They've been doing it all day sir!
Two Englishmen in Australia, talking sports and life in a new country
They've been doing it all day sir!
From Streakers to Scrums: Inside the Six Nations, ICC Champions Trophy and the NRL in Vegas!
In this lively episode of 'They've Been Doing It All Day, Sir,' hosts Ben and Chris cover everything from chaotic bus rides to wild pitch invaders. Dive into their weekly recaps, including missed buses and recovery from beer-filled adventures. The duo also recounts the strangest sports field incidents they've witnessed, from streakers at Bolton to flying changing rooms. They tackle serious sports talk with in-depth reviews of the Six Nations rugby matches, ICC Champions Trophy surprises, and NRL preseason dramas. Expect a mix of banter, serious analysis, and bold predictions as Ben and Chris gear up for another weekend of sports madness. Don't miss their quirky takes and spirited sports commentary!
Hello and welcome to another episode of They've Been Doing It All Day, sir. I'm Ben. And I'm Chris. And this week we've got a lot of topics to look forward to, so let's get stuck in.
SPEAKER_00:How's your week been,
SPEAKER_02:mate? Yeah, not been too bad, actually. Been a busy one. A lot of chaos on the trains again. Sorry, not the trains. A lot of chaos on the buses. Got driven past today by a bus driver, which made me late for work. Wasn't too happy about that one. And yeah, we had a few beers at the weekend,
SPEAKER_00:which was a good one. We did have a few beers on Saturday. I think I've only just recovered from that. My usual tactic of drinking and not eating always comes back and bites me in the ass, I suppose. And yeah, it's been a bit of a struggle but it was fun it was a good day out
SPEAKER_02:it certainly was and Newtown is a very interesting place in Sydney so yeah it was interesting to go south of the bridge as well first time we've been south of the bridge in a long time good to switch things up but yeah how's your week been what you been up to
SPEAKER_00:just the usual to be honest we had the Australia Talent ID day for the flag team well for the flag teams this weekend as well so it was good for a wide mix of athletes to turn up, try and get tested. So they had a couple of drills that they go through and then it's put up against nationally, against everyone else. So yeah, it's good. And our girls are ranked quite high within that and the speed and the agility. So yeah, it's good. It's good. Not as chaotic getting from my bed to my front room to work. So other than that, I haven't had any commuter issues this week so far. So yeah, should we get into it?
SPEAKER_02:Yep, for sure. So we're going to kick things off with, like we did last week, a little bit of a different topic around kind of last week we had the would you rather. This week we're talking around what are some of the strangest things that you've seen on a sports field. So this might not be on a professional sports field, it might be an amateur sports field, but what are the things that you've witnessed?
SPEAKER_00:First one off the top of my head has to be Bolton away in 2010. Bloke dressed up as Pamela Anderson and streaked onto the pitch and was running around and gave big Joe Hart a hug, which was quite an entertaining 10 minutes until he got escorted off the ground. And yeah, I think that's where I'll start. That was quite an interesting...
SPEAKER_02:I think, yeah, streakers are quite common. I think I've been at a few venues where you've seen streakers just run on, obviously crowd going mental, cheering and cheering when security come on as well, trying to catch them. That often draws a bit from the crowd. But one of the weirdest things I've seen from an amateur standpoint was... was playing a game of American football with the London Warriors and we had a changing room that was outside. The changing room wasn't outside, but it was an away tent because there's something being done to the changing rooms within the rugby club that we played at. It's quite a windy day. And this tent decided to take off. It got blown away and blew over into the garden of one of the houses nearby. That caused a bit of a scene. That's probably the kind of weirdest, strangest thing that I've seen. But other than that, on a professional football field, I think it was the argument between Antonio Conte and Thomas Tuchel after Chelsea's 1-1 or it might have been a 2-1 2-2 oh it was when Cucurella got his hair pulled that's what it was and Tuchel and Conte came to somewhat blows on the sideline but
SPEAKER_00:yeah anything else spring to mind? Yeah, I was there when Jack Grealish got punched in the Blues for the Derby. That was a raucous occasion, I think is the best way to describe it. Very much you get embodied into the atmosphere of what's going on and he was very much the pantomime villain and someone had... had a few extracurriculars and a few pints and decided he needed to take things into his own hands and punch Jack Grealish. Obviously, he goes on and scores the winner and we end up losing 1-0. Not a bad way
SPEAKER_02:to get revenge,
SPEAKER_00:I suppose. I suppose. I think he ended up saying it was the best day of his life at one point, which has probably now been beaten by winning the treble with City. That's another strange one. Amateur side of things... it's just the usual when everyone gets hit in the nether regions I think that's always quite amusing been on the receiving end a couple of times myself and it's never nice if it's you but it's always quite funny if it's someone else
SPEAKER_02:yeah certainly I suppose sticking with the Birmingham City theme and kind of keeping with following them how did it go over the weekend had a game against Reading I believe
SPEAKER_00:yep drew 0-0 with Reading absolute snore fest you were
SPEAKER_02:watching that on the bus I was yeah
SPEAKER_00:I wasn't too far before, honestly, on the bus as well. It was not very entertaining in the slightest, but we beat Bradford last week and we're going to Wembley, so that's good.
SPEAKER_02:Do you reckon you'll sell out Wembley?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, we've been given£36,000, so you'd expect us to be able to sell out that. And then we've got a home game against Leighton Orient tomorrow morning as well. So again, I'll be up watching that. They've been doing quite well at the moment. Is it a game in hand that you mentioned? I don't know at this point. The amount of... I think we're going to end up having another one because we're supposed to play Blackpool on the weekend that we were in the final. So we're going to have another game in hand and we've got two games in hand already with over Wrexham and Wickham. So... So yeah, we're playing Leighton Orient, who are on a bit of a run. We're beating 1-0 away earlier on in the season, so I don't know whether the cup run has taken a little bit out of us and the highs of that has taken out a bit of steam, but hopefully return back to winning ways tomorrow morning. How about yourself? How are Chelsea getting on?
SPEAKER_02:Terrible. Do you know what? I didn't bother watching the game. It was on at 4.30am and I think it was, in fact, no, it was a 4.30am in the UK kick-off, which means it was a, what, 3.30am game over here. Wasn't getting up for that. And then I wake up in the morning to see lost 2-1. And Villiers 2, Loney, signings in Rashford and Asensio, is it Asensio? I think that's his name. Yeah, scored both games. Both their goals were assisted and scored in both their goals and it was an 89th minute winner and the keepers had a howler.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it seems to be a bit of a running theme with your goalkeepers this season. I said
SPEAKER_02:it a while ago that we've got the worst goalkeeper in the Premier League in Sanchez and then Jorgensen or whatever his name is. Again, it just shows how much I don't follow them at the moment because there's just no passion to... get up in the morning or keep an eye on what's going on when results are going so bad. And it may come across like a plastic fan, but it's just not worth the time and the effort. When Chelsea might be successful again, I might get involved. But do you know what? I must admit the NRL is quickly taking over as one of the bigger passions of mine when it comes to sport. And I think the access to times, being able to watch it during the day on a Saturday, Friday night, all that sort of stuff does help. But it's just a shame because who knows what's going on with Chelsea Football Club. Terrible at the moment.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's... We've spoken about it previously. You do lose that attachment to it and you do feel a little bit disorientated from it all and trying to keep up with it. But no, I completely, completely understand about that. And then talking about things getting up early for things. Six Nations.
SPEAKER_02:Six Nations. Now, I didn't get up early for this. I tried to the England game I'm talking about. I tried to avoid social media when I woke up in the morning and maybe watch it back. Didn't happen. Wasn't successful. I ended up finding out the score. Great result for England. We're going to dive into it a bit more detail in a second. But it's just one of those things again, like. you wanna get up and watch it, but what impact does it have on the following day? And especially with kids, I can't just go and go to sleep at whatever time during the day and hope that I'll be able to then catch up or whatever, I've got to try and carve out some time to watch it at a different point. And I managed to, which was good, but I didn't get to watch the other two games. I didn't get to see Italy against France, or I didn't get to see Wales versus Ireland. But which games should we talk about first?
SPEAKER_00:Let's go in order. Let's go Wales, Ireland, England, Scotland, and then with Italy, France.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, sure. So... Obviously, Ireland walked away with a victory. As I mentioned, I didn't get to watch it, but I did get to see the highlights. I watched the highlights earlier today. And to me, like my quick summary of it, of what I think I saw was Ireland were pretty much in control in the first 10, 20 minutes. Then they got the yellow upgraded to red card. There's a period of 20 minutes where they have 40 men on the field. Wales brought it back, managed to They obviously must have played good rugby because they were 18-10 up at one point and up until the 55th minute or something like that they were leading. But then Ireland just do what Ireland do. They find that next level, that next gear and they just seem to... then dominate and walked away 27-18 victors. But you obviously watched it a bit more, looked at it a bit more. What are your thoughts?
SPEAKER_00:I think it was very much a game of both 10s. It was quite good to watch. I think Prendergast is very much looking as though he's going to be the Lions 10. He's just been so consistent with it and... with how he's playing as well. He's so calm. He's got an absolute rocket of a right foot as well, which is helping out defensively. The thing that I have picked up on, that he's leading the Six Nations with missed tackles though, with 15. So that's a little bit of an area of concern because especially coming up against Australia who have a big forward pack, you're wanting your 10 channel to be pretty sturdy, which we'll discuss how... England have one of those that are sturdy. But one of the things that really impressed me about him was even though they only kicked off a few times, but with those really short high kickoffs he was doing, gives time for the forwards and the backs to get up and win the ball. So it's not a case of an automatically losing the ball at the kickoff. There's a big chance of winning it. And it counted a few times. But yeah, From an analytic point of view, Wales' front row started really strong. Their front three were incredible. You heard it on commentary so many times. They put in a shift and a half. They were everywhere. They were at every breakdown. They were there making the meters. Will Griff John I think was the standout number three for his cameo appearance for I think it was about 50 minutes he played was making his Six Nations debut at 32 and has only had three caps for Wales so I think there's still time for ourselves to make an international call up I think
SPEAKER_02:I'm over the hill on that one the body I think would fall apart if I stepped foot on any competitive pitch now
SPEAKER_00:but no he played really well he got a couple of early penalties against Port as well and the Irish the Irish loose head so that was a play for doing that on your
SPEAKER_02:international debut
SPEAKER_00:as well or Six Nations debut sorry Wise I think he played for paid for sale as well so he had a bit of bit of experience there and having Gareth Anscombe in back in as at fly half he the media the Welsh media had been coming out and screaming for for a Welsh 10 to be playing um they had a center playing in at 10 and they brought someone back and he made an absolute sort of different um with that with that part but yeah that yeah i think you summarized the game up quite well um it
SPEAKER_02:was definitely a red card as well like yeah i saw that on the highlights clear like helmet to helmet same height as the yeah the attacker didn't really do anything to mitigate his level and it's it's one of those ones that definitely can cause damage to both parties so you can see why it's ruled out the game and similarly this weekend for the people back in the UK that might be listening there was a incident in one of the super rugby games this weekend where similar incident happened two people someone was diving for a try someone came in with a low tackle they collided heads but ironically in that there wasn't even a card but they were both badly concussed so it just goes to show maybe the player that did I've forgotten his name but the player that did make the tackle has now been cited and probably will get suspended. But I think the yellow upgrade to red card is probably the best way to go about it. Ensuring safety for everyone, making sure people off the field getting checked, but also to say, give time for the referees to check things properly. And when foul play comes in, yeah, it was definitely a red.
SPEAKER_00:And it's within that 20 minutes where... Wales then shifted to domination their play was a lot more fluid which was really good to see but the combinations between the backs and the forwards was a lot better than it had been in previous weeks they had just the final pass and a couple of mistakes killed them they had such a better chance to get a lot closer to Wales unfortunately they didn't but there was just class throughout from Ireland it started with I think it was Ringrose did an unbelievable 50-20 down the sideline where he just nustled it that was just in the Irish half he nustled it down the line it went out in the 22 and then also Prendergast did a pretty awesome one as well which which could be looked at as a little bit of a turning point of the game they were deep in their own half and he just clears it spirals it to the 22 and then Ireland they're on the front foot and what i think there i think it was a second try um was arguably the best uh the little chip through to james um james lowe he yeah he will if he went up knocked it back yeah and and it's an absolute what absolutely talent he is out in the wing um and just shows what he what he adds um
SPEAKER_02:interesting because i'm sure we're going to talk about scotland in a minute and just these international wingers that seem to come from
SPEAKER_00:different places
SPEAKER_02:and they're actually quite good believe it or
SPEAKER_00:not and i think it was gibson park who actually kicked it over to him um so there's two kiwis in in green uh and and um joining up and then talking to people who have a potential
SPEAKER_02:Other nationalities. There's a man called Bundiaki that... He's Irish now. He
SPEAKER_00:is fully Irish. He's just got his citizenship. But I saw
SPEAKER_02:a picture of him just before he came on and then a picture of him after his... It's not really a cameo appearance, but he came on for however many minutes and he looked like he had been in a war. Yeah, it just...
SPEAKER_00:the longer
SPEAKER_02:the game went on, the
SPEAKER_00:more
SPEAKER_02:intimidating he looked. I think he had the paint from the field on his face. He had like the black paint all over his face. He had blood coming down. He had blood on his
SPEAKER_00:jersey. He had a big, big pop on the, uh, the old schnoz at one point. And, um, yeah, he, he, he just quite came on. He said, he came. So he was, um, ring roses. I think it was ring rose. I was, I can't remember who got, who was that with descending off, but he came on as his replacement after 20 minutes. And, um, he just stayed the ship. He was at breakdowns. If you go watch it back, he's celebrating every little thing from that. He won a couple of key jackals and yeah, he was just sublime when he came on. but
SPEAKER_02:Wales nearly had a chance to pull it close at the end it was deemed a knock on lost control of it as he was going to put it down he actually put it down short which again was the right call and I just love how the referees are heard by the stadium crowd they can hear everything there's no confusion and it just clears everything up but Ireland still on for the Grand Slam
SPEAKER_00:they are they've got the triple crown now so they've beaten England Scotland and Wales so they've got the triple crown and And they're on for the Grand Slam, but the way France played.
SPEAKER_02:We'll get on to that in a bit about what could potentially happen. But I think it's coming down to bonus points. I think it's coming down to bonus points. But yeah, Ireland on for the Grand Slam. And then the next fixture that came along was at... What's it called nowadays? Allianz. Allianz Stadium. I don't like it. It's always Twickenham and it should be Twickenham. But naming rights for stadiums we could probably talk about at some other point. But... I think England massively got away with one.
SPEAKER_00:Massively. Again.
SPEAKER_02:You look at the first half and I think England were only down in Scotland's 22 twice. Once they scored and that was what immediately after Scotland scored in the first five minutes. I think it was good that we retaliated the way that we did and we managed to get down there but the second time was just before half-time and then the ball was so slow through the hands the crowd started getting frustrated in the second half but It was just like it was forward pickup, forward offload, run in, run in, boot away, boot away, boot away, exit kick, exit kick, not get that fast. Scotland caused more pressure. Then the only time that we did start putting it through the hands, Marcus Smith breaks away, gets down there. I thought he probably could have passed it earlier. And then he gives it to Lawrence out on the wing. He tries a flick pass or it was someone that tried to flick pass. And that was the only two times we ended up down in there.
SPEAKER_00:I don't understand why he just doesn't run with it every time he gets it. With the way that the kicking game is, if you give him the meters to attack, he's going to cause issues. He's very much like that... break that you talked about is very much sort of comparing him and Chivojevic, Turbo. When Turbo's playing fullback, he comes through and he's that first pass into the hole. He's on that shoulder straight away. And you just look at some of the key stats from it. The metres gained or metres ran was 322 compared to 517 of Scotland.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Scotland carries that they had. They had 160 carries. England only had 79.
SPEAKER_00:That's ridiculous. And then you go to the kicking, 36 kicks from hands compared to 25.
SPEAKER_02:You touched on this last, was it last week or the week before, about England's poor exit kicking and that's what led to the first try as well. It's
SPEAKER_00:just unnecessary at times. Yeah. everything just seems to be a kick kick kick scotland were bad at it as well they i don't i it could be territory it could be the way that the sport's leaning but scotland so many times when they were five ten meters within their own half they'd do it they'd do a deep kick and they get it you've got marcus smith at fullback who didn't i
SPEAKER_02:think they were trying to put pressure
SPEAKER_00:on
SPEAKER_02:him
SPEAKER_00:he didn't come down with many let's be honest so it might be a good tactic from that but If it knocks off your own hand, it's a scrum and it's a change of possession. You're surely wanting to commit to the route, go through the phases. It's there to be able to do. And it just kills it so many times. And you could hear the Twickenham crowd just booing.
SPEAKER_02:Booing. And that was at the end of the first half, or sorry, the start of the second half and into the middle of the second half. And you could tell they paid a lot of money to go and watch that. And it was... Not entertaining. I mean, look, at the end of the day, England did get the win, which is the most important thing. And some say the outcome is better than kind of the process in which you get there. But I've got a question for you. Now, they showed Van der Merwe's, sorry, the try that was scored, Scotland's first try, and they showed it from a camera angle at the side. And I don't know if you picked it up, but I thought Van der Merwe's pass was slightly forward. If you look at it, I don't know if you picked it up, but he was just behind the 50. halfway line when he passed it and he motioned if it looked like he motioned forward and whoever ran onto it I can't remember who danced around a few people looked like he caught it beyond the 50 and it looked forward one to look out for if you go back and watch it but I thought it was forward and questionable
SPEAKER_00:but that's how it goes is what classes of forward pass is it like the hands is it because if he's running his natural momentum will... I think it looked like his hands were going forward. Okay, I know. I didn't pick up on that.
SPEAKER_02:That's a good little... Go and take a look. But one of the most costly things for Scotland, I thought they were very good throughout, but it's like they struggled when... England's defence, I thought, was pretty good this week, actually. There were times where it was a bit all over the place, but when it needed to be solid... down on the goal line, down inside the 10, it was solid. And they were physical. And they forced Scotland into a few errors, a few handling errors, a few knock-ons, a few passes here and there. But I think the biggest thing that cost Scotland was the accuracy of Finn Russell's kicking. Zero for three on the conversion.
SPEAKER_00:Six points right there.
SPEAKER_02:And that's it. And to be fair, the last one, no, it was the first one that was... You slot it 99 times out of 100, and you missed it. And at that point, obviously, you're thinking, oh, it's not going to cost us, but it's come back to bite him in the arse. And the cameraman for the last one was terrible. You only saw it after the event happened.
SPEAKER_00:Well, did you see the uproar about that as well?
SPEAKER_02:Was the spider cam in the way?
SPEAKER_00:No. The referee... So with the kick, you have to have it in line where the try was scored. And apparently... which I did look out for, the referee moved him two more meters towards the touchline. If you look at where... Because
SPEAKER_02:Van der Merwe did step in and try to get as close
SPEAKER_00:as he could. But where he does put it down is probably just outside the five-meter line. And then the referee bumped him over, so there was a little bit of that. Yeah. Again, I agree England's defence was very good, but when it's sporadic and when it's counter, when it's against a counter-attack, they're just at fives and sixes, they're all over the place. That's been an issue and that's how I think Scotland and it's gone, because it was all over the place, as I said, against France as well. It's that trying to... just to a counterattack, and it's just not there, unfortunately.
SPEAKER_02:For Scotland's third try, though, I thought that McDowell ran a great line off the arse of the ref. I thought he used the ref too, and he just cut through the middle of England. And at that point, you're like, yeah, it was a great line, great run. Incredible. You see his orange jersey in the middle of the referee, and he runs straight behind him.
SPEAKER_00:But from a defensive point of view, no one's looking at him. No one would have been able to see where he came from. Yeah. That was incredible. Incredible to sort of kick in. Sorry, just an incredible sort of position and line run. Defensive work is... I did... Wow, this is the thing. I think I saw the game a little bit different to you. Because again, I don't think England's defence was... All in my notes, I've just got defensive work, shocking defensive work. Van der Merwen was running over people left, right and
SPEAKER_02:centre. So England missed a lot of tackles. Did England
SPEAKER_00:miss a lot of tackles? If we quickly look at it, England made 206 out of 241 tackles at a rate of 85%. Scotland, 91 tackles out of 101 at a rate of 90%. Again, that just shows where the possession and where the attacking intent
SPEAKER_02:was. But then the question boils down to why couldn't Scotland finish it off then? That's very true. And I think it's because of that being a solid wall when you needed to. And all right, well, I say that Scotland scored three tries, but they could have had five or six or should have had five or six. So... I don't know, six of one, half a dozen of the other. Like, I'm not taking anything away. England massively got away with one. But what it does do is set it up nicely for the coming weeks. We've got, what, two rounds left? We've got...
SPEAKER_00:It's not all doom and gloom, though, for England. I thought there was a very good standout performance by sort of Finn Smith again. Agreed. They 100% targeted his channel and... Contrary to what I was saying about Prentagast, involved in 20 tackles, missed four but made 16. And where was he in the table? of tacklers for the day?
SPEAKER_02:For England, he was the second, just behind Bernal, who made 17 tackles. Finn Smith made 16. That's somewhat... Similarly, again, he's walking away with blue all over his jersey. And the crowd erupted when he... I can't remember who he drove back, but
SPEAKER_00:he literally picked him up
SPEAKER_02:and drove him back. And the crowd had gone mental. And you could tell he was just pumped. And his parents were in the crowd as well when he slotted that. 48 meter penalty.
SPEAKER_00:And just to sort of go on, like Jamie Ritchie, yeah, Jamie Ritchie scored for Scotland, caused so many issues at the breakdown. I think he won two or three throughout the day. Slow play from Mitchell at Scromath. It's just boring. You just see him staring at the ball and you're like, I guess I wonder what's coming here. And it was... It's a little bit frustrating. I suppose it sped up a little bit when Randall came on, but I'll talk about it in the Italy-France breakdown, but there's something that England need to learn from France. And I just wanted to ask you something. So in there, I don't know if you remember it, but in the 66th minute, England won a penalty just in front of the post.
SPEAKER_02:Is this where Ben Curry got
SPEAKER_00:lifted up? um no it was after multiple offenses yeah and england were five meters out yeah and they went for the points
SPEAKER_02:on the flip side of that though i know what you're on about we went for three points scotland were i think there was still 15 minutes left something like that and finn russell elected to kick and go for points and that ended up biting them in the ass if they would have kicked the three, and then scored that try. I know it's all if, buts, and maybes, and you only do absolutes and all that sayings, but it's one of those things where, I don't know, maybe England thought their defence could hold them out. Three points. It's 13-10 at that point, wasn't
SPEAKER_00:it? The only reason I question it is just the... Mentality. No, it's not the mentality, the momentum of that period, of that phase of the game. The referee had a chat with Finn Russell when the next penalty... or someone's going. If England, number one, had elected to go for the penalty, for the scrum. Five meters out, Scotland had already conceded three penalties at the scrum. That's someone gone. Or if they go to the line out again and go through the phases, one little penalty, one offside, someone's in the bin. I just thought there was a chance for England and I can't remember which game it was. I think it was the Italy-France game, actually. They had a very similar position in scrum and you can create an overlap so quickly from a scrum at the set piece. If you use like an 8-9-12 combination and have your 10 looping, you can create three on twos and you can
SPEAKER_02:recreate
SPEAKER_00:the Scottish defense well there's a couple of things about it I don't think it was as wide as when they did it against France yeah the width Slade wasn't
SPEAKER_02:yeah
SPEAKER_00:I don't think it was as wide and secondly Scotland's defense was brilliant they knew it was
SPEAKER_02:coming they'd seen it on film recognized it and just went oh we know what's coming here and they stopped it in the tracks but That was, yeah, it's an interesting point you raise. And I think it's about the mentality because also the tactics taken by England of just constantly booting the ball away. It's very, very passive. Defense, like negative mindset. It's almost like they're trying to rely on other mistakes rather than creating opportunities themselves. So I don't know, but look, I think we got, yeah, got away with one sloppy, but...
SPEAKER_00:Going into Italy... I think it's positive. Things you can take away from it is the set pieces were a lot better. I think they may have lost one line out. And they won two from Scotland. And they won five out of the six. And
SPEAKER_02:they won one really important at the end as well. Oli, who was it who came down with it? It got tapped on back to him. And that was a key, key moment because that then led to the kickaway. the catch, drive him out. But
SPEAKER_00:even that one, because it was within England's 22, I think, stole it, poor exit kick, charged down, Scotland were back again. Yeah, very true. So I think as England fans, we're very aware of it's not rosy.
SPEAKER_02:My worry is, one, Italy could cause an upset next week. But they're going to want to come back and prove a point after what happened in what we'll talk about next. But we play in Cardiff against Wales on the last game. After their performance against Ireland, they're going to feel that they're going to have some momentum. And I don't know, I feel it's just going to be one of those ones where... I
SPEAKER_00:think it could be like a 22-10 Wales win.
SPEAKER_02:It's going to be horrible, but should we move on to the last game of the weekend, which I went to bed thinking, do you know what, Italy are on the up. I think there could be a potential upset or it could be a close game. France just wanted to prove a point, and boy, did they do that. What was the final score in the end? It was 73. They
SPEAKER_00:defrosted from their horrible evening at Twickenham. 73-24. They were placed in their nice hot saunas and had some coffee and, yeah, turned up. Some
SPEAKER_02:pain au chocolat. Some pain au chocolat. Yeah, absolutely batted them. Again, like I said, I didn't even bother watching the highlights because I'm like, well, France have scored 10 tries. It might have been nine, but they absolutely ran away with it.
SPEAKER_00:Relentless. Every time they attack, they look like they're scoring. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I'm glad we've got them out of the way. It was a wake-up call they needed, losing a tight one to England. But yeah, I'm glad we played them. Prior to someone else doing that, I don't know, maybe Wales would have snuck one over them or something like that. We could have been on the receiving end of that. So I'm glad we got in there before that happened.
SPEAKER_00:But no, it's one of those where I think the scoreline does reflect how well France were attacking. And this is what I was going to say, is their relentlessness and how quick they were getting the ball out, their offloads, the ball from the base of the rocks it was just speed it was incredible and I spoke about this a few weeks ago England are so slow with that speed and it was dreadful from there but for France it just kept the game going so fast and Italy were all over the place defensively but flipping it Italy were incredible going forward as well they've got some brilliant talent attacking wise
SPEAKER_02:to be fair coming away with 23-24 points isn't nothing to be sniffed at when you're playing a a France team that are fairly good defensively as well.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and the point that I made was they're trying the 60th minute, Italy's trying the 60th minute is why England should have gone from the scrum in the 60th minute of their game is they're able to ship it out. They had an overload. and they scored from it. France's, one of the things I picked up massively is France's line out more was unstoppable. They did it a couple of times in their own 22 and still drove it 10, 15 meters. And yeah. England need to attack Italy. They can't do this kicking game. They should take a leap out of France. I wonder if Italy
SPEAKER_02:are going to come about with some weird old tactics again to unsettle like they did when they didn't contest the RAC or whatever it was a couple of years ago. But I don't think we've ever seen anything like it since. But I mean, the ladder, the ladder, bloody hell, I'm so used to being in Australia. It's called a ladder over here. It's actually, it should be referred to as a table. The table, the Six Nations table. I mean, France's points differential is absolutely sharp. Massive. 91 but I mean Ireland are top on 14 France sitting in second with 11 England on 10 it's got to be it's between those three who wins it it's coming it's coming down to bonus points if France beats France beat Ireland last last round of the the Six Nations then it could be anyone's but England I think England have got to get two bonus point victories minimum they can't get any more than two bonus points victory to maximize any more points but you know i mean they in order to stand a chance of winning the tournament they need to get maximum points out of both games
SPEAKER_00:yeah um and let's see if they if they can
SPEAKER_02:we'll find out we'll find out so we'll certainly review those those fixtures next week once we once we know what happens but from one england to another the icc champions trophy we've discussed a a lot about England's white ball cricket. And we were sitting on the bus on the way home on Saturday and I was like, wow, England have posted 351. I don't think Australia are going to chase that down. And you were constantly badgering like, oh, it must be a road if Ben Duckett scored 163. Imagine what they're going to do. I was like, nah, wake up in the morning and they've knocked it off with five wickets to spare. Like four wickets I think nine balls to go, something like that. What was par for that? Par must have been
SPEAKER_00:370, 380. I just said 400. I reckon like 390, 400. Yeah. Both England and Australia left runs out there. I think Salt, Root, Brook.
SPEAKER_02:Middle order. Brook is in the worst form of his life at the moment. Considering I thought the guy was the next Don Bradman, I think that's my course in controversy. But yeah, he's on an absolute slump in form at the moment. And it leaves England with a lot to do in that group.
SPEAKER_00:You just look at... what i wrote and and how easy is it and i discussed it the other week um with using pace and with wood and with archer their openers they just they just flicked it and it was flying for for four um they they didn't barely have to do anything they just got the bat to ball and it was hitting the boundary so fast um then khan um and livingston came on and slowed the tempo down a little bit um but it just It was just constantly going. And also, you can go straight to the point of, as we made, catchies win matches as well.
SPEAKER_02:Archer dropping... Who was it? Inglis. Ingles. Whatever his name is. The English guy. I think it was Carey he dropped, actually. Was it Carey?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I was just looking because at the moment... Well, not at the moment, but in Australia, everything's in kilometres an hour. And I was like, well, I saw something that Mark Wood was bowling... consistently at 150 kilometers an hour 93 miles an hour
SPEAKER_00:they both were clear in 90s they were bowling fast yeah on a road
SPEAKER_02:maybe they're just preparing to come over here i don't know but then it's against australia again so we'll see
SPEAKER_00:yeah um carrie was incredible in the field oh what a catch what a catch to remove so two three catches he took it he
SPEAKER_02:just he's a natural wicket keeper though so the guy can catch like there's no doubt about it but to get himself in a position where he's One arm up in the air, catching the ball to remove one of your openers. Yeah, very good. And you can never keep Glenn Maxwell out of the game. He's always there. He's always there to hit the winning runs. There's this aura about Australia when it comes to white ball cricket, right? We've spoken about previously that is this the changing of the guard? They've lost a lot of big names. And then they just seem to put on a performance. But I think what we're telling for them is when they play South Africa, like England at the moment are in a bit of a, bad patch. Let's see how they go up against South Africa, who opened up with a win against Afghanistan, which was expected. I think South Africa do look strong. England have got to beat them to progress. I can't see it happening myself, I think.
SPEAKER_00:Bavuma's in a fair bit of form as well at the moment. I think he's got, they said, two or three 50s in his last three innings. And he's just knocking them out at the top of the order and They've got the pace in Didi. Yeah. Unfortunately, I...
SPEAKER_02:At the time of recording this, it's still up in the air, Group B, because... Yeah, we've only gone through one round of fixtures, but in Group A, New Zealand and India have qualified. I boldly said that Pakistan would get out of that group. And then first fixture of the tournament, they got slapped up by New Zealand, sent packing. They lost to India pretty convincingly the other day. India look good as... We thought they might, India, New Zealand is the final game of that group to decide who finishes top. But I think we could potentially be seeing an India, New Zealand final, all dependent on the order in which, like who plays who in the semi-final. Because I think South Africa, whoever plays Australia from our group, should Australia make it through? will likely be favourites against Australia and then whoever plays South Africa I feel will be the stronger of the two even if Australia are top of the group I still think South Africa are the stronger team out of the two and will cause more of a problem to India or New Zealand if that makes sense around what I'm saying so we'll just see how it goes but yeah thoughts moving forward who do you think is going to win it from here?
SPEAKER_00:India India they look so good I'm sorry they're They just have everything. They have batters that can make runs. They've got bowlers. I've absolutely loved seeing Mohamed Shami back as well. Causes problems. Yeah, it's an India win for me, I think, unless Australia just do an Australia. This is when they're the best, is when they're... Massive underdogs. Massive underdogs, and that's when they end up winning. There were massive underdogs at the World Cup going into that final. There were massive underdogs at the T20 World Cup as well, so... We'll
SPEAKER_02:see how it goes. We'll see how it goes. But impressive from India. They turned over Pakistan, set them a total of 244 and bowled them out for 214. So, yeah, I think the trophy's got India's name on it unless anything. Well, saying that, we've just suggested that they're going to win it. So something will probably happen in the next
SPEAKER_00:week, which means they won't. We'll see.
SPEAKER_02:But we'll see what happens. This last weekend, we saw the end to the NRL preseason challenge. Some interesting things to take from it. I know we've mentioned previously that we're not going to take... too much from the NRL preseason, but there were some teams that put out some strong lineups and didn't do too well. I mean, we're talking about the Seagulls. They played against the Penrith Panthers on Friday night at Leichhardt Oval. It was a six o'clock kickoff on a Friday. The weather wasn't great. Manly still didn't put out a lot of their big names. But they did have Ruben Garrick, who's been named, who Seabold came out and said he's going to start in the centres. Or was it on the wing that he said he was going to
SPEAKER_00:start? In the
SPEAKER_02:centres. In the centres. So he was playing. Kola was playing. Nathan Brown had a run out. Bullymore had a run out who scored. Love the guy. Absolutely love the guy. He doesn't stop. No, he doesn't. He's a great guy. And talking of Manly Seagulls, We actually got a shout out from Matt Lodge. The one and only Matt Lodge. The one and only Matt Lodge. So for reference, one of our mates runs a boxing podcast and he was at an event out, a training event and was interviewing him, told him about us and yeah, he gave us a shout out. So head over to our Instagram to have a look at Matt Lodge giving us a shout out.
SPEAKER_00:And we also better say like it's nice of him for allowing us to use his studio as well. Our mate who does the boxing podcast. Yeah,
SPEAKER_02:that's I thought we were filming in now. So cheers for that. And still boxing.
SPEAKER_00:Give it a like and subscribe.
SPEAKER_02:Indeed. But I thought the Seagulls, look, it was a bit of a nothing game. I think the biggest thing to take from it was the fact that the Panthers have a backup to Nathan Cleary. I don't know the guy's name, but he's just so accurate with his kicks. Jerome Luai Hu, I think, is the case of when he goes, whether it was along the floor or kicking out to the wing, it was pinpoint. And look, we said last week that Panthers are going to put out a C-team and they actually turned Manly over, beating them 38-22. But for me, one of the biggest standout performance for the Seagulls was Raymond Viega on the wing.
SPEAKER_00:Animal. Absolute animal. But to be fair, I think this preseason is... As Sean in Willett's favour as well, to score that first try, it was a very athletic try to score. Yeah, dive over in the corner. Also, there's a lot of hay out there at the moment for Ruben Garrick, which I don't personally understand. Nah,
SPEAKER_02:neither do I.
SPEAKER_00:I think he had quite a solid season last year. The right-hand side of the man... the Seagull's defence was a little bit shaky but the centre can only be as good as his winger and defence sometimes and that's got some questions around it but no what you were saying absolute cannonball of a human being
SPEAKER_02:yeah do you know what we've got some power I think bringing in those big boys in Takiyaho who else has come in in Tavanga who unfortunately couldn't play because he I think we think one of his friends passed just before the game, so he wasn't involved. But it seems like there's a lot of power going forward for Manny. And that's without the powerful runs of Trubojevic. You've got Tom Trubojevic. You've got Onokwatu in there. Do you know what? As much as we've lost to the Panthers, I'm really excited for round one. I think I'm buzzing to get to Brookie Oval, to get up there in the Ken Arthurson, giving it large. But one of the biggest, I think, shocks of the round... in the last weekend of the pre-season was the Roosters who put out a fairly...
SPEAKER_00:They had a very strong team. A
SPEAKER_02:very... Angus Crichton was out there. Victor Radley was out there. Tedesco was out there. And they got absolutely turned over by the Knights. Dom Young was out there. Really, really turned
SPEAKER_00:over. 48-10. You go for it. They had Tepoa? Tepal. Tepal in there as well. And... Tom Young, Lindsey Collins, Spencer Lenu, who's now missing round one.
SPEAKER_02:No, he's missing round two. It's category, grade two, fine. It was, to be fair, he's gone in shoulder to the head. It was just, but there was something I was listening to earlier that mentioned around... He's now starting, whereas last year he came off the bench and he was probably one of the most effective players, bar back fence Brownie. He was one of the most effective players off the bench because of what he'd done, his aggression. He was coming on full of energy. Now he's got to start a game and he's coming up against people that are fully energized. Be interesting to see if he has the impact. And he's obviously, he's got a few things to work on when it comes to his tackling technique because he's definitely an aggressive individual. But getting turned over like that was... Very surprising.
SPEAKER_00:We said it on our predictions last week that the Roosters weren't getting... I said about the Knights finishing right down in 16th. But
SPEAKER_02:it's only pre-season.
SPEAKER_00:It's only a trial. It is only pre-season and it's only a trial.
SPEAKER_02:But just looking at our predictions from last week, I think
SPEAKER_00:I had... Bulldogs. No, Bulldogs. Sorry, Rabbitohs. They're probably going to be nowhere near that now.
SPEAKER_02:Very unfortunate. Mitchell's out. Mitchell, Latrell Mitchell... out with a grade two hamstring, which means he's out for six to eight weeks, and then losing Cam Murray to snap in his Achilles, which... Two weeks before the
SPEAKER_00:season starting. Massive, massive players.
SPEAKER_02:He's a rep player and they've lost him two weeks before the season starts. So look, I mean, if we could do our ladder again, which we're not going to, but I think the Rabbitohs... It's the joys of
SPEAKER_00:it. It's the joys of doing it. I had the Rabbitohs...
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I had them coming in 12th. I think they're going to finish lower.
SPEAKER_00:I think I had them in the 8th. No, I don't think they're going to be anywhere near that now. I don't think they're going to get the start. No. which is going to be the issue for them. But Cowboys did the storm.
SPEAKER_02:Cowboys looked all right. I'm as excited as I am about the first game of the season. I am now a little bit apprehensive. The storm... look i don't know they they had a few people missing but i think the cowboys did play really well i think john bateman the old english guy who was linked to manly but then i don't know if it was just a rumor he was pretty impressive um and i just think they look solid i think they look they they moved well in attack they move well going forward they're run they're getting through gaps line breaks i mean look it's encouraged the pre-season challenge they're trying to get the ball moving and stuff like that but Yeah, Storm, did they get the... I think they finished bottom of the ladder pre-season, didn't they? I know the Broncos won it, who looked good. Broncos looked good, but Storm might have got the wooden spoon for the pre-season challenge.
SPEAKER_00:We can check that out. Yeah. But yeah, you messaged me during the week about the Cowboys. I'm like, that's pre-season, man. Hopefully, don't say that doesn't come to bite me, but Roosters finished bottom with the Storm... bunnies, raiders, bulldogs, cowboys, panthers, knights. Stop the count. Seagulls are in the eight. Finish seventh.
SPEAKER_02:We're finished the round up on this. I think the Broncos actually look They looked all right. They looked sharp. I think their big boys or their big names only got 20 minutes of run out and they still managed to turn over the Bulldogs. So I think we are in for a hell of a season. It'll be really interesting to see how our tips go throughout. But it's back this weekend. There's already been some mischief that has happened in Vegas from the Canberra Raiders. Hudson Young and Morgan Smithies apparently had a fight in a lift over a inflatable baseball bat.
SPEAKER_00:I have not heard
SPEAKER_02:about this. Have you not heard about it? No. So it happened their first day on arrival. I didn't read into it too much, but I've listened to a few or watched a few Instagram stories about it. Basically, they're allowed out on their first night in Vegas, which I don't know. Get
SPEAKER_00:it out
SPEAKER_02:of
SPEAKER_00:the system.
SPEAKER_02:Get it out of the system. And the two of them have had a scrap in a lift in the hotel. Fortunately, it didn't involve any public or any damage or anyone getting hurt. They had to get broken up by security, but they were made to, which I think is a very good move. They're made to come out and publicly apologize because of, not just for themselves, but I think for the sport in general, trying to break the market in America, it's not a great look. I mean, I don't know whether anyone would care about it in America, the fact that they've had a fight in Vegas, but it's certainly not... From an Australian audience looking over to Vegas, it's not great for the sport if... two teams have, or two players from one of the teams involved have kicked off. So, yeah, so it's not gone too well, but we've got a couple of fixtures. Well, there's four fixtures on this weekend, two of them involving NRL teams and then the other two to try and promote the sport across the pond in America and then also bring the British game over. There is the Australian women, I think they're called the Jillaroos. Yep. And the England women taking place over the weekend. And also some Super League action with the Wigan Warriors playing Sam Burgess' Warrington Wolves. Although I read earlier... Sam Burgess might not be there. Sam Burgess might not be there. He's got visa issues. He wouldn't disclose them. But I've got... Do you know what? I'm not even going to speculate what it is. But it's one of those things where they might not have their head coach there. But the two NRL fixtures that are happening... Yeah. First up, some weird kickoff times here in Australia. We've got an 11 a.m. kickoff on Sunday is the Warriors against the Raiders. Now, this will be busy. This is the first tip of the year. So let's actually reveal who our tip would be for that game. And because it's the first round of the first fixture of the round, you actually have to put a score, a victory margin in. So who would you go for at the Warriors and Raiders?
SPEAKER_00:I think I'm going to go for the Raiders by six just because I've backed them to finish higher in the ladder.
SPEAKER_02:Fair enough. Fair enough. I'm going to go. I predicted the Raiders to get the spoon. And one of the things that has made me feel a little bit better about that decision is James Graham has also predicted. So in the Byron podcast, he predicted the Raiders to get the spoon as well. And he also predicted the Tigers to finish second bottom. So we agree on those two. I think the Warriors are going to win it by 10. I think Fisher Harris, first appearance, leading the boys, foreign soil. They're just going to go out there charged up and they're going to win by 10. Then the next game we've got is the Panthers against Sharks. I think it's going to be a barnstormer. You don't have to predict a win margin, but who are you going
SPEAKER_00:with? I'm going to go for Panthers. I'm going to go Panthers, I think. I think they'll start where they're finished. They've got Dylan Edwards back in there. They've got Nathan Cleary back in there. They've got a pretty strong lineup.
SPEAKER_02:Brian Toto is out.
SPEAKER_00:He
SPEAKER_02:was
SPEAKER_00:hamstring strain or
SPEAKER_02:something
SPEAKER_00:with his hamstring. Blaise Talangi is in the reserves. Yeah, not starting. And they've got Jack Cole in at six.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so I think there's actually a potential for the Sharks to cause an upset. I don't know I think the Panthers might have a slow start to the season and the fact that Cleary's coming back from injury hasn't tested the shoulder out they've lost Toto on the wing and they again with this pre-season challenge and coming to Vegas it's a bit of a disjointed start they've had a break together going to another country I reckon the Sharks stand a chance in this one so I'm going to go for the Sharks to win but we will check in and see how those predictions go but We've got another big weekend of sport coming up. We've got the Six Nations going again. We've got more ICC Champions Trophy. We've got the kickoff of the NRL. And next week, we'll review all of that and also talk about our predictions for round one.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and see how many I get wrong again. So it could be a good start to the season so far.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, brilliant. But we'll leave that one there. Thanks for listening, and we will catch you in the next one.
SPEAKER_00:Good night.