There's something about them that says that they, they won't quite be as consistent, and they will fall short.

Yeah.

The other thing about it being a World Cup year, and this factored into my thinking with both Quinns and also Gloucester, but particularly Bristol, is Over the last couple of years, we have seen, genuinely in the last two seasons, more tries being scored than at any other point in rugby history.

Like, it has been unprecedented the number of tries being scored, the percentage of points that are tries.

Uh, we're seeing higher scoring games, like every Prem game seemed to finish like 38-42 last season.

Um, I think with this being a World Cup year and with things starting to change, that might come down.

I think we might see fewer tries and less of a focus on that, and teams go slightly back towards goal kicking.

... to be honest with you, if they keep that group of players together.

So is this gonna be the potential Hurricanes-Bordeaux closest thing to a club match up from the hemispheres? We're gonna see.

So this might be the first time really France have been able to send over something resembling a full-strength team.

The, the LNR run the Top 14, the Pro D2 in professional rugby in France, and the FFR union have kind of reached a deal where, um, players who didn't play above a certain number of minutes are able to travel over regardless of what club they play for.

So we're going to see after this game the likes of Peter Malaki and Romain Ntamack, and previously Anton Dupont, but not for the calf injury, all travel over.

So there will be a kinda like close to full strength.

Tomas Ramos hasn't gone.

There's a few other players that won't, um, team join up for the Australia game.

But there's a hell of a lot of travel there, and they're playing some teams.

Right

... and was like, "Why don't we make this a piece about confronting your troll from Twitter?" And so I then had to sit through thi- like, on the cuff, J- neither of us were comfortable with this remotely.

There's a, yeah, like, host from the URC, and then me and James Hook sitting there having to talk about, um, why would someone, um, send abuse for someone doing a shit kick in a game? Um, which, like, that was one of the most uncomfortable times of my life

I really enjoyed that, yeah

Riding a tackle and offloading to put TJ Perenara over.

Having to break out his own 22, he linked to Perenara, who like easy could have been another great try.

Like properly like there was like 50 minutes of him at his best, like he never went away, and that is so exciting.

He's kinda been like he's declared to go and play for Fiji now.

Mm

... using various connections that Lance Bradley had from his time spending in Gloucester-Hartpury.

Um, then all of this fell apart, and they were gonna take over the Swansea wom- uni women's program as well.

Um, then all of this fell apart because of, you know, the WU situation and everything.

Um, but there's still, I in- as I understand, like, a keenness for a women's team in Swansea and Cardiff likewise.

The BBC piece notes that the [laughs] WRU own Cardiff Rugby, and therefore would be the obvious owner, right, if you franchise that out.

Um-

Yeah

looking at? Are you looking at it from commercial? Are you looking at it from fan base? Are you looking at it from ticket sales? Are you looking at it from domestic leagues? What part?

I think you've got just amount of eyes on it, amount of people watching, amount of people involved.

It's reaching a completely different audience to what it has, what men's rugby has traditionally, which has been one audience has kind of largely passed on like father to son or school to school kind of like same environments.

The only place where the men's game has really been growing over the last decade has been South America.

where the women's games continue to grow exponentially.

Men's rugby in America is not going to happen, no matter how much money, you know, world rugby continues to put into it.

Like, that is kind of a lost cause.

don't have a team of supporters either, right? When

You know, France, we saw them at their

opening weekend.

They looked all right.

I think you've kind of got to forget about the scoreboard.

The scoreboard, I've always said, look, one of the most overrated bits of rugby union.

Why do we even need it? You know, why? What's it there for? Forget about the scoreboard.

What you want is some moments in the game, right? Some moments of Wales dictating terms, feeling like Wales are kind of the protagonists of the game, that they're in the ascendancy, that France are playing on Welsh terms, whether that's through the kicking, whether that's through getting just some time in the 22, some time on top where France are scrambling, even if you don't...

Is there a worry that Welsh public are almost losing interest within the team?

So you've got

there, then Italy probably in fourth.

Stepping up one, though those two could be either way around.

You know, they could easily follow the other way.

Ireland third.

Yes, yeah, I'll go with that.

Who, again, look, you know, in solid shape, will win their home games, as you mentioned, but like, from there, those away games are pretty tough.

Like, do you see this period of Welsh rugby lasting for a period of time? Or do you think it's...