Sometimes we love rugby because it’s not simple, but sometimes this backfires.
Pass to Barrett is forward, so he’s offside and not in play, therefore technically he’s obstructing beirne. How this was deemed a yellow baffles me, a red makes me lose faith.
Ireland simply weren’t good enough but my god the quality of officiating was dire.
Tommy O’Brien held back and then deemed to have knocked on, madness.
We can’t be this bad again but world rugby need to do something to get better refs
Cormac Mannion
What exactly do Goodman and O’Connell offer as coaches? Zero line breaks and multiple lineout turnovers tonight. Not the first time either. Our lineout has been muck for several years
Yvonne Dowd
Shit!! Red card?? ‘Dangerous tackle’??
Christy O’Connor
Some serious questions to be asked. Lineout has been poor since the last world cup and NZ were missing 2 of their locks.
Crowley made some poor decisions in the 2nd half but I’d still have him ahead of Sam for the moment. Red card was ridiculous, Beirne was standing still, so how can they say a high degree of danger
Lorcán Murphy
Do we need a change of lineout coach? And does Andy have the balls to ditch POC? It hasn’t functioned the past 2 years and is a key component of our attack. No lineout, no attack
Brian Connell
Ireland … dare I say it … undercooked??
Pearse O Donnell
Ireland were dazzled by the All Black’s footwork.
Those fluorescent boots would frighten the living shīte out of any opponent.
A masterstroke from Razor.🤣🤣
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Probably my top line opinion of Leinster’s match against Zebre last Saturday was that after what had gone down at Croker a week earlier, there was literally no result we could achieve that would satisfy the fans or even make the match close to being memorable. This was a genuinely held opinion on my part, in fact even though we put over 70 points on them back in May at the same venue, I had forgotten that fact myself, mostly because that too came just one week after a major disappointment.
That’s all well and good, but I doubt it’s the best subject to lead with when promoting a podcast that is entirely about Leinster’s win at the weekend! So I don’t actually mention that until about 5 minutes into the pod and to be fair, David Cordial did an excellent job both finding and highlighting some interesting harping points from the match.
It’s not often I include a pod in my Front Five, even less often I give any kind of a plug to Off The Boil, but I reckon a story about an Irish coach helping Palestinians playing rugby is more than worthy of inclusion.
25 October 2025; Jerry Cahir of Leinster on his way to scoring his side’s fifth try during the United Rugby Championship match between Leinster and Zebre Parma at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile
Good win with some good tries, but it was very poor opposition. My big concern was that we still went with brute force so often to get the ball over the line. It worked because it was a poor Zebre team, it’s not going to work against better teams (last week) and it certainly won’t work in the cup.
Delighted Harry, Luke and Alex all had a great game.
Gavin Hegarty
If Osbourne’s red is a red then I worry for rugby. He contested the ball, never even saw the zebra player. Rugby collision, end of. You should not be able to get a red for merely playing the game.
The kids did well but at one stage they were within 5 of us and we had dominated every aspect of the game.
Harry is looking great, he could usurp Sam soon enough.
Chris McDonnell
A fair amount of the crowd turned up to see casper Gabriel make his debut. Leo again couldn’t care less about the leinster supporters. 5 minutes in a game that was won as soon as their 9 got his red card.
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Ahead of the 2025/26 season changes are coming to URC.tv customers in the Republic of Ireland with a lower price point, a new upgraded platform, exciting new features and a small change to the live rights available.
From 30th June 2025, the United Rugby Championship is no longer working with RTÉ Commercial Enterprises DAC (“RTÉCED”) to provide URC.tv, which is now operated solely by the United Rugby Championship. As part of this change, RTÉCED is transferring its rights and obligations, including the contract for your URC.tv subscription, to Pro Rugby Championship DAC with effect from 30th June 2025.
When the new platform launches in time for the 2025/26 season, it will be available on Smart TV apps as well as mobile and desktop destinations with new features such as the ability to watch two live games at the same time in a split screen allowing fans to watch more action on the biggest screens. Full-season passes will now be available for just €40.
In the Republic of Ireland, subscribers will now be able to watch seven of the eight games in each round live. The one additional game of the weekend can be viewed exclusively live on Premier Sports. However, this game will be available on URC.tv, in full, 60 minutes after the full-time whistle. Premier Sports exclusives in Season 25/26 can be found here.
URC.tv will remain home to full game replays of all 151 games, bespoke highlights cuts and selected additional content as well as providing live access to seven of the eight games in every round.
Because your active subscription period continues into next season, we will be issuing a refund for the period that these changes will affect. The refund has been calculated based the number of games played since your subscription started compared to the 151 games played in a full season.
Subscribers who want to continue watching URC.tv next season at the new lower price of €40 do not need to take any action as your subscription will auto-renew in September, after which you will have a 14 day cooling off period in case you change your mind. Customers who want to cancel their subscription renewal can do so in the account section of URC.tv.
These changes do not affect your consumer or Data Protection rights and will not disrupt your ability to access live match content. From 30th June 2025, Pro Rugby Championship DAC is the sole Controller of your personal data.
We’re very much creatures of habit here at Harpin Manor but the past week has been crazy. Normally we have fixed content production for particular days of the week yet life has a canny knack of getting in the way eh?
So first of all the wrap pod was just myself and Conor Cronin – I reckon we did an ok job of summarizing the match all things considered, had a bit of banter online with some Scarlets fans about it. Didn’t have time to do either the “final thoughts” or the “bonus chat” videos this week unfortunately, although I am seriously thinking aboyt scaling back the weekly content anyway as my routine involves.
One thing is for sure, with two matches per week on the Lions Tour coming up, for that period alone there will need to be a massive re-think! Anyway, we’ll cross that when we get to it.
Like I mentioned earlier, I don’t have time to make the usual video and I wasn’t going to comment on my Front 5 choices either but I had to make an exception for this one.
Over the weekend there was a post on BlueSky that shed a completely new light over what should have been a story about the Women’s Six Nations clash between Scotland and Ireland.
Apparently there was to be a trophy awarded to the winner to honour the memory of Siobhán Cattigan, and this seemed to be a perfectly fitting tribute until, well, there was an intervention and her poor family were left rightly confused and heartbroken.
It has apparently since been resolved but the whole thing just served to sully further what was already a very bad show by the SRU.
Hat-tip to Ailbhe from the excellent MudderRucker podcast for helping me find the one and only article in the press about this, and indeed it was excellent gumshoe journalism by David Walsh from the Times who has followed the story since Siobhan’s tragic passing.
The article is behind a paywall and I want to respect that so I won’t go into more detail but I definitely recommend reading the full story if you can and I’m looking forward to watching the SIobhán Cattigan Trophy (or something similar, I don’t think the name has been confirmed) be awarded in the near future.
WAS FEATURE NOW BUG
Other competitions, such as cricket’s Hundred, have found a lucrative market for stakes in franchise teams free from the threat of relegation.
I think I need to write something here as well, I just discovered this article as I was putting together the column! Nice to see the Premiership have finally admitted that theirs was a failed business model after years of claiming relegation was actually the main feature.
WALL SIDELINED
The news comes a week after flanker Erin King was ruled out of the World Cup following a serious knee injury.
Major blow for Ireland as injury rules Dorothy Wall out of Women’s World Cup
Ciarán Kennedy – The42.ie
Devastating blow for Dorothy personally of course but also the full Irish squad.
SEALED WITH A KISS
They also get the reassurance of current coach Joe Schmidt continuing after the British & Irish Lions tour this winter and the Rugby Championship Tests in Spring.
“Hogg had been thriving in his new life in the south of France, operating in a surprise new position at fly-half.”
Stuart Hogg ruled out of rugby until 2026 after devastating setback
Steven S – Ruck.co.uk
While I’d never be happy about an injury to anyone, let’s just say I am a lot less gutted about this Achilles injury than I am Dorothy Wall’s. Regular Harpin readers will know the Front Five column has been following Hogg’s off-field story closely over the past while, although to read this particular story you’d think it never happened. I guess that’s their editorial choice, but I would have included a line like “Hogg, who was sentenced in January 2025 for abusing his estranged wife”, as I have here.
LEINSTER SQUAD UPDATE
Excellent news on James Ryan and Rob Russell but I very much doubt the former will be ready in time for Saturday’s semifinal so for my selection I have tried to reward those who have impressed in recent weeks for the tight decisions. Tommy O’Brien, Jack Deegan, Diarmuid Mangan and Max Deegan all fall into this category.
HARPIN’ POSSIBLE MATCHDAY 23 V NORTHAMPTON
15 H Keenan 14 T O’Brien 13 G Ringrose 12 J Barrett 11 J Lowe 10 S Prendergast 9 J Gibson-Park
1 A Porter 2 D Sheehan 3 T Furlong 4 J McCarthy 5 RG Snyman 6 J Conan 7 J vd Flier 8 C Doris (c)
16 R Kelleher 17 J Boyle 18 R Slimani 19 D Mangan 20 M Deegan 21 L McGrath 22 R Byrne 23 R Henshaw
caveat : I have no “ITK” a la Thornley
OFFICIAL UPDATE posted Monday
AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
RG Snyman: has returned to full training having recovered from injury.
Ryan Baird: came through the game at the weekend with no issues after his return from injury.
FURTHER ASSESSMENT REQUIRED:
Rob Russell: will look to increase his training load this week as he continues his recovery from injury and will be further assessed as the week goes on.
James Ryan: will look to increase his training load this week as he continues his recovery from injury and will be further assessed as the week goes on.
NOT AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Brian Deeny: will have a procedure this week on a knee injury which will keep him out of action for the rest of the season.
Will Connors: is unavailable for selection with an arm injury and will be further assessed this week.
NO FURTHER UPDATES ON:
Jordan Larmour.
TROLL PATROL
Now it’s time for Troll Patrol where we ‘detain’ a social media commentator and charge them with gaslightery and general online mayhem.
Hat-tip to Rugby Kino for spotting this perfect follow up to last week’s Troll Patrol detainee, James has done it again as for the second week in a row, a player loaned by Leinster to Munster has ended up on the losing side, so he just reworked the same message at the same time, with a photo added for maximum effect.
I just hope the Munster fans don’t respond by finding some kind of correlation between the Leinster players’ involvement and the results…..
Qualifying finals – 1 v 6, 2 v 5, 3 v 4 with the top-ranked team hosting
Semi-Finals – three qualifying winners plus highest ranked loser: Teams re-ranked with 1 v 4 and 2 v 3
Final – top-ranked semi-final winner hosts the other semi-final winner.
RWC2027 QUALIFIERS
The RWC2027 tournament has expanded to 24 nations so with four extra spots up for grabs it makes for a fascinating qualifying process.
Rather than post the latest results and fixtures here however, I’d like to defer to the excellent work of frequent Harpin’ contributor Ciarán Duffy who has been keeping close tabs on the qualifying process over at his own site Post to Post Sport.
Follow this linkto see how the Road to Australia is progressing, Ciarán has the April update there now.
Japan League One
Major League Rugby
Harpin Prediction League
This is the 4th season of our Superbru prediction league among Harpin’ pod contributors.
Kristian is the reigning champion, but the real competition is in avoiding finishing last, which means you must wear The Jersey of Shame. I had to wear it the first year, while Keego has had the honour the past two seasons.
As you can see our resident stats expert Rugby Kino is leading the way with room to spare although Mark does seem to be gaining on him… meanwhile down at the foot of the table, a mini fightback from David sees the Jersey race up for grabs again.
We’ve also added a Cup (or Mug) competition to make things interesting, and congrats to Conor Cronin for defeating, well, me in the final last weekend. Ironically for a Leinster-based site, it was Conor’s complete lack of faith in Munster winning in Cardiff which proved the difference, that match gave him a 1.5 point swing.
14 February 2025; Rabah Slimani of Leinster is congratulated by teammates after scoring his side’s third try during the United Rugby Championship match between Ospreys and Leinster at Swansea.com Stadium in Swansea, Wales. Photo by Chris Fairweather/Sportsfile
Just shows what experience brings, Tipuric was a menace and a pain in the arse from the 1st minute, got right in the Leinster faces and bullied them and all behind the refs back(or the ref just didn’t care).
McGraths try was brilliant for once in the game passes stuck and defenders were beaten.
MOTM Harri Deaves was also a menace & seemed to get a semi when Snyman came on giving him lots of lip and trying to belittle him, Snyman for his part looked to love it and was all smiles, a real valentines vibe going on.
Great win for a real second team and good for Frawley, O’Brien, Osbourne and the Irish squad members to get a run to dust off some cobwebs, which there was a lot of, but if they get a run against Wales it will stand to them.
Some over the top comments on here about playing bad when the team was cobbled together and most haven’t played in 3 weeks but as the saying goes winning ugly is still winning.
Sandra Seery
Was really hoping for a bonus point but happy with the win.
Bert McLoughlin
Sloppy handling when in good positions cost us a few scores from good positions but just about got over the line. It’s not often an opposition backrow play better than the Leinster backrow, Tipuric still going strong as the elder statesman
Jackie McEachern
I think this is mostly one to forget but glad we got the win.
Warren Doyle
A win is a win but not a great performance. Second string players will not have learned anything from that. Too much up & under & very little continuity. Better to come, hopefully.
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On Nevin Spence’s anniversary here is a repost of an article written on our old Harpin’ site by Munster & Ireland fan Trevor Murphy, days after the tragedy happened .
I was preparing to write my regular piece on Saturday evening when the news of the tragic events on the Spence family farm started to filter through. Nevin along with his Dad Noel and older brother Graham were sadly taken from us in a farming accident. As a fan I felt for the loss felt by Ulster fans, teammates and fellow professionals that were lucky enough to have met and played with and against Nevin. As a father and brother I can’t begin to understand the loss felt by the Spence family. To the Spence family and friends I offer my heartfelt condolences.
To say he will be missed is a huge understatement. From what I have read about Nevin, it is evident he had an enthusiasm for the game which was unmatched. When teammates weren’t enjoying the prospect of training he was leading from the front. They say a picture paints a thousand words… I think this one says it all.
Nevin was pointed out by Gary Longwell as a definite future rugby professional while at the Ulster academy. This is quite a statement from a man acutely in the know. It is a big step up from academy to full time professional and it takes a special player to cope with the difference in levels. In 2011 his ability was acknowledged by his peers when he was awarded the IRUPA Young Player of the Year. Nevin was brave beyond words and this was evident from a try he scored against Bath in 2010 where he flipped over onto his head and then back. He gave his all for his team and teammates. His final act, in a life cut too short, again displayed his fearless side going to the aide of family members with no thought to his own safety.
As someone who watches and follows all the rugby available, I did not miss Nevins appearance on the scene. The measure of what I thought about Nevin as a player is simply this: When he was on the Ulster team sheet against Munster I knew he was a going to be a real threat. He was strong with a good change of pace. At a smidge under 15 stone he was a difficult man to stop on the gain line. I always thought Nevin was going to achieve 50+ caps for Ireland.
The outpouring of support in the wake of Nevin’s untimely passing is and was a small measure of what the wider rugby family thought about him. He will never be forgotten.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dilis.
A phone recording of “Stand Up For The Ulster Men” being sung at the RDS at Leinster’s next home game following the Spence family tragedy.
Hi, we’ve made a few changes in the offseason. For one thing this website has had a domain name change to harpinonrugby.blog but going forward we’re going to be promoting our content primarily through Linktree so you should see the above address replacing the old .com link we’ve featured for the past couple of years. I’ll explain a bit more on the next 80+ column video but if you’ve bookmarked the .com feel free to change now ahead of the new season, which isn’t too far away now!!!
Thanks as ever for following our stuff, looking forward to getting back to regular business soon!!!
HARPIN' ON RUGBY 