{"podcast":{"title":"The Ruck","slug":"the-ruck-1115414","podcast_index_feed_id":1115414,"rss_url":"https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/d0e840b0-f5fe-47d3-b781-71019347fb0b","website_url":"https://www.thetimes.co.uk/podcasts/the-ruck","image_url":"https://assets.pippa.io/shows/61ba0ecc1a8cbe70e43cf148/1767917470701-837c1e75-c823-43db-bad3-e27646e9eeac.jpeg","author":"Reynolds Alfie","episode_count":575,"summary":"The Ruck is the journalists' rugby podcast from The Times & The Sunday Times. Join Alfie Reynolds, Alex Lowe, Will Kelleher and a selection of guests every week as they provide insight and reports throughout the season, including big-name interviews and forthright analysis. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-12T18:20:55.688798+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-ruck-1115414"},"episode":{"title":"Nations Championship starts with a bang. Is captain Pollock the answer for England?","slug":"nations-championship-starts-with-a-bang-is-captain-pollock-the-answer-for-england","published_at":"2026-07-06T14:25:42+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-ruck-1115414/nations-championship-starts-with-a-bang-is-captain-pollock-the-answer-for-england","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-ruck-1115414","url":"https://shows.acast.com/theruck/episodes/nations-championship-starts-with-a-bang-is-captain-pollock-t","audio_url":"https://sphinx.acast.com/p/acast/s/theruck/e/6a4bbae601771200e4b2ae80/media.mp3","summary":"The opening weekend of the Nations Championship produced some brilliant matches! Alfie Reynolds, Stuart Barnes and Elgan Alderman look back on all the action, including a tight victory for New Zealand against France, an important win for Wales versus Fiji and Scotland beating Argentina away. Peter O'Reilly chats about Ireland's narrow win against Australia where the hosts missed a penalty kick on the last play to win it. Plus, the boys ask how much pressure England and Steve Borthwick are under after they were hammered by South Africa? Barnsey explains why he's made the drastic suggestion that Henry Pollock should be made England captain. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.","meta_description":"The opening weekend of the Nations Championship produced some brilliant matches! Alfie Reynolds, Stuart Barnes and Elgan Alderman look back on all the act…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3406,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-ruck-1115414/episodes/nations-championship-starts-with-a-bang-is-captain-pollock-the-answer-for-england/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-ruck-1115414/nations-championship-starts-with-a-bang-is-captain-pollock-the-answer-for-england.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}