Ospreys Eyrie: The George North tribute

Welcome to the Osprey's Irie podcast, the podcast who is deeply apologetic for taking a week off. I was just simply doing some Photoshop that night, simply playing around with Photoshop. Who were you photoshopping onto Max Nagy's body? It was Kate Middleton. I was photoshopping Kate Middleton and Max Nagy. I soft launched Kate Middleton's new boyfriend that is Max Nagy. Max Nagy is the real missing English royalty that we need to be talking about. Where's he been? We all hear about Prince Harry and stuff like that playing rugby. They obviously have to say they were good because no one's going to say, oh, Prince Harry was an awful flanker. William was a one-dimensional 12. He was a terrible crestfall of 12. But were they actually any good? So Prince William played in the same school team as Frank Turner, the singer. Which tells you a lot about both of those people separately. But I want to watch a game with those two playing. Wonder if anyone went on to play like championship level there. Does Prince William know the 1-3-3-1? Does he understand the sex and lube? Because of Princess Anne, I honestly reckon Princess Anne could be an analyst. Oh yeah, Princess Anne loves that. But she's seen the highs and lows of it. She's seen like, obviously, the Duhan and Russell days. And then she's seen the Marcus de Rolo and Phil Godman days as well, as we've established. Yeah, she's dead into it. She's the only one of the royals who seems properly into it. Other than that, I suppose Harry likes it. Yeah, but she's probably saying like, when Finn's having a bad game, he's like, oh, do you know what? Phil Godman would have kicked that. Yeah. Where's Dan Parks? Chris Patterson, 100% record. Broke that world record once. Writes to him every now and then, just can you come back? Well, instantly what a shambles. Right, apologies for last week. Life's just got in the way for all of us. Robbie had internet celebrity stuff, as we've established, within the new Welsh rugby U2 bowling league. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, I go beyond Welsh rugby. I go all the way through. Zoella was there. Um, Bo Burnham. Uh, who else is, who else are YouTubers? Um, I don't, he's a YouTuber. My full list of like, YouTubers I watch is one man with a very deep voice who talks about old Nintendo games. And that is it. Um, and Rian Lowe, Rian Lowe was there, you know, uh, good, good stuff. The two people I watched, Rian Lowe and the Deep Voices Man. Yeah. So, uh, Justin, you were doing, well, actually you were the only one available. Yeah, I think I was, but, um, it would have felt really weird recording me talking to myself when that's normally the case on many weekday evenings, especially surrounding Welsh rugby. But I just thought, you know what, I just don't want to record it and everyone else is busy. So I thought maybe I'll have to give this week a miss. Did I actually tell you U2 what I was doing? No. I don't think I did. So I work in, in, in education. I was, um, part of the backstage crew for the school's production of Our House, the musical. Oh, wow. Which if you don't know Our House, it's the songs of madness. Um, which is, which is like an insane show, right? It is mad. And the plot revolve is awful, but the actual songs are brilliant. So I sort of spent five hours from Tuesday to Thursday doing this backstage tech stuff. And it was, oh, it was great fun. Were you doing the costumes? We saw in the baggy trousers. Were you doing the, the choreography? Were you doing the one steps beyond? I was doing props. No, well, they do do the choreography. They do do. And it comes back to Debra and Stacey when they're doing the, you know, the up and down and all that. That is genuinely part of the choreography. And when they're doing like, um, uh, Welcome to the Lion's Den and, you know, House of Fun. And then they do that. Then they get into the really niche stuff, like Night Boat to Cairo and Wings of Atlantis and like NW5. And I, you know, this, this, if anyone's listened to rap on Monday, um, you would have heard me go through my record collection. And that, that, that, that's a highlight in itself, but it's just reinforced my love of the songs that are definitely in my ear. My dad was so into madness that I think my early years led me to believe that knowing about madness would be an important skill in life. Turns out it isn't. Well, for years, I think every, all six people were at the Liberty Stadium when the Ospreys were like breaking try scoring records. The song they'd play after every try is Baggy Trousers. One Step Beyond was there for a while, wasn't it? One Step Beyond. So every time Dan Evans would score a try, you'd just hear madness. And you're like, this is the song synonymous with the Ospreys. Why are we trying to make this a thing? But then I go back and listen to it. I watched the highlights of Octavia again. Ospreys went through a phase of playing Harry Styles after every, uh, every try. Yeah. And I just, you know, it's the social, it's the guy who's doing the music in the stadium. Okay. I just want to know, is he still finding himself? What other songs can we have when we score tries? Because the Back in Black's the only one that's stuck, really, over a long period. Right. I have a theory on this, right? Because we have three, right? So we had Back in Black years, which I loved. I thought was the best one. Then we went to TNT, which we've got now. But for a while, we also had Triple H's theme song from WWE, which is Motorhead, if people don't know. And it was perfect. I remember doing this, it's time to play the game. And you're like, oh my God, this is absolutely perfect. And I just, I got visions of like Triple H around Osprey Studios, you know, like a house show in Cardiff. And we should have more coaches coming out to wrestling theme songs, going back to the Edinburgh game. Like, I don't want to talk about it because it's traumatic, but Toby Booth is walking out when the music's coming out and it looks like he's like a manager or someone coming into the Royal Rumble who's not there. He's just walking out like waving to the crowd as it goes by. He's a very, his finisher is Sean Everett, who was boring around the world. His finisher's called Finding a Way. He takes that playbook he has and he just hits it over the head like a steel chair. Oh, it's perfect. It's perfect. We need to make that happen. Toby Booth would be really easy to make on one of those like noughties wrestling games on PS2. 100%. He is the proper size and build and everything that you want in that game. He's got, he's got like, he's got to have like the wrestling singlet, but the one strap one. Yeah. With, with, with, with black old school rugby boots. And he's, because he's got massive calves as well. So you've got to give him like the widest calves possible and a note, like a notebook or a clipboard. That's perfect. That's perfect. So that started with me talking about madness and the musical of Toby Booth in mid-noughties wrestling games. So apart from that, news-wise, again, it's in on the ground in the news, but main ones being Lewis Lloyd has re-signed. Young Trey Orkey hooker has put pen to paper on a new deal. Obviously rose to prominence in the under-20s team last year in the summer. Probably a really underrated part of that squad actually. When you've got Morse, Edwards, Bradley, Hennessy, Ackerman. Because he'd sat on the bench during the under-26 nations with Sam Staff starting. He'd been fantastic because they only did a literature hookers last year. And anyone should, by the way. Absolutely. Then over the summer when Mark Jones came in, he clearly really rated Lewis Lloyd. And he clearly carried that over having come to the Ospreys now as well. He took that shirt and he was really good over the summer. And then, yeah, Lloyd's chance in that first game of the season against Connell to make his debut and has played, yeah, a bunch of games since. It's been six, six games now, I think. So, yeah, it's nice to have that young players in there. We've always had a core of young hookers in the squad. If you think back to Even, Scott, Sam Perry wasn't old when we signed him. He was still quite young when we signed him. What, back in 2013, 14, whatever it was. Then having that side with the likes of Ethan Lewis and Debbie Lake is still only, what, 24. So, yeah, it's just really nice to have. He's a really dynamic player. Still got a lot to learn, as we saw in Edinburgh. Yes, then, thoughts on that? Yes, it's nice to see another youngster staying in the region. Toby Booth mentions it every week, it's the second crop of players now that are coming through. James just mentioned Debbie Lake. This is the next crop. You've got the likes of Lloyd, Edwards, Morse. It's good to see all them coming through. It's all right. The Edinburgh game wasn't perfect, but I don't necessarily think that the line-ups that were rather vital weren't really his fault. But it's still good to see another youngster coming through. Yes, and also you saying, Toby Booth said something that reminded me of something that happened on Saturday, that collectively we all gasped at. Do you know what I'm referring to? Before the game, what Mr Sam Walton said. Oh, on Saturday, I was... Sunday, sorry, Sunday. Yes, Sunday. Sam Walton uttered the words, time and settle. And it confirms that either Sam Walton is an avid watcher of Osprey's press conferences, or he listens to the Osprey's daily podcast. And I'm choosing to say that he listens to the Osprey's daily podcast. He's followed my work in the past. I'm sure he's after my best work. I signed up to the blood of my patron just to listen to Robbie's rugby life. I don't remember doing that at all. All I remember about that is when we finished recording, Lee saying to me, you're very honest, aren't you? I think I listened to that in my university library. Really? I'm not really sure. No, if all you remember from recording something is being told you're very honest, oh, what did I say in that? I didn't listen back. That's an aside. Yes, sorry, you were saying something and we cut you off the nonsense. I was just going to humbly brag and say that I did meet him a couple of years ago. And so it could easily be the latter, but I probably think it is the former. I don't know if he does remember me from the Aberavon Beach Hotel, where I met him, Paul James and Andy Powell, who did a Q&A thing. There's some stories from that. I do have a photo of Sam somewhere. I think it's on my Instagram. He's a lovely man, a really nice man. He got bullied into drinking by Paul James and Andy Powell, because he was on coffees and then he kept getting ribbed every question. He literally called down to someone and said, can you bring me a pint of Stella, please? Yeah. Am I the only person here that hasn't met Sam Warburton? Yeah, unless there's anyone else in the room. Yeah. What a day. What an anti-brag that is. Is he the nicest player I've met? Brian Habana for me. Brian Habana is so nice. But were you slow to toot? This is the thing. I was really slow to toot. My internet connection broke during it and Brian Habana stood by the whole thing when I had a photo on Zoom. I almost went into a Brian Habana tangent about how nice he is. Yeah, I did two interviews with him and then I met him briefly in person in Twickenham after the Premiership final a few years ago. And he is really lovely. Ugo Mony is very nice as well. He called my mum to wish her a happy birthday. Yes, and who's the nicest player you've met? Don't say Morgan Morse because you went to school with him. That was my answer, because he genuinely is a good person to speak to as well. OK, Morgan Morse. He was really nice to me in double geography. But we weren't in the same school year, so we never actually got into lessons with each other, I suppose. It's probably Sam thinking about it. What about Roger E Lewis? You were in the Ghost Choir together. Yeah, he's a good mate and yeah, he's all right. He used to have his fair moments studying A-Level drama together. I got Roger E Lewis in A-Level drama, this is perfect. In the Ghost Choir and A-Level drama. But yeah, I think probably Sam Ogden in terms of kindness is probably just on top. Oh, I think, yeah, Sam's up there. Jeff Astler and Eli Walker were really, really nice. Jeff Astler's Canadian, that doesn't count. Yeah, that is true. But he would, Dimitri Arheb was also lovely. OK. He like shook my grandfather's hand that we were in the club shop. He was buying kit for all his family in Moldova. And he just said, he literally was like, he was on FaceTime, got the sides, hung up and just took about three kits off the shelf. I'm just going to send them all back to Moldova. Who else? Matthew Fier was lovely. He was with his family, so I didn't really say hi much, but he was buying pasties for all his family at the market, which is the most magical thing. James King was nice, but you can get that he's got big, just nice. Ben John. Oh, Ben John is lovely. Ben John's wonderful. He's a great guy. If you watch his videos, right, and he talks quite loudly, he also talks like that in real life. I had a conversation that I nearly fell down the stairs at the brewery field because he was just talking so loud. So please calm down. The other one would be Jack Morgan. OK. Really, really nice guy. Really, really nice. Yeah, so that's Lewis Lloyd re-signing everyone. Presumably will be added to the list list one day. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm sure he's a lovely guy. Currently he's a bastard. No, he seems lovely. He's also like I had the conversation with this was an observation of Josh Gardner of Blood and Mud. He's inexplicably, incredibly handsome. Like I said this from the start. Why is he that like almost movie star hot? What is that all about? He's the most handsome man ever. Yeah. I saw him at that end of the Twenties World Cup and I was like, hang on a minute. No, this guy, he is the most handsome person I think I've seen this side of. He wears that headband and he's just like, yeah, he's got all his tan skin. We need a tight head to go alongside him and Alan Dell in the most handsome front row competition. Tom Boater's very handsome. Tom Boater, yeah, solid. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I give the props to my boy from Stellenbosch. He's a handsome guy. He seems a tight edge. I'd say he's the most handsome tight edge in Wales. And what? Sure. OK. I mean, like Alan Dell is one of those things, right? You don't think about the easiest photo of him in a suit and he is unbelievably handsome, especially for a loose head prop. Yeah, that's true. There's another three handsome props, is there? No, it's a tight category. Not Stephen Kitsoft, no, he looks like he's got high blood pressure. Rhys Henry, of course. Well, yeah, but that's raw sex appeal. That's not testosterone. That's like, you know, pheromones. Yeah. Hence his Elvis learnings. Yeah, exactly. Studies. Handsome props. Tweet us with your handsome props. I want my mentions flooded with handsome props. Andrew Millwood. Oh, OK. No, no, I'm joking. Hey, whatever floats your boat. Oh, that's going to bug me now. I'm going to pop up with that random Thomas Dutoy at some point. OK, Vincent Koch. He's very handsome, but he'd be a villain of henchmen in a movie, handsome. He's, yeah, got big Bond henchmen vibes. Yeah, he's the henchman. Yeah, he's a henchman to Fabien Gaultier's Bond villain. The only thing he's a villain to is referees and discipline everywhere. Oh, right. Departures. Jack Regan has joined Shockey Shuttles in Japan, which is a shame because it never really worked out for Jack. He had horrible luck with injuries and just sort of never kicked on. Had real promise. And I think the times he did play, I don't think he ever got a foot wrong, to be honest. I remember that Zebra game. We went out there and we scored that lovely first phase try with Harry Deeves. Of course, the second phase try we flashed back with Harry Deeves in that first one. And then T.M. Thomas Wheeler for five minutes looked like a world-beating centre. And Jack Regan played six in that game. He looked like a heathen. There was something about him, but just injuries and everything, I just don't think it ever worked out for him. So good luck to him. He's a really nice guy. He's out there with T.M. Thomas Wheeler. I think Freddie Burns is at Shuttles as well. So yeah, I hope it all works out for him. You know, by all accounts, he's a well-liked member of the squad. Yeah, Freddie Burns is there, T.M. Thomas Wheeler. Oh, James Gaskell. Remember future England captain James Gaskell, as he was always known? He's their co-captain. He was Wasp's captain for years, wasn't he? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I've always heard of him as future England captain, James Gaskell. James Gaskell. That is how he was referred when he was at Sails, when he was at Wasps. James Gaskell. Good player. Good player. It'd be fun one day to go to those Japanese clubs and just be like, oh my God, do you remember him? You say one day, like this isn't all me and Will do. You say that. Did you see there's a half-Welsh, half-Japanese player? No, really? His name is Richard Go Jones. Oh, that's good. I'm going to find the tweet and put it in the WhatsApp for later. But unfortunately, Japan don't do dual nationality. So if you're born in Japan, you're considered Japanese. So, you know, if we want to bring him over, I'm putting the tweet in the WhatsApp, so you can look at it at some point and go like, oh my God. So yeah, Jack Regan's gone to Chugga Shuttles. Other news wise, Ospreys were in Bristol today, the home of the Bears, and trained with them. Some of the photos from that do give us an indication of who's back in training. So from the photos, we see Weston Hopkins is back in training. And he's not back in training, but Jean-Geraint Rude's Osprey. A, it looks huge. I love that. But he's wearing this training top that looks exactly like the black and gold Ospreys kit from back in the day. And now I yearn for that kit. And I just yearn to see Fino Tettier running at someone in that kit. I know. It also confirmed Jack Regan. Tristan Davis is back. Hugh Sutton and Max Nagy are pictured training. So that would be a huge boost amongst to have the likes of Nagy, Sutton to have that depth. There's also a photo of Pat Lamb talking to Toby Booth. And I want to know what them two are talking about, because I guarantee it's not rugby. What are they talking about? The dogs, yeah. Toby Booth does tweet a photo of his dog, and I do get giddy. I think Murphy's available for selection as well. Murphy Booth. Yeah, Murphy Booth. As I put on X, classic Thatcher, open side. Spotless discipline record, because he is the goodest boy. He truly is. So yeah, it's just good to see getting numbers that slowly back up. And hopefully, we did come out of that Edinburgh game injury-free, which is not something we can normally say about an Ospreys team. Yeah, and now we move on to a bit more of a sombre bit, because on just after the Wales team was announced today, and we'll talk about the Wales team. Oh, actually, before I do that, under-20s, Roger Lewis gets a start, Morgan Morse gets a start, and Kian Iyer gets a start. Fantastic. Go well, boys. But on the more sombre note, George North announced his retirement from international rugby after the Italy game on the weekend. So, we sort of decided, when planning Good Player this week, to actually take a look at all 15 of George North's tries in Ospreys colours. So, George North made his debut at home against Edinburgh in 2018. I was at that game yesterday, weren't you? I wasn't. I was doing something on the Friday night, but... You fake fan. But the game was streamed on YouTube, so you could, like, kind of catch, like, the second, well, from about 30 minutes in, they just, Pro14 decided to put it on YouTube for no apparent reason. So, I managed to catch, like, all the second half. So, before I actually get into, like, the George North, almost like a bit, I went and watched, so Robbie set the list of the tries. I went and found them all. And it just shows, like, the URC highlights are bad, right? They miss a load of things. And I often click on one, I can't remember, and Robbie's left a comment on it saying, gee, I sure wish I could watch some of the actual rugby in this. Because a good 45 seconds of it is just the team walking out, and kick off, and then just skips over, like, three penalties. So, there's one clip that Pro12 posted, I'll just spoil this for the era, posted once that I think we left a comment from the SquidwardRugby account, with the, if anyone finds this, we'll give them a prize if they claim it. Because they uploaded the most pointless rugby highlights clip I've ever seen in my life. And I looked at it, and it was, yeah, in delight at how bad their social media coverage was at the time. And this is going back quite a while. But yeah, it was the light. If anyone finds that, the prize is still active, whatever it was. I seriously, if Ruddy Darter was running that highlights again, they'd be the most popular. Ship shape. So, I went through all this. So, there's one against the Scarlets that doesn't exist on the actual Pro14 highlights. They've just left it out. Really? And so, I went through the comments, and they were like, like, guys, you've missed the train. And someone replied saying, you have to actually go on the Ospreys version of the highlights to get it. As if it's like a paid exclusive or something like that. It's a DLC. There's one again against the Scarlets, where for the first 45 seconds, it's the teams walking out and kick off. And if you can hear Sean Hawley's voice in the background, you can hear it as the director giving the cues. So, it's like, it's that GoMatch graphic. Cut to camera two or something. How do we have a survival as a sport this long? Oh, it's awful. But I also miss, what I also miss is that one guy that clearly locks in a room all day and was forced to do too many commentaries in the games. And he was the most boring man ever. I think he's related to Sean ever, actually. He's just been the most boring man. Right. So, Justin, talk to me about George North in general. Not just as an Osprey, but what is he to Welsh rugby? Where does he rank in that pan of the other greats? Probably up there. We're one of the best, if we're being honest. Over 120 international caps. And a couple of lines to his debut as well. You're thinking there's not much more he could have achieved. And, okay, maybe his time with the Ospreys maybe not as been as good as his days with Wales. But in terms of every time he played with a Welsh shirt on, he was always pretty up there in terms of one of the players to either watch or one of the players that were playing very well. Even if Wales were having a bit of an off day, just expect North to maybe just turn up and run over a few defenders and potentially score a try, which he was pretty good at. And, you know, it feels like his debut wasn't that long ago. Then he realised, oh my word, that was 14 years ago. And obviously that two tries against Africa on debut was pretty special. And, yeah, you know, it's maybe a little bit of a surprise. Maybe he's called it now. Obviously, Warren Gatlin said before the Six Nations that they were hoping that he could make a fifth World Cup, which would have been pretty remarkable. And, you know, he's still only 31. And then again, you know, he won a couple of years out in France and got a nice wedge of money. Then, you know, who's going to complain when someone has given so much to Welsh rugby that he just enjoys the time out in France? And Robbie, talk to me about your relationship with North over the years. Yeah, I think it's made me feel very old. The fact that we're a few days out from seeing George North play the last game for Wales. Same as Dan Biggar in the World Cup. Players I remember seeing, kind of the first generation of players I remember seeing come through as a fan and going, oh, these are really interesting, promising youngsters. And now they're at the end of their career. And that's genuinely quite moving. I didn't know what to do with myself for sort of 20 minutes after that. I couldn't quite get my head around the fact that I'm about to watch George North play for Wales for the last time. Because he has, as you know, yesterday was saying, he's a proper legend of the game. You know, it tells us where his second top try score of all time. He felt if he had made that World Cup, he may have taken Shane Williams' record. You know, he's, I think, five or six behind. Entirely possible he breaks it this weekend. I'd be optimistic. But yeah, I think as well, the way in which he has adapted and changed over his career, the way in which he's had several periods where people wrote him off, people felt this was, you know, the end of it. And he's always come back. He's always found a way back. And he's always found form again. And those first few years of the Ospreys, he was fantastic. You know, he came in out of nowhere. He then had a drop in form. And when Toby Booth came in, they rebuilt his confidence and they rebuilt him into a brand new player. And he started to turn into that 13-year-old who we've seen him play so well for Wales in the last couple of years. And he has consistently overcome challenges. He had long-running concussions. He's had all sorts. And he's found ways to keep himself alive and fresh and playing at the top of his game. Every time he's had a dip in form, people have written him off and then he's come back again. And so I kind of look at it and go, well, is this it? Is this the end? There's a bit of me in denial and going, well, he'll come back retirement in two years' time when he leaves Provence, when Provence loosen up on perhaps, you know, you wonder whether considering the way Tom Francis was encouraged perhaps not to play for Wales in the Six Nations, whether there's a similar thing happening since he's playing for the same club. But, but, you know, I don't know. If this is it, if this is it, which, you know, we're led to believe it absolutely is, then it's been a hell of an innings. And just one of, again, you know, I never mess it, but one of the seemingly nicest and most entertaining to watch be interviewed players as well. Hey, you just don't realise how much you love a player, I think, until you get to that end. And I remember the day Tips retired from International Rugby, and I was working in, working in a school in Neath, in a special education school in Neath. And I was at a bus stop on my way home, one of the two buses I had to get home that day. And I just remember like, Alan Wynne retired. And then 53 minutes later, Justin Tiprick retired. And I honestly felt like a piece of that childhood had been ripped out. Like, they were your favourite players. And I remember being in school during that 2011 World Cup, and sort of that 2010 bit as well. And there was this freak 18 year old kid. And I remember a year later talking to my rugby coach, and he said, Oh, I took my, my eldest son up to mid Wales to play a game against the North Wales team. And there was this kid just kept running through us at centre, as he went up to the end of the game. He said, son, you're amazing. Went to his coach and said, who is this kid? He was like, this is George North. And he just knew at that point that this kid would be special. And I think as a winger, you're often expected to be really one dimensional and just score tries. And I think George was peddled with that for years and be like, he's just a big strong lad who scores tries. But like a 10, who's maybe gone through like three different playing books, he's adapted his game to anything, to anyone and anything. He's adapted his game. You know, he's shown that he can, you know, I think back on some of the tries at that, about one in the 2013 Lyons test, the first one where he takes that ball from deep, steps Berwick Barnes, and then puts the finger up to, was it the first or second test? First test. First test, yeah, he puts the finger up to Cootley Beal. That's not the finger I would have put up to Cootley Beal, I would have put up a couple of different ones. That's for Lou Reed. That's a niche one for people who don't understand why that's for Lou Reed. I've tried. He hates perfect days. Just hates that album so much. But you think, but then just the absolute finishes he's able to do, like that one in Dublin in 2012, we take three, four players over the line. He is that blueprint for that, that winger. And I genuinely think that behind Alan Wynne-Jones is Wales's most important player. You know, of that modern era, of that professional era, actually, he is Wales's most important player. Because without him, we don't have the grand slams and championships or the good moments. You know, I strongly believe that 2013 Wales team is, for me, nigh on perfect, right? There's no one that can come close to that 2013 Wales team. That is the Wales team to me. Just like someone says that the 88 team for Wales or the 70s grands, you know, all them teams are their Wales teams. No, that 2013 one is my team. I want peak Cuthbert and peak George North on my wings. There's a reason that every time you think he's finished, he came back. He wasn't the Lazarus kid. And then he signed for the Ospreys. I've had my problems with George in the Ospreys, right? He's been really frustrating, especially towards the end, because he's played 40 games, he's got 15 trades. They're like, God, he could have been so much more. You know, and it almost felt like, you know, he was great at Northampton at the start and then the concussions and everything. You just think, if we had him a bit healthier, if we had him when he still had the pace and things like that, God, what we could have done with him. And it's been frustrating, but ultimately, I just sort of feel nothing but joy of him. You know, he's a nice guy. He's just, yeah. And he retires at 31, a legend of the game, right? Yeah. So in honour, we've gone through all 15 of his tries. So how would you want to do it? Do you want to do a try each? Should we go like, Robbie do one, Jesse do two, I'll do three and then keep going in that order? What do you want to talk about? So Robbie, you start us off, it was your list. So Dave, your try. So this was the big one, wasn't it? It was the second game of the season. So it was the very first game of the season, right? Yeah, George Norford signed. There'd been a lot of talk around it beforehand. During the Six Nations that year, there'd been a kind of will he won't he, will he go to the Ospreys, been some talk from the Dragons and Cardiff had also been after him and he decided to go to the Ospreys. And he joined and he was named in the team and he runs out for his first game and immediately, what was it? Maybe 20 minutes in for that first game. He finds himself, oh no, it's in the second half, I apologise. 58 minutes. But yeah, it'd been a fairly tight game up until that point. There hadn't been a try scored. And yeah, the score at the time was 6-3 to Weddingborough. And George Norford finds himself wide on the end and runs in for his first try. Just so much to unpack from this game already. Actually, because it's the same game yesterday, do you want to take us through a second try? Yeah, I was going to maybe bring an earlier point in that Dan Evans didn't have a try disallowed in the first half. He did. Due to everyone's favourite Irishman, John Lacey, who was in the middle. That was my point to bring up. I was like, the bastard in the middle was John Lacey. And then about, what was it about, Kevin? It was 67, 68 minutes, I think. Yeah, 68 minutes. And then, so I think it comes from a James King turnover actually, if memory serves me correctly. He might not have been on the Pro 14 highlights, but the ball gets chipped out wide and Norford just runs around everyone like he normally does and runs it in from about 60 metres. And it's kind of like a really big score because he just felt like he just needed that extra score just to maybe, you know, get further away from quite a close game against Edinburgh. So yeah, you know, it's quite a nice debut to have. You know, scoring the bursas was pretty impressive. I remember the feeling of shouting yes, George, for the Ospreys kicking into me. I remember that feeling of being like, oh, I'm so used to saying this for Wales. I'm so excited to say it when he's wearing black as well. I was, for his debut, I'm sure I was there. It was in August. I hadn't gone to University yet. But for me, there's a lot of things I like about this, right? It's one of the best kits we've had. I loved that kit. The black with the white sleeves, with the sort of black, white stripes on it. So this was the infamous coaching team of Alan Clarke, Matt Sherratt, Brad Davis was still there as well, kicking about. This was the cowboy team. And we also had an obsession with starting Luke Price over Sam Davis, which is the most criminal act and heinous act that I think no one's ever done. But Price went off injured in the first half, after about half an hour, he had a really serious knee injury. He did. He was out for the entire season, I think. That second try for me, it comes off like, it comes off as Sam, it's not a turn up. The Edinburgh players just pass it into someone and Sam Cross just picks it up. This was peak Sam Cross, by the way, full armed guard and bright red scum cap, peak Sam Cross. And Dan Evans plays a lovely flat spin to Justin Tipperick, who puts George North in. And you're just like, oh my God, George North has just got two tries for the Ospreys. We've just spent the last, I don't know how long, hating this guy, because he played for the ones over the road. And he was good. So that, yeah. Because I remember George's first game against the Ospreys, it was maybe like his third or fourth game for the Scarlets. After he had that breakthrough on his first game for the Scarlets, he scored two tries against Benetton because it was kind of a thing he had, right? He scored two tries on debut for the Lions, two tries on debut for the Scarlets, two tries on debut for the Ospreys, two tries on debut for Wales. I couldn't tell you about Northampton, but Provence are looking very good for that first game they're going to play. With him in the team. Um, but yeah, so I remember his first game against the Ospreys, Shane Williams saying afterwards, he was his opposite number that day, saying afterwards he's had Scarlet fans telling him, George, he's going to get you. Yeah, and Georgie did get me in fairness. Georgie did get me. I, this is a counterpoint to Shane Williams, but I love it when Shane Williams clearly sees a winger that was quicker than him, because he gets really defensive, angry. But I'm not going to say better because there was, it's really difficult to be a bit better than Shane in terms of raw skill. But when he sees a winger quick at that, honestly, if he ever sees Raven Grace in the flesh, he might shoot him. Because he won't be able to handle him. So his next try came against the Cheetahs at home. Now, there's two points I want to bring up. George Northampton scores bangers for his first couple of few tries, right? But do you know the Cheetahs team this day? Um, Ravs Maxwani was playing, wasn't he? He was my favourite player of all time. Didn't he score a bit of a try in the second half as well, Maxwani? I think. Yeah, I believe so. The consolation score about quarter an hour to go, he just chips it over the top. And I'm going to tell you the Cheetahs' score for this day, right? And you're going to be... So, uh, just Ox and Chey. Um, uh, Jacques Dutoy. Solid player, yeah. Yeah, Lou Anderbroon. Yeah, decent player. Justin Bassel. I don't remember. Don't remember him at all. JP DiPriere. Yeah, yeah. Good player. Decent player. Yeah. Uh, Junior Sepato Poccamella, who I don't remember at all. Yeah, vague memories of, yeah. Junior Poccamella. I think he's, he's still going. He's at the Stormers, I'm pretty sure. Right, okay, yeah. Aidan Davis at seven. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Jasper Visser. I don't remember that, yeah. Would have been young Jasper Visser. I thought Jasper Visser just appeared out of nowhere at Leicester. The, the creep inspector. Sean Venter. Oh, come on. Tell me he was opposite Tom Haverfield. He was opposite Ali, no. Haverfield on the bench. Oh, he was kicking Tom Haverfield out even then. Yeah. Kicking Tom Haverfield out of the team, even then. I don't remember that. Tianne Schoonman at 10. Oh, good player. Good player. Rabs Maxwani. The greatest rugby player in history, man. I love Maxwani. Because I was obsessed with Mpimpi before he got in the Springboks. And then he got in the Springboks and I've got to find a different South African wing to obsess over. So I picked Maxwani because he's brilliant. I love him. He wanted a backheel flick to score against the Scarlets. Great player. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah. So good. Do you remember him at 12? Yeah, I don't. Didn't he score the season before for the Cheetahs? He might have. Oh, he's at Breeve now. He is at Breeve. Bernard Jantje van Rensburg. Good player. Good player. Still only 27. So you would have been decently young then. William Smallsmith. Good player. Fantastic name. I remember those players that was always late. Always like 7 out of 10 for the Cheetahs back when they were in the Pro-12. Good player. Malcolm Yair. No, no memory of that. So we get onto the bench then, right? So they went for a 6-2 split. Keep an eye out for number 21. He'll come up later. So at 16 we had Joseph Dwebber. Good player. No matter what South Africans say. Yeah, oh what could have been. Charles Marius or Marais, sorry. No idea. Aramis Katsia. No. Volkstein Kemp. Oh yeah, vague memory. Yeah. Sounds like a Bond villain. Gerard Olivier. Great name. No, yeah, no. Is he still playing? He's still going at one of the... No, he's not. Okay, never mind. I have checked. No. And at 21, a young Marnis van den Oever. Oh, Osprey of Legends. And I have to check. Is it that one? And it is that one. Covering the back row. In the back row. Tien Mayer. Great player. Do you remember Tien Mayer? Only vaguely. He was up Sharks in 2021-2022. Very good. And then Rhino Eckstein at the end. Oh yes, Rhino Eckstein. He was all right. So that's that squad that bit. And actually, if you go through the cheats of squads, around this time, you'd be pleasantly surprised about what you've seen. So obviously this game was brilliant because it's famed for the rarest of things. That is Alan Wynne-Jones double. Yeah, he's Justin Tipperick's double. And Alex Jeffries' tripe. And a Joe's knock. Greatly underrated player, Alex Jeffries. I remember this game really well. This is maybe my clearest memory of the Alan Clark era with this match. Other than the non-miserable memory, which there aren't many. I remember watching this game really well in my tiny little horrible flat I was living in at the time. It was just, yeah. And it's just, for me, like one of the best. I don't know, it's just a really happy memory. I love the kit, the players, like Sam Davies at 10. A fit Dan Lydia at six. James King at eight. Tipperick at seven. You know, you had George Norton, great form. I'm looking at the tri now. I think I'm looking at the tri. No, it's the next one. So yeah, we go into the half, 22-7. Scott Williams was playing well. Or I should say playing. He really fucking did that. Yeah, it was just a good time. Right, I'm trying to get to the George Norton tri. Where is it? 36 minutes. George Norton scores. He is 36 minutes, I've gone past it. Alan Wynne having scored after seven. Scott Orton after 27. Probably from a chip and chase. I refuse to be correct. I think Norton had a break for the Orton tri as well, thinking about it. I think he made the initial break for the Orton tri. And then Orton just picked it up and scores, basically. Uh, no, he sure isn't 36 minutes. Apparently, according to the report. 46 minutes. Wait, no, this is the one. Sorry, I'm watching the highlights of the tri that doesn't exist. I have to leave YouTube to go to his website to watch his tri. Because the Pro 14 or Pro 12 didn't include one of the seven tris. So yeah, I believe this tri comes off a Scott Williams kick. Or I might be lying. There's one where it definitely comes off a Scott Williams kick. No, you are right, that's it. So yeah, it's a lovely tri. I just thought that it was really nice to see George play with a smile on his face. And you get it. And it was just, yeah. Oh yeah, no, it was a Scott Williams leaping miss pass. It was very nice. And it must have. And the reason I like it is because it must have broken the hearts of Scarlett's fans everywhere. Watching Scott. Watching Ali Davis pass to Scott Williams. The pass to Charles North. And I know we're going to get the comments of our Scarlett theory, our best players. And I don't care. Because it was great. So Robbie, take us through to... Speaking of Scarlett, Scarlett's 2018. Well, this is the tri that doesn't exist, isn't it? This is one that isn't out there. Is it? I think I've got it. Oh, in that case, please, you take me through. Because I haven't seen this. I remember it. Am I right in saying it was the 24th of December, 2018? It was Christmas Eve. No, it was the away fixture in October, I think. Right. Okay. It definitely was the away fixture. Because Corey Allen scores and then North scores one way, one way. Yeah. First one, then North scores the second. 8th of October. Yeah. So this game. Yeah. So this game, it does exist. It is on YouTube. We're only six highlights. So I watched this game. So it's nine minute highlights. This is when Pro 14 were coming next and releasing nine minute highlights. Good Scarlett's kit this year. They had the taller, if you remember that kit. John McNichol was fresh on the scene. Everyone was asking whether he was Welsh qualified. So Scarlett's take the lead. Then we hit back with, oh, what a shock. It's Owen Watkin getting over the game line. Robbie would have been very happy at this time. So I think we get the ball. It's around 29 minutes now. So we get the ball wide. We're on the 22. Sam Davies plays a lovely ball. Mason Grady's brother scores. God, what he could have been. I know. And then we get to 32 minutes. Have you found it, Robbie? I'll just share it to you. You found it. Well, I found it. I found it. Odd little, I'm not watching highlights. I'm watching the full game. That's why the highlights aren't working. I will send it to you. No, I've got it here. So we get to 2 minutes 29 on the video. Because I was confused for a moment because I thought the highlights had a click of Sam Davies going for his swipers kick. No, it's a very nice first aid move where they hit out through. You have Mason Grady's brother slings a quite nice pass right out to north. He managed to just about get on the outside. He does halfpenny a beauty. It's halfpenny, yeah. Johnny McNichol nowhere near and then rides two tackles to get it down in the corner. Are you saying Johnny McNichol's positioning is awful? Good, because I am. No, lovely, really well taken try. It was a really well taken try and it was very contentious. If you listen to the sound on it, they're all complaining whether he actually got it down. Because Nigel's reffing. This is when Nigel's only wheeled out for the West Wales Derby. But he got every West Wales Derby ever. Yeah, despite the fact he was born in Clare. So, yeah, and it was a very bittersweet feeling. I think I remember of shit Georgia scores against the Scarlets. Yeah, so that was north against the Scarlets. Justin, you highlighted this try actually in the group chat. Yeah, swiftly moving on about a week ago, I think. So the Ospreys were in the Challenge Cup and they had Worcester start from saying Poe in their group, which was interesting, to say the least. And the first game of the group was against Poe in Swansea. And I don't really know what side Poe brought down. An awful one. It wasn't a good one because they ended up on nil points. And the Ospreys grabbed a bonus point, which is rather pleasing. Um, I wanted to say that Keelan Giles made his return from injury this particular afternoon. Was he injured? Was this his first ACL one? Yeah, this was the first game back. And he had to start in the fullback because someone went off. I can't remember who went off now. It was either, I can't remember if it was Sam Davis. Sam Davis, Sam Davis went off, yeah. Yeah, so James Huck had to come in at 10 and then Giles came in a fullback. Did he? I thought James Huck was still at 13 for this game. Well, James Huck was a fullback. And I think James Huck runs a really nice decoy line. He scores a beautiful, he scores the first try in, stunning. Yeah, Corey Allen runs in a nice decoy line and then he realises why has the pass not gone to him? Oh wait, James Huck's picked it up and scored. And then back to George North and he just runs in a really nice try from, was it off top of the line? So it's a scrum, I'm watching it right now. I'm watching it right now. So it goes to Alid, Alid goes to, whoever was at 15, I can't work out who was at 15. That is James Huck. It is James Huck. So James Huck's the first receiver. He plays a ball on the switch to George North who does that lovely arc in running. There's a nice little side step. It's a really, really nice finish. Possibly one of my favourite European kits we've ever had, by the way. That was a, I loved that kit. I think it's really nice. Made more by the, didn't they keep that kit for two seasons? That was when we had two season deals for kits. I think the champions kept the season before where obviously there was the group of death and we threw ourselves in that round 15 old classic. And yeah, that was quite a nice kit, I thought. Maybe not as good as the 2016-17 one, but it was, you know, something. You also had the Luke Morgan being good. Oh, incredible solo try. Do you remember what this game was as well? I remember being at this game, actually. And for two reasons, actually. We were gifted some seats to sit in the West End. And literally in the prawn sandwich seats because we were in the exact, not in a box, but in the, we could go into the suite at halftime and get pies and stuff. But do you remember what the stat was of Harry Morgan this day? He was the youngest ever try scorer for the Ospreys. First player to score after the Ospreys were created. No, for being born in this century. Oh, okay. So the first player born in the 2000s to score. And I remember saying after this, I was like, this Harry Morgan's got something about him. And he was very good. Yeah, god, oh god, I do remember this game, though. Oh, we're awful. Then obviously, Harry Morgan scored against Karmath a couple of weeks later in Britain. Yes, he did. That was a nice score as well. Is Morgan Mawson the first player to have scored, who was born post Osprey's inception? Harry Deeves. Harry Deeves, okay. It's the only one I can think of off the top of my head. I'd have to look into that properly. Yeah, yeah. But Harry Deeves was the only one off the top of my head. So he would have been around 2004, 2005. He's the same age as my brother. Now Osprey's in 2003. Yeah, so that was a great game, great kit. Well, Robbie doesn't like the kit. Do you not like the kit, Robbie? I don't mind it. I don't hate it. I don't have a particularly strong feeling on it either way, I guess. I have the... What kit do I have? I have one of the European kits I found in a charity shop. It wasn't a very popular one. Then we move on to Cardiff 2019. Yeah. Now, I have to, again, dig this highlight out because I could not find it whatsoever. But I found it. I'm pretty sure it's the one for 7th of January 2019. So we're a week into the new year. 2019 is upon us. Boy, do we not know what's going to happen this year. Oh, lads, I hope you're ready for the Southern Kings in November. There's a lot of things to go before that as well. Cardiff Blues in one of their nicer kits. This is proper Cardiff Blues now, when they were crap. But we're the Blues. They had heritage. Of course, they always have heritage. Yeah, they always have heritage. So we score within two minutes, two and a half minutes of this game. Because, of course, we did. Scott Williams gets the finish straight. So Alan Davies flashes back to the open side. Scott Williams, as a James Hook, throws a dummy, goes in between Nick Williams and hands off Josh Davidi for a lovely finish. And you think, hello, you know, this Alan Clarke bloke, he could be quite good here. Yeah, and we were just sort of playing some nice rugby. Blues then hit back with a beautiful, I think it's a Garen Smith finish of a little cross kick by Anscombe. This is also the period in which Cardiff were sponsored by Land Rover. Do you remember that? Good. Anyway, so it's a bit of an evenly poised game. So Sam Davies says, whatever you can do, Anscombe, I can do better. And then there's a beautiful cross kick for North to finish it. All he does is have to catch it, right? But there is no one in that space. Taints it lovely. Who was that full back for Cardiff that day? Dan Fish? No, his positioning was good. Who would have been it? Who would have been it? Who's that full back for Cardiff, Andy Howell's favourite player? Matthew Morgan. Who's in no man's land. So from there, Robbie, tell us what we heard there from Cardiff. Because we have a bit of a dry spell now, don't we? We do. Through to Scarletts at the end of the season. Last game of the season, I believe. Yeah. Playoff final or playoff game. OK. And all to play for, all the rugby is happening here. Scarletts in the Liberty Stadium. And it still was then. So scores a nil-nil. It's early days. The Ospreys manage to find themselves five metres out of the line-out. Sam Davies immediately calls it, slings it as wide as possible. And the Scarletts, classic, have decided not to defend one touchline. It's just a succession of easy passes. And George Norby's completely unmarked. And over the trial, yeah, you can then see Lee Harpenny had the look of like, wait, wait, hold on. I'm like, what? Did we forget something? He's got the look of like, oh, I left my keys, didn't I? On his face of like, oh, we're supposed to defend. I'm so glad. I've screenshotted the amount of space that, from when Scott Williams has, right? You think it, this must be off like transition. This must be like a turnover ball. It's not. Ospreys have been pounding the line. It's not like, I don't remember going into this game. Because it never really happened before, this playoff sort of, to get into the playoffs. Of, we were neck and neck. Because obviously, you've got to remember, Scarletts were defending champions. And you sort of look, and I'm putting it in the chat now, but the amount, this is the amount of space yesterday that Scott Williams has to pass the ball to George North. And I will put this on Twitter as well, to annoy Scarletts fans. I've just sent it in now. That is the amount of space that George North has to run in this training. Well, for shortly afterwards, the Scarletts clear from a similar Ospreys attack. Oh, it's our clearance. I'm sorry. Well, they bang it as long as they can. Dan Evans takes it. And remember that thing that Dan Evans of this era did all the time, which was he would run straight at the closest defender and inexplicably they would always miss the tackle. And it happened all the time. And that happens. He breaks right through. Hey, our friend, Johnny McNichol again, is not interested in the tackle. Fades off him. He offloads to, you know, as McNichol was trying to fix him, to Olly Cracknell, who's way ahead of the play. Classic Scrimoff line. Takes the offload and Johnny McNichol falls over in an attempt to tackle him. As Olly Cracknell goes over, halfpenny once again lying there befuddled. This is George Horne learned that line from Olly Cracknell. Antoine Dupont learned this line from Olly Cracknell. Yeah, Olly Cracknell had a great game. I remember him having a fantastic game. There's also, for Hanno Derksen's try, if you skip to 70 minutes, the exact same happens. And Scarlett's end's so narrow. And Luke Price just sort of looks up and says, shit, I've got the whole of the left-right straight to pass. As Hanno's going over, halfpenny is like distraught and frustrated. And the rest of Scarlett's are like, yeah, obviously that was going to happen. We didn't defend that side. They went for the side we weren't defending. What were we expecting? I revel in, if you go in the comments, right? There's two comments, right? One of them is from Boris Film Studios. Osprey's drums are so annoying. Dare to drown the Scarlett fans over lots of embarrassments. Clearly you've never met Ozzy before. And the other one was, Osprey's should have won by more. They rarely had to get out of second gear. Scarlett's defense is woeful. Now that could have been from six months ago, but it was actually from four years ago. So that was Scarlett in 2018. Yes, then. Talk us through the first of the Dragons. Yes. So a lot of rugby was played since the Scarlett game. There was a lot of things. There was murder talks. There was grand slams. Rugby World Cups. There was agonizing semi-final defeats to South Africa. There was a really good Georgia North try, which he scored against Georgia in the middle of all this as well. And the attention obviously now turns to 2020, the start of the year, start of a new decade. And the Ospreys had come off of a bit of a really bad run of form, except for a bonus point out in France against Racing, which was basically the only positive of the month of December and November. And they travelled to Rodney Parade to kick off the year, which is thinking, oh, right, that's a nice place to go to kick off 2020. And the start wasn't that bad, considering that they lost 44-0 down the Seneffy the week before. And Scott Williams puts in a rather nice crossfield kick, which shows North just gathers and scores. With the phase before, with Justin Tipperick hitting a ridiculously hard line. And it takes two Dragons defenders to basically chop them at the legs to stop them. And then the next phase, they spin the ball out. And there's a crossfield kick by Williams to North. And the Ospreys briefly led before Leon Brown scored, which was rather normal. And well, I don't really want to talk about this, because I think we all know what happens there. So then, I know it is four rounds later, you play the Dragons at the Liberty. This, this was after COVID. This was COVID, yeah. This was a global pandemic was after it was played. So it's Toby Booth's first game. Yeah, so George North finishes a lovely try. It's very reminiscent of the Ireland one. So it only takes about four people to get him down. You've got a lovely little whip by Alwyn Jones, actually. And it was Ashton Hewitt was great this game. I actually talked about Ashton Hewitt on Wrap on Monday. And I said, Rio de Janeiro is everything I wanted Ashton Hewitt to be. Yeah. Because Ashton Hewitt had so much promise at the start. And he's just sort of like, yes, this is what Rio de Janeiro is. But this is also famous for George North for his first and only red card for the Ospreys. Oh, really? Yes. And it is one of the worst red cards you will ever see. Have you seen it, Robert? I, I will have. I can't remember. I didn't. I will send it to you now. Okay. Yeah, it was a really nasty collision off a really, really nasty. It was after a Leon Brown try too, which is rather ironic, considering her previous meeting between the two sides. I probably have lost your WhatsApp. It's so it's after the first try. After the Ashton Hewitt try. It's off the kickoff, actually. So 13 minutes. Stephen Myler, I believe, has to go off. I want to say someone has to go off and Joe Thomas comes on. Joe Thomas comes on. Yeah, Stephen Myler comes off and Joe Thomas comes on. And off kickoff, Ashton Hewitt comes and collects the ball. And George North, no intention of catching that. It's a bad red card. Yeah, fly straight under him. He knew as well, straight away. And this was very George North. I think this is he was going through a lot of that time in terms of struggling with form. So obviously scores a try and things like that. But it was very, you know, it was, it was tough. We do get Sam Parry's 857th try for the Osprey stud. Not off the back of them all this time. But unfortunately, the game ends in a 20 all draw. But yeah, so that was the second Dragons try. He's got the best, his best win rate and score is against Dragons. You wouldn't be surprised to know. So Robbie, we go from Dragons in 2020 to a try we actually talked about the other day. Yeah, Worcester. The second of two clashes in his time away at six ways. I went to the other one and it was miserable. Yes, it was. I was like, oh, that was a really poor 40 minutes. That was. Yeah. Terrible. I was sat right behind the Worcester sub. So I had a lot of cheering there. My favourite thing was Ben Tao had just signed. And I remember when he signed for Worcester, he said, I'm signing for them because they're useless. And I want to bring their quality up and be their best player. And he saw them on the bench and all of them were celebrating together and patting each other on the back and everything. Except for Ben Tao sat on his own, off to the side. No interest in the rest of that squad. No cohesion with them at all. But yeah, we did get forward. Which one was this player? Was this the 29, 28? No, sorry, it was 18. 29, 38. Oh, sorry, that was the... I remember us getting battered. I remember Alex Jeffries having a good game. However, a few years later, Boothie, that Boothie time, he's back in. And we're in a pretty good run in the Challenge Cup. But there's a critical away we're needed in Worcester. And having started pretty well, we've fallen behind. It's 29, 23. Actually, I think it's further behind, yeah. So Morgan Morris scores kind of... I think one of the earliest examples of that try he scores, where he sort of spins through contact and somehow gets the ball. Yeah, he loves to spin in contact, doesn't he? Yeah, right by the try line. And he's so good at it. And I think it's one of the first examples of that happening. This was kind of a big breakthrough game for him, I think, because he's obviously played. But he came off the bench here and was unbelievable, was phenomenal. 62 splits, yeah. Came on at 62 minutes, yeah. And was just brilliant. So he comes through, scores, gets the Ospreys from having been... Yeah, 29, 18. So 11 points down. Morgan Morris scores. And then the Ospreys end up... Stephen Myles has a penalty really long into the corner. And right off the line out, Reuben Morgan-Williams is kind of trailing across, trailing across, trailing across. And he drops it off last second to George North, who comes in at the angle. Steps, I believe it's Nial Anitt. Yeah, Nial Anitt it is indeed, who hates me. So bursts right through. And in front of him is only the frightening form of Perry Humphreys. And wouldn't you know, he does him on the outside and goes over to score in the corner. This is, I think, when I think of George North's try for the Ospreys, this is the first one that comes to mind for me. Because it was a big moment, big player day in which he stepped up and he was fantastic all game. And then he scores the winning try. Morgan Morris then goes on and wins two turnover penalties in the Worcester half, where Stephen Myles kicks both of them. But on 73 minutes, North scores the winning try. And then Morgan Morris goes, you know what? I'm not done. I want some more. I want more points to my name, or at least to Stephen Myles' name. But yeah, brilliant performance. This was kind of, I think, a big moment in him refining his form, refining his confidence under Booth, which he did, you know, really around here. And then that carried over into the kind of Welsh over the next couple of years. And then into that Six Nations, which was won the following year, a few months later, this was December 2020. So, you know, 2021 was when the Six Nations, and he is one of the best players in that tournament. And yeah, this was kind of the start of that burst of form for him. So this was, I remember this game a lot, because it was that very beginning of Boothy and the team he wanted to build. And you can see that. So, if I go very quickly, just give me that last one, it's 15. Yeah. Actually, it's 23. Because you see the skeleton of probably what we've got today, in terms of who's, you know, who's there. So Gareth Thomas at one, Sam Parry, Matt Fafia, Adam Beard, Rhys Davis, Will Griffiths, Justin Tiffany, Dan Lyddia. Like that pack, Gareth Thomas, Sam, still there, mainstays, Beardy, Davis, who probably would start now. Will Griffiths, Justin Tipperick, you know, these are all mainstays in that pack now. Ruben, Milo, Crosero, Williams, Watkin, North, Dan Evans. You're like, yes, hello. And Owen Watkin had to go off very early, actually. On the bench, Ivan, I'm sorry. Nicky, Tom, Lloyd Ashley, Ollie Cracknell, Morgan Morris. You know, Morgan Morris was still probably on the fringes of it, this game. Yeah, yeah. And you look at that Worcester team. There were no mugs at Worcester team, right? They were still, you know, probably poorly coached. But you look at that, there was a lot there, you know. So you had 15, Milani, Naby Vy, the immortal Terry Humphries, Ollie Lawrence, who's still at 13, Francois Venter, Nick David, now inexplicably the Harlequin starting fullback. Nick David, Jamie Shilcock, nice guy, good player. Gareth Simpson, somehow it's Harrison's. The first Ospreys player, Mark Thomas in this team, the man who chop tackles Christmas trees. In hotel lobbies. Isaac Miller, Richard Palferman, George Merrick, Justin Clyde. And then a cracking back row of Ted Hill, great player. Sam Lewis, good player. And Cornel Di Pria. And then, I'll skip the bench, but Ashley Beck at 23, who cuts the trademark Ashley Beck line in this game. And every time I watch it, a tear comes out. I'm like, he loved Worcester, Ashley Beck. He lived and breathed that club. And he's just like, oh, why? So yes, take us on to try number 11, which is Dragons in 2021. Yeah, so back to the Rodney Parade. Again, the Ospreys had lost to the Scarlets the week before, but it wasn't as bad as 44-0. I think they lost with about two pointers, they were rather gut-wrenching at the time. And then they played the Dragons, and everyone thought, all right, this is going to be a really tight, close game, and the Dragons are probably going to nick it in the last minute, like they tend to do. But it wasn't as, I'm pretty sure the Ospreys were now rather neat winners near the end. There was a crucial rolling ball about five, 10 minutes to go, which they scored off, which was crucial and probably won them the game. But the north try that was scored was, again, rather vital, that kind of swung the momentum completely the other way. And it comes off a line break from Owen Watkin. And obviously, he was playing a 13 as Kieran Williams started at 12, who went off with a concussion. And Joe Hawkins came on with one of his first appearances. He didn't have many before this one. So it was kind of like a real test for him off the bench very early on in the Welsh derby. Watkin makes the break and then delivers a really neat inside offload to George North, who was running the Scrum half line for some reason. And North just runs it in and scores. It was a very nice try. And the first half try by Matt Fother was even better because Ivan Phillips was basically acting like a fly half, which was rather impressive considering the Ospreys were down to, I believe, were down to 14 men at the time. So probably that was a nice score. But the North one was good as well. It's the thing you were saying, James, about after George adapting his game throughout his entire career, this is him running a line that he wasn't running a few years earlier, him kind of learning to run those great support lines, which is something that becomes a feature in the tries after this, is more and more of them are when he's on the wing rather than the centre, he's typically running far more kind of support lines, getting close to the action, being there in the right place at the right time. And then, well, the next try kind of builds on that. Yeah. Sorry, I need to know the next try. So the next try is Connacht in 2021. Now, I think I did the top of the series today in the group chat. I think we did. I think that's a really good performance. This is horrible. Yeah, so this is the last time I think we won in Galway. One of my favourite performances in the Toby Booth era, I love, so this 2020, 2021 season is one of my favourite seasons in general. I love the kits we had. I had a lot of kit chat today from you, but I have both the kits from that year. I absolutely loved them. So it starts off eight minutes in, we play some lovely out-the-pack stuff. Milo puts a lovely double pump for George North, who puts some nice hands, soft hands of Dan Evans, who brings it back inside. Soft hands of Dan Evans, who brings it back inside then to George North, who goes over for a lovely, lovely try. And you're thinking, because at this point, a lot of people were very much like, oh, Toby Booth is setting a stalemate. We want to be a very forward-oriented team. And we play some lovely rugby this game of just putting this through the hands so nicely. And this is the infamous, well, the discipline goes to shit, basically. And we go in to that half time there, and it's a 17-5 down with a man in the bin. We're just in the middle of the bin, actually. And then, so 46 minutes in, so we're attacking left to right. Milo puts a lovely ball in for Prosero, who is on fire at this point in his career. He really found form in this Oxbury's team. He plays a lovely, floated missed pass over to North. And North does that thing, he does that little stutter step and puts a lovely ball back inside for, I think, Kieran Williams, who then gets it back into Prosero. And you just think, this is, I think, one of the first examples of that never say die attitude, that find-and-away thing from Toby Booth. And then, you know, inexplicably Reece Webb scores two tries. Yeah, I remember Reece Webb having a kind of broadly terrible game until he scored his first try. Or maybe it was just a frustrating patch. But I remember him having kind of, being really frustrated with him, and he scored and I was like, God, okay, fine, fine, don't bring him off then. And then he scored his second try. Okay, yeah, bonus point at the back. You justified your decision, Toby. Fuck you, Reece Webb. So yeah, and it was just that find-and-away sort of attitude. And I really, really liked it. This next one is one of my favourites. It's one of my favourite games in the booth here, actually. The Rugby You Go. Glasgow. Yes. Yes. So, last season, the one kind of emphatic win we've had over the last, like, three seasons, bizarrely, against Glasgow, who, it was funny, like, there was a thread on the Rugby Union subreddit recently for what's your team's worst ever loss. And of course, there's no surprise about it, you know, there's plenty to stag, there's Biarritz, there's losing to the Kings, there's 44-0 to the Scars, there's loads, there's loads. I saw a few Glasgow fans mentioning this Ospreys game, being their most frustrating, awful game, because it was complete one-way traffic the entire way. And they are, at one point, they are 23 down, 20 points to three down, and an hour is gone on the clock. They're pounding away at the line. Dan Liddy gets sim-bid for repeat infringements, because God bless him, he was a hero. And then, instantly, the Glasgow lose it, they end up pushed back, they knock the ball on around halfway, and from the scrum, the Ospreys sling it wide, penalty advantage given, and Michael Collins goes for what I'd call a speculative chip over the top, which managed to find grass, bounces up perfectly into his hands, in the kind of way you'd call this planned, where he flicks it instantly, like, proper, like, lovely quick hands inside the jack, whilst he's just come on, who beats his first man, looks wide, and slings it right over the top of the covering players, to George North, who, for some reason, goes to step three players on his way over the trial line, when he could have just dived. But he gets it down anyway, and scores the third try of the bonus point lot. Yeah, it was- Reuben scored the bonus point a few minutes later. Great game. I love- I was at this game. It was great. Peak Michael Collins, like, bald Michael Collins. Yeah, yeah. At his full power. The all-black kit. We'd gone to the all-black and all-white kit that year, which, I'm certain, pleased a lot of people. That is one of my favourite Ospreys kits. Yeah, I love the Umbro stuff. I love the Umbro stuff. I will- no bones about it. I loved the Umbro stuff. When we went to that all-black- Glasgow were top of the league at this point, if I remember rightly. Yeah. They were having a great season. This was no-mug Glasgow team as well. Took a lot of who's in there. I, at one point, vividly remember- I think I texted him, essentially. I screamed at Ryan Wilson and told him his podcast was shit. And he sort of turned around and couldn't really see who it was. But I knew it was a moral victory. But I told Ryan Wilson his podcast was shit. This was a Max Nagy breakout game. Yeah. He had that lovely break at the start. He does that signature sort of break and then reswebs stupidly and knocks it on because he's useless. Well, he was useless at this point. And also Rowan Watkins spent like 10 minutes in a blindside flanker as well. He did. And they won scrum penalties out of there. It wasn't even like- it was just, you know, a back just making up the numbers in the back row. They won like two scrum penalties out of there. One of the best Keelan Giles finishes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. From a really interesting one rocking rip tackle because it should have been a Bentley to Glasgow bet. No, not that one. The first one he scores, where he scores, it comes off like- and he just dives in the corner like a proper win. The second one was absolutely off. Apparently it's Glasgow. I was- it was right in front of me. And all he could hear was, what's his name? Jakob Eichner say, tackle. And I was watching. Clearly he rips it. And I remember being quite active on the rugby subreddit. So I used to post all the Osprey's team sheets. Yeah, just for the camera, mate. That's why I was there. All those nine upvotes every week. All the people randomly called and said, shit, he's still playing. And then, yeah, and it was clearly a penalty. I had to shit off a slip. Oh, yeah. So that was Glasgow. One of my favourite games, one of my favourite tries. And then we go into Dragons 2022. No, this is the only one I haven't watched because I can't remember it. I actually think- Is this the one at Rodney Parade? Yeah, this comes after about 35 seconds. Yeah, I know. I know it now. So again, if we're talking kit chat, the nicest Dragons kit. It's that purple and white one. Now, this is where we talked at the start of the URC highlights, right? If you go on to the official URC highlights, it starts with Ospreay to 10-3 up. So if you want to see that first Ospreay try, you can't. I'm sorry. So yeah, this try comes off. It's literally the first kick of the game. So we managed to win the ball back off kickoff. Reece Webb shapes to go left and then comes back to the right. Alan Jones is in that first receiver position. Pulls it back to Max Nagy, I believe. To Jack Walsh, who runs a beautiful Jack Walsh line. He runs his line so well. Puts on the gas, plays a lovely miss pass. No offence, Morgan Morris, if you're getting that ball, you're getting tackled. Plays the ball to Joe Zaw for the miss pass. And cancels in after 35 seconds. Yes, Tim, do you want to remind everyone what the score of this game was? I can't remember the score. I remember Nicky Smith throwing the interception pass right to Rio de Janeiro. He did, yeah. That happened. Owen Watkins for the consolation try as well. Yeah. Which Jack Walsh nails the drop goal conversion after kicking the ball dead about three minutes previous. Yeah. Yes, this was very much in Jack Walsh's hot and cold era. Something like 32-25, do the Dragons think it ended? 32-25, yeah. Dragons ended on 13 men. Yeah, because the Ospreys had a chance of a draw and Michael Collins kicked the ball downfield when the clock is in red. And you're thinking, why has he kicked that one away? It'd been the Jack Walsh of missed touch from five metres out when we were back within seven with five minutes to go and then Rio Diaz scores immediately afterwards. That was a hugely frustrating game. Yeah, it's probably, like, Dragons are responsible for all the no points, I think, in both these. Yeah, all trips are on you for A's. And then let's finish on, let's finish on the final try in George Mills Ospreys. What seems to be George Mills Ospreys 3? So far, so far. So far. Looking forward to Patrick and Sale. When he punches George Ford in... Battle of the Georges. So yeah, the Lions away, so, right, what a try. Yeah. Yeah, this is... Top of the suit. Top of the suit, Robbie. Oh, just a very, very simple try. Um, first phase, Dan Edwards takes it at 10 immediately and Harry Deeves runs a complete hammer card support line. He just runs straight at someone and they're like, God, that guy looks mad. He looks like he's going to tackle me and commits to him completely, allowing George to get kind of on the outside of his man and just ride the tackle through, break through the kind of, you know, the old kind of coaching adage of you want to run up branches, not trunks of trees. Um, rushes off the arms, goes straight through, swerves around the fullback and scores in the corner to keep us in a game, which we look like we weren't going to be in for some periods at some points, you know, look like it was starting to get away from us. And then George North, yeah, scores to put us back in it, back in the lead, actually, just as the Lions were starting to take control. And in peak George North fashion, injuring himself while doing so. Yeah. Yeah. He had to come off like the very super. Because he'd done some neurological damage to his shoulder. Went on to miss the Scotland game, opening round six matches this year. Yeah. Um, yeah. So, yeah, because that game started, it was a bit of a dream start, wasn't it? It was, obviously, we went three-nil down after Morgan North sealed off. Um, but then they had that yellow card, which the first yellow card was for a, it was the elbow, wasn't it? Yeah, on Deeds. Yeah, which is the second time this year that Harry Deeds has been elbowed on the face by a South African man. Um, I don't know what he does to these people. I don't know where Watkins scores that beautiful charge going straight from the defensive bench. So it was a visit to their 22. Yeah. Hadn't had a phase in their 22. Yeah, so 24 minutes. Um, yeah, 24 minutes. It's just, yeah, it's that first phase, trying to hit nice in the line there. Um, George North shapes in the dummy. I think just does enough with that dummy. And he does that thing that you said, Robby, he just hits the balance and you can't stop him from there. No. And the great thing is there is support there and the support lines are great. Yeah, does he score any more tries this year, do you reckon, if he plays? I would not be surprised. Uh, we've got... We have got dragons at home. Yeah. Which feels like his safe bet. It's a kind of farewell try. Last, potentially his last game of Liberty unless we make the home playoffs. That's true, yeah. It'll be a good judgement day away. Yeah. Um, yeah, it'll be, it'll be nice. I remember, so I was at the Harlem and Jones one against the Dragons, which we all sort of knew and then he went, he waved us off when he got subbed, you were all like, shit, yeah, this is his last one. And again, I posted that on Reddit, actually. I need that karma. Uh, yeah, and I remember Harlem and Jones had a storm on that day, he made a lovely breakdown of it, I hadn't touched it. No, it was the, uh, the Dragons were playing. The storm was so different. Never mind, sorry. Oh, yeah. Shoot me in the face. I hate you. But yeah, you just hope that for George. Yeah. He really, he deserves it. Like, I know 15's a nice number to end on, but 16, yeah, 20 would be better. So it's got five tries inexplicably before the end of the season. Punch George Ford in the back of the balls. It's settled now, no, hat trick against sale before getting sent off for punching George Ford in the face. And then, and then, you know, one try against the Dragons, maybe squeeze one against the Lions or something, you know, off the bench, maybe. Yeah. Come on. Nice run number. Yeah. So that was George North. Um, that was his sort of time as a, as an Osprey. Obviously he's still got a few games left, but it's safe to say that, you know, 48 games, 15 tries. Yeah, good luck to him in, in Provence. You know, I really hope he does well on Saturday. We are running out of time. Let's very quickly talk Wales on Saturday. Leave that. So George North starts at centre, comes back in. Owen Watkins dropped in the squad completely with Adam. And Adam Beard retains his place as any sensible person would say he would. Along with Gareth Thomas as well, which would mean that Adam Beard has started every game in six nations, which annoys many people. But if you watched him for the Osprey, you'll understand that he absolutely should have. He's an awful way, wasn't he? How well he's played. Um, interesting bringing North and Tompkins back in. I really thought he would start with Watkins. Um, the only silver lining is we might see Watkins against Munster. Yeah. Which would be a big boost if we do get him back. Really good. Yeah, Boshoff was great, but having Watkins and Keith. Yeah. It's just, so it does so much for a defensive line. Yeah. Um, yes, then what's your thoughts on this team very quickly? Um, interesting. Um, obviously, you know, bit of a kicking the teeth of Watkins for playing really well and then not being named in the 23 at all is, you know, it's one of those. Um, obviously, you know, good to see George back in for what is his final test match. And, you know, maybe pairing up with Tompkins that has worked so well. Especially last year during the World Cup. Um, but yeah, you know, it was the Adam Beard, well, the non-Adam Beard supporters, I should say, that don't, um, that don't really, you know, expect why he plays for Wales. Um, this Adam Beard had a try assist last Sunday against France with a bouncing off load to Rio de Janeiro before, well, before that try assist, he pinched the line out. And then after the try assist, he managed to completely stop a rolling ball. That's who he is. And, um, you know, you can question, you know, his carrying game, but, you know, that's not what, that's not Adam Beard, really. You know, you don't, if you're relying on Adam Beard doing your carrying, there's something wrong with your entire, that's what I see it as. Um, so, so yeah, it's nice to see, you know, the two Osbridge boys up front and then obviously George at, George at 13. But, um, I'm really looking forward to seeing, um, Men and Shadow play. That'll be fun. Oh, I cannot wait to see the victory. It'll be nice to see Men and Shadow play because I think he's excellent. Yeah, Robbie, you have some very strong feelings about that replacement bench, talk to me. The Wales bench? Yeah. Yeah, I don't think it's good. Like, I don't think that's a strong bench, lads. Um, I mean, yeah, we're deep into the podcast, it's okay. Um, no, there are good players in there. I worry about that in a game that is essentially must win for Wales. Um, that front row is incredibly inexperienced. Um, you know, Harry O'Connor hasn't played. Yeah, so yeah, two caps between them. Um, and one of them is Kemsley Mattias. Um, who, look, I'm sure he's a lovely man, but, um, as a scrummager, phew, um, so I worry massive about the scrum, especially when Spagnolo's been phenomenal off the bench every week for Italy. Um, he's been a real force for them. Um, obviously, Will Rowland's fantastic player. Kieran Hardy, I really rate, I rate high of them, both Welsh fans. Um, Mackenzie Martin I like a lot, but, you know, very unproven at this level again. And then Johan Lloyd, I think we've seen, um, in the England game, but then I think particularly the last 20 minutes, um, or that, you know, the section he played against France, he failed to manage that game for me. He was awful. Yeah. I know you don't want to say, be honest, he was awful. Yeah, he was, the decisions he did make were questionable and those that he didn't make with a big issue. I think there was a lot of, you know, keeping playing when he didn't need to with prompting things that led to mistakes. Um, yeah, it felt like he hadn't learned lessons from Twickenham that you hoped he would learn in, you know, a couple of weeks. And then Mason Grady, fantastic player offensively. I think defensively, he's still working out of it. Um, positionally as a 13, um, great winger, uh, great in attacking all areas, but defensive positioning at 13 needs some work. And I think there's areas to target last 20 minutes if it's still a tight game for Italy. Yeah, um, I, I, I have to agree on all points. I would have, I said on rapid, it's big end of term vibes for me. There's an argument to start Grady, just don't say fuck it. Adams is for me out of form. I honestly would have been lucky to start Mackenzie Martin just to be like, you know what, mate, do it. You know, if there wasn't so much pride on the line for Wales, we would have seen a lot more changes for me. I think we would have seen the big stuff. What's, what's worrying me now with Gatland is I'm looking to the summer and I'm like, what else? What is he going to pick? Who is he going to have left? Because how many more are going to go in? Can we really see Talupe coming back? Is Talupe coming back? You know, who else of that ilk is still there? You know, is he going to call up Kasper? Probably not. Is he, you know, how youthful is he going to go? And is he playing youth for the sake of youth? You know, I'm, I'm really scared for that front row. And any, you know, any person who plays front row, any person who knows what rugby is, you have an inexperienced front row on the bench. You pay the price for it. Yeah. Right. Sometimes we saw, I think it was Edinburgh, we brought on an inexperienced front row, right? Especially Lewis Loade, he's not a scrummaging hooker. Edinburgh, or Sean Everett in particular, is the coach that makes the least amount of changes. And he needs Bowen, Venter on. So, you know, things like that. So when Sagnola does come on, either Gareth Thomas is put in his 70 minutes, and same with Bill Lewis, or Wigan in minutes for the last 20, 15 minutes. And that's what I'm scared about. But I don't want to end, I'm not ending on that negativity. Yeah. I just think next week, there might be some interesting notes for the podcast. Because I'm quite possibly having an interest. I mean, no, I am. I'm not sure if I can talk about it or not. But this time next week, I will have had an interesting Wednesday. Very much from an auspicious point of view. Yeah, rugby has got some very interesting stuff planned. So once we know more, we can have some man on the ground stuff. We can have some sort of like, insight into what we're trying to say, really. But there's some exciting things coming. Yeah. Put it that way. For both fans of Scottish rugby and all three fans of the Osprey, which is just us three. That is us. So yeah, we'll be back next week. Maybe not on the Wednesday, but maybe at some point. To preview some proper rugby. The Munster game. I'll be there as well, which is nice. Yeah. Since I started joining in with this podcast, I don't think I've been to a Osprey's game since. When did you join? You joined Scarlet's, pre-Scarlet's. Okay, yeah. So I think the Sharks was the last game. I have been amazed. That had been accomplished before the... Yeah, because that was the third game of the season, wasn't it? Yeah. So yeah. So yeah. Yes, then you'll get the Munster game as well. Yes. If you and the assignments have gone well... Yeah, that is true. So yeah, I won't get the game, because I have a league deciding game that day for my actual rugby club. So if we beat Winchester, we win the league. So I'm sorry, Tom Homer. I'm going to beat your home club. I think it's Tom Homer. And Will Homer, his brother. Will Homer, yeah. I'm sorry, the Homer brothers. Won't Homer, more like. Yeah. We're going to beat Winchester. So yeah, we'll... We'll lose Chester. Yeah, Bootsy Bingo will be back. Yes! Although I don't know if it'll be out. It might be out on the Wednesday. I'm hoping it's out on the Wednesday. It's really helpful. Your Street Football Conference before we record the pod. No, the game's on a Friday night. So it'll be, if it's not the Wednesday, it'll be, yeah, the Tuesday. Beautiful. So yeah, Bootsy Bingo will be back. And hopefully we'll have some more contract and signing news, because admin, I know you're listening. You told me it was this week. You lie in... Okay, right. It's now Wednesday. I've tweeted every day. Right, so hopefully we'll have some more contract resigning. Hopefully we'll get some new signings. As well as, hopefully, an exclusive something. Even if it's just an anecdote. An exclusive something. It could be, what do you... Really easy to put this together, what this could possibly be. What is in a vending machine at the Liberty Stadium? I can have a look. I can have a look. Last time, wait, no, hold on. I can't imply any, I've just implied, I've just implied what's happening next Wednesday. You can guess what it is. You can guess what's happening. Bethan, we're sorry. We're really sorry. Please don't hate us. But yeah, no, it'll be great. And Robin, enjoy whatever it is you're doing. And yeah, so that's us. You can find us all on social media. At YesDoneSquadThomas21. At Squidge... Underscore Oakby? Squidge Oakby? Just Squidge Oakby, just Squidge Oakby. Just Squidge Oakby. It's been a while since I've done this. And at Osprey's Irie. You can find us on all the good social, all the good podcast networks. Wherever you get your podcasts from. Give us a like, give us a rating. And, you know, get involved on socials. We've been doing, you know, we've been growing rapidly. We're close to 400 followers. I took this page over in... Christ, when was it? Yes, in September? Maybe the little October, November, something like that. No, it was Connacht. I was here for Connacht. Oh, yeah. Yeah, in the September. Because you weren't here for Connacht. This was, yeah, this was in the dark days. And it had 80 followers. So we've actually grown this brand really well. And people like us, which is not something that can be said for us. So, yeah, people like us. People want to get involved. So, yeah, we're nearly at 400 followers. So give us a share, do all that stuff. We'll see you next week. Have a good one. He's got it off the Hassler. He's got shit, yeah. Thank you for listening to the Osprey Dari podcast. We hope you enjoy the show. Please subscribe, rate and review wherever you listen to us as it really helps spread the word. You can find us on all the usual social media channels or email us on welshregionalrugbypod at gmail.com. And remember, whatever the question, rugby is always the answer.