The mic is hot and the game is on. You're listening
to News for the Nation podcast by Aces Nation,
where we talk about nutrition, sports performance,
the journey of a student athlete, and more. I'm
Claire. I'm Zach. Time to level up. Welcome back
sports fans. Today we are continuing to talk
about the documentary Six Nations, Full Contact.
Okay, so this is our part three. We'll go through
episodes five and six. today um jumping right
into it uh episode five mostly about france um
honestly i can only remember small overlaps that
they might have had especially when they played
england that they brought in um some overlap
with i think his name is ging something like
that elliot or ellis something like that yeah
the big guy for for england um Yeah, that that's
the the one but let me not jump ahead too much
so coming off of France's loss to Ireland where
Their their main offensive player said that they
played scared. I remember saying that in one
of our earlier episodes Coming off of that really
what they did in this episode was they gave you
DuPont, which is the Offensive player. He's he's
there, you know marquee guy on offense. They
gave us I believe, I don't know how do you say
his first name. It looks to me like Gale, G -A
-E -L. I believe there are umlauts above the
A. Anyways, last name I think is Kiko. Anyways,
so they gave us a defensive captain, right? Number
13 for France. And really just kind of highlighted
his involvement, why he got into rugby. I mean,
Essentially, they're doing the same thing that
they did for other players in the previous four
episodes is giving a player that's like marquee
for them, telling us, you know, like kind of
showing us that person behind the scenes, how
they prepare, letting them talk about Six Nations,
what it means to them. I mean, we got we got
everything we thought we would get right. We
got on field what it's like to be in his mind.
During Six Nations tournament what rugby meant
to him his past and like how he came into rugby
and like Involving his family side of it as well
So they really they gave us the full gambit of
trying to understand this guy for me. It felt
like the episode was kind of I Was kind of strung
out at the beginning I think and then I think
they gave me a lot of his personal information
at the end uh to me because they gave me all
this family stuff like later on in the episode
but i thought it was really um i thought it was
cool that they showed us offense defense side
of the french team um and then uh really to me
i think as you get into this five game tournament
here I think they really started talking about
pressure more or at least I sense that they were
talking about the pressure that guys feel that
these men feel during the tournament. And to
me, I'm noting more that they started or Gail
started to mention what it's like to sacrifice
for. He said like to play for the French team
is sacrifice, right? Like you go away from Your
family or your you know, you're just completely
into French rugby at that point and there's nothing
else and In both of the episodes There was a
heavy emphasis or at least inclusion of sports
psychologists Mm -hmm in both these episodes
which I thought was interesting and I thought
it was kind of cool the way that I saw it on
the French side was they just set up all these
different tables and they had all these different
sports psychologists and these guys would go
up and just have a session with them right there
in the facilities, which I thought was great
that they were promoting that type of mental
health and helping these guys kind of. work through
the pressures, work through, you know, self doubt
if there is any or whatever issues that they
may be having, you know, like the difficulty
of being away from loved ones, family and friends,
stuff like that. So I thought that was a really
nice piece that they carried on to into the next
episode. Yeah, gosh, I mean, given my thoughts
about it, what did you see? No, yeah, that definitely
stuck out to me. It's interesting. I feel like
that's a theme that has popped up a little bit.
I think we've talked about it with the more mental
side of things has been showcased a little bit.
So I think it's interesting to kind of see how
each team maybe approaches it. I think previously
there have been other athletes on other teams
that have talked about it, but maybe it wasn't
shown. So it was very interesting to kind of
see that The team was prioritizing it and just
kind of brought all these professionals in and
the athletes had access to them. I'm and hopefully
that'll kind of continue to be a theme as we
get closer to the championship games and potentially
I'm assuming like maybe injuries are at play
or coming back from injury or People have to
step in. I don't know things like that. But yeah,
it's very Nice to see that highlighted and not
just the practicing aspect or the game aspect.
We're having a little bit of a glimpse into more
of a holistic approach or a holistic look at
what these guys are doing to get prepared to
play at that level. Yeah, I remember you talked
about the injury part. I think I remember this
Gale guy having to get his knee taped for something
in the second game of this fifth episode. Yeah,
obviously a tough thing and a lot of different
issues are coming about but good to see that
they're all taking this holistic approach. One
thing that stuck out to me during their showing
of the sports psychologist at these different
tables is what they were having these meetings
in the same room On the backside of the room
was their Strength equipment was there their
racks were on the backside now I couldn't tell
what what company it was or anything in the back
there but it was just interesting to see it was
like I think there was like some type of barricade
and Then it was these tables which I don't remember
if the tables were set up on on the turf or not
they just set up on some different type of floor,
but I think I'm trying to remember back what
we said in the other episodes whether or not
We thought that they were going to show more
stuff like like the training aspect. I think
I may have said they might start showing it because
it might come into play a little bit more, but
not necessarily. So I mean. After they beat Scotland,
so France was, I believe, the number two team
in the nation and Scotland was number one coming
into the game. and then france won and then the
next week they played england they were talking
about how tough it was going to be and uh they
were showing they were showing that ginge guy
training and how he was tackling and whatnot
um but the whole defensive side of this uh episode
uh another little tidbit they threw in there
was the like almost like we would consider in
american football the defensive coordinator uh
they brought in a guy who had Been with Wales
for a while. I think they won three three championships
when he was there with the Welsh team They brought
this guy in and He had to learn French and he
said that he'd learned French a lot from or he
learned some of it from listening to tapes tapes
like how to learn French. Yeah. One thing I noticed
when he was talking to them, I noticed that his
conversations were short pieces, like pretty
short sentences, very direct. I noticed that
a lot of the terms that they showed when he was
coaching, like talking in front of the team or
whatnot. They weren't words that could be They
weren't a French word that translates to an English
word They were just like how a French person
would say this English word a lot of the times
so it was just interesting that they brought
him onto the show for for his defensive expertise
but also to show that like Hey, this coach was
learning French and whatnot and he was doing
a pretty good job. I would say they showed some
of their training drills again and they they
were showing, you know, back and forth, different
teams training drill. So pretty, pretty good
episode all around, I think, to kind of give
us a little more perspective into the French
squad. Yeah, that's interesting about the coach.
I will say I think we've talked about this before,
too, but I think they're the one team that at
least the coaching staff with the head coach
does not speak. I don't know if Hebrew just doesn't
want to or it's easier to speak French. Maybe
all the athletes are French, but they do not
speak English. Whereas the Italian team, you
kind of see things going back and forth. I think
their head coach is not Italian, so he doesn't
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I think that's a good point because a lot of
these other coaches, like the Welsh team, they
all speak English. I mean, I haven't heard anybody
speak Welsh on that team. But obviously the England
coach speaking English, you know, and so Irish
and Scottish coaches are all speaking their version
of English. But yeah, it's interesting how you've
got a coach for a nation that isn't from that
nation, you know, I mean, this happens in soccer
too. right when they bring these coaches on that
aren't even from that country or maybe originally
um and here they are coaching for a nation to
be proud of their you know their their team per
se so uh i think that's pretty good segue into
you know episode six because they focused a lot
on on the coach for italy um who is australian
i believe um And then his special consultant
coach which I don't even know what the guy is
like his friend or something They've been coaching
together for a while or whatnot. I think I think
they're both Australian They look to be around
the same age too. So I'm sure they've spent a
lot of time together. Yeah, so Interesting part
about this episode. I think was that they were
Really two main people in focus and then they
had a third Then they had interesting stuff happen,
you know with a different one, but so Focus being
head coach for Italy and then Varney they're
Probably marquee player like I don't know They
keep saying a number nine like if you're wearing
number nine, like that's supposed to mean something
special I guess You're a certain position or
you're like a certain standing within the team
As far as like being a captain or one of the
best players or something. But anyways Just kind
of taking it back and forth between that and
a lot of this episode focused on the fact that
they're winless so far and That they don't want
to get the wooden spoon Yep. So what were your
impressions of this episode? Yeah, I I mean I
feel like you could really kind of see like the
Italian team like struggling after things starting
relatively well. It seems like things kind of
not fell apart. But I think that collectively
as a team, they just didn't seem to be like on
the same page at practice. And it was interesting
to see their their coach to like him and his
buddy, like you mentioned, because It seems like
they're kind of coaching attitude was a little
bit more like old school, very kind of like tough
and blunt. And I don't, I don't know if the,
I feel like the app, some athletes responded
to it well, but others, maybe it just like, it
seems like there's a disconnect somewhere. Yeah,
agreed. And what's really, what's really a strange
dynamic, I think for this team in general, not
just the coach being from a different country
is We've got the one big guy on the team who
speaks really good English. I don't know that
he's They showed him in in an earlier episode
like I don't know he's from there originally
or whatever. He's friends in Bobway Crazy yeah,
that dude speaks really great English, right?
doesn't Don't even know if he speaks Italian.
I've never heard him speak Italian not that I
can recall But anyways, and then you've got number
nine Varney who he's from Wales He was born in
Wales, but his I guess his grandparents are Italian
and so he's able to play for the for the national
team Which is also interesting. So it seems like
there's just there's a lot going on There's so
many different dynamics within that program that
I don't know that that's an issue or that's like
a communication factor. But yeah, you're right.
It's just like as we see them play, what's being
shown on the show is that they are having these
falling apart moments where it's just like they
talk about how important things are, you know,
and you're having your meetings, you're having
your practices. Maybe your practices are a little
choppy and not so great. And then those those
moments in the game where it's just like, there's
pressure and you're, you know, an error is happening,
either forced or unforced. Right. So this was
another episode that they talked about pressure,
like internally. And for like the entire Six
Nations, but yeah, starting to build a little
bit more. Oh, definitely, definitely. Because
they don't want to they don't want to be bottom
of the league, you know, at the end of this.
Because I think that's more commonly what's been
Where they've been as a nation is at the bottom
right the entire time I think for the most part
so yeah I'm sorry I was just gonna say I wonder
if the kind of Composition of the team of like
everybody kind of being from everywhere and not
everybody but just kind of having people from
a lot of different places Contributes to Not
necessarily that they're at the bottom but just
like this lack of Cohesiveness because I'm sure
there's a lot of differences in in my culture
or if they played for other national teams like
how people do things and then you have to kind
of come to this other team and Figure it out
or maybe there's language barriers. I also wonder
if because With the Olympics coming up, you know
how how much I think specific people and I think
country get like very much into it because they're
representing their country they're representing
the place that they either live or they were
born in or that they can really like Emotionally
connect to so I wonder if maybe that contributes
to it Someone in the sense of like some of these
guys if they're not playing for the country that
they're from or that they love that it's There's
kind of like that disconnect from the teammates
that are doing that Yeah, that's a good point
too. It's just We don't know that ins and outs,
you know like no how people are feeling and whatnot,
but it's definitely something that Should be
considered I guess with as you mentioned all
these different pieces coming together here to
wear the azure blue Mm -hmm. Hmm Just a thought
yeah for sure I think another interesting piece
here when they were going into the game against
Wales, which would have been the last part of
this episode, they showed how Varney and a Welsh
player, I think his last name is Rhys Zomet,
how they went to college together and they played
together and now they're playing against each
other. And one of the things I thought was just
so interesting is that During the week in preparation
leading up to that game, Varney was in Wales
to play pool with this guy during the week, you
know? So I wonder if that was more for the show.
I think it was, but I'm also like I'm just trying
to figure out how the travel was made there and
how did you get around practice, you know, and
whatnot. So question. That's interesting, you
know, that they were in that place playing pool.
Also, did you if you looked at the the the pool
like set that they had, right? It was just red,
yellow and the eight ball. That was it. That's
it. No other numbers, no light greens or whatever.
All the other stuff that, you know, you typically
see it was just red, yellow and then the eight
ball. Interesting. So it wasn't even real. Think
it was real. I think it was probably just That
place that pub that they were at they probably
just did that Yeah, but that was very very interesting
part as well that maybe I'm not gonna say I'm
not saying they took that guy away from the game
took it out of the game I just think that it's
another interesting piece to the dynamic that
we've been talking about. It's like right you
know, the back and forth of, you know, and going
to have them, you know, are going to have these
meetings with these people or just hang out with
people from other teams that you you've known,
you know, all your life or at least for a big
chunk of it. More about this episode, I thought
that this was an episode that in that Wales game
got into more of the technical aspects of the
game. I think they started to talk a little bit
more about maybe some rules that were happening.
They threw in a term like ruck. I don't even
know what that meant, but I think what they said
was like it was a tackle from the side, not from
head on. So I started to get in that Wells game
in particular was more technical terms and different
aspects of like the actual game were being kind
of brought to light because It was calls that
Italy thought should have been made in their
favor or should have been, you know, brought
to light that weren't by the referees. And if
you watch the episode, you'll see that the coaching
staff is definitely not in agreement with the
calls that are being made on the field. So, yeah,
that's one thing I think I liked about that game
in particular, but they really started to bring
the coach for Wales into the conversation a little
bit more. Because, you know, he was popping up
and he made a comment about the other coach don't
going down to talk to the officials like right
at halftime. Like he didn't like that type of
thing. So it is interesting, you're getting these
personalities that are coming out a little bit
more. You know, maybe in Australia, they're they're
just really blunt and you know, old school, as
you said, you know, I don't know. Maybe I wouldn't
be surprised if they were I wouldn't either neither
Most most people most countries outside of the
United States are very much that way All right,
so just all the listeners are aware here I didn't
watch This season when it actually happened like
in real life. Okay, so we're watching the actual
documentary here And so I don't necessarily outright
know who wins this. I have no idea. But I have
a feeling about who wins it because because I
have watched the most recent season, the twenty
four season of the Six Nations tournament. Yeah,
it's happening. Claire, do you have a thought
of who wins this Six Nations that we're watching
in this documentary? I don't think it's Italy.
No, I don't think it is either. I would say potentially
either Ireland or I want to say Ireland or France.
Okay. I think that the French win Like I said,
I never watched this season this 23 season But
I have seen the 24 season My feeling is that
the French will win, okay Find out next time
we will we will have to find out Cool What are
you looking forward to in the last part besides
the French or the Irish winning there? I think
just seeing it all come together um I think it's
all kind of every episode or pairing of episodes
have kind of done a really good job of like setting
up the teams and kind of their journey through
the season specific highlighting specific athletes
so I'm looking forward to kind of seeing it all
come together and see those last couple of games
and those last remaining teams and I Don't know.
It's just like I mentioned earlier with the Olympics
like I think all of these like obviously this
already happened but like these big sporting
events or you know, like the final or like the
championship is just very Exciting and it elicits
something in you that you just get excited about
so I'm just excited to kind of see it all come
together and see who can handle the pressure
and who can't. Yeah, I agree. I'm looking forward
to more of this continuation of these storylines
that they've built up already and kind of seeing
where they come to a spearhead you know, whether
a coach gets fired or, you know, another player,
you know, gets benched that we thought wasn't
going to get benched because I've seen that a
couple of times. And maybe some some other storylines
like in episode five and six, they both had a
common theme where two of the players on opposing
teams at some point have played together. We
didn't mention this earlier, but the French defensive
captain. he played with the Scottish marquee
offensive player, Finn, his name is. They played
together in some league or something at some
point. So they are also familiar with each other.
So I think those things, like it's only six teams,
guys are gonna, people are gonna know each other,
right? And the countries aren't that far apart.
So I think that's interesting to kind of see.
All these things develop and like you said, I
want to see the final picture together, you know
So yeah, it would be a interesting Last couple
episodes. I'm curious as to if it goes Episode
seven we get like the final or like Whether we
get one game whether we get like a couple of
games from a couple of teams and then the next
episode it's like the really important games
so like last episode maybe it's like the really
important game that determines the winner and
then maybe the last half of that episode is like
aftermath after the season you know and like
celebrations from one team and then all the changes
that are going to ensue from other teams I don't
know that's kind of what I think is gonna happen
is like episode seven will go straight rugby
and then eight will get the champion of the league
and then like like recap of everything that's
happening moving forward for the other ones but
you feel any differently um not necessarily i
would i would imagine that the last one is going
to focus primarily on like the last like big
couple of big matchups And then I don't know
if maybe like the last half will focus on the
aftermath. I would say maybe like the last like
10 minutes they might focus on that. Yeah, well,
we'll see, you know, only time will tell. And
you know, in the final part of this series, so
I'm excited to watch them and share my thoughts
here with you and kind of see how it all unfolds.
So, yeah, awesome. Thanks, everybody, for listening.
We will catch you on the next one. See ya.