The URC Knockouts Are Almost Set. Some Teams Are Hot. Some Teams Are Not. | Lekker Rugby Pod

Bulls for f**k sake. Why do they always do this to me? I thought they were dead and buried. It's like one of those villains in a, you know, a suspense film. And now he's hugging the girl and he wants to have a kiss.

Everything's great. No, he's not done yet. Leinster looks like the bulls except even more ominous. Come on, Leinster. It's the worst outcome.

It's the least funny. It's the least interesting. It's the most, oh my God, here they are again. And you know quite frankly we've had enough. They're just ominous.

Not just a blip and I think Lions take it but in a low scoring, exceptionally physical, bad tempered, two or three cards, maybe four cards and people go down swinging. And by the way try to defend Sasha Feinberg and Gomazulu even if you you heard Dave say something. Good luck. I mean he goes through holes that don't even exist and so I think that's part of the sort of the Stormers being near the top of the log is it's difficult to prepare for them. This is the Lecker Rugby Pod, only on Megaphone Rugby.

Welcome back to the Lecker Rugby Pod. Harry, I know you've got a couple of opinions. Harry Index ruffled a few feathers and it was much more detailed than before. Explain it to me. How's it, Envia?

Yeah, we're at the business end of the season, obviously in almost all the competitions now. Even the super quick, super rugby sort of wraps up. And so everyone's really in high alert. They're ready to be resentful, offended, insulted. My team is better than that.

Your team is not that great. But things become pretty clear by this point, especially in the north, which we now participate in, where you have a double index kind of, you know, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Leinster, these big monster teams. they show how much more depth they have so let's just be honest it's very difficult to compete in two competitions we know it you know you know the mighty mighty uh bruising bully bulls and my little baby stormers so virtuous we you know it's difficult to put two teams together yeah warm and tender and generous um so the harry index acknowledges that we're at the squeaky bum sport pointy end part of the season and what it did is give you a little cryptic um extra information like so if you're really upset about hurricanes being up there just acknowledge that they're uh 257 plus points differential they're pretty much pummeling everyone except for chiefs uh it's a two-horse race there in new zealand and then you always have the terrible crusaders the bloodthirsty crusaders lurking we are with the rivalry coming up the greatest rivalry in the history of rivalries coming up marty devlin coming soon don't worry guys uh we love to be some sparring um you have to acknowledge that we're gonna see a proper all blacks team come to our shores it's gonna be absolutely on they are locked and loaded far less injured than we are and they want blood. So why are they going to be good? Because their clubs are good.

Who's missing? They're not going to have Richie Monga. So whoever is really good right now in the Super Rugby, we have to acknowledge they're going to be good in South Africa and they're going to be good because they're good. So to just make sure people understood that in the Harry Index, you have plus 257 Hurricanes, much fewer games. So that's a preposterous number.

It means that there's something going on in the Canes. There are obviously some incredible performers. We know some of them. The names like Jordy Barrett roll off the tongue. But more than that, there's just synergy there.

The Chiefs, what I put there in the Harry Index is that they are an all-black pillar. Go and look across that team. And then Crusaders need me to say more. They just have always been one of the greatest clubs in rugby. So they're all lurking.

But what I did is have this sort of, you know, it's true to Harry Index because it's frustratingly not the same every time. You know, sometimes it's top 10, sometimes it's top 12. Sometimes I group teams together because there's just nothing separating them until they face. So you'll see in Harry Index this year, I mean, this week, that Glasgow and the Bulls are coupled. Well, it's interesting because we're about to find out, aren't we?

You know, Bulls are on the rise and Glasgow is leaking. Where does the inflection point meet? I suppose on a player team sheet, I'd take the Bulls. I think they have better players. Franco Smith is really good at getting a lot out of a little.

He doesn't always have the star-studded, you know, 400 caps type teams. He just doesn't. he has guys that we say are good like Kyle Steyn but when other coaches had to pick did they pick him? You know, what's something great about Franco is he's able to make a guy look better than other coaches thought he was whereas there's some players that everyone picks you know, Andre Pollard when he's 10 years old okay, easy so I think it's interesting to see what happens next and I'm not prepared to write off Glasgow yet but I'm saying they're on fumes right now. They really do need something.

And I'm also not saying the bulls are just going to storm in and do this. They look really scary right now. So that's why I've got them right tucked under the virtuous stormers, the generous, wonderful, beneficent stormers. The mighty, mean, grim bulls are right there. So if you look at the hairy index and sort of look at these lines, why are there lines there?

from one to six i'm pretty confident that those are really stout deep tough teams to play saints stormers glasgow bulls and montpellier it's very difficult to know uh the next couple of weeks gonna tell us a lot about those teams i've got so much to say to that to you about all those remarks you just made i'm shaking my head furiously but you just keep talking so give me a chance, but here we go. So firstly, you wrote bulls in a green circle. You wrote FFS. No points difference or anything. Is that your stormous ad speaking there or what's the FFS stand for?

Is it what I think it is or was it something else? It's bulls for fuck's sake. Why do they always do this to me? I thought they were dead and buried. It's like one of those villains in a suspense film and you know that the good guy didn't put enough bullets in there.

It's Jason in Friday the 13th. He just keeps coming back. And now he's hugging the girl and he wants to have a kiss. Everything is great. No, he's not done yet.

The Bulls look like they're having fun. I do think it took a while for that shape to sort of make sense to everyone. I'm constantly amazed at how much that takes in the team. Like just literally. I'm not talking about culture.

I'm not even talking about vibes. I'm talking about actual shape and structure. So, it looks like your mighty, mighty balls might be facing a Gauteng derby with the Lions. The loyal, above our heads, also virtuous Lions. Plucky.

Yeah, plucky. So, that's interesting. For all the money, I still think I can see some really horrible IRC matchups across the board. What do we have? You know, Stormers might face our nemesis, Munster, from a few years back.

Leinster might take on one of the most shameful upsets they would ever face, which is what if they lost to Connacht, who's on the rise. You have Glasgow taking on Ulster, and that's never a bargain because you might play them twice. You know, you play them in the final round, and then you play them again. That's never easy for teams. And you know and I know that Lions, it would make their whole decade to do this to you yeah imagine maybe it's about nine or ten years after you want to take them to the so many super rugby finals now they come up to you on and you know yeah not gonna happen i'm sorry to say and just on that subject um all and i had a nice very very interesting conversation with edgraf but ceo of the bulls we publish that on sunday make sure you don't miss it it's something you haven't seen before awesome so yeah now i agree with you i think bulls are on the rise i want to ask you talk about the shape are you comfortable with that shape now because we're talking about you know playing outside of their abilities or of you know above their abilities or maybe not the right cattle do we call it is it now sort of shaping is it actually the right cattle we you know like in governance um and in politics maybe even in matters of war every time there's a change in technology a disruptive change there's winners and losers So there's probably guys that were probably more comfortable under a Jake White system that are not as comfortable now.

And there's guys maybe the other way around. So, yeah, it's that sport. That's just the way it is. I think there's some players at the Bulls, and I'm not going to name drop, I don't want to. I think people can draw their own conclusions that are going to have to do some work with a private trainer, with a nutritionist, with whatever they got to do.

they'll do and the true professionals do that you know look at some of the players who have reinvented themselves then i think that's probably on um where it matters most i suppose is the final 10 minutes of both halves so from minute 30 to 40 and 70 to 80 there's just a certain load uh we had a great chat with rouen no who was you know a great sevens player and famously he rocks up you and he's a rock-hard midfielder, wing, fullback. He's exactly shaped the way he wants to be. He shows up to sevens, and immediately everyone goes, yeah, you're going to drop five kgs, or you're not going to play in this shape. And I'm not saying that Johan Ackerman's playing sevens ball, but I'm saying on a spectrum between grinded out, scopernyach, set-piece to set-piece, playing between five and five in the middle, and all the way over to sevens, Johan Ackerman is probably closer to being all action, keep all alive, Ronan Ogara type coach. I'm just saying his track record.

I'm not saying what he'll do in the knockouts, maybe he'll change. But it looks like to me, that's what it is. And so everyone's got to drop three kgs to five kgs, depending on where they're starting point. Everyone's got to have a little more anaerobic. Someone's going to have to have a little more restart, recycle.

You see these guys when they have a moment and they're breathing, and they're breathing in and out. I remember BJ, Ben Jason Dixon, talking about how just absolutely moored you are. You're just wishing you had a little more breath. I do think Ackerman puts a tax on everyone and banks on the fact that his guys, when the tax is on, that his guys will have more, more in the tank, more recovery on offer. So there's two asterisks to that.

One is Valil Arou, Andre Pollard. Is that really the shape that they were sort of born to play? Is that really Forster, Creel? You know is it Second and maybe there a plan to recruit differently The second part is what if you do run into the bull i mean to the lions in a quarterfinal is that tax going to work against the lions the physio s and c lions who play at the same altitude probably not so uh that's and that's where this this stress test gets it's like anything you're making a car and you need to test it out and then then they do these crazy things you know now let's let the drive the car drive around you know in a cape storm like right now and see what it does and uh yeah i think the bulls are um are sitting well they should take care of benetton they should go into the knockouts with confidence but the reason why there's still sort of nine coupled with glasgow and the harry index is there's a there's reckoning coming there's a there's an actual final examination on full scap let's go let's write our essays let's see what happens and uh i'm just i'm still uncertain i'm certain i'm uncertain about the saints the stormers glasgow and the bulls very unclear about what it is they are some of the teams above the fold like bordeaux they we know that they are a team that can do superlative things almost like no one else. Toulouse is so stacked.

Hurricanes just dominating New Zealand. And Leinster... Yeah. Leinster looks like the Bulls except even more ominous. Yeah.

Say that again. Say that Leinster line again. Say that Leinster line again. Yeah. What do you think of them?

Come on, Leinster. It's the worst outcome. It's the least funny. It's the least interesting. it's the most oh my god here they are again and you know quite frankly we've had enough what are they the tagline it's something annoying they're just ominous and so here's the thing i i really want to know this and we may not know it until final you know postseason but did they always construct it like this on purpose not to lose you know to get skunked in cape town but just where they taped that there was a building to the season that was well known well planned you've been behind the fold of bulls you know how much planning goes on i could see them almost saying you know here's a month by month and have a different color for each month and now it's go time and it's been go time for a few weeks now and when they're going they just look just nasty malicious to play you know the the way they cut off attacks the way they're steaming in um the fact that they've got to the you know the final and they can they can look at things now and say we could turn the winter of our discontent into uh this glorious summer you know and and that's the way it looks to me it looks horrible and um and you look at other teams like bath with with you on from cron just leaking oil you know and and it's just it's difficult to imagine what must go into planning a season what i shit you not i think leinster sat down and said with our lions our guys on in australia with the lions there's something we got to do or we're going to run into some horrible realities and so i think we're looking at you know jock nina but leo cullen these guys have been around and they know that leinster is not judged on where they finish in the log, not at all.

They're just judged on trophies. That's it. That's it. That's all it is. It's having 800 caps and trophies.

You mentioned how the Bulls are going to play in the knockouts. I think a team that stepped on it a little bit, stepped on it by the Donald Pugh, is the Lions. They pitched up at Leinster and played a different game. Why would that have been, number one? Were they overwhelmed by the occasion?

What is it? Arbour for the rest of the season playing against Munster, which now we saw today he's going to have all kinds of commissions of inquiry and, you know, which runs and I don't know what else, but the point is the Lions didn't play like the Lions used to play six wins in a row and then they'd try and do something different in such a crunch game. Why? Why would that have been? Yeah, it's very interesting.

So you've touched on things where there's an exception and there's always exceptions to everything, but for the most part, you have to get in the business part of the season, in the pointy end, you need to have your things sorted out. And so now you're doing rotes. And I think it's really important for players to have simple instructions to know where they're doing, what they're going, and have a plan that everyone knows inherently. There are a few players like, you know, virtuosos, like Valeriu or, you know, playmakers. You know, they can deviate quickly.

You know, Bowdoin Barrett, you know, just throw him in there and he's had one week with the team. He's still going to do great stuff. but for most part rugby players are tremendously repetition almost superstitious and they love they love to know what they're doing when they're approaching a clean out they know to know if the inside or outside second man in they love to know the the channel they're running um 9 10 15 really like to know what our kick strategy is and really need to know where we're going on at the same time And there are beautiful exceptions, these wonderful contradictions. Like the Saints a year ago, were they upset and they had that great run because they did things different suddenly. But it's for most teams, it doesn't pull off.

So Monster, really not playing the right shape for them. Saints with Henry Pollock doing this sort of the Pollock prance, you know, it looks silly because the Tigers just brought exactly what Leicester always bring and then just monster them and Saints tried to bow up like they're outside on a Friday night they're not you're not that guy okay so stop it Stormers only kicking 14 times in Ravenhill I mean that's bizarre right six times in the first half not even not even having one put in you know we're going to talk to Brock Harris tomorrow with the Stormers prop to be revealed. And the idea of not having a put-in when you've harvested 56 scrum penalties, far and away the most, that's bizarre. So is that a change that you thought could catch Ulster almost on the sly, like we'll play more 4G than you are? Or does that backfire?

So I think were the bulls to change suddenly right now on the trajectory they've been building under Ackerman, I think that would backfire. So maybe there is a post-season, pre-season recalibration here and there, minor tweaks, every team does it. But I think right now you have to kind of go to the dance with the girl that you asked out. Bring with the horse that brung you. So I don't think at this point you switch too much.

So when you look at Bordeaux, they are just fine-fettled, committed, let's scamper. You know, it's a scampering team. Toulouse, it's a 80 minutes of hell team. And we just keep bringing waves. If we don't like this one, we'll bring that one.

You know, we'll bring in this 1 million pound guy and this 1 million euro guy. Hurricanes, it is literally playing like a hurricane. I mean, it's like a classic Kiwi team attacking from the back fence. Leinster, it's a test team with little tiny adjustments stuck in there and one of the great defensive coaches that has existed in ever in rugby. You know, Sean Edwards, Jacques Nienaber.

Bath is just doing it with platoon, with almost a spreadsheet. You know, like Giorno van France, such a methodical player. They'll be there at the business end in the prem. And then Chiefs is the one, you know, hope of Super Rugby to knock off Hurricanes. But beyond that fold, when you look at the wobblers, the Saints, they sometimes change too much.

Sometimes from week to week, the Stormers can look unrecognizable from another week, you know, and that can be a problem. With the Bulls chafing against something, maybe some of those players have played a certain way since they were barefoot, just running around, lighties at a certain point and then suddenly doing something else. It doesn't show up until the knockout sometimes where you go, ooh, I was in two minds. I was going to kick, but then I wasn't. Boom, you get caught.

I think for Glasgow, I wouldn't call them a wobbler. I would call them just a team that doesn't have the level of test international depth at times to be able to just keep churning and churning and churning. And when they lose two players or three, they're really in trouble. So all the teams that we've just mentioned, they've lost six, seven, eight, nine players, but they can keep going. and they bring Cameron Hanukom suddenly comes in.

Whoa, what a quantum leap. Where's the quantum leap for Glasgow that you can just go, okay, here it is. There's no one coming back. These are the guys. And then look at a team like Montpellier is a power team.

So they're also going to be there plus 223 in the top 14. And they could get a trophy as well, the little trophy. So I think it's fantastic. the only teams I can see just making everything upside down Ulster can still do that they could do that right now this week to Glasgow Lions can do it to you you know in the knockouts and then obviously the Crusaders could spoil Super Rugby once again by coming from nowhere and then knocking off these other guys and saying yeah you just pretend there is because we know how to play alright before we forget people you have to please like subscribe to this channel i always forget to say that i haven't forgotten now otherwise i'll get my um my hands wrapped what is the word you know scald paul is going to get on us so we have all now on the case he's telling us we've got to do things like what's he called it hygiene yeah that wash the dishes every day i have to wash my hands now in innocence yeah so we're supposed to tell you things like don't just love us i mean show it show it it's more like in life in relationships it's not enough to just say in your head i love you he's got to do stuff you know so help us take out the rubbish help us repair the fence help us you know you know get the stuff ready we need we need everything ready give us some brookies come on you went the extra mile though so if you if you like us and you want to help us like at least now implore you to do like this channels like this video subscribe to our channel and comment if you don't mind we like that and also remember we realized that youtube doesn't send out notifications anymore for some reason so nobody knows that we have a video so if you want to be informed of a video either sign up for our email mailing lists on our website or just join our whatsapp group there's links down in the description so every time we publish a video you get a notification you know you won't miss another video i think that's quite important area the whatsapp thing works quite well lots of people have signed up for it already yeah plus we want to be more connected to you so we're obviously going to have some live events coming up this year around the rivalry we're gonna have some great people with us some people you blow your mind some people that you might want to love to fight with like guys from new zealand uh and that's good too isn't it fun that rugby is such a cool sport where we can have opponents safely at a bar you know in hatfield we can go we can have fun we can go to you know forries in cape town and and have a vibe and have a beer together but part of that is we We have to know who you are and connect better And part of the difficulty of social media even YouTube is who are we Are we just sort of a strange name a made up name Are we a real person We are real We will connect with you. We will converse with you.

I think we're happy to meet people as they are, where they are and have a really great time. And then that could be something that maybe distinguishes us from some, not all. I think the brotherhood of this, you know, podcasting YouTube world is fantastic. You know, we love our friends, Tim Cocker, who likes to mix and mingle. Marty Devlin from New Zealand is going to be brave and wade into the crowd.

You can give him some shit. It's all good fun. And we love it. That's what we want. It's not to engage so that we can get ahead in YouTube world.

We want to engage because this is why we started the whole pod to begin with, was to connect, hear, give people a voice, and not just be traditional media. actually you would what would be nice if people give us some ideas down in the comments are you how to connect better what you know we're open to suggestions you want to hear what you have to say because people have lots of opinions so we know that so you know this is your your invitation go for it tell us what you think what we can do better how can we how can we can reach out to you how can we know who you are because that's quite important you're not just somebody like you just said some random avatar with a weird name who is the guy behind that we want to talk to you so that's that's an interesting how about the italian guy the italian guy who's a lighting expert who taught me how to do this and i'm gonna go here and see there's a light behind me now and that made makes me look warmer and more friendly it's different to you from the background apparently i mean i didn't even know these things and here i am i'm buying light light lampshades my daughter was just making fun of me like what is happening to you dad okay now we know what the how it looks like but let's look at this week's coming coming week's fixtures weekend's fixtures and again they're playing the same time it's stormers and cardiff versus and ulcer versus glasgow i think the two games of the weekend and they're at the same time so you have to choose one of the two but you mentioned to me that you think awesome i could not cause an upset it's at home it's on a 40 pitch you just mentioned the problems with glasgow i i disagree i i rank okay you know i rate franco as a coach i think you'll overcome it i mean also remember they're not in the champions cup anymore So they're not carrying all those expectations. And they also had a bit of time to recover a little bit. We saw it last week against Cardiff, how well they did. So this weekend, I don't know.

Tell me why you think Alston might cause an upset. So I've tipped, as the Aussies would say, six matches in the URCA. And just the ones that affect the big nine, the nine teams that could still get in. And I've only picked one upset. And I've picked it by one point.

and I've picked, and for the upset to come true, I've picked the home team. Okay, so there's a lot of things in there that a veteran professional gambler or better would say, good job, Harry, you didn't go too far crazy. So Ulster at home against Glasgow by one point in a relatively high scoring match, the tip there is the high scoring match. So I think if Glasgow can keep it lower, then I think Glasgow wins and maybe wins quite convincingly away from home. But Ulster seems very difficult to keep the score down right now.

The top defensive team in the league, which is the Stormers, wasn't able to keep them under 30 points. That's bizarre, right? So it's very difficult. Yeah. So there's something really cooking in their attack.

Head coach of Ulster has actually his son, you know, pulling the strings at Playmaker. That's interesting as well. How well do they know each other? There's a lot of speed on attack. And so they seem to be really okay on that pitch.

That pitch itself is part of the story. So then you say, well, but Glasgow has the same pitch. So yes and no. I think in some ways, I think Ulster has adapted their play to the pitch even more than any other team. Now it's inherent in what Ulster is.

The other thing is Ulster's already had their dip. Every team has a dip. There's not one team in world rugby that hasn't had a two to three game slide. It's what you do with those and how you come out of it. I think Ulster already had that.

And they have more confidence now. I think Glasgow's in the middle of the dip. You know, that Cape Town loss was dispiriting. It was discouraging. it gave Ulster's really clever game planners, analysts, and coaches a template to look at.

And not only can Ulster look at the Stormers and say, we can play like the Stormers, we just did. They can then say, you know, in this week in practice, we can really replicate that. So I think they're a banana peel. I think Glasgow has trouble. If I'm wrong and Glasgow escapes, I still think it'll be close.

and finally, sorry Nathan Doak is a wonderful goal kicker he's the kind of goal kicker that reminds you a little bit of all the great goal kickers going to Ruan Pinar who have played for Ulster they don't look like missing and I feel like now with the pointy end of the season goal kickers become important again the teams that are used to taking the three like the Stormers, like Ulster sometimes can re-emerge against teams like Glasgow that don't take the three, that always go to maul. What if your maul falls down? Bulls, Stormers, we know that. We understand the pain, Springboks, in the pool match against Ireland. If you have it all set up and then it doesn't work.

You can get away with a lot of stuff. So you cannot get away from a ball on a tee going over your poles. You have to look at it and you lose. So that's where I think Ulster could do it. And now, so it's interesting because Connacht and Ulster are sort of the teams that traditionally were below Munster in the great pecking order of Ireland.

Leinster far, far above. Munster, tricky and difficult and tough, especially in Europe. And then you have, you know, Ulster, Connacht. This season is all the way around. Munster is clearly right now trying to fight to not be in the cellar of the Irish firmament.

and you have Ulster and Connacht in some ways very similar and some ways very different. You know, Stuart Lancaster, he's a much more well-renowned coach. Connacht also is, boy, they're playing very feisty, aren't they? They're just fighting with everyone. They got under Munster's skin.

And so Ulster is more like a smooth race car. And then Connacht is, let's go down to the docks and that place behind the docks, we're going to fight there. And so I think that's interesting to watch these two teams play it out. But that's my upset for the week. I mean, the rest, I think Konak's going to take care of Edinburgh, for example.

I don't think Edinburgh has anything left to combat that. I don't think they have a why anymore, except for Pride, which at some point, it's a cold night and you just want to be done. You just want to finish and think about what you're going to do next. Yeah, that's where I'm going. I'm not seeing an upset for your guys.

I feel like it might even be an embarrassing score over Benetton. I think Leicester is going to do the same thing. They're going to humiliate Ospreys. So the close games of the weekend, to be honest, I think Munster and Lions should be quite a humdinger. I would like to watch that game.

And I think that's going to be a tough, niggly affair with a lot riding on it for both teams. And then I think the other thing is my little baby Stormer is going to Cardiff. I kind of sense that that's the game where we realize that Cardiff was always right on the edge, on points differential. They had a lot of lucky wins. They were just kind of scrambling, and they play exactly the kind of rugby that the Stormers love to play against.

Just love. It's just tailor-made for the Stormers to go and do something big, finish out the season well and go top of the log. Because if they get 63 on the log and Leinster 63, number of wins is unassailable. Leinster cannot catch up on number of wins, which is the tiebreaker. I think Glasgow obviously comes into the knockouts, then third in the log, facing a tough matchup with Ulster, who is, you know, going to be confident, obviously.

And then you play a team twice. And then I think the Bulls get, you know, the home quarterfinal. And it's not the home quarterfinal they may have loved, but, you know, you'd have to still favor the Bulls. In the end, at this part of the season, I still think that in the end, quality, caliber, pedigree, that's why you sign Andre Pollard. I mean, let's be honest.

It's for this part of the season. There were times in the season where it looked like Pollard was a little bit, eh, what are we doing here? But this is the time, you know, where he's going to talk to the guys, you know, make sure everyone's calm. Everyone knows where they're supposed to be. You've got so many leaders in the pack, so much dynamic, you know, force and power in the pack that you should be able to take care of these two matches, the final round and the quarterfinal.

Okay, now you mentioned up to the Bulls. So, now we have to talk about that Lions-Monster one, but just take a step back there. Because that's going to play a big role in what the top eight looks like. What do you think? Lions are going to pull this one off?

Are they going to be playing? Yeah. Are they going to be playing? Or we saw Monster now, you know, if a report like this one comes out, that came out this morning, that there's going to be this commission of inquiry about all kinds of things. A week before an important game like this, like you said, towards the point at the end of the season, it can only be an upsetting thing, don't you think?

sort of just rattles him or shakes him up a little bit. What are you thinking of that game specifically? Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it? So there's an exception where in-battled teams rally around, don't like it that maybe a guy like Clayton McMillan that they do like personally is getting, you know, maybe a rough ride here. Maybe it's almost a player's meeting type of situation, you know?

Kick the coaches out. they just talk to each other you know as monster men um so obviously we we have pretty good sources um i have some of them are pretty high up in the monster world and this has been a problem for a while but it's been hushed hushed because of several things number one the monster psychology and culture is they keep they keep their dirty laundry inside it's not one where they like outsiders much anyway but they don't like outsiders to know their problems they've got strife between Cork which is the southern part of Munster it's on it's a it's a port city um it's got a lot of vibe to it it's growing really quickly and they feel a little bit uh unfairly treated or you know down from from Limerick so Limerick's where they play Toven Park and that's where the you know the top Ross live where the board has come from usually A lot of the schools feed that. The second part is even if you go back to Johan van Kran and you go to, even before that, but you go to Graham Roundtree, there's been a perception that the Munster players, some of them are a bit too big. There's a bit of a shock situation there. They actually are capable on their day of winning big games and big trophies, but they're not able to do consistency.

Consistency in practice Difficulty on the money side some whispers that that not been well done the recruitment players not necessarily that happy So we're looking at sort of a thing where it was covered over by that win, by the come from nowhere, you know, we're mad at Joseph Weber video and then, you know, doing that thing. But it kind of covered over some cracks. And so it's not surprising that, you know, the Stormers have been very consistent throughout that whole period of time in challenging, but Munster has not. So I think what's happening here is not just a blip, and I think Lions take it, but in a low-scoring, exceptionally physical, bad-tempered, two or three cards, maybe four cards, and people go down swinging. But I think it's 14-10 or something like that, an ugly score.

It's an ugly score, not great. Tomlin Park boos their own team off the pitch. There's ugliness in the press conference and change will come. Now, Munster's too great a province, too wonderful a hotbed full of such great people for not to rebound. But perhaps they need to really take a big broom and just really sweep.

It's a very interesting story. It's got some similarities to the Bulls a year ago. Yeah, when you said the players get rid of the coach, that's the first thing that came to mind. Yeah, by the way. Okay, so that means, I agree with you there, I think the Lions are going to beat them, but it's not going to be a bonus point victory.

So the Lions are going to move up to 57, I think, and Munster is going to score one point for ending within seven. Which means, for me, my top eight will then be Glasgow, in my opinion. You and I differ there. Glasgow Stormers leads to Bulls, and then Lions, which means the Bulls have to play the Lions, which we talked about earlier. I mean, for us, probably the Bulls, probably the worst case scenario, if you ask me.

Carnacht, you know, sleeping in, sinking in by the back door, like we talked about. Munster, and then, yeah, I think Ulster's not going to beat Glasgow, but they're going to get at least one point, which will, you know, discard Cardiff. Okay, so we have the same eight, and we literally, funnily have four and five the same. Yeah, unfortunately. Most importantly for you.

So what do you have? I can see that happening. So mine is Stormers just take the four, but it's enough. So they end up 63 tied with Leinster at one and two. But the tiebreaker goes to Stormers.

And then third, Glasgow leaking oil because I've got them losing to Elster at home in Ravenhill at 61. Then I have fourth, the Bulls, same as you on 59. Lions 57. and then Ulster, Connacht, Munster to complete the Irish contingent. And the reason why I think we agree that Munster is really in difficulty right now and just hanging on.

You know, it's interesting. Cardiff really kept winning very close matches early in the season and almost artificially boosted their profile. They don't carry very much. They have a terrible meters per carry, so they cannot do gain line against the most gain line dominant tackling team that should go badly they kick a lot and that the kicks they give will give you know sasha gaza a lot of run back possibilities which they like you know just create a fractured field there were some scenes i don't know i mean people like to judge sasha very harshly but there were some scenes from that match in Ulster, they're almost otherworldly about his ability to move in space. And, you know, you just don't want to give a guy like that space.

I think Cardiff gives him too much in the end. And with some real speed on the ball by Imi Khan and Gaza just looks like a guy. So, Volemsa is hard to tackle one up. So, I think that's the problem for Cardiff is they've been living and dying by that. They can live and die by the same sword.

they would have to I think hold on to the ball much more and develop phases they haven't shown the ability to do that you know and also you're up against even with Dion out you've got Paul De Villiers getting over the ball Andre Hugo Fenter, Ruan Nel coming back you know I think there's a lot of people who get over the ball and get juggles so you know it's interesting to watch that play out and fascinating that we both have the same final eight and pretty cool for Ireland to have all four teams in the top eight. I don't know if that's good or bad for the Irish national team. There's an argument to be made that national teams do better when there's one dominant team, one supporting actor team, and then nothing else because there's more cohesion. But I think maybe on the health of the game in Ireland-wise, maybe it is better to have it spread throughout and not just be two teams all the time. no we just sharks have to catch up then we would have also had four teams in the in the top eight but anyway that's story for another and how shocking is that that how shocking is it that the sharks are below in terms of resources I mean and players below Kornacht you know that's crazy it makes no sense no I agree yeah no I yeah okay thanks it was awesome as usual we'll do another one of the stormers episodes this week coming up who's we'll be talking to this week we're having Brock Harris who has coached the best scrum in the ERC with a prop who scrums.

You'll see. A prop, okay. I'm waiting for that one. Cryptic. Do we have to talk to Rita about, you know, conversing in the mother language or what's the plan?

Yeah, absolutely, man. We're going to have good times. And I think it's wonderful this series because people have said it's so fun to see not just a coach and a player, which always is a bit of an odd couple, you know, shoulder to shoulder, but also crossing the wonderful and unique divides with bridges. And I think, you know, that's what stormers, sharks, bulls, everyone's going to have to do the same thing. Lions is, it's not enough to bemoan those things and think of them as challenges.

It's absolutely an asset. When it's on song, there's nothing stopping that kind of uniting. And I love it. I love seeing younger to older, the generations. and there's something really cool about set pieces anyway, you know, the intricacies of rugby, you know, you really get into, say, technical stuff.

So I'm looking forward to hearing about, you know, Brock Harris, who's still technically a player, by the way. Theoretically, you know, we're talking to a player, coach, player. Like Diebel Diebenach. Also a player, coach, player. So I wanted to ask you to expand on something quickly.

One of the comments we got was people were very concerned about us airing these videos with the Stormers before the URC playoffs and the likes? Are we not giving too much away in these interviews? Come on, guys. I'm being serious. Every team has looked at everything by every other team.

And if you're at the top of the log, particularly, Stormers' organization not only is fine with it, they love the series. They love it. They're using it as part of the coherence. Much more important than what you're going to do, what's Ruben van Heeren going to do in a line out. I mean, guys, we know what, I mean, you can just watch the line outs, okay?

Is it's the building something together that spans communities. The Stormers are on a very like strategic basis. I'm talking for the next three, four, five, six years in recruitment, in style of play, in what they're doing, why they're doing this is all about this kind of thing. and so they're happily excited we're at the very top of the stormers they're invested in this series they cannot wait for the next one uh they've found all of it hilarious and interesting um and sometimes you know i don't know if you've done this if you've ever taught guys out there in the world watching us if you teach something and you present something you learn a lot and so just by having to respond to questions you know dave's name on has to like grapple with something and And, you know, he stops being Davi, he becomes Dave. I heard that, yeah.

And BJ, you know, looking at a coach and humanizing Rito Shlengwani, who's explaining something deep in his soul. I mean, that's a bond. So Stormers are fine with it. There's some teams out there, I think Hugh Griffin's commented on this, that are so trapped in the dark ages. They don't want someone inside.

And what if you know too much? I mean, guys, really, you know, every team has the book on every other team. there's someone who's supposed to watch every single mall every single line out you think that they're going to give away anything there no that's you know it's there they can watch it yeah exactly right and and by the way try to defend sasha feinberg and gomazulu even if you you heard dave say something uh good luck i mean he goes through holes that that don't even exist and um and so i think that's part of the sort of the stormers being near the top of the log is it's difficult to prepare for them. I always find that to be true. I've given speeches about handling scandals or interrogations.

Try to survive an interrogation with me if I want to interrogate you anyway. It won't matter if I gave you my whole book. I can give you all the questions beforehand. It won't matter. You'll be telling me something you never told someone else.

I'm crying like a baby. So I think there's a way. You cannot prepare for Sasha and Gaza. They're coming at you. Who knows what's going to happen next?

And I know everyone's talking about what a talent. Let's just see this experiment play itself out. Let's watch Cardiff this weekend and let's see what happens in the knockouts. It's a long season and the teams like Leinster who kind of haven't looked the best, you know, let's see what happens next. I cannot wait for this.

And I cannot wait for this series to wrap up. Dabo is super excited about it. What do we end it with? You know, who's the right player and coach to end it with? So the suspense is gathering.

Yeah. You know, just to get back to Sasha quickly, the funniest thing for me, he said, like, we don't know the opponents. His own team doesn't know. Remember he was running around, Ruben Fadiou was expecting the ball and suddenly he just did this and he's off. It's so funny.

He dummied himself. He dummied himself. Awesome. Awesome. Thank you, man.

Cheers. Cheers. This is the Lecker Rugby Pod. Only on Megaphone Rugby. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

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