🏉 A sort of homecoming
🏉 Earning their stripes
🏉 Great expectations
🏉 The other provinces
🏉 Greater rivalries
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Tag: Ireland rugby
538 : New Zealand v Ireland preview
IRELAND : 15 Hugo Keenan 14 Robert Baloucoune 13 Garry Ringrose 12 Stuart McCloskey 11 Jimmy O’Brien 10 Sam Prendergast 9 Jamison Gibson‑Park
1 Tom O’Toole 2 Dan Sheehan 3 Tadhg Furlong 4 Joe McCarthy 5 James Ryan 6 Tadhg Beirne 7 Josh van der Flier 8 Jack Conan
16 Rónan Kelleher 17 Jeremy Loughman 18 Thomas Clarkson 19 Nick Timoney 20 Sean Jansen 21 Craig Casey 22 Ciarán Frawley 23 Bundee Aki
NEW ZEALAND : 15 Damian McKenzie 14 Will Jordan 13 Quinn Tupaea 12 Jordie Barrett 11 Joshua Moorby 10 Ruben Love 9 Cam Roigard
1 Ethan de Groot 2 Codie Taylor 3 Tyrel Lomax 4 Josh Lord 5 Patrick Tuipulotu 6 Tupou Vaa’i 7 Luke Jacobson 8 Ardie Savea
16 Asafa Aumua 17 Xavier Numia 18 Fletcher Newell 19 Anton Segners 20 Peter Lakai 21 Cortez Ratima 22 Anton Lienert‑Brown 23 Caleb Clarke
Nations Championship
2026 Round 3
Saturday, July 18
Eden Park, Auckland
KO 8:10am (Irish time)
Live on : Virgin Media One
Referee: Nic Berry (RA)
AR1: Luc Ramos (FFR)
AR2: Damon Murphy (RA)
TMO: Ben Whitehouse (WRU)
FPRO: Andrew Jackson (RFU)
536 : Japan v Ireland preview
IRELAND : 15 Jamie Osborne 14 Jimmy O’Brien 13 Robbie Henshaw 12 Stuart McCloskey 11 Jacob Stockdale 10 Ciarán Frawley 9 Craig Casey
1 Tom O’Toole 2 Rónan Kelleher 3 Thomas Clarkson 4 Tadhg Beirne (c) 5 James Ryan 6 Jack Conan 7 Nick Timoney 8 Sean Jansen
16 Tom Stewart 17 Billy Bohan 18 Sam Illo 19 Cormac Izuchukwu 20 Bryn Ward 21 Nathan Doak 22 Harry Byrne 23 Bundee Aki
JAPAN : 15 Takuro Matsunaga 14 Kazuma Ueda 13 Dylan Riley 12 Yuya Hirose 11 Taira Main 10 Ryunosuke Ito 9 Naoto Saito
1 Takato Okabe 2 Mamoru Harada 3 Shuhei Takeuchi 4 Harry Hockings 5 Warner Dearns (c) 6 Ben Gunter 7 Kanji Shimokawa 8 Jack Cornelsen
16 Hayate Era 17 Sojiro Otsuka 18 Keijiro Tamefusa 19 Michael Stolberg 20 Michael Leitch 21 Tiennan Costley 22 Itsuki Kamimura 23 Sam Greene
Nations Championship
2026 Round 2
Saturday, July 11
McDonald Jones Stadium, Newcastle
KO 11:10am (Irish time)
Live on : Virgin Media One
Referee: Andrea Piardi (FIR)
AR1: Ben O’Keeffe (NZR)
AR2: Morné Ferreira (SARU)
TMO: Matteo Liperini (FIR)
FPRO: Ian Tempest (RFU)
534 : Australia v Ireland preview
IRELAND : 15 Hugo Keenan 14 Robert Baloucoune 13 Garry Ringrose 12 Stuart McCloskey 11 Jamie Osborne 10 Sam Prendergast 9 Jamison Gibson‑Park
1 Tom O’Toole 2 Dan Sheehan (c) 3 Tadhg Furlong 4 Joe McCarthy 5 James Ryan 6 Cian Prendergast 7 Josh van der Flier 8 Jack Conan
16 Rónan Kelleher 17 Jeremy Loughman 18 Thomas Clarkson 19 Tadhg Beirne 20 Nick Timoney 21 Craig Casey 22 Ciarán Frawley 23 Bundee Aki
AUSTRALIA : 15 Jock Campbell 14 Max Jorgensen 13 Joseph Suaalii 12 Len Ikitau 11 Dylan Pietsch 10 Carter Gordon 9 Ryan Lonergan
1 Angus Bell 2 Josh Nasser 3 Allan Alaalatoa 4 Jeremy Williams 5 Miles Canham 6 Rob Valetini 7 Fraser McReight 8 Harry Wilson (c)
16 Brandon Paenga-Amosa 17 James Slipper 18 Taniela Tupou 19 Lachlan Shaw 20 Tom Hooper 21 Tate McDermott 22 Ben Donaldson 23 Tom Wright
Nations Championship
2026 Round 1
Saturday, July 4
Allianz Stadium, Sydney
KO 11:10am (Irish time)
Live on : Virgin Media One
Referee: Ben O’Keeffe (NZR)
AR1: Karl Dickson (RFU)
AR2: Andrea Piardi (FIR)
TMO: Matteo Liperini (FIR)
FPRO: Glenn Newman (NZR)
80+ column : June 24
ON THIS WEEK’S COLUMN…
- WRAP OF A WRAP
- SUCCEEDING LEO
- GORDON BLUES
- RAGING BULLS
- PARSONS PROJECT
- EQUAL RANKS
- THE LONG LIST OF LEGENDS LEAVING LEINSTER
- IRELAND SQUAD UPDATE
- TROLL PATROL
- COMPETITION UPDATES
- SUPERBRU DRAMA
- NEXT HARPIN’
WRAP OF A WRAP
Needless to say I was gutted when I realised that I wouldn’t mke it from work to Croke Park in time for kickoff on Friday, but it’s also needless to say watching such a comprehensive victorious display from the boys in blue did much to make me feel better!
And when it came to the wrap pod recording, although we normally aim to be finished by 9pm, myself and Conor had no qualms with going over until about quarter past as he did an excellent job not only harping on the final itself, but also paying tribute to all the lads leaving the province for the bonus chat.
If you missed the pod recording be sure to check it out you’ll find it here.
SUCCEEDING LEO
…as club jobs go, there are few anywhere near as attractive
Leinster job set to have a long list of suitors to replace Leo Cullen
Neil Treacy – RTÉ.ie
While it was of course a very satisfying weekend for Leinster fans, spare a thought for the legions of rugby followers for whom the success was literally the last thing they wanted to see. No doubt the news bothered them so much that they would follow anything else in the news cycle, possibly even including the round ball World Cup.
Given how the week following defeats in finals are always followed by days of articles telling us all “what’s wrong with Leinster” (see flow chart below), it’s only natural to assume that after a victory the focus might change to eyeing the province through a more positive lens (cue JK Simmons GIF) but I guess we’ll never know since on Monday the news of Leo Cullen’s impending departure dropped, also offering a perfect distraction for the vast “ABL” community.
Well, I say impending…it is to be a long goodbye of an entire rugby season but that certainly won’t stop us all speculating over who will eventually replace him.
I suppose the first question has to be this – will they necessarily appoint a direct replacement or his position? It always has been something of a unique role. He had only been coaching a year when he assumed it and the remit was slightly different to that we know for a “head coach”, while the buck did stop with him he was also of a public face of a coaching ticket where the unit coaches appeared to have more responsibility, as demonstrated by the appointment first of Stu Lancaster and then Jacques Nienaber as “Senior Coach”.
Eventually I will wade into the debate over who is to fill his shoes, or indeed over what he himself is to do next, but to be honest with him to be there for another full season I just don’t see the point in doing so right now. All the proposed candidates seem fine, yes, even ROG. I know a lot of people assume Leinster fans would pull their hair out at the thought of him taking the reins, but my own reservations would be less about what province he played for in the past and more about how he continuously got into trouble with the 🔝🐱🐴 for bad mouthing the officials.
Anyway, this article is one of several looking at the various possible candidates, all a decent read, but personally I’d rather bask in Leo and Leinster’s back-to-back title glory for a little longer.
507 : Ireland v Scotland wrap
🏉 Beirne & the backrow
🏉 Jamie O
🏉 Tartan resistance
🏉 Squad depth
🏉 What’s next
THIS WEEK’S GUEST
FULL TIME TAKES
Cormac Mannion
Bizarrely we looked stretched out wide despite adding more pace in the backs. However, we.absolutely smashed Scotland up front. Really happy with how we’ve progressed over the last four weeks and we were missing so many players.
We looked far better coached today whereas Scotland lost their heads a few times
Louis Hoffman
Defence won us that game despite the score, almost nullified totally a great Scottish backline
Gavin Hegarty
When, in the history of any tournament, has each team come out happy?
France: winners
Ireland: good tournament and hugely improved after a disaster start. Triple crown
Scotland: retain Calcutta cup, 3/5 a good return
Italy: beat England for the first time. 2/5 a good return
England: salvaged a lot of pride in their loss to France and showed a turn
Wales: finished bottom but showed they are coming back to what world rugby needs
Just my Sunday morning thoughts!
Rugby was the real winner yesterday
Gerald Williamson
The Irish defense when under pressure from Scottish attacks performed exceptionally well. The subs bench made quite an impact particularly Darragh Murray’.
Bernie Cunningham
Ireland just a grt performance, Scotland just couldn’t handle Ireland in all aspects of the game today. COYBIG
Christy O’Connor
Brilliant performance, when will the Scots learn not to give us fuel before our games (Darcy Graham Ireland are there for the taking) 🤣
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SIX NATIONS WRAP
Italy 18-15 Scotland
England 48-7 Wales
France 36-14 Ireland
Scotland 31–20 England
Italy 13–20 Ireland
Wales 12–54 France
England 21-42 Ireland
Wales 23-26 Scotland
France 33-8 Italy
Ireland 27-17 Wales
Scotland 50-40 France
Italy 23-18 England
Ireland 43-21 Scotland
Wales 31-17 Italy
France 48-46 England
NEXT HARPIN’
ST PATRICK’S DAY
BONUS CHAT : “6N TEAM OF THE TOURNAMENT”
WEDNESDAY
80+ COLUMN
506: Ireland v Scotland preview
IRELAND : 15 Jamie Osborne 14 Rob Baloucoune 13 Garry Ringrose 12 Stuart McCloskey 11 Tommy O’Brien 10 Jack Crowley 9 Jamison Gibson‑Park
1 Tom O’Toole 2 Dan Sheehan 3 Tadhg Furlong 4 Joe McCarthy 5 Tadhg Beirne 6 Jack Conan 7 Josh van der Flier 8 Caelan Doris (c)
16 Rónan Kelleher 17 Michael Milne 18 Finlay Bealham 19 Darragh Murray 20 Nick Timoney 21 Craig Casey 22 Ciaran Frawley 23 Bundee Aki
SCOTLAND : 15 Blair Kinghorn 14 Darcy Graham 13 Huw Jones 12 Sione Tuipulotu (c) 11 Kyle Steyn 10 Finn Russell 9 Ben White
1 Pierre Schoeman 2 George Turner 3 Zander Fagerson 4 Max Williamson 5 Grant Gilchrist 6 Matt Fagerson 7 Rory Darge 8 Jack Dempsey
16 Ewan Ashman 17 Rory Sutherland 18 Murphy Rae 19 Alex Craig 20 Magnus Bradbury 21 George Horne 22 Kyle Rowe 23 Harry Jordan
Guinness Six Nations 2026
Round 5
Saturday, March 14, 2026
Aviva Stadium
KO 2:10pm
Live on : Virgin Media One
Referee: Luke Pearce (RFU)
AR1: Angus Gardner (RA)
AR2: Damian Schneider (UAR)
TMO: Andrew Jackson (RFU)
FPRO: Ian Tempest (RFU)
Throwback Thursday – Ireland v Wales 2018
We’ve already looked back at the French and English contests from the 2018 Slam so it’s only right and proper that we keep that going ahead of the visit of the Welsh to Dublin too. A couple of starters from 8 years ago are wearing the exact same numbers on Friday…can you spot them?
Wales : 15. Leigh Halfpenny 14 Liam Williams 13 Scott Williams 12 Hadleigh Parkes 11 Steff Evans 10 Dan Biggar 9 Gareth Davies
1 Rob Evans 2 Ken Owens 3 Samson Lee 4 Cory Hill 5 Alun Wyn Jones > CAPT 6 Aaron Shingler 7 Josh Navidi 8 Ross Moriarty
Replacements: 16 Elliot Dee 17 Wyn Jones 18 Tomas Francis 19 Bradley Davies 20 Justin Tipuric 21 Aled Davies 22 Gareth Anscombe 23 George North.
Natwest Six Nations 2018 – Round 3
Saturday, February 24, 2018
KO 2:15pm
Aviva Stadium
Referee – Glen Jackson (New Zealand)
Assistant 1 – Pascal Gauzere (France)
Assistant 2 – Matthew Carley (England)
TMO – Rowan Kitt (England)
Click here if you’d like to read my preview, but for the record my prediction was for an Ireland win by 1 to 3 pts…
WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH…
“Our defence was too narrow.”
Whatever about the merits of that statement, my question is…how can that be the very first thing someone says about this match???
Alright, hang on…I know it’s the first thing I’M saying about this match, but I’m merely quoting a straw keyboard warrior. You know what I mean 😉.
Throwback Thursday – Ireland v England 2011
This week we go back to yet another Ireland win over England, just because.
Technically our choice of Throwback Thursday match should be based on our NEXT featured match, but, well, Twickenham. Nuff said. Let’s harp on that some more, shall we.
So there I was, writing my weekly 80+ column (one back here on the Substack feed) and I brought up the time it got leaked that England had produced a load of Grand Slam winning t-shirts ahead of their visit to Dublin, only to forget to do the most important thing, namely actually winning said Slam.
All of which inspired me to hark back to my writeup of that match in the Aviva Stadium. It was a time when Declan Kidney’s good will from his own 2009 Slam was starting to wear off…in this 2011 Championship we had already struggled to beat Italy & Scotland and lost to France & Wales before the English rocked up to our shiny new D4 home for the first time.
We all know what happened, yet I assume we all enjoy remembering what happened same as any other time we beat them, so here are the starting lineups followed by the writeup…
IRELAND
15 Keith Earls 14 Tommy Bowe 13 Brian O’Driscoll (c) 12 Gordon D’Arcy 11 Andrew Trimble 10 Johnny Sexton 9 Eoin Reddan
1 Cian Healy 2 Rory Best 3 Mike Ross 4 Donncha O’Callaghan 5 Paul O’Connell 6 Seán O’Brien 7 David Wallace 8 Jamie Heaslip
16 Seán Cronin 17 Tom Court 18 Leo Cullen 19 Denis Leamy 20 Peter Stringer 21 Ronan O’Gara 22 Paddy Wallace
ENGLAND
15 Ben Foden 14 Chris Ashton 13 Matt Banahan 12 Shontayne Hape 11 Mark Cueto 10 Toby Flood 9 Ben Youngs
1 Alex Corbisiero 2 Dylan Hartley 3 Dan Cole 4 Louis Deacon 5 Tom Palmer 6 Tom Wood 7 James Haskell 8 Nick Easter (c)
16 Steve Thompson 17 Paul Doran-Jones 18 Simon Shaw 19 Tom Croft 20 Danny Care 21 Jonny Wilkinson 22 David Strettle
RBS Six Nations – Round 5
Saturday, March 19, 2011
KO 5pm
Aviva Stadium
Referee – Bryce Lawrence (NZL)
SLAM, DENIED. FAITH, RESTORED.
Professional rugby union has evolved into so much more than an 80-minute slosh in the mud at the weekend. It’s now a process that begins the previous Monday morning.
As well as all the general work to be done on the training pitch and in the weights room, there’s DVDs to be analysed, charts to be drawn and top-secret code sequences to be created.
But when all is said and done, the real work behind everything associated with a team begins in just one square foot of real estate…the noggin of the head coach.
And for me, the most satisfying aspect of Ireland’s slam-denying victory at the Aviva Stadium was that it was clearly the culmination of a superior week’s preparation from Declan Kidney, who totally outfoxed his opposite number.
501 : England v Ireland wrap
🏉 Whiskey, neat
🏉 Leaders in the pack
🏉 Brick wall D
🏉 Super Ulstermen
🏉 Chariots low
THIS WEEK’S GUEST
FULL TIME TAKES
Wayne O’Brien
The type of performance that will put a lot of confidence gas back in the tank
Tom Clarke
Much better performance. Some of the bigger players really stepped up. Have to give Farrell credit. Thought McCloskey was incredible. Jaimo, Joe and Dorris were brilliant too. Don’t think there was a bad performance in fairness.
Greg Kelly
Irelands performance was beautifully summed up by McCloskey running Marcus Smith down like the terminator
Gerald Williamson
Well deserved win by a country mile. The hunger is back in the team and Andy Farrell has shut those “doubting Thomas “.
Richard Collumb
Would never have thought they could do that. Brilliant all round performance (scrum still needs work), but tactically got it spot on vs England and great execution
Christy O’Connor
That performance was long overdue, we can’t pretend there’s still a lot to work on but that’s a huge step in the right direction, hopefully we can build on this now
Gavin Hegarty
Were we that good or were England just that bad? I think we just dominated them into their mistakes. They were rattled from minute one and couldn’t react.
Pollock was nonexistent for them, perhaps he should check his pulse now?
It’d be typical of England now to fire borthwick if they finish fourth. It’d cost them a lot to get rid of him and get someone else in but who would be the contenders?
Chris McDonnell
The difference passing the ball makes.
That’s 2 years in a row we have battered England
Craig Grehan
In farrell we trust.
The things we’ve been working on clicked and went our way.
Oh, and McCloskey is an animal.
Craig Boyd
Great to prove the doubters wrong (including myself). Particularly delighted as an Ulsterman that the Ulster boys have backed up their recent performances #mccloskeyrollingbacktheyears
Bert McLoughlin
The lads were hungry for the win and England didn’t have any answers for it
Eamon Saunders
That complete performance that we have been looking for and what a place to deliver 🇮🇪🇮🇪
John O Halloran
Handy run out for the lads. 😉.
Jokes aside, I had Ireland by 3 to 7 max and I was being very optimistic.
I didn’t see that level of performance coming. A superb response and result.
Barbara Gaffey
Always that extra niggle versus England and proving the naysayers wrong! The pressure worked to our advantage this time and it all finally clicked. Absolute class! 🙌🔥💪
Hywel Davies
Not looking forward to the next match
Tony Doyle
Chariot on fire for the second week in a row
CLICK HERE FOR THE REAL-TIME REACTIONS FROM
THE HARPIN WHATSAPP GROUP THROUGHOUT THE MATCH
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
SIX NATIONS WRAP
Italy 18-15 Scotland
England 48-7 Wales
France 36-14 Ireland
Scotland 31–20 England
Italy 13–20 Ireland
Wales 12–54 France
England 21-42 Ireland
Wales 23-26 Scotland
France 33-8 Italy
Round 4 Fixtures
Fri 6 March
Ireland v Wales
Sat 7 March
Scotland v France
Italy v England
NEXT HARPIN’
TUESDAY
BONUS CHAT : “IRELAND’S NEXT OPPONENTS”
WEDNESDAY
80+ COLUMN
