For this week’s TT, to honour his retirement confirmed on Wednesday, we’ve gone back to 2015 and an article I wrote on Ian Madigan as it was announced he would be leaving Leinster at the end of that season.
The date was September 11, 2010. Leinster defeated the Cardiff Blues 34-23 at the RDS Arena. Isa Nacewa was on exhilarating form that day and took home the Man of the Match award, but also catching the eye was a young outhalf named Ian Madigan.
From my seat in the Grandstand I had a perfect view of his first try in senior rugby and as you can see from the video, it was quite an impressive one. You had to admire the way the youngster backed himself to throw such a step at that stage of the game, when the visitors had fought back from an early deficit to get within touching distance and we had gone a long period without looking like troubling the scorers again.
But this was only the second match in the reign of a certain Mr Joe Schmidt at Leinster. The bonus point win was of course welcome to the RDS faithful, but we were still a bit concerned about how the lads were adapting to a new style of offloading, and when we went on to lose the next two on the bounce to make it just one win from our opening four, that concern naturally grew.
As we all know now, the Schmidt era really took off in earnest when BOD touched down in the closing stages against Munster at the Aviva – but then Isa was our starting number 10 with Johnny Sexton returning from injury on the bench.
By the end of the season however, Madigan had kept in touch with the Leinster matchday squad, and on that monumental day in Cardiff, he wore the number 22 jersey as Sexton led our almighty second half charge to victory over the Northampton Saints.
12 months later, the venue and the opposition were different but it was still Leinster triumphant in the final of Europe’s biggest competition, and once more Madigan wore the number 22.
2013 we did the seemingly unthinkable, failing to get out of our European pool. But we did get a reprieve of sorts in dropping down into what was then called the Amlin Cup, and at the quarterfinal stage Madigan got to wear his favoured 10 jumper as Leinster blew away Wasps away from home to reach the semifinals.
However, when it came to the final, which was actually in the RDS, while he avoided the number 22 this time around, he had to make do with 12 as Sexton was back to play outhalf, and it was the same a week later back at the same venue as we defeated the Ulstermen to finish off a unique treble of trophies.
That success signalled the end for both Schmidt and (for a couple of years anyway) Sexton at Leinster. It seemed the time was right for Madigan to step up and lead the line for us as it always appeared he would.
Skip ahead to the last day of May 2014. Leinster retain their Pro12 crown, but what jersey is Madigan wearing? 22.
And with Schmidt now heading the Irish coaching set up, despite Ian’s failure to nail down a regular starting role at Leinster as outhalf, he features heavily in Ireland’s matchday squads throughout the victorious 2014 & 2015 Six Nations campaigns. What jersey number is he wearing against France and Scotland respectively in those decisive final matches? Do I need to give the answer?
Finally, we have the most ironic fact of this whole bit I’m doing here. In Ireland’s final test match before his new contract is up for negotiation, Madigan actually gets to wear that 10 jumper for his country, although the circumstances are far, far from ideal.
Nobody, and I mean nobody, has ever considered pinning what happened against Argentina on him, but the reason I bring it up is that it signifies what incredible bad luck he has had over the years in the high-profile matches for both province and country.
There isn’t a single serious Leinster supporter who isn’t fully aware of the tremendous skill set at Madigan’s disposal…the consistent place kicking, the tough tackling, the speeding bullet of a miss pass, and we have all seen him display these in spades on numerous occasions.
If we must apportion “blame” for his decision to leave these shores, I don’t believe we can dump it all in one place, but you certainly can’t put any before the man himself.
It’s not his fault he arrived at senior level just when Johnny Sexton was reaching the peak of his powers. It’s not his fault he got injured at unfortunate times. It’s not his fault Joe Schmidt’s long-term plans with Leinster were curtailed, and that his successor was of a mind to give priority to a different style of out half.
And it is certainly not his fault that the ridiculous nature of the European rugby calendar is such that contract negotiations have to take place slap bang in the middle of the season meaning dozens of players across the continent have to see out a campaign with everyone knowing their future lies elsewhere.
But one thing is an absolute certainty. Ian “Mad-Dog” Madigan is a Leinster man through and through, and will always be considered as such. I don’t say that because he is a fellow “Rock boy” either. The province has worked hard over the years to grow its image as a “12 County Army”, and with stars like Darce, Shaggy, the Kearneys and Sean O’Brien we have seen that quality players can be drawn from all over.
What that proves most of all is that it’s your talent and attitude that make you a Leinster player, not where you come from nor where you went to school. And you haven’t heard Ian Madigan complain about his lot at the province over the years despite the misfortune. When he’s been injured, he has worked hard to come back. When asked to play 12, he gave everything. When asked to play 15, he gave everything. And even on all those massive occasions when asked to wear 22, he most certainly gave everything.
He has earned the right to go where he feels his rugby career will progress the most. If he feels Bordeaux is that place, he certainly won’t get anything from me but my full support. They seem to be an ambitious club in what is already a remarkably competitive league.
All we can hope for is that he gets the opportunity to take full advantage of his new surroundings, and if he is putting in the quality displays, that he gets the proper recognition when Ireland squads are named.
Posts similar to this one could have been written about JJ Hanrahan this time last year. They could soon be written about Simon Zebo or Robbie Henshaw. We all want our local heroes to play for our local teams, but we also must retain an acceptance of the realities of the modern professional game.
For now, I just have to say best wishes to Ian for the future; it must be a relief that it is all sorted and out in the open. What say the boys in blue give him the perfect send off in May. JLP
#ThanksMads #COYBIB
@HarpinOnRugby really appreciate your kind article. Top man. Hopefully go out with some silverware. Happy new year.
With one more weekend without an Irish men’s match ahead of RWC2023 I decided to take it easy on the content-creating front but I did agree to do a pod for Caolán Scully which was part of his preview series and looked specifically at Ireland’s chances.
In the pod I suggest that if Ireland should have “Adversity” as a buzzword we should also go with “Belief” as well, and just to get ahead of the jokes I pointed out that I know my accent makes it sound like I’m a rugby version of Tad Lasso and apparently one of Caolán’s mates agreed…
Anyway the pod was released as a joint project so it’s on my feed as number 272 but I’d also like to plug Caolán’s pod so if you haven’t heard it already check it out below.
HARPIN ON…IRELAND’S OPTIONS AT 5, 7 & 14
This week I am grateful to Caolán for letting me use his pod recording for getting two more instalmetns of my “Ireland’s options” series done, and I am also grateful to Cian “RugbyKino” O’Muilleoir for taking the time to record his bit on jersey number 7.
IRELAND’S BENCH AT RWC2023
There are only two positions left to do in our “Ireland’s options” series, I gave each contributor a choice of jersey numbers so the two that got left behind are 13 and 15 so I will do them myself in a video to be recorded Wednesday. I also did a brief TikTok on Ireland’s bench which you can see below, the plan is to do video like that every week throughout the season so you have been warned!
I’ve said it on Twitter/x and on the pod already but I literally can’t give enough praise to Leinster’s women’s squad over their Interpro title secured at Musgrave Park they had to do it the hard way yet ended up doing it in style.
I’ve also said this many many times before but I’ll keep repeating it until it happens…the provincial teams need to play more often throughout the season IMO. I know circumstances are different but a few friendlies with Scots and Welsh teams plus a home and away calendar for the Interpro itself must be doable.
PREDICTION SPREADSHEET
When we’re not calling him Rugby Kino here at Harpin Manor, Cian O’Muilleoir is The Prince Of Permutations as his tournament spreadsheets are legendary in that they allow you to plug in different scores to see what happens next.
He has worked with another Irish twitter rugby fan/legend Justin Deegan to produce one for RWC2023, just follow the instructions below to sample it for yourself…
Just save a copy to your own Google account, then plug in the scores and bonus points as they happen or as you predict and it’ll do the rest, all the way through to the finals. It includes most of the tiebreaker calculations and can handle head to head result extraction for up to 5 teams on tied points in any given group, for all the groups.
Almost as if to taunt us with one final reminder of how last season’s URC went just before the RWC kicks off, Munster have not only scheduled a men’s friendly with Leinster kicking off at 6pm on Friday (therefore finishing just as France v New Zealand gets underway), but if fans of the boys in blue are unable to travel we will have to pay at least €6 to Access Munster for the privilege. Since it’s money that technically goes to support Irish Rugby, it should be worth it but I’ll leave that determination with yourselves. I for one am very interested to see what kind of lineup we put out. And don’t forget there’s a second match set with Ulster taking place on Friday September 22 kicking off at 6:30pm at Navan RFC, tickets can be bought here.
🔝🐱🐴 UPDATE
It’s barely the beginning of September and the Top Quatorze is already three rounds in, because of course it is. I fully expect within the next couple of years the first round in a new season will actually take place before the previous year’s final, rule it out at your peril.
With the league’s penchant for teams skimping on away selections, it’s actually not that often that teams win or lose all of their opening three matches, and this year is no exception with only Stade Francais at the top and USAP at the bottom being perfect in their own way.
And because the World Cup is actually on French soil, they had to leave a massive gap between rounds 3 and 4 so it’s very difficult to speculate how the league is going to unfold from here but you whatever happens we’ll be following it all on this column throughout the season.
Round 1
Montpellier 26-15 La Rochelle
Perpignan 7-29 Stade Francais
US Oyonnax 36-17 Clérmont
Castres 24-23 Pau
Lyon 27-15 Toulon
Racing 92 23-18 Bordeaux
Bayonne 26-7 Toulouse
Round 2
Toulouse 38-13 Montpellier
Toulon 19-14 Bayonne
Bordeaux 25-23 Castres
Clérmont 38-14 Perpignan
Pau 19-17 Racing 92
La Rochelle 35-14 Lyon
Stade Francais 28-18 Oyonnax
Round 3
Bordeaux 22-17 Toulon
Clérmont 11-10 La Rochelle
Castres 37-0 Bayonne
Stade Francais 24-9 Montpellier
Pau 40-10 Lyon
Racing 92 59-10 Lyon
Oyonnax 21-27 Toulouse
Round 4
Sat October 29
Bayonne v Stade Francais
Perpignan v Pau
La Rochelle v Castres
Lyon v Clérmont
Montpellier v Racing 92
Toulon v Oyonnax
Toulouse v Bordeaux
NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
Back to full swing this week here at Harpin’ Manor, I’ll be working on that final video for the series on Ireland’s starting options this Wednesday, with just jerseys 13 and 15 left, then on Thursday our “Upcoming Rugby on Irish TV” post is back with a vengeance before we turn our full attention to Ireland v Romania with a preview featuring Mark Jackson on Friday, social media commentary throughout the match itself and of cours the wrap pod recording Sunday evening where we’re planning on attempting some time travel so be sure and look out for that,
As ever be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP
Earlier this week it was reported that Ireland skipper Johnny Sexton has been accused of three disciplinary breaches on the day of the Champions Cup final at the Aviva Stadium, and that an independent panel was going to convene to discuss the possibility of a sanction.
With online reporting being what it is these days, naturally the story was originally broken using this heading : “Exclusive: Sexton could be forced into early retirement with 24-week ban”. Obviously it’s the most basic formula being used there, namely choosing a headline that mentions the most extreme possible outcome to attract the most clicks and reaction. And I have to give extra points to the City AM team for including a perfectly teed up photo with the article, we can only assume Johnny here is saying something like “fine display of refereeing there Jaco!!!”.
Anyway if a reaction is what they wanted, then that’s definitely what they got. Well, first, let me give you mine.
I know there are many who will assume since I’m a Leinster supporter then I’ll somehow choose to defend these allegations, but assuming they’re true and he did say those things at different times, well, I can’t defend them. Of course there’s no excuse for saying anything to officials on the day of a match unless you are the nominated captain on the pitch while play is still going on, and even then it needs to be done respectfully.
We all understand the disappointment of any kind of a loss and that goes double when it’s a major final and possibly triple when a match goes the way that one did. But it should go without saying that we expect more from our leaders and all the way down to school children we want them to show respect to both opposition and officials especially in defeat.
But when it comes to the discussion over what kind of ban he’s going to receive, maybe we should all just back up a little. For one thing, reports of this incident started breaking within hours of it happening and before we had any actual details, in several corners of the internet he was proclaimed guilty from the get go. And I don’t just mean corners of the internet from countries outside of Ireland like the ones we’re due to face in the World Cup either.
Look, Johnny Sexton has always been a polarising force within the Irish bubble. And even when he’s wearing the green jersey, a lot of supporters find it very difficult to acknowledge his contribution to Ireland’s success over the years and only seem to speak up when he makes the wrong kind of headlines. And that’s fine, like I’ve said many times before, different people follow rugby for different reasons.
So while the online media have their own motives for suggesting this ban could rule him out of the World Cup, many seem to think there’s no chance he’ll get a ban simply because he is who he is and that the World Cup couldn’t do without him.
OK, well all of that speculation is fine, I guess, but I wonder if there’s any other method we can use to help us work out what kind of ban he could get for doing something like this? How about precedent? Have rulings been issued before for not respecting officials? And is there any way we can link those involved in previous rulings to this particular case?
Why am I bringing that up here? Well first of all, I have to point out that I don’t argue with that sentiment at all – I think ROG has done extremely well as a coach and definitely should be on the IRFU’s radar, if just a long-term one for now, only a fool would argue otherwise.
In November 2021, O’Gara was banned for two weeks for “showing disrespect to the authority of an official” during a match against Toulon.
He was then suspended for two weeks in April 2022 for “indiscipline” and “challenging the decisions of officials” in a game against Racing 92
Then in September 2022 it was six weeks for “lack of respect” and “action against an official” at Lyon.
Finally this fourth ban in November 2022 was for 10 weeks for “harming the best interests of rugby”
Am I comparing his four offences over the space of a year to Sexton’s three in one day? Maybe a bit, and maybe they are different circumstances in their own right, but while the incidents may not have happened in the same actual ball-park, they are definitely in the same topical one.
So I have to say I’m baffled as to why neither the online entity that originally broke the Sexton story, nor the Irish supporters that are so happy to point out the possible consequences, are able to at least offer the O’Gara situation up as a comparison, I mean even without the fact that they were on opposite sides that day at the Aviva Stadium, you could say their career paths have crossed a few more times over the years.
If it took four hearings for O’Gara to be banned for 10 weeks, then the case against Sexton will need to be really, really bad for his first to get him anything close to that. I’m not saying it’s impossible, and I’m not saying I’m at all happy about these reports and I wish he hadn’t done it, I just want to be sure that when we’re talking about it we’re using all the relevant information, and I’d say this was pretty relevant.
One thing I’m sure all Irish supporters agree on is that we hope that whatever the outcome of this matter, the effect on our World Cup chances is minimal. We’ll just have to wait and see.
We’re planning to go back to our Sunday night pod recording times this coming weekend, for now we’re going to look at the Irish Under 20s as they prepare for the Junior Rugby World Championships down in South Africa so don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe to all our social media channels and in the meantime, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are, stay safe everyone, slán. JLP
The true impact of James Ryan on this team is now fully understood. Better team over 80 minutes won, without Ryan we had no answer to Skelton, ref had a good game. This was the 2011 final won for a second star by a team dead and buried after the first quarter. Jack Conan was again superb.
Hugely disappointing. 17 points up and we stoped playing. Signs of panic Kicked so much ball away. Hard to see how this team progresses .Winning by 40 points each week is no preparation
Sometimes teams need to win ugly and grind a result, Leinster need to learn how to do this. No point taking a big lead and not knowing how to defend it
Hard luck Leinster folks. That was some start but LaR ground their way back in and then strangled Leinster with their power. I think they were helped in that by James Ryan’s absence (physicality and leadership), kicks out on the full, a blocked attempted clearance, some needless penalties / cards, and some wayward long kicking back to them. The slowdown in tempo from Q2 onwards helped LaR but hindered Leinster. Can’t understand why there wasn’t a drop goal attempt at the end; a try wasn’t needed at that stage.
In the stand, if you believe the boos, comments here, comments all over the Internet etc we can only blame one person but I blame the urc. How did they put that referee in the position that he can be blamed? It’s outrageous that he be put in that position. Any other ref could be chosen so that the “he played” nonsense wouldn’t be am issue.
Regardless, you play the decisions, and adapt.
Well done munster, good luck on the 27th.
Craig Grehan
As an out & out leinster fan. We disrespected munster in cup rugby by not selecting our best team.
A team that does that, does it at their peril. We took the gamble and lost to the MUCH better team on the day.
Andrew Potts
A disappointing day for Leinster fond the demands of a month of weekly knock out rugby a step to far today.
Could have won it but Munster could had a few tries.
Frank Murphy did nothing today but enhance his reputation as a very flawed Ref and biased against Leinster.
In the first minute a player leaves the field unconscious. The result of a high tackle.
I thought three questions had to be answered by the Ref
Was there contact with the head?
Was force applied?
Any mitigation ?
It’s a card but only what colour.
The sanctions must have changed.
The length of time Leinster were defending under advantage was ridiculous, certainly he was a factor.
John Hyland
Munster were the better side today. For right or for wrong, Leo has prioritised the fifth star. This was always going to be a tight game. Let’s hope Munster can do the biz in SA.
TWITTER
Munster deserve it. Leinster played badly. Frank Murphy should not ref these games. All of this is true, go on and win now Munster. #leivmun
Seeing a lot of this. Unsure it's anything like a big loss. I get that teams who haven't touched a trophy in seasons don't like other teams with more W, but every dog has its day. A gambled kick through on 72 mins turned out to be a pivotal error, a missed conversion likewise. 👍 https://t.co/e95VfHl4O1
6 May 2023; Michael Milne of Leinster celebrates after scoring his side’s second try during the United Rugby Championship Quarter-Final between Leinster and Cell C Sharks at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
Another very comfortable game, a slight scare at the start when Sharks got their try, but in the end it was too easy.
Don’t see Munster causing any trouble after watching their game against 14 man Glasgow. Still need to show Munster respect though. Don’t want to put out all the academy players again thinking we will walk it.
Andrew Byrne
Time to rethink the quarterfinals stage? That wasn’t a proper match, Sharks seemed to turn up with a one dimensional game plan, only wishing to front up at the scrum and then return home as quickly as possible. No fight in them to have a shot at Leinster with a proper game plan. Knockout rugby gives you a chance to take down the top teams, Sharks just didn’t look interested in anything other than taking scrums.
Hubert Gallagher
(Munster semifinal will be) a derby – passions will be high, physicality intense, we cannot afford to be as generous as Glasgow yesterday and spurn the chances they did. Otherwise Munster will grow into the game and it will become a dogfight and the outcome less certain!
— Marcas Mac Siacais 🇪🇺🇮🇪☘️ (@hoomanbear) May 6, 2023
Good solid performance by the boys against a stifled Sharks. The main thing a good win and few injury concerns Caelan a very worthy POTM On to the SF @leinsterrugby#COYBIB#LEIvSHA
— Richard Mifsud ( richardmifsud@mastodon.ie ) (@Once_in_the_job) May 6, 2023
Mixed bag for Milne. Tough day at scrum time. Sharks strong there but only line breaking from broken play & garryowens though. Porter & penalties then when he came on. Last one against him seemed harsh though. Doris is some man. Ngatai too. Larmour & high balls. 🤷 #LEIvSHA
Koochulainn I thought (the Sharks) would be more dangerous, particularly against an unorthodox centre partnership (which I thought didn’t gel early on) I thought McGrath was and has been fantastic over the last while
Great performance undoubtedly helped by Toulouse indiscipline. Extraordinary tactical failure to have the best scrum half in world along with Ntamack playing out of position for 60 minutes
Craig Grehan
A good win. Flattered by 2 yellow cards.
But, 2nd yellow proves without the “weight” toulouse didn’t seem that strong. (Except dupont)
Gavin Hegarty
Ok so just watched it back and have had time to digest it.
4 tries while they were at 14, but the first two were forward tried and it was Ramos in the bin. Can’t help but feel they kinda imploded and suffered by their lack of back subs but we dominated and beat them at their own game.
I was worried about ngatai, just hadn’t seen enough of him, but he was fantastic.
My 6 year old has watched Conan’s second try on repeat this morning, a dummy of sheer cheeky beauty, it’ll be done many times in the garden today.
Does jack willis’ header to Sheehan count as a try assist?
Byrne was class today, faultless from the tee, this run of high pressure games and form bodes extremely well for the RWC.
TWITTER
What a performance. What a team. What a team to play against. And what a game to watch, titanic.
A Champions Cup final with Leinster on the card, a personal dream of mine.
Massive performance, especially dealing with their monster locks. Fortunate with the impact of Toulouse's injuries. We were surgically clinical in power play time. Lucky with a few calls too but semi finals should be closer than that
Higgs thought it was going to be tighter before the match then how it ended up. Ngatai made a huge impact in the first half. Plenty of tired legs at the end of the match
JOC IMO, the really soul-crushing moment came when Ryan yoinked the lineout steal. Absolute confidence-shattering stuff. “yay, I stole a critical Leinster lineout” “Nope” <yoink> <Heavyweight pack shoved backwards over own line>
HARPIN' ON RUGBY 
