Category: Rugby opinion

523 : Leinster v Lions wrap

9 May 2026; Hugo Keenan of Leinster scores his side’s third try despite the tackle of Morne van den Berg of Lions during the United Rugby Championship match between Leinster and Lions at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

🏉 Attacking inefficiency

🏉 Defensive efficiency

🏉 Bomb squad

🏉 SA Shield champs

🏉 Bilbao lessons

THIS WEEK’S GUEST

CONOR CRONIN

FULL TIME TAKES

Ted Maher

When Sam came off he didn’t take any hands from his team mates and he sat away from them. He knows himself things aren’t going well. I think a break from the game will do him good. We all love rugby but we can’t let it bring us down. He is a fantastic young man and hope things work out for him.

Lorcán Murphy

I get changes are necessary but it’s still more of the same disjointed performances. How we’re top 3 and in an EPCR final shows the quality we have but it’s hard to imagine any silverware will be won this year.

Christy O’Connor

Mangan was the highlight of the whole game. If the coaches don’t learn from this that Prendergast cannot be involved in the final in 2 weeks, then they need to step down. I’m not having a go at Sam, I feel sorry for him, he was thrown in at the deep end from early in his career and it hasn’t worked out for him yet.

Gavin Hegarty

It speaks volumes that we are that bad yet still in a euro final and 3rd in the URC.

This was a woeful game. So many idiotic mistakesfrom players that should know better.

Sebastian Brennan Tkacz

That was the most boring performance from Leinster I’ve ever seen. Loads of people started leaving the stadium at around 55 minutes. I agree with previous comments, Sam cannot be included for the final, his defence was extremely poor today again, and I really like his ball management. It’s between Byrne and Frawley now.

CLICK HERE FOR THE REAL-TIME REACTIONS FROM

THE HARPIN WHATSAPP GROUP THROUGHOUT THE MATCH

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URC WRAP

NEXT HARPIN’

TUESDAY

BONUS CHAT : “URC RACE TO THE 8”

WEDNESDAY

80+ COLUMN 

522 : Leinster v Lions preview

Our guest : NEIL “KEEGO” KEEGAN

www.keegolaughs.com

Apologies Up Front on Apple Podcasts

LEINSTER : 15 Ciarán Frawley 14 Joshua Kenny 13 Rieko Ioane 12 Jamie Osborne 11 Jimmy O’Brien 10 Sam Prendergast 9 Luke McGrath

1 Ed Byrne 2 John McKee 3 Thomas Clarkson 4 Brian Deeny 5 James Ryan (c) 6 Max Deegan 7 Will Connors 8 James Culhane

16 Dan Sheehan 17 Andrew Porter 18 Rabah Slimani 19 Diarmuid Mangan 20 Scott Penny 21 Fintan Gunne 22 Hugh Cooney 23 Hugo Keenan

LIONS : 15 Quan Horn 14 Erich Cronje 13 Henco van Wyk 12 Richard Kriel 11 Angelo Davids 10 Chris Smith 9 Morne van den Berg

1 SJ Kotze 2 PJ Botha 3 Asenathi Ntlabakanye 4 Etienne Oosthuizen 5 Reinhard Nothnagel 6 Siba Mahashe 7 Ruan Venter 8 Francke Horn (c)

16 Franco Marais 17 Eddie Davids 18 Sebastian Lombard 19 Darrien Landsberg 20 Batho Hlekani 21 JC Pretorius 22 Nico Steyn 23 Kelly Mpeku

BKT United Rugby Championship

2025/26  Round 17

Saturday, May 9, 2026

Aviva Stadium

KO 5:30pmpm

Live on : Premier Sports 1, URC.tv

Referee: Hollie Davidson (SRU)

AR1: Keane Davison (IRFU)

AR2: Stuart Gaffikin (IRFU)

TMO: Andrew McMenemy (SRU)

Here is the extra chat on the Leo v Indo situation as promised in the Preview Show…

521 : Leinster v Toulon wrap

2 May 2026; Josh van der Flier of Leinster dives over to score his side’s second try during the Investec Champions Cup semi-final match between Leinster and RC Toulon at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile

🏉 Blitzing & carrying

🏉 The 13v15 restart

🏉 Andrew Porter

🏉 Que Serin Serin

🏉 Reiko & Sam

THIS WEEK’S GUEST

TOM COLEMAN

FULL TIME TAKES

Ken Tancred PT
Think those last two tries booked Frawleys ticket to the final
Jonathan Leonard
Soroka made a good impact. Bit worried how Josh and Conan limped off. Hope Henshaw is alright. Win is a win. Roll on Bilbao.
Gavin Hegarty
First half our mistakes kept them in it. Second half we pulled away but then took the foot off and let them back in.
I thought Clarkson really stood up, as did Cahir when he came in.
Not a good game but a final is a final regardless of how you get there.
The match started with the dreaded words that no Irish rugby fan wants to see
Match TMO Ian Tempest.
How can this keep on happening? Every time he clearly has an agenda against anyone Irish. He forced Pearce to review footage from 4-5 phases before jgps disallowed try. The rules state two phases is the max. This is the same guy who couldn’t find footage of a bite that was already circulating on WhatsApp.
Christy O’Connor
Not having Frawley in the squad almost cost us. Reiko showed up today and made two very important tackles.
Did nobody tell the TMO he was allowed to check things against Toulon, seemed only interested in finding Leinster mistakes
Karen Mooney
Brilliant I was on radio.. when they came out 13 down they really show how good they are…
Mike Whelan
We won – we are in the final. It’s the only outcome required. The rest is noise.
John Jones
Frawley on the bench for the final and hopefully Baird back would make a difference
Louis Hoffman
Phew
Harry Byrne was dreadful. Whole empty pitch to kick into and boots it out on the full 🙄
Bernie Cunningham
Gosh we nearly threw away a 18pt lead, Bordeaux or Bath wont give us a 18pt lead. But final again its a 50/50 chance of 5th star, Lenister need to really to be at full strength. 🤞
Oran Burns
Frawley has to get some game time at 10 and start in the final
Clive Young
Prendgast in for 10 mins , cost a try and nearly another , not up to it , Frawley on the bench
Colin Campbell
Bilbao nothing else 💙💙💙💙
Cuan Mulligan
having coached kids from u6 – u16, Pendergast looks like someone who has never been taught how to tackle, he is trying to tackle with his finger tips. I think he could do with some time out of the limelight in the AIL…let him play week in week out and focus on the fundamentals.
James Murphy
Wow, lucky
Pendergast is a real liability
Even more so on the wing.
We look wrecked with 10 to go
Chris McDonnell
Great to be in the final but the Pendergast debacle has to stop.

CLICK HERE FOR THE REAL-TIME REACTIONS FROM

THE HARPIN WHATSAPP GROUP THROUGHOUT THE MATCH

Get in the conversation yourself by leaving

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CHAMPIONS CUP WRAP

NEXT HARPIN’

TUESDAY

BONUS CHAT : “BORDEAUX/BATH BREAKDOWN”

WEDNESDAY

80+ COLUMN 

519 : Benetton v Leinster wrap

🏉 Chopping & changing

🏉 Benetton buono

🏉 Accuracy deficit

🏉 Super Dan

🏉 Life after Luke

THIS WEEK’S GUEST

JAY LONG

FULL TIME TAKES

As I explained on the pod, there was no Facebook post this week so here are some reactions from the full time whistle in the Harpin WhatsApp group, including my own from Sunday morning when I watched the match myself for the first time…

David Cordial
So many moments where we did all the hard work and were inches away and it was only fitting the last pass that cost us

Ciarán Duffy
Honestly not good enough from Leinster. It’s been a season of not waking up. Sleepwalking.
We’ve had enough kicks up the arse at this stage to switch on, have to learn from this ahead of next week.

Conor Cronin

Heads in next week without earning the right to play there

Richard Mifsud

The reality is we’ve been poor and disjointed all season and this coaching ticket requires a massive shake up because the voices in that dressing room are clearly stale and stagnant Which means we’ll probably go on and win the double 🤣

Get in the conversation yourself by leaving

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in Leinster & Ireland matches on our Facebook page

URC WRAP

NEXT HARPIN’

TUESDAY

BONUS CHAT : “THE TOULON CHALLENGE”

WEDNESDAY

80+ COLUMN 

518 : Benetton v Leinster preview

Our guest : NEIL “KEEGO” KEEGAN

www.keegolaughs.com

Apologies Up Front on Apple Podcasts

LEINSTER : 15 Ciarán Frawley 14 Tommy O’Brien 13 Rieko Ioane 12 Jamie Osborne 11 Jimmy O’Brien 10 Harry Byrne 9 Jamison Gibson‑Park  

1 Ed Byrne 2 Dan Sheehan 3 Tadhg Furlong 4 Conor O’Tighearnaigh 5 Brian Deeny 6 Jack Conan 7 Josh van der Flier 8 Caelan Doris (c)  

16 Gus McCarthy 17 Jerry Cahir 18 Thomas Clarkson 19 Alex Soroka 20 Scott Penny 21 Fintan Gunne 22 Sam Prendergast 23 Charlie Tector

BENETTON :15 Matt Gallagher 14 Ignacio Mendy 13 Tommaso Menoncello 12 Malakai Fekitoa 11 Paolo Odogwu 10 Jacob Umaga 9 Alessandro Garbisi  

1 Destiny Aminu 2 Bautista Bernasconi 3 Tiziano Pasquali 4 Giulio Marini 5 Riccardo Favretto 6 Manuel Zuliani 7 Michele Lamaro (c) 8 Lorenzo Cannone  

16 Nicholas Gasperini 17 Ivan Nemer 18 Marcos Gallorini 19 Niccolò Cannone 20 So’otala Fa’aso’o 21 Eli Snyman 22 Andy Uren 23 Leonardo Marin

BKT United Rugby Championship

2025/26  Round 16

Saturday, April 25, 2026

Stadio di Monigo

KO 7:45pm

Live on : Premier Sports 1, URC.tv

Referee: Morne Ferreira (SARU)

AR1: Alberto Favaro (FIR)

AR2: Alex Frasson (FIR)

TMO: Christopher Allison (SARU)

517 : Ulster v Leinster wrap

17 April 2026; Stuart McCloskey of Ulster is tackled by Sam Prendergast, left, and Robbie Henshaw of Leinster during the United Rugby Championship match between Ulster and Leinster at Affidea Stadium in Belfast. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

🏉 Sam – more like it

🏉 Effective makeshift pack

🏉 Balancing attack & D

🏉 Ulster below par

🏉 Selections going forward

THIS WEEK’S GUEST

RICHARD MIFSUD

FULL TIME TAKES

Richard Kennedy

I was not expecting such a good performance. The defence was great, caught them behind the gain line so many times. Clarkson magnificent all round, carried aggressively and dominated the scrum. I think Angus Bell getting injured was a big blow for Ulster. His replacement was not at the races but Leinster still had to turn that scrum dominance into tries and they did that. The sending off was disappointing but luckily we had enough of a cushion to see it out with 14 men.

Christy O’Connor

The first half took a long time to get going. Not helped by the lengthy injury stoppages. We got a good flow going either side of the half. Delighted for Sam to put in a good shift, he just needs to continue doing the basics, no need to force the game.

Craig Walker

Thought Sam looked good there – played with confidence. And Ulster were smothered in the first half by the Leinster defensive line so couldn’t get anything going – well played Leinster (from an Ulsterman) #SUFTUM

Greg Kelly

Finally a bit if Mojo back. Some questions answered.

The biggest question for me is how exactly Deegan can avoid getting sent off? There is literally nothing he can do. His very existence is rendered a sending off offence. He is looking at the ball and positioning to field it until Koch jumps straight into him 🤷‍♂️

Bert McLoughlin

Are we starting to click at the right time of the season?

Cormac Mannion

Very happy with the first 60mins. Very cohesive performance. The red card was a joke. Deegan had his eye on the ball and barely got into the air yet was red carded.

Kok puzzles me. All action but not a lot to show for it. Still strikes me as a Sevens player.

Despite that, lots to be happy about although we got burned badly out wide for a couple of tries but onwards and upwards for the rest of the season

Eamon Saunders

A very good performance and some good tries scored Ulster had a very good spell in the second half but We held out and answered a few questions 👍

Chris McDonnell

Great result, especially considering the squad selected. Ulster blew a great chance. I’d say it’s an away quarter final for them now

CLICK HERE FOR THE REAL-TIME REACTIONS FROM

THE HARPIN WHATSAPP GROUP THROUGHOUT THE MATCH

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

URC WRAP

NEXT HARPIN’

TUESDAY

BONUS CHAT : “Test v provinical balance” (YouTube)

WEDNESDAY

80+ COLUMN (Substack) 

516 : Ulster v Leinster preview

LEINSTER : 15 Hugo Keenan 14 JJ Kenny 13 Garry Ringrose 12 Robbie Henshaw 11 Jimmy O’Brien 10 Sam Prendergast 9 Luke McGrath  

1 Jerry Cahir 2 Rónan Kelleher 3 Tom Clarkson 4 Brian Deeny 5 James Ryan (c) 6 Alex Soroka 7 Scott Penny 8 James Culhane  

16 Gus McCarthy 17 Ed Byrne 18 Rabah Slimani 19 Conor O’Tighearnaigh 20 Max Deegan 21 Will Connors 22 Fintan Gunne 23 Ciarán Frawley

ULSTER :15 Jacob Stockdale 14 Werner Kok 13 James Hume 12 Stuart McCloskey 11 Zac Ward 10 Jack Murphy 9 Nathan Doak  

1 Angus Bell 2 Tom Stewart 3 Tom O’Toole 4 Iain Henderson (c) 5 Cormac Izuchukwu 6 David McCann 7 Sean Reffell 8 Juarno Augustus  

16 James McCormick 17 Sam Crean 18 Scott Wilson 19 Harry Sheridan 20 Bryn Ward 21 Conor McKee 22 Jake Flannery 23 Jude Postlethwaite

BKT United Rugby Championship

2025/26  Round 15

Friday, April 17, 2026

Affidea Stadium

KO 7:45pm

Live on : Premier Sports 1, URC.tv

Referee: Andrew Brace (IRFU)

AR 1: Andrew Cole (IRFU)

AR 2: Tomás O’Sullivan (IRFU)

TMO: Olly Hodges (IRFU)

515 : Leinster v Sale Sharks wrap

🏉 1st half heavy weather

🏉 Props – handle with Cahir

🏉 Lineouts

🏉 Dan & Hugo

🏉 Sale of goods

THIS WEEK’S GUEST

HUGO GORDON

FULL TIME TAKES

Liz Power

First half was squeaky bum, cracking rugby but very low scoring, but Leinster stretched their legs in the second half. Tommy O’Brien is having an excellent season. We haven’t looked convincing all season with the exception of a couple of games. We railroaded teams in previous years and haven’t won much so maybe stuttering is the way to go 🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️

Eamon Saunders

Good win building nicely to be fair ,another semi final to look forward to 💙

Cormac Mannion

I was absolutely bulling at half time. Same crap as last week – awful handling skills and poor ball presentation at the ruck. Needless knock-ons, players taking their eye off the ball etc etc.

Much better second half and it finally clicked.

However, Sale were absolutely atrocious. They offered absolutely nothing in attack bar putting snow on the ball.

Worrying to see some of those potential injuries and we definitely must have been cursed by someone… another prop injury!!!

Dave Murray

Two different,but poor, first 40 minutes of of rugby this week and last. But too much for Sale in the second half, like last week also. Will it be good enough for Toulon at home in May? Let’s see. But good to have a home semi final, to look forward to.

Gavin Hegarty

If we played like that against Bordeaux or Toulouse we’d ship 50. Simply not good enough.

Sale had no lineout and two yellow cards yet were still within 6 of us.

Granted we did pull away but it was hugely frustrating.

Some little mistakes that Leinster of previous seasons wouldn’t make.

Chris McDonnell

What does robin Mcbride get paid for?

We got a bye to the semi final to be honest. The last 2 weeks neither side would make the top 6 in the URC

Just papering over the cracks. We have 3 coaches who clearly are out of their depth. McBride doesn’t know what a scrum looks like.

Kevin Scullion

We will get beaten by a good team, simple as…

CLICK HERE FOR THE REAL-TIME REACTIONS FROM

THE HARPIN WHATSAPP GROUP THROUGHOUT THE MATCH

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

Bath 43–41 Northampton Saints
Leinster 43–13 Sale
Glasgow Warriors 19–22 Toulon
Bordeaux Bègles 30–15 Toulouse

NEXT HARPIN’

TUESDAY

BONUS CHAT : “URC RUN-IN”

WEDNESDAY

80+ COLUMN 

514 : Leinster v Sale Sharks preview

Our guest : NEIL “KEEGO” KEEGAN

www.keegolaughs.com

Apologies Up Front on Apple Podcasts

LEINSTER : 15 Hugo Keenan 14 Tommy O’Brien 13 Garry Ringrose 12 Jamie Osborne 11 Rieko Ioane 10 Harry Byrne 9 Jamison Gibson-Park

1 Alex Usanov 2 Dan Sheehan (c) 3 Tadhg Furlong 4 Joe McCarthy 5 James Ryan 6 Ryan Baird 7 Josh van der Flier 8 Jack Conan

16 Rónan Kelleher 17 Jerry Cahir 18 Thomas Clarkson 19 Max Deegan 20 Scott Penny 21 Luke McGrath 22 Ciarán Frawley 23 Robbie Henshaw

SALE SHARKS : 15 Joe Carpenter 14 Tom Roebuck 13 Rob du Preez 12 Rekeiti Ma’asi-White 11 Tom O’Flaherty 10 George Ford 9 Gus Warr

1 Si McIntyre 2 Ethan Caine 3 Asher Opoku-Fordjour 4 Ernst van Rhyn (c) 5 Ben Bamber 6 Jacques Vermeulen 7 Sam Dugdale 8 Dan du Preez

16 Alfie Longstaff 17 Ralph McEachran 18 James Harper 19 Reuben Logan 20 Jos Gilmore 21 Dom Hanson 22 Marius Louw 23 Alex Wills

Investec Champions Cup

2025/26  Quarterfinal

Saturday, April 11, 2026

Aviva Stadium

KO 5:30pm

Live on : Premier Sports 1

Referee: Pierre Brousset (Fra)

AR1 : Gianluca Gnecchi (Ita)

AR2 : Filippo Russo (Ita)

TMO: Tual Trainini (Fra)

512: Leinster v Edinburgh preview

Our guest : NEIL “KEEGO” KEEGAN

www.keegolaughs.com

Apologies Up Front on Apple Podcasts

LEINSTER : 15 Hugo Keenan 14 Tommy O’Brien 13 Rieko Ioane 12 Jamie Osborne 11 Jimmy O’Brien 10 Harry Byrne 9 Jamison Gibson-Park

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

16 Gus McCarthy 17 Alex Usanov 18 Thomas Clarkson 19 Brian Deeny 20 Max Deegan 21 Luke McGrath 22 Ciarán Frawley 23 Robbie Henshaw

EDINBURGH :15 Piers O’Conor 14 Darcy Graham 13 Matt Currie 12 James Lang 11 Malelili Satala 10 Ross Thompson 9 Charlie Shiel

1 Pierre Schoeman 2 Ewan Ashman 3 D’arcy Rae 4 Marshall Sykes 5 Grant Gilchrist (c) 6 Liam McConnell 7 Dylan Richardson 8 Ben Muncaster

16 Jerry Blyth-Lafferty 17 Boan Venter 18 Paul Hill 19 Glen Young 20 Freddy Douglas 21 Ben Vellacott 22  23 Jack Brown

Investec Champions Cup

2025/26  Round of 16

Sunday, April 5, 2026

Aviva Stadium

KO 5:30pm

Live on : Premier Sports 1

Referee Luke Pearce (Eng) 

AR1 : Hamish Smales (Eng) 

AR2 : Joe James (Eng) 

TMO : Andrew Jackson (Eng) 

Citing Comm : Wejdane Limame (Fra)