this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2024
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Rugby Union
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Missed the XV match, Georgia won't be up to much. I'll say NZ by 23
It was definitely more of a grind than a romp. Is that the normal rugby pitch in Montpellier - it was very cutup & muddy even before they started the game!
No, quite surprised at that. Did they use a football pitch, or was it the rugby stadium?
Had to google bc outside of the 5 big international stadiums I have no idea where any of these grounds are. Its apparently GGL Stadium which is the ground for Montpellier Hérault who are a top 14 side so i'd assume are the Montpellier.
Its quite a nice looking stadium (apart from the state of the pitch), but another opportunity to be shocked that a metropolitan population of 800k or so has their rugby team in a 16k capacity ground - that's not much bigger than McLean Park which services maybe around 160-180k :)
A reminder that even though there's loads of money in Rugby in France and it is big, its not football big!
Quite a lot of the AB XV best players got called into the ABs squad as injury cover so I'm not as bullish.
My Ireland pick is down to Razor's Crusaders bias picking 2 of his boys at hooker this year which has left the ABs with a known weak lineout thrower in Aumua and an understudy who was just as flakey at Super Rugby this year. All while leaving a Super Rugby winning hooker and one of our most reliable throwers at home.
The bias got even worse with Taylor out injured this week they called Brodie McAlister into the squad ahead of Eklund - so there's 3 Crusaders Hookers out of 4 in the ABs squad this week, its actually stupid given the two not named Taylor haven't looked even close to pushing him out of his spot.