simonokeeffe wrote:complete tangent but why were all the major London rugby clubs always called fancy names (officially) Wasps, Saracens, Harlequinns etc in an era and culture of non fancy names
Because they were all formed by ex-public schoolboys with a bit of education and imagination in the Victorian era, and not a bunch of marketing dopes. Most of them were essentially social clubs set up for a bit of fun by lads who wouldn't have been long out of boarding school and thus had names that would have been associated with Victorian adventure stories/tales of Empire/cr@p jokes.
We have our own set here – Wanderers, Corinthians, Buccaneers, Bective Rangers, [UL] Bohemians etc. UCC have a skull and cross-bones as their crest, which to me seems very piratical and old world.
Buccaneers is alongside the barbarians the single greatest name for a rugby side ever .
How can you possibly play boring rugby with team with that name! Plus you have the added bonus of going out on the lash in your club blazer and tie and telling the ladies your a buccaneer. Sign me up!!!!
Ben Teo strikes me as a sort of Mafi signing. Strong as an ox, dirty, full of cheap shots, no rugby brain and really just an expensive waste of time. All straight line bish bash bosh. Once he is worked out i have a feeling moves will die when they reach him just like they did with Mafi.
I'd rather see Macken or McFadden used at 13. Give them a 12 month shot at it with no BOD pressure hanging over them.
Stuka wrote:Ben Teo strikes me as a sort of Mafi signing. Strong as an ox, dirty, full of cheap shots, no rugby brain and really just an expensive waste of time. All straight line bish bash bosh. Once he is worked out i have a feeling moves will die when they reach him just like they did with Mafi.
I'd rather see Macken or McFadden used at 13. Give them a 12 month shot at it with no BOD pressure hanging over them.
Have you seen much of him?
I can't comment as I've only seen YouTube clips and a few minutes of a SOO game.
Easy (and incorrect) to remember Mafi in such a way. In his first few seasons with Munster, he was excellent and arguably the top performing 12 in Europe. You don't last 6 years at a massive team by being poor.
Stuka wrote:Ben Teo strikes me as a sort of Mafi signing. Strong as an ox, dirty, full of cheap shots, no rugby brain and really just an expensive waste of time. All straight line bish bash bosh. Once he is worked out i have a feeling moves will die when they reach him just like they did with Mafi.
I'd rather see Macken or McFadden used at 13. Give them a 12 month shot at it with no BOD pressure hanging over them.
Have you seen much of him?
I can't comment as I've only seen YouTube clips and a few minutes of a SOO game.
Honestly not a huge amount. 3-4 games and good bit of highlights. He is a big strong abrasive ball carrier with a step. Great in RL, but that does not always travel to RU. Infact id say more often then not its success.
That report is the first time I've heard that Teo has been in Dublin. It says French clubs are also interested in him but doesn't say which ones which to me implies that Toulon, Racing or the other big spenders are not chasing him. It sounds like he's Leinster bound!
Rugby is a good occasion for keeping thirty bullies far from the centre of the city.
Oscar Wilde
ceemec wrote:Easy (and incorrect) to remember Mafi in such a way. In his first few seasons with Munster, he was excellent and arguably the top performing 12 in Europe. You don't last 6 years at a massive team by being poor.
Both camps are, in a way, right about Mafi. He was a limited player, but within those limits, if he had the right player beside him (which he did in both Halstead and Tipoki) extremely effective.
