A WEEKLY COLUMN LOOKING AT TOPICS BEYOND THE SCOPE
OF OUR FEATURE MATCH OF THE WEEK
WRAP OF A WRAP
Since we switched to a pod-based format here at Harpin Manor at the start of the 22/23 season, I make it that we have done 44 “match wrap pods” covering competitive matches for both Leinster and Ireland.
Of those, just FOUR have involved matches in which Leinster or Ireland finished on the losing side, and our wrap recorded on Sunday evening was the first involving the test side. So it probably goes without saying that even when you factor in the whole “QF hoodoo” nonsense, it had to be easily the most difficult podcast to produce, especially since the scheduled recording time was less than 24 hours after the final whistle.
But full credit to both Mark Jackson and Conor Cronin for being ready, willing and able to take part in a full show regardless, and offering their usual excellent and honest perspectives in the process. Credit also to Cian “RugbyKino” O’Muilleoir for offering yet another set of comments before kickoff, at halftime, and, obviously the most difficult, right after the fulltime whistle blew.
Let’s face it – very few Irish fans want to be reminded of Saturday night so the result was always going to affect our listening figures. But I still hope I don’t need to explain just how important it was for us to record the pod anyway. I haven’t been Harpin’ on Rugby since 2008 just because I want to celebrate victories for my teams. I’ve been doing it because I love supporting my teams. And to not do a show would have been in really poor taste IMO, plus there wasn’t even a tiny bit of hesitation from Mark, Conor and Cian to play their parts either.
So if you do ever get around to wanting to listen, here’s a link to Spotify and we’re also on most major platforms.
HARPIN ON…IRISH FULL TIME TAKES
One job I did spare the lads when we recorded the wrap pod was that of our weekly “bonus clip”, where we normally have an extra chat on a wider topic for sharing exclusively on YouTube.
Instead I chose to try and capture some of the fan reaction, with videos done by myself, Kino & Keego within an hour of the final whistle, plus we’ve displayed comments posted on our regular post-match post on our Facebook page. There’s also a clip from the actual wrap pod where Mark & Conor offer their final thoughts.
Again, I knew we wouldn’t get many viewers/listeners but I still feel it’s just as important to share our thoughts win or lose.
THANK YOU JOHNNY
Like many others I stressed that it was important for Irish fans to be mindful going online after a crushing defeat like that one, and while I did stay away for a while, when you run an online entity that focuses on fan opinion, you do have to take a peek at social media reactions eventually no matter how unpleasant.
And to be fair, when it comes to the predictable banter/slagging/taunting from fans of other nations, I totally get it. Much of it was OTT but pretty much all of it was pretty boring and for me anyway, part and parcel of sport and certainly not worth getting triggered over.
What did get me however was the contributions from some (a minority yes but still a significant one) Irish accounts (have trouble calling them fans) which seemed to fall into certain categories…
not really fans of the sport, might watch 2 or 3 matches a year yet “always knew we’d lose”
fans of the sport, know a good bit about the Laws etc, yet decided to use that knowledge by spending the last year or so doing loads of different tweets explaining why the team would “fail” so they could pick the one that looks the most accurate now and show how they “told us so”
the saddest lot for me – those who only seem to watch so they can see players from their province take part and complain about the ones who don’t, and when test the team loses they imply that it would have been different with those same missing players involved.
And what makes all that most difficult to take is that, and I’ve said this many many times over the past while but I don’t mind repeating again, Andy Farrell & co literally could not have done any more in the build up to the quarterfinal – Triple Crown, series win in NZ, long winning streak, world number 1, and, oh yeah – Grand Slam.
So maybe, just maybe, there’s a case to be made that rather than Ireland playing as underdogs against the All Blacks as we have done in World Cups past, what we had instead this time was two absolutely top notch teams going at it, and if they played each other ten times over ten weeks you could be pretty certain it would be something like 5 wins each, only on this night it was New Zealand who deserved to progress.
But another thing I have said often here is that it’s clear that different fans follow sport for different reasons. So I guess all I can do is hope that the begrudgers are happy in themselves having the kind of mindset that produces the comments I keep seeing. Luckily I have this column where I can vent rather than tumbling down a rabbit hole on social media.
Anyway…it goes without saying that a lot of the abuse was directed at Johnny Sexton (mostly that Crowley should have come on in the closing stages and we did suggest on the pod that it was an option though to say this is why we lost is just nuts) so I decided to do a quick tribute video which you see below.
Finally as I type I see Keith Earls has formally announced his retirement and of course we also appreciate his contributions to rugby over his career and indeed we have said so many times on the pod.
Safe to say the Irish women had a better weekend of it, with their absolute thrashing of Kazakhstan in their opening match in the third tier of the inaugural WXV tournament.
However much the result might look more like a strong opening spell of batting in the Cricket World Cup, the margin is not insignificant because it does appear that there is promotion from this level into next season’s WXV2 and with the format meaning we only have three matches to top a six-team pool where we don’t face all the other teams, the off the charts points difference will come in very handy indeed.
Best of luck to the girls in their second match against Colombia on Saturday, here’s to more of the same, you’ll be able to see it at 2pm Irish time via this link (after free registration).
Meanwhile the top tier doesn’t get underway until the second weekend and as you can see there are some interesting matchups, although the pick of the whole tournament surely has to be the repeat of the WRWC final in the final round when the Red Roses look for revenge against the Black Ferns.
WXV1 – Round 1
ENGLAND V AUSTRALIA
CANADA V WALES
NEW ZEALAND V FRANCE
WXV2 – Round 1
USA 36-26 SAMOA
SCOTLAND 31-17 SOUTH AFRICA
ITALY 28-15 JAPAN
Round 2
USA V SCOTLAND
ITALY V SOUTH AFRICA
JAPAN V SAMOA
WXV3 – Round 1
SPAIN 32-0 KENYA
IRELAND 109-0 KAZAKHSTAN
FIJI 67-13 COLOMBIA
Round 2
KAZAKHSTAN V KENYA
SPAIN V FIJI
IRELAND V COLOMBIA (OCT 21 2PM)
PREMIERSHIP UPDATE
For well over a decade pretty much the entire northern hemisphere has remarked on how Leinster go without our “elite” players at the start of the season and let me tell you, if we had ever shipped 65 points in our season opener whatever our lineup, it would be headline news.
So I don’t see why reigning Premiership champs Saracens should get any mitigation when they get tonked by Exeter in Round 1.
As for Leinster’s Champions Cup opposition, they had mixed fortunes as Sale overcame Northampton at home while Leicester fell short at Bristol, and the two of them actually play each other at Welford Road in Round 2.
One interesting team selection was that of Finn Russell on the Bath bench and it seems he played a part in their win over Newcastle at the Rec, which would make you wonder if he’ll start next weekend against Saracens, might be worth a watch if so.
ROUND 1
BRISTOL 25-14 LEICESTER
EXETER 65-10 SARACENS
BATH 34-26 NEWCASTLE
GLOUCESTER 29-28 HARLEQUINS
SALE 20-15 NORTHAMPTON
ROUND 2
FRI OCT 20
NEWCASTLE V GLOUCESTER
SAT OCT 21
NORTHAMPTON V BRISTOL
SARACENS V BATH
LEICESTER V SALE
HARLEQUINS V EXETER
AIL UPDATE
There remains three unbeaten teams in the Women’s AIL but something will have to give at Annacotty next weekend as UL Bohs host champions Blackrock in what won’t be a million miles away from a rerun of the recent Intepro final.
Also I hope it’s a mistake on the fixture list that both Old Belvedere and Suttonians are expected to play two league matches each in five days? Not an ideal turnaround at the best of times but when you only have eight matches altogether in a tournament it doesn’t really seem fair to me.
Over in the men’s Div1A, champions Terenure fell to Clontarf in the repeat of last season’s final so Tarf join Shannon and Lansdowne as the only 100% sides so far. City of Armagh seem to have done well to get so close in their first ever home match in the top flight while UCD took the honours in the first Colours Match.
Nure will look to return to winning ways in Round 3 as they host Cork Con while there’s to be another North/South Dublin derby at Castle Ave as this time UCD are the visitors.
#SupportYourLocalClub
WOMEN’S AIL
Round 4
BALLINCOLLIG 18-17 WICKLOW
BLACKROCK 55-5 GALWEGIANS
UL BOHS 57-5 COOKE
Round 4
TUE OCT 17
OLD BELVEDERE V SUTTONIANS
Round 5
SAT OCT 21
UL BOHS V BLACKROCK
COOKE V SUTTONIANS
GALWEGIANS V OLD BELVEDERE
RAILWAY UNION V BALLINCOLLIG
MEN’S AIL
ROUND 2
UCD 35-8 DUBLIN UNIV
BALLYNAHINCH 31-28 CORK CON
CITY OF ARMAGH 26-29 LANSDOWNE
CLONTARF 26-16 TERENURE
YOUNG MUNSTER 7-35 SHANNON
ROUND 3
SAT OCT 21
SHANNON V CITY OF ARMAGH
CLONTARF V UCD
DUBLIN UNIV V YOUNG MUNSTER
LANSDOWNE V BALLYNAHINCH
TERENURE V CORK CON
HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE RETURNS
The return of the URC also means the return of the HPL…for those new to this column, this will be the third season a group of Harpin contributors predict the full URC season on Superbru and while it’s only bragging rights available for finishing first (as you see below I enjoy those rights after last season!!!) there is a booby prize for finishing last and Keego had the “honours” last time around…
NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
Obviously it would have been ideal to have the dilemma of having to cover both Leinster and Ireland next weekend, but at least the URC kickoff is there to keep us busy and we will of course be giving Sunday’s opener in Scotstoun the full Harpin treatment with a lot more besides throughout the week so keep in touch on all the usual social media channels,
And as ever, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP
A WEEKLY COLUMN LOOKING AT TOPICS BEYOND THE SCOPE OF OUR FEATURE MATCH OF THE WEEK
WRAP OF A WRAP
I have to be honest, those permutations had me nervous right up to kickoff on Saturday, especially the one where an 8-pt Scottish win put us out; my scrambled brain concocted a scenario where they led by 5 in the dying moments before the ref awards a contentious penalty that Russell slots to send us home…but that’s the life of a sports fan, logic rarely enters into the equation.
Let’s just say those thoughts had evaporated by the 2nd minute of the match!!!
And clearly by the time we sat down to do the wrap I was wondering what all the fuss was about, and this week it was the turn of Tom “@LeinsterRoyalty” Coleman and Ciarán “@PostToPostSport” Duffy to harp on the match as well as other events from the World Cup weekend, as ever they did a bang up job.
Just in case it needs pointing out, we here at Harpin Manor consider ourselves fans first and “experts” second. Sure, when you’ve played and followed a sport for so long, and especially when it comes to Leinster and Ireland you’ve watched every single match at least twice for over a decade, you pick up a few things, BUT it’s the fan element we like to promote more than anything else; we certainly aren’t trying to suggest we know more than the TV pundits.
Well, at least not ALL of them….
Anyway, for our bonus clip this week we wanted to lose the analytical hat for once and harp instead on what it’s like actually being a fan, and Tom & Ciarán helped me look at just how we get through a week before what is arguably the biggest test match in Irish rugby history.
IT CAN’T END IN TIERS
For this week’s TikTok opinion I had a look at how World Rugby handles the dilemma of navigating the space between the rock which is appeasing the corporate sponsors and the hard place which is fulfilling the mandate implied in their name.
On the one hand, we were always going to be chuffed here at Harpin Manor to have a TikTok reach over 10,000 views for the first time – over the past few weeks I’ve selected a portion of Ireland matches to focus on a particula positive aspect of Ireland’s play.
But….there’s another side to that coin. Obviously we’re not considered important enough to have our clips taken down by World Rugby???!!! In fact each time I put them up I’m EXPECTING them to be removed, but so far they all remain out there in TikTokLand so there you go!
Maybe I shouldn’t go focusing on the clouds when there’s such an obvious silver lining…
Following on from the Portugal point above, I’m hearing rumblings that despite Fiji’s loss there might be a chance they are admitted to an expanded Rugby Championship. I’m assuming World Rugby is looking for some kind of balance with the Six Nations so it’s possible Japan might be in with a shout as well, but we’ll have to see.
I’m mostly for moves like this, I just wish it was a more holistic approach to the game rather than admitting one or two nations to the top table every decade or so like it has been since the game went pro.
Again, a lot depends on what the plans are for this “World League”. I have a feeling it is not going to go down well with fans in general.
NEW MUNSTER POD
We’ve had Caolán Scully on the pod several times over the past year or so, and he has been hosting his own pod but it now seems he has put together a new project focusing on Munster for the upcoming season, best wishes to himself and Patricia for The Red Army Podcast, hopefully we’ll be able to get them on to harp about it at some point, possibly before the annual St Stephens Day match.
We will be coming to you each and every week with a range of guests so be sure to subscribe where you get your podcasts!! pic.twitter.com/CU4qooQBwi
— The Red Army Podcast (A Munster Fan's Podcast) (@RedArmyPod) October 9, 2023
W.XV KICKOFF
Speaking of World Leagues, the new Womens’ version gets underway this weekend. Ireland’s poor run of form puts them in a “third tier” but I THINK that promotion to the second one is possible.
Obviously I’m not happy with what I’ve been hearing from the Irish camp, about having to live in and around Dublin to name just one, and I’m definitely not happy about this tournament being held in Dubai for all the obvious reasons.
But, as fans when the green jersey is being worn we give them our support and for the next few weeks it’s important to get behind new coach Scott Bemand and his squad as they try to top this league.
The explanations of the format I’ve sought so far haven’t been great, but the way I think it works is that while the 6 teams in WXV3 have been separated into two groups of three, they actually only play the 3 in the opposite pool AND I’m pretty sure all six are presented in the same league table. It doesnt look like there are any playoffs, it’s just the team with the most points after 3 matches finishes first?
I will definitely update this if I learn any more, but best wishes to the squad nonetheless.
As for the top tier WXV1, I have to wonder about the timing…surely after already moving the Women’s World Cup to a different year to distinguish it from the men’s, the last day they’d want to launch this new product is the same weekend as RWC2023 semifinals?
Well I guess at least the Australian fans won’t have any conflict, amirite? Too soon?
WXV3 – Week 1
Fri Oct 13 FIJI V COLOMBIA IRELAND V KAZAKHSTAN (KO 4:30pm Irish time)
Sat Oct 14 SPAIN V COLOMBIA
PREMIERSHIP UPDATE
I know how we’re supposed to feel about English rugby but hopefully even the most hardcore Irish fans of the sport has to feel for the players, staff and fans of the clubs over there which have ceased operations over the past few years.
What’s left is an embarrassingly tiny Premiership of just ten clubs and in some ways maybe it makes sense that they’re kicking off on the same weekend that England are playing in a RWC quarterfinal.
The plan is to keep tabs on the results and such here this season much as we have done for other leagues.
ROUND 1
BRISTOL V LEICESTER EXETER V SARACENS BATH V NEWCASTLE GLOUCESTER V HARLEQUINS SALE V NORTHAMPTON
AIL UPDATE
After the women’s league has already had three rounds, the men got underway last weekend and by the looks of things defending champions Terenure didn’t have everything their own way against Ballynahinch yet still came out with a win to start the season.
New boys City of Armagh managed to get out of Cork with a losing bonus point while Tarf, Lansdowne and Shannon were the other winners from round 1.
Next up we have some interesting derbies, with top of the list being a repeat of last season’s final as Nure head to Castle Avenue as Young Munster host Shannon, all after the Friday Night Colours Match at Belfield Bowl.
Over in the women’s comp, Railway Union, UL Bohs and champions Blackrock all continued their perfect starts although Rock have only played twice over the three rounds so far. The trio have also been kept apart in Round 4.
#SupportYourLocalClub
WOMEN’S AIL
Round 3
SUTTONIANS 3-38 UL BOHS GALWEGIANS 5-63 RAILWAY UNION COOKE 15-24 BALLINCOLLIG WICKLOW 10-27 BLACKROCK
Round 4
SAT OCT 14 BALLINCOLLIG V WICKLOW BLACKROCK V GALWEGIANS OLD BELVEDERE V SUTTONIANS UL BOHS V COOKE
MEN’S AIL
ROUND 1
DUBLIN UNIV 24-34 CLONTARF LANSDOWNE 29-14 YOUNG MUNSTER SHANNON 27-22 UCD TERENURE 16-13 BALLYNAHINCH CORK CON 28-21 CITY OF ARMAGH
ROUND 2
FRI OCT 13 UCD V DUBLIN UNIV
SAT OCT 14 BALLYNAHINCH V CORK CON CITY OF ARMAGH V LANSDOWNE CLONTARF V TERENURE YOUNG MUNSTER V SHANNON
NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
Big, big week coming up, obviously we’ll be giving Ireland QF date with destiny the full Harpin treatment with a preview on Friday and a wrap pod on Sunday, and also take note that this time the team will be announced on Wednesday at noon Irish time.
So please comment, like, share & subscribe to our feeds & channels whenever the mood takes you.
And as ever, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP
Josephine Boyd Fantastic performance from our boys in green a great win ☘️💚🏈💪💪👍👏
Alastair McDermott You have to be a little bit worried playing New Zealand in the quarterfinals. But just think: they are shitting it facing Ireland.
Angela Cassin Jackson Simply brilliant ☘️☘️☘️
Christy O’Connor What a performance, every player played their part. Ringrose was motm for me but so many put their hands up. Scotland were giving too much respect before this game by so many pundits. Was never in doubt
Kevin Kelehan Dan Sheehan was superb
Antoinette Nevin Zombie 👏👏👏👏
Hubert Gallagher Scotland outclassed. Hopefully injuries not too serious to Hansen, Lowe, Furlong and Ryan. 1 week to prepare for ABs! Another huge step up!
Join in the conversation by leaving your thoughts
after the full time whistle of Leinster & Ireland matches
Obviously after such a big Irish win the wrap pod is that much more enjoyable, but even on top of that I had two excellent analysts in Mark Jackson and Tom Coleman helping me harp on the 80 minutes. There may not have been a lot of scores but there were definitely a lot of critical moments and as ever we worked our way through the exciting timeline from start to finish. Click here to catch it on Spotify but you’ll also find it on Apple and most major platforms.
HARPIN ON…FINAL THOUGHTS AFTER RSAvIRE
With matches kicking off at both 4:45 and 8pm on Sundays during the World Cup, that puts time restraints on our wrap pod recording and unfortunately we had to ditch plans for a bonus pod this week, instead I put a clip from the actual pod up on YouTube which you see below.
But with Ireland off next weekend, Mark Jackson has kindly agreed to come back and harp on the topic we had chosen, namely how coaches adapt during a match when one part of the game plan isn’t working, hopefully I’ll be able to post this by Saturday.
TENACIOUS IRISH D
It goes without saying but the RSAvIRE rewatch was beyond fascinating, and I for one was fixated on a pair of Springbok scrums in our 22 around the mid point of the first half. We hadn’t even troubled the scorers at this stage and we were in grave danger of going ten points down but with some determined defending, helped out a bit by poor opposition decision making, we kept them out and we put together the TikTok below, all while knowing full well of course that at some point it will be taken down. #LetTheClipsPlay
Here’s another TikTok video, this my weekly “rant” I suppose you could call it. I didn’t really want to have to weigh in on the whole Zombie nothing-burger but in the end it seemed to be the perfect topic for this segment. I’ve added the tweet that appears in the clip plus another one I thought of using.
I’m very much kicking myself that I missed the Women’s AIL kickoff last week in this column so I’ll try to make up for it here (still means I’m giving the league more coverage than most outlets unfortunately).
As you can see, with a 9-team league plus a postponement and a Round 2 fixture still to be played this Thursday, this year’s league is still getting off the ground but still there have been some predictable results for the big teams, although the big opening day Dublin derby between Rock and Belvo was close and got good coverage with a live screening on YouTube.
We’ll be following the competition here throughout as well as the men’s when that kicks off in October.
Round 1
BLACKROCK COLLEGE 22 – 17 OLD BELVEDERE
GALWEGIANS 12 – 25 BALLINCOLLIG
SUTTONIANS P-P RAILWAY UNION RFC
WICKLOW RFC 7 – 27 UL BOHEMIAN
Round 2
OLD BELVEDERE 32 – 0 WICKLOW RFC
RAILWAY UNION RFC 71 – 7 COOKE
UL BOHEMIAN 82 – 0 GALWEGIANS
Thu Sep 28
SUTTONIANS v RAILWAY UNION RFC
WXV SQUAD
While we’re on the subject of the Women’s game the squad for the WXV3 tournament was announced by new head coach Scott Bemand. Obviously I’m not crazy about the fact that we’re in the third tier of this new competition, nor am I crazy about the whole “being played in Dubai” aspect of it either, and finally there’s this “your chances of playing for Ireland are better if you live in or around Dublin” mantra which really does sound tone deaf considering not only all the women’s game on these shores has gone through in recent years, but also how much it has progressed elsewhere.
Still, we plan to give the girls our full support ounce the competition rolls around.
WXV3 Ireland Fixtures
• 13th October v Kazakhstan 16.30 Irish time
• 21st October v Colombia 14.00 Irish time
• 28th October v Spain 14.00 Irish time
All games will be streamed for free on World Rugby’s RugbyPass platform.
Very sad to hear of the retirement of Ian Madigan, although it does look like he has a promising future in the punditry game as he has been demonstrating throughout the World Cup so far.
ICYMI we dedicated a Throwback Thursday post to him last week, looking back to an article I wrote when he announced he would be leaving Leinster, to which he graciously replied.
POSSIBLE RWC FORMATS
This is an issue which comes up every World Cup going way, way back. What is the best way of actually staging a RWC? The four pools of five has been going quite a while now, yet with one team missing out each round and an insistence on midweek matches it has offered some serious challenges to organisers. For example, France play their four pool matches over 30 days while Namibia complete theirs in just 19.
What is the answer? Honestly none will be perfect. Some say they are planning to move to 24 nations, which would be good in one aspect as it would include more lower tier nations, yet while four pools of six might solve the uneven fixture problem, it also adds one extra match which would put extra pressure on squads meaning they would probably have to be increased, thus putting financial pressure on those same smaller nations.
I’ve wondered if some kind of “cross pool” method might work with a draw instead creating six pools of four. With the pools paired off AB, CD and EF, everyone in one pool could get four matches against teams from the other one. Then the top eight (pool winners + 2, old school HCup style) could advance to the quarterfinals, with possibly a plate competition for the next eight with next RWC qualification on the line. That way no team plays more than 7 matches, plus with 3 set groups of teams playing each other, they could be held exclusively Friday, Saturday and Sunday thus ensuring 7-day turnarounds for all squads.
Everyone seems to be offering suggestions so that’s mine!
MORE PERMUTATIONS
When he’s not going back and forth to Paris offering excellent reports from Ireland’s RWC matches, Cian “RugbyKino” O’Muilleoir has also been known to produce excellent spreadsheets allowing us number crunching fans to look at all the possibilities with bonus points and what-not, and here he has done one for the four World Cup pools, simply plug in the results you think might happen and find out who makes the last 8 and who plays who. Simples!
NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
By rights I should be taking things easy this week what with Ireland off next weekend, but I guess the World Cup bug has got hold of me so I have a few little things planned for the coming days. Biggest one is on Sunday and instead of a wrap pod I’m assembling another “all-provincial panel” to look at not only the tournament so far, but also the prospects for the 4 provinces with the URC kickoff coming think and fast.
Please comment, like, share & subscribe to our feeds & channels whenever the mood takes you.
And as ever, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP
HARPIN' ON RUGBY 