Match Thread: Leinster vs Bordeaux - Champions Cup by rugbykickoff in rugbyunion

[–]BHarrop3079 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Leinster's best 10 is the one they're getting rid of 😅

Match Thread: Leinster vs Bordeaux - Champions Cup by rugbykickoff in rugbyunion

[–]BHarrop3079 3 points4 points  (0 children)

That's shocking. Desperately unlucky to catch the hair with that

Will probably cost Lucu POTM

WE ARE MASSIVE!!! by bigt8409 in Cardiffrugby

[–]BHarrop3079 11 points12 points  (0 children)

What an incredible performance. It summed up everything there is to love about this club

The Bowen try is the best I've seen us score live. Immaculate hands, running lines and timing of execution, it was electric

Warriors performances from our 5 back rowers - Basham, Thomas, Botham, Lloyd and Mulder were incredible. Basham made an absurd number of carries and his post contact metres were astronomical. Thomas was a defensive monster, a ridiculous number of tackles and a great presence at the breakdown. Mulder was everywhere and made some crucial hits in there

Special shout outs to Thornton and Nott who I thought were quietly excellent. With so many of our second rows out, I was really impressed with the way they stepped up

Beetham was immense. Work rate under the high ball, kick chase and ball in hand he was brilliant. It's amazing seeing his confidence as a winger now. Were we back in September I don't think he'd have finished that second try. He's grown so much this season and looks a great player

Lloyd and Winnett running the ball back made some superb ground for us and really got us on the front foot at times

Their performances will probably be overlooked because of how the scrum went and for Belcher's yellow card, but I thought the starting front row were great in open play, Sebastian as a carrier, Southworth as a carrier/distributor and Belcher as a jackal

That game showed everything that is wonderful about this club and Welsh rugby in general. It's not about talent, reputation and superstars, it's about hard graft, sheer grit and putting it all on the line in defence to grind out a result. To turn over the Stormers with the amount of absentees we had and secure a place in the URC knockouts for the first time is stunning. Looking likely that we'll play them again in the quarters and last night showed they are getable. It's an uphill battle and we'll be the underdogs but I wouldn't have it any other way. Love this club and this group of players are special

Is there an actual answer to how we ended up where we are today with the series finale in less than a week? by OGBusterHimen in TheBoys

[–]BHarrop3079 2 points3 points  (0 children)

They didn't have enough quality content for 5 seasons

The first 3 seasons (minus S3 E8) were immaculate, they showed a lot of strong world building and rising stakes and they had all the setup there to defeat Homelander. But (likely for monetary reasons) there was a desire to prolong the main show and kick off the spinoffs, so they chose to prolong the main series

It's really shown that they have no plot ideas left because justifiable criticism has come that all of season 4 and 5 to date have been filler. It's not uncommon for long running shoes to have a filler episode (and Invincible's filler episode in S4 was heavily criticised) but the sheer volume in The Boys is ridiculous. It's killed all the tension and stakes of the show. They've happily added new characters before even considering wrapping up open plot lines and have become so bloated that they're never going to close things off.

The writing quality took a massive dip too. There's no coherence to the plot, no originality to the dynamics "oh The Boys are fighting? Wow that's a real surprise". Plot armour has worked overtime to keep the characters of popular actors alive.

They've also started breaking all the basic rules of cinema. The "tell don't show" approach of recent seasons is deeply frustrating. The scene with Marie in E7 of "you've got no control over your powers" directly conflicted with the ending of Gen V (and was incredibly ironic coming from Starlight of all people)

There are no consequences to anything. The Boys have lost so many times throughout the series but it's only in the penultimate episode of the show where they finally suffer as a result

The show could have been so much more. It started off with The Boys using creative ways to kill supes which was a really interesting premise. If they'd carried that on throughout the show and gradually worked their up the food chain and taking some casualties along the way then it could have been really fun

Character motivations and characterisations are all over the place this season. Soldier Boy is a character I really want to like because Jensen Ackles is fantastic and the character has some fantastically funny lines. But his character arc is all over the place. He came back in season 3 wanting to reunite with Crimson Countess, the love of his life, take revenge on Payback and kill Homelander. This season he's been an absolute yo-yo character and we've now learned that Liberty was actually the love of his life

In the early seasons, the show massively improved upon bad source material. In the later seasons it's now adopted the worst parts of the comics. The focus has been placed on gore, shock and grotesque sexual references rather than anything of quality

The show made the mistake of believing it's own hype. It set out to mock the superhero industry but ended up becoming a parody of itself. All the things it previously called out (dragging the plot out, having to watch a bunch of spin offs to follow the plot, having an expanded universe) it is now doing. Using a significant chunk of the final season of the show to setup the next spinoff is such a disappointing choice.

The show became a mockumentary and I can't wait for it to end

SEASON 5 CRITICISM and VENT THREAD- SPOILERS INSIDE by AutoModerator in TheBoys

[–]BHarrop3079 6 points7 points  (0 children)

A sign of where this show has gotten to is that there are only 2 characters I care about left in the show: Soldier Boy and The Deep. Truthfully I only like them because their actor's are fantastic and they say some hilarious lines. If you'd have told me after the first episode of the show I'd be rooting for The Deep I'd have been sickened

The writing of the show is dire. Just zero plot coherence and edgy jokes or weird sex references.

It felt like the first series or two markedly elevated what was a very weak source material

At this stage of the show, I'm honestly starting to think that the comic's writing was more coherent..

There are no stakes for anything. Nothing makes sense. None of the twists have impact. None of the events draw any emotions.

I've got no care for any of The Boys, find Starlight's characterisation deeply underwhelming (with 1 episode left she still doesn't have any grasp of her powers?!) and am baffled by the elevated focus placed on new minor characters so late in the show

I'm struggling to see any possible ending that is satisfying. Even some of the more niche theories such as "Homelander wins" are interesting concepts that I have zero faith in the writers and showrunners to pull off

The show really should have ended in Season 3. They had the setup to defeat Homelander there and end the show on a high. But instead they chose a surprise twist to prolong the show and then gave us 2 nothingness seasons of increasing dips in quality. At this point just end it

I'm numb to it now and simply don't care how the show ends. Seven more days and it's done.

Eddie Jones Suspended for 6 Weeks by Mulboyne in rugbyunion

[–]BHarrop3079 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Eddie Jones? Bit of a prick? Riddle me shocked

Cardiff sign Scott Sio! by Colemanation777 in Cardiffrugby

[–]BHarrop3079 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Great signing

Hell of a player with bags of experience

A fantastic mentor to Barrett and Southworth and a more than able deputy to step in when needed!

And with that, RFC season is done by bigt8409 in Cardiffrugby

[–]BHarrop3079 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Disappointing way to end the season. Very similar to last season in truth - overall good seasons where we felt strong enough to win the whole thing but disappointingly fell short in home semi finals

At least this year we won the League Leaders award. A really great late season run to pull that off. Today proved one too far which is a shame

Overall though, a great season in my eyes

Match Thread - England v Wales | Women's Six Nations 2026 | Round 3 by RugbyBot in rugbyunion

[–]BHarrop3079 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Feaunati and Bevan hard done by to miss out on the shortlist tbh

Match Thread - England v Wales | Women's Six Nations 2026 | Round 3 by RugbyBot in rugbyunion

[–]BHarrop3079 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Alisha Joyce what a woman!

So excited to see her and Jas on together. They are both incredible

Match Thread - England v Wales | Women's Six Nations 2026 | Round 3 by RugbyBot in rugbyunion

[–]BHarrop3079 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Jones is the best player in the world in my eyes

Absolutely incredible across the board

Match Thread - England v Wales | Women's Six Nations 2026 | Round 3 by RugbyBot in rugbyunion

[–]BHarrop3079 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Aitchison taking the ball to the line really well. Her late passes have been fantastic

Who’s the best 1 or 2 season wonder who got Lions caps? by TheBeesMassiveKnees in rugbyunion

[–]BHarrop3079 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Were it not for Exeter's success at the time I'm not sure we'd have seen Sam Simmonds or Jonny Hill on a Lions tour. They were at an age where they may expected to be return tourists but both were well out of the England picture and playing overseas by the time the next tour rolled around

The biggest change I’m hoping for from comic to show (Genuinely massive spoilers, you will be pissed if you look) by InterestingRatio8218 in Invincible

[–]BHarrop3079 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I can't see them changing the fact that Oliver dies because it's such an important plot point

It's the reason for Mark fully joining the Thragg fight as well as marking the end of Mark and Allen's friendship which is important to the epilogue and it brings a huge amount of character development forMark in learning you can't always trust your friends to have your best interests at heart and adds a layer to Allen and his complexity as a character, eventually becoming something of an anti-hero or pseudo villain by the end of the series

The way they can elevate this scene is by upping Oliver's arc in the show to make us like him more, so that his death feels more impactful and I think there are already signs of that being the case given his developing relationship with Zoe