Tag: rugby
465 : Leinster v Zebre preview
LEINSTER : 15. Hugo McLaughlin 14. Joshua Kenny 13. Hugh Cooney
12. Charlie Tector 11. Andrew Osborne 10. Harry Byrne 9. Luke McGrath (c)
1. Jerry Cahir 2. John McKee 3. Rabah Slimani 4. Brian Deeny
5. Diarmuid Mangan 6. Max Deegan 7. Scott Penny 8. James Culhane
16. Bobby Sheehan 17. Alex Usanov 18. Andrew Sparrow 19. RG Snyman
20. Alex Soroka 21. Will Connors 22. Fintan Gunne 23. Caspar Gabriel
ZEBRE : 15 Lorenzo Pani 14 Mirko Belloni 13 Giulio Bertaccini 12 Marco Zanon 11 Albert Einstein Batista 10 Giacomo Da Re 9 Thomas Dominguez
1 Muhamed Hasa 2 Giovanni Quattrini 3 Matteo Nocera 4 Franco Carrera 5 Leonard Krumov (c) 6 Giacomo Ferrari 7 Samuele Locatelli 8 David Odiase
16 Tommaso Di Bartolomeo 17 Paolo Buonfiglio 18 Marcos Gallorini 19 Giacomo Milano 20 Giovanni Licata 21 Migael Prinsloo 22 Martin Roger Farias 23 Luca Morisi
BKT United Rugby Championship 25/26 Rd 5
Saturday, October 25, 2025
Aviva Stadium
KO 5:30pm Irish time
Live on : Premier Sports 1, URC.tv
Referee: Ian Kenny (SRU)
AR 1: Stuart Gaffikin (IRFU)
AR 2: Andrew Fogarty (IRFU)
TMO: Colin Brett (SRU)
80+ column : October 22 (sample)

ON THIS WEEK’S COLUMN…
- WRAP OF A WRAP
- WHISKEY BUSINESS
- WAFER QUIN
- INTERNATIONAL RULES
- SPRING-BOKS?
- WHAM ZAM THANK YOU MA’AM
- HARPIN’ ON…IRELAND’S NOV SQUAD
- SOLDIER FIELD PLAY
- LEINSTER SQUAD UPDATE
- TROLL PATROL
- COMPETITION UPDATES (incl AIL)
- NEXT HARPIN’
WRAP OF A WRAP
Needless to say it was a tough wrap, and having already determined that Saturday’s Croke Park disaster reminded me of the Northampton semifinal earlier in the year, we had the added realizations that not only did we host Zebre the following weekend back then as well, but Hugo Gordon also featured on that Saints wrap pod!!!! To be fair, he did a really good job both times highlighting what went wrong while still affording due praise to our southern cousins this time.
ICYMI click here to check it out.

WHISKEY BUSINESS
“We’ve already brought in some new stuff this morning that we are working on for the next couple of weeks.”
Jamison Gibson-Park: Ireland’s World Cup prep starts against All Blacks
Michael Glennon – RTÉ.ie
Must have been tough for JGP to do an interview so soon after the Croke Park disaster, yet being one of the senior players in the squad it was good to get a sense of where the group is at as they embark on one of the most critical November series for Ireland in a number of years.
Sorry to heap that much pressure on it, but I believe it to be true. After two Six Nations Championships in a row, despite winning another 4 out of 5 this year it was considered a disappointment and with these being the last test matches before the RWC2027 draw, ranking points will be essential, but also it’s about restoring some confidence that we can take forward to the upcoming Six Nations and beyond.
The quote really does give us something to look out for in the Chicago test, we’ll see what it might be.
464 : Leinster v Munster wrap

🏉 Multiple issues
🏉 Jack’s boot
🏉 Beirne unit
🏉 No warnings
🏉 Back to drawing board
THIS WEEK’S GUEST
FULL TIME TAKES
Sarah Lennon
I feel for Cullen. All the riches in the world and none of them his. The team was disjointed, two dimensional and predictable. They played like strangers.
Munster, as good as they were, simply needed to do the basics well.
The end is nigh, for the team and for the ticket!
Kevin Kelehan
Munster came to Croker with a simple game plan and executed it, led by Tadgh Beirne who led from the front and dominated the breakdown, ending so many multi phase Leinster attacks with turnovers. Leinster were not cohesive and butchered so many decent attacks with bad handling. The ref was not test level, let Munster away with murder when not releasing the tackler going to ground, constantly half a yard offside at rucks, denied Josh van Der Flier a clear try and let a Munster deliberate knock on away as accidental. Leinster badly missed Joe McCarthy, Ryan Baird, Jack Conan, Hugo Keenan and Cealan Doris with Prendergast, Lowe and Snyman all extremely rusty. But hats off to Munster to playing to their game plan and executing scraps into 7 point scores, their new manager unlike Richie Murphy hit the ground full tilt in his first season.
Gavin Hegarty
I’m embarrassed by that performance. Lions and internationals on the pitch beaten by a team that just wanted it more.
I need to watch that penalty try again because from the Cusack stand it made zero sense. But that made no impact on the final score.
We thought the first two games were just blips,maybe not.
Colin Mehigan
We were missing key players and leaders (Doris, Conan, McCarthy, Keenan, Tommy OB, Baird etc). There’s too much hyperbole in modern sport and the aftermath of tonight from fan and media alike will be no exception.
I do have qualms about the Nienaber system which have been reinforced after that game but we did win a trophy 5 matches ago. Munster were due a win against us and they sensed our vulnerabilities before and during the game….now it’s time to see leaders step up for the rest of the season
Michelle Tobin
Injury count was horrendous on both sides. Having said that I’m happy tonight
Christy O’Connor
First off the better team by far won. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Nienabars tactics are awful. We are playing the same awful tactics that Van Graan did for Munster, stick it up the jumper and just try to barge through. We spent the majority of the 2nd half in their 22 and done nothing with it, not once did I feel confident that we would score. Superb defence from Munster but we never stretched them.
Felt sorry Frawley, was a brilliant tackle to deny the BP try only for the ref to make up some new law to give it.
Chris McDonnell
I have been saying this for years now, Cullen is not a head coach. He is a great servant to the club but simply has failed time and time again as coach. Pendergast didnt pick himself for ireland or leinster but simply isn’t any where near good enough at the minute and he may find it difficult to come back from this.
John Hyland
The breakdown was a free-for-all. Leinster lacked any pace or physicality. Crowley bossed our back three, and Prendergast was very poor. I’m not buying the ‘let him develop’ line. If he was good enough we would have seen it by now.
Conor Lowth
Actually refreshing to have a competitive Munster side back.
Leinster are on the decline the last couple of years and are persisting with mediocre players like Osborne, Frawley, Pendergast. These guys are rugby robots, slow with little flair , I fear for Leinster and Ireland

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URC WRAP

NEXT HARPIN’
TUESDAY
BONUS CHAT : “IRELAND’S NOVEMBER SQUAD”
WEDNESDAY
80+ COLUMN
463 : Leinster v Munster preview


462 : Leinster v Sharks wrap

🏉 Cohesion back
🏉 Gunne firing
🏉 Josh the skipper
🏉 Sleeping giants
🏉 Josh the debutante
THIS WEEK’S GUEST
FULL TIME TAKES
Gavin Hegarty
Normal (ISH) service resumes!
I thought Osbourne was great, most likely Irelands 15 for the autumn internationals in winter. Harry looked confident but did try a tad to hard in parts.
We were south lower and watched the ground covered by Baird to make a tackle, unreal!
Far from perfect but a step in the right direction

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NEXT HARPIN’
TUESDAY
BONUS CHAT : “THE FRAWLEY DILEMMA”
WEDNESDAY
80+ COLUMN
461 : Leinster v Sharks preview
Our guest : CIARÁN DUFFY
LEINSTER : 15. Jamie Osborne 14. Jimmy O’Brien 13. Robbie Henshaw 12. Ciarán Frawley 11. James Lowe 10. Harry Byrne 9. Fintan Gunne
1. Paddy McCarthy 2. Rónan Kelleher 3. Tadhg Furlong 4. Brian Deeny 5. Ryan Baird 6. Alex Soroka 7. Josh van der Flier (c) 8. Max Deegan
16. Gus McCarthy 17. Jack Boyle 18. Thomas Clarkson 19. Diarmuid Mangan 20. James Culhane 21. Luke McGrath 22. Hugh Cooney 23. Joshua Kenny
SHARKS : 15 Edwill van der Merwe 14 Ethan Hooker 13 Jurenzo Julius 12 Lukhanyo Am 11 Makazole Mapimpi 10 Jean Smith 9 Jaden Hendrikse
1 Simphiwe Matanzima 2 Fez Mbatha 3 Ruan Dreyer 4 Jason Jenkins 5 Marvin Orie 6 Phepsi Buthelezi 7 Emmanuel Tshituka 8 Vincent Tshituka (c)
16 Bongi Mbonambi 17 Dian Bleuler 18 Vincent Koch 19 Bathobele Hlekani 20 Nick Hatton 21 Ross Braude 22 Siya Masuku 23 Francois Venter
BKT United Rugby Championship 25/26 Rd 3
Saturday, October 4, 2025
Loftus Versfeld Stadium, Pretoria
KO 5:30pm Irish time
Live on : Premier Sports 1, URC.tv
Referee: Craig Evans (WRU)
AR 1: Keane Davison (IRFU)
AR 2: Dan Carson (IRFU)
TMO: Keith David (WRU)
460 : Bulls v Leinster wrap

🏉 Heads not dropping
🏉 Attack is back
🏉 Handing them points
🏉 Tommy’s on fire
🏉 Half full or empty?
THIS WEEK’S GUEST
FULL TIME TAKES
Kevin Kelehan
Better performance, should have got 2 bonus points out of it but was a game they had chances to win. After last weeks ill discipline this was a much better performance
Christy O’Connor
Cross field kicks killed us and there were a number of other times they could’ve exposed us, but luckily we escaped. Saying all that, very unlucky not to have come away with 2 points

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NEXT HARPIN’
TUESDAY
BONUS CHAT : “LEINSTER’S WORKONS”
WEDNESDAY
80+ COLUMN
459 : Bulls v Leinster preview
LEINSTER : 15. Jimmy O’Brien 14. Tommy O’Brien 13. Hugh Cooney 12. Robbie Henshaw 11. Andrew Osborne 10. Sam Prendergast 9. Luke McGrath (c)
1. Paddy McCarthy 2. Gus McCarthy 3. Thomas Clarkson 4. Brian Deeny 5. Ryan Baird 6. Alex Soroka 7. Will Connors 8. Max Deegan
16. John McKee 17. Jack Boyle 18. Rabah Slimani 19. Diarmuid Mangan 20. Scott Penny 21. James Culhane 22. Fintan Gunne 23. Ciarán Frawley
BULLS :15 Devon Williams 14 Sebastian de Klerk 13 David Kriel 12 Harold Vorster 11 Stravino Jacobs 10 Keagan Johannes 9 Embrose Papier
1 Gerhard Steenekamp 2 Johann Grobbelaar 3 Mornay Smith 4 N JV Rensburg 5 JF van Heerden 6 Marcell Coetzee 7 Mpilo Gumede 8 JJ Theron
16 Juann Else 17 Alulutho Tshakweni 18 Francois Klopper 19 Sintu Manjezi 20 Nama Xaba 21 Zak Burger 22 Stedman Gans 23 Willie le Roux
BKT United Rugby Championship 25/26 Rd 2
Saturday, October 4, 2025
Loftus Versfeld Stadium, Pretoria
KO 5:30pm Irish time
Live on : Premier Sports 1, URC.tv
Referee: Adam Jones (WRU)
AR 1: Sean Miller (SARU)
AR 2: AJ Jacobs (SARU)
TMO: Gianluca Gnecchi (FIR)
458 : Stormers v Leinster wrap

🏉 Lack of attack
🏉 Sam’s kicking
🏉 In our defence…
🏉 Set-piece woes
🏉 And now, the Bulls
THIS WEEK’S GUEST
FULL TIME TAKES
Gavin Hegarty
Two yellows in one game, how many did we get last season?
We looked rusty and disinterested but let’s not get carried away. First game of a long season, let just learn from it.
Kevin Kelehan
Kick up the arse first day of the new season, 2 cards in 4 minutes made the scoreline a hammering. It will get better from here
Chris McDonnell
Our coaches know the players who were available for the past 2 or 3 months and still we couldn’t win a lineout scrum or even score a point. Total failure from our coaching staff once again. Not one coach from our group can say his pre season work actually looked better than a shambles.

Get in the conversation yourself by leaving
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URC WRAP

NEXT HARPIN’
TUESDAY
BONUS CHAT : “LACKING LEADERSHIP”
WEDNESDAY
80+ COLUMN
