80+ column : Mar 26

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WRAP OF A WRAP

I was busy last Saturday which meant I had to miss Bulls v Leinster live, had to pull over in a car park on the way home to watch it and needless to say I wasn’t too happy!!!  But somehow the rewatch for the pod made me see some positives and as ever Tom & Rich did excellent work going through the action.

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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DON’T KNOW JACK

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SAM SIGNS

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LION KINGS

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AOIFE WAFER

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PUTTIN’ ON THE BIARRITZ

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HARPIN ON…THE URC’S SOUTH AFRICA TOURS

Here’s the lead-in question : 

“A timely enough topic for this week, the 2-match provincial tours to South Africa in the URC. We had some experience of them in the old Pro 14 when the Cheetahs and Southern Kings were involved but the addition of the Bulls, Stormers, Sharks and Lions have added a whole new dynamic to the league and when the URC fixtures were released early in May 2024, the first thing I noticed was that for the 4th season in a row, Leinster’s matches were scheduled for just after the Six Nations.  How has this portion of the season affected the provinces overall and does it go anywhere near evening out the travelling the South Africans must do?”

NOTE : A funny thing happened with this video…naturally we recorded it as an extra part of our wrap pod on Sunday evening, yet on Tuesday morning there was this tweet from Rugby Kino…

…so either it’s a humble coincidence or they actually got wind of our ranting, I’d prefer to assume the latter FWIW!!!  Either way here’s hoping it actually happens.

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LEINSTER SQUAD UPDATE

Assuming both Messrs Culhane & Deegan are unavailable due to protocols, I had a real struggle putting together a matchday 23 to play the Sharks, especially in the back row if we’re to go for another 6/2 split.  Cian Healy was pictured training with the squad but I’m wondering/hoping that’s not the only returnee from the 6N squad we get, I can’t see how we can go without at least Ryan Baird as well, and even with that we may need to give a debut to someone like Liam Molony, which could make for quite a baptism of fire in the last quarter in Durban if things go the way we expect.  Otherwise I wouldn’t make too many changes from Pretoria.

caveat : I have no “ITK” a la Thornley

OFFICIAL UPDATE posted Monday

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Women’s Six Nations

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Irish Shield

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All Ireland Leagues

WOMEN’S AIL

MEN’S AIL 1A

MEN’S AIL 1B

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SVNS

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Premiership

🔝🐱🐴

ProD2

Super Rugby Pacific

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NEW PLAYOFF FORMAT – ONLY TOP SIX QUALIFY

Qualifying finals – 1 v 6, 2 v 5, 3 v 4 with the top-ranked team hosting

Semi-Finals – three qualifying winners plus highest ranked loser: Teams re-ranked with 1 v 4 and 2 v 3

Final – top-ranked semi-final winner hosts the other semi-final winner.

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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.

A new update has dropped this week – follow this link to see how the Road to Australia is progressing..

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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 with room to spare but down at the foot of the table, an impressive couple of rounds has seen Keego move of the bottom for the first time in two years.

We’ve also added a Cup (or Mug) competition to make things interesting, and we’ve reached the semifinals stage with Kino playing Jeff this coming weekend.

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NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

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