321 : Welsh Rugby – What Went Wrong? by Seimon Williams

Version 1.0.0

Ahead of Ireland v Wales and in the latest from our Opposition View series, I spoke to Seimon Williams, author of “Welsh Rugby – What Went Wrong?” about the most frustrating issues from the past decades, the best way forward and of course how he feels Saturday’s match will go.



BLURB

The 2022-23 season may just be the bleakest in Welsh rugby history. Accusations of misogyny, sexism, racism and homophobia against the Welsh Rugby Union led to resignations, independent inquiries, Senedd intervention and rushed governance reform. Budget cuts, strike threats, uncertainty for players, embarrassing defeats and the dismissal of the national coach presaged another poor Six Nations campaign.

This book looks at the issues which have seen Welsh rugby stumble from crisis to crisis over the past 40 years. At how a nation which led the rugby world in the 1970s declined into the fractured, riven, divided rugby nation of today. At how occasional successes at club, regional and Test level were achieved despite the system, not because of it, and did little more than paper over the cracks. At, fundamentally, what went wrong.

320 : Leinster v Benetton wrap

17 February 2024; Liam Turner of Leinster evades the tackle of Ignacio Mendy of Benetton, right, on his way to scoring his side’s third try during the United Rugby Championship match between Leinster and Benetton at the RDS Arena in Dublin. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile

🏉 Get #IrelandWeek trending

🏉 Death by 1,000 scrums

🏉 The Osbourne Supremacy

🏉 Pesky Leprechauns

🏉 Sam’s Glam Cameo

CONOR CRONIN & RICH MIFSUD

FULL TIME TAKES

Brian Corr

Great result considering how well Benetton are doing this season and all the missing internationals.

Love Prendergast’s cool under pressure ability, he took a wrong option and was immediately swamped by the defence but had the ability to keep calm and place the ball back so well.

Lots of rusty performances and mistakes due to weather and no recent games.

Delighted to see Byrne get a chance to rinse the spiderwebs off his game and McErlean get a solid game behind him, again pity the weather was so naff for his first tog out.

Greg Kelly

Leinster sticking 47 points on the 2nd placed team tells you all you need to know about the URC

Craig Grehan

Good to see that mixture of players running well. Few fumbles here & there. But very good

Eamon Saunders

Good win nice to see a Wexford man get a try #Brian Deeny

Christy O’Connor

Very scrappy at times from both sides. Have to hand it to Benetton, they fought really well and I don’t think the scoreline does them justice

Dave Murray

Not a spectacular performance but good 5 points.


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URC WRAP

ROUND 10

SCARLETS 7-42 MUNSTER

ZEBRE 19-24 EDINBURGH

LIONS 10-25 BULLS

LEINSTER 47-18 BENETTON

SHARKS 21-25 STORMERS

CARDIFF 12-16 CONNACHT

GLASGOW WARRIORS 40-7 DRAGONS

OSPREYS 19-17 ULSTER



ROUND 11

FRI MAR 1

EDINBURGH V OSPREYS

MUNSTER V ZEBRE

SAT MAR 2

LIONS V SHARKS

BENETTON V GLASGOW WARRIORS

BULLS V STORMERS

CONNACHT V SCARLETS

CARDIFF V LEINSTER

ULSTER V DRAGONS



319 : Leinster v Benetton preview


LEINSTER : 15. Henry McErlean 14. Tommy O’Brien 13. Liam Turner 12. Jamie Osborne 11. Rob Russell 10. Ross Byrne 9. Luke McGrath

1. Jack Boyle 2. Lee Barron 3. Thomas Clarkson 4. Ross Molony 5. Jason Jenkins 6. Will Connors 7. Scott Penny (c) 8. Max Deegan 

16. John McKee 17. Ed Byrne 18. Michael Ala’alatoa 19. Brian Deeny 20. Rhys Ruddock 21. Ben Murphy 22. Sam Prendergast 23. Ben Brownlee


BENETTON : 15 Jacob Umaga 14 Ignacio Mendy 13 Malakai Fekitoa 12 Marco Zanon 11 Onisi Ratave 10 Tomas Albornoz 9 Andy Uren

1 Thomas Gallo 2 Siua Maile 3 Tiziano Pasquali 4 Gideon Koegelenberg 5 Eli Snyman (C) 6 Giovanni Pettinelli 7 Toa Halafihi 8 Henry Time-Stowers 

16 Giacomo Nicotera 17 Federico Zani 18 Filippo Alongi 19 Riccardo Favretto 20 Alessandro Izekor 21 Alessandro Garbisi 22 Leonardo Marin 23 Filippo Drago


BKT United Rugby Championship 2023/24 Round 10

Saturday, February 17, 2024

KO 3pm RDS Arena

Live on: RTÉ2, Premier Sports 2, URC.tv


Referee: Hollie Davidson (SRU)

AR1: Eoghan Cross (IRFU)

AR2: Tomas O’Sullivan (IRFU)

TMO: Colin Brett (SRU)

318 : Ireland v Italy wrap

2024 Guinness Six Nations Championship Round 2, Aviva Stadium, Dublin, Ireland 11/2/2024Ireland vs ItalyIrelands Jack Crowley scores his sides opening try Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

🏉 50 club grows

🏉 Sluggish Azzurri

🏉 Offloads galore

🏉 Set piece dominance

🏉 The Lowe Show

TOM COLEMAN (50th cap) & JAY LONG

FULL TIME TAKES

Lee O Farrell

Two Six Nations games, two new records (biggest away win against France and first time holding Italy to zero points). The future’s looking pretty good right now…

Kevin Kelehan

Dan Sheehan may well end up as top try scorer. Job done 5 points and on to stiffer tests ahead.

Hubert Gallagher

Feel underwhelmed and unfulfilled after that! In some respects a great result with 6 changes and holding Italy to zero – and they were lucky to even get that – but at same time we were a bit disjointed, looked less fluent than French game and left a lot of points out there! Having said that no-one player badly but I think a lot could play better. Crowley, Henshaw, Keenan, Conan, Lowe and McCarthy were notably good.

Christy O’Connor

Glad I didn’t get tickets for this. Atmosphere was awful. I know we were expected to win, but the Irish rugby fans have to be one of the worst. I’ve seen more life in a funeral parlour.

Some great performances from Lowe, Conan and big Joe. Crowely is doing well, made some silly mistakes but it’s great that it doesn’t phase him.

Greg Kelly

Italy just parked the bus. Fairly poor spectacle for the 6 nations overall.

Ireland were a bit error strewn at times but tough to really hit your straps when the opposition don’t light a fire under you.

Eamon Saunders

A workman like performance but a win is a win ,some mistakes but a win none the less 👏👏


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SIX NATIONS WRAP

ROUND 2

SCOTLAND 16-20 FRANCE

ENGLAND 16-14 WALES

IRELAND 36-0 ITALY



ROUND 3

SAT FEB 24

IRELAND V WALES

SCOTLAND V ENGLAND

SUN FEB 25

FRANCE V ITALY


UNDER 20s

ROUND 2

SCOTLAND 14-29 FRANCE

ENGLAND 28-7 WALES

IRELAND 23-22 ITALY



ROUND 3

FRI FEB 23

SCOTLAND V ENGLAND

IRELAND V WALES

FRANCE V ITALY


317 : Ireland v Italy preview

Our guest : CIAN “RUGBY KINO” O’MUILLEOIR


IRELAND : 15. Hugo Keenan 14. Calvin Nash 13. Robbie Henshaw 12. Stuart McCloskey 11. James Lowe 10. Jack Crowley 9. Craig Casey

1. Andrew Porter 2. Dan Sheehan 3. Finlay Bealham 4. Joe McCarthy 5. James Ryan 6. Ryan Baird 7. Caelan Doris (captain) 8. Jack Conan

16. Ronan Kelleher 17. Jeremy Loughman 18. Tom O’Toole 19. Iain Henderson 20. Josh van der Flier 21. Jamison Gibson-Park 22. Harry Byrne 23. Jordan Larmour


Italy : 15 Ange Capuozzo 14 Lorenzo Pani 13 Juan Ignacio Brex 12 Tommaso Menoncello 11 Monty Ioane 10 Paolo Garbisi 9 Stephen Varney

1 Danilo Fischetti 2 Gianmarco Lucchesi 3 Pietro Ceccarelli 4 Niccolò Cannone 5 Federico Ruzza 6 Alessandro Izekor 7 Manuel Zuliani  8 Michele Lamaro (C)

16 Giacomo Nicotera 17 Mirco Spagnolo 18 Giosuè Zilocchi 19 Andrea Zambonin 20 Ross Vintcent 21 Martin Page-Relo 22 Tommaso Allan 23 Federico Mori 


Guinness Six Nations 2024 Round 2

Sunday, February 11, 2024

KO 3pm Aviva Stadium

Live on: Virgin Media One


Referee: Pierre Brousset (Fra) Luke Pearce (Eng)

AR1 : Mathieu Raynal (Fra)

AR2 : Luc Ramos (Fra)

TMO: Eric Gauzins (Fra)

316 : France v Ireland wrap

2024 Guinness Six Nations Championship Round 1, Orange Velodrome, Marseille, France 2/2/2024France vs IrelandIrelands Joe McCarthy with Maxine Locu of FranceMandatory Credit ©INPHO/Ben Brady

🏉 Jack Friday

🏉 Les Deux Jaunes

🏉 That’s “Big Joe” to you

🏉 Irish confidence

🏉 Wonderful Wolfpuppies


CONOR CRONIN (50TH CAP) & MARK JACKSON


FULL TIME TAKES

Rich Mifsud

Intensity ✅, performance very good but quite a few work ons eg scrum etc (perfect scenario for Faz & Co), our D Nienaberesque perhaps (happy to be proved wrong) it must have felt like a horrible cloying rash for the French, France were made to look like 💩 for long periods. 

Players: the best compliment I can give Big Joe is he’s the kind of player you grudgingly admire but simultaneously hate if he’s playing against you, Jamo’s best performance for ages, Hugo continues to be class, ditto Doris and Bundee, pack as a whole performed, Robbie’s best outing for a while, Nash not really tested, Crowley solid ish but need loads of experience. JLo 🤌🏻 

Bench ✅

Gavin Hegarty

Territory 49-51 and a scoreline of 17-38. Incredible.

Don’t know if France were that poor or if we just outplayed them.

And also that’s twice in two years Doris has played aldritt off the park. Simply unreal.

Kevin OCeallaigh

A terrific team performance, with some great individual efforts (Lowe, big Joe, Bundee) and good captaincy in dealing with some ‘interesting’ decisions. However, a result like that has to credited in large part to how the 10 controls the game. This was Crowleys best performance in green by a mile. Will stand to him for the rest of the 6N.

Josephine Boyd

A brilliant performance from our boys in green an excellent start to the championship.great game from our new lads on the team.☘️💚👏🏈🇮🇪.

Monica Keeler

The World cup final that should have been…hey ho..great start…keep it going lads..in my eyes the best in the world 💚

John Hyland

Watch the scrums again. Atonio was boring in and literally scrummaging vs Sheahan. Porter gets pinged again. The IRFU needs to grow a pair and present the video evidence to World rugby. Teams are obviously buying penalties against Porter. NZ got 4 key penalties in the World Cup because of it. Come on IRFU, GROW A PAIR!!

Colin McConaghie

80-85% superb. Got sloppy for 10 minutes. Biggest plus was the line out which was back to its best.

I think we can actually play better but won’t get too many better score lines than that

John O Halloran

Stunning performance, I said Ireland by5 this morning. The lineout and all round front 5 work was up a massive amount, the back 3 as abrasive as ever.

Crawley passed the pressure test ,individual decisions and discipline excellent. A lot of positives.

Wayne O’Brien

I thought we would lose narrowly. To win and by such a margin – unbelievable. Great attacking intent with room to improve by not letting teams in as was the case last night.

Jack Woods

Awesome performance. Great in defence at times. Very good start to the championship. France weren’t allowed to show their “flair” at times but it still came to the game at times.

William Andrew

Stunning win in France, ref was a homer but Ireland took him out by being so good, they made him irrelevant.

Oh if only our line out had functioned that well in the WC.

Ireland were full on for 80 and the bench came on like a pack of rabid dogs held back too long.

Celebrate those victories ✌️ they do not come around too often.


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SIX NATIONS WRAP

ROUND 1 

FRANCE 17-38 IRELAND

ITALY 24-27 ENGLAND

WALES 26-27 SCOTLAND



ROUND 2

SAT FEB 10

SCOTLAND V FRANCE

ENGLAND V WALES

SUN FEB 11

IRELAND V ITALY


UNDER 20s

ROUND 1

WALES 37-29 SCOTLAND

ITALY 11-36 ENGLAND

FRANCE 31-37 IRELAND



ROUND 2

FRI FEB 9

SCOTLAND V FRANCE

ENGLAND V WALES

IRELAND V ITALY

315 : France v Ireland preview

POD LINK HERE


IRELAND : 15. Hugo Keenan 14. Calvin Nash 13. Robbie Henshaw 12. Bundee Aki 11. James Lowe 10. Jack Crowley 9. Jamison Gibson-Park

1. Andrew Porter 2. Dan Sheehan 3. Tadhg Furlong 4. Joe McCarthy 5. Tadhg Beirne 6. Peter O’Mahony (c) 7. Josh van der Flier 8. Caelan Doris

16. Ronan Kelleher 17. Cian Healy 18. Finlay Bealham 19. James Ryan 20. Ryan Baird 21. Jack Conan 22. Conor Murray 23. Ciaran Frawley 


FRANCE : 15 T Ramos 14 D Penaud 13 G Fickou 12 J Danty 11 Y Moefana 10 M Jalibert 9 M Lucu

1 C Baille 2 P Mauvaka 3 U Atonio 4 P Gabrillagues 5 P Willemse 6 F Cros 7 C Ollivon 8 G Alldritt

16 J Marchand 17 R Wardi 18 D Aldegheri 19 R Taofifenu P Tuilagi 20 C Woki 21 P Boudehent 22 N Le Garrec 23 L Bielle-Biarrey


Guinness Six Nations 2024 Round 1

Friday, February 2, 2024

KO 8pm (Irish time) Orange Velodrome, Marseille

Live on: Virgin Media One, ITV1


Referee: Karl Dickson (RFU)

AR1: Matthew Carley (RFU)

AR2: Jordan Way (RA)

TMO: Ben Whitehouse (WRU)

314 : Irish U20 squad 2024 overview

Our guest : BALL-HANDLING HOOKER


IRELAND UNDER-20 MEN’S Squad

(2024 Guinness Under-20 Men’s Six Nations Championship):

Backs (14):

Oliver Coffey (Blackrock College RFC/Leinster)
Tadhg Brophy (Naas RFC/Leinster)
Will Wootton (Sale Sharks/IQ Rugby)
Jake O’Riordan (UL Bohemian RFC/Munster)
Jack Murphy (Clontarf FC/Leinster)
Sean Naughton (Galway Corinthians RFC/Connacht)
Hugo McLaughlin (Lansdowne FC/Leinster)
Ethan Graham (Ballynahinch RFC/Ulster)
Hugh Gavin (Galwegians RFC/Connacht)
Rory Ellerby (Queen’s University Belfast RFC/Ulster)
Wilhelm de Klerk (UCD RFC/Leinster)
Finn Treacy (Galwegians RFC/Connacht)
Stephen Kiely (Shannon RFC/Munster)
Ben O’Connor (UCC RFC/Munster)

Forwards (17):

Alex Usanov (Clontarf FC/Leinster)
Ben Howard (Terenure College RFC/Leinster)
Danny Sheahan (Cork Constitution FC/Munster)
Henry Walker (Queen’s University Belfast RFC/Ulster)
Stephen Smyth (Old Wesley RFC/Leinster)
Patreece Bell (Sale Sharks/IQ Rugby)
Jacob Boyd (Queen’s University Belfast RFC/Ulster)
Andrew Sparrow (UCD RFC/Leinster)
Joe Hopes (Queen’s University Belfast RFC/Ulster)
Billy Corrigan (Old Wesley RFC/Leinster)
Evan O’Connell (UL Bohemian RFC/Munster) (capt)
Alan Spicer (UCD RFC/Leinster)
Bryn Ward (Ballynahinch RFC/Ulster)
Sean Edogbo (UCC RFC/Munster)
Josh Stevens (Queen’s University Belfast RFC/Ulster)
Brian Gleeson (Garryowen FC/Munster)
Luke Murphy (Shannon RFC/Munster)

IRELAND UNDER-20 MEN’S SIX NATIONS FIXTURES:

Saturday, February 3: France v Ireland, Stade Maurice David, Aix-en-Provence, 9.10pm local time/8.10pm Irish time
Friday, February 9: Ireland v Italy, Virgin Media Park, 7.15pm
Friday, February 23: Ireland v Wales, Virgin Media Park, 7.15pm
Friday, March 8: England v Ireland, Recreation Ground, Bath, 7.15pm
Friday, March 15: Ireland v Scotland, Virgin Media Park, 7pm

312 : Leicester Tigers v Leinster wrap

20 January 2024; Joe McCarthy of Leinster celebrates after scoring his side’s first try during the Investec Champions Cup Pool 4 Round 4 match between Leicester Tigers and Leinster at Mattioli Woods Welford Road in Leicester, England. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

🏉 Discipline issues

🏉 Accuracy found

🏉 Harry > Handré

🏉 Evil D

🏉 Fat lady sings


@harpinonrugby

Our Leicester v Leinster wrap pod is now available on Apple, Spotify and most major platforms.

♬ original sound – Harpinonrugby.com – Harpinonrugby.com

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

RICH MIFSUD & JAY LONG

FULL TIME TAKES

Joe Sheppard

At this rate, Caelan Doris will be getting World Rugby Player of the Year…… Unbelievable in all aspects of his game currently. ☘️💪🏉👏

Jamie Bermingham

Good win and great going getting the BP at the end. We really seem at times to be pushing the physical game this season, as a way to show we can deal with it

Eamon Phelan

Good win harry byrne struggled in forts 10 mins when Leicester were on top after that class . Very good team with loads of options from a jealous Munster fan

Andrew Byrne

I can’t be the only person who is this excited to see just how high the ceiling is for Joe McCarthy…still just 22 years old and he’s playing like an old master. I feel like we are witnessing the start of something special here.

Michaela Monaghan

Can’t believe we’re playing Leicester again In round 16!!

Brian Corr

I thought they showed great determination to chase the bonus point, in the past they’ve kicked out on 80 mins happy with what they got, fair play to Leicester for also trying to get the losing bonus and the ref for not blowing up straight after their knock on.

Leinsters big squad is showing its true value and they’ve shown players stepping in and out doesn’t make much difference

Kevin OCeallaigh

The first time in a long time that I’ve seen true grit, determination and old-school grind by a Leinster side to get that bonus point on 85 minutes. Lowe was imperious in the air. Henshaw looked to be back to where we know he can be, and McCarthy just gets better and better. What a great game!

Bernie Cunningham

Great performance 27 unanswered points after going behind by 10. Lads were brill


I had to head out the door the second Doris got his iconic BP try and couldn’t tweet at the FT whistle like I normally do but Whiff of Cordite pretty much said what I would have…

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CHAMPIONS CUP WRAP

ROUND 4

GLASGOW 29-5 TOULON

CONNACHT 27-10 BRISTOL

HARLEQUINS 47-19 ULSTER

BULLS 46-40 BORDEAUX

RACING 92 48-26 CARDIFF

LEICESTER 10-27 LEINSTER

MUNSTER 23-26 NORTHAMPTON

STADE FRANCAIS 20-24 STORMERS

SARACENS 39-24 LYON

SALE SHARKS 24-37 LA ROCHELLE

TOULOUSE 31-19 BATH

BAYONNE 40-17 EXETER