FRONT FIVE

A selection of five eye-catching egg-chasing quotes & links from around the ruggersphere, now including a few thoughts added by myself (JLP).

Note – views expressed in “Front Five” links do not necessarily reflect those of HarpinOnRugby

WRAP OF A WRAP

When I say how many “caps” a contributor has, it is generally with tongue in cheek, but it is worth mentioning when they reach a milestone like Conor Cronin did when he earned his 50th in wrapping the France match on Sunday evening.  He and Mark Jackson, himself just back from a spell on the sidelines, did an excellent job poring over the timeline of the match, and for once I have actually remembered also to remember the preview which was done by Keego who accurately predicted an Irish win although nobody could have dreamed of a 21-point margin!!!

If you missed the wrap pod, here’s a link for Spotify but it’s also available on Apple and other platforms, please subscribe and/or leave a review if you can.

HARPIN ON…WARREN G, LINEOUTS & BONUS POINTS

Still playing around with the format for the bonus pod but this week’s changes were more on the graphic side of things – having gone with individual videos for my all-provincial panel last week I looked to retain it for this one and I’d say it worked pretty well.  Conor focused on Gatland’s tactless post-match presser, Mark on Ireland’s lineout and I rehashed a bonus point theme I have been harping on for a while.

SCRUMS UP IN THE AIR

These TikTok rants are starting to go a bit longer than they probably should be, my original hope was that they should be no longer than two minutes.  But that said I have to cut the cloth to suit the topic and I felt the extra bits were worth it for this one.

🔝🐱🐴 UPDATE

There was no way Racing could keep losing while holding on to 1st place in the 🔝🐱🐴 but despite slipping to 4th they’re still only a point off their Parisian rivals who have reached the summit.  La Rochelle won’t feel so badly about being just six points off the pace given how their season has gone so far.

Meanwhile down at the bottom it is concerning to see names like Lyon and Montpellier in the relegation discussion but with 12 rounds to go and the way results in this league yoyo back and forth, for all we know they could still make the playoffs!

Most importantly, who’s idea was it to have a round on the opening 6N weekend?  Crazy all round, and you could argue that it hurt the French Under 20s as well.  But the 🔝🐱🐴 takes a breather next weekend.

AIL UPDATE 

I could be wrong but I’m pretty sure I went looking for a dedicated website for the Celtic Challenge competition and it only seems to be operational in the past week or so.   I also thought I was following this comp closely yet only now do I realise that it is not just a straight round robin format, in actual fact after 5 rounds the teams break into a top 3 and bottom 3 with two more matches for each to decide the placings.

All of which means the Wolfhounds v Clovers matchup on the weekend of the 24th will make for a decent final trial ahead of our upcoming 6 Nations campaign.

Now after my assertion in recent weeks that the Celtic Comp clashing with the AIL Cup wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, it will be interesting to see if these extra matches have an effect on the actual Women’s AIL which returns this weekend – as you can see the top four all avoid each other.

And in actual fact the same can be said of the men’s top division which also kicks back into gear this weekend, chances are the playoff spots there too will remain the same.

#SupportYourLocalClub

WOMEN’S CELTIC CHALLENGE

WOMEN’S AIL

NO MATCHES LAST WEEKEND

MEN’S AIL

NO MATCHES LAST WEEKEND

HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE

Kristian was keen to start up a fresh prediction league for the Six Nations so I obliged – no prizes or forfeits, just bragging right and as you can see three of us correctly predicted the three away wins from round 1.

NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

Italy are next on the agenda with the wrap pod moved to a Monday evening recording although the preview should post on Friday as normal.

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

On this week’s column…

FRONT FIVE

A selection of five eye-catching egg-chasing quotes & links from around the ruggersphere.

Note – views expressed in “Front Five” links do not necessarily reflect those of HarpinOnRugby

WRAP OF A NON-WRAP

No Leinster or Ireland action last weekend so nothing to wrap which meant it was a good time for one of our “all provincial panels” where we look for some opinions  on the Irish squad from outside the blue-jersey bubble.  Joining me were two much-capped Harpists in Messrs Ian Frizzell & Pádraig Kelly and we also had an excellent debut from Patricia V who offered a Munster slant on things. 

If you missed it, here’s a link for Spotify but it’s also available on Apple and other platforms, please subscribe and/or leave a review if you can.

HARPIN ON…CON, ULS & MUN SEASONS SO FAR

As I say in the intro, it would be rude not to have fans of the other provinces on without asking them to summarize how their respective seasons have gone so far, and thi made for a perfect bonus clip topic.

WONDERS OF THE 7s WORLD

The regular sevens update is below and this was quite a week for it, but I also wanted to harp on the code for my TikTok bit since I was a bit negative a while ago over the whole Duponte thing.

APPEALING APPEAL

Harped last week about the Caulfield decision…as you can see in the Front Five segment the EPCR has taken up the case to restore my faith in the sport, at least until we see how the matter is finally resolved.  To summarise, I reckon that since the referee can clearly be heard saying the stamp was “intentional”, IMO the final ruling has to somehow resolve this, either by cleaning it up by saying he mis-spoke or by applying the appropriate sanction because if a player intends to stamp like that on an opponents’ head, they should know this is not the port for them.

URC WRAP

Couple of extra matches down in SA throughout January which official brought the URC 23/24 regular season to the halfway stage, resuming with a top of the table clash at the RDS in mid-Feb.

“SVNS” UPDATE

Both genders got off to winning starts in Perth but then I tweeted about it which of course meant they both went on to lose their next matches so I decided it was best to stop doing that.

The rest, as you probably know, is history as both teams bounced back with two wins on the Saturday to put them in semifinals, the women overcoming Fiji and the men only falling to an Argentine squad which went on to win the whole thing and now tops the series table.

Let us be perfectly clear about what the Irish women achieved to win their final.  Australia were not just firm favourites on account of being the home side.  They have easily been the form team over the series so far and when Ireland weren’t able to capitalise on them putting their kickoff out on the full, Casslick’s try after 2 minutes to put them ahead seemed to be the beginning of the end for us.

But we stormed right back from the restart with great combinations that allowed Beibhinn Parsons to draw us level before a bizarre series at the end of the half when Ireland attacked their line as Australia shipped 5, yes, FIVE consecutive penalties before the referee flashed a card and even then we weren’t certain to capitalise although eventually skipper Lucy Mulhall got us an absolutely crucial score before the break.

The Aussies struck back to level things up as Levi stormed up the middle for their second converted try but some absolutely savage Irish defending around halfway forced a knockon putting us back in opposition territory before Eve Higgins nudged us back in front.  This put the whole ball game on the restart and we won it back to kill the game and claim a famous victory.

We now sit in 4th on the women’s table with Australia still comfortably ahead at the top, while it’s Argentina who have the commanding lead on the men’s side and while over there Ireland are 5th, we’re actually a lot closer to second so there is a whole lot for both genders to play for when the series rolls around to Vancouver in February.

🔝🐱🐴 UPDATE

The big question here is how the hell are Racing still top when they keep losing?  This time it was Toulouse overcoming them in Paris and now only 4 pts separate the top 5 with La Rochelle staying in touch with the playoff spots by their fingernails after a 7th loss of the campaign.

You might think the 🔝🐱🐴 might respect the 6mas tradition and take this coming weekend off but you’d be wrong, with Toulon v Bordeaux probably the pick of the seven matches.

PREMIERSHIP UPDATE

After such a successful Champions Cup pool stage, Northampton were able to ease back into the domestic comp with a handy home win over hapless Newcastle but the match everyone was walking about was the West Country derby where Bristol outlasted Bath in a shootout including a very un-Messi-like brainfart from Finn Russell towards the end.

The Saints now have a 7 point lead with 9 wins although there’s quite the chasing pack with SIX clubs all have the same won 7 lost 5 record so it’s all to play for in the next round…which doesn’t roll around until the end of March.

AIL UPDATE 

Wolfhounds are on the verge of securing the Celtic Challenge title after a convincing win over the Thunder made it 4 wins from 4 and victory over the other Welsh club Gwalia Lightning next weekend will get the mostly Leinster/Ulster outfit over the line, while Edinburgh hosting the Clovers could be a contest for 2nd place although both are still mathematically in the title race.

Over in the Men’s AIL, Cork Con edged the big clash with Tarf by the point to narrow the North Dublin side’s lead at the top to just one point while Lansdowne, Terenure and Hinch all kept themselves in the playoff picture with victories.

The league takes a break for 6Mas weekend.

#SupportYourLocalClub

ROUND 4

HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE

Just the one URC match last weekend which formally ended Round 9 – and while everyone predicted the Bulls to beat the Lions, it was actually only Keego who said it would be as close as it was so just this once he was one with bragging rights…until he saw the overall table of course.  He’ll need a lot more forecasts to go his way over the second half of the season if he is to avoid retaining the Jersey of Shame.

NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

It’s 6mas week and thus a busy one…on Wednesday I’ll post a special pod interview with Ball Handling Hooker looking at the latest crop of Irish Under 20 players ahead of their own Grand Slam defence, then with the big match being on Friday, our preview with Keego moves to Thursday but the wrap pod will stay in its usual slot, recording on Sunday.

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

FRONT FIVE

A selection of five eye-catching egg-chasing quotes & links from around the ruggersphere.

Note – views expressed in “Front Five” links do not necessarily reflect those of HarpinOnRugby

WRAP OF A WRAP

Thankfully we didn’t lose any actual rugby to Storm Isha but we nearly lost our wrap pod as Jay reported power outages in his area up to an hour to our recording time but he made it through and along with Rich they did a top job going back over the win at Welford Road.

If you missed it, here’s a link for Spotify but it’s also available on Apple and other platforms, please subscribe and/or leave a review if you can.

HARPIN ON…JOE TO AUS, PREM IN CC & WHAT IS “RECKLESS”?

In our latest bonus clip we have Rich looking at some rare positive news for Australian rugby, Jay points out the success of the Premiership clubs in this season’s Champions Cup and below you see the transcript of my contribution where I harp on the continued misunderstanding when it comes to anti-concussion regulations.

RECKLESS DEFINITIONS

Well we’ve had to do a lot of rethinking of how we look at tackles over the past decade or so.  From all the talk of zero tolerance which somehow reduced itself to zero over time to the bunker system trialled at the recent Rugby World Cup that seemed to work pretty well for the most part, the game’s powers that be have made several efforts to make the game safer.

And whenever I go to harp on this topic I always feel I have to point out that safety is the driving force behind these changes, because every time there’s a debate over the way a particular on-field decision is worked out, there still seems to be a lot of people out there who just can’t get that concept.

Without fail when a red card gets flashed you’ll find somebody somewhere using one of the most triggering phrases for me right now, namely “that’s a disgraceful call there’s no way that was intentional.”  I really can’t get my head around just how this issue hasn’t been put to bed years ago.

Just this weekend we had at least two perfect examples of this in the final pool round of the Champions Cup, first there was a stamp by Bristol’s Josh Caulfield on the head of Connacht’s Finlay Bealham and then on Saturday evening Tom Ahern got the knee of Northampton’s Curtis Langdon to the head twice, with the second one leading to another red.

Now it might be wrong for me to choose these particular examples since in both cases the injured parties were players for Irish provinces which might make it look like I’m biased, but I have to look past that because the only way we can have a proper discussion about this is by taking the jersey colours out of the equation.

In Caulfield’s case the bulk of the disagreement stemmed from the referee’s use of the word “intentional” as he announced his final decision.  This led to a flurry of reactions which implied that if there was no intent, then it couldn’t be red and that literally could not be further from the truth.

On the official list of criteria that citing commissioners use to assess foul play, there are 13 items listed in order of importance.  At the top of that list is “intentional/deliberate”.  But right behind it at number 2, or b to be precise, is the word “reckless”.  I really hope the problem here is that people don’t know what that word means, rather than it’s that they don’t realise just how important recklessness is in determining a red card and further sanction.  It’s just one below actual intent and it still leads to red.

Now the referee’s ruling for the Langdon dismissal at Thomond Park made this much, much clearer. He said QUOTE “The first contact was clearly accidental. The second one we can’t say it’s intentional, but it is reckless the player is definitely injured so it is red card.” END QUOTE Not even the French accent of Monsieur Trainini could mask this very clear explanation of the Laws and guidelines right there.

I really hope we can at least come to a point where the vast majority of those enjoying these top rugby matches appreciate what’s involved in these decisions, because while it’s bad enough to see those watching at home on their sofas not understanding, when we’re still getting it from ex-players in the media in the year 2024 it really does make you feel like you’re banging your head against a brick wall which of course leads to the very kind of injuries these sanctions are genuinely trying to avoid. 

TRUST YOUR CAPTAIN

It really bugs me to see all the speculation over Peter’s contract, especially when I see it going to such lengths as to compare his situation to others suggesting there is some kind of conspiracy at work against him and/or his province.  We don’t know enough, it’s none of our business, AND he is the ‘War God’ so let’s just trust him and get on with supporting the boys in green.

LEINSTER INJURY UPDATE

Nothing released at time of posting and Leinster are off until February anyway so might leave this segment aside for the next few week – besides, it’s time to start giving Irish team updates starting next Tuesday.

FOUL PLAY ‘✓’ RED CARD ‘✖’ ME ‘?’

Having referenced the Caulfield challenge in the bonus clip which was recorded Sunday, his actual hearing came just 24 hours later and the result was disappointing if not surprising.

Please don’t get me wrong – I don’t actually want to see any player banned for a long length of time but the fact remained the player was sent off for a stamp to the head which the referee clearly described as “intentional” so I was very curious to see how the final ruling would address this because if a player is judged to have intentionally stamped on the head of an opponent surely the only option is for a lengthy ban.  

As you see below, instead, they just ignored that part of it altogether.

“Caulfield was sent off by the referee, Pierre Brousset (France), in the 13th minute of the match for stamping on the Connacht Rugby prop, Finlay Bealham, in contravention of Law 9.12.

The committee determined that Caulfield had committed an act of foul play, however, it found that the offence did not warrant a red card, and the red card decision was therefore overturned.”

I assumed they’d clean up the “intentional” remark like perhaps saying the ref mis-spoke and to be honest I prefer that much more to actually pretending it wasn’t said at all or at least wasn’t significant.

But on top of that, to determine it was both foul play AND not a red card is like saying 2+2=62,387 as far as I’m concerned.

“SVNS” UPDATE

The new look “SVNS” circuit gets back underway this weekend with the latest event in Perth.  Significance of this one is that it’s over three days so teams won’t have more than two matches per day which should obviously help the fitness levels.  After two rounds the women sit in 7th and the men 5th with both more than capable of moving up their respective ladders.  As ever all the action will be streamed live via Rugbypass.tv.

🔝🐱🐴 UPDATE

Some big clashes at the top of the table as 1st plays 3rd and 2nd plays 4th in Round 13 (which is the halfway point of the regular season btw) but for me the match of the round is La Rochelle’s trip to Toulon – defeat for ROG’s men would be their 7th of the campaign and put them even further away from that elusive Brennus.

PREMIERSHIP UPDATE

Northampton are arguably the form team in Europe right now and with winless Newcastle due to visit Franklin’s Gardens in round 12 they could well extend their lead at the top with many of the chasing pack playing each other.

AIL UPDATE 

A lot of online chatter in women’s rugby has been about the postponements in the AIL Cup but to repeat an opinion I shared here a few weeks ago, I’m not altogether sure this represents another stick to beat the IRFU with necessarily.

Sure, it is far from a good look for senior clubs to be unable to field players in an official competition, but we need to remember why the competition exists in the first place.  

Last season both the interpro series & WAIL were done and dusted before Christmas, definitely a “stick” as mentioned above.  So this season, they turned the WAIL into a home-and-away competition AND with the expansion of the international Celtic Challenge to include an extra team, they made sure there were no league fixtures overlapping with it and instead used the cup to give the clubs some rugby in that time.

So while it is true that this ended up exposing the lack of available players, I would argue that it was done with the best intentions, while adding that it is certainly not MY intention to defend the IRFU for the sake of it.  

In this case, just to be devil’s advocate if nothing else, I’d suggest maybe they tried to offer more competitive rugby but just overshot the mark.

Anyway…back to the Celtic Challenge, and after a week off it returns to action with the table-topping Wolfhounds hosting Brython Thunder while the Colvers must travel to Glasgow.  Live coverage will be on RugbyPass.tv again.

Over on the men’s side, Tarf slipped up at home to Lansdowne allowing the chasing pack to catch up and with Hinch narrowly losing out to the Cookies it means the top four are starting to see some daylight.  Pick of the next round is an easy one with the top two going at it down in Cork.

#SupportYourLocalClub

WOMEN’S CELTIC CHALLENGE

CHALLENGE CUP UPDATE

Even with the round of 16 pairing being decided after round 4 the highlight for me was the news from Tblisi as Black Lion may have fallen at the final hurdle and missed out on further progress but still that 17k attendance for the visit of Clérmont certainly caught the eye.

And while we’re at the bottom end of the competition we really have to mention the demise of the Scarlets this season, for a club that won a major title as relatively recently as 2017 it’s a real disappointment to see them struggling in both competitions now.

So anyway back to the competition itself, like I said there are now 16 left in contention with four dropping down from the Champions Cup which included both Ulster and Connacht, both of which face tricky challenges away to 🔝🐱🐴 opposition.

Personally I’m looking at that bracket and wondering if Benetton aren’t worth a sneaky bet to win it all?

NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

Time to hang up the blue jersey for a bit and go back to the green, in fact I’ll have to take the time to go change the logos on all the social media channels too.  On Sunday evening with no wrap pod I will instead be having fans from Ulster, Connacht & Munster on to look at Ireland’s Six Nations chances, and while I have them it would probably be rude not to ask them to harp on their own provinces a bit too. 

We should have some other content floating around as well so keep tabs with any or all of our social media channels and please comment, like, share & subscribe whenever the mood takes you.

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

FRONT FIVE

A selection of five eye-catching egg-chasing quotes & links from around the ruggersphere.

Note – views expressed in “Front Five” links do not necessarily reflect those of HarpinOnRugby

WRAP OF A WRAP

Had a go at our new wrap format this weekend having switched the Front Five segment over to this column as you see above.  It certainly gave us more time to harp on our feature match and as ever Conor & Tom did a bang up job getting it done.

If you missed it, here’s a link for Spotify but it’s also available on Apple and other platforms, please subscribe and/or leave a review if you can.

NEW LOOK BONUS CLIP

The bonus clip also got a mini makeover; instead of three of us harping on one topic we will now each bring our own chosen subjects for a brief rant.  I’ve posted the transcript from my Duponte bit below FWIW.

FORMAT REFORM

I’m wary of doing these TikToks just to go along with popular views on rugby matters so this week I have gone with the (admittedly not exactly sexy) topic of Champions Cup format reform.  Again I have included the transcript.

LEINSTER INJURY UPDATE

It goes without saying the uncertainty over both Harry and Ciarán is a major concern for Leinster, nothing at all against Sam Prendergast but the hope is that at least one will be available for what could be a tricky outing at Welford Road.  Elsewhere it was great to see the likes of Ryan, Lowe and Furlong get through the Aviva match unscathed, though the section at the bottom of the update still looks far from ideal.

NB : the above matchday 23 is completely from my own mind, I’m certainly not suggesting I have any ITK a la Thornley

LRZ TO USA

News is only breaking as I’m posting this column so haven’t had much time to react with any more than the tweet blow plus the realization that Welsh rugby seems to be in an even worse state than once thought. If they had won a RWC or Grand Slam in the past year or so I wonder if he’d be even considering “doing a Christian Wade”. Interesting POV from Harpin contributor Mark Jackson too.

AIL UPDATE 

The Leinster-heavy Wolfhounds won in Glasgow to keep them at the top of the Celtic Challenge table as the competition goes into a bye weekend.  The Clovers made it another Irish double as they edged the Lightning.

Meanwhile in the men’s AIL the top 5 were kept apart in Round 10 and all won which has of course opened up something of a gap in the middle of the table.   The Dublin derby at Castle Avenue between Clontarf and Lansdowne has to be the pick of round 11.

#SupportYourLocalClub

ROUND 4

CHALLENGE CUP UPDATE

No second win for Black Lion yet and it looks like they’ll need to beat Clérmont in round 4 to make the knockout stages but anything is possible.  Gloucester & Montpellier remain the only unbeaten sides with the latter’s trip to Benetton seeming to be the pick of the ties for the next round, unless of course the Top 14 outfit decide their home match against Pau the following weekend is more important, which I have a feeling they will.

HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE

No URC matches for a few weeks but given I’m still top of the league I don’t mind if I keep publishing the table any chance I get!!!

NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

Next up for us is of course Leinster’s trip to Leicester next weekend, Kino will join me for a preview on Friday then the wrap pod will be recorded Sunday evening.  Keep up with all the latest happenings on our social media channels and please help us by commenting, liking, sharing & subscribing wherever you can.

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

On this week’s column…

FRONT FIVE

A selection of five eye-catching egg-chasing quotes & links from around the ruggersphere.

Note – views expressed in “Front Five” links do not necessarily reflect those of HarpinOnRugby

NEW WRAP UNWRAPPED

As you can see above, we’ll be doing things a little differently at Harpin Manor in 2024.  The wrap pod from now on will be just that…a pod wrapping the latest Leinster & Ireland fixture and the “Front Five” feature will return to a written format, appearing at the tart of this column each week.

I started the Front 5 way back in July 2014 and it was a daily post which helped with regular content and also helped keep me up to date with issues outside my chosen remit.  I chose to keep it when I switched to a pod format but I reckon it’s better to launch straight into the subject matter so this seems to be a logical resting place for it, although with more and more publications putting themselves behind firewalls we’ll see how long interesting links remain accessible!

HARPIN’ ON…MOST VIEWED VID OF 2023

We will still have a “bonus clip” segment in our wrap recordings except rather than me choosing a topic I’m going to let my guests harp on things they’d like to discuss.

The videos will remain in this portion of the 80+ column so for this week I will share the video which got by far the most views over the past year, namely my thoughts on the Jean Kleyn situation which I’m assuming got shared around the Springbok fan base.

SENSIBLE V SILLY TIK TOK

Since I’ve had a TikTok account I have seen a lot of different types of post; some I find hilarious but others kind of make me cringe.  One of the latter for me is the “talking to myself” style so to announce the return from my “mini break” I decided to make my own.  You probably think it is just as cringeworthy as any other and I wouldn’t argue as that is kind of the point!  

The scene is meant to be between two versions of myself, a “sensible” one and a “silly” one – and this is actually symbolic of my general approach to content production, part of me wants to be a straight laced presenter while another can’t resist dad jokes and such.  So in a way this format worked, but as I say, it will more than likely be the first AND last time I ever use it.  I’m also a bit annoyed I fucked up the subtitles in a couple of places but let’s just say I’m not losing any sleep!!!

Thanks for all who gave positive feedback anyway though!

LEINSTER INJURY UPDATE

“Number of months” are obviously the last words you want to see in an injury update, particularly at the midpoint of a season which could very well mean yours is all but over.  Jimmy O’Brien and Martin Moloney both got that horrible news over the holidays, the former would have of course been heavily involved in the plans for both Leinster and Ireland while Moloney is probably cursing his luck even more as he has yet to appear for Leinster after returning from a previous spell on the sidelines which began just as he broke into the team.

The “no further updates” section is also full of players who would feature heavily in Leinster’s plans but as you can see from the “x” below there was some extra good news announced after the update was published…

NB : the above matchday 23 is completely from my own mind, I’m certainly not suggesting I have any ITK a la Thornley

THE MIDDLE AISLE

This is the “middle aisle” portion of the column where I will briefly harp on issues of the day, or at least it will be from next week – that TikTok involved so much work I really don’t have the time right now to delve into much else!

URC IRISH SHIELD UPDATE

I know there will be no more URC interpros until May, but I thought I’d post the state of play one last time before that as it is so well poised.

“SVNS” UPDATE

The Sevens circuit is still on a break but I’ll still post the update to remind us all how things stand.  Big year for the Irish programme of course with the Olympics in July also on the schedule.

🔝🐱🐴 UPDATE

From a Leinster POV the drab draw for Stade catches the eye and makes me wonder just how much they will prioritise their Champions Cup campaign over the coming weeks after 2 defeats from 2 and a trip to 2nd place Bayonne next up at home.

Racing held off Castres in a shootout to stay top while La Rochelle moved closer to the playoff spots by winning at Pau, and have to overcome Premiership opposition over the next two weeks if they are to also revive their Champions Cup hopes.

PREMIERSHIP UPDATE

Northampton stay top after an impressive win at Exeter, and will probably stay their after the next round with lowly Newcastle coming to Franklin’s Gardens.  Sale fell out of the playoff places after getting done at home by Bristol.  After 11 rounds, 70% of the league have more wins than losses so there are many twists and turns left.

AIL UPDATE 

Both Irish clubs were victorious in round 2 of the Celtic Challenge but the Welsh franchise Gwalia Lightning are top of the table and visit the Clovers next.  The Leinster-heavy Wolfhounds side will aim to keep their 100% record intact when they travel to Glasgow and all games are available to watch for free on RugbyPass.tv

Meanwhile the new competition has put pressure on the Women’s AIL clubs – while there are no league fixtures while it’s on, there is an “All-Ireland Women’s Cup” and Old Belvedere of all teams found themselves unable to put out a side to face Galwegians in Round 1 and had to concede the match points.

I like to consider myself an ally to those pushing for the IRFU bringing the standards up to where they should be but in this one case I’m not sure it really counts as another stick to beat them with.  The Celtic Challenge seems to be a net positive and given it has to be run in conjunction with other unions, there was always going to be a chance it would affect the clubs.  Last year, the complaints were that the clubs didn’t have enough matches (and this was correct as the AIL was done and dusted by Christmas) so while the Belvo concession clearly demonstrates there is still a long way to go, I’d still hope at least we’re heading in a decent general direction.

Meanwhile the men’s AIL is back this week while the Bateman Cup final was retained by Terenure (who had arguably their best social media team announcement yet see below) after they overcame Young Munster and with lowly Trinity visiting Lakelands next in the league, they have every chance to climb further.  

Ballynahinch will need another win over their Ulster rivals City of Armagh to stay in touch with the top four while leaders Clontarf make the trip to Shannon.

#SupportYourLocalClub

CHALLENGE CUP UPDATE

Not many eyes in the wider rugby world fall on the Challenge Cup but those that do will no doubt be on Black Lion’s progress…the 5 match points they already have could well be enough to see them into the knockouts but who’s to say they won’t get more?  This weekend they go to Castres who could well be putting more focus on their domestic standing.

HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE

Just the one URC match last weekend and the only HPL combatants to predict that the Lions would win at the Sharks were Kristian, who leapfrogged Kino into 3rd, and…wait for it…KEEGO!!! Still can’t see him making up the gap to avoid keeping the Jersey of Shame though, even if we aren’t quite yet at the halfway stage of the season.

I’m considering adding a “cup competition” to the HPL starting in Round 10 but I’ll let you know when it gets closer to the time.

NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

Right that’s it for now, great to be back to whatever “normal” is.  The Rugby on TV feature returns as it’s regular stand alone post on Thursday, then Keego will join me for Friday’s preview of the visit of Stade while our new-look wrap pod will feature Tom & Conor recording on Sunday evening.

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

WRAP OF A WRAP

As pointed out in the social media posts leading readers here, this is the first of two 80+ columns to bookend a mini-break from content-producing here at Harpin Manor what with the URC taking this coming weekend off.

Our schedule was thrown out of whack by the holiday period but for the most part we gave Leinster’s interpros the full Harpin treatment although Keego swapped from the previews to the wraps with both Jay Long and Conor Cronin doing top work stepping in for the preview shows.

If you didn’t catch the Ulster wrap pod itself, here’s a link to Spotify and we’re also on Apple and most major platforms.

HARPIN’ ON…LOOKING AHEAD TO 2024

Last week’s bonus clip was a look back to 2023 so it made sense to switch to crystal ball mode for the year ahead this time around. Keego & myself offered suggestions as to what might happen as well as outlining what rugby is in store for both Leinster & Ireland.

LEINSTER INJURY UPDATE

It’s very possible we won’t get a new update until next week’s column but I will still have a go at selecting a team for the Stade match based on the info I have.

NB : the above matchday 23 is completely from my own mind, I’m certainly not suggesting I have any ITK a la Thornley

UPCOMING RUGBY ON IRISH TV 

We normally do this as a separate post but like last week I’ll include it here.  I can’t find any 🔝🐱🐴 , normally it’s on Premier Sports Ireland but they seem to be concentrating on the FA Cup – I’ll update if anything shows up.

URC IRISH SHIELD UPDATE

Obviously Ulster’s win at the RDS threw the race for the shield wide open with the May 18 rematch in the Kingspan looking like it’s going to be the decider. I’m also still amazed how close all the matches have been – if it wasn’t for a last-gasp interception try at the Sportsground, all 8 matches so far will have been decided by 7pts or less.

🔝🐱🐴 UPDATE

Racing slipped up getting just a losing BP at lowly Bayonne yet still remain top while Leinster’s next opposition Stade F came away from Toulon with nothing although despite being 5th they’re still within striking distance of their Parisian rivals. Meanwhile La Rochelle’s relatively comfortable dispatching of Toulouse had me wondering if the LAR>LEI>TLS>LAR cycle has finally been broken! ROGs lot can get even closer to the top six with a win at Pau in the next round.

PREMIERSHIP UPDATE

Not often the top team in all three main Euro domestic leagues lose in the same weekend, however Sale were the only one to see themselves knocked off their perch as defeat to Northampton moved the Saints up to the summit with Exeter climbing to second.  Leicester Tigers scoffed a decent home win over Bath although their schedule doesn’t get much easier with just the 9 Champions Cup between their next three opponents Saracens, La Rochelle and of course Leinster.

AIL UPDATE 

No action in the AIL but the women’s Celtic Challenge did kick off with the two newly-created Irish teams Wolfhounds & Clovers meeting at Musgrave Park. The Leinster/Ulster based side overturned a halftime deficit to finish on top, round 2 is this coming weekend all the matches will be streamed live on RugbyPass.tv the links are in the TV section further up the page.

#SupportYourLocalClub

WOMEN’S CELTIC CHALLENGE

WOMEN’S AIL

NO MATCHES LAST WEEKEND

MEN’S AIL

NO MATCHES LAST WEEKEND

HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE

The Welsh regions have been good to me in this round but still my lead at the top has been whittled down to just 1.5pts with a group forming right down to 6th ready to pounce.  Round 9 is unusual as it includes two extra fixtures for the Lions in January so we’ll see how the lads get on remembering their picks!  If they’re lucky I might even remind them in the WhatsApp group…

NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

We’re going to take full advantage of the URC off week here at Harpin Manor to do absolutely NOTHING content-related for a few days.  The plan is to be back with another 80+ column which will be back on it’s regular day, which I guess means I’ll actually see you next Tuesday!!! 😜

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

WRAP OF A WRAP

First things first….not one but TWO Harpin contributors have had milestone birthdays in the last week, best wishes to both Tom Coleman and Conor Cronin I hope the celebrations went well!

Well that match certainly didn’t go like we thought it would, did it?  On the preview with Keego, we were trying to be nice about the Sale lineup but truth be told it really did look like a comprehensive Leinster win was on the cards but although we did get the bonus point win, this Sale squad really put it to us and both Tom and Kino made this point perfectly clear as they wrapped the 80 minutes.

If you didn’t catch the wrap pod itself, here’s a link to Spotify and we’re also on Apple and most major platforms.

HARPIN’ ON…ANDY FARRELL APPRECIATION

After skipping the bonus clip the previous week, we recorded one to honour Andy Farrell’s much-deserved gong at the RTÉ Sports Awards.

CHALLENGES FACING IRISH WOMEN’S RUGBY

It’s pretty clear the point I’m making with the editing wizardry in the TikTok below but I’m still actually saying stuff in the speeded up bits so here is a transcript…

1. CLUB RUGBY We start with club rugby. The principal club competition is of course the Women’s AIL which for the past couple of seasons has consisted of a ringfenced top division of 9 clubs.  Last year the league was done and dusted by this stage of the season in mid-December so now they’ve increased it to a home and away schedule extending the regular season to April.  Problems still remain at this level however and just one look at the league table shows that in reality there are only four clubs in real contention for the title, with the other five sometimes struggling to put a team out like Wicklow in the last round who had to concede a walkover due to injuries, something that really should not be happening at senior level, and just to be perfectly clear, I certainly would not lay a whole lot of blame at the door of the club in question.

2. INTERPROS Next we have the interprovincial championship, where the women’s game surely has much scope to resonate with Irish rugby fans already well used to cheering for one of the four provinces.  The problem with this level is that like the clubs they also are badly in need of more games and this season’s title had already been won by Leinster before the men’s World Cup had even kicked off.

3. THE CELTIC CHALLENGE Then we have the Celtic Challenge, a new competition along the lines of the original men’s Celtic League with teams from Ireland Scotland and Wales competing for the prize.  They started last season with one team from each nation and have expanded to two each this year with Ireland fielding newly formed clubs called the Clovers who represent Munster and Connacht, and the Wolfhounds who will draw players from Leinster and Ulster and the two will meet each other in the opening round at Musgrave Park on December 29.  It would of course be awesome for this level to succeed but from an Irish perspective I can’t really see these manufactured teams capturing much attention, so hopefully it won’t be long before all four provinces can afford to field teams and the competition can find a sustainable place on the rugby calendar.

4. SEVENS This brings us to sevens rugby, and this year the World Series has rebranded itself to make sure both men and women play the same amount of rugby at all of the events.  However for the Irish programme there is still a profound difference between the genders in that the men can field a dedicated sevens squad while the women need to draw many of the best players out of the XVs pool, a decision which has certainly brought rewards like qualification for the Paris Olympics, but also which can’t avoid hurting the chances for the full test team in the process, for example the Hong Kong Sevens event takes place right in the middle of the Women’s Six Nations.

5. TEST RUGBY Which of course brings us to the test team itself.  Whatever we say about the levels below, if there is to be significant fan engagement it is critical that the Irish women’s programme finds a way to drastically improve on their disastrous last place finish in the 2023 Six Nations.  Victory in the 3rd tier of the new WXV competition is definitely a start but there is still a long way to go, and like I already said losing key players like Beibhinn Parsons to the sevens programme certainly doesn’t help, nor does a reliance solely on players who are able to be on call for training and such in and around the greater Dublin area.  It surely would be much easier to attract our top female athletes to the sport if there were at the very least proper training bases at each of the four provinces.

6. WHAT CAN FANS DO Finally, there’s the issue of what we can do as fans.  At a practical level offering financial or volunteer support to your local club is one of the best ways to help out but actual engagement with the top teams is also critical.  Ironically one of the most important things you can do in that regard is not listen to me!  While we’d encourage you to keep up with the IRFU site for latest news and fixtures and such, I’d also suggest following dedicated websites like Scrumqueens and twitter accounts like @IrishWomens and @JC200022 to get a sense of what more needs to be done.

LEINSTER INJURY UPDATE

Update didn’t arrive until Wednesday afternoon this week, it looks like the news on Charlie Ngatai isn’t as bad as we first feared, fingers crossed. As you can see from my 23 I’m holding out hope we’ll see James Lowe back for the trip to Thomond but he can of course take as long as he feels he needs…

NO TO CO CAPTAINS

When Leinster are losing there are many who take great pleasure from pointing out what we’re doing wrong, but when that stick isn’t there to beat us with, the scramble to find an alternative can be entertainment in itself.  

This latest one is more twig than stick but still it has to be said that the “co-captain” experiment hasn’t gotten off to an ideal start at the province, and judging by the feedback from refs in the opening two weeks in Europe, we might have to rethink the  policy very soon.

My completely hot take is that this was a decision made to appease their respective agents?  Having the Leinster captain on your books would be quite the feather in the cap so (remember I have ZERO info on this, all speculation) I can imagine a situation where pressure is exerted from representatives for both players with this being a compromise.  If so, or indeed whatever led to the decision, here’s hoping they can quickly go back to the drawing board because one captain at a time is definitely the way to go.

SEXTON AS COACH

Really mischievous headline here “IRFU Don’t Rule Out Possible Ireland Return For Johnny Sexton” and I suppose I can’t blame the media for cranking up the old outrage-baiting headline generator for this one.  And to be honest, if anyone who has ever played the game could make the difficult transition from player to coach work quickly, it’s Johnny since I’d argue that he has essentially been an extra coach most his career.  But even with that, I very much doubt there’s much chance of him going straight to the Irish job replacing Mike Catt.  Right now I reckon Mike Prendergast looks a good fit FWIW.

LOS PUMAS TURN TO DR. PHIL 

Monday was a “fast news day” for sure, including the announcement that Felipe Contepomi had been appointed to head coach of the Pumas, which of course means it’s more than likely he’ll be leading them when they come to play the Lions at the Aviva Stadium in 2025.  It goes without saying that we wish him every success unless it’s against us at a World Cup!!!!

TOP SHELF IRISH WHISKEY

Have to admit I didn’t even know this was on the cards but I’m delighted to learn that Jamison Gibson-Park has earned his Irish citizenship, great news for him, and of course for both Leinster & Ireland rugby.   I always got the sense when he started playing at the province that he wasn’t wild about the kicking game and when Andy Farrell opted for a more pass-focused high-tempo style that was when he came into his own and fingers crossed he has many seasons left to do it.

URC IRISH SHIELD UPDATE

No harm leaving this in the column with the interpros on the horizon…

AIL UPDATE 

No action at AIL level for the women this week, though as you see in the TikTok rnt segment I had a comment or two to make there.

Over on the men’s side there were some close derbies as UCD out scored Lansdowne in a 44-40 shootout at Belfield Bowl and the Cookies edged out Cork Con, and that result allowed Clontarf to extend their lead at the top after dispatching Shannon at Castle Ave.  In the other two local tussles Hinch won at Armagh while Terenure heaped more misery on Trinity.  Division 1A is now at its halfway stage and Round 9 fixtures get reversed for the next round in mid January.

#SupportYourLocalClub

WOMEN’S AIL

NO MATCHES LAST WEEKEND

CHALLENGE CUP UPDATE

Obviously Black Lion stole the headlines in the Challenge Cup but Tom harped on that for the pod.  4 of the 18 teams have gotten off to perfect starts including two from SA, the Lions and the Cheetahs, who overcame the Sharks in the local encounter.   From the Round 3 schedule you’d have to pick out Black Lion who will have no fear travelling to Castres as the home side could well have one eye on their domestic standing, but I also wouldn’t mind checking out Embra v Glaws could be a decent contest.

HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE

Still in first, so still going to include here.  All will likely change over the festive interpros!!!

NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

Right – that’s it, will give this column a well earned break until after the holiers.  We will of course be covering Leinster’s matches against Munster & Ulster, stay tuned to the social media channels for more details.

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