80+ column : Jan 15

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WRAP OF A WRAP

Hello and welcome to our latest 80+ column where I generally harp on things not so Leinster-and-or-Ireland-men’s-team-related.

With the Sunday kickoff we moved our recording to Monday evening with Tom & Kino doing a bang-up job going back over Leinster’s the amazing-yet-nail-biting win at the home of our old friends La Rochelle.  The pod was the 18th of this, our 6th season, but those numbers are pretty boring so I’d best put it another way….the pod was our 400th since our first one way back in July 2019.  There would have been a lot more by this stage if I hadn’t put off doing them for as long as I did, but I have to say I really enjoy them now, especially with such great knowledgeable guests to call on.

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

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FRONT FIVE

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

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ROG ON SAM

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WOLFPUPPIES SQUAD

NOTE – on the video I lay claim to having “coined” the term Wolfpuppies.  So I guess I should probably provide receipts so below is my first use of it back in Feb 2010 FWIW.  

It also should be pointed out that I’m aware it’s very possible that absolutely nobody in the known universe (unknown ones too) would be willing to challenge my claim…

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DUBLIN DERBY DATE

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CAPTAIN MARO

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HOGGWATCH FINALE?

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HARPIN ON…POOL PERMUTATIONS

Cian ‘RugbyKino’ O’Muilleoir has created an excellent spreadsheet which goes through all the different permutations for the final round of Champions Cup pool matches.  For our bonus chat this week he takes us through the 12 remaining matches to see how they can effect the Round of 16, with emphasis on the Irish provinces, of course.

SQUAD ANNOUNCEMENT/KINO’S 6N BINGO

The Irish squad announcement was made since we recorded the Front 5 video.  First thought that creeped into my head was that I wonder if Ben Murphy will actually outshine Caolin Blade at Carton House but we’ll have more thoughts on our next pod which will be the Bath preview on Friday.

In the meantime when he’s not putting together permutation spreadsheets, Cian ‘RugbyKino’ O’Muilleoir has also been busy with this bingo card for the expected ABL** reactions to the squad; as I’m typing this, I’m one square away from a full line already…

SPAM SCAM? NO THANK YOU, MA’AM

Kino’s not the only Harpin contributor from this week’s pod who has been up to social media hi-jinx.  Tom “Leinster Royalty” Coleman recently joined the mass migration from x/Twitter to BlueSky and he recently got his first ever bit of spam slipped into his DMs…

It was nice of Tom to share this so we could pass it on to our readers because, and I don’t want to shock you, but there may be a chance that BethKate2 isn’t actually a real person and won’t appreciate his brilliant rugby-themed response.

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LEINSTER SQUAD UPDATE

First, the Leinster team announcement for La Rochelle was made an hour later than what has been the norm for years, in clear disregard for those trying to record preview podcasts on a schedule!  Seriously though, it didn’t help Leinster’s (or the podcaster’s) cause that they then had to make two further changes seriously altering the back line.

Then on Tuesday we got some mixed news on the injury report, but the highlight is definitely that Messrs Sheehan & Lowe have jumped up from the dreaded bottom row to “Further Assessment Required”.

I doubt we’ll see either at the Aviva on Saturday but I would like to see a couple of changes and I reckon Hugo Keenan should get a start if fit, and more importantly, as well and all as Sam has been doing of late, I definitely feel Ciarán Frawley should get the nod at 10.  He was only brought in to the Leinster 23 for LAR after TWO withdrawals so for him not to get European minutes in the boots at out-half would be a very bad signal to send in my view.

Also I really, really like The Porter Protocol even though I didn’t have it in my 23 last week.  We’ll see if they continue it at the weekend.

caveat : I have no “ITK” a la Thornley

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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.  

I’m actually detaining myself this week…I never said I wasn’t partial to the odd bit of trolling myself and I just couldn’t let this one go.  People often talk about the “Dublin meeja” and how all the major national press organisations have been group-thinked into loving all things Leinster, but I reckon this obvious blunder by Gerry Thornley reveals a different picture, at least with certain journos.

We can certainly debate as to whether there’s favouritism from the “IRFU-mminati” towards Leinster but in this case, GT’s allegations of one rule for Connacht over Hansen and another for Leinster over Sexton are simply not true.  And as extra spice we found an article in Gerry’s own publication to prove to the contrary.  The author actually responds as you can see, I wonder if thought I was having a go at him instead?

Anyway…just to be clear, my intent here is not to highlight Thornley’s error itself – I have been known many’s a time to plough ahead and publish without an extra fact check once or twice over the years – rather to highlight the motivation that led to the error.  Maybe some would call it Leinster Derangement Syndrome? 😜

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Celtic Challenge

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All Ireland Leagues

WOMEN’S AIL

MEN’S AIL

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SVNS

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CHALLENGE CUP

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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, while Keego has had the honour the past two seasons.  As you can see our resident stats expert Rugby Kino is leading the way but we’re only reaching the halfway stage, and we’ve also added a Cup (or Mug) competition to make things interesting.

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NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

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** = for those new to HarpinOnRugby “ABL” means “Anyone But Leinster”, a narrative we have found to be common in the ruggersphere, ironically since the province started winning stuff!!!