Wrong Side of the Ruck

Look. We had a plan. The couch was in Twichekham, which Jones declared was Welsh adjacent, and we were going to watch George North's last match and Faf do faF things. The plan was good. The match not so much. So by halftime we push that bitch right across the channel and abandon Cardiff for Paris where Tolouse are destroying everything in their path. There are cartoon supervillains, hookers not sc...

It's finals weekend and the couch is fit to burst. We sat down to watch all three championships in one sitting, and somewhere around the negroni and a half things got weird. Leinster ran roughshod over the Bulls, the Hurricanes put up record-breaking numbers against the Chiefs, and Northampton claimed the Premiership title, and somehow we still found time to debate Prendergast's relation t...

Tocco drives the couch up the M1 this week and bitches about the gearbox being on the wrong side the entire way. Northampton hosted Leicster in one hell of a Premiership Semifinal that had us so locked in this almost became a B-Side. There were chip kicks. There was chasing. There were too many fucking TMO called back tries. Craigory watched from the corner again. Tocco goes full Manson as we talk...

We take the couch to the land of the rising where Jones and Tocco are in for a hell of a match during the Japan Pro League One Finals. The Kobe Steelers and Kubota Spears give a hell of a game, but we all know we're really just here for Dave Rennie and what he may bring to the All Blacks next year. Like Brodie Retalick, who may have been cast in the next Sling Blade. We talk on how Tocco may s...

Bilbao delivered with Bordeaux and so did the couch. Though this week is a little different after the shenanigans of last week as Tocco decides to pump the breaks on the Belgian Triples so Jones has to put the wildcard hat on. There are mullet crimes, hobbits and Jones can't keep his eyes off of Big Ben Tamiefuna. We open the mailbag up a bit to field questions about the Nations cup while Biel...

We tried setting the couch up inside San Memes in Bilbao but security wouldn't let us so you'll have to enjoy us this way. This was chocked up to be a huge match; Ulster with 4 big players out gave them the underdog status that we all knew they could hold, but could they deliver? If you ask their coaches as they walked out early, no. Tocco continues his complex relationship with all things French,...

The Couch is a little bigger this week as we squeeze in what is really just an XL B-Side parading as a normal episode. We go back into the vault and pull out our watch of the Anthem vs. Legion MLR match from this year. Yea, that one. Anthem get their historic first win on a night where the TMO can't be found, Tocco misidentifies an entire demographic and somehow we get on Willam Dafoe and porn. Ei...

The Waratahs needed this win. The Highlanders, and the boys, needed this one more. None of us needed the TMO reviewing anything during the game and yet they couldn't stop. Caleb Tangitau is back and immediately makes defenders wish he had taken another week off. There's a scrum half we formally recommend to be drawn and quartered, tries that made us stop mid-conversation and a bunker revie...

Strap into the couch today folks because we just got done watching thirteen Leinster players hold off a pissed off Toulon in a Champions Cup semi final. Somewhere between a bullshit TMO call, the second yellow card, and Tocco doing his best Leif Erikson to find Leinster on a map it all goes off the rails. Exactly where you'd expect us to end up. The battering ram theory of physics and tackling...

The couch is back this week and Leicester give us plenty to talk about in their defeat of Bristol. Theirs bonus point tries, cards and Tocco finally nails the tagline for us, twice, while finding out he needs space to run and frolic. We loose the questions for the mailbag, still don't have an intro for it, and Tocco takes on English drinking habits with a hot take that would turn Pollocks hair...

Grab a spot on the couch as we work to somehow right this ship and proudly come in with absolutely no plan, no prep, and no intention of fixing that. What started as a return to Japan, a full-circle moment back to Episode 1, quickly turns into us questioning how this whole thing ever worked in the first place. MXC didn’t pan out, this did, and we’re still not convinced that makes sense. We talk ex...

Triple A couldn't find us back in 2000 in the DeLorean and Tocco doesn't know a thing about Fusion, so we headed over to Australia to watch the greatest game ever played. Or so we're told. Settle down on the couch because this one gets weird fast. Rapid succession tries from New Zealand in the opening minutes have us questioning WHY this is the greatest game ever played, Harambe comes...

It may have been Super Saturday, and we may have picked an off match, but work with us here. The couch is still cozy and we're getting to all the matches; this one is just for us. Tocco is Sicilian, Jones is Welsh, and sometimes the heart wants what the heart wants. Like a nice Vespa. So while the title was decided elsewhere we caught the highlights first, then settled in and did what we do be...

The couch is sitting a little lower this week as we wallow in our self pity in not making the 1st side again. Said pity doesn't last long as beers are had and stories start flying. The Metzstein files get opened again, commercial reads go completely sideways from the start and Jones apparently has amnesia about it. Edinburgh vs. Ulster gives us an excuse to talk about red cards and what the he...

This is a big one. Largest episode yet. We had to break out an extra couch to contain all the rugby. Round 4 of the 6 Nations delivered two huge wins and a...Wales, and we weren't able to just pick one game and try and pretend the others weren't awesome. Scotland did Scottish things and gave us hope, France drops their first loss, Italy puts England down and Ireland handled Wales, but not...

The couch is back in action for Six Nations round 3 that has Jones grasping at his chest at what could have been. Wales were up at half 17-5. In Cardiff. And yet we still found a side quest into how to pronounce someones name. There are unprovoked, yet passionate, rants about scrum feeds that Tocco may not be listening to, a potential 70's porn star and Finn Russell doing things in the second...

Well thats unfortunate. The team sheet has gone up and we've been dropped from the first team. Good news for you though as we're running with the B-Side today. It all starts with scrums, and we can't shut up about them. Binding technique, head placement and headbutts. You know, the dark arts. The only reason chubby guys like us can even take the field still. This is the B Side. No real...

The couch is pulling double duty this week, keeping one eye on the 6 Nations pulse before flying south for the summer and the opener of a landmark season. Thirty years of Super Rugby Pacific and one hell of an opening game. Finn Russell fingers a tap pass that was, frankly, inappropriate. Italy are doing things to Ireland that have absolutely no business happening. Jones gives up on Wales complete...

We're back on the couch this week and it's a doozie; France vs. Ireland, the long awaited 6Nations home opener and a pair of Americans who probably care a little too much. Jones is doing his best to resist the allure of the French, Tocco is making wild claims about English rugby with the confidence of a man who believes he's never been wrong once in his life. Dupont comes out of the sh...

The DeLorean broke down at just the right time and place for Jones this week; Peak Welsh rugby. Have a seat at the bar with us as we relive the Welsh glory days and watch the 2019 6 Nations and talk about it as if we know what the fuck is actually going on. You'll hear about Tocco's triple crown, who we think the Yankee's of Rugby are, the TMO as the good guy for once, Mullets and Tocc...

The couch is feeling nostalgic this week as we get it up to 88mph and crash right back into 2007; back when rugby was a little looser, hydration meant extra Carlsberg and the dark arts held sway. We're taking a watch at the 6 Nations of old as we prep for this years tourney and digging into Italy vs. Scotland. The one at Murrayfield. Tocco is planted firmly in his Italian roots as he waxes poetica...

We're back on the couch for episode 4 where we get a look at Northampton vs. Bordeaux Part 2: the long awaited sequel to last years European Championship final, and somehow we're still talking about Bielle-Biarrey and if he's Italian or not. Pollock's frosted tips, A Tocco cock up that has us wishing we could hit up Twin Pines mall and head back to fix the timeline, this one has it...

And it's the 3rd episode already! Pull up a chair and sit with us as we toss on Bordeaux vs. Racing 92 of the French Top 14. We spend an unreasonable time trying to figure out if that player is French, Italian or Swiss, openly drool over Big Ben Tameifuna and draw comparisons to the UEFA Cup that likely only make sense to us. Confident opinions with no facts to back them up, bad analogies, yelling...

Welcome back to Wrong Side and Episode 2! This week we sit down over a cold one and dive into this Irish Darby. Watch along with us if you can and enjoy momentum swings, questionable calls, and plenty of moments where one of us is convinced the match is about to flip completely. We talk through what Connacht are trying to build, where Ulster look dangerous, and how quickly confidence can turn into...

The very first one! Your hosts Tocco and Jones kick off Wrong Side with a watch-along of Japanese League One, reacting in real time and letting the match take us wherever it goes. Expect plenty of talk about what we’re seeing on the field, how the Japanese game feels compared to other leagues, and a lot of side quests about rugby as a whole and how it used to be when we were still young.