Hello and welcome to our latest 80+ column where I generally harp on things not so Leinster-and-or-Ireland-men’s-team-related.
It may have been pod episode 404 but there were no errors to be heard from Ciarán and Jay as they summed up the win over the Stormers. ICYMI click here to check it out on Spotify or you’ll also find us on Apple and most major platforms.
FRONT FIVE
A selection of eye-catching egg-chasing quotes & links from around the rugby media landscape
6N PAYWALL
UPDATE SINCE RECORDING VIDEO 👇👇👇👇
SAM V JACK
JOHNNY COME LATELY
CURRIES FAVOURED
SCHOOL TIES
HARPIN ON…IRISH 23 V ENGLAND
For this week’s bonus chat the panel looked at a possible matchday squad for Ireland against England. We each took a portion of the team, Jay the pack, Ciarán the backs and myself the bench.
For my part I wanted to make a point about the complaints over Leinster players getting into the team more because of where they come from rather than how they are playing so I included Ian Henderson and Peter O’Mahony on my bench, not because I necessarily want them there, rather because I reckon they have a decent shout of making it and if they do, nobody will complain because it would be at the expense of the likes of Jack Conan and Ryan Baird.
A similar point that I didn’t make in the video is about Max Deegan…like Thomas Ahern he can consider himself unlucky to be in the squad but because he plays for Leinster, you won’t hear a peep from anyone about it in the general discourse.
This bonus topic also replaces our usual “Leinster squad update” which will return ahead of the Ospreys match in a couple of weeks.
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.
This week’s trolling is A Tale Of Two Tweets – we had failed to beat the Stormers in three attempts so you could hardly blame Captain Springbok for his hubris ahead of Saturday’s match. As you can see he had very much changed his tune by the 74m mark…
URC BY THE NUMBERS
In real terms the only stat that matters as far as Leinster is concerned is 11, namely the number of points clear we are at the top. Ideally we’d like to keep that margin where it is before we travel to South Africa after the Six Nations, although Glasgow Warriors may have something to say about that in the next two rounds, not to mention our opponents Ospreys and Cardiff!!!
Still I thought it was interesting to share these stat leaders at the end of January. Not many Leinster leaders although Max Deegan on the lineout steals plus a joint first in “turnovers won” do draw the eye.
Overall Top Players After R10
Carries: 152 Geronimo Prisciantelli (Zebre Parma)
Defenders Beaten: 40 Tom Farrell (Munster)
Kicks in Play: 113 Gareth Davies (Scarlets)
Lineout Steals: 8 Max Deegan (Leinster)
Lineouts Won: 47 Teddy Williams (Cardiff Rugby)
Metres: 596 Mike Haley (Munster)
Passes: 541 Gareth Davies (Scarlets)
Tackles: 158 Teddy Williams (Cardiff Rugby)
Tries: 7 Johnny Matthews (Glasgow Warriors)
Turnover Won: 13 Manuel Zuliani (Benetton)
Overall Top Team Season Totals
Carries: 1437 Connacht
Defenders Beaten: 258 Connacht
Kicks in Play: 297 Dragons RFC
Metres: 4315 Munster
Points: 296 Leinster
Tackles: 1676 Cardiff Rugby
Tries: 43 Leinster
Turnover Won: 75 Leinster / Scarlets
Visits To 22: 119 Leinster
Celtic Challenge
All Ireland Leagues
WOMEN’S AIL
MEN’S AIL
LEINSTER SCHOOLS SENIOR CUP
SVNS
CHALLENGE CUP
Premiership
🔝🐱🐴
ProD2
Japan League One
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 there’s still a way to go, and we’ve also added a Cup (or Mug) competition to make things interesting.
With an extra URC match still to forecast, I have a narrow enough lead over Jay in my quarterfinal but that could all change if we pick different winners between the Stormers and the Bulls on Feb 8.
NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
Fri 30th
Ireland v England preview featuring Keego
Dublin South 93.9FM Harpin’ slot right after 5pm news
Sat 1st
Leave comments on our Facebook page at full time after IREvENG
Sun 2nd
Our wrap pod featuring Cian O’Muilleoir & Hugo Gordon
25 January 2025; Jordie Barrett of Leinster scores his side’s third try during the United Rugby Championship match between Leinster and DHL Stormers at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile
Hello and welcome to our latest 80+ column where I generally harp on things not so Leinster-and-or-Ireland-men’s-team-related.
Many thanks to both Rich Mifsud and David Cordial for helping me wrap the victory over Bath at the weekend. Unfortunately I had audio issues halfway through but sure yiz don’t need to be listening to little ol’ me anyway, the lads were more than enough to harp on the match!!!
A selection of eye-catching egg-chasing quotes & links from around the rugby media landscape
ANTI-SOCIAL MEDIA
TRIPLE THREAT
ENGLAND CALL UPS
WOUNDED WARRIOR
ITV’S JONES-ING
HARPIN ON…THE ROAD TO CARDIFF
For this week’s bonus chat the panel took a quick look at the brackets for the European competitions to see how the road ahead looks for the Irish provinces as well as other leading contenders.
My apologies for my audio issues here, consequence of self-producing! Zoom stopped recognising my mic halfway through the wrap pod recording and I didn’t realise so it switched to the laptop one.
LEINSTER SQUAD UPDATE
Tougher than usual 23 to call this week. The mystery over Ciarán Frawley’s exclusion plus Tommy O’Brien’s curious omission from the injury update are just two obstacles. But the unavailability of the Six Nations squad members is pretty much nailed on, except for those returning from a spell on the sidelines who need game time.
For the second week in a row I’m going to have Fraley at 10 in my lineup with the assumption that “he has to start” but obviously that comes with no guarantees.
Although we can’t play anywhere near our full squad, this is a fixture we really should be targeting whatever our standing in the URC as the Stormers are the only team in the competition we have never beated, with two away defeats plus a 22-22 draw right after Ireland’s 2023 Grand Slam.
HARPIN’ POSSIBLE MATCHDAY 23 V STORMERS
J Osborne, A Osbourne, Tector, Barrett, Lowe, Frawley, McGrath
G McCarthy, Healy, Slimani, O’Tighearnaigh, Soroka, Gunne, R Byrne, Cooney
caveat : I have no “ITK” a la Thornley
AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Will Connors, Dan Sheehan and James Lowe: are all available for selection this week after returning to full training last week.
FURTHER ASSESSMENT REQUIRED:
Liam Turner: is due to step up his rehabilitation further this week and will be further assessed as the week progresses before a final decision is made on availability.
James Culhane: is due to step up his rehabilitation further this week and will be further assessed as the week progresses before a final decision is made on availability.
NO FURTHER UPDATES ON:
Rob Russell, 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.
I really really wish I could say this guy was joking with his reply here, and in fact you’d almost wonder maybe he had the point about some kind of conspiracy against Munster by the “IRFU-minati” but hang on….THERE’S A MUNSTER PLAYER IN THE SHOT.
Much like Marcus O’B as I mention in the above Front 5 video, fair play to the “mother ship” for addressing it so quickly, and also fair play to Harpin contributors/Troll Patrol Officers Tom Coleman & ConorCronin for identifying this week’s Troll Patrol detainee.
EPCR ANNOUNCE WHENS & WHERES
As I’m putting this column together the EPCR have released the times for the Round of 16 in the two competitions. No surprise that the two Sunday matches are both in France. Leinster are the first province in action and it was confirmed that the venue will be Croke Park. Not much doubt that La ROGelle v Munster is the tie of the round.
There’s just one wrinkle in this announcement was highlighted on X by frequent Harpin commenter Craig Williamson as you can see I replied with my own thoughts…
Irish Shield
Celtic Challenge
All Ireland Leagues
WOMEN’S AIL
MEN’S AIL
SVNS
CHALLENGE CUP
Premiership
🔝🐱🐴
ProD2
Japan League One
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 reaching the halfway stage, and we’ve also added a Cup (or Mug) competition to make things interesting.
For this coming weekend, we have the first of the Harpin’ Mug quarterfinals, and it’s me up against Jay Long. My Superbru score this weekend will be put up against his for a spot in the semifinals.
NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
Fri 24th
Leinster v Bath preview featuring Keego
Dublin South 93.9FM Harpin’ slot right after 5pm news
Sat 25th
Leave comments on our Facebook page at full time after LEIvSTO
18 January 2025; Jack Conan of Leinster on his way to scoring his side’s third try despite the attention of Finn Russell of Bath during the Investec Champions Cup Pool 2 match between Leinster and Bath at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Only just getting my breath back 🤣 Osborne, Henshaw, Slimani outstanding. All subs made an impact – great to see the attack firing against a team who are scoring so many points in the Prem!
David Ryle
Starting to get the balance between attack and defense.
Kevin Kelehan
Superb atmosphere at the Aviva, even 0-14 the crowd weren’t phased. Leinster were superb in the set piece, line out looks fixed, they won 4 or 5 scrum penalties, the development of Jamie Osborne is a joy to watch as was seeing Jack Conan back close to his best, RG Snyman continues to astonish in his ability to recycle out of contact and Doris and Van Der Flier are certifiable nuisances. Get those tickets for Cardiff
John Jones
Happy with the win but I’m not getting as excited as some people on here re: the attack. It only really started to flow once Bath had the red card. That was at 60mins and it was only 26-21 at that point. I think we still need to improve loads and I’m not convinced yet about playing that many players out of position
Greg Kelly
Have to wonder where the hallowed Premiership is left now? Their high flyers hammered by a team that was playing at max 70% only 50% of the game. I think Bath knew Leinster were going to unload on them with nasty hooks and body shots in the last 15-20 mins. Evidenced by them time wasting on 44 mins.
Jackie McEachern
I was really nervous through the first half but bench had a great impact in the second half. It’s the best I’ve seen our attack look in a long time! Here’s hoping it’s all starting to come together.
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 not so Leinster-and-or-Ireland-men’s-team-related.
With the Sunday kickoff we moved our recording to Monday evening with Tom & Kino doing a bang-up job going back over Leinster’s the amazing-yet-nail-biting win at the home of our old friends La Rochelle. The pod was the 18th of this, our 6th season, but those numbers are pretty boring so I’d best put it another way….the pod was our 400th since our first one way back in July 2019. There would have been a lot more by this stage if I hadn’t put off doing them for as long as I did, but I have to say I really enjoy them now, especially with such great knowledgeable guests to call on.
A selection of eye-catching egg-chasing quotes & links from around the rugby media landscape
ROG ON SAM
WOLFPUPPIES SQUAD
NOTE – on the video I lay claim to having “coined” the term Wolfpuppies. So I guess I should probably provide receipts so below is my first use of it back in Feb 2010 FWIW.
It also should be pointed out that I’m aware it’s very possible that absolutely nobody in the known universe (unknown ones too) would be willing to challenge my claim…
DUBLIN DERBY DATE
CAPTAIN MARO
HOGGWATCH FINALE?
HARPIN ON…POOL PERMUTATIONS
Cian ‘RugbyKino’ O’Muilleoir has created an excellent spreadsheet which goes through all the different permutations for the final round of Champions Cup pool matches. For our bonus chat this week he takes us through the 12 remaining matches to see how they can effect the Round of 16, with emphasis on the Irish provinces, of course.
SQUAD ANNOUNCEMENT/KINO’S 6N BINGO
The Irish squad announcement was made since we recorded the Front 5 video. First thought that creeped into my head was that I wonder if Ben Murphy will actually outshine Caolin Blade at Carton House but we’ll have more thoughts on our next pod which will be the Bath preview on Friday.
In the meantime when he’s not putting together permutation spreadsheets, Cian ‘RugbyKino’ O’Muilleoir has also been busy with this bingo card for the expected ABL** reactions to the squad; as I’m typing this, I’m one square away from a full line already…
SPAM SCAM? NO THANK YOU, MA’AM
Kino’s not the only Harpin contributor from this week’s pod who has been up to social media hi-jinx. Tom “Leinster Royalty” Coleman recently joined the mass migration from x/Twitter to BlueSky and he recently got his first ever bit of spam slipped into his DMs…
It was nice of Tom to share this so we could pass it on to our readers because, and I don’t want to shock you, but there may be a chance that BethKate2 isn’t actually a real person and won’t appreciate his brilliant rugby-themed response.
LEINSTER SQUAD UPDATE
First, the Leinster team announcement for La Rochelle was made an hour later than what has been the norm for years, in clear disregard for those trying to record preview podcasts on a schedule! Seriously though, it didn’t help Leinster’s (or the podcaster’s) cause that they then had to make two further changes seriously altering the back line.
Then on Tuesday we got some mixed news on the injury report, but the highlight is definitely that Messrs Sheehan & Lowe have jumped up from the dreaded bottom row to “Further Assessment Required”.
I doubt we’ll see either at the Aviva on Saturday but I would like to see a couple of changes and I reckon Hugo Keenan should get a start if fit, and more importantly, as well and all as Sam has been doing of late, I definitely feel Ciarán Frawley should get the nod at 10. He was only brought in to the Leinster 23 for LAR after TWO withdrawals so for him not to get European minutes in the boots at out-half would be a very bad signal to send in my view.
Also I really, really like The Porter Protocol even though I didn’t have it in my 23 last week. We’ll see if they continue it at the weekend.
Healy, Kelleher, Furlong, J McCarthy, Ryan, Baird, van der Flier, Doris (c)
G McCarthy, Porter, Slimani, Snyman, Conan, McGrath, Prendergast, Henshaw
caveat : I have no “ITK” a la Thornley
AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Tadhg Furlong, Jack Conan and Ciarán Frawley: all came through the game against La Rochelle with no issues after their return from injury and are available for selection.
FURTHER ASSESSMENT REQUIRED:
Tommy O’Brien: was ruled out of the starting XV last week as a precaution and will be further assessed this week before a final decision is made on availability.
James Lowe: is due to step up his rehabilitation further this week and will be further assessed as the week progresses before a final decision is made on availability.
Dan Sheehan: is due to step up his rehabilitation further this week and will be further assessed as the week progresses before a final decision is made on availability.
Will Connors: is due to step up his rehabilitation further this week and will be further assessed as the week progresses before a final decision is made on availability.
NOT AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Jordan Larmour: picked up a hamstring injury at training last week and will be unavailable for selection this week.
NO FURTHER UPDATES ON:
Rob Russell, Liam Turner, James Culhane and Michael Milne
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.
I’m actually detaining myself this week…I never said I wasn’t partial to the odd bit of trolling myself and I just couldn’t let this one go. People often talk about the “Dublin meeja” and how all the major national press organisations have been group-thinked into loving all things Leinster, but I reckon this obvious blunder by Gerry Thornley reveals a different picture, at least with certain journos.
We can certainly debate as to whether there’s favouritism from the “IRFU-mminati” towards Leinster but in this case, GT’s allegations of one rule for Connacht over Hansen and another for Leinster over Sexton are simply not true. And as extra spice we found an article in Gerry’s own publication to prove to the contrary. The author actually responds as you can see, I wonder if thought I was having a go at him instead?
Anyway…just to be clear, my intent here is not to highlight Thornley’s error itself – I have been known many’s a time to plough ahead and publish without an extra fact check once or twice over the years – rather to highlight the motivation that led to the error. Maybe some would call it Leinster Derangement Syndrome? 😜
Celtic Challenge
All Ireland Leagues
WOMEN’S AIL
MEN’S AIL
SVNS
CHALLENGE CUP
Premiership
🔝🐱🐴
ProD2
Japan League One
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 reaching the halfway stage, and we’ve also added a Cup (or Mug) competition to make things interesting.
NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
Fri 17th – Leinster v Bath preview featuring Mark Jackson
Sat 18th – Leave comments on our Facebook page at fulltime after LEIvBATH
Sun 19th – our wrap pod featuring Rich Mifsud & David Cordial
** = for those new to HarpinOnRugby “ABL” means “Anyone But Leinster”, a narrative we have found to be common in the ruggersphere, ironically since the province started winning stuff!!!
12 January 2025; Jamie Osborne of Leinster offloads to teammate Joe McCarthy before he runs through to score his side’s first try during the Investec Champions Cup Pool 2 match between Stade Rochelais and Leinster at Stade Marcel Deflandre in La Rochelle, France. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Botia was a nuisance when he came on. Leinster were very physical and really ripped into them in the first half but lost a bit of intensity after the substitutions. Both sides need to improve their place kicking.
Gavin Hegarty
Ok let’s not call a spade a shovel here. We won but it was far from satisfactory. So many schoolboy errors that a better side would have hugely punished us on. Our lineout is an utter sham, I don’t get how a pro team can have one so bad. I think some of the subs, like Byrne and McGrath, happened to early, prendergast was doing very well.
On a side note that TMO should be fired for raising the Doris tackle with the ref and for wasting everyone’s time reviewing it. I think he was aiming for the world’s first back to head penalty.
Jackie McEachern
Happy for the win away. Amazing defence and still lots to work on in attack. We can’t miss kicks like the one Byrne missed in games at this level. The kick Barrett missed was much more difficult and maybe we should have gone to the corner then?
For me MOTM was between JVDF and Doris.
Greg Kelly
We turned the tables on them. We had them running into brick walls and numerous times their sustained phase attack was driven 20-30m backwards. They did that to us in our 1st few encounters.
Ross Byrnes missed kick again I think will be another paving stone on his road out of the club. In a game like that you can’t miss those kicks
Kevin Kelehan
O’Gara had La Rochelle pumped, the crowd was extremely partisan. Leinster made mistakes but had the winning mentality, did not make it easy for themselves but did the hard work without the ball.
John Jones
Amazing defensive performance and we looked in control for the middle part of the game. Thought we really lost our shape once all the subs were on though and there were far too many players out of position- need a more balanced bench selection I think. Also, Ross is a great servant but Frawley has to be the back up 10 in these games i think. I just don’t trust Byrne in clutch games and that penalty miss was pretty unforgivable I think. Also wasn’t it very similar to the penalty that Frawley came off the bench and nailed in the same fixture last year?
Get in the conversation yourself by leaving
your own thoughts each week after the full time whistle
HARPIN' ON RUGBY 