80+ column : Oct 24

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WRAP OF A WRAP

Sadly another defeat to harp on but still Messrs Mifsud & Long did a great job putting the match into perspective, even though with the Sunday kickoff we didn’t get to do a full rewatch before recording, although I’ not sure we really wanted to anyway!

ICYMI, here’s a link to Spotify and we’re also on most major platforms.

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HARPIN ON…LEINSTER’S OUTLOOK FOR 23/24

The bonus clip is back this week and Rich, Jay and myself had a look an Leinster’s prospects for the coming season, especially when factoring all the changes in their leadership group.

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STOP POLISHING THE 3RD

I harp on this every four years, this time I’m doing it in TikTok form.

For the record, here’s a list of the 3rd place playoffs there have been so far…

@harpinonrugby

Check out our 80+column which posts every Tuesday afternoon at HarpinOnRugby.com

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KANT DECIDE

Needless to say this has taken a lot of oxygen on twitter since Saturday’s semifinal, and since there is an ongoing investigation I suppose I shouldn’t be throwing more fuel on the fire, but I do have queries…

“We can confirm that we are formally reviewing the allegation made by England’s Tom Curry’s in relation to the use of discriminatory language during the England versus South Africa Rugby World Cup 2023 semi-final on Saturday.”

So goes the World Rugby statement.  HOWEVER…I think an important distinction needs to be made here.  Does the word “allegation” mean just his question to the ref on the pitch that was picked up on the mic, or has he or England Rugby made a formal one since the match was over?

If it’s the latter, then to my mind things would be working as they should.  BUT – if, as I suspect, this is only happening because the media picked up on something we just happened to overhear then we’re in a completely different territory. 

Again, I have no idea what actually happened, and I freely admit that my on-pitch Springbok vernacular is more than rusty, but going by the information I have so far, AP Cronje’s suggestion seems a much more plausible explanation than that which the media is using to generate headlines and clicks.

Plus, as it turns out, in researching AP’s twitter timeline I have gotten an answer to my question above…

Whatever the outcome of the WR investigation (and from what I have seen I think the evidence is pretty clear), I think it’s important to remember two things:

1) Players should feel empowered to speak up if they feel they have been racially abused.

2) It was not Curry’s…

— A-P (@rugby_ap) October 23, 2023

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NOVEL GRAPHICS

Speaking of Twitter/X, I got myself into a spot of bother last week.

With it being the first round of matches in this season’s URC, on Thursday and Friday we had the first round of matchday squad announcements from the 16 clubs.  And one or two tried to get, let’s just say, maybe a little too creative with their graphic designs, Ospreys and Sharks in particular.

I can’t remember what exactly I was doing when I decided to give my opinion but whatever it was it clearly didn’t allow me to think clearly about how I was wording my response…

Dear club social media ppl…

Please. Just. List. The. Team.

No bells, no whistles, no patterns, no mad innovations…

There are plenty of other announcements to get creative with, here we just want the 23 names in a simple format so we can talk about that, not the graphic.

— Harpin' On Rugby (@HarpinOnRugby) October 20, 2023

As you can see many agreed with me but still many others, mostly from AIL clubs (totally understandable they thought I was referring to them as I did not make it clear) took exception.  And the most surprised to read my opinion was the Terenure College RFC social media folks, who must have wondered why I appeared to have done a 180 after praising their “Aertel” homage a few weeks ago.

Once more, this was all totally my fault for not making myself clear.  Simply putting “URC” ahead of “clubs” would have avoided all the confusion.  I must do better, and I mean that sincerely.

Just to be clear, I have ironically made a graphic of my own to show presentations I think are perfect and those I think are, well, not so much.

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And going back to Terenure for a moment, I did like their response when they thought I was having a pop at them…

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…just to be clear, I do know we’re only talking about graphics which is hardly the most important topic in the world but this column is for all kinds of topics that normally fall through the cracks when I focus mostly on Leinster & Ireland matches!!!!

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LIONS DEN, AND NOW

With the World Cup almost over, the next rugby event on a 4-year cycle that is to start creeping into the headlines is of course the Lions, who go to Australia this time around.

Talk of banning or at least greatly reforming the tour has been going on for years and years now (at least a decade as this 2013 Harpin op-ed from @curates_egg shows) and while I always enjoy the debates and selections and matches when they happen, my views are pretty much in line with Hugh Gordon’s in his tweet below.

My vaguely controversial rugby take is that I think the B&I Lions tours, while fun, have had their day. It's a format that just entrenches playing the same teams all the time, many fans don't really feel much of a connection to it, and tbh I'd rather Ireland just do a summer tour

— Hugo Gordon (@HugoGordon1) October 17, 2023

For me the best arguments in favour would be 1) it would be a shame to end the tours from the POV of the cross-border fan alliances that tend to travel, like the one that formed for the 2017 tour which had their adventures greatly described by Michelle Tobin here on Harpin, and also there’s an argument to be made that the game in Australia really needs this kind of exposure right now given all that is happening there on and off the pitch.

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W.XV UPDATE

I covered Ireland’s latest WXV match on the pod, here’s the transcript…

When it comes to Ireland’s performance in this 64 to 3 win over Colombia, while the scoreline may not have reached the heights of last week’s century of points against Kazahstan, Scott Bemand’s side still dominated throughout with the back row of Grace Moore, Edel McMahon and Brittany Hogan particularly impressive as the ten tries were evenly spread throughout the team with only Neve Jones and Beibhinn Parsons getting more than one.  As ever John Birch does an excellent job relating the particulars of the match for Scrumqueens.

And when it comes to Ireland’s standing in this WXV3 tournament in Dubai, while the two big wins certainly puts them in a strong position to finish 1st and earn promotion to the second tier for next year, they will surely find Spain a much bigger challenge in their final match next weekend.

But as ever is the case with the Irish women’s team of late, we still have to wonder about the broader picture and unfortunately even scoring over a point a minute in two matches raises at least many questions as it answers.  

One of the top reasons for Ireland playing in the third tier of this competition is that we finished last in the 2023 Six Nations when many of our top players were sent to play Sevens instead, and while that did pay some dividends with Olympic Qualification plus a respectable 5th place finish in the World Series, you have to wonder if even that can generate as much interest in the women’s game as does putting out our strongest team in XVs.  

And we’ll be in very much the same situation in 2024, with the Hong Kong Sevens falling right in the middle of the Six Nations, plus the decent chance of achieving a medal in the Paris Olympics, making for more big selection decisions to come.

But for now anyway, Ireland’s focus is only on that decider against Spain next weekend, it kicks off at 2pm on Saturday with free streaming available on RugbyPass.tv and hopefully the Irish rugby family will be able to give them our full support.

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🔝🐱🐴 UPDATE

You certainly can’t blame the 🔝🐱🐴 for pushing a whole round of matches to the Sunday in the hope that there might be ongoing celebrations in the country from the night before, but alas like Ireland it was not to be for France so they return to their domestic programme after a quick burst of three matches towards the end of August.

Our “Eurowatch” series will return from next week where we keep an eye on all Leinster’s opponents and it’s different this year with the format change – instead of two we now have four teams to cover, and on the French side of things we certainly won’t have it easy against league leaders Stade Francais plus our old pals La Rochelle.

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PREMIERSHIP UPDATE

I was a bit hasty having a quiet chuckle about Saracens’ poor start to the season and rightly got what I deserved when Leinster went down in Glasgow (hopefully it isn’t some kind of Castore curse), still it is strange seeing them at the bottom of the Premiership even if it is only after two rounds.

Leinster’s Euro opponents played each other with Sale prevailing and things don’t get any easier for Leicester Tigers this week as they must go to the 100% leaders Bath.

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AIL UPDATE 

As of Tuesday morning the IrishRugby site was yet to update the AIL tables & results so I had to wing it a bit with the update this week, but for what I can gather the big winners in the Women’s AIL were UL Bohs, who overcame Champions Rock to stay top of the league, and Belvo, who despite having to play twice in just a few days managed a full 10 match points to climb into 3rd.  

Meanwhile on the men’s side of things champions Terenure won’t be happy having been nilled at home by Cork Con while Lansdowne made it three 5-pointers out of 3 with a decent win at home over Hinch.  And a very honourable mention must go to newly promoted City of Armagh who got themselves a fine first win in the top flight away to Shannon.

The Energia AILs take a weekend off before resuming on the weekend of November 4.

#SupportYourLocalClub

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WOMEN’S AIL

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1. UL BOHS P5 PTS19
2. RAILWAY UNION 4-20
3. BELVO 4-16
4. BLACKROCK 4-15
5. BALLINCOLLIG 5-15
6. SUTTONIANS 4-9
7. WICKLOW 4-1
8. COOKE 4-0
9. GALWEGIANS 5-0

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MEN’S AIL

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HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE

This year’s league expanded from 6 to 8 competitors as I defend my title and Keego hopes to get rid of The Jersey of Shame.  And both “rookies” got the most results right in Round 1 of the URC with 7 out of 8 although it was Conor Cronin who’s margins were closer putting him in pole position to start the season.

After my earlier rant about 3rd place playoffs it is of course fitting that I find myself in the bronze medal position but I’m happy enough to sit there for the time being.

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WORLD LEAGUE

As I’m about to publish, news is just filtering through that World Rugby have decided to go ahead with the World League, complete with ringfencing in the top tier until 2030. A couple of weeks ago on this column I suggested they could at least allow relegation from the top tier from the start but it seems to elitism remains. We’ll harp more on this next week, and I have also booked Francisco Isaac for a bonus pod and I’m pretty sure it will come up so stay tuned!

NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

Leinster home opener this weekend!!!! The visit of the Sharks will of course be getting the full Harpin treatment with a preview on Friday, tweets and comment throughout and the wrap pod on Sunday evening.  I’m also a guest on Caolán Scully’s pod recording on the Monday night.

As ever, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are.  JLP