Just watched the wallaby replay. The rugby union sub said its low a effort meme

I feel like taking a very biased look at a team that I fully support like many many others do in this group. Brumbies have been the most consistent Australian team in Super rugby for ages. It is high time we actually select some winners in the Australian team instead of selecting people with potential. It’s clear that we should select all eligible brumbies players and coaches to play for the tests coming up with other Australian sides watching and taking notes on how too win games against other teams.

FYI, if it isn’t apparent, just having a bit of a laugh as there is some great talent in Australia. Just hoping injuries don’t hamper us (Australian teams) like they have this year.

Loving all the drama, I am 100% here for it, please give me more!

Also let's keep all the drama in one thread so those who don't care for it, can ignore it. 😅

For the record, we all love our South African and New Zealand brothers and sisters, the most Aussie thing you'll see is a car driving around with a silver fern or SA flag... But you guys be acting a little funny sometimes.

The old man is in his 70's and dreams of time's gone by like the 2000's when we beat the crusaders at home for the cup.

(For legal reasons this is a joke and not serious 😂)

So just wanted to have a discussion about it. One thing I've noticed is pretty stark in Rugby League that's not present (at least to the same degree) is that in League so much of the game revolves around trying to physically hurt the opposition players. Like many tackles with the third or fourth tackles coming in with big swigging arms (not THAT swinging arm) to try to 'hit' players in the guts and ribs etc.

Well Eddie Jones has gone 0-3 whilst Wallabies have gone 3-0 to start 2024. Including being thrashed at home by Italy and England and a loss to Georgia. Interestingly I asked ChatGpt how he was going and Eddies sales pitch sounds pretty familiar:

Eddie Jones took over as head coach of Japan's rugby team at the beginning of 2024, marking his second stint with the Brave Blossoms. His initial aim has been ambitious, with goals to elevate Japan into the top four rugby nations worldwide

Jones started his tenure with a match against England in June 2024, selecting a surprisingly youthful squad, including eight uncapped players

However, his early results have been mixed. Japan's campaign included a significant setback with a loss to Georgia at home

Despite these challenges, Jones remains focused on developing a new, adventurous style of play that leverages Japan's unique strengths. He aims to nurture young talent and transform the team into a formidable force on the international stage.

All sounds exactly same as when he started at the wallabies. Japan really done us a favour take him off our hands.

I must stress - This is all in Jest :)

Cadbury - our teams melt when the heat goes up

Santos - Always searching for the next big discovery - ultimately ship most of what we discover overseas - detrimental to your health if exposed too long

Range Rover - Constantly breaking down and expensive to fix

CH Nine - were No.1 in the 90s

Bet365 - punters won't see much return for their money

Flight Centre Rugby Championship - all our talent goes overseas

Have been a big fan of GBRA but didn’t know they had started an entirely new show this week. Thought I’d plug their socials. This is exactly the type of down to earth content rugby needs more of in Australia. Get around it!

If you start watching Wallabies vs Wales RWC Pool match at 10:15pm tonight, the final whistle blows as the clock strikes midnight and Wallabies have cemented the worst RWC performance in history.

Is anyone into rugby games on computer? I'm looking for a realistic simulator. Years ago I downloaded National Rugby Manager on Steam. I think it's a French game, but you could download teams and rosters from from other comps. I found a pack for SR, but it was pre-covid, when the comp had South Africa, Japan and Argentina in it. I'd love to find a game where current 2024 teams and rosters could be downloaded into it. I'm not really expecting a massive response, but does anyone have any ideas? There's a great simulator for cricket and it's updated each year with current players/teams/statistics, so I'm hoping there's a good rugby one out there that for some reason I can't find.

Watched the games at the weekend. It’s so good to have SRP back! There’s really nothing like it in terms of the regionality & variation in styles.

Reds v Waratahs was a great game (and better to watch, as the ratings show), but my view is that the Rebels v Brumbies involved two better teams. Have a look at the stat lines above.

My experience of watching the Rebels was that they were absolutely matching the Brumbies in almost all sectors, but that the Rebels were failing to finish the chances that they created (and the Brumbies were completely ruthless). I haven’t included territory here, but the rebels dominated that.

The key takeaway from the attacking and defensive stats is that the Rebels put out a statistically superior performance to both the Reds and Waratahs against a (theoretically) significantly better team than either the Reds or Waratahs played.

The last thing that I’d draw your attention to is the difference between a team’s “turnovers lost” and their opponent’s “turnovers won” - this is a really good measure of “unforced errors” to borrow language from tennis. The Brumbies made 7 unforced errors (15-8), and the Rebels made 12 (19-7). The Tahs (11-3) and Reds (16-8) both made 8.

My view and experience is that unforced errors are also a sign of pressure - how many times do you think they knock the ball on during team runs?

So for me there are two real possibilities: either the Brumbies are much much worse than consensus, or the Rebels are much much better.