Category: Articles

80+ column : Nov 7

A WEEKLY COLUMN LOOKING AT 

TOPICS BEYOND THE SCOPE OF OUR

FEATURE MATCH OF THE WEEK

WRAP OF A WRAP

Another Sunday, another enjoyable wrap pod recording, this time joined by Conor & Kino, this time for the Front 5 I asked them to choose an article/topic themselves, not sure why I never thought of that before, I’ll definitely look to do that more often as the season wears on.

ICYMI, here’s a link to Spotify and we’re also on most major platforms.

HARPIN ON…THE LEINSTER CAPTAINCY

For our bonus clip to follow on from last week’s chat on the candidates for the Leinster 10 jersey after Sexton’s retirement, this time we looked at Leinster’s “leadership group” and how it should look when the Champions Cup rolls around.

COPY-WRONGED

If content creators’ statuses were represented by rugby competitions, Squidge would be the World Cup while Harpin would be Junior 4ths….meh, maybe that’s doing myself down a bit too much, how about we go with Junior 2nds instead 😜.  

All which means I feel bad that I have actually used clips from rugby matches in TikTok videos in recent times – to be clear I never try to even come close to Squidge’s analysis and I certainly don’t put anywhere near as much time into my stuff as he does.  

One thing I can vouch for is that even for a 15 minute video there is a MOUNTAIN of work to be done even with help.  For example the simple two minute clip below took the guts of two hours altogether but definitely in this case it was worth it when it came to speaking out against the copyright enforcement.

As you can see I have included a link below to show the source of the stats on the Gen Z participation.

Again, seriously, CLIMBING????????????

Link for stats on Gen Z participation as cited in video

@harpinonrugby

JUST LETTHECLIPSPLAY – taken from our weekly 80+ column which posts every Tuesday afternoon at HarpinOnRugby.com #irishtiktok #irelandtiktok #rugbyunion🏉

♬ original sound – Harpinonrugby.com – Harpinonrugby.com

THAT’S USING YOUR HEAD

Hat-tip to Harpin contributor Kristian Ross for drawing my attention to this article from the Ulster University site which is all about the science behind the “smart mouthguards” which are being used to gauge head injury impact in rugby.

  “Dr Gregory Tierney, Lecturer in Biomechanics, Ulster University worked in partnership with World Rugby, Rugby Football Union, Premiership Rugby and Premiership Women’s Rugby to complete several studies using the smart mouthguard technology to better understand the level of impact players experience on the head during matches and training situations using g-forces as a measurement technique.”

I am far from a statistician but one thing I do know is that when researching a topic you can never have too much data, once it’s relevant and it really does sound like this is a near perfect way to gather data on the impact of head collisions in rugby.  And another thing we find is that proper research rarely backs up our prejudices 100%.

Usually those pushing back against attempts to make the game safer are mostly motivated by a fear that the game will be “ruined” by sending off and long TMO delays.  Personally I’d rather let the boffins do their thing and be open minded to seeing the results in the hope that the right alterations can be made.

The article offers some results from a paper published in 2021 after two years of extensive research…

“The ORCHID paper shows that in the men’s community game:

  • 86 percent of forces measured are the same as or less than those experienced in other forms of exercise such as running, jumping or skipping
  • 94 percent of forces are lower than those previously measured on people riding a rollercoaster
  • The large majority of events resulting in the highest measured forces are as a result of poor technique in the tackle and at the breakdown
  • Most contact events in elite rugby do not result in any significant force to the head.”

The poor tackle technique is the most significant part for me, and that leads me to believe that using sanctions to help promote proper technique is at very least one of the measures that we should pursue, whether some fans are annoyed by waiting a bit longer for TMO replays or not.

FEELING THE HEAT

Negative comments obviously come with the territory when you’re producing regular content and normally I brush them off but I have to admit I was annoyed by one I got after last week’s bonus pod which featured an interview with Francisco Isaac.

The plan was to talk to him about Portugal’s success at RWC2023, the proposed World League and finally the Rugby Europe Super Cup which kicked off last weekend.

Unfortunately one follower was of the opinion that since the Super Cup involves a team from Israel, then that means we should have discussed the current horrible events in that part of the world, with the implication that if we didn’t then I obviously don’t care about it.

Just to be clear…I do have strong feelings about that situation but you can be 100% guaranteed that I will not share them here or anywhere else in the Harpin social media space.  Meanwhile, it has been a policy here to follow the RE Super Cup as we believe it is an invaluable mechanism for at least starting to bring up Europe’s tier 2 nations (Francisco even says as much on the pod).

To that end we will continue to cover the tournament, including adding them to our “update” section below as it unfolds over the coming weeks.

Click here to listen to the pod in question ICYMI, plus there’s a YouTube video with an extended version of the World League discussion as well.

THROWING THE BOOK BY WAYNE BARNES

I’ve always had respect for Wayne Barnes – I know a lot of people had issues with his refereeing, and so did I, but IMO we have to know where to draw the line and whatever we might think about the actual decisions, that is not all that maketh the ref and his overall comportment throughout his career has been commendable for sure and he was a more than worthy appointee for the 2023 final.

Pretty sure I’m not the only one who wishes him all the best with his future endeavours, including his new book…

LARNER THE TEACHER

A major rugby bugbear of mine is intellectual snobbery, as in when some look down on others who don’t understand the Laws as well as they do.  The way I see it if someone is looking for info we should give it.  It’s a goddam complex sport that needs all the clued-in fans it can get. 

Unless of course when I’m having a few pints in a crowded pub watching a match and people cop on that I know what’s going on and thus bombard me with questions for the remainder, they of course can FRO….but it doesn’t always go exactly the way the Grand Slam match back in March did…😁

Seriously though, social media should be an ideal way to help those who might not know certain terms yet are afraid to ask, and it’s always good to have tweets like this one from Sam Lerner to see people right…

URC IRISH SHIELD UPDATE

As one tournament, namely the WXV, drops out of our expanded Update Section, it gets replaced by two more, and first we are going to keep a close eye on the race for the Irish Shield.  Some may joke about it but starting this season it is to be awarded to the winner of a points table featuring ONLY the matches between the Irish provinces throughout the season, a really good idea IMO which needs support by regular coverage.  Obviously Connacht’s victory over Ulster in the season’s first interpro has them top of the shield standings as well as the entire URC, we’ll see how things look after Munster visit the Kingspan on Friday.

Match 1

CONNACHT 22-20 ULSTER

  1. CONNACHT P 1 PTS 4
  2. ULSTER P 1 PTS 1
  3. LEINSTER P 0 PTS 0
  4. MUNSTER P 0 PTS 0

Match 2

FRI NOV 10

ULSTER V MUNSTER

🔝🐱🐴 UPDATE

Leinster’s first Champions Cup opponents are exactly the same as our last ones, but things haven’t been going too well for La Rochelle since that day in the Aviva, or at least since Ntamack broke their hearts in their quest for a first Brennus in July.  They have now lost 4 out of 5 this season and are now flirting with the relegation zone, but as Kino pointed out on our pod, they will be getting the bulk of their internationals back well in time for our visit in December so will likely be a much different prospect then.

In January we host Stade Francais and they continue to do well as their 39-16 win over Castres kept them in a three-way tie at the top with Pau and Stu Lancaster’s Racing.

Toulon v Racing on Sunday evening seems to be the pick of the Round 6 matches and hopefully Dan Biggar’s back spasm isn’t too serious, that really, really looked nasty.

Round 5

OYONNAX 19-17 LA ROCHELLE

PERPIGNAN 26-22 TOULON

BORDEAUX 26-13 MONTPELLIER

CLÉRMONT 46-14 BAYONNE

STADE FRANCAIS 39-16 CASTRES

RACING 92 22-20 LYON

PAU 13-9 TOULOUSE

Round 6

SAT NOV 11

TOULOUSE V PERPIGNAN

CASTRES V OYONNAX

LYON V STADE FRANCAIS

MONTPELLIER V CLÉRMONT

PAU V BORDEAUX

LA ROCHELLE V BAYONNE

TOULON V RACING 92

PREMIERSHIP UPDATE

Sale Sharks come to the RDS in December and their decent start to their Premiership campaign continued with a handy win over Glaws leaving them in 3rd place behind Exeter and Quins.  Meanwhile Leicester Tigers, our fourth opponents, continue to struggle as they could not overcome Sarries.  They could get things back on track in round 5 with a win over Quins but the standout tie of the round has to be the West Country derby at Kingsholm.

ROUND 4

SALE SHARKS 24-10 GLOUCESTER

HARLEQUINS 40-12 NEWCASTLE

NORTHAMPTON 24-18 BATH

SARACENS 32-17 LEICESTER TIGERS

EXETER CHIEFS 29-20 BRISTOL

ROUND 5

FRI NOV 10

GLOUCESTER V BATH

SAT NOV 11

BRISTOL V SALE SHARKS

LEICESTER V HARLEQUINS

SUN NOV 12

NEWCASTLE V SARACENS

NORTHAMPTON V EXETER

AIL UPDATE 

Here’s a transcript of my piece for Front 5 on last Sunday’s wrap pod…

Every week on our 80+ column at harpinonrugby.com we round up the state of play in the Energia AIL but for once I thought I’d do it here on the main pod because, well, I keep harpin on how poor the overall coverage is of the next level down from provincial rugby so I should really practise what I preach.

I’ll start with the Women’s AIL which this season may not have added to its 9 clubs but at least it HAS gone to a full home and away calendar with Round 6 taking place at the weekend.  And even though we’re only a third of the way through the schedule it’s pretty clear which teams are favoured to make the top 4 and with Rock, Belvo, Railway Union and leaders UL Bohs all avoiding each other in this round, meaning there wasn’t much change at the top with the only unpredicted outcome being Wicklow’s waterlogged pitch preventing them from hosting Railway, who themselves play Belvo next weekend in what is easily the match of Round 7.

Meanwhile on the men’s side of things, league leaders Lansdowne saw their perfect start to the season come to an end when they fell to Cork Con although the away losing bonus point wasn’t the worst result.  This left Clontarf as the only unbeaten side in the top division after they overcame their own tough southern assignment and held off a strong fightback by Young Munster to win 44-39. 

Back to the subject of media coverage, it’s still poor overall outside the individual club social media accounts, in fact some weeks it’s been difficult to find decent reporting on even the top AIL divisions as late as Tuesday morning, but there are definite exceptions to this rule, starting of course with the weekly Club Scene Podcast and also there is live streaming from the likes of the BF Sports Analysis YouTube channel where I watched reigning champions Terenure overcome UCD on Saturday afternoon – I’ll put a link in the programme notes.  Unfortunately I couldn’t watch it live as it clashed with Leinster’s match at the RDS but it’s always available to replay and as ever is a great way of keeping tabs on those on the fringes of the Leinster squad like Chris Cosgrave and Conor O’Tighearnaigh.

So we’ll continue to keep tabs on the AIL throughout the season and for your own part please do what you can to get out and support your local club in any way you can.

#SupportYourLocalClub

WOMEN’S AIL

Round 6

SAT NOV 4

BALLINCOLLIG 5-69 UL BOHS

BELVO 48-7 COOKE

SUTTONIANS 12-33 ROCK

WICKLOW [UNPLAYABLE PITCH] RAILWAY UNION

Round 7

SAT NOV 11

ROCK V BALLINCOLLIG

COOKE V WICKLOW

GALWEGIANS V SUTTONIANS

RAILWAY UNION V BELVO

MEN’S AIL

SAT NOV 4

BALLYNAHINCH 31-5 SHANNON

CITY OF ARMAGH 25-23 DUBLIN UNIV

CORK CON 23-17 LANSDOWNE

UCD 28-45 TERENURE

YOUNG MUNSTER 39-44 CLONTARF

ROUND 5

SAT NOV 11

CLONTARF V CITY OF ARMAGH

DUBLIN UNIV V BALLYNAHINCH

SHANNON V CORK CON

TERENURE V LANSDOWNE

UCD V YOUNG MUNSTER

RE SUPER CUP UPDATE

As discussed on the bonus pod linked earlier, the RE Super Cup has a slightly different format this season.  The World Cup has shrunk it to a three-match pool phase and what’s more, the two pools are weighted with the four best in A with the next 4 in Pool B – the top three from A and the winner of B make the semifinals.

There is also a new nation joining the competition, with Bohemia Warriors from Czechia getting a baptism of fire courtesy of the Romanian Wolves in Round 1, while reigning champions Black Lion, who also take part in this seasons Challenge Cup don’t forget, started off with a comfortable enough win over Castilla.  Pick of Round 2 has to be their trip to Portugal to face Lusitanos in a repeat of last year’s final.

ROUND 1

ROMANIAN WOLVES 76-7 BOHEMIA WARRIORS

BRUSSELS DEVILS 41-12 DELTA

LUSITANOS 23-31 TEL-AVIV HEAT

BLACK LION 39-19 CASTILLA

ROUND 2

FRI NOV 12

DELTA V ROMANIAN WOLVES

SAT NOV 11

BOHEMIA WARRIORS V BRUSSELS DEVILS

LUSITANOS V BLACK LION

SUN NOV 12

CASTILLA V TEL-AVIV HEAT

HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE

I’m still happy enough to be lurking in the bronze medal position after 3 rounds but Kristian and Conor are starting to open up a gap at the top.  Meanwhile Keego, who to be fair was in New York last week so possibly wasn’t thinking too much about the URC, has dropped back down to the dreaded Jersey of Shame position.

AFTER RD 3PTS
1KRISTIAN33.50
2CONOR33.00
3JEFF28.50
4KINO26.00
5JAY24.00
6TOM22.50
7MARK19.50
8KEEGO17.00

NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

Right, that’s it for another week’s 80+ column thanks for checking in.  Next up there’s the Dragons, we’ll have the preview on Friday and even though we don’t play until Sunday afternoon, we’re still planning to record the wrap pod that evening at 8 o’clock, with all the other usual features all over our various social media channels as well.

As ever, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are.  JLP

80+ column : Oct 31

A WEEKLY COLUMN LOOKING AT 

TOPICS BEYOND THE SCOPE OF OUR

FEATURE MATCH OF THE WEEK

WRAP OF A WRAP

Leinster Rugby is back at the RDS and all’s right with the world…well apart from having to swim back to my car afterwards to make it home in time for the RWC final, it was great to get the home season underway, naturally the result helped with this as well.  Mark Jackson & Ciarán Duffy joined me on the pod Sunday evening to offer their top insights.

ICYMI, here’s a link to Spotify and we’re also on most major platforms.

HARPIN ON…LEINSTER’S 10 JERSEY POST-SEXTON

For the bonus clip this week Mark & Ciarán helped me look at Leinster’s options to start the post-Sexton era for the Leinster 10 jersey.

PURE V PUKE?  NEITHER. JUST RUGBY.

Kids are off school this week so little or no time to organise a TikTok rant (for a clip no longer than two minutes there’s a ton of work involved, though I do enjoy them and hope to get back to it after the midterm) but what I would have harped on was the way the sport of rugby was presented to the world over the past couple of months in the French festival.

You’re reading a blog about rugby and I’m writing one so it’s pretty clear we’re both massive fans who would not only watch every moment of most other tournaments as well on top of the 24/7 online content, but we all know that World Cups more than any other event are key for promoting the sport outside its bubble, aiming to convince non- and casual- fans to pay a lot more attention over the next four years.

I guess before analysing how RWC2023 did in this regard, we first must look at what we’re up against when it comes to people who are naturally inclined to be negative.  Well first there’s a particular brand of Irish sports fan who for some reason feel it’s not enough to see competition within a particular code, but they also want to compare different codes with each other and thus only watch rugby so they can find the flaws to show how much better their sport is.  Obviously we have those types in rugby as well (“rugby values”/“wouldn’t happen in our sport”) but my point is that no matter what you do you’ll never get that lot so it’s not worth even trying.

Next we have to rule out those who expect to be entertained to the fullest in every single sporting encounter.  In rugby I guess that means that to these people the only type of game worth watching is one where there’s “free-flowing rugby” with tries raining in from end to end with a series of fancy offloads and miss-passes.  Those people are never going to be happy, because they clearly forget that there are defensive coaches doing their level best to stop that happening.

I mean is it too much to expect people to appreciate that there’s plenty to entertain us even without that so-called “purist” style.  Take the World Cup final itself.  I’ve seen several articles from journalists from within and outside rugby trying to take the shine off of the Springboks’ historic victory by banging on about their approach.  This is of course all clickbait garbage – whether you win a match by 1 point or 100, you still win and getting finicky about the style of play says more about the commenter than it does the subject matter.

But even if you weren’t fully clued in on the Laws of the game (and I give a TON of leeway to viewers for this because let’s face it, while it’s no cricket, there’s still a hell of a lot of jargon and conventions to get the hang of) if you couldn’t at least appreciate all the excitement before the match like the rivalry between two great rugby nations, all the passion and anticipation surrounding the anthems, the performance and reaction to the cultural challenge, during the match with the dozens of pivotal moments from the first minute to the last, and eventually after it the contrasting celebrations and disappointment of the two squads, then I reckon you should probably be looking for entertainment elsewhere.

And over the course of the eight weeks there actually was a lot of rugby that could be described as “worldie”, with several so-called YouTube moments with free flowing play and there were even some upsets; just Portugal’s pool stage adventure would make a decent feature film all on its own.  

Overall I think there’s only so much a sport can do to make itself more appealing to the masses, at least when it comes to the brick and mortar of the Laws themselves.  What you could do to help stimulate interest is try and spread it around the globe and encourage more nations to play to a higher standard, but that has me straying near a Nations League debate that is worthy of a rant all on its own. 

I mean it’s not just rugby that tries to change, GAA makes rule changes every season, cricket gets so much shorter that eventually a match is going to be just one ball being bowled, and even soccer is tinkering with the format of its top competitions with both its World Cup and Champions League set to change.

For me anyway, the game is pretty much fine the way it is, maybe a few law tweaks here and there wouldn’t hurt but to be honest I’d much rather they focused on ways to make the game safer without altering the overall feel and flow we all tune in for.

The likes of Off The Ball and Pat Spillane can go do one.

PRE MATCH VIKING CLAP 

Speaking of changes, I mentioned on the pod that Mike McCarthy came down to the pitch to get the Leinster fans revved up ahead of kickoff by encouraging them to do a Viking Clap, though I didn’t mention what I thought of it.  

I can imagine a lot of people of my generation not being too happy with it but for my part, I’m all for it.  I have said many times over the years harpin’ on these pages that the atmosphere at the RDS hasn’t always been what it could be.  The lack of a proper chant/song has certainly contributed to that…”Allez les blues” is too French, “molly Malone” too Dublin centric, “Come on you boys in Blue” too generic, and as for the run of the mill “Lehhhhhhn-ster, Lehhhhhhn-ster”, well that’s fine once and a while but it’s hardly the go to option for every situation.  And anyone remember “Leinster’s glory”?  No?  Exactly.

Now just to be clear I’m having a go more at the crowd rather than the organisers, they do a lot to create an atmosphere with the pre-match music and of course Leo the Lion but I thought Mike’s more direct challenge to the crowd was a much better way of getting them fully match ready and assuming it’s to become a regular thing, the “scenes” should get even more “absolute” down the line.

PLAYER OF THE MATCH

It happens quite a lot that I disagree with the decision for Player of the Match, and when it’s for Leinster or Ireland it’s a bit awkward making that disagreement known because it’s a bit like having to choose your favourite kid, but since I have this 80+ column I suppose that gives me a chance to express that opinion.

But I hope it doesn’t give the impression that I have anything against the person who got the award, and in Saturday’s case it was Max Deegan.  He did have a great match overall, and I know it was the occasion of his 100th cap, but for me the standards are such at the province that when he drops a ball from the base on an attacking 5m scrum (again, very unlike him, and if it were me I’d drop it every time) we might look elsewhere this time and for me Tommy O’Brien was a much more worthy recipient.

One last time, to be perfectly clear, I am NOT having a go at him, nor at James Downey who made the call.  Just saying I saw it differently that’s all.

THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOKS

Congrats to all those honoured in World Rugby’s awards list, especially Andy Farrell who thoroughly deserved it.

And while I certainly wouldn’t hold a view like this from All Black fan and clearly sour grape-connosseiur Ben Smith about the Springboks’ success, I for one wasn’t that surprised that their players didn’t feature too heavily in the team of the tournament.

I could probably see Malherbe ahead of Furlong if I had to make one change but overall the selections seem sound to me.

Maybe, just maybe, RSA representation on the TOTY is low because other nations had better individuals while the Boks had the best team, hence three 1pt wins and the 🏆.

KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES

I have dedicated a column segment to mention the Eddie Jones news but I don’t see any point going too deep in the weeds on the topic because pretty much everything has been said about him.  Literally none of the negative stories and opinions about him surprise me.  Actually it’s just boring at this stage.  He may have even climbed to my “least favourite Jones” chart ahead of journo Stephen, but even that’s just one article away from changing back.

B&I SUPER LEAGUE?

Once again this topic has crept into the headlines so once again I am forced to state my position.

I am 100% opposed to the suggestion of creating a “British & Irish Super League”.

However, I would be ok with the possibility of Premiership clubs JOINING the United Rugby Championship, once each one can prove financial viability throughout a campaign before preseason starts.

The URC has been through enough branding upheaval over the years and has finally found a form which may not suit everyone at the moment, but surely even the Welsh fans might come on board if they got some regular fixtures with the English.

But to create an entirely new identity just because the Premiership has been proven to be a failed business model just wouldn’t cut it for me.

W.XV UPDATE

I covered Ireland’s latest WXV match on the pod, here’s the transcript…

This is the story of an international rugby finale that could have gone either way right up to the final whistle but as you can probably tell I’m not talking about Saturday night’s battle in Paris.

After two extremely comfortable victories against Kazakhstan and Colombia, the Irish women had a much more formidable opponent in Las Leonas from Spain in their 3rd WXV3 encounter, and although Scott Bemand’s side enjoyed pretty much all the early territory and possession, we had to contend with an early spell with inspirational co-captain Edel McMahon in the sin bin plus an extremely stubborn Spanish defence which was not only difficult to break down but also was able to punish mistakes as outside-centre Claudia Peña Hidalgo pounced on a loose pass to put her side 7-0 up after just ten minutes.   

Spain stretched their lead to 10 until a Dannah O’Brien penalty got Ireland on the board, but it was our own defence which needed to be strong before the break and although we managed to stop them from scoring after a prolonged visit to our 22, we did cough up another yellow card this time for Linda Djougang and the resulting penalty saw us go into the break both short handed and behind by 13 points to 3.

We still came out strongly for the 2nd half however, comfortably seeing out the sin bin period without Spain entering our 22 and we gradually wore down their resistance until a succession of penalties marched us into their 22 where a strong maul allowed Grace Moore to fall over the line and Dannah O’Brien added the extras to bring us within three.

Our dominance continued and although we only needed a draw to finish top of the pool, it was a brave decision to ignore the three points on offer from a kickable penalty, and we backed up that confidence with another series of mauls making the Spanish defence crack and this time it was Neve Jones getting the ball down to nudge Ireland in front for the first time.

But the match still had to be seen out and to their credit the Spaniards kept at it right to the 80th minute and beyond until a brilliant lineout steal from Eimear Corri saw us put the ball dead and secure the title and puts them in a good position to go up to the second tier for next season.

I talk a lot on the pod about the problems in Irish womens rugby but this is a time for celebration for a job well done in searing heat over three weeks in Dubai and hopefully the squad can bring these performances through to 2024.  One thing I will say however is that the Spanish performance provided further evidence that the women shouldn’t follow the men’s Six Nations model and instead expand to include themselves and possibly more teams down the line.

As ever if you want to keep tabs on the women’s game I find the best sources are Scrumqueens.com and on Twitter or X follow accounts like @IrishWomens.

Round 3

KAZAKHSTAN 0-118 FIJI

KENYA 21-5 COLOMBIA

IRELAND 15-13 SPAIN

🔝🐱🐴 UPDATE

Not a great round for Leinster’s Champions Cup opposition, with our good friends La Rochelle falling at home to Castres making it three defeats out of four to start the season, while Stade Francais got knocked off top spot when they could only muster 3 points in Bayonne.  Pau lead the way with Joe Simmonds helping to lead them to a hefty win at Perpignan, while also on 14 points at the top are Castres and Stu Lancaster’s Racing, soon to have a certain RWC winning captain join their ranks.

Leaders Pau v champions Toulouse would appear to be the pick of the Round 5 matchups, perfect for the marquee Sunday night slot.

Round 4

SUN OCT 29

BAYONNE 16-3 STADE FRANCAIS

PERPIGNAN 24-39 PAU

LYON 41-22 CLÉRMONT

MONTPELLIER 16-19 RACING 92

TOULON 41-7 OYONNAX

LA ROCHELLE 24-27 CASTRES

TOULOUSE 29-22 BORDEAUX

Round 5

SAT NOV 4

OYONNAX V LA ROCHELLE

PERPIGNAN V TOULON

BORDEAUX V MONTPELLIER

CLÉRMONT V BAYONNE

STADE FRANCAIS V CASTRES

RACING 92 V LYON

SUN NOV 5

PAU V TOULOUSE

PREMIERSHIP UPDATE

A late Shillcock penalty gave Leicester a one-point win at the Rec although Bath still stay top since none of the 10 teams managed to win all of their opening 3 matches.  Saracens finally put one in the win column while Sale Sharks got their fins handed to them by Exeter.

Saracens/Tigers would seem to be the pick of the ties from Round 4, with Leinster set to travel to play both of them in January (Sarries being a friendly).

ROUND 3

GLOUCESTER 3-24 SARACENS

BRISTOL 21-23 HARLEQUINS

EXETER CHIEFS 43-0 SALE SHARKS

BATH 24-25 LEICESTER

NEWCASTLE 14-16 NORTHAMPTON

ROUND 4

FRI NOV 3

SALE SHARKS V GLOUCESTER

SAT NOV 4

HARLEQUINS V NEWCASTLE

NORTHAMPTON V BATH

SARACENS V LEICESTER TIGERS

EXETER CHIEFS V BRISTOL

AIL UPDATE 

Both genders AIL return to action after a weekend off, with the top four, all of whom seem destined to reach the semifinals at this stage, avoiding each other so I doubt there will be any real change to the table come next week.

Meanwhile in the men’s Div1A, Lansdowne will be hoping to keep their maximum points record going but certainly won’t have it easy away to Cork Con, who are fresh from toppline the reigning champions in round 3.  As for Nure themselves, they’ll surely be looking to come away from Belfield Bowl with some points to get them away from just above the relegation places.

#SupportYourLocalClub

WOMEN’S AIL

Round 6

SAT NOV 4

BALLINCOLLIG V UL BOHS

BELVO V COOKE

SUTTONIANS V ROCK

WICKLOW V RAILWAY UNION

MEN’S AIL

ROUND 4

SAT NOV 4

BALLYNAHINCH V SHANNON

CITY OF ARMAGH V DUBLIN UNIV

CORK CON V LANSDOWNE

UCD V TERENURE

YOUNG MUNSTER V CLONTARF

HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE

Happy enough to remain in 3rd place after 2 rounds although there was a change at the top as Kristian got this week’s yellow cap to leapfrog Conor.  Meanwhile in the dreaded Jersey of Shame position down the bottom Tom dragged himself away leaving this week’s pod guest Mark to fall even below Keego.

Early days of course.

AFTER RD 2PTS
1KRISTIAN23.00
2CONOR21.00
3JEFF19.50
4KINO17.00
5JAY15.00
6TOM14.00
7KEEGO13.00
8MARK11.00

NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

A bonus pod for during the week, I’ll be chatting to Francisco Issac about Portugal, the proposed World League and also the RE Super Cup which kicks off next weekend.  Then it’s full attention on the visit of Edinburgh to the RDS on Saturday with a preview before and a wrap pod on Sunday evening so stay tuned for all of that.

As ever, be sure to enjoy your Halloween rugby wherever you are.  JLP

80+ column : Oct 10

A WEEKLY COLUMN LOOKING AT TOPICS BEYOND THE SCOPE
OF OUR FEATURE MATCH OF THE WEEK

WRAP OF A WRAP

I have to be honest, those permutations had me nervous right up to kickoff on Saturday, especially the one where an 8-pt Scottish win put us out; my scrambled brain concocted a scenario where they led by 5 in the dying moments before the ref awards a contentious penalty that Russell slots to send us home…but that’s the life of a sports fan, logic rarely enters into the equation.

Let’s just say those thoughts had evaporated by the 2nd minute of the match!!!

And clearly by the time we sat down to do the wrap I was wondering what all the fuss was about, and this week it was the turn of Tom “@LeinsterRoyalty” Coleman and Ciarán “@PostToPostSport” Duffy to harp on the match as well as other events from the World Cup weekend, as ever they did a bang up job.  

Click here to catch it on Spotify, and there’s a clip below

@harpinonrugby

Check out our latest pod on Apple, Spotify and most majr platforms. #IREvSCO #RWC2023 #irishtiktok #irelandtiktok

♬ original sound – Harpinonrugby.com – Harpinonrugby.com

HARPIN ON…GETTING THROUGH THE WEEK

Just in case it needs pointing out, we here at Harpin Manor consider ourselves fans first and “experts” second.  Sure, when you’ve played and followed a sport for so long, and especially when it comes to Leinster and Ireland you’ve watched every single match at least twice for over a decade, you pick up a few things, BUT it’s the fan element we like to promote more than anything else; we certainly aren’t trying to suggest we know more than the TV pundits.

Well, at least not ALL of them….

Anyway, for our bonus clip this week we wanted to lose the analytical hat for once and harp instead on what it’s like actually being a fan, and Tom & Ciarán helped me look at just how we get through a week before what is arguably the biggest test match in Irish rugby history.

IT CAN’T END IN TIERS

For this week’s TikTok opinion I had a look at how World Rugby handles the dilemma of navigating the space between the rock which is appeasing the corporate sponsors and the hard place which is fulfilling the mandate implied in their name.

@harpinonrugby

Check out our 80+ column every Tuesday at HarpinOnRugby.com

♬ original sound – Harpinonrugby.com – Harpinonrugby.com

10K TIKTOK

On the one hand, we were always going to be chuffed here at Harpin Manor to have a TikTok reach over 10,000 views for the first time – over the past few weeks I’ve selected a portion of Ireland matches to focus on a particula positive aspect of Ireland’s play.

But….there’s another side to that coin.  Obviously we’re not considered important enough to have our clips taken down by World Rugby???!!!  In fact each time I put them up I’m EXPECTING them to be removed, but so far they all remain out there in TikTokLand so there you go!  

Maybe I shouldn’t go focusing on the clouds when there’s such an obvious silver lining…

@harpinonrugby

You have to play with what you’ve got and make it count. #RWC2023 #IREvSCO #Irishrugby #irishtiktok #irelandtiktok

♬ Juliana Hyper Techno Rave Mystical – Beat Charger

FIJI JOINING TRC

Following on from the Portugal point above, I’m hearing rumblings that despite Fiji’s loss there might be a chance they are admitted to an expanded Rugby Championship.  I’m assuming World Rugby is looking for some kind of balance with the Six Nations so it’s possible Japan might be in with a shout as well, but we’ll have to see.

I’m mostly for moves like this, I just wish it was a more holistic approach to the game rather than admitting one or two nations to the top table every decade or so like it has been since the game went pro.

Again, a lot depends on what the plans are for this “World League”.  I have a feeling it is not going to go down well with fans in general.

NEW MUNSTER POD

We’ve had Caolán Scully on the pod several times over the past year or so, and he has been hosting his own pod but it now seems he has put together a new project focusing on Munster for the upcoming season, best wishes to himself and Patricia for The Red Army Podcast, hopefully we’ll be able to get them on to harp about it at some point, possibly before the annual St Stephens Day match.

W.XV KICKOFF

Speaking of World Leagues, the new Womens’ version gets underway this weekend.  Ireland’s poor run of form puts them in a “third tier” but I THINK that promotion to the second one is possible.

Obviously I’m not happy with what I’ve been hearing from the Irish camp, about having to live in and around Dublin to name just one, and I’m definitely not happy about this tournament being held in Dubai for all the obvious reasons.

But, as fans when the green jersey is being worn we give them our support and for the next few weeks it’s important to get behind new coach Scott Bemand and his squad as they try to top this league.

The explanations of the format I’ve sought so far haven’t been great, but the way I think it works is that while the 6 teams in WXV3 have been separated into two groups of three, they actually only play the 3 in the opposite pool AND I’m pretty sure all six are presented in the same league table.  It doesnt look like there are any playoffs, it’s just the team with the most points after 3 matches finishes first? 

I will definitely update this if I learn any more, but best wishes to the squad nonetheless.

As for the top tier WXV1, I have to wonder about the timing…surely after already moving the Women’s World Cup to a different year to distinguish it from the men’s, the last day they’d want to launch this new product is the same weekend as RWC2023 semifinals?

Well I guess at least the Australian fans won’t have any conflict, amirite?  Too soon?

WXV3 – Week 1

Fri Oct 13
FIJI V COLOMBIA
IRELAND V KAZAKHSTAN (KO 4:30pm Irish time)

Sat Oct 14
SPAIN V COLOMBIA

PREMIERSHIP UPDATE

I know how we’re supposed to feel about English rugby but hopefully even the most hardcore Irish fans of the sport has to feel for the players, staff and fans of the clubs over there which have ceased operations over the past few years.

What’s left is an embarrassingly tiny Premiership of just ten clubs and in some ways maybe it makes sense that they’re kicking off on the same weekend that England are playing in a RWC quarterfinal.

The plan is to keep tabs on the results and such here this season much as we have done for other leagues.

ROUND 1

BRISTOL V LEICESTER
EXETER V SARACENS
BATH V NEWCASTLE
GLOUCESTER V HARLEQUINS
SALE V NORTHAMPTON

AIL UPDATE 

After the women’s league has already had three rounds, the men got underway last weekend and by the looks of things defending champions Terenure didn’t have everything their own way against Ballynahinch yet still came out with a win to start the season.

New boys City of Armagh managed to get out of Cork with a losing bonus point while Tarf, Lansdowne and Shannon were the other winners from round 1.

Next up we have some interesting derbies, with top of the list being a repeat of last season’s final as Nure head to Castle Avenue as Young Munster host Shannon, all after the Friday Night Colours Match at Belfield Bowl.

Over in the women’s comp, Railway Union, UL Bohs and champions Blackrock all continued their perfect starts although Rock have only played twice over the three rounds so far.   The trio have also been kept apart in Round 4.

#SupportYourLocalClub

WOMEN’S AIL

Round 3

SUTTONIANS 3-38 UL BOHS
GALWEGIANS 5-63 RAILWAY UNION
COOKE 15-24 BALLINCOLLIG
WICKLOW 10-27 BLACKROCK

Round 4

SAT OCT 14
BALLINCOLLIG V WICKLOW
BLACKROCK V GALWEGIANS
OLD BELVEDERE V SUTTONIANS
UL BOHS V COOKE

MEN’S AIL

ROUND 1

DUBLIN UNIV 24-34 CLONTARF
LANSDOWNE 29-14 YOUNG MUNSTER
SHANNON 27-22 UCD
TERENURE 16-13 BALLYNAHINCH
CORK CON 28-21 CITY OF ARMAGH

ROUND 2

FRI OCT 13
UCD V DUBLIN UNIV

SAT OCT 14
BALLYNAHINCH V CORK CON
CITY OF ARMAGH V LANSDOWNE
CLONTARF V TERENURE
YOUNG MUNSTER V SHANNON

NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

Big, big week coming up, obviously we’ll be giving Ireland QF date with destiny the full Harpin treatment with a preview on Friday and a wrap pod on Sunday, and also take note that this time the team will be announced on Wednesday at noon Irish time.

So please comment, like, share & subscribe to our feeds & channels whenever the mood takes you.

And as ever, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are.  JLP

80+ column : October 3

A WEEKLY COLUMN LOOKING AT TOPICS BEYOND THE SCOPE 

OF OUR FEATURE MATCH OF THE WEEK

WRAP OF A (NOT REALLY A) WRAP

Had a brilliant chat with Messrs Kelly, Scully & Lockhart on Sunday evening, with another one earlier in the week with Mr Long to edit in, and the lads did brilliantly going over the RWC so far.

Then I sat down to do said editing and found out that my own audio sounded like I was talking from behind a cushion!!!!  It was really, really, bad.  So I had to go back and re-record all of my bits and I think I just about managed to fix it but it took ages.

For the first part the lads summarized Pool B so far, then they each took one of the other pools, and finally we got their expectations for the rest of the tournament.  Click here to catch it on Spotify, and there’s a clip below

@harpinonrugby

We’re partial to an all-provincial panel or two here at Harpin Manor… #irishtiktok #irelandtiktok #RWC2023

♬ original sound – Harpinonrugby.com – Harpinonrugby.com

HARPIN ON…THE PROVINCES PRE-URC KICKOFF

For the bonus clip since I had an all-provincial panel I thought it would be rude not to get them to also harp on their own URC squads with the kickoff just a few weeks away.

On the audio problems I mentioned above, I also had to re-record mine for this and in the intro I tried to slow down my words just a bit to get it to align with the video but instead I ended up sounding like I was stoned!!!!  So needless to say I didn’t bother altering it for the rest of the video.

Honestly….I wasn’t stoned.   HONEST!!!!!  Stop looking at me like that!!!

DON’T TAKE THE BAIT

Truth be told, I never really liked the word “clickbait” because it suggests that it’s only bad faith actors online who are tricking you into giving them your attention.  Why don’t we call a beautiful movie star holding a beer on a billboard “lookbait”?

But when you appreciate that it only really applies to specific types of links, for me it’s not called out often enough so when I saw this article on the totally-media-fabricated bullshit narrative that is the “Ireland and Scotland colluding to produce a result to qualify them both” non-story, I decided to make it the subject of this week’s 80+ TikTok.  

@harpinonrugby

Check out our 80+ every Tuesday at harpinonrugby.com #irishtiktok #Irelandtiktok #rugbyunion rugby

♬ original sound – Harpinonrugby.com – Harpinonrugby.com

POOL B PERMUTATIONS

Following on from my TikTok bit above, the X below shows what little I thought of the actual theories being shared by some Springbok fans as well as being stupidly suggested in a press conference.

Now to the serious matter of what the actual permutations actually are.  The bonus point system as used in this World Cup, which we also see in the URC, Premiership and HCC, means that there are a crazy amount of different ways the match points can be divided, which along with the added wrinkle of points difference means there’s a lot of ways Saturday’s match in Paris can go.

SIDEBAR : just to point out that the alternative bonus point system I have been harping on for years to be standard across the sport, namely the one used in the 🔝🐱🐴 and Super Rugby where you must get 3 more tries than your opponent to get the bonus point, reduces the amount of possibilities a LOT.  But I digress.

Full kudos to Glasgow Warriors fan Kevin Millar who took the time to put together this graphic which fully outlines all the possibilities…

And finally, going back to the unlikely option where the Boks get eliminated, I could not have a segment on permutations without a RugbyKino contribution so here is an X from him on the likelihood (barring conspiracies of course)…

WORLD RUGBY SNAFU

Can’t believe I can do a third segment on permutations but they are actually so confusing that even the World Rugby account got them mixed out, with Russ Petty having to point out the error of their ways as they tried to srt out what could happen in Pool A…

ANOTHER ONE GONE

Tragic news for yet another club in the English system, with the Jersey Reds, ironically the reigning Championship, er, champions, suddenly announcing they’ve gone under, despite the fact that the 2023/24 season had already kicked off with the Premiership Cup which for the first time in a while includes the sides from the next tier down.

I really, really, really don’t understand how professional clubs aren’t forced to prove their financial viability not only before a season begins, but even before the fixtures are released!!!!  Obviously going out of business is always terrible for news for all involved with a club, but to let a few matches go before pulling the plug surely has to affect everyone involved a whole lot more, from employees assuming job security right through to fans who had purchased season tickets and merch.

And what’s more it doesn’t look like this is the end of it.  I know the Reds weren’t part of the PLR group, but their demise is clearly part of the problem the failed business model English club rugby has operated since the game went pro.

BALL IN PLAY

Had to laugh at Ian Foster’s soundbite about “ball in play”.  Apparently the suggestion is that a match with a high BIP time is better entertainment for the fans than one with a low one. 

Well if that’s the case, then using the All Black’s drubbing of Italy and the Springboks/Ireland classic weren’t really the best examples for him to use to make his case.

Now I totally get that when a low BIP can often be down to a frustrating series of reset scrums, and in general, I’d agree it would be a good idea to speed things up. 

But as for that match last week….come on.  Oftentimes, for me anyway, the time leading up to set pieces was a large part of the entertainment!!! Like when the Boks had a couple of scrums under the Irish posts in the first half.  South Africa would have been expected to score more often than not, until you factor in the Irish defence.

We have often harped on how missed tackle stats can be misleading, IMO the only thing Foster has done with his remarks is point out that BIP can be too.

AIL UPDATE 

Just one rearranged match in the Women’s AIL last week so not much change in the league table.  The champions Blackrock travel to Wicklow in round 3 this weekend.

Meanwhile the men’s league gets underway with a full round of matches.  Terenure begin the defence of their title by hosting Ballynahinch at Lakelands while the top division’s newly-promoted second Ulster club, City of Armagh, get their first taste of Division 1A action when they travel to Temple Hill to play Cork Con, a match which is to be livestreamed.

#SupportYourLocalClub

WOMEN’S AIL

Round 2

SUTTONIANS 10-47 RAILWAY UNION RFC

ROUND 3

SAT OCT 7

SUTTONIANS V UL BOHS

GALWEGIANS V RAILWAY UNION

COOKE V BALLINCOLLIG

WICKLOW V BLACKROCK

MEN’S AIL DIV 1A

ROUND 1

SAT OCT 7

DUBLIN UNIVERSITY V CLONTARF

LANSDOWNE V YOUNG MUNSTER

SHANNON V UCD

TERENURE V BALLYNAHINCH

CORK CON V CITY OF ARMAGH

NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

Back to Ireland action this weekend, so Ireland v Scotland will of course be getting the full Harpin treatment with a preview Friday, wrap pod Sunday and a whole lot more the rest of the week.

So please comment, like, share & subscribe to our feeds & channels whenever the mood takes you.

And as ever, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are.  JLP

80+ column : Sep 26

A WEEKLY COLUMN LOOKING AT

TOPICS BEYOND THE SCOPE 

OF OUR FEATURE MATCH OF THE WEEK

WRAP OF A WRAP

Obviously after such a big Irish win the wrap pod is that much more enjoyable, but even on top of that I had two excellent analysts in Mark Jackson and Tom Coleman helping me harp on the 80 minutes.  There may not have been a lot of scores but there were definitely a lot of critical moments and as ever we worked our way through the exciting timeline from start to finish.  Click here to catch it on Spotify but you’ll also find it on Apple and most major platforms.

HARPIN ON…FINAL THOUGHTS AFTER RSAvIRE

With matches kicking off at both 4:45 and 8pm on Sundays during the World Cup, that puts time restraints on our wrap pod recording and unfortunately we had to ditch plans for a bonus pod this week, instead I put a clip from the actual pod up on YouTube which you see below.

But with Ireland off next weekend, Mark Jackson has kindly agreed to come back and harp on the topic we had chosen, namely how coaches adapt during a match when one part of the game plan isn’t working, hopefully I’ll be able to post this by Saturday.  

TENACIOUS IRISH D

It goes without saying but the RSAvIRE rewatch was beyond fascinating, and I for one was fixated on a pair of Springbok scrums in our 22 around the mid point of the first half.  We hadn’t even troubled the scorers at this stage and we were in grave danger of going ten points down but with some determined defending, helped out a bit by poor opposition decision making, we kept them out and we put together the TikTok below, all while knowing full well of course that at some point it will be taken down. #LetTheClipsPlay

@harpinonrugby

In a low scoring battle between the best teams on the planet, defence is everything. #rwc2023 #ShoulderToShoulder #RSAvIRE #irelandtiktok #irishtiktok

♬ Juliana Hyper Techno Rave Mystical – Beat Charger

SING WHILE THEY’RE WHINGING

Here’s another TikTok video, this my weekly “rant” I suppose you could call it.  I didn’t really want to have to weigh in on the whole Zombie nothing-burger but in the end it seemed to be the perfect topic for this segment.  I’ve added the tweet that appears in the clip plus another one I thought of using.

@harpinonrugby

Check out our latest 80+ column at HarpinOnRugby.com every Tuesday. #irishtiktok #irelandtiktok

♬ original sound – Harpinonrugby.com – Harpinonrugby.com
https://twitter.com/canice_clooney/status/1705974007621619941?s=20

AIL UPDATE RETURN

I’m very much kicking myself that I missed the Women’s AIL kickoff last week in this column so I’ll try to make up for it here (still means I’m giving the league more coverage than most outlets unfortunately).

As you can see, with a 9-team league plus a postponement and a Round 2 fixture still to be played this Thursday, this year’s league is still getting off the ground but still there have been some predictable results for the big teams, although the big opening day Dublin derby between Rock and Belvo was close and got good coverage with a live screening on YouTube.

We’ll be following the competition here throughout as well as the men’s when that kicks off in October.

Round 1

BLACKROCK COLLEGE 22 – 17 OLD BELVEDERE

GALWEGIANS 12 – 25 BALLINCOLLIG

SUTTONIANS P-P RAILWAY UNION RFC

WICKLOW RFC 7 – 27 UL BOHEMIAN

Round 2

OLD BELVEDERE 32 – 0 WICKLOW RFC

RAILWAY UNION RFC 71 – 7 COOKE

UL BOHEMIAN 82 – 0 GALWEGIANS

Thu Sep 28

SUTTONIANS v RAILWAY UNION RFC

WXV SQUAD

While we’re on the subject of the Women’s game the squad for the WXV3 tournament was announced by new head coach Scott Bemand.  Obviously I’m not crazy about the fact that we’re in the third tier of this new competition, nor am I crazy about the whole “being played in Dubai” aspect of it either, and finally there’s this “your chances of playing for Ireland are better if you live in or around Dublin” mantra which really does sound tone deaf considering not only all the women’s game on these shores has gone through in recent years, but also how much it has progressed elsewhere.

Still, we plan to give the girls our full support ounce the competition rolls around. 

WXV3 Ireland Fixtures

• 13th October v Kazakhstan 16.30 Irish time

• 21st October v Colombia 14.00 Irish time

• 28th October v Spain 14.00 Irish time

All games will be streamed for free on World Rugby’s RugbyPass platform.

MAD DOG RETIRES

Very sad to hear of the retirement of Ian Madigan, although it does look like he has a promising future in the punditry game as he has been demonstrating throughout the World Cup so far.

ICYMI we dedicated a Throwback Thursday post to him last week, looking back to an article I wrote when he announced he would be leaving Leinster, to which he graciously replied.

POSSIBLE RWC FORMATS

This is an issue which comes up every World Cup going way, way back.  What is the best way of actually staging a RWC?  The four pools of five has been going quite a while now, yet with one team missing out each round and an insistence on midweek matches it has offered some serious challenges to organisers.  For example, France play their four pool matches over 30 days while Namibia complete theirs in just 19.

What is the answer?  Honestly none will be perfect.  Some say they are planning to move to 24 nations, which would be good in one aspect as it would include more lower tier nations, yet while four pools of six might solve the uneven fixture problem, it also adds one extra match which would put extra pressure on squads meaning they would probably have to be increased, thus putting financial pressure on those same smaller nations.

I’ve wondered if some kind of “cross pool” method might work  with a draw instead creating six pools of four.  With the pools paired off AB, CD and EF, everyone in one pool could get four matches against teams from the other one.  Then the top eight (pool winners + 2, old school HCup style) could advance to the quarterfinals, with possibly a plate competition for the next eight with next RWC qualification on the line.  That way no team plays more than 7 matches, plus with 3 set groups of teams playing each other, they could be held exclusively Friday, Saturday and Sunday thus ensuring 7-day turnarounds for all squads.

Everyone seems to be offering suggestions so that’s mine!

MORE PERMUTATIONS 

When he’s not going back and forth to Paris offering excellent reports from Ireland’s RWC matches, Cian “RugbyKino” O’Muilleoir has also been known to produce excellent spreadsheets allowing us number crunching fans to look at all the possibilities with bonus points and what-not, and here he has done one for the four World Cup pools, simply plug in the results you think might happen and find out who makes the last 8 and who plays who.  Simples!

NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

By rights I should be taking things easy this week what with Ireland off next weekend, but I guess the World Cup bug has got hold of me so I have a few little things planned for the coming days.  Biggest one is on Sunday and instead of a wrap pod I’m assembling another “all-provincial panel” to look at not only the tournament so far, but also the prospects for the 4 provinces with the URC kickoff coming think and fast.

Please comment, like, share & subscribe to our feeds & channels whenever the mood takes you.

And as ever, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are.  JLP

Ian Madigan & The Catch 22

For this week’s TT, to honour his retirement confirmed on Wednesday, we’ve gone back to 2015 and an article I wrote on Ian Madigan as it was announced he would be leaving Leinster at the end of that season.

Ian Madigan

The date was September 11, 2010.  Leinster defeated the Cardiff Blues 34-23 at the RDS Arena.  Isa Nacewa was on exhilarating form that day and took home the Man of the Match award, but also catching the eye was a young outhalf named Ian Madigan.

From my seat in the Grandstand I had a perfect view of his first try in senior rugby and as you can see from the video, it was quite an impressive one.  You had to admire the way the youngster backed himself to throw such a step at that stage of the game, when the visitors had fought back from an early deficit to get within touching distance and we had gone a long period without looking like troubling the scorers again.

But this was only the second match in the reign of a certain Mr Joe Schmidt at Leinster.  The bonus point win was of course welcome to the RDS faithful, but we were still a bit concerned about how the lads were adapting to a new style of offloading, and when we went on to lose the next two on the bounce to make it just one win from our opening four, that concern naturally grew.

As we all know now, the Schmidt era really took off in earnest when BOD touched down in the closing stages against Munster at the Aviva – but then Isa was our starting number 10 with Johnny Sexton returning from injury on the bench.

By the end of the season however, Madigan had kept in touch with the Leinster matchday squad, and on that monumental day in Cardiff, he wore the number 22 jersey as Sexton led our almighty second half charge to victory over the Northampton Saints.

12 months later, the venue and the opposition were different but it was still Leinster triumphant in the final of Europe’s biggest competition, and once more Madigan wore the number 22.

2013 we did the seemingly unthinkable, failing to get out of our European pool.  But we did get a reprieve of sorts in dropping down into what was then called the Amlin Cup, and at the quarterfinal stage Madigan got to wear his favoured 10 jumper as Leinster blew away Wasps away from home to reach the semifinals.

However, when it came to the final, which was actually in the RDS, while he avoided the number 22 this time around, he had to make do with 12 as Sexton was back to play outhalf, and it was the same a week later back at the same venue as we defeated the Ulstermen to finish off a unique treble of trophies.

That success signalled the end for both Schmidt and (for a couple of years anyway) Sexton at Leinster.  It seemed the time was right for Madigan to step up and lead the line for us as it always appeared he would.

Skip ahead to the last day of May 2014.  Leinster retain their Pro12 crown, but what jersey is Madigan wearing?  22. 

And with Schmidt now heading the Irish coaching set up, despite Ian’s failure to nail down a regular starting role at Leinster as outhalf, he features heavily in Ireland’s matchday squads throughout the victorious 2014 & 2015 Six Nations campaigns.  What jersey number is he wearing against France and Scotland respectively in those decisive final matches?  Do I need to give the answer?

Finally, we have the most ironic fact of this whole bit I’m doing here.  In Ireland’s final test match before his new contract is up for negotiation, Madigan actually gets to wear that 10 jumper for his country, although the circumstances are far, far from ideal. 

Nobody, and I mean nobody, has ever considered pinning what happened against Argentina on him, but the reason I bring it up is that it signifies what incredible bad luck he has had over the years in the high-profile matches for both province and country.

There isn’t a single serious Leinster supporter who isn’t fully aware of the tremendous skill set at Madigan’s disposal…the consistent place kicking, the tough tackling, the speeding bullet of a miss pass, and we have all seen him display these in spades on numerous occasions.

If we must apportion “blame” for his decision to leave these shores, I don’t believe we can dump it all in one place, but you certainly can’t put any before the man himself. 

It’s not his fault he arrived at senior level just when Johnny Sexton was reaching the peak of his powers.  It’s not his fault he got injured at unfortunate times.  It’s not his fault Joe Schmidt’s long-term plans with Leinster were curtailed, and that his successor was of a mind to give priority to a different style of out half. 

And it is certainly not his fault that the ridiculous nature of the European rugby calendar is such that contract negotiations have to take place slap bang in the middle of the season meaning dozens of players across the continent have to see out a campaign with everyone knowing their future lies elsewhere.

But one thing is an absolute certainty.  Ian “Mad-Dog” Madigan is a Leinster man through and through, and will always be considered as such.  I don’t say that because he is a fellow “Rock boy” either.  The province has worked hard over the years to grow its image as a “12 County Army”, and with stars like Darce, Shaggy, the Kearneys and Sean O’Brien we have seen that quality players can be drawn from all over. 

What that proves most of all is that it’s your talent and attitude that make you a Leinster player, not where you come from nor where you went to school.  And you haven’t heard Ian Madigan complain about his lot at the province over the years despite the misfortune.  When he’s been injured, he has worked hard to come back.  When asked to play 12, he gave everything.  When asked to play 15, he gave everything.  And even on all those massive occasions when asked to wear 22, he most certainly gave everything.

He has earned the right to go where he feels his rugby career will progress the most.  If he feels Bordeaux is that place,  he certainly won’t get anything from me but my full support.  They seem to be an ambitious club in what is already a remarkably competitive league. 

All we can hope for is that he gets the opportunity to take full advantage of his new surroundings, and if he is putting in the quality displays, that he gets the proper recognition when Ireland squads are named. 

Posts similar to this one could have been written about JJ Hanrahan this time last year.  They could soon be written about Simon Zebo or Robbie Henshaw.  We all want our local heroes to play for our local teams, but we also must retain an acceptance of the realities of the modern professional game.

For now, I just have to say best wishes to Ian for the future; it must be a relief that it is all sorted and out in the open.  What say the boys in blue give him the perfect send off in May. JLP

#ThanksMads  #COYBIB

80+ column : Sep 19

A WEEKLY COLUMN LOOKING AT TOPICS BEYOND THE SCOPE 

OF OUR FEATURE MATCH OF THE WEEK

WRAP OF A WRAP

For new readers, listeners, our main feature each week here at Harpin On Rugby is a “wrap pod” where we go through Leinster or Ireland’s match from the previous weekend.  This week I was joined by Conor Cronin and Rich Mifsud with a couple of reports from Cian “RugbyKino” O’Muilleoir recorded from the stadium in Nantes on the night.  Also there’s more “time travel” like last week, since we now record at 6:30pm for RWC it means we can’t give our report on the 8pm kickoff so we hand over to “Future Jeff” who will be getting a lot of work over the coming weeks.  As ever the lads did a bang up job, click here to listen on Spotify or you’ll find it on most major platforms, see a small sample below.

@harpinonrugby

Our #IREvTON wrap pod now available on Apple, Spotify and most platforms #RWC2023 #ShoulderToShoulder

♬ original sound – Harpinonrugby.com – Harpinonrugby.com

HARPIN ON…BUNDEE AKI

Should have been PotM last week, deservedly was PotM this, so we decided to dedicate our bonus clip to Bundee Aki and how he has made a strong claim for Ireland’s 12 jersey for the big matches to come.

SH*T RASSIE SAYS

For the week that’s in it, this week’s harpin’ point for TikTok is about our good friend Rassie Erasmus.

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SH*T RASSIE SAYS #RWC2023 #rugby #rugbyunion #Irishrugby #IREvRSA #ShoulderToShoulder #irishtiktok #irelandtiktok

♬ original sound – Harpinonrugby.com

LEINSTER V ULSTER

Although of course we’re mostly wearing our green goggles these days, the blue need to be kept close – after the comprehensive win down in Musgrave Park a couple of weeks ago Leinster are closer to home this Friday evening as they host Ulster at Navan RFC.  Just over a month to go until the URC kicks off so it will be interesting to see how the squad is shaping up.  I have a ticket but I’m still not 100% sure I’ll be able to make it, fingers crossed.

#LETTHECLIPSPLAY

As a counter to the really annoying call from certain quarters of the ruggersphere to “Let The Boys Play”, I’m trying to get this hashtag going in defence of much more prolific content creators like Squidge who are being denied by World Rugby (although it has the whiff of corporate overlords about it) when it comes to sharing and analysing clips and images from the Rugby World Cup.

It’s 2023 FFS.  No matter how much broadcasters might live in a world where fans only want to consume their output, the fact remains that a significant portion rely on the independent sector, and while I certainly wouldn’t expect myself to be included, I really do think accommodation should be made for the top influencers, it has to be good for the sport and also has to be good for the sponsors.

Obviously it needs to be monitored but isn’t that the case with all broadcast material mainstream or no?  Let the clips play!!!!

PS – literally as I finished typing the above bit, I spotted this poll on “x” so you can probably guess how I voted…

COMING HOME? 

In “Future Jeff”s report on England’s win over Japan at the weekend he may have been a little bit harsh about the English performance, I mean any team would take two wins out of two to start a World Cup however they were achieved, and however the opposition was playing.

But you still need to check the reactions, and many on English media, mainstream and social, seem to have forgotten what caveats are.  Yes, yes, I know this is an Irish rugby site so we’re far from their biggest fans, but goggles aside, if England are genuinely happy with their performances to date, especially when you factor in the standards they should be expecting given player pool etc, then I’ll have whatever they’re having, thank you very much.

PS found this quote on “x”…

IT’S VERY SIMPLE, SIMON

“There was one tweet that pissed me off, however, because rather than come from a random fan this was by an actual member of the Munster squad.  Only thing I will add to posting it below is this : imagine the uproar if it were a Leinster squad player after the boys in blue won a trophy.  Articles would be written about it.  Hang on never mind articles….PLAYS would be written.“

I wrote the above in the final 80+ column of the 22/23 season about a tweet by Simon Zebo and I was careful not to use his name because I really thought it was a “one off” but no, it really does look like he has little or no control over either himself or his social media accounts.

Now I guess we have to take him at his word about the posts he was “liking” (although if it really was his kids I’m not sure I’d be too keen to involve them in all of this) but even without that side of it, I have to say he really needs to make a simple decision as to whether he wants to slag off Leinster fans or be a serious pundit, and when I say “serious” of course I know they need an element of humour and banter but he really has been not only crossing “the line” but also catapulting himself way beyond it.

I guess I qualify as a “Dermot” to him so he probably wouldn’t listen to me but hopefully someone around him has had a word.

NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

Next up here at Harpin Manor we’re all about the clash with the reigning World Champions.  Preview will drop either late Thursday or in the afternoon on Friday, we’ll be on “x” throughout the match and finally of course the wrap pod on Sunday.  If I can make it to Navan on Friday I hope to do a TikTok report so keep an eye out for that as well.  Please comment, like, share & subscribe to our feeds & channels whenever the mood takes you.

And as ever, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are.  JLP

80+ column : Sep 12

A WEEKLY COLUMN LOOKING AT TOPICS BEYOND THE SCOPE 

OF OUR FEATURE MATCH OF THE WEEK

WRAP OF A WRAP

With World Cup matches coming thick and fast over the next couple of months, our pod recording schedule has to be modified.  We normally kickoff the wrap pod at 8pm on a Sunday but due to Wales v Fiji we moved it up an hour.  Plus, since that match was something we wanted to harp on, I had to use a time machine of sorts to get my report in!  As ever both Cian O’Muilleoir and Ciarán Duffy did a bang up job going over the match be sure to check it our at this Spotify link or on whatever platform you use.

HARPIN ON…IRELAND WITH/WITHOUT SEXTON

With Sexton back on the pitch for the first time since the Grand Slam was in the bag, we had a chat for our bonus clip 

DISAGREEMENT?👍DISRESPECT?👎

This week’s TikTok harpin point looks at whether or not it’s ok to analyse a referee’s performance.  Since the Wales v Fiji match I’ve been hearing the “we must never criticise the ref” mantra from some surprising sources, I have to say.

In the video I mentioned one of the tweets I posted while the match was still on, for full disclosure I’m adding the other ones.  Maybe, just maybe, the Oprah one is straying towards disrespectful?  I don’t think so but others might.  

The point is that while I know social media isn’t the be all and end all of anything, it can be a decent gauge of opinion from hard core fans and in all my years following rugby on Twitter/x I have never seen this much agreement across the board on a referee’s performance, including some Welsh fans.

Does it mean the ref in question should never hold a whistle again?  I really don’t think so, and if there are to be “repercussions” I really don’t want to know.  In fact he’s actually AR1 for Ireland’s next match against Tonga and I for one have no problem with that FWIW.

One last point on the video…you have no idea how close I came to taking out all the recording equipment and doing it over when I saw that curled up collar!!!!  And if you haven’t noticed it yet it’s probably all you can see now!!!! Ah well….

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Check out harinonrugby.com for our weekly 80+ column looking at topics from all across the ruggersphere

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LEINSTER PRESEASON FRIENDLY

Loads of TikToks in this week’s column, I pledged to get in front of the camera more this season, so here’s one I did Sunday morning on Leinster’s comprehensive preseason win down in Musgrave Park on Friday evening.

And as you can see I really pushed the boat out with the special effects – I tell ya, between time travel and magic jersey changes, we spare no expense here at Harpin Manor!!!!

@harpinonrugby

Popped the aul blue jersey back on for a quick vid on the Munster v Leinster preseason friendly from Friday night

♬ original sound – Harpinonrugby.com – Harpinonrugby.com

AISLING’S RWC2023 TRAVEL GUIDES

Unfortunately there have many reports of fans having difficulties getting to matches on time, like Ireland’s opener against Romania.  Obviously it’s very easy to go on social media and call the organisation (or lack of it) a “shambles” but Irish fan Aisling O’Connor has found a much more practical way forward.

I very much doubt they’ll be able to improve their transport infrastructure much in time for fan heading to matches over the coming weeks so Aisling, a former president of the Official Leinster Supporters Club and a well seasoned rugby traveller all over the world at this stage, has been posting logistical information as well as directing people how to get more.  If you’re over in France or planning to travel I strongly recommend you follow her.

BIGGAR PROBLEMS

After my agreeing with most of social media over the Wales v Fiji officiating, I think I’m actually swimming against the tide when it comes to my thoughts on Dan Biggar giving his team mates a rollicking at the end of the first in the very same match.

He wanted the ball put dead but the others played on and while I do get the importance of showing a united front out on the pitch, I can also appreciate the frustration from the leadership because, let’s face it, it was absolutely right and proper that the ball needed to be put dead.  I saw loads of comments directed at Dan but I think I’d be inclined to back him here.  It’s a World Cup, emotions are high, you’ve just played 40m of test rugby, no matter how much experience you have it’s not always easy to switch on the filter.

SCREECHING TO THE CHOIR

I have four kids, and possibly more to the point I was one myself back in the day, so I can totally imagine how exciting a prospect it would be to be allowed to sing at a massive global event like the Rugby World Cup.

But let’s face it…while the choir might work for some national anthems like The Flower Of Scotland (remember at Murrayfield they actually stop playing instruments at one point and let everyone sing like they’re a choir anyway) the more military style ones like for Argentina and, yes, especially France, have had the life sucked out of them by the format.

Personally I’m not always the biggest fan of going too strongly into symbols of nationalism, however I don’t reckon singing anthems before international matches is too strong to begin with, and I have always been of the opinion that each nation should be able to have theirs performed in a manner of their choosing.

But anyway for this World Cup, I understand they are considering a change, and though that would be tough on those who have been looking forward to their moment in the spotlight, I think it would be the right call.

EITHER/OR FOR THE ALL BLACKS PLEASE

Speaking of performances before kickoffs, I was never a fan of the All Blacks and others getting to do extra ones when others can’t, although with the Haka, Cibi and such practically being part of the sport’s DNA at this stage it would probably be harsh to ban it altogether.  

But I reckon for the All Blacks to take even more extra time to have a huddle before they did their haka ahead of the opener against France was very much taking the piss.

NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

Next up here at Harpin Manor we’re looking ahead to our next Pool B assignment with Tonga.  There will be a preview at the end of the week, social media coverage throughout, a wrap pod on Sunday evening and all the usual extra bits in between.  As well as the podcast feed we’re on X, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Mastodon so please follow us wherever you can 

And as ever, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are.  JLP

80+ column : Season Finale

Welcome to my 80+ column, a weekly post featuring final thoughts from the week season of rugby just gone.  

WRAP TO WRAP ALL WRAPS

Well it didn’t exactly end how I wanted as a Leinster fan, but I still have to say this was by far and away the most enjoyable season of Harpin’ On Rugby yet.

Of course the Grand Slam in the midst of it all helped a lot, but even without it the switch from article- to podcast-based content went really well, mostly because it meant I was working a lot more with fellow fans over the course of the campaign.  

So here’s the part where I offer thanks to all the amazing contributors who appeared on the pods for Season 4 going right the way back to Sunday, August 21.  Here’s a list of the ‘main group’ including their total Harpin caps to date…

Neil ‘Keego’ Keegan (57)

Tom Coleman (38)

Conor Cronin (38)

Mark Jackson (37)

Rich Mifsud (26)

Cian ‘RugbyKino’ O’Muilleoir (21)

with very honourable mentions to Ciarán Duffy, Nathan Johns, ‘Big’ Joe Sheppard, Padraig Kelly, Caolan Scully, Peter Lockhart, Ian Frizzell, Stephen Murphy, @IrishWomens, Michelle Tobin, Sandy Smith, Francisco Isaac, Justin Middleton, AP Cronje, Brian Moylett, Lee Griffith, Rhys John, Illtud Dafydd & David Arnott.

One thing I knew from the outset was that I couldn’t possibly hope to produce 2, often 3 pods per week without much commitment from others and while it goes without saying, I’ll do it anyway, I am extremely grateful to all of the above for volunteering their time this season.

Just in case you missed our final pod here’s a link – if you’re a Leinster fan you may have intentionally missed it but still I reckon Tom, Mark & Kino did a bang up job going over the HCC final as well as Leinster’s season as a whole so why not check it out.

HARPIN ON…OUR YOU TUBE CHANNEL HIGHLIGHTS

While our main content this season has been via podcast, we also set out to develop a presence on both YouTube and TikTok.  Being perfectly honest I didn’t exactly knock myself out in those areas but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with some of the feedback so it’s definitely something we’ll be doing more over the coming season.

For the YouTube the idea was to have a preview show with one guest every Friday, and this was mostly Keego logging on to a Zoom call just an hour after the Leinster or Irish team was named.  Then for the Sunday night pod recording I’d include a “bonus chat” outside the main topic of conversation for sharing as a video and these have done pretty well if I do say so myself.  Since we didn’t do a 80+ last week I instead posted a “top 5” videos of sorts from across the season, check out the link below and if you haven’t already, please do subscribe to make sure you get all our stuff in future.

Harpin’ YouTube channel 2022/23 top vids

DOWN WITH THE KIDS ON TIK TOK

For the most part I have tried to use TikTok as a means to promote the pods, and as the season wore on it became something of a challenge to select the most appropriate quote to use for it.   Originally my intention was to produce brief “Squidge-type” (OBVS nowhere near as good but at least with my own spin) videos of my favourite moments from matches but they took a while to produce, although the one I did for what I felt was the critical moment the URC final did get the most views of the entire season so you may see more next season.  I’ll post that one below as well as some links to others that got decent engagement throughout the season, if you’re not already following us please do it can help us get closer to 500 followers – that might be a humble total in the grand scheme of things but we had no idea we’d be anywhere near that by this stage, truth be told.

@harpinonrugby

The clutch moments from the #URC final #STOvMUN

♬ original sound – Harpinonrugby.com – Harpinonrugby.com

“Leinster will be back amongst the favourites”

“It’s ok to say Grand Slam again”

“That pass from Doris to Ringrose”

“Eurowatch : Racing v Clérmont”

“Favourite Irish try of Autumn Nations Series”

CONGRATS TO MUNSTER

You may think I’m stalling to get to the Munster appreciation but, but look back over these columns throughout the season and they always start with the segments you see above!

But anyway again I am more than happy to offer congrats to our southern cousins, if it can’t be Leinster winning the URC, it has to be good for Irish rugby for another province to do it and not only have they been waiting a long, long time for this, but what a way for them to do it!!!!

After suffering some early season defeats which had us wondering if they’d even make it into the playoffs, they ended up pulling off not one, not two but THREE AWAY KNOCKOUT wins which has to be a record at this level of the game and proves that once you’re there or thereabouts come the beginning of May, literally anything is possible.

Obviously the next step for them on the road to returning to further glories will be to follow up with a higher regular season finish plus a deeper run in the HCC, but even if they replicate their 5th place finish, nobody will be ruling them out.

Just a quick word on the Stormers to round things off – I definitely expected a lot more from them.  As well and all as Munster played you can’t deny we have seen the South African side play a lot better.  Assuming both they and Leinster aim to get back to the top next season that should make for an exciting third instalment of the URC, as if the first two weren’t enough.

THE ABL NARRATIVE

For our first podcast of the season we had a chat about what I call the “ABL” or “Anyone But Leinster” in the ruggersphere and after Leinster won so many matches in the first two thirds of the season as well as supplying a large chunk of Ireland’s 100% test season, it was pretty easy to prove it’s existence week-in week-out on social media.

Naturally the way the season ended up for Leinster, there were always going to be those looking to stick the knife in, pushing a false narrative that as fans we somehow “assumed we were going to win everything” and for the most part it has been easy enough to stay away and tune it all out – the above tweet was posted from the Aviva Stadium press box moments after full time.

One thing you can be sure I’m NOT going to do however, is post a few screenshots of the abuse being levelled at Leinster and their fans over the past few weeks, because to my mind that gives an impression that ALL fans of a particular team do this kind of thing, when the reality is that being an asshole is no peculiar to any one jersey.

There was one tweet that pissed me off, however, because rather than come from a random fan this was by an actual member of the Munster squad.  Only thing I will add to posting it below is this : imagine the uproar if it were a Leinster squad player after the boys in blue won a trophy.  Articles would be written about it.  Hang on never mind articles….PLAYS would be written.

THE SEXTON INCIDENT

While we’re on the subject of senior players who should know better behaving badly, much has been said of this “incident” involving Johnny Sexton after the Champions Cup final.  

Before I go on, I’d like to divide this segment in two parts.

PART 1 – ASSUMING IT HAPPENED

If Johnny Sexton walked up to Jaco Peyper and called him a “f*cking disgrace” as is alleged, then there definitely needs to be some kind of action, but only after a proper enquiry.  I’m no fan of that carry on, whatever the person’s colours.

PART 2 – GUILTY BEFORE ANYTHING PROVEN

But can we please call this incident for what it is.  People were calling for Johnny’s head long before there was anything even remotely close to “evidence” available, and remember, even the video you see in the tweet below doesn’t tell us what was actually said (and ironically, Karl Dickson has something of a track record when it comes to bad hearing).  

All of which means is that with these kind of levels of bias out there against Sexton (including a host of South African commenters keen to conflate the whole thing with RassieGate from the Lions tour – hilarious!) there is literally nothing we can say until there has been a full investigation.   And if there isn’t one, then we have to assume that there’s “no there there”, although naturally that won’t stop the Sexton haters from forming conspiracy theories, in which I say let ‘em.

On a lighter note – on those dissing his outfit, I really don’t think they even have a case there.  Not exactly my style, but still the comments are just another example of the hating IMO.

THE HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE 2022/23

Normally my update on the Harpin URC Prediction League comes towards the end of my 80+ column, but it won’t take you long to work out why I moved it up.

Last season, I finished dead last, which meant I had to wear The Jersey Of Shame on social media.  I’ve already posted it here so I’ll just link to it rather than do it again.  The main reason I lost was that I just could not discipline myself to post my predictions on Superbru week in week out, leaving me stranded in 6th place come the end of the campaign.

Well this time around I was determined to at very least we sure of kicking the “no picks” habit.  And a few rounds into the season I was doing pretty well.

But gradually I gave way to Cian ‘RugbyKino’ O’Muilleoi,r who generally takes a stats-based approach to predictions, and it really did seem to do well over the course of a season, since having taken over top spot at Round 5 he proceeded to stay there all the way through the Six Nations and the gap never looked like closing…

…until I actually closed it towards of the regular season and thought I was on Cloud 9…

…only for Mark Jackson to nip ahead of us both and he seemed to have the title done and dusted with only the URC Final left.

Well folks, I only had one possible strategy when it came to predicting Stormers v Munster.  With the South Africans the favourites (being reigning champions and having home advantage), I had to assume that both Mark and Kino ahead of me on the table would go for them so that meant my only hope would be to take a punt on Munster (and let’s be honest the way they’ve been playing it was hardly a “Hail Mary”).  Just in case someone else also went for it, I made my prediction a double-digit win so that I’d have a chance of getting extra points if I got it right.  Turns out I didn’t need that cushion as I was the only one and hey presto my four points pole vaulted me back into first!!!

Obvs I’d swap it for even one let alone two trophies for Leinster, but having also done well in the Six Nations prediction comp I’d say I’m pretty pleased with my showing this season.  

Down at the other end of the table, the Jersey of Shame is wrapped and ready to send to Neil “No Picks Keego” Keegan and hopefully we’ll have a pic to share of him sporting it soon.  Also hopefully we’ll get another few contributors into the HPL for the 23/24 campaign when I’ll be defending my crown.

HARPIN PREDICTOR LEAGUE 2022/23 FINAL STANDINGS

NOT ACTING IN GOODE FAITH

The tweet pretty much says it all, but one thing I’ll add is that I am actually ELEVEN YEARS OLDER than Andy Goode who’s whinging about a girl making what I thought was a very light hearted correction.  You’d swear it was the other way around.   I have no idea what makes these guys think pearl-clutching (and that’s definitely what this is) is somehow masculine…

LEINSTER AWARDS & LEAVERS

Normally this section is for Leinster’s injury report, so since it’s the end of the season I’ll instead feature the end of season business from Leinster Rugby, starting with the awards…

Best Menswear Development School of the Year: St Mary’s CBS, Portlaoise

JUST EAT Tackle of the Year: Liam Turner (v DHL Stormers)

Beauchamps School of the Year: Gonzaga College

Nissan Ireland Contribution to Leinster Rugby: Rachael O’Brien (Co Carlow FC)

The Irish Times Try of the Year: Garry Ringrose (v Racing 92)

DigitalWell Junior Club of the Year: Mullingar RFC

Energia Senior Club of the Year: Old Belvedere RFC

BDO Supporters Player of the Year: Garry Ringrose

Guinness Hall of Fame: Gerry Murphy

BearingPoint Women’s Young Player of the Year: Aoife Dalton

Laya Healthcare Men’s Young Player of the Year: Scott Penny

Band of Ireland Women’s Player of the Year: Jenny Murphy

Bank of Ireland Men’s Player of the Year: Caelan Doris

Certainly can’t complain about the names honoured above, that’s for sure.  And now the bad news, the list of players leaving the province…

Johnny Sexton (189 caps / 1,646 points)

Dave Kearney (186 / 275)

James Tracy (141 / 90)

Nick McCarthy (62 / 25)

Tadgh McElroy (4 / 0)

Charlie Ryan (0 / 0)

Seán O’Brien (3 / 0)

Max O’Reilly (11 / 10)

Marcus Hanan (4 / 0)

Andrew Smith (2 / 0)

Best wishes to all, and with all due respect to the other nine guys I’m sure we all agree that the best of best wishes go to yer man at the top when it comes to a certain egg-chasing tournament happening in France in September…

ALL EYES ON RWC2023

What’s that you say?  My tweet looks like I’m being sarcastic???  Whatever could you mean???

Look, some were always going to miss out.  And yes, with Munster’s win freshest in the mind it’s obvious to notice if one or two names don’t get on the list, yet while no coach is ever perfect, if Andy Farrell hasn’t earned himself some street cred at this stage then nobody can.

Here’s my personal ideal matchday 23 from the group (assuming all players fully fit), we’ll see how it evolves over time.

Keenan, Hansen, Ringrose, Henshaw, Lowe, Sexton, Gibson-Park

Porter, Sheehan, Furlong, Henderson, Ryan, O’Mahony, van der Flier, Doris

Kelleher, Healy, Bealham, Beirne, Conan, Murray, Crowley, Aki

SEVENS UPDATE

With no 80+ column last week I didn’t get to update the London Sevens, where the men’s series came to an end after the women had finished in Toulouse.  Apparently this last tournament of the season is done differently to all the others…the top 12 on the points table compete for the final standings while the others take part in a qualifying competition for next year’s circuit.  

The Irish men’s squad may not have qualified for the Olympics directly as the women did, but still overall a 6th place finish in London wasn’t the worst outcome.  Also while 8th place overall is definitely something we can improve on, reaching that final in Dubai was a highlight for sure and having watched them quite a bit over the course of the season I’d say they have done us proud.

I’ll be even more proud once I hear the announcement of an Irish leg on the calendar, get on it people!!!!!

MLR UPDATE

I hope the actual fans of the New England Free Jacks aren’t superstitious (although from what I know of sports in that neck of the woods I’m pretty sure they are) because as a Leinster fan who saw his team rack up easy wins throughout the season including multiple “50-burgers” only to fall agonisingly short in playoffs twice, they may not be so keen to know that I have adopted them as my team for the 2023 version of Major League Rugby.

We had no 80+ column last week so there are two weeks of results to catch up on and as you can see the Free Jacks have, to say the very least, consolidated their position at the top of the Eastern Conference, stretching their lead to 20 points and guaranteeing them a home “semifinal” in the playoffs after big wins over New Orleans and Toronto respectively.

They will have one tough opponent to get them ready however as they must travel in round 17 to face Seattle, who themselves are locked in a battle with the San Diego Legion for 1st place and in fact it’s kind of set up for the Western Conference to have a thrilling finale as the two rivals meet in Round 18.

This could be a problem for the Free Jacks as while they have the comfort of knowing their fate, both the Legion and the Seawolves will have multiple tough encounters between now and the championship game, assuming they do make it there of course.

But still it has been an interesting season and let’s face it, the way last year’s version ended up with two teams folding just before the playoffs, any kind of finish which involves only action on the pitch will be a positive.

ROUND 14

NEFJ 50-3 NOLA

SEA 35-13 CHI

UTAH 34-28 HOU

ATL 19-27 DAL

TOR 29-29 OGDC

ROUND 15

SD 36-13 NYI

UTAH 28-12 ATL

HOU 40-33 CHI

OGDC 19-41 SEA

NEFJ 57-20 TOR

ROUND 16

ATL V NEFJ

NOLA V OGDC

CHI V SD

TOR V HOU

NYI V DAL

SEA V UTAH

THE NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

Right so that brings down the curtain on the 2022/23 season of Harpin on Rugby.  Obviously I’ll still be tweeting over the coming weeks, both the Top 14 and Super Rugby are still to be decided as is Major League Rugby which I have been following as you will know.  There might be the odd pod or two during the next month or so, you never know, along with bits & bobs on the other social media platforms.

But we won’t kick back into full swing until a week or so before the World Cup warmups come on the radar, that’s when we will formally launch Season 5 of the pod and a whopping season SIXTEEN of Harpin.

Many thanks for all your clicking and reading and sharing and commenting and what-not, looking forward to more.

 In the meantime, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are.  JLP

80+ column : 09/05/23

Welcome to my 80+ column, a weekly post featuring final thoughts from the week of rugby just gone.  

WRAP OF A WRAP

Friday, June 12, 2012 is when Keego posted his first article on the old HarpinOnRugby.net website, titled “Keego on…Kidney & Kryptonite”.  Then on Friday, March 1, 2013 we got the first offering from Cian “RugbyKino” O’Muilleoir, titled “Stat of the Nation Address”.  For over 10 years they have both added their own brand of awesome content and it was great to have two “old school” contributors help me wrap the win over the Sharks for our latest pod.

If you missed it, check it out on Spotify here or on most major platforms.

HARPIN ON…LEINSTER’S SQUAD MANAGEMENT

For our bonus clip we harped on Leinster’s enviable headache of keeping a 60-strong squad of players happy, over the season as a whole and particularly over this period of weekly knockout fixtures.

One point I forgot to mention was the critical cultivation of what I call “switch hitting props”, a kind of crude adaptation of baseball terminology but I still like to use it.  Allowing the likes of Andrew Porter and Cian Healy to be match ready on both sides of the front row has played a major role in Leinster’s ability to react to injuries over the course of a match AND a season over the past couple of years.

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.

JORDAN LARMOUR TRY TIK TOK

Might have been against 14 (or as Kino pointed out just before this TikTok clip, essentially 13 due to an injury to du Toit) but Harry Byrne’s crossfield kick to Larmour for our third try was still a joy to watch.

@harpinonrugby

Check out our latest pod on Spotify and most major platforms LEIvSHA

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“WHY WE LOVE RUGBY” 🤢

I’m sorry but this really, really, REALLY bugs me.  Just to be clear, I don’t mean the sporting act itself, rather the fact that people try to make out that you only see things like this in rugby.  NOT. THE. CASE.   It really is very simple – first, there are examples of good sportsmanship in all sports but also, it’s not like rugby is perfectly clean all the time either.  The whole concept of “rugby values” never really sat well with me, partly because it’s not sport-specific but also there’s a tinge of elitism to it as well.

Can we not just say this was a nice thing to do and move on?

AVIVA FATIGUE

I’m calling it “Avivapalooza”, namely the festival of rugby at Irish HQ that goes way back to Ireland’s Grand Slam victory.  From March 18 until now there have been 8 weekends, with 5 of them having Leinster/Ireland at the Aviva, 1 at the RDS and the other two literally in the other half of the world.  All this with two and possibly three more to come over the next few weeks.  Is this me complaining?  Absolutely not.  Am I agreeing with those ABL factions on social media who claim the sport is rigged?  Also absolutely not – with the exception of the HCC final for which Ireland was due, home advantage is earned and Leinster have definitely done that on the pitch.  Still worth noting how often we’re going to the venue these days, though.  Reminds me of the 2012/13 season when a similar series of quirky happenings saw the RDS host 5 weeks of matches in a row.  Not the easiest to sell when you live in a house where you’re the only egg-chasing nut!!!! 

DOING THE DOUBLE

While I’m on the subject of Leinster’s knockout rugby fetish, I might as well take the excuse to bring up my constant bugbear over the structure of the European rugby season.  I have said for a long, long time that it needs an overhaul to an extent where the two major competitions that every club can win each season are played in separate blocks over the season.  

That way not only can a club be rewarded for being on form in the earlier half of the season, but also it would remove what I think is a ridiculous requirement for coaches to pick and choose which matches they want to prioritize over the course of a season.  The ideal should be for coaches to select their best available squad for every weekend and while I know this can’t ALWAYS be done, the status quo rules it out altogether and just because it has been normalised over decades doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be changed as far as I’m concerned.

I know Leicester, Wasps, Toulouse, Exeter and Sarries have all managed to “do the double” over the years (although one or two of the more recent ones do come with COVID/salary cap asterisks) but as things stand right now I have to wonder if Leinster are the only team that could possibly have the resources to come close to winning both if something doesn’t change.  I mean as much as that fact pleases me as a fan of the province, it certainly doesn’t when I look at it as a fan of the sport.

HCC FORMAT

There’s a lot in this Indo interview with the IRFU CEO but one sentence caught my eye on first read…I’ve mentioned the HCC format quite a bit on this column throughout the season, how it doesn’t bother me as much as it seems to bother a lot of fans, but it looks like we’re going to have it for the next campaign too which of course would mean more complaints.

“EPCR is so important to Irish Rugby and the provinces. Getting its structure right is critical,” he adds, stating that he is involved in a consultation process with EPCR to update the structures from 2024/’25.”

AI RUGBY : LEINSTER V SHARKS DRY RUN

My inner nerd loves doing it so whether you like it or not, this will become a regular Harpin’ feature.  On Friday once the team is announced I’ll be feeding the two matchday squads into ChatGPT using the prompt below to see what it comes up with. 

On our Preview Show the score will update throughout the pod and I’ll provide the actual receipts here in the 80+.   As you can see below, the AI felt Leinster would also win well, albeit with a few more tries from our guests.

PROMPT

Imagine a game of 15-a-side rugby union between Leinster Rugby and Cell C Sharks over two halves of 40 minutes with the two lineups outlined below, taking into account the current reputation and form of all the players involved.

Leinster :  15. Hugo Keenan 14. Jordan Larmour 13. Ciarán Frawley 12. Charlie Ngatai 11. Dave Kearney 10. Harry Byrne 9. Luke McGrath > CAPTAIN

1. Michael Milne 2. Dan Sheehan 3. Tadhg Furlong 4. Ryan Baird 5. Jason Jenkins 6. Max Deegan 7. Scott Penny 8. Caelan Doris

16. John McKee 17. Andrew Porter 18. Cian Healy 19. Joe McCarthy 20. Jack Conan 21. Jamison Gibson-Park 22. Ross Byrne 23. Liam Turner

Cell C Sharks : 15 Aphelele Fassi 14 Marnus Potgieter 13 Lukhanyo Am (c) 12 Ben Tapuai 11 Makazole Mapimpi 10 Boeta Chamberlain 9 Grant Williams 

1 Ox Nche 2 Bongi Mbonambi 3 Thomas du Toit 4 Corne Rahl 5 Gerbrandt Grobler 6 James Venter 7 Vincent Tshituka 8 Sikhumbuzo Notshe

16 Fez Mbatha 17 Ntuthuko Mchunu 18 Carlu Sadie 19 Jeandre Labuschagne 20 Phepsi Buthelezi 21 Cameron Wright 22 Nevaldo Fleurs 23 Rohan Janse van Rensburg

Write 2000 words on the progress of the match in the form of a timeline (no conclusion, just the timeline only) reporting incidents like tries, conversions, penalties, injuries and yellow or red cards. 

PRINTOUT

0-10 minutes: The game starts with a lot of back-and-forth action as both teams try to find their footing. However, it is Leinster who strikes first as winger Jordan Larmour breaks through the Sharks’ defense to score a try. Harry Byrne converts the try to give Leinster an early 7-0 lead.

10-20 minutes: The Sharks respond with a try of their own as winger Makazole Mapimpi finishes off a counter-attack. Boeta Chamberlain’s conversion levels the scores at 7-7.

20-30 minutes: Leinster regains their lead as Charlie Ngatai scores a clever try following a quick tap penalty. Byrne once again adds the extras to make it 14-7 in favor of the home team.

30-40 minutes: The Sharks turn up the pressure and win a penalty that Chamberlain successfully kicks to reduce Leinster’s lead to 14-10.

40-45 minutes: Just before half-time, Leinster scores a third try as lock Ryan Baird crashes over the try line. Byrne’s conversion gives the home team a 21-10 lead at the break.

Half-time: Leinster 21-10 Sharks

45-55 minutes: The Sharks start the second half strongly and score two tries in quick succession through Aphelele Fassi and captain Lukhanyo Am. However, Chamberlain misses both conversion attempts, leaving the score at 21-20 in favor of Leinster.

55-62 minutes: Leinster fights back and scores their fourth try of the match through prop Tadhg Furlong. Byrne’s successful conversion increases Leinster’s lead to 28-20.

62-67 minutes: Sharks’ winger Marnus Potgieter is shown a yellow card for a high tackle on Larmour.

67-75 minutes: Leinster capitalizes on their numerical advantage and scores two more tries through replacement scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park and flanker Caelan Doris. Byrne converts both tries to extend Leinster’s lead to 42-20.

75-80 minutes: The Sharks score a consolation try through reserve center Rohan Janse van Rensburg, but it is too little too late as Leinster runs out comfortable 42-27 winners.

Full-time: Leinster 42-27 Sharks

INJURY REPORT

Some decent news this week, still makes for an interesting selection at the weekend though….

POSSIBLE 23 V MUNSTER 

Frawley, Kearney, Ngatai, Ringrose, T O’Brien, McGrath, H Byrne

Milne, Kelleher, Ala’alatoa, Molony, Jenkins, Baird, Connors, Deegan

McKee, Porter, Clarkson, McCarthy, Conan, JGP, R Byrne, Larmour

(note – the above team is purely from my imagination, it’s certainly not one of those quasi-leaked Thornley teams which are always 22 out of 23 correct)

official report

Joe McCarthy came through the game at the weekend against Cell C Sharks with no issues after his recovery from an ankle injury.

Rónan Kelleher was involved in the wider match day squad at the weekend and will be available to train fully this week after his recovery from a shoulder injury.

Scott Penny has entered the Graduated Return to Play Protocols and will be further assessed as the week progresses.

Robbie Henshaw is expected to step up his rehabilitation from a minor quad issue this week and will be further assessed as the week progresses.

James Lowe is expected to step up his rehabilitation from a calf injury and will be further assessed as the week progresses.

Cian Healy picked up an ankle injury against Cell C Sharks and will be further assessed as the week progresses.

There are no further updates on:
Vakhtang Abdaladze (neck), Ed Byrne (tricep), Rhys Ruddock (hamstring), Johnny Sexton (groin), Jamie Osborne (knee), Martin Moloney (knee)

AIL UPDATE

We’ve been updating this segment all season so even though we covered the AIL final on the pod, I’d still like to offer congrats to all involved at Terenure College RFC for capping off a fine campaign with the championship.  It was a comprehensive win on the day for sure but overall after starting the league with a long unbeaten run it was no more than they deserve.

There were of course a host of other matches over the weekend as the promotion and relegation issues across the five AIL divisions were sorted out.  Shannon’s win over Highfield means they remain in the top flight with City of Armagh being the only newcomers next season.  Also congrats to my “alma mater” Blackrock College who beat MU Barnhall at Stradbrook to more them up to the second tier.

AIL FINAL

Clontarf 24 Terenure 50

DIVISION 1A PROMOTION/RELEGATION PLAY-OFF FINAL:

Shannon 32 Highfield 12

DIVISION 1B PROMOTION PLAY-OFF FINAL:

Blackrock College 29 MU Barnhall 21 

DIVISION 2A PROMOTION/RELEGATION PLAY-OFF FINAL:

UL Bohemians 20 Dungannon 16

DIVISION 2B PROMOTION PLAY-OFF FINAL:

 Skerries 30 Bruff 15

SEVENS UPDATE

The Sevens circuit kicks back into gear this weekend and for the women Toulouse is actually the final tournament of the series.  The way the standings look I very much doubt we can crack the top four but we should be anxiously looking over our shoulders at both Fiji and GB behind us so we’ll need a strong showing with Brazil, Australia and hosts France in our pool.

Meanwhile for the men it is the penultimate leg of the series with Twickers still to come the following weekend.  A shocker of a  Singapore leg has us down in 9th on the ladder, a big drop since our excellent silver in Dubai at the start of the season.  If we can click over the next two weeks however we can more up a place or two and we’re up against Samoa, Oz & Japan this weekend.

TOULOUSE SEVENS

FRIDAY MAY 12

10:28AM IRELAND WOMEN V FRANCE

11:45AM  IRELAND MEN V SAMOA

4:04PM IRELAND MEN V AUSTRALIA 

7:05PM IRELAND WOMEN V AUSTRALIA

SATURDAY MAY 13

9:43AM IRELAND WOMEN V BRAZIL

10:37AM IRELAND MEN V JAPAN

1:42PM WOMEN’S PLAYOFFS BEGIN

3:10PM MEN’S PLAYOFFS BEGIN

MLR UPDATE

Not going to be able to watch a game back this week, although that’s ok because as I said before I have adopted the New England Free Jacks as my team for this season and they were off for this round.

But even with the bye week they remain a healthy 9pts clear in the East, and they can extend that lead even further if they win next weekend against Old Glory.  Meanwhile out West the San Diego’s win in Utak means they also have a cushion with Seattle and Houston, who meet next weekend, also in the playoff positions for now.

ROUND 12

ATL 27-12 CHI

DAL 3-7 OGDC

UTAH 16-26 SD

NYI 54-19 NOLA

ROUND 13

TOR V ATL

NOLA V SD

HOU V SEA

DAL V UTAH

OGDC V NE

CHI V NYI

HARPIN’ PREDICTION LEAGUE

Well.  All season 1st place in the HPL has switched back and forth between myself and RugbyKino, only for Mark Jackson to leap over both of us into top spot with just three matches left to predict!!!  Like I have always said I’m mostly happy not to be the cellar dweller this season (that honour was clinched by Keego literally months ago) but still to have come so close it’s a bit of a pain to drop to 3rd towards the end.  My biggest errors recently were forgetting one match altogether in the last round, and not believing in Munster wanting victory more than Glasgow in this one.

THE NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

It’s all about Munster now.  Things should be relatively normal for the coming week so be sure to stay tuned to all our usual corners of social media to keep up with our latest content.

 In the meantime, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are.  JLP