316 : France v Ireland wrap

2024 Guinness Six Nations Championship Round 1, Orange Velodrome, Marseille, France 2/2/2024France vs IrelandIrelands Joe McCarthy with Maxine Locu of FranceMandatory Credit ©INPHO/Ben Brady

🏉 Jack Friday

🏉 Les Deux Jaunes

🏉 That’s “Big Joe” to you

🏉 Irish confidence

🏉 Wonderful Wolfpuppies


CONOR CRONIN (50TH CAP) & MARK JACKSON


FULL TIME TAKES

Rich Mifsud

Intensity ✅, performance very good but quite a few work ons eg scrum etc (perfect scenario for Faz & Co), our D Nienaberesque perhaps (happy to be proved wrong) it must have felt like a horrible cloying rash for the French, France were made to look like 💩 for long periods. 

Players: the best compliment I can give Big Joe is he’s the kind of player you grudgingly admire but simultaneously hate if he’s playing against you, Jamo’s best performance for ages, Hugo continues to be class, ditto Doris and Bundee, pack as a whole performed, Robbie’s best outing for a while, Nash not really tested, Crowley solid ish but need loads of experience. JLo 🤌🏻 

Bench ✅

Gavin Hegarty

Territory 49-51 and a scoreline of 17-38. Incredible.

Don’t know if France were that poor or if we just outplayed them.

And also that’s twice in two years Doris has played aldritt off the park. Simply unreal.

Kevin OCeallaigh

A terrific team performance, with some great individual efforts (Lowe, big Joe, Bundee) and good captaincy in dealing with some ‘interesting’ decisions. However, a result like that has to credited in large part to how the 10 controls the game. This was Crowleys best performance in green by a mile. Will stand to him for the rest of the 6N.

Josephine Boyd

A brilliant performance from our boys in green an excellent start to the championship.great game from our new lads on the team.☘️💚👏🏈🇮🇪.

Monica Keeler

The World cup final that should have been…hey ho..great start…keep it going lads..in my eyes the best in the world 💚

John Hyland

Watch the scrums again. Atonio was boring in and literally scrummaging vs Sheahan. Porter gets pinged again. The IRFU needs to grow a pair and present the video evidence to World rugby. Teams are obviously buying penalties against Porter. NZ got 4 key penalties in the World Cup because of it. Come on IRFU, GROW A PAIR!!

Colin McConaghie

80-85% superb. Got sloppy for 10 minutes. Biggest plus was the line out which was back to its best.

I think we can actually play better but won’t get too many better score lines than that

John O Halloran

Stunning performance, I said Ireland by5 this morning. The lineout and all round front 5 work was up a massive amount, the back 3 as abrasive as ever.

Crawley passed the pressure test ,individual decisions and discipline excellent. A lot of positives.

Wayne O’Brien

I thought we would lose narrowly. To win and by such a margin – unbelievable. Great attacking intent with room to improve by not letting teams in as was the case last night.

Jack Woods

Awesome performance. Great in defence at times. Very good start to the championship. France weren’t allowed to show their “flair” at times but it still came to the game at times.

William Andrew

Stunning win in France, ref was a homer but Ireland took him out by being so good, they made him irrelevant.

Oh if only our line out had functioned that well in the WC.

Ireland were full on for 80 and the bench came on like a pack of rabid dogs held back too long.

Celebrate those victories ✌️ they do not come around too often.


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SIX NATIONS WRAP

ROUND 1 

FRANCE 17-38 IRELAND

ITALY 24-27 ENGLAND

WALES 26-27 SCOTLAND



ROUND 2

SAT FEB 10

SCOTLAND V FRANCE

ENGLAND V WALES

SUN FEB 11

IRELAND V ITALY


UNDER 20s

ROUND 1

WALES 37-29 SCOTLAND

ITALY 11-36 ENGLAND

FRANCE 31-37 IRELAND



ROUND 2

FRI FEB 9

SCOTLAND V FRANCE

ENGLAND V WALES

IRELAND V ITALY

315 : France v Ireland preview

POD LINK HERE


IRELAND : 15. Hugo Keenan 14. Calvin Nash 13. Robbie Henshaw 12. Bundee Aki 11. James Lowe 10. Jack Crowley 9. Jamison Gibson-Park

1. Andrew Porter 2. Dan Sheehan 3. Tadhg Furlong 4. Joe McCarthy 5. Tadhg Beirne 6. Peter O’Mahony (c) 7. Josh van der Flier 8. Caelan Doris

16. Ronan Kelleher 17. Cian Healy 18. Finlay Bealham 19. James Ryan 20. Ryan Baird 21. Jack Conan 22. Conor Murray 23. Ciaran Frawley 


FRANCE : 15 T Ramos 14 D Penaud 13 G Fickou 12 J Danty 11 Y Moefana 10 M Jalibert 9 M Lucu

1 C Baille 2 P Mauvaka 3 U Atonio 4 P Gabrillagues 5 P Willemse 6 F Cros 7 C Ollivon 8 G Alldritt

16 J Marchand 17 R Wardi 18 D Aldegheri 19 R Taofifenu P Tuilagi 20 C Woki 21 P Boudehent 22 N Le Garrec 23 L Bielle-Biarrey


Guinness Six Nations 2024 Round 1

Friday, February 2, 2024

KO 8pm (Irish time) Orange Velodrome, Marseille

Live on: Virgin Media One, ITV1


Referee: Karl Dickson (RFU)

AR1: Matthew Carley (RFU)

AR2: Jordan Way (RA)

TMO: Ben Whitehouse (WRU)

314 : Irish U20 squad 2024 overview

Our guest : BALL-HANDLING HOOKER


IRELAND UNDER-20 MEN’S Squad

(2024 Guinness Under-20 Men’s Six Nations Championship):

Backs (14):

Oliver Coffey (Blackrock College RFC/Leinster)
Tadhg Brophy (Naas RFC/Leinster)
Will Wootton (Sale Sharks/IQ Rugby)
Jake O’Riordan (UL Bohemian RFC/Munster)
Jack Murphy (Clontarf FC/Leinster)
Sean Naughton (Galway Corinthians RFC/Connacht)
Hugo McLaughlin (Lansdowne FC/Leinster)
Ethan Graham (Ballynahinch RFC/Ulster)
Hugh Gavin (Galwegians RFC/Connacht)
Rory Ellerby (Queen’s University Belfast RFC/Ulster)
Wilhelm de Klerk (UCD RFC/Leinster)
Finn Treacy (Galwegians RFC/Connacht)
Stephen Kiely (Shannon RFC/Munster)
Ben O’Connor (UCC RFC/Munster)

Forwards (17):

Alex Usanov (Clontarf FC/Leinster)
Ben Howard (Terenure College RFC/Leinster)
Danny Sheahan (Cork Constitution FC/Munster)
Henry Walker (Queen’s University Belfast RFC/Ulster)
Stephen Smyth (Old Wesley RFC/Leinster)
Patreece Bell (Sale Sharks/IQ Rugby)
Jacob Boyd (Queen’s University Belfast RFC/Ulster)
Andrew Sparrow (UCD RFC/Leinster)
Joe Hopes (Queen’s University Belfast RFC/Ulster)
Billy Corrigan (Old Wesley RFC/Leinster)
Evan O’Connell (UL Bohemian RFC/Munster) (capt)
Alan Spicer (UCD RFC/Leinster)
Bryn Ward (Ballynahinch RFC/Ulster)
Sean Edogbo (UCC RFC/Munster)
Josh Stevens (Queen’s University Belfast RFC/Ulster)
Brian Gleeson (Garryowen FC/Munster)
Luke Murphy (Shannon RFC/Munster)

IRELAND UNDER-20 MEN’S SIX NATIONS FIXTURES:

Saturday, February 3: France v Ireland, Stade Maurice David, Aix-en-Provence, 9.10pm local time/8.10pm Irish time
Friday, February 9: Ireland v Italy, Virgin Media Park, 7.15pm
Friday, February 23: Ireland v Wales, Virgin Media Park, 7.15pm
Friday, March 8: England v Ireland, Recreation Ground, Bath, 7.15pm
Friday, March 15: Ireland v Scotland, Virgin Media Park, 7pm

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





311 : Leicester Tigers v Leinster preview

also available as a podcast


LEINSTER : 15. Hugo Keenan 14. Jordan Larmour 13. Garry Ringrose (cc) 12. Robbie Henshaw 11. James Lowe 10. Harry Byrne 9. Jamison Gibson-Park

1. Andrew Porter 2. Dan Sheehan 3. Tadhg Furlong 4. Joe McCarthy 5. James Ryan (cc) 6. Ryan Baird 7. Josh van der Flier 8. Caelan Doris

16. Rónan Kelleher 17. Cian Healy 18. Michael Ala’alatoa 19. Ross Molony 20. Jack Conan 21. Luke McGrath 22. Sam Prendergast 23. Tommy O’Brien.


Leicester Tigers : 15 F Steward 14 H Simmons 13 M Scott 12 D Kelly 11 O Hassell-Collins 10 H Pollard 9 T Whiteley

1 J Cronin 2 J Montoya (c) 3 J Heyes 4 H Wells 5 O Chessum 6 H Liebenberg 7 T Reffell 8 J Wiese

16 A Vanes 17 F van Wyk 18 W Hurd 19 S Carter 20 K Hatherell 21 B Youngs 22 J Shellcock 23 S Kata.


Investec Champions Cup 23/24 Round 4

Saturday, January 20, 2024

KO 3:15pm Welford Road

Live on: TNT Sports 1

Referee: Andrea Piardi (Ita)

AR1: Filippo Russo (Ita)

AR2: Clara Munarini (Ita)

TMO: Matteo Liperini (Ita)

310 : Leinster v Stade Français wrap

13 January 2024; James Lowe of Leinster dives over to score his side’s first try during the Investec Champions Cup Pool 4 Round 3 match between Leinster and Stade Francais at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
@harpinonrugby

Our Leinster v Stade Francais wrap pod is out now

♬ original sound – Harpinonrugby.com – Harpinonrugby.com

🏉 Accuracy issues

🏉 New kicking style

🏉 Ryan The Reliable

🏉 Ryan The Rampager

🏉 No 🍔, no Ø, no problem


CONOR CRONIN & TOM COLEMAN

FULL TIME TAKES

Joe Sheppard

Wasn’t the strongest display V poorish opposition tbh. The pure world class of each individual player was clear but as a collective it lacked overall. I’m forever impressed by the strength, skill and athleticism of Baird, McCarthy and especially Doris…… Next week away V Tigers SHOULD be a proper test of where we are currently.

Jamie Bermingham

Looks like the team are still adjusting to a new play style, seeing flashes of great plays but also a lot of silly mistakes and errors. I’m going to hold judgement till later in the season, that being said we may just be holding back till the business end.

Gav Heg

Quite disappointed that we didn’t nil them. We should easily have topped 60 here but we’re let down by stupid and unforced mistakes. It could be put down to an adjustment period but we lacked the ability to just finish moves off.

Ringrose should have been motm but Doris also deserving. I felt sorry for Baird that he didn’t go over after that colossal run.

Can’t help but feel that a decent would have picked is apart. For Leicester we need a far better performance.

Johnny McGovern

Frawley in Leinster is jinxed …Is he robust enough for professional rugby ? I could say unlucky but he just isn’t …happening too often – he actually took two knocks during the game tonight and seemed to have effected his vision. The physios checked one eye and the second issue was the heavy tackle he took . I didn’t see the end of the tackle but he was in bits . Leo said he got a knee in the back which then spasmed but the tackler must have connected with his kidneys . Not a great Leinster performance given a very poor SF team .

Andrew Bailey

Let’s not get carried away. Given the selections – the result was a formality ((When is the last time there has been a decent contest in the Aviva group game). Sloppy game punctuated by mistakes and aimless kicking. The return of Lowe a huge positive. Lineout improvement once Ryan on the pitch marked. Just worry about sluggish performances by so many


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Front Five can now be found as part of our weekly 80+ column.

CHAMPIONS CUP WRAP

ROUND 3

NORTHAMPTON 61-14 BAYONNE

LYON 34-20 CONNACHT

EXETER CHIEFS 19-17 GLASGOW WARRIORS

TOULON 18-29 MUNSTER

BRISTOL BEARS 17-31 BULLS

LEINSTER 43-7 STADE FRANCAIS

STORMERS 31-24 SALE SHARKS

CARDIFF 15-54 HARLEQUINS

ULSTER 24-48 TOULOUSE

BATH 29-25 RACING 92

LA ROCHELLE 45-12 LEICESTER

BORDEAUX 55-15 SARACENS



ROUND 4

FRI JAN 19

GLASGOW V TOULON

CONNACHT V BRISTOL

SAT JAN 20

HARLEQUINS V ULSTER

BULLS V BORDEAUX

RACING 92 V CARDIFF

LEICESTER V LEINSTER

MUNSTER V NORTHAMPTON

STADE FRANCAIS V STORMERS

SARACENS V LYON

SUN JAN 21

SALE SHARKS V LA ROCHELLE

TOULOUSE V BATH

BAYONNE V EXETER

309 : Leinster v Stade Français preview

also available as a podcast

our guest : NEIL ‘KEEGO’ KEEGAN

www.keegolaughs.com

Apologies Up Front on Apple Podcasts


LEINSTER : 15. Hugo Keenan 14. Jordan Larmour 13. Garry Ringrose (c) 12. Robbie Henshaw 11. James Lowe 10. Ciarán Frawley 9. Jamison Gibson-Park

1. Andrew Porter 2. Dan Sheehan 3. Tadhg Furlong 4. Joe McCarthy 5. Jason Jenkins 6. Ryan Baird 7. Josh van der Flier 8. Caelan Doris

16. Rónan Kelleher 17. Cian Healy 18. Michael Ala’alatoa 19. James Ryan 20. Jack Conan 21. Luke McGrath 22. Sam Prendergast 23. Tommy O’Brien


STADE FRANÇAIS : 15 L Monin 14 P Dakuwaqa 13 S Ahmed 12 N Nene 11 K Hamdaoui 10 Z Henry 9 B Weber

1 C Castets 2 L Peyresblanques 3 H Ndiaye 4 PH Azagoh 5 JJ van der Mescht 6 M Hirigoyen (c) 7 R Chapuis 8 G Habel-Kϋffner

16 M Meité 17 V Kakovin 18 P Alo-Emile 19 G Tsutskiridze 20 A Timo 21 J Gimbert 22 P Gabrillagues 23 J Segonds


Investec Champions Cup 23/24 Round 3

Saturday, January 13, 2024

KO 5:30pm Aviva Stadium

Live on: RTÉ2, TNT Sports 3


Referee: Christophe Ridley (Eng)

AR 1: Luke Pearce (Eng)

AR 2: Gareth Holsgrove (Eng)

TMO: Tom Foley (Eng)

Citing Commissioner : Shaun Veldsman (SA)

308 : Leinster v Ulster wrap

1 January 2024 – Jason Jenkins of Leinster in a maul during the United Rugby Championship match between Leinster and Ulster at RDS Arena in Dublin. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

@harpinonrugby

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

♬ original sound – Harpinonrugby.com – Harpinonrugby.com

🏉 Homework done

🏉 Quick reply

🏉 Another “Nicked” try

🏉 Missed chances

🏉 Hanging on



photo by Ramsey Cardy

FULL TIME TAKES

Conor Cronin

Ulster exploited our D in the first 20 and that was very significant.

A game like this shouldn’t be decided by an interpretation of the laws, or lack thereof, but I really feel it was today, players on or off their feet, when use it is called or not, whether or not a tackler is held, they are big moments and weren’t decided by the players.

That said, the wrong pass at the wrong time at the end, not looking for the drop goal, there are problems to be fixed

Rich Mifsud

Well can’t say we didn’t deserve that tbh and the stupid fucking ending simply drew a line under that performance. Fair fucks to Ulster putting in a huge shift on D but our game management and decision making left a lot to be desired.

All the right decision making and game management in similar conditions at LAR went to rat shit (admittedly with different personnel)

To be honest I actually expected more of these types of performances given the changes in systems brought in by Nienaber. Not to have seen more is to our credit

Kevin Kelehan

Fair play to Ulster closing it out, they took the squad rotation handicap perfectly, James Ryan’s absence once again fatal for Leinster in a tight game

Sean Michaels

Ulster showed greater desire in awful conditions. Thought some of our decision making on field was questionable. We seemed intent on giving possession away with some poor box kicking, and kicking out of hand, when it seemed more logical to keep it tight and build momentum. Unfortunately, whilst Mr Murphy was not too kind to Leinster he was not the reason we lost. Apart from the LR game I think we have been generally poor and have had a couple of fortunate results which has tended to paper over the cracks

Cian Ormond

Beaten by the better team, no complaints there. The chances to win were available and they were missed. Still top of the table though, the clash with Benetton is more interesting now.

Colin McConaghie (Ulster fan)

Brilliant! Loved every minute 😁 we really exploited the space out wide and Billy Burns was absolutely superb



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URC WRAP

ROUND 9

BENETTON 36-14 ZEBRE

EDINBURGH 19-14 GLASGOW WARRIORS

STORMERS 16-15 SHARKS

CONNACHT 22-9 MUNSTER

OSPREYS 27-21 CARDIFF

DRAGONS 13-12 SCARLETS

LEINSTER 21-22 ULSTER



ROUND 8

SAT JAN 6

SHARKS V LIONS

ROUND 9

SAT JAN 27

BULLS V LIONS

ROUND 10

FRI FEB 16

SCARLETS V MUNSTER

ZEBRE V EDINBURGH

SAT FEB 17

LIONS V BULLS

LEINSTER V BENETTON

SHARKS V STORMERS

CARDIFF V CONNACHT

GLASGOW WARRIORS V DRAGONS

SUN FEB 18

OSPREYS V ULSTER



307 : #LEIvULS preview

also available as podcast

our guest : CONOR CRONIN


Leinster : 15. Jimmy O’Brien 14. Tommy O’Brien 13. Liam Turner 12. Robbie Henshaw 11. Rob Russell 10. Sam Prendergast 9. Jamison Gibson-Park

1. Cian Healy 2. Dan Sheehan 3. Thomas Clarkson 4. Jason Jenkins 5. James Ryan (c) 6. Ryan Baird 7. Will Connors 8. Caelan Doris

16. Lee Barron 17. Jack Boyle 18. Michael Ala’alatoa 19. Joe McCarthy 20. Jack Conan 21. Luke McGrath 22. Harry Byrne 23. Josh van der Flier 


Ulster : 15 Will Addison 14 Rob Baloucoune 13 Luke Marshall 12 Stuart McCloskey 11 Jacob Stockdale 10 Billy Burns 9John Cooney

1 Steven Kitshoff 2 Rob Herring 3 Tom O’Toole 4 Kieran Treadwell 5 Iain Henderson 6 Matty Rea 7 Sean Reffell 8 Nick Timoney.

16 Tom Stewart 17 Andy Warwick 18 Scott Wilson 19 Alan O’Connor 20 Dave Ewers 21 Nathan Doak 22 Mike Lowry 23 Jude Postlethwaite


BKT United Rugby Championship 23/24 Round 9

Monday, January 1, 2024

KO 5:15pm RDS Arena

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


Referee: Frank Murphy (IRFU)

AR 1: Eoghan Cross (IRFU)

AR 2: Tomas O’Sullivan (IRFU)

TMO: Joy Neville (IRFU)