Speaker
No, it doesn't. We saw that at the match the other week with all the Argentinians, wasn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Like there were maybe what, 30 of them there. Yeah. And they made that stadium like a party. So it's like, you know.
00:15:26
Speaker
It doesn't take much to get it to create the atmosphere. And, you know, and the players will respond. So it's not really. Yeah, it's just an excuse. Yeah, I think so, too. It's just an excuse. And it's bad one. And it's not a very good one at all. You know, in the next way, you need to build a bigger stadium, but also you need to stay on budget and also you need to compete on this budget for the premise. Like you're really just putting hands behind people's backs and just expecting them to try and find a way out. And that sucks.
00:15:55
Speaker
And especially when the salary cap is going to go down again next year. So it's like a lot of that high end talent is going to need to go somewhere. It has to go somewhere. Why not to a promoted team? It could be fun. I see no issue with it. And you look at like
00:16:15
Speaker
like Newcastle. They started a couple of decent names when they came back and now they're not the best team but look they've beaten Exeter at Sandy Park this year. They've given most teams that they played against all they could freaking handle. And they're doing it without a significant amount of players too to injury and retirement even.
00:16:39
Speaker
So without a Mark Wilson, without a chick who's been in and out, Graham has been on and off. And that's your back row right there. That's a fucking solid back row right there. That's supposed to be their starting back row. Yeah. And so there's that. And they still need to find some talent in the centers.
00:17:02
Speaker
But like, they're still a viable team. They're not as bad as Wooster, you know? I know. I know. Wooster's terrible. Good lord. They're awful. Yeah. So, it's like, you can do it. It can be done. Yeah. I think that it would behoove. And, you know, the rich could get richer in this case if England wanted to, but they don't. So, go ahead, stick your head in the sand. It usually works well and see what happens.
00:17:30
Speaker
Now, I mean, it's funny, though, to me, because I'm usually the one who's arguing against expansion. I was mad when the NHL expanded the last time and MLR keep, you know, I was I know I'm terrified of it over here, but we don't have the talent pool. We don't have the talent pool. There's a big difference. Yeah. Yeah, so it's way different. And I think England can support that 14th premise side. So I don't know what I mean.
00:17:58
Speaker
All
Match Highlights and Analysis
00:17:59
Speaker
right. Well, let's go to the actual rugby, I suppose. Yeah. Fine. I suppose. At least it's the Quinn's. We can talk about the Quinn's. Quinn's and Newcastle, actually. Ironically. So, yeah, we have the full on blooming of Tommy Allen. Yeah, much better. Much, much better. This game like did not let he's.
00:18:24
Speaker
Whatever reason, the last few games that he started, he's just looked a little bit, man, a little out of place. And I don't know what it was. And, you know, he looked all right in the opener, which actually was also against Newcastle. Until he got hurt. Until he, and just hasn't looked the same since. So whatever. Quinn's keep doing whatever the fuck you're doing with that because it worked. Yeah. Well, I mean, we're also seeing that, you know, Hugh Jones is still,
00:18:47
Speaker
Obviously, he scored a try. So he's still clicking there. And it took him a little bit to go to. And, you know, I feel like he and Tommy have had the same amount of opportunities. So, yeah, it's kind of or at least he even had more opportunities because of Edwards. Edwards has been lights out. So it's like, do we pick an off-form Tommy Allen or a way on-form Edwards? And obviously, you're going to go with Edwards. But now, yeah, Allen's making his case and doing a good job with that.
00:19:16
Speaker
Yeah, only helps them as well, obviously, until another 10 comes back. And there was, you know, two new castles credit, they're missing guys to the point where Sean Robinson got stuck at six, which is not a position he's comfortable with, went through quite a bit of work, but at the same time, definitely looked like a wee bit off. And that's just how it is.
00:19:42
Speaker
You know, um, again, went through, went through all kinds of work, but just wasn't quite the same player that we know because, you know, playing six and playing the second row, there is a difference. There is a difference. And you have a little bit more energy, but also you can get way ahead of yourself once you have that energy, like, wait, wait, wait, where am I supposed to be? Really? Yeah. Wait a minute. Something's missing here. Yeah. And then Adam Radwan had like,
00:20:11
Speaker
What do you have? Like 10 defenders beaten and maybe the one clean break. He was stepping people but going nowhere. No, I know. He's like, all right, I'm going to be here on the outside and I'm going to be here on the outside. He had 10 defenders beaten. Yeah, but no clean breaks. Or one. Oh, two. Two. They gave him two on TRM. I think he only had one.
00:20:34
Speaker
There was only one that I remember where he actually got behind, like, he got a couple times he got to run with the defense kind of the line bubbled, and then you know, in a kind of a scramble defense and just kept him in front. So to me that wasn't a clean line clean break but I think they gave that to him. Yeah, I think so too.
00:20:51
Speaker
So yeah, it's a little bit meh for Newcastle, unfortunately. I'm glad they're continuing to ride Hayden Wood. Well, I think he's going to be just fine going forward. Dean Richards would only be smart to keep playing him as often as possible because he's your 10 for the future. And we talked about it before, like you look at Orlando Bailey, you look at Phil Smith. Orlando Bailey is now on the England radar. So whether you like it or not, they're still there.
00:21:19
Speaker
I think he's still with the team for the weekend. Oh, is he gonna? Ooh, interesting. Okay, that'll be interesting. Have sips back. Yeah, so it's, God, how old is Will Hayden Wood, by the way? Oh, he's 21. Okay, yep. Yeah, like that for them. Like that for them a lot.
00:21:36
Speaker
really, really good. And the other side of the coin obviously being not only Calameti, and I know they have Schurter, he's 22, okay, cool. I know they have Schurter who's probably, you know, the incumbent and can show the ropes to both these guys in a lot of ways, but
00:21:53
Speaker
Yeah, lots of good things to like if you're a Newcastle fan, still got some stuff to figure out and develop, but it's coming along, slowly coming along. So I would be very excited for them if I was looking at that 9-10 combination, if I were them. And they just keep on, they figured it out, they keep on ticking.
00:22:13
Speaker
Oh, and we would really be remiss because I said it while we were texting at the time. We don't care about the score line. George McGuigan is my man of the match. Oh, God. Yeah, I know. He plays on such a... And he's a Newcastle boy through and through, so he'll never, ever, ever leave this club. Yeah, I couldn't imagine. Yeah, George McGuigan is always going to be a Newcastle dude.
00:22:37
Speaker
But yeah, running straight and hard, that's all he can do. But he does it well, and he's just, he's hard to stop on top of that. So it's not very, it's not very fun to try and tackle him. So yeah, no, I agree. If you were picking a guy that was player of the match, regardless of score line, I think it should go again.
00:22:56
Speaker
They even mentioned it like, yeah, I would like to pick this guy, but, but, but yeah, I was glad that they did that. So we were texting that back and forth kind of before they, they mentioned it and I'm glad they did. He deserved it. Cause he really, I mean, they pretty much said, yeah, he's the man of the match, but they lost. We don't want to pick it against the winning team. Although people have done it before. Yeah. And it's an extreme case, but a 14 point match.
00:23:21
Speaker
Now, yeah, yeah, something, something tighter. I agree. I agree. I agree.
00:23:28
Speaker
Let's jump over to a really exciting one at the Rec. And Bath and Bristol and... No. Bath take it home. No. Wow. Damn it. Yeah. I mean, hey, we... Well, we saw the good and the bad for Bristol this match. Right. Well, we both picked frickin' Bath too on the weekend, so... Yeah. But yeah, and shit. Yeah, it all was going super smoothly until...
00:23:57
Speaker
Steven Nolago just did another one. And we saw it from Umaga earlier this season and just got to wise up a little bit when it comes to that tackle. Yeah. Just a little bit. Yeah. Right. Dope.
00:24:15
Speaker
I don't know what else to say. No, I know. I mean, it doesn't help that they had three other yellows. So yeah, they got a two men in three instances and they were cursed to yellow down to it. Yeah, my goodness. Not good. No. So it was fun to hear flats and mcconnie on the comms, though. I will say that, you know, they're both flat. There's a longtime bath guy and mcconnie is obviously currently a bath player. So it was fun to listen to them. But
00:24:40
Speaker
I think Rory had to do all he could to hold it in when they scored that last little bit. That's right. I can't say I blame him. No, I mean, that's the thing. You're like, that's what makes it fun, because there's no reason not like you don't have him on to be a.
00:24:58
Speaker
like an unbiased observer. Like, that's not the point. The fun part is, yeah, he's like, he's a player, this affects him. It matters. So yeah, let him leave it, you know, as a
00:25:14
Speaker
a Bears supporter in my own way. I don't mind. I want to hear that kind of excitement because even if my team's getting assholed, that means some other team is doing something really cool. I can appreciate the fact that they're happy. Actually, it's doubly.
00:25:39
Speaker
you know, for a Derby like this, like just twist the knife a little bit more. Yeah, it does. It just does a lot. And that's better. That's just more fun.
00:25:50
Speaker
Yeah, no, and there's, there's lots of credit to go to Bristol in many ways because they just never quit. And they, they made Bather in this, no doubt. Um, even with their team on the field for a good chunk of the match. Thacker looked immense for the most part. I don't think he came off the field once. Um,
00:26:10
Speaker
Yeah, no, except for his card. Except for his card. Except for his card. Well, that makes it easy, right? Because if, you know, he's going to have to play 70, that's, that's perfect. That's doable. That's doable for that. You know, 80 might be a stretch because he just came off of injury, like, in the last couple of weeks. But, yeah. Yeah. And then, for the bathmen, you and Richards, wow.
00:26:33
Speaker
did not have that at all. Like, wow, he had a match. He was losing at least two or three times. It's like, whoa, where'd he come from? Somebody lose a giraffe. Right. It's on the pitch right there.
00:26:49
Speaker
you can't miss it just look up no no and almost had the winning offload of course it got you know yellow carded and they eventually scored off right anyway so no big deal um but yeah just he that was that was an incredible match by him um certainly covered up whatever patch there might be
00:27:06
Speaker
needed for the lack of Charlie Ewells, obviously. But in the in the best part for bath was this is probably their starting back row until you know, and unfortunately, they're gonna need to replace volatile because he's leaving at the end of the year. But that's probably their best off back row that they were able to employ for a long time. And we saw how good they were in combination, which is just right terrifying for teams to think about because and they still have they still have Hughes.
00:27:32
Speaker
Yeah. And that's the way he's just playing. So it's like, even with Faletau gone, okay, well, we lose Faletau out of that. But wait, here comes Nathan Hughes in his form right now. Yeah, it's really terrifying. And a guy that we've given less credit than he probably needed, Ballio Morozov played really well in this match, I have to say. And, you know, when
00:27:55
Speaker
When David Flatman's giving you a nod, you know, that's probably a sign that you probably have something going on for you. So good on him and good on Darcy Ray. Apparently Ray has just been through a boatload of minutes. I think they did the statistics earlier and it was out of all the minutes that he could possibly play. He didn't miss, he hasn't missed much because the replacement tie head, they don't really trust in Will Spencer's way. So, you know, I just like, oof. So he's had to do a lot of work and, you know, when you're propping at tight headed, that ain't fun.
00:28:25
Speaker
I'm going to do 80 minutes in a whack.
00:28:27
Speaker
No, it gets old like 60 minutes after 60 minutes is a tight head. You're kind of like I because you're freaking doing like a max squat every time you scrum and you're also probably one of the main lifter and you know, you think you're doing all plus you got to run around the pitch. So, you know, it's not it's it's nowhere near as easy as like a Vincent Koch or Kyle Sinclair like these guys are
00:28:55
Speaker
top of the list for a reason. The rest, it's just, oh, it sucks. It's hard. If you don't have that ability, it's just, yeah, you're just doing fucking grunt work. Yeah, no doubt. No joke, no joke. So let's go over to the Stonex.
00:29:18
Speaker
The Wolfpack is back. God damn, I know they didn't shut them out completely, but man, for all the possession that Lester had, they should have done so much more with it. They really should have. And they didn't. And that's because the salary cap, it's the fucking Wolfpack defense, boys. I don't care what you say. God damn, I love it.
00:29:40
Speaker
just making sure that just keep them in front of you and let them make a mistake. And, you know, they struggled with a little bit of that early. They made some really just fucking boneheaded. Agreed. Like, for the first, like, 20 minutes, I was like... Oh, I was throwing shit. I was like, God damn it! Yeah. It was like, even with the Wooly and the Lewington Tri, I was still like,
00:30:04
Speaker
Oh, I was uneasy. I was super uneasy at that point. No, no, no, it wasn't until the Lewington try even well, even afterwards, it was still a little bit of a but obviously that was more that he's for the triad. And then and Murray Maravallo and then the penalty right after. Yeah, I mean, boom, boom, man, you couldn't have been you couldn't have been more foolish with that. So you had Lewington was going to scored. So just leave it alone, because then you give away a Lizowski penalty. And then you give away and then they eventually give away a Maitland try on top of it at the right near the end of the card. Like, yeah, you
00:30:34
Speaker
I mean, he owes everybody on that team a freaking case of beer. Like that is bad. Like it was the match. That's 10, 10 points on the card. Yeah. You know, I, yeah, they got the three in return, but still. So that's seven points on the bounce. And Hey, what was the, what was the difference in the, in the mesh? Yeah, it was seven. So let's have a look at that. But yeah, it was, you know, and this was Lester and they came to play and there wasn't, there wasn't a news flash to anybody yet, you know, on the series by any means whatsoever.
00:31:03
Speaker
And we knew it was always going to be tight and it was, but you know, the more, it was almost, it was funny. It was almost the more the series played defense, the more they were settled into their old mentality. You know, they're just like, all right, here we are. Just, you're not crossing the line and if you can do it, good for you. And they took their shots. Like it's not as though they didn't play open style. That was the thing to me too. They played a more attacking match and you know,
00:31:32
Speaker
as we communicate between, you know, during the match. I was very careful not to mention the one player who was actually having a fucking good game until his card. He finds a way to cock it up every time. Every time he's having a good one. Oh, here's a complete blunder. Let's do that. Unnecessary. Just stupid. Fucking hell. Very lucky to probably be a yellow, honestly. Right. Oh.
00:31:57
Speaker
I was like, all right, I'm going to go find the lotto because there's no way that should have been a yellow probably. No, but honestly, I mean, at the same time, karma in the universe, like we missed that one yellow that, you know, truck could have got should have got the red. So I was like, all right, maybe that's the balance of the universe in that case. And I think that if there was any mitigation there, I and personally, I don't know. This is me trying to interpret what the referee was seeing.
00:32:24
Speaker
it was that Davies was no longer coming forward. He took that hit. So I think that may have been the mitigation is that it wasn't like
00:32:36
Speaker
He like he was going forward and smashed into Ford head to head. He kind of just stopped because he was like there was that little cut and and it's like I think that that's the only reason that I could see. Like if I'm looking to for a reason to bring that from a red to a yellow, I'm actively trying to find it. That's what I see. That's that might be it. But but I'm not one to do that. So no, no, no, no. No, but I will take it happily.
00:33:04
Speaker
boys on the other side, Lester, I mean, they're, they're freaking clear, they have so much, they have so much wiggle room, they're fine. That was, that was probably more important to the series than it was to Lester. Not to say that it wasn't important to Lester and Steve Borthwick going back to his old ground and Wiggy coming back to his old ground. Good to see Wiggy. There's, there's so much praise I have for Richard Wigglesworth and what he did for the Saracens. You know, you look at all the way back to the first title title season with with him and Neil DeCock and just like,
00:33:34
Speaker
to match him with Throwitz and just to be such a solid performer, even in the last year where we were in the parameter for coat during COVID. Like he was a guy, he was glue. He was a serious bit of glue that the series needed during all that fucking turmoil. So I have so much love for the guy and good to see him come back and just connect with everybody. And I'm sure the boys were happy to give him a bit of a shoulder up the arse as it were.
00:34:01
Speaker
But yeah, great, good, much better performance from Sarah since previous weeks. And yeah, I was dancing all day long on Saturday. Yeah, that was fun. That was not Yeah, it was a good good day. Yeah, I know. I had no complaints about that. Let's go over to let's go over to Brentford.
00:34:22
Speaker
And we'll get through that. We'll get through that. There was fucking nothing in that. This is nothing to hear. And really the talking point at this point is probably Duhan's Red.
00:34:36
Speaker
That's a red. It's a red. And the problem is, and if people are kind of thinking about red or yellow or whatever, really it's just because he threw out a forearm. If it had been a hand and it had been outstretched, he would have been fine, but he missed and he screwed up his technique. And that is what it comes down to sometimes. And they're not screwing around with it. It was also never like, even if he did what he wanted to do, it was still going to be at least a yellow because he was still cocked back. You can't like, you can, you know,
00:35:06
Speaker
You can't shove off, right? You have to keep that arm out if you hand off. And you certainly can't do it to the face, right? So he was always high with that. Like, if you want to do it to the chest, okay. He could have just come straight up with a hand, but instead he kind of tried to...
00:35:24
Speaker
throw like a little hook or something almost. It's like that's not legal anyway. So... Probably less than legal. Nothing he was trying to do was legal and he ended up forearming... Was it Roe in the head? Yeah, I think it was Roe. There you go. And they're like, oh, there's the first thing they made contact with his hand. It's like, no, that was certainly not the palm.
00:35:45
Speaker
like the side of the hand, but then come through with the elbow. Come through with that elbow. It's going to be bad news either way you caught it. And obviously the referee on this one. Oh, make peace. That's right. The whole thing I went through with Davis to come down to a yellow. I don't see any way to do that with this one.
00:36:04
Speaker
Yeah, it's tough to come down from it, so. Right. I'm not a fan of Jack Maypeace playing any means whatsoever. I still think he's got a lot to learn as far as a Premiership referee goes. This was a good situation for him because this was never going to go any other way. So. Yeah. And then from there, you know, the only chance that Worcester ever has is to make sure that all 15 are on the field. And after that, they are going to be under the pump the whole freaking time.
00:36:31
Speaker
You know, you have the guys of the quality of, you know, Gus Creeby and the man Juan Martin Gonzalez looks like he's fitting right in. Curtis Rona, who had a fantastic day, just on and on. And there's so much quality up and down since he was lightening. Our old buddy Ben White.
00:36:54
Speaker
Ben White again, you know, I got, you know, nothing bad to say about him. Right. So it was always going to be bad news for Western. And that's just how it is. Sorry, boys. Sorry, you hired the wrong fucking coach anyway. So
00:37:11
Speaker
That's also true. Let's jump over to King's Home. And if Bath and Bristol was good, I don't know what this is because damn, this was just almost as good if not better. I mean, of course it was better because
00:37:25
Speaker
Bath and Bristol did not have bum. Oh, that's true. That's a lot of bum. A lot of bum extended period of time. And it's just a, Oh man. Yeah. Yeah. That was a full one. That's a lot of AF. That's a lot of AF though. Thank you, Fred and Anston for your contribution to the rugby bum world. Yeah.
00:37:50
Speaker
And what a contribution it was. Like, wow. Cannot minimize that contribution. No, not at all. Not at all. More to the game of minimizing contribution. And I'm going to stick with Northampton here because we can talk about the winners later. Fraser Dingwall showing up again big time after kind of going missing for a couple of weeks.
00:38:16
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Has been what it was was a huge factor for Northampton to just to keep them in it. No, no. Yeah. Same for for Hutchinson was was. Who knew he could play 15 like that? Yeah, he played quite well back there. That's the first couple of times he got stuck back there. I can't say that we've seen it, but this was this was better. Yeah, it was better to his credit. That's true. He has been put back there before.
00:38:46
Speaker
But yeah, not right. The results weren't anywhere close to this. No, no, no, no. Um, and then there's another guy that this young reserve that, that the Gloucester have this young reserve wing. He's like 21. I don't know. Go reflight and go like you might have a future. Yeah. I mean.
00:39:10
Speaker
I have, it's hard to say that you don't need a Louisry Samet in your team. It really is. Pure and unadulterated speed, like just. He never made it out of like third gear. No, and he's just still cruising by everybody. I'm like, where, where did, where, no, get back. Oh, no, nevermind.
00:39:31
Speaker
Damn. He's, he's really good. He really is good. Like, just there's no, there's no way you can teach that. And he's, and he knows how to use it too. He's not just like running because he know he's, he's turning on the jets when required to get by people. And then he's just like changing gears up and down and just making you look silly. And it's
00:39:51
Speaker
Cause he, yeah, he kind of, he, he accelerated into that. He kind of slowed down and let the, the defense kind of rush up, break breaking past the ball and then just ran behind them. And he accelerated into that gap. Cause there's like, he's like, Oh, well now you can't touch me. So I'll just run into this gap and then accelerate. And now then there were just nobody, there was nobody. Yeah. I mean,
00:40:16
Speaker
Yeah, there was nothing you can do. And somebody stop Harry Elringdon. I know, right? If you can. Crop on the loose. Stop him if you can. Yeah, rather good. Tom Seabrook was actually quite good in this one. That little step to the try. That was pretty cool.
00:40:35
Speaker
And he gave the ball to Louisa. That's never a bad decision. That's rarely a bad decision. Just saying. I think you should take this. You do this a lot. You do this. Go ahead. I mean, I think we'd be silly to skip over Alex Mitchell. There are so many good nines in England right now. And
00:41:01
Speaker
I don't know how you get Alex Mitchell into the team, especially with Quirk. But damn, he's good. I will say what's his butt was really crapping on him the other weekend. I think it was something that was bothering him. And it wasn't because he was unfit. Our favorite, our favorite sideline commentator. But anyway, we'll speak that fucking asshole's name.
00:41:22
Speaker
Yeah, like he plays 80 minutes on the reg. So if he cramps up every once in a while and kind of gets tired, I don't really have a reason to shit on him. And he does a lot of really good stuff when he's on the field. So to shit on him for the one time that he runs out of gas and probably needs a gel or something or just needs a break, like, come on, man. Leave him alone.
00:41:48
Speaker
Yeah, and he's he's also really good. Yes, and then he's I think he you're right he is underrated on the in the England squad. Anyway, he like all the things that the quirk and Randall do.
00:42:03
Speaker
Alex Mitchell does too. Of course, it's Danny care. So it's kind of like, I know. I mean, care. I mean, unfortunately, 88 care. But yeah, you know, that's not a new thing. Right. Fun news flash, by any means. Yeah, it's like, okay, you're getting that you should be moving in this direction. So why not have Alex Mitchell as your backup nine instead of the youngs?
00:42:26
Speaker
Yeah, he doesn't really, outside of, you know, being the guy cleaning up when you're already ahead, doesn't give you anything. So he's beyond his days at this point. Right. There's so many better that still can continue that impact. Like, yeah, if you have, you know,
00:42:45
Speaker
If Randall does poop out early, well, Alex mentioned, he certainly will be able to play 40 for you and probably even more on an international level. And he won't find out until you stick him in there for more than, I think it was the Tonga match that you got thrown in there for. Yeah, you got to stick them in there.
00:43:09
Speaker
Might as well do it now. You don't wanna try and find that out on a World Cup stage by any means whatsoever. That is where you would get lambasted. There's no doubt about that. And then over to Sandy Park and this was just a match that made me wanna cry in so many ways. It was just there.
00:43:32
Speaker
It sucked. It really did. And it was a whole lot of poop coming out of the sale end, no doubt. Right. Yeah, that too. And nothing really great coming out of Exeter's end because they only got freaking 19 points for as horror. And I think most sale fans will sit there and tell you, sale were very, very bad in this match. And they still walked away seven point losers. Right.
00:43:55
Speaker
At Sandy Park. Yes, like you don't just one does not simply walk into Sandy Park and walk out with a bonus point like you you got to be fucking good enough to do it. So, right. Yeah, this is not.
00:44:08
Speaker
You know, I think I see people are starting to rate, exit her again. They're like, Oh, exit her back. They're really not. They didn't play like, yeah. Vermeulen was, was decent to see that I thought he had a hell of a match. Um, Sam Skinner had a hell of a match. Yes, he did. Um, but it's like they weren't getting.
00:44:30
Speaker
Oh, still that well-rounded performance from their roster. Dave viewers is still just a fucking meathead out there, not doing much. Dave, Dave, I'll go. Yeah. And, I mean, I see hog on the team sheet, but I don't know that I saw him on the pitch. Deplay? We sure about that?
00:44:53
Speaker
But then, you know, actually I was, I was kind of impressed with Sam James. Did I say that? Who said that? Yeah, I know. He wasn't the worst fullback in this match. Weird. I know, right? Wow.
00:45:13
Speaker
Yeah, and Van Rensburg and Dupree didn't at the centers did not have their best day at all. No, no, it was not on for them. And that really kind of fucked the rest of the team a little bit. Right. And Cork had a bad one. And we we mentioned it at least a couple of times, the guts and, you know, he's not our favorite player, but the guts on Faf.
00:45:35
Speaker
were unquestionable in this match, like sticking. He's got the onions. Yeah. Sticking his nose into places that you don't want to do as a forward sometimes, let alone at his position and just not caring about his body and to his credit.
00:45:51
Speaker
that is something that you know, you cannot teach you have to just have it dive like that at a kick. Oh, I know. Like with feet or feet and knees around to like I'm waiting for him to get a frickin need of the frickin dome. And he didn't care. He's like, Nope, I need to take this and he did. And he just he kept getting himself involved in everything that he needed to so to his credit, physical in a good way, like that, that this is the like,
00:46:19
Speaker
Yeah, and maybe our, well, I shouldn't say maybe, I know our impression of him is colored by the fact that he is a dick off the ball. Oh shit, that was really a galore. Stupid stuff he doesn't have to do. It's like, if you just use that energy to productive matters like he did here, excellent.
00:46:39
Speaker
Just no complaints. Yes, this is one of the reasons he's one of the best scrumhaves in the world. Yeah, that chop tackle that he had on the chase there, it was awesome. I was like, wow, that is exactly how you do it too. So to his credit, he really did everything he could to keep sale on this match and to keep them alive.
00:46:58
Speaker
They just couldn't figure it out. They really couldn't. They couldn't get out of their own way and, and, and exit, or at least did the things they were supposed to do in order to make sure they held onto the match. They couldn't even get a fucking bonus point themselves, which is kind of sad. Um, bound away to cock that up a few times.
00:47:13
Speaker
But they did. They did get done. So to their credit, at least there's that. But again, as you said, I'm not that worried about this Exeter team. No, not at all. This is what they're going to put out there day in, day out. I'm not worried about it. Go for it. Yeah, have fun with it. Sounds good. Just don't try and out Exeter Exeter. Right.
00:47:35
Speaker
I wanted to I wanted to go back. I'm sorry. I have to go back to the Gloucester, Northampton match because we didn't mention Frasier, Balmain tracking down was it's go send from all right. That's right. I forgot about that. How could I forget about that? Or is it called it was one of the. Yeah, I think it's I think it's close. But yeah.
00:47:57
Speaker
That's that's some proper head right there. And he played almost the whole 82. He did play 80. So I know he played 80. So like I can't tell you how like, you know, as we're going back to that prop thing, like going on a sprint as a as a tight head prop in a match. That will cock you because of all the shit you have to do. So the energy that he put in to do that. Yeah, it's it's.
00:48:26
Speaker
no doubt. It took him out and he still played 80. So yeah. And plus he can always have that story too. And that's always something he can... I tracked that guy down. I did that to one of our wings in practice, in the sevens practice one time. I totally tracked him down from behind and I'd never let him hear the end of it. And he's like, I can't say anything but you totally did.
00:48:49
Speaker
He's like, I was going full speed and you took me down. And he's like, I don't know how you did it. I'm like, I don't know how I did it either. Try again. Yeah. Just keep moving on. Right. But it's always fun. So, so good on Fraser Belmain to have that in his back pocket. Right.
00:49:04
Speaker
Good for him. Yeah. So let's, um, let's move on to down under and to the Southern hemisphere, super rugby Pacific.
Super Rugby Challenges and Insights
00:49:13
Speaker
Um, finally the Moana get a fricking game, although they won't, they're going to be out another one this week. Jesus. That's not their fault. I know. Okay. You get to play, you get to play one match in the first four rounds and it's against the crusaders.
00:49:28
Speaker
I know. I mean, there are some bye weeks in here that they can finagle. I'm sure they're going to have to still try and make you know, somehow. But then if it looks super rugby, figure that one out. But it was fun to see them. And they got there. They got the first try of the match, the first try of their of their history. Was it Funaki that got it? Yeah.
00:49:47
Speaker
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. You know, they were just excited to get out there. Obviously. I don't think they, I mean, they would have preferred to win the match, but, but I mean, you kind of know what, what's going to happen going in and then that's the crusaders. Doesn't matter who's on the other side. Usually it doesn't, but at the same time, you know, they, the crusaders have done much worse to some great teams. So, um, that's, yeah, there's, there's something to be, to be prideful about there. I would say.
00:50:16
Speaker
Yeah, and we saw the return. Here's the bad. He was the bad news for the firm. I want it. There was, there was some and everybody else, but for Moana in this match particular Mwanga came on at 48 and Cody Taylor came on at halftime. Like yikes. I was like, Oh, this is only going to get worse. And Cody Taylor looks the same. Like doesn't, hasn't changed. That's it. He is the same. So it's,
00:50:45
Speaker
It's less of a surprise that it happened. It was just really exciting for me to watch the Pacifica again. And I thought they did a really good job of putting themselves out there and just, you know, they're not match fit yet, obviously. Right. Happens when you miss the first two weeks and that sucks. That sucks so hard. But at least they got out there. And, you know, again, this is like we said about the draw beforehand, just getting these guys out there on a regular basis is
00:51:13
Speaker
only going to help these island countries and develop everything so good on them and they'll get some good stiff competition consistently and they'll get some consistent playing time obviously too they won't
00:51:26
Speaker
Be beholden to another coach that doesn't want to play them just because they're an Islander, because people do that, unfortunately. Dicks. But so good on them. And, you know, Crusaders did their thing. No shock there. Life continues to go on as normal. But at least, you know, Moana can probably hold their head up as they probably aren't the worst team in Super Rugby. Oh, it might be the Rebels.
00:51:56
Speaker
It might be the rebels, unfortunately. What the fuck? Weren't they in like the championship two years ago? They were in the playoff a couple of years ago. Yeah. And they're not a bad team. Well, like lineup wise, you look at, you know, on paper. Right. I mean, this wasn't their best squad, but like. No, unless he was missing, that didn't help them at all.
00:52:20
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, there are some things missing from this team. Unfortunately, we'll see a couple of them return this coming weekend. But wow, to the drill, and this is their first quote unquote home game there. They don't have a, they only have a
00:52:36
Speaker
Their real home game is only one of them later on this year, but that's still really awesome to see them get this home game and to get some supporters behind them and to get their first win in Super Rugby ever and for it to not take forever is just so relieving. It's just that monkey off your back very, very quickly, which is something they probably didn't want on there and awesome.
00:53:03
Speaker
You know, once came off at halftime and Taylor just took over, he took over the game in a lot of ways, um, for them. And that was just really awesome for them. And, uh, there's a lot to go for. Um, there's a lot to go off of here for the Drua as far as their, um,
00:53:25
Speaker
as far as far as, you know, what what what the Flying Fijians, you know, can pull in from for the national team. You know, so I'm really excited for them if I were I'm hopping up and down. If I'm if I'm a Jew fan, because, you know, and we are looking at. Who is it? So so Bristol, I mean, we didn't mention it before Bristol bringing in a new the
00:53:49
Speaker
What's his name from from Scotland? The eight man Bradbury, Bradbury. Yeah, Bradbury, which is cool for them. I also think it probably means that Hughes is really gone. True. But then you also have like, you know, what does that mean? You know, knowing the salary cap, they have a couple of of islanders who kind of aren't playing too much at the moment. One of them, I mean, you know, he's hurt, but like they're also super expensive and who knows? So what if they get a
00:54:18
Speaker
Maybe not Raja Raja, but what if they get like a Pia Tal? You'd probably go to Moana, but yeah. Oh, would he? Yeah. Yeah. OK. Yeah, I just wasn't sure which.
00:54:28
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. I wasn't sure if it would if if there's a big difference between them. I honestly don't know. I'm super ignorant about that. Yeah. No, it's it's it's Virginia. It's Virginia Drua. So Fiji is mostly is will be mostly. OK, so they'll be they'll be just staying within Fiji. Yeah, I would say Moana is more like the Samoan Tonga. Yep. OK. Yep. Yep. Gotcha. And but you are going to get stronger because they just got Franklin money. Oh, right. That's what the ad that's all.
00:54:57
Speaker
That's going to make an impact too. Yeah. That's huge because the experience he has both in super rugby and now in the prom and all, yeah, huge for them. That's, that's more experience to come to rely on. And cause obviously that we know they don't have a ton to rely on in this team. Right.
00:55:12
Speaker
It's what little they can is only going to help them. So it's really good stuff for them. Uh, rebels back to the drawing board. There's, you know, and the, the, the, the scoreline flatters them a little bit too. Cause they got that one at the end. I think it was new that got over. Um, yeah, little flattering on that one. So I would be, uh, I'd be a little uneasy if I was a rebels person, we'll see, they might get things might get better this week, according to the lineup that I saw this morning for them. So we'll see, uh, force and reds.
00:55:44
Speaker
Give the old college shot of their Western force. It was cool for them to go back to Western Australia and to get a home game as an actual fucking home game finally. And now I have to freaking say, oh, it's a home game in like some random city in Australia because that sucks when you're doing that, you know, but so good on them. It was good stuff for them.
00:56:08
Speaker
Yeah, it's that was it's just in two pose kind of came back kind of think the Reds really got only got slowed down when they had the yellow card. So what do you like? Yeah. Yeah. No. Yeah. I am not convinced of Paisami's yellow.
00:56:28
Speaker
I'm not convinced that that was a yellow card by Sami. I don't remember. I don't even remember what that was. It was just this whole week. They called it. They called it a lift. And I was like, oh, yeah, it was one leg. And that was a solid tackle. That's all that was. Yes, it was hard. Yes, it was physical. But do we need to take all the physicality out of the game and then try and find yellow cards? Oh, that one. Yes. No. OK. No, that one. Yes. I.
00:56:59
Speaker
I struggle with this because, yeah, I don't think he went, I was struggling between whether or not he crossed the horizontal. I don't think it was unsafe. Let's put it that way. So that's, I guess, where I had ultimately come down on it. It was a hard hit. It was something that,
00:57:26
Speaker
you know, maybe I wouldn't want to pilot it to kids is, hey, here's how you tackle. No, that's fine. There's lots, there's lots of examples of that out there. There's no doubt about that. There's plenty of those that you're just like, don't do that kids what it was. So there's a difference. You're right.
00:57:43
Speaker
You're right. There is a difference of yes, it's a tackle. And yes, it's okay. It's legal. But don't teach that as the textbook thing to do. I totally get that night. And I can agree with that. That's okay. Because I did see some people being like, that is a textbook tack. It's like, No, okay, no, that's not a textbook tack. But it was a good one. It was a good one. Friggin stop the guy right in his tracks. It was about to Ellie friggin hit. Yeah, it was not an easy task way. And he means Yeah, that measured on the Richter scale. So totally.
00:58:12
Speaker
It's like certainly fun. And I guess, you know, the kind of distraction from the fun of the match when you see that it's a yellow. So, yeah, I agree. Yeah. On many principles, I disagree with that yellow. Yeah. So, in a way, it sucks. But that's where we're at. But the red still got done. But I also appreciate the... I do appreciate the concern for player safety.
00:58:33
Speaker
And I don't disagree with that, but like you need to just like understand that not everything's going to be the prettiest. Not everything's going to be, you know, there's, it's still a collision sport. Like it's still going to take some impact. That's just how it is. It's just funny to see like what they decide is,
00:58:53
Speaker
like foul play-ish in Southern Hemisphere though. Because it's like, you can take someone's head off, no big deal. Like, you know, with the seatbelt tackle that really wraps around the neck. But yeah, don't do that. Okay, whatever. Yeah. I'm confused. Explain it to me. Okay, so now we spend so much time on that match, we can just bypass the next one and go over to Saturday. A heartbreaker for you, buddy. Right at the end there.
00:59:27
Speaker
Wigglesworth being the glue for Sarri's in many ways. I feel like there's so much talent on the Chiefs that's undeniable, but you still need some glue to hold them together. And I felt like in this specific match, because it kind of changes in the previous matches, like Brody Vitalik was fucking everywhere and doing the things that needed to be done. In this case, it was
00:59:46
Speaker
Yeah, I had a bad feeling about it as soon as Weber came off. Yeah.
00:59:52
Speaker
was Brad Weber and it's like when you went up, you know, what was it from the hangover? And never interrupt the guy on a heater. Yeah, Weber was on a heater and at that point you just say, you know what, this guy is gonna, if he's playing like this, we're not losing this match. So keep him in. Unfortunately, there was this douche bag named Steven Parafetta on the blues.
01:00:22
Speaker
total cock. And he took the kick. And he took the kick. And he took the kick. I was like, no, no, no, Mr. Boden Barrett, you international superstar you. I got it. Wow. And he just nutted it too. I was like, oh, that's going through. Ben's throwing things at the TV. Yeah.
01:00:48
Speaker
I was and I watched the first half or so live, which was fun. And then save the rest for the morning. And I felt like saving the rest for the morning. I was like, oh, this would be nice to wake up to, too. But fuck, no, it wasn't. Nope. No, maybe not. And obviously, I have all the respect in the room for Mr. Parafetta. I was kind of trying to mirror the
01:01:19
Speaker
you know, the you were not losing with this guy on the pitch. Well, you know, it was for it was Weber for the Chiefs. It was Parafetta for the Blues. Yeah, he was he was he was very good for that. Yeah. And he just he really owned that match once Weber came out. And I'm not saying it's like, you know, that that kind of correlation. But, you know, without, you know, maintaining possession, the Chiefs really think they have done a good job recently of
01:01:47
Speaker
playing defense, which has been awesome. Like I remember like a year or two ago, two years ago, their, their defense was just a mess. Like you could just run right up the middle and that was no, it was wide open. Now they were, they had to work a little bit until whoever came off and then they didn't have to work nearly as hard to score some points. So yeah. And he's in, he, and he certainly helps organize things back there. So that's, that really does hurt.
01:02:12
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, but lots of good, lots of good to take away from the Chiefs, obviously. Exactly. They're still a fucking quality squad. These are two very good teams. So, yeah, no, no question about that. I don't think to Saturday, Kings and Highlanders.
01:02:31
Speaker
Yes, please. Left it a little bit tight, but still at the same time, I was very confident that we were going to be able to figure this one out. So I know Dixon got one right at the end, but I'm like, no, I think we got this. And yeah, I don't, you know, I'm not really a high on the highlanders, no punter than this year.
01:02:53
Speaker
I felt fairly confident in this one too. Yeah, a little bit a little bit of love to love. Again, we talked about, you know, what what benefit that was for them to roll him out there. We can we go last year after Jackson Garden Basham got
01:03:11
Speaker
hurt for the year and they were trying to figure out what to do at 10. It's like, go this kid out there, go this kid out there, see what they have. Cause they were trying to run Geordie out there and that's just not his natural position. That's just how it is. Um, so they're like, all right, let's try it. And it w and it's obviously worked out quite well. Um, to the point where they're trusting him to get the game started and then having garden bash it closed out. Um, and then to,
01:03:38
Speaker
I don't know how you take the 13th shirt off Bale and Sullivan right now. And that's really hard for me to say because I liked that midfield we had last year with Billy Proctor and Umaga Jensen.
01:03:51
Speaker
But yeah, I don't know how you take the shirt off of them. That's really tough to say right now. So good on Bail and Sullivan for doing that. And yeah, damn, sorry to, it's going to be a coin toss between Proctor and Umaga Jensen on a weekly basis at this point. Oops. Whoops. I mean, problem, good problems to have.
01:04:12
Speaker
Yeah, excellent problem to have. You will need a break here and there, so. Right. And then you just talk to the two of them and they're together. See a lot of me. Great. Other side, speaking of Umaga Jensen, the other guy, the brother on the other side wearing wearing a Highlander shirt was pretty good as well. Something going on with the bloodline there. I don't know where it is. Oh, yeah. Not a clue. Not a freaking clue. Must be the Jensen family.
01:04:41
Speaker
Yeah, right. The little general Aaron Smith came on and did give them a little bit of a boost, I will say that. They looked a wee bit flat before he came on.
01:04:57
Speaker
Good. I mean, shocker of the day. Aaron Smith knows how to run a team at the very least. So he figured he kind of helps them on. There's just not that much of a team there. No, it's hard. It really is. He obviously makes them better, but they're not. They need.
01:05:14
Speaker
They need those guys to be better. Right. You know, this isn't a league where you can score 14 points and and win and think you're gonna win. Yeah, pretty much any match. So and they haven't really been the Highlanders haven't been score and they like, you know, they didn't look good against the Chiefs. No last week.
01:05:33
Speaker
Was it Crusaders? Crusaders. They looked a little better against the Crusaders at points. But that could have just been the desperation of going against the Crusaders. You just kind of get it because you like, you know, you're just all right, we're ready to kick off. OK, your back's up against the wall right now. So you better get going. You know, against the hurricane, you know.
01:05:55
Speaker
You know, you play against not the Crusaders and it's a different story. So yeah, it's it's hard to see very much in. Got to see it. Terrible. Oh, yeah, definitely. You know, I see I see some of the things like the group like Coleman. I mean, he's been there for a while, so he'll be he'll be what he is. The back row I'm not in love with right now, especially Evans at eight. Like, no, her kids got rid of him for a reason.
01:06:18
Speaker
Like they didn't want to sign them because they have so much better in the pipeline right now. Ken played his native whales, so. Hunt, meh. I like him. I got Jensen. They don't have, they don't, they don't have Poonavai this year because he's hurt. Sam Gilbert looks like he's got something, but he's young. And Carter Garden Bashup, again, not an old, not, not old. So, and then on the bench, I mean,
01:06:45
Speaker
Off the bench, like I see Dan Lara Brown is not bad. Obviously, it's Smith, that's not a shock. Like when you're leaning on Marty Banks, like good Lord in heaven, Marty Banks and Scott Gregory at that, like, you got problems. Like you have to admit that. You have to admit that. Michaela too, coming off the bench is probably
01:07:06
Speaker
Okay, for now, I think he's still getting fit. I think that's part of the problem. So they need to find a way to start. Because he's not been. Yeah, no, he's not been good. But at his best, he's definitely he definitely belongs in that back row. So yeah, they got to figure out to figure that out. So yeah, lots to figure out for the Highlanders, unfortunately. And for the rest of the kiwis, not so much. You didn't even mention the the Southern Hemisphere's answer to
01:07:33
Speaker
Alfie Barbary. I know. He'll say it was good again off the bench. I mean, that's his role right now. And I'm, he's chomping at the bit to get started. But it's just, he's perfect for it right now. So it's hard to say no to just sticking them on there and be like, all right, come here and get the job done when we call you on for 20 minutes. Right.
Australian Rugby Scene and Key Players
01:07:51
Speaker
And Karifi has not been great. Yeah, but he's also hasn't been great. But he's been like,
01:07:59
Speaker
kind of can so he's kind of like plugging away, do you know, making them, he forces the other team to work, no doubt. And it's like, okay, so you take him off, because, again, he's been coming out fairly early, I've noticed having had him on my fantasy team, right? It makes it that much more obvious. But it's like, then you bring in Jose, and it's like,
01:08:18
Speaker
It's one of those like thunder and lightning kind of, you know, running back kind of combinations you hear about in the NFL. And yeah, you have career fee just pounding away. And then it's like, you know, he's like, all right, I'm just going to run and be mean. And you're already tired and I'm not. Yeah, for 20, 25 minutes and fuck you. Yeah, totally. Yeah. He's just been.
01:08:41
Speaker
I think he's been a little conservative and within himself because when he gets beyond that, he gets a little bit on the penalized and the card side and we can't afford that crap right now. So just don't quite have enough to overcome that. So yeah, he's kind of been within himself a little bit. So doing as much good without fucking completely screwing it up. So yeah, which is good. You know, you take the Jekyll and Hyde when it comes to Dewey.
01:09:08
Speaker
until he can figure out how to get through the hide. And that's just how it is. So, you know, as long as he can keep the Jekyll and not the Hyde, it's just... Right. Because he's still a solid player, even when, you know, he's not been, like, bad. It's just he's not like... I just want him to not be bad. That's the end. Right. Exactly. Because he can be like a second arty Sevilla, except...
01:09:31
Speaker
As you said, we'll do something stupid and get a yellow or penalize and all that stuff. So then it's like, I don't know, we want that, but without A without B. And if we can't, you know, if we can only have like a lowercase A without any kind of B, okay, we'll take that. That's fine, yeah. I feel that, totally. And then let's jump over to Brumbies and Taws. You know, the Taws gave them all they could handle.
01:09:58
Speaker
They really did. I liked, I liked a lot and obviously it was, I wasn't the only one that liked what they saw a lot when Ben Donaldson and Will Harrison were both on the pitch at once. That was a lot that was going on with that. There was a lot of good that was going on with the two tens there.
01:10:19
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, somebody else must have seen it because they're starting the two of them, one at 15, one at 10 this week. So yeah, that's a good, that's a good call. Yeah. So I liked what I saw of them. And obviously they found they liked a little bit else. So there you go. Hey, what do you know? I might know a thing or two sometimes. Um, but yeah, the, the Brumbies just kind of jumped out to it to start and never really let go. Um,
01:10:48
Speaker
You kind of expect that spot them like that. You know, this is how it is. Right. And the ties are on a bad side, but they're not like there's it looks like, again, like, you know, reds and Brumbies are kind of class of the of Australia. But it's like force and ties are. Like right there, they're nipping at their heels, so it's not.
01:11:13
Speaker
I'm interested to see now who is who's better between the ties on the force, because, you know, establish the establish a true pecking order here. Yeah. We'll say we're going to get there. Right. I get there this weekend here. That's why that's the way I see it. You know, I have read that as, you know, the best team in Australia with Brumby's, you know, 1A. Yeah, basically. And it's like forcing and Marta's are certainly
01:11:37
Speaker
you know, two and three there, because there's a clear bottom of the back. Yeah, no doubt. Yeah, for as far as the act, the the true Australian teams go not not kind of drew. Yeah, no doubt. And, you know, the
01:11:54
Speaker
The toss got a little interrupted. They were, they had Turner and Turner and turn or turn and ankle. Oops. In a, in warmups. So they had to call, they had to, you know, go down their line of Collin players into the, to the squad. I honestly, though, like just isn't in my head going to make a difference at this point. Too much going on for the, for the war toss, including a guy named Rob Valentini, who was absolutely immense for the Brumbies.
01:12:21
Speaker
not good, not just not a fun guy to play against right now. And Tom Wright and Tom Banks are really, really looking great back there for for the Brumbies as well. And that back, that back three. Mod fell off the bench. Wasn't, wasn't terrible. Yep. Nope. Not too bad either. So that's what, that's what the Brumbies needed was another, another outside back. No joke. No joke. Um,
01:12:50
Speaker
Yeah. So what are you going to do? Right. Um, sucks, sucks for the rest of the league. Um, so it's, uh, yeah, like you said, it's reds and it's Brumby's and it's going to be a long road to see, you know, where that all shakes out, but we got a pretty good idea. What's what's going on down there.
01:13:11
Speaker
Yeah. And I might say, you know, it also, maybe there might be a game changer because Nahuatl Nahuatl is coming back this week. So we'll see how that rolls too. So, you know, that might...
01:13:24
Speaker
That could make a difference. That could make a difference. That could have made a difference in this match if he was fit and good to go. So we'll see. We'll find out. We shall find out. Makes for exciting things at the New South Wales, no doubt.
Free Jacks' Performance and Humor
01:13:40
Speaker
And then let's jump over to the MLR. Of course, we're going to lead off with the mighty free jacks winning their rival match down in New York. And damn it, was I happy.
01:13:51
Speaker
That was fun. Yeah. There were some names that were taken last year and one of them was NOLA and another one was Rugby New York, now Rugby New Jersey. Right now it's Rugby New Jersey and freaking Hoboken. Right. That was hilarious how much they were talking about Hoboken on the broadcast though.
01:14:19
Speaker
Why, why is, what is the deal with Hoboken? Like, God. They were like, Oh, so it was at the hooker and he lives right over there. Like. Yeah. Oh, faucet. Yeah. Jeez. Right down the block. It's like, cool. I'm going to come breaking your place. Jeez. Like, okay. Talk about that just a little less, please. God damn. Well, they did have, yeah, it's, it's local guys. So even Petri, the Eagles from half was, was the color man. And he was, they were so,
01:14:47
Speaker
Oh, they were so biased. Such homers. It was hilarious, which made it much more fun when, you know, yeah. Because they had to call Waka scoring multiple tries. Yeah. And taking it over the line a few times. Yeah. The kid on the wing Reeves did a really good job and three Jackson General did a really good job of keeping Ed Fiddo under under wraps. And he had been a nightmare for a lot of teams.
01:15:13
Speaker
No, but he did nothing. It was their 14 who did. It was the. Oh, yeah. It was a cow was just. Yeah. Stop it. Yeah. No, I mean, you're doing doing amazing things on the pitch. Yeah. The the cross kick and then the that that basketball pass from somebody in the back row. I remember who it was. But got him the new new who to get the ball, though, obviously. Right. Didn't disappoint either. But yeah, free jacks win.
01:15:42
Speaker
Again, a man that's not getting that did not get enough love in my opinion, pre preseason, that's, it's our 10 and our guy walks. He's, I mean he leads the league in in tries, so that'll automatically.
01:15:57
Speaker
get the visibility, but he is our MVP. He should be a league MVP. At this rate, yeah. Hard to argue. I think somebody else at this point has to step up. I don't know what happens the rest of the year, but somebody else would have to step up to make it not be Walker. Walker, yeah. He's just been that key through this whole early season. And free jacks are a dangerous team. I don't think people really quite maybe understood
01:16:25
Speaker
the quality that's there and that they just added to the depth that that was the only problem with the free jacks last year. It was not their top level quality. It was their depth and they're doing all this without Dougie Fife. Fuck you. Dougie Fife's coming back. He's back this week. He's back this week.
01:16:43
Speaker
Oh, man. And then we don't have Peretti yet. Peretti's hurt still. Right. But remember when Locke was a huge weakness? It was Larson and who the fuck knows? Being thieves, yeah. Yeah. Well, right. But it was like early season last year. We didn't know. Yeah, it was really a question. It was like, who was it? No. Now we have guys. Mm-hmm.
01:17:08
Speaker
You know, we have second rows that we can rely on constantly and it's, it's awesome. And then the mechanic is, Oh man. Love. I, I, I would take four more Joe Johnson's. Like the dude works, the dude works and I love it. I love everything about it. He was certainly in a good form this match.
01:17:28
Speaker
Yeah, I'm really enjoying it. So that was some teams bring it out of you. And I guess rugby New Jersey is not one of those teams. I'm honestly, if anything, if I'm disappointed about anything from them, it's that they had no, they didn't get like any kind of
01:17:52
Speaker
I don't know. I don't feel like they put up much of like, they were passive. Yeah. And it's like, okay. You kind of didn't step up in any way, whether it was physically, whether it was, you know, shutting down the free jacks. It was just, no, they, they scored every so often, but they weren't keeping up. No, I had trouble with that. Yeah.
01:18:16
Speaker
So it was just like, OK, let's let's just keep them off the scoreboard. Just keep them off the scoreboard and then goes walk. It's like, oh, well, never mind. Now it doesn't matter. Walk is going to score because that's and that's, you know, that came from kind of out of it came completely out of nowhere. And it wasn't like the free jacks were trying to do too much because the game was over. Right. Walker just talking to him like, I don't know how you.
01:18:42
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, it's very, just poor, very poor. So I'm happy with it and I can look down my nose at New Jersey again. Yeah, that way. Just that way.
Mixed Team Results and Upcoming Matches
01:18:59
Speaker
So
01:19:02
Speaker
Quick work around. Nola beat Seawolves. I'm still not a believer of either of those teams, so whatever. Utah smash Dallas. Dallas is bad. I think Utah is better than what they appear to be. Rugby ETL had a tough one against Houston. Houston might be better than I thought. So, good for them. Rugby ETL is no joke. Gil Growney is okay. Wow. Standing up. But they haven't... They've played one match away from home. Austin. So, temper. Just a little bit.
01:19:31
Speaker
Yeah. But at the same time, I think they're, they're probably pretty quality. Yeah. No, I agree. I don't, I don't think there'd be to be slept on. Um, and then Legion beat DC. DC is just very bad. She sees just very, very bad. Very bad. Um, another one that I'm like, when I, you know, I obviously didn't mention them when I was talking about the free Jackson, having taken names and whatnot, because I just don't. There's nothing there's not, there's no name to take there yet. They need, they, they are, um,
01:20:01
Speaker
Yeah, again, they're in show me mode. Yeah, you got to show me you're a lot of people got to show like it's one of these like it's not a rivalry unless both teams win. Yeah.
01:20:13
Speaker
so right now right now it's right now zero one five yeah not good and and i don't know that did the freejacks loot no the freejacks beat swept them last year right no they lost the one down in dc oh that doesn't count glory so but they they're right at that ship this year at least so right good stuff and i would assume that for the for at least the near future because
01:20:34
Speaker
There's not much there. No, there isn't. It's pretty disappointing. And then we got the home opener coming up this weekend against the arrows. Yeah. Yeah. Might be a little wet. You might need to go in there and go get a poncho here at the rubbers. Yeah. Number one, sir. No doubt. I think we'll see our old friend, Bill Baker out there, which would be great.
01:20:58
Speaker
I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully he's got something going on and we can stop him and bug the crap out of him. But yeah, if you are a local to the Massachusetts and you're going there, give us a shout. We'll be about to be a lot of fun. Scream loud, MVP chants for Bodhi Mwaka and all that. All right. Cool. So that's what we're going to do for this one.
01:21:24
Speaker
Hang on to your seats cuz next week we got the megapod, one more of them. Yeah, one more of them and then no more for the rest of the year, thankfully. We don't have to go as crazy with this stuff. But yeah, so hang on to your seats for next week. Other than that, we'll be back then. If you're coming over to the fantasy corner, we'll see you over there. If not, thanks for tuning in. We appreciate you hanging out and we'll catch you next week. Have a good one. Later.