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ON THIS WEEK’S COLUMN…

• WRAP OF A WRAP
• FORMAT TWEAKS
• SACRE BLEU!
• CLAYTON STAYS
• WHERE THERE’S A WILLIS
• LATEST WELSH WOES
• JACK B, JOSH K & MAX D
• IRISH 6N SQUAD ANNOUNCEMENT (pending)
• LEINSTER ACADEMY IN TOULOUSE
• DORIS AS ‘TACKLE YOUR FEELINGS’ AMBASSADOR
• LEINSTER SQUAD UPDATE
• TROLL PATROL
• COMPETITION UPDATES (incl AIL)
• NEXT HARPIN’

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WRAP OF A WRAP

Hey there, welcome to our latest 80+ column, where my goal is to harp on anything but Leinster & Ireland rugby and, well, I almost get there each week. Almost.

The wrap pod on Sunday featured Leinster’s biggest fan in Gibraltar, Rich Mifsud, who offered his thoughts on the win over Bayonne, ICYMI you can find it here.

It was officially Harpin’ pod number 490 which means a big milestone is on the horizon and if the numbers followed their usual progress then 500 would have been the wrap pod for England v Ireland in the Six Nations so instead to mark the occasion we have a special episode planned, more info on it closer to the time.

For now it’s time to kick off the column with Front Five, a feature I started on the old blog back in 2014. In those days I’d actually choose five articles to post every day to both keep the content flowing and to keep myself up to date on what’s happening in the ruggersphere. These days with podcasts and videos and such to work on, once a week is plenty.

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Since this current format was introduced I have always been torn on my opinion, certainly not with what seems to be the majority. The elements that appear to annoy most people never really bothered me, like “How can you win just one game and still make the knockouts?” (you might make the knockouts but you’ll be away to a team that probably won all their matches) and “bring back the pools of four” (had plenty of flaws of its own like dead rubbers in January). Still, I wouldn’t be delighted with the current status quo, like “how the hell can a team finishing 3rd from bottom of the Premiership earn a shot at being champions?” so it’s not like I’d be a staunch defender.

This article seems to suggest that for the most part the current four pools of six with four matches each seems to be set in stone until 2030. That only annoys me because it means four more seasons of format nay-saying online if I’m honest. But as you can see by the quote, there is talk of perhaps playing matches at different times of the year, with one, possibly even two matches in October, plus a gap between the Round of 16 and the Quarterfinal.

I kind of like those ideas, in fact I’d suggest putting the Round of 16 BEFORE the Six Nations; imagine if that Champions Cup bracket was taking place this coming weekend? Anyway – we’ll see what they end up doing. I’m sure the collective ruggersphere will be delighted with the decision regardless…

OH BTW…here’s one other thing I definitely would change, this popped into my inbox Wednesday morning…

I don’t care what marketing jargon you might throw at me to explain why they have done this, I can’t see the logic in announcing nominees for POTY when the Y is only 3 weeks old. Makes about as much sense as a certain someone expecting to get a peace prize.

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