468 : IRELAND V NEW ZEALAND WRAP

The Rematch, Solider Field, Chicago, United States of America 1/11/2025 Ireland vs New Zealand All Blacks Ireland’s Tadhg Furlong celebrates his try with team mate Jack ConanMandatory Credit ©INPHO/Gary Carr


🏉 Clinical finishing

🏉 Beirne-d by TMO

🏉 Lineout woes

🏉 Outhalves fail

🏉 Finding positives



FULL TIME TAKES

Gavin Hegarty

Sometimes we love rugby because it’s not simple, but sometimes this backfires.

Pass to Barrett is forward, so he’s offside and not in play, therefore technically he’s obstructing beirne. How this was deemed a yellow baffles me, a red makes me lose faith.

Ireland simply weren’t good enough but my god the quality of officiating was dire.

Tommy O’Brien held back and then deemed to have knocked on, madness.

We can’t be this bad again but world rugby need to do something to get better refs

Cormac Mannion

What exactly do Goodman and O’Connell offer as coaches? Zero line breaks and multiple lineout turnovers tonight. Not the first time either. Our lineout has been muck for several years

Yvonne Dowd

Shit!! Red card?? ‘Dangerous tackle’??

Christy O’Connor

Some serious questions to be asked. Lineout has been poor since the last world cup and NZ were missing 2 of their locks.

Crowley made some poor decisions in the 2nd half but I’d still have him ahead of Sam for the moment. Red card was ridiculous, Beirne was standing still, so how can they say a high degree of danger

Lorcán Murphy

Do we need a change of lineout coach? And does Andy have the balls to ditch POC? It hasn’t functioned the past 2 years and is a key component of our attack. No lineout, no attack

‪Brian Connell‬

Ireland … dare I say it … undercooked??

Pearse O Donnell

Ireland were dazzled by the All Black’s footwork.

Those fluorescent boots would frighten the living shīte out of any opponent.

A masterstroke from Razor.🤣🤣

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NOVEMBER SERIES WRAP

BARBARIANS 19-33 NEW ZEALAND A

ENGLAND 25-7 AUSTRALIA

SOUTH AFRICA 61-7 JAPAN

SCOTLAND 85-0 USA

MUNSTER 31-28 ARGENTINA XV

IRELAND 13-26 NEW ZEALAND


NEXT HARPIN’

TUESDAY

BONUS CHAT : “IRISH SQUAD AGE PROFILE”

WEDNESDAY

80+ COLUMN 


467 : Ireland v New Zealand preview

ALSO AVAILABLE AS A PODCAST

Our guest : JAY LONG


IRELAND : 15. Jamie Osborne 14. Tommy O’Brien 13. Garry Ringrose 12. Stuart McCloskey 11. James Lowe 10. Jack Crowley 9. Jamison Gibson-Park

1. Andrew Porter 2. Dan Sheehan (c) 3. Tadhg Furlong 4. James Ryan 5. Tadhg Beirne 6. Ryan Baird 7. Josh van der Flier 8. Jack Conan

16. Ronan Kelleher 17. Paddy McCarthy 18. Finlay Bealham 19. Iain Henderson

20. Caelan Doris 21. Craig Casey 22. Sam Prendergast 23. Bundee Aki


NEW ZEALAND : 15.  Will Jordan 14.  Leroy Carter 13. Quinn Tupaea 12. Jordie Barrett 11. Caleb Clarke 10. Beauden Barrett 9. Cam Roigard

1. Ethan de Groot 2. Codie Taylor 3. Fletcher Newell 4. Scott Barrett (c) 5. Fabian Holland 6. Simon Parker 7. Ardie Savea 8. Peter Lakai

16.  Samisoni Taukei’aho 17. Tamaiti Williams 18. Pasilio Tosi 19. Josh Lord 20.  Wallace Sititi 21. Cortez Ratima 22. Leicester Fainga’anuku 23.  Damian McKenzie


Gallagher Cup Test Match

Saturday, November 1, 2025

Soldier Field

KO 8:10pm Irish time  

Live on : Virgin Media One, TNT Sports 2


Referee: Pierre Brousset (FFR)

Assistant Referee 1: Karl Dickson (RFU)

Assistant Referee 2: Luc Ramos (FFR) 

TMO: Ian Tempest (RFU)

FRPO: Dan Jones (RFU)

448 : Brumbies review, AUNZ & Portugal previews

@harpinonrugby

Mark joined me shortly after the FT whistle to quickly look back over Brumbies v Lions #rugbytiktok #lionsrugby

♬ original sound – Harpinonrugby.blog
@harpinonrugby

Mark Jackson joins me once more to look ahead to the Lions’ latest outing #lionsrugby #rugbytiktok

♬ original sound – Harpinonrugby.blog
@harpinonrugby

Ciarán Duffy joins me to look ahead to Ireland’s test in Lisbon on Saturday #rugbytiktok #Irelandrugby

♬ original sound – Harpinonrugby.blog

446 : WARvBIL & GEOvIRE previews

419 : Italy v Ireland wrap

2025 Guinness Six Nations Championship Round 5, Stadio Olimpico, Rome 15/3/2025Italy vs IrelandIrelands Dan Sheehan scores his third try despite Paolo Garbisi of ItalyMandatory Credit ©INPHO/Billy Stickland


🏉 Italian backs
🏉 Missed chances
🏉 Dan x 3
🏉 No try x 3
🏉 Polishing a 3rd


JAY LONG

DAVID CORDIAL


FULL TIME TAKES

Kevin Kelehan

Italy were solid and pumped, only for the cards they may well have won this game, Ireland were good in spells but a lot of unforced errors, something you did not see in the 2022/23 season

Eamon Saunders

Sorry to say but the second best team won today and sad to say the the ref and TMO were bad 5 mins looking at a knock on and 5 seconds looking a a perfect try

John Hyland

(reply to Eamon Saunders) I totally disagree. Ireland played poorly but they were not the second best team

Cormac Mannion

We looked badly coached today. Zero inventiveness and unsure in defence. Far too many unforced errors

Angela Cassin Jackson

Tough game but a win is a win. 4 out of 5 wins and a triple crown a lot to be proud of. Well done Ireland as usual they represented their country wonderfully 💚☘️💚☘️💚☘️💚

Gavin Hegarty

We were shit at the things you can’t coach. Bad knock ons and handling errors. Really not like us.

We looked unfit and unmotivated.

Crowley left too many points out there

,this is meant to be his strength. 2/5 just isn’t good enough.

Sean MacDonnchadha

Thank god this hobble towards the end of the tournament has come. Gameplan needs an overhaul, skill levels need to come up, fitness looks an issue, depth needs to be built, attack needs to be less reliant on just set piece plays and most importantly confidence needs to be rebuilt.

Monica Keeler

Lets just applaud the lads ..and our 3 Retirees Cian, Peter and Conor..we better regroup before next year…Dont see many Lions in our squad.. oh and no way Lowe was in touch 🤬


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SIX NATIONS WRAP


NEXT HARPIN’

TUESDAY

BONUS CHAT : “IRISH DEPTH CHART”

WEDNESDAY

80+ COLUMN INCLUDING FRONT 5 VIDEO

THURSDAY

THROWBACK THURSDAY (on Substack)

FRIDAY

BULLS V LEINSTER PREVIEW FEATURING KEEGO


418 : Italy v Ireland preview

ALSO AVAILABLE AS A PODCAST

IRELAND : 15. Hugo Keenan 14. Mack Hansen 13. Garry Ringrose 12. Robbie Henshaw 11. James Lowe 10. Jack Crowley 9. Jamison Gibson-Park

1. Andrew Porter 2. Dan Sheehan 3. Finlay Bealham 4. James Ryan 5. Tadhg Beirne 6. Jack Conan 7. Josh van der Flier 8. Caelan Doris (c)

16. Gus McCarthy 17. Jack Boyle 18. Tadhg Furlong 19. Joe McCarthy 20. Peter O’Mahony 21. Conor Murray 22. Sam Prendergast 23. Bundee Aki


 ITALY : 15 Tommaso Allan 14 Ange Capuozzo 13 Juan Ignacio Brex (c) 12 Tommaso Menoncello 11 Monty Ioane 10 Paolo Garbisi 9 Martin Page-Relo 

1 Danilo Fischetti 2 Gianmarco Lucchesi 3 Simone Ferrari 4 Dino Lamb 5 Federico Ruzza 6 Sebastian Negri 7 Manuel Zuliani 8 Lorenzo Cannone

16 Giacomo Nicotera 17 Mirco Spagnolo 18 Giosuè Zilocchi 19 Niccolò Cannone 20 Michele Lamaro 21 Ross Vintcent 22 Stephen Varney 23 Leonardo Marin


Guinness Six Nations 2025 Round 5

Saturday, March 15, 2025

KO 2:15pm  Stadio Olimpico

Live on : RTÉ2, ITV1


Referee: Luke Pearce (Eng)

AR1 : Angus Gardner (Aus)

AR2 : Morné Ferreira (SA)

TMO: Andrew Jackson (Eng)

FPRO: Tual Trainini (Fra)

417 : Ireland v France wrap

2025 Guinness Six Nations Championship Round 4, Aviva Stadium, Dublin 8/3/2025Ireland vs FranceIreland’s Andrew Porter Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan


🏉  70% possession

🏉  Ruckgate

🏉  Peter O’Matador

🏉  Billy Barry

🏉  2 little 2 late



FULL TIME TAKES

Warren Doyle

Game lost in first 20 minutes. We didn’t achieve the points to counter the French flair. What came after was very predictable.

Gavin Macarthur

France came to play rugby and they are a fantastic team. The Irish squad can learn a lot from this kind of defeat – at least the openings for the younger players are starting to appear. It is never good to see ‘supporters’ leaving the stadium early – poor form.

Cuan Mulligan

France deserved the win. However…. Odd decision about POM been taken out, French player then runs through that hole. Ref shouting at France to use the ball 3 or 4 times, well over 5 seconds and nothing. Conor Murray upright and we drive him over the line, utterly confusing strategy, should have got him to ground and gone again. Be interesting to get the stats of how many no tries Ireland have by been held up…

Ger Ecki

Another crunch match lost and lost comprehensively…..Another poor performance when challenged. Slams lost 2 years running by losing one crucial match. Got away with it last year by being over feted for winning the Championship…..not so lucky this time. Losing Lowe at the beginning meant we lost our only reliable backline try scorer but they lost DuPont so all bets were off. Ireland collapsed and didn’t fire a shot. Those last 2 trys were gifted by an exhausted French who knew they had the job done….

James Griffin

Outmuscled all day long. We didn’t have the power to break their defence or stop their offence.


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SIX NATIONS WRAP


NEXT HARPIN’

TUESDAY

BONUS CHAT : “TEST TICKET PRICING”

WEDNESDAY

80+ COLUMN INCLUDING FRONT 5 VIDEO