They got the rub of the green, big time, but we probably didn’t do enough.
Reasonably confident we can win 2nd if “end of season-itis” doesn’t kick in.
Gav Heg
If it was reversed, we won and the ref treated SA like he did us, rassie would release a two hour analysis slating him. The officiating simply wasn’t good enough at this level. like how can they review and disallow Lowes try but not notice the neck roll on Kelleher? Penalties were given for far less in NZ v Eng. And how was Casey stretchered off without any review from Pearse? Nonsensical and inconsistent
Greg Kelly
Is the call by the TMO to disallow Lowes try wrong in law? No…
Is the game in an absolute state if this is where it is going? Absolutely!
You can be guaranteed that in the lead up to all the tries today there were infringements but the TMO didn’t come back to those?
Even after the turnover Lowe beats 3 defenders to score so the manner of the turnover is not the material issue. It’s a great individual try called back for a debatable TMO intervention. Furthermore once the TMO comes in to disallow the try he must commit 100% to catching EVERY breakdown infringement from there. What if he let’s one go and 3 phases later there’s a kickable penalty awarded to the offending team? Does he call the referee back?
PSDT is off his feet in the field of play when he holds up Doris’ grounding attempt. By the letter of the law it’s an illegal intervention. It happens in all games and is never penalised but if we are going into the detail we did for the Lowe try then it’s another incidence of a player off feet affecting the play and consistency demands it’s flagged by the TMO.
If this is where we’re going it’s going to be a sh1t show.
Kevin Kelehan
Half back pairing was not disrupted, got reasonable parity at the breakdown. Unlucky with a few ref decisions that were 50:50 calls, particular Kelliher being driven back. Lots of industry and effort but also lots of shooting themselves in the foot. The series remains alive at only 7 points down, that is very encouraging, dust themselves down and be more clinical next week.
Sean MacDonnchadha
Have to look inward and be honest. Otherwise we’re only fooling ourselves again. Lineout and scrum came back to bite us after being highlighted as potential weaknesses. Backline stuttering for most of the game and no real director at 9/10. Felt like we were having to react to everything instead of dictating play. Dorris and Bundee tireless efforts. Ryan and Baird impacted well off the bench – only ones who did really. Needing Porter and Furlong to do a full 80 if possible is a massive system failure. Boks can’t wait to unleash their bench, if we’re honest we fear what will happen when we do.
Cuan Mulligan
In the first half, Kolisi was tackled, in the breakdown the ball is coming back to us and he sweeps the ball back with his hand.. not hard to see yet no tmo call. It felt like they were going out of their way to not give us a call
James Lowe had a very good game overall.
Did plenty right.
Had every right to try and keep the touch kick alive.
Also would have been risky to let that restart bounce.
This is hardly some new insight but a key issue with some of Ireland (and Leinster's) performances recently: everyone just looks exhausted. Some of these guys have been playing rugby without more than a few weeks off now for two years, and it just shows.
Hell of a test match. The fact these 46 players give a spectacle like that after 12 months of rugby is outstanding. Fine margins but congrats to the Springboks. Deserved winners in the end . Ireland went down swinging. Super match 👏 #RSAvIRE
So so good at times, but also so so poor at other, crucial times. Silly mistakes, silly penalties. Boks made errors too and we def didnt have rub of the green with TMO but the 7 pts we fell short by were on us. Be tough to pick it up for next week but try we must. #RSAvIRE
We’re taking a step back for a week or two here at Harpin Manor so just a “Lite” version of the column this week, or an “Eighty plus minus” if you will…no Front Five for example.
On this week’s column…
🏉 IRISH SQUAD ANNOUNCEMENT
🏉 CGB RIP
🏉 24/25 CHAMPIONS CUP DRAW
🏉 WRAP OF A WRAP
🏉 23/24 SEASON REVIEW
🏉 LEINSTER & IRELAND 1-SCORE LOSSES
🏉 THE LEO CULLEN DEBATE
🏉 HOGG SAGA LATEST
🏉 TROLL PATROL
🏉 SEVENS SQUAD
🏉 UPDATES [INCL 🔝🐱🐴 & SUPER RUGBY]
IRELAND SQUAD ANNOUNCEMENT
I dont know about you but I very much want Ireland to win both of these tests. Development is important that is no doubt, but with an Emerging Ireland tour planned for later in the year I see no reason why we shouldn’t do what we can to make these matches the clash of titans the rest of the rugby world expects it to be -back to back RWC champs v back-to-back 6N champs, with the Boks VERY keen to put the most recent results between the two behind them. Besides, it’s not like we won’t get some chance to see how we get on without regulars in the 23 with JGP and Conan missing out.
Thanks to Murray Kinsella’s breakdown of the positions below, I have had a go at selecting my matchday 23 for the first test, I’ve even included a new cap that wouldn’t be Leinster fancy that!! 6/2 bench has to be right for Loftus I’d say.
O’Brien, Nash, Henshaw, Aki, Lowe, Crowley, Casey
Porter, Sheehan, Furlong, McCarthy, Beirne, O’Mahony (c), van der Flier, Doris
Competition draws aren’t exactly sexy topics and the one for next season’s Champions Cup isn’t until Tuesday July 2, and although the competition format hasn’t changed there was some news specific to Leinster in today’s press release from EPCR…
For the purposes of the draw, the clubs will be divided into two tiers, Tier 1 and Tier 2. The four clubs in Tier 1 will be: Stade Toulousain (2024 Investec Champions Cup winners), Northampton Saints (2024 Gallagher Premiership winners), as well as the 2024 URC and 🔝🐱🐴 winners. If Stade Toulousain win the 🔝🐱🐴 title, then the Investec Champions Cup final runners-up, Leinster Rugby, will be included in Tier 1.
WRAP OF A WRAP
Wrapping defeats are never fun on the one hand, but on the other there’s still the whole “show must go on” of it all so we did a full wrap pod where as well as a shortened “match timeline section” we also went back over Leinster’s season overall. Tom Coleman & Mark Jackson seem to be getting more than their share of bad results when they appear on the pod but they still did a great job.
As you can see below we also found time to harp on a couple of extra relevant topics, all of them have been getting decent engagement over the past few days.
If you missed the wrap pod, here’s a link for Spotify but it’s also available on Apple and other platforms, please subscribe there too and/or leave a review if you can.
LEINSTER’S & IRELAND’S 1-SCORE LOSSES
Lead-in question : OK now I’d like to chat for a bit about one-score matches. Much has been said about the Springboks winning their second World Cup in a row on the back of three successive one-point victories, and then of course Jacques Nienaber switched to Leinster where as you can see by the screen there, we’ve had a string of defeats in recent seasons of 5 points or less, and I have also added results of the Irish team as well as, just for good measure, the Munster semifinal loss as they had both the Irish captain and starting outhalf playing for them. You can say each and every one of these results played a part in an Irish team falling short of silverware so starting with yourself Tom, is there a pattern to be seen here?
THE RESULTS IN QUESTION :
FRA 30-24 IRE, LEI 21-24 LAR, LEI 26-27 BUL, LEI 15-16 MUN, LEI 26-27 LAR, IRE 24-28 NZL
LEI 21-22 ULS, ENG 23-22 IRE, TLS 15-15* LEI, ULS 23-21 LEI, BUL 25-20 LEI, MUN 10-17 GLA
* = after 80m
THE LEO CULLEN DEBATE
Lead-in question : This is a discussion I have tried to steer away from for quite a while now but it has been bubbling under the surface among Leinster fans on the social media platforms I’d say since our defeat in the Marseille final so obviously by now after two more campaigns gone without silverware, the calls are getting even louder so it’s probably about time we harped on it. On the one hand you don’t want the very ‘footbally’ knee-jerk reactions to defeats calling for the coach to be fired, I mean most clubs in Europe wouldn’t come close to competing on two fronts every season the way we do, but on the other hand when you’ve won 4 Heineken Cups and 8 league titles over the years, the standards are always going to be high and for the past few seasons Leinster have fallen short. So starting with yourself Mark, is it time for a change at the top?
HOGG SAGA LATEST
After deciding to leave out the Front Five this week, there ended up being four stories I felt I had to include in the column so I’m sure I could have found a fifth to keep the segment going, but then again with this Hogg story returning like an awful smell I figured it best to shift it further down the page.
Not exactly wild about how RugbyPass framed Hogg’s situation – “blighted by personal problems” suggests there might be someone to blame other than the man himself.
Let’s just say I will absolutely not be supporting MHR next season and I’m delighted there is very little chance Leinster will be playing them.
A couple of weeks ago, I challenged a trolling comment from ‘mahasamatman’ offering them to appear on the pod…the challenge was genuine and if I got a response I would take steps to make it happen. As you can see by their latest offering, it looks like they are choosing to ignore my invitation. 🐔
If you ever see an online contribution that seems worthy of inclusion here, by all means do share.
“SVNS” UPDATE
No Irish teams in action until next weekend in Hamburg (see fixtures below) but there is still a lot of relevant stuff going on in the 7s world, not least of which was the announcement of the squads for the Olympics, with Lucy Rock & Harry McNulty named the respective captains.
We will know our opponents in Paris by this Sunday evening when the draw is made following the Monaco 7s which will decide the last 4 qualifiers in each gender. Those tournaments will be streamed live on RugbyPassTV over the weekend with the like of GB and RSA involved on the men’s side and Argentina on the women’s.
OLYMPIC SQUADS
Ireland Women’s Sevens Squad – Paris 2024:
Kathy Baker (Blackrock College RFC)
Megan Burns (Blackrock College RFC)
Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe (Railway Union RFC)
Alanna Fitzpatrick (Portarlington RFC/Blackrock College RFC)
Stacey Flood (Railway Union RFC)
Eve Higgins (Railway Union RFC)
Erin King (Old Belvedere RFC)
Vicky Elmes Kinlan (Wicklow RFC)
Emily Lane (Blackrock College RFC)
Ashleigh Orchard (Cooke RFC)
Béibhinn Parsons (Blackrock College RFC)
Lucy Rock (Wicklow RFC)(captain)
Travelling Reserves:
Claire Boles (Railway Union RFC)
Amy Larn (Athy RFC).
Ireland Men’s Sevens Squad – Paris 2024:
Niall Comerford (UCD RFC)
Jordan Conroy (Buccaneers RFC)
Hugo Keenan (UCD RFC/Leinster)
Jack Kelly (Dublin University FC)
Terry Kennedy (St Mary’s College RFC)
Hugo Lennox (Skerries RFC)
Harry McNulty (UCD RFC)(captain)
Gavin Mullin (UCD RFC)
Chay Mullins (Galway Corinthians RFC/Connacht/IQ Rugby)
Mark Roche (Lansdowne FC)
Andrew Smith (Clontarf FC/Connacht)
Zac Ward (Ballynahinch RFC)
Travelling Reserves:
Sean Cribbin (Suttonians RFC)
Bryan Mollen (UCD RFC)
HAMBURG 7s
FRI JUNE 28
10AM – WOMEN V CZECHIA
12:14PM – MEN V CROATIA
2:44PM – WOMEN V FRANCE
5:14PM – MEN V BELGIUM
SAT JUNE 29
9:36AM – WOMEN V PORTUGAL
9:44AM – MEN V PORTUGAL
🔝🐱🐴 UPDATE
All season we have been highlighting on these pages what a bad season La Rochelle are having yet they go and make the final four to face their nemesis Toulouse, who may be polishing their 6th star but with this seeming to be the Year of The Nemesis Reversal (Leinster beating LAR twice, Toulouse beating Leinster) plus the fact that the French play their semifinals on “neutral” grounds (not so much in Bordeaux’s case) you wouldn’t bet against them having another crack at a first Brennus.
That said, as you see in the segment on the Champion Cup draw earlier in the column, a Toulouse win would help Leinster out, so there’s that.
Meanwhile the other semifinal appears to be a tossup between Stade would would be favourites on form if it were held in any other city but UBB will be keen to use every advantage possible to reverse their Champions Cup quarterfinal disappointment.
Then there’s Montpellier who stayed in the top flight by the skin of their teeth with a two point win over Grenoble. We’ll still be covering both sides on these pages next season as I plan to include the ProD2 in our update section.
PLAYOFFS
TOULON 29-34 LA ROCHELLE
BORDEAUX 31-17 RACING 92
RELEGATION
GRENOBLE 18-20 MONTPELLIER
SEMIFINALS (BOTH IN BORDEAUX)
FRI JUNE 21
TOULOUSE V LA ROCHELLE
SAT JUNE 22
STADE FRANÇAIS V BORDEAUX
SUPER RUGBY PACIFIC UPDATE
Not a good day for future Leinster employees Jordie Barrett and Tyler Bleyendaal…hopefully the Hurricane’s exit in the semifinals won’t have a bearing on how they get on when they travel north! Still promises to be a fascinating Auckland v Waikato final, I’ve always had a soft spot for the Blues and I’m not sure they’ll get a better chance than this to lift their first SR title since 2003.
QUARTERFINALS
CHIEFS 43-21 REDS
HURRICANES 47-20 REBELS
BLUES 36-5 FIJIAN DRUA
BRUMBIES 32-16 HIGHLANDERS
SEMIFINALS
BLUES 34-20 BRUMBIES
HURRICANES 19-30 CHIEFS
FINAL
SAT JUNE 22
BLUES V CHIEFS
MAJOR LEAGUE RUGBY UPDATE
Really big win for my adopted team the Chicago Hounds, with Dave Kearney, Nick McCarthy, Jack Carty and Paddy Ryan all starting as they defeated San Diego (complete with Matt Giteau and the still-scoring-tries-at-42 Ma’a Nonu) to put them all but in the playoffs, with chances in the final two rounds to move up even higher.
Elsewhere Houston edged Seattle to stay top in the west while New England need just one more win to lock down home advantage in the east.
ROUND 16
DALLAS 34-36 OLD GLORY
HOUSTON 28-25 SEATTLE
NEW ENGLAND 36-27 UTAH
ANTHEM RC 14-30 MIAMI
LOS ANGELES 21-38 NOLA GOLD
CHICAGO 22-16 SAN DIEGO
ROUND 17
SAT JUNE 22
NOLA GOLD V NEW ENGLAND
SUN JUNE 23
ANTHEM RC V CHICAGO
MIAMI V OLD GLORY
UTAH V DALLAS
SEATTLE V LOS ANGELES
SAN DIEGO V HOUSTON
HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE
Glasgow’s win at Thomond Park not only ended the provinces’ URC hopes, but with Kristian gambling for the upset it has also looked like handing him the HPL title. With the multiplier in force for the playoffs, Kino CAN catch him, but only if they make different picks for the final and his is the right one. The Superbru app only tells you who others have chosen when the matches kick off, and if it turns out that they made the same selection then the title belongs to Kristian.
Jay is guaranteed 3rd place but as for me in 4th, I’m anything but – in fact, with Conor, Mark & Tom all breathing down my neck I could finish as low as 7th so I’ll have to make my final decision very carefully.
NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
The plan is to take a break for at least a week with the next planned content on these pages being another 80+ column next Wednesday. But I’m sure in the meantime I’ll be tempted to drop the odd x or TikTok along the way so do keep an eye out.
Plus I’ll be appearing on Caolán Scully’s pod from Thursday evening as well as our regular Dublin South FM slot so there’s always harpin’ going on somewhere!
And as ever, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP
Well we got the win and that’s great, but it’s back to the drawing board not just for SA but for next year as well. Delighted with the win though 😂
Kevin Kelehan
Won the game and the championship, was happy to see Ireland come through yesterday with Keenan and Ringrose off the pitch from the start against a Scotland side a lot stronger out wide than in tight. What England has exposed is Ireland need a second row size 6 to compliment Van Der Fliers speed, Ireland are only pressured by teams with a weight advantage 4-8. Fix that weight deficit whilst retaining poachers like Doris and Van Der Flier and Ireland will reach the next level.
Craig Boyd
Job done, our expectations have all changed so today was a bit of an anticlimax. All the same what a great team they are.
John O Halloran
Great to get the wins and the championship but big tests and rejigging needed.
England and Scotland were well up to that Irish attack.
The Scottish 6 was excellent.
Alastair McDermott
I was hoping to see Andy Farrell bringing his kids out on the pitch to celebrate
England had their best game in about 3 years and only beat us by a point. Lads gave everything and just a bit off and that’s what happens. Suppose there is a reason we’ve not seen back to back grand slams in 30 years
Ciara Lennon
Big wake up call for Ireland. England came to play and played the better rugby on the day. They never let Ireland settle. Too many handling errors from Ireland. Too many penalties conceded. I love Peter O Mahony but 2nd yellow card for a captain in one tournament is just not good enough. He needs to get a better example. Should Murray have kicked it away with 90seconds on the clock? Probably not but at thr end of the day, Ireland were just out played
Craig Boyd
In simple terms England should have been out of sight, Ireland in no way deserved the win. That being said they got themselves in a position were they should have won but can’t help but thinking when Murray kicked the ball away with 90 seconds to go that he offered England the perfect opportunity for them to win the game. Did he not trust his forwards to see out 90 seconds?
Jamie Bermingham
So much arrogance from the media in the build up and then after both tries we didn’t put any pressure on them. England came to play rugby and got the win simple as
Big Joe Shep
• England were exceptional today and outplayed us in everything.
• It was a poor day at the office and it happens but as a collective, we didn’t turn up I’m afraid
• An aging Murray with a wasted box-kick in the last embers of the game was woeful buddy!!! Give the ball to your opponents who have dominated the entire game, require only a Pen is NOT what this Ireland team does. I’m afraid he’s way way out of kilter with THIS Ireland team and it ultimately cost us!! 🤷♂️😥🏉
• All that said, we lost by 1 Pt and that shows how good we are….. We go again next week and put Scotland to the sword!!!
James Griffin
Far too much talk about how much Ireland would win by during the lead up. And blaming Murray is just provincial shite. He didn’t give away penalties, drop passes, or miss tackles. A little bit of honesty wouldn’t go astray. Wake up call, big time!
Gavin Hegarty
So disappointing. Mainly because it wasn’t how we should play. First four minutes were great but then we dropped off and honestly if England were better they would have put us away. You’d think Murray with his ‘experience’ would know how to close out a game. His box kicking is infuriating yet he still does it to no benefit.
Better team won, we just didn’t show.
Kevin Kelehan
England could have been out of sight after 20 mins, Ireland had the game won around 78 minute but lost it, se la vie. Arsen Wenger spoke of great teams playing badly but winning, thats where Ireland need to get
Colin McConaghie
If people properly analysed the Welsh game this performance was coming. We created very little against a very limited Welsh team and our back line looked one paced and lacking creativity. The Bundee bash it up played straight into Englands hands. It showed on the two occasions we actually passed wide we scored.
Penalty count far too high and poor kicking from Lowe and then Murray gifted easy possession to run back at us and score.
We are still a very good team and will likely win the Championship but the over hype has been embarrassing and we are still far too over reliant on our “first choice” players.
The beauty of the Six Nations is how competitive it is. All matches are lose-able. Italy beat Scotland, who beat England, who beat us, who hockeyed Italy. That’s what makes back to back slams so hard, or even individual slams. You’ve to win 10 in a row!
Congrats to England just about deserved it. Really hope the Irish knives won't be out that was a top test match and Championship still there to be won.#ENGvIRE
Wales definitely better than most expected, Ireland will need to be more disciplined in Twickers but can get a bonus point win if they iron out the errors. Was delighted to see Frawley score a super try
Colin McConaghie
We need pace in the backline to get to the really top level. Possibly a bit complacent today but Lowe was really poor with his kicking and will cost us against a better team
John Clavin
A couple of big referee decisions didn’t go Ireland’s way. But, a 24 point win in the 6N and we’re all a bit disappointed in the performance…. Heady days for Irish Rugby.
Christy O’Connor
Very sloppy 2nd half. Ref was inconsistent, but it was our own fault that we made such hard work of it.
Wales deserve some credit for not giving up.
Carmel Daly
Not perfect but technically they held Wales scoreless only for penalty try given. Job done 👍
Greg Kelly
If we’d done that any other year we’d be jumping for joy. I think it’s a sign of what we expect from this team that people are nit picking the performance.
What a way to get BP. Class all the way from Stu's hit at halfway to Beirne's finish. We prob deserved the maximum, tho Welsh started 2nd half well, Winnett v impressive. Aki worthy PotM tho TB not far behind. On to Twickers.#IREvWAL
