80+ column : February 26

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WRAP OF A WRAP

Hello and welcome to our latest 80+ column where I generally harp on things outside our normal remit, namely the latest match involving the Leinster/Ireland men’s team.

Had two contributors lined up for this week’s pod, unfortunately both had to pull out. The cheek of them having “real life” get in the way! Seriously though, this meant I had to look for replacements and on short notice I was lucky to get at least one, very grateful to Ciarán Duffy of Post to Post Sport for stepping in to the breach. 

But this meant that if I was to keep to the wrap pod format I had to describe the timeline of the second half myself and I never realised that I had never actually done this before for the pod.  I see now it’s quite the challenge and it only made me appreciate what the team of contributors do week to week. I also enjoyed it though, didn’t hurt that I had the better of the two halves for Ireland! 

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

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FRONT FIVE

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PRENDERGAST STATE OF MIND

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SEEING RED

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THE GOOD BISCUITS

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A BATTLE OF WILLIS

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TOULON IN THE TOOTH?

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HARPIN ON…WOMEN’S SIX NATIONS PREVIEW

For our bonus chat this week I went beyond the wrap pod panel and recorded a chat with Ailbhe who runs the excellent Bluesky account @IrishWomens and is soon starting her own podcast in time for the Women’s Six Nations so this was an opportunity to preview that, look at the Irish Women’s season overall and also of course to plug the new pod. Please do check it out. 

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LEINSTER SQUAD UPDATE

Updates are tricky to work out at this time of year because while the province will focus on the players not involved in the Ireland squad and with the A international in Bristol on Sunday we have to factor that in as well as those players who came off the bench in Cardiff. 

There is one further factor to consider…the need for as much continuity as possible since this is the group of players that will likely travel to South Africa fer two critical matches right after the Six Nations. And it just so happens this year we come across the top two RSA sides form wise, the Bulls and the Sharks, both of whom have enjoyed a run of games together since January with full squads and no test rugby getting in the way. 

With that in mind for my predicted 23 I have gone with as much of the group that went to the Ospreys as I can, assuming Ciarán Frawley must miss out which could lead to a debut for Caspar Gabriel, we’ll see. 

HARPIN’ POSSIBLE MATCHDAY 23 V CARDIFF

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.  

It’s not often you see test players from the same nation take an online pop at each other, yet while you may think I’d lean towards the Leinster player in this exchange, I actually believe Luke deserved everything he got from Choo Choo Stu here. 

Maybe I don’t listen to him that often but from what I have heard it seems his long term punditry plans would be to become “the next George Hook” and if so I’d strongly advise he gives that a serious rethink. 

Anyway Stu gets the award this week, but in this case it’s for what I call “the good kind” of trolling. 

Hat tip to Rugby Kino for spotting this. 

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Women’s Six Nations

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Irish Shield

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U20 Six Nations

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Celtic Challenge

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All Ireland Leagues

WOMEN’S AIL

MEN’S AIL 1A

MEN’S AIL 1B

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LEINSTER SCHOOLS SENIOR CUP

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SVNS

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Super Rugby Pacific

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Premiership

🔝🐱🐴

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ProD2

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RWC2027 QUALIFIERS

The RWC2027 tournament has expanded to 24 nations so with four extra spots up for grabs it makes for a fascinating qualifying process.

Rather than post the latest results and fixtures here however, I’d like to defer to the excellent work of frequent Harpin’ contributor Ciarán Duffy who has been keeping close tabs on the qualifying process over at his own site Post to Post Sport.

Follow this link to see how the Road to Australia is progressing..

Japan League One

Major League Rugby 

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 passing the halfway stage, and we’ve also added a Cup (or Mug) competition to make things interesting.  Myself and Conor have already reached the semifinals, this weekend sees a Clash Of Titans between last year’s league champion Kristian and current runaway leader Kino.

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NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

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