Author: jeffleepagano

80+ column : July 10

On this week’s column…

🏉 RASSIE & THE SA PRESS

🏉 WEATHER OR NOT

🏉 TOUR DE FARCE

🏉 CLICKBAIT OF THE WEEK

🏉 THE NEVER ENDING SEASON

🏉 THE 6N SUNDAY PROBLEM

🏉 TROLL PATROL

🏉 UPDATES [INCL 7s & Currie Cup]

FRONT FIVE

A selection of five eye-catching egg-chasing quotes & links from around the ruggersphere, now including a few thoughts added by myself (JLP).

“Some things make sense when you see it, and some don’t”

Rassie: Ireland don’t fear the Bomb Squad

SA RugbyMag

JLP : Ah, good ol’ Rassie.  Master of 50-dimensional chess, always a thousand moves ahead of everyone else.  You know what, I don’t actually blame him.  Well, at least I don’t now.  My biggest problem with him was after the first test of that Lions series, clearly trying to influence the officials when the same two sides still had to face each other.  We’ll never know if he’d be doing something similar now had Ireland won the first test, but when it comes to the bulk of the “these two teams really don’t like each other” vibe, the bulk of the responsibility has to lie with the SA press.  They’re the ones asking the lead-in questions, they’re the ones highlighting soundbites from individuals on Irish shows and podcasts making it look like theirs is the view of the entire fanbase, and most likely they’re the ones responsible for the kind of comments that made our Troll Patrol feature this week.

Ireland were pipped to the Six Nations title by England, with this weekend’s rematch at the DHL Stadium in Cape Town (3.30 Irish time) set to be another tight affair

Ireland U-20s qualify for Junior World Cup semi date against England after match cancelled but Aussies are not happy

Cian Tracey – Irish Independent

JLP : Obviously Tuesday’s postponement was less than ideal, and going by what I have heard about the Cape Town weather at this time of year, the scheduling of this tournament there was also so.  At least it turned out ok from Ireland’s point of view as we get into the semifinals with the added benefit of a longer rest time in a competition designed to give all the participants the same 5-day turnarounds.  All in all it was a good job we got that late try against Georgia!  You can understand why the Australians would be annoyed but I reckon we just about deserve a place in the final four though it won’t be easy against England on Sunday.

“No discriminatory behaviour of any kind has a place in French rugby.”

France international suspended over racist comment

Callum Boyle – SportsJoe.ie

JLP : No long comment required here, just that clearly Jaminet is a dick.  Didn’t know anything about him before this, now I do.  As ever in these cases there are no amount of statements like “that’s not like me” to make up for it, not that there’s NO way back for him only that it would take a lot of time and a lot of evidence to the contrary.  Well, at least as the French team’s tour goes it was the only thing bad to happen…

“An investigation is under way. They’re in a police station. Someone from the delegation went to see them to bring them some food.“

France rugby players Oscar Jegou and Hugo Auradou arrested on Argentina tour over sexual assault claims

SkySports.com

JLP : ….wait, WHAT?  OK one incident is careless.  TWO seems to speak to the culture surrounding a travelling squad.  Obviously investigations are pending in this case so we shouldn’t speculate too much but it certainly doesn’t look good.

 :

***CLICKBAIT OF THE WEEK AWARD***

“We don’t really look at such things when we select the team, but this shows how blessed we are with the depth in the squad and the quality of the players we have.”

Ireland to face most capped starting XV in Springbok history

Jack Tunney – RugbyDump

JLP : The fact laid out in the headline is true, but it’s still a bit misleading.  The Springbok 23 is exactly the same as it was last week, which was also the most capped lineup in history so with everyone now having one more cap, of course the record is broken.  The real headline is the fact that its unchanged.  The ‘most capped’ bit is an extremely moot point IMO and thus wins my latest COTWA.

WRAP OF A WRAP

Had to switch to Monday evening to record this week and myself, Ciarán Duffy and David Cordial harped our way through the timeline.  Trying to tweak the format a little, previously I’d break the match up into quarters to give the guests equal time but now I think I’ll leave the match in halves and get one to talk through the timeline while the other offers analysis.  Changes still in progress for this series, hope to have it finalised in time for next season.

If you missed it, click here to catch it on Spotify or on other major platforms, also please subscribe or leave reviews where you can.

HARPIN ON…THE NEVER ENDING SEASON

Opening question :  

Here at Harpin On Rugby we’re now coming to the end of our 5th season of podcasts and our first recording was at the end of July 2023 which means we have practically had senior rugby to harp on for an entire calendar year.  Of course there was a World Cup in among all of that but once next season rolls around we’ll be thinking about a Lions tour and that series will actually bring us all the way into August of 2025.  World Rugby have been planning to revamp their global calendar for quite a while now and to be fair to them, COVID kind of delayed things a bit so it was only last October when they announced that they had “approved transformational reform of the global men’s and women’s rugby calendars from 2026” but starting with yourself David, given what we know of these reforms, are they going to do anything to stop these never-ending seasons?

THE 6N SUNDAY PROBLEM

Looks like the Six Nations is considering going to an “all Super Saturday” schedule due to poor viewing figures.  Time for me to roll out my own suggestion that I’ve had on my mind for years now…how about spreading the matches across the seven weeks, with two matches every Saturday until the final, which could still be ”super”.

This way you actually eke out two extra weekends of Six Nations rugby for viewers and broadcasters while still giving each nation two rest weekends.  I’m sure the domestic schedules could be fixed accordingly.

Just a thought.  Below is a sample of how it could look if applied to the 2025 schedule.

WEEK 1WEEK 2WEEK 3WEEK 4WEEK 5WEEK 6WEEK 7
FRA V WALITA V WALENG V FRAENG V ITAENG V SCOIRE V FRAITA V IRE
IRE V ENGSCO V IRESCO V ITAWAL V IREITA V FRASCO V WALWAL V ENG
XXXXXXFRA V SCO

WORLD U20s UPDATE

Already dealt with the unusual 3rd round developments in the Front Five section, here are the actual results…

ROUND 1

SOUTH AFRICA 57-7 FIJI

WALES 34-41 NEW ZEALAND

IRELAND 55-15 ITALY

AUSTRALIA 35-11 GEORGIA

FRANCE 49-12 SPAIN

ENGLAND 40-21 ARGENTINA

ROUND 2

IRELAND 22-16 GEORGIA

WALES 31-10 SPAIN

FRANCE 26-27 NEW ZEALAND

ENGLAND 48-11 FIJI

SOUTH AFRICA 12-31 ARGENTINA

AUSTRALIA 12-17 ITALY

ROUND 3

IRELAND cancelled AUSTRALIA (2pts each)

ARGENTINA 52-12 FIJI

FRANCE 29-11 WALES

GEORGIA 28-17 ITALY

SOUTH AFRICA 12-17 ENGLAND

NEW ZEALAND 45-13 SPAIN

SUN JULY 14

SEMIFINALS 

ENGLAND V IRELAND

NEW ZEALAND V FRANCE

5TH-8TH PLACE

AUSTRALIA V WALES

ARGENTINA V SOUTH AFRICA

9TH-12TH PLACE

ITALY V SPAIN

GEORGIA V FIJI

CURRIE CUP UPDATE

Why add the Currie Cup to our update section I hear you say?  Only one answer…why not???

ROUND 1

WESTERN PROVINCE 25-30 BULLS

CHEETAHS 82-20 GRIFFONS

SHARKS 25-26 LIONS

GRIQUAS 24-44 PUMAS

ROUND 2

FRI JULY 12

GRIQUAS V SHARKS

PUMAS V LIONS

SAT JULY 13

CHEETAHS V WESTERN PROVINCE

SUN JULY 14

GRIFFONS V BULLS

TROLL PATROL

There are two ways to look at Dylan Jack’s original post in this Twitter thread.  Well, if the world were decent, there would only be one, but we are where we are.  The first way is to say “oh dear that’s a terrible injury list for Ireland I hope the players involved are ok and will be back playing soon”.  Then there’s the way a load of fans in the replies chose to take it : “SOUTH AFRICA IS THE BEST AND THE STRONGEST AND IRELAND COULDN’T HACK IT!!!!!!” complete with of course all the pseudo-macho chest pounding and other bullshit.  Really, really sad.  And to be clear, like I always try to be when writing things like this, I’d not saying ALL South African fans think this way, but here there are definitely more than you’d like to see.

If you ever see an online contribution that seems worthy of inclusion here, by all means do share.

“SVNS” UPDATE

Only update here is the announcement of dates and times for Ireland’s matches at the Olympics…

OLYMPIC 7s

IREM7s

POOL STAGE

WED JULY 24 V SOUTH AFRICA 4:30PM

WED JULY 24 V JAPAN 8PM

THU JULY 25 V NEW ZEALAND 3:30PM

IREW7s

POOL STAGE

SUN JULY 28 V GREAT BRITAIN 2:30PM

SUN JULY 28 V SOUTH AFRICA 6PM

MON JULY 29 V AUSTRALIA 1:30PM

NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

Short but sweet column this week – I plan to continue them on Wednesdays throughout the offseason while taking a break from the pods.  Still the second test to cover though, so we’ll have a preview on Friday as well as a wrap recording on Sunday evening. Be sure to keep up with all our social media channels with the usual amount of commenting, sharing, liking & subscribing.

And as ever, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are.  JLP

362 : RSAvIRE 1st test wrap

Castle Lager Incoming Series First Test, Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria, South Africa 6/7/2024 South Africa vs Ireland Ireland’s Jamie Osborne Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

🏉 Shaky start

🏉 Punishing mistakes

🏉 TMO issues

🏉 Bomb squad

🏉 Frantic finish

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

CIARÁN DUFFY

https://posttopost.sport.blog

DAVID CORDIAL

FULL TIME TAKES

Brian Patrick Donnelly

They got the rub of the green, big time, but we probably didn’t do enough.

Reasonably confident we can win 2nd if “end of season-itis” doesn’t kick in.

Gav Heg

If it was reversed, we won and the ref treated SA like he did us, rassie would release a two hour analysis slating him. The officiating simply wasn’t good enough at this level. like how can they review and disallow Lowes try but not notice the neck roll on Kelleher? Penalties were given for far less in NZ v Eng. And how was Casey stretchered off without any review from Pearse? Nonsensical and inconsistent

Greg Kelly

Is the call by the TMO to disallow Lowes try wrong in law? No…

Is the game in an absolute state if this is where it is going? Absolutely!

You can be guaranteed that in the lead up to all the tries today there were infringements but the TMO didn’t come back to those?

Even after the turnover Lowe beats 3 defenders to score so the manner of the turnover is not the material issue. It’s a great individual try called back for a debatable TMO intervention. Furthermore once the TMO comes in to disallow the try he must commit 100% to catching EVERY breakdown infringement from there. What if he let’s one go and 3 phases later there’s a kickable penalty awarded to the offending team? Does he call the referee back?

PSDT is off his feet in the field of play when he holds up Doris’ grounding attempt. By the letter of the law it’s an illegal intervention. It happens in all games and is never penalised but if we are going into the detail we did for the Lowe try then it’s another incidence of a player off feet affecting the play and consistency demands it’s flagged by the TMO.

If this is where we’re going it’s going to be a sh1t show.

Kevin Kelehan

Half back pairing was not disrupted, got reasonable parity at the breakdown. Unlucky with a few ref decisions that were 50:50 calls, particular Kelliher being driven back. Lots of industry and effort but also lots of shooting themselves in the foot. The series remains alive at only 7 points down, that is very encouraging, dust themselves down and be more clinical next week.

Sean MacDonnchadha

Have to look inward and be honest. Otherwise we’re only fooling ourselves again. Lineout and scrum came back to bite us after being highlighted as potential weaknesses. Backline stuttering for most of the game and no real director at 9/10. Felt like we were having to react to everything instead of dictating play. Dorris and Bundee tireless efforts. Ryan and Baird impacted well off the bench – only ones who did really. Needing Porter and Furlong to do a full 80 if possible is a massive system failure. Boks can’t wait to unleash their bench, if we’re honest we fear what will happen when we do.

Cuan Mulligan

In the first half, Kolisi was tackled, in the breakdown the ball is coming back to us and he sweeps the ball back with his hand.. not hard to see yet no tmo call. It felt like they were going out of their way to not give us a call

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361 : #RSAvIRE 1st test preview

also available as a podcast

Our guest : TOM COLEMAN

IRELAND : 15. Jamie Osborne 14. Calvin Nash 13. Robbie Henshaw 12. Bundee Aki 11. James Lowe 10. Jack Crowley 9. Craig Casey

1. Andrew Porter 2. Dan Sheehan 3. Tadhg Furlong 4. Joe McCarthy 5. Tadhg Beirne 6. Peter O’Mahony (C) 7. Josh van der Flier 8. Caelan Doris

16. Rónan Kelleher 17. Cian Healy 18. Finlay Bealham 19. James Ryan 20. Ryan Baird 21. Conor Murray 22. Ciaran Frawley 23. Garry Ringrose 

SOUTH AFRICA : 15 W le Roux 14 C Kolbe 13 J Kriel 12 D de Allende 11 K-L Arendse

10 H Pollard 9 F de Klerk 1 O Nche 2 B Mbonambi 3 F Malherbe

4 E Etzebeth 5 F Mostert 6 S Kolisi (c) 7 P-S du Toit 8 Kwagga Smith

16 M Marx 17 G Steenekamp 18 V Koch 19 S Moerat

20 RG Snyman 21 M van Staden 22 G Williams 23 S Feinberg-Mngomezulu

Castle Lager Incoming Series First Test

Saturday, July 6, 2024

KO 4pm (Irish time) Loftus Versfeld

Live on: Sky Sports Main Event, Action

80+ column : July 3

On this week’s column…

🏉 LA ROCHELLE ENCORE

🏉 HATRED OR HYPE?

🏉 HOGG WATCH

🏉 CLICKBAIT OF THE WEEK

🏉 SA TOUR PREVIEW

🏉 CON, MUN & ULS SEASON REVIEWS

🏉 OPPOSITION VIEW – SPRINGBOKS

🏉 TROLL PATROL

🏉 UPDATES [INCL U20s &🔝🐱🐴]

FRONT FIVE

A selection of five eye-catching egg-chasing quotes & links from around the ruggersphere, now including a few thoughts added by myself (JLP).

Leinster…are joined by Stade Rochelais, who defeated them in the 2022 and 2023 finals, before the Dublin-based club knocked them out in the quarter-finals last season. 

Investec Champions Cup pools 2024/25: All you need to know

EPCRugby.com

JLP : I was convinced Leinster would get both La Rochelle and Michael Cheika’s Leicester again but in the end I was half right.  Not the worst pool we could have drawn by any means, though as ever a lot will depend on the home and away determinations which apparently will happen “later in the month”.  A lot of Leinster fans are excited about the prospect of trips to Clérmont and Bath in particular.

On the overall draw, RugbyKino did some great statistical analysis using actual maths to calculate the proper “pool of death” check it out in this thread.

“We will never, after a game, tell a team that we’ll see you in the final if there is so much rugby still to be played.”

Etzebeth: Irish media targeted me

SA Rugby Mag

JLP : While I get the point behind the overall hype in the SA press before this series, this one about “see you in the final” never really made much sense to me.  My first takeaway from it was as nothing but a compliment, that the two sides had played great rugby and both deserved to be in the final.  But for senior squad members to bring it up and go on to double down on it, for me anyway it leads to headlines like this one which sounds nothing but “whiny”.  It’s all nonsense really. 

The 2004 incident in which ROG quick-tapped a penalty and dummied the prone Boks…was also flagged by the former Munster star

CJ Stander explains Rassie Erasmus’ ‘hatred’ of Ireland…and it’s ROG’s fault

Adam Lacey – Extra.ie

JLP : So many spins on this RSA/IRE hype but I have to say this headline stood out, although CJ does also try to play down the hatred aspect of it all.  As I say above, all nonsense.  That said, much of the online stuff is exactly that so we should point it out when we see it!

…he pleaded not guilty to a domestic charge of acting abusively toward the mother of his four children…also…for causing fear and alarm during a disturbance in February and for not complying with conditions set upon his release from police custody.

Former Scotland captain Stuart Hogg’s trial date set, things could get nasty

Ruck.co.uk

JLP : Every week I’m astounded by the coverage of Stuart Hogg’s situation that I’ve decided to give him his own graphic and feature title.  My general point of this is that often in sports media there tends to be a disconnect when the more popular players are involved in supposed unseemly events off the field.  

Now to be clear, I get the whole “innocent until proven guilty” aspect of it all, and as you can see by my choice of quote I make reference to his plea, but I just think there’s a tendency to over-minimize (if that’s a thing) the accusations.

At least this article actually spells out the charges, but even here if you just read the headline you’d be forgiven for thinking this was something horrible happening to him for which he bears no responsibility, and actually the article goes on to list all of his business ventures, effectively looking like a paid advertisement for his range!!!

Naturally if he is acquitted in the end, for my part I will be more than happy to say so here but in the mean time it sounds like a nasty business and maybe it’s best if his sporting accomplishments can be kept out of the news cycle.  But I fear they will continue regardless, as will of course our Hogg Watch feature.

UPDATE : Before I even had the chance to post this column I have already been alerted to an article [hat-tip RugbyKino] in Planet Rugby by Jared Wright titled “Stuart Hogg arrested again for ‘breach of bail’ as rugby return hangs in the balance” I was going to redo this section to replace the article but you know what, I’ll keep what I have there and include both links as it speaks to the sheer amount of online info about the guy, it’s like we’ve heard more about him since he retired than we did when he was playing!!!  This story doesn’t speak very well for his not guilty plea though…  

***CLICKBAIT OF THE WEEK AWARD***

There is a huge apathy towards the URC in Wales which doesn’t purely stem from the Welsh clubs struggling for on-field success.

Wales must now leave the URC and finally make Anglo-Welsh league happen

Steffan Thomas – Wales Online

JLP : You have to love the devotion of a certain section of the Welsh rugby fan base to the idea of joining the Premiership, as if wishing will make it happen.  But on a different level you have publications like Wales Online looking to trawl for clicks with headlines like this one making it seem like it is actually possible.

The common opinion seems to be that if the Premiership were to agree to any type of a merger it would have to be with the URC as a whole as the draw of the oft-travelling Irish fans would be something the PRL would be very much be interested in.  All of which is ironic because those particular Welsh fans are almost as keen to get away from the Irish as they are to go towards the English!!!

Anyway this latest offering has earned Steffan this week’s COTWA.

SA TOUR PREVIEW

No wrap pod this week of course so I put together an “all-provincial panel” featuring Padraig “The 2nd row” Kelly, Michelle Tobin and Harpin debutant Jack Fogarty to look ahead to the South African tour.  We discussed where the Irish team finds itself at the moment morale-wise, what players could step up on this tour and also how the South Africans may approach the tests.  Click here if you missed the pod or check out the YouTube clip below for a sample.

HARPIN ON…PROVINCIAL SEASON REVIEWS

Of course it would have been rude to have guests from the other provinces without asking them to go back over their teams’ respective 23/24 campaigns, and I even managed to do it without bringing up the considerable bragging rights Leinster have after winning yet another Irish Shield ha ha.

OPPOSITION VIEW – SPRINGBOKS

Haven’t recorded an Opposition view pod for a while and now seemed like the perfect time when a proper South African perspective is needed ahead of the series so I asked Thala Msutu back on and we have a great chat about the buy in to the URC down there, the Springboks motivation for this series and of course the matchday squad named by Rassie on Tuesday.  

Because of this recording we have no Quick Tap this week, we hope to return to them soon.

WORLD U20s UPDATE

Super start for the Wolfpuppies, after they ran us close at Musgrave Park in the Six Nations we could have expected a similar result but this was an outstanding team performance from Willie Faloon’s charges that got the result they deserved.  Now we’ll be hoping for a similar result against Georgia before what should be the decider against Australia next Tuesday.  Hopefully by the time the next 80+ column rolls around we’ll be looking ahead to a semifinal but still much work to be done.

ROUND 1

SOUTH AFRICA 57-7 FIJI

WALES 34-41 NEW ZEALAND

IRELAND 55-15 ITALY

AUSTRALIA 35-11 GEORGIA

FRANCE 49-12 SPAIN

ENGLAND 40-21 ARGENTINA

ROUND 2

THU JULY 4

IRELAND V GEORGIA

WALES V SPAIN

FRANCE V NEW ZEALAND

ENGLAND V FIJI

SOUTH AFRICA V ARGENTINA

AUSTRALIA V ITALY

ROUND 3

TUE JULY 9

IRELAND V AUSTRALIA

ARGENTINA V FIJI

FRANCE V WALES

GEORGIA V ITALY

SOUTH AFRICA V ENGLAND

NEW ZEALAND V SPAIN

TROLL PATROL

This really, really annoyed me when I first saw it a few days ago and it immediately earned its place in this week’s troll patrol.  For me it shows the lengths to which some people will go to have a pop at Leinster, harking to a reference that mentions ‘the poorest parts of AIDS ravaged Africa’???  Speaks to a complete disconnect between sporting ‘banter’ and, well, actual serious stuff going on in the world.

If you ever see an online contribution that seems worthy of inclusion here, by all means do share.

“SVNS” UPDATE

Mixed fortunes for the Irish teams in the Hamburg 7s, the men’s won the title although with the overall Rugby Europe championship taking both this and the previous event in Croatia, it ended up being France who won on points difference.  Meanwhile the women recovered well after a poor start to win the 5th place final over Czechia having lost to them in their pool opener.  Still plenty of evidence from both sides that they can do well in the Olympics.

HAMBURG 7s

IREW7s

GROUP STAGE

V CZECHIA 17-28

V FRANCE 14-26

V PORTUGAL 17-7

QUARTERFINAL

V GREAT BRITAIN 14-21

5TH-8TH PLACE PLAYOFF

V GERMANY 12-0

5TH PLACE PLAYOFF

V CZECHIA 26-12

IREM7s

GROUP STAGE

V CROATIA 43-0

V BELGIUM 43-7

V PORTUGAL 24-14

QUARTERFINAL

V BELGIUM 36-7

SEMIFINAL

V PORTUGAL 14-12

FINAL

V FRANCE 19-14

OLYMPICS 2024

IREW7s (JULY 28-30)

GROUP B WITH  

IREM7s (JULY 24-27)

GROUP A WITH   

🔝🐱🐴 UPDATE

Not much to say about that final apart from “Merci, beaucoup, Toulouse!” for helping Leinster get a top seed in the Champions Cup draw and the sentiments outlined in my tweet below. 

PLAYOFFS

TOULON 29-34 LA ROCHELLE 

BORDEAUX 31-17 RACING 92 

RELEGATION

GRENOBLE 18-20 MONTPELLIER 

SEMIFINALS

TOULOUSE V LA ROCHELLE

STADE FRANÇAIS V BORDEAUX

FINAL

TOULOUSE 59-3 BORDEAUX

MAJOR LEAGUE RUGBY UPDATE

Shane O’Leary is an out-half who was born in Cork and had stints with Grenoble & Connacht among others before declaring to play for Canada and has 13 test caps.

Luke Carty is an out half born in Athlone (and Jack’s brother) who also spent time with Connacht and he went across the Atlantic to play for the USA where he has earned 16 test caps.

Last weekend, Miami Sharks had possession in the early stages and O’Leary threw a pass which was intercepted by Carty to go the length of the pitch to put the Chicago Hounds ahead in their final regular season match on the way to a 38-26 victory which secured 3rd spot and a playoff trip to New Orleans in a couple of weeks.  As I have said before in this section, the Hounds are my adopted team for this season as they have a decent Irish contingent also including Dave Kearney and Nick McCarthy, and this has been a good campaign for them and you certainly wouldn’t rule them out causing an upset.

Elsewhere the reigning champs New England clinched top spot in the East and will face Old Glory DC while in the west Houston will play Dallas in a Texas derby while Seattle will host San Diego.  The league takes a rest week before the knockouts which is a good idea.

ROUND 18

UTAH 24-31 LOS ANGELES

NEW ENGLAND 40-7 ANTHEM

CHICAGO 38-26 MIAMI

OLD GLORY 27-24 NOLA GOLD

HOUSTON 29-28 DALLAS

SAN DIEGO 45-33 SEATTLE

PLAYOFFS

SAT JULY 20

NEW ENGLAND V OLD GLORY

SUN JULY 21

HOUSTON V DALLAS

NOLA GOLD V CHICAGO

MON JULY 22

SEATTLE V SAN DIEGO

NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

The end of Season 5 of our podcast adventure is in sight. Next up we’ve the first test preview recording Thursday night and the wrap will be Sunday. Be sure to keep up with all our social media channels with the usual amount of commenting, sharing, liking & subscribing.

And as ever, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are.  JLP

359 :  Ireland’s tests in RSA – preview

Ireland Rugby Squad Training, St Peter’s College, Johannesburg, South Africa 28/6/2024Peter OMahonyMandatory Credit ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

🏉 Team Ireland v Team Provinces

🏉 The Never Ending Season

🏉 Who will step up?

🏉 The Boks’ approach

🏉 Series predictions

OUR GUESTS

PÁDRAIG KELLY 

[https://the2ndrow.com/] 

MICHELLE TOBIN 

JACK FOGARTY

80+ column : June 26

On this week’s column…

🏉 SLIMANI PICKIN’

🏉 SAM IN SA

🏉 THINKING INSIDE THE BOKS

🏉 GLASGOW HUMOUR

🏉 CLICKBAIT OF THE WEEK

🏉 GUEST POD APPEARANCE

🏉 URC = BEST LEAGUE

🏉 TROLL PATROL

🏉 UPDATES [INCL 🔝🐱🐴 & SUPER RUGBY]

🏉HARPIN’ PREDICTION CHAMPION 2024

FRONT FIVE

A selection of five eye-catching egg-chasing quotes & links from around the ruggersphere, now including a few thoughts added by myself (JLP).

Slimani joins RG Snyman and Jordie Barrett among the non-Irish qualified players in the Leinster squad for next season.

Rabah Slimani set to sign Leinster deal ahead of new season

RTÉ.ie

JLP : Not the first time news of a move involving Irish and French clubs gets leaked via the French press so the details have been sketchy.  While this article suggests Slimani is on a two year deal, Ruairidh O’Connor from the Indo tweeted that it might be just one, which would seem to make more sense given his age profile.  Straw poll among a few Leinster fans seems to have the reaction as “meh” to this news, possibly a step down in standards from Michael Ala’alatoa, but at least it means we’ll have some tight head cover for Furlong and Tom Clarkson, who I hope gets some starting game time at the start of the 24/25 campaign.

“He’s got a great torpedo as well, a spiral which is very old school, I love a spiral, that’s why he’s picked.”

Ireland coach praises ‘aura’ of exciting uncapped star set for South Africa tour

Mark Donlon – Extra.ie

JLP : I’ve said this before that Sam P probably won’t get much game time down in South Africa, yet still the experience of being on tour with the senior squad will stand to him as many are saying he has a high ceiling.  And by “many” I mean coaches who have actually seen him play and train on a regular basis, as opposed to those ABLs online who like to exaggerate the hype about him (“Way too soon to say he is the Messiah” etc etc when actually nobody has actually done that.)

The squad features 22 forwards and 17 backline players, with Erasmus set to name the captain for the competition closer to the Ireland Test.

Kolisi back for Ireland series

SARugbyMag

JLP :  The Springboks are very very VERY keen to win this series.  Back to back RWCs apparently aren’t enough to scratch the itch we’ve caused by winning our recent encounters.  Of course what with the URC and all it’s good for there to be a healthy rivalry between these two nations and I’m all for it, looking forward to some online exchanges on social media over the coming weeks.

“…the thing I’ve discovered in rugby celebrations is that you need goggles to protect yourself from all the champagne spray”

Inside the Glasgow Warriors celebrations

Graham Bean – The Scotsman

JLP : First up as ever it’s important to specify for those who may not know that “The Scotsman” is the name of a newspaper, in that line above I’m not trying to suggest that I believe Graham Bean to be THE Scotsman…

Seriously though, happy to share an article checking in on the Glasgow celebrations, obviously I’d prefer if it could be Leinster but like I have said several times the Warriors were indeed worthy champions.

My favourite bit of celebratory fun has to be this pic shared by Jamie Bhatti.  Bit disrespectful to their hosts?  Maybe.  But given the sign is there to intimidate, does that make it fair game when you win there?  Too fucking right.

***CLICKBAIT OF THE WEEK AWARD***

Groundbreaking AI technology has unveiled its jaw-dropping forecasts for the next four decades of Six Nations glory, and the results are nothing short of mind-blowing.

Supercomputer predicts shock England finish for 2025 Six Nations

Ruck.co.uk

JLP : Normally the point of my weekly “Clickbait of the Week” award is to show an article that is being misleading to get you to click so I don’t actually include the link itself.  Since this week’s offering involves what is clearly a typo, I will break this rule and just to be clear the screengrab I took was from Tuesday lunchtime so it’s very possible they may have fixed it.

To be fair, if the 2025 Six Nations did finish like that, it WOULD be a shock.

WRAP OF A WRAP

No wrap this week but I did do a spot of harpin’ on Caolán Scully’s pod, going back over Leinster’s season wasn’t exactly an easy task but I always enjoy an aul egg-chasing chat regardless and it is worth checking out.

QUICK TAP : URC = THE BEST LEAGUE

Super Rugby may be “super”

Premiership Rugby may be “premier”

and the 🔝🐱🐴 may be “top”

but given the on-field product amid

all it’s numerous off-field challenges,

The URC is still the best.

(and remember that’s coming from a fan of one of the 13 clubs yet to win it)

Below are the links used in screengrabs for the video.

URC original spin link here

URC 2024 TV figures here

@harpinonrugby

Super Rugby may be ‘super’, Premiership may be ‘premier’ and 🔝🐱🐴may be ‘top’, but once again URC is the best.

♬ original sound – Harpinonrugby.com – Harpinonrugby.com

TROLL PATROL

Can’t believe I’ve had this Troll Patrol feature going for a few weeks and there is yet to be a Welsh contributor!  But if there was ever going to be a Welsh contributor it was always going to be Phil, he’s the best of the bunch.  Never misses an opportunity to have a pop at Leinster or Ireland, and the only positive from his latest series of posts is that they are not accompanied by a screengrab of the IRFU spending which he seems to collect religiously year on year.  

The post above I chose is a response to a tweet I sent just after full time in the URC final – I mean, having seen Phil’s work for several years I actually understand the point he is trying to make but still he is so obsessed with a desire to view Irish rugby negatively that he doesn’t see that the priority chart he outlines here actually makes sense for any organisation!!! I would have thought test rugby > Champions Cup > URC was the proper order of things but then again he’d probably rather see all the attention of the rugby world going to Llandovery v Carmarthen Quins… 

If you ever see an online contribution that seems worthy of inclusion here, by all means do share.

“SVNS” UPDATE

The draw was made for the Olympic pools…the press are saying it’s a tricky one for both Irish teams but I reckon we should fancy our chances of reaching the knockouts in each case, we’re certainly not underdogs anymore.

Hamburg is the destination this week for the second and final round of the Rugby 

HAMBURG 7s

FRI JUNE 28

10AM – WOMEN V CZECHIA

12:14PM – MEN V CROATIA

2:44PM – WOMEN V FRANCE

5:14PM – MEN V BELGIUM

SAT JUNE 29

9:36AM – WOMEN V PORTUGAL

9:44AM – MEN V PORTUGAL

🔝🐱🐴 UPDATE

All we have seen over the past few weeks is a media inquest over what’s wrong with Leinster…now to be fair, three successive seasons falling Champions Cup final and URC semifinals does merit that scrutiny by our standards, but how about the standards at La Rochelle, who also got to domestic SFs but only made it to last 8 in Europe?  And they lost a hell of a lot more times throughout the season than Leinster did.  Funny, that.

Anyway…under normal circumstances I would be shouting for Bordeaux in Friday’s final but apparently a Toulouse win will give Leinster a top seed in the Champions Cup draw so allez les noir et rouges!!!!!  Still would be too gutted if UBB took it, to be honest.

PLAYOFFS

TOULON 29-34 LA ROCHELLE 

BORDEAUX 31-17 RACING 92 

RELEGATION

GRENOBLE 18-20 MONTPELLIER 

SEMIFINALS

TOULOUSE V LA ROCHELLE

STADE FRANÇAIS V BORDEAUX

FINAL

FRI JUNE 28

TOULOUSE V BORDEAUX

SUPER RUGBY PACIFIC UPDATE

Not much to say here except congrats to the Blues, their first title in a long time and what better time to do it when the Crusaders have disappeared.  All a very ‘meh’ campaign however what with the NZ franchises dominating yet again and with the Rebels gone it will make the 11-team tournament (most likely still with 8 reaching the knockouts) start to look almost as bad as the Premiership.

QUARTERFINALS

CHIEFS 43-21 REDS

HURRICANES 47-20 REBELS

BLUES 36-5 FIJIAN DRUA

BRUMBIES 32-16 HIGHLANDERS

SEMIFINALS

BLUES 34-20 BRUMBIES

HURRICANES 19-30 CHIEFS

FINAL

BLUES 41-10 CHIEFS

MAJOR LEAGUE RUGBY UPDATE

Finally got a chance to catch a full MLR game this season, I suppose Leinster’s lack of fixture last weekend gave me the free time…ANYWAY thanks to the free service by the Rugby Network I checked out my latest adopted team Chicago Hounds who have Dave Kearney, Nick McCarthy and Luke Carty in their ranks but in the end it was two later tries from Dylan Fawsitt, who was hooker for Blackrock College in their Jordi Murphy-led Leinster Schools Cup winning side in 2009 before going stateside a few years later, that won the day for Chicago.  

I have to say it was a very entertaining match – Anthem RC, an expansion team based in Charlotte, North Carolina, had lost all their previous 14 matches but while the result was expected, it was by no means certain until Fawsitt’s second try in the 73rd minute.  The lead changed hands several times as Anthem tried to win for the home crowd but in the end Chicago’s superior territory game won out.   They are now guaranteed a playoff spot but can finish no higher than third and need to beat Miami in the final round next weekend to ensure that.

Elsewhere there were some interesting results at the top of both conferences.  NOLA defeated New England at home which meant if the seedings hold that would make for a fascinating Eastern final while in the west, San Diego bounced back from last week’s defeat in Chicago to topple runaway leaders Houston, and although it looks like they won’t be able to win by enough points against Seattle next weekend to overtake them in 2nd spot, they can still do enough damage to show they can beat them when they definitely meet in knockout rugby a week later.

ROUND 17

NOLA GOLD 27-17 NEW ENGLAND

ANTHEM RC 29-38 CHICAGO

MIAMI 17-12 OLD GLORY

UTAH 50-46 DALLAS

SEATTLE 29-12 LOS ANGELES

SAN DIEGO 37-24 HOUSTON

ROUND 18

UTAH V LOS ANGELES

NEW ENGLAND V ANTHEM

CHICAGO V MIAMI

OLD GLORY V NOLA GOLD

HOUSTON V DALLAS

SAN DIEGO V SEATTLE

HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE

I was considering gambling on Glasgow but with the risk of dropping to 7th I played it safe for the final, and as it turned out we all did so there was no change in the final standings.  Kristian as you can see has quite rightly shown pride in his prolific prediction prowess.

As for Keego, he must now not only retain the Jersey of Shame but also don it for another selfie which I will post all over the Harpin network as the League rules demand.  

Next season I hope to expand the league to at least 10, with the possibility of a cup competition thrown in for good measure, we shall see.

NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

Slowly getting back into the swing of things after a short break…as if there hasn’t been enough rugby in South Africa for us to harp on, there’s loads more to come what with the Irish tour and the World Under 20s – I have a preview pod for the Wolfpuppies to be posted on Friday and then on Monday evening I’m assembling another “all-provincial panel” to look ahead to Ireland’s chances against the Springboks.  Be sure to keep up with all our social media channels with the usual amount of commenting, sharing, liking & subscribing.

And as ever, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are.  JLP

80+ column : June 19

We’re taking a step back for a week or two here at Harpin Manor so just a “Lite” version of the column this week, or an “Eighty plus minus” if you will…no Front Five for example.

On this week’s column…

🏉 IRISH SQUAD ANNOUNCEMENT

🏉 CGB RIP 

🏉 24/25 CHAMPIONS CUP DRAW

🏉 WRAP OF A WRAP

🏉 23/24 SEASON REVIEW

🏉 LEINSTER & IRELAND 1-SCORE LOSSES 

🏉 THE LEO CULLEN DEBATE

🏉 HOGG SAGA LATEST

🏉 TROLL PATROL

🏉 SEVENS SQUAD

🏉 UPDATES [INCL 🔝🐱🐴 & SUPER RUGBY]

IRELAND SQUAD ANNOUNCEMENT

I dont know about you but I very much want Ireland to win both of these tests.  Development is important that is no doubt, but with an Emerging Ireland tour planned for later in the year I see no reason why we shouldn’t do what we can to make these matches the clash of titans the rest of the rugby world expects it to be -back to back RWC champs v back-to-back 6N champs, with the Boks VERY keen to put the most recent results between the two behind them.  Besides, it’s not like we won’t get some chance to see how we get on without regulars in the 23 with JGP and Conan missing out.  

Thanks to Murray Kinsella’s breakdown of the positions below, I have had a go at selecting my matchday 23 for the first test, I’ve even included a new cap that wouldn’t be Leinster fancy that!!  6/2 bench has to be right for Loftus I’d say.

O’Brien, Nash, Henshaw, Aki, Lowe, Crowley, Casey

Porter, Sheehan, Furlong, McCarthy, Beirne, O’Mahony (c), van der Flier, Doris

Kelleher, Healy, Bealham, Ryan, Baird, Izuchukwu, Murray, Frawley.

CGP RIP

Awful, awful news.  Way, way too young.  His parents both played rugby in Ireland back in the 90s.

24/25 CHAMPIONS CUP DRAW

Competition draws aren’t exactly sexy topics and the one for next season’s Champions Cup isn’t until Tuesday July 2, and although the competition format hasn’t changed there was some news specific to Leinster in today’s press release from EPCR…

For the purposes of the draw, the clubs will be divided into two tiers, Tier 1 and Tier 2. The four clubs in Tier 1 will be: Stade Toulousain (2024 Investec Champions Cup winners), Northampton Saints (2024 Gallagher Premiership winners), as well as the 2024 URC and 🔝🐱🐴  winners. If Stade Toulousain win the 🔝🐱🐴  title, then the Investec Champions Cup final runners-up, Leinster Rugby, will be included in Tier 1.

WRAP OF A WRAP

Wrapping defeats are never fun on the one hand, but on the other there’s still the whole “show must go on” of it all so we did a full wrap pod where as well as a shortened “match timeline section” we also went back over Leinster’s season overall.  Tom Coleman & Mark Jackson seem to be getting more than their share of bad results when they appear on the pod but they still did a great job.

As you can see below we also found time to harp on a couple of extra relevant topics, all of them have been getting decent engagement over the past few days.

If you missed the wrap pod, here’s a link for Spotify but it’s also available on Apple and other platforms, please subscribe there too and/or leave a review if you can.

LEINSTER’S & IRELAND’S 1-SCORE LOSSES

Lead-in question : OK now I’d like to chat for a bit about one-score matches.  Much has been said about the Springboks winning their second World Cup in a row on the back of three successive one-point victories, and then of course Jacques Nienaber switched to Leinster where as you can see by the screen there, we’ve had a string of defeats in recent seasons of 5 points or less, and I have also added results of the Irish team as well as, just for good measure, the Munster semifinal loss as they had both the Irish captain and starting outhalf playing for them.  You can say each and every one of these results played a part in an Irish team falling short of silverware so starting with yourself Tom, is there a pattern to be seen here?

THE RESULTS IN QUESTION :

FRA 30-24 IRE, LEI 21-24 LAR, LEI 26-27 BUL, LEI 15-16 MUN,  LEI 26-27 LAR, IRE 24-28 NZL

LEI 21-22 ULS, ENG 23-22 IRE, TLS 15-15* LEI, ULS 23-21 LEI, BUL 25-20 LEI, MUN 10-17 GLA  

* = after 80m

THE LEO CULLEN DEBATE

Lead-in question : This is a discussion I have tried to steer away from for quite a while now but it has been bubbling under the surface among Leinster fans on the social media platforms I’d say since our defeat in the Marseille final so obviously by now after two more campaigns gone without silverware, the calls are getting even louder so it’s probably about time we harped on it.  On the one hand you don’t want the very ‘footbally’ knee-jerk reactions to defeats calling for the coach to be fired, I mean most clubs in Europe wouldn’t come close to competing on two fronts every season the way we do, but on the other hand when you’ve won 4 Heineken Cups and 8 league titles over the years, the standards are always going to be high and for the past few seasons Leinster have fallen short.  So starting with yourself Mark, is it time for a change at the top?

HOGG SAGA LATEST

After deciding to leave out the Front Five this week, there ended up being four stories I felt I had to include in the column so I’m sure I could have found a fifth to keep the segment going, but then again with this Hogg story returning like an awful smell I figured it best to shift it further down the page. 

Not exactly wild about how RugbyPass framed Hogg’s situation – “blighted by personal problems” suggests there might be someone to blame other than the man himself.

Let’s just say I will absolutely not be supporting MHR next season and I’m delighted there is very little chance Leinster will be playing them.

TROLL PATROL

A couple of weeks ago, I challenged a trolling comment from ‘mahasamatman’ offering them to appear on the pod…the challenge was genuine and if I got a response I would take steps to make it happen.  As you can see by their latest offering, it looks like they are choosing to ignore my invitation.  🐔

If you ever see an online contribution that seems worthy of inclusion here, by all means do share.

“SVNS” UPDATE

No Irish teams in action until next weekend in Hamburg (see fixtures below) but there is still a lot of relevant stuff going on in the 7s world, not least of which was the announcement of the squads for the Olympics, with Lucy Rock & Harry McNulty named the respective captains.

We will know our opponents in Paris by this Sunday evening when the draw is made following the Monaco 7s which will decide the last 4 qualifiers in each gender.  Those tournaments will be streamed live on RugbyPassTV over the weekend with the like of GB and RSA involved on the men’s side and Argentina on the women’s.

OLYMPIC SQUADS

Ireland Women’s Sevens Squad – Paris 2024: 

Kathy Baker (Blackrock College RFC)

Megan Burns (Blackrock College RFC)

Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe (Railway Union RFC)

Alanna Fitzpatrick (Portarlington RFC/Blackrock College RFC)

Stacey Flood (Railway Union RFC)

Eve Higgins (Railway Union RFC)

Erin King (Old Belvedere RFC)

Vicky Elmes Kinlan (Wicklow RFC)

Emily Lane (Blackrock College RFC)

Ashleigh Orchard (Cooke RFC)

Béibhinn Parsons (Blackrock College RFC)

Lucy Rock (Wicklow RFC)(captain)

Travelling Reserves:

Claire Boles (Railway Union RFC)

Amy Larn (Athy RFC).

Ireland Men’s Sevens Squad – Paris 2024:

Niall Comerford (UCD RFC)

Jordan Conroy (Buccaneers RFC)

Hugo Keenan (UCD RFC/Leinster)

Jack Kelly (Dublin University FC)

Terry Kennedy (St Mary’s College RFC)

Hugo Lennox (Skerries RFC)

Harry McNulty (UCD RFC)(captain)

Gavin Mullin (UCD RFC)

Chay Mullins (Galway Corinthians RFC/Connacht/IQ Rugby)

Mark Roche (Lansdowne FC)

Andrew Smith (Clontarf FC/Connacht)

Zac Ward (Ballynahinch RFC)

Travelling Reserves:

Sean Cribbin (Suttonians RFC)

Bryan Mollen (UCD RFC)

HAMBURG 7s

FRI JUNE 28

10AM – WOMEN V CZECHIA

12:14PM – MEN V CROATIA

2:44PM – WOMEN V FRANCE

5:14PM – MEN V BELGIUM

SAT JUNE 29

9:36AM – WOMEN V PORTUGAL

9:44AM – MEN V PORTUGAL

🔝🐱🐴 UPDATE

All season we have been highlighting on these pages what a bad season La Rochelle are having yet they go and make the final four to face their nemesis Toulouse, who may be polishing their 6th star but with this seeming to be the Year of The Nemesis Reversal (Leinster beating LAR twice, Toulouse beating Leinster) plus the fact that the French play their semifinals on “neutral” grounds (not so much in Bordeaux’s case) you wouldn’t bet against them having another crack at a first Brennus.

That said, as you see in the segment on the Champion Cup draw earlier in the column, a Toulouse win would help Leinster out, so there’s that.

Meanwhile the other semifinal appears to be a tossup between Stade would would be favourites on form if it were held in any other city but UBB will be keen to use every advantage possible to reverse their Champions Cup quarterfinal disappointment.

Then there’s Montpellier who stayed in the top flight by the skin of their teeth with a two point win over Grenoble.  We’ll still be covering both sides on these pages next season as I plan to include the ProD2 in our update section.

PLAYOFFS

TOULON 29-34 LA ROCHELLE 

BORDEAUX 31-17 RACING 92 

RELEGATION

GRENOBLE 18-20 MONTPELLIER 

SEMIFINALS (BOTH IN BORDEAUX)

FRI JUNE 21

TOULOUSE V LA ROCHELLE

SAT JUNE 22

STADE FRANÇAIS V BORDEAUX

SUPER RUGBY PACIFIC UPDATE

Not a good day for future Leinster employees Jordie Barrett and Tyler Bleyendaal…hopefully the Hurricane’s exit in the semifinals won’t have a bearing on how they get on when they travel north!  Still promises to be a fascinating Auckland v Waikato final, I’ve always had a soft spot for the Blues and I’m not sure they’ll get a better chance than this to lift their first SR title since 2003.

QUARTERFINALS

CHIEFS 43-21 REDS

HURRICANES 47-20 REBELS

BLUES 36-5 FIJIAN DRUA

BRUMBIES 32-16 HIGHLANDERS

SEMIFINALS

BLUES 34-20 BRUMBIES

HURRICANES 19-30 CHIEFS

FINAL

SAT JUNE 22

BLUES V CHIEFS

MAJOR LEAGUE RUGBY UPDATE

Really big win for my adopted team the Chicago Hounds, with Dave Kearney, Nick McCarthy, Jack Carty and Paddy Ryan all starting as they defeated San Diego (complete with Matt Giteau and the still-scoring-tries-at-42 Ma’a Nonu) to put them all but in the playoffs, with chances in the final two rounds to move up even higher.

Elsewhere Houston edged Seattle to stay top in the west while New England need just one more win to lock down home advantage in the east.

ROUND 16

DALLAS 34-36 OLD GLORY

HOUSTON 28-25 SEATTLE

NEW ENGLAND 36-27 UTAH

ANTHEM RC 14-30 MIAMI

LOS ANGELES 21-38 NOLA GOLD

CHICAGO 22-16 SAN DIEGO

ROUND 17

SAT JUNE 22

NOLA GOLD V NEW ENGLAND

SUN JUNE 23

ANTHEM RC V CHICAGO

MIAMI V OLD GLORY

UTAH V DALLAS

SEATTLE V LOS ANGELES

SAN DIEGO V HOUSTON

HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE

Glasgow’s win at Thomond Park not only ended the provinces’ URC hopes, but with Kristian gambling for the upset it has also looked like handing him the HPL title.  With the multiplier in force for the playoffs, Kino CAN catch him, but only if they make different picks for the final and his is the right one.  The Superbru app only tells you who others have chosen when the matches kick off, and if it turns out that they made the same selection then the title belongs to Kristian.

Jay is guaranteed 3rd place but as for me in 4th, I’m anything but – in fact, with Conor, Mark & Tom all breathing down my neck I could finish as low as 7th so I’ll have to make my final decision very carefully.

NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

The plan is to take a break for at least a week with the next planned content on these pages being another 80+ column next Wednesday.  But I’m sure in the meantime I’ll be tempted to drop the odd x or TikTok along the way so do keep an eye out.

Plus I’ll be appearing on Caolán Scully’s pod from Thursday evening as well as our regular Dublin South FM slot so there’s always harpin’ going on somewhere!

And as ever, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are.  JLP

356 : Bulls v Leinster & 23/24 season wrap

15 June 2024; Joe McCarthy of Leinster, left, after his side’s defeat in the United Rugby Championship semi-final match between Vodacom Bulls and Leinster at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria, South Africa. Photo by Shaun Roy/Sportsfile

🏉 Kicking game

🏉 Early conservation?

🏉 Predictability

🏉 Petersen chasing

🏉 Season review

@harpinonrugby

Pod now available on Apple, Spotify etc with bonus material on our YouTube channel throughout the week #LeinsterRugby #rugbytiktok

♬ original sound – Harpinonrugby.com – Harpinonrugby.com

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

TOM COLEMAN

MARK JACKSON

FULL TIME TAKES

Brian Corr

Heartbreaking really, you could see players struggling in the conditions but Bulls were really up for it.

Some simple things going wrong don’t want to point out individuals but snappy passing failing us too many passes dropped taking away the momentum, a couple of kicks went awry as well, the Bulls kicking was exceptional for finding distance giving them a great home advantage.

I thought Joe Mc legally turned over the ball in the middle of the field but ref giving them a penalty seemed harsh, can someone explain why Donal on commentary was giving out about him, I’m perplexed.

Scrum a massive issue, now I’m really hoping Ireland go down and win both tests, anything else and we’re in for a torrid slagging 😂

Can someone explain why when Leinster score 87 tries second only to the Bulls on 88 everyone is saying Leinsters attack is terrible?

Lastly it’s not Bernard Jackman’s fault, based on the evidence Bulls weren’t all that, they just became all that today and fair play to them.

William Andrew

Leinster looked stale. They were moved around the park by a very clever Bulls side. It was obvious at half time Leinsters game was in trouble, its change it or lose it at that point.

Has Leinster improved this season? The answer is a resounding no.

Greg Kelly

Goodman took the best attack in world rugby and turned it into a toothless mess. Neinaber took the toothless mess and turned it into a leaky, depressing to watch toothless mess. The whole setup needs a shot of something heavy next season. Put Prendergast in at 10. Use Frawley as utility cover and Ross as the backup 10. Stop shitting on the shirt by offering the youngsters up as meat on a plate to SA teams away. Use the Academy players at home against the Dragons and Zebre and other weaker teams to build their confidence…not shatter it under a 50 point tonking.

The attitudes on the training ground build a season and clearly they are off

James Murphy

Some poor decisions from management during season

Definitely need a 10 for this level, and a second 9, McGrath was overwhelmed, also Larmar too small for this level.

Pack were bunched

Colin Mehigan

Not good enough…Tyler Bleyendaal can’t start soon enough…Nienaber’s lack of success at Munster is continuing at Leinster….does he have one year left on his contract? Sam P needs to be the starting 10 from the start of next season. Ridiculously long season. Players have been flogged into the ground. A season which will live short in the memory….yet again.

Sean MacDonnchadha

The organisation now has to be put under deserved pressure. A club side with the resources and depth of a world leading international side must expect more than consistent knockout performances becoming the new norm.Players trying their heart out and you can’t fault effort, but there is something technically wrong with their coaching and setup. If this were SA, England, France or NZ they would review with a cold mentality and introduce fresh changes. If we are serious about matching those nations then we need to do the same. Our RWC history is a clear and undeniable proof of this.

Cuan Mulligan

We were devoid of ideas in attack..Ross taking the ball with both feet planted 90% of the time.. one of the last plays and we’re looking at each other with not a clue what do to… huge fall from grace given the attacking threat we used to have. Take it on the chin; better team won… come on Munster… Ross to France please

Get in the conversation yourself by leaving

your own thoughts each week after the full time whistle 

in Leinster & Ireland matches on our Facebook page

URC WRAP

QUARTERFINALS

MUNSTER 23-7 OSPREYS

BULLS 30-23 BENETTON

LEINSTER 43-20 ULSTER

GLASGOW WARRIORS 27-10 STORMERS

SEMIFINALS

BULLS 25-20 LEINSTER

MUNSTER 10-17 GLASGOW

GRAND FINAL

SAT JUNE 22

BULLS V GLASGOW

HARPIN MATCH WRAPS

ARE BROUGHT TO YOU BY

THE IRISH RUGBY SHOP

AT ELVERYS

355 : Bulls v Leinster preview

also available as podcast

Our guest : NEIL “KEEGO” KEEGAN

www.keegolaughs.com

Apologies Up Front on Apple Podcasts

CONTRIBUTE TO KEEGO’S CHARITY WAXING HERE

LEINSTER : 15. Jimmy O’Brien 14. Jordan Larmour 13. Garry Ringrose 12. Robbie Henshaw 11. James Lowe 10. Ross Byrne 9. Jamison Gibson-Park

1. Andrew Porter 2. Dan Sheehan 3. Tadhg Furlong 4. Joe McCarthy 5. James Ryan (c) 6. Ryan Baird 7. Josh van der Flier 8. Caelan Doris

16. Rónan Kelleher 17. Cian Healy 18. Michael Ala’alatoa 19. Ross Molony 20. Jack Conan 21. Luke McGrath 22. Ciarán Frawley 23. Jamie Osborne 

BULLS : 15 W le Roux 14 S Petersen 13 D Kriel 12 H Vorster 11 D Williams 10 J Goosen 9 E Papier

1 G Steenkamp 2 J Grobelaar 3 W Louw 4 R Vermaak 5 R Nortje (c) 6 M van Staden 7 E Louw 8 C Hankenom

16 A van der Merwe 17 S Matanzima 18 F Klopper 19 R Ludwig 20 N Carr 21 K Johannes 22 C Smith 23 C Smit

BKT United Rugby Championship 2023/24 Semifinal

Saturday, June 15, 2024

KO 3pm (Irish time) Loftus Versfeld

Live on: RTÉ1, Premier Sports, URC.tv

Referee: Sam Grove-White (SRU)

AR 1: Mike Adamson (SRU)

AR 2: Adam Jones (WRU)

TMO: Ben Whitehouse (WRU)