JLP : Some good, bad and extremely ugly news for Ulster during the week…obviously Richie Murphy being made permanent coach is a positive step in the right direction for all involved but for that to be followed up by such devastating injury news really has to hurt (and trust me I take no pleasure in typing any of that) making their task all the more difficult at the weekend. I still reckon it would be very unwise to underestimate them in the Kingspan, of course…
I’m not convinced that this package is anywhere near as robust as it should be.
JLP : World Rugby announced a rake of law tweaks and trials last week. Safe to say there is a lot to unpack but most of the attention seems to be going to the taking away of the scrum as an option for a free kick and, as ever, that 20-minute red card. For the former, I see the desire to cut the time down but I reckon it would be better to try and speed up the set piece itself rather than limit the amount of times they set. My suggestion is an extra official in the TMO box, ideally a retired pro front rower. On the 20 minute red, well, I have harped several times on this, no point harpin any more, it’s madness to my eyes yet seemingly essential to the southern hemisphere so we are where we are.
Building a sustainable post-rugby career involves more than just the skills acquired on the field
JLP : We recently introduced you to the RuckThis site and here’s a good article penned by Joe ‘Big Joe Shep’ Sheppard, it does exactly what it says on the tin/in the headline.
The reason given for the persistent delays was issues with licensing and player likenesses
JLP : I’m not at all a gamer, though not because it’s not right up my alley (I can assure you 15 year old me is furious about this) it’s more that I just don’t have the time necessary to become halfway decent at any of the amazing sophisticated offerings out there today. But I have to say I’m fascinated by the ongoing saga over the production of a rugby simulation. Since the heyday of Rugby 08 and Jonah Lomu nobody seems to have come close to offering an alternative to compare. How much of the failure is due to an inability to get the graphics etc just right and how much is down to inability to secure the rights to all the players from all the teams in all the leagues remains to be seen I guess, but while it would obviously never reach the heights and sales of something like Madden or FIFA/FC, you’d think there would be enough of a demand to warrant at least a new version every couple of years.
***CLICKBAIT OF THE WEEK AWARD***
“We were punished by players who have crucial responsibilities in this team. I will not give names.”
JLP : Not all my clickbait awards will necessarily be for bad reasons, sometimes the headline needs that extra bit of spice to catch your eye. I mean…it is true that Aldritt’s howler was worthy enough of attention all on it’s own given who he is but adding in the reaction of his coach gives the story that extra, eh, je ne sais quoi?
WRAP OF A WRAP
Had a late withdrawal (matron!) from the pod on Sunday evening so it would have been unfair to ask someone to prepare to review half the Ospreys match but thankfully Ciarán Duffy agreed to join the second half of the recording while I took over responsibility for reviewing the 2nd & 4th quarters. If I do say myself I thought it went pretty well, in fact I might do the reviewing duties again for the Ulster match next weekend. Anyway, like I said Ciarán joined us to restore the triumvirate for our YouTube recording which involved final thoughts from the match plus a couple of other topics like Leinster’s 10 and a possible selection for Belfast…
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.
QUICK TAP : CRICKET SCORES
The European rugby calendar issue has been without doubt my biggest bugbear over the 15+ years of the existence of Harpin On Rugby. It really annoys me how coaches are forced to pick and choose between two competitions in their selections week to week, and you could say Leinster have suffered from this more than most as we are consistently heavily involved on two fronts going into every month of May. Anyway – Northampton’s big win over Gloucester gave me my latest excuse to harp on this as you can see in this week’s Quick Tap.
Hopefully Alex Soroka will forgive me for saying that this has been the best “No Further Update” portion of this segment in a long, long time! May he too return to fitness before too long, but with big knockout games on the horizon no squad would have too much complaints about seeing the likes of Hugo Keenan, Garry Ringrose and James Ryan get closer to some game time. I have a feeling we won’t see Ringer for until the URC playoffs at earliest so I’ve tried to make my selection show the best balance between the rights amount of cotton wool, getting some rugby into the legs of the returnees and keeping some of the London starters active.
Harpin’ matchday 23 v Ospreys
Keenan, J O’Brien, T O’Brien, Ngatai, Russell, H Byrne, McGrath
NB : the above matchday 23s are completely from my own mind, I’m certainly not suggesting I have any ITK a la Thornley
OFFICIAL LEINSTER INJURY UPDATE
INJURY UPDATE – AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Tommy O’Brien: came through the game at the weekend with no issues after his return from a hamstring injury
James Ryan: is expected to return to full training this week ahead of the game against Ulster this weekend
Hugo Keenan: is expected to return to full training this week ahead of the game against Ulster this weekend
Will Connors: is expected to return to full training this week having been a late withdrawal from the team to play Ospreys at the weekend as a precaution
INJURY UPDATE – FURTHER ASSESSMENT REQUIRED:
Garry Ringrose: will continue to be assessed this week for a shoulder injury before a final decision is made on his involvement against Ulster
INJURY UPDATE – UNAVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Liam Turner: picked up an arm injury last week at training and will not be available for selection this week
Lee Barron: picked up a shoulder injury in South Africa and had a procedure last week which will rule him out for the remainder of the season
NO FURTHER UPDATES ON:
Alex Soroka (foot)
.
URC IRISH SHIELD UPDATE
You definitely don’t need me to scribble anything to point out the importance of the match in Belfast when it comes to the Irish Shield, the standings do that all on their own!!! BP win for Leinster will wrap it up, although I’m not even remotely suggesting that will be easily done whatever about Ulster’s injury list!
NOV 4 CONNACHT 22-20 ULSTER
NOV 10 ULSTER 21-14 MUNSTER
NOV 25 LEINSTER 21-16 MUNSTER
DEC 2 CONNACHT 22-24 LEINSTER
DEC 22 ULSTER 20-19 CONNACHT
DEC 26 MUNSTER 3-9 LEINSTER
JAN 1 CONNACHT 22-9 MUNSTER
JAN 1 LEINSTER 21-22 ULSTER
MAY 11 MUNSTER 47-12 CONNACHT
MAY 18 ULSTER V LEINSTER
MAY 31 LEINSTER V CONNACHT
JUNE 1 MUNSTER V ULSTER
THANK YOU LOCKY
When I was putting together my suggested Leinster matchday 23 for Belfast at the weekend, I struggled a bit for a 13 since Liam Turner is injured and both Osborne & Henshaw could do with at least a half match break. I settled on Tommy O’Brien as he has played there before but had he remained at Leinster another fine option would have been Rory O’Loughlin, in fact one of many fine moments he produced for Leinster was a try against Ulster, scored in a New Year’s fixture at the RDS when we actually won!
Sad to hear of his forced retirement, we of course wish him all the best in the future.
So many great memories in Leinster colours over the seasons 🔵🏆
No better man than RugbyKino to come up with a spreadsheet that allows you to plug in all the permutations for the final two rounds of the URC to see how the playoffs might shape up, if you’re a fully fledged rugby nerd like myself you’ll have stopped reading this sentence by now and you’ve already clicked the link below and you;re admiring his handiwork but on the off chance you’re still reading, be sure to follow the instructions and let us know if you find any bugs…
(PS working out that your team won’t win the title does NOT count as a ‘bug’)…
I said it last week – by rights Toulouse’s convincing win over Stade Français to put them on top of the league SHOULD be the big result from round 23 but even for this Leinster fan who probably should be keeping tabs on les ‘rouge et noir’, I can’t ignore La Rochelle’s latest defeat, a pretty heavy one away to Bordeaux in a match strewn with errors as has already been pointed out in the Front 5 above. This leaves them in a precarious position when it comes to reaching the playoffs, and will definitely need a win at home this weekend to Pau who are right below them. Definitely the match of the round this time though is Stade v Bordeaux, aka 2nd v 3rd, aka two teams coming off losses and vying for a semifinal spot.
Round 23
PERPIGNAN 28-35 CLÉRMONT
CASTRES 27-26 MONTPELLIER
PAU 39-17 OYONNAX
RACING 92 28-37 BAYONNE
TOULON 30-24 LYON
BORDEAUX 34-14 LA ROCHELLE
TOULOUSE 49-18 STADE FRANÇAIS
Round 24
SAT MAY 18
MONTPELLIER V TOULOUSE
BAYONNE V PERPIGNAN
OYONNAX V TOULON
CLÉRMONT V CASTRES
LYON V RACING 92
LA ROCHELLE V PAU
SUN MAY 19
STADE FRANÇAIS V BORDEAUX
PREMIERSHIP UPDATE
Already harped on the Northampton win, but even that didn’t quite clinch them top spot just yet, they’ll need to win at the Rec to secure top spot and Bath still have home semifinal hopes of their own and of the five matches in the final series this weekend, only Gloucester v Newcastle can be called a ‘dead rubber’.
ROUND 17
SALE SHARKS 31-22 LEICESTER TIGERS
NEWCASTLE 17-28 BATH
NORTHAMPTON 90-0 GLOUCESTER
BRISTOL 20-41 SARACENS
EXETER CHIEFS 58-26 HARLEQUINS
ROUND 18
SAT MAY 18
BATH V NORTHAMPTON
GLOUCESTER V NEWCASTLE
HARLEQUINS V BRISTOL BEARS
LEICESTER TIGERS V EXETER CHIEFS
SARACENS V SALE SHARKS
SUPER RUGBY PACIFIC UPDATE
I managed to watch the top of the table clash between the Blues and the Hurricanes, mostly to mancrush on Jordie Barrett and he did play well but in a thriller of a match it was the Blues defence at the end that got them the win – Canes had a 5m tap n go with the clock counting down and got driven back on the very first play so it put the Auckland based franchise to the summit for now. For the most part I felt their back row including Papali’i and Akira Ioane gave them the edge. Meanwhile the Crusader lost AGAIN…that’s just 2 wins in 11 matches and a quarterfinal spot is actually starting to look very unlikely although I wouldn’t rule them out until it was mathematically possible. A win in Canberra in the next round certainly wouldn’t hurt. Blues have another home NZ derby while the Canes will hope to get back to winning ways in hosting Moana P.
ROUND 12
MOANA PASIFIKA 7-43 CHIEFS
REDS 26-22 REBELS
BLUES 31-27 HURRICANES
HIGHLANDERS 32-29 CRUSADERS
WARATAHS 21-29 BRUMBIES
WESTERN FORCE 48-10 FIJIAN DRUA
ROUND 13
FRI MAY 17
HURRICANES V MOANA PASIFIKA
REBELS V CHIEFS
SAT MAY 18
FIJIAN DRUA V REDS
BRUMBIES V CRUSADERS
BLUES V HIGHLANDERS
WESTERN FORCE V WARATAHS
JAPAN LEAGUE ONE UPDATE
Semifinals time this weekend, though we should probably expect a Wild Knights v Brave Lupus final. Matches are to be shown live on RugbyPass AFAIK.
NO MATCHES LAST WEEKEND
SEMIFINALS
MAY 18
WILD KNIGHTS V CANON EAGLES
MAY 19
TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS V SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH
MAJOR LEAGUE RUGBY UPDATE
Chicago’s impressive run came to a halt as Old Glory pipped them by a point, with Dave Kearney getting a start. The Hounds are still very much in the playoff hunt but they won’t find it easy next weekend as they travel to Western conference leading Houston. New England remain top of the East but they too have a trickey western assignment next in San Diego.
ROUND 11
ANTHEM RC 15-38 HOUSTON
DALLAS 26-29 LOS ANGELES
NOLA GOLD 32-31 SEATTLE
CHICAGO 21-22 OLD GLORY
MIAMI 20-19 UTAH
ROUND 12
SAT MAY 19
ANTHEM RC V LOS ANGELES
HOUSTON V CHICAGO
NOLA GOLD V UTAH
SAN DIEGO V NEW ENGLAND
SUN MAY 20
DALLAS V SEATTLE
HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE
My performance in this season’s HPL now comes with a soundtrack, namely “Freefallin” by Tom Petty. Seems like five minutes ago I was comfortably in front and shameless bragging about it as though Mocker Gods didn’t exist…well, I’ve paid the price and don’t be surprised if I fall further!!! Meanwhile the top spot changed yet again as Kristian jumped over Kino.
NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
Ulster up next, we’ll have a preview with Keego on Friday then a wrap with Jay Long and possibly an Ulster fan recording Sunday evening. Do join us if you can and also keep up with all our usual content around the ruggersphere.
And as ever, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP
11 May 2024; Jordan Larmour of Leinster scores his side’s third try during the United Rugby Championship match between Leinster and Ospreys at the RDS Arena in Dublin. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
also available on Apple podcasts and most major platforms
Frawley looked very comfortable when he went to 10. Another very accomplished game for him. Just wished he got more game time there! Lots still to work on.
Peter Tracey
O’Brien looked sharp and has some serious pace. JGP and Frawley really sped the game up when they played together.
Frankie Taylor
Buzzing. Jimmy was incredible
David White
The spies from Toulouse in the stands leant nothing coz Ospreys were so poor
Tony Doyle
Good win and a great second half by Leinster
Came out from break strong and never looked back. Managed the game really well, kept them pinned back. JOB deserved PotM but Larmour another contender, JVDF in the pack too. Interesting to see selection next week but very happy for now.#LEIvOSP
LEINSTER : 15. Ciarán Frawley 14. Jordan Larmour 13. Jamie Osborne 12. Robbie Henshaw 11. Jimmy O’Brien 10. Ross Byrne 9. Luke McGrath
1. Andrew Porter 2. Rónan Kelleher 3. Tadhg Furlong 4. Ross Molony 5. Jason Jenkins 6. Ryan Baird 7. Will Connors 8. Caelan Doris (c)
16. Dan Sheehan 17. Michael Milne 18. Thomas Clarkson 19. Jack Conan 20. Josh van der Flier 21. Jamison Gibson-Park 22. Charlie Ngatai 23. Tommy O’Brien
OSPREYS : 15. Max Nagy 14. Luke Morgan 13. Owen Watkin 12. Keiran Williams 11. Keelan Giles 10. Dan Edwards 9. Reuben Morgan-Williams
1. Nicky Smith 2. Dewi Lake 3. Rhys Henry 4. James Ratti 5. Huw Sutton 6. Harri Deaves 7. Justin Tipuric (c) 8. Morgan Morris
16. Sam Parry 17. Gareth Thomas 18. Tom Botha 19. Victor Sekekete 20. Jac Morgan 21. Luke Davies 22. Jack Walsh 23. Evardi Boshoff
A selection of five eye-catching egg-chasing quotes & links from around the ruggersphere, now including a few thoughts added by myself (JLP).
…several English press outlets have used strange language to subtly chastise Leinster and Toulouse for hosting their semi-final encounters in their home cities over the weekend.
JLP : Not even going to go into much detail here, because whatever way you slice the actual subject matter, these stories all boil down to the same thing. English clubs winning Champions Cup = everything is fine. English clubs not winning = format must change. Boo hoo. Maybe spend more time reporting on why the financial model has failed so many clubs and what’s being done to sort it?
Mr Hogg will return to court on 15 July for an intermediate hearing ahead of his trial on 30 July.
JLP : Of course I believe in the concept of innocent until proven guilty but with the above dates so relatively close and given the severity of the accusations, I don’t see why any broadcaster would consider putting him in front of a camera or any microphone until due process has full taken place. Just baffles me to have seen him since the first reports came out. And it’s not just TV where we see his reputation-washing, this article on Ruck.co.uk from just last Sunday would have you think he wasn’t having any legal issues at all.
“In the past, players would start in sevens, and move to 15s, which was the much bigger focus in Ireland. In the past few years, there has not been much movement, and look at the quality they have delivered. They are sevens players, and have consistently performed in that code.”
JLP : The South China Morning Post is far from a normal source of Front Five material for these pages but I wanted to see if the Irish sevens were getting much coverage over the past week or so and well, this was up near the top of the list, despite some respectable results from both genders, especially the men who reached the final in Singapore as you’ll see further down the page.
‘F***ed it. Sorry. Harlequins fans were huge. Boys were incredible. Juvé.’
JLP : If you weren’t watching the Toulouse/Harlequins match then you heard Quins had a penalty towards the end that could have given them a chance of staging another amazing fightback, only for one of their players to go and get the penalty reversed, you wouldn’t believe it. Unless you heard it was Joe Marler of course, in which case you’d TOTALLY believe it. To his credit though, at least he owned it. So there’s that.
Ulster are poised to steam the flow of players leaving Belfast after swooping on Champions Cup semi-finalists Leinster to land Ireland back row Max Deegan on a two-year deal.
JLP : Now – to be fair, much like Joe, Neil has owned up to this and I have made more than my fair share of mistakes on these very pages over the years. Still, this is a pretty big one, and the reports we’re hearing now since it was announced that Deegan has decided to stay at Leinster that the agreement was reached ‘several months ago’. So assuming the story was rushed to maximise exclusivity and thus to maximise clicks, Neil wins this week’s COTWA.
I deserve a kick in the bollocks. Sometimes you get things wrong. I’ve gotten one wrong
I brought the same team back from the quarterfinal against La Rochelle and Tom & Mark did a their usual excellent job going back over the match, striking the right tone when it came to the scary finish. We used the final thoughts section for our latest YouTube clip.
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.
QUICK TAP : WOULD YOU BE ABL???
When I switched from an article-based to podcast-based format, our first show was a chat on the whole concept of what I call “ABL” or “Anyone But Leinster” but this TikTok is basically my taking another swing at defining it and expressing its relevance to contemporary Irish rugby discourse.
We discussed on the pod how Leinster selections would go over the coming weeks and we kind of agreed we’d like to see a combination of returning injured players given game time and keeping the team for the final fresh, with some cotton wool for the likes of Lowe & JGP but not many more.
Harpin’ matchday 23 v Ospreys
Keenan, Russell, Ringrose, Ngatai, Larmour, H Byrne, McGrath
NB : the above matchday 23s are completely from my own mind, I’m certainly not suggesting I have any ITK a la Thornley
There is good news for Jimmy O’Brien who came through the game at the weekend with no issues after his return from a neck injury and also for Tommy O’Brien who has returned to full training from a hamstring injury.
Garry Ringrose returned to full training last week from a shoulder injury and will be further assessed this week before a final decision is made on his involvement.
Hugo Keenan will also be further assessed this week for a hip injury before a final decision is made on his involvement.
There is no further update on James Ryan (arm) and Alex Soroka (foot).
URC IRISH SHIELD UPDATE
The Shield comes back into play with Connacht still mathematically in contention and Munster trying to get off the mark.
NOV 4 CONNACHT 22-20 ULSTER
NOV 10 ULSTER 21-14 MUNSTER
NOV 25 LEINSTER 21-16 MUNSTER
DEC 2 CONNACHT 22-24 LEINSTER
DEC 22 ULSTER 20-19 CONNACHT
DEC 26 MUNSTER 3-9 LEINSTER
JAN 1 CONNACHT 22-9 MUNSTER
JAN 1 LEINSTER 21-22 ULSTER
MAY 11 MUNSTER V CONNACHT
MAY 18 ULSTER V LEINSTER
MAY 31 LEINSTER V CONNACHT
JUNE 1 MUNSTER V ULSTER
CHURCH 111
We didn’t actually mention this on our wrap pod, but it did come up in our preview with Kino and to be fair, when he did come on Leinster fans were kind of more focused on us, you know, winning the match! And I thought the PA guy went a little bit too far with his announcement, they should never bleed into the actual gameplay IMO.
All that said, what an amazing achievement and so fitting for him to reach the milestone at Croke Park given he’s a link back to the classic 2009 encounter.
Speaking of Croke Park according to reports all was not plain sailing, and not just when it came to getting the full complement of bums on seats either. Look – overall I’m happy enough to accept that for what is effectively a one-off event rugby-wise there were always going to be some issues, but if this one below is genuine (and I’ve no reason to believe otherwise) then never mind what the policy of the stadium is, I’m looking squarely at the EPCR, as they had control of the event. Surely it’s in their policy for these spectators to be guaranteed an unobstructed view, and if that meant keeping some areas clear that meant the attendance would be a thousand or so less, then so be it? Will definitely have to be sorted before more matches are played there next year.
Might as well get my money’s worth from this clip and repeat it here…I decided to go all in with some Star Wars puns what with the Leinster v Northampton match being on May the 4th and all, and after the preview show was recorded I got the idea to look for a site that helped produced a video like this one, I was very confident I would easily find one, and I was right.
Yet another exciting weekend for the Irish sevens programme, with the men coming within a whiskey of a first leg victory yet still closing the gap with Argentina at the top of the standings, and the women fighting back from defeat in the quarterfinals to clinch fifth spot with the help of the usual plentiful amount of tries from Aimee Leigh Murphy Crowe. Now the circuit moves to its finals stage, the points are wiped clean and the top eight playoff in Madrid at the end of May. No reason to believe why both Irish sides can’t push for podium finishes, same goes for the Olympics.
SINGAPORE 7S
WOMEN
POOL STAGE
V CANADA W 5-0
V NEW ZEALAND L 12-31
V SPAIN W 25-7
QUARTERFINALS
V AUSTRALIA L 24-14
5TH PLACE PLAYOFF
V JAPAN W 19-17
MEN
POOL STAGE
V GREAT BRITAIN W 19-5
V USA L 7-10
V FIJI L 19-26
QUARTERFINALS
V ARGENTINA W 21-5
SEMIFINALS
V GREAT BRITAIN W 15-12et
FINAL
V NEW ZEALAND 14-17
Under the new model, HSBC SVNS 2024 features seven regular season events plus a Grand Final. The top eight placed teams based on cumulative series points at the conclusion of the seventh round in Singapore will secure their opportunity to compete in the new ‘winner takes all’ Grand Final in Madrid, where the women’s and men’s HSBC SVNS 2024 champions will be crowned.
Madrid will also play host to the high stakes relegation play-off competition where teams ranked ninth to 12th will join the top four teams from the World Rugby Sevens Challenger, with the top four placed teams securing their place on HSBC SVNS 2025.
NEXT IN THE SERIES…
MADRID (FINALS) MAY 31-JUN 2
🔝🐱🐴 UPDATE
Toulouse v Stade Français is obviously the match of the weekend as the home side have little time to be impressed by reaching another CC final.But I’d wonder if the Bordeaux v La Rochelle tie could have more significance. When the last 16 bracket of the Champions Cup was set many thought this could have been the final, yet now defeat could leave either with doubts as to making the 🔝🐱🐴 playoffs at all.
NO MATCH LAST WEEKEND
Round 23
SAT MAY 11
PERPIGNAN V CLÉRMONT
CASTRES V MONTPELLIER
PAU V OYONNAX
RACING 92 V BAYONNE
TOULON V LYON
BORDEAUX V LA ROCHELLE
SUN MAY 12
TOULOUSE V STADE FRANÇAIS
PREMIERSHIP UPDATE
The English press might have a been in their bonnets about Irish clubs resting players for European matches but if Gloucester don’t put out mostly academy sides for their remaining two Premiership matches ahead of their Challenge Cup final date with the Sharks, then I don’t know what to say because they are totally stranded in 9th place on the table and can’t move so their only bet is to push for the automatic Champions Cup qualification that would come with the trophy, which would probably deny Leicester a spot. For this reason I’m expecting Northampton to have an easy enough return to domestic action while the four clubs in pursuit somehow avoid each other in round 17.
NO MATCHES LAST WEEKEND
ROUND 17
FRI MAY 10
SALE SHARKS V LEICESTER TIGERS
NEWCASTLE V BATH
SAT MAY 11
NORTHAMPTON V GLOUCESTER
BRISTOL V SARACENS
EXETER CHIEFS V HARLEQUINS
SUPER RUGBY PACIFIC UPDATE
Thought maybe the Crusaders were on the march in the last round then boom! Up come the Reds to knock them back again. Seriously wondering if they’re going to make the quarterfinals now. Hurricanes and Blues still taking the top two slots and they meet each other in Auckland next.
ROUND 11
HURRICANES 41-12 WARATAHS
REBELS 11-38 BLUES
MOANA PASIFIKA 17-28 HIGHLANDERS
CRUSADERS 28-33 REDS
CHIEFS 56-7 WESTERN FORCE
BRUMBIES 28-20 FIJIAN DRUA
ROUND 12
FRI MAY 10
MOANA PASIFIKA V CHIEFS
REDS V REBELS
SAT MAY 11
BLUES V HURRICANES
HIGHLANDERS V CRUSADERS
WARATAHS V BRUMBIES
WESTERN FORCE V FIJIAN DRUA
JAPAN LEAGUE ONE UPDATE
No surprises in the final round of matches and the playoffs are set for two weeks from now.
ROUND 16
HONDA HEAT 31-33 KOBE STEEL
CANON EAGLES 14-43 WILD KNIGHTS
SUNTORY 26-45 SPEARS KUBOTA
KINTETSU LINERS 36-46 MITSUBISHI
SHIZUOKA 20-59 BRAVE LUPUS
BLACK RAMS 18-45 TOYOTA VERBLITZ
SEMIFINALS
MAY 18
WILD KNIGHTS V CANON EAGLES
MAY 19
TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS V SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH
MAJOR LEAGUE RUGBY UPDATE
GO HOUNDS!!!! We have adopted Chicago for this season and they really did a number on the conference-leading Free Jacks as they matched each other for tries with 3 each only for the placekicks of Hounds outhalf Adriaan Carelse to keep the visitors ahead and it narrows NEFJ’s lead down to just 3 points and things dont get any easier for them as high flying Seattle come to town next while Chicago host DC. Houston are also doing really well and got their 8th win of the campaign at Utah.
ROUND 10
SEATTLE 29-13 ANTHEM
OLD GLORY 13-10 MIAMI
UTAH 24-29 HOUSTON
NEW ENGLAND 20-26 CHICAGO
SAN DIEGO 30-24 DALLAS
ROUND 11
SAT MAY 11
ANTHEM RC V HOUSTON
DALLAS V LOS ANGELES
NOLA GOLD V SEATTLE
CHICAGO V OLD GLORY
SUN MAY 12
MIAMI V UTAH
CHALLENGE CUP UPDATE
To be honest I would not have been surprised if both semifinals went the other way but the result is that whoever looks like finishing 8th in the URC or Premiership will be anxious watching the final as their spot in next season’s Champions Cup will be in jeopardy. Despite all the negative talk about formats around the place, I for one like this rule. Scraping into the last qualification spot should have some kind of jeopardy to it.
SEMIFINALS
SAT MAY 4
SHARKS 32-31 CLÉRMONT
GLOUCESTER 40-23 BENETTON
HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE
Just 31 matches left to predict so I’ll need a good round this weekend to make up for all the ground I’ve lost over the past month or so. Might even need to take a few gambles along the way.
NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
It’s Those Pesky Birds up next for Leinster, on Ross Molony’s 30th birthday no less. I’m doing a guest appearance on Mauls, Balls and All on Wednesday evening, while their host Peter Burke is down to help with our Ospreys wrap on Sunday. We will of course have our usual preview show on Friday plus all the other usual features around the different social media channels so please be sure to comment, like, share & subscribe whenever you can.
And as ever, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP
4 May 2024; James Lowe of Leinster celebrates after scoring his side’s second try during the Investec Champions Cup semi-final match between Leinster and Northampton Saints at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
🏉 Jamie & James 🏉 Chronic knockonitis 🏉 First score after break 🏉 Saints go marching 🏉 Captain Caelan
After the high of La Rochelle, there was always the risk of a down day.
That being said, we were great in bursts, and were in control for most of the game. The third try had as many “moments” in the buildup phases as any I can remember (I haven’t rewatched it, so I may be misremembering). Furlong’s reverse offload out of the tackle Bairds gallop, Henshaw somehow staying in field to keep the ball alive.
John Hyland
They did well kicking behind us, and using their wingers’ speed in the chase. Our back three look short of pace. Keenan is needed and I reckon Rob Russell might come in for Larmour.
Kevin Kelehan
Great stadium, great crowd, never say die opponents who were an absolute credit to themselves when down and out but dragged themselves back into make it very tight game. Leinster played well for 50 minutes but some very aimless kicking will doubtless be lacerated in the debrief, the pack who gave better than they got must have been super frustrated at times. Doris as always a terrier on the gainline
Gavin Hegarty
A great place to be in to say that we weren’t good but we still won a semi. If we play against Toulouse like that they will take us apart. At halftime we should have been further ahead but my god in the second half we fell asleep. The most unleinsterlike performance in a longtime.
Byrne left a few points out there from the tee but other than that was epic first half.
I was at it and feel as a club we let ourselves down. Atmosphere was lacking anything. Was dead quiet at times. Yes the stadium was blue but we failed to create the cauldron we needed.
I’ll watch it again but from the davin lower it looked like reynal was a bit indecisive. Not checking Frawley being taken out in the air again? I think peno and yellow
Pat Curran
Leinster will have to include Gary Ringrose, Hugo Keenan and James Ryan for the final. It could be what’s required for a European final.
Shouldn't have been as tight, few points left out on the boot.
But in honesty we went into our shell in the 2nd half, fair play to Saints, really quality team.
Nerves shredded. But never any harm to scrape into a final. Northampton will have regrets at how much ball they spilled in that first half. Leinster good at times, ok at others and thoroughly mediocre in several in the last half hour.
HARPIN' ON RUGBY 