S2 Ep 20 - RFU Strategic Plans Enough To Bring In The Fans?

Two truths collided this week: English rugby is trying to grow up fast, and the Premiership is a brutal teacher. We open with a Barking away day and a soon-to-be dad’s “one last season?” question, then jump into England’s Six Nations squad with calm heads—celebrating Greg Fisilau’s fit for a flexible back row and a front row picked as a unit, not a collection of names. The real intrigue sits off the pitch too: the RFU’s northern strategy around Yorkshire, a schools-first plan to add 50,000 players, and the Twickenham events cap that’s throttling revenue needed to fund the whole pyramid. No fluff here—this is about pathways, money, and the long game.

Then the rugby. Gloucester gave Bath a scare and a lesson in heart: a fixed line-out, Seb and Charlie Atkinson on song, and Will Crane’s remarkable shift from part-time hooker to near-80-minute mainstay. Bath did what Bath do—brutally effective pick-and-go and bench impact that squeezed the life from Kingsholm. Exeter vs Bristol was a deluge made of scrums and grit; one bright Bristol move sealed it. Saracens, stung by recent doubts, crushed Newcastle with focus and ferocity—and Tom Willis reminded everyone he is a once-a-season force of nature. Harlequins felt worryingly flat as Leicester’s scrum set the tone. And Sale vs Northampton became a study in aerial pressure, momentum swings, and a Saints pack with real balance—Kemeny, Pearson, Chick, and a late cameo from Pollock underlining a new edge.

We keep it straight: who’s thriving on identity and who’s drifting? Why the RFU’s Yorkshire plan and school outreach matter more than a press release? And how unlocking Twickenham’s calendar might actually fund safer pitches, better coaching, and bigger crowds from grassroots to Test level. If you’re here for hard rugby chat with a pulse—selection logic, recruitment waves, set-piece truth, and the stories that stick—you’re in the right feed.

Enjoy the ride, join our Six Nations fantasy league (League 116848, password UDAHJ), and if you’re into smart rugby talk, hit follow, share with a mate, and drop your bold Six Nations prediction. Who’s lifting the trophy—and who surprises everyone along the way?

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Transcript

Barking Away Day And VO Video Hunt

Becoming A Dad And A Comeback Season

Prem Round Ten And Six Nations On The Horizon

England Squad First Impressions

Back Row Picks And Prop Depth

Six Nations Fantasy League Invite

Newcastle Red Bulls Recruitment Spree

RFU’s Northern Strategy And Doncaster

Twickenham, Events Cap, And Revenue

Growing Players And Fans Through Schools

Prem Round 10: Gloucester vs Bath Deep Dive

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to Rux Moose and That's right, it's the Fad's favourite rugby podcast brought to you by the Fads favourite rugby podcast host back again this week to talk more rugby nonsense. It's me, Dave, joined as ever by Rory. Rory, you know what to do. Say hello to the listener, why don't you? Hello, listeners. Hello, hello David. How are you? Oh, I'm very well, thank you, Rory. I'm very well indeed. How are you? More importantly. Yeah, you're right, that is more important. Uh I'm good. I'm good. Um no game for the Lions this weekend, so I trotted out for the thirds. Wow, okay. How was that experience? Interesting. We went and played uh Barkin, who for anyone in the south east will know Barkin Rugby Club. So most esteemed alumni, Jason Leonard, is where he came through. Fantastic. Yeah. Historic so sort of cusp of East London Essex. Historically, one of, if not the biggest, teams in in that sort of area, the East London Essex region. Um, interesting story with Barkin. They were um they were doing extremely well. They were in that one and were in the playoffs to go up to the championship. Um, someone threw an intercept pass, I forget who they were playing, but whoever it was, intercepted the ball, ran the length of the field, scored the try, won the game, went up to the championship, and then Barkin didn't win another game for like six years. Wow. That's um that's a real like virtually Yeah. The club virtually folded. That's almost like the butterfly effect of what what if everything just sort of the arse fell out of it. What could have been um exactly? So we were actually playing Barkin's first team um in the merit tables, so they're sort of just starting to get back on their feet now, you know. So they got playing base. I think they're starting to put together a bit of a youth section where they can, and you know, it's it's a proper classic old sort of eastern club, you know. It's it's a proper rugby club, but ball on a hard times. But it was nice to nice to go back there for the first time, and you know, good but good bunch of folks who uh who are playing for them, who I thoroughly enjoy playing against. They were a good laugh, but uh the game itself left a little bit desired. This this sounds like a preamble to you telling us that the thirds got stuffed by the Barking First team. Is that what happened? We no, we won 22-21. Oh, a close encounter. Uh very close encounter. I'm I'm assuming there's not been any movement on my campaign to start getting Rory specific Westcliff games recorded for audio and visual. Well, Barkin did have a VO set up. Ooh, okay. I've seen some photos, but I haven't seen a video, so I will uh inquire as to whether it's available. Please do, and then timestamp any moment that you believe is of interest to me or the listener, because I am not opposed to digging those out and sharing the love. Uh so Barking Rugby Club, you the appeal is here. Our mob wants your VO link for the West Coast 3's game. Oh, I do indeed, I do indeed. Uh what do I have to talk about? Well, you know, I'm assuming the listener knows my life is dominated about baby stuff, about to become a dad. It's all encompassing, no rugby being played at this point in time, but I am considering whether um well I turn 35 in two days time, Rory, which makes me feel very old. Do I go for one last hurrah and try and get one season in of proper rugby under my belt and to see it'll be my last chance to really probably give it a go. And do I use the motivation of you know being a new a new dad to drive me to go do that, you know, to get fit again, get in good shape, and then hopefully find a good, you know, a good family club that one day may be the home of you know the next England propping legend that will be my offspring. Um Well, have you been inspired by your time in Man vs Fat to to fully give it a go? So I've I've put man vs. fat on hiatus for a little while, uh whilst just dealing with, you know, becoming a father and getting ready for all that. I might go back to that as a segue into going into full contact ahead of next season. So as a free season. Yeah. So if you are a club in the Bath or Bristol area and you want a really, really rusty and unfit ex-prop who's not even sure he'd be able to prop anymore, uh get in touch at Ruxballsoverbulls at outlook.com what a what a pitch. What a pitch. What a pitch. Uh but yeah, other than that, that's enough for for Banter Rory. We've got we've got a lot of rugby to go through. Obviously. Let's get into it. We've got we've got some stuff around some stuff in the news, the newspapers, stuff in the just general news. News. I'll say news again. Uh obviously we've got Galaga Prem, round ten, that took place this weekend. Uh that's just been we'll do our team of the week. And then we'll start turning ahead to the jewel in the crowd of Northern Hemisphere R. That is the Six Nations, which are where our attentions will turn once this podcast is published. Best time of year. Uh, but let's dig into the news section. Uh quite a nice segue. I think the first thing we could touch on, we weren't able to talk about it last week on the pod because it wasn't that was towards the end of the week. England have announced their Six Nations squad, and you know, it feels right that we obviously we don't need to do a full reaction because you know that's been done to death everywhere on social media. But interested to get your thoughts, Rory. Um maybe the listeners interested too. Yeah, well, I would throw ahead to next week we're gonna do a Six Nations preview part. So um we're not gonna bother too much with the Prem rug pick up. So we'll uh we'll give we'll give our full thoughts on on everything Six Nations next week. Um, my initial thoughts were pleased, Jeff, to be honest. Um, you know, the reality of a 36-man squad is not every player you wish could be in there will be in there, but by and large, I've got no great complaints. Um no, and I didn't see any glaring omissions that weren't explained by injury. No, and I think and the other emissions were all kind of understandable because it's omissions to players that are kind of would have been nice to have, but I can understand why they've not been selected. E.g., George Hendy. I would love to see him there, but I understand why Freddie Stewart's getting selected. I can understand why George Fairbank's being selected. So, like, frustrating, not really, but it would have been nice to see him there. But I'm happy that Stewart and Fairbank are there. Uh so yeah. I mean, if if I'd had a magic wand, I probably would have put in Joe Carpenter and Nathan Jabulu, but I understand the form of sale's been off a Carpenter in particular had a lot of injuries, so yeah, yeah, yeah. And very pleased for to see uh Mr. Greg Fizzelau, who you've been waxing lyrical about over recent weeks. Yeah, yeah, no, I think I mean he's been in superb form for for Chiefs. I think he's it he's obviously in the mould of Ben Earl as a number eight, so he starts you know, so it's not replacing Willis, but it's a hard job to do that anyway. There are a couple of players around the prem who might fill in that mould eventually, but there's no one ready to step into Willis's shoes right now in the same way. Um but Fizzelow, I think he fits the England back row in the sense that he could probably play all three positions. Yeah, he's probably just about big enough to be a reasonable line out option. Yeah, extra use him. So big engine, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's a big engine, powerful. I mean, he's put on three or four kilos for this season, is really noticeable in the way that he's performing for XT. So put all that together, you I've I think he's well worth his his place in that back row. Um, you know, there's obviously there's always players that people will will shout about as being in there. You know, you could make a you could have made a very good case for Callum Chick, you know. Yeah, yeah. On form wise, absolutely. Yeah, you know, absol you know it's certainly been um been one of the best, if not the best, number eight in the in the league this this season. Other than Tom Willis. You know, there's apart from Tom Willis, yeah, of course. Um, you know, Quinn's fans will always extort the virtues of Alex Donbrand, you know. I wouldn't necessarily agree entirely, but you know, he's he you know he has got some real qualities, even in a struggling Quinn side. I think there's exciting players coming through, like Zach Carr, like Arthur Green at um at Bath. You know, there are some exciting players who may be more akin to the Willis mould. Yeah. But for me, Fizzleo's probably the pick of the bunch at the moment, and so well worth his well worth his selection. Yeah, absolutely. And I think the only other question uh on this that we'll move on, um, how are you feeling in the propping department? Because obviously that's been spoken about a fair bit. There's there's some relatively low cap new faces uh due to injuries. Yeah, look, I mean, as a Gloss fan, I would have liked to have seen Afo get the nod, but I can I know why he's not being picked, and I think it's it's pretty if you watch Gloucester enough, which uh a lot of people don't, um, for obvious reasons. Afo's great for the big moments. I don't think he's there for the kind of repeat efforts that you actually need from a particularly a type five um in the loose. But scrummaging wise is phenomenal when he's you know he's turned into a turnover machine, which is a great super strength to have as a prop. Um but Billy Seller, I think, is brilliant and going to be brilliant. I suspect he won't get any game time bar and injury this tournament, but he's going to be brilliant. Yeah. Uh Trevor Davidson, you know, just an old wizard old prop, you know, got no issues with him being there. Um Evan Rodd, I think, is really coming into his prime. You know, I actually I think you could make a good case for uh an England front row, which is when when all fits and available, Rod, Cohen, Dickey, uh Ashropoko for journey with Genj, George, Hayes as you change, and you stop you know in that kind of South African mould of seeing the front row as a unit, yeah, because I think they work really well as a as a front row unit. Yeah. I think Bevan Rod really came up with this scrummage in that he's still great in the loose. Manny Yogan, who I'd only found out this week, is from from these ends. Uh one of the guys I was playing with Ossay taught him um taught him maths. Um confirmed they didn't teach him any rugby. Yeah, it's quite it's quite for easily forgotten that your ends is part of the Northampton catchment area uh in certain parts. Yeah, uh yeah, weird, yeah, very weird. Um, but um I think he's coming on leaps and bounds as well. I think his scrummage is really, really strong as he proved against Bordeaux the other week. Yeah, all of Sarah Jogan, he he had a game where he got mullered. Um I can't remember who it was against, but he he got kind of yanked off at like 30 minutes. Yeah, and he has been like a different player since then. He's he's absolutely responded to it. So fair play. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. I mean he's coming, he's coming into a really good prime beach for a prop. He's certainly big enough. You know, if um is it Tom Harrison, the scrum coach at England, um he's getting a lot of talk up recently. Um, you know, if he rates him, then that's a good sign because that guy knows knows scrummaging. So uh I'm I'm pretty happy with it all in all. I'd say no complaints at all with the with that squad. Fabulous. Well, we won't labour on about Six Nations much more because, as we said, we've got a full special getting prepared for next week. Uh I will only use this opportunity to plug the Six Nations Fantasy League. Um if you want to join, if you go onto the Six Nations app, the league is 116848, and the password to join is UDAG all capitals U D A H J. Just come along, join in, have a bit of fun. I very much enjoy the format and the way that particular app does fantasy rugby. It's really good, really good for tracking how games are going, seeing the live stats ro roll in, so I'd highly recommend it to any other rugby statistical nausees like us. Uh I think the other bit of general news I wanted to touch on, Rory, before I dig into a you specific segment. Uh the Red Bull's acquisitions just keeps on rolling, Rory. I feel like it's just gonna be a weekly piece uh because they haven't slowed down at all. No, not at all. Uh so today they've announced they're signing Will Rigg. Yeah. Um yesterday they announced they're signing uh Joji Nasova. Yep. The uh Firgian winger, who I don't know a huge amount. I believe he was in the Sevens team in Paris. Yes. Um I'm not sure if they'd signed Cam Jordan when we recorded last week from Gloucester. I think they'd announced it just as we were recording. Right, so we probably didn't mention it. So a really good sign-in as a good, you know, very good prem-level lock. Uh obviously Rafi Quirk, one of the other recent ones. So they're building they're building a very interesting squad. Um they're re-signing a fair number of the of the current squad. So, you know, it's it's very um it's it's interesting to see the profile of team they're putting together because if you look at the two wingers they've signed, this lad Nasova and the lad from the Hurricanes, whose name neither of us are confident in pronouncing. I tried it last week, I didn't get any I wasn't cancelled, so I can't have been that far off. No, true. No, you put those two together with Josh Hodge, plus presume they'll keep trying to keep Christian Wade, but you know, he may try another sport. Maybe maybe not after this week. Maybe not after this week. Um, you know, you've got an in a really exciting back three. Will Rig brings a lot of solidity to the and sort of power and pace to the centres, where they've also already got Arnold and Hurl, who are you know a solid, solid couple of options there. I suspect they'll they'll want more. Yeah. Um, and then up front they've signed uh they signed another prop from the Hurricane Pooring Racate or something along those lines. Yeah, uh I I won't pretend to have watched too much of him, but um, you know, the highlights looked exciting. Yeah. Um you know, they've signed another three players from Exeter, I think, at this point. Rossi Tweem is off there. Um it's interesting. If you look at the profile of player, they're all either really industrious workhorses or are just athletical threaks. Or just so I think they're creating a team that's gonna be very social media friendly, uh, which I think makes for exciting times next season because I think there's gonna be lots of very exciting stuff to watch. If you are a Red Bulls fan, you are absolutely within your right to be excited. I will just caution anyone. You're bringing in a lot of new players. Just look at how Gloucester started this season and what that looked like when you bring new players together with just one little pre-season in, it isn't gonna click straight away. Um so I think that's just the caution. The cautionary tale I will give Red Bulls fans, yes, be excited, but don't expect it to be absolutely rocket fuel from the second the season starts. I think it could end being some really real exciting stuff with the players they're signing, but just cautionary tale. Yeah, I did see that they're uh Dan McFarland is now the big tip to come in as a head coach or DOR. So we'll see. We'll see. Next next season is is gonna be an interesting one to try and predict. Yeah, yeah. Well, this season's hard enough as it is. Um but you know, less about the Red Bulls because you know we'll probably talk about them next week, even in a Six Nations special, though the way they're going, they're recruiting, they'll probably announce DuPont or something. Um but I wanted to do a little section on RFU news because for it, you you brought to my attention a few things going on in the uh in the rugby journalism world, and I thought let's have a chat about it. Uh, first of all, you you brought my attention to a northern strategy kind of an RFU initiative up in Yorkshire. Um what's going on there? Yeah, I mean, so I mean the general picture is over the last week there seems to have been some sort of big PR push on the RFU. Um, probably trying to put it in line with the Six Nations coming out, but it feels to me like part of a big attempt to reset how the RFU is viewed within the English game, um, and to try and put forward a more positive face and put forward the the idea that there's a real strategy behind what they're trying to do. Yeah. So there's a there's sort of three different stories that all kind of coalesce around that theme of the RFU has a strategy and a plan and something we're trying to do. So the first bit is this this northern strategy. So again, I came across this um it was an interview with um Ian McGeakin uh and other um stakeholders within Yorkshire rugby. Um basically talking about the plan to revitalise the game in Yorkshire. So obviously, there's no Prem Club in Yorkshire at the moment. Um, some might have missed that Doncaster announced over the last sort of week and a half that they are going down from a full-time side to a hybrid down to a part-time side, which is a big blow. A sign that, well, where it comes down to is the owner um who is a rugby fan and is a he's a rugby man through and through, but they he's put a lot of money in and they're currently 11th in the champ. Um, you know, they've made some big signs, and they're one of two full, no, three full-time sides, I think, in that league at the moment. Yeah, then Worcester and Ealin, I think, are the only full-time teams. Um, so you know, on the face of it, that's quite bad news. However, what it seems to be the plan to do at the moment is they're like looking to align the Yorkshire Academy, which is currently run by the RFU, yeah, with a T to be decided top-level Yorkshire franchise, which we they will hope to put in the Prem, of which Doncaster want to be that option. So I think Doncaster are right sizing themselves now to then accelerate into the Prem, potentially looking for an external investor. Right. That would be that seems to be the gist of it. Doncaster seems to be saying we want, you know, whatever the equivalent of Red Bulls is to come in and buy Doncaster. Yeah, Doncaster Dunkin' Donuts, yeah, whatever it, whatever it may be. Um, you know, that's that sort of thing. So, but they're trying to line it up with the Yorkshire Academy, which is a good, which is a good plan. Good move, yeah. Because the Yorkshire Academy, there's been plenty of talent that's come through the likes of Borough at um Sale is a recent example of a of a player who came through that Academy. But at the moment, there's no pathway for Yorkshire players to play in Yorkshire, and there's a big point of people people want to be able to play with their mates because not everyone's gonna make it in the Prem. So they want to be able to have the option to play with people they grew up with, play with their mates, you know, stay at the local team, become the local hero at the top-level club, ideally as well. Yeah, so it's kind of all part of that. So there seems to be a strategy where Doncaster kind of spearheaded by Syria McGeeken, who's the part-time DOR slash technical advisor to Doncaster, who's a Yorkshire man himself. Um, and they're sort of aligning up with the RFU, Connor O'Shea primarily, to put that pathway in place for Yorkshire rugby. And again, I think this is kind of charging up for when the time is right, putting a Yorkshire franchise in the Prem. Okay. That seems to be the goal. Interesting. I suspect there'll be some uh additional help from the RFU to put them in touch with potential investors if they can. Interesting. Um, and I wouldn't be surprised if the Prem were also trying to do that because of this, it's such a big geographical area and such a hotbed of sport. Yeah, yeah, yeah. At the moment, everything's geared up to you know, if you go to Leeds Rhinos, saying this article, you know, if you're in Leeds Rhinos, you can see a pathway. If you're a parent with kids in the in the academy, you can see a pathway where you get through and play for Leeds Rhinos or you know, another team in rugby league, Bradford Bowls, whoever it might be. Yeah. If you're a parent of a kid in the Yorkshire Academy, you can't actually really see the pathway at the moment because it's you get through to 18 and then it's and then what? Yeah, and then does someone pick me up? Do I you know what do I have to do? Um you know, do I have to go to university? It's interesting because it is there a change because obviously 18 months ago, two years ago, northern rugby was almost on its knees. Salesharks now have a very wealthy owner. Red Bulls, very wealthy owner group. Maybe the north of England becomes a hotbed for rugby once again. Uh maybe this is part of the strategy. I don't know. Well, look, I mean there's a there's a general economic strategy in the UK to try and put more economic development in the north. My gut feel is rugby is trying to take advantage of that move. You know, be it one day there'll be an HS2, be it Manchester, Manchester becoming uh an economic superpower in the north, all that kind of stuff, you know. It's all all kind of feeds in. They're trying to put money up north in general. Yeah, yeah. Rugby wants to take advantage of that moment. And to be honest, with the amount of sport uh amount of sporting talent that gets produced across not just rugby but multiple sports in Yorkshire in particular, but across the north, you'd be daft not to try and take advantage of it. Absolutely, absolutely. And I I saw that the so you mentioned there there's there's kind of three strategies in play here that have kind of been almost blanket put out into the media. The other one being uh a specific kind of strategy around schools, getting new fans, getting new players in, and the other one being around the revenue streams. Yeah, so these these all kind of coalesce. So there's there's in terms of the revenue. So we know there's an argument between Richmond County Council and the RFU. The RFU threatened to move Twickenham to Milton Keynes or Birmingham, you know, because the Richmond County Council won't let them hold more than three non-rugby events per year. Um and the RFU want to revamp Twickenham, yeah, which it needs to, if we're honest. Yep. Um, but it can't do that if it hasn't got the revenue stream to pay for it. Yeah, you know, so the the the one that gets talked about a lot is they lost the opportunity to host Beyonce because she wanted three nights in a row. Um Richmond County Council would only let them have two. Richmond County, for all you can criticize Twickenham as a stadium and as a venue, and the issues with transport getting in and out. That's all kind of part of this this push, and that you know what they're trying to do to help with the transport links and you know um change things around antisocial behaviour, all that kind of stuff, you know, talking about undercover policemen, undercover stewards, anti-pee paint, all that kind of stuff. But the long and short of it is Twickenham Stadium is vital for the local economy of Richmond. It's something like 90 million a year just off you know, traffic going to the stadium. Now, if you it increase the number of non-rugby events from three to fifteen, which they're looking to do, you know, how much more money is that gonna put into your local economy? You know, maybe it doesn't double it, but maybe it adds another 30-40 percent of revenue from from visitors to the area. No brain. And on top of that, yeah, and on top of that, you know, you're stifling a major business concern from from growing and and you know, hitting um expanded revenue. So um I think something's gonna have to intervene there. I suspect there will be an intervention at some point because it's something that the DCMS, um, top department for culture, media and sport been quite active. Getting all political here, Rory. Well, they they've been generally quite active in intervening on some of this stuff recently. It's all part, again, all part of the wider economic picture of you know, we've got to kind of encourage businesses to grow and create revenue. So, gut feel is they'll find a way through this at the moment. It seems like the RFU is just trying to kind of appease the red residents, yeah, yeah, because it's primarily the residents who are objecting. Um and then in line with this, they've also put the RFU have put a target in place over the next four years to increase the number of players by 50,000, and they're doing that primarily by targeting schools, yeah, smart and again primarily schools that aren't current rugby playing schools. Good. So there's a couple of things around that. They have a there's a form of rugby that they're encouraging which has uncompassed scrums and line-ups and breakdowns. It's effectively a form of touch rugby, I think. Is it with some contact to the loose? Oh, so it's not T1. I think it is T1. I think that is what the the when they described it. So T1's the brand of rugby that man v Fat play, for instance. Right. It is touch, but you know, it includes things like scrubs, it includes things like breakdowns, but it's uncompetitive. Yeah. So yeah, so it introduces you to the basics of a sport, basically. Right, okay, great. So, yes, that is what they're talking about. So they're trying to introduce that to more schools. They want to expand the playing base by 50,000, people say 50,000 more registered players by 2030. Um and the interesting part of it is for all the doom and gloom, actually youth registered players have been growing and adult registered players has stayed stable. So the number of players is actually good. Take that. Yeah, the issue is um fixtures being fulfilled. Yes. Because uh you know firsthand. As I know firsthand. The thing is, a lot of that there are um there's a lot more options for people to do these days. You know, this isn't the same, it's not the same landscape it was 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago, where you know, what were you gonna do on a Saturday if you weren't gonna go and play play sport? People have got options anymore, they've got obligations, you know, society's changed a lot, etc. etc. etc. So it's not you can't guarantee that everyone's available every week to play play rugby, but they are trying to increase the number of players so they can ensure the fixture they you know this is why they've revamped the regions for a lot of the lower leagues to kind of help with travel times, etc. Which I think is you know, by and large, it's a it's a good initiative. Um, and then parallel to this, they're looking to increase the number of dedicated fans by 500,000. Interesting. So this is an increase from 5.2. They've so the the data suggests they there are 5.2 million dedicated rugby fans in England and they want to increase that to 5.7. Okay. So the way this is defined is uh someone who uh will uh go out of their way to watch an England international and will rarely miss it if if ever. So they think it's about 5.2 million. Interesting, which that's a good number. It's not bad, it's not bad numbers. So but the goal to increase by 500,000 then puts it on par with cricket. Okay, so then puts rugby very much you know in that battle for second place for top sports in the country, you know, because there's no point trying to win for football, it's not worth it. It's it's an admirable ambition, I'd say, and it feels like a realistic one rather than saying, as you say, take on football. Yeah, I think so. I think so. So obviously, you know, part of this is the women's game uh off the back of the Red Roses World Cup, so big and Chris and women's um women's players, which is already in happening rapidly. Yeah, yeah. Um they're gonna be investing 500 million quid in grassroots sports over the next four years. Big numbers. So, you know, they're doing you know more things like um I think they call them schools officers or rugby development offices. I mean, that's basically RFU representatives who go and do coaching courses and outreach to local schools and that kind of thing. So it feels like um, you know, between those three things, the RFU to one extent or another has rather got his act together. I think you're right, Rory. And I reckon if you were to go back through the Ruxmalls and Overballs catalogue, I think somewhere in season one we did a particular episode where we spoke about things the RFU could do to fix the game. I'm pretty sure two of those things we said is what they should do. We said they should look at getting rugby into state schools, in non-traditional rugby schools, increase the player base, and I think we also mentioned the need to utilize and try and get rugby interested in traditional sporting hotbeds like the north of England and Yorkshire. So once again, RFU, you're welcome. Look, the the long and short of it is our mob time and time again proves itself to be the zeitgeist to this sport. Um, and if anything, ahead of the curve. Yeah, we're nothing but a humble pod. No, we're an honest pod, um, but we're we're we're humble with it. Um, and you know, we're we're humble enough to just be pleased that the game's moving in the right direction. Look, we don't want credit for it. We want we want lots more people to listen so we can launch a Patreon and you can pay all our bills. We you know, we don't want credit for it. Shush, Rory. Don't give away the game plan. You know, we've been going for a year now, it's going really well. Uh we're so close. We're so close. Uh no, we do it because of the love of the game, Rory. And but yeah, if uh if a slice of that 5.2 million who are already dedicated rugby fans do want to listen, uh 50%. If 50% of you listen to us, then we're gonna. Yeah, actually, I would want them to reline that stat. I think a dedicated rugby fan should be measured by whether they listen to the Rux Balls and Ovalballs podcast. And sadly, sadly, that number isn't quite 5.2 million at this point in time. But tell your friends, share it with them, they'll be pleasantly surprised. Uh but hey, we digress, we digress. Uh so that's what a slightly extended news section, but I think some good meaty stuff in there, Rory. We'll dig now into round 10 of the Galaga Prem and run through those games, do our textbook analysis, and then see what we've got left to do. And we're gonna start off, Rory, and I know in recent weeks and months we've been giving Gloucester a hard time. We're starting off with the Gloucester vs. Bath game. I really would like you to approach this with a positive mental attitude, Rory, because I my headline for this game personally was that Gloucester were the better team. Well, thank you, David. I I'm sure it won't have gone unnoticed by you that I'm back in my Gloucestershire for the first time in some weeks. Resplendent in red, Rory. Resplendent in red. Yes. Um, you know, I to I talked in the last couple of weeks about some cautious optimism off the back of our losses in the Champions Cup but improved performances. Um, this game, it's not even cautious optimism, it's it's full-on optimism that we've turned a corner here. Um bit of 3D chess from Skibs earlier in the week, pretending that we didn't have anyone coming back from injury, and then selecting uh three or four players coming back from injury um straight into the into the squad, which is great to see. We like that. Yeah. So we saw the return of uh Josiah Edwards Giroux at uh 13, uh who was excellent. Um talk about him in a bit. Uh obviously Tomos back at nine, uh Venter back in the back row, Jack Mann on the bench, Cam Jordan on the bench, yeah. Um Thorley on one of the wings. So slightly stronger squad than we've been privy to the last couple of weeks from Gloucester. Um started poorly. I said, Well, started with Gloucester stealing a line out, going on the attack, and then turning the ball over and barfering the length of the field and scoring. At which point, two minutes into the game, I'm thinking uh oh no. Here we go. Here we go. Yeah, but it very quickly things turned around. Um so Valra Pavaruskin scores five minutes later. Really, really good play. So one of the big headlines, Gloucester's line out, um, functioned properly. Very, very impressed, very impressed. And I'm gonna save a special um section to talk about Will Crane in a moment. But headline is the line out function in this game. So we actually win a line out. In fact, we stole a line out on this one, then played very well. Uh Seb Atkinson makes a break, Josiah Edwards Jerome makes a break and offloads to uh George Barton, who clatters through Santa Carreras, bowls him over, and then they play off the bat there, and Val bowls all the way through. I think it's Ted Hill and Josh Bayless to score the trick, proper heart and desire to score. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So all of a sudden, you're now thinking, all right, well, we've got a game on here. Um, but you know, it'd be mad to think we go from there, go on from there to win the game.

SPEAKER_01 31:55

Yeah.

Exeter vs Bristol In A Biblical Downpour

Saracens Rout Newcastle And Tom Willis Brilliance

SPEAKER_00 31:55

Then 10 minutes or so later, we win a penalty, we kick to the corner, go to a mall, mall doesn't go anywhere, not surprising. Bath of a stronger pack in general. They then play some nice phases, you know, not really making any ground, start making a little incremental bit of ground towards the end. And then Charlie Atkinson comes like a missile on a on a direct line under the post and absolutely fires under the pitch. Then you're going, what the fuck is going on here? All right, let's go, let's go. Tomoss gets uh gets a 50-22 that's nearly a 22-22. Yeah, oh yeah. So you think right? Everything's going our way now. Okay, this is some someone's put a curse on bath, you know, whatever it is. Right, let's just enjoy this for what it is. Yeah, um, and another five minutes later, I think it's Charlie Axon makes another break. Again, we've got down into the into the bath pitch because our line out actually works. So we're suddenly retaining ball. Charlie Axon makes a nice little break down the right. It's a really good sweep and move around the back of the ruck. The the back line basically comes in late. He makes the break, throws a nice pass out to Ludlow on the wing, who then pops it in inside to um Sebak instead to score. At that point, I think it is uh 21-7. Yeah. So I'm on cloud nine, obviously, and thinking, right, what's going on here? All of a sudden, yeah, perfect. And then obviously, Bart think, right, well, if we're gonna combat this, we need to implement our highly sophisticated, exciting, uh theatrical moves. Um, so yeah, some high octane stuff. Yeah, Gloucester's discipline starts to fail them. I think probably partly under the pressure of not having won many games this season, yeah, but also, you know, if we're honest, under the pressure of the power of Bath. Um, but Bath's attacking play kicks into gear. Um so Dan Frost scores a line out more. Then Pepper, guy Pepper, who comes on and he's phenomenal in this game, by the way. I thought because he came on at the 30-minute mark. I feel if he hadn't come on at that point, the result may it may have been a step too far for Bath, even Bath to come back. I think he was pivotal for them coming back from this game. Absolutely changed the game for them. Um, he scores a line out more. Um, interestingly, Bath's line out really struggled. Really struggled. So they they know these two, but actually Gloucester put them under a lot of pressure in the line out, and actually Dan Frost's throw-in as a whole wasn't particularly good. Um, but uh Zara Busdrew puts a great little tri-saver on Dan Frost, who looks absolutely diving in on the corner. Great tri-saver. But it's all, you know, at this point, it's all very um back and forth. I think at this point it's 21-19, so half time 29 21-19 probably reflects better on Bath than they deserved. Yeah, Gloucester have been very good this half, but the discipline and power starting to starting to wane at the end of the half. They then um uh over half half the time, the bath bombs have to come on on 50 minutes. Yeah, so just to give you an idea, listeners for anyone who hasn't seen the didn't see the game, on the bath bench. So we've already mentioned that Guy Peppers come on after half an hour, also on the bath bench, Kepputura Pilotu, Venno Ubana, Thomas Satoy. Yeah, so uh of those, all of the forwards come on on 50 minutes. So that shows you where Jerk Rahn was on this game. Yeah, you know, they may well have done that anyway, but he certainly wasn't hanging about to bring it, bring all of those players on. No, um, and despite that, Gloucester win a scrum penalty on their own five metre line, end up going down the other pitch, and Afo for Sogband uh barrels over in the corner to score Gloucester's fourth try and the bonus point. So what a day for Gloucester fans! Huge. So then panic stations in Bath. We've really got to go for it. We've got to turn on the flare, we've got to put, you know, we we've got to absolutely run it off the pitch. Yeah, yeah. So they go for a pick and go from everywhere option. Um I've said it once and I'll say it again, Rory. Bath incredibly effective, but god they're boring. I honestly, I mean, I was watching it like at this point it's inevitable, right? Because I know that they're gonna win this game because you can't you can't just defend constantly against that when you've got the pack that Gloucester had out, manful and very um uh committed, in you know, really good moments, you know, repelled a lot of attacks in Bath. But it's just relentless pressure, and the fact that they're willing to pick and go from basically 40 metres out, and they just they reinforce the ruck, I mean, I'd say 75% of the time illegally, but you know, no one calls them up on it. Um but at this point you just you just kind of know what's gonna happen. I mean when Finn Russell scored his try because the ball, I mean, they were offside and that wasn't called, whatever. At this point, you're just not you're not expecting the referee to give us anything. Um but the ball spills out the back of the Gloucester rook after they steal it, and Russell just is just on hand to dive over from you know half a metre angular. Well, it's this at this point the the cards the cards have been dealt, and obviously um puts a penalty over on about 73 minutes to to kind of um yeah take the lead and then another one a bit further on to finish it off. All I'll say on all I'll say on that, Rory, is uh I thought it was quite uh odd of Finn Russell this lauded attacking genius in world rugby to shush the Gloucester fat crowd when he scored that penalty or that try, despite him being in charge of the back line that was being outplayed by the opposing back line. I thought it was a bit rich. It was a bit rich. I don't mind it, I don't mind a bit of pantomime. The shed does the shed never minds it when someone does it, but they'll love it, they love it, they love it. I know why he done it, but I just thought go on, Finn. You need to re recognise here that you've been outplayed here, really, realistically. Yeah, you know, I I would say Charlie Atkinson comfortably the better 10 on the day. Absolutely. Um, but you know, Bath won the game. They they do what they do, they're they are ruthlessly efficient, they play precisely to their overall strength, which is the power they have in their pack. Again, we've we've talked about it a lot. I don't think it's very entertaining, um, but it does win games. So, you know, if you're happy with that, and you should by the way, I'm not saying you shouldn't be happy with this. No, yeah, no, no, absolutely. Yeah, but but it you know, it is what it is. Let's let's let's not pretend you know you're in the same league as Bordeaux or Toulouse or even Northampton for entertainment quality. Yeah, not going not going to not gonna bite out of that, Rory, because you know I agree. Um but for for for me as Gloucester fan watching that, uh, it was it was a lot of the best qualities we had last season, with the obvious caveat that we were still missing a number of frontline players. Yeah, um, but the the kind of endeavour of it and the way we tried to play the game, despite you know obvious um inequalities in terms of the size and power of a lot of the players, I was really, really pleased with. You know, we had Dayon Gwynn at um in the locks, great game, you know, really great game, but he you know he's the Welsh under 20s captain and he's a six. Yeah, you know, we we we're still making do in a number of ways, but um as as a whole, I was delighted with it as a performance. Um I'm I'm gonna just if you if you'll indulge me a moment, I'm just gonna talk about Will Crane. You go ahead, you go ahead. Um, so the story is now pretty well publicised. I think most people will have seen that you know, this is a guy who's he's a mortgage advisor. Yeah, um and uh we brought him in when we were at the because we had no hookers left. You know, that's the ultimate, that is the the long and short of it. We had to bring in someone in online from Hartbury, Will Crane, because we had run out of hookers. Jack Singleton's basically had a heart attack, said Blake's broken his hand, Jack Hernard, who knows? Um Keeman Price, Freeman Price, sorry, um, is is injured. So we're to bring someone in. And you know, let's be honest, the first couple of games were difficult, as you would expect, for Will Crane. Yeah. The last couple of games, I think, against it was it was looked like it things were improving against Edinburgh. Things really improved against Toulon, and in this game he was frankly nothing short of heroic to because he's been asked to basically play because the guy on the bench, George Knowles, is effectively an 18 year old, I think. He's basically been asked to play as close to 18. Minutes every week as a possible as a part-time player to step up to the Prem and basically have to play 80 minutes, 70, 80 minutes every week against the likes of Edinburgh, Toulon, Both. Yeah, yeah. And you know, I'm not gonna say he's he looked like he was he belonged at the Prem or anything like that. But to hold up the way he did, to to improve at the line out at the rate that he has, you know, obviously in conjunction with the whole pack improving the line now. I appreciate it, it's not just him, you know, so nearly got his try in this game. Really wish he'd got one. Um, but the story's phenomenal. The job that he's done for Gloucester over the last few weeks, actually, you know, it's it is fairy tale stuff for anyone who's never quite made it. Yeah. And he's sort of proved proved to people what he's about and proved to what you know what quality there is there. Um it's a lovely story, and I I would love it if Gloucester were to offer him something that even when all these other hookers come back, because let's face it, Gloucester's hooking department was not setting the world on fire before the crisis they're in. No, I would love it if they were just to backwheel crane to see how he can keep improving for the rest of the season. I look, I I think it's a very good argument to keep him about. Um obviously he's got a he's got an actual nine of five to go back to at some point. Yeah, yeah. But so I don't know what the whether the what the options are for him on that. But I I I was so pleased for him in this game because he was genuinely um genuinely outstanding. You know, I I I actually think he he was better than Dan Frost on the day. Um, certainly in the lineup department, I think he's justified uh the fact that Gloucester kept him around and chose him, and uh as a story, I just think it's phenomenal. Like it's a proper like sporting romantic kind of story. Absolutely. Um so I'm I'm so pleased for him, and you know, I I I was probably quite critical in his first few weeks, but you know, as part of a general criticism of the Gloucester Gloucester performances. Um but you know, I think he's he's properly stepped up. So, you know, so to Will Cray, you know, we say thank you for your contribution to Gloucester because you've been nothing short of phenomenal. Yeah, yeah. I th I I think what a what a turnaround we've seen uh not just from this podcast, but imagine in general from Gloucester fans about how uh maybe his first outing compared to how he is now. Yeah, absolute credit to the man. Uh and like I say, I I hope he gets rewarded in some sense with something um more long term or yeah, a way of putting it. Name a standoff. Yeah, there we go. There's there's a campaign. Uh fantastic. Well, yeah, but unfortunately, Bath did come away for this game with the bonus points. Yeah, should make that clear, sorry. Uh we we didn't lose. I I I feel like I've given you enough time to lord what was a marvellous, gutsy performance from Gloucester. Actually, seeing them playing with uh what felt like actual passion, they wanted to win. There's no question mark about their commitment. Like it's the first performance I'd seen from them in the Prem in that fashion for quite some months, so it was really good to see because I think a good Gloucester makes a good Prem. Um, but we must move on Rory from the unfortunate loss for Gloucester. Uh and sadly, we move on to a headline X Achiefs 3, Bristol 8. Um, yeah. It was an unfortunate loss to Gloucester. This was unfortunate for everyone who watched it, yeah, which I did. I I dear listener, I I watched this game, so you don't have to. Yeah, yeah. Um to be fair to these teams, the rain was biblical. Conditionally, it was audible on yeah, it it was audible through the through the telly, right? You could hear the rain off the stands. Like it this was outrageous weather for it, and I'll be honest, it kind of it kind of set the tone for the whole game. It was it I'll be honest, it's quite possibly the worst game of rugby I've ever watched on the tell. It's it is this is a tough, tough watch. Um I think what I will what I will grant these two teams is they were fully committed to this game. You know, there was some nuggete defence on both sides. Yeah. Um, the way that Bristol held off, I think it was at the start of the second half, Exeter kept the ball for like 30 plus phases. They basically try to do a current bath slash old Exeter kind of style. We're just gonna pick and go for as long as we can until we break you. And Bristol held them off for like I mean, it's got to be 30-35 phases, right? Um but all in all, there is not much to say about this game, really. Um, the kicking was hard because the wind was was was up, so the kicking was was really difficult. The the handling was abysmal um because you know, again, it was a bar of soap, so it was just constantly being dropped and knocked on and scrums. You know, I'd say Ellis Genge had a tough day at the office in the sense of he had to do about 40 scrums. Um put real pressure on um Chumbadzi, the uh the Georgian lad for Exeter, but by and large, you know, so the first points of the game, uh Henry Slade uh scores a penalty on 29 minutes, make it 3-0. Bristol's discipline had been generally quite poor. Um, and Exeter were defending pretty pretty manfully. Um but then about five six later, um Exeter basically they try and do a pullback, it gets dropped by Slade, and then it just sort of just keeps going backwards. It just basically ends up Slade chased it back, dives on the ball, and slides over the line. So Bristol gets the five-minute scrum. Quite a weird moment, but it was poor.

SPEAKER_01 45:38

Yeah.

Harlequins’ Malaise And Leicester’s Control

Sale vs Northampton: Aerial Duels And Momentum Swings

What’s Up With Sale? Fatigue And Identity

Team Of The Week Selections

Six Nations Special Tease And Sign-Off

SPEAKER_00 45:39

Um, so Bristol had the five-minute scrum, they try to play from it, but the ball gets knocked down by Slade, and then Lewis Resumit picks it up, runs kind of an arc behind the um behind the gain line, finds Heward with the overlap, push puts him into the corner. So it's it's it's a nice enough try, but it's probably the one moment of quality through the whole game. Yes, the the only bit of rugby of note, I'd say. Basically, yeah. Um yeah, I mean, there's not much. I mean, Tom Jordan had a generally quite difficult day. Like it was a bad game, and he wasn't very good in it. Yeah. Um Harry Randall. Those could those could those conditions don't suit a Harry Randall. Well, those conditions don't suit the way Bristol Bears play, let's face it. No, it it doesn't. I mean, you know, James Williams scoring the Bristol's penalty on 79 minutes and confirming the end of the game was kind of the best part of it because it was just meant I didn't have to watch anymore. Um yeah, awful. I mean, the only things worth noting are uh for Bristol, uh Lua Tua back in the starting lineup, big for them. Good to see him back. Gab Zibatoy on the bench came on for the last sort of five, six minutes as well. So again, really good for them. Yeah, prepare your fantasy teams, people. Yeah, absolutely. Uh for Exeter, um Brown Bampo's back. Well, Bram Bampo back, good. Hooper off, potential knee injury, bad. Yeah, yeah. I think I saw somewhere that it's not it doesn't it's not supposed to be as bad as it looked, is what I've seen. It might be four to six weeks, is what I've seen. Yeah, which you know that's hopeful, but you've got to think between that and Lenicotel, they're two big sort of international. Oh yes. Oh, it's it's not good news either way. Unideal, unoptimal for them. Um but yeah, there's uh we shouldn't dwell on this game because it was it was a rubbish watch. But um okay. On that note, Rory, I'm not gonna dwell on it. I'm not gonna dwell on it. Bristol got the win. Um extra, I think it's the first loss extra have had at home all season. So from that point of view, great for Bristol. Good signs of their championship credentials getting out of the tricky winter period, but which traditionally is not their their strongest time of uh time of the season, but the game itself less said the better, I think. Uh now let's flip the coin. Next game, slightly different scoreline. Saracens 73, Newcastle Red Bulls 14. Now, this feels like a little bit of a reality check for the Newcastle Red Bulls, who've been in a little bit of good form and getting some really good performances here. Uh, this feels like a little bit of a crashing back down to earth, maybe. Yeah, I mean, what I would say is they started very well, and they should have been two tries up if a certain Christie hadn't got himself knocked over the dead ball line by Charlie Bracken and as he was going to dive under the posts. Really, really poor moment for an experienced player. Very good moment for Bracken for not giving up the cause. Yeah, but a proper howler, yeah, because that would have put Newcastle 14-nil up. Yeah, yeah. Um, but from there, but it really didn't go in their favour. Um, against it's not really one that you'd want to analyse in great detail, other than yeah, I reality checks probably fair. I would also say Newcastle in general have looked poor away all season. Um, they're clearly built for the big home games in front of the sellouts at Kingston Park, which is kind of I think that's what they're trying to do. Yeah, I don't think they're quite at the stage where they're trying to build an away following. Um, they certainly weren't up for it after the first sort of 10-15 minutes. Um it was pretty it was pretty poor from their point of view. Um I would I think the the focus really probably needs to be on on Saracens for a team that clearly had a rocket put up than uh after last week. Yeah, all these these previous previous weeks where we've been claiming there's clearly something not quite right there. Uh there wasn't really anything wrong with this performance from their perspective as far as that I could see. No. Well, I mean, we maybe did Doug knows it because obviously Mark McCall's announced this week that he's stepping down as DOR and Brendan Vent is coming up. Once again, Rory, I don't want to take the credit for things, but once again, we are the oracles of just rugby. Um we've called it yet again. Nothing gets past us, nothing gets past us. I'm I'm convinced uh every DOR and every club owner must listen in to us because we just are making sense. And if it seems, you know, maybe that has uh brought a bit of a change of act at the Stone X because this certainly was not the same Saracen side I've seen in recent weeks for sure. Um But the main the main man, the main man, Rory, how much is this league going to miss Tom Willis? He's so physically unique in this league. Um since you know, obviously, since we lost Jasper Visa, there's not another there's just not another runner like him. I mean, we've had Andre Esther Hazen, Jasper Visa, and Tom Willis in recent years. It's never felt like they've all been there at the same time at the at their kind of peak or playing their peak kind of level rugby. Maybe we're only destined to have one one a year or one, you know, one in the league at any one time, but I just love these giant bruising players. Yeah, absolutely. I think it's you know, you and I are of an age where we grew up watching lots of Tuolangis and Tom Awears, uh, you know, just big, big men, Samuel's just crashing around the Prem. You know, it's we were spoiled. We were spoiled, and actually there haven't been that many of them in recent years. You know, those three are kind of the ones that spring to mind. Cata, maybe, but it's not quite the same. No, I love these giant bruises like this. Um, I really hope we get another one in the league. I think there's a couple of lads coming through the youth that could could well fit into that mould. Fingers crossed. But fingers crossed, we're gonna miss him because he's just the fact that he's I think it's for defenders beaten. I think the only the closest challenge to him is Todorow. Yeah, he's about 30 behind. Yeah. For a number eight. So it's it's like bonkers stats. It genuinely is bonkers. It doesn't, yeah, it doesn't. I don't I I think through the years where I've been tracking stats, I don't think another player is anywhere near. And that and that's including seasons because I mean I I think the first season I started doing it, Esther Hazen was still around. He wasn't doing this sort of numbers that he's doing this season. Like he is on another level, and yeah, I'm just gonna I'm just gonna miss watching him play. And I and I I must I'm a Saints fan. I don't take joy in saying I enjoy watching Saracen's play because you know naturally that's there are rivals. Yeah. But I love watching Tom Willis play. I love it. It's he's just a freak. He is a freak. I love watching a freak on the game. And he's that good, it's making me really think twice about my staunch defence of the RFU selection policy of sticking with rugby players. Because imagine just a back row of Jack Willis and Tom Willis together at the moment. I d are is there a better seven and eight in world rugby at the moment? And we're not gonna see it on the international stage. No, it well you are we are getting to the point where maybe that rule has served its purpose. I don't know that we're there yet, but I think we're getting to that point. It's just a shame that we're probably we probably won't reach that point until after those two have kind of gone past their peak, maybe even retired. Because yeah, you're right. To to watch those two in an England shirt together would be quite something. Say magnifique. Unfortunately, uh some uh French fans will be saying that, whatever the French is for Say Magnifique, they'll be saying that next season. Trebier, Rory, Trebrier. Uh I think it's also worth uh you know, a nice little another hat tip to a certain Noah Callore who picked up just another four tries for himself this season. Just the four. Just the four. Um yeah, obviously Snubs from the uh the England squad. He's you know, he's been quite vocal about his ambitions to play for England this year and get the World Cup score, which I think's good. I think you know, I I like that he's he's up front about that. You know, I I'm pro that kind of attitude rather than you know just gonna get my head down and work hard and you know just see where the season takes. No, yeah. I want to play for England and I want to I want to retire as an England legend. Perfect. You don't, mate. If you think you can do it, go and do it. It reminds me of the noises I was hearing about Henry Pollock when he was coming through the system. He was very on the record saying he wanted to be the best player of the world one day. He'd said that great. If that is your goal, go for it. If Calorey is a goals-oriented player, and I I saw those clips about him saying that he wants to go play for the Lions, he wants to win a World Cup with England, he wants to make the 2027 World Cup squadron be the starting week in, week out winger. Love it. Well, at the moment, you wouldn't put it past him to get there, you know. Obviously, not right now, not this six nations, but um I don't put it past him to achieve those things because at the moment he's achieving things that are rarefied air for players of his age, 19 still, you know, it's mad to you forget how young he is. I think he's presumably his top scorer in the league now. He is, he's got 12 tries, Tommy Freeman's on 10. Yeah, I mean so he's he's clear, he's not only a top scorer, but he's clear by two. Um I know. Old man Tommy Freeman at the grand old age of 24 or whatever he is, is he over the hill. Yeah, absolutely. Um, I know I I the sky, the sky is the absolute limit for this kid, you know. He's kind of a phenomena. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think laureate. I I think the only thing that will be interesting, I'm expecting him to be in the England under-20 squad. So, reality check, he is still qualified for under-20s. Like, I think he's only just turned 19, so I think he might even be qualified for under-20s next year. I might be wrong on that, but uh he is still incredibly young. The French under-20s squad this season is stacked. Um if he is at under-20s level, he's still playing a very, very good level of opponent in that tournament. Uh, if he is there. So uh he won't be missing out too much on any development and stuff. I think it could be it may have been a deliberate choice to try and make sure that England under-20 side is competitive with what is an incredibly, incredibly talented crop from France. Uh, I've seen their squad outs this week. Um we'll give you the opportunity to to give us an under-20s preview in in next week's podcast. Absolutely worth uh the listeners keeping their eye on that. Yes. Um I mean for this game, I said I'm not gonna I'm not gonna analyze it you know blow by blow because it's not actually worth it because Saracen so outclassed them. Um I would look I would like to um make one observation that I found watching this game of how incredibly irritating I found the commentator. Um mostly they've kept talking about the wolf pack, just constantly referring to the wolf pack. And I just found myself when they're getting going, sorry, are you in the Saracens PR team or are you a commentator? Shut up. Yeah, and then they then they panned to the commentary team as it's he's drinking its tiki tiki tonga beer, and other than the other and wearing wearing a fez. Uh yes, is yes. Some of the it almost feels like a little bit of the premier sports has leaked into the TNT coverage, it feels like it's not all of them, it was it's just this particular bloke, and I don't know who I can't remember his name. Can't remember his name. And it it does tend to be in the games that are obviously not the TNT Sports 5 games, yeah. Exactly, yes, yeah. Whoever their sort of fifth and sixth choice commentators are are often quite weak, and in this case, just unbearably irritating. So once again, uh never missing opportunity to shamelessly plug our uh although I'm very much not available for this sort of thing, but I'm gonna try anyway. If you do want some slightly probably better, still probably slightly biased commentators, uh the Rux Walls Loverwalls podcast is more than happy to oblige. Absolutely, absolutely. Lay down the gauntlet, we'll come and do it. Yeah, absolutely. Uh no, but I agree, there's it's not worth going blow by blow in this game. It was a pasting, um, it was one-sided, it was one team significantly better than the other. Uh, and there's not much more you could really draw out of that or learn from it. Uh I supp I suppose on a similar theme, next game, Harlequins versus Leicester, talking about one team being significantly better than the other. Oh I I called this one so wrong, Rory. I I thought Harlequins were back, and they're not back. Harlequins are not back. Do you know what? I when I was doing my fantasy, I had this moment in my head where I was like, I bet you they don't get out for this one. And I dropped all my quint's players. I'd well, I only I only had Marcus Smith, I dropped Marcus Smith for Billy Cell because I was like, Do you know what? I guarantee they won't turn up for this one. And I you just I just saw it coming a mile away. Whatever is the malaise in the Harlequin squad, it's it is rife, and they were so clearly not gonna bother with this game. It was I I would argue certainly if you're Jared Evans, it almost seems like you're self-sacrificing yourself because some of the passes he was doing when he came off the Pentrus, just some of the worst rugby skills I've seen at a prem rugby game in some time. It looked it looked deliberate. Genuinely, genuinely, um you you wouldn't have believed that this was effectively the same 23 that beat Lara Shell the week before. It made no sense. You wouldn't even believe that this was 23 professional players. Um I don't you know the moment that really, really, really stuck out for me was the Freddie Stewart try, where yes, yes. Oh my god, can we please talk about this? I I was chatting to a mate of mine who's a big Queens fan, and I mentioned this moment. He said, Yeah, that was the moment I proper lost my rag. Oh, it's just the defending. I've never seen Williams wasn't even looking, and not like wasn't looking like um like he just got it wrong or he got you know his ball watched or whoever. He looked like someone in a cartoon trying to pretend like they were walking around innocent, like head in the edge, is like Yeah yeah, yeah. It was I've never seen anything like it. I was going, that is criminal, yeah. Criminal defense. I mean, it's a good finish from Freddie Stewart, but my god, they didn't just they they unlocked the gate and put a welcome procession. Them to run through that hole. But the thing is, like, so he targeted, I think it was so it was it was Williams, and I think it was Sam Riley who's the one who made the attempt to tackle him. But like there wasn't attempt. There wasn't a huge gap. Like, it shouldn't be that easy for a fullback to break through a prop and a hooker that easily. Not untouched. Not untouched. There was maybe two-foot gap. It's not exactly a glaring gap in the defensive line. If they'd lent in slightly, they'd have given him a good knock. Honestly, it was it was terrific. If you combine that with the Quinn Scrum crumbled, this is the same scrum that battered Wieny Otonio the week before. Simon Carrod. Look, don't be wrong. This is not uh Joe Hayes versus Wiener Tonio kind of you know Joe Hayes is phenomenal, Nicky Smith's phenomenal. I'm a big fan of the Lesnar. And they were they were very good. They were very good on the day as well. Yeah, I'm on record as being fans of theirs. But Quinn's scrum, you know, okay. Simon Carrot is not first choice or second choice, he's probably third choice, loose head. Yeah, but you know, he did a job on Winnie Otonio the week before. This week, you know, and Delgado, international tight head, Jert Walker's been in and around a lot of Quinn's uh a lot of England squads. They crumbled, I mean, to the point where it looked like they just weren't trying to push. Yeah, yeah. You know, I mean I d I don't want to be that guy being like I could have done a better job, but I sort of watched it going, I don't think I could do it a worse job. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Maybe that's why I've rolled out for our you know old Chuddians, the third team somewhere, and doing a pretty good job if Harlequins can play like that. Um honestly, I mean, it really summed up by um, I think it's is it Bradley, the 12, when he shelled the ball with basically just the try-line begging. But not it wasn't a bad pass, it went straight to the bread basket, he just shelled it, and that would have been such a beautiful try as well. To be fair, that was a really nice rugby. One bit of really nice rugby. Yeah, Caden Murley made Caden Murley, probably the only shining light for Quinn's at the moment. But it's it's at the point where I'm feeling really bad for Caden Murley because he looks he looks frustrated. He is sweating blood for that club, and at the moment no one else is. Um, yeah, when Bradley shelled that, I mean I think the right was on the wall, but it was I mean, the the the stoop was quiet, I mean, and there was an exodus pretty early on. Um, yeah, I mean, there's there's nothing really to say to I mean I think when you know Marcus Smith was doing his usual, trying to trying to do it all and trying to find an option, which I you know, I don't blame him for, he was just trying to find some inspiration from somewhere. When Wacky Morrow actually buried him into the turf, it was like so emblematic of the Quince game. It definitely, yeah. It was I I'm not a Quince fan. I I think I think the listeners might have picked up on that by now. Um but I it's it's at a point now where I'm almost at that same stage as I'm at with Welsh fans, is that I'm just kind of sorry that you're kind of go for this. Maybe they're just really taking to heart that the coach said, Well, we're not concentrating on the Prem, we're only concentrating on Europe because yeah, that it's very clear they're not concentrating on the Prem after that performance. I I I text my mate, I said, Look, it was very kind of your boys to help us uh uh amplify how good the Gloucester performance against Bath was the night before by letting us go above you with the two points that we secured by winning no points against Leicester. Yeah, um really kind, really kind of them. I the Parise try. Like it's in some ways it's a wonder try. In a lot of ways. The fuck was Luke Northmore doing? Again, he's got an England cat, barely put a hand on him. I the thing is that we say all these players' names, Northmore. We think they're they're good players, these are good players, these are players that you wouldn't have known it. You put them in a different shirt, and I guarantee you you get an eight, nine out of ten performance out of them. There's something not right at Harlequins, really not right, and there's no there's no wonder there's I think the latest link was it Vern Cotter or scene linked with the coaching job. Stern Vern. Yeah, Vern Vern. Maybe that's what they need, I don't know. But someone is the man to bring the entertainment back to the stoop. No, probably not, but it it might bring that squad a bit of discipline and a bit of I don't know, bit of harsh reality. I don't know. But Gregor's I was gonna say, yeah, on the flip side, Tigers, very, very good, very, very impressive. Vampore Fleet, lovely try. Yeah, Vampor Fleet's started to come into form, which is really good coming into Six Nations time. Freddie Stewart, I thought, has continued to look really good this season. Yeah. I always feel bad because I always every so often put out my kind of unwanted statistics uh for players, and it always looks quite bad on players like Freddie Stewart because at fullback you generally have to deal with the most hard to complete tackles and the highest kicks, the hardest ones to gather. So you often make the most turnovers and miss the most tackles. So it always looks like I'm digging it out. Just I want it on record that I'm not. I recognise that those stats basically reflect the players who get the vo involved the most, and he certainly gets involved an awful lot for Leicester. I I think he's been phenomenal this season. Yeah, yeah, for absolutely. I think he's been great. I mean, I I I think Furbank is at on his day the best fullback England option England have. I think on form Freddie Stewart is. Yeah, to the point of I think for the Wales game, Stewart should be starting at fullback over Furbank because I think you you need to reward that form that he's had this season. Furbank, I agree. I think when in form is the best 15. Uh still remains to be seen if he's officially signing for the Harlequin's sinking ship. Um but uh yeah, Freddie Stewart, fantastic performance. Uh and I don't know I I was gonna pinpoint uh Nicky Smith and Joe Hayes as well, who just continue to be perhaps they they may be the most consistently excellent prop pairing in the league at the moment, I think. Not a bad shout. It's not a bad shout. I mean, I think they've I think they've been outstanding. Because it like for like longevity-wise, because I think you probably could argue for like Thomas DeToy and kind of Barno, but the way Barthrow take their props and things like that. Nicki Smith and Joe How Joe Hayes put in excellent performances week in, week out. Yeah, they yeah, they they are proper at the cold face old school props. Yeah, so yeah, once again, another week of this podcast where we are only being complimentary to Leicester. And uh yeah, you're welcome, Lester fans. Yeah, you're welcome. But yeah, it ended 34-7 in Leicester's favour, which is a big win at the stoop in normal well in fashion speaks, it's not somewhere that's easy to go to, although it looked particularly easy this week uh for Leicester. Uh and yeah, it makes for an interesting, interesting uh well, let's see how things come back together after the Six Nations break, uh whether that continues for Harlequins and for Leicester. Final game of the round, Rory. Sail Sharks, 29, Northampton Saints, 43, up at the core pack, I think it's called now, not the AJ Bell. Somewhere Northampton's not won. They mentioned this about, I don't know, 25 times in commentary. They've not won there since 2017 or something like that. Yes, they haven't home that point, didn't they? They hammered home that um I was quite pleased uh with the result for obvious reasons, but I don't think the result necessarily shows the 80-minute performance that it was for 60 minutes, I'd say, like in the middle 60, quite a close contest. Yeah, I mean, so sale 29, Northampton Saints 43. It was 1014 at halftime. Yeah. So, I mean, if you stuck around for the second half, which admittedly it was a hell of a gale for. So if you'd given up a half time, I wouldn't necessarily have blamed you if you were there, but what your money's worth in this in the second half. Um, I think this still showed that there are some some sort of underlying issues at Saints. Um, I think in the first half, I would say Saints once again were kind of their own worst enemy. They weren't efficient like you would expect them to be in 22. They started very well, so they scored their first two tries really quickly, and then that inefficiency kind of crept. The next sort of 20-25 minutes, they were pretty um profligate. I mean, Freeman shells a dolly in it with an open goal as well. Yeah, yeah. Yes, that would have been a beautiful try as well. It would have been. Um, you know, 10-14 and a half. I mean, it probably just about fair. I mean, it was pretty even first half, I would say, all in all. Um, obviously, if Rafi Quirk score a nice little snipe try. I think Sale looked good when they got in the red zone. Um, Saints didn't for a lot of that first half. Yeah, in terms of I think yeah, barring the first 10-15 minutes. Yes, I agree. Um, and then second half, I mean it couldn't have started better for Sale. So uh I think Alex Wills gathers the ball off the kickoff, whereas I think it's Toddrow's meant to be backing up behind the lifting pod, it just doesn't get anywhere near it. Wells just takes it, and then um Rafi Quirks just keeping the tempo up and up and up, and they go all the way across the other side of the pitch, and Carpenter scores in the corner. It's a really, really good try. Um, but it was a kind of another example of Saints, I would say slightly casual approach at times they've taken in the last few weeks. Um, it's been it's been creeping in a little bit. There's there's a little bit of casual attitude to the game at times, and I think sometimes with the best intentions of just trying to score really good tries, but sometimes it's in defence and in application. I think I don't know, it feels like there needs to be a little bit of a reset of expectations in some of the Saints players, just be like, you know, we can win everything here, but actually you've got to kind of apply yourselves, yeah. Um, because it that felt quite emblematic of some of the things that we've seen in the last couple of weeks. Um, but then you know, to be fair, from there Saints they put on their best attack for probably 35 minutes of Finn Smith. Um not Finn Smith. Uh not Finn Smith, sorry, Robbie Smith. Um sneaks sneaks one over. Um basically what I think changed, they started getting Tom Pearson on the ball, which they didn't really manage to do in the first. I think he hardly made a carry in the first half. Yeah, he was quiet in the first half. Yeah, second half, he actually got his got his hands on the ball for 20-25 minutes and actually started making some real impact. Um but then yeah, so a flatty then scores. Um Joe Carpenter does really good, gets gathers the ball in kind of traffic, does really, really well. Um, and then uh gets the ball to Ford, who puts in a lovely kind of inside ball to Ricky Samassa White, who then makes kind of um the break and puts her flatty in. But then Todorough scores off uh I think Furban. Yes, yeah. I think it was like the first touch he had from coming off the bench. Basically, the first yeah, the first thing he did. Um it's quite a loose kick chase from Sale, quite unused. It was a bad kick. It was a bad kick. Yeah. Um and then but Sale score and then Saint score. And basically the lead changed his hand like six times. Yeah, it did. It's yeah, you know, it's across the game. Um the Kemene try in that sequence is worth talking about because the it's a pass from Alex Mitchell off uh uh I think Callum Chick makes the break. Cole was making sort of pick and go, yeah, lifts it up to Camchick and makes the break, yeah, passes to Mitchell, but then does like a an old school kind of nines diving pass out to Kemini diving in in the corner. It was a really nice move. Looked you know, and that's what Saints look like at their best. Yeah, um, but some this it's a bit um there's some issues in that game, but then Henry Pollock comes on, then gets a couple of nice big high shots. Yeah, they try to take his head off a couple of times, yeah, and then I don't know, kind of maybe Saints kind of minds click into place a little bit and they never look like losing from there. Um, so Coles scores on 75 and then Pollock obviously finishes it off with a nice big ash splash at the end. Yeah, yeah. Um, I don't know what your thoughts are. I mean, for me, yeah, I Saints are so good to watch when they're when they get it right, and it just feels like the last few weeks they're not getting it right as often as you expected them. Yeah, I I I said it the other week, it does feel like there's there's still moments where it does feel like there's like a half second offness with some of the timing. I think some of the handling, and you have to accept it's like so the conditions weren't great, as you said, it was blowing an absolute storm up there. I think they were getting the tail end of the storm that ruined the Bristol Exeter game up there, yeah, yeah. Uh, because it was the evening kickoff. So obviously that would be playing a part and would be a factor as to why the handling wasn't great. Uh, but I as a Northampton fan, I I am still content because the endeavour's there and I can see what they're trying to do. If it's not coming off all the time, you kind of have to accept it when you try and play the way Northampton do. Like it's not going to work every single time. I think the the refreshing thing this season, and I think this is in comparison to last season, that when it doesn't go well, like the heads don't seem to drop like they did last season, and we're still able to go and get wins in tough places to go like away at sale. Um and I think a big part of that, I think the pack the pack is considerably more impactful this year than they have been in more recent seasons, and I think it could be a real difference maker when we get down to kind of knockout stages of this competition. I thought I was trying to th I was trying to think whether I agreed. I think it was Austin Healy, and I very rarely do agree with him, but I think he made an argument about have Northampton got the best balanced back row in the league? And when you think of like Kemeney, Pearson, and Chick at 6-7-8 with Pollock coming off the bench, that does feel incredibly balanced when you're trying to capture line-out options, threats out wide, jackal threats, industry, ball carrying, like every single facet you want from a back row does seem to be covered. And I'm wondering if that is a big part of why we're able to, even when things aren't clicking, we're still looking pretty good. Well, I think the big difference this season from last season is, you know, and touch words, the you don't have as many injuries in the pack. Yeah, that's very true. Very true. I also I also think back in back in this squad for the first time in a while. Yeah. I I'm I'm still minded to go with my previous assertion that I think Alex Coles is has been moving his game up this season. I I I feel like he's taken a step forward and he's is he world class? I'm not sure, but I think he is moving in that direction because his he's top, he's certainly top class in the prem. Yes, and I'm probably and he looks top class in Europe. For me, and I know there'll be people out there who disagree with this, and I've seen lots of people predicting their match day 23s. For me, he has to be a starting lock for England, the Six Nations, personally, based on form. Look, I think it's a tight call between him and Chesham still, because I think Chesham also looks very good at the moment, and Chesham's got uh a lot of very good qualities, and he's probably slightly bigger, but not there's actually not much in it between them. I wouldn't think there's more than three or four kilos between the two of them, um but Coles has been phenomenal all season, and you're right, he has I think he has taken his game on, and I think his um reading of the game in attack is probably his big standout compared to the other locks England have at their disposal because he's a genuine try-threat, he's a genuine attacking threat, um, much more so than Marrow, certainly. Um Chesham, I think, is is quite good at this, but I don't think he's as good at Coles. Yeah, so I suspect I think there's a real opportunity for him in the camp this week to stay on a market that says I I should be starting to hit a volley Chesham. Yeah, I don't know whether he will because I my gut feel is Borthit will go with the player with the most caps. Yeah, yeah. But um I think the opportunity's there if he wants to take it. Yeah, I I I hope he does. And I I know I'm probably well, I know you're gonna definitely say I'm biased, but I just I'm watching him actually though. I'm not gonna say what I was about to say. Um, but I was gonna say I remember having very similar feelings at a similar age about Courtney Laws, who so Coles is only 25, okay. So he's still 25, 26, so he's still got six, seven, eight years. Courtney Laws at this stage of his career was playing at lock, and a lot of the things he was getting challenged on to improve his game was being able to carry the ball better, reading the game better, being a better jackal threat. These are all the things Alex Coles have been working on. Oh, look, um I'm not saying Alex Coles is as good as Courtney Laws, I'm just saying there's comparables at the same stage of their career about what they're doing with their the way they're playing, and it's in the same position. Sure. So it's that's the only reason I'm drawing that comparison. Yeah, look, I mean look, if he reaches Courtney Laws level, brilliant, because Courtney Law's is a player I miss playing for England hugely. So my favourite player of all time other than Sawani Tongawe. So I think it's a fair shot. Um but no, look, Coles' trajectory is absolutely going in the right direction. Um, and he's definitely um uh he's definitely in that run into start for England because he's his form this season's been phenomenal. Yeah. Um should we put a little bit of time and focus on the other team in this context, uh Dave, before we uh fine, fine. Well, you know, I like actually I did want to focus on one part of the game that I thought Sale had the absolute upper hand. The aerial battle. I thought that they absolutely scored Northampton in the aerial game. Uh Alex Wills in particular, I think, was fantastic in this game. I I would go as far to say he was definitely top three best wingers on the pitch. Yeah, so top one would have been O'Flaherty, presumably. Uh then I guess Todorow, maybe second. Um comment, Rory. But I I I thought I thought they were excellent on the kick chase. Uh I thought Rafi Kirk and George Ford's kicking on the whole was pretty pretty excellent, and really was basically the vehicle for Sale Sharks responding to that early, that early start for Northampton, and that I I think they built off of that really well. Yeah, uh what do you make of um there was some talk, you know. Alex Sanders was at great pains to point out that Sale weren't in free fall. What do you make of this Sale team at the moment? Because they've had a very disappointing season by their standards, and they don't look likely to put the same kind of run in that they have done in the last couple of years to make the top four. It is an interesting one. Because yes, they've had their injury problems, certainly in the front row, and you know, uh like we've we've seen that can have huge impact on teams being able to build off of a s off of a solid kind of set piece and things like that, and I think that may be part of it. Um, you know, losing the likes of Tom Roebuck, who's kind of their big try-scorer last season, that's gonna have an impact. But I would have thought the players that they still have at their disposal that they should be able to navigate a string a number of results together. Um, but they should be doing better than they are, they should be doing better than they are, and I I can't necessarily put my finger on it, and I think maybe like some of the big name players may need to take a bit of accountability here. Uh have we seen the best of Tom Curry in a Sales Sharks shirt this season? I I think he's been I think he's had a really quiet season on by his standards. Um, yeah, Jacques Vermulen hasn't hit the levels he was hitting for Exeter when he's played for the year. Obviously, they've been missing Dander Prayer, which is a big problem. Ben Curry's obviously finished a lot, which is obviously a big problem for them. You know, Rafi Quirk's coming into form now, but he wasn't in good form at the start of the season. Yeah, I don't know, it's it's it's a difficult one to um to diagnose, isn't it? Really? Because even with some of those big players in and around the around them, they haven't looked that good. No, it's almost a little bit like what we've been saying about Saracens in recent times, that there's something just not quite right, it's not quite clicking. Uh, I'm not gonna go as far as saying it's on Sanderson, because I still think he has a lot of value to add up there, and I think he's done some really good stuff up there. Um so I don't think it's the same logic that I had around saying that Saracens were becoming stagnant under McCool. But I do think. That if George Ford doesn't have the answers for sale, who else is able to unlock defenses and who else is able to bring a bit of magic? And we saw in recent times that Rathy Quirk is why he's looking so good all of a sudden because he has all of a sudden started to provide another person able to do that. Yeah. I just feel like another team similar to Saracens, but haven't kind of moved with the times on the attacking play and look a bit old-fashioned, a bit rigid. Yeah, a little bit, a little bit. I th I think maybe they focus so much on like if you look at their season so far, I think in both competitions, both Prem and Champions Cup, they have made more tackles than any other team in any competition by quite some distance. Are they just physically being worn down by the amount the amount of defending they're doing in every single game? I mean, that could be it, because there are times when they look low energy. Like off like the top tacklers, like the top ten tacklers in the league, like four or five of them are Sail Sharks players. Yeah. Which is which is absolutely bonkers. Um, so that could be part of it as well, and maybe that's part of the reason why they're getting all these niggly injuries and players that just don't seem to be able to get a good run of fitness because they play such an attritional, offensively focused game. I don't is that rectif is that replicated on the training paddock and they're absolutely batting themselves in training? Like these are things we don't get to see, just as kind of armchair fans. But maybe the Six Nations breaks are coming at a very good time for them. Quite possibly. Um I yeah, maybe a bit of a rest, a bit of a chance to recharge the batteries will do them a world of good. I don't know. I I I would never write off Sail Sharks until it's mathematically written off because we've seen what they are able to do in terms of run rising things. But yeah, of course compared to last season, I've not seen the same threats and the same energy. No, so it's it's a fair point, it's a fair point. But as we said, Northampton deserved winners on the day and uh looking very good for their top of the table position at the moment. And I but I also think the Six Nations has come at a good time for them because as you say, there's been a few little glimpses of things not quite being right, so maybe a chance just to have a break, reset, and come up come back at it with fresh eyes will be well good for Northampton as well, who normally do well in the post-Six Nations block. Yeah, absolutely. And you know, which we're not gonna see any Prem games for what six or seven weeks now. Yeah, Mark, because of the because of the mad way that this season's organised. Um it I think it's be very interesting to see how teams come back from this this obviously enforced hiatus, yeah. Um, and who does what in that time. Um yeah, absolutely. Uh and obviously we could say, Oh, let's have a look at the Premier Rugby Cup, but we don't really care about the Premier Cup. We don't care, we're not gonna watch it. Like 95% of the uh 5.2 million dedicated rugby fans out there. Uh so yeah, but that's been the round 10 round up for everyone, and we'll go back to what we were doing before with Prem Rugby, and we'll talk about, we'll just do a quick fire. Our teams of the week Rory. Uh I have hastily scribbled some notes and put together a ragtag um team of the week. So let's just run through who we've gone. So who have you gone for in your loose head prop? I have gone Emmanuel Ayogen. I've gone Val, Val Rapava Ruskin. Fair, fair. I'm I'm I'm happy with Val uh to be a good competitor for the Jogan shout. I accept we may have a bit of biases there, but Val Val Val is a very validly try, big scrum, you know, had to come back on at loose head, scrumaged against um uh Tom's the toy towards in the game as well and held his own. You know, I I'm I'm I got a couple of turnovers as well. Yeah, he looked back on form. Yeah, I think that's fair. I I think the only reason I went are Yogan, one because I'm a one-eyed Saints fan, as Rory would constantly remind you all. Uh, but I also think he probably had a better performance compared to say Bevan Rodd, who is one of the better loose heads in the league. So I think it just does does look favourably on him. Uh who's your tight head? Uh I've gone for Big Trev. Big Trevor Davidson. I'm glad you've done that because I thought I was going to get absolute pelters for going for a double Northampton Saints front row. But yeah, for that exact same reason, he got he got one over Bevan Rod. One over Bevan Rodd. There was a bit of back and forth on the scrum penalties in this one, but I think Saints overall won the scrum battle. Yeah, and Trevor Davidson looked a big part of the reason. So I I thought he was more instrumental about the manier yoga, which is why I didn't go for a Jogen. Um, but I thought Trevor Davidson did a job on Bevan Rod in the end. I love Big Trev because he's a throwback to like traditional, just solid, solid tight head prop. Like you can you can do whatever you want, he's just not budging. Uh so that he looks like he could have been a contemporary of like Frank Cotton. Exactly, exactly that. Uh who's your hooker? Will Crane. Oh, I went Will Crane as well. You couldn't go with Will Crane. I I know James Hadfield called a couple of tries for Saracens, but I don't care. Will Crane. Will Crane's my my team of the week just for just that Gloucester line out by it all by itself. Uh second row, Rory. Uh in the four share, it was a toss-up for me between Cam Henderson and Alex Coles. But uh, I'm gonna concede on this occasion that Alex Coles was very good this week, so I let I will grant you Alex Coles. Tick, I agree. But with a I do I will show that I thought Cam Henderson was very good for tight heads against in his tackling, like in defence, he was putting in some huge, huge hits. Uh so that yeah, absolute Cam Henderson, very close second. And in your tight head lock shirt, uh I will have to consider it's it's Vandermesht this week. Wow, okay. Well, I deliberately didn't go Vandermesh because I thought I'd get accused of some sort of bias if I went for Saints shirts in the first five, so I went Nicoseque. Um yeah, Nicosequo was very was very good. That's not a bad shout, but I thought Vandermesh was fantastic. Yeah, yeah. I thought he was at his imperious best at this game. I wanted to pick him, but I just still want to be accused of being incredibly too biased. So, you know, I'm not gonna argue. Well, you are biased, so listen, why why not lean into it? Okay, who's your six then? Um I actually I'm not entirely certain this is where he went on the scrum, but I'm gonna go Guy Pepper because I thought he was so instrumental to Bath's turnaround in the Gloucester game. Um I th I thought he was I think he came on for the eight, but I actually think he packed down at six, so I'm gonna go Guy Pepper. Okay, well I went Josh Kennedy. I just I thought I nearly went Liebenberg because I thought he was good for Leicester as well in defence, yeah, and really just does what Liebenberg does. Uh and I I maybe mistakenly went Pepper in the seven shirt, and I think again that might be just down to just not being sure what position he came on at. Yeah, I went for Ludlow in the seven shirt, actually. Again, probably doing some bias here, but I thought I thought Lewis was I'll allow it. I'll allow it. Yeah, but I thought Guy Pepper and Lewis Ludlow were kind of between them epitomised the best part of each each team's performance. Um so yeah, for me, for me it's it was Ludlow in seven. Yeah, okay, that's fair. And you're number eight, Rory. Um acknowledging that I thought Callum Chick was phenomenal, but I'm gonna go Tom Willis. Yeah, I you can't I I completely agree with Callum Chick, phenomenal, but Tom Willis is on a different planet to everyone else at the moment, and he showed that against the Red Bulls. Uh your nine, Rory. I mean, almost purely because he knocked Tom Christie over the dead ball line, but I thought he was good all day on Charlie Bracken. Okay, yeah, Charlie Bracken, very good. I went Van Portfleet um again deliberately to not pick Alex Mitchell, who I thought was very good again. But I thought Van Portfleet was instrumental and really, really just really looking like he's moving back to some of his best form for Leicester, and you kind of had to I had to recognise that performance from Leicester in some way, shape, or form. Uh and your 10, Rory. I'm gonna go. Okay, I had Bellow as an as an option here, but I'm gonna go with Charlie Atkinson because he scored a try and set up another one, and just I thought we outplayed Finn Russell on the day. I had Charlie Atkinson as well. I thought he was fantastic. Uh, it's no surprise that Ross Byrne is now sitting on the bench and not even coming off the bench. Um because Atkinson is just putting in those good 80-minute performances. Uh, and I I know I've put in my so I obviously I put those those transfer rumour things out on my on the account as well. I know there's a very, very, very loose rumour out there around Charlie Atkinson to Saints. I imagine if that if that is in any way, shape or form in existence, I imagine Gloucester, these performances will be making Gloucester speed up and making sure that doesn't happen. Uh, if they've got any sense about them. Because he needs he needs to be your starting ten for the remainder of the season. 100%. 100%. So I'd I'd I'd imagine that rumour will be getting put to bed quite soon. Uh let's go centre pairings. 12. Uh I think 12 is Seb Atkinson. I agree with you, Rory. I agree. Seb Atkinson. Yeah, I mean, back back to his best, helped by not having to shoulder the entire performance on his own back, but um at when he was involved, he was superb. Yeah, um I'm in agreement. At 13. Not actually a lot of real standouts at 13. Um, it was actually between Rob Depreer and and uh Hutchinson for me. I'm gonna I'm probably just gonna go at Hutchinson. I went I went uh Losowski for Saracens. Um yeah, I mean probably probably a fair shout. It's really easy to look good when you're winning 73-14. Um that's kind of the part of the problem for me, is it I find it difficult to pick um from a team that kind of didn't have to do much. Yeah, yeah. But I I can see why you'd be thinking De Prier or Hutchinson uh as well. Um, yeah, I think just generally across the board the 13 shirt just wasn't the form shirt this week, and that's fine. That happens sometimes. Edward Giro was pretty good for Gloucester, but I didn't pick another Gloucester back in a and again we did actually lose. Yeah, very close to picking uh North had the Saints pack with a Gloucester back line here, which wouldn't have been a bad side for the weekend. I don't I don't like Temp uh Wingers Rory. Um so Noah Callory on the right. Yeah, you can't score four tries and not be in a team of the week. No, um no, you can't you just can't really. Um tempted by Shagan, uh who I thought was very good for Newcastle, but again, kind of on the same theme of can I pick uh two Sarris wingers? I thought I flatted it. I genuinely did think I flat he was very good. Uh I thought Alex Wills was very good. Um, but I'm going to give it to Hamer Webb. Good shout. He has looked good. Yeah, yeah. I think that's fair. Who I think is really I'd say Todoro again would have been in the Freeman would have been if he hadn't dropped a dolly. Yeah, I think if he'd if he'd scored that, I think that would have been that would have been enough for me. But I'm gonna go Hamer Webb because I I like I like what he's about. I like that he's just sort of going at it and he's now getting his opportunity and he looks good and he's now in the Wales squad, so that's fair. So I I went I know I know it's not his positional shirt, but I went Alex Wills just because how much how much of a threat he was in the air. Uh and he really get he he really gave a headache to Northampton Saints, and I just thought let's let's credit that, especially considering he's coming back himself from injury, uh to put it in a plot. Yeah, yeah, I thought he was very good, yeah. And fullback? Uh I went for Freddie Stewart. Yeah, yeah, me too. Me too. Uh hard to ignore uh what was a very, very good performance. Yeah. So there we have it, folks. Those are our teams of the week. So I'll I'll try and mock that up and get that into uh onto our socials so you can let us know what you think. Um and they will, and they will, I'm sure they will. Uh I'm sure it might be brought up a couple of times how uh Gloucester and Saints heavies these these teams are. But hey, statistically, I think we do dominate, yeah. Hey, if you don't like it, start your own podcast. Exactly. Um don't do that. Don't do that, no, don't do that. There's enough competition as it is. Paul Brown Bampo's brought one out. Um God, there's they're everywhere. Um, but that's us this week. All I'll say, so next week we're not going to be doing Prime Rugby Cup, as mentioned earlier. We are going to try and do a Six Nations kickoff special talking about the teams have been selected, maybe a bit about the under-26 nations, uh, looking ahead to the tournament, what we think the chances are, what our predictions are, uh, and things along those lines. Uh so yeah, hopefully you'll enjoy that one, and it will be a nice little change of pace from our Prem and Champions Cup uh conversations in recent weeks. Uh but for this week, Rory, and this particular episode, we are coming to a close. What are Rory's final thoughts? Finals thoughts? What is Rory's final thought? England for a grand slam. There you have it, folks. A little preamble to our Six Nations special next week. We've been Rux Malls and Noble Bulls. Uh, if you've enjoyed listening, make sure to like, subscribe, follow, and tell your friends because we love to just talk rugby, and the more people who listen, the more we can talk about it. Uh, thanks for listening, and we'll be back again next week. Ta