HARPIN' ON RUGBY

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WRAP OF NO WRAP

Hello and welcome to our latest 80+ column where I generally harp on things not so Leinster-and-or-Ireland-men’s-team-related.

I usually start with a few lines on the logistics of our latest pod recording, but obviously this week there wasn’t one, we took a mini break of sorts and this is our first content since the New Year’s Day 80+ column.  Gearing up for a return with a bang though as there is of course a massive Champions Cup date with our old friends from La Rochelle to look forward to.

But if you want to sample our pods and maybe subscribe so you get our next ones, click here to check it out on Spotify or you’ll also find them on Apple and most major platforms.

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FRONT FIVE

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MACK’S ATTACK

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AFTER ANDY

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NOVEL GRAPHIC

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ENGLAND BLOW

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SOME NECK ON ‘IM

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HARPIN ON…FRAWLEY TIME

Obviously no bonus chat this week, but two good reasons for this re-posting of a clip from 2024; first it was from our most-listened-to pod of the year according to Spotify Wrapped, and second because it’s timely what with Ciarán Frawley also doing some last-gasp heroics the last time Leinster visited the Stade Marcel Deflandre.

SOWING DISCORD

We put ourselves out there on multiple platforms here at Harpin’ Manor but there have to be limits and we can’t be on ALL of them so if we decide to try something new, something else should probably go.  

And I’ve been keen to try out Discord for a while.  We have a WhatsApp channel for our regular contributors and outside that the only space for people to do their Harpin has been social media replies, Facebook comments and such.  And there are a good few ‘regulars’ who not only keep coming back but also offer really good input so I wanted to try a space where I could ask them to contribute more regularly.

Thus we launched our private Discord channel – no,I’m not asking for money to be involved but it will be invitation only.  Over the coming weeks I’ll be reaching out to those I feel have been part of the Harpin chat over the years and hopefully grow the community to a few dozen for the time being and more in future.

As for what had to go, well that was easy enough – I’ve gotten little or no engagement from Mastodon over the past few years since joining.  It just never took off the way Blue Sky did so no real point sharing stuff over there.  now with what I’ve been learning about Zuckerburg’s plans to ditch fact checking I may need to re-think my presence in the Meta-verse but for now we’ll keep going and see how things pan out.

LIONS CHATTER

As a segué from the about chat about Zuckerburg’s social media empire, I recently noticed something very rare – a post that caught my eye on Threads. It’s from the official British & Irish Lions account and they published a poll they ran over fans’ selections for the 2025 team.

First, it was interesting because they listed them in reverse order, but there’s also plenty to harp on when it comes to the selections themselves. I really thought that with SO many more England fans out there, a poll would have Smith and Itoje in the top slots, with Itoje on the fast track to the captaincy, but it really does look like the majority is going with Caelan. I’m conflicted about this, obviously it would be a great honour for him and he’s well able for the job, but as a Leinster/Ireland fan I think I’d want the skipper of both teams to stay focused on the job at hand without all the distractions and media responsibilities that come with this role.

Elsewhere the list has few surprises, although I’m not so sure I’d have Duhan anywhere near a full strength Lions 23, plus I’d love to see Jack Willis’ name at least involved in these discussions just for divilment.

I know interest in the Lions is waning and I’m going off the concept more than most, but that said when it comes to picking teams I’m always up for some harpin, plus when the series itself happens we can’t exactly ignore it.

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LEINSTER SQUAD UPDATE

On last week’s column I picked a 23 to play La Rochelle but I was missing an injury update from after the win at Thomond Park – this wasn’t made available until Tuesday lunchtime and it was full of very positive news with Keenan, Frawley and Clarkson very important names to jump into the “available for selection” group.  

Naturally with that comes a downside in a lot of difficult decisions but while I never like saying someone is ideal for the bench, for me the reality of the moment is that Ciarán Frawley’s fitness allows for a 6/2 split bench.  If we went for 5/3 instead I’d probably swap out Baird for Jamie Osborne.

I’m not wild about leaving Henshaw out but an extra rest week ahead of the 6N wouldn’t be the worst for him and I just couldn’t bring myself to omit Jordie for this clash. I also mulled over Jamie O at 13 but I reckon our defence needs to be at it’s A1 best which always means Garry.

When it comes to the pack there’s the possibility of a continuation of The Porter Experiment we harped on last week, maybe Church will start with a power 20/30m allowing Andrew to see the game out, but I’ll put AP at 1 for this selection anyway.  Max Deegan’s lineout form on either side’s throw gets him the nod at 6 for me.

As for Tadhg, if there’s even a hint of doubt about his readiness I say don’t risk him, especially with Clarkson back available.

caveat : I have no “ITK” a la Thornley

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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.  

This week we have the very rare and hopefully unintentional “self-troll”.  After Northampton’s high-scoring and last-gasp victory over Bath on Sunday, I’m pretty sure the social media person for Rugby World mag thought this poll would go a very different way. 

But when you add up these factions from around the ruggersphere …

1. those who don’t necessarily equate high-scoring rugby with entertainment
2. those who never miss an opportunity to have a pop at anything English, and
3. those who know the obvious real truth that the URC is in fact the Best League…

…you can see why the poll ended up the way it did.

The small amount of votes is also something of a self-troll, I would’ve thought RW would get a lot more engagement.  Maybe this is a sign that a lot of their readers made the jump to Blue Sky?

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Irish Shield

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Celtic Challenge

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All Ireland Leagues

WOMEN’S AIL

MEN’S AIL

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SVNS

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CHALLENGE CUP

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Premiership

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🔝🐱🐴

ProD2

Japan League One

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 but we’re only reaching the halfway stage, and we’ve also added a Cup (or Mug) competition to make things interesting.

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NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

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WRAP OF A WRAP

First things first HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL HARPIN READERS & LISTENERS!!!!

We had a unique situation for our Munster v Leinster wrap in that due to a late substitution one of our contributors had also done the preview, as ever we’re grateful to Ciarán Duffy for stepping in but also of course to Conor Cronin for his input as well.  The plan was to skip the “bonus chat” this week but as it turned out there was so much to harp on, the wrap went over the hour mark so I chose to cut out the “final thoughts” segment from the podcast recording and release that on our YouTube channel.

ICYMI click here to check it out on Spotify or you’ll also find them on Apple and most major platforms.

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FRONT FIVE

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HARRY THE BEAR

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PRET A PORTER

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LIES ABOUT LANNY

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STATE OF THE UNION

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STEPHEN JONES

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LEINSTER SQUAD UPDATE

With Leinster off this weekend I don’t see an injury report this week so I’m basing the team below on the last one before the Munster match.  Might change the team on next week’s column.  Ideally I’d want a 6/2 bench playing La Rochelle but I think we’d need Frawley on the bench for that.  

caveat : I have no “ITK” a la Thornley

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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.  

A joint award of sorts this week with some classic ABL trolling met with a quality counter-troll, especially since the latter doesn’t directly mention the former yet the intentions are obvious.

Hat-tip to RugbyKino for the spot.

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Irish Shield

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Interprovincial A Championship – strictly for the boards????

I have to say, keeping up with results for this tournament since it was announced at the end of October hasn’t been easy.  There’s doesn’t seem to be a dedicated “results/tables/fixtures” page on the IRFU site and even the provincial social media reports have been scarce.  The only single source that appears to be keeping tabs on the competition is this thread on boards.ie of all places 

With my ‘online tinfoil hat’ on I might speculate the prospect of another Leinster team romping to a first place finish at the expense of other provinces isn’t a good look, but like I say, that is merely speculation. 

Anyway…here are the results & fixtures I have been able to find, together with the table based on those results.

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Celtic Challenge

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All Ireland Leagues

WOMEN’S AIL

MEN’S AIL

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SVNS

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Premiership

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🔝🐱🐴

ProD2

Japan League One

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, and Keego has had the honour the past two seasons.

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NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

Wed 8th – next 80+ column

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WRAP OF A WRAP

Last week was a nightmare here at Harpin Manor with the whole family struck down with whatever bug is doing the rounds this year.  It wasn’t so bad as to stop me from creating content so the usual pods went ahead but let’s just say there have been plenty of coughs edited out of pods and such.  It also meant I wasn’t able to go to the Aviva last Saturday; although recovery has been slow I’m hoping to be OK for the Connacht match next time around.

We’re also still struggling to keep the two wrap pods I originally booked to be available for the pod itself for various reasons – for the Clérmont review neither of the two were originally meant to be on but thankfully the deep bench meant Conor Cronin & David Cordial were on hand to help me go back over all that happened Saturday.

ICYMI click here to check it out on Spotify or you’ll also find them on Apple and most major platforms.

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FRONT FIVE

A selection of eye-catching egg-chasing quotes & links from around the rugby media landscape

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GOOD SIGNS

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FOUND GUILTY

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A VACANT BOOTH

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PREMIERSHIP STILL SINKING

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STRIPPED OF STRIPES?

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HARPIN ON…CONSTRAINED CULLEN?

Last week after relying heavily on a strong bench to secure a bonus point win in Bristol, Leo Cullen said this in his post match presser : “Yeah, we’re able to bring in a few players from overseas, but we’re so constrained in what we actually can bring in so we spend a hell of a lot of time trying to develop what we have in our own back yard.”  Not surprisingly a particular corner of the online ruggersphere took exception to his use of the word “constrained” and got a lot of mileage out of it throughout the week, so I reckoned for this week’s bonus chat I’d ask my panel to introduce some Leinster fan perspective to the discussion, starting with David….

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LEINSTER SQUAD UPDATE

caveat : I have no “ITK” a la Thornley

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ANAYI’S TEN YEARS

BKT URC boss reflects on his ten years at the helm

As he looks back on his ten years at the helm, BKT URC chief executive Martin Anayi is in no doubt over his proudest achievement.

“That would be when we brought the South African teams in and created the United Rugby Championship,” he declares.

Initially, it was the Toyota Cheetahs and the Southern Kings who came on board to form the PRO14 in 2017.

Then, four years later, they were replaced by the DHL Stormers, Vodacom Bulls, Hollywoodbets Sharks and Emirates Lions, amid the formation of the 16-team BKT URC.

It’s a project which has provoked criticism in some quarters, but, on the field, the sides have delivered in the league, with the DHL Stormers from Cape Town winning the inaugural BKT URC title in 2022 and making the final the following year, while the Vodacom Bulls of Pretoria have twice been runners-up.

As for this term, you have three of the South African sides flying high, with the Hollywoodbets Sharks and Emirates Lions joining the Vodacom Bulls in the top six.

Reflecting on the impact the teams have made, Anayi said: 

“They have been tremendously successful in terms of performance and attendance, as well as financially and commercially.

“Pretty much anybody you speak to in the league will say they have raised the standard of the competition on and off the field and they will continue to do that.”

Expanding on the financial benefit, he said: “It’s a game changer. It’s millions.

“More than half our revenue comes from South Africa via television and sponsorship.

“They are also providing more value to EPCR, via Investec’s sponsorship of the Champions Cup.

“It is a huge part of the rugby economy for Europe.”

As for the price tag, in terms of travel, Anayi insisted:

“Our costs are very limited.  Remember, we swapped out an Italian game for a South African game. Teams were already having to pay to go to Italy, so we just give them a top up to go to South Africa.

“It doesn’t cost that much compared to what it brings in. It is a very, very good deal.”

Surveying his decade in the job, Anayi said: “We have gone through phases.

“We were PRO12, PRO14, then we had Covid and out of which came BKT URC. It feels like we have done it in phases and the last four years have probably been the most solid out of that – solid in the sense that we have got revenues to a point and our competition is growing in terms of attendance, TV audience, social media.

“We have grown our revenues a lot. It’s probably three or four times what it was ten years ago.

“We have also found we have connected with an audience.

“We have worked really hard to try and find new fans. We’ve hired people to engage on channels pointing to kids who are 13, 14.

“They are not watching linear TV, they are watching stuff on YouTube. So we have invested a lot into our social channels, including our YouTube channel. That has grown tremendously and you can tell that’s a much younger audience that’s engaging.

“We have also invested in a piece of software called Greenfly, which puts content into players’ hands  immediately after the game is over.

“There are 700 players that have taken it up. They get back in the dressing room and we have uploaded all the pictures of them from the game. That means players who have their own social media profiles can push that wider.”

So, if that’s the past and the present, what of the future?

In recent months, there has been widespread speculation about a possible merger between the URC and England’s Gallagher Premiership.

Ask Anayi how he feels about that and he replies: “It’s not a frustration.

“People may not know this, but we sit in the same office as Premiership Rugby in London. We have the same co-owner and minority investor in CVC.

“We do a lot together. We are shareholder partners on EPCR. We are incredibly close to them. That’s probably where it comes from most of the time.

“We are always talking. Most of the time that means looking at how do you do better TV deals together or how do we improve the Champions Cup and the Challenge Cup.

“We want to make sure we are running the best competitions we possibly can. Occasionally, we talk about whether there is more we can do together.

“At this stage, not, but whenever it comes up for review we never just block it off. We always give it due credence.

“But, at the same time, things are working really well for BKT URC from a lot of metrics and in a lot of ways. BKT URC has set a really high standard and we don’t want to do anything that’s detrimental to that.”

He concluded: “We sit in the same office as PRL, we see each other every day, we talk to each other about loads of stuff and occasionally we try and explore slightly more format based initiatives, but we both individually love what makes us special.

“It would make sense to do more together in the future, but that may not necessarily mean merging the leagues, it might just mean being more commercially aligned or working on initiatives that grow the fan base.”

On the commercial front, there are big decisions to be made in the immediate term, with the URC’s deals with broadcasters Premier Sports and title sponsors BKT up at the end of this season.

Providing an update, Anayi says: “Premier Sports have really enjoyed it and we have both done well out of the partnership. They have had a lot of rugby subscriptions and are investing in their own rugby channel. They have supported us for many years now and done a really good job.”

As for the next TV deal, he reveals: “We are almost done on that front. We will announce that post Christmas and there is a sense of continuity.”

The message is the same in terms of the arrangement with Indian tyre manufacturing company BKT.

“We are in negotiations. Those conversations are going really well.”

As for future ambitions for the competition he has overseen for a decade, the former motor sport administrator has one thing on his mind above all.

“Attendance,” he declares. “Attendance is the heart and soul of any league or any sport.

“What we want to see, especially in Wales, is attendances going up in double digits percentage-wise each year over the next two or three years.

“If we get that, then we will be in a good spot and not just relying on a big game to bump the numbers, but rather week-in, week-out attendance. That’s probably the one thing over the next two years. If that goes up, I think we are doing a good job.

“For example, Cardiff played Connacht at the Arms Park last season and it was a sell out. So it’s possible for non-derby games, it’s doable. We just need it more often across the competition.”

Outlining another goal, he said: “The class of travel for our teams is something we need to address – moving to business class travel for the South African trips. Big guys need space.

“In terms of travel logistics, the regular season matches are not a problem. We know about those trips and book a long way out. It’s more when it comes to knock-out rugby. That can be hard.

“So, we can change our format in terms of having gaps in the play-offs. We can concertina the regular season and maybe start it a little bit earlier to give ourselves an extra week around semi-final and final.”

Then, lastly, there’s one more piece in the jigsaw which he has his eye on – Wales.

“There is a new CEO and chair at the WRU, there is a new impetus and they have got a new funding model coming in,” he said.

“We support that massively. That will mean the Welsh clubs being competitive in the URC which is probably the missing ingredient we need for this league to really kick on.”

And so the next decade begins.

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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.  

We’ve had a lot of Leinster/Munster trolling in recent weeks and with more no doubt to come ahead of their annual Christmas meeting, it’s probably best to look elsewhere for this week and no better than Brendan Nel to provide some faux South African victimhood after this announcement about Antoine Duponte…

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Irish Shield

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Interprovincial A Championship

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Celtic Challenge

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All Ireland Leagues

WOMEN’S AIL

MEN’S AIL

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SVNS

NEXT ROUND : PERTH  JAN 24-26, 2025

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CHALLENGE CUP

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Premiership

🔝🐱🐴

ProD2

Harpin Prediction League

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NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’

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