80+ column : Jan 30

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On this week’s column…

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FRONT FIVE

A selection of five eye-catching egg-chasing quotes & links from around the ruggersphere.

As he is Irish qualified, Burns would have additional appeal to Munster, who a few years ago had something of a logjam at ‘10′ Munster line up move for Ulster outhalf Billy Burns Gerry Thornley – Irish Times

An independent appeals committee will hear the case via video conference (Tuesday). EPCR to appeal Josh Caulfield red card decision Michael Glennon – RTÉ.ie

“he’s probably been one of the main drivers of the team over the last number of weeks, and the run of games where we’ve been pretty successful.” Irish Top 14 Coach On What To Expect From ‘Outstanding’ Dupont Replacement Colman Stanley – Balls.ie

…(he) held the role of assistant coach under Declan Kidney during his time at London Irish. Danaher new defence coach for Ireland women SixNationsRugby.com

“You’re fat, you’re lazy” England star tells all about Eddie Jones x-rated rant Ruck.co.uk

Note – views expressed in “Front Five” links do not necessarily reflect those of HarpinOnRugby

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WRAP OF A NON-WRAP

No Leinster or Ireland action last weekend so nothing to wrap which meant it was a good time for one of our “all provincial panels” where we look for some opinions  on the Irish squad from outside the blue-jersey bubble.  Joining me were two much-capped Harpists in Messrs Ian Frizzell & Pádraig Kelly and we also had an excellent debut from Patricia V who offered a Munster slant on things. 

If you missed it, here’s a link for Spotify but it’s also available on Apple and other platforms, please subscribe and/or leave a review if you can.

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HARPIN ON…CON, ULS & MUN SEASONS SO FAR

As I say in the intro, it would be rude not to have fans of the other provinces on without asking them to summarize how their respective seasons have gone so far, and thi made for a perfect bonus clip topic.

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WONDERS OF THE 7s WORLD

The regular sevens update is below and this was quite a week for it, but I also wanted to harp on the code for my TikTok bit since I was a bit negative a while ago over the whole Duponte thing.

@harpinonrugby

This is part of our 80+ column which posts at harpinonrugby.com every Tuesday #irishtiktok #rugbytiktoks🏉

♬ original sound – Harpinonrugby.com – Harpinonrugby.com

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APPEALING APPEAL

Harped last week about the Caulfield decision…as you can see in the Front Five segment the EPCR has taken up the case to restore my faith in the sport, at least until we see how the matter is finally resolved.  To summarise, I reckon that since the referee can clearly be heard saying the stamp was “intentional”, IMO the final ruling has to somehow resolve this, either by cleaning it up by saying he mis-spoke or by applying the appropriate sanction because if a player intends to stamp like that on an opponents’ head, they should know this is not the port for them.

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URC WRAP

Couple of extra matches down in SA throughout January which official brought the URC 23/24 regular season to the halfway stage, resuming with a top of the table clash at the RDS in mid-Feb.

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“SVNS” UPDATE

Both genders got off to winning starts in Perth but then I tweeted about it which of course meant they both went on to lose their next matches so I decided it was best to stop doing that.

The rest, as you probably know, is history as both teams bounced back with two wins on the Saturday to put them in semifinals, the women overcoming Fiji and the men only falling to an Argentine squad which went on to win the whole thing and now tops the series table.

Let us be perfectly clear about what the Irish women achieved to win their final.  Australia were not just firm favourites on account of being the home side.  They have easily been the form team over the series so far and when Ireland weren’t able to capitalise on them putting their kickoff out on the full, Casslick’s try after 2 minutes to put them ahead seemed to be the beginning of the end for us.

But we stormed right back from the restart with great combinations that allowed Beibhinn Parsons to draw us level before a bizarre series at the end of the half when Ireland attacked their line as Australia shipped 5, yes, FIVE consecutive penalties before the referee flashed a card and even then we weren’t certain to capitalise although eventually skipper Lucy Mulhall got us an absolutely crucial score before the break.

The Aussies struck back to level things up as Levi stormed up the middle for their second converted try but some absolutely savage Irish defending around halfway forced a knockon putting us back in opposition territory before Eve Higgins nudged us back in front.  This put the whole ball game on the restart and we won it back to kill the game and claim a famous victory.

We now sit in 4th on the women’s table with Australia still comfortably ahead at the top, while it’s Argentina who have the commanding lead on the men’s side and while over there Ireland are 5th, we’re actually a lot closer to second so there is a whole lot for both genders to play for when the series rolls around to Vancouver in February.

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🔝🐱🐴 UPDATE

The big question here is how the hell are Racing still top when they keep losing?  This time it was Toulouse overcoming them in Paris and now only 4 pts separate the top 5 with La Rochelle staying in touch with the playoff spots by their fingernails after a 7th loss of the campaign.

You might think the 🔝🐱🐴 might respect the 6mas tradition and take this coming weekend off but you’d be wrong, with Toulon v Bordeaux probably the pick of the seven matches.

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PREMIERSHIP UPDATE

After such a successful Champions Cup pool stage, Northampton were able to ease back into the domestic comp with a handy home win over hapless Newcastle but the match everyone was walking about was the West Country derby where Bristol outlasted Bath in a shootout including a very un-Messi-like brainfart from Finn Russell towards the end.

The Saints now have a 7 point lead with 9 wins although there’s quite the chasing pack with SIX clubs all have the same won 7 lost 5 record so it’s all to play for in the next round…which doesn’t roll around until the end of March.

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AIL UPDATE 

Wolfhounds are on the verge of securing the Celtic Challenge title after a convincing win over the Thunder made it 4 wins from 4 and victory over the other Welsh club Gwalia Lightning next weekend will get the mostly Leinster/Ulster outfit over the line, while Edinburgh hosting the Clovers could be a contest for 2nd place although both are still mathematically in the title race.

Over in the Men’s AIL, Cork Con edged the big clash with Tarf by the point to narrow the North Dublin side’s lead at the top to just one point while Lansdowne, Terenure and Hinch all kept themselves in the playoff picture with victories.

The league takes a break for 6Mas weekend.

#SupportYourLocalClub

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ROUND 4

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HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE

Just the one URC match last weekend which formally ended Round 9 – and while everyone predicted the Bulls to beat the Lions, it was actually only Keego who said it would be as close as it was so just this once he was one with bragging rights…until he saw the overall table of course.  He’ll need a lot more forecasts to go his way over the second half of the season if he is to avoid retaining the Jersey of Shame.

NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

It’s 6mas week and thus a busy one…on Wednesday I’ll post a special pod interview with Ball Handling Hooker looking at the latest crop of Irish Under 20 players ahead of their own Grand Slam defence, then with the big match being on Friday, our preview with Keego moves to Thursday but the wrap pod will stay in its usual slot, recording on Sunday.

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

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