Saturday, January 24, 2026
Hi there, welcome to Broken Play, aka my Saturday morning Substack scribbling, and since you’re here, if you haven’t already, please hit the subscribe button if you don’t mind.
It’s 7am, somehow later than I usually start doing these articles so I guess from my POV you could call this a “lie-in”. But the family is still asleep and I am alone in a quiet kitchen, apart from the cat who just checked in after a night on the tiles, literally the ones in the garden.
Just in case this is your first time reading this Broken Play, the aim is to kind of do a written version of the Tommy Tiernan Show only that I kind of interview myself with no knowledge of my subject matter; I just type in whatever way my fingers take me and after a quick edit, the post gets published.
Last week that didn’t work so well as I apparently referenced the result of a rugby match that didn’t actually happen, major hat-tip to Harpin’ contributor (and this week’s wrap pod guest) Ciarán Duffy for pointing it out.
There is one regular, predictable section of this article where I plug the latest Harpin’ Preview Show, so I might as well do that here – myself and Keego had a quit chat looking ahead to this evening’s match with Connacht in Galway which also doubles as the formal opening of their shiny new look stadium. Click here to have a look/listen.
I think this week I’d like to harp on the ongoing soap opera that is Welsh Rugby. Well, I say I’d LIKE to, when I’d really rather not. The rivalry between Ireland and our Celtic cousins is quite intense and might have you think I’d be overflowing with Schadenfreude, but I guess I’m just too “nice a guy” to be happy about their current plight.
And no matter how long it might take for the rest of the house to wake up here at Harpin’ Manor, were I to try to explain what’s going on there in detail it would probably take me at least until next week’s Broken Play article. It really is quite the mess.
From my own perspective I suppose I could offer a broader look at what has happened, at least when you compare it to Irish rugby. I know that sounds trite since things are considerably rosier on these shores and comparing the two nations really has an “apples and oranges” feel to it, assuming the two fruits met each other on a rugby pitch at least once a year while slagging each other off for the rest of it.
HARPIN' ON RUGBY 