Rugby PickEm

In the final show before summer break, the lads sit in to recap the two exciting MLR semi-final games. The west coast teams reigned, and we'll have a San Diego vs. Seattle final. It was a deadlocked pick in the studio so we asked ol' "Tommy No Pick" to settle our split decision. Barry and FloridaMan Dev like San Diego Legion to finish their amazing season with a championship victory in front of th...

Our first recording debacle took place Monday night as the PickEm gang sat and discussed the great weekend in rugby. This were going smoothly, and time whisked away as opinions and analysis were tossed around the room all willy-nilly. After intense deliberations (and of course some libations), it became aware to the host / audio engineer / chief editor of Rugby PickEm that our world famous red mic...

This week on Rugby PickEm, the lads finally get back in the studio (after Uncle Johnny was finally reigned in from going out every night). We dove into the amazing run the USA 7’s Eagles have been having in 2019 (Pinkleman and Ke'Von ....

Uncle Johnny returns for his first show in 2019 .... (we missed him dearly) and he joins Bt and our very special guest Barry Herbert aka the Mile High Saffa. We catch you up the high flying USA 7's Eagles (first-ranked team in the world / solar system / galaxy), USA rugby's new sponsor: Ernst & Young, and lastly a deep dive in the mid season report on our favorite local league ... Major League Rug...

Barry Herbert is a Cape Town native who grew up playing rugby at the historic Wynberg boys high, Stellenbosch University, and Villagers Rugby Club. He transitioned into coaching in Cape Town with the University of Cape Town, 7s rugby in Cancun Mexico, and in Denver with the Colorado School of Mines. Growing up in Cape Town, Barry touched on the rugby history of the city, and what the 1995 RWC mean...

Max Statler closes out "Raptor Week" with stories and tales from his decade long career with Glendale. He went from playing soccer at Mesa State, to walking onto the football team and out-kicking the starting kicker (with a sports hernia?), to finding his place with Glendale Rugby after Ted "the spread" Browner told him to show up to training one day. He's played under 3 different Glendale coaches...

We're ending 2018 with "Raptor Week" and we couldn't have thought of a better person to lead off than the living giant Casey Rock, all 6'9' of him. With Logan Collins as a guest host, we talked about high school rugby in Colorado, transitioning from soccer to rugby, his playing time abroad in Australia and New Zealand, and lastly his career through the genesis of Glendale Rugby to the professional...

In this week’s Rugby PickEm, Bt and Uncle Johnny dig into the thrilling November international test matches. The Eagles keep rolling through their tour, only to come face to face with the king of Europe this weekend, the high and mighty Irish. Ireland coming off a historic win, dethroning of the All Blacks in Aviva. We recap the month that’s been and tease the final week’s betting lines. Is there...

The Rugby PickEm Guys are back after a busy fall rugby season. Uncle Johnny recaps the USA Women’s 7s at Infinity Park in Glendale as the Eagles took 2nd place on home soil. We ate ourselves sick in the VIP section, but not before we witnessed big USA movers and shakers doing just that … moving and shaking. Bt recaps the state of all 4 southern hemisphere teams after The Rugby Championship includi...

Bt and Uncle Johnny recap the Club Rugby 7's Nationals in the big apple where Bulldog and the San Diego Surfers take home hardware. The best comp in the world is back in session in the form of The Rugby Championship. We ask the question if Sam Whitelock and Brodie Retallick are the best locking combo of all time, and Uncle Johnny is slobbering over Malcom Marx's form for the Spring Boks. The All-A...

The Rugby PickEm gang had a blast in San Francisco. Even though our Eagles didn't win it all, we soaked up 3 days of awesome 7's rugby. Bt, Uncle Johnny, and FloridaMan Dev take us through a roller coaster of a weekend where we talked to Ben Pinkleman (for a couple seconds), Pink's Peeps, tourists at Fisherman's Wharf, two lovely Kiwis (who received an unexpected delivery), and the Pope himself .....

Jeremy “The Missile” Misailegalu plays rugby like his nickname. Fast, powerful and blissfully elegant. We sat down before Club 7’s Nationals and talked about his rugby career. Like a lot of American athletes, Missile switched from football, to wrestling, to finally getting the rugby ball in his hands at University of New Mexico Highlands … aka The Vatos. After getting noticed by world renown 7’s r...

On the eve of the biggest tournement of his career, Ke’Von Williams sat down with Bt, Uncle Johnny and FloridMan Dev. It was easliy our most fun interview to date. For those that don’t know Ke’Von, you’ll quicky discover how humble, funny and competetive his is as a person. We covered everything from his childhood in Houston, to first playing rugby with the New Mexico Highlands Vatos, to his trans...

I hope you're as pumped for this weekend's Rugby World Cup 7's as we are! Logan Collins and FloridaMan Dev sat in for Uncle Johnny this week (he's already got boots on the ground in the Bay Area) as the Rugby PickEm guys recapped the Major League Rugby's semi-finals and final match, seeing the Seattle Seawolves crowned as the league's inaugural champs. We discussed what teams need to do in the off...

It’s our first RugbyPickemBio Threesome! If you’ve ever played well into your 30’s, then this is an interview for you. Danny Bell’s career took an international route, from Kenya to the U.K. eventually landing himself in Arizona. Michael Pisney grew up corn-fed and started his own high school team in Iowa before moving to Denver to join the Barbos. Stories, jokes, voicemails, banter and more with...

With Uncle Johnny and HARPO back in town, the Rugby PickEm guys got together before summer break to talk rugby. The eagles sweep their June test matches ... we reflect back on the historic summer and look t ahead to the November test match in Ireland. Summer 7's have begun, but before we look too far ahead, .... the MLR playoffs are upon us! Predictions, analysis, hot takes, and our world famous p...

Sitting down with Logan Collins after his first MLR cap was a treat. We started talking summer 7's, and proceeded to bounce off the walls covering everything from when he started playing rugby his senior year of high school with James Patterson in Colorado Springs, to learning from kiwis in Dunedin, to winning the one and only PRO Rugby Championship with the Denver Stampede, and his Super League d...

We sat down with Charles (aka Chucky Fresh), a man still riding his championship high. Discussing his rugby journey ... one that ranged from England, to France, to Little Rock Arkansas and eventually to Denver, Colorado, he talked about learning how to tackle before he ever touched a rugby ball, how the French flair has influenced his game, and the challenges and rewards of coaching and developing...

We sat down with Zach before his game against Glendale. We talked everything rugby, including his childhood in Guam, how he had to sneak onto the rugby pitch for his first practice and touring with the countries Soccer national side at age 16. Zach showed love for his old club Ombac as he recounts moving halfway across the world to pursue his rugby ambitions. Lastly we wrapped with some culture, a...

The PickEm guys can barely handle all the rugby over the weekend but we do it for our fans .... Uncle Johnny gives his "State Of The Rugby Union", recapping Wales vs. SA in the Nation's Capital, London 7s, and Club National Championships. We talk MLR, featuring our usual weekly awards. Vili Toluta'u wins #FirstTeamAllHair and Marcus Walsh is our #spiciestscrummy. In our first ever Breaking News on...

After a week off from recording ... (the boys were in TCB mode), we recap you on everything MLR. Uncle Johnny has a couple of bones to pick in his State of the Rugby Union, last week's game recaps features the spiciest scrummy, first-team all-hair, #RigJealousy, Dan Power and Grant Cole's awkward broadcast chemistry, we take different stands on heckling kickers, and our premier of "Eighty Minute M...

HARPO in STUDO! That's right folks, we broke down week 4 with the one and only as he updated us on his upcoming trip to Maggotfest in Missoula, his complicated relationship with technology and his pet peeve ... missed tackles. Things got a little off the walls this week and it's the audio editing job of the year. Phil Mack is this week's spiciest scrummy, Pete Steinberg snatched the announcing cro...

Week 3 in the MLR was the week of upsets that had our heads spinning. Catch up with HARPO's hot takes, game recaps, voicemail (from a very powerful, concerned friend), Thanking Doug, player try pool and week 4 picks. Top notch MLR banter on this week's RUGBY PICKEM! Call 720-259-8825 and YOU could be featured on Rugby PickEm!

We learned A LOT in week 2, and like all you fans ... were frothing for more. In Seattle, HARPO sees a familiar face and we have our first plus sized athlete of the week. Down in Houston, Grant Cole snatches the announcing crown, and Bt has a case of #rigjealously. In San Diego, Nate Augsburger is our spiciest scrummy of the week, and we deliver our first official MLR first-team all-hair as we bre...

MLR Week 1 is in the books ... Uncle Johnny whiffed on his picks, but he's ready to get back on the horse and bounce back in week 2. We break down the games to find out where we were right, where we were wrong, and how we can right those wrongs. A bit of everything this week including an MLR facial hair breakdown, our first voicemail, a look back at PRO Rugby (to thank our friend Dougy Scho), play...