Category: Podcasts

344 : Leinster v Northampton wrap

4 May 2024; James Lowe of Leinster celebrates after scoring his side’s second try during the Investec Champions Cup semi-final match between Leinster and Northampton Saints at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

🏉 Jamie & James
🏉 Chronic knockonitis
🏉 First score after break
🏉 Saints go marching
🏉 Captain Caelan

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

TOM COLEMAN

MARK JACKSON

FULL TIME TAKES

Ronan McManus

After the high of La Rochelle, there was always the risk of a down day.

That being said, we were great in bursts, and were in control for most of the game. The third try had as many “moments” in the buildup phases as any I can remember (I haven’t rewatched it, so I may be misremembering). Furlong’s reverse offload out of the tackle Bairds gallop, Henshaw somehow staying in field to keep the ball alive.

John Hyland

They did well kicking behind us, and using their wingers’ speed in the chase. Our back three look short of pace. Keenan is needed and I reckon Rob Russell might come in for Larmour.

Kevin Kelehan

Great stadium, great crowd, never say die opponents who were an absolute credit to themselves when down and out but dragged themselves back into make it very tight game. Leinster played well for 50 minutes but some very aimless kicking will doubtless be lacerated in the debrief, the pack who gave better than they got must have been super frustrated at times. Doris as always a terrier on the gainline

Gavin Hegarty

A great place to be in to say that we weren’t good but we still won a semi. If we play against Toulouse like that they will take us apart. At halftime we should have been further ahead but my god in the second half we fell asleep. The most unleinsterlike performance in a longtime.

Byrne left a few points out there from the tee but other than that was epic first half.

I was at it and feel as a club we let ourselves down. Atmosphere was lacking anything. Was dead quiet at times. Yes the stadium was blue but we failed to create the cauldron we needed.

I’ll watch it again but from the davin lower it looked like reynal was a bit indecisive. Not checking Frawley being taken out in the air again? I think peno and yellow

Pat Curran

Leinster will have to include Gary Ringrose, Hugo Keenan and James Ryan for the final. It could be what’s required for a European final.

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HARPIN MATCH WRAPS

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343 : Leinster v Northampton Saints preview

also available as a podcast

Our guest :

CIAN ‘RUGBY KINO’ O’MUILLEOIR

LEINSTER : 15 C Frawley 14 J Larmour 13 R Henshaw 12 J Osborne 11 J Lowe 10 R Byrne 9 J Gibson-Park

1 A Porter 2 D Sheehan 3 T Furlong 4 R Molony 5 J McCarthy 6 R Baird 7 J van der Flier 8 C Doris (c)

16 R Kelleher 17 C Healy 18 M Ala’alatoa 19 J Jenkins 20 J Conan 21 L McGrath 22 H Byrne 23 J O’Brien

NORTHAMPTON : 15 George Furbank 14 James Ramm 13 Tommy Freeman 12 Fraser Dingwall 11 George Hendy 10 Fin Smith 9 Alex Mitchell

1 Alex Waller 2 Curtis Langdon 3 Trevor Davison 4 Alex Moon 5 Alex Coles 6 Courtney Lawes (c) 7 Sam Graham 8 Juarno Augustus

16 Sam Matavesi 17 Emmanuel Iyogun 18 Elliot Millar Mills 19 Temo Mayanavanua 20 Angus Scott-Young 21 Tom James 22 Tom Litchfield 23 Tom Seabrook

Investec Champions Cup 2023/24 Semifinal

Saturday, May 4, 2024

KO 5:30pm  Croke Park

Live on: RTÉ2, TNT Sports 2

Referee: Mathieu Raynal (Fra)

AR1: Pierre Brousset (Fra)

AR2: Luc Ramos (Fra)

TMO: Thomas Charabas (Fra)

342 : Stormers v Leinster/Ireland v Scotland wrap

2024 Guinness Women’s Six Nations Championship Round 5, Kingspan Stadium, Belfast 27/4/2024Ireland vs ScotlandIreland’s Katie Corrigan scores her sides first try despite Mairi McDonald and Alex Stewart of Scotland Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Ben Brady

🏉 Fastest wrap ever
🏉 Four provinces in top 8
🏉 Women’s heroics
🏉 Northampton’s threat
🏉 Roll on Croker

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

CIARÁN DUFFY

JAY LONG

TOM COLEMAN

FULL TIME TAKES

William Andrew

We know why, but it still hurts.

Kevin Kelehan

Great to see Gus McCarthy step up, a steep learning curve for the emerging squad members, far from ideal to have back to back away games in South Africa when squad rotation is at its peak. The lads showed decent fight in the third quarter but the errors in the first half were mostly preventable.

Greg Kelly

*Copy and Paste last week’s comments*

On the bright side our young lads dominated the 3rd quarter but the inexperience and inaccuracies were evident. They’ll get better and they’ll learn from this. However if we end up trophyless again this season I’m not sure these “kids school trips” to SA will not cut the mustard.

In a wider sense I don’t like where the URC is going. Some of the fixure scheduling is…suspicious. I think the SA franchises are gaining more than they add to it and teams being forced by pragmatism, timing or necessity to give up 2 games and 10 points undermines true competition.

Richard Kennedy

A big rethink needed on sending our 2nd/3rd string down to get pummelled in by hardened pros in SA. Some of those young players simply aren’t ready for that level yet

Warren Doyle

Much as expected. Training ground stuff didn’t work in the heat of battle. Very little inivotive thinking once that failed. Experience – yes. Knowledge – ?. Could be critical but players don’t need that.

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URC WRAP

ROUND 15

SCARLETS 27-32 SHARKS

ULSTER 38-34 BENETTON

ZEBRE 9-40 GLASGOW

BULLS 61-24 OSPREYS

CARDIFF 7-24 EDINBURGH

LIONS 13-33 MUNSTER

STORMERS 42-12 LEINSTER

DRAGONS 27-34 CONNACHT

ROUND 15

FRI MAY 10

DRAGONS V STORMERS

EDINBURGH V ZEBRE

SAT MAY 11

BULLS V GLASGOW

SCARLETS V ULSTER

SHARKS V BENETTON

MUNSTER V CONNACHT

LIONS V CARDIFF

LEINSTER V OSPREYS

HARPIN MATCH WRAPS

ARE BROUGHT TO YOU BY

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AT ELVERYS

341 : Stormers v Leinster preview

also available as a podcast

Our guest : NEIL ‘KEEGO’ KEEGAN

www.keegolaughs.com

Apologies Up Front on Apple Podcasts

LEINSTER : 15. Henry McErlean 14. Liam Turner 13. Ben Brownlee 12. Charlie Ngatai 11. Rob Russell 10. Sam Prendergast 9. Cormac Foley

1. Michael Milne 2. John McKee 3. Michael Ala’alatoa 4. Brian Deeny 5. Jason Jenkins 6. Rhys Ruddock 7. Scott Penny (c) 8. Max Deegan

16. Gus McCarthy 17. Ed Byrne 18. Thomas Clarkson 19. Conor O’Tighearnaigh 20. Diarmuid Mangan 21. Fintan Gunne 22. Charlie Tector 23. Martin Moloney

STORMERS: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Suleiman Hartzenberg, 13 Dan du Plessis, 12 Damian Willemse, 11 Ben Loader, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Herschel Jantjies

1 Brok Harris, 2 Joseph Dweba, 3 Neethling Fouche, 4 Salmaan Moerat (c), 5 Ruben van Heerden, 6 Marcel Theunissen, 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 8 Evan Roos 

16 Andre-Hugo Venter, 17 Kwenzo Blose, 18 Frans Malherbe, 19 Connor Evans, 20 Willie Engelbrecht, 21 Hacjivah Dayimani, 22 Stefan Ungerer, 23 Wandisile Simelane

BKT United Rugby Championship 2023/24 Round 15

Saturday, April 27, 2024

KO 6:05pm  DHL Stadium

Live on: TG4, Premier Sports 2, URC.tv

Referee: Andrea Piardi (FIR)

AR1: Marius vd Westhuizen (SARU)

AR2: Christopher Allison (SARU)

TMO: Gianluca Gnecchi (FIR)

340 : Lions v Leinster wrap & URC run-in overview

20 April 2024; Charlie Ngatai of Leinster, supported by teammate Scott Penny, is tackled by PJ Botha of Emirates Lions during the United Rugby Championship match between Emirates Lions and Leinster at Emirates Airline Park in Johannesburg, South Africa. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

🏉 Lions cohesion

🏉 No way back

🏉 Fast news week

🏉 Race for the top 8

🏉 May squad management

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

CONOR CRONIN & RICH MIFSUD

FULL TIME TAKES

Odran John OBrien

A game I’ve already forgotten 😉😂

Alastair McDermott

That was embarrassing. Performance was naive and inaccurate. Some of that is on the young lads not performing individually, but I think a major part is some of the older lads we’d hope to step up and lead in those circumstances failed to do so.

Greg Kelly

We were playing touch rugby in defence. If you are one of the teams fighting for 4th-8th you’d be excused for asking why Leinster don’t serve up 5 points away to you too?🤷‍♂️ We started dreadfully and then when we found a rythem we were woefully inaccurate.

Getting beaten like that is acceptable if we can walk away with silverware at the end. If not then questions need to be asked.

Éamonn Rogers

Honestly it was a game with little at stake played at 1700m (for context nearly 700m higher than Carrountoohil) I’d see it as nothing more than a blooding exercise/fixture we are obliged to fulfil. The stats show that there were a lot of positive elements. We (thankfully) don’t have the luxury of sending our primary team down like our southern cousins. Overall I’d say we could have done better but not the end of the world

Kevin Kelehan

A lot of players will be very disappointed with their performance, got the chance to shine and made unforced errors, hopefully a big improvement next week.

William Andrew

Looked like an unfocused Leinster. Distracted by the hype of this last week, etc etc. Everyone who has ever played knows you have to be dialed in 100% or you will struggle.

Lions were very sharp and handled the blitz defence with pace and good passing. Northampton are going to be all over this video.

A wake up call, last season we were great and not great for about the last three minutes in two games. 😢

Get in the conversation yourself by leaving 

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in Leinster & Ireland matches on our Facebook page

URC WRAP

ROUND 14

ULSTER 19-17 CARDIFF

GLASGOW 21-10 SHARKS

LIONS 44-12 LEINSTER

BENETTON 36-19 DRAGONS

BULLS 22-27 MUNSTER

STORMERS 21-27 OSPREYS

CONNACHT 54-16 ZEBRE

EDINBURGH 43-18 SCARLETS

ROUND 15

FRI APR 26

SCARLETS V SHARKS

ULSTER V BENETTON

SAT APR 27

ZEBRE V GLASGOW

BULLS V OSPREYS

CARDIFF V EDINBURGH

LIONS V MUNSTER

STORMERS V LEINSTER

DRAGONS V CONNACHT

HARPIN MATCH WRAPS

ARE BROUGHT TO YOU BY

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AT ELVERYS

339 : Lions v Leinster preview

also available as podcast

Our guest : NEIL ‘KEEGO’ KEEGAN

www.keegolaughs.com

Apologies Up Front on Apple Podcasts

LEINSTER : 15: Ciarán Frawley 14: Rob Russell 13: Liam Turner 12: Charlie Ngatai 11: Andrew Osborne 10: Harry Byrne 9: Luke McGrath

1: Cian Healy 2: Lee Barron 3: Thomas Clarkson 4: Brian Deeny 5: Jason Jenkins 6: Diarmuid Mangan 7: Scott Penny (c) 8: Max Deegan

16: John McKee 17: Michael Milne 18: Michael Ala’alatoa 19: Ross Molony 20: Rhys Ruddock 21: Cormac Foley 22: San Prendergast 23: Ben Brownlee

LIONS : 15. Quan Horn 14. Richard Kriel 13. Erich Cronje 12. Marius Louw (c) 11. Edwill van der Merwe 10. Sanele Nohamba 9. Morne van den Berg

1. Morgan Naude 2. PJ Botha 3. Ruan Dreyer 4. Willem Alberts 5. Ruan Delport 6. JC Pretorius 7. Emmanuel Tshituka 8. Francke Horn
16. Jaco Visagie 17. JP Smith 18. Asenathi Ntlabakanye 19. Reinhard Nothnagel 20. Sibusiso Sangweni 21. Nico Steyn 22. Jordan Hendrikse 23. Henco van Wyk

BKT United Rugby Championship 2023/24 Round 14

Saturday, April 20, 2024

KO 2pm  Emirates Airlines Park

Live on: RTÉ2, URC.tv

Referee: Gianluca Gnecchi (Italy)

AR1: Morne Ferreira (South Africa)

AR2: Christopher Allison (South Africa)

TMO: Andrea Piardi (Italy)

337 : Leinster v La Rochelle wrap

13 April 2024; Dan Sheehan of Leinster dives over to score his side’s fourth try despite the tackle of Jonathan Danty of La Rochelle during the Investec Champions Cup quarter-final match between Leinster and La Rochelle at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

🏉 Nienaber D

🏉 Frustrating restarts

🏉 Excellent exit

🏉 Ross the Boss

🏉 Monkey gone

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

TOM COLEMAN & MARK JACKSON

FULL TIME TAKES

Neil ‘Keego’ Keegan

That was massive for between the ears

Rewatched highlights. There was only 1 horse in it

I’m trying to figure out the La Rochelle game plan 

Also trying to figure out why Leinster-jitzu didn’t work in the years previous

Today is a (nother) day my aul lad and others didn’t have. France were unbeatable and we were close to thinking the same about La Rochelle. 

Today we showed what the story is. It’s actually unreal because it dismantled a he entire O’Gara La Rochelle gameplan

Paul McSweeney

I went to the game thinking that Leinster at their best might just squeeze a win in. How wrong can I be? That was an emphatic performance. Leinster needed this win way more than LR and it showed.

Now I’m just hoping that Croke Park is fully open and that tickets will be reasonably priced. I have my tickets for the final already…

Kevin Kelehan

Been watching Leinster since 1986 when they beat Munster in that years inter-pro, without hesitation that is by some distance the best Leinster performance I’ve ever seen, no Hugo Kennan, no Gary Ringrose and no James Ryan, yet they completely and utterly destroyed and humiliated the reigning champions in some style. Looking forward to the final in Tottenham and the cinquieme etoile!!!!

Greg Kelly

Usual story. Another 5 year French dynasty falls. The Leinster dynasty and brand continues. A few 50/50 calls saved LAR some extra pain but it feels like a sort of redemption. LARs false economy was built on Leinsters back and it falls to Leinsters sword.

LAR went to Cork looking to harness the local energy and they certainly harnessed some Munster European Energy 😉

William Andrew

Very well thought out performance by the players and coaches. Expected a slug fest with the selection but Leinster were moving LR around the park mercilessly.

I have had my reservations about Neinabar, but my goodness he delivered a class performance today.

Great to see secondary players delivering an emphatic game when it matters so much.

Chris McDonnell

I am not a Ross fan but he was excellent today. Credit where its due. Leo gambled with some calls today and got them right. Well done to them all.

Alan Murphy

A Test quality performance. Professional and tactical perfection. Delighted with the lads today. High pressure game with a lot of nonsense coming out of Cork during the week. Onwards and upwards.

Martin Lynch

Just So Lucky To Be A Leinster Fan. The Relief In The Stadium Was Palpable. Roll On Croker .

John O Halloran

Best performance in a long time, they stepped up . Well done.

Josephine Boyd

A fantastic performance from our boys in blue.💙👕🏈👍👏👏💪☘️

@harpinonrugby

Have wait for the traffic to clear so might as well do an aul TikTok as ya do… #LEIvLAR #InvestecChampionsCup #rugbytiktok

♬ original sound – Harpinonrugby.com

Get in the conversation yourself by leaving 

your own thoughts each week after the full time whistle 
in Leinster & Ireland matches on our Facebook page

CHAMPIONS CUP WRAP

QUARTERFINALS

BORDEAUX 41-42 HARLEQUINS

LEINSTER 40-13 LA ROCHELLE

NORTHAMPTON 59-22 BULLS

TOULOUSE 64-26 EXETER

SEMIFINALS

SAT MAY 4

LEINSTER V NORTHAMPTON

SUN MAY 5

TOULOUSE V HARLEQUINS

HARPIN MATCH WRAPS

ARE BROUGHT TO YOU BY

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AT ELVERYS

336 : Leinster v La Rochelle preview

also available as podcast

Our guest : NEIL “KEEGO” KEEGAN

www.keegolaughs.com

Apologies Up Front on Apple Podcasts

LEINSTER :  15. Hugo Keenan 14. Jordan Larmour 13. Robbie Henshaw 12. Jamie Osborne 11. James Lowe 10. Ross Byrne 9. Jamison Gibson-Park

1. Andrew Porter 2. Dan Sheehan 3. Tadhg Furlong 4. Joe McCarthy 5. Jason Jenkins 6. Ryan Baird 7. Will Connors 8. Caelan Doris (c)

16. Rónan Kelleher 17. Michael Milne 18. Michael Ala’alatoa 19. Ross Molony 20. Jack Conan 21. Luke McGrath 22. Ciarán Frawley 23. Josh van der Flier

LA ROCHELLE : 15. Dillyn Leyds, 14. Jack Nowell, 13. UJ Seuteni, 12. Jonathan Danty, 11. Teddy Thomas, 10. Antoine Hastoy, 9. Tawera Kerr-Barlow

1. Louis Penverne, 2. Tolu Latu, 3. Uini Atonio, 4. Ultan Dillane, 5. Will Skelton, 6. Judicael Cancoriet, 7. Levani Botia, 8. Grégory Alldritt (c)

16. Quentin Lespiaucq, 17. Alexandre Kaddouri, 18. Joel Sclavi, 19. Thomas Lavault, 20. Paul Boudehent, 21. Yoan Tanga, 22. Teddy Iribaren, 23. Ihaia West

Investec Champions Cup 2023/24 Quarterfinal

Saturday, April 13, 2024

KO 5:30pm  Aviva Stadium

Live on: RTÉ2, TNT Sports 3

Referee: Karl Dickson (ENG)

AR1: Luke Pearce (ENG)

AR2: Andrew Jackson (ENG)

TMO: Tom Foley (ENG)

334 : Leinster v Leicester preview

also available as podcast

Our guest : NEIL ‘KEEGO’ KEEGAN

www.keegolaughs.com

Apologies Up Front on Apple Podcasts

LEINSTER :  15. Hugo Keenan 14. Jordan Larmour 13. Robbie Henshaw 12. Jamie Osborne 11. James Lowe 10. Ross Byrne 9. Jamison Gibson-Park

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

16. Rónan Kelleher 17. Cian Healy 18. Michael Ala’alatoa 19. Jason Jenkins 20. Jack Conan 21. Ben Murphy 22. Harry Byrne 23. Ciarán Frawley

LEICESTER TIGERS :  15 Jamie Shillcock 14 Freddie Steward 13 Dan Kelly 12 Solomone Kata 11 Ollie Hassell-Collins 10 Handré Pollard 9 Jack van Poortvliet 

1 James Cronin 2 Julián Montoya 3 Dan Cole 4 Harry Wells 5 Kyle Hatherell 6 Hanro Liebenberg 7 Olly Cracknell 8 Jasper Wiese

16 Charlie Clare 17 Francois van Wyk 18 Will Hurd 19 Finn Carnduff 20 Emeka Ilione 21 Tom Whiteley 22 Phil Cokanasiga 23 Mike Brown

Investec Champions Cup 2023/24 Round of 16

Saturday, April 6, 2024

KO 8pm  Aviva Stadium

Live on: RTÉ2, TNT Sports 2

Referee: Pierre Brousset (FRA)

AR1: Jeremy Rozier (FRA)

AR2: Kévin Bralley (FRA)

TMO: Denis Grenouillet (FRA)

333 : Leinster v Bulls wrap

29 March 2024; Jack Conan of Leinster dives over to score his side’s sixth try despite the tackle of Devon Williams of Vodacom Bulls during the United Rugby Championship match between Leinster and Vodacom Bulls at the RDS Arena in Dublin. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
@harpinonrugby

Pod available on Apple, Spotify and most major platforms #rugbytiktok #URC

♬ original sound – Harpinonrugby.com – Harpinonrugby.com

🏉 Somehow ahead

🏉 #Lukegate

🏉 Scoring & Scrambling

🏉 Eventually over

🏉 Leinster’s South African-ness

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

CONOR CRONIN & NATHAN JOHNS

FULL TIME TAKES

Martin Lynch

Tough First Half. Bulls Ran. Out Of Steam. We Upped It Big Time . Great To See Them Back To Their Best. 👍🏉💪💙

Jay Long

I was mainly thinking

Ahem

Leeeeeiiinnnnsssttteeeerrrr

Leiiiiiinnnnnssstttttteeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrr

William Andrew

Good win , but scrums need attention. Lots of players came on hungry and contributing.

Farcical ending by the officials nothing for player safety

David Ryle

Was worried about this game. First half was poor but Leinster seemed to have found their mojo in the 2nd half.

Greg Kelly

Another testament to how competitive the URC has really become

URC WRAP

ROUND 13

LEINSTER 47-14 BULLS

DRAGONS 20-13 ZEBRE

BENETTON 18-14 CONNACHT

SHARKS 23-13 EDINBURGH

OSPREYS 36-21 LIONS

STORMERS 13-7 ULSTER

SCARLETS 3-45 GLASGOW

MUNSTER 20-15 CARDIFF

ROUND 14

FRI APR 19

ULSTER V CARDIFF

GLASGOW V SHARKS

SAT APR 20

LIONS V LEINSTER

BENETTON V DRAGONS

BULLS V MUNSTER

STORMERS V OSPREYS

CONNACHT V ZEBRE

EDINBURGH V SCARLETS

HARPIN MATCH WRAPS

ARE BROUGHT TO YOU BY

THE IRISH RUGBY SHOP

AT ELVERYS