463 : Leinster v Munster preview
462 : Leinster v Sharks wrap
🏉 Cohesion back
🏉 Gunne firing
🏉 Josh the skipper
🏉 Sleeping giants
🏉 Josh the debutante
THIS WEEK’S GUEST
FULL TIME TAKES
Gavin Hegarty
Normal (ISH) service resumes!
I thought Osbourne was great, most likely Irelands 15 for the autumn internationals in winter. Harry looked confident but did try a tad to hard in parts.
We were south lower and watched the ground covered by Baird to make a tackle, unreal!
Far from perfect but a step in the right direction
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your own thoughts each week after the full time whistle
in Leinster & Ireland matches on our Facebook page
URC WRAP
NEXT HARPIN’
TUESDAY
BONUS CHAT : “THE FRAWLEY DILEMMA”
WEDNESDAY
80+ COLUMN
461 : Leinster v Sharks preview
Our guest : CIARÁN DUFFY
LEINSTER : 15. Jamie Osborne 14. Jimmy O’Brien 13. Robbie Henshaw 12. Ciarán Frawley 11. James Lowe 10. Harry Byrne 9. Fintan Gunne
1. Paddy McCarthy 2. Rónan Kelleher 3. Tadhg Furlong 4. Brian Deeny 5. Ryan Baird 6. Alex Soroka 7. Josh van der Flier (c) 8. Max Deegan
16. Gus McCarthy 17. Jack Boyle 18. Thomas Clarkson 19. Diarmuid Mangan 20. James Culhane 21. Luke McGrath 22. Hugh Cooney 23. Joshua Kenny
SHARKS : 15 Edwill van der Merwe 14 Ethan Hooker 13 Jurenzo Julius 12 Lukhanyo Am 11 Makazole Mapimpi 10 Jean Smith 9 Jaden Hendrikse
1 Simphiwe Matanzima 2 Fez Mbatha 3 Ruan Dreyer 4 Jason Jenkins 5 Marvin Orie 6 Phepsi Buthelezi 7 Emmanuel Tshituka 8 Vincent Tshituka (c)
16 Bongi Mbonambi 17 Dian Bleuler 18 Vincent Koch 19 Bathobele Hlekani 20 Nick Hatton 21 Ross Braude 22 Siya Masuku 23 Francois Venter
BKT United Rugby Championship 25/26 Rd 3
Saturday, October 4, 2025
Loftus Versfeld Stadium, Pretoria
KO 5:30pm Irish time
Live on : Premier Sports 1, URC.tv
Referee: Craig Evans (WRU)
AR 1: Keane Davison (IRFU)
AR 2: Dan Carson (IRFU)
TMO: Keith David (WRU)
80+ column : October 8
ON THIS WEEK’S COLUMN…
- WRAP OF A WRAP
- LEWIS MOODY
- SPINNING 360
- CHICAGO HOPE
- A (TONY) BRIDGE TOO FAR
- SIMON SAYS
- HARPIN’ ON…LEINSTER’S WORKONS
- LEINSTER SQUAD UPDATE
- TROLL PATROL
- COMPETITION UPDATES (incl AIL)
- NEXT HARPIN’
WRAP OF A WRAP
After the doom and gloom of the Stormers whitewash the week before, we were determined to look for positives in our second wrap pod, and to be fair, despite a second loss in a row myself & Conor Cronin were well able to find them. I mean, it WAS another loss, and also there was definitely an opportunity to bring home all five points which was thrown away (literally, sorry Sam), but while we did cover the negatives as you can see below we saved it for the bonus chat.
If you missed the pod you can catch it here.
LEWIS MOODY
Spend five minutes with any one of these men and they will teach you to stop feeling sorry for yourself.
Moody ‘very mentally strong, but also really honest’
Sally Nugent – BBC.com
Terrible news for Lewis and his family. Needless to say, the entire rugby community is keeping them in our thoughts.
Multiple comments online contrasting the increase in these tragic announcements with the determination of some to push ahead with the 20-minute red card because apparently the full red cards are “ruining the game”.
One could argue that stories like this do the sport far more damage.
FOR THE FULL COLUMN
GO TO OUR SUBSTACK
460 : Bulls v Leinster wrap
🏉 Heads not dropping
🏉 Attack is back
🏉 Handing them points
🏉 Tommy’s on fire
🏉 Half full or empty?
THIS WEEK’S GUEST
FULL TIME TAKES
Kevin Kelehan
Better performance, should have got 2 bonus points out of it but was a game they had chances to win. After last weeks ill discipline this was a much better performance
Christy O’Connor
Cross field kicks killed us and there were a number of other times they could’ve exposed us, but luckily we escaped. Saying all that, very unlucky not to have come away with 2 points
Get in the conversation yourself by leaving
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NEXT HARPIN’
TUESDAY
BONUS CHAT : “LEINSTER’S WORKONS”
WEDNESDAY
80+ COLUMN
A stormy Friday night for some, a typical rainy one in Newport for others
On Saturday mornings I write an article for Substack I call “Broken Play” and here is a sample of the latest one…for the full thing click here, and while you’re there, why not subscribe for free.
Hey there, it’s Saturday morning here at Harpin Manor and as usual I’m up and about before everyone else so it’s time to get scribbling about my thoughts on the latest events in egg-chasing, a topic that does an excellent job of distracting me from all else that’s going on in the world.
Sadly though, the news headlines often bleed into the rugby ones and while the weather is rarely far from our conversation here in Ireland anyway, a certain Storm Amy is currently front and center and has already taken her toll on half the provinces and a quarter of Round 2 of the URC with Edinburgh v Ulster & Connacht v Scarlets already gone by wayside.
At least Leinster are safely ensconced the other side of the world, although one could say they got hit by a Storm(ers) of their own last weekend. Things certainly don’t get any easier for them later this evening as they face a Bulls team in Pretoria who are more than keen to do similar to us after the 2025 Grand Final just a few months ago.
Myself and Keego did our preview show and there was also my weekly Harpin’ slot on Dublin South FM. That airs on Fridays after the 5 o’clock news if you’d ever like to tune in, but I can also include it here for my Substack readers.
So my plan on Friday evening was to settle down with a beer or two to watch Ulster try to keep me top of the Harpin Superbru League (although they’d have had to lose by 5 in the Scottish capital for me to do so; sorry if you’re a fan, I just wasn’t feeling it) but like I said Storm Amy took care of that so instead I watched, or I should probably say half-watched, Dragons v Sharks, mostly to see what the South Africans were like on tour ahead of their trip to the Aviva next weekend.
For about 75 minutes it wasn’t exactly a thriller, but with the scores locked at 17-17, the ending was always going to be interesting. I had the Sharks to win by three so obviously when a series of penalties marched them down the field towards the Dragons’ try line, I was keen for them to slot one over but with one of the Welsh props on the naughty step I suppose I couldn’t fault them for kicking for the corner instead.
459 : Bulls v Leinster preview
LEINSTER : 15. Jimmy O’Brien 14. Tommy O’Brien 13. Hugh Cooney 12. Robbie Henshaw 11. Andrew Osborne 10. Sam Prendergast 9. Luke McGrath (c)
1. Paddy McCarthy 2. Gus McCarthy 3. Thomas Clarkson 4. Brian Deeny 5. Ryan Baird 6. Alex Soroka 7. Will Connors 8. Max Deegan
16. John McKee 17. Jack Boyle 18. Rabah Slimani 19. Diarmuid Mangan 20. Scott Penny 21. James Culhane 22. Fintan Gunne 23. Ciarán Frawley
BULLS :15 Devon Williams 14 Sebastian de Klerk 13 David Kriel 12 Harold Vorster 11 Stravino Jacobs 10 Keagan Johannes 9 Embrose Papier
1 Gerhard Steenekamp 2 Johann Grobbelaar 3 Mornay Smith 4 N JV Rensburg 5 JF van Heerden 6 Marcell Coetzee 7 Mpilo Gumede 8 JJ Theron
16 Juann Else 17 Alulutho Tshakweni 18 Francois Klopper 19 Sintu Manjezi 20 Nama Xaba 21 Zak Burger 22 Stedman Gans 23 Willie le Roux
BKT United Rugby Championship 25/26 Rd 2
Saturday, October 4, 2025
Loftus Versfeld Stadium, Pretoria
KO 5:30pm Irish time
Live on : Premier Sports 1, URC.tv
Referee: Adam Jones (WRU)
AR 1: Sean Miller (SARU)
AR 2: AJ Jacobs (SARU)
TMO: Gianluca Gnecchi (FIR)
458 : Stormers v Leinster wrap
🏉 Lack of attack
🏉 Sam’s kicking
🏉 In our defence…
🏉 Set-piece woes
🏉 And now, the Bulls
THIS WEEK’S GUEST
FULL TIME TAKES
Gavin Hegarty
Two yellows in one game, how many did we get last season?
We looked rusty and disinterested but let’s not get carried away. First game of a long season, let just learn from it.
Kevin Kelehan
Kick up the arse first day of the new season, 2 cards in 4 minutes made the scoreline a hammering. It will get better from here
Chris McDonnell
Our coaches know the players who were available for the past 2 or 3 months and still we couldn’t win a lineout scrum or even score a point. Total failure from our coaching staff once again. Not one coach from our group can say his pre season work actually looked better than a shambles.
Get in the conversation yourself by leaving
your own thoughts each week after the full time whistle
in Leinster & Ireland matches on our Facebook page
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NEXT HARPIN’
TUESDAY
BONUS CHAT : “LACKING LEADERSHIP”
WEDNESDAY
80+ COLUMN
TV clashes, graphics, and basically anything I can think of that’s NOT to do with Leinster’s opener
This is an excerpt from my latest article in series I call Broken Play, which I have been writing on Saturday mornings during the rugby season this year. For the whole thing you need to subscribe (for free) to our Harpin Substack account
Welcome to my Saturday morning scribble which returns after a summer hiatus. Basically I set the timer for an hour and keep harpin’ until it’s done. Since I’m VERY easily distracted that doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll be constantly typing the entire time but for sure I will finish when my phone tells me to.
I’ve just finished watching the Bledisloe Cup/Rugby Champions match, a win for the All Blacks which retains the Cup for yet another year but hardly a convincing one. They really needed the BP to put pressure on the Springboks but some resilient Wallaby defence at the end kept them out.
As you can see I’m taking my time making reference to another rugby match I watched this weekend, that being Friday evening’s URC season opener between Stormers and Leinster from Cape Town.
Here’s what I said on TikTok after the FT whistle; I’m hoping to do this regularly throughout the season, though perhaps not if they all go this way!
And can see what the sentiment was in the Harpin Whatsapp chat at full time.
But it’s not like I get to ignore the result altogether just yet, having committed to another season of producing a wrap pod for EVERY match so on Sunday evening myself and David Cordial will do our best to make sense of what went down at the DHL Stadium.
For now, I get to harp on literally anything else so I think I’ll have a go at the subject of television coverage.
457 : Stormers v Leinster preview
LEINSTER : 15. Jimmy O’Brien 14. Tommy O’Brien 13. Robbie Henshaw 12. Ciarán Frawley 11. Jordan Larmour 10. Sam Prendergast 9. Luke McGrath (c)
1. Jack Boyle 2. Gus McCarthy 3. Rabah Slimani 4. Diarmuid Mangan 5. Brian Deeny 6. Ryan Baird 7. Scott Penny 8. James Culhane
16. John McKee 17. Paddy McCarthy 18. Andrew Sparrow 19. Max Deegan 20. Will Connors 21. Fintan Gunne 22. Harry Byrne 23. Hugh Cooney
STORMERS : 15 Wandisile Simelane 14 Seabelo Senatla, 13 Ruhan Nel (c), 12 Dan du Plessis, 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Jurie Matthee, 9 Stefan Ungerer
1 Vernon Matongo 2 André-Hugo Venter 3 Neethling Fouché 4 Adré Smith 5 JD Schickerling 6 Paul de Villiers 7 Ben-Jason Dixon 8 Evan Roos
16 JJ Kotze, 17 Olly Reid, 18 Zachary Porthen, 19 Ruben van Heerden, 20 Ruan Ackermann, 21 Marcel Theunissen, 22 Dewaldt Duvenage, 23 Clinton Swart
BKT United Rugby Championship 25/26 Rd 1
Friday, September 26, 2025
DHL Stadium, Cape Town
KO 6pm Irish time
Live on : TG4, Premier Sports 1, URC.tv
Referee: Gianluca Gnecchi (FIR)
AR 1: Sean Muller (SARU)
AR 2: Stephan Geldenhuys (SARU)
TMO: Adam Jones (WRU)
HARPIN' ON RUGBY 