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Episode 100 Special
29 Plays5 years ago
It is the 100th Episode with the boys from TFRY.
The Fantasy Rugby Geek, George, joins us and leads us through a fun chat as we cover, actual rugby, fantasy rugby, how the 2 of us started in the sport and many other points in between.
Have a laugh and a beer with us, thanks for tuning in!
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Transcript
Celebrating 100 Episodes
00:00:08
Speaker
Hey, everybody. We are recording the episode 100. My goodness. I think we may have talked about it once or twice. Yeah, a couple times. Obviously, I'm Jared Dyke. I'm Ben Glaser. And with us is the man, the myth, the legend, and the absolutely awesome, George, Fancy Robot Geek. How are you, buddy? Cracker beer for us. This is celebratory, man. We don't need a reason to. Gentlemen, it's an honor to be with you today. 100 episodes. Wow. Wow. I don't. Where has that time gone?
00:00:38
Speaker
Yeah. I don't know how we got there. I don't either. Um, but we did somehow. Yeah. Well, actually I know how we got here. Well, one of us was stuck. One of us had been talking about this for, for a little bit, a couple of weeks, maybe a couple of months. And I was like, okay, cool. Matt seems like something to do in the future.
00:01:02
Speaker
That's amazing. And guys, you know, congratulations. First of all, we've got lots of questions to go through today, but I just want to congratulate you guys.
The Fantasy Rugby Community
00:01:12
Speaker
Huge milestone, you know, it wasn't that long. I wasn't that long in the game. It was sticking stuff out. Whoa, whoa, whoa. You can't mark a milestone without something to actually have to celebrate. Oh my God. That's really cool.
00:01:28
Speaker
That's really awesome. See if you can get it up. Yeah, let's see if everybody can see that. That was Ben and I. That was yeah, that was the first time. That was the first time Ben and I recorded. Look at our microphones are all the wrong.
00:01:47
Speaker
We didn't know better. I think that was before we even started. It was just amazing. Great things start from small beginnings and I wasn't long in the game of just sticking stuff out on the internet about fantasy rugby when you guys came online. Back then, there was no one else doing it and I stumbled across you guys on Twitter.
00:02:07
Speaker
I was like, who are these guys? We were saying the same thing. Back then we were finding our feet and working out what the hell we were doing. Fast forward a couple of years and we've gone so far doing things like the FRD show with Sam Roberts. I just want to pay tribute. You're putting great stuff out.
00:02:30
Speaker
that often transcends, goes way beyond fantasy rugby. You're always supportive of everyone else in the fantasy rugby space, whether it's me, who just blogs about fancy rugby and chats shit on Twitter, and the fancy guys, like Ed Kerr from the Rugby Mag, who's creating something special with his game. He's actually making a difference in the rugby world with his Rugby Restart Initiative. So you guys rock, and from the rest of the fantasy rugby world, congrats on 100 episodes.
00:02:57
Speaker
Thank you. Cheers to the next 100. Cheers, man. Appreciate it. That means a lot because, you know.
00:03:05
Speaker
This is a, I mean, it's a growing community. We're seeing now professional players getting involved and it is growing, but it does require support from each other. And that's one of the things we'll get to it later as to why we got into rugby, but it's such about, you know, supporting each other and being there when, you know, your friend needs help, you help him. Absolutely.
Podcast Origins and Growth
00:03:27
Speaker
Jared, all of a sudden sends me this link of him on a podcast, like doing this. And I'm like,
00:03:33
Speaker
Well, I guess I'm doing this. It wasn't a question at that point. That was a here. You're getting on the suit. That was absolutely humblest of beginnings. I'm listening to Chad. He's got a really good idea and really good stuff, but it's just him talking and that's not going to work. The monologue doesn't work. No, it was so painful to do that.
00:03:59
Speaker
What, like, and you have no idea, like, and I'm sure somebody out there has an idea, like how many times I had to restart myself after stuttering through God knows how much and just spitting out nonsense. And I was like, that didn't make, like, I thought back to it every time that I did a unit. I'm like, that didn't make any fucking sense whatsoever. So I'm going to redo that and chopping and changing, like. And then you realize after a while that it's like, I just said something, don't make, didn't make sense. I'm just going to go, like just move past it. I'll have the next thing.
00:04:28
Speaker
Keep moving, keep moving, keep moving. Yeah, I mean, we had. Yeah, we had a lot of support from the fancy rugby community isn't huge right now, obviously, but the great thing about that is, is it's everybody's trying to lift each other up and the fact that.
00:04:47
Speaker
I mean, let's be real. If I had gotten a boatload of shit, I'm not sure I would have done another episode. If I had gotten just so much shit that I couldn't handle it, I'm not sure I would have done another one.
Early Challenges and Overcoming Them
00:05:00
Speaker
We didn't get any. We haven't really gotten much of anything. No. That's nice. A little stick here and there, but that's good for the soul. Usually about like, why did you have this guy sit? Because you don't like him this week. I don't know. I like him. Sorry he's your favorite player, but...
00:05:16
Speaker
That's the nature of the game, though, you know, we've all made picks that have absolutely stunk. Yeah, you know, that's that's just that's why it's the game we love, you know, sometimes it just kicks you in the ass and other times you could come up with a really sort of out there pick that ends up, you know, banging a hat trick. Yeah, it's like, oh, that's not what I expected. Right. Like nobody's like nobody saw a dog with this year.
00:05:40
Speaker
turning it turning into what he's turned into and now he's now he's in the camp yeah where's he come i mean previously like sailed he was pretty inconsistent even last season he wasn't setting the world alive but wow he's coming sounds a lot like camera redpath inconsistent sail and suddenly an international himself yeah that's true i'm seeing this a pattern here yeah well i'm sure sanders will sanderson will fix that yeah but yeah i mean
00:06:06
Speaker
like rewind for a dog will back to the kung fu kick. I was like, Oh, that's the right card. And his reaction to it was not good either. He knows it, but he knew it later on, but at the time it was very poor. And I was just like, dude, you just karate kicked the dude to the face. You're definitely off. I don't know what you're talking about, man. Yeah. So it's, um, it was, it was really,
00:06:33
Speaker
It was really good that I didn't get, I don't care if I get nothing. Nothing was better than getting shit, honestly. Like throwing it out into the ether is easy. Like throwing it out into the ether and getting shit on back, that's tough. I'm not sure I would have kept going if I had gotten that. So the very least that didn't happen.
00:06:50
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. If you consider the cesspool that is Twitter, it's quite amazing the fact that we are able to stick this stuff out and we're not always 100% correct.
Impact on the Rugby World
00:07:01
Speaker
But generally, the amount of abuse that I get back is pretty minimal. I'm sure the same for you guys. Yeah, for the most part. So, I mean, it's good that it's the community that we're in, I guess.
00:07:13
Speaker
speaks highly of it. And as you mentioned, Ed has been fantastic to everybody has just been fantastic to us. So it's just a, you know,
00:07:23
Speaker
either we're doing something right or at least we got to the right people. Something about that. Something about that. Something there. Yeah. It makes it makes it a lot of fun. It's one of these sometimes when I'm like, you know what, it's mid season. I just can we can we skip this week? No, it's not. And it's always worth it. I always put the smile on my face that this is fun
Balancing Life and Podcasting
00:07:44
Speaker
to do. It's not just that.
00:07:46
Speaker
obviously we don't do this for the accolades because it's not if you haven't noticed we don't get many right that's okay we do it for ourselves and for the fun of it and and for the community so yeah it's uh it's a side project that's um obviously for us but it's something we like we enjoy so
00:08:02
Speaker
Let's be real, if we didn't have support of significant others, I'm sure George can attest to that as well. Having a very patient and forgiving spouse has been extremely helpful. That's true of everything because I married a rugby player.
00:08:22
Speaker
And so we're just used to doing our own thing as well. Because I'll be going off to my men's club. She's going off to her women's club. We'll meet up. We go to tournaments together. Like Saranac. Like Saranac. And a bunch of the guys are like, where's your wife, Ben? And I'm like, she's off with her team. She's doing whatever the fuck she wants. Like, we'll see each other at the bar later. And it was like, that makes sense. Yeah.
00:08:46
Speaker
I'm in a similar position like, you know, I played rugby up until I was 35 and then we had three kids in very quick succession and that kind of, that forced me to hang up the boot. And then from then on I needed something else and fantasy sports have always been quite a fan of it and it just, it just grew and grew. I built the website on the train going to work each day. Nice little side passion, it's great.
00:09:14
Speaker
And it's great it's a great site it's um full of fantastic information every week I it's one of the things I checked as i'm making my like I go through it i'm like.
00:09:23
Speaker
If I don't check it first, I check it last. Wait, I have my opinions, but I gotta see what George says before I can, you know, there's a sanity check and nothing else. Am I off to my rocker or not here? Yeah, it's a good point actually, sanity checking. But the other thing is, like doing it on a Friday, the last few Fridays, it's been a little bit challenging writing the picks at the same time as trying to get my eating.
00:09:51
Speaker
I know we're in kind of the same boat. We're trying to use the pain that's that big page and At the same time we're trying to make sure that we don't screw our fancy So while frd is spinning I think I've added this guy Yeah, it's like I had a guy like right a bit more of the pics And
00:10:20
Speaker
I mean, now that- It's really funny when you go through it, like you're like, okay, oh, Wasp's, you know, Roland's just starting. I'm gonna throw him in.
Collaborations and Contributions
00:10:27
Speaker
And then all of a sudden you get, you know, you go down the line and like two teams later and you're like, shit, JP Dupree is available. Like for Sam, why did I add Roland's? Right, right, right. It's like, God damn it. Why was I looking at that? Yeah, I just wasn't looking through that. Yeah. Cause I was, I was looking through the Wasp team, not sale at the time. You weren't, well, and you're, you know, you look at,
00:10:48
Speaker
only sometimes you only get stuck, especially for you and I, where we're doing select teams, right? You know, you get stuck looking at one team a lot. So you get married into one person, right? Just by, you know, recency bias, or, you know, the several, you know, however, time, many times it's in your brain, right? And then you forget, Oh, fuck this guy that I haven't looked at, because he's not my get on our team. Damn it.
00:11:10
Speaker
I've done that at least 10 times, easily. I'd be interested to hear actually people's techniques on a Friday. The problem is I'm in way too many leagues as it is as well. Yeah, well, as you have a set process as to what they do. Do they just focus on outside backs first, midfielders? Do they look at certain teams first, certain teams that they think will do well?
00:11:34
Speaker
Even when the website is working fine, it's a mad dash to find people. Oh, absolutely. Certainly. Especially if you're in the league that we're all in, that is cutthroat. Get the guys you need now because they will not be there tomorrow. I can't remember who I got in front of him.
00:11:55
Speaker
And there was someone else, I think Carrick picked up someone as I hit the button and it was doing the spin. And I was like, OK, who do you want to drop? And I was like, this person did the spin. And it was like, Carrick already signed this. I'm like, in that in that five seconds, I was like, God damn it, stuck right in there.
00:12:15
Speaker
Yeah, that's, that's how, that's how it always, that's the life fantasy exposed in the grand scheme. That's what's great. I mean, that's, that's what makes it fun. The waiver wire has always been big with fantasy football, you know, do you get the guy before anybody else does like, you know, but then there's, it's slightly different with football because
00:12:34
Speaker
Everybody plays every week. Yeah, and the guys you know are playing are playing. Right. End of story. And so it's like, oh, I'm going to pick this guy up because eventually, like, especially like a rookie or something like that in football, you're going to pick a guy up because he's like, maybe he doesn't contribute right away. He's still sorting out his ass from his elbow. But like by week eight, nine, 10, he may be getting like a hundred yards a year and read a major contributor. So I'm going to pick him up and hold on to him.
00:12:56
Speaker
can't really do that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Can't really do that. No, I enjoy that. There's no, there's no hiding room. Right. So it's like, all right, first come here is this for us 7am on a, on a Friday. Yeah. Right. Go nuts.
00:13:13
Speaker
So we have our experience where it's first thing in the morning before I'm technically at work. I start my day around eight. COVID helps with that before I'd probably actually be at work. So how is it for you that it happens around lunchtime on a Friday? So it's bang on lunch break time. Yeah, I may block out my calendar.
00:13:39
Speaker
You ever get stuck in a meeting, like an 11 o'clock meeting? It's like five to go and you're like, if you'd like to get another 10 minutes in the meeting at least. Yeah, I mean, my two guys, bye. I have so many meetings anyways at work normally, so it's just like, fine, right. This is my time, it's lunch break. I'm doing it however I see fit and I'm updating my FRD team.
00:14:04
Speaker
There you go. Oh, yep, that's exactly it. Yeah. Yeah, especially. We're done. So that makes it really hard when we have the issues that we had on week one and a couple of weeks ago. It's just a nightmare. Nightmare. If it gets to one o'clock, it's just like, you know what, I'm just going to come back later.
00:14:21
Speaker
The worst is for both of these times that it's gone really bad. I had my team pretty well sorted already, and I was fortunate to not have to worry too much. But then my team shit the bed. So it's all the people who were stressing out, and then maybe they didn't feel that, was it Carrick who didn't play four players against you and still- He still smashed me.
00:14:43
Speaker
Weird, isn't it? I mean, yeah, it's super weird. And then Carrick got a total score of minus one a couple of weeks ago. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, he went from minus one to getting well over 100 with like five guys. I was like, what the fuck?
Inception at a Wedding
00:14:58
Speaker
Guys, it's episode 100. And we've got some questions for you. Oh, yes, we do. Yes, we do.
00:15:05
Speaker
So, I mean, first up, I think everyone wants to know, let's take it right back to the start. How did the world of the fancy rubber yanks all begin? Oh, I guess I need the answer to this one. Yeah, it was, yeah. Like you came up to me with the idea. So you already had it. So I'll let you go over here. Well, I got, so, and George knows the story, but for the rest of the world that hasn't heard it, I,
00:15:32
Speaker
went to a wedding a couple summers ago. And a good friend of my wife's husband used to work for ESPN over here. Doesn't work for him anymore.
00:15:46
Speaker
Somebody else at the wedding that's like a huge football fan was talking to this guy because he knew what he used to do. He knew he used to work for one of the shows at ESPN. Was talking his ear off about how he and his friends do a fantasy football, fantasy hand egg podcast, the hand egg as some of us call it. Because it's not a football. It's an egg and then you use your hands. Let's be real.
00:16:14
Speaker
So, and you know, my wife's friend's husband was very nice. His name's Ken. I won't say his last name for the sake of him. Ken was very nice. And like, he's too nice to actually tell people like, you're an idiot, but he also just kind of yes him to death.
00:16:33
Speaker
in a lot of ways. And I'm sitting here thinking like, yeah, every jamoke that like me, this guy and everybody else that wants to or does a fantasy football podcast. So I'm like, that sounds and oh, I know the term you use. It's a niche market that's very saturated. That's what you use. I was like, it is and that and I was like, wait a minute, I know a niche market that's not even close to saturated. So that's when I messaged Ben. I was like, I have an idea.
00:17:02
Speaker
But ultimately, as you said, George, we do fantasy rugby, but it's not the center of every show. It's that we have it as a segment and we obviously are very focused on it. But we wanted a rugby podcast, we wanted to talk rugby, we wanted to engage the rugby community outside of just playing with our one local club and whatnot.
00:17:25
Speaker
So this is it. It's like we can talk. Obviously we talk about the matches and analyze them too, not just from a fantasy perspective. So it kind of ticks all of our boxes. It tickles your boxes.
International Audience and Feedback
00:17:38
Speaker
Certainly. Because you had approached me probably around the same time, like, is there such thing as fancy rugby? And I said, I don't know. Let's go hunt. And we found a rugby mag first, and then we found FRD second.
00:17:53
Speaker
So that was obviously the two variations we landed on for the most part. It took me a while to get the courage up till I just hit record, but I was like, all right, this is happening. So I did it and
00:18:08
Speaker
Do you remember we didn't quite have everything figured out audio wise? Obviously today clearly being a good example, technology wise. So your mic wasn't actually on the first time you came on. Right. So you could hear it. You could hear my echo in Jared's mic and that was what we had to go with. Oh, it was, and I had to edit the hell out of that thing. And I still don't think it's that good, but you can hear Ben at least and you have to kind of bear with the fact that you can hear me a little louder. Right.
00:18:37
Speaker
I mean, that's the way you've got to start somewhere and you've got to sort of go fast, learn and just get better and better. Those are the things that the technology, the feeling comfortable about doing it and learning to just move past. If you, as we said earlier, you say something stupid. The first time you say something stupid, you're like, oh, I think I'm going to, you think about that for the next 10 minutes and you say another couple of things that are stupid and you think about it and it just goes on and on and it just builds on. It's quicksand. Yeah.
00:19:07
Speaker
We're used to it now, you kind of get, so I feel like we have a good idea, we have a good thing and we're getting better at it. So that's the important thing. And we have a very good following. I liked our solid, the people who listened to us and give us great feedback. But we grew exponentially this year.
00:19:35
Speaker
I've heard you say in the last few episodes you've really grown, you're growing, you're following and is it worldwide as well, is it? Yeah, I mean I could tell you that the list of countries that we've hit and whether this is somebody on the travels or not, whatever it is, I don't know. I don't know the data well enough and it doesn't tell me anything in that detail but
00:19:55
Speaker
The list of countries we've hit is pretty wide, but obviously the main places that we find ourselves are the UK and here, also a little bit of South Africa, a little bit of New Zealand, a little bit of Australia. But there's somebody in the Netherlands that listens to us, I swear to God. I think there's somebody in Japan.
00:20:17
Speaker
as well which is weird. We get a mass download like somebody just goes and yeah somebody yeah somebody must find us and just hit all download all because like all the all the old episodes have one download for like that week i'm like yeah somebody went into the to the old catalog and boom just crushed it um so yeah that was it was all that
00:20:38
Speaker
As we've talked about, as we've improved, don't listen to the early stuff. Don't listen to me babble on. Good Lord. Save yourself the time.
00:20:51
Speaker
It's not worth it, I promise. And then we had James come on, and that was so much fun. It's oddly episodes that get, like with James when he came on, that makes sense. We're talking Six Nations usually, and we're previewing it from a rugby perspective more than a fantasy rugby perspective, and that kind of makes sense. That goes across a lot of boundaries right there. The ones that gain traction
00:21:17
Speaker
and have almost downloads that are just like, why? Why that one? A lot of the draft ones are usually high. Weeks ago when the insurrection happened, that hit a big spike. I don't know what it was. That went way beyond rugby and it gave an insight to the rest of the world. You know, a lot of the rugby world is maybe not. Well, I think we found your insights being on the ground and sort of letting the rest of the world know what was going on. That was really
00:21:45
Speaker
valuable for us to hear and you know it's it's not often you get to hear you know authentic voices like yours telling the story of what's going on in the world and it you know but like i was saying on iran it just transcends fancy ruppy this is that one that one definitely did that one a little because we we spent a good 15 20 minutes on that too
00:22:02
Speaker
Well, it was very important. We were still watching it on TV. It's very rare when our network for some reason allows it to happen where I can be on a Zoom at that point. We weren't together like we are now. But I'm on a Zoom and I have the TV going and I'm sure my wife's watching stuff out in the living room too. So it's like,
00:22:24
Speaker
Usually it poops out, but for some reason that day we could still watch. So I'm like, I mean, it's on my team. The universe wanted you to have that. The universe wanted you to have that that day. I don't know why. And we were actually very fortunate because we were supposed to record the day before. It was supposed to be on the Tuesday. True. Either you or I, we were just like, I am so fucked. Yeah. It's not happening today. So it wasn't happening that day. And it just happened to happen. You know, we've recorded that day.
00:22:50
Speaker
Beats me. What would happen? That is the interesting thing is because it seems so straightforward to us. This is what's happening. We know who these people are and what they're doing and why they're doing it. It all makes sense to us. For as ubiquitous as American culture is around the world, at least
00:23:15
Speaker
We're known for being what we are. Put it that way. It was just surprising to hear that, you know, we could help give insight because it's like, is this not what everybody sees? This is not what people know about? Okay. Yeah, exactly. And also you just, you know, you can never fully trust what you're seeing on the news or anything like that. That is a fact. There's some sort of bias in there. So it was just really good to hear from
00:23:39
Speaker
from you guys as to what was really going on. A couple of schmucks. Yeah, you can always count on us to tell you what's really going on. It's good to hear a bit of the backstory and where it all came from. The next question I've got, we could probably spend a whole hour on, I think. And I hope you guys are ready for this.
00:24:04
Speaker
We've been asked for you to select your best 15s pro eras. So since 95, who is your best? This will be interesting. So if we start from loose heads, work our way 1 to 15. Right. So I had to do a little bit of work on this one for a little bit. Yeah. Because I was not. Yeah, it's yeah. And it's it's going to be an interesting one for me, too.
00:24:32
Speaker
Good Lord. And I'm trying to think of who the hell I put in there right off the top of my head. Should be, I should be an easy one. For you? Go for it. Well, you tell me who you want. I thought about it for all two seconds on this one. Mako Gunapola.
00:24:45
Speaker
Yeah, he's the first one that comes to my brain, I think. How many props? So I chose this as, yes, there's a difference in training from the start of the pro game to now, and the players are just so very different. So I went with, and a lot of my guys are more recent because of that a little bit.
00:25:07
Speaker
It's also the way the game is played now. I mean, Mako Wunapola is a guy who can lead your team in tackles and carries from the prop position. Yeah, that's true. And he can play 80 minutes at the international level. He's done that. Those things like...
00:25:24
Speaker
The hair bears back in the day aren't doing, they're not leading the team in carries. They're up there, might be up there in tackles, but mostly they're rockers. That's what they were doing, ruck and scrum. And that's just not valuable these days. So it's no offense to those guys, but Mako's my number one.
00:25:47
Speaker
I was torn between a few guys and really, I think it has to come down to, as long as I got the right side of the scrum here, the beast. Yeah. Yeah. So as long as I'm pretty sure I got the right, and even if I don't, I don't care. He's playing loose head.
00:26:04
Speaker
So I'm going with the beast. God, who was it that he held up on a kickoff and just by himself was holding the dude in the air as he was horizontal, not just up in the air. The dude was horizontal, I don't remember who it was. But he was doing it by himself. I can't remember who it was, but yeah. I was like, that dude is strong. What was more important there or more impressive there? What the beast was doing or that those shorts held up?
00:26:34
Speaker
That's also true. Those shirts were hanging on for dear life. No disrespect to the beast. I'm assuming the guy who's lifting was probably about six foot seven and probably about... Yeah, I mean he was of South African back row slash lot. So duh. Yeah, it's probably like map deal or something like that. As a Brit, like...
00:26:56
Speaker
I've just got bad memories of him and all I can think about is him destroying Phil Vickery in the in the 09 Lions and then 10 years later destroying. Yeah, and Cole in the World Cup final. I just I think of pain and you know he's. That was yeah, that was a rough one for yeah. Vickery had a bad day that day. Oh yeah, yeah hooker. There's two. There's two names that come to mind and.
00:27:25
Speaker
I'm really torn between them. I really liked...
00:27:29
Speaker
Steven Moore for his leadership when he was playing for Australia. And I just remember so many pictures of that dude, because he was, you know, shiny dumb like our friend here. A lot of blood, a lot of blood on that man. And he never ever wanted to come out. So I'll give him, and obviously he got them to a final. And I'm not sure a lot of people backed Australia to get to the final in 15. And those gorgeous, gorgeous eyes. I just, yeah. But then the other one is like this dynamic and
00:27:58
Speaker
Again, just all around toughness of Rafa Ibanez from France. I remember him way back and I was just like, this dude's really fucking good. He was dynamic at the hooker position before a lot of hookers were that dynamic, you know what I mean? So it's certainly at that level. So I think I'm gonna go with Ibanez. And on my end, I'm taking that dynamism and I'm choosing a wing.
00:28:26
Speaker
in Dean Cole's. He wants to be away. It's just the stuff that he does out wide and scrummaging and he does it all. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I like, I love me some trolls. There may be, I do have a significant amount of all blacks somehow on this. It's surprising. Yeah. Well, back to back world cups.
00:28:56
Speaker
From my other proposition, it was something similar, except this guy is just a badger when you get down to the goal line. And you just need to get over that line. Tug for a long. Oh, yeah, that's a good one. And he's another guy who's going to play 80 minutes at the international level and do be all over the pitch. And supposedly on his way back for this coming month here. Good. So yeah, that'll be interesting.
00:29:22
Speaker
I remember when he broke on the scene just the damage he would do in the loose was unreal. Yeah, for a tight head. No one ever seen anything like him. Yeah, for a tight head especially. I got to go old school with tight head and he is a cult hero for a lot of people and I don't like the team he used to play for but the guy will still never be forgotten and that's Martin Kester Giovanni.
00:29:46
Speaker
That's a good one. If I ever have one Italian that stays in my team forever, no disrespect to Paris A, it's Martin Kester Giovanni. That dude just kept going and he could scrum with the best of them. I was like, good luck. That is the one dude I do not want to scrum against. Like, forget it. As a loose head, no way. I don't want any part of that. Get out of here.
00:30:07
Speaker
What a guy to have on your team, on and off the field. Oh, I'm sure he was a party too, no doubt. Oh, like pictures of him at Zlatan stag doing Vegas, like he's Latany Bembridge. That's awesome. Oh, him at a Zlatan? Yeah. No way. Yeah. At a bachelor party. Oh, for him. Good Lord, I can only imagine.
00:30:32
Speaker
And that was back, right. You know, there's the social medias, but not quite the way they are now. We're kind of, it's fortunate slash unfortunate that we got enough, but we got a taste, but not enough. Oh goodness gracious, you already kidding. All right. Into the engine room. Into the engine room. So this is, this puts me up under pressure because I was a lock by trade for many years. Um,
00:31:01
Speaker
Man, there's so many, even all the way back, it's so hard. It's hard to just pick a walk out. I gotta give John the nod though. I gotta give him. You win a World Cup and the only team that's really come close to it, the two teams that have come close to it haven't really come close to it in many terms.
00:31:24
Speaker
They got to the final and then got hummed. So when you win a World Cup and obviously they won it in some pretty fancy fashion, I got to give Martin Johnson at least one of those spots in the picture from there. It's like Captain Two Lions tours Captain England to the World Cup. Yes.
00:31:42
Speaker
He's the kind of man that you want in your team and everyone, you just look to him. Absolutely, Ledge. And I, so he was before my time rugby wise. So he was just like, I knew him as the England coach. That was the first time I got to do him. So 2011.
00:31:58
Speaker
Right so I didn't pick him, no disrespect is just, I'm, I'm in the newbie to the international rugby scene fairly you know, as difficult as it was to figure that out in America actually to watch it.
00:32:13
Speaker
We never bootleg videos over here. I'm sticking with that same country and to a guy who will just, sometimes the other team has the ball and he just decides that they shouldn't have it anymore. And now he has it. And that's Maro. Yeah. I know exactly what you're going for. It was too much of an easy one. No, no, no. You've had enough time with that at mine now.
00:32:39
Speaker
So, oh my god, yeah, that means you and you mean he burst onto the scene where he won what like 20 some straight matches. Yeah, professional. That's true. And he's just getting better. And he's still young and he has so much more to go.
00:32:55
Speaker
It's amazing. It's not fair. No. So this is a bit of, you know, there's there's promise of stuff to come from him that's just otherworldly. So that was. Yeah, it was. Yeah, he's. Yeah, no. And I also recently actually this morning I watched the documentary from Obama.
00:33:16
Speaker
And he's in yeah, that was that was really good. I need to get on that Yeah, that was a very that was very good. I still have to watch the Dan Leo one But yeah, that's that was an excellent one. So um, well if I didn't like Maro enough I like him a lot more after that one. So So my other lock yeah, what do you got is a similar? Mold of that that respect of this is this is my ball now. Yeah and
00:33:41
Speaker
again going back down to the southern hemisphere with for um a kiwi sam white lock yeah yeah he's not bad i mean it's not bad at all with the toji and white lock it's like where do you where do you attack um where you where do you keep the ball right yeah that's true yeah they'll take it and the one line out at the same time that's true um
00:34:04
Speaker
You know, I, the man was, and I have a true appreciation for people that are good at understanding the lineup and how to craft it and how to also execute it. So my other second row has to go to somebody I already mentioned before, maybe by accident, maybe maybe I was on it, but Victor Macfield from South Africa, just the guy
00:34:29
Speaker
If he was in the game and he was running the lineup, you weren't going to steal the ball because he either knew where to send it or he would take it himself. Like, it was very rare that you were going to take the ball away from South Africa if he was in the lineup. Unless Hooker was completely shit, which is also a possibility. But yeah, if I'll be Hooker with him, forget it.
00:34:46
Speaker
I've never really seen a line-out technician at the level of Matt Fields, just on a whole different level. And again, I just I remember lots of painful afternoons as an England rugby fan down at the pub, just watching in awe as our line-out was distracted by Matt Field in Bota. I mean, it was just...
00:35:08
Speaker
So that was around the time when I was just getting into watching international rugby. I didn't get his name at first because learning names takes me a little bit. All I knew was him as that asshole. Oh, it's that asshole. If you're developing a name like that, you might be doing something right.
00:35:30
Speaker
There's one guy that I wasn't sure whether you had mentioned or not, and he might be before your time, he was sort of late 90s, early 2000s, World Cup winner of Australia in 1999, and elite captain of the team, John Eales. Yeah, Eales.
00:35:45
Speaker
I know who this is. Yeah, no, it wasn't, it wasn't quite before I started dawdling into this at like 2002. So he was probably just at the tail end of his best. And I was only starting. So if he was playing now, he would have been a fancy, rubby dream because not only was
00:36:01
Speaker
an absolute beast in the lineup, not far off Matt Field level, but he was also a really good goal kicker, like he kicked a lot of people. He was like a regular kicker as well, so he like almost 60
00:36:20
Speaker
penalties and conversions at test level. It's not just a club level. The guy was actually legit. That's ridiculous. That will not happen in a long time, I guarantee you. It's like I played a, well, I mean, it's high school, so take it for what it's worth, but played a team where their left, in American football, their left tackle was their kicker.
00:36:44
Speaker
And he was a big boy too. This guy was going to, I think he played D1 football somewhere, but yeah, he was like 300 pounds and like, not like sloppy 300 pounds. And he was just like, all right. A rigged 300 pounds as we might say. Back row. Back row. Right. So I'm not sure if my six is accurate, but I'm going to go with your,
00:37:08
Speaker
uh assessment the up front where you had your you know your beast maybe oh so yeah whatever back rows back row there um so my six and and if you notice i don't have the the guys you run through the brick wall for until now um until i got to the back row okay um so my first up is in my number six is sam warburton oh yeah i would i'd put he'd he'd make most back reps
00:37:34
Speaker
that guy because I mean hell of a player so he's going to do damage around the field but he's also the guy who's going to keep that you know that pack together and keep them on you know in focus and on task absolutely another great leader as well yeah also that which you cannot you cannot put down by any means whatsoever you know you have you have to have a guy like ham john oh somebody in there that's going to lead the charge and make sure the troops are going all the right direction exactly
00:38:01
Speaker
That's why I was like, I'll sacrifice that, you know, because there's, as you said, there's so many locks that you can just throw in there as a, you know, your leadership position. And I'm going to keep, I'm going to pull out from that and use my, you know, have my, my locks be fetches a little bit and my flanchers can be more cleanup. Yeah, that's fair enough. Um, six. I think I got to stay in the Southern Hemisphere and he might not, he played all over the background. So really it doesn't matter. You're going with my, um,
00:38:31
Speaker
but the guy, he was just on one of the good podcasts out there, Australian guy, David Pocock, that dude, and he's another guy that just like,
00:38:45
Speaker
He played as long as he did, and he was as good as long as he was. He's like Hooper in many ways where he was capped early, and people remember Pocock over many generations of rugby just because he was so good for so long. And he still had a truncated career in many ways, so that just speaks to how early it was when he was good. I was like, he must have been 17 when he broke into his first fight with the rugby team easily.
00:39:10
Speaker
So, yeah, give him all the credit and we're all done. If you need to fetch her, he's not a bad option. He was right up there on mine too. It was like 6b before Burton was 6a. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, back in 2015 when he was in his peak, he was just untouchable. Unbelievable. I know, a significant reason why the Australian team punched him up there and reached the final. Yeah, I agree.
00:39:39
Speaker
Do we even have to talk about seven or can we just- No, probably not. No. Double World Cup winning captain, I don't think there's a reason to say otherwise. Three time player of the year. Listen, he figured out, people say he cheated. Listen, he figured out how to cheat better than anybody else. That's all I know. Yeah, Richie McCall. Yeah, Richie McCall has to be. Yeah.
00:40:00
Speaker
And you know what, it's funny, for him to be so talked about forever, he's not in the limelight at all, anywhere, anywhere. And you still say his name, and people just go, and that just tells you everything you know about the guy.
00:40:18
Speaker
All right, this guy is a personal hero mind, so I'm gonna do it and I don't care. Ireland's eight man for a little while, Jamie, he slipped. Yes, he was my pick until I had my actual pick.
00:40:33
Speaker
And it's just too bad his career got cut down so short, but man, that guy was fun to watch. When he got in the loose, I was like, this is gonna be fun. I don't know what's gonna happen, but it's gonna be fun. For my guy.
00:40:49
Speaker
Again, talking about brick wall guys, there's guys you want to run through a brick wall. This guy will throw you through a brick wall if you refuse to run through it. And he was the first million dollar player, which says a lot about his, you know, his quality of play and his value to the game. And plus, you got to have them. I mean, how can you say no to Sebastian Shabbal? Yeah.
00:41:16
Speaker
You do it, if he says it, you do it without question, because you don't want to doubt it. He will do it for you with you. I said to pick up that. Scoop you up with his brain. Scoop the ball up with your brains or something. Who was it? Who's rips he broke on a tackle.
00:41:38
Speaker
Allie Williams. He wrote Allie Williams. Yeah, that sounds right. Poor Allie Williams. Yeah. This is the guy you don't want to get on the wrong side of, so that's why I'm picking him on my team. Fair enough. If you've got some time, you need to go on YouTube and Google Shabbal Press Conference from O7, because it's like this English journey says, can we speak English? Shabbal's like, no. We speak French.
00:42:06
Speaker
And that was the end of the interview. We're done. That's great. That'd be a no. My favorite is the Shabbal there. Yeah, he is. So I want one. And I'm mad that I can't get one. It's a tease, Bhuma. You teased us. Yes, you did. Yes, you did. Nine. There's a lot of guys. And I also want to feel like I'm going to, I also want to feel like I represent a lot of the world as well.
00:42:35
Speaker
So I and he almost got a position that I really wanted him to get recently. But he was a big reason for the for the Pumas resurgence or, you know, coming out really.
00:42:50
Speaker
in, you know, obviously not this past World Cup, but many World Cups beforehand where they, especially in 11. And that's August, the MP show. Yeah, that dude. Yeah, he made a lot of people's lives miserable in 11. I can tell you that much right now. Nobody saw that coming. And he was a big part of it. So I'll give a piece of the nod at nine.
00:43:12
Speaker
For sure. That same 0-7, actually. I mean, no one was really expecting Argentina to do well. No, especially 0-7. 0-7 was a huge... 0-7 was a bizarre tournament in itself. Like, you had, obviously, the French beginning, the Kiwis, you had Argentina coming out of nowhere. I was just like, are we in the right world here? Is this it? Are we sure? We're not at the FIFA World Cup? Like, what the fuck? My goodness.
00:43:35
Speaker
So a lot of this was again before my time so I can't really comment on too much of it. So I would say George Gregan because I want to have an Australian because I don't otherwise. But because I don't really and he's all right.
00:43:49
Speaker
Yeah. As we all know it now. It's hard to not go with Aaron Smith, just because of all the stuff he does. Oh, I can understand that. He's the best of, he's been consistent since I've started watching as the best. And for that long a period of time, I can't say no to that. So another Kiwi for me.
00:44:09
Speaker
Yeah, someone who I would have mentioned, but again, was probably before your time, right? The very start of the pro era was Jus van der Bestezen. He played three World Cups and he was just a nightmare. Yeah, he was probably the 95 team, wasn't he?
00:44:27
Speaker
95, yeah, so you won it in 95. Yeah, 99.03. And he was just another one of those players who, if you saw him on the team sheet against England, I'm going back on memories of being in the pub watching these games. And it was always a nightmare last noon if Houston was on the field. Here we go. It's about to be a rough day. Yeah. I'm interested to see what you've gone with here.
00:44:53
Speaker
10 is gonna be either unanimous or a split. And I don't think it's gonna be out. It's gonna be one of two guys. I don't think it's, I have a, and this will be a not a good memory for George. I have a very vivid memory of this guy just absolutely destroying the lions. Almost single handedly.
00:45:17
Speaker
and making his name known to the world because he was replacing Carlos Spencer, who was a good player in his own right. And then he made himself his own man and got himself two World Cups on top of that. And he's still playing today in some way capacity, Stan Carter.
00:45:34
Speaker
one of the greatest individual performances I've ever seen on rugby fair. I was a young kid, had not watched much rugby in my life. And I would just remember watching it and going, this Carter guy is pretty fucking good. There's no disrespect to Johnny Wilkinson and the guy was a legend in his own right.
00:45:59
Speaker
And to have the Clangers to hit that drop goal that he hit is, you can't speak enough to it, but I don't know. Yeah, it's really hard to say no to Dan Carter. That's all it is. Not disrespecting either one. 11. 11, so I went with this guy was one of my inspirations for being interested in rugby because I'm coming again from a football background where
00:46:27
Speaker
They're looking for the biggest. It doesn't matter. They kind of want fastest, but they want someone who's going to win that physical battle. And rugby had been explaining to me, it's really a game for everyone. There's a position for everyone as long as you know. There is. If you can do the thing, you can still make the tackles, whatever size you are, you can break the tackles especially. And this guy was OK at doing that.
00:46:54
Speaker
And just a joy to watch. And even now bringing him up gives my heart really well. Shane Williams. Shane Williams, I do it. The Wizard! That dude just disappeared. That YouTube video of him just sticking his hand out and the cleat landing in it is epic. I think he deserves to be on the team just for that.
00:47:18
Speaker
Just a miracle. I love Shane Williams and I'm gonna go with somebody else that has a fun World Cup memory and he's gonna be, actually he's gonna, Brian Abena is still seeing this guy in his sleep. And I got a chance to actually meet him and get a picture with him and he is,
00:47:44
Speaker
Without a doubt I'm gonna go down in football forever in the United States rugby history and that's to talk to Nick one Yeah, yeah, my goodness and he just so from clever to McDonald and I don't remember who else it was and then talking took it took it the rest of the way and I'm still seeing him like bye. Yeah, she got voted as one of the better tries in Champions Cup history too. Nice Yeah, Barrett's he was that's the one
00:48:12
Speaker
Fantastic players. Yeah. And that was kind of his coming out like this dude's really fast. And him gassing Hibana was like one of the ultimate dual drop moments.
00:48:22
Speaker
It's just like, what, what just happened? Nobody knew who he was, but he just made this. Yeah. And I remember, uh, while I was talking about it, um, like sometime in the last few months, just like, yeah, this dude was very quiet, but very raw. And they knew if they got him the ball, it was going to be bad news for a lot of people. Sure enough that dude, I liked that guy.
00:48:48
Speaker
Oh, we're gonna, we're gonna do for 12. Yeah, let's get into the sentence I struggled with it until it popped in there and then I couldn't think of anybody else. And I wouldn't think of anybody else but Sonny bill Williams, because of all the things he can do from that position like Sonny bill. Let me just let me go.
00:49:07
Speaker
Yeah, and he does everything you need from him. He can crash hard. He can take you around the edge. He can offload a little bit. Just a little bit. Just a bit. And that's... That much. And that, to me, it's what more can you want from a 12? Yeah. Yeah. A 12 is used so unthinkingly by so many teams. Obviously not the Kiwis. So... Yeah, that is true. Yeah, I'll take that. Yeah.
00:49:37
Speaker
I mean, he was in the same area as Mar-Nano as well. He also played a lot of 12 and he would have been up there for me as well. Yeah. Oh, I love, I love Nanu.
00:49:46
Speaker
the interview he did with GBR or whatever it was, maybe it was House of Rugby before that, but just listening to him made me lucky more. I almost start with the two of them as my 12th. That's not fun. That's not fun. Next one comes off the bench. Yeah, that's the worst part. Guys used to have to play against Nanu for about 60, 70 odd minutes, and then Sonny Bell comes on and like, that's not fair. Come on, man. Come some slack.
00:50:14
Speaker
Oh man, yeah, that was never good news at all. I'm going to rewind a little bit more because we need this. My team needs a Welshman and the guy was pretty good. Played it, played a little bit, bit around the midfield somewhere a lot. Kicked the points pretty well, Henson.
00:50:34
Speaker
Yeah, that was pretty good. And another one that I was just getting into the whole thing. And I don't remember who the hell he was playing for. I just remember seeing him and being like, that's Kevin Henson. Okay, he's pretty good. I like this guy. But yeah, his name just kind of blew my mind when I first started. So pretty good stuff from the Welshman. And this team needs a Welshman. So I will definitely give him a nod for sure.
00:51:01
Speaker
Okay, and then 13. 13. 13, I went back to northern hemisphere. And back to a guy who you would run through a brick wall for because... Are we gonna have the same 13? Possibly. Yeah. But mine's Brian or Driscoll. The guy that does the self-pass. Yeah, that self-pass highlight. I was just like...
00:51:25
Speaker
No, he did do that, wow. I mean, he didn't score a try-off, but he got some good meters, but just the fact that he executed it, as well as he did, I was just like, holy shit. And obviously the old adage of- Yeah, I think the defense was like, holy shit, too. Yeah, the defense probably was a little bit, too. And then the old adage of tomato and whether or not to put it in a fruit salad. Yeah, that's right. But the knowledge is to know that the tomato was a fruit, but wisdom is- No, you have to put it in a fruit salad.
00:51:55
Speaker
Yeah, and you know he and on top of all that, you know the character that he was
00:52:02
Speaker
knew how to perform on the world stage, knew how to perform on the on the on the Champions Cup stage for Leinster more often than not. Yeah, dude's got a few trophies in his cabinet. Yeah, I mean, he's like my all time favorite fantasy rugby player as well. Like for many years, the only fantasy rugby game that existed was ESPN Six Nations. Yes. And he's like, so like, he'd be the first name on my team next.
00:52:27
Speaker
Gotta go in. Yeah, that dude was just another loved one. He was a talisman on top of all that and we captained Ireland a bunch. So yeah, nope, gotta be the addressable dude. I like that guy. So we're almost there, 14. 14. I don't have too many of this country in my team, but to not put them in is almost feels like blasphemy.
00:52:53
Speaker
and sacrilegious. So are we gonna have the same guy then? Probably. Who do you got? Jonah Loma. See, I don't have him. I do. Yeah. There's a lot of, there's a lot of, and it's just, and there's never a disrespect to Jonah if you don't put him in your team, but there's a lot about Jonah that speaks beyond rugby. And, you know, back to the Nanu talking about Nanu needed to bring him to the airport and
00:53:23
Speaker
Nano talked about, oh, it was car. What do I do with the car? Keep it for the week. And started picking him up to go to, obviously I'm a Hurricanes fan too. Started picking him up to go to Hurricanes practice and I'm like, not only was he a great player, he was a great guy. Yeah, he was, he was. In every interview. And I remember in 2015, he was over in England for the World Cup, not long before he died.
00:53:53
Speaker
like he was doing interviews the guy was so grounded I mean if you consider he was really the first global rugby superstar he was if you're looking at rugby and if you're looking for a Michael Jordan, Roger Federer, Leo Messi type character Lomu was that guy and there's never really been anyone on that level so far above anyone else since but he was always so grounded and he was always
00:54:16
Speaker
a man of the people and he never let the the adulation and ego get to him. He was just he just loved rugby. So and he was so humble and you know you talk about athletes that are just
00:54:31
Speaker
ahead of their game and beyond their game. And he was ahead of the game by a long shot when he was around. Jordan and Gretzky are two names over here that definitely ring that. Messi is obviously another one that just pops when you think of it. Yeah, Messi can control the game and still find a way to just dazzle you.
00:54:54
Speaker
But yeah, just Jonah was another level beyond rugby. So I had to stick him in the team. Yeah, he was before me. And I know that's not I mean, that's not an excuse, but I just wanted to keep with guys that I knew and that impressed me. So I went with the guy you mentioned, Jared, and
00:55:15
Speaker
because also his transformation, in my opinion, was a guy who, when I first started watching him, I was like, this guy's soft. Like, he's a good runner, doesn't, not physical at all. You know, doesn't want to take tackles. We'll weenie out on high balls sometimes if there's this pressure coming. Does a lot of flopping, but towards the end of his career, it was a hard, hard man. And just a great all-around player, and that's Havana.
00:55:42
Speaker
Yeah, I don't besmirch anybody that puts that guy in the team. By any means whatsoever. He's kind of good. Yeah. He was good. He was good. Still, did he break the test rugby trial record?
00:56:01
Speaker
Third place playoff, I think he got one. Oh, that makes sense. That's right. I completely forgot about the whole thing. I don't know if he equalled it or beat it, but he definitely won that top list. Yeah, that was another low right there. Guy making the tackles and making the plays all at the back.
00:56:20
Speaker
Yeah, there's one country I haven't represented yet and I think I need to and he's good to this day and I love his personality on top of that and he's had
00:56:34
Speaker
Some pretty traumatic experiences of his own. And we talk about DC's in the news right now for the trauma he's experienced and stuff like that. And this guy's had some trauma. He's dealt with, he's dealt with it pretty well on top of the fat guy. You're not going with Folau, are you? No, fuck that guy. Fuck that guy so hard.
00:56:53
Speaker
But yeah, it's Stewart hog. Oh, that's beautiful. I like that man. Always loves hockey. Yeah. No, it's just too bad. He got hurt in the last lines tour because I, I can imagine what the lines team would have done with him. And although Liam Williams did do a good job, but he's just, he's just a different player.
00:57:10
Speaker
My 15 is a guy who actually has an argument to be made at 10 on this list. But he's not going in over TK. Not going in over Wilkinson. Fair enough. But he belongs on the team.
00:57:27
Speaker
and because he's and he burst onto the scene at 15 because of Dan Carter um they had to put him somewhere and then oh wait no this guy can play fucking anywhere so he's gonna play 15 for me Bowdoin Barrett. Yeah okay yeah quite good and he's made a name for himself at 15 recently so yeah not bad I like it I like him I wish I hope he comes back to New Zealand at some point so yeah he'll be back.
00:57:52
Speaker
Yeah, we're going to miss them in Super Rugby when we're doing our FRD drafts. That's going to be a big name missing. Good picks, lads. That's a solid 15. Thank you. Yeah, I think we covered quite a few bases with it too, so that's a good hangout. It wasn't the same the whole time, but it was also the same sometime where it was kind of obvious.
00:58:14
Speaker
And I'm happy that I got to give a nod to some of the players who got me into the game in the first place. I was like, I can connect with them. And now I'm obviously connecting with other players and more have a bigger understanding. But, you know, the guys like the opposite ends of the spectrum with Shane and Shabbal.
00:58:33
Speaker
the prawn and the dancing and the twinkle toes. Those are what really got me into, like, there's such versatility in this game and got to love it. Totally. I love it. Nice. So from what was probably quite a long question to what will be a rapid fire question, I'm very interested to hear what you guys think of this. This is, describe each tier one nation in one word. So what are we going to do?
00:59:01
Speaker
I'm going to, um, we're including Fiji in the tier one list of nations. I was looking at Wikipedia just to definitely get the list of tier one nations. It's interesting. Italy still qualified despite the fact they're ranked 14 in the world. So there you go. So we're going to go in reverse order of world rankings. Okay. You guys ready? Okay. Go for it. Italy. Potential.
00:59:27
Speaker
Present. There. There. Fiji. Fun. Style. You watch a Fiji game, you're interested in fun. Yeah. Japan. Inspiring. Yeah. I'm trying to think of the word I want to use here. Newbie's too easy.
00:59:54
Speaker
Yeah. Fresh. There we go. That's good. That's good. Hey, whales. Hopeful. Inconsistent. Yeah. Cause sometimes they're like, they're, they're number one. And now what, what are they're 13? That's kind of like, that's why I put hopeful cause like they have a chance and then you hope they do better. And sometimes they let you down rebuilding. All right. What Argentina.
01:00:25
Speaker
Tough. I go with tough too. Yeah, it's like that's that's that's kind of it. They're they're they're tough and they're tough to play and they're mentally tough. Obviously we saw. Yeah, for sure with that. Alright Scotland. Disappointing.
01:00:46
Speaker
Boring. Yeah. Wrong. I can't. I can't. Lots of great, lots of great players. Wrong coach. Yeah. Lots of them balanced as well. You know, you've got amazing talents like Finn Russell and your hog. And yeah. How is that possible? I can call a team with Hamish Watson, with Finn Russell, with Stuart Hogg. Yeah. The Kinghorn and all those. Harris and all these guys. And even like McNally as their hooker, like awesome runner and just fucking boring. Right.
01:01:16
Speaker
Australia. Exciting. I'm looking forward to the new I like the new blood they're doing so optimistic. Yeah, optimistic. Good one. Yeah. Ireland determined
01:01:34
Speaker
Cause like, I don't think they're, they're almost boring, but they win. So that turns into determination. Cause it's like, they'll, they'll just grind you the fuck down. Yeah. Stubborn. Stubborn. That's a good one. Stubborn. Just a lot of the same despite all the talent they have, but yeah. And they, but it gets done. So that's the thing. That's the thing. Accepting World Cup year is where it all comes up. Yeah. Beats the shit out of me. No idea. All right. France.
01:02:03
Speaker
Oh, flair, come on, like flair, just love it, love it, love it, love it, flair. My mind is one word repeated three times, play, play, play. Yui, yui. Yes, yes. New Zealand.
01:02:28
Speaker
unbeatable mostly assassins yeah maybe that's a good one because they're just cold they will and but i mean they're they're temperamental with it but they will just you know maybe take it might take a half of them to figure out how to how to get you if they will fucking get you they will get you all right england uptight um
01:03:00
Speaker
Try to thank you. I've used a couple of the words I want to use with this too, which is sad.
01:03:10
Speaker
better and that can be thrown in so many ways. They are better than them. Yeah. There's like, they could do better. They're, they're better than a lot of people. Like it just seems like it fits in a lot of categories that you would describe in on them right now. They just make, it seems like they make decisions because that's the decision that has been made in the past. That's why they went with uptight. Like George Ford's their fly half. Why the other fly half? Because he's the fly half.
01:03:35
Speaker
Yeah, but. And Ben Young's can't throw a fucking pass. Why is he denying? Because he's denied. And just their hum. I should have nightmares about Ben Young's is passing the World Cup final. Uh-huh. It was wakes me up at night in a cold sweat. Yeah, and he's still he's still on the fucking team, even with like Ben. Hopefully not for much longer. Very happy to see you. For Eddie Jones and leaves a club that he's like.
01:04:06
Speaker
grown up with kind of and then pushed him to this stage and Eddie's like okay I want to see you do it with another club and he's so he's like okay and I want you to be the leader instead of Wigglesworth and then leaving on Wigglesworth and he goes and he does it and he doesn't select him and I'm like
01:04:23
Speaker
And he's killing youngs on the day. It's like, yeah. Not much for the kid to do, unfortunately, at this point. He's damned if he does, damned if he doesn't at this point. Poor guy. All right. And then last, but definitely not least, South Africa.
01:04:41
Speaker
physical good lord almighty oh my they if they can't beat you with any sort of speed which they have clearly colby um and and even like uh mac ma pimpi but like they'll just beat you to death my goodness
01:04:57
Speaker
Yeah, that's why. I mean, yeah, with what I was talking about earlier, when I feel assholes. And I say that with all the respect in the world. It's not a bad thing. They will asshole you. And then they give it to Colby to finish.
01:05:16
Speaker
It's so built into their culture as well. I remember at school playing a touring team from Maritzburg College, which actually had Butch James was from that school, quite a well-known school in South Africa. And I remember them coming over to a man, every single person, their opposite man was at least a foot taller. They were huge. And it was just like, oh my God, we've been playing with boys, now these are the men. It's just...
01:05:42
Speaker
the biggest 16 year olds you've ever seen in your life. And we were like, okay, this is real rugby. What's in the water down there? It's unbelievable. It was so nice to have beers with them afterwards as well. That's the thing. Yeah. They're like, they, because they're so nice generally off the pitch after we're there for the match, it's just like you were such a dick on the pitch and now you're going to give me a beer. Like, oh, it's going to be like that now. Okay. Give me that beer and we'll be friends. Damn it.
01:06:16
Speaker
We've got a few more questions. What got you both personally into rugby and did you or do you still play?
01:06:29
Speaker
Well, I coach. Yeah, more than play, although I'll play in, you know, some old boys and Saranac and yeah, some social tournaments and stuff like that. What got me into rugby was I was got out of college and was looking for something to do. And it just so I ran into a friend of a friend who plays rugby and
01:06:50
Speaker
Um, we were, we got to drinking and he basically said with your size and drinking ability, you'd make an excellent rugby player. Um, and it turned out to be, yeah, pretty, he wasn't wrong. Um, but yeah, what got me into it though, was that my first practice, it was on my 23rd birthday was our, my first ever rugby practice.
01:07:12
Speaker
And so I played all sorts of sports. So I kind of had that versatility. When I was in high school, I played not just football, but I did a little bit of basketball short. So I'm not very good at that. I played ice hockey. I played baseball a little bit, did some track. So I'm a fairly well-rounded athlete. After.
01:07:36
Speaker
And maybe really got the combination of all of my athletic traits and game awareness. So I always enjoy the creativity of the basketball and hockey. And you have to work with your teammates and make site adjustments like that with each other on the fly. And rugby is very much that. And so a lot of the things I was like, oh, this is like hockey and football mixed. And I kind of used elements of that to really
01:08:03
Speaker
bring everything together for rugby for me. And then it clicked pretty instantly. So I enjoyed that. Yeah, I was. And then we went to the bar after practice. Yeah, that was your best part. And I was like, what the fuck? I was younger than Ben was. I was 16 when I got my hands on a rugby ball for the first time. I had some teammates from my,
01:08:31
Speaker
high school football team, American football obviously, that had talked about playing rugby and I was scratching my head. I was all but done with baseball at that point. Baseball's a spring sport here. Rugby was also a spring sport. I was like, that sounds interesting to me right now. Baseball, I was just beyond. I was like, I wasn't going anywhere with it and I didn't feel like I had any more left to play with it. And I still want, I like the thought of
01:08:59
Speaker
more physicality again. I was like, yeah, this could be fun. So I went and
01:09:06
Speaker
Ben will appreciate this too. If you're an American football lineman, you do not touch the ball. Like ever. We have one job. Yeah, you block for it. That's the, you know, they gave me the ball and they like pass it and I'm like, and then they pass it. I'm like, wait, so am I supposed to handle this thing too? Like, yeah. I was like, Ooh, this is, this is, this is way more fun. As a 16 year old kid that like just wants to have some fun and doesn't want to just be stuck in the mud. Granted, you know, there's, there was some fun about being stuck in the mud and playing
01:09:36
Speaker
But yeah, I got my hands on that as a sophomore. I scored my first try that year and you could not have, my mother was like, is this really what you wanna do? Cuz you had to sign a permission slip saying, I have insurance and I won't sue the club cuz it was a youth club, it wasn't a high school team. It was just a club's youth team basically.
01:10:00
Speaker
So my mom had to sign the permission slip. I was like, I'm either doing nothing or I'm doing this in the spring. She's like, fine, signs it and sends me off. And I haven't really done a whole lot of letting it down since I had a year off for injury and I had a year off for personal reasons. And other than that, I've pretty much played every year and I'm still assuming that
01:10:26
Speaker
This bullshit that we're in the middle of right now goes away sometime in the next six months. I do plan on stepping on the pitch again. So that might- What's your team? Boston Rugby. Nice, nice. Yeah, Boston Rugby. That's how we met actually was our, we were both of ours. First practice was with Boston. It was our first practice with Boston. We both moved together. Yeah. And it was like, all right, new people over here or whatever. Oh, hey, how are you? We've been somehow inseparable ever since. It was like, just like that. You know what it was? It was that nerf tournament.
01:10:55
Speaker
that was that too. It was that nerf return. Tournaments are huge. That really is what, so, you know, the practice and really getting the game helped me to be like, yeah, I'll do this. And then the feeling after my, the morning after my first match, not just the first match and the drink up and all that, but when the,
01:11:14
Speaker
the morning after and I hadn't had that feeling since I'd stopped playing football which is the I'm tired and I'm sore but man was that fun and it was worth it I want to do it again next week yeah not tomorrow next week and then the first tournament you go down and you went to a tournament called rights of spring um and it was in Baltimore and um it was at the time it would at least it felt massive uh to me and you then you went to Sarah
01:11:44
Speaker
But that tournament also shrank over the years. But it was always a special place in my heart where like we just did it up and we, you know, playing hungover on a Sunday for hardware. You know, you learn a lot about yourself. Yes, you do. In your few months. Yeah, that tournament, we got house, number one. So when you get skunked in a tournament, you're not playing on Sunday. So what do you do?
01:12:13
Speaker
you go out yeah absolutely so yeah we got we got skunked so we're like all right we're drinking yeah and that was that was that was a good night i ended up with uh yeah like so we we got um hotel rooms somebody found a hotel that had uh hot tubs in each room and we're like oh that'd be good for recovery and no we were like 3 a.m playing cards like five of us in our world coverage
01:12:40
Speaker
We were smoking and drinking and carrying on. Oh, man. Those kinds of experiences unify teams and fighters. Did we play golf the next time we go there, too? They had a couple golf outings, which also helped. But yeah, that Nerf food tournament, where we got absolutely housed on the field, but then we got housed in the bar afterwards, that helped.
01:13:08
Speaker
So that's where that's where we started and that's where this started. That's the best thing about rugby, just in the bar of your teammates afterwards. Yeah. With the opponents, it's yeah, can't beat it. Yeah, it's a good day. It's a
Travel and Rugby Adventures
01:13:23
Speaker
good day. Nice. So have you, have you watched any live games outside the US? Have you traveled abroad to watch? I have. And how was the experience for you guys? So I've, well,
01:13:33
Speaker
I've done two things. I've both watched and played overseas. The watching I did, my beautiful wife, when I first was dating her, she was doing a semester abroad. She was going to go student teach in Australia for a semester.
01:13:52
Speaker
And I was like, well, this is fucking awesome. This is a good reason to go to Australia. And I don't have to buy a hotel or anything like that. I just have to get plane tickets to Melbourne. That was the other Commonwealth games were in Melbourne. And it was actually over my birthday. So I spent my birthday, my 25th birthday in Australia, 26th birthday, sorry, in Australia, watching the Commonwealth games, sevens.
01:14:20
Speaker
And that was just, cause it's sevens, you have people from everywhere in this Commonwealth game. So people are floating, like we're walking out and then the England fans had just, the England had just beaten Australia at the end of the game. That's when Matt Tate was just running wild. That name sounds familiar. I still have the program back home. But yeah, it was, I think it was Ugandan rugby was there and like they scored a try and the crowd went nuts. Cause it was like they were getting,
01:14:47
Speaker
And I think they ended up winning that game. They scored two tries, but the first try they scored was their first of the day. The whole crowd erupted for them. It was behind them. And it was like, this is such a great atmosphere. I'm impressed you can remember because we go to the Twickenham Sevens every year.
01:15:03
Speaker
I've never remembered a single bit of rugby that's ever happened on those days. It's just been an absolute blur of fear and just... Well, it was my first time. I was still with the girl. I was still, you know, we hadn't been dating under a year, so... Oh, yeah. I remember the skirt she was wearing. I remember a lot of things from that day. I identified that day, I suppose, a little bit better than others, I'm sure. Yeah. I was lucky enough.
01:15:30
Speaker
I had a loved one that passed away and left me some money and I knew they would have wanted me to do an experience and not just like spend it on something silly. Like, you know, God knows we all have student loans and debt and whatever, but like that'll always be there.
Financial Choices and Experiences
01:15:44
Speaker
So I wanted to have an experience. For Georgia's sake, student loans.
01:15:54
Speaker
American construct. Okay, so back to our expanding people's worlds about what it's like to be a fucking American. Yeah, I forgot about that one thing. You go to college, you got to pay tuition.
01:16:07
Speaker
Oh, you do. Okay. Okay. All right. I wasn't sure if student loans were a thing over there. They're not, they're not fun. But uni was a little, yeah, in either case. Yeah. So I was like, you know what, he'd want the, he would want me to have an experience. So I bought a package to go to England in 2015. And I was, I,
01:16:29
Speaker
Do not regret a single second. What an experience that was and, you know, having never, having not gone to a match outside like anywhere before, let alone to a World Cup match.
01:16:42
Speaker
Man, my first, so my first, the first match was when we got talked by South Africa at the London stadium. And actually there is Twitter evidence that I was there. Yeah. Oh, right. Because the crowd, you know, when there, I was on international TV for five seconds. That's face painted. Yeah. I had my face painted of the stars and stripes. My wife was standing next to me.
01:17:14
Speaker
Yeah, and when they're panning for people with a shitty country like the US in terms of rugby, they're looking for people that are actually either one just as American fans or maybe even seeing the anthem. And she and I were seeing the anthem. So yeah, so we were there, but the South African fans were so much fun. They were just like, I got there and I had a beer in hand. And they were just like, oh, hey, come down here and talk with us. And they were all down a little close to the front row. We had decent seats.
01:17:44
Speaker
But they were all by the front row. They wanted me to just talk to them. And one of them was filming me. I was like, wow, these are really nice people. They just wanted to know what I was doing. They were awesome. So that was a lot of fun.
01:17:54
Speaker
I forgot though, I've actually been to Twickenham too, now that you mentioned it. But it was a charity rugby sevens thing and I almost missed my flight back home because of it. You shouldn't do that. And then we went to Gloucester and watched the US play Japan. Yeah, Taku scored, Wiles scored, AJ was playing 10. Good times. Fucking Stanfield was on the field. And you know who else was on the field?
01:18:23
Speaker
Oh, of course Quill was on the frickin' fridge. Yeah, that friggin' idiot. So Quill, so yeah, we've had the, we've actually, how many, how many internationals have you, I know this wasn't a question that, I'm sorry, George, I'm stepping on your toes
Playing with International Players
01:18:36
Speaker
here. How many internationals have you played with? Three. Because it was what, Quilly, Tony. And Liam. And Liam, okay. Those are the ones that come to my mind. Right, I was waiting on the mic with the Maccabees, I played with Zach Test.
01:18:56
Speaker
Ah, no. Prepura. Prepura. A prop who's got a couple of cups of coffee with the Eagles. Yeah. He was currently a free team a couple of years ago. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He was on that. Yes. He was a part of that win when they qualified for the World Cup. Yeah. He was on that team and scored a previous tournament, scored a try against Canada. I remember, right? Yeah. No. And actually, I got to watch Tony's second or third cap when we were in college. Tony was still young.
01:19:19
Speaker
Aside from that. That's a good one too.
01:19:27
Speaker
Eddie. God, that was his name.
01:19:32
Speaker
Eddie O'Sullivan, I say, what was his name? Eddie O'Sullivan was the coach. He was quite a dick, I'm gonna understand. We've had a lot of that in American rugby. Yeah, so, but yeah, he really liked Tony, unfortunately, he didn't finish much more than that, so Tony didn't have much. The other person that really liked Tony was John Mitchell.
01:19:58
Speaker
Yeah, so, but yeah, when John Mitchell- Yeah, but who's gonna trust John Mitchell's opinion about Roger? You hate too bad. Yeah. So yeah, no, it was a lot of fun. The Gloucester match was fun. It was really cool. We went from like the fan zone to walk to the stadium.
01:20:19
Speaker
And that was a lot of fun. And people were interviewing me. Japanese TV interviewed me because of my face paint. So really credit to the Mrs. for that one, honestly, because she did it. Because I ain't doing that on my own. So what Jared is saying without saying it is, remember the guy in Japan who painted his shirt? Jared inspired that. That's really what we're getting back.
Future Rugby World Cup Plans
01:20:42
Speaker
2015 gush. Something like that.
01:20:50
Speaker
2015 was ahead of an experience. It may have been a painful experience for an England fan, but I went to quite a few games regardless and it was so nice to have that on our doorstep. It was unforgettable. I couldn't pass it up when I really thought about it. I was like, nope, got to do it. Yeah, I can imagine.
01:21:09
Speaker
Yeah, it'd be, we need to get the team together for a World Cup one day, wherever it is, all of us. France isn't that far away. France is not that hard. The 27 might be here. Well, that would be nice. I would hope so. That would be fantastic. Right, we've got two more questions. One is from our good friend who currently sat at the top of the Champions League, Mr. Antoine Homan.
01:21:36
Speaker
Lovely guy, great trash talker. And the funny thing is, he's flying at the top of the league, but he hasn't resorted to 32-12 yet. Give him credit for that. But Anton has asked us, which country do you think knows their rugby best?
01:21:57
Speaker
That's such a loaded question, such a loaded question. Man, I mean, hey, if you wanna talk about who's the most successful in that terms, then obviously it goes down to the World Cups and that's New Zealand and South Africa right now, but you can't just lean on that.
01:22:15
Speaker
It's not here. I can tell you that much. I think it's all a part of different games, really, like different types of games. Like, if you want to understand how to just batter a team, you're going to just go to South Africa and ask them and get the lowdown on that. You want to understand how to play attacking in space with kicks, go to the Kiwis. They kick more than anybody thinks, and it's because they want to play in broken fields. And they do it quite well if you haven't checked.
01:22:45
Speaker
And then obviously, there is quite a well-roundedness that can come from a lot of English rugby, but right now Eddie's just not doing it justice. Yeah. But as far as people and fans are concerned, I mean, yeah, everybody knows their brand of rugby.
01:23:07
Speaker
Maybe that's more it. And so it's like the South Africans know South African rugby. The Irish, no Irish rugby. Like, as far as the style of play.
Rugby Styles and Knowledge from Different Countries
01:23:14
Speaker
You know, here's what we did. And so they consider that to be rugby. So it is kind of a loaded question in that, like, yeah, all the fans know their game. I get the feeling, though, that the Kiwis are the ones who really could, like, they'll see the opening when the players do. Like, they'll see the play coming, too. And you can hear the build. The fans in the building rather than just, like,
01:23:37
Speaker
I have to admit, as a player playing amateur level in the UK, we get people coming from all over the world because I live just outside London. So we often get a lot of people coming over the world. And it's the Kiwis. If I ever play over Kiwi, I'm always learning. I'm constantly learning and reading the game in a completely different way. But that said, I mean, come on. Everyone who I met, who's a rugby fan,
01:24:03
Speaker
just some good people there. The rugby culture is strong regardless of the country. It's in their culture. It's what they do. They can be like, yeah, I understand what the South Africans are doing there. I just don't like it because that's not the way to play. A lot of people might say that too. But I've talked to people who are very knowledgeable from Irish rugby. We had a coach who volunteered with our team a little bit who were like, well, this is how Ireland does it. And it's like, well, that's great how Ireland does it. But
01:24:32
Speaker
How are Ireland doing right now? I'm talking about playing more than just that one thing. There's a couple Irish people in Boston, if you don't know. So a lot of the rugby in Boston is very Irish-centric.
01:24:51
Speaker
you know, talking to him, I'm like, no disrespect to him, that's why I'm not naming him, but it's like, you're not bringing anything new that these players don't know already, like how to bash somebody and how to play in tight quarters. It's the overall play that we need to, so yeah, I find that a lot of the countries know their individual style of play, and that's about it. Yeah, no, I agree with that, and I also feel like,
01:25:17
Speaker
a lot of in-country rugby is known well. And then outside of that, it's tough to pick a country that knows it across the board. Yeah, the Kiwis are a little bit dismissed. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. They do stuff up there. They call rugby. And I think the lucky thing for Ben and I in this situation, as lucky as we may or may not be as Americans and American rugby fans,
01:25:46
Speaker
Ben and I don't have to be centered to one country, one team, one league. We can be very, we can be, we can have a nice scope and understand what's going on with, you know, God rest the Jaguars, all them, the Sun Wolves, and then, you know, all the South Africa teams, the Kiwis, you know, Super Rugby AU, and then come to the Northern Hemisphere and go across all the good teams, the high end teams and the Champions Cup, and then, you know, pick them apart in their own leagues as well. So,
01:26:15
Speaker
That's the fun part. And we hope that that international feel obviously comes to the MLR as that gets better. So that'll be good. And you'll figure out which teams are playing which style, but just by the way, the coaches from I think the arrows are from have Holly. So obviously, so that will influence their play. I have a feeling a little Welsh to them.
01:26:45
Speaker
Nice one. Well, good answer to a very loaded question there. Yeah, do our best to that. And then coming full circle with our final question. So coming back to the podcast.
Favorite Podcast Episodes
01:26:56
Speaker
Tell me about your favorite podcast that you've done.
01:27:02
Speaker
I think that when we did our first Six Nations preview with James, the three of us, I laughed my ass off all the way through that. Oh my God, did I ever. Yeah, that to me was my favorite one to do. And then the follow-up when we closed it out. Yeah, that was talking about wooden handles and
01:27:28
Speaker
See, that's the thing. I don't even remember what we talked about. I remember that part. I remember that part quite vividly. No, it sounds like I should remember it. Smoothing down the handle and whatnot.
01:27:43
Speaker
um yeah that and then um you know we talked about you know for me as far as like just other moments um doing the podcast with sam was so much fun oh that when we did that um that wasn't our podcast yeah it wasn't but it was still much a lot of fun yeah the sixth nation that first six nations podcast was goddamn right my goodness i
01:28:03
Speaker
I've not gotten to the level of almost peeing myself while doing a podcast since. And we've laughed pretty hard at a lot of them, but that was pretty bad. And then the one we did at the pub downtown was with Tony and Ty. That was a really good time. And we didn't end up putting, I think the recordings on YouTube, I don't think the audio was actually ever distributed, but that's okay. It's out there. And that was a lot of fun. It was good.
01:28:33
Speaker
It was good interchange because sometimes it was the four of us. Sometimes it was you and Ty. Sometimes it was me and Ty. Sometimes it was you and Tony. And it was good interchange to just be able to mix it up, mix and match as we did. And it was just picking the brains of a couple of guys that have seen quite a bit of the world and played it professionally, played at good levels.
Insights from Professional Players
01:28:56
Speaker
So Ty is formerly of Conak. So- Yeah. Is he the free Jacks now?
01:29:03
Speaker
Yes, yes. And then obviously Tony is in the free Jackson has had a cup of coffee with a couple other teams as well along with the Eagles. So, yeah, just to hear hear their experiences was was really cool. And we talked we were watching what like Samoa Island or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. That sounds all right. It was just it was a bit of a shit show, but that's all right. Just the talking with them was was a lot of fun as well. So, yeah, I mean, really. And the 19 crimes lady, I think we have her on to
01:29:33
Speaker
They were feeding me something that was delicious. That's all I know. It tasted amazing. I was a little loopy afterwards, but it was amazing. A winery. If you want to keep feeding me that beautiful stuff, you can talk for five minutes. I'm good. That's why we let her do that. I was like, yeah, this tastes pretty good. I still have
01:29:55
Speaker
Oh, yeah, I saw the shirts too. Oh, I don't even know what I do in my shirt. That's gone. I think that's gone. But I still have the money. It works quite well. Yeah, those are fun. Those are good time. You know, awesome. Well, here's to the next 100 guys. Yeah. Congrats on the huge milestone and onwards and upwards. Keep on going.
01:30:18
Speaker
George, thank you so much for joining us. Yeah, thanks for hanging out with us, man. Well, thank you so much for all the support. Yeah, well, maybe we get to 500 sometime. Well, let's get to 200. I guess we can do... Oh, man, we got to go slow about this? Oh, shit. Yeah, I guess we got to... Let's get to 101. We got to 100 before we could even think about it. So, you know, maybe that'll be here before we know it. So, that'll be good. Yeah, so it's...
01:30:46
Speaker
It's a lot of fun. Yeah, we appreciate you. We appreciate our better halves for putting up with our bullshit, especially when we first started the whole thing and I wasn't, we weren't in this place where there's
Gratitude and Support
01:30:58
Speaker
space. We were in my one bedroom, tiny home that we had to
01:31:03
Speaker
ban my wife to the bedroom floor. And God bless her for doing that. And even when we went over to your place a couple of times for a couple of the draft ones, just to figure for your messes to pick and put up with me coming in with all my bullshit. And the dog nut for not getting in the way. That's right. Yeah. Keep an eye on the dog. That usually helps too. It helps when the dog's not howling in the middle of the podcast. That's true. You did that for our first live draft, I think it was. Yeah, but we were really carried out. No big deal.
01:31:31
Speaker
and BD. It was minimum at best. So yeah, we made it. Who knew? But yeah, so for everybody that's listening, we'll be back to business this week. We got Prem to talk about. We got Six Nations to talk about. It's going to be hopefully a fun time. Six Nations is up in the air. Something about that? Yeah, the international travel being? Iffy. Yeah, as far as we know, it's still okay.
01:32:01
Speaker
But who knows, I mean, things change quickly. And they're not very, that's that's one thing that's frustrating for us as Americans we're used to when when sports do things here it's here it is, this is what's happening, you know, whether it's an injury, whether it's, you know, something, you know, a trade or something like that.
01:32:19
Speaker
rugby there's the news has been very is very sparse on the ground i think i saw a tweet two days ago that was like it's off they just won't formally announce it it's like okay but is that real is that is that a good source or is it are you just bullshitting me like what are you doing so hopefully that's pretty much what we're at at this point you know yeah
Looking Forward
01:32:41
Speaker
Yeah, so thank you. Thank you to all of you that tuned in with us. And we will be back next week, but thanks a lot, guys. Thanks.