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Category: Rugby opinion
499 : England v Ireland preview
IRELAND : 15 Jamie Osborne 14 Robert Baloucoune 13 Garry Ringrose 12 Stuart McCloskey 11 James Lowe 10 Jack Crowley 9 Jamison Gibson‑Park
1 Jeremy Loughman 2 Dan Sheehan 3 Tadhg Furlong 4 Joe McCarthy 5 James Ryan 6 Tadhg Beirne 7 Josh van der Flier 8 Caelan Doris (c)
16 Ronan Kelleher 17 Tom O’Toole 18 Finlay Bealham 19 Nick Timoney 20 Jack Conan 21 Craig Casey 22 Ciarán Frawley 23 Tommy O’Brien
ENGLAND : 15 Freddie Steward 14 Tommy Freeman 13 Ollie Lawrence 12 Fraser Dingwall 11 Henry Arundell 10 George Ford 9 Alex Mitchell
1 Ellis Genge 2 Luke Cowan‑Dickie 3 Joe Heyes 4 Maro Itoje (c) 5 Ollie Chessum 6 Tom Curry 7 Ben Earl 8 Henry Pollock
16 Jamie George 17 Bevan Rodd 18 Trevor Davison 19 Alex Coles 20 Guy Pepper 21 Sam Underhill 22 Jack van Poortvliet 23 Marcus Smith
Guinness Six Nations 2026 – Round 3
Saturday, February 21, 2026
Twickenham Stadium
KO 2:15pm
Live on : RTÉ2
Referee: Andrea Piardi (FIR)
AR1: Pierre Brousset (FFR)
AR2: Gianluca Gnecchi (FIR)
TMO: Matteo Liperini (FIR)
FPRO: Mike Adamson (SRU)
498 : France v Ireland wrap
🏉 Attack still misfiring
🏉 Fresh faces
🏉 Brava Italia
🏉 Super Stu
🏉 15s & 7s
THIS WEEK’S GUEST
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
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
🏉 Rucks & collisions
🏉 The three P’s
🏉 Après set pieces
🏉 Selections
🏉 Calls & non-calls
THIS WEEK’S GUEST
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.
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)
494 : Leinster v Edinburgh wrap
🏉 Offload overload?
🏉 NIQ benefits
🏉 Death. Taxes. Penny.
🏉 Tector at 10
🏉 Luke’s leadership
THIS WEEK’S GUEST
FULL TIME TAKES
Christy O’Connor
Great result for the players that were playing. Thought Tector done well considering it’s been a long time since he had a run of games at ten.
Still a lot of the same issues with our attack, it’s very 1 dimensional and we need a lot of entries into their 22 to come away with some points
Cormac Mannion
We really are winning the hard way this season but a welcome win and another bonus point.
Still lots to improve on but when you think we are down to the bare bones in terms of players, it was a very satisfactory win
Gavin Hegarty
We made very hard work of it. Simple things that just didn’t work.
For example why did RG continue to try offloads when they never worked?
All teams now know they can easily unlock our shoot up defence by quick passing yet we still do it? Reko got caught out tonight.
Eamon Saunders
Good win again and great to see so much young talent being used
Kevin Kelehan
We have discovered the new and improved version of Mick Kiernan at 12 to fix Ireland’s place kicking problem, his name is Charlie Tector and he will be well ready for RWC 2027. The block down of the conversion on 80 minutes was very frustrating, Embra deserved a point out of that game and conceding it cost Leinster nothing
Dave Murray
A hard earned, but well deserved, 5 points for the 2nd/3rd string. Stormers losing again was pleasing too.
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URC WRAP
NEXT HARPIN’
TUESDAY
BONUS CHAT : “LEINSTER’S SEASON SO FAR” (YouTube)
WEDNESDAY
80+ COLUMN (Substack)
France v Ireland preview (YouTube)
493 : Leinster v Edinburgh preview
Leinster : 15 Andrew Osborne 14 Joshua Kenny 13 Rieko Ioane 12 Ciarán Mangan 11 Ruben Moloney 10 Charlie Tector 9 Luke McGrath (c)
1 Jerry Cahir 2 John McKee 3 Andrew Sparrow 4 RG Snyman 5 Brian Deeny 6 Max Deegan 7 Scott Penny 8 Diarmuid Mangan
16 Gus McCarthy 17 Alex Usanov 18 Niall Smyth 19 Conor O’Tighearnaigh 20 Josh Ericson 21 Will Connors 22 Fintan Gunne 23 Hugo McLaughlin
Edinburgh : 15 Harry Paterson 14 Malelili Satala 13 Wes Goosen 12 James Lang 11 Duhan van der Merwe 10 Ross Thompson 9 Ben Vellacott
1 Boan Venter 2 Jerry Blyth‑Lafferty 3 Paul Hill 4 Callum Hunter‑Hill 5 Glen Young 6 Ben Muncaster 7 Freddy Douglas 8 Magnus Bradbury (c)
16 Harri Morris 17 Mikey Jones 18 Ollie Blyth‑Lafferty 19 Tom Dodd 20 Connor Boyle 21 Charlie Shiel 22 Cammy Scott 23 Piers O’Conor
BKT United Rugby Championship 25/26 – Round 11
Saturday, January 31, 2026
Aviva Stadium
KO 5:30pm
Live on : Premier Sports 1, URC.tv
Referee: Andrea Piardi (FIR)
AR 1: Eoghan Cross (IRFU)
AR 2: Shane Gaughan (IRFU)
TMO: Matteo Liperini (FIR)
492 : Connacht v Leinster wrap
🏉 Comeback Kings
🏉 The gameplan
🏉 Opening night
🏉 Leinster negatives
🏉 Connacht’s form
THIS WEEK’S GUEST
FULL TIME TAKES
Eamon Saunders
Another win on the road glad to get the 5 points but much improvement needed going forward 👍
Greg Kelly
Connacht were plucky and obvious up for the occasion. They applied a lot of pressure in the opening hour but fell away a bit afterwards. They were looking for big moments but fell short of a real catalyst. Leinster were sputtering along and wasteful in attack…again. Ultimately Leinster were the better team and on the hour you always felt they would pull away. As has been said week after week if we do that against the top opposition we’ll get caned but but was enough against a spirited but limited Connacht team.
Kevin Kelehan
Ireland lost big tonight unless Jack Boyle does a Lazarus, have a good bet on England for the Six Nations. The Leinster scrum did amazingly, Niall Smyth passed his exam as did Sparrow and Jerry Cahir again proving the academy let more than Tadhg Beirne slip through their fingers. Charlie Tector again superb but one of the Connacht back row should have got man of the match for over an hour they had the upper hand. Delighted to take 5 points out of a decent Connacht shift.
Chris McDonnell
Another game where harry shows why he was Leinster’s 4th choice last season. He’s good defensively and can kick goals but he’s got nothing in attack.
James Gill
Harry 💯 % kicking might get him an Ireland start. Charlie Tector should b in the A squad. Prendergast was good for connacht but need a few more forwards badly. Leinster building nicely
Eamon Phelan
Sam illo can scrummage
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WEDNESDAY
80+ COLUMN
HARPIN' ON RUGBY 