Italy were solid and pumped, only for the cards they may well have won this game, Ireland were good in spells but a lot of unforced errors, something you did not see in the 2022/23 season
Eamon Saunders
Sorry to say but the second best team won today and sad to say the the ref and TMO were bad 5 mins looking at a knock on and 5 seconds looking a a perfect try
John Hyland
(reply to Eamon Saunders) I totally disagree. Ireland played poorly but they were not the second best team
Cormac Mannion
We looked badly coached today. Zero inventiveness and unsure in defence. Far too many unforced errors
Angela Cassin Jackson
Tough game but a win is a win. 4 out of 5 wins and a triple crown a lot to be proud of. Well done Ireland as usual they represented their country wonderfully 💚☘️💚☘️💚☘️💚
Gavin Hegarty
We were shit at the things you can’t coach. Bad knock ons and handling errors. Really not like us.
We looked unfit and unmotivated.
Crowley left too many points out there
,this is meant to be his strength. 2/5 just isn’t good enough.
Sean MacDonnchadha
Thank god this hobble towards the end of the tournament has come. Gameplan needs an overhaul, skill levels need to come up, fitness looks an issue, depth needs to be built, attack needs to be less reliant on just set piece plays and most importantly confidence needs to be rebuilt.
Monica Keeler
Lets just applaud the lads ..and our 3 Retirees Cian, Peter and Conor..we better regroup before next year…Dont see many Lions in our squad.. oh and no way Lowe was in touch 🤬
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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.
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?”
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.
Porter, Sheehan, Bealham, J McCarthy, Beirne, Conan, van der Flier, Doris (c)
G McCarthy/Kelleher, Healy, Furlong, Ryan, Baird, Murray, Crowley, Henshaw
caveat : I have no “ITK” a la Thornley
OFFICIAL UPDATE posted Monday
Tadhg Furlong, Mack Hansen and Garry Ringrose are all set to return. James Lowe (back) is being monitored but has shown improvement since Saturday, and the same applies for Rónan Kelleher. A decision on their availability will be made later this week.
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.
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.
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.
Game lost in first 20 minutes. We didn’t achieve the points to counter the French flair. What came after was very predictable.
Gavin Macarthur
France came to play rugby and they are a fantastic team. The Irish squad can learn a lot from this kind of defeat – at least the openings for the younger players are starting to appear. It is never good to see ‘supporters’ leaving the stadium early – poor form.
Cuan Mulligan
France deserved the win. However…. Odd decision about POM been taken out, French player then runs through that hole. Ref shouting at France to use the ball 3 or 4 times, well over 5 seconds and nothing. Conor Murray upright and we drive him over the line, utterly confusing strategy, should have got him to ground and gone again. Be interesting to get the stats of how many no tries Ireland have by been held up…
Ger Ecki
Another crunch match lost and lost comprehensively…..Another poor performance when challenged. Slams lost 2 years running by losing one crucial match. Got away with it last year by being over feted for winning the Championship…..not so lucky this time. Losing Lowe at the beginning meant we lost our only reliable backline try scorer but they lost DuPont so all bets were off. Ireland collapsed and didn’t fire a shot. Those last 2 trys were gifted by an exhausted French who knew they had the job done….
James Griffin
Outmuscled all day long. We didn’t have the power to break their defence or stop their offence.
Get in the conversation yourself by leaving
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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.
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?”
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…
Overall Top Team Season Totals
Carries: 1740 Connacht
Defenders Beaten: 307 Connacht
Kicks in Play: 333 Vodacom Bulls
Metres: 5174 Munster
Points: 360 Leinster
Tackles: 2088 Cardiff Rugby
Tries: 53 Glasgow Warriors
Turnover Won: 88 Leinster
Visits To 22: 145 Leinster
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.
Porter, Sheehan, Bealham, J McCarthy, Beirne, O’Mahony, van der Flier, Doris (c)
G McCarthy, Healy, Furlong, Ryan, Conan, Murray, Crowley, Osborne
caveat : I have no “ITK” a la Thornley
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.
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.
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
1 March 2025; Charlie Tector of Leinster on his way to scoring his side’s fifth try during the United Rugby Championship match between Leinster and Cardiff Rugby at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
CORRECTION – On the pod I say Leinster’s lead in the URC is 12 points, I’m more than happy to update that it is actually 13! Apologies for the error.
Ultimately a great result. Bit sticky for a while there. Excellent 2nd half and score just before halftime critical. Scrum excellent. Cardiff a dynamic team not the taken lightly.
Kevin Kelehan
That Tommy O’Brien hit just before he was subbed was worth 7 points having saved a certain try with an easy run up to the posts, Cardiff were decent out wide and made a match of it. Great to see younger players like Jack Boyle and Charlie Tector growing into battle hardened options for tougher contests.
Martin Lynch
Was at the match. Sloppy 1st Half . Lots of possession poor execution. 2nd half was totally different. Sharper Faster Better . Well Done and lots of Debutants.
👍🏉💙
Chris McDonnell
Some really good stuff. Excellent to see so many of the young players do so well.
Get in the conversation yourself by leaving
your own thoughts each week after the full time whistle
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.
Had two contributors lined up for this week’s pod, unfortunately both had to pull out. The cheek of them having “real life” get in the way! Seriously though, this meant I had to look for replacements and on short notice I was lucky to get at least one, very grateful to Ciarán Duffy of Post to Post Sport for stepping in to the breach.
But this meant that if I was to keep to the wrap pod format I had to describe the timeline of the second half myself and I never realised that I had never actually done this before for the pod. I see now it’s quite the challenge and it only made me appreciate what the team of contributors do week to week. I also enjoyed it though, didn’t hurt that I had the better of the two halves for Ireland!
For our bonus chat this week I went beyond the wrap pod panel and recorded a chat with Ailbhe who runs the excellent Bluesky account @IrishWomens and is soon starting her own podcast in time for the Women’s Six Nations so this was an opportunity to preview that, look at the Irish Women’s season overall and also of course to plug the new pod. Please do check it out.
LEINSTER SQUAD UPDATE
Updates are tricky to work out at this time of year because while the province will focus on the players not involved in the Ireland squad and with the A international in Bristol on Sunday we have to factor that in as well as those players who came off the bench in Cardiff.
There is one further factor to consider…the need for as much continuity as possible since this is the group of players that will likely travel to South Africa fer two critical matches right after the Six Nations. And it just so happens this year we come across the top two RSA sides form wise, the Bulls and the Sharks, both of whom have enjoyed a run of games together since January with full squads and no test rugby getting in the way.
With that in mind for my predicted 23 I have gone with as much of the group that went to the Ospreys as I can, assuming Ciarán Frawley must miss out which could lead to a debut for Caspar Gabriel, we’ll see.
HARPIN’ POSSIBLE MATCHDAY 23 V CARDIFF
15. Jimmy O’Brien 14. Tommy O’Brien 13. Hugh Cooney 12. Charlie Tector 11. Andrew Osborne 10. Ross Byrne 9. Luke McGrath
1. Jack Boyle 2. Gus McCarthy 3. Rabah Slimani 4. Diarmuid Mangan 5. Brian Deeny 6. Max Deegan 7. Scott Penny 8. James Culhane
16. John McKee 17. Paddy McCarthy 18. Rory McGuire 19. RG Snyman 20. Alex Soroka 21. Fintan Gunne 22. Casper Gabriel 23. Rob Russell
caveat : I have no “ITK” a la Thornley
LEINSTER SQUAD UPDATE
AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Rob Russell: has returned to full training and is available for selection.
NOT AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Cormac Foley: has picked up a calf injury and will be unavailable for selection
NO FURTHER UPDATES ON:
Michael Milne and Jordan Larmour.
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’s not often you see test players from the same nation take an online pop at each other, yet while you may think I’d lean towards the Leinster player in this exchange, I actually believe Luke deserved everything he got from Choo Choo Stu here.
Maybe I don’t listen to him that often but from what I have heard it seems his long term punditry plans would be to become “the next George Hook” and if so I’d strongly advise he gives that a serious rethink.
Anyway Stu gets the award this week, but in this case it’s for what I call “the good kind” of trolling.
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.
Premiership
🔝🐱🐴
ProD2
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, this weekend sees a Clash Of Titans between last year’s league champion Kristian and current runaway leader Kino.
Wales were so much better today, played with width and offloaded really accurately. Doris certainly missed and Ringrose’s mistimed tackle didn’t help. Likely France only 3 points behind us after this weekend which makes a win essential in 2 weeks time.
Peggy Sibbald
Well done Ireland..but hats of to Wales they played a massive game of Rugby 👏👏👏
Craig Grehan
That was an epic battle. Sloppy but epic. I think it will stand to us better than if we’d gone out and hammered them. Not that it was gonna happen. Fair play Wales. But fair play Ireland for sticking it out and showing the grit between the teeth
Michelle Tobin
Scrum was an unmitigated disaster. We were lucky not to concede a yellow for the repeated penalties. So many players will watch that performance back and be embarrassed. Some dreadful stuff. A few bright sparks, Osborne, Lowe, Conan and Beirne but plenty of others sub-par.
Greg Kelly
Ireland were poor but did the job when needed. In fairness had we played well for 60 mins of that game we would have won comfortably and I think we allowed Wales to play well. Was surprised Ringrose was upgraded to red but there was some really bizzare interactions between referee and TMO in that game 🤷♂️
Jackie McEachern
Grateful for the win. We missed Doris, hoping he’s back for France and also hoping Conan’s injury isn’t serious. I thought it was a little strange that Crowley wasn’t brought on until so late in the game.
Get in the conversation yourself by leaving
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HARPIN' ON RUGBY 