For the foreseeable future, the 80+ column will appear on the Harpin’ Substack page just subscribe for free over there to receive it every week.
I’ll post a couple of the Front 5 articles plus the bonus clip here for this week but from next week on, it will be exclusively on Substack.
WRAP OF A WRAP
I needed a late substitute this week and although he had already done the preview show to make his 200th overall Harpin contribution, Ciarán Duffy was also on hand to do #201 along with Conor Cronin. It was the second week of our new pod format going with topics rather than a timeline approach. I still personally like the ‘old way’ myself as it was a throwback to the pre-podcast day when I’d do a match writeup but I reckon for the pod genre of content this way is better suited.
A selection of eye-catching egg-chasing quotes & links from around the rugby media landscape
THE LION’S SHARE
Unlike other years, all players will be paid the same amount for their contributions on tour – whether they feature in all three Tests or merely figure for minutes off the bench.
The headline looks like it has been designed to ragebait the ABL crowd, but you won’t be surprised to learn that my personal response is “proper order!” Whatever your opinion on the amount of Leinster players in the squad, when there’s as many as 12, why shouldn’t the province benefit, especially when there has been what I call a “Leinster tariff” imposed on it which is to benefit the other provinces (which I approve up FWIW in case I’m misunderstood).
DAY OF REIKO-NING
“I’ve spoken closely with [Leinster head coach] Leo [Cullen] over there and they have a plan…I’m sure they’ll look after me well and everything will be good.”
Yeah, I get the whole 50/50 thing I guess, but if he puts in the effort when he’s here, the Leinster fans will take to him. Actually if he has half the impact Jordie has brought he’ll be doing well in my book.
HARPIN ON…THE LIONS SQUAD
LEAD-IN : Well with all that happened last weekend against Northampton including the tragic news about Caelan Doris’ surgery, despite there being so many Leinster and Ireland players involved, we weren’t exactly all that excited about the Lions selection during the week so we didn’t respond right away, which means it’s about time we did and I have asked the panel to go over the squad and maybe select a XV for the first test between them.
This is a repost of an article I wrote for my Substack account back on March 15, I’ve decided to add to the blog as well so it can be used for reference in the future.
You know what, I can definitely think of better things to do of a Friday evening than book the main TV in the house so I can sit with a few beers and watch a rugby team I’m shouting for ship two tries in the early stages despite having an extra man and proceed to, on the one hand, keep the opposition scoreless for the remainder of the match, only for the other hand to keep knocking the ball forward (albeit in shitty conditions but they’re the same for both sides) for the remainder of the match, while still building up hope by clawing back 12 of the 15 point deficit in the process.
Then after accepting the loss, I try to console myself by putting this message in the WhatsApp group after following the other U20 Six Nations matches from the evening: “At least we dodge the wooden spoon – I thought Scotland might nick a second BP”. You see, when I first checked the FRAvSCO score it was 38-30 to the French so I presumed the Scots had 4 tries in the bank. Then it changed to 45-30 so I just presumed that left them in last place, yet having surrendered the telly back to the family for Fair City (don’t ask) I later found this message in the group : “Nope, Scotland nicked the LBP with a drop goal in the last play”
Well ain’t that a kick in the nuts. After the two Grand Slams for this age grade in recent years it would be mad to assume we’d continue that success, and in fact we didn’t do too badly last year either as it happened. But while a decline was expected, we certainly didn’t think it would be as bad as this and while I really want to avoid pointing fingers directly at the coaching rather than the actual talent, having watched all of the five matched I really have to say there seems to be a sharp decline in the cohesion and tactical nous displayed on the pitch. There have been some fine individual displays for sure, particularly Munster’s back rower Michael Foy, but with the ball we suddenly seem to have made ourselves remarkably easy to defend. Some might say the same is true of the senior team but I’ll keep that topic for the main Harpin content for now.
In fact I will also park the Under20 criticism if you don’t mind, you don’t want to be too harsh on the younglings plus this wooden spoon gives me the opportunity to harp on another issue that really grinds my gears. The way the Scots pipped us to 5th is another example of the very obvious flaws of the try bonus point system.
I’ll be honest – when it was first introduced I thought it was brilliant. I never subscribed to the notion that whatever football does, so must rugby do and this method of incentivising attacking rugby really did seem to be an inspired one that suited our code down to the ground. IIRC it was a southern hemisphere idea which naturally meant that the much more stubborn northern portion of the planet would take a while to adopt it but eventually they did.
But then in France the 🔝🐱🐴 (if you haven’t seen that before, it’s how I always write the name of that comp, it’s kind of my thing) went a bit rogue. I never actually heard of an announcement of their change, I only noticed when I was following a particular team and realised that although they had scored 4 tries they still only only got 4 points on the table. So the number nerd in me just had to know why and it turned out that rather than rewarding the scoring of 4 tries (a “Quantitative” BP as I call it), they instead gave it to team who scored three more tries than their opposition (“Differential” BP).
Hand on heart it took me a while to work out the benefits of this idea; at first I just thought the French were being, well, French. But the more you think about it, the more it makes absolutely perfect sense. While the QBP always seemed to be sufficient in theory, over the years in practice we frequently saw dominant teams “banking” their bonus in the early stages of a match only to take their foot off the pedal in the second, probably with the following week’s contest in mind. They would probably do enough to stay ahead in the particular match, but if they were at the top of the table while the opposition down the other end, the concession of a few tries in the final quarter wasn’t usually considered a hanging offence. And as a Leinster fan, I experienced this scenario more often than most – call that arrogant if you must, but all I’m really doing is stating facts.
But when I actually mulled over the advantages of the DBP over the QBP it became clear first and foremost that in many cases teams were being rewarded for things that didn’t necessarily deserve a reward. The winning team letting up after securing a winning margin is one example, but also why should a losing team EVER earn more than one point on the log?
Actually the French seemed to have a problem with even that one point and a few years ago they reduced the margin for earning the losing bonus from 7 down to 5. FWIW I don’t agree with that, seven is fine and means you still have something to play for with a 14-point deficit in the closing stages. But most certainly, one point should be that when it comes to a loss, especially when it means a team that loses scoring 4 tries does as well on the ladder as one that earned a draw with 3. The DBP also eliminates the messiness of draws where teams scoring 4 tries earn just 1 point fewer than those who actually triumphed. When you think of it, those scenarios are madness.
But I haven’t gotten to the biggest advantage of the DBP yet. I wrote earlier of teams banking their bonus with four early scores. Switch to the French system and this not only goes away completely, it also adds a new dimension – you can now put yourself in a position to earn the bonus only for it to be taken away.
I really got into the 🔝🐱🐴 when Sexton was playing over there and I remember a match where Racing were hosting Toulouse and had a lead of something like 23-0 going into the final stages. Seems comfortable enough, and while they had only scored the three tries, that was enough to earn them the BP. But literally with the final play of the match, Les Rouge et Noir went the length of the pitch for a score which meant Racing had to make do with just the four points, and for someone like me who appreciates a decent defensive stand just as much as a series of behind the back offloads, this was reasonable outcome for the Parisian side.
And although Super Rugby came up with the idea in the first place, eventually they too saw the light about the DBP and introduced it to their competition a while back. So I feel it’s about time the entire rugby world saw sense and kicked the QBP squarely into touch where it belongs.
Sadly I think it might take a while before this happens, what with the nature of rugby’s alickadoos being slow when it comes to change. However with the 2027 RWC being in Australia and World Rugby already being open to an expanded format to 24 teams, maybe that would be a perfect opportunity to introduce it to everyone.
One last thing – I hope you don’t think I’m only harping on this method because it put the Irish Under 20s in the basement last night. I’ve been on about this for years, and there have been several cases where the QBP was shown to be absurd, like when it was introduced to the Men’s Six Nations, someone realised that it was mathematically possible for a team to win the Grand Slam yet finish second on the points table. To “fix” this, they added a “slam bonus” of three extra points to anyone winning five matches.
But did that REALLY fix the problem? As I type it’s Super Saturday for the 2025 tournament and the way the table stands, it’s not impossible for Italy to get zero points against us while Wales get a LBP against England which would mean the Welsh avoid the wooden spoon despite having lost all five. Absurd.
And so I’ll end my scribbling with a string of acronyms…IMHO, the DBP is FTW and WR should exclusively use it ASAFP.
10 May 2025; Ryan Baird of Leinster celebrates after scoring his side’s third try during the United Rugby Championship match between Leinster and Zebre Parma at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile
🏉 12 different tries 🏉 Tyler’s attack 🏉 Sam’s starts 🏉 That JB narrative 🏉 Improved forwards
16. Tommaso Di Bartolomeo 17. Muhamed Hasa 18. Ion Neculai 19. Matteo Canali 20. Giacomo Ferrari 21. Alessandro Fusco 22. Giacomo Da Re 23. Filippo Drago
BKT United Rugby Championship 24/25
Saturday, May 10, 2025
KO 5:15pm Aviva Stadium
Live on : RTÉ News Channel, Premier Sports 1, URC.tv
Ugh. Didn’t really fancy producing any content this week if I’m honest, but the show must go on as they say.
If nothing else, one positive from last weekend was that it gave me the chance to try out a new format for the wrap pods. Up to now we have used a “timeline” method whereby one contributor talks through the match while myself and the other comments. I had been doing this because (a) I thought it was a bit different to other pods (b) it helped capture the different points of the match and (c) it was part of the transition from the old Harpin match writeups which I did in a similar way.
Let’s just say that myself, Rich and Hugo were unanimous in agreement that we did not want to go through the sequence of that semifinal, especially when a rewatch was involved. So instead I went with a format I had been planning to trial for the Lions test series, and I reckon it worked pretty well. Between the three of us we chose 8 talking points from the match, then the lads had a “draft” of sorts in selecting them and we got to harpin’ that way.
It also meant I could hold a couple of topics back for the “bonus chat” and FWIW I may just stick with it until the end of the season and see how I get on.
More Harpin’ admin news… I’m thinking of making permanent is cutting out the Front 5 videos…I really enjoyed doing them (I had made a pledge this season to get more comfortable doing “talking to camera” videos and it was good practice) but the editing takes too long so instead I’ll go back to scribbling some thoughts after each link.
A selection of eye-catching egg-chasing quotes & links from around the rugby media landscape
INEVITABLE ARTICLES
“Would Leinster have been happy going to extra-time in a game where they trailed by 10 points, early in the final quarter? You would have thought so at the time.”
I’m leading with this offering from Brendan not because of this particular article itself, rather because it represents the type of article we always see the week following a consequential Leinster or Ireland defeat, and knowing these are on the horizon serves to amplify the post-defeat disappointment. To be clear – that doesn’t mean I disagree with the points made in them, it’s just I’m a fan and don’t like reading them!!! We’ve all been there.
DORIS OUT
‘The full extent of the injury, and implications for the summer, won’t be known until after the procedure’
We spoke about this ‘try’ on the bonus video below, one of those cases where two things can be true at the same time – should have been a try? possibly so. Does that mean Leinster deserved to win? probably not. Anyway in articles like this you get the nuts and bolts of other people’s interpretations of the decision.
WELSH RUGBY UPDATE
…there’s a realisation the stalemate that has now gone on for months cannot continue.
Latest news in the Welsh saga…if I was cynical I’d say it was all amusing, but if I’m being honest I just wish they’d settle on something that works soon. I really truly don’t enjoy seeing things this bad over there, I want the regions to be competing so I can be giving out about losses like Leinster’s to the Scarlets recently more often, if that makes sense!!!
SUPER RUGBY USA
World Rugby’s interest has been piqued if one or two teams can follow in the footsteps of the Drua or Jaguares, who were backed by the governing body
I’d love to see this happen, but only if it’s done right. LA might be a good fit geographically but I’m pretty sure they’d need the team to appeal to a wider fan base. For me, the ideal solution would be to let the US Eagles play, but as with all sports of European origin, that club/country barrier is impenetrable.
HARPIN ON…THE ANNUAL CULLENOSCOPY
For this video we harped on a couple of bonus topics, here are the lead-in questions..
“…we’re going to start with Rich who is going to look at the officiating from Saturday…was it an issue or should fans be focusing on that at all?”
“…now Hugo is going to answer a question that I have to say more and more people have been asking each year as our European campaigns have ended, should Leo go? What do you think?”
LEINSTER SQUAD UPDATE
On the Harpin’ WhatsApp & Discord we’ve been debating Leinster’s selection policy after the Northampton result, particularly for this weekend against Zebre, who’s season is effectively over (their 29pts is more than their last two campaigns combined, yet with two matches left they still can’t reach top 8).
Do we (a) bring out the cotton wool, (b) go ‘full throttle’ or (c) bit of both?
The consensus among the groups was overwhelmingly (b) so that would mean a team this weekend very similar to last. But just to play devil’s advocate, I have chosen to go for a 23 that leans heavily in the other direction, going with the premise that it will give the next in line for each position one more run out just in case they are needed in the knockouts, we can then go full throttle against Glasgow the following week.
HARPIN’ POSSIBLE MATCHDAY 23 V ZEBRE
15 J Osborne 14 J O’Brien 13 H Cooney 12 C Tector 11 A Osborne 10 C Frawley 9 L McGrath (c)
1 J Boyle 2 G McCarthy 3 R Slimani 4 B Deeny 5 D Mangan 6 R Baird 7 S Penny 8 J Culhane
16 J McKee 17 C Healy 18 R McGuire 19 J Ryan 20 A Soroka 21 C Foley 22 R Byrne 23 R Russell
caveat : I have no “ITK” a la Thornley
OFFICIAL UPDATE posted Monday
AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Rob Russell and James Ryan: have returned to full training having recovered from injury.
NOT AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Caelan Doris: will have a procedure this week on a shoulder injury and a further assessment will be carried out afterwards.
NO FURTHER UPDATES ON:
Jordan Larmour, Will Connors and Brian Deeny.
TROLL PATROL
Now it’s time for Troll Patrol where we ‘detain’ a social media commentator and charge them with gaslightery and general online mayhem.
On my last ‘Broken Play’ article on Substack (head over and subscribe for free if you can) I spoke about how important banter is in sport once it doesn’t cross a line and I referenced a particular social media commentator called Edward Jenkins or ‘Ed Jenx’ and while Leinster & Ireland are frequent targets of his, he definitely falls into the category and we need to be able to take it as well as give it.
A lot of it can still be called “trolling” though, so this post makes him our latest detainee, however appropriate his comparison might be.
Irish Shield
SVNS
LOS ANGELES 7s
RELEGATION PLAYOFFS
IREW7s
L V RSA 7-12
L V ARG 12-20
L V CHN 15-19
IREM7s
L V GER 0-15
L V CAN 12-19
L V URU 12-27
Note – they announced changes to the Svns circuit for next season, reducing the top tier to just 8 nations so Ireland would probably have been excluded from that in both genders regardless of results from the weekend. We will see how the new system works out for next season but it looks like it will be a long road back to the top, especially if we continue to send weaker squads as we did this season.
Qualifying finals – 1 v 6, 2 v 5, 3 v 4 with the top-ranked team hosting
Semi-Finals – three qualifying winners plus highest ranked loser: Teams re-ranked with 1 v 4 and 2 v 3
Final – top-ranked semi-final winner hosts the other semi-final winner.
RWC2027 QUALIFIERS
The RWC2027 tournament has expanded to 24 nations so with four extra spots up for grabs it makes for a fascinating qualifying process.
Rather than post the latest results and fixtures here however, I’d like to defer to the excellent work of frequent Harpin’ contributor Ciarán Duffy who has been keeping close tabs on the qualifying process over at his own site Post to Post Sport.
Follow this link to see how the Road to Australia is progressing..
Japan League One
Major League Rugby
Harpin Prediction League
This is the 4th season of our Superbru prediction league among Harpin’ pod contributors.
Kristian is the reigning champion, but the real competition is in avoiding finishing last, which means you must wear The Jersey of Shame. I had to wear it the first year, while Keego has had the honour the past two seasons.
As you can see our resident stats expert Rugby Kino is leading the way with room to spare although Mark does seem to be gaining on him… meanwhile down at the foot of the table, a mini fightback from David is the bookies favourite to take ownership of TJOS but in an official statement he claims to continue his strategy of making his selections based solely on “vibes”.
Kept kicking the ball away and when we actually had a straightforward kick to draw level at 37-37 we went for the corner. Summed up our brainless play all evening. I’m really annoyed about how we played. Yet again we’ve faltered in a big match
Gavin Hegarty
Anyone else think henshaw was a huge weak link? He didn’t bring anything to the party.
Head to simani is a straight red
Yellow at the try line should be a penalty try
But we shouldn’t have been in that position.
Horrific first half that we shouldn’t have been that bad in.
Andrew Tynan
The ref giving a saints player a yellow card at the end but yet no penalty try? What?
Kevin Kelehan
Kicking the ball at Saints back 3 was never going to be a winner, Leinster were lucky to be in the game right to the end, tactically the approach did not play to Leinster’s strengths. Credit Saints they nailed 90% of their chances
Colette Caddle
They were the better side and deserved the win.
Christy O’Connor
Nienaber has to go for me, I’ve never liked his tactics and I was never hopeful we would win with his style. Yes we played better the last few weeks but against very poor opposition
Daniel James
I think we should’ve played at least the bones of this team against scarlets last week as I worry that the international are sometime undercooked. Also i think we need to win an URC before the champions cup and we have been focusing to much on getting that 5th star rather then winning our league then going for the star. The intensity from Northampton was incredible all game I expected them to get tired towards the end but they have it there all where as I thought we got tired at times and their scores seemed a bit easy.
Cuan Mulligan
Saints deserved the win. However some very dubious ref calls. The possible try at the end should not have been disallowed for the reason the ref gave, the corner flag is not in touch.. however Byrne was on the floor and it’s questionable if he is allowed to touch it down. About 2 or 3 plays before it, near their try line, I think Pollock goes off his feet crawling on his knees over our players and a second player in goes into take the ball… not sharing this to gripe.. if you leave your win down to ref calls you don’t deserve it.. but the reffing was poor
Jackie McEachern
Saints were very good (and it pains me to say that). But I don’t understand not starting Barrett.
And I’m not sure resting the starters leading up to these big games is a good strategy. I know it’s a physical game but we’ve seen time and time again where they come into the big matches rested but not cohesive.
Richard Collumb
Useless today & Tactics were terrible. That’s down to the coaches. Given team & budget the players & management get judged on performances in May & they aren’t good enough.
Get in the conversation yourself by leaving
your own thoughts each week after the full time whistle
We’re very much creatures of habit here at Harpin Manor but the past week has been crazy. Normally we have fixed content production for particular days of the week yet life has a canny knack of getting in the way eh?
So first of all the wrap pod was just myself and Conor Cronin – I reckon we did an ok job of summarizing the match all things considered, had a bit of banter online with some Scarlets fans about it. Didn’t have time to do either the “final thoughts” or the “bonus chat” videos this week unfortunately, although I am seriously thinking aboyt scaling back the weekly content anyway as my routine involves.
One thing is for sure, with two matches per week on the Lions Tour coming up, for that period alone there will need to be a massive re-think! Anyway, we’ll cross that when we get to it.
Like I mentioned earlier, I don’t have time to make the usual video and I wasn’t going to comment on my Front 5 choices either but I had to make an exception for this one.
Over the weekend there was a post on BlueSky that shed a completely new light over what should have been a story about the Women’s Six Nations clash between Scotland and Ireland.
Apparently there was to be a trophy awarded to the winner to honour the memory of Siobhán Cattigan, and this seemed to be a perfectly fitting tribute until, well, there was an intervention and her poor family were left rightly confused and heartbroken.
It has apparently since been resolved but the whole thing just served to sully further what was already a very bad show by the SRU.
Hat-tip to Ailbhe from the excellent MudderRucker podcast for helping me find the one and only article in the press about this, and indeed it was excellent gumshoe journalism by David Walsh from the Times who has followed the story since Siobhan’s tragic passing.
The article is behind a paywall and I want to respect that so I won’t go into more detail but I definitely recommend reading the full story if you can and I’m looking forward to watching the SIobhán Cattigan Trophy (or something similar, I don’t think the name has been confirmed) be awarded in the near future.
WAS FEATURE NOW BUG
Other competitions, such as cricket’s Hundred, have found a lucrative market for stakes in franchise teams free from the threat of relegation.
I think I need to write something here as well, I just discovered this article as I was putting together the column! Nice to see the Premiership have finally admitted that theirs was a failed business model after years of claiming relegation was actually the main feature.
WALL SIDELINED
The news comes a week after flanker Erin King was ruled out of the World Cup following a serious knee injury.
Major blow for Ireland as injury rules Dorothy Wall out of Women’s World Cup
Ciarán Kennedy – The42.ie
Devastating blow for Dorothy personally of course but also the full Irish squad.
SEALED WITH A KISS
They also get the reassurance of current coach Joe Schmidt continuing after the British & Irish Lions tour this winter and the Rugby Championship Tests in Spring.
“Hogg had been thriving in his new life in the south of France, operating in a surprise new position at fly-half.”
Stuart Hogg ruled out of rugby until 2026 after devastating setback
Steven S – Ruck.co.uk
While I’d never be happy about an injury to anyone, let’s just say I am a lot less gutted about this Achilles injury than I am Dorothy Wall’s. Regular Harpin readers will know the Front Five column has been following Hogg’s off-field story closely over the past while, although to read this particular story you’d think it never happened. I guess that’s their editorial choice, but I would have included a line like “Hogg, who was sentenced in January 2025 for abusing his estranged wife”, as I have here.
LEINSTER SQUAD UPDATE
Excellent news on James Ryan and Rob Russell but I very much doubt the former will be ready in time for Saturday’s semifinal so for my selection I have tried to reward those who have impressed in recent weeks for the tight decisions. Tommy O’Brien, Jack Deegan, Diarmuid Mangan and Max Deegan all fall into this category.
HARPIN’ POSSIBLE MATCHDAY 23 V NORTHAMPTON
15 H Keenan 14 T O’Brien 13 G Ringrose 12 J Barrett 11 J Lowe 10 S Prendergast 9 J Gibson-Park
1 A Porter 2 D Sheehan 3 T Furlong 4 J McCarthy 5 RG Snyman 6 J Conan 7 J vd Flier 8 C Doris (c)
16 R Kelleher 17 J Boyle 18 R Slimani 19 D Mangan 20 M Deegan 21 L McGrath 22 R Byrne 23 R Henshaw
caveat : I have no “ITK” a la Thornley
OFFICIAL UPDATE posted Monday
AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
RG Snyman: has returned to full training having recovered from injury.
Ryan Baird: came through the game at the weekend with no issues after his return from injury.
FURTHER ASSESSMENT REQUIRED:
Rob Russell: will look to increase his training load this week as he continues his recovery from injury and will be further assessed as the week goes on.
James Ryan: will look to increase his training load this week as he continues his recovery from injury and will be further assessed as the week goes on.
NOT AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Brian Deeny: will have a procedure this week on a knee injury which will keep him out of action for the rest of the season.
Will Connors: is unavailable for selection with an arm injury and will be further assessed this week.
NO FURTHER UPDATES ON:
Jordan Larmour.
TROLL PATROL
Now it’s time for Troll Patrol where we ‘detain’ a social media commentator and charge them with gaslightery and general online mayhem.
Hat-tip to Rugby Kino for spotting this perfect follow up to last week’s Troll Patrol detainee, James has done it again as for the second week in a row, a player loaned by Leinster to Munster has ended up on the losing side, so he just reworked the same message at the same time, with a photo added for maximum effect.
I just hope the Munster fans don’t respond by finding some kind of correlation between the Leinster players’ involvement and the results…..
Qualifying finals – 1 v 6, 2 v 5, 3 v 4 with the top-ranked team hosting
Semi-Finals – three qualifying winners plus highest ranked loser: Teams re-ranked with 1 v 4 and 2 v 3
Final – top-ranked semi-final winner hosts the other semi-final winner.
RWC2027 QUALIFIERS
The RWC2027 tournament has expanded to 24 nations so with four extra spots up for grabs it makes for a fascinating qualifying process.
Rather than post the latest results and fixtures here however, I’d like to defer to the excellent work of frequent Harpin’ contributor Ciarán Duffy who has been keeping close tabs on the qualifying process over at his own site Post to Post Sport.
Follow this linkto see how the Road to Australia is progressing, Ciarán has the April update there now.
Japan League One
Major League Rugby
Harpin Prediction League
This is the 4th season of our Superbru prediction league among Harpin’ pod contributors.
Kristian is the reigning champion, but the real competition is in avoiding finishing last, which means you must wear The Jersey of Shame. I had to wear it the first year, while Keego has had the honour the past two seasons.
As you can see our resident stats expert Rugby Kino is leading the way with room to spare although Mark does seem to be gaining on him… meanwhile down at the foot of the table, a mini fightback from David sees the Jersey race up for grabs again.
We’ve also added a Cup (or Mug) competition to make things interesting, and congrats to Conor Cronin for defeating, well, me in the final last weekend. Ironically for a Leinster-based site, it was Conor’s complete lack of faith in Munster winning in Cardiff which proved the difference, that match gave him a 1.5 point swing.
26 April 2025; Will Connors of Leinster is tackled by Taine Plumtree of Scarlets during the United Rugby Championship match between Scarlets and Leinster at Parc Y Scarlets in Swansea, Wales. Photo by Chris Fairweather/Sportsfile
Really poor from almost every perspective but hopefully just a bump in the road. I know we were missing many of the first team but there were still far too many errors and poor decisions.
Christy O’Connor
Scarlets line speed was brilliant, put us under lots of pressure and caused us to make so many mistakes, granted some were unforced. Better team won
Ollie Sinnott
Ross Byrne, Frawley, the Osbornes, Tector, Baird, O Brien and Mccarthy are a couple of steps down in quality from the first 23. Only player to improve their reputation this evening was Jack Boyle and Soroka.
Bert McLoughlin
People whinging about team selection pisses me off! Apart from what’s coming next week, the team out on the field today were good enough to win the game. BUT they made way too many errors and didn’t deserve to win the game.
Congratulations to Scarlets, they played really well and deserved to win that game
Greg Kelly
Scarlets came out needing the 5 points. They were hungry and quite simply Leinster we not. Fair play to the Scarlets, they were well worth the win and showed great composure given that Leinster have a habit of clawing back games. It looked like Leinster had both eyes on Northampton and a lot of the players knew that their knockout involvement going forward was over.
Get in the conversation yourself by leaving
your own thoughts each week after the full time whistle
HARPIN' ON RUGBY 