Questioned in recent weeks, accused of being a team in serious decline, players being told in the media they were past their sell by date, line out coach and best lock in Irish history told he was shyte at his job. Then we get the best Irish performance since RWC 2023 and one as unpredicted as smashing France in Marseilles in 2024. Australia absolutely failed to deal with the weather conditions and coughed up a lot of easy possession in the red zone but this was the Irish team giving Andy Farrell and Paul O’Connell a performance they’ve been owed for a while. Despite the absence of lions Joe McCarthy, Van Der Flier, Ringrose and Keenan the team was rejigged into a cohesive unit and its clear there is more depth in the squad than has been thought for a couple of years, players like Henshaw and Hansen look reinvented whilst McCloskey looks to be the most unlucky player in recent history in only getting short stints. Hopefully the team can match this performance again next week and hopefully the BOK evolution hasn’t moved on too much since last summer’s drawn series.
Adrian Hickey
Australia still in shock after the Lynagh/Ioane show last week I reckon. When our very sick, reintroduced fb Mack can help himself to a hattrick out of position says quite a bit. Ronan not cutting the mustard the last bit. Gus on bench at hooker next week to back up Dano or he has to do 80. Kudos to Sambo for the drop btw
Bert McLoughlin
A lot more cohesive this week and apart from poor discipline in the 1st half we should have kept their score lower
Kettlebell Padawen
Sam’s best game in green. Australia were shocking
David Ryle
Sam should have shut his detractors up but no they’re still nit picking his performance.
Rob Gardner (via BlueSky)
JPG could give anywhere between 1-15 a good go.
Get in the conversation yourself by leaving
your own thoughts each week after the full time whistle
I’d like to thank Mark and of course all the Harpin contributors over the course of the season as we wind down Season 6 of our humble pod.
We’re looking at one more recording next weekend looking ahead to the Women’s World Cup and otherwise our only content between now and our Season 7 premiere will be our weekly 80+ column which will continue posting on Wednesday.
HARPIN' ON RUGBY 