ON THIS WEEK’S COLUMN…

• WRAP OF A WRAP
• REF BASHES REF
• FRAWL-WAY
• ROG ON HOW ‘TOULOUSE’
• 2026 6N HURDLES
• WEATHERING THE STORMERS
• HARPIN’ ON…2025 IN REVIEW
• LEINSTER SQUAD UPDATE
• TROLL PATROL
• COMPETITION UPDATES (incl Celtic Challenge)
• NEXT HARPIN’

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WRAP OF A WRAP

Given the time of year that was in it I was prepared to do a “solo” wrap pod for the Munster match but thankfully Ciarán Duffy was able to step in.

Please do check out his fundraising page for the charity As I Am and contribute if you can, here is some info there but there’s a lot more on the end of the link…

As I Am carry out vital work in Ireland for autistic people and their families. This includes:

• Providing necessary and appropriate help to austic people
• Providing support for family members and carers of autistic people
• Educating people on the realities of autistic people
• Challenging stigma and disinformation around autism
• Helping autistic people live a fulfilling life

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Normally for these Front Five segments I go out of my way to find topics that are far removed from our Harpin’ feature matches since we cover those on the podcasts, but I really had to make an exception for this one.

On the Munster v Leinster wrap I did speak to the over the top reactions to the refereeing on the socials, ones that suggested the questionable calls only went against Munster, but then I read this article were Owen tells the keyboard warriors to hold his beer. A contributor in the Harpin WhatsApp group said it best…

I was frankly shocked to discover the author is a former head of referees for the IRFU, given how firmly he flung a neophyte referee under the bus

And the fact that it is a respected referee doing the criticism, particularly at a time when we are supposedly meant to be protecting officials from abuse, compounded all of my other complaints re the content…

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