80+ column : Apr 17 (incl 338 : “Emergency pod”)

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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, now including a few thoughts added by myself (JLP).

…the IRFU are undertaking a review of their contractual system, which will be completed before Humphreys takes over from Nucifora.

Blue bloods: IRFU ‘national’ contract system will continue to load the dice in Leinster’s favour

Gerry Thornley – Irish Times

JLP : Massive news dump in Leinster/Ireland news since the weekend, so much so that two stories broke after our “emergency pod” you’ll see further down the column.  Part of me thinks making all those announcements together was a bad idea from a PR standpoint, especially days after a weekend where Leinster became the only team left in European competition.  But then again the whole idea of a “news dump” is to concentrate all the supposedly negative info into one news cycle so maybe this is what happened, we’ll never know for sure.

On the subject of central contracts, of course 10 for Leinster and just 1 each for the other three provinces is not the best look.  But would making it an even 3 each or something like that be an answer based on where the talent is?  

All I’m saying is that it’s not straight-forward.  Yes, it’s part of the IRFU’s remit to oversee rugby in all four provinces, but when it comes to central contracts we have to remember what they are for, namely keeping our best players within the Irish system.  I can’t see a way of building a need for parity across the provinces into the process, especially when we have absolutely no control over the offers coming in from abroad.   Maybe as long as they are coming in for Leinster players, they are the ones we should be looking to hold onto for now.  Plus, as I say on the emergency pod, it’s not like the test team is doing badly, World Cup QF aside.  

Obviously none of that means I think the system is perfect, it’s just who else is going to push back on the over-simplistic “Leinster get everything while the other provinces get nothing” narrative we hear.  There are areas where the ratios should be closer to 1 for 1 across the provinces.  But there are others where they can’t help but be skewed more towards the balance of the so-called “demographic” differences.  And finding the right levels is never going to be easy.

It seems to be a majority opinion that David Nucifora’s tenure as the puppet-master across the sport in Ireland was one which failed to find those correct levels, particularly when you factor in the women’s game (also club level for both genders) into the equation.  If there is any “mitigation” it could be that it was a job that nobody had ever tried before, although it’s not like he didn’t have enough time to fix any errors as he went along.

Our only hope is that his successor David Humphreys can learn from those mistakes and find approaches that at least come a bit closer to pleasing everyone in the game here.  I feel like there’s an opportunity that comes with this changing of the guard, one that if done the right way can build on the many successes the men have achieved to make it a sport for absolutely everyone, a trick I always felt was tragically missed by the FAI after the accomplishments of the Irish teams in the early 90s.

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Since retiring, the former New Zealand Under-20 captain has been part of the…coaching team…(of) The Hurricanes (who) are currently first on the Super Rugby table…

Another Kiwi joins Leinster set-up

Rugby365.com

JLP : Another announcement that missed the cut for our extra pod – as much as we’ll miss Andrew Goodman there’s definitely no harm getting someone over from the brains trust of the top team in Super Rugby right now.

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To date the leagues have not agreed to EPCR’s request but there remains hope that change could still be introduced next season

Champions Cup overhaul planned after damaging defeat of weakened Bulls

Gerard Meagher – The Guardian

JLP : We can’t have a Champions Cup weekend come and go without more talk about formats, which is fair enough but like I always say, if the league can agree on going back to two more weeks for the pool stages that might be an improvement on what we have at the moment, but for me it definitely won’t fix the tournament’s biggest problem, namely that the matches are peppered out throughout the season forcing coaches to prioritise between playing in this year’s comp and qualifying for next year’s, which will always lead to selection like Jake White’s last weekend.

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The Irish Rugby Football Union has elected to use the funds to host additional women’s U18 and U20 camps and training matches to accelerate player development

Women’s Lions sponsors will provide funding to avoid imbalance

The Rugby Paper

JLP : We often harp on negative things to do with women’s rugby so I suppose it’s only fair to mention good news, obviously we’ll have to see if this investment is sufficient to increase our player pool but at least it is good to see that money generated from a women’s team is going directly to the lower levels, with the caveat that there is much more still to be done of course, especially with the clubs.

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“It is not to cast aspersions on anyone, but the last time they played an away game, their boots had wooden studs.”

Stephen Jones Incandescent Over Leinster Hosting Semifinal at Croke Park

Joshua Bell Curran – Balls.ie

JLP : Ireland is small and doesn’t have a lot of big stadia.  If we can sell out the Aviva Stadium and that’s not available for a given weekend, then we have to look at Croker.  It’s as simple as that, and what’s sad about this is that SJ knows this full well, he’s just feeding into that ridiculous and inaccurate “neutral venue” spiel that’s going around.

But looking at this article another way, if Leinster/Ireland success is somehow making him “incandescent”, then I take that as more success.

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WRAP OF A WRAP

Normally I try to keep the wrap pods under an hour but for this match/performance I reckon it was ok to make an exception.  Tom & Mark earned the right to be the guests as they bravely stepped up to the plate after that Final Of Which We Much Never Speak last May, and they did their usual bang up job.

If you missed the wrap pod, 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.

For a taste of the pod here’s a YouTube clip featuring their analysis of the “championship minutes” from the match.

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QUICK TAP “EMERGENCY POD”

Normally I do a “Quick Tap”, aka a solo TikTok video, for this column but at the request of Keego and Kino, I instead set up an “emergency pod” recording on Tuesday to try and go over all the news that broke on the Monday…the Ross Molony news broke after I had set the whole thing up but still made the cut, while the Bleyendaal, JGP & Bank of Ireland sponsorship didn’t but I’ll touch on them in this column.  BTW I know we already did a full pod on the La Rochelle win but we hadn’t heard from these two yet so let’s just say we didn’t mind going over it once last time…

Topics were

1. La Rochelle win
2. Croke Park
3. Dan Sheehan
4. Jodie Barrett
5. Ross Molony
6. Demographics?

I also put out a sample from the pod on YouTube, covering topics 3, 4 & 5…

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LEINSTER INJURY UPDATE

Always tricky trying to anticipate who we plan to send to South Africa but I had a stab at Saturday’s 23 anyway.  I reckon whether Ross B will be available to play against  Northampton or not we should probably bring Harry anyway for some game time but as ever I should point out it’s with good reason that it’s not my decision to make!!!

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NB : the above matchday 23s are completely from my own mind, I’m certainly not suggesting I have any ITK a la Thornley

WOMEN’S SIX NATIONS 

Here’s what I said on the wrap pod…

“…the incredible Irish women who recorded their first Six Nations win in two years with a convincing 36-5 victory over Wales at Musgrave park with tries from Higgins, Parsons, Jones, Corrigan & player of the match Aoife Wafer.  The victory has actually moved Ireland up to 3rd on the table and although that could change after facing the all conquering English Red Roses next, we can definitely look at our final match against Scotland in Belfast with more confidence.  Any for now, many congrats to all involved.”

Obviously the task against England is daunting to say the very, very least but what this convincing win over Wales has done is give us the confidence to look beyond to that final match with Scotland and the way the fixtures play out, 4th spot or possibly even 3rd are within our grasp which is an amazing position to be in.

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THE LAZY ABL NARRATIVE

I really don’t like harpin’ on this too much but still I have to give a hat-tip to contributor Kristian Ross for bringing this TikTok to my attention.  I have spoken and written much bout what I call the ABL narrative and it has been trotted out much over the past couple of days in written social media posts, but this….well, if this guy was looking to audition to be the face and voice of ABL then congrats mate, you have it.

Putting aside the neutral venue misinformation I already mentioned further up the article wrt Stephen Jones, I never thought it would be humanly possible to fit more worn out tropes into one clip, but these lads managed it, including going to that picture of two “typical Leinster fans” which has to be at least 10 years old by now.  For obvious reasons I won’t embed the thing on this page but if you want to check it out it’s here.

"All Leinster fans are saying this"

"All Munster fans are saying that"

Blah blah blah.

Boring AF.

— Harpin' On Rugby (@HarpinOnRugby) April 13, 2024

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🔝🐱🐴 UPDATE

Only two French teams left in Europe, Toulouse who have to be well placed for a double and Clérmont, who I thought might be more focused on their relegation battle but instead put Ulster to the sword at the Michelin.  Toulon v Toulouse looks like the pick of the bunch although it will be interesting to see how La Rochelle pick themselves up again as they must travel to Castres.

I also must hold my hand up and say I got a fact wrong the preview pod & radio slot, I was sure Clérmont played La Rochelle in this round, and, well, they’re not.  Apologies.

NO MATCHES LAST WEEKEND

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PREMIERSHIP UPDATE

All Leinster eyes will be on Franklin’s Gardens as our Croker opponents Northampton might be top but certainly can’t afford to slip up in their derby against Leicester.  Bath v Exeter also catches the eye as both look to bounce back from Euro disappointment as well as stay in top 4 contention.

NO MATCHES LAST WEEKEND

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AIL UPDATE 

UL Bohs just about held on to top spot in the Women’s AIL by beating Belvo as Railway Union won at Rock, at the time of writing I can’t seem to find details on their semifinals yet but the men’s definitely take place this weekend with both apparently being live-streamed, check out our Rugby On TV post on Thursday for details.

#SupportYourLocalClub

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SUPER RUGBY PACIFIC UPDATE

Last week I pointed out that Tahs v Saders would be the match of the round, and boy I wasn’t wrong.  Apparently the lead changed hands a dozen times and a last minute penalty put it into “golden point” extra time with Will Harrison nailing the game-winning drop goal to keep the Crusaders in danger of missing the playoffs, surely the unthinkable.  They go to Perth next, with the unbeaten Hurricanes playing the Drua.  Kudos to Moana btw for their 3rd win of the season (could be wrong but I don’t think they’ve done that before), this one over the Reds.

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MAJOR LEAGUE RUGBY UPDATE

Dave Kearney lined out at full back for Chicago Hounds as they got their second win in a row against the expansion side Anthem RC from Charlotte, North Carolina, and should fancy their chances for another W next week as they play the other new team, namely the reinvented Giltinis who are now just called “Rugby FC Los Angeles”.  Meanwhile New England & Seattle lead the conferences and guess what – they meet each other next.

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CHALLENGE CUP UPDATE

I really thought we’d get at least one from Ulster & Connacht through to the final four but it was not to be.  The remainder of the comp will take place in England since the semifinals cannot be in SA so the Sharks will host Clérmont at Twickenham Stoop.

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HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE

The URC resumes this weekend which means so does the HPL and I have to regain my top spot somehow….meanwhile Keego has all but conceded the Jersey of Shame will be his for another year…

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NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

Hopefully that’s the last I’ll have to harp on the ABL narrative for a while although I may have to stay off social media to make sure, anyway, the SA tour is next on our radar with the Lions up for Leinster next in Jo’burg.   Don’t forget our slot after the 5 o’clock news on Dublin South 93.9 radio this Friday, we’ll also post our own preview that afternoon with a wrap pod to come on Sunday.

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