Josh van der Flier of Leinster scores his side’s fourth try during the Investec Champions Cup Round of 16 match between Leinster and Harlequins at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
I thought it was going to be a hard day at the office on the first 10 mins. I think the held up ball knocked the wind out of them.
Kevin Kelehan
Quins turned up, sadly only for 10 minutes, great to see JVdF back to his rampaging best, Ringrose lethal in defense and incisive in attack and Jordie Barrett’s team first and self second distribution showing why he was signed.
Chris McDonnell
As complete a performance as I have seen in ages.
Alan Murphy
Quins over 80 mins were never going to win that. Not taking the 6 points on offer for two kickable penalties in the first 10 mins was really naive. Aimless kicking to a Leinster back 3 was naive. Kicking all their restarts to the same space in the first half was naive. Very poor from a last 16 team. I hope they get rid of this round in future as very average teams are winning one game (Ulster) in 4 in the ‘group’ stages and making the knockouts. Others staggering in with 2 wins from 4. Go straight to the quarter finals in future.
Christy O’Connor
Dragons would’ve caused us more problems. I expect a much tougher game next week. I reckon Glasgow will beat Leicester and Glasgow will definitely give is a tough game
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29 March 2025; Max Deegan of Leinster makes a break during the United Rugby Championship match between Hollywoodbets Sharks and Leinster at Hollywoodbets Kings Park in Durban, South Africa. Photo by Shaun Roy/Sportsfile
Not really a great game for a neutral but I’m not neutral, great win. Max was superb
Kevin Kelehan
Noon last week hoped for 2 points out of both games, last week ahead for 83 minutes and just caught in the end by a super dogged Bulls side and this week won a proper dogfight. The scores weren’t spectacular, but players like Deegan, Soroka and Penny never stopped working, the depth that Leinster have is embarrassing. To take 5 points from a trip they have struggled on in recent seasons is really encouraging
Cormac Mannion
Fantastic win. Frawley still doesn’t seem to have recovered his mojo after last autumn, albeit he was great for Penny’s try
Bernie Cunningham
Grt win, boys left it all on the pitch, delighted for the younger lads and to bring home 4pts from SA brill.👏👏
Eamon Saunders
Great performance from such a inexperienced bunch at this level given the opposition 💪👏👏
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22 March 2025; Fintan Gunne of Leinster offloads to teammate Jordie Barrett during the United Rugby Championship match between Vodacom Bulls and Leinster at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria, South Africa. Photo by Shaun Roy/Sportsfile
This week’s wrap wasn’t quite the struggle from the previous one, yet it still wasn’t pretty and Jay and David battled through it bravely as ever. Our run of two successive M6N titles since we switched to a pod-based format couldn’t last forever, right?
A selection of eye-catching egg-chasing quotes & links from around the rugby media landscape
MUDDER RUCKERS
In this segment I mention Ailbhe & Kino’s upcoming W6N pod “MudderRuckers – The Irish Wonen’s Rugby Podcast”
here’s their promo, please check it out and be sure to subscribe
ROCK SOLID D
LET ME BE BRIVE
JUST THE TICKET
CURIOUS GEORGIA
HARPIN ON…IRELAND’S DEPTH CHART
Here’s the lead-in question :
“Well we’ve reached the end of another Six Nations campaign, one that started brightly enough for Ireland with a Triple Crown but ended with much disappointment in the final two weeks. But all we can do now is look forward and with the retirement of three legends in Messrs O’Mahony, Murray and Healy this is a good opportunity to look across the 15 positions to see what kind of options Ireland have with a summer tour plus some big tests against the southern hemisphere nations to come later in the year. We’re going to start with David who is going to focus on the backs for us!”
LEINSTER SQUAD UPDATE
Couldn’t see an official injury report, nor even a list of what players travelled. Trying to cobble together info from various sources around the ruggersphere and from what I can gather it does seem Leinster’s 3 NIQs made the journey, and there’s even talk of some involved with 6N squad joining in time for our 2nd match in Durban. Suggests we’re really going for some points down there. I have chosen a 23 based on a 6/2 bench, and we’re calling the “The Max Deegan All-Stars” in the Harpin’ WhatsApp group.
HARPIN’ POSSIBLE MATCHDAY 23 V BULLS
Frawley, T O’Brien, J Osborne, Barrett, J O’Brien, R Byrne, L McGrath
G McCarthy, Healy, Clarkson, Mangan, Soroka, Penny, Gunne, Tector
caveat : I have no “ITK” a la Thornley
TROLL PATROL
Now it’s time for Troll Patrol where we ‘detain’ a social media commentator and charge them with gaslightery and general online mayhem.
Clearly not content with another quality Harpin wrap pod appearance, Jay Long had to also steal the show for our latest Troll Patrol with a turducken of shithousery. ‘Scotland are shit’ burn wrapped in an ‘Ireland are one-dimensional’ burn inside a ‘Sexton is coaching and I don’t like it’ burn.
Absolute class. Nothing beats a troll quite like a superb counter-troll.
Qualifying finals – 1 v 6, 2 v 5, 3 v 4 with the top-ranked team hosting
Semi-Finals – three qualifying winners plus highest ranked loser: Teams re-ranked with 1 v 4 and 2 v 3
Final – top-ranked semi-final winner hosts the other semi-final winner.
RWC2027 QUALIFIERS
The RWC2027 tournament has expanded to 24 nations so with four extra spots up for grabs it makes for a fascinating qualifying process.
Rather than post the latest results and fixtures here however, I’d like to defer to the excellent work of frequent Harpin’ contributor Ciarán Duffy who has been keeping close tabs on the qualifying process over at his own site Post to Post Sport.
Follow this link to see how the Road to Australia is progressing..
Japan League One
Major League Rugby
Harpin Prediction League
This is the 4th season of our Superbru prediction league among Harpin’ pod contributors.
Kristian is the reigning champion, but the real competition is in avoiding finishing last, which means you must wear The Jersey of Shame. I had to wear it the first year, while Keego has had the honour the past two seasons.
As you can see our resident stats expert Rugby Kino is leading the way with room to spare but down at the foot of the table, the race to avoid the JoS is hotting up with Keego winning Round 12 and making the two above him anxiously look over their shoulders.
We’ve also added a Cup (or Mug) competition to make things interesting. Still one quarterfinal to play, the Westmeath/Meath derby between Mark and Tom this weekend.
Italy were solid and pumped, only for the cards they may well have won this game, Ireland were good in spells but a lot of unforced errors, something you did not see in the 2022/23 season
Eamon Saunders
Sorry to say but the second best team won today and sad to say the the ref and TMO were bad 5 mins looking at a knock on and 5 seconds looking a a perfect try
John Hyland
(reply to Eamon Saunders) I totally disagree. Ireland played poorly but they were not the second best team
Cormac Mannion
We looked badly coached today. Zero inventiveness and unsure in defence. Far too many unforced errors
Angela Cassin Jackson
Tough game but a win is a win. 4 out of 5 wins and a triple crown a lot to be proud of. Well done Ireland as usual they represented their country wonderfully 💚☘️💚☘️💚☘️💚
Gavin Hegarty
We were shit at the things you can’t coach. Bad knock ons and handling errors. Really not like us.
We looked unfit and unmotivated.
Crowley left too many points out there
,this is meant to be his strength. 2/5 just isn’t good enough.
Sean MacDonnchadha
Thank god this hobble towards the end of the tournament has come. Gameplan needs an overhaul, skill levels need to come up, fitness looks an issue, depth needs to be built, attack needs to be less reliant on just set piece plays and most importantly confidence needs to be rebuilt.
Monica Keeler
Lets just applaud the lads ..and our 3 Retirees Cian, Peter and Conor..we better regroup before next year…Dont see many Lions in our squad.. oh and no way Lowe was in touch 🤬
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HARPIN' ON RUGBY 