Our weekly newsletter looking at the latest news around the ruggersphere
WRAP OF A WRAP
Joining me on this week’s wrap pod was Rich Mifsud & Jay Long they put an amazing amount of lipstick on the pig that was the Leinster v Dragons match, if you missed it please check it out here.
HARPIN ON…THE LIONS Part 1 : “The Bankers”
A selection of eye-catching egg-chasing quotes & links from around the rugby media landscape
VANCOUVER VICTORY
King rumbled over from close range again to level at 27-27. O’Brien kept her composure to deliver the winning additional two points from the tee.
Ireland Sevens Olympian Zac Ward (pictured below) is named on the left wing in a pacy-looking back three alongside Rob Russell and Ben O’Connor who starts at full-back.
Erasmus paid the price for leaving the majority of his starting XV at home for the defeat by Argentina in an otherwise perfect campaign in terms of results.
McKee, Healy, Slimani, Deeny, Baird, McGrath, R Byrne, McErlean
Caveat : I have no “ITK”
INJURY UPDATE – AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Michael Milne: came through the game on Friday with no issues after his recovery from an ankle injury.
INJURY UPDATE – FURTHER ASSESSMENT REQUIRED:
RG Snyman: will step up his rehabilitation programme further this week as he nears a return from a foot injury.
UNAVAILABLE FOR SELECTION THIS WEEK:
Dan Sheehan, Jack Boyle, John McKee, Paddy McCarthy and Tommy O’Brien.
TROLL PATROL
LOADS of example to choose from to highlight what I was talking about in the Front 5 video but this was among my favourites and thus is this week’s Troll Patrol detainee.
Irish Women’s team
All Ireland Leagues
Women’s
Men’s
Premiership
🔝🐱🐴
ProD2
The Rugby Championship
RE Super Cup
Harpin Prediction League
NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
Friday – Benetton v Leinster preview feat Keego & Harpin segment on DublinSouthFM 93.9
Well we got the win and that’s great, but it’s back to the drawing board not just for SA but for next year as well. Delighted with the win though 😂
Kevin Kelehan
Won the game and the championship, was happy to see Ireland come through yesterday with Keenan and Ringrose off the pitch from the start against a Scotland side a lot stronger out wide than in tight. What England has exposed is Ireland need a second row size 6 to compliment Van Der Fliers speed, Ireland are only pressured by teams with a weight advantage 4-8. Fix that weight deficit whilst retaining poachers like Doris and Van Der Flier and Ireland will reach the next level.
Craig Boyd
Job done, our expectations have all changed so today was a bit of an anticlimax. All the same what a great team they are.
John O Halloran
Great to get the wins and the championship but big tests and rejigging needed.
England and Scotland were well up to that Irish attack.
The Scottish 6 was excellent.
Alastair McDermott
I was hoping to see Andy Farrell bringing his kids out on the pitch to celebrate
England had their best game in about 3 years and only beat us by a point. Lads gave everything and just a bit off and that’s what happens. Suppose there is a reason we’ve not seen back to back grand slams in 30 years
Ciara Lennon
Big wake up call for Ireland. England came to play and played the better rugby on the day. They never let Ireland settle. Too many handling errors from Ireland. Too many penalties conceded. I love Peter O Mahony but 2nd yellow card for a captain in one tournament is just not good enough. He needs to get a better example. Should Murray have kicked it away with 90seconds on the clock? Probably not but at thr end of the day, Ireland were just out played
Craig Boyd
In simple terms England should have been out of sight, Ireland in no way deserved the win. That being said they got themselves in a position were they should have won but can’t help but thinking when Murray kicked the ball away with 90 seconds to go that he offered England the perfect opportunity for them to win the game. Did he not trust his forwards to see out 90 seconds?
Jamie Bermingham
So much arrogance from the media in the build up and then after both tries we didn’t put any pressure on them. England came to play rugby and got the win simple as
Big Joe Shep
• England were exceptional today and outplayed us in everything.
• It was a poor day at the office and it happens but as a collective, we didn’t turn up I’m afraid
• An aging Murray with a wasted box-kick in the last embers of the game was woeful buddy!!! Give the ball to your opponents who have dominated the entire game, require only a Pen is NOT what this Ireland team does. I’m afraid he’s way way out of kilter with THIS Ireland team and it ultimately cost us!! 🤷♂️😥🏉
• All that said, we lost by 1 Pt and that shows how good we are….. We go again next week and put Scotland to the sword!!!
James Griffin
Far too much talk about how much Ireland would win by during the lead up. And blaming Murray is just provincial shite. He didn’t give away penalties, drop passes, or miss tackles. A little bit of honesty wouldn’t go astray. Wake up call, big time!
Gavin Hegarty
So disappointing. Mainly because it wasn’t how we should play. First four minutes were great but then we dropped off and honestly if England were better they would have put us away. You’d think Murray with his ‘experience’ would know how to close out a game. His box kicking is infuriating yet he still does it to no benefit.
Better team won, we just didn’t show.
Kevin Kelehan
England could have been out of sight after 20 mins, Ireland had the game won around 78 minute but lost it, se la vie. Arsen Wenger spoke of great teams playing badly but winning, thats where Ireland need to get
Colin McConaghie
If people properly analysed the Welsh game this performance was coming. We created very little against a very limited Welsh team and our back line looked one paced and lacking creativity. The Bundee bash it up played straight into Englands hands. It showed on the two occasions we actually passed wide we scored.
Penalty count far too high and poor kicking from Lowe and then Murray gifted easy possession to run back at us and score.
We are still a very good team and will likely win the Championship but the over hype has been embarrassing and we are still far too over reliant on our “first choice” players.
The beauty of the Six Nations is how competitive it is. All matches are lose-able. Italy beat Scotland, who beat England, who beat us, who hockeyed Italy. That’s what makes back to back slams so hard, or even individual slams. You’ve to win 10 in a row!
Congrats to England just about deserved it. Really hope the Irish knives won't be out that was a top test match and Championship still there to be won.#ENGvIRE
Wales definitely better than most expected, Ireland will need to be more disciplined in Twickers but can get a bonus point win if they iron out the errors. Was delighted to see Frawley score a super try
Colin McConaghie
We need pace in the backline to get to the really top level. Possibly a bit complacent today but Lowe was really poor with his kicking and will cost us against a better team
John Clavin
A couple of big referee decisions didn’t go Ireland’s way. But, a 24 point win in the 6N and we’re all a bit disappointed in the performance…. Heady days for Irish Rugby.
Christy O’Connor
Very sloppy 2nd half. Ref was inconsistent, but it was our own fault that we made such hard work of it.
Wales deserve some credit for not giving up.
Carmel Daly
Not perfect but technically they held Wales scoreless only for penalty try given. Job done 👍
Greg Kelly
If we’d done that any other year we’d be jumping for joy. I think it’s a sign of what we expect from this team that people are nit picking the performance.
What a way to get BP. Class all the way from Stu's hit at halfway to Beirne's finish. We prob deserved the maximum, tho Welsh started 2nd half well, Winnett v impressive. Aki worthy PotM tho TB not far behind. On to Twickers.#IREvWAL
Ahead of Ireland v Wales and in the latest from our Opposition View series, I spoke to Seimon Williams, author of “Welsh Rugby – What Went Wrong?” about the most frustrating issues from the past decades, the best way forward and of course how he feels Saturday’s match will go.
The 2022-23 season may just be the bleakest in Welsh rugby history. Accusations of misogyny, sexism, racism and homophobia against the Welsh Rugby Union led to resignations, independent inquiries, Senedd intervention and rushed governance reform. Budget cuts, strike threats, uncertainty for players, embarrassing defeats and the dismissal of the national coach presaged another poor Six Nations campaign.
This book looks at the issues which have seen Welsh rugby stumble from crisis to crisis over the past 40 years. At how a nation which led the rugby world in the 1970s declined into the fractured, riven, divided rugby nation of today. At how occasional successes at club, regional and Test level were achieved despite the system, not because of it, and did little more than paper over the cracks. At, fundamentally, what went wrong.
JLP : The quote might be tongue in cheek but although I wasn’t there myself the reports I heard were that it was a very subdued Aviva crowd, with suggestions it might have to do with a “prawn sandwich” element who were able to afford the ticket price without necessarily being totally invested in the actual rugby.
“This is not about Scottish Rugby being belligerent.”
JLP : I harped on this in the bonus clip as you’ll see below, but although I believe the officials came to the correct decision, I can’t really blame the SRU for getting an extra news cycle out of the incident. This might have an air of “John Delaney asking for Ireland to be 33rd team” about it, but the call was so goddam close and decisive that you can see how they’d lash out, once they are also aware that the Scots did have plenty of chances before that to win the game as well….
The change should create more room for counterattackers as the defending team will all be offside until put back onside by the kicker, or kick-chasers.
JLP : I wondered why I had red about this red/green think years ago yet Wales/Ireland matches weren’t affected. I would have thought that if it was definitely a problem for a portion of fans which had been officially identified by the sport’s governing body then surely the thing to do would be to make the change right away, but I suppose these things take time?
“There was 11 offloads for Ireland today, that is significant. There was only three last week.“
JLP : The quote pretty much tells the story, only thing I’d add is that most of that 11 weren’t just offloads, they were Marks & Spencer offloads…high risk but even higher confidence.
Note – views expressed in “Front Five” links do not necessarily reflect those of HarpinOnRugby
WRAP OF A (DELAYED) WRAP
Nobody likes a set weekly routine more than myself but when our feature match is on a Sunday afternoon there’s just no way I can prepare a wrap pod to my liking in time so we waited until the Monday. Tom “LeinsterRoyalty” Coleman became our latest member of the 50-cap club joining Keego and Conor Cronin, and he and Jay did their usual bang-up job reviewing the whitewashing of Italy, although Tom did cause my first 2024 use of the “Gran’s Lamb Protocol” where we vow not to use a certain phrase depicting 5 Irish wins until it is either achieved or no longer possible, so I had to deploy a “beep” sound at one point after he dropped the “S word” 😜.
If you missed the wrap pod, here’s a link for Spotify but it’s also available on Apple and other platforms, please subscribe and/or leave a review if you can.
BONUS CLIP
A mixed bag of chosen topics this week, I have added the transcript from my bit below.
“A GROUNDING IN TMOs”
Now it’s time for my bit and after Tom harping on the kicking duel at the end of the first half of Scotland v France, I’d like to focus on an even more controversial incident from the end of the second in the same match.
Now when I say “controversial” I’m a bit torn on the use of this word. It seems a bit sensationalist especially when you consider that I actually agree with the way the officials reached their decision.
But what I suppose does make it controversial was the fact that it was a call about a score that would have literally changed the result of the entire match as there was no time left on the clock. Throw in the fact that the decision went against the home team and you have what must be up there with the top nightmares faced by referees in all sports.
Still I have to go back and explain why I agree with the officials so let’s look at the incident. And to do this we need to take all the situational stuff out of it. Forget it’s at Murrayfield, forget it’s Scotland, forget they were four points behind with the clock in the red.
On the 9th phase of a series Sam Skinner carried the ball over the line where he ran into some French defenders. There was the predictable mass of bodies all around the ball but from referee Nic Berry’s angle, the ball was held up and that is how he called it. This is the most critical information of the entire incident for me, but there is of course a lot more.
Berry ensured the Scots that the decision would be reviewed, which put matters into the hands of TMO Brian MacNeice. OK, now you might think I’m defending his decision because he’s Irish but I suppose all I can do is hope that you appreciate that my actual motivation is for the correct decision to be reached where possible.
Anyway what MacNeice had to do was look over as many available angles as he could to see if there was a grounding – and that word grounding is the second most important aspect to all of this. For this he had to hope for there to be a decent gap among all the other moving parts in the way…arms, legs, heads, boots, even the occasional arse, to catch a glimpse of the ball.
And as many have been at pains to point out, it does look to all intents and purposes that the ball actually does make its way to the Murrayfield grass. In fact, many of those fans also went to great pains to screengrab the image the TMO was looking at as though it offered some “proof” that it should have been awarded as a try.
And to be fair, during the early part of MacNeice’s dialogue as he watched, it really did sound as though he wanted to award the try. But there was a problem you see, one that those understandably eager screengrabbing Scottish fans probably missed.
It might seem like a contradiction but the fact remains that the ball touching the ground is not all we need to see in order to call it a grounding. There is absolutely no evidence that Skinner or indeed any other Scotsman has their hand on the ball as it touches down. And you need both. He could have let it go. There may have been separation. And remember, even when it comes to the ball touching the ground, we were never 100% because we couldn’t actually see it.
All of which led MacNeice to say to Berry : “I cannot see for certain, I don’t have ball on ground Nick”
So what happens now? It’s very simple. With no conclusive way to overturn his original decision, Berry was only left with that decision. It is definitely unfortunate, maybe even cruel, but having watched it over and over again I can only come back to the same conclusion.
Now of course what I did at the time was to share my opinion on twitter, and we all know what happened next, I got replies stating categorically that it was a nailed on try, many with that screengrabbed so-called “evidence”. So to avoid falling down a social media rabbit hole, I chose not to reply and instead waited until now to make my case.
To be absolutely clear…I was 100% shouting for Scotland, they are and have always been my second favourite Six Nations team. Like I said, we have to take our allegiances out of the equation when discussing these calls otherwise there’s really no point discussing them.
I have always been in favour of using TMOs but only in a support capacity to the onfield referee. In my view they should always make a decision themselves, which the guy in the booth must only overrule if they have 100% certainty and it’s only when this is accepted that we can appreciate that once in a while we can have a decision that looks both horribly unfair and absolutely correct in equal measure.
STEVIE’S CALLING
I hadn’t time for a TikTok rant this week but even if I had it wouldn’t be worthy of posting instead of this…he needs no introduction from me but I’m still happy to namecheck Stevie Mulrooney he’s definitely a star in the making.
Absolutely brilliant! 👏 Stevie Mulrooney, the star of the Toy Show, sings Ireland’s Call in front of a sold out Aviva Stadium. Fantastic. 💚 IREvITA GuinnessSixNations SixNationsRugby IrishRugby Rugby
This week’s update did have good news with Jamie & Ross on the road to recovery but since neither were listed under “available for selection” I’m left struggling to put a Leinster backline together for Saturday without dipping into the academy, and with Hugo Keenan now not able to face Wales I’m wondering if we will even be able to avail of Ciarán Frawley’s services at all.
NB : the above matchday 23 is completely from my own mind, I’m certainly not suggesting I have any ITK a la Thornley
INJURY UPDATE – AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
N/A
INJURY UPDATE – FURTHER ASSESSMENT REQUIRED:
Jamie Osborne: has increased his training load and will be further assessed this week as he makes his way back from a shoulder injury
Ross Byrne: has increased his training load and will be further assessed this week as he makes his way back from an arm injury
INJURY UPDATE – UNAVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
N/A
NO FURTHER UPDATES ON:
Martin Moloney (bicep), Alex Soroka (foot), Charlie Ngatai (calf), Cormac Foley (shoulder) and Jimmy O’Brien (neck)
RUGBYPASS TV UPS & DOWNS
Just a quick note on a couple of things I’ve seen on RugbyPass.TV – I was going to do my TikTok on this had I enough time (for a 3 minute video I need at least an hour that just wasn’t there this week!).
First there was Whistleblowers which I would strongly recommend. Essentially it was “Full Contact for Referees” and definitely had a decent stab at humanising the officials from RWC2023. I would definitely recommend it, but since they’re not paying me to say that I should also point out a video I didn’t like as well 😁.
This was Boks Office which was essentially a Springbok view of the Six Nations. Now to be fair, this kind of input would be invaluable, coming as it does from outside the bubble, and with a panel of test capped stars (host Hanyani Shimange chatting to Jean de Villiers & Schalk Burger) you would definitely be interested.
But this particular episode featured a review of Round 1 so obviously they would have been focusing on Ireland’s win in Marseilles. They were full of praise for Andy Farrell’s men, but what ground my gears a tad was their assertion that Paul Willemse’s red card was the wrong call.
I mean if that is what they honestly believed then I can’t really fault them for expressing their true opinion and I certainly wouldn’t want that opinion banned, I suppose I’m just disappointed that senior players feel that way and are clearly either ignorant of the spirit of the guidelines surrounding head contact or are actually opposed to them. And the real irony was that I watched this chat right after I had watched Whistleblowers which noted the online abuse that referees can receive, meaning the lads’ views certainly do not help the matter.
That’s not to say I wouldn’t watch Box Office again, however, and they are certainly not alone when it comes to former-players-turned-pundits having these views.
🔝🐱🐴 UPDATE
After a weekend off the top four all find themselves at home in Round 15 so it’s likely for that end of the table to be just as tight, with both Oyonnax and Montpellier likely to be in even deeper relegation trouble as well.
NO MATCHES LAST WEEKEND
Round 15
SAT FEB 17
LYON V LA ROCHELLE
BORDEAUX V PAU
RACING 92 V MONTPELLIER
STADE FRANCAIS V PERPIGNAN
TOULOUSE V OYONNAX
BAYONNE V CLÉRMONT
SUN FEB 18
CASTRES V TOULON
AIL UPDATE
I have yet to find confirmation of this but I’m assuming that the way the Celtic Challenge works, the top three play each other and the results go to the final overall standings. If so, the Wolfhounds can probably clinch the title with victory in Edinburgh this weekend, while their final match against the Clovers the following week is essentially a Six Nations trial.
While that comp took a weekend off, the Women’s AIL returned to action, with the result that came nearest to an “upset” being Belvo defeating Wicklow by “only” 13pts. UL Bohs continued their 100% start, the gap between the top four and the rest grew wider, and that same four all avoid each other yet again in the next round.
It wa a similar case in the men’s top division with the top four all victorious, although Cork Con seemed to have a bit of a scare at bottom of the table Trinity. Tie of the round this weekend is definitely the 3rdv4th/Dublin derby that is Lansdowne v Terenure.
#SupportYourLocalClub
WOMEN’S CELTIC CHALLENGE
NO MATCHES LAST WEEKEND
WOMEN’S AIL
Round 11
SAT FEB 10
SUTTONIANS 0-22 BALLINCOLLIG
COOKE 5-29 RAILWAY UNION
GALWEGIANS 5-58 UL BOHS
WICKLOW 12-25 BELVO
Round 12
SAT FEB 17
UL BOHS V SUTTONIANS
BALLINCOLLIG V COOKE
BLACKROCK V WICKLOW
RAILWAY UNION V GALWEGIANS
MEN’S AIL
ROUND 13
CLONTARF 45-24 BALLYNAHINCH
TRINITY 17-19 CORK CON
SHANNON 13-28 LANSDOWNE
TERENURE 25-10 YOUNG MUNSTER
UCD 32-22 CITY OF ARMAGH
ROUND 13
SAT FEB 17
BALLYNAHINCH V TRINITY
ARMAGH V CLONTARF
CORK CON V SHANNON
LANSDOWNE V TERENURE
YOUNG MUNSTER V UCD
RUGBY EUROPE CHAMPIONSHIP UPDATE
I was kicking myself that I forgot to include an update for this comp last week, as I firmly believe it’s important to keep up on how these countries are doing what with the “6N promotion/expansion” returning every time Italy concedes a try and/or Georgia scores one.
There has of course already been one historic result in the 2024 Championship with Belgium defeating Portugal in round 1, although Os Lobos took out their frustrations on poor Poland last weekend with a 50🍔 while the Belgians couldn’t repeat their heroics in Bucharest. However if Portugal are to sneak into the semifinals they will have to win in the Romanian capital on Saturday, especially if Belgium can also overcome the Poles. Meanwhile in Pool A Georgia host Spain with both already safely through to the last four.
ROUND 1
POLAND 8-20 ROMANIA
GERMANY 17-28 GEORGIA
BELGIUM 10-6 PORTUGAL
NETHERLANDS V SPAIN
ROUND 2
SPAIN 27-5 GERMANY
PORTUGAL 54-7 POLAND
ROMANIA 33-18 BELGIUM
GEORGIA 31-10 NETHERLANDS
ROUND 3
SAT FEB 17
GEORGIA V SPAIN
ROMANIA V PORTUGAL
BELGIUM V POLAND
SUN FEB 18
NETHERLANDS V GERMANY
HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE
Kristian had a super round 2 and a bit like Ireland has opened a commanding lead atop the 6N league, although myself and Jay are also 6 for 6 when it comes to predicting winners. With the URC back in action this weekend that means so does the HPL so I have also included that table. Well, yeah, ok, the fact that I’m first in that one might have play a part in my decision…….
1 Kristian 12.00
2 Jeff 9.00
3 Jay 8.50
4 Mark 7.50
5 Conor 7.00
6 Tom 1.50
NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
Back to the URC this weekend, with a top of the table clash at the RDS no less as Benetton will be coming to D4. Keego will join me for a preview on Friday while the wrap recording returns to its usual Sunday evening slot.
As ever, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP
HARPIN' ON RUGBY 