Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 29: Premiership Round 21 & Super Rugby Round 12
34 Plays6 years ago
WE ARE BACK and it was a big weekend in terms of action on the pitch, BUT there was plenty of news to have at off of it as well. In this episode we talk about some unfortunate news coming out of Canadian rugby, and the amazing response that came from the community. We also touch on the amazing servants to the game that are saying their farewells, and also have a look at the world cup referees that have been announced. Oh yeah they did play matches this past weekend too. We take a look at all the action from the Premiership and Super Rugby.
Follow us on Twitter: Jarrod- jdyke8man & Ben- admrablsnackbar
Email fantasyrugbypodcast@gmail.com with questions, feedback or just to say what's up.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Listener Engagement
00:00:08
Speaker
Hey everybody, how's it going? It is the fancy rugby game. My name is Jared Dyke. I'm Ben Glauser. We are recording once again from just outside Boston, Massachusetts. It's Wednesday, we're back. Life got in the way as we definitely anticipated, so whatever.
00:00:22
Speaker
But this will be the last week where well our rugby gets on the way. Yeah. So our season is ending for a while this weekend. Right. So we will be much more consistent with our showing up and not being a bunch of bumps. Let's open some beer. Oh, yes. Don't have to ask me twice. As we've established.
00:00:45
Speaker
Everybody make sure you check us out on Google Play, Spotify, iTunes, that's the word. Make sure you email your questions and tweet in your questions to me and Ben. We do have a few to get to in a new segment and we will get to them probably towards the end of the show here. If not, it'll be a separate chunk that I'll split off depending on how much time we spend on this stuff.
00:01:10
Speaker
Okay, so let's get to get a lot of meat to get into before we get down to the bone here. Lots of chew on. Yeah.
Ethics and Beliefs Discussion
00:01:19
Speaker
So hearing in Australia for the man we won't give a name to found guilty of a high level breach, which means he's probably done.
00:01:29
Speaker
He was probably done to begin with but nothing. Yeah, this is kind of the official Yeah, like we have legal standing to yes just and your contract Yeah, and most of a bunch of the players who come out and said if if he's on the team I'm not playing and there's some good players on that list. So maybe you just don't have him play Yeah, that's the risk you run when you have Beliefs that run into reality
00:01:56
Speaker
I mean And you know, we talked about beliefs for one thing but just spreading hate is just something we don't need to do. Yeah, there's no need that didn't and if if your religion has you hating people or or any Yeah, any any belief you have especially religious though You you can do better like find find something slightly different. There's not there's no there's no room for hate you can have your beliefs as long as they only affect you but as soon as you start affecting other people
00:02:25
Speaker
Right. So that's yeah, that's that's the risk affecting other people for who they were born to be or born or you know, that's that's the thing. People aren't going to want to play with someone like that. No, not in today's world. There's enough. There's enough bad shit going on in the world. We don't need to manufacture. Yeah, let's not add on to it yet. Let's reduce that. So but it sounds like the good the good thing happened with that, which is no, no complaints out of me, man. Yes, for sure.
00:02:53
Speaker
World Cup referees. And I saw the list before you. Yes, you did. I saw it, but I didn't really look into it until just now. Until just recently. I didn't even really think about it. And it's kind of, it's kind of an alarming list, to say the least.
00:03:16
Speaker
There's going to be, in Japan, an invasion of a foreign species. Hopefully they do not take over, but it appears that they will. That species, of course, is the whistling frog. Right. And even looking at this list, reserve referee, it's funny that this happened too. He made some bad decisions this weekend, and I had said it.
00:03:41
Speaker
And I was I was like, oh, no, not this guy. He wasn't referring this Harrison's match, but I just saw him and I'm like, oh, no, not this guy. He's going to make some stupid decision. You watch. He did Matt Carley. Yeah. And he's the reserve referee. If one of the other referees gets pulls up lame or something like that. Yikes.
00:03:58
Speaker
That's terrifying. Like, no, no, you said it. No, no, Jack. Oh, no, Glenn, no, Glenn Jackson. Right. And that that's the I mean, so John Lacey would have been like the Irish representation, but John Lacey's retired from international refereeing. I think the last international job he did was the series down in New Zealand with the French.
00:04:19
Speaker
So that's fine. Paul Williams is still a good one. Ben O'Keefe's good. Piper, I actually, honestly, over the French referees, I would have taken Mariusz van Vesthezen over at least one of these guys. And then Glenn Jackson, obviously. Right. There's no excuse. There's 12 referees listed. Four of them are French.
00:04:40
Speaker
And there's no way you can tell me that those four are for the best 12 referees in the world. Well, if Garces is on there, no, fuck no. Exactly.
00:04:57
Speaker
Yeah, it's pretty awful. It's like I'm going through that Oh Garza's Oh plot. Oh, right. Oh back to Garza's. Oh, yeah, right exactly. And then what are they doing? Oh
00:05:10
Speaker
Alex Ruiz is an official touchy as well, so that's worrying. I like seeing Carl Dixon there. I think he's still got a little bit of shaping up to do in terms of how he's going to referee a game and establishing how he's going to do it, but I do like to see him. At least we got Barnes and
00:05:30
Speaker
Barnes, Gus Gardner, and Nigel. Those, to me, those should definitely be three. Maybe Luke Pierce, those four should be in the semi-final and final conversation automatically. Anything outside of that, assuming it's not their country, end of story, done. So there you go. So yeah, that's...
00:05:54
Speaker
Although it will be interesting to see, depending on, you know, those, for those French referees, one thing that I've, I've noted with them and said it in the past is they do like an entertaining game, which they'll force the game to be entertaining in their minds if they have to. So if you have, uh, a match, that's, you know, a tier one team versus a tier two team and you have a French referee, um,
00:06:21
Speaker
Be prepared for some fireworks. Maybe if you're a wagering person, you might want to take the points. Take the line on the underdog. And you might do OK. Yeah, right. So that might help for gambling purposes. About it, though. Other than that, you're going to have some frustrated tier one players. Yes. I hope it doesn't detract from the matches, unfortunately.
00:06:50
Speaker
The last World Cup, we had a very terrible referee that made a very terrible decision that detracted from a fantastic quarterfinal match between Scotland and Australia. And again, I established it before. I was bombed watching this match. And I don't know, bombed, but I was definitely drunk. And I saw the decision, I was like,
00:07:12
Speaker
I might be drunk, but that's wrong. So yeah, I hope it doesn't get to that point, but God knows it probably will. It will. That's unfortunate. What are we going to do? Right.
High School Rugby Controversy
00:07:25
Speaker
OK. Something more local.
00:07:29
Speaker
This is something that I have a strong opinion on and I heard it recently and I was pretty appalled when I heard it and a lot of bad thoughts ran through my head. Most of them concerning anger. So Nova Scotia if you don't know where it is, it's a province up in Canada. It's actually not far from Massachusetts in terms of
00:07:52
Speaker
where we are on the uh on the line there um so their high school athletic association canceled all rugby and that's 50 schools that would that that are having their rugby taken away from them and it's the reason because that they're doing this is because that
00:08:13
Speaker
They had one study that was found that was self self-reported in concussions like they counted them. And rugby had more than hockey and soccer. And this is self-reporting. Right. That's number one. Yeah. OK. Number two, it also wasn't so self-reporting is a bad way to do it either way. You know, and I understand that self-reporting is kind of how you have to do it at high school level, but still it's
00:08:43
Speaker
This is probably an inaccurate way to go about it, just the same. Number two, we're talking about, you know, these schools have like 50, 60 kids on the rugby teams. And you can't tell me there's that many kids on a soccer or a hockey team. No, no, not even. Right. So we were talking about, so what the, and I heard somebody talking about it and they said it basically breaks down to one player per team per week. Maybe.
00:09:13
Speaker
That's yeah, that's maybe right maybe so i was like And actually, I don't even know if it's per week that would have been per like three or four weeks I didn't hear the the per right time period. Um, so yeah, basically it's been skewed pretty heavily right but it's also Rugby, I feel like because I and this is partially because I understand the way that that
00:09:37
Speaker
Organized rugby has gone. They're very big on on self-reporting concussions. They don't want people I mean i've i've seen it happen. Unfortunately way too many times You don't want kids dying No, because they got a concussion a real bad concussion and they kept playing like they we put into these protocols Not because you know and and the good the great thing to me about rugby is
00:10:01
Speaker
You don't have to play every match, right? You see it at every level not You know, well most levels some some some of the you know college and whatnot you'll have people who know this person's never coming out of a match Or they're always playing they might come out but they're playing every week, right? But even at the highest levels you give guys rests And that's helpful for the club and it builds depth too
00:10:25
Speaker
So they want people to self-report. They want people to be healthy when they play. I don't know how hockey treats it, because concussions aren't, I mean, I'm sure they're prevalent in hockey. But when you see a major concussion, you know it. But the minor things, the minor dings, guys just kind of get up and skate away. And nobody's the wiser. And same thing with soccer. They talk about heading the ball, and they're taking that out of the game at younger ages. Yes, I've heard that, yeah.
00:10:55
Speaker
But that doesn't mean that they're self-reporting. They're worried about concussion, like, you know. Yeah, they're not. So of course, rugby is going to be higher, higher than everyone else because we are self-reporting because we're trying to self-police because rugby in this region of the world has a stigma. Right. So it's kind of it's hard to use those raw stats as a good reason to do that. Right.
00:11:19
Speaker
And this, to me, the people that should be commended for having this kind of number, and I'm not saying it's a good thing that they have this kind of number, but to have the amount of people that are reporting this, you have referees that are doing their job, you have coaches that are doing their job, and coaches that are making it very aware that the kids
00:11:38
Speaker
and parents, you know, all four of those that those four groups need to do the job in order to get the in in order to get the safety down and rugby isn't, you know, as good as it should be, or it could be. That's fine. I understand that. But to just take one study and have this this
00:11:58
Speaker
Extra knee-jerk reaction and say oh no more rugby like I guess they had a conversation about Coach education and how they can help Get get the number down right and I guess that was like three years ago and that was the last time they had this conversation Then the study came out and boom this happened. Yeah, so well luckily they they reversed the decision there was there was an appropriate outcry and And they got they got it right
00:12:22
Speaker
don't mess with rugby do not mess with rugby in their family because it is a powerful group and you know from it sounds of it sounds like kids were kids were very active very peaceful but very active and getting the protest out and be like no way we are playing we're playing we're not having this happen
00:12:39
Speaker
Yeah, and I so I commend the the province of Nova Scotia and all you rugby players up there in Canada and all the people involved I'm glad you guys were able to get the decision in reverse because the higher-ups weren't even really consulted with this either It was this athletic commission that made the one decision. It's like and like even the higher-ups like whoa, whoa, whoa We didn't have this conversation at all. Let's let's let's talk about this first so
00:13:05
Speaker
You know deep breath here, right? But so if I said that this was if this was ice if I said this was ice hockey You know and people people were just I think the reaction should be the same thing Like this is a knee-jerk reaction. It's not it's not that it's rugby It's any sport taken away from a kid for one study. That's a that you just overreact to is absolutely asinine and
00:13:31
Speaker
Yeah, and I I hope this doesn't happen again. I hope People take this and they learn from it and say all right. Let's not have these knee-jerk reactions Let's have conversations first because conversations are the way we progress not these overwhelming Again, it's the stigma that rugby has it's the at least in America and I'm not sure how it is
00:13:52
Speaker
Over overseas. Um, I don't think it has nearly the stigma that it does here but Probably good for good reason though. It has it here is that as much of uh, Drunken thugs who want to smack the crap out of each other um on and off the pitch and it's not that's
00:14:10
Speaker
It was somewhat like that. It was, it was just that culture was kind of ending when I was started and starting to play. Um, and it's definitely one of the things that, that kept me in the sport was, and it was one of the things that kept me out of the sport, to be perfectly honest, um, up until then. And, uh,
00:14:27
Speaker
I was happy to see that it was going away, but the stigma still exists. We've still seen that with the University of Delaware rugby team that got canceled because of a party at the quote-unquote rugby house that didn't really involve them in a fight. But because it was at the rugby house, even though I think it was pretty sure it was the football team who started a brawl with some people, they're not going to punish the D1 football players, they're going to punish the club rugby players.
00:14:55
Speaker
Because they don't make any money for the school. Right. And that same thing that eventually was reinstated.
00:15:03
Speaker
Yeah. But it's going to take the brunt. It's because of the stigma. Right. And I know that when I was at school for rugby, anytime there were more than five of us at an event, it was considered a rugby event. So you got to be careful what the hell you do, guys. Just be careful. OK? End of story. So yeah, good on Nova Scotia and all the high school rugby players up there. I'm glad that they were able to respond in a peaceful way and get a result out of the situation. So good on them.
00:15:31
Speaker
Um Some some farewells we've we've we missed beforehand and and have occurred since that we need to probably uh note A lot of players kiss kissing
Retirement Announcements and Rugby Careers
00:15:44
Speaker
rugby. Goodbye or their teams. Goodbye at the very least This year. I mean most most notable was this week. Yeah, I mean, this is the uh, this is the the week where This past week and then the final couple weeks where it's their last home match with their club that they're either leaving or retiring
00:16:01
Speaker
And so yeah, there's a little bit of the tears and the clap offs and the pictures on the touchline and all that. The man that announced his retirement on Instagram and Twitter this week. Because that's how he does. The Budgie Smuggler, James Haskell. Haskell. I'm going to miss him. What a class act.
00:16:21
Speaker
just just as a person just as a person never mind how good he's been at rugby and how long he's been doing it and all the accolades he's got he's gotten he's gone on the line story played for England he's just a world-class human being and the game Owen Farrell's best friend
00:16:37
Speaker
Those videos were amazing. I love those videos when they were on tour. That was great But yeah, just as a as a person he's He's gonna be missed as a person in this game I know he's gonna probably try to stick around and do something You know, he has House of Rugby that he continues to do Can we drop Healy and Brandon?
00:16:58
Speaker
Yeah, I was I wouldn't you wouldn't get argument out of me for those who didn't hear that I don't know how Quiet that was. Let's let's get rid of Austin Healy and bring in James Haskell No commentator cuz man He knows it and he's much more entertaining and he's much much less of an ass. Yes fact fact fact fact He's not gonna be whining about caterpillar rocks every fucking time he sees one
00:17:23
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, listen, I have my point about Caterpillar Rux, and it's usually that the ball's out when they're saying it's in, but that's it. That's usually my issue, like, ball's hanging out on, I was like, that ball's out. Let's play that, shall we? That'll speed the game up fast.
00:17:40
Speaker
Um, so yeah Haskell calling it good. Uh, a couple of series guys, a few series guys stepping away. Yeah. Three Bosch and Berger potentially played their last home game at Allianz. Berger might get into the playoff team. We'll see. Yeah. Um, that's, that's all. He's on the line. Depends on what happens. Um, but cello, cello Bosch, uh, the gentlemen and one of the better looking boys in the Saracens. Um,
00:18:06
Speaker
The poor poor bossy though. He was supposed to walk out with the kids and one of the kids was not happy No, I'm staying here and the other ones like well if he's staying I'm staying He did get a picture with it with his wife and the kids on the field afterwards. So that that that was nice He walked off and then he had to come back on Yeah We got an injury we need you
00:18:32
Speaker
So you got two. I have a beer in me, don't worry about it. You would have drawn right out, it's okay. So Berger came off and there was a guy on the sidelines wearing a Stormer's jersey, which Berger used to play for. So I was like, oh, all right, there we go. I think he saw that and said, dude, get over here. So that was cool. And then Dave Strattle's gonna call it a career as well.
00:18:56
Speaker
Straddle's seen a lot. He's played for England. He's got a couple of Champions Cups to his name. He's played in France and made himself some cash on top of it all. And he's definitely one of the... He's a quiet guy for the most part and he's definitely one of the guys that you can lean on. You know, we saw it in the Champions Cup match for monsters. Maitland had to drop out.
00:19:17
Speaker
Oh, no problem. Yeah, we have straddle, you know, and he's always he's always a guy you can lean on. So, you know, not unlike our old friend, Chris Wiles. Yeah. You know, just so I'm I'm sad to see him go. But I understand the needs and we got plenty in the pipeline. So I hope he just continues to pass on his knowledge as he goes.
Player Transfers and Relegation Speculation
00:19:37
Speaker
And then one more one final person that we have to know. And it's not something we follow heavily outside of Six Nations and Champions Cup.
00:19:45
Speaker
but Rory Best calling it calling it a day and as expected what a what a sad what a sad day it's gonna be for for island to see him walk off for the last time that's that's harsh yeah it's gonna be it's gonna what is they gonna do it hooker they've always had best good god I mean Cronin's okay but he can't throw the lineup for shit no and I know they have some other guys Scandal right and I'm sure they have someone in the pipeline because they gotta
00:20:15
Speaker
Um, yeah, they definitely I mean they definitely have stuff in the pipe. Yeah, but it's not best No, it's not really best who you can lean on for 18 20 years Good god, it's gonna be weird not seeing him. Yeah
00:20:28
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know how that's gonna look how that's gonna yeah when the two hook when the number two shirt is tried out there for island It's not very best. It's gonna look weird. It's gonna look very weird. So Yeah, I've had definitely hats off to bestie. He's he's been a class act on top of the fact that he's been a fantastic player and a leader
00:20:46
Speaker
And then stuff just on the note of Bosch and his kid not having it I don't know if you watch the Crusaders match but so Karen Reed play his 150th game for the Crusaders and He has two older ones and a younger one the younger one He was trying to hang on to the young the two older ones were ready to run out there. Yeah, they're much they're they're much older They're like, yeah, let's go and the younger one was he's trying to hang on to his hand and the younger one is just
00:21:09
Speaker
balling and throwing a fit. He's like, all right, come here. I'm picking you up. Done. All right, let's go. And he's just just having a freaking ball. Oh, my God. He's having a tantrum. I was like, oh, poor reader. This kid's going to look back at that picture and be like, man, what an ass I was. I was a little tired. Yeah. Yeah. Just want just want to know that little kids are turds. It happens. They don't know better. It's OK. It's not their fault.
00:21:36
Speaker
It's scary man. You're in a big state. I know that was my thing There's a lot of noise and there's fireworks and like you see the you're in a strange place with just dad not mom right the NFL players when they take their kids to the Super Bowl or something and they have the
00:21:51
Speaker
the noise canceling headphones right? Yeah, put those suckers on man. Yeah, I understand that. Yeah, like injuries had the pressure with this kid. That's what that's the first one that comes to my mind. But yeah, so lots of milestones, lots of lots of lots of dust going around lots of dust going around. So it's really cool. Well, to the problem, do you want to talk about the thing that happened before after?
00:22:16
Speaker
the Newcastle relegation? Yeah. Yeah, let's talk about that. OK. So not to spoil it, Newcastle's relegated. If you hadn't known. Yeah. I mean, they were virtually relegated. I don't know. They didn't rock up. And then they picked an unusual team for their match against Gloucester, in my mind at least. That's just me saying it. I think maybe Dean Richards might have said, we're screwed anyways. Let's just throw guys out there that I feel like gave them a whirl.
00:22:44
Speaker
So yeah, new castle roll again. With that.
00:22:52
Speaker
Who do you think? It sounds like Mark Wilson's already got something set up for himself to go on loan to wasp for the year Well, they that would be perfect for them after losing Hughes, right? Right. So they'll have another back rower to replace replace Nathan Hughes So it sounds like he's got himself set up. I there's a few players I can't imagine I gotta stick stick around the club of the internationals and
00:23:17
Speaker
Yes, and and I mean even to tutor initials like takalua and snotty and yanova right, you know big big big players that were big for this team this year and Was takalua hurt? I have no idea why he didn't play that that was the head scratcher for me I I do not know I can't imagine if he was healthy that they wouldn't have played him because he wasn't even on the bench so um
00:23:44
Speaker
If Mark Wilson, Mark Wilson's done. So let's just put him on the wasp already, even though if it's not confirmed, whatever. From the rest of the Newcastle teams, which two players would you want? If you're, if you're like, if you're either Irish or whatever, whatever team you want, whatever team you want to pretend to be, which two players do you want?
00:24:06
Speaker
I mean, I want Sonati, definitely. Absolutely. There's no question about that. The guys can do a shitload. And he's he's a danger every time he touches the ball. And again, versatile, all that. And then McWiggin.
00:24:25
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, he's Certainly, I mean we've just as you were talking about it's incredibly valuable having A hooker who can hit every throw in the line out. Yep, and the going can do that. He's good in the loose
00:24:40
Speaker
He's just a very handy player that he's someone i'd want to have Okay. Um, i'm not sure that the picks. Yeah, those would be my two. How about you? Um If I need a if I have a young scrum half or I need a backup scrum half or If I have if I have a young scrum half and I need a veteran or if I need a backup scrum half i'm taking talk a little oh, yeah, there's that's
00:25:02
Speaker
I'm taking Takalua. He was class the last, especially the last half of the season. He was world class. Outplayed Mickey Young hands down. This is a reason Mickey Young's not featured in the team. Whether or not he's been hurt, I don't care. I would've played Takalua all day. And most guys know that.
00:25:20
Speaker
Another one that all that this one will surprise you and I want because I've already taken a back. I would I would take gone of a But I'm not going but I want to take a forward and if I want to take a forward I want to take Cal green. Yeah, that was yep
00:25:36
Speaker
Solid solid number a solid jumper. He can run a line out which not every second order can do and he's just he's a Guy you can lean on week in week out. He doesn't usually you know, he's not quote-unquote good enough to play internationally But listen, there's a long list of guys that can do that. They're still fucking high quality. So let's not let's not like give that That's a that's a label to it lock. It's a difficult thing There's a long list of locks certainly for England who
00:26:05
Speaker
Absolutely. Yeah, even even just on Saracens Yeah, you could have a really good log and he's not getting that much playing right You can't break into that team because the guys are sitting there. He's waiting for the international duty to come up So yeah, I would take I would take Cal green that takes us tiny talk a little big time Yeah, I mean, so there's there's four players. We each chose two different players, right? Who are handy players that could help a lot of different teams, right?
00:26:34
Speaker
It's it's mind-blowing to me that With all that um, plus mark wilson plus mark wilson. They're going down But at the same time every team is like that now It's hard to find a team where I mean aside from lester It's hard to find a team that that there's you wouldn't take like four or five guys and be like, yeah Yeah, yeah, and um, freddy burnt talked about it when he was on pod pod. Uh
00:27:03
Speaker
It's a damn good team that's going to the championship either way. It didn't matter what bottom three, four teams. There was a damn good team that was going to have to go to the championship. And they're going to throttle whoever they play. Even if they lose a few guys, they're still going to throttle whoever they play. They probably will. So they'll be back up next year. Right.
00:27:20
Speaker
But can we and can we talk about the london irish their move like they're making a lot of moves They're they're looking I mean it's going to take them a little bit Take to work with each other. Absolutely. They're probably have a rough go of it early on Yeah continuity is going to be a problem. They're they're a team that I will not want to play late
Match Recaps and Controversies
00:27:35
Speaker
in the season
00:27:35
Speaker
No, they're gonna not unlike Bristol. Yeah, you know Bristol doing very well now that they've got everybody gelled They've kind of found their form and their formula in terms of who starts who who's on the bench so on so forth Speaking of which let's get to the Bristol sale match. I watched it Got fucking spoiled for me. Yeah Yeah, it kind of did too. But I was like, I want to watch it Very good match Both teams had a shot to win it at the end. I thought
00:28:03
Speaker
And that guy, that referee, I thought he got a decision a little wrong. And I understand the decision, but I still don't agree with it. And it was, it should have been a, it was on a counter. Callum Sheedy and Chris Ashton were getting into it. Ashton had been kind of a dickhead, surprise, surprise. So the two of them got into a tussle.
00:28:27
Speaker
And after Shidi had been pursuing, there was a kick back. I don't remember who kicked it either. Salomon or Declerik James, whichever one it was. Luyua fielded it and basically took off down the sideline. And Shidi and Ashton were in the middle of Argy-Bargy, little scrappy-dappy-doo. And I think Ashton ended up with a shirt over his head. A little hockey fight? Yeah.
00:28:53
Speaker
And while this is going on, Layua scoots in. But, you know, it was kind of started by Ashton, to be fair.
00:29:03
Speaker
You know, Chidi should have done what he did, but Ashton kind of started it. I say, fucking let it go. And so Carly ends up calling back to try. We've seen that a couple times where they might call it back if there was some foul play or some handbags going on. Yeah, it happened actually. I opened one of the Saracens matches, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, I thought I didn't like the decision to me.
00:29:28
Speaker
Play it play the damn thing on if Layua doesn't get over the line then come back to it Yeah, he comes but really it's it's you were bad. You were bad. All right, cancel each other out Both you go to the bin and stop being stupid and done try or it be done with it. So And that would have given bristles the lead at 20
00:29:50
Speaker
22, so, because they had 17, and they were going ahead, and then both teams had a shot and a kick to win, didn't happen, both missed, and I was surprised that they were able to, there was at one point, I thought for sure, it was the same thing that happened with the hurricane, Thailanders match, when I was like,
00:30:16
Speaker
Don't screw around with it in your own end. Get the hell out of here. And they gave away a penalty. And I thought for sure they were done. But point being, I think it was Bristol that was screwing around with their own end. I mean, it's tied. If it's in your own end, just keep the ball out and take the two.
00:30:31
Speaker
And I appreciate Pat Lam's style and that's what and that's probably why they didn't kick the ball straight out, but They almost got burned Yeah, got lucky. Fuff the clerk has the slightly stronger leg than they're trying to get the top six So they're right. They're looking for the the win. Not just the tie So it makes sense from you know, they don't have anything to lose. They're not they're not getting relegated. No, so The tactics kind of make sense there um
00:30:58
Speaker
Yeah, but yeah, it's still a little bit of a. It's like, yeah, you're risking dropping the points you got right now. And I understand that they probably actually need to win or to keep top six alive. So I can appreciate that. But yeah, sometimes it's like, let's let's not lose this match. How's that sound? So but it was a good match. Draw 2020. Bristolians can be very, very happy about the way their team are going. And I think next year is going to be very interesting to see what they do. Yes, they will.
00:31:28
Speaker
So the match that spoiled this the last one for you quinn's lester. I actually didn't get to watch this. Okay, so um, so in this one The story for me was was injuries and and this was seemed to be the case all around twins. She's um The uh, there were three hia's in the first half. Good god, um guy thompson and mike williams for lester. So both are flankers. Yeah, um, neither returned
00:31:51
Speaker
Um, yeah, it's too bad. And uh Vainu and Ilya for for the quins And only Vainu returned. Oh, yeah, I saw him. I couldn't I couldn't believe he was back I was like, like I thought for sure he was done for the year and Rob Shaw hyper extended his knee early Rob shop and uh, but he he he stayed on it looked bad It was it was a really he's a tough bugger his leg was pinned and somebody basically put all his weight right on the knee It just it did not look good
00:32:19
Speaker
I don't like him as a seven, but he's a tough bugger. Yeah, he is. And he stayed on and did okay. Discipline was poor. Yeah. Clifford got a yellow card, which I didn't like. Really? Yeah. I didn't like the decision. He's not something that strikes me as a yellow card. I know. My note was that I didn't like the decision by Barnes, probably because it's Lester. Well, what do you do?
00:32:47
Speaker
And uh, aloha fella got got injured late too. So there's there's just a lot going on jesus Um, yeah, the the story of this game to me was was mostly those injuries. Yeah Unfortunately, it was it was a fairly good match the twins pulled it out of control Um, oh wait, i'm thinking of a different game. Um, but yeah, the twins were pretty much in control for for uh, the early on and and
00:33:14
Speaker
Lester came back and made it a match to just and scored with I think it was like almost it was the 83rd minute I think when they scored a try Make it close to make it close to get the bonus point and that put on that and that's what they basically were shooting for because they didn't want to get caught by right in that that put them 10 points above Up above Newcastle, which pretty much doom Newcastle. Yeah, right. Exactly. So
00:33:39
Speaker
Yeah, it was an entertaining match Like they I did not appreciate and they did it in other matches too. I didn't appreciate the spoiling of the other concurrent matches Yeah, but what are you gonna do get on get on BT sport about that? Yeah Usually they're actually pretty good usually like ear muffs guys, right? This one was just like oh Don't say that
00:34:02
Speaker
Thanks. Yeah, so i'm like watching the end of of the that the quiz tigers and it's like, oh, yeah They tied over and it wasn't even like they said over in there. They tied it was basically like oh 2020 draw over with uh, oh god Give me the preface like whoa. Whoa. Whoa. At least give me a heads up. Yeah So what are you gonna do? Yeah
00:34:25
Speaker
Saracen Storm against Exeter of Raves. Oh, sorry, that actually is the first team. But yeah, so basically, I think Saracen's and Exeter had a gentleman's agreement. We are not gonna put out first team guys here because you have a European final to worry about and we're not gonna put up our best guys against your shags because that's not gonna really do us any good. So they put some, I mean, I had to add a lot of new names to the database. So I was like, damn it.
00:34:54
Speaker
These guys, um, it was cool to see guys like don morris freaking shine he got two. Yeah your your old friend alex lewington with two On a wind assisted kick for one of them. Oh, man That was the most bizarre. It was like that was the weird weirdest wind assisted try ever because The assist was that the wind was blowing against them. So the kick was like
00:35:19
Speaker
Hard into the wind and the ball just hangs up there and then it starts moving backwards and it bounces away away from exit or Right into the head. He's like hey, look what I got. I mean, dude Lewinson Craig at least he was pursuing the damn kick He's in the right spot. So Hey, yeah, what was my one issue with him earlier in the year was that he's not good under the high ball. Well, he found it Yeah, it wasn't exactly the same situation. But hey, look what he found at least, you know bounce right to him and
00:35:45
Speaker
Right. There he goes. There was, I mean, there was still some, it's funny, I saw all the names listed. I'm like, I still know most of these names, even though this is our shags. Right. So, I mean, because we had to play, we had to play a lot of guys when the internationals are going on. But, um, Malin's shined at 10. He did. He really did. Uh, makes me happy that we have him and we have a plan B for a win. A nice backup option. Farrell has to go away on international duty.
00:36:14
Speaker
And Malins has played other positions, too. He's not just. Yeah. So he he's he's versatile. It's not just that's the only place he can be. Right. Nick Tompkins did a great job. As he usually does. As he usually does. But but there wasn't a drop off that we've seen in the past when there's not a Barrett around to organize the defense. So I'm not sure if that was Tompkins that was doing it, but hopefully it was. I mean, he had cello next to him, which helps as well. Yeah.
00:36:42
Speaker
Not a not a terrible option if you don't have brat bear to stand next to you You know there they they had some good they had some good performances from some young guys They pulled will skeleton early. Thank God. Well, like he was in trouble. Yeah, he was The early yellow card was just silliness on his part. Absolutely
00:37:04
Speaker
Yeah, he he timed it poorly. And if he was a younger player or I should say less experienced player, you'd be like, all right, you know, just calm down. But he knows better. Yes. And especially even after that, he came back and he was still hot and he was still causing trouble. It's like, you can go get him now. Yeah, you could go get him now. Let's have a seat. Yeah, thank God. Let's get him off. We need we are going to need you next week this week here. Right. Just chill the fuck out. He could not take a red at all.
00:37:33
Speaker
No, I was not, I was not prepared to deal with what the hell sanction was going to come from that. No, thank you. No. So Saracens pick up the win 38-7 over Exeter. Exeter, you know, their, their team, they had fricking, what's this kid, Caulfield scores their only try. And, you know, they had some, they had some good pieces, good young pieces too. So, I mean, if you want to know how to do the whole Academy thing, if you're an English club, maybe go study at Exeter and Saracens for a little while.
00:37:59
Speaker
But even the the Exeter shags weren't really that much of shags. I mean Cow and Dickey, Moon, the guys who are not just like, oh, they have a cap. They're internationals. They're internationals right now. Right. I mean, it's not I don't know that the the salaries didn't start one international player.
00:38:16
Speaker
Uh, skeleton does have caps to his name. He does. That's true. So is Ezekiel technically. Technically, but they're not they're not regular. They're not. No, they're not in the regulars right now. I don't know that all skeleton might have his bags packed for for japan. I if michael checkered smart he's putting him on the plane. Right. And his story. But uh and Ezekiel might, but who knows. We'll see. But Cowan Dickey probably does. Moon probably does. Yep.
00:38:40
Speaker
And then, you know, even some of the other guys towards the back, I mean, Steenson, Cuthbert, Witten, these are guys who are regular players. They're not certainly not the shags. Dolman got whatever number cap. I think it was 150 or two, some high number for Exeter. And they talked about the guys that basically have been there since the get go. It's been him, Yandel, and Steenson since the since they got promoted. That's it. I was like, wow. And so good on good on those guys. Yeah.
Player Highlights and Performances
00:39:10
Speaker
But yeah, and then we had the debut of Manu Vernapola. Yes, another one. He's the back though. There's a difference. It's a cousin, that's why. Not the same parents.
00:39:28
Speaker
I enjoyed seeing Jack Monder play for Exeter. We talk about young scrumhaps in England. He's on that list. He's not quite up there with Spencer, but man, he's good. His service is good. He's got to add a little bit of flair to his game almost, and then he'll be, here we get to rock, and I think he'll be one of those names that people start calling out regularly for an England shirt.
00:40:00
Speaker
Okay. Um, so Gloucester new castle. We know the result. Yes, we do. Um, did you catch any of it? I did. I did. Okay. I didn't take any notes on it, but I, that's right. I remember them now. As soon as they had like kind of saw the, some of the score line, I was like, Oh yeah. Now I remember that game. Yeah. Um, what fascinates me about Gloucester
00:40:20
Speaker
Is that and i've noticed it ever over the couple, you know, the weeks of the year as it goes it's gone on They run almost Every time they run the same play. Oh, really? Oh, yeah, you did text me that actually now think about they're either running blockers or double blockers Which is just a you know, a crossing pattern off the ball um outside players running unders um inside support players running and overs so um and
00:40:48
Speaker
Then they'll they'll sort of run the one blockers and usually that that starting point is um They'll have the 11 just outside cipriani who runs an under his line cuts cuts underneath him and you have cipriani on the overs Taking it wide, right?
00:41:03
Speaker
And then you have the blockers with the 1213 outside of that. And that was how the first try was scored on that second blockers. And then Cipriani's score was they ran the same play and that outside defender.
00:41:20
Speaker
the one who was just outside Cipriani didn't commit to anybody. He kind of just stood there. And Cipriani just ran right in. Cipriani runs right at him, and he kind of just kind of stands there, but he's not paying attention to Sips because he's like, you're going to pass the ball. I know you're going to pass the ball because you're Danny fucking Cipriani. And Cips just runs right behind you. Which is fine. It's not his responsibility to make the tackle.
00:41:47
Speaker
But maybe commit to a guy. But maybe, yeah, maybe make a commitment and make Cipriani make a decision instead of, oh, I'm just going to run right here for a drive. Yeah. Cardinal's sitting on defense. Commit to somebody. Doesn't matter if it's wrong, it's wrong. It's OK. Yeah. Commit to the freaking guys. Come on, man. You just kind of get lost out there when it's frozen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, man. So no Willie Hines in this match.
00:42:09
Speaker
No, he was he was injured. Yeah, okay It's like kind of figured I was like he's pretty consistent started for them. So I'm I was a little shocked to see him out of the line up there But yeah, uh, ben morgan looks like he was a beast bana hand had an intercept try I heard about that
00:42:25
Speaker
Yeah, that had making up for his shit performance the week before yeah, he said he's had pretty Underwhelming performances the last few weeks. Yeah, it was again that same um And this is kind of what triggered it for me was when I was watching the match from last week too It was like i've seen this play like a million times, but they kind of slowed it down
00:42:44
Speaker
and they showed the one that that banahan ran the wrong line on the overs for the the blockers and Cipriani put a beautiful pass right where banahan was supposed to be and he wasn't there um which kind of pissed me off because i was listening to the pod pod pod and they were talking about how sips had a bad game and i'm like sips had a fucking great game banahan fucked everything up
00:43:05
Speaker
Um, but yeah banahan came back and and uh and made up for it. Yeah, it's later in monster. Obviously obviously beast mode as they are Um, so gloster take care of new castle new castle go down. Uh, sorry guys luster luster cement I mean they already were in the semifinal, but they cemented they're probably a three which means they're probably going to alyan
00:43:25
Speaker
Oh, they're yeah, they're they're three they're definitely so that's probably that's probably that And then the last playoff spot the last one that's up for grabs Might belong to the next team that we're gonna talk about and that's Northampton Northampton against Worcester and Worcester are safe and they just said fuck it Northampton pounded them at Franklin's guard. Yes, it sounds like so I didn't get a chance to watch this one Just had his way
00:43:52
Speaker
He did. It was to the point where the ball was getting out to Nairovoro and the crowd, you could hear it build. Go, go, go, go. Here it comes. Here it comes. His first try, they basically isolated him out on the wing. It was on the goal line.
00:44:16
Speaker
And so they were there were normal picking goes picking goes and blah blah blah and Then they spun it they were on the right side of the field spun it left Some shit passed but it effective in that it made its way to it got it got there and kind of picks it up Dusts it off says sees the the wing in front of him. He's like you move And then everybody else is like oh shit now he's got a head of steam Just not stopping him
00:44:44
Speaker
Goodbye, yeah, you're done. Yeah, and it's similar fashion was his second try Just bowling over people to score there was just like never mind go Yeah, he wasn't in nearly as much space, but he did the same thing and just pulled people over Wow, what a unit and he's gotten it He's gotten himself back and he was a little chunky when he got to about captain So he's lost a little bit on the skeleton slash laws plan. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah big time. He's done. He's done well. I
00:45:13
Speaker
And Rhinoc had an HIA 10 minutes in. Good Lord. Luckily he returned. Thank God. Venter eventually had the HIA, another HIA, Shoner HIA. Like again.
00:45:24
Speaker
Don't, listen, listen guys, don't break Jack Singleton. We need him. It was amazing again how many HIAs there were this week. It has to be said, one guy I want to touch on and it's somebody that kind of got pressed into service and has done a very good job for Northampton, Reese Marshall. You know, you're talking about, I think this is at least third if not the fourth choice hooker for this team.
00:45:52
Speaker
Hartley Fish Haywood and this guy So he's not playing like it. No, he's not. He's playing he's doing very well He's just saying you know what when Hartley comes back or all these guys come back. I'm still gonna be your guy Yeah, he's done very well So I will get you got to give him a lot of credit for you know taking his opportunity when it's presented to ya
00:46:13
Speaker
So good on Reese Marshall. I like it. There was some there's been some chatter about a certain team in Coventry that Has used too many players this year and that's the reason that they haven't done so well I think North Hamptons used just to pause many players and North Hamptons seem to have figured it out. So I call bullshit
00:46:34
Speaker
It's not about how many players you use as long as people know their role that they're supposed to fill and maybe if you have adjustments in for each individual player that comes down to coaching if you can sort guys out and communicate well with them and They understand what they're supposed to do Everything should work out, right? Say I know Hampton win 38 10 over Worcester and they are in their in control their own destiny for the playoff simple as that
00:47:03
Speaker
You see, uh, by the way, we somebody we've talked about a lot on the pod. Um, Hutchinson made the squad. Yeah. Get on him. He's, he's going. He should, he should, he should be with, with Scotland. So you guys have been, you guys been a beast. He has. He got, he got Gregor Thompson's attention pretty fast with that one. How can you not? Sure. Right.
00:47:22
Speaker
The Sunday game, Bath and Woss. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, thank you, Bath. I had a feeling this was gonna be a good game for them. They didn't start out fantastically, but they figured out the guys to put the ball in the hands of, and then off they went. Specifically, they did a good job.
00:47:42
Speaker
Two guys in the back in the back three actually really three between mcconaughey Anthony Watson who looks Just as good as okay. Yeah, if he's all right. He hadn't left. He's all right and Joe Coco the singer It also helps to have that outside center Yeah, he's been great okay, too
00:48:02
Speaker
Unfortunately, Jimmy Roberts was in a boot at halftime, which was pretty sad to see. Class act, great player. Damn hard ball carrier, somebody I would never get in the way of. I'd be like, go ahead, all you dude. No way. But yeah, Beth, get it done. And it was really good to see Cook and Singa and Watson and McConaughey all firing for them. And then of course, the hero, Zack Mercer.
00:48:30
Speaker
I freaking love this kid. I love him so much man. I have I was saying I don't remember who the hell I was talking to but I was saying before like Whoever coaches the next whoever the next thing coaches. I hope he's not as stupid with his decisions and personnel in like casting off players completely like
00:48:49
Speaker
there are guys in this team that should just be in the pool permanently, even if you don't use them constantly, don't cast them off. Leave them as an option. If they come back into form, don't just ignore them outright. And you know, that's sensible if nothing else in my head at least. And this is one guy that definitely needs to, he should be in at least a conversation for a back row spot. I understand it's very crowded back row. I'm not stupid. But fuck, this kid's playing his freaking balls off. The interesting thing to me is,
00:49:21
Speaker
When you have, and this is kind of the opposite of, of where I am with the fly half I'd like the fact that they, they will. England should have two very different style fly halves, right in Farrell and Cipriani.
00:49:36
Speaker
But some of the other players, especially the forwards, I would want guys who are of similar style. So if I'm looking at number eight and you have Billy and you have Hughes. Yep. And got Mercer, right? I mean, this is a very different looking player. He is. But he's also he's but his his style is somewhat similar to that. He might not looked a little bit different, but he's he's a fucking bully out there. He is a bully who can move.
00:50:04
Speaker
as opposed to, say, Mark Wilson, who is more... He's just a stout dude. You can't move him. That's what he is. But he's also not going to bully you over the line in the way... Well, he's not. He's on me. He's a sex. End of story. That's what he is.
00:50:22
Speaker
Um, so yeah, but he's been used as an eight. So that's why right? Well, they were in desperate times when they used to resonate So, you know, they they need I thought they were gonna use morgan, honestly, right? That's that so that baffled me when they used him, but whatever it is where it is um, so and either way In either case bath take care of business at the end of the game They put the ball in the hands of some of their best players hands down coco singa mercer
00:50:45
Speaker
Um, you know, and they hang on to a victory not to say that was played terribly, but they definitely let it get out of their hands for sure. Um, I mean, I, I, I love well, Roland's and I, and I think he's going to continue to be a beast. The try that never was is, it doesn't exist. Gorgeous try, but it was forward. It was forward. Let's just establish this. That last pass was forward.
00:51:09
Speaker
End of story. Okay, the line the lines in the field didn't know The way that was great.
Super Rugby Drama and Outcomes
00:51:15
Speaker
So sorry guys. Yes forward All right, let's go Back to my point about Oh dum-dum. Yeah. Yeah Oh, there's no way that's forward. It's like you look at the where looking where the password came from and where he caught it and
00:51:33
Speaker
Right. It was right. It was thrown right by the 15 meter dash. Yeah. And maybe like two steps in front of it. And it was caught like 10 steps in front of it. Yeah. Problem. Forward fucking pass. Yeah. And Bassett caught way in front of it, too. That didn't help it at all. No. I mean, talk about appearances and like paint in the picture. That was not a good picture. And he kept saying, though, the hands are going backwards always. It's like, no. I don't know about that one. It's like, what are you looking at? Fucking dumb fuck.
00:52:02
Speaker
Give him some glasses, guys. Right. Oh, man. No, just fucking replace him with Haskell. Yeah, no complaints out of me, man. No objection here. All right. Let's go down under real quick. First game, Sharks and Chris Hares. Wild game. Kerwin Bosch might own that 10-shirt for the Sharks now. I'm not going to lie. It's a good thing Robert De Prey already has a place to go after this, because I think Kerwin Bosch owns that shirt. Well, you pull off
00:52:29
Speaker
He's single-handedly freaking tied the bloody freaking Crusaders. Those are all his kicks. There's no tries from this team. Wow. Oh my God. No Ritchie Mwango, but still Crusaders didn't look that bad. Karen Reid had a pretty good game. The Sharks did a good job of just repelling the Crusaders attack every time they got close. Every time they got close, they found a way to get a pen or turn it over or whatever.
00:52:58
Speaker
Which is amazing because that's like, you know, you're going up against a As clinical a side as there right you don't You don't keep them out like that, right? And I kind of smelled this coming for several weeks He was about to have a letdown game and I was kidding. I could smell it coming and he did not a good one from him Although the week before he sat down clock Smith's so hard to really bash the guy too hard he's
00:53:21
Speaker
I don't know if you saw it, but boy, he bumped him, bumped him hard and scored the try. So, good on Sabarice. But anyway, so decent game. Obviously, 21-21 draw in Christchurch. Worth the watch if you guys want to go back and look at both draws that happened in Super Rugby this weekend were definitely worth the watch, despite the outcome and being that weird thing.
00:53:47
Speaker
Reds and Sun Wolves Is there a holiday that I didn't know about because seemed that everybody was getting cards
00:53:58
Speaker
You get a card. And you get a card. And it wasn't Gus Gardner that wanted to... Gus Gardner said at the beginning of the game, like he had a real early conversation with him, like, listen, I don't want to be a focal point of this game. You guys need to be better. They weren't. Sunwells finished the game with 12 on the field. They had a yellow card, two yellow cards and a red card. Wow, wow. And there was a second red card for Masoera.
00:54:24
Speaker
That's why he was terrible for your team. I saw that, it was like a negative 14. I'm like, okay, that must be like a... Yeah, it was two yellows. Okay. It was two yellows. Well, that'll do it. Yeah. Oh, that will do it. Yeah. And then it was, was it? Oh, it was Harry Hawkins. You got a red card for the Reds. Okay. So if you look at the score line, you say, all right, Reds did well.
00:54:49
Speaker
Really? No. Like, the Sunwells ill-discipline cost them. And that was it. And they still only lost by six. And to their credit, when they got the penalty that put them down to 12 and the Reds down to 14, they went for the corner. They were like, we're going for the corner. And they, you know, they didn't do well with it. I think they had three backs.
00:55:15
Speaker
That's at that point don't you just put everyone in the mall yeah Falls out this is what we're doing if if we don't get this or if you turn it over Yeah, you're gonna put it in our end Exactly exactly Bryce Haggerty was was a beast as always. He'll probably be wearing gold shirt come come Japan time here
00:55:35
Speaker
Yeah, he's all over the score sheet. Yes, he is. He usually is. So yeah, I mean, Reds, they had to come back again against this team. And if the Samos have been just a wee bit more disciplined, then they would have won this game for sure. So listen, listen for the kids at home. I think they think the Samos had four yellow cards, including the two, including the double. Yeah. Not good. Not good. Not good at all. No.
00:55:59
Speaker
Hurricanes Rebels. Whoo! So, Hurricanes jumped out to a nice lead. And almost gave it back in the second half. I mean, give the Rebels credit. They came back. Billy Meeks came on and injected himself into this game and really brought some life to it.
00:56:18
Speaker
Reese Hodge is a beast. We knew that, but he certainly made himself felt in this game. Quaid Cooper's still not a good one from him. I think people are starting to figure him out, so he needs to adjust. It's the old saying, the league adjusts to you, now it's your turn to adjust back. He's gotta adjust back if he's gonna figure this out.
00:56:38
Speaker
Um, surprise, surprise. La Nanae La Mape is a fricking beast and runs over people for fun. And he did, and he did it on his way to a try. Like, didn't look like he should have scored it, but he cut in field and ran at least two people over, if not more. And I was like, wow.
00:56:56
Speaker
That's that that that's what he does. That's what he does Yeah, rebels were on the comeback trail Hurricanes jumped out to a nice lead by the hair hit the bonus try but they had they were ready to Hold on to a bonus point and they freaking gave it back. Yeah Bowden Barrett it was immense in the first half and kind of went away in the second half Wes Houston continues to be one of the best finishers in the game but but I
00:57:20
Speaker
They almost gave it back. Rebels were on the comeback trail. It was 19 to 26. Gave away a penalty just inside their own half and Jordy Barrett nailed it to pretty much seal the deal. So, Hurricanes hang on. Not the most convincing win, but we'll take it.
00:57:37
Speaker
Yeah as a hurricane fan, I will take that um howling there's chiefs. Whoo This more injuries. Well, yeah that too good lord. Um big injury big injury smith Yeah, that was god. I mean i'm glad he's not i'm glad he's gonna be able to get back for the world cup. Okay six to eight
00:57:56
Speaker
Oh, so he's gonna he's gonna miss the rest of the hound this season more than likely right, but it's I mean I'm glad he's gonna be at least potentially healthy for the woke up because they're gonna want him especially without without Mackenzie. Oh, yeah Good replacement to have right But yeah, really really really scary really scary
00:58:13
Speaker
And that changed the game. The Highlanders had it in the bag. And then losing bet. That's the one thing I could point to that was a major game changing event that allowed the Chiefs to come back into it.
00:58:30
Speaker
Yeah, because makai came on for ben smith or something to that. I can't remember who came on Yeah, it wasn't anybody obviously tried to replicate the quality of ben smith. I understand but like Anybody that can even remotely replace that is usually helpful and i'm not sure they even had that. Yeah and uh, yeah, the um chief scored uh three tries in the last 21 minutes
00:58:54
Speaker
No good. Pretty much every 10 minutes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like the Leonard Brown to our drone try. That was a pretty slick move. Aaron Smith's try to Fattis was a nice little piece of handiwork for just a little, it was just like a little tip on it. He's like, here we go. I think it's gonna lend somebody's hands.
00:59:13
Speaker
That's like the thing to do now. People are really trying to do that, that tip pass. Just a little boop, here we go. Which is, hey, if you can do it, great. The problem is that the people who, something we were kind of talking about at training last night, if you don't have it, don't do it. And people are like, I'm going to try it. It's like, no dumb ass, you don't have it. That's not in your repertoire. Knock it off. Yeah. Knock it off.
00:59:40
Speaker
But yeah, when when you're Aaron Smith, yeah, I think you're you're allowed to do that. Mm hmm. Do very well. Joshua. If the all blacks aren't looking to venture outside of the box in terms of another first five, as they call it.
01:00:00
Speaker
They might have their answer right there. He's played pretty damn well the last three or four weeks. He is, he's playing incredibly well. And he's had to because Bryn Gatlin's banged up, Marty Banks is banged up, so they really need him to step up and be their guy. He was immense. To say that he's done that is an understatement. Right. Done very well for himself the last couple of weeks. This game, he was obviously huge. Huge, huge game for the kid.
01:00:26
Speaker
Nailing some nailing kicks and scoring himself a try as well. So hard to hard to hate on that. Nope. So yeah Highlanders 31 Chiefs 31 and it was it was entertaining folks So if you are looking for a fun game to watch that definitely had something Go go back and have a look at it more sister kissing this weekend than an Alabama Saturday Something to that effect. Yes about accurate Oh God
01:00:54
Speaker
Um rubby's blues didn't get a chance to watch it. I know that falafel anger was the hero Yes, oh three driving malls. He falls over three times That's pretty much what that comes down to which Yeah, pretty crazy, right kind of bullshit. He scored three tries off a mall, right? Yeah, it's but he he knows he knows how to drive that mall and guide it so
01:01:19
Speaker
Um, it's a it's a value. It's honestly it's an incredibly valuable asset to have. Yeah, it's Because you have to know how to exist at the back of the mall You have to know your timing when you're gonna dive when you're gonna or when oh, yeah if you Are gonna break away or if you're just gonna ride that fucker in, you know, five meters deep in the tri-line and just fall over. Yeah a little different
01:01:41
Speaker
Yeah, and you got to know those things. So yeah, it's It is a little bit of a bullshit way to get a hat trick But at the same time three times is usually something doing something That's more of like, uh, you know that your team's doing something, right? You just happen to be in the right place by the by your forward to beer Yeah Um, so Brumby's win 26 21 maybe the blues aren't quite to where we were hoping they were but they are at least a little bad than they have been in recent years So good on them
01:02:09
Speaker
Bulls, Waratas, Bulls take care of business. Waratas, Dwayne Vermeulen, Interceptry, and just has the gas to get himself home. He's a monster, so even if you think you're gonna take him down in open field, good luck.
01:02:26
Speaker
I can catch you. What do I do with you? Yeah, what do I do with this when I have a hold of it? Good luck. Dwayne Vermeulen obviously makes a big effect on them. Bulls play very well for themselves, can't respond to a not so good showing last week.
01:02:42
Speaker
Um, war ties are definitely left struggling in the, in the ONO department for what the hell do we do in terms of ourselves? Because they just, they can't figure out how to put wins together really. So bad news for them. Uh, 28, 21 bulls over the war ties. Good game for the bulls front row as well. Uh, glottaries and stormers. So the big talking point here was a, um, JJ Engelbrecht knocked down that turned into a penalty try. Oh.
01:03:14
Speaker
Deliberate knock. There were guys outside him. There's no way they were going to be stopped. It was a good decision. It was the right decision in the end. Yellow card for Engelbrecht. Stormers did kind of make it close with a try for themselves.
01:03:32
Speaker
Uh, volimsa and dupal c were both booting the ball. Well, they got 15 or 18 points 18 points on boots So, you know, uh, I mean if you need to stay in the game And you're not sure where the hell your tries are going to come from you and but you have kicking opportunities You bet you better make sure you have somebody that can hit him, right? They didn't miss one kick. They they well at least I don't know if they missed any penalty attempts, but um, yeah six six penalties and then they converted they'll only try
01:04:03
Speaker
Little, you know, it's, you know, how we talk about bringing PKs to a tri-fight. Yeah. Um, you gotta, at some point you gotta. Yeah, you get one over the line. Right. Yeah. I have more than one try in that kind of situation. Right. Yeah. And Jack watch can score from anywhere. Yeah. Team. I can do that. So, and they were doing it. So good for them, including guys like Mattara, who's a loose forward. So there you go. Um, so yeah, Jack was 130 to 25. They are climbing themselves up at South Africa conference and putting themselves in the conversation.
01:04:34
Speaker
All right, pick them. It is time. It is Champions Cup final time. And anybody that tweets me anything about this Champions Cup final, I'm gonna shoot you.
Champions Cup Final Anticipation
01:04:50
Speaker
Yeah. So we have a we have a tournament and we have we have to watch it on replay and I'm hoping to keep myself off social media for as long as possible and avoid any conversation about it. All you motherfuckers shut your motherfucking God. It's going to be it's going to be an amazing match. This is just two teams that are playing very well in many, many aspects of the game.
01:05:12
Speaker
It's not just one thing you need to worry about for either team. It's a two world class fly house. It's a back line that does great things for both sides.
01:05:22
Speaker
It's two national club teams. I know Basically, I mean because they talked about you know, it's you know test rugby in club colors basically That's what we're down to pretty much gonna be great. So this is gonna be a lot of fun. Oh Man, I'm you know, it's gonna be down to It's gonna be down to the very small margins in this game It really is and if you lost the final last year Rossing just didn't show up
01:05:49
Speaker
Right. Lancer didn't have to. Right. So it was actually somewhat tame game. This this one will not should be a powder. This one both. There's no way that that either team doesn't show up. Right. These teams are coming. They're playing for blood.
01:06:06
Speaker
Yeah, and they because they both put shags out last week right against against whoever the hell they play So guys, yeah, we got this coming up. Yeah, exactly two weeks into it and uh, I I mean look
01:06:21
Speaker
I'm not i'm never going to pick against the Saracens in a big match. Um, don't care who the opponent is It's not that I I feel like they're going to win because fuck this could go either way Easily, it's more along the lines that i'm just not going to pick against them right right and i'm not picking against them either sir back in the saris
01:06:40
Speaker
Because because I want to see that trophy over our heads Will I be surprised if it's lancer? No But will I be sad? Yes? Of course I will be drunk while we watch it. Yeah. I mean she's Assuming we watch this after both those matches. I'm right on stopping and getting beer. So Fire that thing up and hook it up. Oh, yeah each day Mike you need to bring one. Oh
01:07:06
Speaker
Oh, yeah, that won't be a problem. Yeah, I have like five. Okay. Sorry. Anyway, different, different, different. Don't worry about sorting shit out here. Don't worry about this. All right. Let's go down under blues, hurricanes. This should be fun. Open match. Rico, you want to probably back and line up for the blues, which worries me just a little bit. But I'm going to I'll back my guys even though we're away from home. But yeah, hopefully they can kind of sort out their issues from the last time.
01:07:36
Speaker
Yeah, I wouldn't I wouldn't worry too much. I think this is going to be a not so much a walk, but a light jog. Yeah. Hope so. Rebels and Reds.
01:07:48
Speaker
Uh, I, you know, if you look at form, you, you got, you would say reds, but I'm going to go rebels because I think they're going to take their second half against the hurricanes and use that as momentum. The reds did not play well last game. The reds have been certainly a Jekyll and Hyde team. Big time.
01:08:08
Speaker
And of course, so have the Rebels. This is like, this could be, this could go any number of ways. You could have one team show up and the other team not show up. And that could be either way. You could have both teams show up and it could be a fucking cracker of a match. Or you could have neither team show up and it's just gonna be dog shit all game long. So in that situation, I'm gonna go with the home team.
01:08:37
Speaker
Uh, right here we go. This will this will be an interesting one bulls and crusaders in south africa I mean, uh mawangas probably gonna be back. So i'm with that i'm taking the crusaders and i'm Man how can you pick against the crusaders? I guess like this i'm gonna take the bulls
01:08:58
Speaker
You can eat ketchup work here. I mean, we got a little bit of time until the stuff comes to a conclusion, but you need to start making some ground up here. Right. So I'm going to hope that the bulls keep up their good work and the fact that they're at home hopefully helps them for my pick. Yeah. Highlanders Jaguars. I'm tentative at doing this, but I'm going to pick the Highlanders even though they don't have Ben Smith because I
01:09:27
Speaker
I think they're gonna figure it out with, between their forward pack and Joshua and they do still have Aaron Smith. Don't forget about that guy. He's, yeah. I just have a feeling that just seeing how different the team was when Smith went down. Yeah.
01:09:54
Speaker
You have to have somebody outside the 10 who's really electric. Yeah. To make play. And they don't have that now. Yeah. I mean, we'll see if Nohalo's back. That'll be a big determinant. It'll help. But it's also the whole, yeah, that would be good. If he's back, then that's.
01:10:14
Speaker
But Ben, Ben Smith does so much that settling settling things down fire like he knows he knows when to to bring it down. He knows when to bring it up. And that level of leadership. You can't really replace, right? So I'm going to go with the the hagwar race. Yeah. I can't say I blame you. Like I said, I was tempted to paint that back. Yeah, I see.
01:10:38
Speaker
All right. I know who you're picking, but this is a tough one for me because I don't know which team is going to show up for either side. Well, mostly for the sharks. Yeah. Because the good sharks team, which was what we saw last week and a couple of weeks ago. Yeah. But the bad sharks team. And they're on the road. Right. Oh, man.
01:11:09
Speaker
Fuck you, Robert to Priya. Go away. I'm taking the cheese. All right. We're going to be consistent there. Catch you to find myself a new fly off because I think Robert is lost that 10 shirt carbon botched playing out of his skin. Lions were ties lines off the by war toss staying in South Africa. Travel just a little further away. Going going to take on the lines after taking on the bulls. I have more faith in the toss right now. Wow.
01:11:38
Speaker
Okay. I'm going with the toss. Going to war toss. All right. Um, I think Quagga Smith plays in this game. I think Warren Whiteley plays in this game. If that's the case, I'm taking the lions. And then a Sunday game in the super rugby, which is weird. Um, Brumby Sunwolves.
01:12:03
Speaker
Can the Sunwells pull it off or are the Brumbies going to maul until the cows come home like they did against the Blues? Well, that's a good question. So I would guess Montserrat was out, right?
01:12:16
Speaker
He's probably out for this game just for one game. Yeah, and so that that to me is is going to be a major difference because He's their their danger man. Mm-hmm That really reduces the threat I think with him That would be I would I would lean Sunwolves lean Sunwolves. Yeah, but without him I'm kind of falling the other way with the Brumbies. Okay
01:12:40
Speaker
Yeah, I don't disagree. Some will have a habit of putting in very good performances, whether the result comes out or not, and putting in really shit performances pretty much in alternating fashion. So I'm going to go with the fact that this is probably going to be one of the garbage ones. I think they would have a shot at having a quality performance if Mass Array was available. I'm not arguing with you on that one. All right.
Closing and Listener Interaction
01:13:08
Speaker
So it was good to be back. Important week to be back, obviously with Champions Cup final and all that stuff coming up. So everybody make sure that you check us out on Twitter. I will have the stuff for Super Rugby this week. Obviously there's no prem stuff. If you want to challenge the champion for the Champions Cup daily stuff, I'll put my code up. But follow us on Twitter on there, email, fantasyirugbypodcast at gmail.com. Send questions, send comments, whatever.
01:13:36
Speaker
We'll leave us a review on iTunes, check us on Google Play and Spotify as well. Other than that, we'll be back next week and we'll be talking about probably one hell of a match. So, looking forward to that. And a good weekend and super rugby, so it sounds like it's gonna be a good one. Other than that, everybody make sure you have yourself a good weekend. Get out there, enjoy some rugby and have a good one. Cheers. Take care.