2 March 2024; John McKee of Leinster celebrates as Michael Milne of Leinster, obscured, scores his side’s fourth try during the United Rugby Championship match between Cardiff and Leinster at Cardiff Arms Park in Cardiff, Wales. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
🏉 Pack mentality 🏉 Offloadin’ Will 🏉 Carré-d away 🏉 Doin’ sh*t well 🏉 10 outta 10
The interval really did come at the perfect time, came out of the break really well, thought Leinster's pack won us that although Turner impressed on wing. Good night for the Front Row Union Loosie Branch try-wise. Five more in the bag, onwards we go…#CARvLEI
17 February 2024; Liam Turner of Leinster evades the tackle of Ignacio Mendy of Benetton, right, on his way to scoring his side’s third try during the United Rugby Championship match between Leinster and Benetton at the RDS Arena in Dublin. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile
Great result considering how well Benetton are doing this season and all the missing internationals.
Love Prendergast’s cool under pressure ability, he took a wrong option and was immediately swamped by the defence but had the ability to keep calm and place the ball back so well.
Lots of rusty performances and mistakes due to weather and no recent games.
Delighted to see Byrne get a chance to rinse the spiderwebs off his game and McErlean get a solid game behind him, again pity the weather was so naff for his first tog out.
Greg Kelly
Leinster sticking 47 points on the 2nd placed team tells you all you need to know about the URC
Craig Grehan
Good to see that mixture of players running well. Few fumbles here & there. But very good
Eamon Saunders
Good win nice to see a Wexford man get a try #Brian Deeny
Christy O’Connor
Very scrappy at times from both sides. Have to hand it to Benetton, they fought really well and I don’t think the scoreline does them justice
Dave Murray
Not a spectacular performance but good 5 points.
Benetton fell off after the break but we took our chances well, bench too good, handy 5 points, Jamie worth PotM, on to Cardiff, nuff said.#LEIvBEN
JLP : The quote might be tongue in cheek but although I wasn’t there myself the reports I heard were that it was a very subdued Aviva crowd, with suggestions it might have to do with a “prawn sandwich” element who were able to afford the ticket price without necessarily being totally invested in the actual rugby.
“This is not about Scottish Rugby being belligerent.”
JLP : I harped on this in the bonus clip as you’ll see below, but although I believe the officials came to the correct decision, I can’t really blame the SRU for getting an extra news cycle out of the incident. This might have an air of “John Delaney asking for Ireland to be 33rd team” about it, but the call was so goddam close and decisive that you can see how they’d lash out, once they are also aware that the Scots did have plenty of chances before that to win the game as well….
The change should create more room for counterattackers as the defending team will all be offside until put back onside by the kicker, or kick-chasers.
JLP : I wondered why I had red about this red/green think years ago yet Wales/Ireland matches weren’t affected. I would have thought that if it was definitely a problem for a portion of fans which had been officially identified by the sport’s governing body then surely the thing to do would be to make the change right away, but I suppose these things take time?
“There was 11 offloads for Ireland today, that is significant. There was only three last week.“
JLP : The quote pretty much tells the story, only thing I’d add is that most of that 11 weren’t just offloads, they were Marks & Spencer offloads…high risk but even higher confidence.
Note – views expressed in “Front Five” links do not necessarily reflect those of HarpinOnRugby
WRAP OF A (DELAYED) WRAP
Nobody likes a set weekly routine more than myself but when our feature match is on a Sunday afternoon there’s just no way I can prepare a wrap pod to my liking in time so we waited until the Monday. Tom “LeinsterRoyalty” Coleman became our latest member of the 50-cap club joining Keego and Conor Cronin, and he and Jay did their usual bang-up job reviewing the whitewashing of Italy, although Tom did cause my first 2024 use of the “Gran’s Lamb Protocol” where we vow not to use a certain phrase depicting 5 Irish wins until it is either achieved or no longer possible, so I had to deploy a “beep” sound at one point after he dropped the “S word” 😜.
If you missed the wrap pod, here’s a link for Spotify but it’s also available on Apple and other platforms, please subscribe and/or leave a review if you can.
BONUS CLIP
A mixed bag of chosen topics this week, I have added the transcript from my bit below.
“A GROUNDING IN TMOs”
Now it’s time for my bit and after Tom harping on the kicking duel at the end of the first half of Scotland v France, I’d like to focus on an even more controversial incident from the end of the second in the same match.
Now when I say “controversial” I’m a bit torn on the use of this word. It seems a bit sensationalist especially when you consider that I actually agree with the way the officials reached their decision.
But what I suppose does make it controversial was the fact that it was a call about a score that would have literally changed the result of the entire match as there was no time left on the clock. Throw in the fact that the decision went against the home team and you have what must be up there with the top nightmares faced by referees in all sports.
Still I have to go back and explain why I agree with the officials so let’s look at the incident. And to do this we need to take all the situational stuff out of it. Forget it’s at Murrayfield, forget it’s Scotland, forget they were four points behind with the clock in the red.
On the 9th phase of a series Sam Skinner carried the ball over the line where he ran into some French defenders. There was the predictable mass of bodies all around the ball but from referee Nic Berry’s angle, the ball was held up and that is how he called it. This is the most critical information of the entire incident for me, but there is of course a lot more.
Berry ensured the Scots that the decision would be reviewed, which put matters into the hands of TMO Brian MacNeice. OK, now you might think I’m defending his decision because he’s Irish but I suppose all I can do is hope that you appreciate that my actual motivation is for the correct decision to be reached where possible.
Anyway what MacNeice had to do was look over as many available angles as he could to see if there was a grounding – and that word grounding is the second most important aspect to all of this. For this he had to hope for there to be a decent gap among all the other moving parts in the way…arms, legs, heads, boots, even the occasional arse, to catch a glimpse of the ball.
And as many have been at pains to point out, it does look to all intents and purposes that the ball actually does make its way to the Murrayfield grass. In fact, many of those fans also went to great pains to screengrab the image the TMO was looking at as though it offered some “proof” that it should have been awarded as a try.
And to be fair, during the early part of MacNeice’s dialogue as he watched, it really did sound as though he wanted to award the try. But there was a problem you see, one that those understandably eager screengrabbing Scottish fans probably missed.
It might seem like a contradiction but the fact remains that the ball touching the ground is not all we need to see in order to call it a grounding. There is absolutely no evidence that Skinner or indeed any other Scotsman has their hand on the ball as it touches down. And you need both. He could have let it go. There may have been separation. And remember, even when it comes to the ball touching the ground, we were never 100% because we couldn’t actually see it.
All of which led MacNeice to say to Berry : “I cannot see for certain, I don’t have ball on ground Nick”
So what happens now? It’s very simple. With no conclusive way to overturn his original decision, Berry was only left with that decision. It is definitely unfortunate, maybe even cruel, but having watched it over and over again I can only come back to the same conclusion.
Now of course what I did at the time was to share my opinion on twitter, and we all know what happened next, I got replies stating categorically that it was a nailed on try, many with that screengrabbed so-called “evidence”. So to avoid falling down a social media rabbit hole, I chose not to reply and instead waited until now to make my case.
To be absolutely clear…I was 100% shouting for Scotland, they are and have always been my second favourite Six Nations team. Like I said, we have to take our allegiances out of the equation when discussing these calls otherwise there’s really no point discussing them.
I have always been in favour of using TMOs but only in a support capacity to the onfield referee. In my view they should always make a decision themselves, which the guy in the booth must only overrule if they have 100% certainty and it’s only when this is accepted that we can appreciate that once in a while we can have a decision that looks both horribly unfair and absolutely correct in equal measure.
STEVIE’S CALLING
I hadn’t time for a TikTok rant this week but even if I had it wouldn’t be worthy of posting instead of this…he needs no introduction from me but I’m still happy to namecheck Stevie Mulrooney he’s definitely a star in the making.
Absolutely brilliant! 👏 Stevie Mulrooney, the star of the Toy Show, sings Ireland’s Call in front of a sold out Aviva Stadium. Fantastic. 💚 IREvITA GuinnessSixNations SixNationsRugby IrishRugby Rugby
This week’s update did have good news with Jamie & Ross on the road to recovery but since neither were listed under “available for selection” I’m left struggling to put a Leinster backline together for Saturday without dipping into the academy, and with Hugo Keenan now not able to face Wales I’m wondering if we will even be able to avail of Ciarán Frawley’s services at all.
NB : the above matchday 23 is completely from my own mind, I’m certainly not suggesting I have any ITK a la Thornley
INJURY UPDATE – AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
N/A
INJURY UPDATE – FURTHER ASSESSMENT REQUIRED:
Jamie Osborne: has increased his training load and will be further assessed this week as he makes his way back from a shoulder injury
Ross Byrne: has increased his training load and will be further assessed this week as he makes his way back from an arm injury
INJURY UPDATE – UNAVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
N/A
NO FURTHER UPDATES ON:
Martin Moloney (bicep), Alex Soroka (foot), Charlie Ngatai (calf), Cormac Foley (shoulder) and Jimmy O’Brien (neck)
RUGBYPASS TV UPS & DOWNS
Just a quick note on a couple of things I’ve seen on RugbyPass.TV – I was going to do my TikTok on this had I enough time (for a 3 minute video I need at least an hour that just wasn’t there this week!).
First there was Whistleblowers which I would strongly recommend. Essentially it was “Full Contact for Referees” and definitely had a decent stab at humanising the officials from RWC2023. I would definitely recommend it, but since they’re not paying me to say that I should also point out a video I didn’t like as well 😁.
This was Boks Office which was essentially a Springbok view of the Six Nations. Now to be fair, this kind of input would be invaluable, coming as it does from outside the bubble, and with a panel of test capped stars (host Hanyani Shimange chatting to Jean de Villiers & Schalk Burger) you would definitely be interested.
But this particular episode featured a review of Round 1 so obviously they would have been focusing on Ireland’s win in Marseilles. They were full of praise for Andy Farrell’s men, but what ground my gears a tad was their assertion that Paul Willemse’s red card was the wrong call.
I mean if that is what they honestly believed then I can’t really fault them for expressing their true opinion and I certainly wouldn’t want that opinion banned, I suppose I’m just disappointed that senior players feel that way and are clearly either ignorant of the spirit of the guidelines surrounding head contact or are actually opposed to them. And the real irony was that I watched this chat right after I had watched Whistleblowers which noted the online abuse that referees can receive, meaning the lads’ views certainly do not help the matter.
That’s not to say I wouldn’t watch Box Office again, however, and they are certainly not alone when it comes to former-players-turned-pundits having these views.
🔝🐱🐴 UPDATE
After a weekend off the top four all find themselves at home in Round 15 so it’s likely for that end of the table to be just as tight, with both Oyonnax and Montpellier likely to be in even deeper relegation trouble as well.
NO MATCHES LAST WEEKEND
Round 15
SAT FEB 17
LYON V LA ROCHELLE
BORDEAUX V PAU
RACING 92 V MONTPELLIER
STADE FRANCAIS V PERPIGNAN
TOULOUSE V OYONNAX
BAYONNE V CLÉRMONT
SUN FEB 18
CASTRES V TOULON
AIL UPDATE
I have yet to find confirmation of this but I’m assuming that the way the Celtic Challenge works, the top three play each other and the results go to the final overall standings. If so, the Wolfhounds can probably clinch the title with victory in Edinburgh this weekend, while their final match against the Clovers the following week is essentially a Six Nations trial.
While that comp took a weekend off, the Women’s AIL returned to action, with the result that came nearest to an “upset” being Belvo defeating Wicklow by “only” 13pts. UL Bohs continued their 100% start, the gap between the top four and the rest grew wider, and that same four all avoid each other yet again in the next round.
It wa a similar case in the men’s top division with the top four all victorious, although Cork Con seemed to have a bit of a scare at bottom of the table Trinity. Tie of the round this weekend is definitely the 3rdv4th/Dublin derby that is Lansdowne v Terenure.
#SupportYourLocalClub
WOMEN’S CELTIC CHALLENGE
NO MATCHES LAST WEEKEND
WOMEN’S AIL
Round 11
SAT FEB 10
SUTTONIANS 0-22 BALLINCOLLIG
COOKE 5-29 RAILWAY UNION
GALWEGIANS 5-58 UL BOHS
WICKLOW 12-25 BELVO
Round 12
SAT FEB 17
UL BOHS V SUTTONIANS
BALLINCOLLIG V COOKE
BLACKROCK V WICKLOW
RAILWAY UNION V GALWEGIANS
MEN’S AIL
ROUND 13
CLONTARF 45-24 BALLYNAHINCH
TRINITY 17-19 CORK CON
SHANNON 13-28 LANSDOWNE
TERENURE 25-10 YOUNG MUNSTER
UCD 32-22 CITY OF ARMAGH
ROUND 13
SAT FEB 17
BALLYNAHINCH V TRINITY
ARMAGH V CLONTARF
CORK CON V SHANNON
LANSDOWNE V TERENURE
YOUNG MUNSTER V UCD
RUGBY EUROPE CHAMPIONSHIP UPDATE
I was kicking myself that I forgot to include an update for this comp last week, as I firmly believe it’s important to keep up on how these countries are doing what with the “6N promotion/expansion” returning every time Italy concedes a try and/or Georgia scores one.
There has of course already been one historic result in the 2024 Championship with Belgium defeating Portugal in round 1, although Os Lobos took out their frustrations on poor Poland last weekend with a 50🍔 while the Belgians couldn’t repeat their heroics in Bucharest. However if Portugal are to sneak into the semifinals they will have to win in the Romanian capital on Saturday, especially if Belgium can also overcome the Poles. Meanwhile in Pool A Georgia host Spain with both already safely through to the last four.
ROUND 1
POLAND 8-20 ROMANIA
GERMANY 17-28 GEORGIA
BELGIUM 10-6 PORTUGAL
NETHERLANDS V SPAIN
ROUND 2
SPAIN 27-5 GERMANY
PORTUGAL 54-7 POLAND
ROMANIA 33-18 BELGIUM
GEORGIA 31-10 NETHERLANDS
ROUND 3
SAT FEB 17
GEORGIA V SPAIN
ROMANIA V PORTUGAL
BELGIUM V POLAND
SUN FEB 18
NETHERLANDS V GERMANY
HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE
Kristian had a super round 2 and a bit like Ireland has opened a commanding lead atop the 6N league, although myself and Jay are also 6 for 6 when it comes to predicting winners. With the URC back in action this weekend that means so does the HPL so I have also included that table. Well, yeah, ok, the fact that I’m first in that one might have play a part in my decision…….
1 Kristian 12.00
2 Jeff 9.00
3 Jay 8.50
4 Mark 7.50
5 Conor 7.00
6 Tom 1.50
NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
Back to the URC this weekend, with a top of the table clash at the RDS no less as Benetton will be coming to D4. Keego will join me for a preview on Friday while the wrap recording returns to its usual Sunday evening slot.
As ever, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP
13 January 2024; James Lowe of Leinster dives over to score his side’s first try during the Investec Champions Cup Pool 4 Round 3 match between Leinster and Stade Francais at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
Wasn’t the strongest display V poorish opposition tbh. The pure world class of each individual player was clear but as a collective it lacked overall. I’m forever impressed by the strength, skill and athleticism of Baird, McCarthy and especially Doris…… Next week away V Tigers SHOULD be a proper test of where we are currently.
Jamie Bermingham
Looks like the team are still adjusting to a new play style, seeing flashes of great plays but also a lot of silly mistakes and errors. I’m going to hold judgement till later in the season, that being said we may just be holding back till the business end.
Gav Heg
Quite disappointed that we didn’t nil them. We should easily have topped 60 here but we’re let down by stupid and unforced mistakes. It could be put down to an adjustment period but we lacked the ability to just finish moves off.
Ringrose should have been motm but Doris also deserving. I felt sorry for Baird that he didn’t go over after that colossal run.
Can’t help but feel that a decent would have picked is apart. For Leicester we need a far better performance.
Johnny McGovern
Frawley in Leinster is jinxed …Is he robust enough for professional rugby ? I could say unlucky but he just isn’t …happening too often – he actually took two knocks during the game tonight and seemed to have effected his vision. The physios checked one eye and the second issue was the heavy tackle he took . I didn’t see the end of the tackle but he was in bits . Leo said he got a knee in the back which then spasmed but the tackler must have connected with his kidneys . Not a great Leinster performance given a very poor SF team .
Andrew Bailey
Let’s not get carried away. Given the selections – the result was a formality ((When is the last time there has been a decent contest in the Aviva group game). Sloppy game punctuated by mistakes and aimless kicking. The return of Lowe a huge positive. Lineout improvement once Ryan on the pitch marked. Just worry about sluggish performances by so many
Was really pulling for a zero there because the D deserved it but while far from perfect against a second string Stade that was a decent enough job done. Still much to work on but biggest concern Frawley's injury. Doris rightful PotM, congrats to Luke on 200. #LEIvSTF
16 December 2023; Cian Healy of Leinster dives over to score his side’s fifth try despite the tackle of Ethan Caine of Sale Sharks during the Investec Champions Cup Pool 4 Round 2 match between Leinster and Sale Sharks at the RDS Arena in Dublin. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
My biggest annoyance from this match (and I’m seriously fucking pissed off) was our complacency. Much as I was elated with our attitude last week, today was the complete opposite. That said I believe our expectations as supporters are not taking account of the huge vacuum created by the departures of Johnny and Stu. It will take time for the new coaching set up and 10 to settle and thrive
Alan Murphy Awful game. A game dominated by pedantic adjudication. Every phase seemed to end with a blow of the whistle. Stop, start. Happy with 5 points but dreadful to watch.
Kevin Kelehan Sloppy start and lax finish but a lot of grit for the middle half of the game either side of half time. Biggest news from the pool was La Rochelle losing again yesterday
SeanieH ·Terrible for Charlie. He’s had some lovely touches lately. Looking classy
No doubt Sale deserved those late scores but Leinster came out strong after the break and took control of both match & pool. Josh clearly has been working on his awesomeness. Charlie a big loss at the end and some work ons for sure but overall a good start to comp. #LEIvSAL
10 December 2023; Ciarán Frawley of Leinster kicks a penalty during the Investec Champions Cup match between La Rochelle and Leinster at Stade Marcel Deflandre in La Rochelle, France. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
Away in France to the reigning champs and we finally get it right! I couldn’t be happier to see the team finally figure out how to get the better of them. Delighted to see the only try scored is Larmour, he’s had a tough couple of years.
No trick plays, no bounce off the ball stuff, and no situation where the ref was clearly biased towards us. We beat them fair and square.
The future is bright at 10, the squad will take a lot from this and fingers crossed no major injury concerns as we prepare for Saturday
Chris McDonnell
Fantastic result, can’t fault anything on the pitch. Onwards and upwards.
Greg Kelly
Really well fought win. I seem to remember LAR struggling in similar conditions last year against Ulster. Byrne was pretty solid in what he did and Frawley fronted up well on a difficult night. Certainly a big weekend in the post Johnny period in blue and green.
Bert McLoughlin
What was best about today’s performance was the hunger to make dominant tackles and be physical in poor conditions. That hunger will make us strong contenders this season. No signs of a wc hangover
Gavin Hegarty
To me Byrne stood up when asked and frawley did the same. We’re good @10 for a few years!
Hats off to connors, he delivered and then some. Epic performance.
We had some unleinster mistakes but we’ll learn as the game evolves. Porter was constantly talking to the ref, this I like.
I did not like the ref telling ringer he won’t talk to Ryan but fear this is a result of ‘co’ captains. We need to sort thst.
William Andrew
Appalling display by the Ref, looked like he was been coached by LR. Said it twice to them but still did nothing to shut them up.
Honestly Refs need to realise a big scrum can actually bring a scrum down and play the odds like they play the red zone odds.
Jamie Donohoe
Very proud of that very courageous performance in those conditions. And i thought the Ref handled the game well too
Not ready for analysis yet except for THAT. WAS. AWESOME!!!!#LARvLEI
2 December 2023; Harry Byrne of Leinster kicks a conversion during the United Rugby Championship match between Connacht and Leinster at the Sportsground in Galway. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
Andrew Byrne A last minute try can’t paper over those cracks. We were far below where we should be. Is our squad just too big, all this rotation seems to be causing a lack of cohesion in our playing combinations. I only hope we have a better performance in the bank for next week.
Chris McDonnell Seriously not good enough. This rotating the whole team had to stop. Too many players just not good enough to play for Leinster.
Darran Kearney Kinda liking that we are playing so poorly early season, instead of beating everyone out the door and learning nothing. Coaches have 6 months to work with the team for the business end of the season. Hoping we can end this season better than we have in the more recent seasons
Christy O’Connor Way too much rotation, players playing out of position. Lots of schoolboy errors. Have we not learned anything from the last 2 seasons. We rested players that only played 1 or 2 games. This is now getting ridiculous. Stop giving lads time just for the sake of it. We need to give the core players more time and the others should possibly look to move abroad.
Conor O’Shea Poor performance, but a wins a win. No major injuries for next week from tonight
Eamon Saunders A lot of mistakes from both sides but good to get the win 👏👏
Went from deserving to be behind to deserving to be ahead to deserving to lose….to a BP win!!! Way to many unforced errors by both sides, just needed that composure at the end. Talk about getting out of jail. Tough on Connacht. Draw would be better result tbf #CONvLEI
HARPIN' ON RUGBY 