Category: Articles

80+ column : Dec 5

A WEEKLY COLUMN LOOKING AT 

TOPICS BEYOND THE SCOPE OF OUR

FEATURE MATCH OF THE WEEK

WRAP OF A WRAP

Hello there and welcome to our latest 80+ column…every weekend we focus on the 80 minutes of rugby played by Leinster and/or Ireland, and here is where we keep tabs on pretty much everything else.

For our latest wrap myself and Conor Cronin harped on Leinster’s robbery victory in Galway on Saturday evening, normally I have two contributors but one had to pull out (the cheek of these people having actual lives!) so I took up the slack myself and prepared some extra chat and while my voice only barely held up (made a lot of use of both the cough button and the editing software) I reckon we did a decent job going over the match between us.

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

And one thing I keep forgetting to do in these columns is give a shout out to our preview show – it generally goes live 24 hours ahead of kickoff and I guess the reason I forget it is the “mootness” of the previews once the match is actually played, but I am of course grateful to Keego (and the others who occasionally step in) for sitting with me for a quick recording once each matchday squad is named. 

HARPIN ON…CHANGES WE’D MAKE TO RUGBY

Last week I mentioned that I had abandoned Mastodon in favour of Blue Sky as I can only handle one Musk alternative at a time.  Engagement has been pretty good there so far so I threw out a general question to see what kind of responses I’d get.  It helped give us a decent topic for our bonus chat on Sunday, where Conor and myself read out some of the top responses as well as offering a few of our own.  

As you can see I have included more of the answers below.

ORIGINAL QUESTION : OK time throw a topic out there see how it flies in the BlueSky….You are put in charge of the entire sport of rugby union for long enough to make just ONE (realistic) change that will be permanent.  What’s it gonna be.

Dr Harley Worthy – Lifetime ban for anyone using the phrase “bring back rucking”, you can still ruck the ball backwards with your foot. You just miss people being given a shoeing

Andrew Byrne – If it’s only one thing then it’s….Global Season…. #GoBigOrGoHome

Brian Donnelly – Put the right level of funding, structures and support into the process of creating a panel of consistently competent top level referees.  It’s too haphazard at moment.

Sei Williams – I would invent a time machine, go back to 1995 and do Welsh professional rugby properly. Thanks.

Edward Jenkins  – Ban union ownership of non-test pro teams.

Cian Ó Muilleoir – Ban private ownership of non-test pro teams.

Stephen Murphy (Master Of None Pod) – Appoint me as the Rugby Czar and I will review every red card individually and dish out appropriate punishments.

Cian Ó Muilleoir – My actual real and genuine suggestion is that if a try is scored with a penalty advantage still accrued the advantage is carried to a penalty kick for the restart.

Kevin Beirne – If you score a try under penalty advantage you can choose take the conversion from the location of the penalty

Caolán Scully – All outside backs must their hair cut by a team barber, and oblige to a style that suits their position

Richard Mifsud – My realistic one is one I’ve often mentioned, you only get a try bonus with three clear tries à la Top14

David O’Crampeasy –  Scrum reset/free kick/penalties better, I don’t know how, just better. Much better scrum/lineout commentary talk about the power/mass/height involved, celebrate the technicalities of the game rather than try to hide them

James Gotoshay –  All games, URC,Champions cup,internationals and all other leagues including southern hemisphere leagues and summer tours are available in one subscription pack.

Sarah Lennon – Crouch, touch, pause, engage.

Bill Byrne – Properly addressing media rights and new media issues. Low key massive issue. Needs to be comprehensively addressed.

Cian Ormond –  Establish a women’s touring team akin to the B&I Lions, but not just copying what already exists.  Realistically, a current B&I womens team would be all England. Perhaps England could be one of the big opponents for an Irish-Scottish-Welsh team (for example), establishing a new and unique brand.

Rob Gardner – If a technical infringement doesn’t materially impact the game state then it is to be ignored.  Example: if a lineout throw isn’t straight but opposition didn’t put a man in the air they are deemed to have conceded possession and it’s play on.

Sale Ben – Rucking. If you’re on the wrong side it’s your responsibility to get out of there. Would speed up the game and reduce head contact at the ruck with players flying in to clear the ruck zone of debris

Peel – pump money into Unions that need/deserve it (Madagascar would be a big one, they bloody love rugby)

Maz McMillan – Tier 1 nations must play at least one tier 2 nation every year. I dislike the word “tier” but you know what I mean

Ross Rugby Ref – Rewrite the laws to the game we want, if crooked scrum feeds are ok, then write laws that way – give us community refs a chance!

LEINSTER INJURY UPDATE

The news on Ross Byrne was pretty much expected but Jamie Osborne as well…I actually had him in my team before the injury report was released but now I’m hoping James Lowe is available. I understand he has been back in Dublin after some compassionate leave and although it would be asking a lot to expect him to dive into the deep end against La Rochelle if anyone could do it, he can. If he’s not in the frame I’d be more than happy to see Rob Russell get the nod.

Harpin’ matchday 23 v La Rochelle

15 Keenan 14 O’Brien 13 Ringrose 12 Henshaw 11 Lowe 10 Frawley 9 Gibson-Park

1 Porter 2 Sheehan 3 Furlong 4 McCarthy 5 Ryan 6 Conan 7 van der Flier 8 Doris

16 Kelleher 17 Healy 18 Ala’alatoa 19 Molony 20 Baird 21 Foley 22 H Byrne 23 Penny

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

INJURY UPDATE – AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:

Cormac Foley: came through the game at the weekend with no issues after his return from a shoulder injury.

Cian Healy: came through the game at the weekend with no issues after his return from a shoulder injury.

Alex Soroka: has returned to full training after recovering from a foot injury.

INJURY UPDATE – FURTHER ASSESSMENT REQUIRED:

Michael Milne: will be further assessed later this week as he continues his return from a shoulder injury.

INJURY UPDATE – UNAVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:

Ross Byrne: had a procedure on an arm injury last week and will be unavailable until the new year.

Jamie Osborne: picked up a shoulder injury in the win over Connacht and is having a procedure this week and will be unavailable for selection as a result.

NO FURTHER UPDATES ON:

Tommy O’Brien (ankle), Luke McGrath (knee) and John McKee (hamstring)

WHAT THE FOCAL?

Might have stepped in a minefield here but more often than not I find my view to be right in the middle of two extremes so I’ve decided to address it in my latest TikTok vid.  Apologies if my Irish and Welsh pronunciations aren’t what they should be but I couldn’t do this bit without at least having a go!

@harpinonrugby

This is part our weekly 80+ column, check it out every Tuesday afternoon at HarpinOnRugby.com #rugbytiktoks🏉 #irishtiktok #irelandtiktok

♬ original sound – Harpinonrugby.com – Harpinonrugby.com

JUXTAPOSED SEXFIEND VIDEO

That headline is about as “IYKYK” as you can get!!!  Although I very much doubt that if you love rugby enough to be reading these pages, you haven’t also heard of Squidge!

Having been denied the chance to offer his trademark takes from the World Cup, as well as being denied a decent explanation, all Irish fans will be glad he turned his attention to the career of Johnny Sexton, and this time he reproduces all his hilarious various on the name, and you have to say he left the best until last.

I can’t leave out the fact that both “Rathgar” and “Bective” get mispronounced at the start (though it could be intentional given the running gag on his name) but trust me…as the video goes on all of that ceases to matter and even though I’ve been running this site for pretty much the length of th guy’s career, even I learned a few things.

So just in case you haven’t see in yet, here’s a link.

WELSH RUGBY – WHAT WENT WRONG?

That’s a question that most rugby fans around the world would like answered and thankfully someone has literally written the book on it.

Seimon Williams is the author and I am delighted to say he has agreed to come on the pod for a chat – I reckon the best time to do this will be just before Ireland play Wales in the Six Nations (with Leinster playing Cardiff the following weekend) so it’s a bit down the line but with Christmas “around the corner” I thought I’d get in an early mention, this link is for Amazon but it’s available in several different places.

Here’s the official blurb…

The 2022-23 season may just be the bleakest in Welsh rugby history. Accusations of misogyny, sexism, racism and homophobia against the Welsh Rugby Union led to resignations, independent inquiries, Senedd intervention and rushed governance reform. Budget cuts, strike threats, uncertainty for players, embarrassing defeats and the dismissal of the national coach presaged another poor Six Nations campaign.

This book looks at the issues which have seen Welsh rugby stumble from crisis to crisis over the past 40 years. At how a nation which led the rugby world in the 1970s declined into the fractured, riven, divided rugby nation of today. At how occasional successes at club, regional and Test level were achieved despite the system, not because of it, and did little more than paper over the cracks. At, fundamentally, what went wrong.

FAZ BREAK

Keego touched on this for the preview pod but I’d just like to add my two cents, totally in agreement with him that there is absolutely nothing wrong with a player taking a break from the game for whatever reason.  

The schedule can be hectic, particularly if you are captain for both club and country with all the extra media responsibilities, and although we might have a go at him now and again on these pages, I really do hope none of it is considered anywhere near the kind of treatment that has led to this break.

We all want our teams to win, but we also want them to do it against the top players available and he is of course right up there on that list so here’s to a speedy return for him.

URC IRISH SHIELD UPDATE

I can’t believe the mainstream media never made anything out of the fact that Ciaran Frawley’s late try catapulted Leinster to the top of the Irish Shield!!!  All of course could change over the Christmas schedule…

NOV 4 CONNACHT 22-20 ULSTER

NOV 10 ULSTER 21-14 MUNSTER

NOV 25 LEINSTER 21-16 MUNSTER

DEC 2 CONNACHT 22-24 LEINSTER

DEC 22 ULSTER V CONNACHT

DEC 26 MUNSTER V LEINSTER

JAN 1 CONNACHT V MUNSTER

JAN 1 LEINSTER V ULSTER

MAY 11 MUNSTER V CONNACHT

MAY 18 ULSTER V LEINSTER

MAY 31 LEINSTER V CONNACHT

JUNE 1 MUNSTER V ULSTER

“SVNS” UPDATE

Since I covered the 7s kickoff on the main pod I’ll just copy my piece here…some may call that lazy but I prefer to see it as “eco-friendly recycling”…

I’d like to take a quick look at Ireland’s involvement in the World Series Sevens, or “SVNS” as it’s called now since they removed the e’s.  Sure who needs vowels anyway, amirite?

Anyway…changing the name wasn’t the only rebrand, and probably the most significant new feature is that they have brought equity to the genders by not only ensuring that every leg has both a men’s and women’s event, but also they reduced the number of men’s teams from 16 to 12 same as the women.

Both Irish teams have been doing reasonably well since we finally invested in the code with qualification for the Paris Olympics something to look forward to later in the year, but over the weekend the new SVNS series kicked off in Dubai and Ireland got off to flying starts with the women defeating Japan and Brazil and the men overcoming Australia and Spain.

Three matches in one day in that Dubai heat proved too much for us in the third pool matches, however, with the women falling to Australia and the men against Argentina, and this left our task in the cup quarterfinals that little bit tougher.

The Irish women were up against a Canadian side which had already caused an upset on Day 1 by defeating the USA but although we were down by 7pts with less than a minute left on the clock we were perhaps too impatient with an extra player as Aimee Leigh Murphy Crowe went over in the corner making the conversion too much meaning Canada went through.

Meanwhile over on the men’s side there was a crazy quarterfinal as Ireland’s only involvement in the first half was one overthrown lineout as Fiji ran in five tries to be 29-0 up at the break before Ireland responded with four unanswered tries of their own until Mark Roche tried to be a bit too clever with an attempted restart to himself, knocking on in the process and leaving the Flying Fijians as the winners 29-24

This dropped both sides into the playoffs for placings but still every point counts in the series and the teams had mixed fortunes as the women fell 19-24 to Fiji to finish in 6th place while the men overcame Samoa to end up 5th.  Ending up in the top half in both competitions wasn’t the worst result for Ireland but you still feel our ceiling is a little bit higher.

When it came to the tournament winners in Dubai, Australia took the women’s title beating New Zealand 26-19 in the final while the South African Blitzbokke defeated Argentina 12-7 on the men’s side.  The series now moves on to Cape Town next weekend, with the remaining destinations being Perth, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Singapore and finally Madrid at the end of next May.  As ever we live in hope that one day a venue in Ireland might be added to that list.

#IRLW7s

POOL

IRELAND 35-7 JAPAN

IRELAND 19-14 BRAZIL

AUSTRALIA 33-5 IRELAND

QF

IRELAND 12-14 CANADA

5TH PLACE PLAYOFF

IRELAND 19-24 FIJI

#IRLM7s

POOL

AUSTRALIA 12-19 IRELAND

IRELAND 35-10 SPAIN

ARGENTINA 17-7 IRELAND

QF

IRELAND 24-29 FIJI

5TH PLACE PLAYOFF

IRELAND 28-7 SAMOA

NEXT IN THE SERIES…

CAPE TOWN DEC 9-10 

Cape Town pools – 

Women: Pool B: New Zealand, Ireland, Brazil, Great Britain

Men: Pool A: South Africa, Ireland, USA, Great Britain

PERTH JAN 26-28

VANCOUVER FEB 23-25

LOS ANGELES MAR 2-3

HONG KONG APR 5-7

SINGAPORE MAY 3-5

MADRID MAY 31-JUN 2

🔝🐱🐴 UPDATE

All Leinster eyes of course will have been on La Rochelle, and it was interesting to see the tables turned for once as while we were the ones grinding out a victory, it was the CC holders who had the run of the mill BP home win against a side at the bottom of the table!  Have a feeling the lineups on Sunday will be very different…

We should also keep an eye on Stade who we play after Christmas, they returned to winning ways with a decent result against the Brennus holders Toulouse, and with La Rochelle next on the list for them in round 10, their task does not get easier.

Stu Lancaster’s Racing are top going into the Champions Cup kickoff.

Round 9

TOULON 36-13 PAU

BAYONNE 34-19 MONTPELLIER

OYONNAX 23-29 BORDEAUX

CASTRES 29-14 LYON

LA ROCHELLE 35-6 PERPIGNAN

CLÉRMONT 23-18 RACING 92

STADE FRANCAIS 27-12 TOULOUSE

Round 10

FRI DEC 22

PERPIGNAN V BAYONNE

BORDEAUX V LYON

SAT DEC 23

MONTPELLIER V CASTRES

RACING 92 V OYONNAX

PAU V CLÉRMONT

STADE FRANCAIS V LA ROCHELLE

TOULOUSE V TOULON

PREMIERSHIP UPDATE

Getting thumped 3-36 and remaining top of the league isn’t easy to do but Leinster’s Champions Cup opponents Sale Sharks managed it this week, although it has become very tight in the Premiership with just the four points separating the top six in the ten-team league.  I wonder when they play Leinster at the RDS will they have half a mind on the visit of Saracens to their ground the following week…

Leicester Tigers probably didn’t learn too much from thumping lowly Newcastle but I’m pretty sure a trip to Sandy Park after the European matches will offer a decent education.

ROUND 8

HARLEQUINS 36-3 SALE SHARKS

BRISTOL 51-26 GLOUCESTER

BATH 41-24 EXETER

SARACENS 12-18 NORTHAMPTON SAINTS

LEICESTER TIGERS 47-3 NEWCASTLE

ROUND 9

FRI DEC 22

NEWCASTLE V BRISTOL

SALE SHARKS V SARACENS

SAT DEC 23

EXETER V LEICESTER

GLOUCESTER V NORTHAMPTON

BATH V HARLEQUINS

AIL UPDATE 

Absolutely no doubt that UL Bohs are hot favourites to lift the Women’s AIL title…their 20-15 at Belvo made it 8 wins from 8 in the first half of the season, and in a league that has already seen a lot of big scorelines, you almost fear for the fate of Wicklow RFC when they travel to Limerick in the next round.  The three Leinster clubs remain hot in pursuit with Belvo hosting Rock in the pick of the ties in the next round.

Before I move on from the Women’s league, the composition of the teams for the Celtic Challenge, a potential precursor to a Celtic League equivalent, has been announced.  Leinster and Ulster will combine to play as the Wolfhounds, while Munster and Connacht will be the Clovers.  More details plus the fixture list to be found here.

Meanwhile on the men’s side, Clontarf won the big top of the table clash holding off Cork Con while Lansdowne overcame lowly Trinity to go stay 3rd and Hinch had a great win at Belfield Bowl to remain in the playoff places.  Terenure sent a message to the rest of the league that they’re not ready to give up their crown just yet as they thumped Shannon at Lakelands.  The Dublin derby between Lansdowne and Tarf seems to be the pick of round 8.

#SupportYourLocalClub

WOMEN’S AIL

Round 9

SUTTONIANS 45-12 WICKLOW

BALLINCOLLIG 14-21 GALWEGIANS

RAILWAY UNION 38-22 BLACKROCK COLLEGE

BELVO 15-20 UL BOHS

Round 10

SAT DEC 9

GALWEGIANS V COOKE

BELVO V BLACKROCK

RAILWAY UNION V SUTTONIANS

UL BOHS V WICKLOW

MEN’S AIL

ROUND 7

CLONTARF 30-26 CORK CON

DUBLIN UNIV 3-17 LANSDOWNE

TERENURE 58-7 SHANNON

UCD 17-31 BALLYNAHINCH

YOUNG MUNSTER 32-17 CITY OF ARMAGH

ROUND 8

SAT DEC 9

BALLYNAHINCH V YOUNG MUNSTER

CORK CON V UCD

LANSDOWNE V CLONTARF

SHANNON V DUBLIN UNIV

TERENURE V CITY OF ARMAGH

RE SUPER CUP UPDATE

The predicted final matchup between Black Lion and Tel Aviv Heat has come to pass as both comfortably got through their semifinals, but now the timing is an issue as it was meant to be played on Dec 16 but the Georgian side kind of have other things to worry about like a trip to Llanelli for a Challenge Cup fixture.  They begin their historic involvement in European cup rugby this weekend by hosting Gloucester.

SEMIFINALS

BLACK LION 41-0 CASTILLA

TEL-AVIV HEAT 31-6 ROMANIAN WOLVES

5TH-8TH PLACE SEMIFINALS

BRUSSELS DEVILS 44-10 BOHEMIAN WARRIORS

DELTA 8-53 LUSITANOS

SAT DEC 16

RE SUPER CUP FINAL

BLACK LION V TEL AVIV*

PLAYOFF FINALS

3RD – CASTILLA V ROMANIAN WOLVES

5TH – LUSITANOS V BRUSSELS DEVILS

7TH – DELTA V BOHEMIA WARRIORS

HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE

Wait – who’s that at the top of the league?  Is that really me???  And what’s more I actually have that late Frawley try to thank for it as well.  having dropped to 4th a few weeks ago it’s great to see my name back up there but as you can see it’s very close and there are bound to be a lot more changes before this league is done.

NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

So that’s it for another week.  La Rochelle are up next, we’ll have a preview on Friday as usual, but with the match on Sunday, we won’t record the wrap until Monday night so keep an eye out for it on the Tuesday morning.  Please do keep in touch on all the usual social media channels in the meantime.

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

80+ column : Nov 28

A WEEKLY COLUMN LOOKING AT 

TOPICS BEYOND THE SCOPE OF OUR

FEATURE MATCH OF THE WEEK

WRAP OF A WRAP

I give a shout out to Mark Jackson on the pod but I’d just like to give another one here, hope things are better after that weekend and that we can have you back on the pod soon.

Normally I try to avoid having contributors on the pod for two weeks in a row…whether that’s because I have so many who are keen to chat to me or because they generally need a break after chatting to me I’ll leave to your imagination!

Anyway Tom Coleman was thankfully willing to return for a second week in a row along with Irish Times columnist Nathan Johns and they combined to bring a top notch perspective to Saturday.  When this was an article based site back in the day my writeups were totally coming from my own point of view but now the pods offer a much broader perspective thanks to my team of fellow fans volunteering their time and expertise. 

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

HARPIN ON…LEINSTER’S CHAMPIONS CUP POOL

For this week’s bonus clip for YouTube my pod guests offered some insights to the teams Leinster must overcome to qualify from Champions Cup pool 4.  Tom looked at our first two opponents La Rochelle and Sale, Nathan covered Stade Francais and Leicester whom we face in January and finally I harped on the Stormers who we avoid playing yet still mustn’t ignore altogether.

Definitely worth a look between now and the tournament kickoff in over a week, and sure while you’re there why not subscribe as well we often put up other videos including match previews there.

LEINSTER INJURY UPDATE

Some very interesting choices to be made for Leinster’s impending trip to Galway.  Far from a match we can afford to take for granted, especially with them hurting from defeat in Pretoria and also likely to have the Akis and the Hansens back in their lineup.  That said, it’s hard to ignore the assignment at the Stade Marcel Deflandre eight days later.

The Ross Byrne injury makes our 10 selection the most crucial one.  With Frawley seeming to be the best bet to be first receiver against La Rochelle does he need game time or cotton wool?  The consensus in the Harpin WhatsApp group is, quite rightly when you think of it, to lean towards the latter by starting Harry Byrne or Sam Prendergast in Galway and give Frawley 20-30 minutes.  

But since this column is where I give my own view, I’d rather push the risk v reward side of things, possibly drawing lessons from that URC semifinal, and give Frawley the 10 jersey so he can go the week preparing for a starting role and thus be ready for the following week.  If the worst should happen injury-wise, then so be it.

Those are just my thoughts for that particular position, however.  As you can see by the 23 below I have gone mostly for a conservative team, yet still one that could do a job in the Sportsground.

Harpin’ matchday 23 v Connacht

Larmour, Russell, Ngatai, Osborne, Lowe, Frawley, Murphy

Boyle, Kelleher, Ala’alatoa, Molony, Jenkins, Conan, Penny (c), Deegan

Barron, Porter, Clarkson, McCarthy, Doris, Gibson-Park, H Byrne, O’Brien J

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

INJURY UPDATE – AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:

N/A

INJURY UPDATE – FURTHER ASSESSMENT REQUIRED:

Michael Milne: will be further assessed later this week as he continues his return from a shoulder injury

Cian Healy: will step up his rehabilitation programme this week as he continues his return from a shoulder injury

INJURY UPDATE – UNAVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:

Ross Byrne: will have further examination for an arm injury picked up at the weekend but has been ruled out of selection this week

Cormac Foley: will step up his rehabilitation programme this week as he looks to return from a shoulder injury

NO FURTHER UPDATES ON:

Tommy O’Brien (ankle), Luke McGrath (knee), John McKee (hamstring) and Alex Soroka (foot)

BLUE SKY AHEAD

Don’t really have time for a Tik-Tok rant this week, they may only be around two minutes of actual content but they take over an hour to produce and I barely have that on “normal” weeks.  

So instead I’ve decided to take the plunge and give another Musk-less Twitter alternative a go.  I went big into Mastodon last year but I have to say the engagement was underwhelming and after resisting the move for a good while now I finally caved and set up an account at Blue Sky, thanks to long time friend of the pod and super Leinster/Ireland fan Catherine Kavanagh who hooked me up with an invite.

Liking it so far, the follower count after less than 24 hours is already a third of what I got at Masto in over a year.  They still don’t publish videos and GIFs yet but no doubt that will come.  

Anyway the main feature of my decision is that by starting a Blue Sky account I now must forget Mastodon completely, as my list of social media accounts had grown too large as it was.

Curse you Elon and the sink you walked in with!!!

https://bsky.app/profile/harpinonrugby.bsky.social

BE NICE TO REFS…

Having Nathan Johns on the wrap pod every so often gives us a decent glimpse into the world of the “official” media and while often sources like to decry them for being “mainstream” the fact remains their access gives them insights which can’t be ignored.

After covering one of his own articles as part of our “Front Five” portion, he went on to pen this article on Monday which looked at the two times Jamison Gibson-Park was punished 10 metres for dissent after penalties were awarded to Munster at the Aviva Stadium.

Since it’s my own team involved I reckon it’s a good opportunity for me to point out that I agree that once the second rebuke happens there should be a further sanction and Whiskey was very lucky not to get sent to the naughty step.  I certainly wouldn’t blame ref Chris Busby for having an attitude like “look, lads, you guys already have TWO captains, I certainly don’t need to be hearing from a third!” 

I’ve always been in favour of a zero tolerance approach when it comes to awarding that extra 10 metres and it really can punish teams.  Hopefully if there is to be more of it, we will see it done consistently.

…AND VICE VERSA 

Now to the flip side – much has been made of this exchange between Owen Farrell and Luke Pearce in the Premiership over the weekend.

Look – it’s a top flight sporting contest.  Adrenaline is pumping, tensions are high, and that’s just with the fans commenting on social media so I can only imagine what it’s like for the players and officials!!!

Obviously your opinion on this is going to greatly depend on your allegiance, whether it’s for or against Saracens, for or against Owen Farrell, maybe even for or against officials in general.

My first impression was that Faz’ response seemed a bit precious, with possibly an air of “do you not know who I am?” about it.  Pearce was definitely being a smart-arse but I don’t know if it quite went as far as being “rude”…

O TO BE (ON THE) 18 AGAIN

For the 40+ years I’ve lived in Ireland I have lived in several different addresses and all but one have been close to at least one of the two bus routes that crossed South Dublin without ever going near the City Centre, namely the 17 and 18.  And for the years I have been Harpin’ when I’m planning on a beverage or two after the rugby it has been the 18 that always saw me safely home, but now the number has been retired with two different routes replaces it, an “S4” that goes near me but not to RDS and an “S2” that covers the other half.

It was always great to see the 18 full of Leinster fans on match days, and there would be plenty already on it having travelled through Ballyfermot/Drimnagh/Crumlin/Kimmage before it ever got to the likes Rathmines.

The only time I never enjoyed being on it was for Christmas fixtures when as well as the rugby fans there would also be legions of youngsters heading to Funderland in various states of inebriation!

But as the tweet below points out, the route will still be an institution long remembered.

GEORGIA ON EPCR’S MIND 

We’ve harped a lot about the whole “get the likes of Georgia more top class rugby” over the years, hopefully this statement is just one point on the road to actually doing it.

ARROWS SHAFTED

Before we leave what I call the “Middle Aisle” portion of the column and go into the “Updates”, some sad news from Major League Rugby, which I plan to include below for the 2024 season.  Most professional sports in the US include at least one Canadian team but sadly it has transpired that the Toronto Arrows won’t be able to field a team for the coming season, and given neither country qualified for the 2023 World Cup the news does not bode well for things getting better in 2027.

At least there has been a team added from last season, with Miami Sharks joining for the coming season.  No doubt eventually we’ll reach a stage where every league in the world has Sharks, and I’m not suggesting that’s a bad thing, once they don’t put mouthfuls like “Hollywoodbets” before the name, of course.

URC IRISH SHIELD UPDATE

Saturday’s win in the Aviva was Leinster’s first match in defence of our Irish Shield title (you can’t see me but my tongue was definitely in my cheek while typing that).  As you can see Ulster still lead the way but the winner  of Saturday evening’s interpro at the Sportsground will lead the table after two matches.  Munster haven’t started well although a pair of losing BPs definitely keeps them in the hunt.

NOV 4 CONNACHT 22-20 ULSTER

NOV 10 ULSTER 21-14 MUNSTER

NOV 25 LEINSTER 21-16 MUNSTER

DEC 2 CONNACHT V LEINSTER

DEC 22 ULSTER V CONNACHT

DEC 26 MUNSTER V LEINSTER

JAN 1 CONNACHT V MUNSTER

JAN 1 LEINSTER V ULSTER

MAY 11 MUNSTER V CONNACHT

MAY 18 ULSTER V LEINSTER

MAY 31 LEINSTER V CONNACHT

JUNE 1 MUNSTER V ULSTER

🔝🐱🐴 UPDATE

With Leinster & Munster battling on Saturday, it’s hard to avoid referencing the same rivalry 24 hours later when Stu Lancaster’s Racing faced ROG’s La Rochelle.  A resounding win for the Paris-based club which sent them to the top of the table although Pau are the real story of the season so far as they are close behind them in 2nd after a similar scoreline against the other Parisiens whom Leinster play in January and now sit in 3rd.  Stade v Toulouse  seems to be the pick of Round 9.

Round 8

TOULON 31-10 CASTRES

BORDEAUX 46-22 PERPIGNAN

LYON 42-29 BAYONNE

MONTPELLIER 21-26 OYONNAX

PAU 30-6 STADE FRANCAIS

TOULOUSE 31-10 CLÉRMONT

RACING 92 32-10 LA ROCHELLE

Round 9

SAT DEC 2

TOULON V PAU

BAYONNE V MONTPELLIER

OYONNAX V BORDEAUX

CASTRES V LYON

LA ROCHELLE V PERPIGNAN

CLÉRMONT V RACING 92

SUN DEC 3

STADE FRANCAIS V TOULOUSE

PREMIERSHIP UPDATE

Leinster’s Champions Cup pool mates Sale stay top of the pile here after grinding out a 11-9 with over Bath, while Leicester Tiger, also in Pool 4, crawled out of the bottom two with a big win at Kingsholm.  Much like the 🔝🐱🐴 there’s a 3rd v 4th clash in the next round that catches the eye as Exeter travel to the Rec.

ROUND 7

NORTHAMPTON 36-33 HARLEQUINS

SALE SHARKS 11-9 BATH

GLOUCESTER 20-38 LEICESTER TIGERS

SARACENS 39-31 BRISTOL

NEWCASTLE 14-20 EXETER

ROUND 8

FRI DEC 1

HARLEQUINS V SALE SHARKS

SAT DEC 2

BRISTOL V GLOUCESTER

BATH V EXETER

SARACENS V NORTHAMPTON SAINTS

SUN DEC 3

LEICESTER TIGERS V NEWCASTLE

AIL UPDATE

Just the one rescheduled match in both genders last weekend, with the scoreline between Railway and Wicklow pretty much what you’d expect.  Some big matchups coming up this weekend with the top four playing against each other which will bring the season to its halfway point.

Over on the men’s side the match of the round is an easy one to spot, with Clontarf, 1st place with 26pts, hosting Cork Con, 2nd with 25.  UCD v Hinch also has top four implications while Trinity really need to start putting some points on the board when they host Lansdowne.

Also on the club scene it was announced that an Irish Club XV will travel to play a Portugal A side in March 2024.

#SupportYourLocalClub

WOMEN’S AIL

Round 6 (rescheduled)

SAT NOV 25

WICKLOW 10-78 RAILWAY UNION

Round 9

SAT DEC 2

SUTTONIANS V WICKLOW

BALLINCOLLIG V GALWEGIANS

BLACKROCK V RAILWAY UNION

BELVO V UL BOHS

MEN’S AIL

NO MATCHES LAST WEEKEND

ROUND 7

SAT DEC 2

CLONTARF V CORK CON

DUBLIN UNIV V LANSDOWNE

TERENURE V SHANNON

UCD V BALLYNAHINCH

YOUNG MUNSTER V CITY OF ARMAGH

RE SUPER CUP UPDATE

Semifinal time already in the Super Cup and expectations will be high for a Black Lion v Tel Aviv final, we’ll see if the Spaniards or Romanians can have something to say about that.

SEMIFINALS

SAT DEC 2

BLACK LION V CASTILLA

TEL-AVIV HEAT V ROMANIAN WOLVES

5TH-8TH PLACE SEMIFINALS

SAT DEC 2

BRUSSELS DEVILS V BOHEMIAN WARRIORS

SUN DEC 3

DELTA V LUSITANOS

HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE

The wins for Cardiff and Benetton on Friday night made it a bad start to the weekend for all of us, but the rest of the weekend went much much better for yours truly as I got my second “yellow cap” in three weeks to jump into 2nd spot in the table right behind Conor.  Meanwhile “No Picks Keego” continues to live up to his name, he must really like that jersey…

NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

Connacht are up next for Leinster, I’ll be chatting to Stephen “Master Of None” Murphy for an Opposition View pod which will publish on Wednesday, then it’s the usual Friday preview and wrap pod on Sunday.  Stay tuned to all the usual social media channels, plus the new one on Blue Sky of course, for all the latest harpin’.

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

80+ column : Nov 21

A WEEKLY COLUMN LOOKING AT 

TOPICS BEYOND THE SCOPE OF OUR

FEATURE MATCH OF THE WEEK

WRAP OF A WRAP

As ever Tom & Rich did a bang up job wrapping Leinster’s win over the Scarlets.  I’ve tried to simplify the format this season, where before I split each half into five segments for the guests to wrap they now just cover 20 minutes each per half.  That can lead to a lot of harping so I’ve tried to jump in to help were I can but I still reckon this works as a better system.

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

HARPIN ON…NEINABER’S TASK

Classic Harpin luck…less than 24 hours after we record a bonus clip about what Neinaber can bring to Leinster, the news breaks that he’s likely to be delayed arriving with the squad until after we play Munster.  Still, as Tom says you can already see some of his influence in our play and no doubt there is some kind of Zoom-like communication going on.   Anyway, the boys still did a good job harpin’ on what he will add to the province.

LEINSTER INJURY UPDATE

Would you believe I completely forgot about this 80+ feature this season until now?  Well if you knew me you certainly would believe it! #scatterbrain

Anywho…while it is good news about Ed Byrne, and also that Messrs Milne & Healy are close to making it five, yes, count ‘em, FIVE quality loose head props available for selection, I reckon Jack Boyle’s form over the first five rounds should be enough to earn him a spot in our 23 for this Saturday at very least.

Obviously the names at the bottom of the list are concerning and we’d want them returning ASAP but overall it’s far from the worst injury report we’ve seen.

Harpin’ matchday 23 v Munster

Keenan, J O’Brien, Ringrose, Ngatai, Lowe, R Byrne, Gibson-Park.

Porter, Sheehan, Furlong, McCarthy, Ryan, Baird, van der Flier, Doris.

Kelleher, Boyle, Ala’alatoa, Molony, Conan, Foley, Frawley, Osborne.

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

INJURY UPDATE – AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:

Ed Byrne: has returned to full training after recovering from his hamstring injury

INJURY UPDATE – FURTHER ASSESSMENT REQUIRED:

Michael Milne: will be further assessed later this week as he continues his return from a shoulder injury

Cian Healy: will step up his rehabilitation programme this week as he continues his return from a shoulder injury

INJURY UPDATE – UNAVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:

N/A

NO FURTHER UPDATES ON:

Tommy O’Brien (ankle), Cormac Foley (shoulder), John McKee (hamstring), Luke McGrath (knee) and Alex Soroka (foot)

WE STAND WITH UGO

Easy choice of topic for this week’s TikTok.  Pretty much said my piece in the video but I will also add a relevant tweet from fellow Leinster fan Catherine Kavanagh on the matter.

@harpinonrugby

Check out our 80+ column posting every Tuesday afternoon at HarpinOnRugby.com #rugbytiktoks🏉

♬ original sound – Harpinonrugby.com – Harpinonrugby.com
https://twitter.com/ugomonye/status/1726288438356513181?s=20

IRISH “SVNS” SQUADS ANNOUNCED

I think I’ve finally settled on a structure with these 80+ columns…starting with a few segments on the wrap pod from last weekend, ending with updates from other competitions, and here we’re in what I call “The Middle Aisle” where I cover a few topics that caught my eye in the last week.

First we have the announcement of the squads for the two senior 7s teams which will be representing Ireland both in the rebranded “Svns” series which starts in Dubai on the weekend of December 2.

As you can see below, the biggest difference between the two groups is that the Women’s includes many who would be expected to featured in XVs, so clearly this continues to be a problem for the programme.  Apparently the only actual clash with the 2024 Six Nations will be on the Hong Kong leg but realistically I’d expect there to be minimal back and forth between the versions.

On the men’s side, all the big names are there like Kennedy, Conroy, McNulty plus some new ones as well and they will really want to crack on from last season where they reached their first final yet disappointed in other events.

We’ll be covering the series on this column and eventually it will move to the Updates section starting next week.

Ireland Women’s Sevens – 2024 Squad: Kathy Baker, Claire Boles, Megan Burns, Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe, Alanna Fitzpatrick, Stacey Flood, Eve Higgins, Katie Heffernan, Erin King, Lucinda Kinghan, Vicky Elmes Kinlan, Emily Lane, Amy Larn, Kate Farrell McCabe, Anna McGann, Lucy Mulhall, Beibhinn Parsons, Aoibheann Reilly, Vikki Wall.

Ireland Men’s Sevens – 2024 Squad: Niall Comerford, Jordan Conroy, Sean Cribbin, Billy Dardis, Ed Kelly, Jack Kelly, Terry Kennedy, JJ Kenny, Hugo Lennox, Matt McDonald, Harry McNulty, Bryan Mollen, Gavin Mullin, Chay Mullins, Dylan O’Grady, Aaron O’Sullivan, Connor O’Sullivan, Mark Roche, Zac Ward.

WOMEN’S CELTIC LEAGUE GETS CLOSER

Last season there was a new competition called “The Celtic Challenge” where Irish, Scottish and Welsh women’s teams competed to help prepare for the Six Nations – now it has been expanded to involve two teams from each nation so I assume it will be a round robin format.  

As my headline suggests, this brings us ever closer to the formation of a proper Women’s Celtic League and it would be perfect if they could eventually include all four provinces.

One drawback however seems to be the fact that this expanded competition will run right into the also-expanded format of the Women’s AIL which switched to a home-and-away format this season.

I’m all for more women’s rugby but when the sevens, club, test and now this new level all clash at the same time it really looks like they are creating more problems than they are solving.

SIOBHÁN CATTIGAN 

I’m not really in a position to comment too much on any Scottish rugby let alone the women’s game there but it was hard not to be moved by the tragic story of Siobhán Cattigan plus the horrible way in which the SRU handled the aftermath.  

Hopefully the way the union has engaged with the family together with the apology has gone a way towards mending the fences.  If they are happy with the sincerity of the apologies than so should we.

HOGG WASH

Not my intention to pick on Scottish rugby this week but I just have one thing to say about the whole Stuart Hogg thing…if the reports are true then he definitely does not sound like a good guy.  

That said, if he goes on to stay out of rugby then there’s not much more for me to say about him on a platform dedicated to opinion on what happens within the game.  And it certainly seems that Rugby Pass aren’t singing from the same hymn sheet.

I mean – if we want to focus on players who have wronged women, there are plenty of those still playing the sport now.

ITALIAN CLUBS

Many have pointed out that the two Italian clubs are now above all four Welsh regions on the URC table, but I also noticed one other fact from the first five rounds of the season.

Last season, over the 18 regular season rounds of the URC, both Italian clubs lost in as many as 10 of them.  This season so far, there have been ZERO.  Maybe that includes a couple of draws but that is still certainly quite the improvement, and long may it continue.  Except when they both play Leinster, of course…

MIKE AND THE PRE-MATCH MECHANICS

I covered Mike McCarthy’s pre-kickoff Viking clap routine on this column a few weeks ago for Leinster’s first match at the RDS, well they didn’t do it for the visit of Edinburgh yet brought it back last Saturday and this time I took a brief video for TikTok.

@harpinonrugby

♬ original sound – Harpinonrugby.com

URC IRISH SHIELD UPDATE

No Irish Shield action last weekend, rather four proud wins for the provinces, but the race resumes at the Aviva this Saturday as Leinster finally join the fray.  I’ve revised the info below to include all the 12 matches and we’ll continue to track the table’s process throughout the season if the URC have yet to do it on their website.

NOV 4 CONNACHT 22-20 ULSTER

NOV 10 ULSTER 21-14 MUNSTER

  1. ULSTER P 2 PTS 5
  2. CONNACHT P 1 PTS 4
  3. MUNSTER P 1 PTS 1
  4. LEINSTER P 0 PTS 0

NOV 25 LEINSTER V MUNSTER

DEC 2 CONNACHT V LEINSTER

DEC 22 ULSTER V CONNACHT

DEC 26 MUNSTER V LEINSTER

JAN 1 CONNACHT V MUNSTER

JAN 1 LEINSTER V ULSTER

MAY 11 MUNSTER V CONNACHT

MAY 18 ULSTER V LEINSTER

MAY 31 LEINSTER V CONNACHT

JUNE 1 MUNSTER V ULSTER

🔝🐱🐴 UPDATE

Big win for Stu Lancaster’s Racing in the Parisien derby which moves them up to second place level on points with their capital city rivals with Castres also on 23pts and Pau just one behind.  Things don’t exactly get easier for Racing as they host La Rochelle who seem to be getting their mojo back after a third win on the bounce saw them creep to the edge of the playoff picture.

Round 7

STADE FRANCAIS 9-13 RACING 92

BAYONNE 35-16 PAU

PERPIGNAN 26-13 MONTPELLIER

OYONNAX 38-20 LYON

CLÉRMONT 27-30 TOULON

CASTRES 31-23 TOULOUSE

LA ROCHELLE 25-21 BORDEAUX

Round 8

SAT NOV 25

TOULON V CASTRES

BORDEAUX V PERPIGNAN

LYON V BAYONNE

MONTPELLIER V OYONNAX

PAU V STADE FRANCAIS

TOULOUSE V CLÉRMONT

SUN NOV 26

RACING 92 V LA ROCHELLE

PREMIERSHIP UPDATE

Leinster’s Euro opponents are heading in opposite directions these days – we play Sale in December and they went to the top of the table after their win over Newcastle while Quins got humbled at the Stoop by Saracens.  Leicester did manage to win their derby against the Saints yet they remain in the bottom two. 

ROUND 6

BATH 20-19 BRISTOL BEARS

SALE SHARKS 40-22 NEWCASTLE

LEICESTER 26-17 NORTHAMPTON

HARLEQUINS 10-38 SARACENS

EXETER 25-24 GLOUCESTER

ROUND 7

FRI NOV 24

NORTHAMPTON V HARLEQUINS

SALE SHARKS V BATH

SAT NOV 25

GLOUCESTER V LEICESTER TIGERS

SARACENS V BRISTOL

SUN NOV 26

NEWCASTLE V EXETER

AIL UPDATE 

Round 8 of the Women’s AIL has once again highlighted the gap between the top 4 clubs and the rest, with the two matches involving sides from both ends of the table being blow outs and the two more evenly matched contests being close.  UL Bohs held out Belvo to keep their 100% record intact, but their schedule doesn’t get any easier as they must travel to Belvo the weekend after next while another potential semifinal matchup between Rock and Railway takes place at the same time, and when those matches are complete the league will be at its halfway point.

Meanwhile on the men’s side, even though I am a blue jersey supporter I still have to admit it’s always good to see as many as three provinces represented in the top four of the AIL 1A.

Recent Leinster debutant Dylan Donnellan marked his return to the AIL with two tries but leaders Clontarf could only manage a draw away to Hinch although they still remain top.  Cork Con’s demolition of lowly Trinity brought them to within a point of 1st while champions Terenure continue to struggle to stay in touch with the top 4 as they fell away to Young Munster.

The men’s clubs take a break this coming weekend with the big interpro derby at the Aviva but there’s to be another one in Round 7 when 1st place Tarf hosts 2nd place Con.  Hopefully there will be a stream for that one, definitely worth a watch.

#SupportYourLocalClub

WOMEN’S AIL

Round 8

BALLINCOLLIG 0-50 BELVO

COOKE 0-65 BLACKROCK

WICKLOW 5-12 GALWEGIANS

UL BOHS 10-7 RAILWAY UNION

Round 6

SAT NOV 25

WICKLOW V RAILWAY UNION

Round 9

SAT DEC 2

SUTTONIANS V WICKLOW

BALLINCOLLIG V GALWEGIANS

BLACKROCK V RAILWAY UNION

BELVO V UL BOHS

MEN’S AIL

ROUND 6

BALLYNAHINCH 24-24 CLONTARF

CITY OF ARMAGH 18-25 UCD

CORK CON 33-5 DUBLIN UNIV

LANSDOWNE 42-12 SHANNON

YOUNG MUNSTER 13-6 TERENURE

ROUND 7

SAT DEC 2

CLONTARF V CORK CON

DUBLIN UNIV V LANSDOWNE

TERENURE V SHANNON

UCD V BALLYNAHINCH

YOUNG MUNSTER V CITY OF ARMAGH

RE SUPER CUP UPDATE

The two decisive matches when it came to deciding on semi finalists each went different ways in the final round.  The Romanian Wolves rolled over the Brussels Devils while the Iberian peninsula derby was a whole lot closer with Castilla holding out Lusitanos to join the Wolves in the final four. Meanwhile in what could very possibly be a rehearsal for the final, champions Black Lion edged Tel Aviv.  At time of writing dates and times of the semifinals are yet to be decided.

ROUND 3

BOHEMIA WARRIORS 0-74 DELTA

TEL-AVIVA HEAT 27-29 BLACK LION

BRUSSELS DEVILS 5-60 ROMANIAN WOLVES

CASTILLA 18-13 LUSITANOS

SEMIFINALS (DATES TBD)

BLACK LION V CASTILLA

TEL-AVIV HEAT V ROMANIAN WOLVES

HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE

Bad week for me this time around, I tried backing Zebre again and although they didn’t lose, they didn’t win either and other results went against me meaning I was overtaken by Kino, who apparently is deploying a new system (and I’m not mocking it – he literally has a degree in this sort of thing) so we’ll see if I can keep in touch with himself, Kristian and Conor, the HPL rookie who this week jumped into the top slot.  Will be very interesting to see what the predictions are for Leinster v Munster this Saturday given only Ulster fan Kristian has no skin in the game…will any of the other seven take a gamble and plump for red?

NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

Our Opposition View series of pod returns this week, although due to time restrictions I may only do them for interpros for the next while.  Caolán Scully joins me for a chat, watch out for it on the feed around Wednesday morning.  I may even give him a bit of time to gloat over their URC title, you never know.

But after that it’s down to business giving Saturday’s big one at the Aviva the full Harpin treatment with Keego joining me for the preview on Friday, then Mark & Nathan are due to help me with the wrap on Sunday so stay tuned to all the usual social media channels and get involved in the discussion in any way you can. 

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

Throwback Thursday : Andrew Conway’s debut

Following on from our tribute to Andrew Conway on our wrap pod and 80+ column, and also looking ahead to Saturday night’s visit to the RDS of the Scarlets, this week’s Throwback Thursday features our Harpin writeup from 2010 when the Llanelli region came to D4, a night which included the Conway’s first Leinster cap.

THIS SEXTON’S ON FIRE!

How many times does a player have to prove he can handle pressure?

Jonny Sexton did it coming on for Felipe at Croker.  He did it again at Murrayfield.  He did it at the RDS in his first Ireland start.  He even did it whilst beating the 2009 Team of the Year.

And in many ways, with the taste of the first competitive defeat of the Kidney era still fresh on the palates of Irish fans, Saturday night’s Magners League contest against the Scarlets represented the 24-year-old’s biggest pressure outing of all.

With Ronan O’Gara shooting himself in both feet by whinging about a journalist, the stage was set to show he was worthy of stepping in at Twickenham next weekend.

So let’s see…how did he handle it?

22 of his side’s 27 points, including a try and 2 kicks from the touchline.  Several crunching tackles.  Tremendous versatility with the ball in hand.  What the hell more do we want?

Let’s face it – we all know that O’Gara is a quality international out-half, but that’s just the point.  WE ALL KNOW IT.  And so do the other five nations.  There’s a playbook on how to go up against him, and there’s no other country in this competition more likely to go by a playbook than Martin Johnson’s England.

So as well as another four Magners League points, Leinster fans were celebrating a display from their super Number 10 that surely has earned him the starting jumper.

We’ll see.

As for the rest of the team, well, to be honest they played like a unit that hasn’t been together in a long time, and guess what, that’s exactly what they were.  Had it not been for McCusker’s blooper moment (see YouTube clip below) the outcome could have been very different, but I’m satisfied we did just enough over the 80 minutes to come out on top.

Despite putting in a strong performance himself on the night, it looks as though Girvan Dempsey’s hopes of making the 22 for the weekend are non-existent with the call up of Geordan Murphy to the squad.  It looks like it’s between the Leicester Tiger and Keith Earls for the vacant 15 jersey.

And spare a thought for poor Sean O’Brien.  He probably wouldn’t have started against England, but what an impact sub to have off the bench.  It has been a great season for the Carlow man and it would be a shame if it were over for him already with so many big matches in the coming weeks.

Last, and certainly not least, even though it was only for a couple of minutes, what a debut from young Rock boy Andrew Conway.  I blogged about a feature on him in Rugby World magazine last May and with a try-producing offload at one end and a try-saving tackle at the other in his brief appearance, he is surely one to watch.

Overall it was an entertaining Saturday evening at the RDS, even if it was kind of like Something Happens coming on to play one song halfway through a U2 gig.

80+ column : Nov 15

A WEEKLY COLUMN LOOKING AT 

TOPICS BEYOND THE SCOPE OF OUR

FEATURE MATCH OF THE WEEK

WRAP OF A WRAP

Never thought something like Storm Debi could possibly affect our humble pod recording, though at least it wasn’t due to anyone coming to any harm.  I had already pushed it to a Monday evening chat when Tom Coleman had to work late so thankfully Conor Cronin was able to step in and do his second wrap pod in as many weekends, with Jay Long also helping us look back over Leinster’s win over the Dragons.

But because everything has been pushed back a day, this week’s 80+ column will be a lot shorter than usual.

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

HARPIN ON…LEINSTER’S CHAMPIONS CUP 23

Selecting a matchday 23 is always a great discussion point so this chat was easy, although we came up with some calls we might not have considered not too long ago.

BUNKER MENTALITY

Although I’ve kept this 80+ column brief I enjoy doing those TikTok opinion vids so I found the time to do one on the TMO bunker system.

@harpinonrugby

Check out our 80+ column at harpinonrugby.com#rugbytiktoks🏉

♬ original sound – Harpinonrugby.com – Harpinonrugby.com

ANDREW CONWAY TRIBUTE

Here’s the transcript of my contribution to the “Front 5” feature on our wrap pod where we look at articles covering topics outside the latest Leinster/Ireland match…

Now although my article is from the Irish Examiner, I’m actually going to start with an extract from the Harpin On Rugby writeup of a Magners League victory for Leinster over the Scarlets from February 2010.

Quote “…even though it was only for a couple of minutes, what a debut from young Rock boy Andrew Conway…with a try-producing offload at one end and a try-saving tackle at the other in his brief appearance, he is surely one to watch.” end quote

That was 2010.  Now fast forward almost three years to January 25, 2013 when Conway was still considered to be one of Leinster’s top prospects so you’d have thought the announcement of his move to Munster of all places would send shockwaves throughout Irish rugby.  

However the news came at exactly the same time as that of Johnny Sexton’s move to Racing, and with Isa Nacewa also leaving as the season came to a close and both stars featuring in Leinster’s win over Ulster in the Pro12 final, Conway’s exit went very much below the radar, even though he himself also started that same decider at the RDS.

Well the rest, as the saying goes, is history and Simon Lewis’ article does a great job of summarizing the facts of Conway’s spell at Munster, and I’d only add two points, the first being that before the horrible injury which ruled him out for 16 months, it was clear he was very much part of Andy Farrell’s plans for the 2023 World Cup, and indeed on outings like a preseason clash with Leinster down in Musgrave Park in September just gone, he showed he had lost none of his sharpness, particularly on the kick chase where he had become a master of the art.

But one other thing I’d like to add to all the much deserved plaudits he has received since his announcement is that if anyone’s career shows exactly how the reality of Irish rugby transcends all the Leinster/Munster bickering we see from fans of both provinces, myself included of course, then it’s Andrew Conway’s.

If you were to believe all the social media narrative and gaslighting, there’s absolutely no way a promising talent with a CV so Leinstery you’d swear it belonged to Ross O’Carroll Kelly himself would ever be allowed move down the N7, let alone be accepted and acclaimed as a hero by the Thomond Park faithful.

Yet despite the irony of the announcement of his retirement also coming around the same time as that of Sexton, there was no going under the radar this time, with tributes pouring in not just from Munster fans mostly sharing GIFs of THAT try against Toulon but also from throughout the other three provinces and beyond. 

He could easily have earned more than 30 caps over his career but he rounds off his retirement statement with two words “forever grateful” and I’m pretty sure I speak for the vast majority of the rugby family when I say so are we, Andrew, and best of luck with your next adventure.

URC IRISH SHIELD UPDATE

Ulster’s win on Friday puts them to the top of the Irish Shield for now, although Leinster have yet to get underway on this table, a situation to be resolved by none other than the visit of Munster to Aviva the weekend after next.  URC website still not posting the latest tables.

Match 2

ULSTER 21-14 MUNSTER

  1. ULSTER P 2 PTS 5
  2. CONNACHT P 1 PTS 4
  3. MUNSTER P 1 PTS 1
  4. LEINSTER P 0 PTS 0

Match 3

NOV 25

LEINSTER V MUNSTER

🔝🐱🐴 UPDATE

Both of Leinster’s Champions Cup pool opponents from the 🔝🐱🐴 had narrow victories in Round 6, with ROG’s lads needing a last gasp penalty to get them back to winning ways just as they’re feeding their internationals back into the squad before we play them.  Meanwhile Stade remain top with a Parisien derby against Stu Lancaster’s Racing, possibly including Siya Kolisi, to come at the weekend.

Round 6

SAT NOV 11

TOULOUSE 43-34 PERPIGNAN

CASTRES 39-11 OYONNAX

LYON 32-36 STADE FRANCAIS

MONTPELLIER 17-20 CLÉRMONT

PAU 20-11 BORDEAUX

LA ROCHELLE 18-15 BAYONNE

TOULON 32-26 RACING 92

Round 7

SAT NOV 18

STADE FRANCAIS V RACING 92

BAYONNE V PAU

PERPIGNAN V MONTPELLIER

OYONNAX V LYON

CLÉRMONT V TOULON

CASTRES V TOULOUSE

SUN NOV 19

LA ROCHELLE V BORDEAUX

PREMIERSHIP UPDATE

Mixed fortunes for Leinster’s Euro Prem opponents this week – Leicester fell at home which sent Quins to the top of the table while Sale Sharks move to second with a decent win away to Bristol.  Finn Russell seemingly taunted the Gloucester crowd as Bath stayed in the playoff positions with a derby victory and Northampton round out the top 4 with a win over Exeter.

ROUND 5

GLOUCESTER 27-45 BATH

BRISTOL 13-27 SALE SHARKS

LEICESTER 25-29 HARLEQUINS

NEWCASTLE 12-50 SARACENS

NORTHAMPTON 34-19 EXETER

ROUND 6

FRI NOV 17

BATH V BRISTOL BEARS

SALE SHARKS V NEWCASTLE

SAT NOV 18

LEICESTER V NORTHAMPTON

HARLEQUINS V SARACENS

EXETER V GLOUCESTER

AIL UPDATE 

Top match in the Women’s AIL was a low scoring thriller with Belvo holding out to win 6-3 at Railway Union, who’s schedule doesn’t get any easier as they now must travel to 100% league leaders UL Bohs in a match which will be livestreamed from Annacotty on the Irish Rugby YouTube channel, we’ll put a link in the Rugby on TV post on Thursday.

Meanwhile on the men’s side of things Clontarf stayed top after taking maximum points against City of Armagh but Cork Con stayed in touch with a comprehensive win at Shannon – next up they host Trinity who continue to struggle at the bottom with some daylight starting to appear between them and those above them.

#SupportYourLocalClub

WOMEN’S AIL

Round 7

ROCK 48-0 BALLINCOLLIG

COOKE 14-17 WICKLOW

GALWEGIANS 5-12 SUTTONIANS

RAILWAY UNION 3-6 BELVO

Round 8

SAT NOV 18

BALLINCOLLIG V BELVO

COOKE V BLACKROCK

WICKLOW V GALWEGIANS

UL BOHS V RAILWAY UNION

MEN’S AIL

ROUND 5

CLONTARF 35-17 CITY OF ARMAGH

DUBLIN UNIV 15-21 BALLYNAHINCH

SHANNON 24-43 CORK CON

TERENURE 24-23 LANSDOWNE

UCD 26-24 YOUNG MUNSTER

ROUND 6

SAT NOV 18

BALLYNAHINCH V CLONTARF

CITY OF ARMAGH V UCD

CORK CON V DUBLIN UNIV

LANSDOWNE V SHANNON

YOUNG MUNSTER V TERENURE

RE SUPER CUP UPDATE

Whether intentional or not, this new Super Cup format has thrown up some fascinating clashes for the final round of the pool stage this weekend.  Both the Castillas/Lusitanos Iberian derby and the Romanian Wolves/Brussels clash are virtually quarterfinals with Black Lion and the Heat already through to the final four.

ROUND 2

CASTILLA 20-38 TEL-AVIV HEAT

BOHEMIA WARRIORS 10-43 BRUSSELS DEVILS

LUSITANOS 0-22 BLACK LION

DELTA 5-31 ROMANIAN WOLVES

ROUND 3

THU NOV 16

BOHEMIA WARRIORS V DELTA

SAT NOV 18

TEL-AVIVA HEAT V BLACK LION

BRUSSELS DEVILS V ROMANIAN WOLVES

SUN NOV 19

CASTILLA V LUSITANOS

HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE

Although I’m still in third place I gained some ground by pinching the yellow cap this week for the highest score, mostly due to my somehow managing to predict Zebre’s historic win over the Sharks.  I don’t know what came over me when I made the call, except for the fact that the Parma outfit had been doing well picking up bonus points so far this season while the Sharks were at the end of a long road trip so it was probably worth the punt.

NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

Short but sweet column this time, hopefully next week will be more conventional.  As ever we’ll be giving the visit of the Scarlets to the RDS the full Harpin treatment so stay tuned to all the usual social media channels and get involved in the discussion in any way you can. 

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

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