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Season 4- Episode 23- Nobody Likes A Prevent Defense (Premiership Round 15 & 6 Nations Round 1)
27 Plays3 years ago
It is the latest and greatest from those American rugby knuckleheads. It's a doozy of an episode as we cruise around all over the northern hemisphere, from Dublin, to Barnet, the Bayou and back. In this episode we start off by looking at the opening round of 6 Nations including the big one up at BT Murray Field, and how about the Azzuri? We then look over to the Prem to see how the clubs are coping with their internationals gone in this time frame...here's a hint, some of them are not coping well. Of course, we have to take a glance at the MLR and the MIGHTY Free Jacks with a big a performance down in New Orleans. Kick back, grab something cold to drink, enjoy all this and more!
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Transcript
Rugby Weekend Excitement
00:00:08
Speaker
Hey, everybody, welcome back. It is the fans to rugby. My name is Jared Dyke. I'm Ben Glaser. Let's get into it. We got we got lots to cover with a couple of comps kicking off this past weekend. Plus, the promotion just kept going like steady Eddie over there. Yeah, a lot of a lot of rugby this weekend. A lot of good rugby this weekend. Yeah, I could not get enough, honestly.
00:00:30
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I watched even the free jacks match. Like I watched all all the way through. Basically, yeah, I was I was asleep. If it wasn't that match, I can promise you that I was tired. Exactly. I agree. But so we yeah, we both like braved the night. We did. And yeah, it was a good match too. So it was worth it. Yeah, it was worth it. All right. Crack them. Indeed.
00:00:59
Speaker
Find us where you get all your podcasts. Download rate review. We. You can do it. You can do it. Yeah, that's before I'll do. I'll do that. I'll do. Why our friend George, the fancy or geeky coffee? Because if you've.
00:01:25
Speaker
Brave this first weekend of much action. Just wait. There's one more to kick off still. And that's next weekend. So just you wait. It's coming. George, it'll be busy. Buy him a coffee. Yeah. Buy him a coffee beer. However you see it. Do it. Get your TRL grades. As I said, it'll be a busy weekend. So the weekend's coming up. You don't want that headache of trying to figure out who's playing where and all that good stuff. Green dots are magic. Grab those things.
Social Issues Discussion
00:01:55
Speaker
Black Lives Matter, as always, and there is no room for racism in life or in rugby. Yeah, we had another fucking hell again. Yeah, it's just. And it's Minneapolis again, and some mayor who's who promised to and then apparently did ban.
00:02:18
Speaker
No knock warrants, but apparently requesting them is still standard policy. So. Yeah. Somebody didn't get that fucking memo. Right. Obviously he followed through on that. It's, it's just, this is why there, um, you know, people March, this is why.
00:02:35
Speaker
there's a defund the police movement because of the police funding lets them do stuff like this. They're just so powerful. They have so much, because your money is power. They just have no accountability and feel like they can do whatever they want and they're not exactly working for the public benefit.
00:02:58
Speaker
No, it's not. It's really frustrating. And the sad part is that our news scares people like Amir Locke was scared into buying a gun lately because our news really has been trying to push that there's a crime epidemic. Now there's a shoplifting epidemic.
00:03:19
Speaker
But that is a crime technically. It's technically a crime, but it's like not violent. It's based on need. Obviously, you know, we're not really taking care of people right now. Correct. Or ever during during an actual pandemic, especially during a pandemic. And so, yeah, the crimes of need are going to increase. But that doesn't mean there's a you have to scare everybody. Oh, they know there's they're coming for you. No, they're not. Except the police are apparently, which is that's the fucked up. That's that thing is so fucked up. Yeah.
Six Nations Highlights: Scotland vs England
00:03:50
Speaker
They're going for you, but it's not the people you think it's right those assholes. Yeah It's not it's not good. No, so really fucking really fucking stupid sex sex sex Also, we had a mini We had another mini
00:04:10
Speaker
January six today in Massachusetts as well. Oh, really? Yeah. I heard ten protesters got into the state house here as well. More pissed about the mass mandates than anything, but they're doing that Ottawa thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was from what I understand, it was ten people and most of it was a joke. But at the same time, like you don't want ten. You don't want one person getting into the state house when they shouldn't. You know, right. That could lead to bad things happening.
00:04:39
Speaker
Agreed. A couple of the reporters I read it from were like, this is kind of a joke, actually. But yeah, it is. Yeah, it is a thing. And it's got to be. That's how they get away with shit. They're like, oh, we were just joking. And it wasn't really meaning anything. That's what they're doing with January six. And it's like, no, it means something. You tried because you failed. Just because you took your shot and you missed. And now, like, there's consequences to that. You don't get to be like, oh, we didn't really mean it.
00:05:10
Speaker
Last I asked the people that died more than I meant. Right. Right. And their families. Like you cannot say we had a peaceful transfer of power. Like that's yeah. Kicking and screaming. Yeah. Kicking and screaming. All right. To the rugby.
00:05:28
Speaker
We had an interesting appetizer to kick us off for the weekend. Ireland and Wales in Dublin. Full stadiums, which is great to see, man. That just warms the heart. Doesn't matter if it was in Dublin or if it was in Perry. Great stuff. You know, Sexton kind of turned back the clock a little bit, although it was kicking with something to be desired off the tee. But other than that, like, other than that, his field of play ball in hand,
00:05:58
Speaker
He was kind of looking like section of old and that makes things good for Ireland. I can tell you that much. It does. It didn't like it didn't help that his opposite number looked the opposite of that. So it was like it's that that much more of a like he looks that much better because a figure was figure out a bad day. Not not actually. And you know what?
Six Nations Highlights: Ireland vs Wales
00:06:23
Speaker
Looking up and down that Wales lineup, I'm like, who actually had a good day?
00:06:28
Speaker
Not many. No, no, and far between. Yeah, it is. It is. It's really, it was, I'm sure the Welsh will all know how painful it was. Josh Adams had an absolute stinker. My goodness. Was he bad? Yeah. Not that 13 shirt is not a good place for him. And
00:06:44
Speaker
the yellow car on him. The hit on sex. And I was like, and he's like, we're shaking his head. I was like, you're an idiot. You, you're lucky. He didn't make head contact. You'd be off. Oh, he, that was a, that was an excellent body check.
00:07:03
Speaker
And I'm sure it was like the most satisfying hit of his career. And I'm sure everybody would join into, you know, hitting Johnny Sexton in such a manner. If you had the chance, wouldn't you?
00:07:18
Speaker
Even the Safareff is like, that's not legal. That tells you a lot right there. And the fucked up part is he also could have done it without looking. Like he looked right at like, he had no, he was not looking at the ball. He was looking right at Johnny's accent. He's like, I'm going to line you up and just throw the shoulder right. And it's like,
00:07:40
Speaker
subtlety, sir, be a little subtle. I mean, they were going to let him get away with it. But it was they noticed that he's looking right at even after they checked it, it took them a couple of viewings. They're like, well, that, you know, the motions seemed somewhat natural if he was going for the ball and it bounced weird, like he was going in, you know,
00:08:00
Speaker
thinking it might bounce this way. But he's it said is second, he put his eyes on right. He looks at Johnny Saxton. And it's like, no, well, now you now we know what you're trying to do. We spoke about last week to in several points, about how crowded the Ireland back three was and
00:08:20
Speaker
Well, this is a pretty good one right here between Keenan Conway and Mack Hanson with a very, very good debut for Mack Hanson as well. I couldn't, okay, so here's the, like, I don't get British and Irish tumors sometimes, so maybe I was mistaken, but I saw a whole bunch of tweets, like, about how Mack was bad or something like that. He didn't play well. I'm like, I can't tell if they're being sarcastic.
00:08:45
Speaker
I think, I think it might be a little, a wee bit of jealousy, honestly. Okay. I didn't think he was bad at all. Awesome. Like he was, every time he touched the ball, something awesome happened and like, maybe it didn't end well every time. Yes, as well.
00:08:58
Speaker
Yeah, like, yeah, yeah, undeserved. No. And there was a there was some serious performances. Yeah. Like, you know, we talked about Sexton, Tyburn. I mean, what's not to love and then the monster in Vanderfleer is
00:09:18
Speaker
Oh, he needs to be seven every day. Oh my goodness. That shirt should be glued to him like it is to Michael Hooper. Yeah, don't change a wink, Andy Farrell on that one. Right. That's it. And for helping, how old is he?
00:09:39
Speaker
He's 28. Okay, so he's got a few more years left in his tank. Right. He should go to France. At least this World Cup, if not the next, like all through that, you know, until he's ready to walk away, really. He's been good and he's just hit on a whole other level lately.
00:09:57
Speaker
Yeah, 11 11 carries the other day, very, very high work rate in that case, you know, plus, he's obviously all over the place as a seven doing seven things. So one on top of the other there makes makes a pretty good day.
00:10:13
Speaker
And I do want to mention bunny Yaki looking, looking, looking like he's talking about the clock a little bit too. So he has on him, although I saw something and it was a very good point and it kind of hit me like, Oh yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Not seeing him play in a Joe Schmidt system. Really? Yes, I saw. I know. I know that exact.
00:10:31
Speaker
tweet or whatever that you're talking about. Because I was like, that's true. I have no idea. I've never seen him outside of the, you know, the, that Joe Schmidt system. So he's no, no, he's not, he's not one dimensional. Nope. Not that I, you know, I just had never seen it from him. Yeah. I think I'm certainly at this stage. Yeah. I think I'm pretty clear when I, but I make
00:10:55
Speaker
like criticisms of players. It's like, I haven't seen this from somebody or I've seen this done poorly. Like it's not, you know, I had never seen that from Bundy. Um, so cool. This is awesome. I mean, him and ring rose looked like a great job. Like, yeah. It's a great combination too. Uh, across the aisle, the other center that didn't completely suck.
00:11:17
Speaker
You know, Nick Tompkins has long been, you know, Mr. Turnstile in the middle of at least in an international stage. The dude made 21 tackles on Saturday.
00:11:28
Speaker
You missed three, but that's still a 7% success rate from a not fun spot to have to tackle people like with playing a man down. Like, yeah, he was not the true. His partner was gone for a while. He was the center for, you know, for 10 minutes there. So, yep. Yeah. Didn't, didn't get a couple of backward steps on some of them too. I think he made four dominant tackles, which is really good. Yeah. From a center. That's amazing.
00:11:58
Speaker
Yeah. So either way, so point being, it wasn't, it wasn't all just
Six Nations Highlights: Italy vs France
00:12:02
Speaker
like, so tackles, he was able to put some shoulders in and right backwards. And then the other person that I think probably put his hand up, um, was Tane Basham. Then he put his hand up in the fall.
00:12:15
Speaker
with, you know, what is still a very, you know, depleted Welsh back row and really has, you know, said I belong somewhere in the 23 at minimum for the team, no matter who is available. Yeah. Yep. Yep. I was very, very, very happy for the kid. I do like him a lot. So yeah, I was super disappointed by Wales front five. Agreed.
00:12:40
Speaker
There was like, they got nothing out of them. And that really, that hurts so much. I mean, maybe they scrumage. Well, I can't remember how the scrums went, but like it's so much that I didn't notice anyway. But other than that, it's like you still need them around the pitch.
00:13:00
Speaker
Yeah, you got to have him at the paddock and you know, Elias, I knew it was going to be in deep, deep trouble when he got named to this team. I was like, this is not going to go well for this guy. Wasn't impressive in club play. It wasn't great in the fall. So sorry to say that that was always going to be a, a tough day on him, especially with James Ryan and Tyke Byrne as your opposite jumpers. Like, yeah. Yeah. No, no, no field general. And Alan went to.
00:13:25
Speaker
No, no. And like beard and rollums are kind of like, they're like the lumbering lummoxes. They're like the, they're, they're two complimentary locks. And it's like, but you need to be complimentary to somebody else to be complimentary to not each other. Cause that doesn't work well. That doesn't work well. All right. Let's go up to Edinburgh and BT Murray field. And you know, the talk of the weekend for the, for the most part, I would say, um, only because it was the closest match by far. Um,
00:13:54
Speaker
but the Scottish get it done. And that's bad news for England all over again. And we thought maybe Eddie had put some of these hexes behind him in the autumn and here it is again, just rearing their ugly heads. And it's for the same reason too. It's the same reason. So like, Marcus Smith has 17 points. He has all of your points.
00:14:19
Speaker
which means that when you pull him, you're, you're deciding you're done scoring essentially, especially if you pull him for Ford and you're just going to play field position and try to hold them out. It's like you go to the prevent defense and that's kind of what they do. They like don't play to win. They play not to lose a little bit.
00:14:38
Speaker
I, and really, as much as I would love to, you know, take a good shot at Ford here, I don't have a problem with anything Ford really did. I would think the problem is, is you pulled Marcus and those are not the same things necessarily, you know, I don't, you know, Ford was not the problem. Marcus leaving the field was the problem. There's a difference. Right, right.
00:15:00
Speaker
He was just like, he, they were, you know, Marcia didn't have a great day. Like, here's, here's the thing we've been talking about in the lead up to this about Freddy Stewart and the things he's good at and the things that he doesn't do. And the things he he's good at are bomb diffusing. And the things he doesn't do are running in space. He's not good at that. That's just not his thing.
00:15:25
Speaker
And he had to run into space so much. And it's like that didn't do them any favors because he didn't really operate. He could have had mail-ins a couple of times on some moves, but he's just like, no, I'm just going to run because I'm big and huge. I'm going to try to run people over.
00:15:39
Speaker
And it's like, that'll work maybe once and maybe at the prem level, but here you're just gonna get tackled. And I'm not blaming him. I'm just saying that like credit to Scotland for getting England to do something that they shouldn't have been doing.
00:15:58
Speaker
Yeah, that was really well done. I mean, yeah, I'm sure that was part of the plan. Like if you have a chance to make Seward run, make him run because you don't fucking do it. And I question to a point, England's game plan in the first half where they often kicked the ball away and into the corner. Now, Scotland replied in kind very often and sometimes by the skin of their teeth.
00:16:21
Speaker
But there has to come a point where ball in hand becomes the priority and not trying to kick it into the corner, especially when you've pinned them in their own end for a good chunk of the first half. Like get more points out of it than a couple of pens. Yeah, I mean, I don't need to say that. You know, my feelings on it. Yeah, don't fix your tri-fight. Right. And yeah, they scored one one try and they let up two. And there you go. Like they'll do it.
00:16:50
Speaker
you gotta really unleash it. And the time that they did unleash it, hey, Marcus, put it over. And people are like, yeah, but Ben Young actually had good service on that. Well, yeah, but first he wasn't taking from the deck.
Premiership Rugby: Wasps vs Exeter
00:17:03
Speaker
And second, it was like, not on his time. He had to be the link in the chain. He didn't have a chance, yes. Or he didn't have a chance to think and stop and slow it down for it to be perfectly, you know, situated for him. It's the one good thing Ben Young did all day, so.
00:17:16
Speaker
Right. And that was like, okay, through one good pass, but he just he slowed it down so much. Flapping for a penalty that's never going to be there. Yeah. And he's always been the type of scrum half and I hate watching any scrum half or fly half that stands there and watches his guys get the ball poach, get off your ass and take the ball away. You can pick and drive for two phases while you get back to your feet. Like if you're not willing to do that, you shouldn't be playing international rugby, period.
00:17:45
Speaker
Okay, that's important. And the thing is, like, there's so many people that are like, this box kicking is box kicking. His box kicking was fucking atrocious. It was terrible. Like, if you counted just the errors on that, you're probably looking at five or six. And that's probably being nice too. So... How many worth advantage when he didn't need to?
00:18:03
Speaker
Like many times they had advantage and he's like, oh, I'm just going to kick it over. That stupid dink over the top. I was like, no, what are you doing? You moron. Yeah. Like, you're not. No, you're not. I'm sitting next to two England fellas and they're both shouting you moron. Yeah, exactly. Here's the here's the funny thing. Here's the funny thing that happened on Saturday when my wife walked in. She's like, Smith got pulled for Ford and I was like, it wasn't Ford's fault.
00:18:32
Speaker
She's heard me rave about Marcus Smith to that extent. But let's just transfer over to the Scots because not everything that England did wrong cost them the game. Scots had to take advantage of it.
00:18:46
Speaker
lots of good things going on for the man that had the best 10 minutes of his life when he came up. There was somebody that said, yeah, Ben White. He said, I went back to the bench and they asked, how was it out there? He said, that was the best 10 minutes of my life. Yeah, I mean, sure. It is like, you know, to
00:19:08
Speaker
Put one over on, you know, on Murray field in front of the fans all cheering for you, like, yeah.
00:19:19
Speaker
And then for it to be a, you know, contribute to a win even like after the fact is it's just that much sweeter. And he's, he's such an excellent, he's been excellent at the prem level. So this is a, you know, just like his opposite number who didn't even get in the fucking match. Yeah. Like he adds that little spark and yeah. Like even though they, you know, Ali Price doesn't need it. I don't think he played particularly great.
00:19:47
Speaker
I don't think so either. But he is usually high quality. Didn't do anything really wrong to spend them on that. I think he was the one that got kind of hung out to dry on this Smith try. But, you know, there's a lot going on with that one. You could blame him further. You can't. Right. My decision. But White did. He did manage his try. And he was on the field for that. That's just a sweet movement, all the back and forth across the field that ended in the penalty try. So
00:20:17
Speaker
that's kind of that extra juice, you know, and I'm not, you know, putting that all on him, but you got to have someone to direct it. And he was the one who was in when when it happened. So he, you know, he gets a little bit of credit there. Right. I mean, and we saw we saw how dangerous this back three for Scotland is as well.
00:20:33
Speaker
hog, the forgotten man, Darcy Graham, and very good, very, very, they didn't really put much more than a foot wrong, honestly, including hogs, little harem scare moment where he almost hit in max mail to try. I was like, whoa, that was ballsy as hell. But great confidence. But that's one of those things. Great move. Don't ever can do it again. Right? Like major league style. Glad that worked. But I don't want to ever see that. No.
00:21:03
Speaker
I did not have Matt Fagerson on my bingo board as man, man, the match for this one, but no, but that's 13 tackles. I don't think he missed any, um, just yell at how many characters he has, you know, a bunch of carries too. Um, let's see. He had.
00:21:19
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. He carries 13 tackles. You didn't miss any tackles. Not bad. Yeah. He would, you know, and obviously he, he just, that's a lot of, he's just a lot of bulk in there too, against the team that likes to push you around. Yeah. As well. So good, good, good on him. Can we go back to,
00:21:38
Speaker
to talk about Nick Ezekiel for one second because yeah we can turn back that and then we'll go to the penalty trial we'll move on he had that like 20 minutes of a career and that was it at the England level
Premiership Rugby: Sale vs Harlequins
00:21:50
Speaker
and finally getting another chance and so you got 76 minutes this time he was excellent yeah he just he played his butt off there was a lot of there's a lot of guys on England who played their butts off and really
00:22:02
Speaker
didn't get the credit they deserve because the victory didn't come to them, obviously. Right. But Ezekiel did his job super well. So, good to see that because it took him a little bit to bounce back from his 20-year-old. Absolutely. Yeah. No, that's a kick-in and that's when you get something like that that happens. Good mental toughness right there from Nicky. Yeah. So, let's go to the penalty trying.
00:22:27
Speaker
Let's start with the credit that deserves to go to. And that's Vin Russell picking out the fact that his winger is going against a hooker on the other side. It doesn't matter which hooker it is. It could have been LCD. It could have been... Jinkx would have caught it and kicked it. Kicked it 10 million meters downfield. Right. And got an England line out inside the 22. That's what would have happened if Jinkx was in. So you hope. But really, in the end, it doesn't matter if it's Jinkx, Blomeyer, you know,
00:22:55
Speaker
Right. Frickin anybody. You take that shot. Yeah, that's the shot to take. And nine times that 10 is going to come out for the Scots. And this one did. And probably the worst way possible for England with a penalty try and a yellow card. And there's here's the other thing you've at least tried to make it look like you need to try and catch it and make it make it like at least have your hands parallel, not like, you know, they talked about the volleyball, the volleyball.
00:23:26
Speaker
Yes, that's what you're you're England. England volleyball with your hands are flat. There's no it. No, if you had had his hands to the side and then just like smacked it like you brought them together and smacked it with one, they would have been like, oh, no, he's making a legit attempt. He's just an idiot hooker. Yeah. And it would have been like, OK, just we'll have a knock on and that'll be that. But no, you have to fucking like you got to be OK. Drop it out of the air and in the. Yeah, try to make it look like you're catching.
00:23:56
Speaker
Not good, not good at all. And we both have the same opinion on the referee in this match.
00:24:06
Speaker
There were some 50-50 calls that, you know, you kind of throw your hands up and go, that was stupid, but whatever. He got that right. And that was the biggest call of the match. He did. So say what you will about anybody else that made errors. And like he did by any means whatsoever. Just, yeah, that was absolutely bang on a decision. I've yet to see somebody that can actually make a case otherwise. Right. And you like, it goes back to the, this is why,
00:24:35
Speaker
Razzie's rant was harmful to bringing up stuff like this. It's because he's right in the case that different referees interpret it different ways. He was wrong again. He was wrong in how he presented it. But
00:24:48
Speaker
Ben O'Keefe called it as Ben O'Keefe calls matches. And if you don't know how officials call Matt, like they're, they're all different. That's why like, nobody likes French officials. Cause there's no way to know what the fuck they're going to talk. So, but like English.
00:25:05
Speaker
referees, yeah, they're going to be bastards about high tackles and forward passes. And you know who's not? Is New Zealand referees. They're like, yeah, that was close. He tried to go low, whatever. And then, you know, a seatbelt tackle, he's all right. He'll be all right. Give him a beer after the match. He'll be okay. And a forward pass, it looks flat enough. And look, he got to run with the ball. So worth it. Like, that's how they operate. So play to the ref.
00:25:31
Speaker
And also you complain to the ref, like realize who you're dealing with and what they're going to, you know, you know how it's going to go. Like, you know, Piper is going to be an asshole. He was an asshole. You know, Mike Adamson is going to be completely lost on the pitch and he was completely lost on the pitch. Yeah, as he usually is.
00:25:52
Speaker
And even at the end, I totally expected O'Keeffe to make a random decision on those scrums. And he didn't. He's just like, I'm not making this. You really have to show me something clear for me to blow my whistle and give a penalty away. Other than that, no. And I appreciate that and trying to let the players sort it out themselves. And yeah, it was a little bit boring and long. But this is...
00:26:16
Speaker
He knew, he knew what was at stake. So credit to him for not folding on any of that and giving up on it. So right. And I thought he did all right. You know, Hey, yeah, we have.
00:26:29
Speaker
the Scots holding the cow cut a cup one more time. Again, probably more times than Eddie Jones ever thought he'd deal with it. And, you know, I don't even want to like get into the Marlar thing like that's not worth it because Marlar did the best that he could. I mean, it's not his job to throw in. You know, that was trying to find a way to get jinx on the field or live with live with the consequences of what was going to happen if Marlar screwed up the throw.
00:26:53
Speaker
Right. And I don't think Marler screwed up the throw as much as the person he threw it to was like two meters over the line. It was a poorly designed line out in the end, really. That's what it came down to. I was like, geez, even my kids know not to do that shit. Yeah. So like these guys are internationals, really? Like, OK, it's fucking disrespectful to the proposition to not have a lift.
00:27:16
Speaker
Like he can do it as well. Like you should be able to, to have a throw, like, even if it's not a fair contest up there. Yeah. I'll do that. Don't get cute. Silly, silly, silly. Scott's hold, hold the Calcutta cup for a little bit longer and they'll get to marching them, uh, taking them next year with him.
00:27:36
Speaker
All right, let's go to Sunday Star difference. We won't spend a ton of time on this, but I do want to point out that Italy play pretty effing tough for quite a while until the dam broke. And I know that's what we always say about the Italians, but there's something.
00:27:51
Speaker
But did the dam really break? There was something very different about this Italian performance than we used to. France didn't break 40. And if you don't get a 40 burger, it's not like, and it's 27 points. Like that's a thorough butt whipping, let's put it that way. But France are potentially the best team in the world.
00:28:08
Speaker
And if you're listening to the best team in the world by 27, and this is after, as you mentioned, Squidge mentioning, Italy did very well against New Zealand. Like, this is not a bad Italy team. Their quality, they have a lot of good, like, this isn't like, you know, some teams where you could be like, oh, there's, you know, four or five players that had one out there, and then the rest are just giant holes.
MLR Season Kickoff and Free Jacks' Victory
00:28:31
Speaker
It's like, no, there's about like 10 players out there that are fucking players.
00:28:36
Speaker
And like two or three guys that maybe could do better. And then like one or two that are like, okay, no, like you should, but that's such a drastic flip from what it used to be. I agree. So there's a lot to like there.
00:28:52
Speaker
Let's start with the Italy try, the Monticello try. Like that was pure brilliance. I was like, that's going to count. I didn't even hesitate about that. I was like, that's going to count. Didn't need to see the replay. It was a great, it was just a great play overall. And so I was like, no, his feet, yeah, his feet hit a little flare and I love it. I love it. No. Yeah.
00:29:10
Speaker
Love it from the Azuri. That is just, that is awesome. And a good, a good tough to beat Azuri team is only good for this comp. Like it is, you know, had their work cut out for them. They had to work a lot harder. And it didn't like, yeah, you're right. If there's, you know, you look at some of the stats and it looks, you know, like they had a day and they did, but it could have been so much like they could have doubled the score easily 18, 10 and a half time. And that was with a try red, the death of the half. No.
00:29:40
Speaker
Yeah. Make that up. Yeah, you're, you're correct. Feel area head is second try, right? You know, okay. Yeah. 40. Okay. So there you go. Like, yeah, this is, there's a lot, there's lots of good things going on here. I'm excited to see what these, what this team can do when they go, go back to Italy, like a little bit more support for themselves, a little home cooking, all that stuff. Zeno and Brex are, are, are, that's a combination. That's a quality combination. No doubt.
00:30:11
Speaker
No doubt whatsoever. And Yoannia played well too. And Barney showed well. He didn't even, he wasn't like outstanding, but certainly had his moments. Did you hear the little rumor on the broadcast that Calum Bailey was looking to come back to England? I did hear that. Might be somebody out there for people, which is also probably why Hidalgo Klein's going to Benetton.
00:30:36
Speaker
Oh, OK. Interesting. Yeah, you know, that's the potential rumor rumored. I think. Oh, hello, good client would be better than really, I think. Yeah, so we'll see. But either way, let's turn our attention to Lebleau because they did about good on the end. They got all the points that they were required to come out of this. And it's it was just always going to be a tough day for the history at the same time as as well as they played. Like you look at the lineup and you're like,
00:31:06
Speaker
There's still guys missing and I still don't see too many caps. That's bad. That's the bad part. It's really bad like that because yeah, and Dante unfortunately is injured coming out of this but that whole back line was more fun. I might get a shot here.
00:31:24
Speaker
So yeah, that back line was putting Wokey up at four. I love it because you know how well you already have the LEMSA as your rock. And yeah, you've got them on the the tight head side, not that you really need it with Antonio. No. Oh, my God. Antonio is a monster. I didn't realize how huge he was until they were just kind of sizing him up. I'm like, holy.
00:31:49
Speaker
And now he is a big boy. And Dowie was just like freaking jerking off about both sides. Like, dude, Dowie, shut up, please. That's one guy I'm glad we don't have to hear a whole lot of outside of international windows because his helmets go. He's probably near the top of the list.
00:32:06
Speaker
But Paul Villamissa, somebody pointed out this highlight and he is a machine. One man left, didn't get the throw, went over and sacked the fricking mall, like just kind of let his guy down easily and went over and sacked the mall right afterwards. I was like, that's just, that is monster like, that's beastly. You cannot do that. You're not supposed to be able to do that.
00:32:33
Speaker
But yeah, you know, say what you will. Yeah, he's South African born. That man is full, full fled French. They love him. They love him. So my goodness. And that allows you to have a wokie up at four to because that way you can, you know,
00:32:49
Speaker
Yeah, you have your rock. You have two rocks now in your front. And then, yeah, have a runner too. And that helped. I think that really made a big difference for France because, again, it wasn't as
00:33:05
Speaker
Wide a difference between the two teams as, as was, you know, you would have thought going in certainly even late last year in Rome. If you think about last year's match down that like, yeah, there was a lot. So having a runner was, was important because they need, they needed every point essentially. Cause Italy was just so yeah. Yeah. It felt very Worcester Lake in that they, you know,
00:33:30
Speaker
Did good things and then it just went bad. It was just a mishearer there that just comes with time and these guys getting together. Yeah, they got to stop handing dudes tries as well. Yeah. Did you launch try? I was like, yeah, that's not going to help your cost. Don't do that. Would not advise that. I think it was that Varney that threw that.
00:33:51
Speaker
Yeah, it wasn't like it was. I mean, it was a soft pass. I was like, I know you're trying to be nice to your teammate, but put a little mustard on that one because yeah, better knock on than a try.
00:34:02
Speaker
Right. You've had time to just step into it. Yeah. Oops. Oopsie. Oopsie. But better from the Azuri, um, the French get off to the start. We know Villere flying through a hat trick. Like we, everybody was screaming for it. I think at one point he didn't want to come off. I knew that. I was like, yeah, he's not coming off.
00:34:25
Speaker
All right, let's let's rewind the clock. Let's go to Friday night in the prem. Gloucester and London Irish just feels like it was ages ago. Really does. Oh, my lord. But Gloucester continue to be Gloucester and they're just they're a very tough team to play against, whether they're at King's Home or elsewhere. And if you didn't have Ruan Ackerman, you weren't listening to the pod last week because damn. Right. Got himself a pair in the match.
00:34:57
Speaker
And what else did he do? He had the kids, I mean, 39 meters to his tries weren't like, you know, they were, they were. Very Ackerman tries. Right. Um, but he was also like a hard runner outside of that, which is in, you know, 16 tackles. Yep. I mean, that'll do it. Right. Just do an excellent work around the pitch more than we expect from him normally, but.
00:35:22
Speaker
He's been on another level this year. He was kind of bleh. Let me put it this way. Last year he was kind of bleh. This year he's been. I think even he would admit that as well. I really do. So it's a. It left a sour taste in my mouth and obviously I'm not alone because I think it left a sour taste in his. Right. Right. I think I agree. I agree. I mean, it's too bad Lloyd Devins had to start this match and they couldn't plug out of Hastings a little earlier, but.
00:35:50
Speaker
Um, didn't, didn't think Evans was awful, but I think that we know what Hastings is capable of. So there's that as well. Um, Hey, there's a name that from like, from, from the olden times.
00:36:03
Speaker
It seems, although building time for it that long ago, Ollie Thorley, tearing up, well, plastic. Not quite trees. What an amazing performance for him. He's had been slowed by injuries and whatnot, and I think he's back.
00:36:29
Speaker
Yeah, I'm sure everybody at Gloucester would love for him to be back in full and full of it because a healthy guy for him, like if he's healthy, they're going to be a threat and they're now sitting third in the pram.
00:36:45
Speaker
It's going to be, it's already a great start to the year for Gloucester. We'll see what comes in the end. And they have a good chance, I mean, no spoilers exactly, but they have a good chance to kind of even keep gaining ground.
00:37:02
Speaker
So like not, not so, um, not so much like, uh, yeah, like just putting some distance between themselves and Quinn's. Yeah. And Quinn's and, you know, obviously they want to stay away from fifth place as well. So you can keep it in semi-final at the very least. Like, yeah, this, this, this next couple of weeks with the six nations where they're not hurting nearly as much as some of these other teams is really going to be helpful for them to, to put them in good position down the stretch. Atkinson got released this week too, didn't he?
00:37:32
Speaker
I didn't see him on that list. I don't recall him on that list. Maybe he's there and I just missed him, but I don't recall him on that list. I don't think I'd see him. He'd be at the top, no. Did they go in alphabeticals? Yeah, I thought they did. I think they did. I'm opening it up now. Yeah. We're going to go to Ashton Gate next. Okay. Sorry, Irish. You weren't good. No, they were not. Period.
00:38:00
Speaker
Poor performance on their part. Yeah. Lil' Cracknell played pretty well. Yeah, we know he's good. Yeah, let's go to Ashton Gate. And Bristol being Bristolians again, and, you know, they kind of hit some, they kind of rejig quite a, there'd be like, what, four changes by the time they came out for the second half? Something like that. You were like, that's less than ideal. That's a lot. Zach gets in the away.
00:38:28
Speaker
Oh, hold on. Let me see. It's not loading. It's a page not found. Ah, okay. I'll check that later. I mean, the urine try, the more hand try, that looks a lot like the team that we're used to, you know, all possible. You were getting one as well as a sub.
00:38:50
Speaker
Yeah, that looks a little bit more like it for the bears. Yeah, especially with Whitely at 10. Who knew? Well, I mean, yeah, he was 10 for like 15 minutes and they had to put him at nine because he got hurt. But yeah, I mean, even while he was playing 10, they did some good things. Obviously, they got over the line. I mean, he was still taking the kicks, too, which is pretty impressive. You know, and we've seen him as a couple of serious guys to take his kicks.
00:39:19
Speaker
There's a particular guy that we were wondering, is he back? And he might yet be. And that's Piers O'Connor. Okay. I mean, it helps to have, you know, Rads. Yes. Radraja and Purdy and Nellaga, like all these people around him. And Tiff Eden, even.
00:39:39
Speaker
did well, you know, I guess you said is that, you know, as that's head and weight, you know, that whole back line played a very fluid match. And that helps when you're playing with guys like kind of fits and starts kind of guys. Yeah, it's hard to show well yourself. So that's holding peers back a little bit now that they're kind of close to full bore.
00:40:04
Speaker
Um, damn close. Yeah. Yeah. There's, there's a few, you know, extras missing in the, in the, in the Randalls, but okay. Like they still have, they're, they're loaded for bear.
00:40:16
Speaker
Yeah, they're ready. They're ready to rock. It's Harding has been just for those guys big time. I think a lot from Ben Earl to be perfect. And I thought I saw it last year too. You might have Yeah, with very similar. And not dissimilar at all. Yeah, be having somebody to watch it as an example and be like, okay, that's that's what he does. That's what okay, that's what I can do that.
00:40:41
Speaker
And one thing I'll give the Falcons credit for is they were, they were playing some of the youngsters. Hayden Wood was at 10, Sam Stewart was nine, until he had to come off and they had a Nordley Callum. And he played pretty well too. So I'll give him credit and honestly ride that. Just your season's long. You're not getting top six. You're not getting top four. Ride that, okay? And whoever's in charge at Newcastle, don't get rid of Dean Richards.
00:41:10
Speaker
if he does this, he's doing it for a damn good purpose and you just got to trust him, but ride this. Like Brett Conin is not going to be your 10 for the future. You can probably even save a few bucks and go find somebody else like now. And I, I, I just think they didn't have enough possession to really get going. And that kind of,
00:41:31
Speaker
Yeah, that's 59% percent. Well, I guess that's because bears were scoring pretty quickly. Yeah, they were scoring. And then the yellow cards all over the place, obviously, as well. So that always just come by. Oh, that was that yellow card period. That's right. The double yellow. That's yeah. They held a lot of possession. Less than helpful on that one. Right. But still not enough for for Newcastle to really, you know, turn the table on it. Nope.
00:42:01
Speaker
Let's jump over to Devin, Exeter, and Woss. Woss pulled out of the fire and there was nobody that was laughing their ass off harder than me. And a couple of house holds, I can tell you that much.
00:42:16
Speaker
It's hard to feel bad for a team when they're doing that super racist chant for the whole match. I'm like, I don't have any bad feelings. Sorry. No, guys, like the players played well. Well, some of them, um, they had a number six that like was all over the pitch, which was crazy to see. Um, how is, how is yours in front? I mean, I realized, you know, viewers had to drop a ill or something, but it's like,
00:42:44
Speaker
OK, Baxter, like, what more do you need to see? Right, guys, actually, you know, getting the bit between their teeth and taking their chances instead of, you know, you could there's no reason to think that even if you're dismissing Pearson because he's.
00:42:58
Speaker
He's young, like Grondano was very good. I don't see a reason why you can't stick him at six. Right. No, I don't. Like all three, I thought all three of them were great. Capstick was fantastic too. Yeah, Capstick. I'm a huge Richard Capstick fan. Like why isn't he, Kirsten was fine at lock. Yeah, keep him there. Keep him there. He causes less damage there.
00:43:23
Speaker
Right. Like that's he plays lock. Why? Like when he's out on around the pitch, why not just have him at lock and get these guys who can run and it's just. Yeah. I don't have the answers for it, but I can tell you, Exeter doesn't have an answer for Paulo. Did you not? That was a super happy I picked him up. The first try was it was great. And then that last one, obviously, it was just, you know, another level because of how what it meant.
00:43:55
Speaker
It was a Johnny May special. A little bit, yeah. The first one was the first one took a little bit of talent. The second one was, you know, a Jack, no old Johnny. I don't have to do a whole lot of them fall over this line. Right. Well worked by the whole team and, you know, well spotted by him to be screaming for that ball. I think the person inside of him thought he should got it. Yeah, he's just like, I'm going to leave it. No, no, no. He's got the nobody's stopping him. You might get stopped because just where the defense was.
00:44:13
Speaker
Right, it was a walk.
00:44:25
Speaker
Right. And for Exeter's sake, why the fuck doesn't Tom Henderson get more time? I know he screwed up a try and that probably would have put the nail in the coffin. But apart from that, I don't know a whole lot. That's what he did wrong. Right. Honestly, like get get him more playing time. You know, him and Slade, I think it'd be fun.
00:44:43
Speaker
And now it'll be fantastic. That'd be a great midfield for Exeter and why Devoto and Ian Whitten exist in front of him. When you have a woodburn and Tom O'Flaherty, even if you know, well, there's three there, then you have a Hodge along with Hogg.
00:45:04
Speaker
You have all these guys have like, you know, it's one of those like, you have all these flavors to choose and you pick salty. I don't even know if salty. That's bland. That's just bland. That's no flavor. That's true. Yeah. That's no flavor right there. Salty doesn't even know that that's being nice. Right.
00:45:23
Speaker
But yeah, because well, I was just thinking salty isn't, you know, the attitude salty because it's like, damn, that's what they are. They're they're a little grumpy and they don't need to be like they could be they could be running and like expensive as we saw. And they choose not to be and that that annoys the fuck out of me if you close the fuck out of a lot of people, if you didn't notice.
00:45:44
Speaker
So yes, I'm perfectly happy. Even though Exeter played a game that I would like to see them play more often. Um, Oh, as soon as that chant came out, I was like, fuck this team, but these guys. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Good. Good for wasps. Yeah. Well done. Wasps. And that's probably going to be one of the stronger teams they put out, which is great.
00:46:04
Speaker
It is. And they got Jacob Umaga coming back this week. Yeah, Willis will be back soon. Both of them. Both of them. All right, let's jump up to Stonex, Saracens and Bath. We won't spend too much time on this one.
00:46:22
Speaker
The one guy I think we need to spend the most time on is one Theodore McFarland. Wow, wow, wow. This kid is just good. And I thank you, Dallas Jackals, for being a bunch of morons. Seriously. Wow. Like what a get this guy's been. Whoo. I love him. And that that fanned off with the try. Just like sit the fuck down. I got a try line to get to.
00:46:46
Speaker
Oh, man. Sit down. I think it was Joe Simpson. I think poor little guy. Oh, well, I mean, if you didn't do what you do to the scrummy. Sorry, bud. Oh, man. Yeah. He's just like, no, sorry. Like a fly just swatted them. Oh, oh, boy. I was bad. But this is, you know, unfortunately, bath are still a little bit bad. And this is them kind of crashing down to Earth after they've had a couple of really good matches.
00:47:16
Speaker
And series have had a couple of really poor matches and this is them getting the bit back between their teeth and saying, no more fucking around. Yeah. I mean, even Sarah did, hold on. I could've go to the timeline on this one. Did the Sarah or series kicking early to on this one? Didn't they kick penalties early? Yeah. Well, I was going to penalties and, and, um, then they went for it. Yeah. And it wasn't until Wilson Croft got his, uh, got his tribe. It was like, okay. Now, but that was a, and that was a conscious decision to go for the corner though. I do remember that. Right.
00:47:46
Speaker
Right. That was near the half. They're near the end of the half. They're like, all right, let's end this with a good try to go in and, you know, get a little momentum. So I was glad they did that. And then, yeah, right. Well, they, well, they had, and they got another one just by chance as well with the crop getting the second one. I was like, Oh, okay. It'll do too. That'll work as well.
00:48:09
Speaker
Yeah, did not mind that. I mean, he's, he's so, I don't, he's so fucking good. He's very quality. Just a solid player all around, like rugby player too. Cause he does some, like, he does all the things rugby players do. He runs, he can catch, he can throw, he can tackle, like just to, yeah, just a rugby player right there. He is, he is. So, Sarri's back on the good and we'll see what happens this weekend with old friends coming into town.
00:48:37
Speaker
Uh, let's jump up to Wilford road and Lester, again, not a lot, not a ton to report on here. Um, you know, the reason, the only reason that this thing is looks close is because of the Alex Pearl, uh, and was the Alex Pearl intercept, I believe. And that's, and that's it really, this was all Lester all day.
00:48:54
Speaker
Um, some hockey, he looks to be another good yet for luster tigers. Well, I mean, he's playing against, he's playing wing against Worcester. So I know, but he's continuously getting it done. That's the thing. It's not like he's doing this only here. He's done it everywhere at this point. So I meant no disrespect. It was a, it was just more, more ingest than anything, but yeah, no, he's been.
00:49:18
Speaker
he's shown flashes and now like sometimes you need to, you know, practice girl. Okay. No, this is how I stuff with one of them right there. Yeah.
00:49:28
Speaker
We saw the return of Hunter Lieuwenberg, and he was obviously, you know, up to his old tricks, so good for him. Yeah, I mean, Lester didn't need to change a whole lot of what they wanted to do in this match in order to find success because Worcester were coming in, you know, Jamie Schillcock playing, not Schillcock, Cyril playing 10, which is just barf. Yeah, you know, you're not really... No, you're in trouble as soon as that happens. You know, no Finn Smith, no Owen Williams able to play here.
00:49:56
Speaker
missing just tons and tons of players here. And that's just, yeah, you know, obviously Duhan makes a huge difference. But it's where it's at, where we're at in this time of the year. So you're going to have to suffer with the best of them sometimes. Right. So sorry, Worcester. Just a whole lot of not good for you and Leicester still have plenty in the tank. And that's just the bad news for them.
00:50:20
Speaker
And then really, I wish we had more to jump over to on Sunday, but.
00:50:27
Speaker
more of the same for sale, the way they've been playing in a lot more of the same of the way Quinn's have been playing lately, which is not great for, you know, to not trying to poop who all of them, but damn, they've not been good. No, they haven't. Their beats clear that missing, you know, you know, Dom brand and and Smith and Marchant. You know, they had they hadn't landed in Northmore, like, and they thought that that
00:50:57
Speaker
You know, overall, they played pretty well. Esther Hazen got the shit kicked out of him. Yeah, he was having a bad day. I mean, Dupree and Van Rensburg were not about to let him do anything. No, they realized what was in front of them and they were like, we're going to pick on you. If somebody else can beat us, great. If they can't, well, then we've done our job.
00:51:17
Speaker
yeah you know so it was it was a tough day all around for and to a laggy oh it's too a laggy yeah too he came in and just one step pow that looks familiar my fucking pitch dude yeah for a guy that apparently the uh the english were like hey what how are your grandparents do they have any connections
00:51:41
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think you need that, guys. I think you got plenty. You're good. You're good. You're good. And we saw the back three we wanted to see with Reed, Roblox, and James, and still came up good. Excellent. They all looked quite good, and really compliment. I mean, you didn't do Robert Dupri had a great game. Yeah, when those guys scored a race, you know it's bad news. Yeah, and it's having that
00:52:08
Speaker
thread outside that really helps. He's a guy who can't really create his own space, but if you give him space, he's going to be fucking dangerous. Yeah, absolutely. And Roebuck Reed and Luke James is...
00:52:23
Speaker
I think he's good. He is good. He is good. I've been waiting. I've been waiting for him to come good because we know he's better than his brother. His brother's not that good. We know he's better than him. He's like 21. Yeah. We picked out. We know he picked up like a rib injury on that little fold up. I was like, Ooh, that's uncomfortable. I'm glad that's all it was is a rib. It could be way worse. So still might miss this week with that, but looks good. Just the same.
00:52:50
Speaker
Tom Roebuck should never leave this lineup. Right. Never ever. Not a million years. I don't care who's healthy. You should never leave this lineup. And I'm sure Sanderson's not dumb enough to think otherwise. Well, I mean, who else do they really have? I mean, we know that they have jags. We've been talking about that. I think like I think this is Sanderson finally having off of their shit and especially with, you know, sale dropping. They were they were topped towards the top of the table early in the season, if I recall.
00:53:19
Speaker
and they were in free fall. And now they're just kind of so like, and obviously with whatever happened a couple of weeks ago, it's like, okay, no, this isn't working. Since then, they obviously have more opportunity at this position. And yeah, the young guys are taking advantage. So why not just buy a car? I mean, I trust Sanderson to get that right.
00:53:47
Speaker
Yeah, I think thank you. And I both will agree on that one. No doubt. Right. So yeah, sale on the ups, Quinn's not so much. We'll see if they write the ship a tizzard scored.
00:53:59
Speaker
Yeah, you future sorry, big tis, big tis, nice, nice little try to get on him. So we'll see what happens. I mean, it's rare that you can come outside the top section, get to the top four on the second half, but it's been done. So we'll find out if sale, in fact, get there. And I'm sure that at least even top section at this point. So
00:54:20
Speaker
which itself is going to be a quite a lot. And I, yeah, I mean, there are only three points out, but still, still there's a lot that that's a crowded area right now. Right. And Bristol are, are not going away behind them either. So they can't really afford to, to, to slip because that's competition too. Yep. Great. So should be a fun race to the top six. This is why I like the top six a little bit better too.
00:54:43
Speaker
Like top eight, everybody just kind of takes a chill pill. And, you know, oh, we're not going to get the top four, but we're top eight. That's cool. Top six, like I can fight for the damn thing. And you know, you'll be, you know, you'll know, you'll be good value for it when you get into that comp next year. Let's do, we'll talk about our, our favorite team and then we'll do the whip around for the MLR kickoff. Yeah. Here we are. Um,
00:55:09
Speaker
Here's the, you know, we were talking with Bill the other weekend. Apparently we've had blinders on because apparently the Freejacks weren't underdogging this past weekend. And I was like, how the hell are we underdogs? I did not think we were underdogs in that match. And I understand they have Dolan, but Dolan was a dick in this thing anyway. But they also, I mean,
00:55:27
Speaker
they were they really were a foil for the free jacks last year. And it's like when a team kind of like, almost like a big brother kind of thing. And
00:55:42
Speaker
that can get squirrely. You know, you can get really in people's heads and it can be a long-term thing just whether or not you're better than the other team. So good on the free jacks for stepping up and just smacking them in the face. Like right off the start, obviously they had that first try.
00:56:08
Speaker
With the intercept or was it, um, or just the, no, there was just a little feed there that we had. Yeah, that was great. Walk it down the sideline. Right. Right. Um, yeah, I remember it was an open play. I just couldn't remember, um, it was interceptor. If it was just a broken line and a turnover situation, um, broken play.
00:56:26
Speaker
OK, but yeah, really good stuff from from the boys. I like this sort of pairing. Jack Reeves looks really good. I really like him. The back three is Waka is not a long term 10 should Harry Boyle want to stick around long. He is.
00:56:42
Speaker
But I do appreciate that he's obviously playing 10 right now, because he's, you know, definitely the best thing we got. Right. It's very helpful to obviously have Barlow, Bellacana, Fife, and then Mitchell Wilson off the bench. Like, that's great. You know, I mean, there's just, right, there's attack on attack on attack out there.
00:57:04
Speaker
So yeah, no, it's great if, you know, that's the depth that they have out wide too. Really good. Really good. Yeah, really good stuff. Slade McNall is going to turn it down just a wee bit because he got a couple of penalties flipped on him for being stupid. Cut the shit house for you back. Everything else was really good. Like the dude was a tackle machine.
00:57:22
Speaker
He looks very sevenish, no doubt. I will say on the other side for Nola, Robbie Coleman is an asshole if he thought that he was not going to get carded for that hit on Walker. That's a men's league thing, dude. That's something you do at club level. I know we're still kind of a joke of a professional league.
00:57:43
Speaker
But if we want to be a professional league, those hits cannot be here at all. Right. Get the hell out of here. So for him to be like, oh, I didn't do anything. I was like, you know exactly what you did. Like you did and had frickin Johnny Poland, not score. That would have definitely been a penalty try.
00:57:58
Speaker
Oh yeah, absolutely. It would have been a yellow card either way. Johnny Poland. Yeah. I love JP. I have nothing but good to say about that. Yeah. That's a, that's a nice little bit right there. We got him with him there, but yeah, nine and 10. Not a problem. That's just a, like, and the, the lock situation seems pretty sorted. Yeah. The two, the two Canadians were, were just.
00:58:23
Speaker
powerful. And again, that's it kind of started with them. And yeah, I think they got a, um, what was it? They got a little overzealous. What was it though? One of the free jacks, like the ball at one of the, that was big doll. Yeah. That was my point about that guy. Like you got chill out dude, but they did her, you know, and
00:58:45
Speaker
Nola really wanted to try and hammer that driving ball over the line after about the 10th one, they got one. But like, that's a really good bit of defense right there from the free jacket. Just keep repelling that and keep either getting the turnovers or making them use it one or the other. And, you know, at this level, you'd expect one of those to get shoved over after two or three, let alone, you know, eight, nine.
00:59:07
Speaker
So I am very happy with the way the boys played. The defense was all over the place. Really, Nola just got some consolation points in the end. Right. And that was excellent. Excellent all-around rugby, I think, from the free jacks. So a good way to start the season, too, away from home, and they'll be away for a little bit.
00:59:28
Speaker
Statement, statement win. Deserved week off this week. Yeah, they earned it. They got an early buy. Nice up, boys. Yeah, New York had the buy. Last week, whoop around, Atlanta pounded Old Glory. My goodness, I did not have that on my bingo board. I knew Atlanta had lost some stuff, apparently not that much. Yeah. Yeah. GoGrony's, no shock there, 43.7, although I
00:59:55
Speaker
I, they're good. I hate pumping them up for that stupid Navy thing they did or that seal Navy seals. Yeah. They did. I want to kick everybody in that room. I was like, um, Sabercats down defending champions, Los Angeles. My goodness. What the hell? Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Did not have that. And they're, they, the guy that was supposedly, they had two of their best players leave last year. We got one of them. And then the other one went to New York.
01:00:23
Speaker
How the hell that happened? My goodness. Lots to fix there, I'd say. I know Luke Carty's out and I'm not sure that they have everything that they want ready to go, but woo boy. So you're losing to what was the worst team in the league last year. Not good. Not good to start.
01:00:44
Speaker
Hanukkah mayor is the DOR at Houston now apparently though, so he was not bad once upon a yesterday or so. I guess we'll see if he got something in the tank. Legion in Utah, it looks closer than it was. I actually watched that match. Me too. Yeah, that was Utah getting a couple of consolation ones late.
01:01:02
Speaker
It really was like they, they were, um, credit to them for not fighting, but San Diego had already. Got their bonus point win. And we're just like, yeah, fuck it. Whatever. Like we're not going to, we're not losing this match. It was like, they did get like too late and it was just too, too late. Yeah. Too late, too late. So I will, I will quietly cheer for standing a legion and our old friend will hooley. Hmm.
01:01:28
Speaker
Um, and then Seattle just, yeah, sorry, Toronto, like rough start, rough way to start the year cross country. And that is away. I mean, that's the, okay. So let's put it this way. If Toronto is the team that they're expected to be, that they're the number one ranked team in the East by certain people's power rankings.
01:01:49
Speaker
They can't lose to Seattle by double digits on the road. Like, I know it's going to be like what they used to be, which I don't see that happening. I don't see it happening. No, I don't see it either. I mean, maybe, but either way, nothing really changed up there, honestly, right? Like either way, they're still like, it's there. There might be up and coming, but Toronto is supposed to be the
01:02:12
Speaker
You know, one of those, they're supposed to be the man. So they got to win these kind of games. They got to beat down teams. Like, yeah.
01:02:21
Speaker
We'll see. I don't, yeah, you got to see more like, you know, I see the free jacks against NOLA as, you know, them nutting up and beating a team that they should beat. This is, this is fixing some, some demons from last year, no doubt. Right. So I'd like to see Toronto start winning matches like that. Cause you got to, you got to be facing some adversity there and, and being, you know, coming out ahead, not losing by double digits.
01:02:45
Speaker
Yeah. Overall, um, for the weekend, I would say I'm glad to see the TMO was in effect and he had to be, I don't think it was. Yeah. We were talking about that with the, that I was not, I was not convinced it was in effect until it finally happened on that Coleman shot. I was just like, have we been doing using TMO this whole time? No. Okay. Cool. Right. Cause it's like, no, that's not, so it needs improvement, but at least it's there, you know, it's in the right direction. Um, next weekend it'll be Seattle and Utah, Toronto.
01:03:15
Speaker
host, quote, unquote, Los Angeles, they're going to be in BC.
01:03:21
Speaker
San Diego and Dallas, New Orleans and Atlanta, Houston, New York. That's a rough trip from New York right now. They got to fix that. It's not rugby United, New York. It's just rugby, New York. That's on MLR's page too. Yeah, that's bad. And then Austin will host DC. DC gets to stay in the warm weather for another week, looks like. And then they're going to be, I think they're hosting
01:03:52
Speaker
Um, us next week, although after other, if we are talking about rugby, New York, it is really rugby, New Jersey. So are they playing in Jersey this year? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Condolences in New York fans. Sorry. Okay. Um, yeah, lots to cover, but I think we did a decent job of not getting too carried away. Um,
01:04:13
Speaker
We'll be on for Fantasy Corner in a little bit here. So if you're coming for that, stick around. If not, we will catch you guys next week. Another fun round of Six Nations coming up. So enjoy everybody. Thanks for stopping by and hanging out. Later.