
Welcome to my 80+ column, a weekly post featuring final thoughts from the week season of rugby just gone.
WRAP TO WRAP ALL WRAPS
Well it didn’t exactly end how I wanted as a Leinster fan, but I still have to say this was by far and away the most enjoyable season of Harpin’ On Rugby yet.
Of course the Grand Slam in the midst of it all helped a lot, but even without it the switch from article- to podcast-based content went really well, mostly because it meant I was working a lot more with fellow fans over the course of the campaign.
So here’s the part where I offer thanks to all the amazing contributors who appeared on the pods for Season 4 going right the way back to Sunday, August 21. Here’s a list of the ‘main group’ including their total Harpin caps to date…
Neil ‘Keego’ Keegan (57)
Tom Coleman (38)
Conor Cronin (38)
Mark Jackson (37)
Rich Mifsud (26)
Cian ‘RugbyKino’ O’Muilleoir (21)
with very honourable mentions to Ciarán Duffy, Nathan Johns, ‘Big’ Joe Sheppard, Padraig Kelly, Caolan Scully, Peter Lockhart, Ian Frizzell, Stephen Murphy, @IrishWomens, Michelle Tobin, Sandy Smith, Francisco Isaac, Justin Middleton, AP Cronje, Brian Moylett, Lee Griffith, Rhys John, Illtud Dafydd & David Arnott.
One thing I knew from the outset was that I couldn’t possibly hope to produce 2, often 3 pods per week without much commitment from others and while it goes without saying, I’ll do it anyway, I am extremely grateful to all of the above for volunteering their time this season.
Just in case you missed our final pod here’s a link – if you’re a Leinster fan you may have intentionally missed it but still I reckon Tom, Mark & Kino did a bang up job going over the HCC final as well as Leinster’s season as a whole so why not check it out.
HARPIN ON…OUR YOU TUBE CHANNEL HIGHLIGHTS
While our main content this season has been via podcast, we also set out to develop a presence on both YouTube and TikTok. Being perfectly honest I didn’t exactly knock myself out in those areas but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with some of the feedback so it’s definitely something we’ll be doing more over the coming season.
For the YouTube the idea was to have a preview show with one guest every Friday, and this was mostly Keego logging on to a Zoom call just an hour after the Leinster or Irish team was named. Then for the Sunday night pod recording I’d include a “bonus chat” outside the main topic of conversation for sharing as a video and these have done pretty well if I do say so myself. Since we didn’t do a 80+ last week I instead posted a “top 5” videos of sorts from across the season, check out the link below and if you haven’t already, please do subscribe to make sure you get all our stuff in future.
Harpin’ YouTube channel 2022/23 top vids
DOWN WITH THE KIDS ON TIK TOK
For the most part I have tried to use TikTok as a means to promote the pods, and as the season wore on it became something of a challenge to select the most appropriate quote to use for it. Originally my intention was to produce brief “Squidge-type” (OBVS nowhere near as good but at least with my own spin) videos of my favourite moments from matches but they took a while to produce, although the one I did for what I felt was the critical moment the URC final did get the most views of the entire season so you may see more next season. I’ll post that one below as well as some links to others that got decent engagement throughout the season, if you’re not already following us please do it can help us get closer to 500 followers – that might be a humble total in the grand scheme of things but we had no idea we’d be anywhere near that by this stage, truth be told.
“Leinster will be back amongst the favourites”
“It’s ok to say Grand Slam again”
“That pass from Doris to Ringrose”
“Eurowatch : Racing v Clérmont”
“Favourite Irish try of Autumn Nations Series”
CONGRATS TO MUNSTER
You may think I’m stalling to get to the Munster appreciation but, but look back over these columns throughout the season and they always start with the segments you see above!
But anyway again I am more than happy to offer congrats to our southern cousins, if it can’t be Leinster winning the URC, it has to be good for Irish rugby for another province to do it and not only have they been waiting a long, long time for this, but what a way for them to do it!!!!
After suffering some early season defeats which had us wondering if they’d even make it into the playoffs, they ended up pulling off not one, not two but THREE AWAY KNOCKOUT wins which has to be a record at this level of the game and proves that once you’re there or thereabouts come the beginning of May, literally anything is possible.
Obviously the next step for them on the road to returning to further glories will be to follow up with a higher regular season finish plus a deeper run in the HCC, but even if they replicate their 5th place finish, nobody will be ruling them out.
Just a quick word on the Stormers to round things off – I definitely expected a lot more from them. As well and all as Munster played you can’t deny we have seen the South African side play a lot better. Assuming both they and Leinster aim to get back to the top next season that should make for an exciting third instalment of the URC, as if the first two weren’t enough.
THE ABL NARRATIVE
For our first podcast of the season we had a chat about what I call the “ABL” or “Anyone But Leinster” in the ruggersphere and after Leinster won so many matches in the first two thirds of the season as well as supplying a large chunk of Ireland’s 100% test season, it was pretty easy to prove it’s existence week-in week-out on social media.
Naturally the way the season ended up for Leinster, there were always going to be those looking to stick the knife in, pushing a false narrative that as fans we somehow “assumed we were going to win everything” and for the most part it has been easy enough to stay away and tune it all out – the above tweet was posted from the Aviva Stadium press box moments after full time.
One thing you can be sure I’m NOT going to do however, is post a few screenshots of the abuse being levelled at Leinster and their fans over the past few weeks, because to my mind that gives an impression that ALL fans of a particular team do this kind of thing, when the reality is that being an asshole is no peculiar to any one jersey.
There was one tweet that pissed me off, however, because rather than come from a random fan this was by an actual member of the Munster squad. Only thing I will add to posting it below is this : imagine the uproar if it were a Leinster squad player after the boys in blue won a trophy. Articles would be written about it. Hang on never mind articles….PLAYS would be written.
THE SEXTON INCIDENT
While we’re on the subject of senior players who should know better behaving badly, much has been said of this “incident” involving Johnny Sexton after the Champions Cup final.
Before I go on, I’d like to divide this segment in two parts.
PART 1 – ASSUMING IT HAPPENED
If Johnny Sexton walked up to Jaco Peyper and called him a “f*cking disgrace” as is alleged, then there definitely needs to be some kind of action, but only after a proper enquiry. I’m no fan of that carry on, whatever the person’s colours.
PART 2 – GUILTY BEFORE ANYTHING PROVEN
But can we please call this incident for what it is. People were calling for Johnny’s head long before there was anything even remotely close to “evidence” available, and remember, even the video you see in the tweet below doesn’t tell us what was actually said (and ironically, Karl Dickson has something of a track record when it comes to bad hearing).
All of which means is that with these kind of levels of bias out there against Sexton (including a host of South African commenters keen to conflate the whole thing with RassieGate from the Lions tour – hilarious!) there is literally nothing we can say until there has been a full investigation. And if there isn’t one, then we have to assume that there’s “no there there”, although naturally that won’t stop the Sexton haters from forming conspiracy theories, in which I say let ‘em.
On a lighter note – on those dissing his outfit, I really don’t think they even have a case there. Not exactly my style, but still the comments are just another example of the hating IMO.
THE HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE 2022/23
Normally my update on the Harpin URC Prediction League comes towards the end of my 80+ column, but it won’t take you long to work out why I moved it up.
Last season, I finished dead last, which meant I had to wear The Jersey Of Shame on social media. I’ve already posted it here so I’ll just link to it rather than do it again. The main reason I lost was that I just could not discipline myself to post my predictions on Superbru week in week out, leaving me stranded in 6th place come the end of the campaign.
Well this time around I was determined to at very least we sure of kicking the “no picks” habit. And a few rounds into the season I was doing pretty well.

But gradually I gave way to Cian ‘RugbyKino’ O’Muilleoi,r who generally takes a stats-based approach to predictions, and it really did seem to do well over the course of a season, since having taken over top spot at Round 5 he proceeded to stay there all the way through the Six Nations and the gap never looked like closing…

…until I actually closed it towards of the regular season and thought I was on Cloud 9…

…only for Mark Jackson to nip ahead of us both and he seemed to have the title done and dusted with only the URC Final left.

Well folks, I only had one possible strategy when it came to predicting Stormers v Munster. With the South Africans the favourites (being reigning champions and having home advantage), I had to assume that both Mark and Kino ahead of me on the table would go for them so that meant my only hope would be to take a punt on Munster (and let’s be honest the way they’ve been playing it was hardly a “Hail Mary”). Just in case someone else also went for it, I made my prediction a double-digit win so that I’d have a chance of getting extra points if I got it right. Turns out I didn’t need that cushion as I was the only one and hey presto my four points pole vaulted me back into first!!!
Obvs I’d swap it for even one let alone two trophies for Leinster, but having also done well in the Six Nations prediction comp I’d say I’m pretty pleased with my showing this season.
Down at the other end of the table, the Jersey of Shame is wrapped and ready to send to Neil “No Picks Keego” Keegan and hopefully we’ll have a pic to share of him sporting it soon. Also hopefully we’ll get another few contributors into the HPL for the 23/24 campaign when I’ll be defending my crown.
HARPIN PREDICTOR LEAGUE 2022/23 FINAL STANDINGS

NOT ACTING IN GOODE FAITH
The tweet pretty much says it all, but one thing I’ll add is that I am actually ELEVEN YEARS OLDER than Andy Goode who’s whinging about a girl making what I thought was a very light hearted correction. You’d swear it was the other way around. I have no idea what makes these guys think pearl-clutching (and that’s definitely what this is) is somehow masculine…
LEINSTER AWARDS & LEAVERS
Normally this section is for Leinster’s injury report, so since it’s the end of the season I’ll instead feature the end of season business from Leinster Rugby, starting with the awards…
Best Menswear Development School of the Year: St Mary’s CBS, Portlaoise
JUST EAT Tackle of the Year: Liam Turner (v DHL Stormers)
Beauchamps School of the Year: Gonzaga College
Nissan Ireland Contribution to Leinster Rugby: Rachael O’Brien (Co Carlow FC)
The Irish Times Try of the Year: Garry Ringrose (v Racing 92)
DigitalWell Junior Club of the Year: Mullingar RFC
Energia Senior Club of the Year: Old Belvedere RFC
BDO Supporters Player of the Year: Garry Ringrose
Guinness Hall of Fame: Gerry Murphy
BearingPoint Women’s Young Player of the Year: Aoife Dalton
Laya Healthcare Men’s Young Player of the Year: Scott Penny
Band of Ireland Women’s Player of the Year: Jenny Murphy
Bank of Ireland Men’s Player of the Year: Caelan Doris
Certainly can’t complain about the names honoured above, that’s for sure. And now the bad news, the list of players leaving the province…
Johnny Sexton (189 caps / 1,646 points)
Dave Kearney (186 / 275)
James Tracy (141 / 90)
Nick McCarthy (62 / 25)
Tadgh McElroy (4 / 0)
Charlie Ryan (0 / 0)
Seán O’Brien (3 / 0)
Max O’Reilly (11 / 10)
Marcus Hanan (4 / 0)
Andrew Smith (2 / 0)
Best wishes to all, and with all due respect to the other nine guys I’m sure we all agree that the best of best wishes go to yer man at the top when it comes to a certain egg-chasing tournament happening in France in September…
ALL EYES ON RWC2023
What’s that you say? My tweet looks like I’m being sarcastic??? Whatever could you mean???

Look, some were always going to miss out. And yes, with Munster’s win freshest in the mind it’s obvious to notice if one or two names don’t get on the list, yet while no coach is ever perfect, if Andy Farrell hasn’t earned himself some street cred at this stage then nobody can.
Here’s my personal ideal matchday 23 from the group (assuming all players fully fit), we’ll see how it evolves over time.
Keenan, Hansen, Ringrose, Henshaw, Lowe, Sexton, Gibson-Park
Porter, Sheehan, Furlong, Henderson, Ryan, O’Mahony, van der Flier, Doris
Kelleher, Healy, Bealham, Beirne, Conan, Murray, Crowley, Aki
SEVENS UPDATE
With no 80+ column last week I didn’t get to update the London Sevens, where the men’s series came to an end after the women had finished in Toulouse. Apparently this last tournament of the season is done differently to all the others…the top 12 on the points table compete for the final standings while the others take part in a qualifying competition for next year’s circuit.
The Irish men’s squad may not have qualified for the Olympics directly as the women did, but still overall a 6th place finish in London wasn’t the worst outcome. Also while 8th place overall is definitely something we can improve on, reaching that final in Dubai was a highlight for sure and having watched them quite a bit over the course of the season I’d say they have done us proud.
I’ll be even more proud once I hear the announcement of an Irish leg on the calendar, get on it people!!!!!

MLR UPDATE
I hope the actual fans of the New England Free Jacks aren’t superstitious (although from what I know of sports in that neck of the woods I’m pretty sure they are) because as a Leinster fan who saw his team rack up easy wins throughout the season including multiple “50-burgers” only to fall agonisingly short in playoffs twice, they may not be so keen to know that I have adopted them as my team for the 2023 version of Major League Rugby.
We had no 80+ column last week so there are two weeks of results to catch up on and as you can see the Free Jacks have, to say the very least, consolidated their position at the top of the Eastern Conference, stretching their lead to 20 points and guaranteeing them a home “semifinal” in the playoffs after big wins over New Orleans and Toronto respectively.
They will have one tough opponent to get them ready however as they must travel in round 17 to face Seattle, who themselves are locked in a battle with the San Diego Legion for 1st place and in fact it’s kind of set up for the Western Conference to have a thrilling finale as the two rivals meet in Round 18.
This could be a problem for the Free Jacks as while they have the comfort of knowing their fate, both the Legion and the Seawolves will have multiple tough encounters between now and the championship game, assuming they do make it there of course.
But still it has been an interesting season and let’s face it, the way last year’s version ended up with two teams folding just before the playoffs, any kind of finish which involves only action on the pitch will be a positive.
ROUND 14
NEFJ 50-3 NOLA
SEA 35-13 CHI
UTAH 34-28 HOU
ATL 19-27 DAL
TOR 29-29 OGDC
ROUND 15
SD 36-13 NYI
UTAH 28-12 ATL
HOU 40-33 CHI
OGDC 19-41 SEA
NEFJ 57-20 TOR

ROUND 16
ATL V NEFJ
NOLA V OGDC
CHI V SD
TOR V HOU
NYI V DAL
SEA V UTAH
THE NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
Right so that brings down the curtain on the 2022/23 season of Harpin on Rugby. Obviously I’ll still be tweeting over the coming weeks, both the Top 14 and Super Rugby are still to be decided as is Major League Rugby which I have been following as you will know. There might be the odd pod or two during the next month or so, you never know, along with bits & bobs on the other social media platforms.
But we won’t kick back into full swing until a week or so before the World Cup warmups come on the radar, that’s when we will formally launch Season 5 of the pod and a whopping season SIXTEEN of Harpin.
Many thanks for all your clicking and reading and sharing and commenting and what-not, looking forward to more.
In the meantime, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP