18 November 2023; Sam Prendergast of Leinster scores his side’s first try during the United Rugby Championship match between Leinster and Scarlets at the RDS Arena in Dublin. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
A good win but still a little disappointing. A good place to be when we’re disappointed to concede 5 to the Scarlets.
Prendergast did well but he’s too light in defence, he’d need more back row cover going forward.
Well done to Ross Byrne on his 150th cap.
Joe Mc was unreal again, he’s a fine future in front of him
(reply to Gavin) Peter Tracey
I’m glad they weren’t great. Loads to work on for next week and Jack will be in place.
Agree about Prendergast but that will come so not too worried.
Could Ross be top points scorer in the future? The only thing is if he’s in Ireland squads.
Joe is going to have a big season. I liked Gunne’s passing when he came on. Looked good for Ireland u20s.
We need to start bringing through a few 9s and props which we are.
Brian Corr
I enjoyed the game, I think it’s funny though that I have to remind myself as do many others that a 54-5 win is an excellent result.
It’s great to see Osbourne in particular doing so well, and the more Prendergast and Gunne get opportunities, the better Leinster will do.
The international contingent had a mixed bag, overall good and funnily enough Furlong looked very sharp.
Delighted for Keenan to get POTM, brilliant as usual.
Kevin Kelehan
Dominant and top of the table
Warren Doyle
God almighty we won👏👏👏👏
Jamie Donohoe
Jimmy O Brien had a superb game
Scoreline doesnt tell the story of the match, only because Scarlets couldve had a lot more than their 5 only for the Blue Wall. Result never really in doubt, good outing by Sam, great one by Hugo, still some workons but top of the league going into big one next week. #LEIvSCA
12 November 2023; Dan Sheehan of Leinster on his way to scoring his side’s first try during the United Rugby Championship match between Dragons and Leinster at Rodney Parade in Newport, Wales. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
Overall a good result, but why can’t we take advantage when teams are down a man. They were down 2 players and we just made mistake after mistake.
Need to give Zebre a special mention, first win in 18 months
Dave Murray
Poor conditions but 5 points on the road is most welcome. Would’ve liked some more points to boost the points difference but beggers can’t be choosers I guess. Hopefully injuries aren’t too serious, especially for Tommy O’Brien, who can’t seem to catch a break at all.
Micheal Mac An TSagart
Pointless matches playing poor teams, which ultimately does Leinster no good in the long run when they play the top European teams.
Jamie Donohoe
Let’s hope that coward Basham receives a long ban for that disgraceful late elbow on Ross Byrne. Thuggish behaviour
Anne Byrne Spollen
A wins a win condition dreadful congratulations guy’s 🧢🏉
Alastair McDermott
Ugly conditions, job done.
Far from a classic but many great performances, Joe Mac worthy PotM , captains performance from Dan and pack altogether on top. Couldve won by more but with conditions and all, happy to take 5 pts and run. Up into 2nd place now.#DRAvLEI
4 November 2023; Charlie Shiel of Edinburgh kicks clear during the United Rugby Championship match between Leinster and Edinburgh at the RDS Arena in Dublin. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
Tommy O’Brien is a class act! Always hungry. Culhane great also.
Harry Byrne is again failing to live up to the hype unfortunately and will most likely be overtaken by prendergast soon enough.
Where has Tector gone?
(reply to Gavin) Peter Tracey
he’s still training away Gav. Just Prendergast has moved ahead of him. Deegan doing a Ruddock and all the dirty work that’s not seen.
Need to develop a 9 for me with McGrath injured and only JGP for big games. Foley did well last season but trying too hard this season so far with his kicking game. Just do the basics. Murphy had a good passing game when he came on. Best to do it now in these games and at least they’re getting experience. Boyle did well. Another area we need to develop.
Odran John O’Brien
Great outing again for Jack Boyle he’s getting better every game
Christy O’Connor
The game was riddled with mistakes from both sides. Very sloppy passing at times, we gave away some very cheap tries. In the end it was a good win. Barron was motm for me.
Richard Kennedy
Very happy with that. Bonus secured by 51 mins against a team stacked full of Scottish internationals. A young team getting quality game time.
Alan Murphy
I seemed to have watched a different game to most posts – we sit on the 22. Our line-out was a shambles, we gave away 3 scrum penalties and handling was really poor. Lots of weak shoulders for Edinburgh’s tries. Great win but really poor game.
Closer than it needed to be, Edinburgh will be disappointed to come away with nothing given starting lineups, took their attack too long to get going.
Good day for TOB yet again, also Harry, Jamie, overall D & great to see Culhane on scoresheet.
Leinster Rugby is back at the RDS and all’s right with the world…well apart from having to swim back to my car afterwards to make it home in time for the RWC final, it was great to get the home season underway, naturally the result helped with this as well. Mark Jackson & Ciarán Duffy joined me on the pod Sunday evening to offer their top insights.
For the bonus clip this week Mark & Ciarán helped me look at Leinster’s options to start the post-Sexton era for the Leinster 10 jersey.
PURE V PUKE? NEITHER. JUST RUGBY.
Kids are off school this week so little or no time to organise a TikTok rant (for a clip no longer than two minutes there’s a ton of work involved, though I do enjoy them and hope to get back to it after the midterm) but what I would have harped on was the way the sport of rugby was presented to the world over the past couple of months in the French festival.
You’re reading a blog about rugby and I’m writing one so it’s pretty clear we’re both massive fans who would not only watch every moment of most other tournaments as well on top of the 24/7 online content, but we all know that World Cups more than any other event are key for promoting the sport outside its bubble, aiming to convince non- and casual- fans to pay a lot more attention over the next four years.
I guess before analysing how RWC2023 did in this regard, we first must look at what we’re up against when it comes to people who are naturally inclined to be negative. Well first there’s a particular brand of Irish sports fan who for some reason feel it’s not enough to see competition within a particular code, but they also want to compare different codes with each other and thus only watch rugby so they can find the flaws to show how much better their sport is. Obviously we have those types in rugby as well (“rugby values”/“wouldn’t happen in our sport”) but my point is that no matter what you do you’ll never get that lot so it’s not worth even trying.
Next we have to rule out those who expect to be entertained to the fullest in every single sporting encounter. In rugby I guess that means that to these people the only type of game worth watching is one where there’s “free-flowing rugby” with tries raining in from end to end with a series of fancy offloads and miss-passes. Those people are never going to be happy, because they clearly forget that there are defensive coaches doing their level best to stop that happening.
I mean is it too much to expect people to appreciate that there’s plenty to entertain us even without that so-called “purist” style. Take the World Cup final itself. I’ve seen several articles from journalists from within and outside rugby trying to take the shine off of the Springboks’ historic victory by banging on about their approach. This is of course all clickbait garbage – whether you win a match by 1 point or 100, you still win and getting finicky about the style of play says more about the commenter than it does the subject matter.
But even if you weren’t fully clued in on the Laws of the game (and I give a TON of leeway to viewers for this because let’s face it, while it’s no cricket, there’s still a hell of a lot of jargon and conventions to get the hang of) if you couldn’t at least appreciate all the excitement before the match like the rivalry between two great rugby nations, all the passion and anticipation surrounding the anthems, the performance and reaction to the cultural challenge, during the match with the dozens of pivotal moments from the first minute to the last, and eventually after it the contrasting celebrations and disappointment of the two squads, then I reckon you should probably be looking for entertainment elsewhere.
And over the course of the eight weeks there actually was a lot of rugby that could be described as “worldie”, with several so-called YouTube moments with free flowing play and there were even some upsets; just Portugal’s pool stage adventure would make a decent feature film all on its own.
Overall I think there’s only so much a sport can do to make itself more appealing to the masses, at least when it comes to the brick and mortar of the Laws themselves. What you could do to help stimulate interest is try and spread it around the globe and encourage more nations to play to a higher standard, but that has me straying near a Nations League debate that is worthy of a rant all on its own.
I mean it’s not just rugby that tries to change, GAA makes rule changes every season, cricket gets so much shorter that eventually a match is going to be just one ball being bowled, and even soccer is tinkering with the format of its top competitions with both its World Cup and Champions League set to change.
For me anyway, the game is pretty much fine the way it is, maybe a few law tweaks here and there wouldn’t hurt but to be honest I’d much rather they focused on ways to make the game safer without altering the overall feel and flow we all tune in for.
The likes of Off The Ball and Pat Spillane can go do one.
PRE MATCH VIKING CLAP
Speaking of changes, I mentioned on the pod that Mike McCarthy came down to the pitch to get the Leinster fans revved up ahead of kickoff by encouraging them to do a Viking Clap, though I didn’t mention what I thought of it.
I can imagine a lot of people of my generation not being too happy with it but for my part, I’m all for it. I have said many times over the years harpin’ on these pages that the atmosphere at the RDS hasn’t always been what it could be. The lack of a proper chant/song has certainly contributed to that…”Allez les blues” is too French, “molly Malone” too Dublin centric, “Come on you boys in Blue” too generic, and as for the run of the mill “Lehhhhhhn-ster, Lehhhhhhn-ster”, well that’s fine once and a while but it’s hardly the go to option for every situation. And anyone remember “Leinster’s glory”? No? Exactly.
Now just to be clear I’m having a go more at the crowd rather than the organisers, they do a lot to create an atmosphere with the pre-match music and of course Leo the Lion but I thought Mike’s more direct challenge to the crowd was a much better way of getting them fully match ready and assuming it’s to become a regular thing, the “scenes” should get even more “absolute” down the line.
PLAYER OF THE MATCH
It happens quite a lot that I disagree with the decision for Player of the Match, and when it’s for Leinster or Ireland it’s a bit awkward making that disagreement known because it’s a bit like having to choose your favourite kid, but since I have this 80+ column I suppose that gives me a chance to express that opinion.
But I hope it doesn’t give the impression that I have anything against the person who got the award, and in Saturday’s case it was Max Deegan. He did have a great match overall, and I know it was the occasion of his 100th cap, but for me the standards are such at the province that when he drops a ball from the base on an attacking 5m scrum (again, very unlike him, and if it were me I’d drop it every time) we might look elsewhere this time and for me Tommy O’Brien was a much more worthy recipient.
One last time, to be perfectly clear, I am NOT having a go at him, nor at James Downey who made the call. Just saying I saw it differently that’s all.
THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOKS
Congrats to all those honoured in World Rugby’s awards list, especially Andy Farrell who thoroughly deserved it.
And while I certainly wouldn’t hold a view like this from All Black fan and clearly sour grape-connosseiur Ben Smith about the Springboks’ success, I for one wasn’t that surprised that their players didn’t feature too heavily in the team of the tournament.
I could probably see Malherbe ahead of Furlong if I had to make one change but overall the selections seem sound to me.
Maybe, just maybe, RSA representation on the TOTY is low because other nations had better individuals while the Boks had the best team, hence three 1pt wins and the 🏆.
KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES
I have dedicated a column segment to mention the Eddie Jones news but I don’t see any point going too deep in the weeds on the topic because pretty much everything has been said about him. Literally none of the negative stories and opinions about him surprise me. Actually it’s just boring at this stage. He may have even climbed to my “least favourite Jones” chart ahead of journo Stephen, but even that’s just one article away from changing back.
B&I SUPER LEAGUE?
Once again this topic has crept into the headlines so once again I am forced to state my position.
I am 100% opposed to the suggestion of creating a “British & Irish Super League”.
However, I would be ok with the possibility of Premiership clubs JOINING the United Rugby Championship, once each one can prove financial viability throughout a campaign before preseason starts.
The URC has been through enough branding upheaval over the years and has finally found a form which may not suit everyone at the moment, but surely even the Welsh fans might come on board if they got some regular fixtures with the English.
But to create an entirely new identity just because the Premiership has been proven to be a failed business model just wouldn’t cut it for me.
W.XV UPDATE
I covered Ireland’s latest WXV match on the pod, here’s the transcript…
This is the story of an international rugby finale that could have gone either way right up to the final whistle but as you can probably tell I’m not talking about Saturday night’s battle in Paris.
After two extremely comfortable victories against Kazakhstan and Colombia, the Irish women had a much more formidable opponent in Las Leonas from Spain in their 3rd WXV3 encounter, and although Scott Bemand’s side enjoyed pretty much all the early territory and possession, we had to contend with an early spell with inspirational co-captain Edel McMahon in the sin bin plus an extremely stubborn Spanish defence which was not only difficult to break down but also was able to punish mistakes as outside-centre Claudia Peña Hidalgo pounced on a loose pass to put her side 7-0 up after just ten minutes.
Spain stretched their lead to 10 until a Dannah O’Brien penalty got Ireland on the board, but it was our own defence which needed to be strong before the break and although we managed to stop them from scoring after a prolonged visit to our 22, we did cough up another yellow card this time for Linda Djougang and the resulting penalty saw us go into the break both short handed and behind by 13 points to 3.
We still came out strongly for the 2nd half however, comfortably seeing out the sin bin period without Spain entering our 22 and we gradually wore down their resistance until a succession of penalties marched us into their 22 where a strong maul allowed Grace Moore to fall over the line and Dannah O’Brien added the extras to bring us within three.
Our dominance continued and although we only needed a draw to finish top of the pool, it was a brave decision to ignore the three points on offer from a kickable penalty, and we backed up that confidence with another series of mauls making the Spanish defence crack and this time it was Neve Jones getting the ball down to nudge Ireland in front for the first time.
But the match still had to be seen out and to their credit the Spaniards kept at it right to the 80th minute and beyond until a brilliant lineout steal from Eimear Corri saw us put the ball dead and secure the title and puts them in a good position to go up to the second tier for next season.
I talk a lot on the pod about the problems in Irish womens rugby but this is a time for celebration for a job well done in searing heat over three weeks in Dubai and hopefully the squad can bring these performances through to 2024. One thing I will say however is that the Spanish performance provided further evidence that the women shouldn’t follow the men’s Six Nations model and instead expand to include themselves and possibly more teams down the line.
As ever if you want to keep tabs on the women’s game I find the best sources are Scrumqueens.com and on Twitter or X follow accounts like @IrishWomens.
Round 3
KAZAKHSTAN 0-118 FIJI
KENYA 21-5 COLOMBIA
IRELAND 15-13 SPAIN
🔝🐱🐴 UPDATE
Not a great round for Leinster’s Champions Cup opposition, with our good friends La Rochelle falling at home to Castres making it three defeats out of four to start the season, while Stade Francais got knocked off top spot when they could only muster 3 points in Bayonne. Pau lead the way with Joe Simmonds helping to lead them to a hefty win at Perpignan, while also on 14 points at the top are Castres and Stu Lancaster’s Racing, soon to have a certain RWC winning captain join their ranks.
Leaders Pau v champions Toulouse would appear to be the pick of the Round 5 matchups, perfect for the marquee Sunday night slot.
Round 4
SUN OCT 29
BAYONNE 16-3 STADE FRANCAIS
PERPIGNAN 24-39 PAU
LYON 41-22 CLÉRMONT
MONTPELLIER 16-19 RACING 92
TOULON 41-7 OYONNAX
LA ROCHELLE 24-27 CASTRES
TOULOUSE 29-22 BORDEAUX
Round 5
SAT NOV 4
OYONNAX V LA ROCHELLE
PERPIGNAN V TOULON
BORDEAUX V MONTPELLIER
CLÉRMONT V BAYONNE
STADE FRANCAIS V CASTRES
RACING 92 V LYON
SUN NOV 5
PAU V TOULOUSE
PREMIERSHIP UPDATE
A late Shillcock penalty gave Leicester a one-point win at the Rec although Bath still stay top since none of the 10 teams managed to win all of their opening 3 matches. Saracens finally put one in the win column while Sale Sharks got their fins handed to them by Exeter.
Saracens/Tigers would seem to be the pick of the ties from Round 4, with Leinster set to travel to play both of them in January (Sarries being a friendly).
ROUND 3
GLOUCESTER 3-24 SARACENS
BRISTOL 21-23 HARLEQUINS
EXETER CHIEFS 43-0 SALE SHARKS
BATH 24-25 LEICESTER
NEWCASTLE 14-16 NORTHAMPTON
ROUND 4
FRI NOV 3
SALE SHARKS V GLOUCESTER
SAT NOV 4
HARLEQUINS V NEWCASTLE
NORTHAMPTON V BATH
SARACENS V LEICESTER TIGERS
EXETER CHIEFS V BRISTOL
AIL UPDATE
Both genders AIL return to action after a weekend off, with the top four, all of whom seem destined to reach the semifinals at this stage, avoiding each other so I doubt there will be any real change to the table come next week.
Meanwhile in the men’s Div1A, Lansdowne will be hoping to keep their maximum points record going but certainly won’t have it easy away to Cork Con, who are fresh from toppline the reigning champions in round 3. As for Nure themselves, they’ll surely be looking to come away from Belfield Bowl with some points to get them away from just above the relegation places.
#SupportYourLocalClub
WOMEN’S AIL
Round 6
SAT NOV 4
BALLINCOLLIG V UL BOHS
BELVO V COOKE
SUTTONIANS V ROCK
WICKLOW V RAILWAY UNION
MEN’S AIL
ROUND 4
SAT NOV 4
BALLYNAHINCH V SHANNON
CITY OF ARMAGH V DUBLIN UNIV
CORK CON V LANSDOWNE
UCD V TERENURE
YOUNG MUNSTER V CLONTARF
HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE
Happy enough to remain in 3rd place after 2 rounds although there was a change at the top as Kristian got this week’s yellow cap to leapfrog Conor. Meanwhile in the dreaded Jersey of Shame position down the bottom Tom dragged himself away leaving this week’s pod guest Mark to fall even below Keego.
Early days of course.
AFTER RD 2
PTS
1
KRISTIAN
23.00
2
CONOR
21.00
3
JEFF
19.50
4
KINO
17.00
5
JAY
15.00
6
TOM
14.00
7
KEEGO
13.00
8
MARK
11.00
NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
A bonus pod for during the week, I’ll be chatting to Francisco Issac about Portugal, the proposed World League and also the RE Super Cup which kicks off next weekend. Then it’s full attention on the visit of Edinburgh to the RDS on Saturday with a preview before and a wrap pod on Sunday evening so stay tuned for all of that.
As ever, be sure to enjoy your Halloween rugby wherever you are. JLP
HARPIN' ON RUGBY 