Brett McKay and Harry Jones are back on The 8/9 Combo Rugby Podcast after an enjoyable late-season break, and they’ve used their first pod in three weeks to catch up on one family holiday and several intriguing current rugby matters.
Namely, how was Brett’s trip to Japan? How much of the famed 8/9 travel budget is left? (Spoiler: not much) How have the Stormers started the URC so well? How on earth did the URC Judicial process suspend Jan-Hendrik Wessels for so long with so little corroborating evidence? What is the Welsh equivalent of Suntory or Toshiba? And most importantly, how will these fascinating November Internationals impact 2027 RWC seedings?
It's all in this week’s Ep. Make sure you hit Subscribe!
#rugby #rugbypodcast #89Combo #internationalrugby #NovemberTests #AutumnNationsSeries #SouthAfrica #NewZealand #Ireland #France #England #Argentina #Australia #Scotland #Fiji #Italy #Wales #Japan
Find us:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@8-9Combo?sub_confirmation=1
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1BcKhb24YOtwQhKc0S3sDm
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-8-9-combo-rugby-podcast/id1729575866
Social media: #89Combo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/89combo
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/89combo.bsky.social
Find Brett and Harry on both Twitter and on BlueSky: @BMcSport + @HaribaldiJones
Music: "Stalling" by Topher Mohr & Alex Elena (via YouTube Creator Studio)
Voiceovers by Chookman + Sean Maloney
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1:05:46
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1:05:46
Weekend Post-Mortem: Wallabies scrape through forgotten Test
The Weekend Post Mortem is back for whatever we're calling the end of year rugby internationals, and it's a special one, with Brett McKay timing the end of a family holiday to finish in Tokyo, and Geoff Parkes deputising for Harry Jones on The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast.
The Wallabies have started their northern tour with a win over Japan in Tokyo in front of Brett and the family, and a win is a win, so they say. It wasn't particularly convincing, and maybe that's not bad given Harry couldn't watch it and the rest of the rugby world had seemingly ignored the match. If a team wins a game in a forest and no-one saw it, is a win still a win?
#rugby #rugbypodcast #89Combo #NovemberTests #SpringTour #Japan #Wallabies #Tokyo
Find us:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@8-9Combo?sub_confirmation=1
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1BcKhb24YOtwQhKc0S3sDm
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-8-9-combo-rugby-podcast/id1729575866
Social media: #89Combo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/89combo
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/89combo.bsky.social
Find Brett and Harry on both Twitter and on BlueSky: @BMcSport + @HaribaldiJones
Music: "Stalling" by Topher Mohr & Alex Elena (via YouTube Creator Studio)
Voiceovers by Chookman + Sean Maloney
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the 8/9 Recap: They were VERY wrong at Ellis Park!
With the rugby world taking a little break in the international calendar, Brett & Harry have taken this little window to revisit some of their favourite episodes from The Rugby Championship.
This week, a look back at the week following Australia’s historic win over South Africa in Johannesburg, with Riaan Louw joining the show to recall all the ways he and Harry were wrong about the Ellis Park clash as they sat amongst the crowd inside the great stadium. Equal parts awkward and hilarious.
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the 8/9 Recap: Ellis Park was NOT supposed to happen!
With the rugby world taking a little break in the international calendar, Brett & Harry have taken this little window to revisit some of their favourite episodes from The Rugby Championship.
This week, a look back at our TRC Post-Mortem following the Wallabies famous – infamous, for some – victory over the Springboks at Ellis Park in Johannesburg, snapping a streak that went back more than 60 years, and which has so far proved to be a high point for Australia in 2025.
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Ep.83 – Was that the last ever TRC with Geoff Parkes
The Rugby Championship has been run and won for 2025, but the real question would seem to be has it been run and won forever? Rugby writer and author Geoff Parkes joined Brett McKay and Harry Jones on The 8/9 Combo Rugby Podcast to ponder that very question.
And as a way to wrap up The Rugby Championship properly for 2025 (but maybe forever), Harry sat a couple of homework tasks before this week’s chat, namely:
1. Was that the last ever TRC?
2. If this was the last TRC, how will the TRC be recalled?
3. Who from each of the 4 teams whose TRC performance exceeded your expectations? And..
4. When did each team look their best, and why they all had at least one shitty game.
It all makes for a substantive, meaty, profound way to the conclude the TRC. Maybe forever.
#rugby #rugbypodcast #89Combo #internationalrugby #Wallabies #TheRugbyChampionship, #Springboks, #AllBlacks, #LosPumas
Find us:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@8-9Combo?sub_confirmation=1
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1BcKhb24YOtwQhKc0S3sDm
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-8-9-combo-rugby-podcast/id1729575866
Social media: #89Combo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/89combo
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/89combo.bsky.social
Find Brett and Harry on both Twitter and on BlueSky: @BMcSport + @HaribaldiJones
Music: "Stalling" by Topher Mohr & Alex Elena (via YouTube Creator Studio)
Voiceovers by Chookman + Sean Maloney
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Harry Jones, the grizzly old no.8, and Brett McKay, the unremarkable schoolboy no.9, unite for the short-side set-piece combination you didn't realise you needed in a rugby podcast.
A couple of hosts who came together on a whim in 2022 have become arguably the best - and maybe the only - South African-American-Australian rugby podcast combination in the rugby world, blending the perfect combination of passion, humour, nonsense, and genuine insight. Tune in every week to find out where on earth Harry is podding from, and how on earth Brett keeps it all flowing as they enjoy great rugby chats with an incredible array of guests.
South Africa