you can also listen to the full pod using the player below
EXTRA THOUGHTS
Love this time of year, new season about to begin, full of opportunities to improve on what has gone before.
I had been disappointed for a while that there was no home preseason senior fixture for Leinster this year, and the weekend just gone would have been the perfect window for it, but as it turned out the Irish 7s both women and men did us proud down in South Africa at the Rugby World Cup.
Obviously it was a bit different from normal rugby weekends; normally your team just plays the one match so you an plan other life things around it, but this time it was all about setting reminders on your phone for mad kickoff times like 11:33am, but boy, was it worth it.
And I know the men got the bronze medal and all which was an incredible achievement in its own right, but let’s not forget the women who also finished their campaign with a victory, clinching 7th place with a 26-10 win over England. Both sides very much did us proud and have the ability to push even further down the road.
I’ll keep saying it – we need the World Rugby Sevens circuit to come to Ireland. Doesn’t have to be Dublin, I don’t care if it’s at Malin Head or Mizen, just find a slot on the calendar and give us an awesome day out to finally get to see these legends in the flesh. I’m trying to get a hashtag going on the twitter machine maybe you can help me give it a push…
Followers of our previous “.net” site may remember a daily feature called The Front Five where we shared quotes and links from around the ruggersphere. Now we have reimagined it into a segment on our main show each week which gives us a chance to step out of the Leinster & Ireland bubble on a regular basis.
And if you keep an eye on all of our social media channels you’ll see more of our old features still going, like Rugby on TV and also Eurowatch where we keep tabs on Leinster’s upcoming opposition in the Heineken Cup. As well as our established accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram be sure to follow us on both TikTok and YouTube as well, the plan is to post regular videos there throughout the season.
But the focus of our main show this week is of course Leinster’s squad depth and I have to say both Mark and Tom came brilliantly prepared to go over all of our options so be sure to have a listen.
Also a shout out to the poster on the Babbling Brook Leinster message board who goes by the moniker “mildly interested” as it was their detailed listing of the squad which we used for the show.
Next week it’s all for real folks! Keep an eye out for our Zebre v Leinster preview on Friday, and before that we’ll be have bonus episode for you with a brief look at Connacht’s squad. JLP
From 2008-last season the bulk of my Harpin’ On Leinster & Ireland rugby was done in the form of a “match writeup” which would post every Monday afternoon, while I added a weekly podcast in 2019 to cover broader topics around the sport.
This season just to mix things up I have chosen to do less articles and more pods and the weekend just gone gave me the first chance to try out a new type of “wrapup” pods where instead of reviewing the most recent match in my own words, I’ll instead chat to some fellow fans about it. And I think we gave it a decent go in our first attempt if I do say so myself, which I do. Obvs there are things that need to be ironed out and I plan to upgrade my equipment as the season goes along but I’m happy enough with the new format so far.
But that certainly won’t stop me writing and I’ve decided to create this ‘extra thoughts’ heading for these posts where I can add things I may have forgotten to add or perhaps clarify somethind a listener brougtup in some feedback, stuff like that.
For the win at Quins there were a couple of impressive performances I forgot to mention, like Alex Soroka who seems to have picked up where he left off after his PotM display in South Africa earlier in the year, and of the 19 year olds who had prolonged cameos, Ben Brownlee had an error or two but certainly nothing to suggest he wont improve and as for Sam Prendergast he did really well under the circumstances, particularly that territory kick that put us in a position to claim the match winning try.
On the Harlequins side I forgot to give an honourable mention to their centre Lennox Anyanwu who had some really strong carries, with himself and Dombrandt representing the home side’s most potent threats.
Also on the pod we spoke about “full time takes” and I realise I forgot to add my own so here’s what I tweeted…
Enjoyed that, classic preseason tussle, mix of good and bad. Jamie Osborne stood out for me on first look but lots of decent outings. Can't wait to have a natter about it, bring on the new season!
Very grateful for the stream, worth every cent.#HARvLEI
Sadly there is no Leinster match next weekend so as well as using the time to go around the provinces to see how their squads are shaping up, I plan to follow both the Irish Women’s and Men’s 7s squads as they take part in the World Cup, with the men taking part in the very first match of the weekend on Friday morning, so stay tuned for that.
Don’t forget to follow us wherever you can, we’re well established on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram but also this season we’re aiming to increase our presence on both YouTube and TikTok so as the saying goes “smash that subscribe button”!!! JLP
HARPIN' ON RUGBY 