After the doom and gloom of the Stormers whitewash the week before, we were determined to look for positives in our second wrap pod, and to be fair, despite a second loss in a row myself & Conor Cronin were well able to find them. I mean, it WAS another loss, and also there was definitely an opportunity to bring home all five points which was thrown away (literally, sorry Sam), but while we did cover the negatives as you can see below we saved it for the bonus chat.
Terrible news for Lewis and his family. Needless to say, the entire rugby community is keeping them in our thoughts.
Multiple comments online contrasting the increase in these tragic announcements with the determination of some to push ahead with the 20-minute red card because apparently the full red cards are “ruining the game”.
One could argue that stories like this do the sport far more damage.
Better performance, should have got 2 bonus points out of it but was a game they had chances to win. After last weeks ill discipline this was a much better performance
Christy O’Connor
Cross field kicks killed us and there were a number of other times they could’ve exposed us, but luckily we escaped. Saying all that, very unlucky not to have come away with 2 points
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your own thoughts each week after the full time whistle
On Saturday mornings I write an article for Substack I call “Broken Play” and here is a sample of the latest one…for the full thing click here, and while you’re there, why not subscribe for free.
Hey there, it’s Saturday morning here at Harpin Manor and as usual I’m up and about before everyone else so it’s time to get scribbling about my thoughts on the latest events in egg-chasing, a topic that does an excellent job of distracting me from all else that’s going on in the world.
Sadly though, the news headlines often bleed into the rugby ones and while the weather is rarely far from our conversation here in Ireland anyway, a certain Storm Amy is currently front and center and has already taken her toll on half the provinces and a quarter of Round 2 of the URC with Edinburgh v Ulster & Connacht v Scarlets already gone by wayside.
At least Leinster are safely ensconced the other side of the world, although one could say they got hit by a Storm(ers) of their own last weekend. Things certainly don’t get any easier for them later this evening as they face a Bulls team in Pretoria who are more than keen to do similar to us after the 2025 Grand Final just a few months ago.
Myself and Keego did our preview show and there was also my weekly Harpin’ slot on Dublin South FM. That airs on Fridays after the 5 o’clock news if you’d ever like to tune in, but I can also include it here for my Substack readers.
So my plan on Friday evening was to settle down with a beer or two to watch Ulster try to keep me top of the Harpin Superbru League (although they’d have had to lose by 5 in the Scottish capital for me to do so; sorry if you’re a fan, I just wasn’t feeling it) but like I said Storm Amy took care of that so instead I watched, or I should probably say half-watched, Dragons v Sharks, mostly to see what the South Africans were like on tour ahead of their trip to the Aviva next weekend.
For about 75 minutes it wasn’t exactly a thriller, but with the scores locked at 17-17, the ending was always going to be interesting. I had the Sharks to win by three so obviously when a series of penalties marched them down the field towards the Dragons’ try line, I was keen for them to slot one over but with one of the Welsh props on the naughty step I suppose I couldn’t fault them for kicking for the corner instead.
26 September 2025; Luke McGrath of Leinster during the United Rugby Championship match between DHL Stormers and Leinster at DHL Stadium in Cape Town, South Africa. Photo by Shaun Roy/Sportsfile
Two yellows in one game, how many did we get last season?
We looked rusty and disinterested but let’s not get carried away. First game of a long season, let just learn from it.
Kevin Kelehan
Kick up the arse first day of the new season, 2 cards in 4 minutes made the scoreline a hammering. It will get better from here
Chris McDonnell
Our coaches know the players who were available for the past 2 or 3 months and still we couldn’t win a lineout scrum or even score a point. Total failure from our coaching staff once again. Not one coach from our group can say his pre season work actually looked better than a shambles.
Get in the conversation yourself by leaving
your own thoughts each week after the full time whistle
This is an excerpt from my latest article in series I call Broken Play, which I have been writing on Saturday mornings during the rugby season this year. For the whole thing you need to subscribe (for free) to our Harpin Substack account
Welcome to my Saturday morning scribble which returns after a summer hiatus. Basically I set the timer for an hour and keep harpin’ until it’s done. Since I’m VERY easily distracted that doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll be constantly typing the entire time but for sure I will finish when my phone tells me to.
I’ve just finished watching the Bledisloe Cup/Rugby Champions match, a win for the All Blacks which retains the Cup for yet another year but hardly a convincing one. They really needed the BP to put pressure on the Springboks but some resilient Wallaby defence at the end kept them out.
As you can see I’m taking my time making reference to another rugby match I watched this weekend, that being Friday evening’s URC season opener between Stormers and Leinster from Cape Town.
Here’s what I said on TikTok after the FT whistle; I’m hoping to do this regularly throughout the season, though perhaps not if they all go this way!
And can see what the sentiment was in the Harpin Whatsapp chat at full time.
But it’s not like I get to ignore the result altogether just yet, having committed to another season of producing a wrap pod for EVERY match so on Sunday evening myself and David Cordial will do our best to make sense of what went down at the DHL Stadium.
For now, I get to harp on literally anything else so I think I’ll have a go at the subject of television coverage.
Hi there welcome back to the 80+ column, pretty much the only content I’m churning out for the off-season.
Although there’s still a month before the URC kicks off, with the 🔝🐱🐴 opening series of matches around the corner I want to take the opportunity to at least devote the majority of space in this column to the women’s game. Our remit may be the Leinster & Ireland men’s teams but we are of course rugby fans first and foremost and RWC2025 is where it’s at right now.
But for this tournament I do my best not to try to pass myself off as an expert, I am primarily a fan so if it’s proper analysis and interviews you want, I sincerely hope you’re subscribed to the excellent MudderRucker podcast – we spoke to host Ailbhe O’Nolan a couple of weeks ago and you can find that plus all the relevant links here.
This is just a sample from the full column which can be found on Substack at this link. Please be sure to subscribe while you’re there!!!!
