80+ column : December 11

WRAP OF A WRAP

Sunday evening match meant Monday evening pod recording so everything was pushed back this week, for the third week in a row Ciarán Duffy had to sub in for a late withdrawal and he joined Rich Mifsud going back over Leinster’s win in Bristol.

ICYMI click here to check it out on Spotify or you’ll also find them on Apple and most major platforms.

FRONT FIVE

A selection of eye-catching egg-chasing quotes & links from around the rugby media landscape

TOM VOYCE RIP

MUNSTER MIKE

WELSH SNUB

HOGG WATCH FINALE?

CONSTRAINEDGATE

(CLICKBAIT OF THE WEEK)

HARPIN ON…THE CHAMPIONS CUP’S PRESTIGE

For this week’s bonus chat we wondered if the Champions Cup is losing its prestige. Truth be told I didn’t really say all I wanted to, I forgot to bring up the lack of respect with which the French teams in particular treat the competition when it comes to team selection, and also how the introduction of the South African sides has been far from perfect given the amount of frequent flyer miles they have to put in. But overall I’d say we hit most of the rest of the topic.

LEINSTER SQUAD UPDATE

HARPIN’ POSSIBLE MATCHDAY 23 V CLÉRMONT

Barrett, T O’Brien, Ringrose, Henshaw, J O’Brien, Prendergast, Gibson-Park

Porter, Kelleher, Clarkson, J McCarthy, Ryan, Baird, van der Flier, Doris (c)

G McCarthy, Healy, Slimani, Snyman, Conan, McGrath, R Byrne, Turner

caveat : I have no “ITK” a la Thornley

INJURY UPDATE – AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:

N/A

INJURY UPDATE – FURTHER ASSESSMENT REQUIRED:

N/A

INJURY UPDATE – NOT AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:

Ciarán Frawley: was withdrawn at half-time against Bristol Bears with a back injury and will require further assessment but is unavailable for selection.

James Lowe: is unavailable for selection after picking up a calf injury and is due for further assessment this week.

Hugo Keenan: is unavailable for selection after picking up a wrist injury and is unavailable for the next few weeks.

NO FURTHER UPDATES ON:

Dan Sheehan, Rob Russell, Will Connors, Jamie Osborne and Tadhg Furlong.

RADIO RETURN

All going well I’ll be resuming my radio ‘bit’ on DublinSouth FM right after the 5 o’clock news on Friday, be sure to check it out.

HARPIN’ WRAPPED

We’re all getting our Wrapped summaries so might as well share some of the Harpin’ info…I know they only focus on the positive so let’s just say we won’t be throwing too many bouquets at ourselves but still always good to learn that listenership is increasing and although 39 is an extremely humble number compared to the big content creators, knowing that’s the number of Spotify users who have Harpin as their top listen each week is something to be chuffed about. And the podcast which was most popular is far from a surprise given the way this rugby year has gone.

TROLL PATROL

Now it’s time for Troll Patrol where we ‘detain’ a social media commentator and charge them with gaslightery and general online mayhem.

Starting to think the Harpin contributors are actively trying to get into this feature and if so who am I to deny them the honour??? This is in reponse to some of the fallout to “Constrainedgate” as I mentioned in the Front 5 video.