Author: jeffleepagano

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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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WRAP OF A WRAP

Hello and welcome to our latest 80+ column where I generally harp on things outside our normal remit, namely the latest match involving the Leinster/Ireland men’s team.

It may have been only the second defeat of the season for “my team” in our featured match, but that certainly did not make the pod any easier to record, especially given the nature of the defeat.  Still, fair play to both Kino and Hugo for taking a half each to harp on (Hugo got the thinner end of that wedge by a tad) and I reckon between us we covered the 80 minutes fairly.  

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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CELTIC TIGER?

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GALTHIÉ AS CHARGED

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KIWI SUCCESSION

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LESS OF A CHALLENGE

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BE-NEATH THE SPORT

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HARPIN ON…TEST TICKET PRICES

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I thought it best not to subject Kino & Hugo to a bonus chat topic this week, they had done more than enough harpin’ on what happened last Saturday as it was.  However, Keego was willing to come on and expand on the tweet he posted shortly after the full-time whistle, so after one major recording SNAFU on my part we eventually put together this video.

Here’s the lead-in question : 

“Keego I’ll tell you what, it’s still just over a day since myself, Kino and Hugo wrapped the France match so I hope you don’t mind I won’t ask for your thoughts on that just yet because I’ve harped on it enough but what I would like to ask you about is your tweet from shortly after the full time whistle on Saturday: ‘IRFU we love you but when you price us out of the game, you do not get the noise you need. Every couch in the nation was there for the team, same in every pub. but we couldn’t afford to be there. You really need to revisit the pricing policy. Let us into the stadium.’ – just thought I’d give you the opportunity to expand on that?”

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IRELAND SQUAD UPDATE

I know I’ll stand accused of blue goggles here but I think Sam should start against Italy, if giving him the 10 jersey throughout this tournament was designed to give him confidence then IMO dropping him now, essentially implying that the result last weekend was his fault, would destroy that.  But to be clear, I have absolutely nothing against Crowley and if you look back at previous 80+ columns you’ll see I’ve selected him at 10 more than once in this segment.  You may also notice I’ve left out Peter O’Mahony in favour of Baird, again that sounds like a Leinster-centric call but to be honest I’d just as soon have Cian P or Izzy off the bench at a time we’ll be hoping to have opportunities to rack up a decent score. 

caveat : I have no “ITK” a la Thornley

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TROLL PATROL

Now it’s time for Troll Patrol where we ‘detain’ a social media commentator and charge them with gaslightery and general online mayhem.  

It would surely take an amazing level of trolling for the same message to feature in this section twice but for the week that’s in it I reckon this one, previously in our Feb 12 column, makes the grade.

Let’s just say I hope she really was so, so happy.

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Women’s Six Nations

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U20 Six Nations

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Celtic Challenge

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All Ireland Leagues

WOMEN’S AIL

MEN’S AIL 1A

MEN’S AIL 1B

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LEINSTER SCHOOLS SENIOR CUP

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SVNS

---

Premiership

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🔝🐱🐴

ProD2

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Super Rugby Pacific

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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.

Follow this link to see how the Road to Australia is progressing..

---

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, the race to avoid the JoS is hotting up with Keego winning Round 12 and making the two above him anxiously looking over their shoulders.

We’ve also added a Cup (or Mug) competition to make things interesting.  Kino forgot to make his prediction for the final match in Round 12 but by Superbru rules he still picked up a point to edge Kristian out where he’ll face me in the seimifinals!  Still one quarterfinal to play however, the Westmeath/Meath derby between Mark and Tom.

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NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

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WRAP OF A WRAP

Hello and welcome to our latest 80+ column where I generally harp on things outside our normal remit, namely the latest match involving the Leinster/Ireland men’s team.

Sorry if I’ve been harpin’ on too much about the fact I brought my 9 year old daughter to the Leinster match last weekend, loads of people do that all the time I know, but it’s very rare for me because in general I’m the only rugby nut in our house.  But she definitely wanted to see what the match was like and she really enjoyed it.

Anyway, it made for a different weekend when it comes to preparing for the wrap pod but in the end between myself, Tom and Conor I reckon we did an OK job going back over what happened.

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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SIMON SAYS

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MACK & JOE

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TOMMY THE TRYSAVER

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BACK TO BOKS

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NOT FOOTBALL?

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HARPIN ON…THE LEINSTER FAN EXPERIENCE

For our bonus chat to go with the weekend that was in it I chose to get the lads to harp on what it’s like for the fans at Leinster matches.  Obviously not all spectators are the same but it’s good to keep tabs on what the overall experience is like.  Here’s the lead-in question…

“When I started Harpin’ On Rugby back in 2008 the intention was to not only harp on what was happening on the pitch, but also to keep tabs on what the experience of actually going to the matches was like for the spectators.  I suppose all the success enjoyed by Leinster and Ireland over the years has had the coverage leaning more towards the actual rugby, plus I now get more of a media’s eye view of things on matchdays.  But on Saturday when we played Cardiff I brought my 9 year old daughter along to see what it was like so for this bonus clip I’d like to share our story and also discuss it with our panel, who are themselves both regular frequentors of the stands whether its RDS, Aviva or Croker.  Starting with yourself Conor, how do you find the overall experience?”

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LIES, DAMN LIES… 

Ever wonder which rugby stats are actually worth a damn?  Well I reckon this list is at very least a step in the right direction towards finding out.

After 12 rounds, Leinster lead the URC by 13 points which I reckon means that the categories below that we’re not leading must indicate that, not so much that they don’t matter, but certainly don’t matter all on their own.  Like tackles, for example, possibly the most misunderstood stat of the lot.  Cardiff lead the league in tackles made, but how exactly is that a good thing?  Not easy to score a lot of tries if you’re doing a lot of tackling, and it certainly won’t help you in minutes 70-80 of close matches if you’re bolloxed.

And apologies to Connacht fans, but while leading the league in both carries and defenders beaten really looks impressive, but still if those breaks don’t result in enough scores, or for that matter if your opposition is also carrying and beating defenders going in the other direction, well it will hardly translate into a high position on the table.  

There are also key categories missing from the list; for one thing I have to assume it doesn’t matter just that Leinster are making tons of visits to the 22, it’s surely more about what percentage of those visits we’re converting into points.

Anyway, here’s the list of league leaders the URC sent out during the week…

IRELAND SQUAD UPDATE

One or two close calls here but as I’m typing the news is coming out that Tadhg Furlong could be available.  The best thing about this is that I’d have 00% confidence in Finlay Bealham to still start the match with Jukebox putting in a power 15-25m in the second half.  Elsewhere I’ve gone for POM over Baird since assuming one must miss out altogether if Conan is available.  And when it comes to 10 I’ve been putting Crowley in more often than not for these matches but it seems Sam has done enough to make the jersey his own so he makes my team too.

HARPIN’ POSSIBLE MATCHDAY 23 V FRANCE

caveat : I have no “ITK” a la Thornley

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TROLL PATROL

Now it’s time for Troll Patrol where we ‘detain’ a social media commentator and charge them with gaslightery and general online mayhem.  

Munster vs the IRFU in the trolling department this week.  Even though Garry Ringrose is an integral part of Ireland’s overall plans, it seems some fans would rather bring receipts to help those who thought his punishment was too lenient make their argument instead of simply being happy he still has involvement to come in this 6N.  I gave my own views on this in the Front 5 video above.

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Women’s Six Nations

---

Irish Shield

---

U20 Six Nations

---

Celtic Challenge

---

All Ireland Leagues

WOMEN’S AIL

MEN’S AIL 1A

MEN’S AIL 1B

---

LEINSTER SCHOOLS SENIOR CUP

---

SVNS

---

Premiership

---

🔝🐱🐴

ProD2

Super Rugby Pacific

---

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.

Follow this link to see how the Road to Australia is progressing..

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 but we’re only passing the halfway stage, and we’ve also added a Cup (or Mug) competition to make things interesting.  Myself and Conor have already reached the semifinals, in the third quarterfinal Kino leads Kristian but just half a point with one more match still to forecast

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NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

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