A TUESDAY COLUMN LOOKING AT
TOPICS BEYOND THE SCOPE
OF OUR FEATURE MATCH OF THE WEEK
GUEST POD
With one more weekend without an Irish men’s match ahead of RWC2023 I decided to take it easy on the content-creating front but I did agree to do a pod for Caolán Scully which was part of his preview series and looked specifically at Ireland’s chances.
In the pod I suggest that if Ireland should have “Adversity” as a buzzword we should also go with “Belief” as well, and just to get ahead of the jokes I pointed out that I know my accent makes it sound like I’m a rugby version of Tad Lasso and apparently one of Caolán’s mates agreed…
Anyway the pod was released as a joint project so it’s on my feed as number 272 but I’d also like to plug Caolán’s pod so if you haven’t heard it already check it out below.
HARPIN ON…IRELAND’S OPTIONS AT 5, 7 & 14
This week I am grateful to Caolán for letting me use his pod recording for getting two more instalmetns of my “Ireland’s options” series done, and I am also grateful to Cian “RugbyKino” O’Muilleoir for taking the time to record his bit on jersey number 7.
IRELAND’S BENCH AT RWC2023
There are only two positions left to do in our “Ireland’s options” series, I gave each contributor a choice of jersey numbers so the two that got left behind are 13 and 15 so I will do them myself in a video to be recorded Wednesday. I also did a brief TikTok on Ireland’s bench which you can see below, the plan is to do video like that every week throughout the season so you have been warned!
MORE CONGRATS TO LEINSTER WOMEN
I’ve said it on Twitter/x and on the pod already but I literally can’t give enough praise to Leinster’s women’s squad over their Interpro title secured at Musgrave Park they had to do it the hard way yet ended up doing it in style.
I’ve also said this many many times before but I’ll keep repeating it until it happens…the provincial teams need to play more often throughout the season IMO. I know circumstances are different but a few friendlies with Scots and Welsh teams plus a home and away calendar for the Interpro itself must be doable.
PREDICTION SPREADSHEET
When we’re not calling him Rugby Kino here at Harpin Manor, Cian O’Muilleoir is The Prince Of Permutations as his tournament spreadsheets are legendary in that they allow you to plug in different scores to see what happens next.
He has worked with another Irish twitter rugby fan/legend Justin Deegan to produce one for RWC2023, just follow the instructions below to sample it for yourself…
Just save a copy to your own Google account, then plug in the scores and bonus points as they happen or as you predict and it’ll do the rest, all the way through to the finals. It includes most of the tiebreaker calculations and can handle head to head result extraction for up to 5 teams on tied points in any given group, for all the groups.
LEINSTER MEN PRESEASON
Almost as if to taunt us with one final reminder of how last season’s URC went just before the RWC kicks off, Munster have not only scheduled a men’s friendly with Leinster kicking off at 6pm on Friday (therefore finishing just as France v New Zealand gets underway), but if fans of the boys in blue are unable to travel we will have to pay at least €6 to Access Munster for the privilege. Since it’s money that technically goes to support Irish Rugby, it should be worth it but I’ll leave that determination with yourselves. I for one am very interested to see what kind of lineup we put out. And don’t forget there’s a second match set with Ulster taking place on Friday September 22 kicking off at 6:30pm at Navan RFC, tickets can be bought here.
🔝🐱🐴 UPDATE
It’s barely the beginning of September and the Top Quatorze is already three rounds in, because of course it is. I fully expect within the next couple of years the first round in a new season will actually take place before the previous year’s final, rule it out at your peril.
With the league’s penchant for teams skimping on away selections, it’s actually not that often that teams win or lose all of their opening three matches, and this year is no exception with only Stade Francais at the top and USAP at the bottom being perfect in their own way.
And because the World Cup is actually on French soil, they had to leave a massive gap between rounds 3 and 4 so it’s very difficult to speculate how the league is going to unfold from here but you whatever happens we’ll be following it all on this column throughout the season.
Round 1
Montpellier 26-15 La Rochelle
Perpignan 7-29 Stade Francais
US Oyonnax 36-17 Clérmont
Castres 24-23 Pau
Lyon 27-15 Toulon
Racing 92 23-18 Bordeaux
Bayonne 26-7 Toulouse
Round 2
Toulouse 38-13 Montpellier
Toulon 19-14 Bayonne
Bordeaux 25-23 Castres
Clérmont 38-14 Perpignan
Pau 19-17 Racing 92
La Rochelle 35-14 Lyon
Stade Francais 28-18 Oyonnax
Round 3
Bordeaux 22-17 Toulon
Clérmont 11-10 La Rochelle
Castres 37-0 Bayonne
Stade Francais 24-9 Montpellier
Pau 40-10 Lyon
Racing 92 59-10 Lyon
Oyonnax 21-27 Toulouse
Round 4
Sat October 29
Bayonne v Stade Francais
Perpignan v Pau
La Rochelle v Castres
Lyon v Clérmont
Montpellier v Racing 92
Toulon v Oyonnax
Toulouse v Bordeaux
NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
Back to full swing this week here at Harpin’ Manor, I’ll be working on that final video for the series on Ireland’s starting options this Wednesday, with just jerseys 13 and 15 left, then on Thursday our “Upcoming Rugby on Irish TV” post is back with a vengeance before we turn our full attention to Ireland v Romania with a preview featuring Mark Jackson on Friday, social media commentary throughout the match itself and of cours the wrap pod recording Sunday evening where we’re planning on attempting some time travel so be sure and look out for that,
As ever be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP
HARPIN' ON RUGBY 