Not a massive week of international rugby… so naturally, we got distracted.

With not too much happening on the Test rugby front, we take a slight detour this week. There’s a bit of chat about the NRL Grand Final, a quick look ahead to the Bledisloe Cup, Ardie Savea signing with the Blues, and the growing excitement around getting back to Eden Park.

But really, this episode belongs to you lot.

We dive into a stack of listener questions covering everything from the very real financial struggles facing New Zealand Rugby, to what our try celebrations would look like if either of us ever managed to score one. Some questions get serious answers. Others… considerably less so.

And before any of that, Tony takes everyone on an unnecessarily long journey through the mystery of a horrific smell that appeared in his car — and the increasingly desperate hunt to find out where the hell it was coming from.

A quick warning: we had a couple of audio gremlins right at the start of this one. Bear with us for the first five minutes or so and everything sorts itself out.

Grab a beer, send in your questions, and enjoy.

Australia did the unthinkable this week and beat South Africa.

Yes, yes, we know — “it was basically a B team.” But it was still the team Rassie put out there to win the game, and they couldn’t get it done. So perhaps that much-vaunted South African depth isn’t quite as deep as advertised.

There were still some seriously good players in that Springbok side, but throwing them all together and expecting instant cohesion proved a little ambitious.

That said… they very nearly bloody won it anyway.

Australia completely imploded late in the game, the communications at Optus Stadium completely shat the bed, Andrea Piardi appeared to spend half the match on the phone, and cards started flying out like it was Christmas. Four cards in a ridiculously short space of time somehow left Australia down to 11 men.

South Africa naturally piled on the pressure, but somehow the Wallabies held on for what has to go down as both a famous win and one of the most farcical, entertaining and downright absurd games of rugby we’ve seen in a while.

Elsewhere, we get into the newly named All Blacks squad. Frizell is back. Barrett is back. Darries — thanks for coming. Ruben Love has unfortunately done himself a mischief and is out, but overall the squad is looking pretty strong.

And Australia suddenly don’t look like the easy beats some people might have expected either. Under Les Kiss, there are signs that something pretty interesting might be building.

We talk about all of it, have a couple of beers, go wildly off topic and talk plenty of bullshit — exactly as you’d expect from Rugby’s Greatest Podcast.

Grab a beer and enjoy.

Two Cents Gets Distracted.

In another deeply upsetting week, the All Blacks blew their chance to square the Greatest Rivalry Series at 2–2 and were instead wholly and completely beaten by the Springboks, who deservedly wrapped things up 3–1.

Much to our disappointment and dismay, the right team won.

Despite what some might call a few 50–50 calls. Were they really 50–50 calls, though? Or is Tony just a bit sour? Who knows, really.

Anyway, we go deep on the final Test, assess where both squads are at, lick our wounds, talk some bullshit, and then finally look beyond the Greatest Rivalry Series at what else is happening in the wonderful world of rugby.

Hopefully, at some point soon, we can stop making thumbnails with sad faces. Getting a bit sick of this.

Grab a beer and enjoy.

Thanks to Severn River Rugby Football Club for the beers.

https://www.severnriverrugby.org/