S4 EP9 - Dispatches from Dax & Postcards from Pau

I think to be honest, we're mainly going to be discussing all things Champions Cup.

A round that, yeah, plenty to discuss off the back of it, no doubt.

I think obviously it would be remiss not to mention at the top, I'm sure anyone listening to

this will be well aware, but the fixture in La Rochelle and the whole round, I suppose, was rather...

overshadowed by some yeah some horrible news around the untimely passing of Hiron

Andrews just

you know not long I think it was what 36 hours before the game that eventually went ahead they'd actually watched quite a bit of that game and as difficult as it evidently was and understandably so I thought the yeah the kind of tributes in the ground and beforehand and afterwards were well yeah pretty um yeah i mean it's unimaginably difficult and there's no right way to address any of these things but i thought there was yeah they um everyone involved felt like kind of did themselves proud and it was it was also a cracking game of rugby off uh off the back of it but uh yeah very very shocking stuff to start the weekend unfortunately

Yeah, obviously horrible news.

It was interesting.

I've seen the kind of clips of the tributes being paid before the game, and it was kind of the talk of everyone, really, where everyone kind of mentioned it and just how incredible and how tough it was to watch the guys and the emotion on the guys' faces.

I think a fitting tribute.

And it's very easy to be like, oh, they should have postponed the game.

But actually, in those situations, you kind of almost want to... crack on just do you or you want something to distract that the last thing you last thing those lions players would have wanted would be a 10 hour for 14 hour flight back to Johannesburg whatever it would have been or bus to Paris and then a flight to Johannesburg just stewing like that would have been the absolute last thing that those guys would have wanted and you know as much as they're like oh it's you know hyren would have wanted us to to play the game that will have also played a partner but some of the so in those situations you just need the distraction so yeah

yeah

yeah

absolutely and i think um they obviously made that decision as a team a squad in conjunction with with hyren's family right so um yeah credit credit to um to everyone involved for making the best and a fitting tribute to clearly a much-loved and exceptional rugby player and bloke so um yeah not not the way we wanted to to start anything But what we did have on Friday and slightly more kind of positive and uplifting news was an absolute cracker to get things out of the way.

Well, I

was going to say that was the headline of the weekend was obviously the horrible news of Hiram Andrews.

But what would you say was the headline? Because it's kind of a few things vying for this kind of, I know, kind of having seen a few of the papers and obviously some of the English-based podcasts of Well, they haven't had the travel overseas to navigate.

The headlines in the English press is obviously like, why is one win from eight in the Champions Cup, the English teams? But what would you say with a French perspective or French rugby focus or any kind of European rugby focus, what would you say were vying for the headlines?

I think the first game, I think the draw between Gloucester and Bordeaux, it was awesome, awesome game of rugby.

You were probably glued to Dax Montalban, which sounded equally brilliant, but as well as Gloucester have started the season, I don't think, they should have won it as a pass.

It misses his man on the offload, I think it's Englefield, who came on for Dan Robson, who was fabulous.

Yeah, they should have won it, but it was just a brilliant way to start the tournament.

I think that was awesome.