80+ column : May 15

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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).

Murphy will be without five of the starters from that game at the RDS.

Ulster’s Henderson and Hume to miss rest of season

BBC.co.uk

JLP : Some good, bad and extremely ugly news for Ulster during the week…obviously Richie Murphy being made permanent coach is a positive step in the right direction for all involved but for that to be followed up by such devastating injury news really has to hurt (and trust me I take no pleasure in typing any of that) making their task all the more difficult at the weekend.  I still reckon it would be very unwise to underestimate them in the Kingspan, of course…

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I’m not convinced that this package is anywhere near as robust as it should be.

Let’s stop the law tinkering – safety issues apart

Owen Doyle – Irish Times

JLP : World Rugby announced a rake of law tweaks and trials last week.  Safe to say there is a lot to unpack but most of the attention seems to be going to the taking away of the scrum as an option for a free kick and, as ever, that 20-minute red card.  For the former, I see the desire to cut the time down but I reckon it would be better to try and speed up the set piece itself rather than limit the amount of times they set.  My suggestion is an extra official in the TMO box, ideally a retired pro front rower.  On the 20 minute red, well, I have harped several times on this, no point harpin any more, it’s madness to my eyes yet seemingly essential to the southern hemisphere so we are where we are.

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Building a sustainable post-rugby career involves more than just the skills acquired on the field

Navigating Career Paths: The Transition Journey for Rugby Union Players

Joe Sheppard – RuckThis.ie

JLP : We recently introduced you to the RuckThis site and here’s a good article penned by Joe ‘Big Joe Shep’ Sheppard, it does exactly what it says on the tin/in the headline.

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The reason given for the persistent delays was issues with licensing and player likenesses

‘Rugby 24’ Developers Give Insight Into Delays To Game Release

Eoin Harrington – Balls.ie

JLP : I’m not at all a gamer, though not because it’s not right up my alley (I can assure you 15 year old me is furious about this) it’s more that I just don’t have the time necessary to become halfway decent at any of the amazing sophisticated offerings out there today.  But I have to say I’m fascinated by the ongoing saga over the production of a rugby simulation.  Since the heyday of Rugby 08 and Jonah Lomu nobody seems to have come close to offering an alternative to compare.  How much of the failure is due to an inability to get the graphics etc just right and how much is down to inability to secure the rights to all the players from all the teams in all the leagues remains to be seen I guess, but while it would obviously never reach the heights and sales of something like Madden or FIFA/FC, you’d think there would be enough of a demand to warrant at least a new version every couple of years.

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***CLICKBAIT OF THE WEEK AWARD***

“We were punished by players who have crucial responsibilities in this team.  I will not give names.”

The shocking rugby howler that’s left Ronan O’Gara livid

Dylan James – WalesOnline

JLP : Not all my clickbait awards will necessarily be for bad reasons, sometimes the headline needs that extra bit of spice to catch your eye. I mean…it is true that Aldritt’s howler was worthy enough of attention all on it’s own given who he is but adding in the reaction of his coach gives the story that extra, eh, je ne sais quoi? 

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WRAP OF A WRAP

Had a late withdrawal (matron!) from the pod on Sunday evening so it would have been unfair to ask someone to prepare to review half the Ospreys match but thankfully Ciarán Duffy agreed to join the second half of the recording while I took over responsibility for reviewing the 2nd & 4th quarters.  If I do say myself I thought it went pretty well, in fact I might do the reviewing duties again for the Ulster match next weekend.  Anyway, like I said Ciarán joined us to restore the triumvirate for our YouTube recording which involved final thoughts from the match plus a couple of other topics like Leinster’s 10 and a possible selection for Belfast…

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

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QUICK TAP : CRICKET SCORES

The European rugby calendar issue has been without doubt my biggest bugbear over the 15+ years of the existence of Harpin On Rugby.  It really annoys me how coaches are forced to pick and choose between two competitions in their selections week to week, and you could say Leinster have suffered from this more than most as we are consistently heavily involved on two fronts going into every month of May.  Anyway – Northampton’s big win over Gloucester gave me my latest excuse to harp on this as you can see in this week’s Quick Tap.

@harpinonrugby

Check our our 80+ column every Wed afternoon at http://www.harpinonrugby.com #rugbytiktok #irishtiktok

♬ original sound – Harpinonrugby.com – Harpinonrugby.com

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LEINSTER INJURY UPDATE

Hopefully Alex Soroka will forgive me for saying that this has been the best “No Further Update” portion of this segment in a long, long time!  May he too return to fitness before too long, but with big knockout games on the horizon no squad would have too much complaints about seeing the likes of Hugo Keenan, Garry Ringrose and James Ryan get closer to some game time.  I have a feeling we won’t see Ringer for until the URC playoffs at earliest so I’ve tried to make my selection show the best balance between the rights amount of cotton wool, getting some rugby into the legs of the returnees and keeping some of the London starters active.

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

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OFFICIAL LEINSTER INJURY UPDATE

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URC IRISH SHIELD UPDATE

You definitely don’t need me to scribble anything to point out the importance of the match in Belfast when it comes to the Irish Shield, the standings do that all on their own!!!  BP win for Leinster will wrap it up, although I’m not even remotely suggesting that will be easily done whatever about Ulster’s injury list!

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THANK YOU LOCKY

When I was putting together my suggested Leinster matchday 23 for Belfast at the weekend, I struggled a bit for a 13 since Liam Turner is injured and both Osborne & Henshaw could do with at least a half match break.  I settled on Tommy O’Brien as he has played there before but had he remained at Leinster another fine option would have been Rory O’Loughlin, in fact one of many fine moments he produced for Leinster was a try against Ulster, scored in a New Year’s fixture at the RDS when we actually won!

Sad to hear of his forced retirement, we of course wish him all the best in the future.

So many great memories in Leinster colours over the seasons 🔵🏆

Best of luck in retirement @thelock112 and thank you for some great days 💙#ThanksLocko #LeinsterFamily pic.twitter.com/eJLKH0fLdS

— Leinster Rugby (@leinsterrugby) May 14, 2024

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BEST SPREADSHEET FOR BEST LEAGUE

No better man than RugbyKino to come up with a spreadsheet that allows you to plug in all the permutations for the final two rounds of the URC to see how the playoffs might shape up, if you’re a fully fledged rugby nerd like myself you’ll have stopped reading this sentence by now and you’ve already clicked the link below and you;re admiring his handiwork but on the off chance you’re still reading, be sure to follow the instructions and let us know if you find any bugs… 

(PS working out that your team won’t win the title does NOT count as a ‘bug’)…

Click here to use the spreadsheet – just save a copy to your own account & plug in your predictions, it does the rest!

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🔝🐱🐴 UPDATE

I said it last week – by rights Toulouse’s convincing win over Stade Français to put them on top of the league SHOULD be the big result from round 23 but even for this Leinster fan who probably should be keeping tabs on les ‘rouge et noir’, I can’t ignore La Rochelle’s latest defeat, a pretty heavy one away to Bordeaux in a match strewn with errors as has already been pointed out in the Front 5 above.  This leaves them in a precarious position when it comes to reaching the playoffs, and will definitely need a win at home this weekend to Pau who are right below them.  Definitely the match of the round this time though is Stade v Bordeaux, aka 2nd v 3rd, aka two teams coming off losses and vying for a semifinal spot.

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Round 24

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PREMIERSHIP UPDATE

Already harped on the Northampton win, but even that didn’t quite clinch them top spot just yet, they’ll need to win at the Rec to secure top spot and Bath still have home semifinal hopes of their own and of the five matches in the final series this weekend, only Gloucester v Newcastle can be called a ‘dead rubber’.

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SUPER RUGBY PACIFIC UPDATE

I managed to watch the top of the table clash between the Blues and the Hurricanes, mostly to mancrush on Jordie Barrett and he did play well but in a thriller of a match it was the Blues defence at the end that got them the win – Canes had a 5m tap n go with the clock counting down and got driven back on the very first play so it put the Auckland based franchise to the summit for now.  For the most part I felt their back row including Papali’i and Akira Ioane gave them the edge.  Meanwhile the Crusader lost AGAIN…that’s just 2 wins in 11 matches and a quarterfinal spot is actually starting to look very unlikely although I wouldn’t rule them out until it was mathematically possible.  A win in Canberra in the next round certainly wouldn’t hurt.  Blues have another home NZ derby while the Canes will hope to get back to winning ways in hosting Moana P.

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JAPAN LEAGUE ONE UPDATE

Semifinals time this weekend, though we should probably expect a Wild Knights v Brave Lupus final.  Matches are to be shown live on RugbyPass AFAIK.

NO MATCHES LAST WEEKEND

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MAJOR LEAGUE RUGBY UPDATE

Chicago’s impressive run came to a halt as Old Glory pipped them by a point, with Dave Kearney getting a start.   The Hounds are still very much in the playoff hunt but they won’t find it easy next weekend as they travel to Western conference leading Houston.  New England remain top of the East but they too have a trickey western assignment next in San Diego.

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HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE

My performance in this season’s HPL now comes with a soundtrack, namely “Freefallin” by Tom Petty.  Seems like five minutes ago I was comfortably in front and shameless bragging about it as though Mocker Gods didn’t exist…well, I’ve paid the price and don’t be surprised if I fall further!!! Meanwhile the top spot changed yet again as Kristian jumped over Kino. 

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NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

Ulster up next, we’ll have a preview with Keego on Friday then a wrap with Jay Long and possibly an Ulster fan recording Sunday evening.  Do join us if you can and also keep up with all our usual content around the ruggersphere.

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

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