Keego usually does the previews so just to mix things up I asked him to do the wraps over Christmas with a much simpler format than usual we essentially just harped on the match itself though despite the low scoring there was much to go over.
If you didn’t catch the wrap pod itself, here’s a link to Spotify and we’re also on Apple and most major platforms.
HARPIN’ ON…LEINSTER & IRELAND 2023
For the bonus clip myself & Keego went back over the rollercoaster of results from the year.
THE HARPIN ‘WITHOUT WHOM’ DEPARTMENT
As I say in the TikTok, thanking my contributors is the very, very least I can do. To a man they all go above and beyond preparing for our chats as well as giving up their time to actually record them. Here is the actual list of 2023 caps…
Keego 31
Tom Coleman 20
Conor Cronin 20
Mark Jackson 18
RugbyKino 15
Rich Mifsud 11
Jay Long 8
Ciarán Duffy 5
Nathan Johns 3
Stephen Murphy 2
Pádraig Kelly 2
Peter Lockhart 2
Francisco Isaac 1
Ian Frizzell 1
Justin Middleton 1
Bryan Moylett 1
Ball handling Hooker 1
Thala Msutu 1
Also my apologies for Thala Msutu for pronouncing his name wrong in the video!
Fingers crossed the JGP injury wasnt too bad sounded like a precaution. That really does lookk like the lightest injury update we have seen in quite a while although I reckon a good few will still be held back for the visit of Ulster with Europe & 6N on the horizon, although there is an off week to come which will help.
Normally I post a predicted team here but since this is posting on Friday rather than the usual Tuesday I can go one better by posting the team itself.
Available for Selection:
Luke McGrath: came through the game at the weekend with no issues after returning from a knee injury
Harry Byrne: came through the game at the weekend with no issues after returning from the Graduated Return to Play Protocols
John McKee: has returned to full training after recovering from a hamstring injury
Further Assessment Required:
Jamison Gibson-Park: was withdrawn before the game against Munster Rugby as a precaution and will be further assessed this week
No Further Updates:
Charlie Ngatai (calf), Cormac Foley (shoulder), Ross Byrne (arm) and Jamie Osborne (shoulder)
UPCOMING RUGBY ON IRISH TV
We normally do this as a separate post but just this once I’ll include it here.
FRIDAY DECEMBER 29
4PM – WOLFHOUNDS V CLOVERS – CELTIC CHALLENGE – RUGBYPASS.TV
3PM – CONNACHT V MUNSTER – URC – TG4, PREMIER SPORTS 1, URC.TV*
3PM – OSPREYS V CARDIFF – URC – BBC1 WALES, PREMIER SPORTS 2, URC.TV*
5:15PM – DRAGONS V SCARLETS – URC – S4C, PREMIER SPORTS 1, URC.TV*
5:15PM – LEINSTER V ULSTER – URC – RTÉ2, PREMIER SPORTS 2.
URC IRISH SHIELD UPDATE
Obviously the Leinster fan in me wants to point to the top of this table but actually I’d rather draw attention to the full collection of results between the provinces so far, all of which have been decided by 7 points or less which speaks volumes. Leinster v Ulster on New Year’s Day will obviously go a long way towards deciding the destination of the shield.
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 V MUNSTER
JAN 1 LEINSTER V ULSTER
MAY 11 MUNSTER V CONNACHT
MAY 18 ULSTER V LEINSTER
MAY 31 LEINSTER V CONNACHT
JUNE 1 MUNSTER V ULSTER
🔝🐱🐴 UPDATE
I suppose it’s natural these days for a Leinster fan to be drawn to La Rochelle in this portion for all the obvious reasons but even without that their Round 10 defeat to Stade (whom we play next in Europe) plus their Round 11 date with Toulouse (repeat of last year’s Brennus decider) are easily the standout matches. Racing still top the league after a 60-burger on Oyonnax.
Round 10
PERPIGNAN 36-10 BAYONNE
BORDEAUX 46-10 LYON
MONTPELLIER 30-21 CASTRES
RACING 92 66-10 OYONNAX
PAU 22-11 CLÉRMONT
STADE FRANCAIS 18-13 LA ROCHELLE
TOULOUSE 25-17 TOULON
Round 11
FRI DEC 29
OYONNAX V PAU
CLÉRMONT V BORDEAUX
SAT DEC 30
LYON V MONTPELLIER
BAYONNE V RACING 92
TOULON V STADE FRANCAIS
LA ROCHELLE V TOULOUSE
CASTRES V PERPIGNAN
PREMIERSHIP UPDATE
Sale Sharks bounced back from their Dublin defeat to overcome Sarries and they have the most wins at the halfway stage of the Premiership but Bath pip them to top spot at this stage thanks to their bonus points. Their visit to Leicester will be a tricky one in round 10 while there’s a 3rd v 2nd clash at Franklins Gardens.
ROUND 9
NEWCASTLE 13-21 BRISTOL
SALE SHARKS 22-20 SARACENS
EXETER 29-10 LEICESTER
GLOUCESTER 29-31 NORTHAMPTON
BATH 25-17 HARLEQUINS
ROUND 10
FRI DEC 29
BRISTOL V EXETER
SAT DEC 30
SARACENS V NEWCASTLE
NORTHAMPTON V SALE SHARKS
HARLEQUINS V GLOUCESTER
SUN DEC 31
LEICESTER TIGERS V BATH
HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE
I was kicking myself after missing my prediction for the Zebre v Benetton match (or as we call it in our Harpin WhatsApp group “doing a Keego”) but I recovered pretty well the rest of the round to stretch my lead at the top of the HPL. True story of the round was Kristian Ross who got the yellow cap to leap frog Conor and Kino into 2nd.
NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
That’s it for 2023, next there’s the Ulster preview which will be ready by Saturday morning, the wrap pod will record Tuesday night and with an off week to follow we’ll be taking things easy-ish though keep up with our usual social media channels we’ll be doing the odd post here and there.
And as ever, be sure to enjoy your seasonal rugby wherever you are. JLP
26 December 2023; Ryan Baird of Leinster wins a lineout during the United Rugby Championship match between Munster and Leinster at Thomond Park in Limerick. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Leinster did what they needed to do and were deserving winners. On a side note I lost a lot of respect for O’Callaghan after his rant about Snyman coming to Leinster. His point about holding Irish players back might have carried more weight if he saad the same thing when he signed for Munster. I’m sorry but he sounded petty and bitter and I would expect more from him. He’s usually one of the best pundits to be fair but he did himself no favours this evening. I’m still going to enjoy celebrating another Leinster win in Thomond mind you.
Dave Murray
Ugly win with the conditions but a good win all the same. A kind of game a certain Jacques Nienabar might like with a forward dominated game with the conditions but great effort by the players. Joe McCarthy deserved POTM
Kevin Kelehan
Terrible conditions, very strong Munster defence but Leinster just made fewer mistakes.
Eamon Saunders
Not pretty to watch but a win nonetheless,move on to the next 👏👏
Chris McDonnell
We need to stop this harry byrne sillyness. Oh and mcgrath was just awful too. Thankfully We just dominated their pack
Far from a classic but the right team won and the right player got PotM. Best leave it at that for now! #MUNvLEI
First things first….not one but TWO Harpin contributors have had milestone birthdays in the last week, best wishes to both Tom Coleman and Conor Cronin I hope the celebrations went well!
Well that match certainly didn’t go like we thought it would, did it? On the preview with Keego, we were trying to be nice about the Sale lineup but truth be told it really did look like a comprehensive Leinster win was on the cards but although we did get the bonus point win, this Sale squad really put it to us and both Tom and Kino made this point perfectly clear as they wrapped the 80 minutes.
If you didn’t catch the wrap pod itself, here’s a link to Spotify and we’re also on Apple and most major platforms.
HARPIN’ ON…ANDY FARRELL APPRECIATION
After skipping the bonus clip the previous week, we recorded one to honour Andy Farrell’s much-deserved gong at the RTÉ Sports Awards.
CHALLENGES FACING IRISH WOMEN’S RUGBY
It’s pretty clear the point I’m making with the editing wizardry in the TikTok below but I’m still actually saying stuff in the speeded up bits so here is a transcript…
CLUB RUGBY We start with club rugby. The principal club competition is of course the Women’s AIL which for the past couple of seasons has consisted of a ringfenced top division of 9 clubs. Last year the league was done and dusted by this stage of the season in mid-December so now they’ve increased it to a home and away schedule extending the regular season to April. Problems still remain at this level however and just one look at the league table shows that in reality there are only four clubs in real contention for the title, with the other five sometimes struggling to put a team out like Wicklow in the last round who had to concede a walkover due to injuries, something that really should not be happening at senior level, and just to be perfectly clear, I certainly would not lay a whole lot of blame at the door of the club in question.
INTERPROS Next we have the interprovincial championship, where the women’s game surely has much scope to resonate with Irish rugby fans already well used to cheering for one of the four provinces. The problem with this level is that like the clubs they also are badly in need of more games and this season’s title had already been won by Leinster before the men’s World Cup had even kicked off.
THE CELTIC CHALLENGE Then we have the Celtic Challenge, a new competition along the lines of the original men’s Celtic League with teams from Ireland Scotland and Wales competing for the prize. They started last season with one team from each nation and have expanded to two each this year with Ireland fielding newly formed clubs called the Clovers who represent Munster and Connacht, and the Wolfhounds who will draw players from Leinster and Ulster and the two will meet each other in the opening round at Musgrave Park on December 29. It would of course be awesome for this level to succeed but from an Irish perspective I can’t really see these manufactured teams capturing much attention, so hopefully it won’t be long before all four provinces can afford to field teams and the competition can find a sustainable place on the rugby calendar.
SEVENS This brings us to sevens rugby, and this year the World Series has rebranded itself to make sure both men and women play the same amount of rugby at all of the events. However for the Irish programme there is still a profound difference between the genders in that the men can field a dedicated sevens squad while the women need to draw many of the best players out of the XVs pool, a decision which has certainly brought rewards like qualification for the Paris Olympics, but also which can’t avoid hurting the chances for the full test team in the process, for example the Hong Kong Sevens event takes place right in the middle of the Women’s Six Nations.
TEST RUGBY Which of course brings us to the test team itself. Whatever we say about the levels below, if there is to be significant fan engagement it is critical that the Irish women’s programme finds a way to drastically improve on their disastrous last place finish in the 2023 Six Nations. Victory in the 3rd tier of the new WXV competition is definitely a start but there is still a long way to go, and like I already said losing key players like Beibhinn Parsons to the sevens programme certainly doesn’t help, nor does a reliance solely on players who are able to be on call for training and such in and around the greater Dublin area. It surely would be much easier to attract our top female athletes to the sport if there were at the very least proper training bases at each of the four provinces.
WHAT CAN FANS DO Finally, there’s the issue of what we can do as fans. At a practical level offering financial or volunteer support to your local club is one of the best ways to help out but actual engagement with the top teams is also critical. Ironically one of the most important things you can do in that regard is not listen to me! While we’d encourage you to keep up with the IRFU site for latest news and fixtures and such, I’d also suggest following dedicated websites like Scrumqueens and twitter accounts like @IrishWomens and @JC200022 to get a sense of what more needs to be done.
Update didn’t arrive until Wednesday afternoon this week, it looks like the news on Charlie Ngatai isn’t as bad as we first feared, fingers crossed. As you can see from my 23 I’m holding out hope we’ll see James Lowe back for the trip to Thomond but he can of course take as long as he feels he needs…
NB : the above matchday 23 is completely from my own mind, I’m certainly not suggesting I have any ITK a la Thornley
INJURY UPDATE – AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Luke McGrath: has returned to full training after returning from a knee injury
Tommy O’Brien: has returned to full training after returning from an ankle injury
INJURY UPDATE – FURTHER ASSESSMENT REQUIRED:
Harry Byrne: will be further assessed this week as part of the Graduated Return to Play Protocols
Jason Jenkins: was withdrawn at half-time against Sale Sharks with a minor back issue and will be further assessed this week
INJURY UPDATE – UNAVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Charlie Ngatai: picked up a calf injury against Sale Sharks and will be unavailable for selection this week
NO FURTHER UPDATES ON:
Cormac Foley (shoulder), Ross Byrne (arm), Jamie Osborne (shoulder) and John McKee (hamstring)
NO TO CO CAPTAINS
When Leinster are losing there are many who take great pleasure from pointing out what we’re doing wrong, but when that stick isn’t there to beat us with, the scramble to find an alternative can be entertainment in itself.
This latest one is more twig than stick but still it has to be said that the “co-captain” experiment hasn’t gotten off to an ideal start at the province, and judging by the feedback from refs in the opening two weeks in Europe, we might have to rethink the policy very soon.
My completely hot take is that this was a decision made to appease their respective agents? Having the Leinster captain on your books would be quite the feather in the cap so (remember I have ZERO info on this, all speculation) I can imagine a situation where pressure is exerted from representatives for both players with this being a compromise. If so, or indeed whatever led to the decision, here’s hoping they can quickly go back to the drawing board because one captain at a time is definitely the way to go.
SEXTON AS COACH
Really mischievous headline here “IRFU Don’t Rule Out Possible Ireland Return For Johnny Sexton” and I suppose I can’t blame the media for cranking up the old outrage-baiting headline generator for this one. And to be honest, if anyone who has ever played the game could make the difficult transition from player to coach work quickly, it’s Johnny since I’d argue that he has essentially been an extra coach most his career. But even with that, I very much doubt there’s much chance of him going straight to the Irish job replacing Mike Catt. Right now I reckon Mike Prendergast looks a good fit FWIW.
LOS PUMAS TURN TO DR. PHIL
Monday was a “fast news day” for sure, including the announcement that Felipe Contepomi had been appointed to head coach of the Pumas, which of course means it’s more than likely he’ll be leading them when they come to play the Lions at the Aviva Stadium in 2025. It goes without saying that we wish him every success unless it’s against us at a World Cup!!!!
TOP SHELF IRISH WHISKEY
Have to admit I didn’t even know this was on the cards but I’m delighted to learn that Jamison Gibson-Park has earned his Irish citizenship, great news for him, and of course for both Leinster & Ireland rugby. I always got the sense when he started playing at the province that he wasn’t wild about the kicking game and when Andy Farrell opted for a more pass-focused high-tempo style that was when he came into his own and fingers crossed he has many seasons left to do it.
No harm leaving this in the column with the interpros on the horizon…
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 V CONNACHT
DEC 26 MUNSTER V LEINSTER
JAN 1 CONNACHT V MUNSTER
JAN 1 LEINSTER V ULSTER
MAY 11 MUNSTER V CONNACHT
MAY 18 ULSTER V LEINSTER
MAY 31 LEINSTER V CONNACHT
JUNE 1 MUNSTER V ULSTER
AIL UPDATE
No action at AIL level for the women this week, though as you see in the TikTok rnt segment I had a comment or two to make there.
Over on the men’s side there were some close derbies as UCD out scored Lansdowne in a 44-40 shootout at Belfield Bowl and the Cookies edged out Cork Con, and that result allowed Clontarf to extend their lead at the top after dispatching Shannon at Castle Ave. In the other two local tussles Hinch won at Armagh while Terenure heaped more misery on Trinity. Division 1A is now at its halfway stage and Round 9 fixtures get reversed for the next round in mid January.
#SupportYourLocalClub
WOMEN’S AIL
NO MATCHES LAST WEEKEND
Round 11
SAT FEB 10
SUTTONIANS V BALLINCOLLIG
COOKE V RAILWAY UNION
GALWEGIANS V UL BOHS
WICKLOW V BELVO
MEN’S AIL
ROUND 9
UCD 44-40 LANSDOWNE
CITY OF ARMAGH 18-29 BALLYNAHINCH
CLONTARF 38-21 SHANNON
DUBLIN UNIV 14-31 TERENURE
YOUNG MUNSTER 22-21 CORK CON
ROUND 10
FRI JAN 12
LANSDOWNE V UCD
SAT DEC 16
BALLYNAHINCH V CITY OF ARMAGH
SHANNON V CLONTARF
TERENURE V DUBLIN UNIV
CORK CON V YOUNG MUNSTER
CHALLENGE CUP UPDATE
Obviously Black Lion stole the headlines in the Challenge Cup but Tom harped on that for the pod. 4 of the 18 teams have gotten off to perfect starts including two from SA, the Lions and the Cheetahs, who overcame the Sharks in the local encounter. From the Round 3 schedule you’d have to pick out Black Lion who will have no fear travelling to Castres as the home side could well have one eye on their domestic standing, but I also wouldn’t mind checking out Embra v Glaws could be a decent contest.
ROUND 2
SCARLETS 7-23 BLACK LION
GLOUCESTER 28-17 CLÉRMONT
OYONNAX 14-21 ZEBRE
EDINBURGH 34-21 CASTRES
BENETTON 29-7 PERPIGNAN
LIONS 35-13 NEWCASTLE
PAU 24-21 DRAGONS
CHEETAHS 32-29 SHARKS
MONTPELLIER 38-5 OSPREYS
ROUND 3
FRI JAN 12
NEWCASTLE V BENETTON
SAT JAN 13
OSPREYS V PERPIGNAN
SHARKS V OYONNAX
CLÉRMONT V SCARLETS
ZEBRE V DRAGONS
CASTRES V BLACK LION
EDINBURGH V GLOUCESTER
MONTPELLIER V LIONS
SUN JAN 14
CHEETAHS V PAU
HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE
Still in first, so still going to include here. All will likely change over the festive interpros!!!
NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
Right – that’s it, will give this column a well earned break until after the holiers. We will of course be covering Leinster’s matches against Munster & Ulster, stay tuned to the social media channels for more details.
And as ever, be sure to enjoy your seasonal rugby wherever you are. JLP
16 December 2023; Cian Healy of Leinster dives over to score his side’s fifth try despite the tackle of Ethan Caine of Sale Sharks during the Investec Champions Cup Pool 4 Round 2 match between Leinster and Sale Sharks at the RDS Arena in Dublin. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
My biggest annoyance from this match (and I’m seriously fucking pissed off) was our complacency. Much as I was elated with our attitude last week, today was the complete opposite. That said I believe our expectations as supporters are not taking account of the huge vacuum created by the departures of Johnny and Stu. It will take time for the new coaching set up and 10 to settle and thrive
Alan Murphy Awful game. A game dominated by pedantic adjudication. Every phase seemed to end with a blow of the whistle. Stop, start. Happy with 5 points but dreadful to watch.
Kevin Kelehan Sloppy start and lax finish but a lot of grit for the middle half of the game either side of half time. Biggest news from the pool was La Rochelle losing again yesterday
SeanieH ·Terrible for Charlie. He’s had some lovely touches lately. Looking classy
No doubt Sale deserved those late scores but Leinster came out strong after the break and took control of both match & pool. Josh clearly has been working on his awesomeness. Charlie a big loss at the end and some work ons for sure but overall a good start to comp. #LEIvSAL
We had already decided long before kickoff that our wrap pod recording would be moved 24 hours later to Monday evening to allow for maximum time to prepare after the Sunday afternoon fixture, but given the way it worked out we were even more glad of the extra time.
Unfortunately RugbyKino was unable to join us as planned with him having a sore throat but thankfully Tom Coleman was able to come on from the bench to join Rich and as it turned out we had so much to harp on from this epic encounter that I had to completely alter how I present the pod.
Normally we record an extra “bonus clip” on an extra topic but our chat went on so long I decided to ditch it for this week, and when I went to edit I realised that there really wasnt anything worth cutting from what the lads had to so as you can see below the “Front Five” and “Final Thoughts” portions went to our YouTube channel, all to keep the actual wrap pod under an hour, but as ever I reckon it’s all well worth the listen.
If you didn’t catch the wrap pod itself, here’s a link to Spotify and we’re also on Apple and most major platforms.
LEINSTER INJURY UPDATE
Mixed news from the report especially on the dreaded bottom line…we already knew Ross Byrne would be there but seeing Jamie Osborne’s name is also worrying…and also Cormac Foley being out for months is a blow for him and the team, he was progressing really well.
Also any squad would miss names like Conan and Furlong hopefully they are both minor issues while we will probably be without Harry Byrne for the visit of Sale.
On the plus side it’s great to see both Tommy O’Brien and Luke McGrath at least moving their way up the list.
On my selection for Saturday, while I am with what seems to be a majority of Leinster fans who want to see Frawley get a run at 10, I may have put him there in my selection but I still appreciate that if we feel we have to go for a 6/2 bench he may need to be on the bench.
We all of course wish James Lowe to only come back when he’s ready, would love to see him at least at 23 to ease him back in but then again Charlie Ngatai is having an amazing season himself so he makes my 23.
NB : the above matchday 23 is completely from my own mind, I’m certainly not suggesting I have any ITK a la Thornley
INJURY UPDATE – AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Michael Milne: has returned to full training after returning from a shoulder injury.
INJURY UPDATE – FURTHER ASSESSMENT REQUIRED:
Jack Conan: will look to increase his training load this week as he returns from a minor injury and will be further assessed later in the week ahead of selection.
Tadhg Furlong: will look to increase his training load this week as he returns from a minor injury and will be further assessed later in the week ahead of selection.
Tommy O’Brien: will look to increase his rehabilitation programme further this week as he nears a return from an ankle injury.
Luke McGrath: will look to increase his rehabilitation programme further this week as he nears a return from a knee injury.
INJURY UPDATE – UNAVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Cormac Foley: picked up a shoulder injury in training last week and will have a procedure this week. He will be unavailable for selection for the next few months.
Harry Byrne: was withdrawn for a Head Injury Assessment at the weekend and has now entered the Graduated Return to Play Protocols.
NO FURTHER UPDATES ON:
Ross Byrne (arm), Jamie Osborne (shoulder) and John McKee (hamstring).
My view is pretty simple – when the matches and tours are on, I love them as a fan of top level rugby. Who wouldn’t love to see a combined team from four of the Six Nations take on the best of the Southern hemisphere in a test series, and having a test happen in Dublin is long overdue and would be on its own a great occasion for Irish rugby in particular.
However this obviously goes out the window when there’s even a suggestion of too much rugby on the calendar and there’s also my wish for there to be more opportunities for the “Tier 2” nations to play rugby. And when a Lions squad assembles every four years, it automatically takes FIVE Tier 1 nations out of the equation when it comes to arranging matches and for me if it’s a case of “something has to give”, and I really think it is, then consigning the Lions tours to the history books wouldn’t be the worst thing for the sport.
I’ll look to bring it up in a future pod when I can to try and get some views from other Harpin panellists.
CHAMPIONS CUP FORMAT
No, the headline doesn’t mean I intend to moan about the format, in fact if anything I’m sick of all that moaning. Actually all I want to do here is point out how the knockout phase is organised for this year’s competition as I only learned it myself since last week’s 80+ column.
As you probably know there are four pools of six with two from each league in each pool and everyone plays four matches, avoiding only the team that comes from the same league.
The top four in each pool go forward to the last 16 and the seedings are very straightforward, the pool winners get 1-4 (ranked by pool performance), runnersup are 5-8, 3rd place teams 9-12 and finally 4th placed teams 13-16. For the last 16 round, the pairings are set as follows…1v16, 2v15, 3v14, 4v13, 5v12, 6v11, 7v10, 8v9.
What this means is that it is very possible (1 in 4 chance to be precise) that teams from the same pool can meet each other in the last 16. For example, not completely out of the question that Leinster play La Rochelle again!!!!
This isn’t a new thing by the way…in the format most people wish we could return to, with 6 pools of 4 producing 8 quarterfinallists, it has often happened that one of the two best runnersup faced a team they already faced in the pool phase.
I can’t say I’m a fan of this and would rather they kept the pools apart at least for that first knockout round, but I certainly wouldn’t dwell on it too much since that would itself be moaning!!! I’ll stick to hoping Leinster get as high a seeding as we can possibly get.
GUINNESS AS WOMEN’S 6N SPONSOR
On the surface this looks like good news, since the women’s game in particular will always need sponsorship, but I still have reservations.
It wasn’t so long ago that the league formerly known as the “Pro12/14” went a long time with having a sponsor before Guinness stepped in at virtually the 11th hour, and the same thing happened to the men’s Six Nations as the famous Irish stout was only announced to be offering its name to the 2019 tournament in December of 2018. Pretty sure these deals are ideally done and dusted much longer in advance of the competitions kicking off.
This leads me to think that Guinness may well be something of a “sponsor of last resort” for rugby and if so this could mean that it may not be as lucrative for the competition as it could be. I really, really hope I’m wrong but it does seem to make sense that a deal negotiated with a different company would bear more fruit.
ANOTHER MAJOR LEAGUE RUGBY FOLDS
Absolutely devastating news from the USA, with Toronto Arrows already pulling out of Major League Rugby for 2024, now even New York can’t hold down a team with the Ironworkers also folding. With the Miami Sharks joining this season, that leaves them with just ten for this season and surely there must be more teams struggling as well.
It’s very important for the sport that they get a foothold in the US, but it really looks like trying to model their product on the MLS isn’t the way to go, which is ironic because the reason it took soccer so long to take off over there was that they originally modelled themselves too much on the “established” American sports.
Looks like rugby there is going to have to find its own way forward.
UPDATE – since publishing I have learned that the league plans to expand into Mexico for 2025. Sounds like the plans aren’t finalised so I guess they figured they needed to get this news out there asap to push back on all the Toronto/NY negativity. Interesting move with Mexico hardly a rugby hotbed but we’ll see how it pans out.
EDDIE JONES
I really, really, REALLY don’t want to devote too many words to this guy, and Paul Williams sums up my feeling pretty well in the tweet below. But one thing I will say is that as much as I say in the previous segment how much I want the game to flourish in the USA, the same goes for Japan. We really need a strong foothold in both markets. Sadly now I can’t help but wish for EJ to be a flop out there which if it were to happen would probably set the game back further.
Now for the “Update” portion of the column and while there were obviously no URC games to update this table I might as well leave it here anyway.
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 V CONNACHT
DEC 26 MUNSTER V LEINSTER
JAN 1 CONNACHT V MUNSTER
JAN 1 LEINSTER V ULSTER
MAY 11 MUNSTER V CONNACHT
MAY 18 ULSTER V LEINSTER
MAY 31 LEINSTER V CONNACHT
JUNE 1 MUNSTER V ULSTER
“SVNS” UPDATE
For the second week in a row I’m simply going to paste in my copy from the pod (actually it’s in the first YouTube clip above) as it pretty much says all I have to say on the sevens…
I’ll start with the women – because while a seventh place finish is one down from the previous weekend in Dubai, there were still some fine performances, arguably the best of which was one they lost against Australia, as a brace of Bebhinn Parsons tries kept the eventual tournament winners honest and 14-24 was a very respectable result all things considered. They also ended the competition on a high defeating Great Britain avenging an earlier defeat in the pool stages to finish 7th which is also where they sit in the overall standings after two rounds.
Meanwhile the men had a better time of it – any Irish rugby team defeating New Zealand in a quarterfinal would make headlines but this was also not only our first ever win over them in 7s but also the first time they had lost at this stage of the competition since 2015. And it’s not like it was a fluke, not only was it a comprehensive 36-21 victory that included a Terry Kennedy hat-trick, but it came after an equally impressive win over the hosts at the end of Day 1, with the Irish men often deploying absolutely suffocating defensive sets that made it look like we had 15 out there not 7.
However those levels of physicality can take their toll and having reached the final four we finally came unstuck against eventual tournament winners Argentina in the semifinals and also against Fiji in the playoff which meant a fourth place finish that keeps us in 5th on the series table.
I said last week both squads can definitely get higher finishes and I still believe this to be the case. The series now moves on to Perth for a 3-day event from January 26th to 28th, make a note in your diaries and try to catch as much of the action as you can it is generally streamed live for free on rugbypass.tv
CAPE TOWN 7s
#IRLW7s
POOL
IRELAND 39-14 BRAZIL
IRELAND 15-19 GREAT BRITAIN
IRELAND 7-33 NEW ZEALAND
QF
IRELAND 14-24 AUSTRALIA
7TH PLACE PLAYOFF
IRELAND 17-5 GREAT BRITAIN
#IRLM7s
POOL
IRELAND 31-0 USA
IRELAND 19-14 GREAT BRITAIN
IRELAND 14-12 SOUTH AFRICA
QF
IRELAND 36-21 NEW ZEALAND
SF
IRELAND 19-26 ARGENTINA
3RD PLACE PLAYOFF
IRELAND 7-14 FIJI
NEXT IN THE SERIES…
PERTH JAN 26-28
VANCOUVER FEB 23-25
LOS ANGELES MAR 2-3
HONG KONG APR 5-7
SINGAPORE MAY 3-5
MADRID MAY 31-JUN 2
AIL UPDATE
“Match conceded by Wicklow due to injuries” is not a sentence we want to see in any level of senior rugby in 2023, especially when the top league in the country has only 9 teams so for any to be unable to put a matchday squad together it shows the game is still in major trouble.
And going on history, the 28-0 scoreline which was awarded to league leaders UL Bohs was something of a blessing for Wicklow – I have to admit I winced before looking at the scoreline and would not have blinked if it was in triple figures. That’s in no way an indictment of the rugby club itself by the way, rather the continued poor investment in the club game in general.
The league may have nine clubs officially, but actually there are only four with any real chance of winning it with three of them based in Dublin and surely there must be more talent available across the island that we can get playing the sport on a regular basis.
The league now takes a break until February 10, while in the meantime there will be the new “Celtic Challenge” competition including two new Irish franchises, the Wolfhounds and the Clovers who will play each other in Round 1 on December 29.
Meanwhile on the men’s side of things, Clontarf earned a win away to Lansdowne in round 8 to stay top while Cork Con stayed in touch by defeating UCD. Champions Terenure continued their recent form by sneaking into the top 4 thanks to a 29-17 win over City of Armagh, who have an Ulster derby to look forward to next weekend as they host Ballynahinch, although the tie of the round would seem to be the all Munster affair when Young Munsters host Cork Con.
#SupportYourLocalClub
WOMEN’S AIL
Round 10
SAT DEC 9
GALWEGIANS 10-34 COOKE
BELVO 37-14 BLACKROCK
RAILWAY UNION 88-19 SUTTONIANS
[WICKLOW 0-28 UL BOHS]
Match conceded by Wicklow due to injuries.
Five match points awarded to UL Bohemians along with a 28-0 scoreline
Wicklow are deducted five points for conceding
Round 11
SAT FEB 10
SUTTONIANS V BALLINCOLLIG
COOKE V RAILWAY UNION
GALWEGIANS V UL BOHS
WICKLOW V BELVO
MEN’S AIL
ROUND 8
BALLYNAHINCH 13-16 YOUNG MUNSTER
CORK CON 38-25 UCD
LANSDOWNE 27-31 CLONTARF
SHANNON 14-13 DUBLIN UNIV
TERENURE 29-17 CITY OF ARMAGH
ROUND 9
FRI DEC 15
UCD V LANSDOWNE
SAT DEC 16
CITY OF ARMAGH V BALLYNAHINCH
CLONTARF V SHANNON
DUBLIN UNIV V TERENURE
YOUNG MUNSTER V CORK CON
CHALLENGE CUP UPDATE
All Irish provinces may be in the main competition but the Challenge Cup is still worth updating here, partly because it’s possible a province or two may end up dropping down into its knockout stage, but also as there are some interesting entrants in this years pool stage, not least of which is Black Lion from Georgia.
It wasn’t the worst debut for them either as although they lost to Premiership side Gloucester, it was only by a respectable 10-15 result to give them their first match point in European rugby. Elsewhere there were wins for the Sharks and Castres, two of the sides who may be fancied to be there or thereabouts in the latter stages, and also for the Dragons, who surely won’t care how little Oyonnax put into their fixture as they needed any kind of win they could get!
The South African derby between Cheetahs and Sharks seems to be the pick of round 2, although Black Lion will fancy having a go at the Scarlets given how things went the last team a Georgian side played in Wales.
ROUND 1
NEWCASTLE 19-24 MONTPELLIER
PERPIGNAN 12-28 LIONS
DRAGONS 24-7 OYONNAX
OSPREYS 43-34 BENETTON
SHARKS 45-5 PAU
CASTRES 34-16 SCARLETS
BLACK LION 10-15 GLOUCESTER
ZEBRE 15-33 CHEETAHS
CLÉRMONT 31-18 EDINBURGH
ROUND 2
FRI DEC 15
SCARLETS V BLACK LION
GLOUCESTER V CLÉRMONT
SAT DEC 16
OYONNAX V ZEBRE
EDINBURGH V CASTRES
BENETTON V PERPIGNAN
LIONS V NEWCASTLE
PAU V DRAGONS
SUN DEC 17
CHEETAHS V SHARKS
MONTPELLIER V OSPREYS
HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE
Yeah I know this league is for the URC only and there were no matches last weekend but hey, I’m top of the league so Imma gonna keep posting the standings every chance I get!!!
NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
Premiership leaders Sale Sharks come to the RDS on Saturday evening, we’ll have a preview with Keego on Friday while Tom Coleman and RugbyKino are slated to help with the wrap which will be back in its Sunday evening recording slot. Be sure to keep in touch with all our social media channels and offer your own thoughts where you can.
And as ever, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP
HARPIN' ON RUGBY 