Category: Jason Long

467 : Ireland v New Zealand preview

ALSO AVAILABLE AS A PODCAST

Our guest : JAY LONG

IRELAND : 15. Jamie Osborne 14. Tommy O’Brien 13. Garry Ringrose 12. Stuart McCloskey 11. James Lowe 10. Jack Crowley 9. Jamison Gibson-Park

1. Andrew Porter 2. Dan Sheehan (c) 3. Tadhg Furlong 4. James Ryan 5. Tadhg Beirne 6. Ryan Baird 7. Josh van der Flier 8. Jack Conan

16. Ronan Kelleher 17. Paddy McCarthy 18. Finlay Bealham 19. Iain Henderson

20. Caelan Doris 21. Craig Casey 22. Sam Prendergast 23. Bundee Aki

NEW ZEALAND : 15.  Will Jordan 14.  Leroy Carter 13. Quinn Tupaea 12. Jordie Barrett 11. Caleb Clarke 10. Beauden Barrett 9. Cam Roigard

1. Ethan de Groot 2. Codie Taylor 3. Fletcher Newell 4. Scott Barrett (c) 5. Fabian Holland 6. Simon Parker 7. Ardie Savea 8. Peter Lakai

16.  Samisoni Taukei’aho 17. Tamaiti Williams 18. Pasilio Tosi 19. Josh Lord 20.  Wallace Sititi 21. Cortez Ratima 22. Leicester Fainga’anuku 23.  Damian McKenzie

Gallagher Cup Test Match

Saturday, November 1, 2025

Soldier Field

KO 8:10pm Irish time  

Live on : Virgin Media One, TNT Sports 2

Referee: Pierre Brousset (FFR)

Assistant Referee 1: Karl Dickson (RFU)

Assistant Referee 2: Luc Ramos (FFR) 

TMO: Ian Tempest (RFU)

FRPO: Dan Jones (RFU)

419 : Italy v Ireland wrap

2025 Guinness Six Nations Championship Round 5, Stadio Olimpico, Rome 15/3/2025Italy vs IrelandIrelands Dan Sheehan scores his third try despite Paolo Garbisi of ItalyMandatory Credit ©INPHO/Billy Stickland

🏉 Italian backs
🏉 Missed chances
🏉 Dan x 3
🏉 No try x 3
🏉 Polishing a 3rd

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

JAY LONG

DAVID CORDIAL

FULL TIME TAKES

Kevin Kelehan

Italy were solid and pumped, only for the cards they may well have won this game, Ireland were good in spells but a lot of unforced errors, something you did not see in the 2022/23 season

Eamon Saunders

Sorry to say but the second best team won today and sad to say the the ref and TMO were bad 5 mins looking at a knock on and 5 seconds looking a a perfect try

John Hyland

(reply to Eamon Saunders) I totally disagree. Ireland played poorly but they were not the second best team

Cormac Mannion

We looked badly coached today. Zero inventiveness and unsure in defence. Far too many unforced errors

Angela Cassin Jackson

Tough game but a win is a win. 4 out of 5 wins and a triple crown a lot to be proud of. Well done Ireland as usual they represented their country wonderfully 💚☘️💚☘️💚☘️💚

Gavin Hegarty

We were shit at the things you can’t coach. Bad knock ons and handling errors. Really not like us.

We looked unfit and unmotivated.

Crowley left too many points out there

,this is meant to be his strength. 2/5 just isn’t good enough.

Sean MacDonnchadha

Thank god this hobble towards the end of the tournament has come. Gameplan needs an overhaul, skill levels need to come up, fitness looks an issue, depth needs to be built, attack needs to be less reliant on just set piece plays and most importantly confidence needs to be rebuilt.

Monica Keeler

Lets just applaud the lads ..and our 3 Retirees Cian, Peter and Conor..we better regroup before next year…Dont see many Lions in our squad.. oh and no way Lowe was in touch 🤬

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SIX NATIONS WRAP

NEXT HARPIN’

TUESDAY

BONUS CHAT : “IRISH DEPTH CHART”

WEDNESDAY

80+ COLUMN INCLUDING FRONT 5 VIDEO

THURSDAY

THROWBACK THURSDAY (on Substack)

FRIDAY

BULLS V LEINSTER PREVIEW FEATURING KEEGO

404 : Leinster v Stormers wrap

25 January 2025; Jordie Barrett of Leinster scores his side’s third try during the United Rugby Championship match between Leinster and DHL Stormers at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile
also available on Apple and most major platforms

🏉  The Ross Byrne All-Stars

🏉  Skipper Dan

🏉  Missing cards

🏉  Stormer tears

🏉  Monkey off back

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

CIARÁN DUFFY

Post To Post Sport blog

JAY LONG

FULL TIME TAKES

Jackie McEachern

Great to get the 5 points and see Lowe and Sheehan looking strong on their returns from injury.

Eamon Saunders

Good win and great to see some young lads get their chance and as usual great to see a couple of Wexford lads on the field

Josephine Boyd

Great win for our boys in blue and and to see our young future players getting there chance.👏👍👕💪🏈💙

Bernie Cunningham

Grt win and grt to see our future looks good with young players 💙💙

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URC WRAP

NEXT HARPIN’

TUESDAY JAN 28

BONUS CLIP ON YOUTUBE CHANNEL : “IRISH 23 V ENGLAND”

WEDNESDAY JAN 29

80+ COLUMN INCLUDING FRONT 5 VIDEO (ALSO ON YOUTUBE)

384 : Ireland v Argentina wrap

Autumn Nations Series, Aviva Stadium, Dublin 15/11/2024
Ireland vs Argentina Ireland’s Joe McCarthy scores a try
Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Billy Stickland

🏉 Fast start

🏉 Foul play du jour

🏉 Dr Phil

🏉 More silly mistakes

🏉 Holding on

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

JAY LONG

HUGO GORDON

FULL TIME TAKES

Lee O Farrell

Yes, there were some sloppy mistakes at times but I think people are underestimating this Pumas team. Their defence was incredible and this is the team that has beaten France, SA and NZ (in NZ) over the past few months.

A higher score would have been great but I’ll take the win, thanks!

Cormac Mannion

Argentina are a fine side. Their physicality is right up there with South Africa at their best. We seemed to be running into brick walls for large parts of the game. However, there is still something not at all right about Ireland. Hansen still looks off the pace, as does Lowe. Crowley needs time to develop and you can see how it’s coming together for him.

Our back row seems to be playing as individuals rather than a unit. Also, far too many sloppy penalties which could point to a lack of focus. We’ve looked off the boil since midway though the 6N.

Jackie McEachern

Too many penalties again – especially when we heard all week that discipline was going to be the focus. But am very happy they hung on to win against a strong side.

Kevin Kelehan

Got over the line against a huge Argentinian pack and very useful backline, Tom Clarkson and Sam Prendergast both came through very well. Jack Crowley was superb for most and a tough nut to get up without play acting after being cynically taken out illegally. The penalty count and line out remain a serious cause for concern, Kelliher is a great scrummager and a demon in the loose but he needs to spend the next month to sort out his darts.

Jamie Bermingham

Glad we got the win but once again the discipline was very poor. Our attack in the 2nd half was practically non existent. Still a lot to work on for the next two games

BlueSky is now our social media centre of choice

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AUTUMN NATIONS SERIES WRAP

WEEK 2

IRELAND 22-19 ARGENTINA

SCOTLAND 59-21 PORTUGAL

ENGLAND 20-29 SOUTH AFRICA

FRANCE 30-29 NEW ZEALAND

ITALY 20-17 GEORGIA

WALES 20-52 AUSTRALIA

WEEK 3

FRI NOV 22

FRANCE V ARGENTINA

SAT NOV 23

IRELAND V FIJI

WALES V SOUTH AFRICA

ITALY V NEW ZEALAND

SUN NOV 24

SCOTLAND V AUSTRALIA

ENGLAND V JAPAN

@harpinonrugby

Our latest wrap pod is now available on Apple, Spotify and all the usual places. #rugbytiktok #IrishRugby #IREvARG

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371 : Leinster v Dragons wrap

27 September 2024; Cian Healy of Leinster after the United Rugby Championship match between Leinster and Dragons at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
also available on Apple & most major platforms

🏉 D for Dragons

🏉 Jamie kicking on

🏉 Dev Jr cameo

🏉 Joe & Josh impact

🏉 The Gunne Show

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

RICHARD MIFSUD

JAY LONG

FULL TIME TAKES

Greg Kelly

Whenever Ross Byrne wears 10 custard skins worldwide breath a sigh of relief.

Leinster looked disjointed in the first 40. Could be early season problems but to be fair I think the Dragons were better than they have been in recent years. They knew they were going to end up on the end of 30-50 before they travelled but they stuck in and really lived off their big moments in the opening half. I think they’ll beat a few teams this year and I wouldn’t fancy Newport on a wet and windy night in the winter.

Things looked a little cleaner when Joe and Josh came in.

Deegan had another good showing and really I have to wonder what he’s still doing here. He should have gone last year and quite frankly he is squandering his talent at Leinster.

Gavin Hegarty

2/6 for Byrne from the Tee simply isn’t good enough. He was nervy and it showed.

Jimmy OBrien looked electric every time he got the ball.

We now have 3 world class hookers in Sheehan, Kelliher and Gus, a great problem to have. Gus’ lineouts were excellent and he was everywhere. Lineout dropped when Barron came on, something he needs to work on if he wants any sort of a look in.

The way osbourne is going Hugo might have a huge challenge ahead of him when he comes back.

Larmour has bulked up but I think he’s sacrificed fitness as a result, he seemed tired after 30 minutes.

Can’t help but feel a bad dragons team brought us down to their level, we should have topped 60 tonight.

Dave Murray

Wasn’t even any near misses from the tee, they were all terrible kicks. Ross has given us good service over the years, but we won’t be winning many/any major trophies with himself at 10 imo. Need to be investing in Frawley/Prendergast at 10, they’ll make us play a lot better.

Dave Ryle

I thought Osborne was more deserving of POTM.

Turner had a good game as well.

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URC WRAP

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Our latest wrap pod is now available on Apple, Spotify and most major platforms rugbytiktok urc LeinsterRugby

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348 : Ulster v Leinster wrap

18 May 2024; Charlie Ngatai of Leinster evades the tackle of Rob Herring of Ulster on his way to scoring his side’s first try during the United Rugby Championship match between Ulster and Leinster at Kingspan Stadium in Belfast. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

🏉 Disjointed

🏉 Somehow ahead

🏉 Much butchering

🏉 Take the three

🏉 Cool Cooney

@harpinonrugby

CHeck out our latest wrap pod on Apple, Spotify and other major platforms rugbytiktok LeinsterRugby URC

♬ original sound – Harpinonrugby.com – Harpinonrugby.com

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

MARK JACKSON

JAY LONG

FULL TIME TAKES

Paul Smith

Whoever made the call to kick to the line when we are 1 point ahead with 10 minutes to go and straight in front of the posts probably cost us the chance to top the table. A win and we were top and had it totally in our own hands but for sone reason I still can’t fathom we decided to completely f**k it up. Totally sickened right now. Not to take anything away from Ulster who completely deserved the victory tonight but its very rarely you can be so outplayed and still have the chance to come away with a win. We need to see a completely different mindset from Leinster next weekend if we are finally going to get our hands on star number 5.

William Andrew

A dreadful lack of nous to lose that game. Continually kicking the ball away with 5 mins on the clock hoping to make ten meters is not great. A 30 meter through kick to force a Ulster line out in their 22 would have burned a min at least. Plus they are now in danger of conceding a penalty.

Several generations of former Leinster 10s and 9s must be shaking their heads.

Berchmans Gannon

From the sideline the box kicking is not the way to go.

Chasing a bonus point ahead of a win is questionable.

Shit happens! I will still support Leinster without the need for a slaughter of Managment.

Kevin Kelehan

Decent game that could have gone either way, the losing bonus point will get Leinster at least a home QF, the win will guarantee Ulster top tier cup rugby next season.

Colin Mehigan

Another uninspiring performance if I’m honest….our high profile coaching ticket need to rethink strategy

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URC WRAP

ROUND 17

ZEBRE 18-32 SCARLETS

EDINBURGH 26-29 MUNSTER

BULLS 56-35 BENETTON

OSPREYS 26-13 DRAGONS

LIONS 44-21 GLASGOW

CONNACHT 12-16 STORMERS

SHARKS 14-36 CARDIFF

ULSTER 23-21 LEINSTER

ROUND 18 [final round]

FRI MAY 31

LEINSTER V CONNACHT

GLASGOW V ZEBRE

SAT JUNE 1

STORMERS V LIONS

BENETTON V EDINBURGH

SCARLETS V DRAGONS

SHARKS V BULLS

MUNSTER V ULSTER

CARDIFF V OSPREYS

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342 : Stormers v Leinster/Ireland v Scotland wrap

2024 Guinness Women’s Six Nations Championship Round 5, Kingspan Stadium, Belfast 27/4/2024Ireland vs ScotlandIreland’s Katie Corrigan scores her sides first try despite Mairi McDonald and Alex Stewart of Scotland Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Ben Brady

🏉 Fastest wrap ever
🏉 Four provinces in top 8
🏉 Women’s heroics
🏉 Northampton’s threat
🏉 Roll on Croker

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

CIARÁN DUFFY

JAY LONG

TOM COLEMAN

FULL TIME TAKES

William Andrew

We know why, but it still hurts.

Kevin Kelehan

Great to see Gus McCarthy step up, a steep learning curve for the emerging squad members, far from ideal to have back to back away games in South Africa when squad rotation is at its peak. The lads showed decent fight in the third quarter but the errors in the first half were mostly preventable.

Greg Kelly

*Copy and Paste last week’s comments*

On the bright side our young lads dominated the 3rd quarter but the inexperience and inaccuracies were evident. They’ll get better and they’ll learn from this. However if we end up trophyless again this season I’m not sure these “kids school trips” to SA will not cut the mustard.

In a wider sense I don’t like where the URC is going. Some of the fixure scheduling is…suspicious. I think the SA franchises are gaining more than they add to it and teams being forced by pragmatism, timing or necessity to give up 2 games and 10 points undermines true competition.

Richard Kennedy

A big rethink needed on sending our 2nd/3rd string down to get pummelled in by hardened pros in SA. Some of those young players simply aren’t ready for that level yet

Warren Doyle

Much as expected. Training ground stuff didn’t work in the heat of battle. Very little inivotive thinking once that failed. Experience – yes. Knowledge – ?. Could be critical but players don’t need that.

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URC WRAP

ROUND 15

SCARLETS 27-32 SHARKS

ULSTER 38-34 BENETTON

ZEBRE 9-40 GLASGOW

BULLS 61-24 OSPREYS

CARDIFF 7-24 EDINBURGH

LIONS 13-33 MUNSTER

STORMERS 42-12 LEINSTER

DRAGONS 27-34 CONNACHT

ROUND 15

FRI MAY 10

DRAGONS V STORMERS

EDINBURGH V ZEBRE

SAT MAY 11

BULLS V GLASGOW

SCARLETS V ULSTER

SHARKS V BENETTON

MUNSTER V CONNACHT

LIONS V CARDIFF

LEINSTER V OSPREYS

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318 : Ireland v Italy wrap

2024 Guinness Six Nations Championship Round 2, Aviva Stadium, Dublin, Ireland 11/2/2024Ireland vs ItalyIrelands Jack Crowley scores his sides opening try Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

🏉 50 club grows

🏉 Sluggish Azzurri

🏉 Offloads galore

🏉 Set piece dominance

🏉 The Lowe Show

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

TOM COLEMAN (50th cap) & JAY LONG

FULL TIME TAKES

Lee O Farrell

Two Six Nations games, two new records (biggest away win against France and first time holding Italy to zero points). The future’s looking pretty good right now…

Kevin Kelehan

Dan Sheehan may well end up as top try scorer. Job done 5 points and on to stiffer tests ahead.

Hubert Gallagher

Feel underwhelmed and unfulfilled after that! In some respects a great result with 6 changes and holding Italy to zero – and they were lucky to even get that – but at same time we were a bit disjointed, looked less fluent than French game and left a lot of points out there! Having said that no-one player badly but I think a lot could play better. Crowley, Henshaw, Keenan, Conan, Lowe and McCarthy were notably good.

Christy O’Connor

Glad I didn’t get tickets for this. Atmosphere was awful. I know we were expected to win, but the Irish rugby fans have to be one of the worst. I’ve seen more life in a funeral parlour.

Some great performances from Lowe, Conan and big Joe. Crowely is doing well, made some silly mistakes but it’s great that it doesn’t phase him.

Greg Kelly

Italy just parked the bus. Fairly poor spectacle for the 6 nations overall.

Ireland were a bit error strewn at times but tough to really hit your straps when the opposition don’t light a fire under you.

Eamon Saunders

A workman like performance but a win is a win ,some mistakes but a win none the less 👏👏

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SIX NATIONS WRAP

ROUND 2

SCOTLAND 16-20 FRANCE

ENGLAND 16-14 WALES

IRELAND 36-0 ITALY

ROUND 3

SAT FEB 24

IRELAND V WALES

SCOTLAND V ENGLAND

SUN FEB 25

FRANCE V ITALY

UNDER 20s

ROUND 2

SCOTLAND 14-29 FRANCE

ENGLAND 28-7 WALES

IRELAND 23-22 ITALY

ROUND 3

FRI FEB 23

SCOTLAND V ENGLAND

IRELAND V WALES

FRANCE V ITALY

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312 : Leicester Tigers v Leinster wrap

20 January 2024; Joe McCarthy of Leinster celebrates after scoring his side’s first try during the Investec Champions Cup Pool 4 Round 4 match between Leicester Tigers and Leinster at Mattioli Woods Welford Road in Leicester, England. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

🏉 Discipline issues

🏉 Accuracy found

🏉 Harry > Handré

🏉 Evil D

🏉 Fat lady sings

@harpinonrugby

Our Leicester v Leinster wrap pod is now available on Apple, Spotify and most major platforms.

♬ original sound – Harpinonrugby.com – Harpinonrugby.com

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

RICH MIFSUD & JAY LONG

FULL TIME TAKES

Joe Sheppard

At this rate, Caelan Doris will be getting World Rugby Player of the Year…… Unbelievable in all aspects of his game currently. ☘️💪🏉👏

Jamie Bermingham

Good win and great going getting the BP at the end. We really seem at times to be pushing the physical game this season, as a way to show we can deal with it

Eamon Phelan

Good win harry byrne struggled in forts 10 mins when Leicester were on top after that class . Very good team with loads of options from a jealous Munster fan

Andrew Byrne

I can’t be the only person who is this excited to see just how high the ceiling is for Joe McCarthy…still just 22 years old and he’s playing like an old master. I feel like we are witnessing the start of something special here.

Michaela Monaghan

Can’t believe we’re playing Leicester again In round 16!!

Brian Corr

I thought they showed great determination to chase the bonus point, in the past they’ve kicked out on 80 mins happy with what they got, fair play to Leicester for also trying to get the losing bonus and the ref for not blowing up straight after their knock on.

Leinsters big squad is showing its true value and they’ve shown players stepping in and out doesn’t make much difference

Kevin OCeallaigh

The first time in a long time that I’ve seen true grit, determination and old-school grind by a Leinster side to get that bonus point on 85 minutes. Lowe was imperious in the air. Henshaw looked to be back to where we know he can be, and McCarthy just gets better and better. What a great game!

Bernie Cunningham

Great performance 27 unanswered points after going behind by 10. Lads were brill

I had to head out the door the second Doris got his iconic BP try and couldn’t tweet at the FT whistle like I normally do but Whiff of Cordite pretty much said what I would have…

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CHAMPIONS CUP WRAP

ROUND 4

GLASGOW 29-5 TOULON

CONNACHT 27-10 BRISTOL

HARLEQUINS 47-19 ULSTER

BULLS 46-40 BORDEAUX

RACING 92 48-26 CARDIFF

LEICESTER 10-27 LEINSTER

MUNSTER 23-26 NORTHAMPTON

STADE FRANCAIS 20-24 STORMERS

SARACENS 39-24 LYON

SALE SHARKS 24-37 LA ROCHELLE

TOULOUSE 31-19 BATH

BAYONNE 40-17 EXETER

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305 : #MUNvLEI preview

also available as podcast

Our guest : JAY LONG

Leinster : 15. Hugo Keenan 14. Jordan Larmour 13. Garry Ringrose (CAPTAIN) 12. Ciarán Frawley 11. Rob Russell 10. Harry Byrne 9. Jamison Gibson-Park

1. Andrew Porter 2. Rónan Kelleher 3. Michael Ala’alatoa 4. Ross Molony 5. Joe McCarthy 6. Max Deegan 7. Scott Penny 8. Jack Conan

16. Dan Sheehan 17. Ed Byrne 18. Thomas Clarkson 19. Jason Jenkins 20. Ryan Baird 21. Luke McGrath 22. Liam Turner 23. Will Connors

Munster : 15 Simon Zebo; 14 Calvin Nash, 13 Antoine Frisch, 12 Alex Nankivell, 11 Shane Daly; 10 Jack Crowley, 9 Craig Casey

1 Dave Kilcoyne, 2 Diarmuid Barron (C), 3 Oli Jager; 4 Edwin Edogbo, 5 Gavin Coombes; 6 Tom Ahern, 7 John Hodnett, 8 Jack O’Donoghue.

16 Eoghan Clarke, 17 Jeremy Loughman, 18 Stephen Archer, 19 Brian Gleeson, 20 Alex Kendellen, 21 Paddy Patterson, 22 Tony Butler, 23 Seán O’Brien.

BKT United Rugby Championship 23/24 Round 8

Tuesday, December 26, 2023

KO 7:35pm Thomond Park

Live on: RTÉ2, Premier Sports 1, URC.tv

Referee: Andrew Brace (IRFU)

AR 1: Peter Martin (IRFU)

AR 2: Andrew Cole (IRFU)

TMO: Brian McNeice (IRFU)