Hello, this is the Ruck, the journalist's rugby podcast from The Times and the Sunday

Times.

Alfie Reynolds here.

And we are back once again on a Monday for another episode. Back with Alex Lowe once again. How you doing Alex?

Yeah, good. Thank you. I am back home from a day trip to Bristol to watch the reigning European champions.

Convinced me enough that they could easily be double European champions, but a lot of that was down to Bristol. Yeah, a good weekend of rugby for me. I don't think it was brilliant overall, but a couple of good games, weren't there? Yeah, there are a few. I mean, it was the Champions Cup again, so we'll try and cover all bases, but also it raised some issues once again. So we'll get on to that. And returning this week is Will Kellahar.

Will, we missed you last week when you were on your way back from Bordeaux. Good to have you back on. Hi, was that only a week ago? What's happened in January? Everything feels like it's on fast forward, doesn't it? Well, it does a little bit. I think particularly in the last week from a rugby news point of view, because we thought that it would be kind of

Champions Cup focused last 16 T up in this pod

and then that's totally

been put to one side because massive news at the back end of last week from New Zealand

Scott Robertson is gone. I know unbelievable and look we'll get all into it but what a bomb that's gone off there in the coaching

world and the merry-go-round that's going to start i mean man what a story and and we should as

the journalist pod credit two cracking journalists and good mates of ours one who's coming on this

pod Liam Napier who started the ball rolling about the player of view being scathing and everything else. And then our friend Rory O'Connor from the Irish Independent,

amazing, like scoop of the century almost to get Scott Robertson will be sacked by New Zealand

rugby. And I found it funny just like seeing how people received that news on social media,

because there was almost like a national outcry from New Zealanders being like, how people received that news on social media because there was almost like

a national outcry from New Zealanders being like, how's this broken in the Irish press? I can't

believe it. So we should have a massive salute to both of those journalists because, yeah, both

of them, between them, have broken the story of the year haven't they they have i listened to a pod the

rudd did which was titled how rory o'connor broke the story and i was like i'm almost certain

no in fact i am 100 certain that he's not going to tell us how he broke the story so i listened to it

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