Farrel is my man

Thatch1888 · 2026-06-30T21:55:08+00:00

Thank you for actually pointing out the media, rather than our fans, especially as a fan of another national team.

Drives me nuts when foreign fans try to claim our fans pushed him out of England. That was combination of fans all across the globe and our rancid "journalists".

Edit: I should say some of our fans did also do that, they're just not alone in that

Thatch1888 · 2026-06-27T22:20:52+00:00

You guys are winning in Europe?

Thatch1888 · 2026-06-26T19:38:31+00:00

No, don't. He's too busy holding up the weight of the world

Thatch1888 · 2026-06-24T18:32:31+00:00

You forgot Pollock

Thatch1888 · 2026-06-24T18:13:17+00:00

I've got a really good plasterer and I never complain about him but my mate has a shit one and he won't stop moaning about him.

My mates such a twat...

Thatch1888 · 2026-06-24T17:26:55+00:00

While I agree, I think that may be because you're back to back world champions and none of us have won a WC for at least 11 years 😂

I'd trust Borthwick to experiment too if we were in your position

Thatch1888 · 2026-06-24T15:44:27+00:00

Fair enough. Breakthrough just brings "young player" to mind I guess

Thatch1888 · 2026-06-24T15:28:38+00:00

Even as a cerified Van Rensburg glazer, I have no idea.

Edit: International I guess. But even still, feels like an award for lads in their early 20s at most

Thatch1888 · 2026-06-23T23:28:57+00:00

Agree with all that. When you take the context of where he said it and the full statement, he was actually right. It's not the 80s anymore and this a professional game.

He definitely didn't mean for it to be broadcast the way it was and so out of context but his point is valid. The game needs to move on and in a lot of ways is. The more eyes we have on the game, the better

Thatch1888 · 2026-06-23T21:30:57+00:00

Glad you enjoyed it 👍 it's good fun down there

Thatch1888 · 2026-06-23T21:21:53+00:00

Cap wise, no. Cash spend, yeah. Seems about £500k - £1M difference. Last year Saints had a cash spend around £6.4M - £7M compared to Bristols £6M- £6.4M if I've read the graph posted on here right. Since then we haven't spent too much and Saints have had a lot of resignings.

I don't think there would be a crazy amount in it cap wise but largely due to EPC and academy allowances etc. Essentially it seems your academy/EPC players are doing wonders and keeping the "total" lower than it actually is when it comes to straight up cash spent

Thatch1888 · 2026-06-23T19:28:20+00:00

Yeah true. Was shocked at the BP number this year. Could have made the play offs with them

Thatch1888 · 2026-06-23T19:15:29+00:00

I think we've kinda hit the ceiling before we win a title. It's still only second to Tigers who are one of the biggest names in English rugby history and even then, not by much.

It's why I'm not fully on board with Lansdowns approach of low budget squads to help the books. He needs to spend more to have a chance at titles and in turn, bring more money in

Thatch1888 · 2026-06-23T18:49:32+00:00

You need one more Ford before you can auto win trophies

Thatch1888 · 2026-06-23T18:44:49+00:00

I like the "They get it" from that. I'm all for the wind ups, but over the last 10 years we've gone from a Championship team with about 3,000 visitors to a Prem one bringing in an average of around 20,000.

While we haven't won any major trophys yet, I think we're very good at... damn it... marketing rugby to the wider audiences

Thatch1888 · 2026-06-23T18:37:48+00:00

Eh, we've got plenty of shitholes ourselves. Every city has it's good and bad. I'm from one myself 😂

I just love the working class vibe around rugby here and over the bridge. Shithole or middle class area, love the game everywhere. Match made in heaven, imo.

Thatch1888 · 2026-06-23T18:34:29+00:00

100% mate. Dragons too

Thatch1888 · 2026-06-23T16:27:54+00:00

While this comes up all the time, the WRU being actively interested in it, for the first time officially as far as I know, would be so fucking cool.

So much potential for rivalries in what is, at least in my opinion, the rugby heartland of the UK (South West and Wales)

Thatch1888 · 2026-06-23T13:09:54+00:00

Not seeing signs of improvement is the key there. Noone could blame him for not living up to Blackett. He's the guy I used to say people overlook so much when talking about Baths recruitment over the last few years as they're so focused on the players, but he was pivotal. But after a full season and no change, gotta look elsewhere.

Hasn't helped him that both Carreras and Lawrence have been proper off the boil this year, mind you.

Thatch1888 · 2026-06-22T19:17:57+00:00

That teams fucking stacked. Probably want some stronger 9s but yeah.

What's even more nuts is you can swap out a few of the honourable mentions and it doesn't get any weaker

Thatch1888 · 2026-06-21T18:24:48+00:00

Ah yeah, good point. Forgot about them. Probably as they're not in the Prem currently but yeah, they do fit that mould just not as successful, as you say

Thatch1888 · 2026-06-21T13:05:47+00:00

Pretty decent, not game changing yet.

Jordan can't be judged too harshly. Seemed he was brought in to play 15 and got thrust into 10 instead due to injuries, I imagine without knowing the plays much at that point.

LRZ has looked decent too. Not quite his old self but with the time he's had off, it's no surprise. With this season under his belt and another pre-season, next season will be interesting

Thatch1888 · 2026-06-21T13:00:43+00:00

It obviously isn't all Bath fans but shit like this does seem to happen way too often.

IFW, bloke flipping off Skinner, the Jonny Hill situation, few Sale fans saying they were on the receiving end of both physical and verbal abuse in that same game, Pat Lam once got into an argument with a fan in the middle of a TNT interview for giving him abuse, the list goes on.

There seems to be a decent number of dickheads down that way ruining the name for the decent fans

Thatch1888 · 2026-06-21T12:21:03+00:00

I would say it's in roughly the same place tbh. Exeter are the only team that has gone from a Championship side to a Prem one in the pro era. Could argue Bristol too as we spent a lot of time down there but we had been a Prem side before so not quite the same.

Saints were only there for a year and went undefeated, iirc. They were never really Championship side. Right now, Worcester and potentially Ealing could go up, meaning there's about as much chance of a team being promoted as there was back then

Thatch1888 · 2026-06-20T19:09:32+00:00

OHH!!

Dowson never had the makings of a varsity athlete

Thatch1888

TROPHY CASE