I really don’t think even my most loyal listeners would have wanted to endure an hour long pod about a 62-point whitewash and fair play to both Ciarán & Hugo for both keeping it brief and covering all the action.
A selection of eye-catching egg-chasing quotes & links from around the rugby media landscape
CAPITAL LOSSES
RE-COUPE DU MONDE?
7/1 ODDS
TACKLING TACKLES
CLICKBAIT OF THE WEEK
HARPIN ON…EUROPEAN QFS PREVIEW
Here’s the lead-in question :
“Now that the European fields has been whittled down to just eight teams, it’s time to focus on the contenders for the final in Cardiff, or should I say fi-NALS, as Connucked are also in serious contention for a spot in the Challenge Cup decider. So while we will of course be harpin’ on Leinster v Glasgow towards the end of the coming week, our panel are first going to have a quick look at some of the other quarterfinals, starting with Hugo who is going to cover Bordeaux v Munster & Northampton v Castres! [Ciarán looked at Toulon v Toulouse & Connacht v Racing 92]”
LEINSTER SQUAD UPDATE
I have a feeling Leinster won’t stray TOO far from last week’s selection but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a couple of swaps from starter to bench like Slimani/Furlong or Henshaw/Barrett although Robbie is the only Leinster player to have been on the pitch for all of our Champions Cup minutes so far.
HARPIN’ POSSIBLE MATCHDAY 23 V GLASGOW WARRIORS
15 H Keenan 14 J 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 van der Flier 8 C Doris (c)
16 R Kelleher 17 J Boyle 18 R Slimani 19 R Baird 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:
James Culhane: has come through the Graduated Return to Play Protocols and will be available for selection this weekend.
Rónan Kelleher: has recovered from a neck injury and will be available for selection this weekend.
NOT AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
James Ryan: is unavailable for selection after injuring his calf at training last week.
NO FURTHER UPDATES ON:
Jordan Larmour, Paddy McCarthy, Rob Russell, Alex Soroka and Will Connors.
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.
Obviously for the most part trolling is a bad thing, but I wouldn’t want you thinking I was an absolute angel all the time myself, and I couldn’t resist this shortly after the full time whistle when Munster scored an impressive knockout win in the “ROG derby”. I mean, it’s a mild troll when you think of it, I did say “seriously” for the next bit…
Women’s Six Nations
All Ireland Leagues
WOMEN’S AIL
The fixture details for the Women’s Energia All-Ireland League semi-finals have been confirmed, promising an exciting weekend of club rugby action.
Two high-stakes clashes are scheduled for this Sunday, April 13. Railway Union will host Old Belvedere at 12:30pm, while UL Bohemian take on Blackrock College at 2:30pm. Both Railway and UL Bohemian will be looking to capitalise on home advantage as they aim to secure a place in the 2025 final. Both semi-finals will be streamed Live on IrishRugby+.
Women’s Division Semi-Finals – Sunday, April 13
Railway Union vs Old Belvedere – 12:30 PM, in Park Avenue
UL Bohemian vs Blackrock College – 2:30 PM, in Annacotty
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 but down at the foot of the table, an impressive couple of rounds has seen Keego move of the bottom for the first time in two years.
We’ve also added a Cup (or Mug) competition to make things interesting, and partly thanks to my prediction of Leinster to win in Durban, I just about edged HPL runaway leader Kino to reach the first ever Harpin’ Mug Final where I’ll play the winner of Tom v Conor in the next round.
Josh van der Flier of Leinster scores his side’s fourth try during the Investec Champions Cup Round of 16 match between Leinster and Harlequins at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
I thought it was going to be a hard day at the office on the first 10 mins. I think the held up ball knocked the wind out of them.
Kevin Kelehan
Quins turned up, sadly only for 10 minutes, great to see JVdF back to his rampaging best, Ringrose lethal in defense and incisive in attack and Jordie Barrett’s team first and self second distribution showing why he was signed.
Chris McDonnell
As complete a performance as I have seen in ages.
Alan Murphy
Quins over 80 mins were never going to win that. Not taking the 6 points on offer for two kickable penalties in the first 10 mins was really naive. Aimless kicking to a Leinster back 3 was naive. Kicking all their restarts to the same space in the first half was naive. Very poor from a last 16 team. I hope they get rid of this round in future as very average teams are winning one game (Ulster) in 4 in the ‘group’ stages and making the knockouts. Others staggering in with 2 wins from 4. Go straight to the quarter finals in future.
Christy O’Connor
Dragons would’ve caused us more problems. I expect a much tougher game next week. I reckon Glasgow will beat Leicester and Glasgow will definitely give is a tough game
Get in the conversation yourself by leaving
your own thoughts each week after the full time whistle
“Dunno about you lads but this could be the most enjoyable wrap of the season so far”
“My take: very poor match to watch. One of the worst in a long time. We were poor and they were brutal!”
It may seem strange that those two comments both refer to the same match but in a way I’m not surprised. The first was from me on WhatsApp to this week’s contributors Conor Cronin & David Cordial. The second was from a Harpin follower “bashbranagan” on BlueSky. It was that kind of match but I was coming from a place where literally any kind of a win from the two matches in SA would be a good result, and for the most part CC & DC agreed as they did their usual excellent job going back over the action.
A selection of eye-catching egg-chasing quotes & links from around the rugby media landscape
ITALIAN JOB
WHERE THERE’S A WILLEMSE
ROG V MUNSTER
BILLY BARRY
CHEETAHS AND FOOLS
HARPIN ON…LEINSTER’S CHAMPIONS CUP 23
Here’s the lead-in question :
“After a successful enough South African tour, Leinster now turn their attention back to the Champions Cup with Harlequins coming to Croke Park next weekend and all going well for the boys in blue, there might be a quarterfinal the following week as well – that’s as optimistic as my uber-superstitious nature will allow me to be. So after 18 matches this season looking at over 50 different players, what do we now think is our best matchday squad going into the business end of the season? Not for the first time we’re using the worst possible method of selecting a squad – I’ll be nominating a bench, Conor will take the pack and first up we have David who is going to give us his ideal backline…”
LEINSTER SQUAD UPDATE
Slightly different this week…rather than post my predicted 23 I’m going to make you watch the bonus clip where our wrap panel picked one just a few days ago. That was without the benefit of the injury report but it turned out ok for what we selected anyway.
HARPIN’ POSSIBLE MATCHDAY 23 V HARLEQUINS
[SEE THE ABOVE VIDEO]
caveat : I have no “ITK” a la Thornley
OFFICIAL UPDATE posted Monday
FURTHER ASSESSMENT REQUIRED:
Rónan Kelleher: will step up his rehabilitation from a neck injury this week and a final call will be made on his availability towards the end of the week.
Alex Soroka: has entered the Graduated Return to Play Protocols and will be assessed over the course of the week.
NOT AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Will Connors: is unavailable for selection after injuring his shoulder against the Sharks at the weekend.
NO FURTHER UPDATES ON:
Jordan Larmour, Paddy McCarthy, Rob Russell and James Culhane.
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.
Leinster & Ireland get plenty of stick on the socials from the South Africans which is mostly why Kino felt moved to clap back with this shark-related burn…
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.
A new update has dropped this week – 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 but down at the foot of the table, an impressive couple of rounds has seen Keego move of the bottom for the first time in two years.
We’ve also added a Cup (or Mug) competition to make things interesting, and partly thanks to my prediction of Leinster to win in Durban, I just about edged HPL runaway leader Kino to reach the first ever Harpin’ Mug Final where I’ll play the winner of Tom v Conor in the next round.
29 March 2025; Max Deegan of Leinster makes a break during the United Rugby Championship match between Hollywoodbets Sharks and Leinster at Hollywoodbets Kings Park in Durban, South Africa. Photo by Shaun Roy/Sportsfile
Not really a great game for a neutral but I’m not neutral, great win. Max was superb
Kevin Kelehan
Noon last week hoped for 2 points out of both games, last week ahead for 83 minutes and just caught in the end by a super dogged Bulls side and this week won a proper dogfight. The scores weren’t spectacular, but players like Deegan, Soroka and Penny never stopped working, the depth that Leinster have is embarrassing. To take 5 points from a trip they have struggled on in recent seasons is really encouraging
Cormac Mannion
Fantastic win. Frawley still doesn’t seem to have recovered his mojo after last autumn, albeit he was great for Penny’s try
Bernie Cunningham
Grt win, boys left it all on the pitch, delighted for the younger lads and to bring home 4pts from SA brill.👏👏
Eamon Saunders
Great performance from such a inexperienced bunch at this level given the opposition 💪👏👏
Get in the conversation yourself by leaving
your own thoughts each week after the full time whistle
I was busy last Saturday which meant I had to miss Bulls v Leinster live, had to pull over in a car park on the way home to watch it and needless to say I wasn’t too happy!!! But somehow the rewatch for the pod made me see some positives and as ever Tom & Rich did excellent work going through the action.
A selection of eye-catching egg-chasing quotes & links from around the rugby media landscape
DON’T KNOW JACK
SAM SIGNS
LION KINGS
AOIFE WAFER
PUTTIN’ ON THE BIARRITZ
HARPIN ON…THE URC’S SOUTH AFRICA TOURS
Here’s the lead-in question :
“A timely enough topic for this week, the 2-match provincial tours to South Africa in the URC. We had some experience of them in the old Pro 14 when the Cheetahs and Southern Kings were involved but the addition of the Bulls, Stormers, Sharks and Lions have added a whole new dynamic to the league and when the URC fixtures were released early in May 2024, the first thing I noticed was that for the 4th season in a row, Leinster’s matches were scheduled for just after the Six Nations. How has this portion of the season affected the provinces overall and does it go anywhere near evening out the travelling the South Africans must do?”
NOTE : A funny thing happened with this video…naturally we recorded it as an extra part of our wrap pod on Sunday evening, yet on Tuesday morning there was this tweet from Rugby Kino…
…so either it’s a humble coincidence or they actually got wind of our ranting, I’d prefer to assume the latter FWIW!!! Either way here’s hoping it actually happens.
LEINSTER SQUAD UPDATE
Assuming both Messrs Culhane & Deegan are unavailable due to protocols, I had a real struggle putting together a matchday 23 to play the Sharks, especially in the back row if we’re to go for another 6/2 split. Cian Healy was pictured training with the squad but I’m wondering/hoping that’s not the only returnee from the 6N squad we get, I can’t see how we can go without at least Ryan Baird as well, and even with that we may need to give a debut to someone like Liam Molony, which could make for quite a baptism of fire in the last quarter in Durban if things go the way we expect. Otherwise I wouldn’t make too many changes from Pretoria.
HARPIN’ POSSIBLE MATCHDAY 23 V SHARKS
J O’Brien, T O’Brien, Cooney, Barrett, A Osborne, R Byrne, L McGrath
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.
A new update has dropped this week – 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 but down at the foot of the table, an impressive couple of rounds has seen Keego move of the bottom for the first time in two years.
We’ve also added a Cup (or Mug) competition to make things interesting, and we’ve reached the semifinals stage with Kino playing Jeff this coming weekend.
22 March 2025; Fintan Gunne of Leinster offloads to teammate Jordie Barrett during the United Rugby Championship match between Vodacom Bulls and Leinster at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria, South Africa. Photo by Shaun Roy/Sportsfile
HARPIN' ON RUGBY 