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.
20 April 2024; Charlie Ngatai of Leinster, supported by teammate Scott Penny, is tackled by PJ Botha of Emirates Lions during the United Rugby Championship match between Emirates Lions and Leinster at Emirates Airline Park in Johannesburg, South Africa. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
That was embarrassing. Performance was naive and inaccurate. Some of that is on the young lads not performing individually, but I think a major part is some of the older lads we’d hope to step up and lead in those circumstances failed to do so.
Greg Kelly
We were playing touch rugby in defence. If you are one of the teams fighting for 4th-8th you’d be excused for asking why Leinster don’t serve up 5 points away to you too?🤷♂️ We started dreadfully and then when we found a rythem we were woefully inaccurate.
Getting beaten like that is acceptable if we can walk away with silverware at the end. If not then questions need to be asked.
Éamonn Rogers
Honestly it was a game with little at stake played at 1700m (for context nearly 700m higher than Carrountoohil) I’d see it as nothing more than a blooding exercise/fixture we are obliged to fulfil. The stats show that there were a lot of positive elements. We (thankfully) don’t have the luxury of sending our primary team down like our southern cousins. Overall I’d say we could have done better but not the end of the world
Kevin Kelehan
A lot of players will be very disappointed with their performance, got the chance to shine and made unforced errors, hopefully a big improvement next week.
William Andrew
Looked like an unfocused Leinster. Distracted by the hype of this last week, etc etc. Everyone who has ever played knows you have to be dialed in 100% or you will struggle.
Lions were very sharp and handled the blitz defence with pace and good passing. Northampton are going to be all over this video.
A wake up call, last season we were great and not great for about the last three minutes in two games. 😢
A bad, bad day at the office for the boys in blue.
Lions were great value for the win after a flyer of a start. Making a great fist of the run to the final 8.
Congrats @Ringo26, see you at Lansdowne Road next season, or maybe even in the knockouts…👀#LIOvLEI
Just not good enough at all from #leinster – some fantastic talent on the park but sloppy, second at breakdowns and inaccurate overall. Congrats #lions but Leinster have some hard internal chats ahead after that. #LIOvLEI
No polishing that turd!!! Credit to Lions very clinical. We pinched a couple of tries but never looked like putting a real dent in that bad start. Retreat, regroup, and come back strong in Cape Town.#LIOvLEI
13 April 2024; Dan Sheehan of Leinster dives over to score his side’s fourth try despite the tackle of Jonathan Danty of La Rochelle during the Investec Champions Cup quarter-final match between Leinster and La Rochelle at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
Rewatched highlights. There was only 1 horse in it
I’m trying to figure out the La Rochelle game plan
Also trying to figure out why Leinster-jitzu didn’t work in the years previous
Today is a (nother) day my aul lad and others didn’t have. France were unbeatable and we were close to thinking the same about La Rochelle.
Today we showed what the story is. It’s actually unreal because it dismantled a he entire O’Gara La Rochelle gameplan
Paul McSweeney
I went to the game thinking that Leinster at their best might just squeeze a win in. How wrong can I be? That was an emphatic performance. Leinster needed this win way more than LR and it showed.
Now I’m just hoping that Croke Park is fully open and that tickets will be reasonably priced. I have my tickets for the final already…
Kevin Kelehan
Been watching Leinster since 1986 when they beat Munster in that years inter-pro, without hesitation that is by some distance the best Leinster performance I’ve ever seen, no Hugo Kennan, no Gary Ringrose and no James Ryan, yet they completely and utterly destroyed and humiliated the reigning champions in some style. Looking forward to the final in Tottenham and the cinquieme etoile!!!!
Greg Kelly
Usual story. Another 5 year French dynasty falls. The Leinster dynasty and brand continues. A few 50/50 calls saved LAR some extra pain but it feels like a sort of redemption. LARs false economy was built on Leinsters back and it falls to Leinsters sword.
LAR went to Cork looking to harness the local energy and they certainly harnessed some Munster European Energy 😉
William Andrew
Very well thought out performance by the players and coaches. Expected a slug fest with the selection but Leinster were moving LR around the park mercilessly.
I have had my reservations about Neinabar, but my goodness he delivered a class performance today.
Great to see secondary players delivering an emphatic game when it matters so much.
Chris McDonnell
I am not a Ross fan but he was excellent today. Credit where its due. Leo gambled with some calls today and got them right. Well done to them all.
Alan Murphy
A Test quality performance. Professional and tactical perfection. Delighted with the lads today. High pressure game with a lot of nonsense coming out of Cork during the week. Onwards and upwards.
Martin Lynch
Just So Lucky To Be A Leinster Fan. The Relief In The Stadium Was Palpable. Roll On Croker .
John O Halloran
Best performance in a long time, they stepped up . Well done.
Josephine Boyd
A fantastic performance from our boys in blue.💙👕🏈👍👏👏💪☘️
This is one of the great days.
Nothing won, but a fair fucking bit of pride reclaimed.
3rd times a charm for himself against LAR. If he can play like this week in week out . . . Jesus christ we'll be set! For Leinster AND Ireland 😉#LEIvLAE
I said at HT LAR only took what we gave them, then after the break we gave them NOTHING. Super display, great tries but don't forget the D – over 2 matches we've restricted the champions to ONE. TRY. We earned our home adv and used it. Now to make Croker our home. #LEIvLAR
HARPIN' ON RUGBY 