498 : France v Ireland wrap

14 February 2026; Robert Baloucoune of Ireland dives over to score his side’s third try despite the tackle of Lorenzo Cannone of Italy during the Guinness 6 Nations Rugby Championship match between Ireland and Italy at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

🏉 Attack still misfiring

🏉 Fresh faces

🏉 Brava Italia

🏉 Super Stu

🏉 15s & 7s

THIS WEEK’S GUEST

CONOR CRONIN

FULL TIME TAKES

Gerald Williamson

Quite frankly it was a wrestling match with Ireland just shading it.

Christy O’Connor

Lots of work needed to be done for next week. Sam is in a horrible position, Farrell is adamant about Sam starting, I’m not saying he’s a poor player, he’s just not ready. If any 10 can feel hard done by it’s Frawley. The championship is already over for us, so may as well test more players

John Kehoe

Ireland beat Italy by more points this year than last year

Greg McAuliffe

I thought once Crowley came on, we got a bit of an attacking shape back, which has been under Sam. Still not where we should be but the difference was obvious.

Michelle Tobin

Andy Farrell would do well to talk to Andrew Brown. Brown was so p*ssed off at the Irish performance last night despite the win. “A win is a win” is not the right mindset for the team that was formerly #1 in the world and should be aspiring to get back there, not barely beating Italy. We’re safe from 6th now but there are 3 big games left and I’m not confident

Ted Maher

I really really really hate to say it but Sam!

Chris McDonnell

3 of the 4 half backs are just not good enough. Doak for Casey and frawley and Murphy for Pendergast and Crowley.

Gavin Hegarty

Prendergast not good but then Crowley doesn’t take his chance and denies us a bonus point. Time to try Byrne.

Brian McKeon

Scotland did it last week, we did it this week, underestimated the Italians. Italy have lightening quick backs and a very strong pack.

I’ve never seen Tadhg Furlong get flying lessons in a scrum before today.

Ken Tancred PT

Ireland’s definitely in a rebuilding phase… It should have started last year except for the lions distraction. But Italy are starting to click so they so they have to take some credit

A worrying thing for me is how they team played under Casey and how they changed when JGP came on

Kevin Kelehan

Italy turned up and forced Ireland to work harder than they have for a long time against Italy. England will really target our scrum next week, what was the only blot on an otherwise really decent effort. I remain a huge Sam fan but not was clear that JGP and Crowley was a far better combination. Very decent debuts for Itzy, Balacoune and Edogbo with further enhancement of Timoney’s rep. 70% happy

Craig Boyd

Really poor, very one dimensional and Italy can feel really hard done by. V little to be positive about. Improved when Crowley and Gibson Park came on but missed out on the bonus point

Darragh Headen

2 yellows were harsh i taught, Italy were ferocious, will seriously test both England & France, good points were new debutants, and some great passing, we have concerns in the scrum. Crowley to start, Atmosphere looked desperate, too many there with no passion just in & out drinking & pissing like yo yo,s

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SIX NATIONS WRAP

Italy 18-15 Scotland

England 48-7 Wales

France 36-14 Ireland

Scotland 31–20 England

Italy 13–20 Ireland

Wales 12–54 France

Round 3 Fixtures

Sat 21 Feb

England v Ireland

Wales v Scotland

Sun 22 Feb

France v Italy

NEXT HARPIN’

TUESDAY

BONUS CHAT : “MEDIA NARRATIVES”

WEDNESDAY

80+ COLUMN

497 : Ireland v Italy preview

Our guest : CIARÁN DUFFY

Post to Post blog

IRELAND : 15 Jimmy O’Brien 14 Robert Baloucoune 13 Garry Ringrose 12 Stuart McCloskey 11 James Lowe 10 Sam Prendergast 9 Craig Casey

1 Jeremy Loughman 2 Dan Sheehan 3 Tom Clarkson 4 Joe McCarthy 5 James Ryan 6 Cian Prendergast 7 Caelan Doris (c) 8 Jack Conan

16 Ronan Kelleher 17 Tom O’Toole 18 Tadhg Furlong 19 Edwin Edogbo 20 Tadhg Beirne 21 Nick Timoney 22 Jamison Gibson‑Park 23 Jack Crowley

ITALY : 15 Lorenzo Pani 14 Louis Lynagh 13 Tommaso Menoncello 12 Leonardo Marin 11 Monty Ioane 10 Paolo Garbisi 9 Alessandro Fusco

1 Danilo Fischetti 2 Giacomo Nicotera 3 Simone Ferrari 4 Niccolò Cannone 5 Andrea Zambonin 6 Michele Lamaro (c) 7 Manuel Zuliani 8 Lorenzo Cannone

16 Tommaso Di Bartolomeo 17 Mirco Spagnolo 18 Muhamed Hasa 19 Federico Ruzza 20 Riccardo Favretto 21 David Odiase 22 Alessandro Garbisi 23 Paolo Odogwu

Guinness Six Nations 2026 – Round 2

Saturday, February 14, 2026

Aviva Stadium

KO 2:15pm

Live on : Virgin Media 1

Referee: Hollie Davidson (SRU)

AR1: Matthew Carley (RFU)

AR2: Luc Ramos (FFR)

TMO: Ian Tempest (RFU)

FPRO: Tual Trainini (FFR)

496 : France v Ireland wrap

5 February 2026; Matthieu Jalibert of France scores his side’s second try despite the attempted tackle from Cian Prendergast of Ireland during the Guinness 6 Nations Rugby Championship match between France and Ireland at Stade de France in Paris, France. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

🏉 Rucks & collisions

🏉 The three P’s

🏉 Après set pieces

🏉 Selections

🏉 Calls & non-calls

THIS WEEK’S GUEST

MARK JACKSON

FULL TIME TAKES

Craig Grehan

All in all. Good day out. Look we know we’re in transition and we’re not the numero uno team anymore. SA and France are. Very different teams. Who we need to figure out new ways to beat them.

Good things, our lineout outclassed and manhandled theirs.

Scrums without our big names in the front row definitely held their own.

Sam P silenced his can’t tackle haters (a bit) by hitting a fair few.

Stockdale can still be a threat.

When we move ball we can scare teams.

Cian P was immense.

We still gave France a good rattle fir 25 minutes.

The referees helped France by not seeing 2 forward passes, and a knock on by France.

And not the deliberate yellow one.

The not so good:

We kept kicking despite it not really working.

Despite our scrum and lineout platform, we looked game rusty, silly knock ons, not running hard.

Which is easily settled by picking game ready players.

Some sloppy defending.

Doris is our least aggressive backrow.

No leader on the pitch to say “this isnt working”.

The ref missing the above mentioned things haha

Odran John OBrien

France outstanding no one will come near to them playing like this

Kevin Kelehan

Fixed the perceived problems, scrum solid, gave away 3 penalties in the entire game, only one preventable, line out held up against French going after it. Sam Prendergast’s tackling was arguably the best of the Irish backs. Then they kicked and kicked and kicked when it was clear the French has superior aerial skills. 22-0 at half time and 29-0 down at nearly an hour and it looked like a hiding. Then they woke up and were unlucky the ref didn’t card Dupont when 29-14, they could with a man advantage have got a lot closer. Next game out through Edogbo in at 5, Furlong will be back, put Beirne in at 6 and hopefully the 3 larger ball carriers will get us more yards when we have the ball. France deservedly on their way to retaining their championship

Christy O’Connor

Can’t say I expected any other outcome on the result. The scrum done a lot better than I expected. We are well off the pace and Farrell needs to start picking more players that are in form rather than ticking with the same old faces. This could be the unraveling of Andy’s time in charge if he doesn’t get a grip on this.

Peter Mcconnell

For me it was the commitment in the tackle. For some reason French players were able to power through the tackle sufficiently to offload, or make more metres. In previous years the Irish tacklers have done a pretty good job of halting the attacking players. I don’t know if it is a lack of aggression on behalf of the Irish tacklers, or just a brute fore determination by the French, but I have no doubt it were we lost was at the contact.

Ann Marie Crean

Just not up to scratch 😒 😫

End of

Cormac Mannion

Good to see Cian P do so well, Milne too. The subs did very well when they came on and it did make a difference but France had taken their foot off the gas by that stage. Lineout and scrum were good.

Our defence is shambolic. Players don’t seem to know what they’re supposed to be doing and our attack plan was dire. We seem to look better when we have two playmakers on the field (Crowley and Sam), similar to Leinster when Sam and Harry were on the pitch at the same time.

Osborne is a fine player but looked rusty last night and has all the speed of an oil tanker when he’s turning. Stockdale – didn’t reproduce his early season form. Ringrose – barely saw the ball.

So much wrong (injuries aside) and the players looked jaded from the very beginning

Shaun Berger‬ (BlueSky)

Timoney was great.

Ire outplayed and outfought in so many areas. But one thing I dont see mentioned much:

Did we even win one bloody aerial battle? Even when it looked like we caught it Fra seemed to end up with the ball.

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SIX NATIONS WRAP

ROUND 2

SATURDAY 14 FEBRUARY 2026
Ireland v Italy, 2:10pm, Aviva Stadium
Scotland v England, 4:40pm, Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium

SUNDAY 15 FEBRUARY 2026
Wales v France, 3:10pm, Principality Stadium

NEXT HARPIN’

TUESDAY

BONUS CHAT : “WEEKEND ROUNDUP”

80+ COLUMN

Some post-Paris thoughts from Kristian & Keego

It’s Friday when we normally do our feature match previews here at Harpin Manor, but the horrendous Thursday evening kickoff time has discombobulated our weekly routine a tad.

We’ve decided to stick with our Sunday evening match wrap recording, and regular contributor Mark Jackson will be joining me for that, but to tide us over until then, here are some thoughts from two other friends of the pod, Kristian Ross who offered some written words and Keego who recorded a brief video.

IRELAND THROWN BACK ON THURSDAY

by Kristian Ross

A weakened Ireland opened their 2026 Six Nations campaign with a humbling defeat to France in Paris, on an unfamiliar Thursday evening.

With a seemingly insurmountable injury list, Andy Farrell’s side were in need of a miracle at the Stade de France — but any hope of that was firmly extinguished as the reigning champions set the pace early on.

By half-time, the contest was effectively over. Les Bleus held a 22-point lead that reflected their dominance, with Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Matthieu Jalibert, and Charles Ollivon all crossing the line. However, there was controversy surrounding the opening try, with what appeared to be a forward pass in the build-up.

Uncharacteristically, Ireland made multiple handling errors, their exits misfired, and any momentum was quickly smothered by French line speed and physicality at the breakdown.

The home side were just as ruthless after the restart, extending their lead further. A brief flicker of resistance emerged after both benches emptied, with Ireland showing greater intent with ball in hand and earning a try through Ulster forward Nick Twomey.

A second score followed soon after, capitalising on a rare lapse in French concentration and briefly threatening to give the contest some shape, as Munster prop Michael Milne became the first Offaly-born player to score an international try in a green jersey.

Historically, France have a habit of making things difficult for themselves, and they nearly conceded a third try following a penalty for a deliberate knock-on by Antoine Dupont. Yet, to the confusion of a partisan crowd, he avoided a yellow card.

With that reprieve, France punished Ireland further as Théo Attissogbe put the finishing touch on a commanding win. A depleted Ireland squad must now regroup and aim for a bounce-back victory against Italy next week to keep their slim championship hopes alive.

@harpinonrugby
He usually does previews for us on Fridays but this week we get to hear Keego’s views on the other side…. #FRAvIRE #GuinnessM6N #rugbytiktok
♬ original sound – Harpinonrugby.blog

495 : France v Ireland preview

Our guest : HUGO GORDON

IRELAND : 15 Jamie Osborne 14 Tommy O’Brien 13 Garry Ringrose 12 Stuart McCloskey 11 Jacob Stockdale 10 Sam Prendergast 9 Jamison Gibson‑Park

1 Jeremy Loughman 2 Dan Sheehan 3 Tom Clarkson 4 Joe McCarthy 5 Tadhg Beirne 6 Cian Prendergast 7 Josh van der Flier 8 Caelan Doris (c)

16 Ronan Kelleher 17 Michael Milne 18 Finlay Bealham 19 James Ryan 20 Jack Conan 21 Nick Timoney 22 Craig Casey 23 Jack Crowley

FRANCE : 15 Thomas Ramos 14 Théo Attissogbe 13 Nicolas Depoortere 12 Yoram Moefana 11 Louis Bielle‑Biarrey 10 Matthieu Jalibert 9 Antoine Dupont

1 Jean‑Baptiste Gros 2 Julien Marchand 3 Dorian Aldegheri 4 Charles Ollivon 5 Mickaël Guillard 6 François Cros 7 Oscar Jegou 8 Anthony Jelonch

16 Peato Mauvaka 17 Rodrigue Neti 18 Régis Montagne 19 Hugo Auradou 20 Emmanuel Meafu 21 Leni Nouchi 22 Baptiste Serin 23 Kalvin Gourgues

Guinness Six Nations 2026 – Round 1

Thursday, February 5, 2026

Stade de France

KO 8:10pm

Live on : Virgin Media 1

Referee: Karl Dickson (RFU)

AR1: Angus Gardner (RA)

AR2: Jordan Way (RA)

TMO: Ian Tempest (RFU)

FPRO: Richard Kelly (NZR)

473 : Ireland v South Africa preview

Our guest : HUGO GORDON

IRELAND :15. Mack Hansen 14. Tommy O’Brien 13. Garry Ringrose 12. Bundee Aki 11. James Lowe 10. Sam Prendergast 9. Jamison Gibson-Park

1. Andrew Porter 2. Dan Sheehan 3. Tadhg Furlong 4. James Ryan 5. Tadhg Beirne 6. Ryan Baird 7. Josh van der Flier 8. Caelan Doris (c)

16. Rónan Kelleher 17. Paddy McCarthy 18. Finlay Bealham 19. Cian Prendergast 20. Jack Conan 21. Craig Casey 22. Jack Crowley 23. Tom Farrell

SOUTH AFRICA : 15 Damian Willemse 14 Canan Moodie 13 Jesse Kriel 12 Damian de Allende 11 Cheslin Kolbe 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu 9 Cobus Reinach

1 Boan Enter 2 Malcolm Marx 3 Thomas du Toit 4 Eben Etzebeth 5 Ruan Nortje 6 Siya Kolisi (c) 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit 8 Jasper Wiese

16 Johan Grobbelaar 17 Gerhard Steenekamp 18 Wilco Louw 19 RG Snyman 20 Kwagga Smith 21 Andre Esterhuizen 22 Grant Williams 23 Manie Libbok

Quilter Nations Series – Round 4

Saturday, November 22, 2025

Aviva Stadium, Dublin

KO 5:40pm

Live on : RTÉ2, TNT Sports 1

Referee: Matthew Carley (Eng)

AR1: Karl Dickson (Eng)

AR2: Christophe Ridley (Eng)

TMO: Andrew Jackson (Eng)

FPRO: Dan Jones (Eng)

472 : IRELAND V AUSTRALIA wrap

2025 Quilter Nations Series, Aviva Stadium, Dublin 15/11/2025Ireland vs AustraliaIrelands Mack Hansen scores his sides third try of the match despite Australias James O’ConnorMandatory Credit ©INPHO/Gary Carr

🏉 Full-Mack at 15

🏉 Options galore

🏉 Baird The Poacher

🏉 Smart decisions

🏉 Think inside the Boks

THIS WEEK’S GUEST

No guest this week, flying solo

FULL TIME TAKES

Kevin Kelehan

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.

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NOVEMBER SERIES WRAP

ITALY 14-32 SOUTH AFRICA

PORTUGAL 58-12 HONG KONG

ENGLAND V NEW ZEALAND

GEORGIA 38-17 CANADA

ROMANIA 18-26 USA

WALES 24-23 JAPAN

IRELAND 46-19 AUSTRALIA

FRANCE 34-21 FIJI

SCOTLAND 24-33 ARGENTINA

NEXT HARPIN’

TUESDAY

GUEST POST : “Who could replace Leo?” (blog)

WEDNESDAY

80+ COLUMN (Substack)

471 : Ireland v Australia preview

ALSO AVAILABLE AS A PODCAST

Our guest : NEIL “KEEGO” KEEGAN

www.keegolaughs.com

Apologies Up Front on Apple Podcasts

IRELAND : 15. Mack Hansen 14. Tommy O’Brien 13. Robbie Henshaw 12. Stuart McCloskey 11. James Lowe 10. Sam Prendergast 9. Jamison Gibson-Park

1. Paddy McCarthy 2. Dan Sheehan 3. Tadhg Furlong 4. James Ryan 5. Tadhg Beirne 6. Ryan Baird 7. Caelan Doris (c) 8. Jack Conan

16. Rónan Kelleher 17. Andrew Porter 18. Thomas Clarkson 19. Nick Timoney 20. Cian Prendergast 21. Craig Casey 22. Jack Crowley 23. Bundee Aki

AUSTRALIA : 15. Max Jorgensen 14. Filipo Daugunu 13. Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii 12. Len Ikitau 11. Harry Potter 10. James O’Connor 9. Jake Gordon

1. Angus Bell 2. Matt Faessler 3. Allan Alaalatoa 4. Jeremy Williams 5. Tom Hooper 6. Rob Valetini 7. Fraser McReight 8. Harry Wilson (c)

16. Billy Pollard 17. Tom Robertson 18. Zane Nonggorr 19. Nick Frost 20. Carlo Tizzano 21. Ryan Lonergan 22. Tane Edmed

Quilter Nations Series – Round 3

Saturday, November 15, 2025

Aviva Stadium, Dublin

KO 8:10pm

Live on : RTÉ2, TNT Sports 1

Referee: Karl Dickson (Eng)

AR1: Pierre Brousset (Fra)

AR2: Adam Leal (Eng)

TMO: Ian Tempest (Eng)

FPRO: Dan Jones (Eng)

ALSO AVAILABLE AS A PODCAST

Our guest : NEIL “KEEGO” KEEGAN

www.keegolaughs.com

Apologies Up Front on Apple Podcasts

IRELAND : 15. Jamie Osborne 14. Tommy O’Brien 13. Tom Farrell 12. Robbie Henshaw 11. Jacob Stockdale 10. Jack Crowley 9. Craig Casey

1. Andrew Porter 2. Rónan Kelleher 3. Thomas Clarkson 4. James Ryan 5. Tadhg Beirne 6. Ryan Baird 7. Nick Timoney 8. Caelan Doris (c)

16. Gus McCarthy 17. Paddy McCarthy 18. Finlay Bealham 19. Cian Prendergast 20. Jack Conan 21. Caolin Blade 22. Sam Prendergast 23. Jimmy O’Brien

JAPAN : 15. Yoshitaka Yazaki 14. Kippei Ishida 13. Dylan Riley 12. Charlie Lawrence 11. Tomoki Osada 10. Seungsin Lee 9. Naoto Saito

1. Kenta Kobayashi 2. Kenji Sato 3. Shuhei Takeuchi 4. Epineri Uluiviti 5. Warner Dearns 6. Ben Gunter 7. Kanji Shimokawa 8. Faulua Makisi

16. Shodai Hirao 17. Ryosuke Iwaihara 18. Keijiro Tamefusa 19. Jack Cornelsen 20. Michael Leitch 21. Shinobu Fujiwara 22. Shinya Komura 23. Yuya Hirose

Quilter Nations Series – Round 2

Saturday, November 8, 2025

Aviva Stadium, Dublin

KO 12:40pm

Live on : RTÉ2, TNT Sports 3

Referee: Gianluca Gnecchi (Ita)

AR1: Andrea Piardi (Ita)

AR2: Federico Vedovelli (Ita)

TMO: Matteo Liperini (Ita)

FPRO: Eric Gauzins (Fra)

ALSO

SPAIN V IRELAND XV

Sat Nov 8, 4pm, Rugbypass.tv

IRELAND XV : 15. Michael Lowry 14. Robert Baloucoune 13. Jude Postlethwaite 12. Dan Kelly 11. Shayne Bolton 10.Harry Byrne 9. Ben Murphy

1. Michael Milne 2. Tom Stewart (c) 3. Tom O’Toole 4. Evan O’Connell 5. Darragh Murray 6. Alex Soroka 7. Ruadhan Quinn 8. Paul Boyle

16. Lee Barron 17. Alex Usanov 18. Scott Wilson 19. Diarmuid Mangan 20. David McCann 21. Nathan Doak 22. Cathal Forde 23. Zac Ward

467 : Ireland v New Zealand preview

ALSO AVAILABLE AS A PODCAST

Our guest : JAY LONG

IRELAND : 15. Jamie Osborne 14. Tommy O’Brien 13. Garry Ringrose 12. Stuart McCloskey 11. James Lowe 10. Jack Crowley 9. Jamison Gibson-Park

1. Andrew Porter 2. Dan Sheehan (c) 3. Tadhg Furlong 4. James Ryan 5. Tadhg Beirne 6. Ryan Baird 7. Josh van der Flier 8. Jack Conan

16. Ronan Kelleher 17. Paddy McCarthy 18. Finlay Bealham 19. Iain Henderson

20. Caelan Doris 21. Craig Casey 22. Sam Prendergast 23. Bundee Aki

NEW ZEALAND : 15.  Will Jordan 14.  Leroy Carter 13. Quinn Tupaea 12. Jordie Barrett 11. Caleb Clarke 10. Beauden Barrett 9. Cam Roigard

1. Ethan de Groot 2. Codie Taylor 3. Fletcher Newell 4. Scott Barrett (c) 5. Fabian Holland 6. Simon Parker 7. Ardie Savea 8. Peter Lakai

16.  Samisoni Taukei’aho 17. Tamaiti Williams 18. Pasilio Tosi 19. Josh Lord 20.  Wallace Sititi 21. Cortez Ratima 22. Leicester Fainga’anuku 23.  Damian McKenzie

Gallagher Cup Test Match

Saturday, November 1, 2025

Soldier Field

KO 8:10pm Irish time

Live on : Virgin Media One, TNT Sports 2

Referee: Pierre Brousset (FFR)

Assistant Referee 1: Karl Dickson (RFU)

Assistant Referee 2: Luc Ramos (FFR)

TMO: Ian Tempest (RFU)

FRPO: Dan Jones (RFU)