Welcome to my 80+ column, a weekly post featuring final thoughts from the week of rugby just gone.  

WRAP OF A WRAP

Bit of a hectic weekend – first I was of course at the RDS on Friday night then I had commitments all day Saturday & Sunday which took longer than expected and for a while there it was touch and go whether I could do a wrap pod at all.  

Thankfully I was able to find pockets of time here and there to cobble together a show and even more thankfully, Ciarán Duffy was able to lend his own pod producing experience to help me out and get a sizeable chunk of the recording done by the time I was finally able to dial in.  Many thanks also to Tom Coleman for his patience and between them they did a super job harpin’ on the match on top of it all.

If you missed it, check it out here or on most major platforms.

HARPIN ON…THE STORMERS & LEINSTER’S NEW RIVALRY

No time to record a bonus clip this week so instead I just put out an excerpt from the pod where myself and Tom talked about the Stormers, how the approached the match at the RDS and how a new multi-national rivalry seems to be developing similar to that we had with the Ospreys back in the 2010s.

If you’re playing the clip above maybe pop over and subscribe to the channel too?  That’s where we post our Preview Show as well as other content throughout the week.

HARPIN’ PREVIEW SHOW TIK TOK 

Didn’t have time to produce a TikTok from the main pod so I’ll use this segment to plug the Preview Show which we do generally soon after the Leinster or Ireland team is named during the week and can be found on our You Tube channel although we also put it out as a pod…

WOMEN’S SIX NATIONS

Like I said earlier I was busy Saturday so didn’t get to watch this match but by the sounds of things it was extremely disappointing.  Since the failure to qualify for the World Cup there has been a good bit of positivity on the organisation side of things but it’s pretty clear that there is a long, long way to go and the problem is that as we try to recover the other nations are hardly going to pause and wait for us so by the time we reach a standard close to what we see from the top sides now, they would have moved on even further.  And it certainly doesn’t get a whole lot easier for them as they face France next.

Of course it’s impossible to avoid contrasting this result with the achievements of the men’s team just a week earlier, but I hope you appreciate I don’t say this to be mocking, far from it.  Maybe conditions for the women’s team are improving but it still pales in comparison to the long-standing infrastructure in place to support the men’s game. At the very least you’d hope there was enough support to provide for a dedicated sevens squad without depriving the XVs of the games top players in the process.

As always when I harp on women’s rugby here I must direct your attention to those who understand the issues much more and in the tweet below we have one such excellent source pointing out articles from another.

SEE ALSO THE SEVENS SECTION BELOW FOR A FURTHER UPDATE ON IRISH WOMEN’S RUGBY

DAN LEAVY TWEET

I was surprised by the reaction I got to this answer to a Twitter question, although I guess I can’t be surprised that I’m not the only one who thought Dan could have gone on to be one of the greats. In fact imagine if Leinster had himself, JVDF AND a never-injured Will Connors to choose from all this time!!!

Of course there was the odd bit of whataboutery in response but the truth is everyone was going to have their own choice in a question like this and the reality is that it’s one of those things where nobody is right and everyone is right all at once.

SOURCE MATERIAL

You’d like to think a player with the caliber and experience of Gareth Anscombe would be the best source of info on his own contract negotiations, yet Peter Jackson clearly thought he had a better one, and his reply below caused much amusement amongst the rugby Twitterati on Monday.

Who knows, maybe there is some truth in it after all, although I would have thought it was a courtesy to run an article like this by the man himself before publication? Come to think of it, maybe he did!!!

KING TROLL HIMSELF

TBH I’d much rather not have to mention Ewan McKenna’s name on these pages but once in a while it’s worth sharing his pseudo-man-of-the-people shite if for no other reason than to call it out as pseudo-man-of-the-people shite.

Kudos to Tom “Leinster Royalty” Coleman for coining the very tongue-in-cheek phrase “King Troll” in our WhatsApp group.

UNDER 18 FESTIVAL

Just going to copy paste some info from a press release, this series looks interesting and can be followed for free on a streaming service…

INJURY REPORT

Obviously the headline news here is about Johnny Sexton and to be honest, I’d rather not harp on it right now if you don’t mind, still processing the very real possibility that his start on New Year’s Day against Connacht was to his last in Leinster blue.

For now I’d rather turn my attention to our possibilities for selection for the Champions Cup this weekend, hosting an Ulster side who I am very sure will come to Dublin with a decent chance of knocking us out if we’re not careful.

The way I see it the immediate concern of the injury report is the HIA protocols for Ringrose, Keenan and Doris. Obviously it’s paramount that they see them out fully, but if as suggested by the injury report they could be available pending further assessment, I’m pretty sure all three would start.

Which leaves us with a quandary in the selection process, where we’d need to decide on back up if they are unavailable. We have tried several different options at 15 this season without HK but I’m thinking since Larmour wore the 15 most recently then he must be considered for Saturday. Then in the centre obviously Robbie will play 12 or 13 depending on Garry’s fitness with Frawley ready to play inside centre if required.

That all in turn makes the 23 jersey an interesting debate and I had no hestitation putting Liam Turner in the mix for it as he is having a fine season. And speaking of the bench I decided to also go for a 6/2 split option as with the likes of Jimmy O’Brien, Larmour and Frawley likely to be involved we could afford to beef up our pack replacements and while Scott Penny has done brilliantly of late I think Deegan might just pip him for the extra spot although it’s very, very close.

(note – the above team is purely from my imagination, it’s certainly not one of those quasi-leaked Thornley teams which are always 22 out of 23 correct)

AIL UPDATE

With all of the top four at home in round 16 of Division 1A it was kind of inevitable that all would cement their places and the gap of 9 points to fifth place will be tough to close. It’s looking very much like we’re going to have two Leinster v Munster semifinals to look forward to.

Meanwhile down at the bottom although both UCD and Shannon lost the Students did manage a precious losing bonus which gives them a crucial four point lead over the Limerick side with both teams at home in Round 17 against mid-table opposition.

As you can see I’ll be including the race to qualify for next season’s top division in this section for the rest of the season. And what a finish it promises to be with not only four teams vying for the two top spots (winner goes straight up, runnersup get a playoff) but theres the added bonus of there being one club from each province in the four!!!! City of Armagh would appear to have the inside track but there will no doubt be more twists and turns to this division before the season is out.

DIVISION 1A

DIVISION 1B

SEVENS UPDATE

For reasons I have still yet to find on the internet, the 2022/23 World Series Sevens circuit is making two visits to Hong Kong, at least for the men, maybe it’s to make up for an event lost to COVID?

The Irish men, who nudged up one place to 9th after a final four appearance in Vancouver, got themselves a stinker of a pool draw with New Zealand, South Africa and Kenya all finding their way into the deathiest of pools of death with us.

Meanwhile the women, still fifth despite a poor outing in Canada by their standards, don’t have it too much easier with Fiji, Australia and Brazil on the horizon. 

UPDATE – The tweet below posted shortly after I published this article.

MLR UPDATE

For this week’s feature match I stayed in the Eastern Conference to check out Old Glory DC as they hosted NOLA Gold.

The venue was the soccer ground of Loudon United, a feeder team for DC United from the MLS. It’s actually located in Virginia not Washington, although that’s not surprising as most of the people who work in the nation’s capital actually live in Virginia.

Normally I have issues watching these MLR games because of the visible lines on the pitch from other sports yet although you could see the soccer markings my attention was more drawn by the actual grass itself, it looked like it could have done with a wee trim that morning, the conditions underfoot looked a bit sub-standard.

And whether it was the grass or not the match itself was something of an error fest with several penalties and knockons and although the visitors did have a stingy defence, Old Glory must have concerns that it took them an hour to cross the line with all the possession they had.

They were winning penalties in the first half enough to go into the break with a 12-10 lead thanks to the boot of their former Puma outhalf Joaquín Díaz Bonilla although New Orleans made the most of their one chance as JP du Plessis finished off a fine exchange in loose play.

After the break the scrappiness continued with nobody seemingly able to control the ball until eventually Jordan Lautaro got them ahead only for Gold fullback and former Auckland Blue Jordan Trainor to hit straight back and with less than ten minutes left Aussie 10 Rodney Iona kicked the three points that gave the visitors the win.

Far from a classic but still both sides look well in contention for the playoffs.

More on the league next week.

ROUND 6
OGDC 17-20 NOLA
NEFJ 10-9 DAL
UTAH 47-19 TOR
HOU 40-28 ATL
CHI 5-27 SEA

ROUND 7
UTAH V NEFJ
DAL V TOR
CHI V HOU
NOLA V SEA
NYI V ATL
SD V OGDC

HARPIN’ PREDICTION LEAGUE

Not a good weekend for the actual predictions, with nobody ever risking a draw as their forecasted result plus there were unexpected wins for the Scarlets and Lions, but I still managed to claw my way closer to Kino at the top of the HPL with the gap now just half a point, although even with just 23 matches left you could say all of the top five are in contention.  As for “No Picks Keego”, well, he’s clearing a space in his wardrobe for The Jersey Of Shame…

THE NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

I hate the chopping and changing around competitions as it is over the course of the European season, but this time of year it gets extra crazy as we must go from Six Nations to URC to Champions Cup in successive weekends.

But you can be sure I’ll be ready to give Saturday’s visit of the Ulstermen the full Harpin treatment with a preview Friday, wrap Sunday and all the usual features in between.

In the meantime, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are.  JLP

This week’s Throwback Thursday goes back ten years (to the day as we publish) to what seemed at the time like a brilliant Six Nations start for Ireland so hopefully you can forgive the optimism in my writeup as I wasn’t to know the tournament would end with the roles very much reversed as Wales took the title anyway while we finished fifth (as France got the wooden spoon btw!).

Now it is they who are coming off a fifth place finish so we’ll see what happens…one last thing; speaking of 2013, of the Welsh matchday 23 selected by Gatland to play Ireland back then, SEVEN are also involved in the 2023 selection, and it would probably be eight had AWJ been fit at the time.

Harpin On Rugby writeup dated February 2, 2013

PAYBACK

I honestly have to laugh at those “commenters” out there who are more interested in focusing on Ireland’s second half than they are their first when it comes to this match.

This was always going to be a cup final, and much like last night’s Super Bowl in which the scoring followed a very similar pattern, it always about who took the spoils, not how the result was achieved.

So if you want to spin this epic Cardiff contest as a failure by Declan Kidney’s side then go right ahead…but that’s just simply not what transpired.

The main weakness in the Irish camp was well documented before kickoff – backup to Mike Ross. And that wasn’t a slight on Declan Fitzpatrick either, it was more about the way the talent deficit was handled by the coaching staff since the Twickenham Twagedy last March.

All of which meant that if Ireland was going to come up with a plan to win this match, there was only one way to go…aim to hit the Welsh from the off, build up a lead, and tackle like demons to bring it home. Guess what – that’s exactly what they did.

Not that all was rosy from the Irish, and don’t you worry I’ll get to that in this piece, but I have to start by saying that this was a monumental result achieved with a mostly well-worked, well-executed gameplan that not only got the Welsh monkey off our backs but also injected a huge dose of championship-winning belief into a squad that badly needed it.

Since I’m pretty sure you’ve heard “that BOD pass” and “that Zebo flick” mentioned to death since Saturday, I’m going to start looking at the action itself by focusing on two other pivotal moments that I feel proved to be the difference on the day.

You want to talk about a Welsh comeback in the second half? Fine – but imagine how strong it would have been if the halftime score was 10-20 and not 3-23 as it ended up being. Well by rights it should have been the first score, only for an amazing goal-line stand.

All things considered, it was a decent first Six Nations appearance from Craig Gilroy. It seemed that the home side’s offensive strategy from the kickoff was to target him, and although he wasn’t exactly perfect under the high ball, he certainly did enough to make them go looking for a Plan B. Still…it was his poor clearance towards the end of the first half that lead to strong carries from the likes of Cuthbert, Coombes & Warburton and suddenly the Welsh were having their first serious foray into our 22. Several tough tackles & phases later, Rory Best forces a holding penalty and Ireland have the chance to clear. That defensive series was as good as a try to Ireland in my book.

Then we march down the field and get three points ourselves to widen the margin even further, which meant a whopping 20-point margin going into the break. But anyone who knows this game will tell you that the result was by no means certain. In fact, that very same stadium had experienced similar comebacks in its day.

So Sexton put the restart deep, and the Welsh, desperate for possession, decided to run the ball. Enter Mike McCarthy, Donncha Ryan & Sean O’Brien with quite possibly the most perfectly-executed “choke tackle” you’ll ever see, certainly the most timely. In an instant the possession the home side craved was taken from them, and a steady scrum plus a few phases later, the great BOD himself was diving over the line and THAT was the ball game.

From then on, the Welsh had only one option…burn the playbook and throw the kitchen sink at us. They knew it, we knew it, and the battle was on.

But there was an asterisk beside the O’Driscoll try. As Sexton was lining up his conversion (which he nailed to seal an amazing 6 for 6 haul which nobody anywhere seems to be highlighting), Gordon D’Arcy was being taken off with a dead leg that had been bothering him since the first half.

With all the talk about our lack of backup to the 3 position, very little was said about what we would do if our number 12 got injured. I did think of it before the match, but always assumed that should it happen, O’Gara would come on at out-half and Sexton would move to 12. That thinking, don’t forget, was before the match when the thought of us having a 30-3 cushion into the second half would have been pure fantasy.

Now I KNOW the formbook doesn’t look favourably on O’Gara  when it comes to tackling.  But I also can’t think of a more reliable out-half to run down a clock and bring home a decent lead. And I also believe a weakened 10 channel is a lot easier to protect than a 12 or 13 one, especially when you consider the tackling talent we had at 4,5,6,7,8 plus of course Sexton himself, who kept going despite getting a mouthful of shoe for his trouble.

Instead the coaching staff chose to go for Keith Earls, who went to outside centre while O’Driscoll went to 12. Yes, both players have abilities in those positions, but in one fell swoop we went from having arguably the world’s greatest ever 12/13 combo to a pairing who have only played together once. In this age of rugby where decoy runners play such a large part in creating space, it really was no surprise that once the kitchen sink was thrown at us there would be a way through and just like that the first Welsh try from Cuthbert was made look remarkably easy.

I don’t want to be too hard on Earls for being stranded like he was. But having seen the replay I’m surprised a photographer didn’t nab a shot of him grasping through mid-air at nothing much like Gavin Henson did with Tommy Bowe back in 2009. If I had to fault Declan Kidney for his selection of this Irish squad, I would say that if he wasn’t going to go for the O’Gara 10/Sexton 12 thing, he at least needed a number 23 on the bench who had played both 12 and 13 at provincial level. Like Fergus McFadden maybe?

But anyway…Earls was only on the pitch, and to be fair to him he went on to make 9 tackles which is decent for a full 80 minutes at test level, let alone the 36 minutes he was on. So it could be said that he and BOD sorted out their positioning somewhat…the Welsh would need something else to close the gap even further. Enter Monsieur Roman Poite.

Some people wonder why a lemon only squirts them in the eye. I say it’s because it doesn’t ONLY squirt you there, it’s just that’s the only time you really notice it. Same goes for sports fans and officials. Many say they dislike certain refs because they’re convinced they only give calls against their team…but that’s to be expected and one-eyed fans are a big part of what makes sports discussions so entertaining.

Personally I tend not to be so hard on Poite. For example, the “holding after the tackle” call on Cian Healy that led to the first Welsh score on 33 minutes seemed a bit harsh. Yet shortly after that, he made a similar call on Jamie Roberts (thanks to Best as I mentioned earlier) that got us out of jail big time. So at least he was consistent in that regard.

Yet on 46 minutes, Mike McCarthy got pinged for not releasing. A fair enough call. But it was the first time we had conceded a defensive penalty in our own 22 the entire match, and Poite chose to issue a warning to Jamie Heaslip, one which meant that Rory Best had to be sent to the bin later on.

I wouldn’t have much objection to the events of the last paragraph if the ref had at least spoken to Warburton after what Andrew Coombes did in the first half (click pic for better look). In fact, I could make a strong case for his transgression being a straight yellow, but if Poite was about issuing warnings on the first red zone no-no, he should have done it then, which should have eventually led to the final yellow card tally being a lot more reflective of the two sides’ no-nos than 0-2 did.

All of this meant not only was the kitchen sink being hurled at us for the final quarter, it was being done with an extra man. If anything it was a credit to our tackling that the second Welsh try from Halfpenny was over in the corner. Who knows how the match would have turned out had the Welsh full-back gotten the conversion, but it being out wide helped it be a 15 point deficit rather than a 13 point one and at that stage of the game, that was crucial.

On the subject of Leigh Halfpenny… (or ½p as the Welsh twitterati call him) he was outstanding on Saturday. When it comes to Lions selection he may have had a head start on Rob Kearney this season but with running with the ball, strong tackling and overall reliability he certainly must have the inside track for Gatland’s 15 jumper. In a way it’s a testament to Kearney’s ability that the opposition won’t kick to him anymore but this means that he has to show his mettle in other areas and the Welshman is certainly ahead of him right now.

And overall credit MUST go to Wales for the whole “kitchen sink” thing. George Hook will probably never live down his “lacking moral fibre” comment and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t represent the majority view of Ireland fans. They had been put on the back foot but found a way to come roaring back and they certainly shouldn’t rule themselves out of this tournament just yet.

On the 69^th minute came Faletau’s almost-try at the base of the post when he was brilliantly held up by Sexton, followed by the sin-binning of Conor Murray for waving his hand (again incredibly soft compared to what Coombes did) and although we had been lucky to survive Best’s absence without a scrum being called and O’Brien throwing the darts, we were again down a man, this time for the final ten minutes.

A look at the tackle stats shows you how awesome Ireland’s defence was. Warburton and Faletau led the home side with 11 each – nobody else got to double figures. On the Irish side, everyone who did deserves a mention : Sexton & Best 10 BOD 11 Healy 15 Ryan & Heaslip 16 McCarthy 18 and finally Sean O’Brien a Herculean 23.

You say Ireland folded in the second half? I say we came out on top in a 40-minute period when both sides played out of their skins, literally in some cases given all the stitching that needed doing afterwards.

NOW I can get to the two moments of magic everyone is talking about.

The Zebo thing is the one we will all remember. And no doubt kids everywhere will be trying it. And yes, it was awesome “tekkers”. But to make Cian Healy’s try all about that would take away from all else that went with the move. Rory Best’s block & catch? Heaslip’s pluck out of the air and pass despite being tackled? Gilroy’s pirouette and keeping the ball alive? O’Mahony and Murray’s urgency? All of the above combined to keep the Welsh defence scrambling allowing Church to have the space to barge over.

But I have saved the best for last, the BOD pass that led to first try. Actually the first Baltimore Ravens touchdown was very similar in that the quarterback put the ball where he expected the receiver to be, rather than where he saw him. That’s all very well in gridiron because those guys practise it every week (not to mention they’re allowed pass the ball forward!). What O’Driscoll did took three Welsh defenders out of the equation (most notably Cuthbert who I still think must be dizzy from his confused spinning) to put Zebo over.

If Halfpenny has the inside track for the Lions 15 jumper, I think we can be in no doubt who has dibs on 13 the way things stand. I mean – if you want to fault the man for his box-kick towards the end, go ahead. I’ll do the same the next time I see Lionel Messi as a goalkeeper letting in a penalty 😉 Oh, and Rory Best certainly has a good shout for the hooker spot; if he shores up the darts he could be home and hosed before this Championship is done.

So…when all is said and done, we cleared a massive hurdle on what is still a long road to Six Nations glory. I said in my preview…

“…what I feel we need more than anything else is something that you can’t draw on a blackboard or look for in a DVD session.  We need the team to keep their head in the game for the full 80 minutes, forgetting the four other matches to come in the competition, and once we’re deep into the match, focus on dealing with what’s in front of them rather than trying to stick to complex sets of strategies”

…and we did just that, so bravo to everyone involved. And the fact that the result came against a nemesis we fell short against on the last three attempts makes the payback all the sweeter.

Between now and next Sunday, I will be doing everything I can to make sure the English don’t get away with claiming underdog status for our clash in Dublin. Having said that, we may be battered and bruised, but we certainly have every chance. Bring it on. JLP

NOTE : PREMIER SPORTS IS NOW ALSO KNOWN AS VIAPLAY

FRIDAY, JANUARY 27

SATURDAY, JANUARY 28

SUNDAY, JANUARY 29

MONDAY, JANUARY 30

TUESDAY, JANUARY 31

3PM – NEWBRIDGE V KILKENNY – LEINSTER SCHOOLS CUP – IRISHRUGBYLIVE.IE*

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1

3PM – TERENURE V CLONGOWES – LEINSTER SCHOOLS CUP – IRISHRUGBYLIVE.IE*

* paid streaming service

#205F27

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

TOM COLEMAN

CONOR CRONIN

FULL TIME TAKES

FACEBOOK

Chris McDonnell Its days like this that make being a leinster supporter worthwhile. Magnificent 1 to 23

Liz Power A warning to all teams. Do not lead Leinster by 22-3 in the first half. It’s a dangerous score as the 2011 finalists Northampton will attest!!

Bert McLoughlin Just home after the game, hoarse and sore hands from 👏. What a comeback

Sean Michaels Still trying to get my breath back after that. Literally a game of two halves. Substitutions made a great difference. Porter, Ringrose, Baird were immense. Whatever was said at half time obviously did the trick. Thought Lowe had a good game after such a long spell injured, has obviously taken the time to work on the areas of his game that were seen as a weakness, he looked hungry and aggressive and deserved his try

Gavin Hegarty And that, dear Ulster, is rugby.

I know Healy’s red is a red by law but to me a red is for malice or two yellows. Ref actually adjudicated the mitigating bits for their yellow very well.

I would have given motm to jgp, speed!!!!

Paul Smith Wow, just wow. That’s all I can say right now

TWITTER

MASTODON

RichardMifsud If that isn’t a game for the ages I don’t know what is. What a second half from #leinster absolutely blew Ulster away after a dismal first half performance (credit Ulster). Most pleasing was the relentless pursuit of the win. Ringer is some player isn’t he. Ports worthy POTM but Ryan Baird was veeery close Anyway what a game #LEIvULS Great prep for the Heino

Orange Juice brilliant game by Leinster and Gary Ringrose was on fire today and fair play to Ulster for not making it easy for us

Koochulainn Leinster are so innovative they have reinvented the game of two halves

rosscarrick Unreal game from Leinster. Two scores down and only 14 for most the game! Phenomenal comeback win

@KJoanne My beloved Leinster. What a game! Delighted with that win after that first half. Commiserations to Ulster, thanks for a great contest.

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URC ROUND 9 WRAP

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