Wrong Side of the Ruck

Its time for more Saffa's as the couch makes a hard right from the Premiership game we had planned to take a look at what everyone's been talking about. The Wallabies are taking on the Springboks; Rassie made 13 changes and a new captain, Tocco came ready to fight the TMO and Jones can't stop giggling about the ref being that bad AND being Italian. We've got bare ass tries, a Bigfoot that you'd sw...

Houston, we have a problem. The Couch made its way over to Japan for the 3rd place final of the Pacific Nations series this year where the US takes on Canada. And fumbles hard. There's a lot happening here and we didn't think to edit much. We talk scrums, Lot Lizards, dodgy mullets and beautiful Europeans. We get an update to the opening of the Top14, Premiership and URC tables, a primer o...

The road to Baltimore was so long that some of us fell asleep on the couch. The Finale between the All Blacks and South Africa nearly broke Craig and had Tocco all over the place. Somewhere in the Chaos we talk Benjamin Button scrum halves, Jones waxes poetically about the Killdozer and we get stuck in on scrums again. Codie Taylor needed a band-aid, we've got dag jokes and somewhere through i...

The plan was simple: pull up a bit of the old couch, crack a few beers and watch the Saffa's take on the Blackness. That didn't even last through the first fifteen minutes as we get derailed finding ourselves in Groundhogs Day. We explore the dodgy mullet club and see if we have a new entry, Tacolini makes a cameo, we chat about Clippy and there's a penalty for running too hard that en...

Pull up a bit of the couch as Tocco claims he's coming in hot and Jonesey is wound tight the whole episode; which Tocco loves. We're sitting down for Round Two of the Greatest Rivalry as the Springboks and All Blacks square off in Cape Town, stop 2 on our Road to Baltimore. Somewhere in all the shenanigans we fall down a scrum rabbit hole and can't stop chatting about the angles, the p...

The couch is ready this week as the Greatest Rivalry is finally here; the All Blacks and South Africa kickoff in Johannesburg. Come grab a seat as Rugby's Greatest Rivalry finally gets the point of view it needs. The Wrong Side. Things start off strong with Tocco bringing Tacolini to the party, Jones is on it again with the TMO and the South African scrum gets so sexually dominant we can't...

The couch is looking a little worse for wear this week; it's the road to Baltimore week 3 and we're stepping into the shark Tank that is Durban to see what Nonu can do against his old teammates. Tocco's trashy Europeaness gets the moment it deserves, Jones has to eat his words about just how young Reuben Love is and should he even be at 10, the TMO gets a stern talking to and a 44 year...

Welcome back to the Road to Baltimore here on Wrong Side of the Ruck where the couch is nestled somewhere in South Africa and the boys are taking a look at the provincial rugby from Currie Cup. I don't know about you, but nothing screams Saffa rugby more than a bakers dozen of cards. The Bulls hosted their first home game against the Pumas and we actually talked rugby this time. We swear. Ther...

Pull up a cozy bit of the couch because it's Stag Day in Invercargill, and the boys are gearing up for the road to Baltimore and South Africa vs. New Zealand. We've got a few beers in hand and are watching NPC rugby's oldest grudge match: Otago vs. Southland. As always, we talk about mostly anything but the match. There's Lee the Stripper, Honry the French Man, and way too much tim...

Jones ditches the couch this week to actually play, leaving Tocco alone behind the mic of a potato for a solo call of the Can-Am Rugby Premier Finals between White Plains and your Eastside Hyenas. As Tocco weaves commentary through the lens of a handful of van beers Dribbles nearly throws hands, a squad of 17 year olds humiliate grown men, Negronis finally get the personality arc they deserve and...

The couch saw a lot of action this week as the Lot Lizards wouldn't leave Jones alone as we sat down to watch the Italians take on Australia in Perth for round three of the Nations Championships. Somewhere between teh dark arts and Magnum Itai Perth handed us scrum debates, hat tricks and Jones ranting about languages he can't speak. Tocco went full Italian in the sheeds and we find oursel...

We released the Taco, formally, somewhere between Jones' internet going out for the fourth time and a Trojan sponsorship request that got weirdly specific. Meanwhile, Wales and Argentina went at it down in San Juan and Wales didn't completely disappoint Jones. We talked scrums, ketamine, hair plugs from Turkey and way too many Hooker things to count here. Come peek behind the Aluminum Curt...

The couch pulled double duty tonight as we speed out from Denver and head down to Christchurch for the kickoff of the Nations Championship. New Zealand vs. France. It may have been our second recording that night but we're still not sure what the hell we're doing here. But there was rugby. We saw a new Tater enter the chat, Tocco is thinking about making stomping great again and Jalibert t...

We've shipped the couch back to Cape Canaveral so we can keep an eye on the US Space program while it enters phase two; Project Hail Fucking Mary. Eagles vs. Portugal in the inaugural Nations Cup. Os Lobos came to play, the US came to actually do something for once and it all comes down to a single kick in the end. We tried to stay calm, but really did you expect us to? Welcome to the B-Side....

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...