Welcome to my 80+ column, a weekly post featuring final thoughts from the week of rugby just gone.
FANZO GUINNESS PINT PREDICTOR LEAGUE
To important admin business first, serious kudos to Christy O’Connor who finished top of the pile in the first round of our Guinness Pint Predictor League on the Fanzo app.
His forecasts of Ireland by 16, Scotland by 4 and France by 9 were closest of the lot so he not only won some free pints for himself but he’s also given him a shot at winning two league categories, namely Best Round Score and of course Overall Winner.
As for the added challenge of beating our Harpin panel of experts, well…let’s just say we’re all a little bit further down the ladder for now but as the saying goes it’s early doors and all that…
REMEMBER YOU CAN STILL JOIN THE LEAGUE we’re accepting entrants right up to the final round and you can still beat that one round score of 46 (top score overall on the app was 60) and also every Six Nations Match gives you the chance to win a free pint so by all means download the app and enter the league using the code HARPIN and see how you get on.
WRAP OF A WRAP
Rich Mifsud & RugbyKino helped me wrap the Welsh match and as ever did a bang up job going back over the eighty minutes and offered some excellent insights, as well as harpin’ on stories from beyond the Irish men’s senior bubble in our “Front Five” feature.
If you missed it, check it out here or on most major platforms.
HARPIN’ ON…HUGO “MR DEPENDABLE” KEENAN
This week’s bonus clip was on Leinster & Ireland’s nailed on starting full back Hugo Keenan. Often I disagree with the selection of Player of the match and for Saturday’s match at Cardiff there certainly could be a cae made for Caelan Doris but having said that Keenan is long overdue a prolonged discussion and like I say in the clip if we don’t make a point of having it, he could go his entire career with us taking his high standards for granted.
If you’re playing the clip above maybe pop over and subscribe to the channel too? That’s where we post our Preview Show as well as other content throughout the week.
ANDY FARRELL TIK TOK
I never go into my pod recording knowing what portion I’m going to use but the second Kino said this I knew I had my TikTok clip.
A curious thing happened on Monday, well two curious things, the first being the new Bank Holiday but the second was a flood of posts in my rugby timeline pointing out that Scotland’s win over England moved them up the World Rugby rankings to ensure that all of the top five are now on the same side of the draw in RWC2023.
That, of course, is ludicrous, but maybe it is also ludicrous for us to keep going on about it because I very much doubt there is anything that can be done to change it. The practice of holding the draw three years in advance (supposedly in part because it offers a bit of a competitive edge to that year’s November internationals???) has been going on for a few RWC cycles now so it’s nothing new.
Obviously this “top 5” element is an extreme outcome but the thing is we have known about it for years and this was pointed out as a possible consequence long ago. We’re just going to have to grin and bear this one and hope they fix things for 2027.
What could be done instead? I’m not sure if holding the draw later is necessarily a solution because the rankings always change, but maybe they could drop the “fixed bracket” element of the quarterfinal makeup? So keep the pool winners apart in the last 8 but have their seeding in the draw determined by the rankings at the time?
That of course leads this point towards the rabbit hole of reforming the entire World Cup format altogether so I’ll stray away from that for now, but it’s an interesting one to think about all the same.
THE SIX EMOJIS
Interesting tweet from Jay Long here on twitter Emoji etiquette. He went on to get a good deal of negative reaction to pointing this out but I don’t see the problem with reminding folks of the make-up of the Irish rugby team.
As Jay points out, often people don’t mean anything by it, but I dare say the vast majority of times people use the tricolour it has no added meaning, and once they learn of this they’ll use the shamrock in future.
I also added that it’s critical to be sure to use the three-leaf emoji rather than the four otherwise you could find yourself in serious “trouble”!!!
100% and also to stress the importance of ☘ over 🍀 that extra leaf can bring you a world of twitter pain
Obviously the news that Messrs JGP, Furlong & Healy will also be unavailable to play France was less than ideal news, yet still their standins all did extremely well in Cardiff and I see no reason why we can’t be confident going with the exact same 23 and in many ways the fact that all appear to be available makes this overall a decent injury report for Andy Farrell’s squad. Plus, it was great news that Rónan Kelleher has resumed full training, and congrats to both Caolin Blade and Michael Milne for their call ups.
THE NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
Short but sweet 80+ column this week, on Wednesday we’ll be posting an interview with Justin Middleton about his career as a rugby commentator so far as well as a chat about the All Ireland league.
Then of course we will turn our attention back to the 6N starting with our massive clash with France getting the usual Harpin treatment with a preview Friday featuring Rugby Kino, a wrap on Sunday plus a whole lot of other features in between.
In the meantime, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP
Welcome to my 80+ column, a weekly post featuring final thoughts from the week of rugby just gone.
SIX NATIONS COMPETITION
The countdown to “6Mas” gets closer to zero and this year we’re launching a prediction league in conjunction with the Fanzo app, if we get good engagement we’ll offer some prizes for the best players so you’ll really help us out by joining and/or sharing the above graphic with your rugby loving pals.
Here at Harpin Manor we’re running a separate league among our squad of Six Nations podsters, namely myself, Keego, Mark Jackson, Tom Coleman, Conor Cronin, Rich Mifsud & RugbyKino. And don’t tell them I said this but none of them think any of you have a hope of beating them when it comes to forecasting so I guess you’ll just have to prove ‘em wrong won’t you 😜
WRAP OF A WRAP
Unfortunately Rich Mifsud had to sit our our wrap pod at the weekend due to illness and we hope we returns to fitness in time for next Sunday. Thankfully RugbyKino was able to answer the call and along with Conor we got an excellent summary of what was expected to be a much closer contest at the RDS.
If you missed it, check it out here or on most major platforms.
HARPIN’ ON…LEINSTER’S TAP N GO TRIES
For the pod I try to even out the portions of the match I get my guests to cover as best as I can, yet sadly I didn’t realise Kino had done a lot of preparation on Leinster’s success rate with short tap n go penalty options when I allocated our two tries against Cardiff to Conor. But when we finished recording the main pod Kino still shared the information and unbeknownst to him the mic was still “hot” so I got it all and made it into a bonus clip for YouTube which you see below.
If you’re playing the clip above maybe pop over and subscribe to the channel too? That’s where we post our Preview Show as well as other content throughout the week.
HARRY BYRNE TIK TOK
This week the TikTok spotlight turned to Harry Byrne, this was an important start for him and we thought he did realy well.
I’m doing my best to keep myself from donning the tinfoil hat but it would appear that unions from all Six Nations are experiencing varying forms of governance issues in the weeks leading up to the game’s greatest championship kicking off, almost as if (a) we’d have difficulty focusing on everything at once and (b) once the rugby starts we’re expected to forget it anyway.
None of it is pretty, and yes I do mean all unions are involved.
Recently we had the terrible allegations of systemic misogyny made against the WRU in a documentary, which of course simply sits atop a whole host of other issues there.
Also last week there was further development in Bernard Laporte’s saga which doesn’t look like straying too far from the news cycle, something the FFR could do without in a RWC year.
Although what happened in Italian rugby, namely the disgusting “secret Santa” present, was confined to one club, it was their biggest and surely warranted involvement by the union and the response has been extremely insufficient.
Meanwhile in Scotland the SRU has fallen well short addressing the tragic death of Siobhan Cattigan.
Then there was the RFU making an absolute hames of introducing new tackle laws at lower levels (in every sense), a problem with communication that by all accounts is nothing new over there.
As for Irish rugby? Well perhaps on the surface there’s nothing in the front line news, yet while steps are being taken to improve the Women’s game with professional contracts and new competitions being announced, there is information being put out there by a particular twitter account that suggests a lot more needs to be done.
Each issue is vast and extremely difficult to summarize in an article like this one, but the reason I had a stab at it was to present the overall view from just outside the 6N bubble.
We love rugby on the pitch; I’m writing this article and you’re reading it so that goes without saying. But knowing so much negativity is going on behind the scenes is certainly not acceptable, especially when the governance issues are so widespread. No organisation is ever going to have everything perfect all the time, but what does seem to be a common thread in the above stories is that the failures are in areas where you’d expect to have set standards throughout the sport, something I would have thought a body like World Rugby was there to fix.
SEVENS
Another strong showing by the Irish women, this time reaching another semifinal after an impressive quarterfinal win over Fiji which put some distance between us and them in the overall series standings and keeps us within reach of the top four.
Meanwhile the men also reached the last eight but a couple of early mistakes against the Blitzbokke made a fightback impossible so we are continuing to struggle to match the excellent silver medal in Dubai.
Next on the circuit is Los Angeles for the men at the end of February, while both they and the women join them in Vancouver the following weekend. Without researching I just have to say on the surface it does seem odd that LA can’t provide for a women’s leg in the series.
But that just brings me to the point I always like making when discussing the World Sevens Series…
I hope @WorldRugby7s see that Irish crowd in Sydney and appreciate what kind of atmosphere an Irish leg in the series would have.#Sydney7s#IreM7s
Before I harp on the Men’s AIL, a quick shout out to the Women’s Combined Provinces XV – clunky name I know, but apparently it’s just for the one season as the new Celtic Challenge tournament is meant to expand from one team per nation to two next season. Anyway – they opened their campaign with a 27-26 win away to their Welsh counterparts in the opening match.
Now to Division 1A and in Round 12 there was so much going on at both ends of the table it’s hard to know where to start. I guess it’s best to “take it from the top” as league leaders Terenure suffered only their second defeat of the season, this one at home to rivals Clontarf and with Cork Con also winning, it means just three point separate the top three. Then there’s the race for that fourth semifinal berth as Young Munster scored a home win over Trinity to leap frog them.
But arguably the biggest result of the round was Garryowen finally kicking the duck egg out of their win column by beating Lansdowne, who in turn got dragged back into the relegation battle as UCD also did some leap-frogging, sneaking out of the bottom two at Shannon’s expense.
The clubs now get a couple of weekend’s off to let punters catch the Six Nations in their bars (seriously, if you can, do get down to your local clubs to watch if you can, it really helps them out) and they return to action with some big matchups as you can see below.
Men’s AIL
Cork Con 14-3 Ballynahinch
Garryowen 21-17 Lansdowne
UCD 22-19 Shannon
Young Munster 17-10 Dublin Univ
Terenure 24-29 Clontarf
Sat Feb 18
Ballynahinch v Terenure
Clontarf v Young Munster
Lansdowne v Cork Con
Shannon v Dublin University
UCD v Garryowen
THE NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
I’d like to say here “from now on we’re switching into FULL SIX NATIONS MODE for the next couple of months”, but of course I can’t say that because there’s a bit of URC thrown in there plus I have another couple of pods lined up on other topics for good measure.
But still, obvs the bulk of the coverage is going to be on the 6N starting with an overview pod which will record Wednesday evening, then the tournament opener in Cardiff will be getting the usual Harpin treatment with a preview Friday, wrap on Sunday plus a whole lot of other features in between.
In the meantime, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP
Welcome to my 80+ column, a weekly post featuring final thoughts from the week of rugby just gone.
WRAP OF A WRAP
Now I’m glad I didn’t bore you every other week in this column with my disaster stories travelling to and from the RDS/Aviva for home Leinster matches because last Saturday everything went absolutely swimmingly. Short wait time for buses in both direction, no getting lost in the lower reaches of the Stadium which made me go the looooong way round to my seat because I turned left not right, no hitches of any sort which I thought wasn’t possible.
Oh, and Leinster also won on top of it all, maybe with a hitch or two, but still with some cracking scores along the way. And all of the last bit was brilliantly summed up by both Tom and Nathan on Sunday night’s pod. If you missed it, check it out here or on most major platforms.
HARPIN’ ON…GARRY RINGROSE : LEADERSHIP & FORM
For our extended clip this week I thought it was the perfect opportunity to harp on Garry Ringrose who has really grown into the captaincy role this season and it definitely looks like one he could be taking over once Johnny Sexton hangs up the boots.
If you’re playing the clip above maybe pop over and subscribe to the channel too? That’s where we post our Preview Show as well as other content throughout the week.
JASON JENKINS TIK TOK
We have a core team of Sunday podsters but I’me very grateful to Nathan Johns for being able to step in the odd Sunday, he works for the Irish Times and covers a lot of Irish cricket including the recent T20 World Cup but as you can see in the TikTok below he also provides great rugby insight like this point about Leinster’s defensive maul.
“All four provinces into the knockout phase” is the most important takeaway. Sure there were some disappointing results along the way, and it’s not ideal that three must play away and also two of us have to play each other in the round of 16, but still progression is a major goal when the process starts and should be applauded. I’m skirting close to the format debate here so I’ll save that for a later point.
IRISH SQUAD
I have to be honest, squad announcements are actually starting to get boring, if only because the reactions are so predictable. With the list being announced during a pair of HCC weekends it’s not easy to remove the provincial goggles I suppose, but I’m not sure they’d be taken off under any circumstances.
Even when a coach has a record that suggests his choices can be trusted for the immediate future, still the accusations of bias over form get bandied about. Really, really, boring.
Did the Carbery omission raise an eyebrow? Of course it did, although with Ben Healy’s decision they did have to take Munster’s current situation into account – still not guaranteed HCC qualification for next season so the mid 6N URC matches will be vital – and also if it was down to himself and Crowley I dare say the latter would certainly benefit more from time with the test squad while Carbery can easily slot in later in the comp if required.
MY FINAL DEVIL’S ADVOCACY OF THE HCC FORMAT…
Yes, yes, I know I’ve harped on this a lot in recent weeks, but in my defence, so have most people on social media before during and after each of the four pool rounds so I reckon I’m entitled to another swing at pushing back just a bit.
Once again, to be clear…this is NOT my ideal format. However, the things many people are complaining about seem to be things that won’t be necessarily solved by returning to 5 or 6 pools of four.
“You can win just one match and still qualify for the knockouts”
First, can we please all be clear that “knockouts” means something different in the two formats? Here it’s getting you into the last 16, while “the old way” it was into the last 8. And under that regime, I clearly remember teams going through having won just 3 of their 6 matches while others got nowhere despite having won 4. And under this current system, sure, you can win 1 and progress like Ulster did however (a) they needed bonus points, all of which were hard earned, to just about get them into 8th spot, and (b), look at the task ahead of them in the Last 16.
Another mark against the old way of knockouts was that I hated the way you could meet a team in the quarterfinals that you already played twice in the pool phase. Seems strange that everyone is going wild about the quirks about this current format while forgetting those from the last one.
Overall I still contend that simply switching back won’t make all things fine and dandy…if you really want to give the competition the elevated status it deserves then we can carve out a block of the season and play it in successive weeks so that all the coaches can have full access to all their squads from start to finish, which I always feel is the best way to run tournaments for our wonderful sport.
Right, that should be that when it comes to me going on about formats. Until the draw for next year’s comp, of course…
TACKLE HEIGHT IN ENGLISH LOWER TIERS
And as the format debate recedes, another one takes its place. This has mostly been on English social media of course given it’s an RFU ruling, but the change is bound to be observed by all other unions as well and besides, Johnny Sexton weighing in at the Six Nations Launch certainly got the Irish rugby world involved.
Like I always say about this issue of concussion and tackle height, the most important thing is the discussion. First that there is one, but more importantly that it is being conducted by people acting in good faith. Unfortunately I feel this RFU ruling for lower tier grades might be a few steps too far in the other direction, which gives the “ruining the game” brigade the opportunity to opine without the need for ridiculous superlatives like they usually do over this matter (although I have heard that some are saying they’ll quit the game altogether over this, which seems absurd).
One element of the pushback against this announcement that is concerning is that it appears the RFU didn’t do a whole lot of consultation with grass roots clubs before reaching this decision, which could mean they were more about preventing further litigation than they were actually helping the game.
But overall I feel we have to be ready to accept some changes to the laws that will make the game safer. Yes, I get that tackling low can still lead to a head knock, but the guidelines also state that the player carrying is meant to stay upright so, at least in theory, it’s possible just as many penalties will go the other way. The only way to know for sure is to test it in actual matches, although maybe running the test across the vast majority of clubs in England was a bit hasty.
DOWNLOAD THE FANZO APP
6Mas Day is just around the corner, and this year we’re partnering with the Fanzo App to run a prediction league throughout the Six Nations where you can win a free pint for yourself (regardless how others do, more info to come later).
Basically we’re offering a prize ourselves for the best predictors over the five weeks of the Six Nations, but also you can help us out here at Harpin Manor just by joining the league. We’ll post more details on the site over the next week or so but feel free to join know if you like, just download the Fanzo app, click “Let’s Go” in the “Guinness Pint Predictor” tab, tap “Leagues”, then “Join or Create a League” and finally the code is “Harpin”.
WOMEN’S INTERPROS
Congrats to Munster on their title, and also to all in the Leinster squad for bouncing back from last week’s disappointment to post a convincing win in the final match against Ulster. Again, it’s a shame they didn’t at least have a home and away schedule, something Tania Rosser herself pointed out on Twitter, especially when you consider that it’s conceivable that the senior Leinster Women’s team may not take to the field again until 2024!
But there is still a lot of top level rugby to look forward to, starting with this new Celtic Challenge competition, where Ireland Scotland and Wales each have one team for now but probably two next season and maybe eventually this can become something of a URC in its own right. We named our squad for the competition and hopefully there will be some kind of broadcast coverage to see how they’re getting on ahead of the Women’s Six Nations.
SEVENS UPDATE
Both squads were involved in the Hamilton 7s last weekend, with the women faring best as their fourth place finish after a quarterfinal win over France means we remain in the top 4 on the overall standings.
Meanwhile the men also got out of their pool only to run smack back into the hosts New Zealand but a win in the placings playoffs scored a few axtra series points with a 6th placed finish leaving us 9th overall on the ladder, with a good bit of daylight between us and 10th meaning we can hopefully move our way up in the remaining rounds.
Next on the circuit is Sydney next weekend, I don’t see a schedule as I type this column so maybe check back in later in the week.
INJURY REPORT
“No new injury news” is always good news, although it would still be nice to see names moving out of that list down at the bottom. Not easy to tell what kind of team we’ll have for the visit of Cardiff this coming weekend, although I’m thinking one or two might still be available despite being named to the Irish squad.
Cosgrove, Russell, Turner, Osborne, Kearney, H Byrne, McGrath.
(note – the above team is purely from my imagination, it’s not one of those Thornley teams which is always 22 out of 23 correct)
INJURY UPDATE – AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Caelan Doris: rolled his ankle in the second half of the game against Racing 92 but is expected to join the Irish Rugby squad as planned this week
Josh van der Flier: suffered a dead leg in the second half against Racing 92 but is expected to join the Irish Rugby squad as planned this week
Joe McCarthy: came through the game against Racing 92 with no issues following his return from an ankle injury
Luke McGrath: came through the game against Racing 92 with no issues following his return from an ankle injury
INJURY UPDATE – UNAVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
There was no new injury news from the game against Racing 92 at the weekend
There are no further updates on:
Johnny Sexton (cheek bone), Tadhg Furlong (calf), Charlie Ngatai (hamstring), Ed Byrne (knee), Jason Jenkins (hamstring), Robbie Henshaw (wrist), Martin Moloney (knee), Ciarán Frawley (knee) and Tommy O’Brien (knee)
AIL UPDATE
Some big matches in Round 11 of Division 1A which had some big results that left some big consequences. Cork Con’s win at Tarf meant Nure extended their lead at the top to 6pts after beating Trinity, which in turn meant Ballynahinch have moved themselves to just two points off the top four. Down at the bottom it looks like Garryowen are close to the trap door while Shannon and UCD are close for the second spot, which makes their meeting on Saturday a critical one. Nure have another top four battle to come when they host Tarf at Lakelands which Cork Con will try to keep the pressure on although Hinch won’t make things easy for them.
Men’s AIL
Lansdowne 23-20 UCD
Clontarf 12-24 Cork Con
Trinity 7-12 Terenure
Hinch 24-7 Garryowen
Cookies 31-27 Shannon
Sat Jan 28
Cork Con v Ballynahinch
Garryowen v Lansdowne
UCD v Shannon
Young Munster v Dublin Univ
Terenure v Clontarf
SCHOOLS CUP TIME
It’s that time of year again with the kick off of the Leinster Schools Senior Cup where we get to watch the future stars of the game in action. As I type I have received word of broadcast coverage of the first round so here are the details…
(everything in italics below is from Leinster Rugby)
Bank of Ireland Leinster Rugby Schools Senior Cup, First Round:
Sunday, 29 January
St Michael’s College v Belvedere College at 3pm in Energia Park (Streaming Available)
Monday, 30 January
Blackrock College v Presentation College, Bray at 3pm in Energia Park (Live on Premier Sports)
Tuesday, 31 January
Newbridge College v Kilkenny College at 3pm in Energia Park (Streaming Available)
Wednesday, 1 February
Terenure College v Clongowes Wood College at 3pm in Energia Park (Streaming Available)
Thursday, 2 February
St Mary’s College v Wesley College at 3pm in Energia Park (Streaming Available)
The streaming will be available on a subscription basis with each game costing €7.99 for the live and €8.99 for the VOD (video on demand) option.
There is also a five match bundle that can be purchased for €35.00 and the subscription can be purchased through the Videos on the Net platform, www.irishrugbylive.ie
Leinster Rugby can also confirm that similar to last season there will be no cash accepted at the turnstiles for games played at Energia Park.
All tickets can be purchased online at the following link HERE, with student and OAP tickets costing €6, and adult tickets costing €11.
THE NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
Next up it’s Cardiff Rugby…we’re planning a bonus pod recording for Wednesday where we’ll be chatting to hosts of a Welsh pod to get an “opposition view” not just for Saturday but also for the Six Nations opener, then it’s all the usual features like Rugby on TV, preview, wrap pod, etc, you know the drill.
Follow us and/or subscribe to all our social media channels to keep in touch and get involved in the conversation when the mood takes you.
In the meantime, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP
Welcome to my 80+ column, a weekly post featuring final thoughts from the week of rugby just gone.
WRAP OF A WRAP
Another strong performance by Leinster in Europe for us to wrap in the latest Sunday pod, and also another strong performance by both my guests Mark Jackson and Conor Cronin as they highlighted the positives but also acknowledged the things that we need to work on for the latter stages of the competition.
If you missed the pod, check it out here or on most major platforms.
HARPIN’ ON…CIAN HEALY’S CAREER
For this week’s ‘bonus clip’ we harped on the career of Cian ‘Proper Church’ Healy who made his 100th appearance in Europe for Leinster, becoming only the 5th player in the history of the competition to do so. The other four are also Irish as I say in the clip, which probably should come with the caveat that in the first years of the competition the provinces were nominated by the IRFU as opposed to qualifying as did the English and French clubs which is why they don’t have names as high up on the list, but it still counts as an honourable milestone in Healy’s career and as I also say in the clip, it’s not like he’s finished quite yet.
If you’re playing the clip above maybe pop over and subscribe to the channel too? That’s where we post our Preview Show as well as other content throughout the week.
THE OTHER PROVINCES
Munster and Connacht both had good wins on Saturday, maybe one was a tad more comfortable than the other, but still good to see both on the way to the knockouts.
As for Ulster…they really can’t buy a bit of luck these days, can they. How could Leinster fans in particular have anything but empathy for them as they were desperately trying to hold out La Rochelle in the dying minutes after what had been a torrential slog up to that point and they obviously considered themselves unlucky not to have been even further ahead by that point anyway.
Thing is though, they can still qualify for the knockouts with a decent win over Sale at the weekend, and maybe there’s a strong possibility their “reward” will be a trip to the Aviva in the last 16, but still a good performance against the Premiership outfit could well be the kick start they need for their season and I wish them all the best as we always want to see all four progressing beyond the pool stages whatever the format.
SPEAKING OF HCC FORMAT…
It’s still a bone of contention with many on HCC weekends; I have pushed back against the complaints before on these pages but I feel I must again. Once more I agree it’s not ideal, but I do wonder if the flaws people keep finding in it are necessarily solved by going back to the way the tournament used to be run?
Like I said in the previous segment about Ulster, even though they have lost all three of their matches, the fact that they picked up some BPs along the way means that with a win over Sale at the Kingspan on Saturday they can move into the top 8 and reach the last 16. Pretty much everyone giving out about the format says this “one win to qualify” thing is a negative, yet without it, this match against the Sharks could be a dead rubber so I’d argue it can at least be looked at from both directions.
When you compare this format to the previous one, the round of 16 is effectively replacing pool rounds 5 and 6 so I really don’t think it’s all that ridiculous for it to be easier to qualify. And even if you do scrape through with one win, it means you probably have to travel to the home of a team that has won all four, which means you’re either going to go no further OR you have to produce one of the all time great results in the competition.
Also, while I presume all the competing clubs knew the rules from the outset, one or two are just coming to light this week when it comes to the general public.
First we have a stipulation that if a South African team reaches the semifinals, they must give up home advantage even if they have earned it through the seeding from the pool stages. Again this is far from ideal from a fairness perspective, but right from the moment I first heard they were joining the competition I wondered what the organisers were going to do to limit the amount of travel, and this appears to be it.
Clearly that does put the SA teams at a disadvantage, but I should also point out something about this season’s competition that does work in their favour. With the Springboks not being involved in the Six Nations (yet?), this means that from the end of the pool stage to the knockouts they know none of their players are going to be involved in any test matches. Sure, there may be a few URC rounds in that time, but at least there they have control. The European clubs have none.
Just to be clear, I’m not pointing out the “no 6N thing” because I think it somehow cancels out the “no home SF” thing; on the contrary I reckon they are two wrongs which do not make a right. Still, I don’t see anyone else making the point about the 6N so I felt I’d do it here.
I will always contend that the one format tweak that would come closest to a “silver bullet” to fix all the problems we keep pointing out would be to play the tournament from start to finish in successive weeks. Or to put it another way, “It’s the calendar, stupid”.
YOU THOUGHT I WAS DONE WITH THE HCC FORMAT DIDN’T YOU…
…well, I’m not!
Caolan Scully, who has appeared on the pod a few times, pointed out on Twitter a little quirk in the method the HCC uses to rank teams in the pool stages. If two or more teams are tied on match points, points difference AND tries scored, the next thing to be looked at is apparently the amount of suspensions incurred by the clubs.
Granted, it’s HIGHLY unlikely this will ever actually need to be used, but it’s still a very curious thing to have as a possibility – imagine if two clubs vying for top 2/4/8 spots ended up tied on everything else while one of them was waiting on a citing during the week, meaning effectively the ruling from the commission would determine the final standings?
Unlikely or not, I would NOT want that to be even possible. In fact, I’m not too wild about the next criterion down on the list either, namely the tossing of a coin. My suggestion would be come up with a ranking system for all European clubs based on previous performance (similar to UEFA’s coefficient) and this ranking will force a separation between ALL clubs which means you can get a result no matter what the eventuality.
Apologies for the nerdery here, but I guess overthinking comes with the territory when you run a rugby website/podcast!!!
AWAY FANS
I see there’s a debate on the twitter machine about the possibility of ensuring all the away fans are together in a ground on match days.
Personally, I think it’s a good idea overall, since in many cases they would have travelled quite a way to get there and also it gives the visiting team’s players somewhere to aim at after the final whistle to show their appreciation. But that said, mixing isn’t the worst thing either and I’ve often had great chats during the match whether I’m for the hosts or the visitors.
What I want to point out here isn’t so much about the debate itself, rather the attitudes of some in the tweets on the topic. “We don’t want this in our sport, it’s too much like football”. You have no idea how much I dislike that narrative and I will always call it out when it rears its ugly head, and for this topic it was always going to.
The way I see it, if there’s anything that’s going to “ruin the values” of “our sport”, it’s outright snobbery.
JAMIE OSBORNE TIK TOK
For once I actually agreed with the TV broadcaster’s choice of Player (or ‘Star’ in HCC matches) of the Match, even it is was a previous holder of the Leinster 12 shirt who awarded it, there’s no doubt Jamie stood out as Conor explains in the TikTok below.
This is another point that’s more about Twitter opinion than the topic itself. Owen Farrell was cited for a tackle, although given both his history and his profile there was chatter and GIFs all over social media minutes after it actually happened.
All of which meant there was always going to be scrutiny over the decision, and what do you know, it turns out he was banned in such a way as to make him eligible for England’s Six Nations opener.
Which leads me to a simple question…are we REALLY that surprised? And while he’s hardly a big hit with Irish fans (despite his aul fella doing so well with our test team) I reckon we have to remind ourselves of the biggest factor behind this particular decision, namely the fact that the top rugby unions all retain a great deal of control over their own affairs.
So maybe when we see the RFU orchestrating an advantage out of some adversity, we should ask ourselves if there are other areas of the game’s administration where the IRFU does as well? Not to mention all the other unions? If we’re not going to have a central administrative body that regulates the majority of systems in an attempt to create a level playing field, then these stories will continue to happen, it’s as simple as that.
EDDIE JONES
To be honest, nothing that happens with this guy surprises me anymore, and if anything his taking over of the Wallabies ahead of RWC2023 makes that side of the draw even more interesting. Remember – we have NZL, FRA & RSA to contend with on our side, while it’s likely one from ENG WAL & AUS will reach the final, so to watch them go at it with new coaches plus a lot of recent history will make it worth getting some extra popcorn for sure.
WOMEN’S INTERPROS
Unfortunately Leinster fell short in what was always likely to be a decider in the Women’s interpros at the weekend, but it has to be said that Tania Rosser’s remit as coach was more about giving the squad game time at this level than it was results and she seems to be doing a bang up job so far by all accounts.
It may have taken them a while to get on the scoreboard in the opener against Connacht last week but given she has included so many different clubs in the wider squad there was bound to be a bedding in period and again I say this will benefit them in the long run. Best wishes to them against Ulster in the final round this weekend.
As I said in the preview pod it was a real shame that their big match in Musgrave Park had to clash with the men’s Heineken Cup match on Saturday, I certainly don’t want to quibble about which was “more important”, simply because we really shouldn’t be forced into making a decision like that. To be a little fair, given all four Irish men’s provinces were playing that day, some allowances had to be made – with the women not being full professionals (yet, hopefully) I’d say Saturday would be the best day over the weekend for everyone to be available. Still, I’d hope the overlaps can be avoided in future.
THE SEVENS ARE BACK!
Sometimes I don’t need to add much to the headline to get my message across, apart from the fact that both men and women are in action for the next two weekends in New Zealand and Australia respectively. Also it’s great to see Billy Dardis & Terry Kennedy back in the men’s squad. Below you see the schedule for their pool matches in NZ, if possible be sure to watch them for free via the World Rugby site and tweet your full support to show we’re ready to host a leg here asap.
Friday, January 20 –
Ireland Men v Uruguay, 8.54pm Irish time
Ireland Women v Brazil, 9.38pm Irish time
Saturday, January 21 –
Ireland Men v USA, 12.44am Irish time
Ireland Women v Spain, 1.18am Irish time
Ireland Men v Japan, 3.50am Irish time
Ireland Women v USA, 4.12am Irish time
Saturday, January 21 –
Play-off matches.
INJURY REPORT
Always good to see no new injuries after a weekend, also the five returnees will all benefit the wider squad in many ways. I’m particularly pleased to see Will Connors is close to a return and I really hope he gets a good healthy run he certainly deserves it.
Still, that’s a lot of quality languishing in the “no further report” column although reports are coming through as I type that Sexton took part in training on Monday and hopefully he’ll at least be recovered in time for the Six Nations.
Here’s a possible matchday squad for the Aviva next weekend, would like to see Tadhg F get a few minutes in his boots if possible…
Will Connors: is expected to train fully this week after recovering from a bicep injury
Thomas Clarkson: is expected to train fully this week after recovering from an arm injury
Max Deegan: is expected to train fully this week after recovering from an ankle injury
Luke McGrath: is expected to train fully this week after recovering from an ankle injury
Joe McCarthy: is expected to train fully this week after recovering from an ankle injury
INJURY UPDATE – UNAVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
There was no new injury news from the game against Gloucester at the weekend
There are no further updates on:
Johnny Sexton (cheek bone), Tadhg Furlong (calf), Charlie Ngatai (hamstring), Ed Byrne (knee), Jason Jenkins (hamstring), Robbie Henshaw (wrist), Martin Moloney (knee), Ciarán Frawley (knee), Charlie Ryan (knee) and Tommy O’Brien (knee)
AIL UPDATE
The AIL has moved into the second half of its regular season, with some interesting results in Round 10.
Nure & Tarf both got wins over Munster opposition to keep themselves in the top 2, while Cork Con got the better of Trinity to move ahead of them into 3rd. Meanwhile at the bottom Charlie Tector guided Lansdowne to a crucial win over Shannon which allowed them hop two places with Ballynahinch’s whitewash of the Students at “the Bowl” actually putting them into the playoff picture.
There are some big matches in Round 11 with the top four playing each other plus there’s bound to be a lot of Leinster involvement on the back pitch at the Aviva as Lansdowne face UCD in a relegation battle.
Men’s AIL
Garryowen 13-19 Clontarf
Cork Con 32-27 Dublin University
Shannon 24-34 Lansdowne
Terenure 21-11 Young Munster
UCD 0-24 Ballynahinch
Fri Jan 20
Lansdowne v UCD
Sat Jan 21
Ballynahinch v Garryowen
Clontarf v Cork Con
Dublin University v Terenure
Young Munster v Shannon
THE NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
Next up it’s Racing at the Aviva; we will of course be giving it the full Harpin treatment with a preview featuring Keego on Friday, a wrap with Tom Coleman & Nathan Johns on Sunday as well as all the usual features in between. Follow us and/or subscribe to all our social media channels to keep in touch and get involved in the conversation when the mood takes you.
In the meantime, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP
Welcome to my 80+ column, a weekly post featuring final thoughts from the week of rugby just gone.
WRAP OF A WRAP
Another Leinster win to harp on this week, naturally I’m tempted to put it all down to my new pod format but I guess I’ll go with the general impression that the lads have not only a winning mentality but we’re also learning how to face up to adversity within a match to dig deep and be ahead by the final whistle. As ever Keego and Rich did an excellent job summarizing the match.
One thing I didn’t mention on the pod was that I was reminded of an Ospreys v Leinster clash from 2012 when arguably the league’s most organic rivalry was at it’s closest, on this occasion rather than go 10-0 down we actually led by that score ourselves in the early stages and I vividly recall us winning a penalty in their half only for Leo Auva’a to take a quick tap only to lose it shortly afterwards.
We weren’t to score again in a 19-10 defeat and I was furious in my writeup which was unusual because even during the lean Matt O’Connor years I would do my best to find some kind of a positive. Anyway as we know the Ospreys went on to have a much longer “lean spell” themselves although there have been signs lately that they are at least on their way back and it would be great to see them and indeed other Welsh regions breaking into the top 8 of the URC.
If you missed the pod, check it out here or on most major platforms.
HARPIN’ ON…KEEPING IRISH PLAYERS
This week’s extended chat on the Sunday pod recording was about the Ben Healy move to Edinburgh/Scotland, Rich gave his views for the main show but myself and Keego joined the discussion for the YouTube clip you see below.
To summarize my own view, yes of course it would be better to keep all Irish players on Irish shores all the time, but we can’t consider it a failure every time one leaves because we can’t expect as many as 6, 7 or 8 players in a particular position, especially one like out-half, to all stick around hoping for a test call up when there is an alternative out there.
If you’re playing the clip above maybe pop over and subscribe to the channel too? That’s where we post our Preview Show as well as other content throughout the week.
BOO TO BOOING THE BOOING
On the pod I mentioned a conversion attempt by Ross Byrne where he not only had to contend with the conditions, the referee complying with the stricter new timing laws and also the pressure of extending our lead to 8 points, but also the loud booing of many in the home crowd.
We never like to hear this kind of behaviour from fans, and we’ve been guilty of it ourselves here in Ireland, I’m remembering a Dan Parks conversion for Scotland at Croke Park in particular. But actually for this particular point I actually want to focus on something different, namely pigeon-holing entire groups of fans.
I’ve seen a lot of comments on social media saying how that booing is somehow typical of what you’d get from “Welsh fans” and I have to say that is absolute bollocks. I don’t like it when I see people take abuse from Leinster fans and tar us all with the same brush so I’m certainly not going to be happy when I see our fans doing it to others.
There is for sure a distinct group of Twitter accounts which we call “WRT” or “Welsh Rugby Twitter” and that’s fine as a collective (that tends to say everything is the URCs fault, reckons the Premiership is some kind of promised land, etc, etc) but I can absolutely guarantee that the vast vast majority of actual Welsh rugby fans are genuine every bit as much as Leinster, Ireland or any other nationality.
For me, failing to distinguish between groups within fan bases is just as much responsible for the toxic sludge we tend to see on social media as the trolling comments themselves.
Ignore. Mute. Block. Report. Whichever seems appropriate. Sharing and generalising only ensures it will continue IMO.
TIK TOK POTM
Disagreeing with the Player of the Match selection is becoming a feature in this column, although I do understand why the Welsh broadcaster would tend to go with a home team player and it is true that Kieran Williams did have a fine outing against Leinster (dropped ball just before hearing his name being called out notwithstanding) but I reckon Jack Conan was definitely in with a shout for the gong as well and as you can see below, Rich concurred.
I always say it, but I’ll still say it again. I would LOVE to have the time to give the Leinster women’s team exactly the same coverage as I do the men’s, but it’s just not possible for the time being so we will try to feature them as much as we can, and they opened their Interpro campaign at the weekend with a convincing enough victory over Connacht at Energia Park, although the score remained 0-0 for a long period in the first half.
Many many thanks for Conor Cronin for providing a report of his experience on the day, it was included in the pod but I have also shared the piece here ICYMI.
Next up it’s Munster at lunchtime on Saturday, and with them also having had a BP victory in round 1, this could be a tournament decider so definitely worth checking out on TG4.
INJURY REPORT
Our worst fears about Charlie Ngatai were realised after he was taken off at halftime in Swansea, hopefully he will be back soon. However despite Robbie also being out I see no drop in our talent with Jamie Osborne stepping in at Kingsholm on Saturday, here is a lineup they may go with…
1. Porter 2. Sheehan 3. Alaalatoa 4. Ryan 5. Molony 6. Baird 7. van der Flier 8. Doris
16. Kelleher 17. Milne 18. Healy 19. Joe McCarthy 20. Conan 21. Foley 22. H. Byrne 23. Larmour
…obviously there are one or two tight calls, Dan Sheehan has had a lot of gametime this season including an extra shift in Swansea when John McKee was forced off, so it’s very possible that Kelleher would start instead. Also Jimmy O’Brien/Jordan Larmour are very interchangeable.
INJURY UPDATE – FURTHER ASSESSMENT REQUIRED:
Will Connors: will again look to step up his rehabilitation programme from a bicep injury
Thomas Clarkson: will step up his rehabilitation this week from an arm injury
INJURY UPDATE – UNAVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Johnny Sexton: suffered a cheekbone injury against Connacht Rugby and had a procedure last week and will be unavailable for the Gloucester game and will be further assessed next week but is expected to be back ahead of the Six Nations
Tadhg Furlong: has recovered from his ankle injury but had a minor setback last week in training with an unrelated calf injury and will be unavailable for selection this week as a result but is expected to be back ahead of the Six Nations
Charlie Ngatai: suffered a hamstring injury in the game against Ospreys and will be unavailable this week
There are no further updates on:
Luke McGrath (ankle), Max Deegan (ankle), Ed Byrne (knee), Jason Jenkins (hamstring), Robbie Henshaw (wrist), Martin Moloney (knee), Ciarán Frawley (knee), Charlie Ryan (knee) and Tommy O’Brien (knee)
AIL UPDATE
Over in English football last weekend they have the 3rd round of the FA Cup where a drawn match means the teams have to meet again in a replay after a week or so. The reason I mention that is that the AIL men’s Div 1A had something similar as Dublin University and Cork Con played out a dramatic 35-35 draw at College Park in their rearranged round 9 fixture, with the three points keeping them in 3rd and 4th respectively although still inching them closer to the top two. And technically there is to be a replay of sorts, as this weekend’s Round 10 pits them together again, this time at Temple Hill.
Meanwhile at the other end of the table Ballynahinch put some distance between themselves and the relegation zone with a bonus point win over UCD, although the students also benefited getting a try and losing bonuses themselves to move up two places, and they also face a rematch in round 10.
The rest of the action this weekend sees leaders Terenure hoping to return to winning ways, getting another chance to beat Young Munster on their home patch at Lakelands. Clontarf, also in the top four, travel to Dooradoyle to play bottom of the table Garryowen while Shannon and Lansdowne square off each hoping to stay out of the bottom two.
Men’s AIL
Ballynahinch 31-25 UCD
Dublin University 35-35 Cork Con
Sat Jan 14
Garryowen v Clontarf
Cork Con v Dublin University
Shannon v Lansdowne
Terenure v Young Munster
UCD v Ballynahinch
HARPIN’ PREDICTION LEAGUE
Not only is Kino really starting to pull away at the top of the HPL but I’m also now anxiously looking over my shoulder at Messrs Coleman & Jackson behind me. Although having had to wear the Jersey of Shame for my wooden spoon last season, I wouldn’t really mind slipping a spot or two once Keego stays where he is!
THE NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
Back into European action we go, with Kingsholm the destination and we will of course be giving it the usual Harpin treatment with Keego joining me for our preview on Friday, the wrap pod recorded on Sunday evening with the help of Mark Jackson & Conor Cronin, and all of our other usual features in between.
In the meantime, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP
Welcome to my 80+ column, a weekly post featuring final thoughts from the week of rugby just gone.
WRAP OF A WRAP
It was a near perfect start to 2023 in every sense for this Leinster fan when it came to my RDS experience.
First there was the actual journey to Ballsbridge; normally at this time of year the bus doubles as what I call “The Funderland Express” on which I’ve been forced in the past to sit upstairs with dozens of 10-14 year olds passing around naggins and spliffs for over half an hour. This time while the numbers of youth were about the same as always, their behaviour was not, thankfully. They were mostly silent looking at their phones.
Then we had the match itself, which Tom & Conor did a perfect job helping me wrap on the latest pod, and as a fan I can’t have too many complaints about a bonus point win that wasn’t always a one-sided affair, the obvious wrinkle of course being the injury to Johnny Sexton, more on that to come later in the column.
Last but certainly not least there was my journey home; generally I leave the ground anxious to get my bus home as often I can be left waiting for up to an hour but this time I was at the stop just a few minutes before it arrived so like I say it was a near perfect night all round.
If you missed the pod, check it out here or on most major platforms.
HARPIN’ ON…THE CHEEK OF SEXTON
Predictably there was a lot of reaction to the incident which resulted in Johnny Sexton’s injury, a lot of it maybe a bit OTT from certain quarters but I’ll touch on that a bit more in the next segment – for now here’s this week’s extended YouTube clip taken from the podcast where I reckon we provide an honest take on both Sexton’s collision itself and how it probably should have been dealt with by the officials, as well as comparing it to the Jack Carty sanction which came just before it.
If you’re playing the clip above maybe pop over and subscribe to the channel too? That’s where we post our Preview Show as well as other content throughout the week.
GOING FOR A SONG
I mentioned earlier about rushing from the RDS to get my bus, and when I’m travelling on my own I generally play music on my headphones so when I say I didn’t hear the controversial song played after the match, I mean it as truth and not in the “Karl Dickson says he didn’t hear anything” sense.
My view on the matter itself is simple. It should not have been played, there are literally thousands of other songs that would have worked that don’t even have a hint of controversy about them, but IMO we should take at face value Leinster Rugby’s statement (which was issued while I was still on that bus home btw so they dealt with it fast) which implied that it was done without the knowledge of senior management. All of which means the matter itself should be done.
But is it? Of course not. We live in a social media age where everyone is looking for attention so it was inevitable that this was going to be dragged through a couple of news cycles.
To be fair, in some cases I agree the continued discussion was warranted, especially when it comes to a comparison between the reaction to this and what happened when the Irish women’s soccer team was filmed singing after qualifying for the World Cup finals. No questioning the disparity here, that’s for sure.
But there was much indignation from other angles too, and one which really got me was a suggestion that Leinster were getting a “pass” that would have been denied to other provinces. For me this was drifting towards something we were talking about on the pod in pre-season, namely the “ABL Narrative”, which I define as a groupthink within the Irish rugby discourse that essentially looks for ways, if not to actually demonize Leinster itself, to at least diminish the province’s success by suggesting there is a prevailing favouritism from media and blazers alike. The same mindset was often applied to the non-call of Sexton’s challenge.
Again…was this a mistake? Yes. Do we need a long drawn out debate about the songs themselves? No. Should a statement acknowledging the mistake be sufficient to put it all to bed no matter what the province, sport or gender involved? Absolutely.
TIK TOK POTM
On last week’s column I disagreed with Scott Penny being named Player of the Match, thinking it should have been Dan Sheehan. Again I’ll point out I don’t share that opinion because I’m against the former player, nor because I’m biased towards the latter, it’s just how I felt about that particular 80 minutes.
Well the same kind of happened in the Connacht match, although when Larmour got his second try I was pretty sure he’d get the award even though it was early in the second half. However over the 80 minutes I am pretty much in agreement with Tom in this clip…
I harped on this in last week’s column, but the incident was always going to bleed into this one given there has been a ruling on it since. Again we had pretty much full agreement on the pod that two weeks was a ridiculously low sanction, and the most annoying element to all of this has been the reaction which comes from a place of “FFS it’s a man’s game, things are said on the pitch, let them play”.
Yeah, about that. For one thing, that narrative suggests it was Heenan that had the problem, when in actual fact the whole thing escalated when Marler was responding to something said to him. All of which means that while of course there will be an element of “sledging” in pretty much every team sport, there surely has to be a line drawn and officials need to know where that is.
Now while I appreciate that finding the right words to effectively define “wrong” words is far from easy, and I’m glad I’m not being paid to find them. But the fact is, those running the game ARE being paid, so they need to crack on with it.
When it comes to Marler’s punishment, I couldn’t understand why saw any mitigation at ll given he has been done for this before. The previous incident involving Samson Lee wasn’t even mentioned in the report that I could see.
Maybe if and when the officials do find a way to define “the line”, we can name it after Joe and let the effect on his legacy be the punishment since he seems comfortable with having this reputation? Just a thought.
WOMEN’S INTERPROS
The Women’s Interpros kick off this weekend, including Leinster’s only home match of the campaign against Connacht at Energia Park.
Personally I’d prefer it if the competition could be a full six rounds with everyone playing each other home and away, but I do appreciate that while the women’s game does need to progress it has to be measured until they reach full professionalism and besides, there are already extra matches to the schedule what with the new Celtic Nations competition which will take place before the Six Nations kicks off at the end of March.
As for the Leinster squad it’s exciting to see the first competitive squad being named by new head coach Tania Rosser and I look forward to watching her side compete over the coming weeks. The full competition is getting live broadcast coverage courtesy of TG4 and BBC NI.
Saturday, 7 January 2023 – Round One
Leinster v Connacht, Energia Park, 2.30pm (TG4)
Munster v Ulster Musgrave Park, 4.45pm (TG4)
Saturday, 14 January 2023 – Round Two
Munster v Leinster, Musgrave Park, 12:15pm (TG4)
Ulster v Connacht, Kingspan Stadium, 2.30pm (BBC NI)
Saturday, 21 January 2023 – Round Three
Connacht v Munster, The Sportsground, 1.00pm (TG4)
Ulster v Leinster, Queen’s University Upper Malone, 5.30pm (BBC NI)
BEN HEALY
News of Ben Healy’s move to Edinburgh with a view to qualifying for Scotland is just coming through as this is posting so I’ll just add my initial thoughts…it has been expected for a long time so it’s no great surprise. What is interesting is that they announce it right after he produces a match-winning seven points at the Kingspan! Also there are rumblings that Ulster’s John Cooney could be making a similar move.
Overall it’s hard to blame players for taking advantage of the change in “second nation” rules, in fact it’s good to see more options available. Is it a “mistake” on the part of Munster & the IRFU to let them go? I’m not so sure, but that is in no way a reflection on Healy himself or indeed any player.
When it comes to province and country, we have to make decisions on pecking order in every position and if those who find themselves fourth or lower have an opportunity to go elsewhere, they should be free to take it. And we should wish them all the best, so much so that even if they succeed in their new role it should be celebrated rather than used as “proof” that the initial decision to let them go was wrong.
Obviously the ideal scenario is to have all Irish players at the provinces all the time but for several different reasons, one big one being simple maths, that’s just not possible. There will always be opportunities outside our “bubble” and that’s just how the world works.
INJURY REPORT
We were all waiting on reports on Sexton’s cheekbone but the text doesn’t really tell us anything we didn’t already know apart from the date of the “procedure”. A trusted source passed on this message over WhatsApp…
[“A mate of mine who is a maxillofacial surgeon looked at that photo and said it’s probable he’s broken’s his zygomatic arch and would say 4 to 6 weeks recovery if that’s what has actually happened!“]
…BUT do please appreciate that the above is at best second hand information and we can only go by official releases by the province & IRFU.
Elsewhere I’m hoping that both Furlong & Connors will be available for selection soon and when it comes to next weekend’s trip to Swansea I reckon we could be looking at a fair amount of cotton wool in our selection with a starting XV of something like this…
Cosgrave, Russell, Turner, Osborne, Kearney, H Byrne, Foley.
Still a decent squad in fairness although the Ospreys do seem to be on a decent run of late which could make it an interesting contest.
INJURY UPDATE – FURTHER ASSESSMENT REQUIRED:
Tadhg Furlong & Will Connors: will again look to step up their rehabilitation programmes from ankle and bicep injuries respectively
INJURY UPDATE – UNAVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Johnny Sexton: suffered a cheek bone injury during the game against Connacht Rugby and will have a procedure today and will be further assessed then
Luke McGrath: will be unavailable for selection for the Ospreys game after picking up an ankle injury
Max Deegan: will be unavailable for selection for the Ospreys game after picking up an ankle injury
There are no further updates on:
Thomas Clarkson (arm), Ed Byrne (knee), Jason Jenkins (hamstring), Robbie Henshaw (wrist), Martin Moloney (knee), Ciarán Frawley (knee), Charlie Ryan (knee) and Tommy O’Brien (knee)
AIL UPDATE
Club season is over for the women while the men are only at the halfway stage and Division 1A has two big rescheduled matches this weekend taking place at either end of the table.
Dublin University and Cork Con both have 29pts lying 3rd and 4th respectively and they go head to head at College Park, with a familiar name holding the whistle in George Clancy.
Meanwhile as Garryowen look like they need a miracle to avoid relegation 9 defeats from 9 to start the season, there’s some congestion above them for the other spot including Ballynahinch and UCD who meet at Ballymacarn Park.
Men’s AIL
Sat Jan 7
Ballynahinch v UCD
Dublin University v Cork Con
HARPIN’ PREDICTION LEAGUE
I made up a bit of ground on Kino this week in a round where there were more unexpected results than usual. Tom got the Yellow Cap while Keego, well, I really don’t think there’s any coming back from there.
THE NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
We play Those Pesky Birds next, and as I suggested in the Injury Report section they might fancy themselves to nick this one so we’ll be talking about that in our Harpin Preview on Friday when I’ll be joined by Ciarán Duffy, with the wrap pod being recorded on Sunday evening, with of course all of our other usual features in between.
In the meantime, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP
Welcome to my 80+ column, a weekly post featuring final thoughts from the week of rugby just gone
WRAP OF A WRAP
Hard to believe this week’s wrap pod is the 19th under the new format, and it was good to have Ciarán Duffy back on along of course with Mark Jackson to talk about St Stephen’s Night’s victory down in Thomond Park.
If you missed it, check it out here or on most major platforms.
HARPIN’ OFF…
With the week that’s in it I’m leaving out a few of the website’s regular features, including YouTube & TikTok clips from the wrap pod. Back to “normal” next week all going well.
PENNY FOR MY THOUGHTS ON POTM
I hope it’s obvious that when I disagree with a Player of the Match selection it doesn’t mean I have anything against the winner of the award. Scott Penny got the gong from the TG4 commentary team at Thomond Park while I felt it should have gone to Dan Sheehan. It’s a simple point and since I write this column every week I might as well bring it up but I certainly don’t do it to put anyone down.
I CAN’T COUNT
Maybe one of the reasons I don’t want to produce too much extra content from the wrap pod is that I made a major howler in the recording that I’d rather forget! Although I will offer full disclosure here as it involves an issue I’m interested in…
As I watched the game live, let’s just say, I had been enjoying “the Christmas spirit” a bit too much which, let’s also just say, “clouded my judgement” a tad. One thing I misjudged was the amount of tries Leinster had scored, and in that final sequence as we were attacking the Munster line I was really hoping we’d go for it because I thought it would give us a fourth try and a BP.
Then my thoughts went on to the BP system itself, and how we’ve been saying on the pod this season that the “4 try” method used in URC, Prem, 6N & RWC isn’t as fair as the “3 tries more” one used in Super Rugby & the 🔝🐱🐴. This led me to form the “harpin’ point” that if we had gotten the try it would actually prove the 4-try way needs to be scrapped as it wouldn’t have been right that this particular match could possibly end in a 5-0 split of match points to the visitors.
Now that’s all well & good when I had a few beers on me (ok, maybe more than a few) but somehow my brain held on to the harpin’ point for 24 hours and I brought it up on the pod only for Mark to rightly explain that we had in fact only scored the two tries so the point was as moot as moot could be.
So as you can imagine that clip didn’t survive the editing process, however I still think the bonus point system needs to switch to the “3-tries” method.
ASSHOLES ARE ASSHOLES
I am so, so, sick of this sequence and would love for it to be broken. Sadly it usually comes to my attention most whenever Leinster play Munster
Thing happens in rugby match
A few people claiming to be “fans” of one team get abusive on social media towards fans of the other
A few of those fans on the receiving end then expose the abuse, making it look like this is what fans of that team are like
A long exchange ensues which many blame entirely on “rugby twitter”
To be absolutely clear, the 2nd stage of the sequence is the worst by far. Obviously. All forms of insults, abuse and bullying are wrong wherever they are found and need to be called out.
But someone also needs to push back on stages 3 and 4.
No, this is NOT what fans of that team are like in general.
No, this is NOT what fans of rugby are like in general.
And no, this is NOT even what Twitter itself is like in general.
IMO people who are capable of this behaviour don’t need to follow any particular team, follow any particular sport, or even use one or another particular platform.
When it comes to these exchanges, we need to make sure 100% of the negative attention goes on these instigators, yet when we respond by tying them to decent people who follow the same team, or same sport, or use the same platform, I reckon we siphon off some of that negativity for ourselves.
Call out the assholes as assholes by all means. But we must also be sure to separate them from the decent people who just want to have a conversation. And most of all, mute/block them. It may be a vicious cycle the way things are now, but I believe it is one we have the power to stop.
It might be a worn out cliché by this stage, but “haters gonna hate” is as true as it is concise.
JOE MARLER
Speaking of assholes, Joe Marler.
And actually he seems to be getting positive attention on social media because he apologised for what he is reported to have said to Jake Heenan on the rugby pitch.
Eh, no. He’s got form. He’s certainly no hero for apologising, that is the bare minimum of what he should have done. Maybe, just maybe if he can go a whole calendar year without it happening again we can celebrate that, but in my book he has ruled himself out of any praise until then at the very very least.
RULE CHANGES
This week’s column has already gone longer than I intended, with this point being the only one I originally intended to harp on.
Obviously I want to see rugby take measures to speed things up, yet I still feel somebody needs to push back a little against this introduction of rule changes, because I definitely have concerns.
First of all, while I know the rugby calendar is different all over the world, to make significant changes right smack in the middle of the European season goes against pretty much everything I believe is fair for a sporting competition. I shouldn’t have to spell out reasons for why a tournament shouldn’t change its rules halfway through.
Plus there’s the added factor that we’re making changes just before a World Cup. Maybe, just maybe I have too much “skin in the game” on this point being a Leinster & Ireland fan because Johnny Sexton does have a reputation for taking time on his placekicks, but since he’s such a high profile player, to bring the change halfway through a club season as well as three-quarters of the way through a RWC cycle would seem to affect him more than others.
But my biggest reason for pushing back on these changes has to do with player safety.
Yes, we want to avoid time wasting in the game where possible and this will definitely help keep the “casual fans” interested, but I have to ask, just how much of a problem is this REALLY? Is it possible we might be over-reacting a bit when it comes to stoppages?
The actual playing time of a rugby match is one hour and 20 minutes. Factor in fifteen for halftime and you’d really hope the final whistle will blow well short of the two-hour mark after kickoff time. And that’s what we should be aiming for.
For example, Leinster’s recent Heineken Champions Cup match against Gloucester at the RDS kicked off at the later than usual time of 8pm of a Friday night. That meant I was always going to be anxious getting my bus home as it can often take a while leaving the ground given the press box is right at the back of the Grandstand so I have to wait until the bulk of the supporters leave before I can.
Yet I not only made it to my bus stop to catch it at 10:15, I actually waited seven minutes before it came. Maybe the one-sided nature of the scoreline helped but I still didn’t stand up to leave until the final whistle blew. And for me personally, that’s fine. I really don’t know how many tweaks and changes to the Laws we’d have to make that would actually be worthwhile getting me out of there any sooner.
On the subject of water breaks, they don’t bug me as much as they do most other viewers although one concern I would have about them is that I fear they are being brought in to facilitate matches being played in places like Dubai & Qatar in future, and there have been rumblings in the press recently that this does look like happening.
Which brings me back to player safety. For me, this is a much bigger issue we need to address, and there are areas when it comes into direct conflict with the time-saving. Whether we like to admit it or not, tackle technique is still a major grey area in our beautiful sport and it’s one we have to keep working at.
And unfortunately some of this “work” involves teams of officials making sure they get their calls right especially in the high profile matches as their exposure will hopefully trickle down to all levels through the sport.
So as I have said before on these pages and I won’t tire saying it again in the future, when it comes to TMO calls the last thing the officials need is added pressure from the viewing public simply because we’re worried about a few extra seconds being somehow taken from us.
Like I say, if matches start lasting two hours or more then we know things are going wrong, but we should also appreciate that efforts need to be made to help ensure that actual careers last as long as they possibly can.
INJURY REPORT
Good news, there were no new names added to the list and it’s great to see Messrs Furlong & Connors close to being available.
The final group still contains many concerns however. I don’t like suggesting some injuries are worse than others but Henshaw is a name Leinster & Ireland would want to see moving up the list sooner rather than later and for the province it doesn’t look good to see Jenkins there either.
INJURY UPDATE – FURTHER ASSESSMENT REQUIRED:
Tadhg Furlong: will again step up his rehabilitation this week from an ankle injury and will be assessed as the week goes on
Will Connors: will look to step up his rehabilitation programme further this week as he nears a return from a bicep injury
There are no further updates on:
Thomas Clarkson (arm), Ed Byrne (knee), Jason Jenkins (hamstring), Robbie Henshaw (wrist), Martin Moloney (knee), Ciarán Frawley (knee), Charlie Ryan (knee) and Tommy O’Brien (knee)
THE NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
The 22 portion of the 22/23 is done for Leinster and we kick off the 23 at the RDS with Connacht the visitors. We’ll have the preview on Friday and the wrap will record on Monday. In the meantime, have a happy and safe New Year and be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP
Welcome to my 80+ column, a weekly post featuring final thoughts from the week of rugby just gone.
WRAP OF A WRAP
Some might say there’s not a whole lot to talk about after a 57-0 drubbing. I am not among that “some”, and thankfully neither were Tom Coleman & Nathan Johns who found plenty to harp on for this week’s wrap pod. After all, we are Leinster fans and we love talking about a rake of tries when we score them, but we also found a load of other angles as well. If you missed it, check it out here or on most major platforms.
HARPIN’ ON…THE HCC FORMAT
In last week’s 80+ column I offered a quasi-defence of the HCC format, suggesting that while maybe this current one has flaws, it should be pointed out that the old one was far from ideal in itself. As you can see I let my guests offer their own takes on the situation in this week’s You Tube clip.
Only thing I will add is that I suggested last week that I would do things differently altogether so I may as well give a taste of it here…remember, I KNOW this will never happen but my ideal scenario would be to scrap the current set of competitions altogether in favour of one pan-European/SA pyramid structure with something like a pair of 16-team top divisions playing round-robin.
“A” would be the elite offering 6 or 7 qualifiers for the championship quarterfinals but I’d also have a “B” level where not only would there be promotion but also the top 1 or 2 would get a shot at the knockout rugby as well, meaning 32 clubs would begin every season in contention for the title.
Below that would obvs get tricky, but regional divisions feeding into the top 32 is definitely do-able and the important thing would be to keep the door open for clubs from any nation logistically able to join.
Again, I’m not suggesting this is ever likely to come into being, but what’s the point in complaining if you’re not going to offer an alternative? Anyway…here’s what the lads had to say…
If you’re playing the clip above maybe pop over and subscribe to the channel too? That’s where we post our Preview Show as well as other content throughout the week.
RAGIN’ HILL
This is of course a site for Leinster & Ireland fans to offer their opinions not only on what happens on the pitch but also off it. Obviously it goes without saying that if the reigning European champions were due to play at the RDS only for me to find out first that the match had been switched to a two-hour drive up the road, but also to then find out that fans aren’t allowed to travel as well, let’s just say I wouldn’t be happy.
Next while the match is going on, as my team is getting off to another poor start into the bargain, I find out that there are actually travelling French fans/”delegates” cheering their side in the stadium anyway???
As it turned out the only thing close to a saving grace for Ulster supporters was their performance in the second half, digging out two bonus points which keeps their hopes of getting to the knockout stages alive. Still, I really think an independent investigation outside of EPCR & Ulster Rugby needs to be done on the whole affair in the hope that it can be avoided in the future.
Of course I know pitches do freeze over, but maybe we need to be better prepared for alternative venues especially at this time of year?
PUT THE 🐐 TO PASTURE
I’m not one of those rugby fans who tries to pretend the round ball game doesn’t exist and I’ll freely admit I was watching the World Cup Final and congratulations to Argentina for their victory.
Since then the Twitter account for the Guinness Six Nations posted a standard enough question…
…but to be clear, I don’t bring it up to have the debate on this pages. Instead I’d like to harp on that symbol.
You don’t need me to tell you that it is a “goat” to represent the acronym “greatest of all time”. And obviously in sports we love having these discussions and I for one have taken part in many of them over the years.
However I feel we still need to be mindful of what this kind of absolutism can do to our opinion forming, especially in the social media age when we feel we want to comment on something amazing we have just seen and assume it won’t get noticed unless we point out that it has to be the very, very best of all time ever in the history of everything.
This annoys me quite a bit and while I’m at it I might as well add my dislike of the response “one hundred percent” when having a debate about something. For one thing, generally when I hear that it tends to be followed by a counter point but my overall problem is that there’s no need to go all in on what anyone else is saying. If we’re all “100%” with each other there’s no point in debating at all and where’s the fun in that?
Maybe we could adapt it and ban the use of 100 and instead encourage people to come up with a more realistic number before offering a reply. Or, instead, maybe just ditch the numbers altogether…
Sorry, it’s just a bugbear of mine, and where better a place to put it in writing?
LEINSTER RUGBY HELP RAISE FUNDS FOR ED SLATER
Posted this already on Monday with the wrap pod but definitely worth posting again.
16 December 2022; Leinster captain Garry Ringrose and Gloucester captain Ben Meehan, pictured with referee Luc Ramos, donate jerseys for a raffle in aid of the Ed Slater foundation before the Heineken Champions Cup Pool A Round 2 match between Leinster and Gloucester at the RDS Arena in Dublin. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
Earlier this year, Gloucester Rugby lock, Ed Slater, announced his retirement from the game with immediate effect after his diagnosis with Motor Neurone Disease (MND).
To help support Ed and his family, Gloucester Rugby opened a JustGiving page and to date over £220,000 has been raised to help support Ed, his wife Jo and their three children.
With Gloucester Rugby playing Leinster Rugby last weekend in the Heineken Champions Cup, both clubs wanted to mark the occasion and also use the opportunity to highlight Ed’s illness and to try and raise even more funds for him and his family.
As a result, two unique Leinster Rugby and Gloucester Rugby jerseys were signed by the match day squads, with both jerseys bearing his name and the number four.
Captains Garry Ringrose and Ben Meehan presented the jerseys to each other before the game and the jerseys will now be used as a raffle item on the Leinster Rugby Instagram account.
To enter, you only need to reply to the post on Instagram and then donate a minimum of £20/€20 to the JustGiving page set up for the Slater family.
The winners will need to show proof of donation before their prize will be allocated to them.
Report came about 24 hours later than usual, just before I’m ready to publish this article in fact, so you’re getting my initial reactions and it’s good to see Will Connors moving up the list although it’s a bit worrying that Tadhg Furlong hasn’t moved at all.
And as for Ed Byrne, that’s a horrible outcome, hopefully he’ll be back in time for the business end of the campaign, in the meantime we’ll be giving the likes of Michael Milne a chance for more game time.
INJURY UPDATE – AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Johnny Sexton: came through the game at the weekend against Gloucester Rugby with no issues after his return from a calf injury
Jordan Larmour: came through the game at the weekend against Gloucester Rugby with no issues after his return from a foot injury
INJURY UPDATE – FURTHER ASSESSMENT REQUIRED:
Tadhg Furlong: has again increased his training load further towards the end of last week and will be further assessed this week for an ankle injury ahead of a final decision later in the week
Will Connors: will look to step up his rehabilitation programme this week as he nears a return from a bicep injury
INJURY UPDATE – UNAVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Thomas Clarkson: picked up an arm injury playing with DUFC and will be unavailable for up to eight weeks
Ed Byrne: picked up a knee injury in the game against Gloucester Rugby and will have a procedure this week which will rule him out of action for up to 12 weeks
There are no further updates on:
Jason Jenkins (hamstring), Robbie Henshaw (wrist), Martin Moloney (knee), Ciarán Frawley (knee), James Tracy (neck), Charlie Ryan (knee) and Tommy O’Brien (knee)
After the previous week’s postponement it was good to see the Women’s AIL final take place on Saturday with the full TV coverage on TG4 and it was to be Rock’s year as they avenged last year’s champions Railway Union to lift the trophy after a strong second half showing led to a 27-7 victory. Next up for women’s rugby is the interpros in January, also with TV coverage, providing a great platform for selectors ahead of the Six Nations, except for the absence of the sevens players, of course.
Meanwhile on the men’s side, Lansdowne and Shannon got mixed up in the Ravenhill debacle when they got shoved on to the Aviva back pitch but between them the two matches produced a total of 137pts as Shannon made their trip worthwhile thanks to a 41-31 BP victory.
I harped last week on the fascinating 5-way battle developing for the 4 semifinal slots at the top, but there’s also a scrap at the other end as this victory moves Shannon out of the bottom 2 yet there’s still only 5pts separating UCD in 9th and Hinch in 6th. And guess what – those two clubs meet each other in a rearranged fixture in the new year. Funny how that works out!
Women’s AIL
League final
Blackrock College 27-7 Railway Union
Men’s AIL
Round 9
Sat Dec 17
Lansdowne 31-41 Shannon
Sat Jan 7
Ballynahinch v UCD
Dublin University v Cork Con
THE NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
Christmas week is upon us, although we’re not done harpin’ yet before the big day as the Leinster team to play in Thomond Park will be named at Friday lunchtime so I’ll be recording the preview show with Keego shortly after that, with our wrap pod moving to Tuesday from the usual Sunday, when I reckon I might be busy doing other things.
In the meantime, be sure to enjoy your festive rugby wherever you are. JLP
Welcome to my 80+ column, a weekly post featuring final thoughts from the week of rugby just gone.
WRAP OF A WRAP
As it got closer to kickoff time I was getting more and more concerned that Leinster’s Heineken Champions Cup opener against Racing 92 wouldn’t go the way I hoped. That may sound odd to a non-Leinster fan given our record this season but actually that’s more than likely the reality for most fans of any team no matter how successful. But especially so in this age where a red card can make a difference to a contest, although of course even that didn’t hurt us last week!
But as it turned out, I needn’t have worried because much like last year we appear to be kicking off our European campaign in determined mood, yes I know we were helped a lot by Racing’s own disciplinary issues but still we were solid especially on set piece as you can see by the numbers.
22 – @LeinsterRugby’s Dan Sheehan was successful with all 22 of his lineout throws against Racing 92 on Saturday (100%), the most successful throws registered by any hooker in a @ChampionsCup match since Opta have recorded this data (2009). Precision. pic.twitter.com/4hVAZyUNGz
One teeny tiny final point I’d like to make, when it came to “Star of the Match”, I’d have gone for JVDF over Doris – that’s nothing against the latter he certainly had some key involvements yet he did ship a couple of penalties as well, one at a breakdown I was sure he’d get carded for, so while I don’t believe in simply giving the gong to the guy who got the most tries on the day, I reckon we all know Josh does way more than that, right? Again it’s not crucial but hey it’s my opinion and sharing it is kinda what this column is for.
It was another match which was a pleasure to wrap up on our Sunday pod, with super contributions as always by Messrs Jackson & Mifsud, plus a “roving report” by Tom Coleman. If you missed it, check it out here or on most major platforms.
HARPIN’ ON…THAT RINGROSE TRY
If you haven’t listened to our weekly wrap pod yet, first of all, why the hell not???? Especially if you’re reading this column!!! Seriously though…what we do is harp our way through the timeline of the match from start to finish, focusing on the major incidents of course, but also pointing out the minor ones as well that the pundits may have missed like the ref giving out to Leinster’s players for celebrating a knock on!!!
For this week’s YouTube clip I used Mark’s analysis of the Garry Ringrose try, although personally I was equally impressed by the one that came before it because it had three components to it which were world class yet things we take for granted from the players in question…JGP finding the final lock picking pass, Dan Sheehan lurking in the wide channel and being able to force his way over the line, and finally Ross “Mr Touchline” Byrne popping over the most difficult placekick for a right-footer like it was nothing to him.
If you’re playing the clip above maybe pop over and subscribe to the channel too? That’s where we post our Preview Show as well as other content throughout the week.
200 UP
You may have noticed that our wrap pod was episode 199 which means the next one is a milestone so to mark it I asked three of the contributors to join me for a “season so far” quiz where I tested their knowledge of the twelve matches we have covered this season before the Champions Cup kicked off.
During the week I’ll publish the episode in such a way as you the listener can have a go at the questions as well, see how many you can get!
IN DEFENCE OF THE HCC FORMAT
Now I want to be careful how I word this point so that I’m absolutely clear on where I stand. A lot of people have complained about the format for the Champions Cup and I want to push back, however this does not mean I am totally in favour of it. Let me explain.
If you offered me just two choices for how the Champions Cup pool stage can be run, (1) the current way, or (2) the old way with pools of 4 playing home and away leading to quarterfinals, I would always always choose 2.
However, while the backlash against the current way seems to be 100% by most people, I’d probably put mine around the 70-80% mark, because I can actually see some benefits in the current way, while also some of the drawbacks maybe aren’t as bad as many point out.
First we should have a go at explaining the system. There are 24 qualifiers, 8 from each league. They are drawn into 2 pools of 12, everyone plays four matches, and the top 8 on each table go through to the knockout phase.
For starters, I’m not, nor have I ever been, totally committed to the “everyone must play everyone” concept to a league competition. In an ideal world yes, but in reality we have to be open to alternatives due to time and travel constraints, and if a competition is ultimately decided by knockout rounds, then that should allow for anyone who got lucky with the schedule to be “found out”.
And to balance out the smaller amount of matches, with the extra round of 16 it’s actually easier to advance out of the pool phase, meaning rather than rounds 5 and 6 in the past when you’d have many “dead rubbers”, you now have a round 5 which is completely cup rugby, although of course the 6th match is gone altogether.
I also must admit I do like the symmetry of this system. Maybe every team has different opponents but they are definitely not chosen by random. Last season, when Leinster were Pro14 champions, we got a schedule that had teams finishing 7th or 8th in the Top14 and Premiership. So our domestic record was duly rewarded.
This season, since we failed to reach the 21/22 URC final, things were a bit tougher as we were pitted against teams finishing 5th and 6th at home. And despite the result last weekend, Racing are still doing well this season as are Gloucester.
One more positive about the fixtures is that with this system you are always playing a team from a different league in the pool phase, which is kind of what the competition is meant to be all about. Often under the old format you’d be playing home and away against a team you’re already down to face twice in your domestic league.
Finally in defence of the four-match system, while many think it was done this way purely because of COVID so why keep it now, I think it also helps to facilitate the introduction of the South African clubs. Under the old system with three blocks of two matches each home and away, that would inflict a hell of a lot of travelling on everyone, so doing it this way means anyone travelling after round 4 at least knows it’s at the business end of the competition and thus is easier to market. Having to fly thousands of miles for a dead rubber should be avoided at all costs.
Also, one thing about the “old way” that always grated with me a lot was the “best runnersup” system where three teams got knockout rugby often because they got a much easier draw. That said, I did really, really, like rounds 3 and 4 with the home and away fixtures in December, that always gave the return matches a bit of extra edge. And when they had the two-legged round of 16 last season I thought that was a way of holding onto that so in a way it’s a shame they have taken even that away this season.
Right that’s enough of that, I reckon that’s enough pushback but like I said, I would hardly grumble if we changed back, although if it were down to me I’d ditch both for something else altogether, best leave that for another week’s column!!!
UNFORGETTABLE SEVENS
Another interesting weekend for the Irish Sevens programmes, with the women doing better this time around, getting all the way to the semifinals where they were outclassed by New Zealand. Although we didn’t get a medal from the event, the points were enough to move us up to 5th on the overall table.
Meanwhile in the men’s draw, after a confident start we then had a nightmare against Uruguay, a team we should be beating handily, where a rush of blood to the head by Mark Roche saw him get a second yellow card, thus a red, in the first half which left us a man short (def not good with only 7 in total) and while we were actually doing ok for a while, a second yellow left us with 5 and no hope and the defeat put us down in the competition for 9th place so we failed to build on the silver medal in Dubai, dropping down to 9th on the overall table.
If you’d like to keep up of their progress when these tournaments are on, one thing you can do is go to this link and click the “Add To Calendar” button and make sure you specify it’s just Ireland’s matches you want, and you’ll need to do it separately for men’s and women’s. Then you’ll get a 15m reminder before every match when you can decide whether or not you’re free to watch live on the World Rugby player.
Remember, the more we make it clear Irish fans are following the action, hopefully the more chance we have of getting a leg added to the tour for us to go and get pissed at enjoy.
Both series resume with the Canadian leg in the New Year.
INJURY REPORTS
Arguably the best injury report of the season!!! Obviously not for those in the bottom list but definitely good to see the one above it being empty. Even if Messrs Sexton & Furlong can’t get fit in time for Friday, I’m sure the RDS crowd would have no complaints welcoming back the 23 that did so well in Le Havre.
INJURY UPDATE – AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Charlie Ngatai: came through the game at the weekend against Racing 92 with no issues after his return from a shoulder injury
INJURY UPDATE – FURTHER ASSESSMENT REQUIRED:
Johnny Sexton: increased his training load towards the end of last week and will be further assessed this week for a calf injury ahead of a final decision later in the week
Tadhg Furlong: increased his training load towards the end of last week and will be further assessed this week for an ankle injury ahead of a final decision later in the week
INJURY UPDATE – UNAVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
N/A
There are no further updates on:
Robbie Henshaw (wrist), Martin Moloney (knee), Ciarán Frawley (knee), Will Connors (bicep), James Tracy (neck), Charlie Ryan (knee) and Tommy O’Brien (knee)
AIL UPDATE
Such a shame the cold snap put paid to so many club fixtures at the weekend, most of all the women’s AIL final which was due to get exposure on TG4, although they did well to reschedule it so quickly while still retaining the coverage. And added bonus might be that players like Beibhinn Parsons, who was of course in Cape Town with the 7s last weekend, might be able to take part, we’ll have to see.
Also in the women’s AIL there was the “Conference final” – this was a mini competition for teams finishing 5th through 8th so very much a consolation prize, but considering it was won by Wicklow RFC, who were being unfairly ridiculed last season for a couple of blow out results, that definitely makes this a worthwhile achievement to bring up on these pages.
Meanwhile over in the men’s, again the postponements were quickly rearranged as you can see below, but the weather couldn’t prevent Terenure College’s 100% start from coming to an end as they were downed 24-18 by Young Munster. Fair play to the Cookies for not only the result but also for getting the match played.
As you can see there’s a fascinating tussle for the top four positions developing between three Leinster sides and two Munster ones, meaning pretty much every match in the second half of the campaign should have meaning.
Women’s AIL
Conference final
Wicklow RFC 22-17 Galwegians
Saturday, December 17
League final
Blackrock College v Railway Union 2pm
Men’s AIL
Round 9
Ballynahinch PPD UCD
Clontarf 36-10 Garryowen
Dublin University PPD Cork Con
Lansdowne PPD Shannon
Young Munster 24-18 Terenure
Sat Dec 17
Lansdowne v Shannon
Sat Jan 7
Ballynahinch v UCD
Dublin University v Cork Con
THE NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
Like I said we’ve a quiz edition of the podcast during the week to celebrate the 200th episode, why not have a listen to see how well you’ve been paying attention to Leinster & Ireland’s season so far. Then we have Tom Coleman on episode 201 to tell us how he got on travelling to Le Havre and also to preview the visit of Gloucester, with of course the wrap of that match to do on Sunday, with all the usual features in between.
In the meantime, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP
Welcome to my 80+ column, a weekly post featuring final thoughts from the week of rugby just gone.
WRAP OF A WRAP
Just after 8pm on Saturday evening I was pretty sure I’d have to prepare the first pod under our new format where the subject matter was a Leinster or Ireland defeat but we all know how that second half went and I reckon Tom & Conor did a bang up job harpin’ on all the relevant points from the classic top-of-the-table encounter. If you missed it, check it out here or on most major platforms.
HARPIN’ ON…HEALY RED
Of course if you need a sample of the pod before you commit to clicking, here’s a taste when we harped on the red card which we thought at the time would be the deciding factor on the night – as you can see we were all incredibly one-eyed and fully agreed the decision was in fact a travesty…
TURNING BACK TIME
Before I move on from Saturday night’s classic, I’d like to expand on a point raised by Tom in the above clip.
When the Healy/Stewart collision happened, the clock read 17:58. Yet when the referee finally ruled on the red card, it was at 20:35 and when the ball was finally back in play it was actually 20:56.
So basically, due to a decision that had to be referred to the TMO, three minutes of gameplay were lost. And in actual fact they weren’t just lost, there was actually over two and a half minutes of rugby played in that time which was never going to count towards anything.
I have two points to make about this.
I’m pretty sure that once it’s decided that there was foul play, the clock should be moved back to the precise time when it happened. This shouldn’t take much longer to do as the TMO can confirm it in the booth. We may not notice those 3 minutes in this particular match but imagine if it happened in the 77th minute of a game where Ulster were within a converted try on the scoreboard? The difference between having 3 minutes to take advantage from the penalty and having the clock automatically in the red is pretty big.
This also links to the discussion over concussion safety. Often the officials stop the game when they think there has been foul play and when the TMO finds nothing wrong, there is outcry from the same pundits & fans about holding up the game. Well, those 2 plus minutes from Saturday are exactly why it’s important to err on the side of caution. If an official thinks there may be something that needs looking at, they should absolutely stop play because IMO if there’s possibly anything worse than suffering a serious injury on a rugby pitch, then it’s suffering a serious injury on a rugby pitch in play that didn’t even count towards the final score.
CLUB RUGBY WORLD CUP
I noticed a headline during the week about ongoing talks regarding the formation of a “Club Rugby World Cup”. The more I see these articles, the more I’m convinced that it will eventually happen.
My thoughts are simple, of course it’s a super concept, who wouldn’t want to see a comp with fixtures like Leinster v Crusaders but the drawbacks are pretty obvious – 1) how the hell do you fit it into the calendar without altering it drastically (and harmfully if that’s a word), and 2) I hope I’d reading the room wrong here but I have a feeling there might be a temptation to stage this in a “neutral venue” like Dubai.
Both would seriously take the shine off what would otherwise be an illustrious event for the sport, although sadly I feel both are also very likely to happen anyway.
DUBAI SEVENS
So there I was, off with the family doing the first bout of Christmas shopping on Saturday when I was able to sneak away to a coffee shop and over a flat white I watched the Irish Men’s 7s take on the Blitzbokke in the final of the Dubai 7s. Sadly it wasn’t to be for them as the South Africans made their experience tell for these occasions by running in three tries before we could land a punch, but it’s certainly all not disappointment for Ireland, this will stand to them down the line and having drawn one and lost one in the pool stages they did really well to get this far anyway.
Getting to the final lifts us up to 4th on the overall series after 2 rounds, and over on the Women’s side although they went out at the quarterfinal stage they still managed a decent 6th place finish which is a decent start so hopefully both sides will be able to continue on their upwards curves when the circus rolls into Cape Town this coming weekend.
Be sure to keep an eye out for all the kickoff times and support them on social media as much as you can. Remember – we’re trying to let the organisers know we’re ready willing and able to host a leg on these shores!!!
EUROWATCH
We neglected our TikTok account for a while there in November, but with the Champions Cup starting next weekend we had to bring back our EuroWatch feature with brief “Reeling In The Years”-style presentation of the latest matches from Leinster’s upcoming HCC opposition. Below you see last week’s Racing offering and we’ll have more later during the week just subscribe to our account.
Everyone’s harpin’ on this at the moment so I have to include it I suppose, but to be honest both dismissals have been in the “worst kept secret” category for a while now so there’s not a whole lot more I can add except to say that while both nations might be in turmoil on and off the pitch right now, it often doesn’t take much to turn their fortunes around in the short term, especially with the quality they have on offer, so I reckon Wales v Ireland to open the 2023 Six Nations could be very interesting indeed.
I will also add this meme from Cian “RugbyKino” O’Muilleoir which nails the Welsh decision on the head.
Actually one thing I did miss in all the excitement from the match on Saturday was Tadhg Furlong going off and hopefully this was just a precaution. And as well as Jamie Osborne did in the 12 role, it’s still really good news for Leinster that Charlie Ngatai is meant to be back training with the squad this week as we’ll need every ounce of his European experience at the weekend. That doesn’t rule out Jamie altogether of course and actually I reckon he’d be perfect for this match against Racing in the 23 jersey given he has had four starts for Leinster this season, all in different positions.
For what it’s worth here is my ideal 23 for Saturday…
Kelleher, E Byrne, Ala’alatoa, Molony, Conan, McGrath, R Byrne, Osborne.
INJURY UPDATE – AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
James Lowe: came through the game at the weekend against Ulster Rugby with no issues after his return from a calf injury
Charlie Ngatai: is expected to train fully with the team this week after his recovery from a shoulder injury
INJURY UPDATE – FURTHER ASSESSMENT REQUIRED:
Johnny Sexton: will be further assessed this week for a calf injury ahead of a final decision later in the week
Tadhg Furlong: will be further assessed this week for an ankle injury picked up against Ulster Rugby ahead of a final decision later in the week
INJURY UPDATE – UNAVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
There were no further injuries from the game at the weekend.
There are no further updates on:
Robbie Henshaw (wrist), Martin Moloney (knee), Ciarán Frawley (knee), Will Connors (bicep), James Tracy (neck), Charlie Ryan (knee) and Tommy O’Brien (knee)
AIL UPDATE
Friday night is a massive night for Women’s rugby on these shores as the AIL final between Blackrock and Railway Union is to be broadcast live on terrestrial TV for the first time as TG4 are carrying the broadcast, and especially since there are no Irish men’s provinces involved in European action on the same night, I really think it’s important for rugby fans to get involved by watching and sharing comments throughout on social media.
Remember – women’s club rugby is different to the men’s in that it always features current and former test players, and this final should be no exception with the likes of Enya Breen, Maeve Óg O’Leary, Hannah O’Connor, Nikki Caughey and Lindsay Peat all likely to be involved so be sure to tune in or better still, head along to Energia Park in Donnybrook yourself on the night, kickoff is at 7:45pm
Meanwhile over on the men’s side of things, Terenure had a “slip up” of sorts as for the first time in 9 rounds they failed to get the try bonus point, though of course their win over Trinity keeps their 100% start going. Tarf moved up to second with a tough win down at Cork Con while Young Munster continued their run of form with a win at Shannon and will be more than ready for the visit of Nure this coming weekend. The league then takes a break until the new year.
Women’s AIL
Dec 3
SEMIFINALS
Blackrock 13 – 8 UL Bohemians
Railway Union 34 – 19 Old Belvedere
Fri Dec 9
League final
Blackrock College v Railway Union
Men’s AIL
Sat Dec 3
Cork Con 22 – 29 Clontarf
Garryowen 10 – 28 Ballynahinch
Terenure 23 – 21 Dublin University
UCD 27 – 26 Lansdowne
Shannon 3 – 32 Young Munster
Sat Dec 10
Ballynahinch v UCD
Clontarf v Garryowen
Dublin University v Cork Con
Lansdowne v Shannon
Young Munster v Terenure
AI RUGBY
What the hell is this? You may well ask. Well, I’ve been playing around with one of those AI image generators lately, so I figured I’d share something here with it each week for a while, here’s what came up using the words “Leinster Rugby” in “Comic Book” mode. At least they got the colours right I guess? More to come.
HARPIN’ PREDICTION LEAGUE
Highlight of Round 9 for me prediction wise was my last-second change of my forecast for Connacht v Benetton – I saw a tweet from a western based fan who said he felt in his bones that they’d win by 20 so I switched my margin from 9 to 19 and sure enough it came up trumps. Kristian Ross had an even better round although I’m still closing the gap on Kino at the top of the league while Keego’s grip on both the wooden spoon and the Jersey of Shame seems to be getting even tighter…
THE NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
Next up it’s the Heineken Champions Cup and Leinster’s first assignment is certainly a tough one with an away trip to Racing 92 definitely set to be a challenge. Of course we’re giving it the full Harpin treatment with Illtud Daffyd, who briefed us on Montpellier last season, returning for an “Opposition View” pod on Wednesday before Keego has another appearance on Friday’s Preview Show and then it’s wrap up time on Sunday evening , with all the usual other features in between.
In the meantime, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP
HARPIN' ON RUGBY 