4 May 2024; James Lowe of Leinster celebrates after scoring his side’s second try during the Investec Champions Cup semi-final match between Leinster and Northampton Saints at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
🏉 Jamie & James 🏉 Chronic knockonitis 🏉 First score after break 🏉 Saints go marching 🏉 Captain Caolan
After the high of La Rochelle, there was always the risk of a down day.
That being said, we were great in bursts, and were in control for most of the game. The third try had as many “moments” in the buildup phases as any I can remember (I haven’t rewatched it, so I may be misremembering). Furlong’s reverse offload out of the tackle Bairds gallop, Henshaw somehow staying in field to keep the ball alive.
John Hyland
They did well kicking behind us, and using their wingers’ speed in the chase. Our back three look short of pace. Keenan is needed and I reckon Rob Russell might come in for Larmour.
Kevin Kelehan
Great stadium, great crowd, never say die opponents who were an absolute credit to themselves when down and out but dragged themselves back into make it very tight game. Leinster played well for 50 minutes but some very aimless kicking will doubtless be lacerated in the debrief, the pack who gave better than they got must have been super frustrated at times. Doris as always a terrier on the gainline
Gavin Hegarty
A great place to be in to say that we weren’t good but we still won a semi. If we play against Toulouse like that they will take us apart. At halftime we should have been further ahead but my god in the second half we fell asleep. The most unleinsterlike performance in a longtime.
Byrne left a few points out there from the tee but other than that was epic first half.
I was at it and feel as a club we let ourselves down. Atmosphere was lacking anything. Was dead quiet at times. Yes the stadium was blue but we failed to create the cauldron we needed.
I’ll watch it again but from the davin lower it looked like reynal was a bit indecisive. Not checking Frawley being taken out in the air again? I think peno and yellow
Pat Curran
Leinster will have to include Gary Ringrose, Hugo Keenan and James Ryan for the final. It could be what’s required for a European final.
Shouldn't have been as tight, few points left out on the boot.
But in honesty we went into our shell in the 2nd half, fair play to Saints, really quality team.
Nerves shredded. But never any harm to scrape into a final. Northampton will have regrets at how much ball they spilled in that first half. Leinster good at times, ok at others and thoroughly mediocre in several in the last half hour.
JLP : Now of course I can see how that looks not only arrogant but also misguided given how the tournament panned out but I’ll still push back a little bit if I may…let’s look at the context here. The Irish players were allegedly saying this just moments after a classic low scoring battle between two of the world’s top teams. Any chance the comment might be simply taken at face value as a compliment? Yes, maybe a touch of arrogance on our part, but also conveying a sense that we believe you guys will also reach the final? Oh and another thing…Etzebeth is reacting to the Irish side of things but doesn’t see too much wrong in the suggestion that his side would reach the final? So if that’s so, was it just the Irish players who were arrogant? I mean – obviously the way things turned out it would have been justified in the Springboks’ case but again we’re talking about how things stood at the time after that one particular match.
Cory Heather died after suffering a head knock while playing for Beachlands Maraetai against Patumāhoe at Te Puru Park on Saturday.
JLP : Absolutely tragic story of course, and it should only serve to redouble the efforts the game has made to make the game as safe as possible. And as @ProgressiveRugby points out below, the language we use for incidents like this can definitely play a factor
RIP Cory Heather. The outpouring of grief has been incredibly moving.
Wish NZ media didn’t persist with the term ‘head knock’ in such devastating circumstances.
It doesn’t accurately reflect the gravity of the brain injury Cory was unfortunate enough to sustain on Saturday. pic.twitter.com/3jOEVjBbuN
JLP : I’d always rather defer to the likes of @IrishWomens on these matters and she outlines the pros and cons in these posts. For my part I’d agree this is mostly a positive development, and they have done well do move slowly with the development of the competition from year to year. On the clubs issue, I still believe it wasn’t a complete case of failing the clubs in this instance since they had to work with other unions to bring this competition about and the clubs had been calling out for more fixtures, but hopefully with the advance notice the clubs will be able to be prepared on the personnel front. When it comes to the CC comp itself, I would hope that eventually Ireland will be able to field all four provinces rather than these two contrived franchises but I do appreciate that logistically that will take some doing.
Celtic Challenge is now a full season, home and away.
This is good and bad news. It's the right step forward for this competition. It's going to decimate club teams in the AIL. AIL clubs will need to recruit to cover their full season. https://t.co/npGMaMgf30
— IrishWomensRugbySupportersClub (@IrishWomens) May 1, 2024
A year ago today, I discovered someone had set up two accounts on X…with the sole intention of abusing and harassing me and my family.
JLP : In the slot above you see @IrishWomens doing what she does best, ie put forward a realistic comparison between the status quo in the women’s game in Ireland and how it should be. Hopefully the public’s reaction to her would be nothing less than full support but as you can tell from this brave article in some quarters it was been anything but. And it’s not like this one guy is the only one to give her negative mysoginistic feedback either, although obviously his is the worst. Please have a read and be sure to follow her Substack as well for some excellent isights as to what is happening at all levels of the women’s game.
***CLICKBAIT OF THE WEEK AWARD***
Despite initial doubts surrounding his proposed move to Montpellier, recent reports suggest such concerns have been dispelled.
Update has been given on Billy Vunipola’s proposed move to Montpellier following arrest
Ruck.co.uk
JLP : From now I’ve decided to use this 5th and final slot in my Front5 segment for my Clickbait Of The Week Award, one which I hope no online publication would actually want to win although you wouldn’t be sure. For obvious reasons I don’t see the need to actually include a link for this one, as my choice of quote has answered the unnecessary question posed by the headline.
WRAP OF A WRAP
It’s important to remember we only started doing the wrap pods at the start of the 2022/23 season, when by the middle of April both Leinster and Ireland had won all of their matches so let’s just say it took a while to get the hang of organising a show around a defeat, and it’s not that we personally do want to harp on those matches it’s more like we’re pretty sure our core listeners don’t want to hear a deep dive into a disaster. But the shows already go on regardless, albeit with a slightly different format.
This time I was joined by Ciarán Duffy & Jay Long and we quickly went back over the Cape Town catastrophe, before thankfully having something good to harp on when it came to the Irish women’s success in Belfast before looking ahead to the big semifinal at Croke Park. All in all I reckon the lads did a bang up job.
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 : LIMITED TIME OFFERS
This week’s Quick Tap TikTok (recorded later than usual) pretty much speaks for itself, although I have added one decent suggestion of a fix to the Law anomaly I’m harpin on…
Brilliant news of course on Messrs O’Brien & Ringrose but is it worth throwing them in to Leinster’s Champions Cup semifinal squad on their first matches back? I’m leaning no for both of them, especially if Hugo Keenan is fit to play – if not, then Ringrose could wear 23 but
Harpin’ matchday 23 v Northampton
Keenan, Lowe, Henshaw, J Osborne, Larmour, R Byrne, Gibson-Park
Porter, Sheehan, Furlong, J McCarthy, Jenkins, Baird, van der Flier, Doris (c)
Kelleher, Healy, Ala’alatoa, Molony, Conan, McGrath, H Byrne, Frawley
NB : the above matchday 23s are completely from my own mind, I’m certainly not suggesting I have any ITK a la Thornley
INJURY UPDATE – AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Jimmy O’Brien: will return to full training this week after his return from a neck injury.
Garry Ringrose: will return to full training this week after his return from a shoulder injury.
INJURY UPDATE – FURTHER ASSESSMENT REQUIRED:
Hugo Keenan: has stepped up his training programme and will be further assessed this week for a hip injury before a final decision is made on availability.
INJURY UPDATE – UNAVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
N/A
NO FURTHER UPDATES ON:
James Ryan (arm), Tommy O’Brien (hamstring) and Alex Soroka (foot)
WOMEN’S SIX NATIONS
As I hinted earlier we weren’t exactly keen to harp so much on Leinster’s latest outing so this brilliant win by the Irish women was just the ticket and we also got a special report from Tom Coleman who was there in Belfast to witness it all.
ROUND FIVE
WALES 22-20 ITALY
IRELAND 15-12 SCOTLAND
FRANCE 21-42 ENGLAND
“SVNS” UPDATE
It’s the final leg of the “regular season” in Singapore this weekend, then the top 8 move on to the playoffs in Madrid at the end of the month. Ireland seem to be comfortably through in both genders though obviously it won’t hurt to have a decent showing this weekend. As ever you can watch back all the action via RugbyPass TV even if you miss the kickoffs at unseemly hours.
NO MATCHES LAST WEEKEND
Under the new model, HSBC SVNS 2024 features seven regular season events plus a Grand Final. The top eight placed teams based on cumulative series points at the conclusion of the seventh round in Singapore will secure their opportunity to compete in the new ‘winner takes all’ Grand Final in Madrid, where the women’s and men’s HSBC SVNS 2024 champions will be crowned.
Madrid will also play host to the high stakes relegation play-off competition where teams ranked ninth to 12th will join the top four teams from the World Rugby Sevens Challenger, with the top four placed teams securing their place on HSBC SVNS 2025.
NEXT IN THE SERIES…
SINGAPORE 7S
FRI MAY 3
4:44AM – WOMEN V CANADA
6:36AM – MEN V GREAT BRITAIN
10:21AM – WOMEN V NEW ZEALAND
11:54AM – IRELAND V USA
SAT MAY 4
4:44AM – WOMEN V SPAIN
6:37AM – MEN V FIJI
MADRID (FINALS) MAY 31-JUN 2
🔝🐱🐴 UPDATE
Standout scoreline has to be Clérmont’s hammering of league leaders Stade Français, even when you allow for the fact that Stade would have one eye on the trip to Toulouse in the next round, it still shows that ASM really seem to be turning things around and might be favourites for the Challenge Cup. Toulouse for their part both closed the gap at the top and opened one up between them and 3rd as they dispatched Racing while La Rochelle kept themselves in the barrage picture with a win over Toulon, although they’ve Bordeaux away next. Montpellier’s defeat at home to USAP certainly won’t ease they’re relegation worries.
Round 22
TOULOUSE 32-12 RACING 92
BAYONNE 15-34 BORDEAUX
OYONNAX 22-19 CASTRES
LYON 38-20 PAU
MONTPELLIER 20-25 PERPIGNAN
CLÉRMONT 41-18 STADE FRANÇAIS
LA ROCHELLE 27-17 TOULON
Round 23
SAT MAY 11
PERPIGNAN V CLÉRMONT
CASTRES V MONTPELLIER
PAU V OYONNAX
RACING 92 V BAYONNE
TOULON V LYON
BORDEAUX V LA ROCHELLE
SUN MAY 12
TOULOUSE V STADE FRANÇAIS
PREMIERSHIP UPDATE
I don’t see anyone in the English media complaining about Northampton resting their players over the past couple of weeks ahead of their trip to Croker? Funny that. Anyway defeat to Quins at Twickenham didn’t knock them off the top although overall the top four slots are still all to play for in the final four rounds with seven still in the hunt, with Exeter v Quins arguably the biggest 10-pointer in the next round.
ROUND 16
BATH 12-15 SARACENS
LEICESTER 19-21 BRISTOL
HARLEQUINS 41-32 NORTHAMPTON
NEWCASTLE 14-35 SALE SHARKS
GLOUCESTER 17-38 EXETER CHIEFS
ROUND 17
FRI MAY 10
SALE SHARKS V LEICESTER TIGERS
NEWCASTLE V BATH
SAT MAY 11
NORTHAMPTON V GLOUCESTER
BRISTOL V SARACENS
EXETER CHIEFS V HARLEQUINS
AIL UPDATE
Not a bad weekend for Munster Rugby all round, province makes it 10 points out of 10 on a RSA swing, then their clubs sweep all the decisive contests with Garryowen earning the right to join St Mary’s in Div 1A in the men’s, Cork Con defying cards of all colours to take Terenure’s AIL men’s crown, while UL Bohs deservedly won the women’s title although again I’ll question the wisdom of having their decider on the same weekend as the Six Nations.
#SupportYourLocalClub
WOMEN’S AIL
FINAL
UL BOHS 48-38 RAILWAY UNION
MEN’S AIL 1A
CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL
TERENURE 22-33 CORK CON
PROMOTION PLAYOFFS FINAL
GARRYOWEN 34-3 OLD BELVEDERE
SUPER RUGBY PACIFIC UPDATE
As disastrous a season as Crusaders have been having by their standards, would anyone even consider ruling them out of winning another title, even before their whitewashing of the Rebels? Meanwhile the Hurricanes fell to their first loss of the season which makes the top of the table interesting for sure given the Blues edged out the Reds in a high scoring Brisbane thriller.
ROUND 10
CRUSADERS 39-0 REBELS
WARATAHS 22-38 CHIEFS
FIJIAN DRUA 24-17 MOANA PASIFIKA
BRUMBIES 27-19 HURRICANES
HIGHLANDERS 7-6 WESTERN FORCE
REDS 34-41 BLUES
ROUND 11
FRI MAY 3
HURRICANES V WARATAHS
REBELS V BLUES
SAT MAY 4
MOANA PASIFIKA V HIGHLANDERS
CRUSADERS V REDS
CHIEFS V WESTERN FORCE
BRUMBIES V FIJIAN DRUA
JAPAN LEAGUE ONE UPDATE
Only one round left before the playoffs, and although we know what the top four is going to be, there is an interesting match in Round 16 – if Canon Eagles can manage to beat the 100% Wild Knights they could actually avoid them in the semifinals. One interesting feature of this league is the fact that as many as three teams get relegated and those positions seem to have been decided with one game to go.
ROUND 15
WILD KNIGHTS 33-24 KINETSU LINERS
TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS 36-27 SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH
KOBE STEEL 63-19 SHIZUOKA
TOYOTA VERBLITZ 35-31 CANON EAGLES
SPEARS KUBOTA 61-24 HONDA HEAT
MITSUBISHI 24-31 BLACK RAMS
ROUND 16
SAT MAY 4
HONDA HEAT V KOBE STEEL
CANON EAGLES V WILD KNIGHTS
SUN MAY 5
SUNTORY V SPEARS KUBOTA
KINTETSU LINERS V MITSUBISHI
SHIZUOKA V BRAVE LUPUS
BLACK RAMS V TOYOTA VERBLITZ
MAJOR LEAGUE RUGBY UPDATE
My adopted team for this season the Chicago Hounds, who have Dave Kearney, Nick McCarthy, Conall Boomer & Luke Carty in their ranks, had the week off and remain second in the East although their biggest test of the season will come on Sunday when they travel to the Free Jacks. Much like last season Houston and Seattle are going neck and neck at the top of the West.
ROUND 9
UTAH 31-24 OLD GLORY
ANTHEM RC 5-40 NOLA GOLD
MIAMI 17-38 DALLAS
HOUSTON 33-0 SAN DIEGO
LOS ANGELES 12-34 NEW ENGLAND
ROUND 10
SAT MAY 4
SEATTLE V ANTHEM
OLD GLORY V MIAMI
SUN MAY 5
UTAH V HOUSTON
NEW ENGLAND V CHICAGO
SAN DIEGO V DALLAS
CHALLENGE CUP UPDATE
One South African team, one French, one Premiership, and one Italian. Very very interesting set up for this competition and you could see any of them doing it. And ironically the only team still in contention for domestic playoffs is the Italian team!
SEMIFINALS
SAT MAY 4
SHARKS V CLÉRMONT
GLOUCESTER V BENETTON
HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE
If I wasn’t too keen on harpin’ on Leinster’s URC outing last weekend, I definitely don’t want to dwell too much on my URC predictions. Wasn’t too long since I was comfortably in front but as you can see it doesn’t take much to catch up and a wooden spoon in round 15 has knocked me down to 3rd, anxiously looking over my shoulder too.
NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
Countdown to Croker time here at Harpin’ Manor. Usual coverage to come, preview on Friday, wrap pod recording Sunday, social media comments throughout. Do keep in touch and throw in your two cents when you can.
And as ever, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP
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.
JLP : Finally we see some flesh put on the bones of all the rumours that have been rattling around the ruggersphere for the past while – even the most dyed in the wool Leinster fan would have to admit we can’t hold on to all of our talent indefinitely so there are bound to be players moving on. That said, we should be able to keep the top players we produce ourselves (within reason) and if Milne and Boyle do stay that would be a decent outcome for sure.
“I’m not French, I’m trying to prove myself and put my name into the debate.”
JLP : Is the headline being sensationalist? Of course it is. I mean, I ‘could’ also be the next French boss, so could Donald Trump. But still even with Fabien Galthie seeming to have used up all his 2022 Grand Slam goodwill, I have to admit I never thought too much about ROG getting the job and the more I think of it the more it makes sense, although that may put a certain faction of Munster supporters into something of a quandary when they play Ireland…
Saracens are one of several sides keen to know exactly how many of their squad will be offered deals and precisely how the new system will operate.
JLP : “Hybrid contracts” you say? What an interesting concept. Maybe we could try something like that here in Ireland, though we’d have to change the name otherwise it might look like we were copying the RFU…maybe we could say, “Central” instead? Funny how they’re looking to introduce just as we’re debating the notion of giving them an overhaul.
Kitshoff only arrived at Ulster in November on what was meant to be a three-year deal
JLP : On the latest wrap pod we mentioned how sometimes these NIQ signings don’t work out, with possible Steven Sykes’ 4-cap stint being among the most memorable for being the least memorable at Leinster. It’s probably better off for all involved he goes home early but it does leave Ulster with something of a dilemma in his position – and with him now unavailable for the rest of the season, plus James Hume also on the sidelines for now anyway, they just don’t seem to have any luck whatsoever on the personnel front.
The final is scheduled to take place at 2.45pm at the North London venue, and with the FA Cup final set for a 3pm kick-off just 12 miles away at Wembley,
JLP : Another case of the word “could” doing a lot of heavy lifting in a headline, although in this case it’s a good thing because at least it allows for the small matter of a semifinal to take place before it affects Leinster fans. On the broader subject of the clash, I mean, who could have possibly foreseen that having the two matches in the same city on the same day at practically the same time could cause an issue? Besides pretty much everybody, of course…
WRAP OF A WRAP
Many thanks as ever to Conor & Rich for helping me with the latest pod, obviously this wasn’t exactly a match we looked forward to wrapping and I assumed not many regular listeners would be took keen to hear us harp on it so we cut back the actual wrap time and looked forward to the URC’s remaining rounds as well.
I put that run-in segment on the YouTube channel, which has been doing pretty well on the numbers front I have to say – we recently passed 300 subscribers and the vids are starting to regularly hit 1000 views which may not be much for the more seasoned channels but considering it’s not our primary platform, isn’t too bad and here at Harpin Towers we’re happy enough (for now – don’t let that stop you subscribing and viewing yourself if you haven’t already!!!)
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 : NEXT-LEVEL REF-SHAMING
At the end of my latest Quick Tap vid I promise to explain in more detail my reasons for my personal decisions on those tries so here goes…
I’m actually going to do the second one first because it’s a lot easier…I see it as a knock on, simple as. Just because we see it go the other direction in the video doesn’t mean Carré didn’t knock it on first, and I reckon he did. Call me biased because it favours the Irish team all you want, this is how I saw it.
As for the Izuchukwu tackle it’s way tricker. Amazing try saving tackle? Definitely. Does he mean to kick it? For me, no, and here is where most of the disagreement seems to be, but I see it as a natural motion that resulted from his trying to pull the Cardiff player back. HOWEVER because that area of intent is so subjective I reckon it brings our decision to an almost perfect 50/50 call. That my seem like a cop out but I actually believe that in all sports whenever you’re not sure which way to lean it should always be in the direction that awards the score, like in baseball where they have the phrase “tie goes to the runner” – that’s not an official rule, but IMO it’s a good overall principle for officials.
Told you it was complicated!!! Any many of these rulings are, which is exactly why we should debate them without making it personal about the officials.
Fingers, toes and eyes crossed that Messrs Ringrose, Keenan & J O’Brien get back in contention for May but when it comes to Cape Town I reckon we’ll be looking at something close to what we saw in Jo’burg with maybe a few starters and subs swapping roles.
Harpin’ matchday 23 v STORMERS
Frawley, Russell, Turner, Ngatai, A Osborne, H Byrne, Foley
NB : the above matchday 23s are completely from my own mind, I’m certainly not suggesting I have any ITK a la Thornley
INJURY UPDATE – AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Charlie Ngatai: came through the game at the weekend with no issues after his return from a calf injury
Cormac Foley: came through the game at the weekend with no issues after his return from a shoulder injury
INJURY UPDATE – FURTHER ASSESSMENT REQUIRED:
Brian Deeny: was withdrawn as a precaution ahead of the Lions game and will be further assessed this week before a final decision is made on his inclusion
Jimmy O’Brien: will be further assessed this week as he nears a return from a neck injury
Garry Ringrose: will be further assessed this week for a shoulder injury as he nears a return
Hugo Keenan: will be further assessed this week for a hip injury
INJURY UPDATE – UNAVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
N/A
NO FURTHER UPDATES ON:
James Ryan (arm), Tommy O’Brien (hamstring) and Alex Soroka (foot)
RUCKTHIS.IE
Shout out to Peter Burke & co for their relatively new venture RuckThis.ie do check it out and also their live show every Wednesday evening, I plan to be a guest on it next week and he has agreed to appear on one of our wrap pods soon too.
Hard scoreline to take at Twickers but two very very very VERY different women's programs. They are where we would hope to be one day, but a long long way to go and we need to bring that display v Wales forward. #GuinnessW6N#ENGvIRE
Not much I can add to my tweet after the full time whistle blew at Twickers although apart from the online morons who probably have never seen a game of women’s rugby yet still see fit to chime in with things like “they just have to play better”, the consensus opinion seems to be that the other unions need to find a way to bring their standards much closer to those of England and France otherwise these scorelines will continue. Brian Moore had a good article (behind paywall) about this as did Sarah Rendell in Rugby World. Here’s hoping Ireland can get a result this Saturday.
ROUND FOUR
ENGLAND 88-10 IRELAND
ITALY 10-17 SCOTLAND
WALES 0-40 FRANCE
ROUND FIVE
SAT APR 27
WALES V ITALY
IRELAND V SCOTLAND
FRANCE V ENGLAND
AUTUMN NATIONS SERIES
Two Friday night fixtures less than ideal but overall the prospect of us playing all four Rugby Championship nations before the year is out has to be good for our post-RWC2023 group. It’s also good to see Georgia and Portugal involved although it could be more. It ALWAYS could be more.
URC IRISH SHIELD UPDATE
It took the URC a while to feature the latest Shield tables on their website but better late than never. That one-point win for Ulster at the RDS has left the race wide open with it very possible that it could boil down to their trip to Thomond Park on the final day of the regular season.
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 V CONNACHT
MAY 18 ULSTER V LEINSTER
MAY 31 LEINSTER V CONNACHT
JUNE 1 MUNSTER V ULSTER
“SVNS” UPDATE
The Singapore 7s, which will decide the final placings before the grand finale in Madrid (although Ireland seem good in both genders), don’t take place until next weekend but the draw for the pools has been made and you can see the fixtures below. Funny how the men play one minute later on Saturday than they do Friday….
NO MATCHES LAST WEEKEND
Under the new model, HSBC SVNS 2024 features seven regular season events plus a Grand Final. The top eight placed teams based on cumulative series points at the conclusion of the seventh round in Singapore will secure their opportunity to compete in the new ‘winner takes all’ Grand Final in Madrid, where the women’s and men’s HSBC SVNS 2024 champions will be crowned.
Madrid will also play host to the high stakes relegation play-off competition where teams ranked ninth to 12th will join the top four teams from the World Rugby Sevens Challenger, with the top four placed teams securing their place on HSBC SVNS 2025.
NEXT IN THE SERIES…
SINGAPORE 7S
FRI MAY 3
4:44AM – WOMEN V CANADA
6:36AM – MEN V GREAT BRITAIN
10:21AM – WOMEN V NEW ZEALAND
11:54AM – IRELAND V USA
SAT MAY 4
4:44AM – WOMEN V SPAIN
6:37AM – MEN V FIJI
MADRID (FINALS) MAY 31-JUN 2
🔝🐱🐴 UPDATE
Toulon pipping Toulouse by a point has put some daylight between Stade Français and the rest of the 🔝🐱🐴 while ROG also fell short but a point leaving La Rochelle teetering on the edge of the playoff places. Down at the bottom Montpellier fell again leaving them as favourites to have to playoff for their survival. Toulouse v Racing seems to be the pick of round 22.
Round 21
CASTRES 25-24 LA ROCHELLE
PERPIGNAN 51-20 LYON
OYONNAX 13-43 RACING 92
STADE FRANÇAIS 28-24 BAYONNE
PAU 31-23 MONTPELLIER
TOULON 20-19 TOULOUSE
BORDEAUX 41-7 CLÉRMONT
Round 22
SAT APR 27
TOULOUSE V RACING 92
BAYONNE V BORDEAUX
OYONNAX V CASTRES
LYON V PAU
MONTPELLIER V PERPIGNAN
CLÉRMONT V STADE FRANÇAIS
LA ROCHELLE V TOULON
PREMIERSHIP UPDATE
Let’s be honest – all Leinster eyes are on Northampton now, and although they rested a few regulars they still put their auld enemy Leicester away pretty handily. Interesting how they face their fellow Prem CC-semifinalist Quins in the next round, although the home side need the points a lot more so I wouldn’t read too much into a lopsided score there.
ROUND 15
SARACENS 46-24 GLOUCESTER
NORTHAMPTON 40-17 LEICESTER
EXETER 14-26 BATH
SALE SHARKS 37-31 HARLEQUINS
BRISTOL 85-14 NEWCASTLE
ROUND 16
FRI APR 26
BATH V SARACENS
SAT APR 27
LEICESTER V BRISTOL
HARLEQUINS V NORTHAMPTON
SUN APR 28
NEWCASTLE V SALE SHARKS
GLOUCESTER V EXETER CHIEFS
AIL UPDATE
Up until today Wednesday I found it extremely difficult to get any information on the time and date of the Women’s AIL final. In fact, I have been following the league all season and it wasn’t until the round robin was over that I even knew there wasn’t a top four playoff! Just the top 2 straight into the final it seems, with UL Bohs facing off against Railway Union in the decider this Sunday, a unique double- header with Terenure and Cork Con squaring off for the men’s crown. And if that’s not enough consequential Leinster v Munster battles for you, then how about Garryowen v Old Belvedere for the right to join St Mary’s in Division 1A next season? Lot’s of good club rugby this weekend.
#SupportYourLocalClub
WOMEN’S AIL
PROMOTION PLAYOFF (1ST LEG)
TULLOW 22-10 QUEENS
CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL
SUN APR 28
UL BOHS V RAILWAY UNION
MEN’S AIL 1A
CHAMPIONSHIP SEMIFINALS
SAT APR 20
CORK CON 40-34 CLONTARF
TERENURE 31-28 LANSDOWNE
FINAL
SUN APR 28
TERENURE V CORK CON
PROMOTION PLAYOFFS
SAT APR 20
OLD WESLEY 21-32 GARRYOWEN
SHANNON 8-46 OLD BELVEDERE
FINAL
SAT APR 27
GARRYOWEN V OLD BELVEDERE
SUPER RUGBY PACIFIC UPDATE
The Crusaders fell yet again so we’re way past calling this a blip as they sit rock bottom of the standings. So I guess from here until the end of the season it makes more sense for this Leinster fan to be focusing more on the Hurricanes at the top of the table! Especially with Jordie Barrett in top form chipping in with a try and a conversion in their latest win. Tricky visit to Canberra for them next, might be worth a watch.
ROUND 9
FIJIAN DRUA 15-38 HURRICANES
REDS 31-0 HIGHLANDERS
BLUES 46-7 BRUMBIES
WESTERN FORCE 37-15 CRUSADERS
ROUND 10
FRI APR 26
CRUSADERS V REBELS
WARATAHS V CHIEFS
SAT APR 27
FIJIAN DRUA V MOANA PASIFIKA
BRUMBIES V HURRICANES
HIGHLANDERS V WESTERN FORCE
REDS V BLUES
JAPAN LEAGUE ONE UPDATE
About time I featured League One in this column – obviously with the “Leinster-centric-ness” of my general harpin’ I don’t have a lot of time to follow this league although I am fascinated by it in many ways. A lot of money has gone it to attract some really big names and it seems in some places it really, really works while in others, well, it really really doesn’t.
Take the match in Round 14 between Toyota Verblits, who had a 7-8-9-10 combo of Himeno, PSDT, A Smith & B Barrett, and Saitama Wild Knights, who have Lood de Jager and Damien de Allende among the recognisable names. Without looking at the league table you certainly wouldn’t imagine a 40-7 scoreline in favour of the visitors would you? The top 4 seems pretty much set with two rounds to go although there is an interesting 2nd v 3rd battle this weekend.
ROUND 14
SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH 31-31 SHIZUOKA
CANON EAGLES 43-19 MITSUBISHI
TOYOTA VERBLITZ 7-40 WILD KNIGHTS
HONDA HEAT 7-8 TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS
SPEARS KUBOTA 39-29 KOBE STEEL
KINETSU LINERS 34-23 BLACK RAMS
ROUND 15
SAT APR 27
WILD KNIGHTS V KINETSU LINERS
TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS V SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH
KOBE STEEL V SHIZUOKA
TOYOTA VERBLITZ V CANON EAGLES
SPEARS KUBOTA V HONDA HEAT
MITSUBISHI V BLACK RAMS
MAJOR LEAGUE RUGBY UPDATE
Chicago’s winning run continued as they put away Los Angeles in Round 8, with Luke Carty having replaced Dave Kearney at fullback, Conall Boomer starting at 8 and Nick McCarthy coming off the bench. They get a break in the next round as New England and Seattle are the conference leaders.
ROUND 8
NEW ENGLAND 21-29 SEATTLE
NOLA GOLD 27-42 MIAMI
OLD GLORY 17-38 HOUSTON
SAN DIEGO 32-33 UTAH
CHICAGO 54-31 LOS ANGELES
ROUND 9
SAT APR 27
UTAH V OLD GLORY
SUN APR 28
ANTHEM RC V NOLA GOLD
MIAMI V DALLAS
HOUSTON V SAN DIEGO
LOS ANGELES V NEW ENGLAND
HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE
As usual I got a bit cocky as I regained top spot in the HPL after Friday’s results and bragged about it in the WhatsApp group only to see Kino come storming back on the Saturday to actually increase his overall lead at the top from the previous round. I certainly can’t afford to let him get too far ahead.
NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
Stormers up next for Leinster, usual preview on Friday, plus don’t forget our rugby slot on Dubin South 93.9FM after the 5 o’clock news then we’ll have our wrap pod on Sunday evening. Please be sure to follow, comments, like, share and subscribe as much as you can across our social media platforms.
And as ever, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP
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
HARPIN' ON RUGBY 