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
10 December 2023; Ciarán Frawley of Leinster kicks a penalty during the Investec Champions Cup match between La Rochelle and Leinster at Stade Marcel Deflandre in La Rochelle, France. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
Away in France to the reigning champs and we finally get it right! I couldn’t be happier to see the team finally figure out how to get the better of them. Delighted to see the only try scored is Larmour, he’s had a tough couple of years.
No trick plays, no bounce off the ball stuff, and no situation where the ref was clearly biased towards us. We beat them fair and square.
The future is bright at 10, the squad will take a lot from this and fingers crossed no major injury concerns as we prepare for Saturday
Chris McDonnell
Fantastic result, can’t fault anything on the pitch. Onwards and upwards.
Greg Kelly
Really well fought win. I seem to remember LAR struggling in similar conditions last year against Ulster. Byrne was pretty solid in what he did and Frawley fronted up well on a difficult night. Certainly a big weekend in the post Johnny period in blue and green.
Bert McLoughlin
What was best about today’s performance was the hunger to make dominant tackles and be physical in poor conditions. That hunger will make us strong contenders this season. No signs of a wc hangover
Gavin Hegarty
To me Byrne stood up when asked and frawley did the same. We’re good @10 for a few years!
Hats off to connors, he delivered and then some. Epic performance.
We had some unleinster mistakes but we’ll learn as the game evolves. Porter was constantly talking to the ref, this I like.
I did not like the ref telling ringer he won’t talk to Ryan but fear this is a result of ‘co’ captains. We need to sort thst.
William Andrew
Appalling display by the Ref, looked like he was been coached by LR. Said it twice to them but still did nothing to shut them up.
Honestly Refs need to realise a big scrum can actually bring a scrum down and play the odds like they play the red zone odds.
Jamie Donohoe
Very proud of that very courageous performance in those conditions. And i thought the Ref handled the game well too
Not ready for analysis yet except for THAT. WAS. AWESOME!!!!#LARvLEI
Hello there and welcome to our latest 80+ column…every weekend we focus on the 80 minutes of rugby played by Leinster and/or Ireland, and here is where we keep tabs on pretty much everything else.
For our latest wrap myself and Conor Cronin harped on Leinster’s robbery victory in Galway on Saturday evening, normally I have two contributors but one had to pull out (the cheek of these people having actual lives!) so I took up the slack myself and prepared some extra chat and while my voice only barely held up (made a lot of use of both the cough button and the editing software) I reckon we did a decent job going over the match between us.
And one thing I keep forgetting to do in these columns is give a shout out to our preview show – it generally goes live 24 hours ahead of kickoff and I guess the reason I forget it is the “mootness” of the previews once the match is actually played, but I am of course grateful to Keego (and the others who occasionally step in) for sitting with me for a quick recording once each matchday squad is named.
HARPIN ON…CHANGES WE’D MAKE TO RUGBY
Last week I mentioned that I had abandoned Mastodon in favour of Blue Sky as I can only handle one Musk alternative at a time. Engagement has been pretty good there so far so I threw out a general question to see what kind of responses I’d get. It helped give us a decent topic for our bonus chat on Sunday, where Conor and myself read out some of the top responses as well as offering a few of our own.
As you can see I have included more of the answers below.
ORIGINAL QUESTION : OK time throw a topic out there see how it flies in the BlueSky….You are put in charge of the entire sport of rugby union for long enough to make just ONE (realistic) change that will be permanent. What’s it gonna be.
Dr Harley Worthy – Lifetime ban for anyone using the phrase “bring back rucking”, you can still ruck the ball backwards with your foot. You just miss people being given a shoeing
Andrew Byrne – If it’s only one thing then it’s….Global Season…. #GoBigOrGoHome
Brian Donnelly – Put the right level of funding, structures and support into the process of creating a panel of consistently competent top level referees. It’s too haphazard at moment.
Sei Williams – I would invent a time machine, go back to 1995 and do Welsh professional rugby properly. Thanks.
Edward Jenkins – Ban union ownership of non-test pro teams.
Cian Ó Muilleoir – Ban private ownership of non-test pro teams.
Stephen Murphy (Master Of None Pod) – Appoint me as the Rugby Czar and I will review every red card individually and dish out appropriate punishments.
Cian Ó Muilleoir – My actual real and genuine suggestion is that if a try is scored with a penalty advantage still accrued the advantage is carried to a penalty kick for the restart.
Kevin Beirne – If you score a try under penalty advantage you can choose take the conversion from the location of the penalty
Caolán Scully – All outside backs must their hair cut by a team barber, and oblige to a style that suits their position
Richard Mifsud – My realistic one is one I’ve often mentioned, you only get a try bonus with three clear tries à la Top14
David O’Crampeasy – Scrum reset/free kick/penalties better, I don’t know how, just better. Much better scrum/lineout commentary talk about the power/mass/height involved, celebrate the technicalities of the game rather than try to hide them
James Gotoshay – All games, URC,Champions cup,internationals and all other leagues including southern hemisphere leagues and summer tours are available in one subscription pack.
Sarah Lennon – Crouch, touch, pause, engage.
Bill Byrne – Properly addressing media rights and new media issues. Low key massive issue. Needs to be comprehensively addressed.
Cian Ormond – Establish a women’s touring team akin to the B&I Lions, but not just copying what already exists. Realistically, a current B&I womens team would be all England. Perhaps England could be one of the big opponents for an Irish-Scottish-Welsh team (for example), establishing a new and unique brand.
Rob Gardner – If a technical infringement doesn’t materially impact the game state then it is to be ignored. Example: if a lineout throw isn’t straight but opposition didn’t put a man in the air they are deemed to have conceded possession and it’s play on.
Sale Ben – Rucking. If you’re on the wrong side it’s your responsibility to get out of there. Would speed up the game and reduce head contact at the ruck with players flying in to clear the ruck zone of debris
Peel – pump money into Unions that need/deserve it (Madagascar would be a big one, they bloody love rugby)
Maz McMillan – Tier 1 nations must play at least one tier 2 nation every year. I dislike the word “tier” but you know what I mean
Ross Rugby Ref – Rewrite the laws to the game we want, if crooked scrum feeds are ok, then write laws that way – give us community refs a chance!
LEINSTER INJURY UPDATE
The news on Ross Byrne was pretty much expected but Jamie Osborne as well…I actually had him in my team before the injury report was released but now I’m hoping James Lowe is available. I understand he has been back in Dublin after some compassionate leave and although it would be asking a lot to expect him to dive into the deep end against La Rochelle if anyone could do it, he can. If he’s not in the frame I’d be more than happy to see Rob Russell get the nod.
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:
Cormac Foley: came through the game at the weekend with no issues after his return from a shoulder injury.
Cian Healy: came through the game at the weekend with no issues after his return from a shoulder injury.
Alex Soroka: has returned to full training after recovering from a foot injury.
INJURY UPDATE – FURTHER ASSESSMENT REQUIRED:
Michael Milne: will be further assessed later this week as he continues his return from a shoulder injury.
INJURY UPDATE – UNAVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Ross Byrne: had a procedure on an arm injury last week and will be unavailable until the new year.
Jamie Osborne: picked up a shoulder injury in the win over Connacht and is having a procedure this week and will be unavailable for selection as a result.
NO FURTHER UPDATES ON:
Tommy O’Brien (ankle), Luke McGrath (knee) and John McKee (hamstring)
WHAT THE FOCAL?
Might have stepped in a minefield here but more often than not I find my view to be right in the middle of two extremes so I’ve decided to address it in my latest TikTok vid. Apologies if my Irish and Welsh pronunciations aren’t what they should be but I couldn’t do this bit without at least having a go!
That headline is about as “IYKYK” as you can get!!! Although I very much doubt that if you love rugby enough to be reading these pages, you haven’t also heard of Squidge!
Having been denied the chance to offer his trademark takes from the World Cup, as well as being denied a decent explanation, all Irish fans will be glad he turned his attention to the career of Johnny Sexton, and this time he reproduces all his hilarious various on the name, and you have to say he left the best until last.
I can’t leave out the fact that both “Rathgar” and “Bective” get mispronounced at the start (though it could be intentional given the running gag on his name) but trust me…as the video goes on all of that ceases to matter and even though I’ve been running this site for pretty much the length of th guy’s career, even I learned a few things.
So just in case you haven’t see in yet, here’s a link.
WELSH RUGBY – WHAT WENT WRONG?
That’s a question that most rugby fans around the world would like answered and thankfully someone has literally written the book on it.
Seimon Williams is the author and I am delighted to say he has agreed to come on the pod for a chat – I reckon the best time to do this will be just before Ireland play Wales in the Six Nations (with Leinster playing Cardiff the following weekend) so it’s a bit down the line but with Christmas “around the corner” I thought I’d get in an early mention, this link is for Amazon but it’s available in several different places.
Here’s the official blurb…
The 2022-23 season may just be the bleakest in Welsh rugby history. Accusations of misogyny, sexism, racism and homophobia against the Welsh Rugby Union led to resignations, independent inquiries, Senedd intervention and rushed governance reform. Budget cuts, strike threats, uncertainty for players, embarrassing defeats and the dismissal of the national coach presaged another poor Six Nations campaign.
This book looks at the issues which have seen Welsh rugby stumble from crisis to crisis over the past 40 years. At how a nation which led the rugby world in the 1970s declined into the fractured, riven, divided rugby nation of today. At how occasional successes at club, regional and Test level were achieved despite the system, not because of it, and did little more than paper over the cracks. At, fundamentally, what went wrong.
FAZ BREAK
Keego touched on this for the preview pod but I’d just like to add my two cents, totally in agreement with him that there is absolutely nothing wrong with a player taking a break from the game for whatever reason.
The schedule can be hectic, particularly if you are captain for both club and country with all the extra media responsibilities, and although we might have a go at him now and again on these pages, I really do hope none of it is considered anywhere near the kind of treatment that has led to this break.
We all want our teams to win, but we also want them to do it against the top players available and he is of course right up there on that list so here’s to a speedy return for him.
URC IRISH SHIELD UPDATE
I can’t believe the mainstream media never made anything out of the fact that Ciaran Frawley’s late try catapulted Leinster to the top of the Irish Shield!!! All of course could change over the Christmas schedule…
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
Since I covered the 7s kickoff on the main pod I’ll just copy my piece here…some may call that lazy but I prefer to see it as “eco-friendly recycling”…
I’d like to take a quick look at Ireland’s involvement in the World Series Sevens, or “SVNS” as it’s called now since they removed the e’s. Sure who needs vowels anyway, amirite?
Anyway…changing the name wasn’t the only rebrand, and probably the most significant new feature is that they have brought equity to the genders by not only ensuring that every leg has both a men’s and women’s event, but also they reduced the number of men’s teams from 16 to 12 same as the women.
Both Irish teams have been doing reasonably well since we finally invested in the code with qualification for the Paris Olympics something to look forward to later in the year, but over the weekend the new SVNS series kicked off in Dubai and Ireland got off to flying starts with the women defeating Japan and Brazil and the men overcoming Australia and Spain.
Three matches in one day in that Dubai heat proved too much for us in the third pool matches, however, with the women falling to Australia and the men against Argentina, and this left our task in the cup quarterfinals that little bit tougher.
The Irish women were up against a Canadian side which had already caused an upset on Day 1 by defeating the USA but although we were down by 7pts with less than a minute left on the clock we were perhaps too impatient with an extra player as Aimee Leigh Murphy Crowe went over in the corner making the conversion too much meaning Canada went through.
Meanwhile over on the men’s side there was a crazy quarterfinal as Ireland’s only involvement in the first half was one overthrown lineout as Fiji ran in five tries to be 29-0 up at the break before Ireland responded with four unanswered tries of their own until Mark Roche tried to be a bit too clever with an attempted restart to himself, knocking on in the process and leaving the Flying Fijians as the winners 29-24
This dropped both sides into the playoffs for placings but still every point counts in the series and the teams had mixed fortunes as the women fell 19-24 to Fiji to finish in 6th place while the men overcame Samoa to end up 5th. Ending up in the top half in both competitions wasn’t the worst result for Ireland but you still feel our ceiling is a little bit higher.
When it came to the tournament winners in Dubai, Australia took the women’s title beating New Zealand 26-19 in the final while the South African Blitzbokke defeated Argentina 12-7 on the men’s side. The series now moves on to Cape Town next weekend, with the remaining destinations being Perth, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Singapore and finally Madrid at the end of next May. As ever we live in hope that one day a venue in Ireland might be added to that list.
#IRLW7s
POOL
IRELAND 35-7 JAPAN
IRELAND 19-14 BRAZIL
AUSTRALIA 33-5 IRELAND
QF
IRELAND 12-14 CANADA
5TH PLACE PLAYOFF
IRELAND 19-24 FIJI
#IRLM7s
POOL
AUSTRALIA 12-19 IRELAND
IRELAND 35-10 SPAIN
ARGENTINA 17-7 IRELAND
QF
IRELAND 24-29 FIJI
5TH PLACE PLAYOFF
IRELAND 28-7 SAMOA
NEXT IN THE SERIES…
CAPE TOWN DEC 9-10
Cape Town pools –
Women: Pool B: New Zealand, Ireland, Brazil, Great Britain
Men: Pool A: South Africa, Ireland, USA, Great Britain
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
🔝🐱🐴 UPDATE
All Leinster eyes of course will have been on La Rochelle, and it was interesting to see the tables turned for once as while we were the ones grinding out a victory, it was the CC holders who had the run of the mill BP home win against a side at the bottom of the table! Have a feeling the lineups on Sunday will be very different…
We should also keep an eye on Stade who we play after Christmas, they returned to winning ways with a decent result against the Brennus holders Toulouse, and with La Rochelle next on the list for them in round 10, their task does not get easier.
Stu Lancaster’s Racing are top going into the Champions Cup kickoff.
Round 9
TOULON 36-13 PAU
BAYONNE 34-19 MONTPELLIER
OYONNAX 23-29 BORDEAUX
CASTRES 29-14 LYON
LA ROCHELLE 35-6 PERPIGNAN
CLÉRMONT 23-18 RACING 92
STADE FRANCAIS 27-12 TOULOUSE
Round 10
FRI DEC 22
PERPIGNAN V BAYONNE
BORDEAUX V LYON
SAT DEC 23
MONTPELLIER V CASTRES
RACING 92 V OYONNAX
PAU V CLÉRMONT
STADE FRANCAIS V LA ROCHELLE
TOULOUSE V TOULON
PREMIERSHIP UPDATE
Getting thumped 3-36 and remaining top of the league isn’t easy to do but Leinster’s Champions Cup opponents Sale Sharks managed it this week, although it has become very tight in the Premiership with just the four points separating the top six in the ten-team league. I wonder when they play Leinster at the RDS will they have half a mind on the visit of Saracens to their ground the following week…
Leicester Tigers probably didn’t learn too much from thumping lowly Newcastle but I’m pretty sure a trip to Sandy Park after the European matches will offer a decent education.
ROUND 8
HARLEQUINS 36-3 SALE SHARKS
BRISTOL 51-26 GLOUCESTER
BATH 41-24 EXETER
SARACENS 12-18 NORTHAMPTON SAINTS
LEICESTER TIGERS 47-3 NEWCASTLE
ROUND 9
FRI DEC 22
NEWCASTLE V BRISTOL
SALE SHARKS V SARACENS
SAT DEC 23
EXETER V LEICESTER
GLOUCESTER V NORTHAMPTON
BATH V HARLEQUINS
AIL UPDATE
Absolutely no doubt that UL Bohs are hot favourites to lift the Women’s AIL title…their 20-15 at Belvo made it 8 wins from 8 in the first half of the season, and in a league that has already seen a lot of big scorelines, you almost fear for the fate of Wicklow RFC when they travel to Limerick in the next round. The three Leinster clubs remain hot in pursuit with Belvo hosting Rock in the pick of the ties in the next round.
Before I move on from the Women’s league, the composition of the teams for the Celtic Challenge, a potential precursor to a Celtic League equivalent, has been announced. Leinster and Ulster will combine to play as the Wolfhounds, while Munster and Connacht will be the Clovers. More details plus the fixture list to be found here.
Meanwhile on the men’s side, Clontarf won the big top of the table clash holding off Cork Con while Lansdowne overcame lowly Trinity to go stay 3rd and Hinch had a great win at Belfield Bowl to remain in the playoff places. Terenure sent a message to the rest of the league that they’re not ready to give up their crown just yet as they thumped Shannon at Lakelands. The Dublin derby between Lansdowne and Tarf seems to be the pick of round 8.
#SupportYourLocalClub
WOMEN’S AIL
Round 9
SUTTONIANS 45-12 WICKLOW
BALLINCOLLIG 14-21 GALWEGIANS
RAILWAY UNION 38-22 BLACKROCK COLLEGE
BELVO 15-20 UL BOHS
Round 10
SAT DEC 9
GALWEGIANS V COOKE
BELVO V BLACKROCK
RAILWAY UNION V SUTTONIANS
UL BOHS V WICKLOW
MEN’S AIL
ROUND 7
CLONTARF 30-26 CORK CON
DUBLIN UNIV 3-17 LANSDOWNE
TERENURE 58-7 SHANNON
UCD 17-31 BALLYNAHINCH
YOUNG MUNSTER 32-17 CITY OF ARMAGH
ROUND 8
SAT DEC 9
BALLYNAHINCH V YOUNG MUNSTER
CORK CON V UCD
LANSDOWNE V CLONTARF
SHANNON V DUBLIN UNIV
TERENURE V CITY OF ARMAGH
RE SUPER CUP UPDATE
The predicted final matchup between Black Lion and Tel Aviv Heat has come to pass as both comfortably got through their semifinals, but now the timing is an issue as it was meant to be played on Dec 16 but the Georgian side kind of have other things to worry about like a trip to Llanelli for a Challenge Cup fixture. They begin their historic involvement in European cup rugby this weekend by hosting Gloucester.
SEMIFINALS
BLACK LION 41-0 CASTILLA
TEL-AVIV HEAT 31-6 ROMANIAN WOLVES
5TH-8TH PLACE SEMIFINALS
BRUSSELS DEVILS 44-10 BOHEMIAN WARRIORS
DELTA 8-53 LUSITANOS
SAT DEC 16
RE SUPER CUP FINAL
BLACK LION V TEL AVIV*
PLAYOFF FINALS
3RD – CASTILLA V ROMANIAN WOLVES
5TH – LUSITANOS V BRUSSELS DEVILS
7TH – DELTA V BOHEMIA WARRIORS
HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE
Wait – who’s that at the top of the league? Is that really me??? And what’s more I actually have that late Frawley try to thank for it as well. having dropped to 4th a few weeks ago it’s great to see my name back up there but as you can see it’s very close and there are bound to be a lot more changes before this league is done.
NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
So that’s it for another week. La Rochelle are up next, we’ll have a preview on Friday as usual, but with the match on Sunday, we won’t record the wrap until Monday night so keep an eye out for it on the Tuesday morning. Please do keep in touch on all the usual social media channels in the meantime.
And as ever, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP
2 December 2023; Harry Byrne of Leinster kicks a conversion during the United Rugby Championship match between Connacht and Leinster at the Sportsground in Galway. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
Andrew Byrne A last minute try can’t paper over those cracks. We were far below where we should be. Is our squad just too big, all this rotation seems to be causing a lack of cohesion in our playing combinations. I only hope we have a better performance in the bank for next week.
Chris McDonnell Seriously not good enough. This rotating the whole team had to stop. Too many players just not good enough to play for Leinster.
Darran Kearney Kinda liking that we are playing so poorly early season, instead of beating everyone out the door and learning nothing. Coaches have 6 months to work with the team for the business end of the season. Hoping we can end this season better than we have in the more recent seasons
Christy O’Connor Way too much rotation, players playing out of position. Lots of schoolboy errors. Have we not learned anything from the last 2 seasons. We rested players that only played 1 or 2 games. This is now getting ridiculous. Stop giving lads time just for the sake of it. We need to give the core players more time and the others should possibly look to move abroad.
Conor O’Shea Poor performance, but a wins a win. No major injuries for next week from tonight
Eamon Saunders A lot of mistakes from both sides but good to get the win 👏👏
Went from deserving to be behind to deserving to be ahead to deserving to lose….to a BP win!!! Way to many unforced errors by both sides, just needed that composure at the end. Talk about getting out of jail. Tough on Connacht. Draw would be better result tbf #CONvLEI
In the latest from our Opposition View series I spoke to Connacht fan Stephen Murphy from the excellent Master of None pod to offer a western perspective ahead of Leinster’s trip to the Sportsground on Saturday.
HARPIN' ON RUGBY 