The Dew Drop Inn Virtual Rugby Pub

First topic message reminder :

Welcome to the Virtual Rugby Pub - a place where you can come in for a sly beverage and discuss whatever's on your mind, or just eavesdrop on the regulars if you fancy a break from all the rugby chat.

The only rule in this pub is one of mutual respect for everyone in it, oh and no defacing the pictures of Jonathan Davies (JD2), and all of the weekend's 6 Nations debutants above the bar!





Last Pub: https://www.606v2.com/t22964p950-the-dew-drop-inn-virtual-rugby-pub#911771

Snowing here. Home time.

prop_lyd wrote:Obviously not important enough Rava............ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ2yXWi0ppw

Ooooo fighting are we?! Gibbo I think Rava needs some 'cool down' time.

I don't know...I come in for a quiet drink seeing as the missus is at band practice and I get attacked!!

Been listening to the soccer debates on the radio apparently John Terry is dreaming of leading his country into Poland just like his hero . . . .

Sam Warburton his hero then ?

prop_lyd wrote:Ooooo fighting are we?! Gibbo I think Rava needs some 'cool down' time.

I don't know...I come in for a quiet drink seeing as the missus is at band practice and I get attacked!!

No. Its me mate Rav, winding me up.
Ah well. Im used to it by now.

red_stag wrote:Been listening to the soccer debates on the radio apparently John Terry is dreaming of leading his country into Poland just like his hero . . . .

Love it. And, he IS. Bad cockney.

I won't hear a bad word said about John Terry. I've been a fan of his ever since he parked his Bentley in a disabled parking space at Pizza Express. Salt of the earth.

Right,

I don't do any of those prediction games so how does everyone see the games at the weekend turning out?

Wales by 3, England by 10 and France by 9.

Home wins all round.

Italy, despite talk of them wanting to play more expansively, will realise that their biggest asset is their pack. They will play to their known strengths, and England have very little leadership in their pack. 12-10.

Wales have too much power and guile in their backs. This is not a game where Scotland want to create 'chaos' - it normally results in dropped passes, and Wales are lethal off turnover ball. 31 - 12.

France just seem to have the hex on Ireland, who rarely come up with the right game plan in this fixture (esp. defensively). Possibly because you never know what France will play like. 25 - 18.


But it's the 6N, so who knows.

OK sound

paddypower.com

'England have very little leadership in their pack.'

Well they may be short on international experience overall, but with Robshaw, Hartley and Croft around I doubt they'll lack for leadership in the pack.

Italy by 5.
Scotland by 2.
France by 20.

I'll win a feicin fortune.

Should i have a flutter Gibbo ?

Possibly not Kenny.

Therein lies madness.

But. Id put a 20 spot on it tho. It would pay megabucks.

Yeah. I know. But. Phhok it.

Your on

Night All

Pour mes amis en France

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EadIvDAWkf8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

'Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily for my gender, this is not difficult.' A girl I was chatting to tonight came up with this 2 liner. I made a sharp exit. No need for it really. No need at all.

Morning pub. Hope all is well with everyone

Morning billy, morning all

Usual for me pls:

Morning Asbo. Up early to watch the cricket on my day off

Jeebus, that's dedication, fair play to you. You better have one of these then:

Thanks mate, could use it

I love to watch the Aussies play cricket

Bore da pawb / good morning all. Dark and drizzly here on the docks, but it's Friday so I don't give a flying fox!

Bore da I chi gyd.

Ireland by 7
England by 7
Draw.

Jason Tovey's signed for the Blues. I wish him well - what would be the point of turning against him? - but I don't know where the Blues have found some cash all of a sudden. I'd heard they were skint. Unless the WRU has given one region the money to buy a player from another region, which would be beyond shabby.

Morning all

Been in work for an hour and a half this morning and all I can say is.....





@rse!!!!


Any on the go?

Its seriously not good for my blood pressure to be on this forum sometimes. Some seriously poor posters whos only intent on here is WUM this site beyond all recognition...

Morning Ozzy, i could use a nice right now, any of that on the go?

As, you predicted Leinster by 32 last night. Maith an fear!

Sadly not Billy, otherwise I'd be tempted by one myself this morning!

G'waan Ozzy, peer pressure, you know you want one

Mickado wrote:As, you predicted Leinster by 32 last night. Maith an fear!

breaker too

Just out of interest, following on from Pete's article yesterday, does anyone have a sense for the attrition rate for their country from U20 to full senior side? My contention was that England's problem is that they seem unable to translate U20 dominance into its senior equivalent. From memory, the last time I looked in detail, quite near the beginning of v2, about 5 out of every Scotland U20 squad go on to win national caps - I remember that someone (Munsty?) had done a similar analysis for Ireland - care to hazard an educated guess for your country?

Just found this, v timely piece from the legend that is Bentos (mkII):

CHRIS BENTLEY: Sunday's game allowed us to feed the babies on raw meat
Thursday, February 09, 2012

NEARLY six months into our life as parents, and Hayley and I are facing our biggest challenge. Baby Bea is being weaned. As a newborn, mother's milk was sufficient to keep the little one growing and healthy. We're now onto apple and pear smoothies as the Bentley sweet tooth becomes apparent.

It amazes me that in no time our daughter will be into solid food and the milk that once was all she needed will be a distant memory.

As a baby, Bea has a lifetime to develop her palate. It may well be 20 years before she can take on steak tartar, a spicy curry or some of her father's attempts from the kitchen.

Developing her taste buds will be a gradual process and although it's certainly messy – as any parent will testify – weaning is no real hardship for the young one.

Applying the metaphor to a young rugby player, time is not a luxury one can afford. At best you get 15 years in the game. You need to be up to speed fast. To perform at Premiership level you must have the palate for rare steak as a one year old!

The million dollar question is how do you take a young academy player used to age-grade rugby and turn him into a hard-nosed campaigner?

In the case of Exeter Chiefs, the answer is total immersion. At the elite level you sink or learn to swim pretty fast. Our academy boys have very little time to move from the age-grade rugby they excel at to the rigours of the full-time game.

The move from school or college to the Exeter Chiefs environment is tough enough for them, to then be on the pitch lining up against seasoned pros is a completely new ball game but one they must adapt to quickly.

At the Chiefs, to help in the 'weaning', older guys act as mentors to the academy boys to help them develop. In some instances, this can be a bit surreal.

Big Pete Short dubs the youngsters 'dragons' whom he places under a wing as he is their dragon master. You could be forgiven for thinking this a bit peculiar but the dragon academy already has past members playing at Premiership clubs up and down the country.

The weaning process can at times be painful for those associated with it. Sunday's game with Bath proved so in graphic style. To a lot of our fans, it was not a good result for Exeter Chiefs. To some of the senior players (myself included), it wasn't a good day. But for the Exeter Chiefs as a whole, Sunday was a fantastic opportunity to get some raw meat into the babies!

For the last 10 minutes, in front of over 5,000 fans and live on Sky Sports, our academy front row packed down opposite internationally-experienced opponents.

Scrummaging behind the young bucks was pretty tough at first. Young Ben Rogers, in just his second senior game for the club, was opposite England squad member David Wilson. His wide eyes and nervous demeanour was understandable. This was going straight from milk to a cordon bleu meal!

Out in the backline, Ben's academy colleagues Sam Hill and Jack Arnott were already showing that they had a taste for the big occasion. Hill's bullocking runs were a continual thorn for Bath and young Arnott shook off a knock-on early on to keep playing!

Up front the boy that is now being dubbed "the future" Dave Ewers was putting in his second man-of-the-match performance in as many weeks. It's fair to say that unlike Bea, the Chiefs' youngsters grow up pretty fast.

Tom Hayes has spoken among the squad that experience counts for nothing unless you learn from it. We've already seen how the senior squad learnt from last year's European odyssey to produce the result of the season so far against Perpignan.

By the final scrum, Ben and our other young bucks in the front row – Tom Cowan-Dickie and Lloyd Fairbrother – were matching the star-studded Bath boys and showing that although their learning curve was near vertical, they were up to the challenge.

Regardless of the 15 men on the pitch, we attack every game with equal vigour. Walking from the pitch on the back of a 30-point loss was tough. Looking back at it though, the experience and growth that seven of our academy guys had will prove invaluable.

In addition to that we saw comebacks from Chad Slade and Ben Moon. Sometimes it can be hard to draw positives from a tough result. In this instance, although it was a painful scoreline to endure, there were plenty.

As a final point about Sunday, a special mention has to be given to Adrian and Max, our groundsmen. The pitch is always very well-kept but with temperatures plummeting to record lows, many would have thought the fixture could have been in doubt.

Their efforts through the week in ensuring the Sandy Park surface was in tip-top condition deserve a tip of the proverbial hat.

Looking to the week ahead, don't forget to listen in to the Chiefs radio show on Radio Exe 107.3 at 7pm this Thursday and be sure to get to Sandy Park on Saturday when the Premiership returns and we host the fourth-placed Leicester Tigers in what promises to be a humdinger of a game.

Until the next time, stay safe and enjoy your rugby".

Asbo,

A complete "Knights move" here but the thing that strikes me on reading that piece is,


"...young Arnott shook off a knockout early on to keep playing!"



Please tell me he was speaking metaphorically!

As, I’ve not carried out any scientific research but over the last few years, the only U20 player that I can think of who’s got an international cap is Rhys Ruddock. 5 a year is an incredible conversion rate I would have said. if 1 or 2 players from each squad make it to senior level that’s good going.

Going back to your point of the U20s.

That is my objection to the Shingler situation.

To tie so many lads who have such a small chance of a full cap is just wrong. i don't think they are too young to make up their minds (although some may be) I just think it casts the net far too wide. Some of those lads may not even end up with professional contracts let alone full International Honours.

Mickado wrote:As, I’ve not carried out any scientific research but over the last few years, the only U20 player that I can think of who’s got an international cap is Rhys Ruddock. 5 a year is an incredible conversion rate I would have said. if 1 or 2 players from each squad make it to senior level that’s good going.

Maybe I was highlighting made it thru to first team pro ranks in the original article? will have to check now

MrsP wrote:Asbo,

A complete "Knights move" here but the thing that strikes me on reading that piece is,


"...young Arnott shook off a knockout early on to keep playing!"



Please tell me he was speaking metaphorically!

For sure, MrsP, I think he meant to say 'knock on'

Really?

Why would you need to shake off "an early knock-on to keep playing"?

A knock-on might dent your confidence but it wouldn't stop you playing, would it?

Very concerned about that.

Very concerned.

Dinnae fash yersel, lassie, twas a mere knock-on

God bless Penfro Pete! Thanks to him, I'm taking my dad to watch Wales v Scotland for his birthday!

Sorry.

Just a subject close to my heart.

Another Kights move Asbo.

Is "Frazzle" an actual/common name in Scotland? There was a wee lad in the thing our fella was in the other day called Frazzle and I wasn't sure if it was a nickname or if his folks just didn't like him?

Hmm, 'Frazzle' = a brand of savoury snacks by Walkers? Also used as 'worn to a frazzle', but can't think of anything beyond that

Good morning regs!! Been swimming and now only 3 people in the whole building at work so think a fairly non-productive day is going to happen for me!!