WRAP OF A WRAP
First things first HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL HARPIN READERS & LISTENERS!!!!
We had a unique situation for our Munster v Leinster wrap in that due to a late substitution one of our contributors had also done the preview, as ever we’re grateful to Ciarán Duffy for stepping in but also of course to Conor Cronin for his input as well. The plan was to skip the “bonus chat” this week but as it turned out there was so much to harp on, the wrap went over the hour mark so I chose to cut out the “final thoughts” segment from the podcast recording and release that on our YouTube channel.
ICYMI click here to check it out on Spotify or you’ll also find them on Apple and most major platforms.
FRONT FIVE
HARRY THE BEAR
PRET A PORTER
LIES ABOUT LANNY
STATE OF THE UNION
STEPHEN JONES
LEINSTER SQUAD UPDATE
With Leinster off this weekend I don’t see an injury report this week so I’m basing the team below on the last one before the Munster match. Might change the team on next week’s column. Ideally I’d want a 6/2 bench playing La Rochelle but I think we’d need Frawley on the bench for that.
HARPIN’ POSSIBLE MATCHDAY 23 V LA ROCHELLE
Barrett, J O’Brien, Ringrose, Henshaw, Larmour, Prendergast, Gibson-Park
Porter, Kelleher, Slimani, J McCarthy, Ryan, Baird, van der Flier, Doris (c)
G McCarthy, Boyle, Healy, Snyman, Deegan, McGrath, R Byrne, J Osborne
caveat : I have no “ITK” a la Thornley
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.
A joint award of sorts this week with some classic ABL trolling met with a quality counter-troll, especially since the latter doesn’t directly mention the former yet the intentions are obvious.
Hat-tip to RugbyKino for the spot.
Irish Shield
Interprovincial A Championship – strictly for the boards????
I have to say, keeping up with results for this tournament since it was announced at the end of October hasn’t been easy. There’s doesn’t seem to be a dedicated “results/tables/fixtures” page on the IRFU site and even the provincial social media reports have been scarce. The only single source that appears to be keeping tabs on the competition is this thread on boards.ie of all places
With my ‘online tinfoil hat’ on I might speculate the prospect of another Leinster team romping to a first place finish at the expense of other provinces isn’t a good look, but like I say, that is merely speculation.
Anyway…here are the results & fixtures I have been able to find, together with the table based on those results.
Connacht Eagles 7-28 Leinster ‘A’
Ulster ‘A’ 14-40 Connacht Eagles
Leinster ‘A’ 22-7 Munster ‘A’
Munster ‘A’ 50-33 Ulster ‘A’
Ulster ‘A’ 26-14 Munster ‘A’
Leinster ‘A’ v Connacht Eagles [postponed?]
Munster ‘A’ 12-47 Leinster ‘A’
Date ???
Connacht Eagles v Ulster ‘A’
Weekend of 9/10 May:
Connacht Eagles v Munster ‘A’ (tbc)
Leinster ‘A’ v Ulster ‘A’ (tbc)
Weekend of 16/17 May:
Munster ‘A’ v Connacht Eagles (tbc)
Ulster ‘A’ v Leinster ‘A’ (tbc)
Celtic Challenge
All Ireland Leagues
WOMEN’S AIL
MEN’S AIL
SVNS
Premiership
🔝🐱🐴
ProD2
Japan League One
Harpin Prediction League
This is the 4th season of our Superbru prediction league among Harpin’ pod contributors.
Kristian is the reigning champion, but the real competition is in avoiding finishing last, which means you must wear The Jersey of Shame. I had to wear it the first year, and Keego has had the honour the past two seasons.
THIS SEASON THE HPL IS ADDING A NEW KNOCKOUT COMPETITION
CALLED “THE HARPIN MUG”
(BECAUSE THE PRIZE IS AN ACTUAL MUG, WE COULDN’T CALL IT A ‘CUP’)
NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
Wed 8th – next 80+ column
HARPIN' ON RUGBY 