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!!!
JLP : Had to switch off twitter with all the negative reaction to this news. Apparently taking a young Irish team on a tour is a bad thing now? Sure it will hurt the provinces for a few weeks but all the URC clubs get impacted by things like this at different stages of the season. It’s the nature of the sport. I harp on the need for a more sensible calendar with tournaments in blocks each and every year but even I have made peace with the fact that it is unlikely to ever happen for European rugby. And once you accept that, then it should be easy to grasp that if you are to do a tour like this which clearly has at least as many benefits as drawbacks if not much more, then no one union is going to be able to pick and choose a time of year that suits them perfectly.
Benetton made them look very average, there’s too many flaws in their performance. I haven’t been overly impressed by them.
JLP : This could’ve been Clickbait of the Week as it looks like they went trawling for an article that Jake White could pin on the dressing room wall at Loftus on Saturday. I didn’t listen to the full interview but I’d be pretty confident that Berch also qualified those statements with some positives in the Bulls set up.
According to the Telegraph, the Gulf state is ‘closing in’ on a £800 million (€940m) deal to host the finals of the tournament for the next eight years.
JLP : Pretty much said all I need to say in the tweet, but I will add that I wanted to highlight this story using an article from the Sydney Morning Herald which had the headline : “Rugby’s Qatar option would be a cynical, soulless money grab” – I chose not to as it is behind a paywall but although it is an op-ed I reckon it also serves as a realistic piece of analytical journalism on this story.
Always a bad idea, but earning extra bad idea points by bringing it up in Pride Month.
JLP : I know I run the risk of seeming obsessed with Hogg when I feature him so often in the Front Five section (baby reindeer hog?) but it’s a risk worth taking because the progression of this story has been fascinating. Off the top of my head the headlines have been : he retires pre-RWC > he’s having an affair with a jockey > he has a restraining order from his wife > he’s now a pundit > he’s in talks for returning to play with Newcastle > he’s in talks for returning to play with Montpellier > now he’s thinking of returning to test rugby. And I’m pretty sure there’s more twists and turns to come, so watch this space…
***CLICKBAIT OF THE WEEK AWARD***
I’d have him in the squad and I would even consider him as captain because that’s going to be a big one.
Sir Ian McGeechan Makes a Bold Choice for 2025 British & Irish Lions Captain
Ruck.co.uk
JLP : Easy choice of clickbait this week. And the answer is Courtney Lawes. See, they could have said that in the headline which would then persuade you to click to find out why, but no, gotta tease that little bit extra. Now on the subject matter itself, I wouldn’t have a problem with it at all – no doubting he can do it, he’s certainly in form to make the Lions squad and also he’s unencumbered with Test captaincy. But we can discuss all of that without clicking the link.
WRAP OF A WRAP
Conor & Ciarán were on hand to help me go back over the Ulster match and it was an enjoyable chat as ever. We harped a bit more on the importance of Jamison Gibson-Park and James Lowe which didn’t make the pod but can be found in the YouTube clip you see below.
If you missed the wrap pod, here’s a link for Spotify but it’s also available on Apple and other platforms, please subscribe there too and/or leave a review if you can.
QUICK TAP : THIS GETS MY GOAT
When we say a particular player is doing good things are we also dissing every other player?
Once bitten twice shy when it comes to Garry Ringrose. I don’t think we’ll see him again this season and this is one of those times when I’ll be over the moon to be wrong. I do believe Jack Conan will play a role in Pretoria and also that we could go 6/2 on the bench.
Harpin’ matchday 23 v Bulls : J O’Brien, Larmour, Henshaw, Osbourne, Lowe, R Byrne, Gibson-Park
Porter, Sheehan, Furlong, McCarthy, Ryan (c), Baird, van der Flier, Doris
NB : the above matchday 23s are completely from my own mind, I’m certainly not suggesting I have any ITK a la Thornley
OFFICIAL LEINSTER INJURY UPDATE
INJURY UPDATE – AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Garry Ringrose: returned to full training last week after his return from a shoulder injury
Jack Conan: is expected to return to full training this week after missing the Ulster game as a precaution
NO FURTHER UPDATES ON:
Charlie Ngatai (shoulder), Jason Jenkins (knee), Liam Turner (arm), Lee Barron (shoulder), Alex Soroka (foot).
URC IRISH SHIELD UPDATE
Thought I’d update this section one last time, yes, partly because Leinster finished in 1st place but also to add the interpro fixtures for next season, and it was only while doing this that I noticed that not all the matches have actual dates just yet, although it still has to be said the early release was a great idea and long may it continue.
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 20-19 CONNACHT
DEC 26 MUNSTER 3-9 LEINSTER
JAN 1 CONNACHT 22-9 MUNSTER
JAN 1 LEINSTER 21-22 ULSTER
MAY 11 MUNSTER 47-12 CONNACHT
MAY 18 ULSTER 23-21 LEINSTER
MAY 31 LEINSTER 33-7 CONNACHT
JUNE 1 MUNSTER 29-24 ULSTER
2024/25 IRISH SHIELD
SAT SEP 21 – MUNSTER V CONNACHT
SAT OCT 12 – LEINSTER V MUNSTER
SAT OCT 12 – ULSTER V CONNACHT
SAT OCT 19 – CONNACHT V LEINSTER
FRI NOV 29 – ULSTER V LEINSTER
DECEMBER TBC – ULSTER V MUNSTER
DECEMBER TBC – LEINSTER V CONNACHT
XMAS/NEW YEAR TBC – MUNSTER V LEINSTER
XMAS/NEW YEAR TBC – CONNACHT V ULSTER
MAR 28/29- CONNACHT V MUNSTER
SAT APR 19 – LEINSTER V ULSTER
FRI MAY 9 – MUNSTER V ULSTER
TROLL PATROL
Why should Leinster have to travel this distance? We are a bedrock of this League with a wonderful support base in Dublin and we should be treated appropriately.
I suppose if I am to have a proper weekly segment on the subject of trolling, once in a while I’ll have to include it when it clearly comes from a Leinster fan, although I’m not 100% sure if Bryan’s is a serious question or not…either way, it gets the troll label and he managed to reel in a couple of replies.
If you ever see an online contribution that seems worthy of inclusion here, by all means do share.
“SVNS” UPDATE
The World Series may be over but the Irish squads are getting some more preparation for the Olympics with the Rugby Europe Championship which consists of two tournaments the first of which was held in Makarska in Croatia over the weekend. The women got off to a strong start in their pool before going on to lose four in a row which saw them finish in 8th position. The men on the other hand have continued their good form and 5 wins in a row saw them through to the final against France…but it wasnt to be, we were in it right up to the final whistle and just couldn’t get past the French defence in the second half, losing two lineouts in the process which is criminal in this code, to finish on the losing side by 12 points to 7. Still it was a good outing for Hugo Keenan to get integrated into the squad and the second and final round of this championship takes place in Hamburg at the end of the month.
CROATIA 7s
#IREW7s
POOL PHASE
V CZE 24-22
V TUR 31-12
V FRA 5-33
QUARTERFINAL
V SPA 17-33
5TH-8TH PLAYOFF
V CZE 5-10
V GBR 0-19
#IREM7s
POOL PHASE
V CRO 42-0
V GER 12-12
V GEO 17-10
QUARTERFINAL
V GBR 24-7
SEMIFINAL
V GER 31-7
FINAL
V FRA 7-12
🔝🐱🐴 UPDATE
There were some tight finishes in the final round and probably the most significant was at La Rochelle where the home side won to make the barrages but Racing nicked a losing bonus point with a Baudonne try right at the end (actually it was the conversion from Tedder that earned it because you have to be within 5 in the 🔝🐱🐴 ) and this put both through to the knockouts.
So as you can see below both sides must travel in the first round and it’s interesting that although Toulouse and Stade got straight into the semifinals, if Bordeaux make it past Racing it will effectively be a home match for them as both games are in the Matmut Atlantique.
Meanwhile on the European qualification front Clérmont had quite the late season surge in form to nick the 8th and final slot, which means if Leinster reach the URC final we could well renew our rivalry with them in the Champions Cup pool stage.
Also I’ve decided that from next season all going well I will also feature the ProD2 in these updates as it is essentially one of the top European leagues in its own right…I could probably name at least half a dozen clubs in URC & Premiership that would struggle to finish in the top half. Vannes earned the direct promotion spot this season and now Grenoble and Montpellier will slug it out for that 14th spot.
Round 26
BAYONNE 17-28 CASTRES
BORDEAUX 40-7 OYONNAX
CLÉRMONT 52-15 MONTPELLIER
LA ROCHELLE 24-19 RACING 92
LYON 40-28 TOULOUSE
STADE FRANÇAIS 23-20 TOULON
PAU 36-24 PERPIGNAN
PLAYOFFS
SAT JUNE 15
TOULON V LA ROCHELLE (BARRAGES)
SUN JUN 16
GRENOBLE V MONTPELLIER (RELEGATION)
BORDEAUX V RACING 92 (BARRAGES)
SEMIFINALS (BOTH IN BORDEAUX)
FRI JUNE 21
TOULOUSE V TOULON/LA ROCHELLE
SAT JUNE 22
STADE FRANÇAIS V BORDEAUX/RACING 92
PREMIERSHIP UPDATE
Congrats to Northampton Saints, of course we saw them as Leinster fans and they impressed (although they impressed more against Munster, twice 😜) so as a result in and of itself there was no surprise that they got the better of Bath on the day, but of course many are saying the match was defined by the red card for Beno Obano. I guess I can only say what I always do in these scenarios…keep the tackles low and you’ll never put yourself on this kind of radar. I understand the frustration for fans especially the Bath ones in this case obvs but those laws are there for a reason. And speaking of Lawes, I know I mentioned him already in this column, but what a way to finish at a club, eh.
PLAYOFFS
NORTHAMPTON 22-20 SARACENS
BATH 31-23 SALE SHARKS
FINAL
SAT JUNE 8
NORTHAMPTON 25-21 BATH
SUPER RUGBY PACIFIC UPDATE
Not much in the way of contests in the quarterfinals by the look of it, in fact arguably the most noticeable thing about the four matches is that the Crusaders were not involved in any of them. One team that won’t be involved at all in the future is the Melbourne Rebels, I can remember their formation with Stirling Morlock (who’s name I can’t even type without saying out loud in a draw out Aussie accent) one of the first to wear the jersey. It will be interesting to see how their playing staff gets distributed among the other franchises and no doubt it can only make them stronger.
That leaves three NZ and 1 Oz in the semifinals and I really can’t see anything other than a Blues v Hurricanes final.
QUARTERFINALS
CHIEFS 43-21 REDS
HURRICANES 47-20 REBELS
BLUES 36-5 FIJIAN DRUA
BRUMBIES 32-16 HIGHLANDERS
SEMIFINALS
FRI JUNE 14
BLUES V BRUMBIES
SAT JUNE 15
HURRICANES V CHIEFS
MAJOR LEAGUE RUGBY UPDATE
Chicaco Hounds may have had a lot of narrow defeats in recent weeks but they are still defeats and they have now slipped to 4th in the East – I can’t see them dropping any further but they would want to get back to winning ways soon otherwise they’ll have to play New England, who themselves are finding ways to win the tight matches. Over in the west it’s still Houston and Seattle leading the way and guess what – they play each other next.
ROUND 15
OLD GLORY DC 30-31 NEW ENGLAND
HOUSTON 29-12 LOS ANGELES
SAN DIEGO 34-24 ANTHEM RC
MIAMI 13-20 NOLA GOLD
DALLAS 22-20 CHICAGO
SEATTLE 68-29 UTAH
ROUND 16
SAT JUNE 15
DALLAS V OLD GLORY
SUN JUNE 16
HOUSTON V SEATTLE
NEW ENGLAND V UTAH
ANTHEM RC V MIAMI
LOS ANGELES V NOLA GOLD
TUE JUNE 18
CHICAGO V SAN DIEGO
HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE
There are fewer matches to predict at this stage of the season but more points at stake…the QFs are x 1.5, the SFs are x 2 and the final is x 3. Still tho the last weekend couldn’t separate Kino and Kristian for the title, although Kino has the edge in the first tie-breaker. Could all boil down to the last minute of the final. As for myself, I’ll do well to stay in the top 4 at this rate…
NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
It’s all about the Bulls from here on in this week….Keego will join us for the preview show then it’s the Meath/Westmeath combo of Tom Coleman and Mark Jackson helping me wrap the 80 minutes in our Sunday evening recording. Do follow us on all our social media platforms and join the discussion when you can.
And as ever, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP
JLP : Obviously the word ‘reports’ does a lot of heavy lifting in the title although just because a province and/or the Irish media hasn’t reported something yet doesn’t mean it’s not happening and there have been question marks over Leinster’s TH stocks after Ala’alatoa leaves. More on the general topic of NIQ signings further down the column.
“For those who knew Rob throughout his life, his determination and spirit in the face of MND over the last four and a half years came as no surprise.”
JLP : Needless to say it doesn’t matter what code is involved this was sad news across all of sport. Former players like Rob who have contracted MND have done outstanding work to raise awareness.
“I think at this pivotal moment in time…I wouldn’t be keen for him to move if I was involved with Leinster.”
JLP : We have of course been harpin’ on Leinster’s 10 dilemma for ages but it’s interesting to see it popping up in articles outside the four provinces. The Sam to Connacht thing was big news last week and looked like happening (even if the timing did seem strange right before he was getting ready to PLAY Connacht) but the tweet below from Joe Naughton would appear to have chucked some cold water on the spreading rumours…
Sam Prendergast to Connacht OFF
Well after all the pleading it seems Sam Prendergast loan deal won’t be happening.
It was nearly certain before another Champions Cup loss, but now Sam Prendergast could be Leinster number one by Xmas, so he ain’t moving.
As well as a lifetime playing ban, the player also received a 156-week ban – the equivalent of three years – from all forms of rugby, including coaching, refereeing and administration
Namibian rugby player handed life ban after attacking referee
Charles Richardson – NZ Herald (via Daily Telegraph UK)
JLP : Only two words of comment required here : “Proper” and “order”.
***CLICKBAIT OF THE WEEK AWARD***
Heaslip disagreed with Murphy’s summation of the danger of the incident, and argued it had “quite a high level of danger”.
Jamie Heaslip Has Theory On How RG Snyman Escaped Card Vs Ulster
Oisin Gaffey – Balls.ie
JLP : This wins COTWA for having all the basic elements of perfect clickbait for Irish rugby fans, following the simple “Leinster player disputes something good tht happened to Munster or vice versa” formula, with the name Ulster thrown in for good measure. Heaslip’s opinion does feature in the article, but so does Donal Lenihan’s, who also thought it could have been red. His name in the heading might not have stirred things up quite so much though…
WRAP OF A WRAP
I was on Caolán Scully’s pod the day after the Champions Cup final and the other guest was a fellow Leinster fan David Cordial so I asked him to come on our wrap pod and he took to it like a fish to water. Along with seasoned Harpin veteran Rich Mifsud we went back over the win over Connacht and for the final thoughts video we also looked at our favourite RDS memories as well as the upcoming URC quarterfinals.
If you missed the wrap pod, here’s a link for Spotify but it’s also available on Apple and other platforms, please subscribe there too and/or leave a review if you can.
QUICK TAP : QUALIFIED SUCCESS?
With all the talk stemming from the Jordie Barrett news I wanted to do a Quick Tap on the whole subject of NIQs and how we should handle them.
The actual update has been suggesting for weeks now that Garry Ringrose was available for selection but this week it was actually brought up in the text that they release with the update so it looks like it could happen this weekend, and not before time!
Hopefully we are able to go “full bore” for the rest of the season with the exception of Hugo Keenan who is committing to 7s. I know the South Africa series is big but it would be really unfair on Leinster fans to have our players denied knockout game time because of it.
Garry Ringrose is available for selection for this weekend's #BKTURC Quarter-Final against Ulster
NB : the above matchday 23s are completely from my own mind, I’m certainly not suggesting I have any ITK a la Thornley
OFFICIAL LEINSTER INJURY UPDATE
INJURY UPDATE – AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Charlie Ngatai: came through the game at the weekend with no issues after his return from a shoulder injury.
Garry Ringrose: is expected to return to full training this week after his return from a shoulder injury.
INJURY UPDATE – FURTHER ASSESSMENT REQUIRED:
Jack Conan: was withdrawn as a precaution at the weekend and will be further assessed this week ahead of selection this weekend.
INJURY UPDATE – UNAVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Tommy O’Brien: picked up a hamstring injury at the weekend and will enter a period of rehabilitation.
NO FURTHER UPDATES ON:
Jason Jenkins (knee), Liam Turner (arm), Lee Barron (shoulder), Alex Soroka (foot).
URC IRISH SHIELD UPDATE
I very much doubt there will be an open top bus inching through thousands of fans in Ballsbridge to celebrate Leinster’s retention of the Irish Shield any time soon, I’m pretty sure we’d have been happy with Munster winning it if we could swap for first place on the URC log. The most positive angle from this “sub-competition” for me was the fact that of the 12 matches this season, 9 were decided by 7 points or less.
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 20-19 CONNACHT
DEC 26 MUNSTER 3-9 LEINSTER
JAN 1 CONNACHT 22-9 MUNSTER
JAN 1 LEINSTER 21-22 ULSTER
MAY 11 MUNSTER 47-12 CONNACHT
MAY 18 ULSTER 23-21 LEINSTER
MAY 31 LEINSTER 33-7 CONNACHT
JUNE 1 MUNSTER 29-24 ULSTER
TROLL PATROL
@mahasamatman12
“A zero point loss” You harpin’ clowns never cease to amaze!
Straightforward trolling here. For context, in our Connacht preview show I asked Keego what he made of the Champions Cup final and after he responded I pointed out that in recent finals we had lost by 1 or 2 points so with this one having been level after 80 minutes you could say it was a zero point loss. My overall point was that all the finals were close, not that we didn’t deserve to lose them, we have harped on that ad nauseum at other times. Anyway, this guy jumped on it so I wish to repeat my invitation for him to appear on our show anytime to “show us how it’s done”. You may be shocked to learn that he is yet to respond. I’m starting to think he may not want to.
If you ever see an online contribution that seems worthy of inclusion here, by all means do share.
LEINSTER PLAYERS’ GAZA STATEMENT
They say sports and politics shouldn’t mix. I say bollocks to that.
I mean, that’s not to say that if we have chosen sports as our principle topic for content, we should be using that platform to also share political views – that would be disrespectful. HOWEVER some subjects might be called ‘political’ when they actually transcend that, sport, and all other current affairs and IMO Gaza is one of them and I was extremely proud to see the Leinster players releasing this statement.
Also on the Quick Tap video above I chose to use my “final comment” to persuade people to vote in the upcoming local & European elections. To be clear, I would never say WHO anyone should vote for, just that they exercise their right to vote.
📰 | Statement below issued on behalf of the Leinster Rugby senior men and women squads ⬇️
Congrats to all, here’s the official Leinster copy…
Aoife Dalton and Jamison Gibson-Park were the big winners as they took home the Bank of Ireland Men’s and Women’s Player of the Year awards at the Leinster Rugby Awards Ball on Saturday evening.
It’s been an incredible 12 months for Dalton who picked up the Young Player Award at the 2023 event and has now backed it up a year later with the Senior Award after brilliant performances in blue as Leinster regained the Interpro title from Munster.
For Gibson-Park it caps a remarkable few years for the scrumhalf who has made the Leinster and the Ireland number nine jersey his own with a string of stunning performances for club and country.
Other players celebrating included Joe McCarthy and Aoife Wafer who were presented with the Laya Healthcare Men’s Young Player of the Year and BearingPoint Women’s Young Player of the Year Awards.
It it capped a brilliant few weeks for McCarthy and Wafer who were also recognised at the Rugby Players Ireland Awards, while McCarthy was also named the Just Eat Supporters Player of the Season at Friday’s game against Connacht Rugby at the RDS Arena.
Hosted by Joe Molloy, with musical entertainment provided by Manila Strings, the evening brought the curtain down on the 2023/24 domestic season across the 12 counties of Leinster, while also recognising the efforts of the senior men and women sides.
It also marked the final formal engagement for the province’s outgoing President Billy Murphy. The proud UCD club man opened proceedings with a fitting tribute to all those that contributed on and off the pitch and in particular that had helped him across his 12 months as Branch President.
After that it was over to Molloy to get the evening underway and over the course of the next few hours, the best of the game at all levels in Leinster was celebrated.
Departing players and staff were also acknowledged, with a brilliant ovation in particular for the departing trio of Ed Byrne, Ross Molony and Rhys Ruddock.
Mick Dawson was the latest inductee into the Guinness Hall of Fame. The former Leinster Rugby CEO was warmly received by the audience, in recognition of a stellar 21-plus years at the helm.
Another person to be acknowledged for a stellar contribution to the game of rugby in Leinster was the Chair of the Disciplinary Committee, James McCourt, who received the Energia Contribution to Leinster Rugby award for his tireless efforts.
He was presented with his award on behalf of Energia by the Leinster Rugby Culture Captain, Andrew McCarthy, who was also recognised for his efforts over the season by Leinster co-captains, James Ryan and Garry Ringrose.
Clontarf FC, Seapoint Rugby Club, St Mary’s College, Rathmines and Coláiste Mhuire CBS, Mullingar were other big winners on the night.
Jordan Larmour accepted the award for the Bank of Ireland ‘Never Stop Competing’ Tackle of the Year for his try-saving effort in the Champions Cup Final against Toulouse, while Ciarán Frawley’s effort against Connacht Rugby was the winner of the Irish Times Try of the Year.
2023/24 LEINSTER RUGBY AWARDS – LIST OF WINNERS:
Nissan Ireland Development School of the Year: Coláiste Mhuire CBS, Mullingar
Bank of Ireland ‘Never Stop Competing’ Tackle of the Year: Jordan Larmour
Beauchamps School of the Year: St Mary’s College, Rathmines
Energia Contribution to Leinster Rugby: James McCourt
Irish Times Try of the Year: Ciarán Frawley (v Connacht Rugby)
DigitalWell Junior Club of the Year: Seapoint Rugby Club
BDO Senior Club of the Year: Clontarf FC
Just Eat Supporters Player of the Year: Joe McCarthy
Guinness Hall of Fame: Mick Dawson
BearingPoint Women’s Young Player of the Year: Aoife Wafer
Laya Healthcare Men’s Young Player of the Year: Joe McCarthy
Band of Ireland Women’s Player of the Year: Aoife Dalton
Bank of Ireland Men’s Player of the Year: Jamison Gibson-Park
Aoife Dalton and Jamison Gibson-Park were the big winners as they took home the @BankofIreland Men’s and Women’s Player of the Year awards at the #LeinsterRugby Awards Ball on Saturday evening.
According to my Google Calendar, these 24/25 URC fixtures were actually due even earlier, the 22nd of May to be precise. But still, for them to come out a week later was still an excellent idea to help people plan ahead for trips and whatnot, although I do know many who are keen to wait for the Champions Cup draw before they go clicking for hotels and flights.
“SVNS” UPDATE
Overall you have to say 5th and 6th placed finishes are disappointing when you consider both our teams are capable of winning medals in Paris. But it certainly wasn’t all bad, in fact technically the men’s team went the entire weekend unbeaten. We had to push for last gasp tries in all three of our pool matches but only one of those produced a win and with the “golden point” system in place, we fell short against both Fiji and New Zealand which meant we had to make do with the playoffs for 5th place where we dispatched both GB and RSA. And going back to those extra time matches, we had more “poor luck” in both of them, with the Fijians lucky not to see red for that challenge and NZ shipping a penalty on our breakaway towards the end which really should have seen yellow. On the negative side I wondered if both of New Zealand’s opening tries against us were a result of Hugo Keenan being a bit match rusty in this code – I thought he tried to take a bit too much out of his carries allowing the opposition to pounce. He does have buckets of 7s experience of course he just needs a bit more game time.
Anyway on the women’s side, well nobody would get off to a good start to a comp when facing the Aussies, we couldn’t get past Fiji nor the USA either although wins over France and GB helped us stay away from the bottom two places.
Europe’s love triangle of close finishes involving Leinster, Toulouse and La Rochelle continues with the French sides also finishing the 80 minutes level on Sunday night. There are several fascinating battles in the simultaneous final round, best of which has to be the straight shoot out for an automatic semifinal spot between Stade and Toulon. But another shootout of note is ROG v Stu as the loser of La Rochelle v Racing could miss out on the barrages altogether.
Round 25
PERPIGNAN 37-30 BORDEAUX
OYONNAX 27-20 BAYONNE
CASTRES 27-18 STADE FRANÇAIS
MONTPELLIER 41-26 LYON
RACING 92 24-15 PAU
TOULON 52-10 CLÉRMONT
TOULOUSE 31-31 LA ROCHELLE
Round 26
SUN JUNE 8
BAYONNE V CASTRES
BORDEAUX V OYONNAX
CLÉRMONT V MONTPELLIER
LA ROCHELLE V RACING 92
LYON V TOULOUSE
STADE FRANÇAIS V TOULON
PAU V PERPIGNAN
PREMIERSHIP UPDATE
Have to admit I never got to see either of these matches although both had their moments by all accounts, not least of which was one after the final whistle at the Rec! Everything stayed with the seedings anyway and it should be an interesting “Battle of the Fin/ns” this weekend.
PLAYOFFS
NORTHAMPTON 22-20 SARACENS
BATH 31-23 SALE SHARKS
FINAL
SAT JUNE 8
NORTHAMPTON V BATH
SUPER RUGBY PACIFIC UPDATE
Sad, but not surprising, to learn of the imminent demise of the Melbourne Rebels, and had they managed to overcome Fijian Drua in their final regular season match they actually could have sneaked the Crusaders into the final eight. But despite the defeat the Rebels still must take to the field at least one more time as they DID reach the knockouts where I doubt they’ll have enough to win in Wellington. In fact all the quarterfinals look like home bankers although the Reds could cause an upset at the Chiefs.
ROUND 15
CRUSADERS 43-10 MOANA PASIFIKA
WARATAHS 26-27 REDS
FIJIAN DRUA 40-19 REBELS
HURRICANES 41-14 HIGHLANDERS
BLUES 31-17 CHIEFS
WESTERN FORCE 19-24 BRUMBIES
QUARTERFINALS
FRI JUNE 7
CHIEFS V REDS
SAT JUNE 8
HURRICANES V REBELS
BLUES V FIJIAN DRUA
BRUMBIES V HIGHLANDERS
MAJOR LEAGUE RUGBY UPDATE
Like I said on last week’s column, my adopted team for this season the Chicago Hounds probably needed the week off to prepare for the final push and from here on in there are no off weeks, just four weeks of rugby as the 12 clubs look to whittle themselves down to 8. In the east Chicago must look to keep up with NOLA and Old Glory ahead of them while New England look on track to finish first while in the west, Houston are still the team to beat although Seattle are likely to push them close over the coming month.
ROUND 14
OLD GLORY 47-29 ANTHEM RC
NOLA GOLD 7-21 HOUSTON
UTAH 20-27 SAN DIEGO
NEW ENGLAND 26-24 DALLAS
LOS ANGELES 45-15 MIAMI
SUN JUNE 9
OLD GLORY DC V NEW ENGLAND
HOUSTON V LOS ANGELES
SAN DIEGO V ANTHEM RC
MIAMI V NOLA GOLD
MON JUNE 10
DALLAS V CHICAGO
SEATTLE V UTAH
HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE
The regular season went right down to the wire with only the 1st tie-breaker of “winning predictions” separating Kino and Kristian. We now move into the URC playoffs where the usual points will be multiplied by factors of 1.5, 2 and 3 across the three rounds until we have a winner, so technically I still have a chance although I have to correctly predict multiple major upsets to do so. It’s not like I’m without form on this though…last season I was in 3rd place on the day of the URC final but being the only one to predict a Munster win I leapfrogged to the title, so you never know…
NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
Ulster up next – preview recording Friday, wrap pod on Sunday, and as ever there will be tweets and TikToks and Threads and all sorts in our other usual haunts in the ruggersphere – do keep in touch!
And as ever, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP
A selection of five eye-catching egg-chasing quotes & links from around the ruggersphere, now including a few thoughts added by myself (JLP).
…several English press outlets have used strange language to subtly chastise Leinster and Toulouse for hosting their semi-final encounters in their home cities over the weekend.
JLP : Not even going to go into much detail here, because whatever way you slice the actual subject matter, these stories all boil down to the same thing. English clubs winning Champions Cup = everything is fine. English clubs not winning = format must change. Boo hoo. Maybe spend more time reporting on why the financial model has failed so many clubs and what’s being done to sort it?
Mr Hogg will return to court on 15 July for an intermediate hearing ahead of his trial on 30 July.
JLP : Of course I believe in the concept of innocent until proven guilty but with the above dates so relatively close and given the severity of the accusations, I don’t see why any broadcaster would consider putting him in front of a camera or any microphone until due process has full taken place. Just baffles me to have seen him since the first reports came out. And it’s not just TV where we see his reputation-washing, this article on Ruck.co.uk from just last Sunday would have you think he wasn’t having any legal issues at all.
“In the past, players would start in sevens, and move to 15s, which was the much bigger focus in Ireland. In the past few years, there has not been much movement, and look at the quality they have delivered. They are sevens players, and have consistently performed in that code.”
JLP : The South China Morning Post is far from a normal source of Front Five material for these pages but I wanted to see if the Irish sevens were getting much coverage over the past week or so and well, this was up near the top of the list, despite some respectable results from both genders, especially the men who reached the final in Singapore as you’ll see further down the page.
‘F***ed it. Sorry. Harlequins fans were huge. Boys were incredible. Juvé.’
JLP : If you weren’t watching the Toulouse/Harlequins match then you heard Quins had a penalty towards the end that could have given them a chance of staging another amazing fightback, only for one of their players to go and get the penalty reversed, you wouldn’t believe it. Unless you heard it was Joe Marler of course, in which case you’d TOTALLY believe it. To his credit though, at least he owned it. So there’s that.
Ulster are poised to steam the flow of players leaving Belfast after swooping on Champions Cup semi-finalists Leinster to land Ireland back row Max Deegan on a two-year deal.
JLP : Now – to be fair, much like Joe, Neil has owned up to this and I have made more than my fair share of mistakes on these very pages over the years. Still, this is a pretty big one, and the reports we’re hearing now since it was announced that Deegan has decided to stay at Leinster that the agreement was reached ‘several months ago’. So assuming the story was rushed to maximise exclusivity and thus to maximise clicks, Neil wins this week’s COTWA.
I deserve a kick in the bollocks. Sometimes you get things wrong. I’ve gotten one wrong
I brought the same team back from the quarterfinal against La Rochelle and Tom & Mark did a their usual excellent job going back over the match, striking the right tone when it came to the scary finish. We used the final thoughts section for our latest YouTube clip.
If you missed the wrap pod, here’s a link for Spotify but it’s also available on Apple and other platforms, please subscribe there too and/or leave a review if you can.
QUICK TAP : WOULD YOU BE ABL???
When I switched from an article-based to podcast-based format, our first show was a chat on the whole concept of what I call “ABL” or “Anyone But Leinster” but this TikTok is basically my taking another swing at defining it and expressing its relevance to contemporary Irish rugby discourse.
We discussed on the pod how Leinster selections would go over the coming weeks and we kind of agreed we’d like to see a combination of returning injured players given game time and keeping the team for the final fresh, with some cotton wool for the likes of Lowe & JGP but not many more.
Harpin’ matchday 23 v Ospreys
Keenan, Russell, Ringrose, Ngatai, Larmour, H Byrne, McGrath
NB : the above matchday 23s are completely from my own mind, I’m certainly not suggesting I have any ITK a la Thornley
There is good news for Jimmy O’Brien who came through the game at the weekend with no issues after his return from a neck injury and also for Tommy O’Brien who has returned to full training from a hamstring injury.
Garry Ringrose returned to full training last week from a shoulder injury and will be further assessed this week before a final decision is made on his involvement.
Hugo Keenan will also be further assessed this week for a hip injury before a final decision is made on his involvement.
There is no further update on James Ryan (arm) and Alex Soroka (foot).
URC IRISH SHIELD UPDATE
The Shield comes back into play with Connacht still mathematically in contention and Munster trying to get off the mark.
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 20-19 CONNACHT
DEC 26 MUNSTER 3-9 LEINSTER
JAN 1 CONNACHT 22-9 MUNSTER
JAN 1 LEINSTER 21-22 ULSTER
MAY 11 MUNSTER V CONNACHT
MAY 18 ULSTER V LEINSTER
MAY 31 LEINSTER V CONNACHT
JUNE 1 MUNSTER V ULSTER
CHURCH 111
We didn’t actually mention this on our wrap pod, but it did come up in our preview with Kino and to be fair, when he did come on Leinster fans were kind of more focused on us, you know, winning the match! And I thought the PA guy went a little bit too far with his announcement, they should never bleed into the actual gameplay IMO.
All that said, what an amazing achievement and so fitting for him to reach the milestone at Croke Park given he’s a link back to the classic 2009 encounter.
Speaking of Croke Park according to reports all was not plain sailing, and not just when it came to getting the full complement of bums on seats either. Look – overall I’m happy enough to accept that for what is effectively a one-off event rugby-wise there were always going to be some issues, but if this one below is genuine (and I’ve no reason to believe otherwise) then never mind what the policy of the stadium is, I’m looking squarely at the EPCR, as they had control of the event. Surely it’s in their policy for these spectators to be guaranteed an unobstructed view, and if that meant keeping some areas clear that meant the attendance would be a thousand or so less, then so be it? Will definitely have to be sorted before more matches are played there next year.
Might as well get my money’s worth from this clip and repeat it here…I decided to go all in with some Star Wars puns what with the Leinster v Northampton match being on May the 4th and all, and after the preview show was recorded I got the idea to look for a site that helped produced a video like this one, I was very confident I would easily find one, and I was right.
Yet another exciting weekend for the Irish sevens programme, with the men coming within a whiskey of a first leg victory yet still closing the gap with Argentina at the top of the standings, and the women fighting back from defeat in the quarterfinals to clinch fifth spot with the help of the usual plentiful amount of tries from Aimee Leigh Murphy Crowe. Now the circuit moves to its finals stage, the points are wiped clean and the top eight playoff in Madrid at the end of May. No reason to believe why both Irish sides can’t push for podium finishes, same goes for the Olympics.
SINGAPORE 7S
WOMEN
POOL STAGE
V CANADA W 5-0
V NEW ZEALAND L 12-31
V SPAIN W 25-7
QUARTERFINALS
V AUSTRALIA L 24-14
5TH PLACE PLAYOFF
V JAPAN W 19-17
MEN
POOL STAGE
V GREAT BRITAIN W 19-5
V USA L 7-10
V FIJI L 19-26
QUARTERFINALS
V ARGENTINA W 21-5
SEMIFINALS
V GREAT BRITAIN W 15-12et
FINAL
V NEW ZEALAND 14-17
Under the new model, HSBC SVNS 2024 features seven regular season events plus a Grand Final. The top eight placed teams based on cumulative series points at the conclusion of the seventh round in Singapore will secure their opportunity to compete in the new ‘winner takes all’ Grand Final in Madrid, where the women’s and men’s HSBC SVNS 2024 champions will be crowned.
Madrid will also play host to the high stakes relegation play-off competition where teams ranked ninth to 12th will join the top four teams from the World Rugby Sevens Challenger, with the top four placed teams securing their place on HSBC SVNS 2025.
NEXT IN THE SERIES…
MADRID (FINALS) MAY 31-JUN 2
🔝🐱🐴 UPDATE
Toulouse v Stade Français is obviously the match of the weekend as the home side have little time to be impressed by reaching another CC final.But I’d wonder if the Bordeaux v La Rochelle tie could have more significance. When the last 16 bracket of the Champions Cup was set many thought this could have been the final, yet now defeat could leave either with doubts as to making the 🔝🐱🐴 playoffs at all.
NO MATCH LAST WEEKEND
Round 23
SAT MAY 11
PERPIGNAN V CLÉRMONT
CASTRES V MONTPELLIER
PAU V OYONNAX
RACING 92 V BAYONNE
TOULON V LYON
BORDEAUX V LA ROCHELLE
SUN MAY 12
TOULOUSE V STADE FRANÇAIS
PREMIERSHIP UPDATE
The English press might have a been in their bonnets about Irish clubs resting players for European matches but if Gloucester don’t put out mostly academy sides for their remaining two Premiership matches ahead of their Challenge Cup final date with the Sharks, then I don’t know what to say because they are totally stranded in 9th place on the table and can’t move so their only bet is to push for the automatic Champions Cup qualification that would come with the trophy, which would probably deny Leicester a spot. For this reason I’m expecting Northampton to have an easy enough return to domestic action while the four clubs in pursuit somehow avoid each other in round 17.
NO MATCHES LAST WEEKEND
ROUND 17
FRI MAY 10
SALE SHARKS V LEICESTER TIGERS
NEWCASTLE V BATH
SAT MAY 11
NORTHAMPTON V GLOUCESTER
BRISTOL V SARACENS
EXETER CHIEFS V HARLEQUINS
SUPER RUGBY PACIFIC UPDATE
Thought maybe the Crusaders were on the march in the last round then boom! Up come the Reds to knock them back again. Seriously wondering if they’re going to make the quarterfinals now. Hurricanes and Blues still taking the top two slots and they meet each other in Auckland next.
ROUND 11
HURRICANES 41-12 WARATAHS
REBELS 11-38 BLUES
MOANA PASIFIKA 17-28 HIGHLANDERS
CRUSADERS 28-33 REDS
CHIEFS 56-7 WESTERN FORCE
BRUMBIES 28-20 FIJIAN DRUA
ROUND 12
FRI MAY 10
MOANA PASIFIKA V CHIEFS
REDS V REBELS
SAT MAY 11
BLUES V HURRICANES
HIGHLANDERS V CRUSADERS
WARATAHS V BRUMBIES
WESTERN FORCE V FIJIAN DRUA
JAPAN LEAGUE ONE UPDATE
No surprises in the final round of matches and the playoffs are set for two weeks from now.
ROUND 16
HONDA HEAT 31-33 KOBE STEEL
CANON EAGLES 14-43 WILD KNIGHTS
SUNTORY 26-45 SPEARS KUBOTA
KINTETSU LINERS 36-46 MITSUBISHI
SHIZUOKA 20-59 BRAVE LUPUS
BLACK RAMS 18-45 TOYOTA VERBLITZ
SEMIFINALS
MAY 18
WILD KNIGHTS V CANON EAGLES
MAY 19
TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS V SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH
MAJOR LEAGUE RUGBY UPDATE
GO HOUNDS!!!! We have adopted Chicago for this season and they really did a number on the conference-leading Free Jacks as they matched each other for tries with 3 each only for the placekicks of Hounds outhalf Adriaan Carelse to keep the visitors ahead and it narrows NEFJ’s lead down to just 3 points and things dont get any easier for them as high flying Seattle come to town next while Chicago host DC. Houston are also doing really well and got their 8th win of the campaign at Utah.
ROUND 10
SEATTLE 29-13 ANTHEM
OLD GLORY 13-10 MIAMI
UTAH 24-29 HOUSTON
NEW ENGLAND 20-26 CHICAGO
SAN DIEGO 30-24 DALLAS
ROUND 11
SAT MAY 11
ANTHEM RC V HOUSTON
DALLAS V LOS ANGELES
NOLA GOLD V SEATTLE
CHICAGO V OLD GLORY
SUN MAY 12
MIAMI V UTAH
CHALLENGE CUP UPDATE
To be honest I would not have been surprised if both semifinals went the other way but the result is that whoever looks like finishing 8th in the URC or Premiership will be anxious watching the final as their spot in next season’s Champions Cup will be in jeopardy. Despite all the negative talk about formats around the place, I for one like this rule. Scraping into the last qualification spot should have some kind of jeopardy to it.
SEMIFINALS
SAT MAY 4
SHARKS 32-31 CLÉRMONT
GLOUCESTER 40-23 BENETTON
HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE
Just 31 matches left to predict so I’ll need a good round this weekend to make up for all the ground I’ve lost over the past month or so. Might even need to take a few gambles along the way.
NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
It’s Those Pesky Birds up next for Leinster, on Ross Molony’s 30th birthday no less. I’m doing a guest appearance on Mauls, Balls and All on Wednesday evening, while their host Peter Burke is down to help with our Ospreys wrap on Sunday. We will of course have our usual preview show on Friday plus all the other usual features around the different social media channels so please be sure to comment, like, share & subscribe whenever you can.
And as ever, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP
JLP : Little bit of a nothing burger story to lead off with, but I do so for a number of reasons. First, the name Karl Dickson caught my eye simply because he is reffing Leinster’s big match at the Aviva this coming weekend. But this whole “come under fire” thing seems a complete misdirect because I don’t see why he should be judged on whether or not he speaks French. Obviously I think it has been good for refs like Wayne Barnes to parlez some Francais and the same goes for the French refs who speak English but for any of it to be mandatory is a bit of a stretch. Maybe with the vast majority of rugby nations being English speaking it should require the basic rugby terms to be known by all but we’re straying down the wrong road if we think it should be part of the job. Being good at a foreign language should not be a metric for deciding whether or not you’ll be good as a referee. Actually if this article has any relevance at all it’s in a negative way and leads me to my second Front 5 article this week…
“The perpetrator was subsequently convicted of one count of use carriage service to menace or harass via online communication.”
JLP : That Dickson headline was written that way for one reason and one reason only….LITERAL clickbait. It wanted readers who are inclined to disagree with refereeing decisions to give the article a hit thinking the “behaviour” of the official had something to do with a decision on the rugby pitch. So basically you are actively seeking to trigger the types who might end up leaning towards actions like those taken by this individual.
Obviously it is very good news that legal action has led to a conviction in this area and the hope is that the spread of this news will help deter other, but I’d argue that work needs to be done in other areas to stop the gaslighting as well. I’ll never say that we should never disagree with officials to be clear, just that a very clear line needs to be drawn where that criticism stops and I’m not sure that has been properly done as yet.
…a Qatar Airways partnership to fly the SA franchises for EPCR matches has caused yet more logistical issues for the Bulls…
JLP : Travel was always going to be up there with the top negatives with letting the SA teams into northern hemisphere competitions, and this Last 16-to-quarterfinal turnaround week was always going to be when it was most noticeable, not just for SA teams either seeing how many miles ROG & co have clocked up. For me, this is just further proof that the overall European calendar needs a major overhaul, but I won’t harp on that too much this time, I suppose when it comes to this particular case I have to wonder how an airline thinks they are being seen in a positive light being associated with a rugby club when it makes them endure eight flights instead of helping them travel more comfortably.
Menoncello…becomes the youngest winner in the award’s history, and only the second Italian winner following Andrea Masi
JLP : You might think I’d give a big “harrumph” that the player of the tournament didn’t go to the champions, let alone that it went to a team that finished 5th, but that would absolutely not be the case. For Italy to have a 50% record in a tournament where they’ve collected enough wooden spoons to stir a Mediterranean Sea full of bolognese over the years is enough to show they deserve some kind of honour and this is just the way to do it, with Tomasso being just the promising young player to be the one to get it. Interesting how the last Irish player to win was Jacob Stockdale…
“…if you look at the reality and just look at the size of Irish players in the Irish national side compared to other national sides around the world, in the tier one nations there isn’t a bigger, heavier side than Ireland.”
JLP : Finishing off with a straightforward Thorinho piece based on an interview, and any insight into the Nienaber revolution at Leinster is of course welcome.
WRAP OF A WRAP
Wouldn’t expect anything less that top podding from Messrs Jackson & O’Muilleoir and both were true to form. If you’ve been a long time listener to our wraps you probably noticed we have streamlined the format a LOT, taking out the Front Five (which moved to this column) and the bonus clip (which I got rid of altogether, both features were meant to try and cover non-Leinster/Ireland topics but basically that’s what this column is for). Now we get our recordings done in under an hour and it saves me a ton of time while still giving the match that full Harpin treatment.
If you missed the wrap pod, here’s a link for Spotify but it’s also available on Apple and other platforms, please subscribe and/or leave a review if you can.
QUICK TAP : CC+SR≠CWC
As soon as I saw this story my Quick Tap rant for the week had its topic. There are several other metrics where I feel this proposal looks bad but if I outlined them all the “tap” would have been anything but “quick”!!!!
One sign a new elite club comp isn't viable is when you have to cancel an existing elite club comp in a given year to make it happen.#ClubWorldCuppic.twitter.com/IpQ88vyV2A
I don’t see Ringrose returning and I reckon we should probably presume Healy is also out the way he limped off last Saturday. The way Jamie Osborne & Michael Milne have been playing of late I’m not too concerned about either tbh. What does interest me is what we will do in the pack. Many are saying Will Connors should start again as he did back in the pool match in December, but I’m wondering if instead we’ll add his tree-felling tackles to the final half an hour where they have shown many times they can really gather momentum. I’m pretty sure a 6/2 split is on the cards whichever way we go.
Harpin’ matchday 23 v La Rochelle
Keenan, Larmour, Henshaw, Osborne, Lowe, R Byrne, Gibson-Park
Porter, Sheehan, Furlong, Molony, McCarthy, Baird, van der Flier, Doris
NB : the above matchday 23s are completely from my own mind, I’m certainly not suggesting I have any ITK a la Thornley
INJURY UPDATE – AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Robbie Henshaw: came through the game at the weekend with no issues after his return from the Graduated Return to Play Protocols
Hugo Keenan: came through the game at the weekend with no issues after his return from a hip injury
Luke McGrath: has come through the Graduated Return to Play Protocols and will return to full training this week
Ciarán Frawley: came through the game at the weekend with no issues after his return from a foot injury
Andrew Porter: came through the game at the weekend with no issues after his return from a shoulder injury
INJURY UPDATE – FURTHER ASSESSMENT REQUIRED:
Jimmy O’Brien: will be further assessed this week as he nears a return from a neck injury
Charlie Ngatai: will be further assessed this week as he nears a return from a calf injury
Garry Ringrose: will be further assessed this week for a shoulder injury before a final decision is made on his availability
Cian Healy: will be further assessed this week for a leg injury picked up at the weekend before a final decision is made on his availability
INJURY UPDATE – UNAVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
N/A
NO FURTHER UPDATES ON:
James Ryan (arm), Tommy O’Brien (hamstring) and Alex Soroka (foot)
WOMEN’S SIX NATIONS
Big, big match for Ireland this weekend. It is essentially a wooden spoon playoff and we need to make every scrap of our home advantage count. Obviously the re-addition of Cliodhna Moloney to the squad (finally!) will be a huge boost but if they feel they need her and indeed the 7s players why didn’t they add them sooner? To my admittedly untrained eye I thought against Italy our biggest problem was that we lacked cohesion and adding new players could make that even more difficult, but we should still all get behind the girls on Saturday, although the direct clash of their second half with Leinster men’s first won’t make it easy.
NO MATCHES LAST WEEKEND
ROUND THREE
SAT APR 13
SCOTLAND V ENGLAND
IRELAND V WALES
SUN APR 14
FRANCE V ITALY
THAT ROG ARTICLE
I couldn’t let this go…look, I know these comments were made many years ago and that may be important context but still it’s the first time I have heard them and I’m not so sure time does a whole lot to heal them. Was it OK to say those things in 2016? Maybe there was mischief in digging them up to start the week that was in it but I’m certainly not going to have a lot of sympathy with him over it. I’ve put a lot of words into the public domain myself over the years and if something comes back to haunt me now I’d have to own them.
But that’s enough on the matter as far as I’m concerned.
Lot of chatter about the way some Irish fans will be supporting La Rochelle this Saturday. I really don’t want to add to it on these pages, but it’s worth mentioning. Personally, I’m fine with it. I mean, actually wearing the jersey or merch to the matches might be a bit, er, OTT, but hey, you do you. There’s a reason many choose to hate on Leinster, and that’s repeated success. So instead of focusing on the hating, instead I focus on the reason, which for me, is a good thing. Moving on…
KINO CRUNCHES THE NUMBERS
When he’s not guesting on the pod, Cian ‘RugbyKino’ O’Muilloeir has been known to pore over some relevant rugby stats and he has done some interesting work here on the remaining Champions Cup teams and how they have performed in relation to the bookies’ point spreads…
Inspired by @SimonGleave's previous work on handicap under/overperformance, I've had a look at the Champions Cup quarter-finalists through the 5 rounds so far.
What jumped out at me was that Bulls are the top handicap overperformers, and Leinster the worst.
Both genders made it out of the pool phase but only the men went on to get some decent standings points thanks to an amazing Terry Kennedy hat-trick against the USA in the quarterfinals…it went to sudden death extra time and when a scrum in a brilliant position for us went a bit awry I thought we were in trouble until TK kicked it ahead and sprinted past pretty much everyone to get to it. As I watched, even though the rest of the house was in bed on a Saturday morning, from the moment he kicked it I whispered “no way” and then I kept saying it over and over until by the time he dotted down I was screaming it!!! Unfortunately the French were too good for us in the semis (despite being sans AD) but we recovered well to win the bronze medal to keep us in a solid second spot on the table. And to be fair to the women’s team, they have also secured a spot in the final tournament and don’t forget of the two Irish teams they are the only ones with a leg victory so overall it has been an excellent season for the sevens programme so far.
One final note – as you can see in the graphic below, the official SVNS site didn’t seem to be able to find a picture of Michael Hooper, you’d think there might be one or two rattling around the aul internet wouldn’t you…
HONG KONG SEVENS
WOMEN
POOL STAGE
V SOUTH AFRICA 20-7
V AUSTRALIA 0-35
V FIJI 5-21
QUARTERFINALS
V FRANCE 7-31
5TH-8TH PLAYOFF
V JAPAN 5-12
MEN
POOL STAGE
V SOUTH AFRICA 17-22
V SAMOA 12-7
V SPAIN 12-5
QUARTERFINALS
V USA 24-19 AET
SEMIFINALS
V FRANCE 10-26
3RD PLACE PLAYOFF
V AUSTRALIA 14-5
Under the new model, HSBC SVNS 2024 features seven regular season events plus a Grand Final. The top eight placed teams based on cumulative series points at the conclusion of the seventh round in Singapore will secure their opportunity to compete in the new ‘winner takes all’ Grand Final in Madrid, where the women’s and men’s HSBC SVNS 2024 champions will be crowned.
Madrid will also play host to the high stakes relegation play-off competition where teams ranked ninth to 12th will join the top four teams from the World Rugby Sevens Challenger, with the top four placed teams securing their place on HSBC SVNS 2025.
NEXT IN THE SERIES…
SINGAPORE MAY 3-5
MADRID (FINALS) MAY 31-JUN 2
AIL UPDATE
STOP THE PRESSES! UL BOHS LOST A MATCH!!! Railway got the better of them in Round 17, and the top four all lock horns again in the final round of matches this weekend, I’m assuming that was smart scheduling from the organisers to help them get into the knockout frame of mind. Still a shame this is all going on during the Six Nations, however.
Meanwhile in the men’s Div1A the final four was actually set with everyone at the top winning in the final series to leave to very interesting semifinals in Terenure v Lansdowne and Cork Con v Clontarf, they will take place the weekend after next.
Meanwhile down in 1B I always get confused with the promotion format, turns out it is actually four teams that get to fight for the right to join St Mary’s in the top flight, with 9th place Shannon from 1A among the contestants.
#SupportYourLocalClub
WOMEN’S AIL
ROUND 17
GALWEGIANS 21-22 WICKLOW
BLACKROCK 32-5 COOKE
OLD BELVEDERE 50-12 BALLINCOLLIG
RAILWAY UNION 43-22 UL BOHS
ROUND 18
SAT APR 13
UL BOHS V BELVO
COOKE V GALWEGIANS
BLACKROCK V RAILWAY UNION
WICKLOW V SUTTONIANS
MEN’S AIL 1A
ROUND 18
BALLYNAHINCH 15-34 TERENURE
CITY OF ARMAGH 24-40 CORK CON
CLONTARF 31-19 TRINITY
UCD 33-17 SHANNON
YOUNG MUNSTER 24-29 LANSDOWNE
CHAMPIONSHIP SEMIFINALS
SAT APR 20
CORK CON V CLONTARF
TERENURE V LANSDOWNE
PROMOTION PLAYOFFS
SAT APR 20
OLD WESLEY V GARRYOWEN
SHANNON V OLD BELVEDERE
MEN’S AIL 1B
ROUND 18
OLD WESLEY 52-15 QUEENS
NAAS 29-34 OLD BELVEDERE
GARRYOWEN 31-10 HIGHFIELD
BUCCANEERS 12-32 ST MARY’S
BLACKROCK 19-26 UCC
SUPER RUGBY PACIFIC UPDATE
Four massive home wins didn’t exactly make for an exciting round 7, but Tahs v Saders could catch the eye next weekend.
ROUND 7
BLUES 50-3 WESTERN FORCE
REBELS 41-20 FIJIAN DRUA
CHIEFS 68-12 MOANA PASIFIKA
BRUMBIES 40-16 WARATAHS
ROUND 8
FRI APR 12
MOANA PASIFIKA V REDS
WARATAHS V CRUSADERS
SAT APR 13
HURRICANES V CHIEFS
REBELS V HIGHLANDERS
MAJOR LEAGUE RUGBY UPDATE
Great win for Chicago in New Orleans which make them look like serious playoff contenders. Houston remain the only unbeaten team and the visit of East-leading New England looks like the tie of the next round.
ROUND 6
UTAH 44-19 ANTHEM RC
SEATTLE 34-32 DALLAS
NOLA GOLD 21-38 CHICAGO
OLD GLORY 22-22 LOS ANGELES
NEW ENGLAND 25-3 MIAMI
ROUND 7
DALLAS V UTAH
HOUSTON V NEW ENGLAND
SAN DIEGO V NOLA GOLD
CHICAGO V ANTHEM RC
LOS ANGELES V SEATTLE
CHALLENGE CUP UPDATE
I firmly believed both Ulster and Connacht could win their away ties in the round of 16 but to repeat that this weekend won’t be easy. Two matches in South Africa and two in France is quite a way to start your tenure as Ulster coach but we know Richie Murphy is up to the task and I certainly wouldn’t rule them out of contention at the Marcel Michelin. Meanwhile if the boys from the west can repeat their second half form from last weekend, while Benetton will be hot favourites, you just never know.
ROUND OF 16
PAU 30-40 CONNACHT
SHARKS 47-3 ZEBRE
MONTPELLIER 17-40 ULSTER
EDINBURGH 33-15 BAYONNE
OSPREYS 23-15 SALE SHARKS
BENETTON 27-17 LIONS
CLÉRMONT 27-22 CHEETAHS
GLOUCESTER 30-25 CASTRES
QUARTERFINALS
FRI APR 12
GLOUCESTER V OSPREYS
SAT APR 13
CLÉRMONT V ULSTER
SHARKS V EDINBURGH
SUN APR 14
BENETTON V CONNACHT
NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
La Rochelle are obviously our focus this week, don’t forget our slot after the 5 o’clock news on Dublin South 93.9 radio this Friday, we’ll also post our own preview that afternoon with a wrap pod to come on Sunday.
As ever, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP
'Multiple TV markets to keep happy' notwithstanding, I have to believe there was a way to avoid Munster & Ulster's matches clashing on Sunday, just saying.
Wales definitely better than most expected, Ireland will need to be more disciplined in Twickers but can get a bonus point win if they iron out the errors. Was delighted to see Frawley score a super try
Colin McConaghie
We need pace in the backline to get to the really top level. Possibly a bit complacent today but Lowe was really poor with his kicking and will cost us against a better team
John Clavin
A couple of big referee decisions didn’t go Ireland’s way. But, a 24 point win in the 6N and we’re all a bit disappointed in the performance…. Heady days for Irish Rugby.
Christy O’Connor
Very sloppy 2nd half. Ref was inconsistent, but it was our own fault that we made such hard work of it.
Wales deserve some credit for not giving up.
Carmel Daly
Not perfect but technically they held Wales scoreless only for penalty try given. Job done 👍
Greg Kelly
If we’d done that any other year we’d be jumping for joy. I think it’s a sign of what we expect from this team that people are nit picking the performance.
What a way to get BP. Class all the way from Stu's hit at halfway to Beirne's finish. We prob deserved the maximum, tho Welsh started 2nd half well, Winnett v impressive. Aki worthy PotM tho TB not far behind. On to Twickers.#IREvWAL
HARPIN' ON RUGBY 