80+ column – Page 4 – HARPIN' ON RUGBY

80+ column : Jan 15

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.

FRONT FIVE

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

ROG ON SAM

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…

DUBLIN DERBY DATE

CAPTAIN MARO

HOGGWATCH FINALE?

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.

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.

HARPIN’ POSSIBLE MATCHDAY 23 V BATH

Keenan, J Osbourne, Ringrose, Barrett, J O’Brien, Frawley, Gibson-Park

Healy, Kelleher, Furlong, J McCarthy, Ryan, Baird, van der Flier, Doris (c)

G McCarthy, Porter, Slimani, Snyman, Conan, McGrath, Prendergast, Henshaw

caveat : I have no “ITK” a la Thornley

AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:

Tadhg Furlong, Jack Conan and Ciarán Frawley: all came through the game against La Rochelle with no issues after their return from injury and are available for selection.

FURTHER ASSESSMENT REQUIRED:

Tommy O’Brien: was ruled out of the starting XV last week as a precaution and will be further assessed this week before a final decision is made on availability.

James Lowe: is due to step up his rehabilitation further this week and will be further assessed as the week progresses before a final decision is made on availability.

Dan Sheehan: is due to step up his rehabilitation further this week and will be further assessed as the week progresses before a final decision is made on availability.

Will Connors: is due to step up his rehabilitation further this week and will be further assessed as the week progresses before a final decision is made on availability.

NOT AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:

Jordan Larmour: picked up a hamstring injury at training last week and will be unavailable for selection this week.

NO FURTHER UPDATES ON:

Rob Russell, Liam Turner, James Culhane and Michael Milne

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? 😜

Celtic Challenge

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.

NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

Fri 17th – Leinster v Bath preview featuring Mark Jackson

Sat 18th – Leave comments on our Facebook page at fulltime after LEIvBATH

Sun 19th – our wrap pod featuring Rich Mifsud & David Cordial

** = 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!!!

80+ column : January 8

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.

FRONT FIVE

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

MACK’S ATTACK

AFTER ANDY

NOVEL GRAPHIC

ENGLAND BLOW

SOME NECK ON ‘IM

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.

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.

HARPIN’ POSSIBLE MATCHDAY 23 V LA ROCHELLE

Keenan, J O’Brien, Ringrose, Barrett, Larmour, Prendergast, Gibson-Park

Porter, Kelleher, Slimani, McCarthy, Ryan, Deegan, van der Flier, Doris (c)

G McCarthy, Healy, Clarkson, Snyman, Baird, Conan, McGrath, Frawley

caveat : I have no “ITK” a la Thornley

AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:

Jamie Osborne, Jordan Larmour and Tommy O’Brien: all came through the game against Munster with no issues after their return from injury and are available for selection.

Jack Conan: has recovered from the injury he suffered in the first half against Connacht and is available for selection.

Ciarán Frawley, Hugo Keenan and Thomas Clarkson: have all recovered from injury and are available for selection.

Max Deegan: has come through the Graduated Return to Play Protocols and is available for selection.

FURTHER ASSESSMENT REQUIRED:

Tadhg Furlong: is due to step up his rehabilitation this week and will be further assessed as the week goes on before a final decision is made on his availability.

NOT AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:

Dan Sheehan: is still recovering from his ACL injury, but has returned to on-field training as part of his rehabilitation programme.

James Culhane: picked up a hamstring injury and will be unavailable for selection.

Michael Milne: picked up a groin injury in the recent game against Munster Rugby ‘A’ and will be unavailable for selection.

NO FURTHER UPDATES ON:

Rob Russell, Will Connors, James Lowe and Liam Turner.

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 …

those who don’t necessarily equate high-scoring rugby with entertainment
those who never miss an opportunity to have a pop at anything English, and
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?

Irish Shield