Category: 80+ column

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WRAP OF A WRAP

Hello and welcome to our latest 80+ column where I generally harp on things outside our normal remit, namely the latest match involving the Leinster/Ireland men’s team.

Sorry if I’ve been harpin’ on too much about the fact I brought my 9 year old daughter to the Leinster match last weekend, loads of people do that all the time I know, but it’s very rare for me because in general I’m the only rugby nut in our house.  But she definitely wanted to see what the match was like and she really enjoyed it.

Anyway, it made for a different weekend when it comes to preparing for the wrap pod but in the end between myself, Tom and Conor I reckon we did an OK job going back over what happened.

ICYMI click here to check it out on Spotify or you’ll also find us on Apple and most major platforms.

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FRONT FIVE

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SIMON SAYS

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MACK & JOE

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TOMMY THE TRYSAVER

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BACK TO BOKS

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NOT FOOTBALL?

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HARPIN ON…THE LEINSTER FAN EXPERIENCE

For our bonus chat to go with the weekend that was in it I chose to get the lads to harp on what it’s like for the fans at Leinster matches.  Obviously not all spectators are the same but it’s good to keep tabs on what the overall experience is like.  Here’s the lead-in question…

“When I started Harpin’ On Rugby back in 2008 the intention was to not only harp on what was happening on the pitch, but also to keep tabs on what the experience of actually going to the matches was like for the spectators.  I suppose all the success enjoyed by Leinster and Ireland over the years has had the coverage leaning more towards the actual rugby, plus I now get more of a media’s eye view of things on matchdays.  But on Saturday when we played Cardiff I brought my 9 year old daughter along to see what it was like so for this bonus clip I’d like to share our story and also discuss it with our panel, who are themselves both regular frequentors of the stands whether its RDS, Aviva or Croker.  Starting with yourself Conor, how do you find the overall experience?”

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LIES, DAMN LIES… 

Ever wonder which rugby stats are actually worth a damn?  Well I reckon this list is at very least a step in the right direction towards finding out.

After 12 rounds, Leinster lead the URC by 13 points which I reckon means that the categories below that we’re not leading must indicate that, not so much that they don’t matter, but certainly don’t matter all on their own.  Like tackles, for example, possibly the most misunderstood stat of the lot.  Cardiff lead the league in tackles made, but how exactly is that a good thing?  Not easy to score a lot of tries if you’re doing a lot of tackling, and it certainly won’t help you in minutes 70-80 of close matches if you’re bolloxed.

And apologies to Connacht fans, but while leading the league in both carries and defenders beaten really looks impressive, but still if those breaks don’t result in enough scores, or for that matter if your opposition is also carrying and beating defenders going in the other direction, well it will hardly translate into a high position on the table.  

There are also key categories missing from the list; for one thing I have to assume it doesn’t matter just that Leinster are making tons of visits to the 22, it’s surely more about what percentage of those visits we’re converting into points.

Anyway, here’s the list of league leaders the URC sent out during the week…

IRELAND SQUAD UPDATE

One or two close calls here but as I’m typing the news is coming out that Tadhg Furlong could be available.  The best thing about this is that I’d have 00% confidence in Finlay Bealham to still start the match with Jukebox putting in a power 15-25m in the second half.  Elsewhere I’ve gone for POM over Baird since assuming one must miss out altogether if Conan is available.  And when it comes to 10 I’ve been putting Crowley in more often than not for these matches but it seems Sam has done enough to make the jersey his own so he makes my team too.

HARPIN’ POSSIBLE MATCHDAY 23 V FRANCE

caveat : I have no “ITK” a la Thornley

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TROLL PATROL

Now it’s time for Troll Patrol where we ‘detain’ a social media commentator and charge them with gaslightery and general online mayhem.  

Munster vs the IRFU in the trolling department this week.  Even though Garry Ringrose is an integral part of Ireland’s overall plans, it seems some fans would rather bring receipts to help those who thought his punishment was too lenient make their argument instead of simply being happy he still has involvement to come in this 6N.  I gave my own views on this in the Front 5 video above.

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Women’s Six Nations

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Irish Shield

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U20 Six Nations

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Celtic Challenge

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All Ireland Leagues

WOMEN’S AIL

MEN’S AIL 1A

MEN’S AIL 1B

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LEINSTER SCHOOLS SENIOR CUP

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SVNS

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Premiership

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🔝🐱🐴

ProD2

Super Rugby Pacific

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RWC2027 QUALIFIERS

The RWC2027 tournament has expanded to 24 nations so with four extra spots up for grabs it makes for a fascinating qualifying process.

Rather than post the latest results and fixtures here however, I’d like to defer to the excellent work of frequent Harpin’ contributor Ciarán Duffy who has been keeping close tabs on the qualifying process over at his own site Post to Post Sport.

Follow this link to see how the Road to Australia is progressing..

Japan League One

Major League Rugby 

Harpin Prediction League

This is the 4th season of our Superbru prediction league among Harpin’ pod contributors.  

Kristian is the reigning champion, but the real competition is in avoiding finishing last, which means you must wear The Jersey of Shame.  I had to wear it the first year, while Keego has had the honour the past two seasons. 

As you can see our resident stats expert Rugby Kino is leading the way but we’re only passing the halfway stage, and we’ve also added a Cup (or Mug) competition to make things interesting.  Myself and Conor have already reached the semifinals, in the third quarterfinal Kino leads Kristian but just half a point with one more match still to forecast

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NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

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WRAP OF A WRAP

Hello and welcome to our latest 80+ column where I generally harp on things outside our normal remit, namely the latest match involving the Leinster/Ireland men’s team.

For our latest wrap pod we harped on Leinster’s 11th win out of 11 in the URC, with Rich Mifsud from Gibraltar and Ciarán Duffy from Bray doing their usual bang up job helping me do so.

We’ve been using a timer on the Zoom calls for the past few weeks to help keep the show under an hour and it has been working really well, especially since by a complete coincidence the app puts the clock right where I have the Harpin logo on the videos so nothing needed to change.

ICYMI click here to check it out on Spotify or you’ll also find us on Apple and most major platforms.

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THREADS PULLED

Made another change to our platform lineup, after adding the Substack channel something had to give. 

Mastodon had already made way for Discord, so we decided the next in line was to be Threads; to be honest I never really understood what I was getting from that platform anyway.  

But the Substack looks very useful indeed, I’m trying to use it to get myself actually writing again, including what I hope will be a weekly article named “Broken Play” which I’ll scribble on Saturday mornings for the foreseeable.  I am also restoring our “Throwback Thursday” feature where I’ll be trawling through the Harpin archives going back to 2008 for an old post which somehow relates to Leinster/Ireland’s next match.  With us playing in Cardiff this weekend you can probably imagine what bit of history I’ve chosen for the first one, but to confirm your suspicions you’ll have to actually click into our Substack on Thursday morning to find out!

Just to be clear, I have this Substack account as a FREE subscription so if you could take a look and maybe even subscribe you’d help me out a lot, cheers.

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BREAKING NEWS

UPDATE : this Ross Byrne story broke as we were posting, we’ll harp on it for our preview Friday

FRONT FIVE

A selection of eye-catching egg-chasing quotes & links from around the rugby media landscape

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OFF THE BOIL

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SWEET HOME CHICAGO

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BRING YOUR A GAME

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THOMOND THOUGHTS

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RE-LEASH A JAGUAR

HARPIN ON…LIONS TOUR – STILL WORTH IT?

For our bonus chat this week, our panel looked at the Lions Tour in the professional era.

Here’s the lead-in question…

“It’s a Lions year and two games into the Six Nations the talk about possible starting XVs and who’s ‘on the plane’ are already happening throughout the ruggersphere.  But for right now, we’re going to revisit a angle that we’ve been harpin’ on going way back to 2013 when we had a guest post from long time Babbling Brook message board poster curate’s egg titled “Lions: more ‘meh’, than miaow”.  Basically the question being asked is whether or not the Lions Tours are still relevant in the professional age and the questions have come from more and more people as we have gotten closer to the latest tours since then.  Starting with yourself Ciarán, are the Lions a concept worth continuing?”

BTW – we chose to steer clear of the ‘British Empire’ Lions argument in the video mostly because we figured the comment section would cover it pretty well and sure enough within half an hour we got the first one in, here’s a sample…

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IRELAND SQUAD UPDATE

With Doris and Kelleher listed as doubts since Monday’s update I took the approach whereby we do have enough cover not to risk them, this includes Tadhg Furlong who can get minutes off the bench for Leinster against Cardiff if needed.  I have a feeling Simon will stick with Sam and Bundee in the starting lineup but I for this selection I switched those for rotation’s sake and as you can see I have opted for what I call “The Porter Protocol” where Church puts in a full bore 30m shift allowing AP to see out the match.

caveat : I have no “ITK” a la Thornley

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TROLL PATROL

Now it’s time for Troll Patrol where we ‘detain’ a social media commentator and charge them with gaslightery and general online mayhem.  

It’s very important to remember that it’s not just so-called anonymous “keyboard warriors” who can be trolls.  In fact I find that term is most often used by the journos, probably to disguise the fact that they can often be the worst trolls themselves.  

Take this article from Stephen Jones.   I’m serious, please take it and get it as far away from me as possible!!!  Seriously though, maybe the sub editor has a lot to do with the choice of headline but having suffered SJ’s work in the past I’d say it’s a pretty accurate reflection of what he’s on about in the article itself.  No, I didn’t actually read it, nor would I want to.  I got enough from this headline to know it ranks right up there with Off The Ball’s nonsense I mentioned in this week’s Front5 video.

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Women’s Six Nations

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U20 Six Nations

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Celtic Challenge

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All Ireland Leagues

WOMEN’S AIL

MEN’S AIL 1A

MEN’S AIL 1B

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LEINSTER SCHOOLS SENIOR CUP

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SVNS

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Super Rugby Pacific

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Premiership

---

🔝🐱🐴

ProD2

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RWC2027 QUALIFIERS

The RWC2027 tournament has expanded to 24 nations so with four extra spots up for grabs it makes for a fascinating qualifying process.

Rather than post the latest results and fixtures here however, I’d like to defer to the excellent work of frequent Harpin’ contributor Ciarán Duffy who has been keeping close tabs on the qualifying process over at his own site Post to Post Sport.

Follow this link to see how the Road to Australia is progressing..

Japan League One

Major League Rugby

Harpin Prediction League

This is the 4th season of our Superbru prediction league among Harpin’ pod contributors.  

Kristian is the reigning champion, but the real competition is in avoiding finishing last, which means you must wear The Jersey of Shame.  I had to wear it the first year, while Keego has had the honour the past two seasons.  As you can see our resident stats expert Rugby Kino is leading the way but we’re only passing the halfway stage, and we’ve also added a Cup (or Mug) competition to make things interesting – I managed to overcome Jay in the first quarterfinal, with Conor leading Rich with one outstanding match left in Round 11.

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NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

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WRAP OF A WRAP

Hello and welcome to our latest 80+ column where I generally harp on things not so Leinster-and-or-Ireland-men’s-team-related.

I think it was as far back as last August when Mrs P told me about a wedding to which we had been invited, not immediate family by any stretch rather the daughter of her work colleague.  It’s almost an instinct for me to check the date at times like this to see if there’s a clash with a major sporting event and sure enough there was a head-on collision with the opening match of the Six Nations against the old enemy no less.  

“Just don’t go” was the response of more than one friend I told about this in the meantime, but we couldn’t do that for several reasons, and when it came to the big day we certainly weren’t the only ones who we first reluctant to leave the hotel bar having watched the first 15m of the match and then had our phones out on the table as the various courses were being served!  Judging from the cheers rings out across the room at the same time Bundee Aki got his try, either loads were watching the match or this was the best wedding soup ever served!!!!

Anyway, thankfully Kino and Hugo were able to watch in a more conventional fashion and when it came time to record I think they did an excellent job going back over the match.  ICYMI click here to check it out on Spotify or you’ll also find us on Apple and most major platforms.

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FRONT FIVE

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GETTING YOUR KICKS

BLOODGATE 2

HE’S WHAT NOW???

MOANA RETURN

ULTRA MARATHON MAN

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HARPIN ON…JACK OR SAM (OR TRUST?)

For our bonus chat this week, our panel looked at ‘the Jack v Sam debate’…is that the only way to discuss the Irish 10 jersey?

Here’s the lead-in question…

“On Feb 21 2020 the Irish Under 20s defeated England 39-21 at Franklins Gardens with a young lad named Jack Crowley at outhalf.  On Mar 19 2023 the Irish Under 20s also defeated England, by a similar scoreline 36-24 only this time it was at Musgrave Park in Cork and wearing green 10 that day was a certain Mr Sam Prendergast.  Unless you’re an Irish rugby fan who lives under a rock you’ll know that both players are currently vying for the national 10 jersey and they both featured in Saturday’s bonus point win at the Aviva.  Naturally the Irish rugby media won’t shy away from stirring the debate over who should be starting, so we might as well throw our few euro cents in, but I’d like a slightly different angle…is it important to harp on who should be starting or should we have faith in the coaches’ decisions, especially while the team is actually winning?”

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IRELAND SQUAD UPDATE

My logic behind selecting this 23 is simple…going by the language in the update, Tadhg & Joe won’t be available while Finlay and Mack will, so assuming the intent is to keep as much continuity as possible, the only changes I’d make would be swapping from started to bench at 2 and 6.  I’m sure that makes me blue-goggled, so be it.

caveat : I have no “ITK” a la Thornley

SQUAD UPDATE ON IRFU WEBSITE

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TROLL PATROL

Now it’s time for Troll Patrol where we ‘detain’ a social media commentator and charge them with gaslightery and general online mayhem.  

This week’s detainee is something I call “good trolling”.  The media-fuelled online Jack v Sam debate was annoying not just because it was ridiculous but also because it was so predictable.  Thankfully some were happy to have a bit of fun with it, along with others on hand to fact-check…

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U20 Six Nations

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Celtic Challenge

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All Ireland Leagues

WOMEN’S AIL

MEN’S AIL 1A

MEN’S AIL 1B

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LEINSTER SCHOOLS SENIOR CUP

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Super Rugby Pacific

---

Premiership

---

🔝🐱🐴

ProD2

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RWC2027 QUALIFIERS

The RWC2027 tournament has expanded to 24 nations so with four extra spots up for grabs it makes for a fascinating qualifying process.

Rather than post the latest results and fixtures here however, I’d like to defer to the excellent work of frequent Harpin’ contributor Ciarán Duffy who has been keeping close tabs on the qualifying process over at his own site Post to Post Sport.

Follow this link to see how the Road to Australia is progressing.

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Japan League One

Major League Rugby

Harpin Prediction League

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NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

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WRAP OF A WRAP

Hello and welcome to our latest 80+ column where I generally harp on things not so Leinster-and-or-Ireland-men’s-team-related.

Many thanks to both Rich Mifsud and David Cordial for helping me wrap the victory over Bath at the weekend. Unfortunately I had audio issues halfway through but sure yiz don’t need to be listening to little ol’ me anyway, the lads were more than enough to harp on the match!!!

ICYMI  click here to check it out on Spotify or you’ll also find them on Apple and most major platforms.

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FRONT FIVE

A selection of eye-catching egg-chasing quotes & links from around the rugby media landscape

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ANTI-SOCIAL MEDIA

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TRIPLE THREAT

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ENGLAND CALL UPS

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WOUNDED WARRIOR

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ITV’S JONES-ING

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HARPIN ON…THE ROAD TO CARDIFF

For this week’s bonus chat the panel took a quick look at the brackets for the European competitions to see how the road ahead looks for the Irish provinces as well as other leading contenders.

My apologies for my audio issues here, consequence of self-producing!  Zoom stopped recognising my mic halfway through the wrap pod recording and I didn’t realise so it switched to the laptop one.

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LEINSTER SQUAD UPDATE

Tougher than usual 23 to call this week.  The mystery over Ciarán Frawley’s exclusion plus Tommy O’Brien’s curious omission from the injury update are just two obstacles.  But the unavailability of the Six Nations squad members is pretty much nailed on, except for those returning from a spell on the sidelines who need game time.

For the second week in a row I’m going to have Fraley at 10 in my lineup with the assumption that “he has to start” but obviously that comes with no guarantees.

Although we can’t play anywhere near our full squad, this is a fixture we really should be targeting whatever our standing in the URC as the Stormers are the only team in the competition we have never beated, with two away defeats plus a 22-22 draw right after Ireland’s 2023 Grand Slam. 

caveat : I have no “ITK” a la Thornley

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TROLL PATROL

Now it’s time for Troll Patrol where we ‘detain’ a social media commentator and charge them with gaslightery and general online mayhem.  

I really really wish I could say this guy was joking with his reply here, and in fact you’d almost wonder maybe he had the point about some kind of conspiracy against Munster by the “IRFU-minati” but hang on….THERE’S A MUNSTER PLAYER IN THE SHOT.

Much like Marcus O’B as I mention in the above Front 5 video, fair play to the “mother ship” for addressing it so quickly, and also fair play to Harpin contributors/Troll Patrol Officers Tom Coleman & ConorCronin  for identifying this week’s Troll Patrol detainee.

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EPCR ANNOUNCE WHENS & WHERES

As I’m putting this column together the EPCR have released the times for the Round of 16 in the two competitions.  No surprise that the two Sunday matches are both in France.  Leinster are the first province in action and it was confirmed that the venue will be Croke Park.   Not much doubt that La ROGelle v Munster is the tie of the round.

There’s just one wrinkle in this announcement was highlighted on X by frequent Harpin commenter Craig Williamson as you can see I replied with my own thoughts…

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Irish Shield

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Celtic Challenge

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All Ireland Leagues

WOMEN’S AIL

MEN’S AIL

---

SVNS

---

CHALLENGE CUP

---

Premiership

🔝🐱🐴

ProD2

Japan League One

Harpin Prediction League

This is the 4th season of our Superbru prediction league among Harpin’ pod contributors.  

Kristian is the reigning champion, but the real competition is in avoiding finishing last, which means you must wear The Jersey of Shame.  I had to wear it the first year, while Keego has had the honour the past two seasons.  As you can see our resident stats expert Rugby Kino is leading the way but we’re only reaching the halfway stage, and we’ve also added a Cup (or Mug) competition to make things interesting.

For this coming weekend, we have the first of the Harpin’ Mug quarterfinals, and it’s me up against Jay Long.  My Superbru score this weekend will be put up against his for a spot in the semifinals.

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NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

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WRAP OF A WRAP

Hello and welcome to our latest 80+ column where I generally harp on things not so Leinster-and-or-Ireland-men’s-team-related.

With the Sunday kickoff we moved our recording to Monday evening with Tom & Kino doing a bang-up job going back over Leinster’s the amazing-yet-nail-biting win at the home of our old friends La Rochelle.  The pod was the 18th of this, our 6th season, but those numbers are pretty boring so I’d best put it another way….the pod was our 400th since our first one way back in July 2019.  There would have been a lot more by this stage if I hadn’t put off doing them for as long as I did, but I have to say I really enjoy them now, especially with such great knowledgeable guests to call on.

ICYMI  click here to check it out on Spotify or you’ll also find them on Apple and most major platforms.

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FRONT FIVE

A selection of eye-catching egg-chasing quotes & links from around the rugby media landscape

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ROG ON SAM

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WOLFPUPPIES SQUAD

NOTE – on the video I lay claim to having “coined” the term Wolfpuppies.  So I guess I should probably provide receipts so below is my first use of it back in Feb 2010 FWIW.  

It also should be pointed out that I’m aware it’s very possible that absolutely nobody in the known universe (unknown ones too) would be willing to challenge my claim…

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DUBLIN DERBY DATE

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CAPTAIN MARO

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HOGGWATCH FINALE?

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HARPIN ON…POOL PERMUTATIONS

Cian ‘RugbyKino’ O’Muilleoir has created an excellent spreadsheet which goes through all the different permutations for the final round of Champions Cup pool matches.  For our bonus chat this week he takes us through the 12 remaining matches to see how they can effect the Round of 16, with emphasis on the Irish provinces, of course.

SQUAD ANNOUNCEMENT/KINO’S 6N BINGO

The Irish squad announcement was made since we recorded the Front 5 video.  First thought that creeped into my head was that I wonder if Ben Murphy will actually outshine Caolin Blade at Carton House but we’ll have more thoughts on our next pod which will be the Bath preview on Friday.

In the meantime when he’s not putting together permutation spreadsheets, Cian ‘RugbyKino’ O’Muilleoir has also been busy with this bingo card for the expected ABL** reactions to the squad; as I’m typing this, I’m one square away from a full line already…

SPAM SCAM? NO THANK YOU, MA’AM

Kino’s not the only Harpin contributor from this week’s pod who has been up to social media hi-jinx.  Tom “Leinster Royalty” Coleman recently joined the mass migration from x/Twitter to BlueSky and he recently got his first ever bit of spam slipped into his DMs…

It was nice of Tom to share this so we could pass it on to our readers because, and I don’t want to shock you, but there may be a chance that BethKate2 isn’t actually a real person and won’t appreciate his brilliant rugby-themed response.

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LEINSTER SQUAD UPDATE

First, the Leinster team announcement for La Rochelle was made an hour later than what has been the norm for years, in clear disregard for those trying to record preview podcasts on a schedule!  Seriously though, it didn’t help Leinster’s (or the podcaster’s) cause that they then had to make two further changes seriously altering the back line.

Then on Tuesday we got some mixed news on the injury report, but the highlight is definitely that Messrs Sheehan & Lowe have jumped up from the dreaded bottom row to “Further Assessment Required”.

I doubt we’ll see either at the Aviva on Saturday but I would like to see a couple of changes and I reckon Hugo Keenan should get a start if fit, and more importantly, as well and all as Sam has been doing of late, I definitely feel Ciarán Frawley should get the nod at 10.  He was only brought in to the Leinster 23 for LAR after TWO withdrawals so for him not to get European minutes in the boots at out-half would be a very bad signal to send in my view.

Also I really, really like The Porter Protocol even though I didn’t have it in my 23 last week.  We’ll see if they continue it at the weekend.

caveat : I have no “ITK” a la Thornley

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TROLL PATROL

Now it’s time for Troll Patrol where we ‘detain’ a social media commentator and charge them with gaslightery and general online mayhem.  

I’m actually detaining myself this week…I never said I wasn’t partial to the odd bit of trolling myself and I just couldn’t let this one go.  People often talk about the “Dublin meeja” and how all the major national press organisations have been group-thinked into loving all things Leinster, but I reckon this obvious blunder by Gerry Thornley reveals a different picture, at least with certain journos.

We can certainly debate as to whether there’s favouritism from the “IRFU-mminati” towards Leinster but in this case, GT’s allegations of one rule for Connacht over Hansen and another for Leinster over Sexton are simply not true.  And as extra spice we found an article in Gerry’s own publication to prove to the contrary.  The author actually responds as you can see, I wonder if thought I was having a go at him instead?

Anyway…just to be clear, my intent here is not to highlight Thornley’s error itself – I have been known many’s a time to plough ahead and publish without an extra fact check once or twice over the years – rather to highlight the motivation that led to the error.  Maybe some would call it Leinster Derangement Syndrome? 😜

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Celtic Challenge

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All Ireland Leagues

WOMEN’S AIL

MEN’S AIL

---

SVNS

---

CHALLENGE CUP

---

Premiership

🔝🐱🐴

ProD2

Japan League One

Harpin Prediction League

This is the 4th season of our Superbru prediction league among Harpin’ pod contributors.  

Kristian is the reigning champion, but the real competition is in avoiding finishing last, which means you must wear The Jersey of Shame.  I had to wear it the first year, while Keego has had the honour the past two seasons.  As you can see our resident stats expert Rugby Kino is leading the way but we’re only reaching the halfway stage, and we’ve also added a Cup (or Mug) competition to make things interesting.

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NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

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** = for those new to HarpinOnRugby “ABL” means “Anyone But Leinster”, a narrative we have found to be common in the ruggersphere, ironically since the province started winning stuff!!!

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WRAP OF NO WRAP

Hello and welcome to our latest 80+ column where I generally harp on things not so Leinster-and-or-Ireland-men’s-team-related.

I usually start with a few lines on the logistics of our latest pod recording, but obviously this week there wasn’t one, we took a mini break of sorts and this is our first content since the New Year’s Day 80+ column.  Gearing up for a return with a bang though as there is of course a massive Champions Cup date with our old friends from La Rochelle to look forward to.

But if you want to sample our pods and maybe subscribe so you get our next ones, click here to check it out on Spotify or you’ll also find them on Apple and most major platforms.

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FRONT FIVE

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MACK’S ATTACK

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AFTER ANDY

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NOVEL GRAPHIC

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ENGLAND BLOW

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SOME NECK ON ‘IM

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HARPIN ON…FRAWLEY TIME

Obviously no bonus chat this week, but two good reasons for this re-posting of a clip from 2024; first it was from our most-listened-to pod of the year according to Spotify Wrapped, and second because it’s timely what with Ciarán Frawley also doing some last-gasp heroics the last time Leinster visited the Stade Marcel Deflandre.

SOWING DISCORD

We put ourselves out there on multiple platforms here at Harpin’ Manor but there have to be limits and we can’t be on ALL of them so if we decide to try something new, something else should probably go.  

And I’ve been keen to try out Discord for a while.  We have a WhatsApp channel for our regular contributors and outside that the only space for people to do their Harpin has been social media replies, Facebook comments and such.  And there are a good few ‘regulars’ who not only keep coming back but also offer really good input so I wanted to try a space where I could ask them to contribute more regularly.

Thus we launched our private Discord channel – no,I’m not asking for money to be involved but it will be invitation only.  Over the coming weeks I’ll be reaching out to those I feel have been part of the Harpin chat over the years and hopefully grow the community to a few dozen for the time being and more in future.

As for what had to go, well that was easy enough – I’ve gotten little or no engagement from Mastodon over the past few years since joining.  It just never took off the way Blue Sky did so no real point sharing stuff over there.  now with what I’ve been learning about Zuckerburg’s plans to ditch fact checking I may need to re-think my presence in the Meta-verse but for now we’ll keep going and see how things pan out.

LIONS CHATTER

As a segué from the about chat about Zuckerburg’s social media empire, I recently noticed something very rare – a post that caught my eye on Threads. It’s from the official British & Irish Lions account and they published a poll they ran over fans’ selections for the 2025 team.

First, it was interesting because they listed them in reverse order, but there’s also plenty to harp on when it comes to the selections themselves. I really thought that with SO many more England fans out there, a poll would have Smith and Itoje in the top slots, with Itoje on the fast track to the captaincy, but it really does look like the majority is going with Caelan. I’m conflicted about this, obviously it would be a great honour for him and he’s well able for the job, but as a Leinster/Ireland fan I think I’d want the skipper of both teams to stay focused on the job at hand without all the distractions and media responsibilities that come with this role.

Elsewhere the list has few surprises, although I’m not so sure I’d have Duhan anywhere near a full strength Lions 23, plus I’d love to see Jack Willis’ name at least involved in these discussions just for divilment.

I know interest in the Lions is waning and I’m going off the concept more than most, but that said when it comes to picking teams I’m always up for some harpin, plus when the series itself happens we can’t exactly ignore it.

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LEINSTER SQUAD UPDATE

On last week’s column I picked a 23 to play La Rochelle but I was missing an injury update from after the win at Thomond Park – this wasn’t made available until Tuesday lunchtime and it was full of very positive news with Keenan, Frawley and Clarkson very important names to jump into the “available for selection” group.  

Naturally with that comes a downside in a lot of difficult decisions but while I never like saying someone is ideal for the bench, for me the reality of the moment is that Ciarán Frawley’s fitness allows for a 6/2 split bench.  If we went for 5/3 instead I’d probably swap out Baird for Jamie Osborne.

I’m not wild about leaving Henshaw out but an extra rest week ahead of the 6N wouldn’t be the worst for him and I just couldn’t bring myself to omit Jordie for this clash. I also mulled over Jamie O at 13 but I reckon our defence needs to be at it’s A1 best which always means Garry.

When it comes to the pack there’s the possibility of a continuation of The Porter Experiment we harped on last week, maybe Church will start with a power 20/30m allowing Andrew to see the game out, but I’ll put AP at 1 for this selection anyway.  Max Deegan’s lineout form on either side’s throw gets him the nod at 6 for me.

As for Tadhg, if there’s even a hint of doubt about his readiness I say don’t risk him, especially with Clarkson back available.

caveat : I have no “ITK” a la Thornley

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TROLL PATROL

Now it’s time for Troll Patrol where we ‘detain’ a social media commentator and charge them with gaslightery and general online mayhem.  

This week we have the very rare and hopefully unintentional “self-troll”.  After Northampton’s high-scoring and last-gasp victory over Bath on Sunday, I’m pretty sure the social media person for Rugby World mag thought this poll would go a very different way. 

But when you add up these factions from around the ruggersphere …

1. those who don’t necessarily equate high-scoring rugby with entertainment
2. those who never miss an opportunity to have a pop at anything English, and
3. those who know the obvious real truth that the URC is in fact the Best League…

…you can see why the poll ended up the way it did.

The small amount of votes is also something of a self-troll, I would’ve thought RW would get a lot more engagement.  Maybe this is a sign that a lot of their readers made the jump to Blue Sky?

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Irish Shield

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Celtic Challenge

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All Ireland Leagues

WOMEN’S AIL

MEN’S AIL

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SVNS

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CHALLENGE CUP

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Premiership

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🔝🐱🐴

ProD2

Japan League One

Harpin Prediction League

This is the 4th season of our Superbru prediction league among Harpin’ pod contributors.  

Kristian is the reigning champion, but the real competition is in avoiding finishing last, which means you must wear The Jersey of Shame.  I had to wear it the first year, while Keego has had the honour the past two seasons.  As you can see our resident stats expert Rugby Kino is leading the way but we’re only reaching the halfway stage, and we’ve also added a Cup (or Mug) competition to make things interesting.

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NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

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WRAP OF A WRAP

First things first HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL HARPIN READERS & LISTENERS!!!!

We had a unique situation for our Munster v Leinster wrap in that due to a late substitution one of our contributors had also done the preview, as ever we’re grateful to Ciarán Duffy for stepping in but also of course to Conor Cronin for his input as well.  The plan was to skip the “bonus chat” this week but as it turned out there was so much to harp on, the wrap went over the hour mark so I chose to cut out the “final thoughts” segment from the podcast recording and release that on our YouTube channel.

ICYMI click here to check it out on Spotify or you’ll also find them on Apple and most major platforms.

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FRONT FIVE

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HARRY THE BEAR

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PRET A PORTER

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LIES ABOUT LANNY

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STATE OF THE UNION

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STEPHEN JONES

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LEINSTER SQUAD UPDATE

With Leinster off this weekend I don’t see an injury report this week so I’m basing the team below on the last one before the Munster match.  Might change the team on next week’s column.  Ideally I’d want a 6/2 bench playing La Rochelle but I think we’d need Frawley on the bench for that.  

caveat : I have no “ITK” a la Thornley

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TROLL PATROL

Now it’s time for Troll Patrol where we ‘detain’ a social media commentator and charge them with gaslightery and general online mayhem.  

A joint award of sorts this week with some classic ABL trolling met with a quality counter-troll, especially since the latter doesn’t directly mention the former yet the intentions are obvious.

Hat-tip to RugbyKino for the spot.

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Irish Shield

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Interprovincial A Championship – strictly for the boards????

I have to say, keeping up with results for this tournament since it was announced at the end of October hasn’t been easy.  There’s doesn’t seem to be a dedicated “results/tables/fixtures” page on the IRFU site and even the provincial social media reports have been scarce.  The only single source that appears to be keeping tabs on the competition is this thread on boards.ie of all places 

With my ‘online tinfoil hat’ on I might speculate the prospect of another Leinster team romping to a first place finish at the expense of other provinces isn’t a good look, but like I say, that is merely speculation. 

Anyway…here are the results & fixtures I have been able to find, together with the table based on those results.

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Celtic Challenge

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All Ireland Leagues

WOMEN’S AIL

MEN’S AIL

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SVNS

---

Premiership

---

🔝🐱🐴

ProD2

Japan League One

Harpin Prediction League

This is the 4th season of our Superbru prediction league among Harpin’ pod contributors.  

Kristian is the reigning champion, but the real competition is in avoiding finishing last, which means you must wear The Jersey of Shame.  I had to wear it the first year, and Keego has had the honour the past two seasons.

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NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

Wed 8th – next 80+ column

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