On March 12 2012 16:53 decafchicken wrote: Caught the wales/italy game. Wales just too much ~~ Italy's defense looked pretty good for how much it had to put up with.
On March 12 2012 10:14 phyre112 wrote: Club team has been on tour in scotland for four days now. Damn, the pictures I'm seeing. If only I'd had 3 grand just chilling around, would have been a great trip, and some great opportunities to play rugby.
They're going somewhere else two years from now - maybe I'll make it as an alumni.
Never pass up on a rugby tour. Even if you have to take a loan.
I've got enough loans staring me in the face the next few years. Fortunately I'll get out of syracuse with only ~15k in debt which isn't bad for a school that's over 50,000 per year, but then there's med school to look at. More than not being able to afford the loan, I can't afford to have bad credit going in.
Either way, it was argentina the two years ago, and it was England before that, both of which I think I would have preferred. Odds are good the next one will be France, or NZ, which would just be ridiculous.
I was watching some interviews with the Sharks team today, and while they were interviewing the players you could see the rest of the team exercising in the background. Almost everybody was busy doing power cleans, while a few guys were busy with push press. In the past, I've also seen the Sharks deadlift (I remember being chuffed because Bismarck du Plessis was deadlifting 140kg which was my 5RM at the time). Anyway, I guess that supports the idea that C&J (and compound exercises in general) is great for rugby.
For this weekend, I'm predicting:
Chiefs > Brumbies - Brumbies have looked poor so far while the Chiefs have been strong. Should be comfy for the Chiefs.
Stormers > Blues - Unsure about this one. Blues beating the Bulls last week was a great result for them, but I don't expect them to pull it off again.
Hurricanes < Highlanders - Another hard match to call. Going for the Highlanders on form, but in general I think the Hurricanes are the stronger team.
Waratahs > Force - Warathas has looked pretty good recently, while Force never look threatening.
Sharks > Reds - Yet another difficult call. Reds have won everything so far, but they've done it looking very ordinary. It's 50-50, so I'm going for the SA team.
Rebels < Cheetahs - Cheetahs have lost their two games with a total point difference of 3. On the other hand, the Rebels almost beat the Reds and they have some big stars. Once again, I'm going with my heart more than anything else.
Hope i can catch some super 14 matches, at least more than the highlights this weekend. Although i'll be drinking all day saturday for st pattys day and i've got tryouts for our state all start team on sunday.
And yes, CJ/compounds are the best thing for rugby. The more i do the better i get :D
On March 16 2012 05:07 decafchicken wrote: Hope i can catch some super 14 matches, at least more than the highlights this weekend. Although i'll be drinking all day saturday for st pattys day and i've got tryouts for our state all start team on sunday.
And yes, CJ/compounds are the best thing for rugby. The more i do the better i get :D
Blues vs Stormers has been the best game so far this weekend.. Some big games just started, Wales vs France in Six Nations, and Sharks vs Reds in Super Rugby. Go Wales and Sharks!
Wales deserved to win this game and the Six Nations in my opinion. After the WC, everyone in SA felt that Wales was the strongest European team, so I'm glad to see them come out and kick ass in the Six Nations.
Sharks vs Reds turned out to be quite a good game in the end. Considering the terrible weather, I felt both teams actually played great rugby for most of the game, which has been rare this season.
Wales deserved to win this game and the Six Nations in my opinion. After the WC, everyone in SA felt that Wales was the strongest European team, so I'm glad to see them come out and kick ass in the Six Nations.
Sharks vs Reds turned out to be quite a good game in the end. Considering the terrible weather, I felt both teams actually played great rugby for most of the game, which has been rare this season.
Yeah I agree they deserved it! Just that game in particular wasn't the best of the tournament. France were pretty underwhelming this whole tournament actually, I had expected better.
French team is so old. Now they need to let the youngs tallents coming at 1st plan, and that when it's possible (next tourney in argentine 06/12). I don't know why, but since few years i think french team just doesn't play and win thanks to his scrum's strengh (sorry doesn't know the english term for players 1 to 8).
edit: other thing, we seriously need a real n°10. Beauxis only knows hit the ball, and trin-duc is not at all on his best lvl for few months...
Wp Wales and England (Ireland scrums got destroyed lol). I think it was a nice 6-nations overall, tons of new promising players and it is always good when a young team like Wales wins a grand slam (25 years old avrg).
France's performance was kinda disappointing it feels like they could have won some games (Ireland, England especially) but they made way too many stupid mistakes in defence. Even the game vs Wales was a bit like that too. They botched several occasions and even if they played bad it was still fairly close. I feel that this is because of the composition of the team, a mix of old 30+ players who are now retiring and very few new players. It seems that this 6-nations was the last tournament of a generation.
Then there is also the big problem of the fly-half. TD plays like a centre and "Joey" Beauxis is not a world class player. So basicly we have put a scrum-half (Parra) at 10 like in the WC or to use a subpar fly-half. Then there are also all the weird coaching choices. I don't think it is really smart to try a brand new scrum half (Dupuy) when you are playing England especially when you call back Yachvili the next week lol. I don't really know how they will rebuild the team but we will have to find some new good forwards since Servat, Bonnaire and Nallet are retiring. Kind of sad actually since Servat still played way better than his successor. There are also many "old" guys still in the team and some are still in their prime but i think they are too old for the 2015WC. I don't know what will happen but the coach will have to make some tough choices (Rougerie, Harinordoquy, etc...). I think he should pick new fresh guys like England and Wales. The team was too old and he only picked three new young players.
Overall i think it is pretty cool to see such a huge talent pool in Europe. France was really close to win the last WC but i feel that Wales and England could be legitimate favourites for the 2015 WC and not just an "upset". Maybe France too but i will wait to see how they start to build the new team. Same thing for Ireland (many old players too).
Lots of good rugby this weekend again. The first two super rugby games were some of the more exciting games we've seen to date, and there's also the Hong Kong sevens going on. Also, my fantasy team has had a good start with all my players in the first two games of super rugby getting good points
On the topic of rugby players in the gym: There's current series of ads running on our rugby channel with the punch line "See what Super can do for you" in which they show the superrugby players doing cool things (for example, the Cheetah's goal kicker kicking a goal of 70m). The newest one shows Pierre Spies in the gym, but they jump over the exercises quite quickly so it's difficult to tell exactly what he's doing. From what I could see, he did a weighted chin-up on 60kg (three plates, might have been one 15kg plate I couldn't tell), and a deadlift somewhere between 200-240kg (6 big plates per side, but two of them looked slightly thinner). There were other exercises as well, but those were the only two where I had a good view of the plates. Also, me and the gf saw Francois Hougaard in the gym again on Sunday (helping someone with dumbbell press). My gf was staring and walked into a bench. Was hillarious :D
On March 23 2012 21:41 Daigomi wrote: Lots of good rugby this weekend again. The first two super rugby games were some of the more exciting games we've seen to date, and there's also the Hong Kong sevens going on. Also, my fantasy team has had a good start with all my players in the first two games of super rugby getting good points
On the topic of rugby players in the gym: There's current series of ads running on our rugby channel with the punch line "See what Super can do for you" in which they show the superrugby players doing cool things (for example, the Cheetah's goal kicker kicking a goal of 70m). The newest one shows Pierre Spies in the gym, but they jump over the exercises quite quickly so it's difficult to tell exactly what he's doing. From what I could see, he did a weighted chin-up on 60kg (three plates, might have been one 15kg plate I couldn't tell), and a deadlift somewhere between 200-240kg (6 big plates per side, but two of them looked slightly thinner). There were other exercises as well, but those were the only two where I had a good view of the plates. Also, me and the gf saw Francois Hougaard in the gym again on Sunday (helping someone with dumbbell press). My gf was staring and walked into a bench. Was hillarious :D
Haha I'm doing god awful in fantasy :D I won my six nations league though ^_^ Pierre spies is an animal, are there youtube vids of these ads?
First game tomorrow, playing with a D1 men's side against a very good college, should be a great time.
On March 23 2012 21:41 Daigomi wrote: Lots of good rugby this weekend again. The first two super rugby games were some of the more exciting games we've seen to date, and there's also the Hong Kong sevens going on. Also, my fantasy team has had a good start with all my players in the first two games of super rugby getting good points
On the topic of rugby players in the gym: There's current series of ads running on our rugby channel with the punch line "See what Super can do for you" in which they show the superrugby players doing cool things (for example, the Cheetah's goal kicker kicking a goal of 70m). The newest one shows Pierre Spies in the gym, but they jump over the exercises quite quickly so it's difficult to tell exactly what he's doing. From what I could see, he did a weighted chin-up on 60kg (three plates, might have been one 15kg plate I couldn't tell), and a deadlift somewhere between 200-240kg (6 big plates per side, but two of them looked slightly thinner). There were other exercises as well, but those were the only two where I had a good view of the plates. Also, me and the gf saw Francois Hougaard in the gym again on Sunday (helping someone with dumbbell press). My gf was staring and walked into a bench. Was hillarious :D
Haha I'm doing god awful in fantasy :D I won my six nations league though ^_^ Pierre spies is an animal, are there youtube vids of these ads?
First game tomorrow, playing with a D1 men's side against a very good college, should be a great time.
Nicely done on the Six Nations! I should probably try that next season just to keep me up to date on the European players.
I've tried to find the Pierre Spies ad but with no luck. I did find this video from an old SA vs B&I Lions game from a few years back that gave me a good laugh:
I did see one of the descriptions on a Pierre Spies video state that he has a bench of 180kg, and in another video he mentions that his two favourite exercises are the power clean and the bench. Couldn't find any videos though.
Good luck with the rugby! I'd be interested in hearing how it goes.
Great super rugby games this weekend. I watched 5 of the 7 (the other 2 were at 6AM), and all of them were good. I personally enjoyed the last two games of the weekend the most: Bulls vs Reds (awesome fun) and Lions vs Stormers (one of the hardest games I've seen in a long time). That said, Crusaders vs Cheetahs was surprisingly good, and the Highlanders vs Brumbies was also interesting. I saw the Sharks vs Waratahs highlights and that looked interesting too, but it was too early for me to watch.
I'm looking forward to Bulls vs Stormers next week. It should be a great game, especially if the Bulls play like they did today.
First game was a victory 36-31. I played 12 and pretty much just made my tackles and crashed the ball when we needed it. Nothing too exciting never really got a chance to do much in the open field. Ended the game with a crazy goal line stand. Went out with a few of the guys after to a couple strip clubs and a bar (one of the guys is a very succesful lawyer) Holy shit i've never seen so much money thrown around so casually. Guy easily dropped 3 grand on us just buy drinks/bribing our way in to clubs.
On March 27 2012 01:12 decafchicken wrote: First game was a victory 36-31. I played 12 and pretty much just made my tackles and crashed the ball when we needed it. Nothing too exciting never really got a chance to do much in the open field. Ended the game with a crazy goal line stand. Went out with a few of the guys after to a couple strip clubs and a bar (one of the guys is a very succesful lawyer) Holy shit i've never seen so much money thrown around so casually. Guy easily dropped 3 grand on us just buy drinks/bribing our way in to clubs.
Haha, men's club rugby sounds awesome. Also, Pocock is the first Wallabie forward that's impressed me in quite a while. I've had him in my fantasy squad for the last few weeks and it's been pretty good
Another rugby/gym experience. There's this really big guy (1.9m, 100kg or more) that regularly gyms at the same time I do. A few weeks ago I had to ask him something (probably how many sets of squats he had left) and he had a distinct American accent. I saw him again today and he was wearing a USA Rugby shirt. It looked like an official shirt (like the shirts they use to train/warm-up in, not a match shirt), and he's definitely built like a professional player, so I'm guessing he was part of the squad at some point. He was quite into his music today, and I was too chickenshit to ask him about it, but I'll ask him about it next time I see him.
Also, on an unrelated note, I squatted 1.5x BW for the first time today, and almost finished my 5th rep on 1.8x DL. Pretty happy
EDIT: I lied earlier, Horwill is another impressive Wallabie forward.
Also, holy shit the Bulls look pimp in their pink. They didn't just go pink, they went bright neon pink. Haha, it's awesome.
I got asked to join an amateur Union team recently. The only rugby I've played is some Touch Football with a corporate team. We were semi-serious but only competed in lower divisions. My fitness let me down, but could sprint fairly fast to score often.
I'm 27, 5'7" and 68kg. Currently lifting, but still a beginner. What do you think my chances are of:
a) Actually learning the game and being able to contribute to the team (being short and light)? b) Not getting smashed and injured every game?
I miss playing touch, but Union seems like a world apart, and the tackling does worry me somewhat.
On April 11 2012 15:33 BoxingKangaroo wrote: I got asked to join an amateur Union team recently. The only rugby I've played is some Touch Football with a corporate team. We were semi-serious but only competed in lower divisions. My fitness let me down, but could sprint fairly fast to score often.
I'm 27, 5'7" and 68kg. Currently lifting, but still a beginner. What do you think my chances are of:
a) Actually learning the game and being able to contribute to the team (being short and light)? b) Not getting smashed and injured every game?
I miss playing touch, but Union seems like a world apart, and the tackling does worry me somewhat.
a) all depends on how you play the game. Completely up to you. b) No reason you should get injured every game if you're not super weak/unathletic. I've personally never sustained any serious injuries outside of sprains and the like.
Union is a great time, tackle is a million times more fun than touch imo. If you've got some speed/athleticism and bulk up a bit there's no reason you cant be a solid contributer to your team. Our starting scrumhalf is about your size and there's a few people even smaller that do pretty well. Just listen to the guys with experience.
Size and weight only matters at the high level, it is like apm in Starcraft lol. For sure it helps but i have seen plenty of small or lanky guys playing good rugby in Highschool. On the other hand you can also find large guys who are slow, can't make a pass and are scared to tackle.
There are many different ways to tackle depending of the situation. It is way more technical than most people think. You can aim the legs, the torso if you want to block the ball, ankle tap if you are way behind etc...
I recently got back into rugby - 27, 6'2, 17stone.
My advice would be as follows - Make sure you are somewhat fit and awake before you play a game. - Watch out for when the ground is hard, seriously.
My last game was back in november, went into it having overslept (worked late) and without breakfast or lunch. Got blindsided onto rock hard ground, knocked out, and ripped a ligament in my shoulder. Still not fixed...sad panda .
I would say it's quite unlucky to get injured and if you are fit and sensible you will be fine. Fun game
EPT
.
