31 May 2024; Jimmy O’Brien of Leinster scores his side’s fifth try during the United Rugby Championship match between Leinster and Connacht at the RDS Arena in Dublin. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
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🏉 Early scores 🏉 Sam composure 🏉 TYVM RR,RM,EB,RDS 🏉 BP eventually 🏉 Tricky path ahead
Connacht seemed way off the pace, it was clear early on so much was going wrong for them.
Ruddock was immense he put everything into that game it was brilliant. Maloney and Byrne were also brilliant and gave excellent performances for their last games. I thought Ala’alatoa was unlucky for his card, yes he was high and he did hit Blades head, I’m not sure he hit it as hard as Blades reaction but that’s my bias(probably?). You could see though he wanted to out in a good shift.
Anyone doubting Leinster’s strength in depth can see in this game why it’s often quoted as being brilliant, no other club could make 14 changes and have a performance as strong as that. Keeping so many players involved and happy at the club is mind blowingly difficult, yet Leo does it year after year.
There was lots of things to like about that game even though 4 of the stalwarts are moving on & one of our backline was pretty jittery it was a pretty excellent performance from the other 19.
Chris McDonnell
Great performance from lots of the lads. Showed how awful last week’s selection was. Jenkins ahead of Molony, no Jimmy o brien , frawley just a lovely attacking player.foley I’d just miles better than mcgrath. Anyways hopefully ruddock and Molony gets to play again for us.
Cuan Mulligan
Felt Sam P had a great game, offered more options than other 10s in the squad. Was integral to a few of the tries; tried things, mixed it up. Should be where we invest and give him as much game time as possible. Might need some extra protein over the summer to bulk up
William Andrew
It was a good indicator of how valuable players like Ross, Max Ed and Ruddock are to Leinster. They provide the steel through a season.
Form was also on display, in some of the younger players
Leinster 33 Connacht 7
Overpowered & outplayed for long stretches Too many compound errors again Individual sparks in there but really not good enough The 2nd half showed improvement but lacked any kind of killer edge, any attack lost shape & defence was guts & fight#LEIvCON
It was clear after 15-20 minutes that Toulouse were dominating the breakdown, and we did not change out tactics. When we kept it tight we made progress, as soon as we went out the back, we struggled.. Ross provided no treat so their defence could drift and we ended up with lone runners giving up turnovers… ref was inconsistent, but you know that’s a risk and you need to not let that dictate the outcome
Alastair McDermott
Gutted. Close game but not clinical enough from Leinster attack. Toulouse deserved the win.
Way too many 22 visits with nothing from it. Rushed the first drop goal attempt, delayed the second too much. Lot of dropped balls and too many conceded penalties.
And we have to credit Toulouse & Dupont was class with those turnovers!
William Andrew
Losing three finals is a horrible number but we are still getting to finals.
Converting the opportunities is becoming problematic.
ST and LR have given away penalties in the red zone as a matter of course to stop Leinster scoring a try. Clearly playing the odds and no yellows have been given for this gamesmanship.
Today was a good example of two identical offences punished differently.
Are these teams just doing a better job profiling Refs?
Certainly Leinster, maybe, need to change their finals decision making, to a pragmatic take three points at any opportunity. A drop goal at 15 mins out of the blue might just make these teams second guess what’s happening.
Throwing the toys out of the pram is not an answer.
The reaction should be silence and 100% focus on the URC trophy. There are no big turn arounds needed. It might be just about playing 3rd Bs Cup rugby mentality at Donnybrook for a final.
Leinster spend most of their time thrashing teams, they are used to playing with a cushion. Maybe a few plays about hard nosed cup rugby would be a bonus
Kevin Kelehan
Toulouse did their homework on the ref and managed the breakdown impeccably apart from the dangerous clear out of Cian Healy. Leinster tried to force it at times and paid the price, booking 4 tickets for Cardiff and will bring the same three friends who went to Tottenham yesterday. Leinster are still a great side and lets hope their laser focus on La Rochelle this season moves to Toulouse next term and sets up an even better final (for the neutrals) with Toulouse again next season. Doris has emerged as real leader of men and Porter has hit his full potential.
Brian Corr
Absolutely gutted and this has been very hard to take.
You could whinge about the not taking points but Toulouse were flying in defence.
Leinster players made great breaks only to have no one backing them up so turned over.
DuPont had an exceptional game, two inch perfect 50/22’s 4 turnovers even though Leinster marshalled him well, he had the ability to change it up.
They say you need a bit of luck and not for the first time Leinster luck deserted them, nothing seemed to stick and the mix up with Keenan and JVDF summed up the match, 4 Toulouse against 2 Leinster on the back foot, should have put boot to ball.
How can you criticise Sheehan after a 60m break, possibly should have passed, but DuPont was in like a light.
Greg Kelly
The problem I think is the IRFU welfare policy. A lot of guys out there looked undercooked and they took too long to get going. Hugo Keenan looked like he had forgotten who he was at times. It was evident in those who played up in Belfast last week too. Personally I think Champions Cup and interpros should not be counted towards limits or rest periods.
In the stadium it was evident that both teams were trading the same blows on attack and defence. To say Carley had a bad game is wrong but he was more then a little inconsistent. There were shades of Wales/Fiji at the world cup too because the majority of times Leinster entered the Toulouse 22 Toulouse gave away a penalty but he never issued them even a warning.
The truly sickening thing is we all know we’ll be back in Cardiff in 12 months…😩
Fergal Duffy
We’ve learned nothing. We’ve sent rusty, undercooked teams in to too many finals now. Leo is obsessed with resting players but how can a team that has played together once in 3 months be more cohesive than a team that plays together week in and week out. That exact 15 should have played in Ulster last week, we butchered 3 or 4 easy tries in the first 20 mins alone due to lack of match sharpness
Brian Patrick Donnelly
From the top tier of a wonderful stadium I was screaming at them to take their points Jeff. Toulouse attempted every single opportunity.
Not going to pretend it gets easier after three straight years of this but ultimately we're a very good team that yet again has come up against an even better one and fallen short.
Heartbreak again, alas. The match was Leinster’s season in microcosm – attack never fired and breakdown was terrible; our best suit was box kicks landing close to the 22 and scrum penalties. It just felt like winning was always tantalisingly out of reach.
Obviously frustrating but we made too many errors.
I hate having to say this every year but Leinster fans maybe switch off the social media for the next while the usual muppets will be out in force.#TLSvLEI
18 May 2024; Charlie Ngatai of Leinster evades the tackle of Rob Herring of Ulster on his way to scoring his side’s first try during the United Rugby Championship match between Ulster and Leinster at Kingspan Stadium in Belfast. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
Whoever made the call to kick to the line when we are 1 point ahead with 10 minutes to go and straight in front of the posts probably cost us the chance to top the table. A win and we were top and had it totally in our own hands but for sone reason I still can’t fathom we decided to completely f**k it up. Totally sickened right now. Not to take anything away from Ulster who completely deserved the victory tonight but its very rarely you can be so outplayed and still have the chance to come away with a win. We need to see a completely different mindset from Leinster next weekend if we are finally going to get our hands on star number 5.
William Andrew
A dreadful lack of nous to lose that game. Continually kicking the ball away with 5 mins on the clock hoping to make ten meters is not great. A 30 meter through kick to force a Ulster line out in their 22 would have burned a min at least. Plus they are now in danger of conceding a penalty.
Several generations of former Leinster 10s and 9s must be shaking their heads.
Berchmans Gannon
From the sideline the box kicking is not the way to go.
Chasing a bonus point ahead of a win is questionable.
Shit happens! I will still support Leinster without the need for a slaughter of Managment.
Kevin Kelehan
Decent game that could have gone either way, the losing bonus point will get Leinster at least a home QF, the win will guarantee Ulster top tier cup rugby next season.
Colin Mehigan
Another uninspiring performance if I’m honest….our high profile coaching ticket need to rethink strategy
Very expensive defeat for Leinster. Terrible game management, can’t believe they didn’t take three with a kick under the posts when they were struggling to convert from close in. And an intercept try! Tear your hair out stuff.
Weird game. Should have been miles back by half time, bur should have won it comfortably in the second. That's not just top spot but also quite possibly a home semi-final gone unless Sharks and Ulster do us a favour next week. #ULSvLEI
Last night's result was disappointing & there were aspects of Leinster's play which weren't good enough over the 80.
But it was always going to be a tight game, & was won by a single kick. Let's give Ulster some credit too, imperfect but strong in patches, got it done.
Cant complain with result, but it still was there to be won at the end and clinical finishing we had shown with limited possession disappeared in final qtr. We didnt manage subs well either IMO. Credit to Ulster, Cooney immense, back row won breakdown battle #ULSvLEI
JLP : Some good, bad and extremely ugly news for Ulster during the week…obviously Richie Murphy being made permanent coach is a positive step in the right direction for all involved but for that to be followed up by such devastating injury news really has to hurt (and trust me I take no pleasure in typing any of that) making their task all the more difficult at the weekend. I still reckon it would be very unwise to underestimate them in the Kingspan, of course…
I’m not convinced that this package is anywhere near as robust as it should be.
JLP : World Rugby announced a rake of law tweaks and trials last week. Safe to say there is a lot to unpack but most of the attention seems to be going to the taking away of the scrum as an option for a free kick and, as ever, that 20-minute red card. For the former, I see the desire to cut the time down but I reckon it would be better to try and speed up the set piece itself rather than limit the amount of times they set. My suggestion is an extra official in the TMO box, ideally a retired pro front rower. On the 20 minute red, well, I have harped several times on this, no point harpin any more, it’s madness to my eyes yet seemingly essential to the southern hemisphere so we are where we are.
Building a sustainable post-rugby career involves more than just the skills acquired on the field
JLP : We recently introduced you to the RuckThis site and here’s a good article penned by Joe ‘Big Joe Shep’ Sheppard, it does exactly what it says on the tin/in the headline.
The reason given for the persistent delays was issues with licensing and player likenesses
JLP : I’m not at all a gamer, though not because it’s not right up my alley (I can assure you 15 year old me is furious about this) it’s more that I just don’t have the time necessary to become halfway decent at any of the amazing sophisticated offerings out there today. But I have to say I’m fascinated by the ongoing saga over the production of a rugby simulation. Since the heyday of Rugby 08 and Jonah Lomu nobody seems to have come close to offering an alternative to compare. How much of the failure is due to an inability to get the graphics etc just right and how much is down to inability to secure the rights to all the players from all the teams in all the leagues remains to be seen I guess, but while it would obviously never reach the heights and sales of something like Madden or FIFA/FC, you’d think there would be enough of a demand to warrant at least a new version every couple of years.
***CLICKBAIT OF THE WEEK AWARD***
“We were punished by players who have crucial responsibilities in this team. I will not give names.”
JLP : Not all my clickbait awards will necessarily be for bad reasons, sometimes the headline needs that extra bit of spice to catch your eye. I mean…it is true that Aldritt’s howler was worthy enough of attention all on it’s own given who he is but adding in the reaction of his coach gives the story that extra, eh, je ne sais quoi?
WRAP OF A WRAP
Had a late withdrawal (matron!) from the pod on Sunday evening so it would have been unfair to ask someone to prepare to review half the Ospreys match but thankfully Ciarán Duffy agreed to join the second half of the recording while I took over responsibility for reviewing the 2nd & 4th quarters. If I do say myself I thought it went pretty well, in fact I might do the reviewing duties again for the Ulster match next weekend. Anyway, like I said Ciarán joined us to restore the triumvirate for our YouTube recording which involved final thoughts from the match plus a couple of other topics like Leinster’s 10 and a possible selection for Belfast…
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.
QUICK TAP : CRICKET SCORES
The European rugby calendar issue has been without doubt my biggest bugbear over the 15+ years of the existence of Harpin On Rugby. It really annoys me how coaches are forced to pick and choose between two competitions in their selections week to week, and you could say Leinster have suffered from this more than most as we are consistently heavily involved on two fronts going into every month of May. Anyway – Northampton’s big win over Gloucester gave me my latest excuse to harp on this as you can see in this week’s Quick Tap.
Hopefully Alex Soroka will forgive me for saying that this has been the best “No Further Update” portion of this segment in a long, long time! May he too return to fitness before too long, but with big knockout games on the horizon no squad would have too much complaints about seeing the likes of Hugo Keenan, Garry Ringrose and James Ryan get closer to some game time. I have a feeling we won’t see Ringer for until the URC playoffs at earliest so I’ve tried to make my selection show the best balance between the rights amount of cotton wool, getting some rugby into the legs of the returnees and keeping some of the London starters active.
Harpin’ matchday 23 v Ospreys
Keenan, J O’Brien, T O’Brien, Ngatai, Russell, H Byrne, McGrath
NB : the above matchday 23s are completely from my own mind, I’m certainly not suggesting I have any ITK a la Thornley
OFFICIAL LEINSTER INJURY UPDATE
INJURY UPDATE – AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Tommy O’Brien: came through the game at the weekend with no issues after his return from a hamstring injury
James Ryan: is expected to return to full training this week ahead of the game against Ulster this weekend
Hugo Keenan: is expected to return to full training this week ahead of the game against Ulster this weekend
Will Connors: is expected to return to full training this week having been a late withdrawal from the team to play Ospreys at the weekend as a precaution
INJURY UPDATE – FURTHER ASSESSMENT REQUIRED:
Garry Ringrose: will continue to be assessed this week for a shoulder injury before a final decision is made on his involvement against Ulster
INJURY UPDATE – UNAVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Liam Turner: picked up an arm injury last week at training and will not be available for selection this week
Lee Barron: picked up a shoulder injury in South Africa and had a procedure last week which will rule him out for the remainder of the season
NO FURTHER UPDATES ON:
Alex Soroka (foot)
.
URC IRISH SHIELD UPDATE
You definitely don’t need me to scribble anything to point out the importance of the match in Belfast when it comes to the Irish Shield, the standings do that all on their own!!! BP win for Leinster will wrap it up, although I’m not even remotely suggesting that will be easily done whatever about Ulster’s injury list!
NOV 4 CONNACHT 22-20 ULSTER
NOV 10 ULSTER 21-14 MUNSTER
NOV 25 LEINSTER 21-16 MUNSTER
DEC 2 CONNACHT 22-24 LEINSTER
DEC 22 ULSTER 20-19 CONNACHT
DEC 26 MUNSTER 3-9 LEINSTER
JAN 1 CONNACHT 22-9 MUNSTER
JAN 1 LEINSTER 21-22 ULSTER
MAY 11 MUNSTER 47-12 CONNACHT
MAY 18 ULSTER V LEINSTER
MAY 31 LEINSTER V CONNACHT
JUNE 1 MUNSTER V ULSTER
THANK YOU LOCKY
When I was putting together my suggested Leinster matchday 23 for Belfast at the weekend, I struggled a bit for a 13 since Liam Turner is injured and both Osborne & Henshaw could do with at least a half match break. I settled on Tommy O’Brien as he has played there before but had he remained at Leinster another fine option would have been Rory O’Loughlin, in fact one of many fine moments he produced for Leinster was a try against Ulster, scored in a New Year’s fixture at the RDS when we actually won!
Sad to hear of his forced retirement, we of course wish him all the best in the future.
So many great memories in Leinster colours over the seasons 🔵🏆
No better man than RugbyKino to come up with a spreadsheet that allows you to plug in all the permutations for the final two rounds of the URC to see how the playoffs might shape up, if you’re a fully fledged rugby nerd like myself you’ll have stopped reading this sentence by now and you’ve already clicked the link below and you;re admiring his handiwork but on the off chance you’re still reading, be sure to follow the instructions and let us know if you find any bugs…
(PS working out that your team won’t win the title does NOT count as a ‘bug’)…
I said it last week – by rights Toulouse’s convincing win over Stade Français to put them on top of the league SHOULD be the big result from round 23 but even for this Leinster fan who probably should be keeping tabs on les ‘rouge et noir’, I can’t ignore La Rochelle’s latest defeat, a pretty heavy one away to Bordeaux in a match strewn with errors as has already been pointed out in the Front 5 above. This leaves them in a precarious position when it comes to reaching the playoffs, and will definitely need a win at home this weekend to Pau who are right below them. Definitely the match of the round this time though is Stade v Bordeaux, aka 2nd v 3rd, aka two teams coming off losses and vying for a semifinal spot.
Round 23
PERPIGNAN 28-35 CLÉRMONT
CASTRES 27-26 MONTPELLIER
PAU 39-17 OYONNAX
RACING 92 28-37 BAYONNE
TOULON 30-24 LYON
BORDEAUX 34-14 LA ROCHELLE
TOULOUSE 49-18 STADE FRANÇAIS
Round 24
SAT MAY 18
MONTPELLIER V TOULOUSE
BAYONNE V PERPIGNAN
OYONNAX V TOULON
CLÉRMONT V CASTRES
LYON V RACING 92
LA ROCHELLE V PAU
SUN MAY 19
STADE FRANÇAIS V BORDEAUX
PREMIERSHIP UPDATE
Already harped on the Northampton win, but even that didn’t quite clinch them top spot just yet, they’ll need to win at the Rec to secure top spot and Bath still have home semifinal hopes of their own and of the five matches in the final series this weekend, only Gloucester v Newcastle can be called a ‘dead rubber’.
ROUND 17
SALE SHARKS 31-22 LEICESTER TIGERS
NEWCASTLE 17-28 BATH
NORTHAMPTON 90-0 GLOUCESTER
BRISTOL 20-41 SARACENS
EXETER CHIEFS 58-26 HARLEQUINS
ROUND 18
SAT MAY 18
BATH V NORTHAMPTON
GLOUCESTER V NEWCASTLE
HARLEQUINS V BRISTOL BEARS
LEICESTER TIGERS V EXETER CHIEFS
SARACENS V SALE SHARKS
SUPER RUGBY PACIFIC UPDATE
I managed to watch the top of the table clash between the Blues and the Hurricanes, mostly to mancrush on Jordie Barrett and he did play well but in a thriller of a match it was the Blues defence at the end that got them the win – Canes had a 5m tap n go with the clock counting down and got driven back on the very first play so it put the Auckland based franchise to the summit for now. For the most part I felt their back row including Papali’i and Akira Ioane gave them the edge. Meanwhile the Crusader lost AGAIN…that’s just 2 wins in 11 matches and a quarterfinal spot is actually starting to look very unlikely although I wouldn’t rule them out until it was mathematically possible. A win in Canberra in the next round certainly wouldn’t hurt. Blues have another home NZ derby while the Canes will hope to get back to winning ways in hosting Moana P.
ROUND 12
MOANA PASIFIKA 7-43 CHIEFS
REDS 26-22 REBELS
BLUES 31-27 HURRICANES
HIGHLANDERS 32-29 CRUSADERS
WARATAHS 21-29 BRUMBIES
WESTERN FORCE 48-10 FIJIAN DRUA
ROUND 13
FRI MAY 17
HURRICANES V MOANA PASIFIKA
REBELS V CHIEFS
SAT MAY 18
FIJIAN DRUA V REDS
BRUMBIES V CRUSADERS
BLUES V HIGHLANDERS
WESTERN FORCE V WARATAHS
JAPAN LEAGUE ONE UPDATE
Semifinals time this weekend, though we should probably expect a Wild Knights v Brave Lupus final. Matches are to be shown live on RugbyPass AFAIK.
NO MATCHES LAST WEEKEND
SEMIFINALS
MAY 18
WILD KNIGHTS V CANON EAGLES
MAY 19
TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS V SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH
MAJOR LEAGUE RUGBY UPDATE
Chicago’s impressive run came to a halt as Old Glory pipped them by a point, with Dave Kearney getting a start. The Hounds are still very much in the playoff hunt but they won’t find it easy next weekend as they travel to Western conference leading Houston. New England remain top of the East but they too have a trickey western assignment next in San Diego.
ROUND 11
ANTHEM RC 15-38 HOUSTON
DALLAS 26-29 LOS ANGELES
NOLA GOLD 32-31 SEATTLE
CHICAGO 21-22 OLD GLORY
MIAMI 20-19 UTAH
ROUND 12
SAT MAY 19
ANTHEM RC V LOS ANGELES
HOUSTON V CHICAGO
NOLA GOLD V UTAH
SAN DIEGO V NEW ENGLAND
SUN MAY 20
DALLAS V SEATTLE
HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE
My performance in this season’s HPL now comes with a soundtrack, namely “Freefallin” by Tom Petty. Seems like five minutes ago I was comfortably in front and shameless bragging about it as though Mocker Gods didn’t exist…well, I’ve paid the price and don’t be surprised if I fall further!!! Meanwhile the top spot changed yet again as Kristian jumped over Kino.
NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
Ulster up next, we’ll have a preview with Keego on Friday then a wrap with Jay Long and possibly an Ulster fan recording Sunday evening. Do join us if you can and also keep up with all our usual content around the ruggersphere.
And as ever, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP
11 May 2024; Jordan Larmour of Leinster scores his side’s third try during the United Rugby Championship match between Leinster and Ospreys at the RDS Arena in Dublin. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
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Frawley looked very comfortable when he went to 10. Another very accomplished game for him. Just wished he got more game time there! Lots still to work on.
Peter Tracey
O’Brien looked sharp and has some serious pace. JGP and Frawley really sped the game up when they played together.
Frankie Taylor
Buzzing. Jimmy was incredible
David White
The spies from Toulouse in the stands leant nothing coz Ospreys were so poor
Tony Doyle
Good win and a great second half by Leinster
Came out from break strong and never looked back. Managed the game really well, kept them pinned back. JOB deserved PotM but Larmour another contender, JVDF in the pack too. Interesting to see selection next week but very happy for now.#LEIvOSP
LEINSTER : 15. Ciarán Frawley 14. Jordan Larmour 13. Jamie Osborne 12. Robbie Henshaw 11. Jimmy O’Brien 10. Ross Byrne 9. Luke McGrath
1. Andrew Porter 2. Rónan Kelleher 3. Tadhg Furlong 4. Ross Molony 5. Jason Jenkins 6. Ryan Baird 7. Will Connors 8. Caelan Doris (c)
16. Dan Sheehan 17. Michael Milne 18. Thomas Clarkson 19. Jack Conan 20. Josh van der Flier 21. Jamison Gibson-Park 22. Charlie Ngatai 23. Tommy O’Brien
OSPREYS : 15. Max Nagy 14. Luke Morgan 13. Owen Watkin 12. Keiran Williams 11. Keelan Giles 10. Dan Edwards 9. Reuben Morgan-Williams
1. Nicky Smith 2. Dewi Lake 3. Rhys Henry 4. James Ratti 5. Huw Sutton 6. Harri Deaves 7. Justin Tipuric (c) 8. Morgan Morris
16. Sam Parry 17. Gareth Thomas 18. Tom Botha 19. Victor Sekekete 20. Jac Morgan 21. Luke Davies 22. Jack Walsh 23. Evardi Boshoff
Great to see Gus McCarthy step up, a steep learning curve for the emerging squad members, far from ideal to have back to back away games in South Africa when squad rotation is at its peak. The lads showed decent fight in the third quarter but the errors in the first half were mostly preventable.
Greg Kelly
*Copy and Paste last week’s comments*
On the bright side our young lads dominated the 3rd quarter but the inexperience and inaccuracies were evident. They’ll get better and they’ll learn from this. However if we end up trophyless again this season I’m not sure these “kids school trips” to SA will not cut the mustard.
In a wider sense I don’t like where the URC is going. Some of the fixure scheduling is…suspicious. I think the SA franchises are gaining more than they add to it and teams being forced by pragmatism, timing or necessity to give up 2 games and 10 points undermines true competition.
Richard Kennedy
A big rethink needed on sending our 2nd/3rd string down to get pummelled in by hardened pros in SA. Some of those young players simply aren’t ready for that level yet
Warren Doyle
Much as expected. Training ground stuff didn’t work in the heat of battle. Very little inivotive thinking once that failed. Experience – yes. Knowledge – ?. Could be critical but players don’t need that.
No suprise there, really. Cullen insists on bringing development sides to SA, Leinster had a brief spell in 2nd half on top, then the YC. But well-managed by Stormers, especially Mani's time wasting. Piardi awful for both teams tbf.
HARPIN' ON RUGBY 