Welcome to my 80+ column, a weekly post featuring final thoughts from the week of rugby just gone.
WRAP OF A WRAP
Bit of a hectic weekend – first I was of course at the RDS on Friday night then I had commitments all day Saturday & Sunday which took longer than expected and for a while there it was touch and go whether I could do a wrap pod at all.
Thankfully I was able to find pockets of time here and there to cobble together a show and even more thankfully, Ciarán Duffy was able to lend his own pod producing experience to help me out and get a sizeable chunk of the recording done by the time I was finally able to dial in. Many thanks also to Tom Coleman for his patience and between them they did a super job harpin’ on the match on top of it all.
If you missed it, check it out here or on most major platforms.
HARPIN ON…THE STORMERS & LEINSTER’S NEW RIVALRY
No time to record a bonus clip this week so instead I just put out an excerpt from the pod where myself and Tom talked about the Stormers, how the approached the match at the RDS and how a new multi-national rivalry seems to be developing similar to that we had with the Ospreys back in the 2010s.
If you’re playing the clip above maybe pop over and subscribe to the channel too? That’s where we post our Preview Show as well as other content throughout the week.
HARPIN’ PREVIEW SHOW TIK TOK
Didn’t have time to produce a TikTok from the main pod so I’ll use this segment to plug the Preview Show which we do generally soon after the Leinster or Ireland team is named during the week and can be found on our You Tube channel although we also put it out as a pod…
Not much time for the Grand Slam celebrations to die down before arguably the biggest match of the #URC season so far – Conor Cronin joins me to preview the visit of the reigning champions to the RDS. #LEIvSTO
Like I said earlier I was busy Saturday so didn’t get to watch this match but by the sounds of things it was extremely disappointing. Since the failure to qualify for the World Cup there has been a good bit of positivity on the organisation side of things but it’s pretty clear that there is a long, long way to go and the problem is that as we try to recover the other nations are hardly going to pause and wait for us so by the time we reach a standard close to what we see from the top sides now, they would have moved on even further. And it certainly doesn’t get a whole lot easier for them as they face France next.
Of course it’s impossible to avoid contrasting this result with the achievements of the men’s team just a week earlier, but I hope you appreciate I don’t say this to be mocking, far from it. Maybe conditions for the women’s team are improving but it still pales in comparison to the long-standing infrastructure in place to support the men’s game. At the very least you’d hope there was enough support to provide for a dedicated sevens squad without depriving the XVs of the games top players in the process.
As always when I harp on women’s rugby here I must direct your attention to those who understand the issues much more and in the tweet below we have one such excellent source pointing out articles from another.
Take 10 minutes to read these two articles. JC understands the issues better than I ever will and he has a great angle on some solutions. https://t.co/gcB85hNodi
— IrishWomensRugbySupportersClub (@IrishWomens) March 27, 2023
SEE ALSO THE SEVENS SECTION BELOW FOR A FURTHER UPDATE ON IRISH WOMEN’S RUGBY
DAN LEAVY TWEET
I was surprised by the reaction I got to this answer to a Twitter question, although I guess I can’t be surprised that I’m not the only one who thought Dan could have gone on to be one of the greats. In fact imagine if Leinster had himself, JVDF AND a never-injured Will Connors to choose from all this time!!!
Of course there was the odd bit of whataboutery in response but the truth is everyone was going to have their own choice in a question like this and the reality is that it’s one of those things where nobody is right and everyone is right all at once.
— @HarpinOnRugby@mastodon.ie (@HarpinOnRugby) March 26, 2023
SOURCE MATERIAL
You’d like to think a player with the caliber and experience of Gareth Anscombe would be the best source of info on his own contract negotiations, yet Peter Jackson clearly thought he had a better one, and his reply below caused much amusement amongst the rugby Twitterati on Monday.
Who knows, maybe there is some truth in it after all, although I would have thought it was a courtesy to run an article like this by the man himself before publication? Come to think of it, maybe he did!!!
TBH I’d much rather not have to mention Ewan McKenna’s name on these pages but once in a while it’s worth sharing his pseudo-man-of-the-people shite if for no other reason than to call it out as pseudo-man-of-the-people shite.
Kudos to Tom “Leinster Royalty” Coleman for coining the very tongue-in-cheek phrase “King Troll” in our WhatsApp group.
The analysis of that take is simple. It's not about sport at all, he simply wants to divide people against each other and this is his niche.
An opinion like "actually both things are good" might actually make him cry.
Tucker Carlson wannabe.
— @HarpinOnRugby@mastodon.ie (@HarpinOnRugby) March 28, 2023
UNDER 18 FESTIVAL
Just going to copy paste some info from a press release, this series looks interesting and can be followed for free on a streaming service…
“The Six Nations Under-18 Festivals are a vital development platform”
· Under-18 Women’s Festival returns for its second year, strengthening the pathway for future stars of the women’s game
· Women’s Festival will take place from 7th – 15th April, and hosted at Wellington College, England
· The Men’s Under-18 Festival will be played at Energia Park, Dublin from 8th – 16th April
· Fans can follow every fixture across both festivals with a live streaming service on Six Nations Rugby digital channels
· The festivals will also offer a platform to support the development of coaches and match officials
INJURY REPORT
Obviously the headline news here is about Johnny Sexton and to be honest, I’d rather not harp on it right now if you don’t mind, still processing the very real possibility that his start on New Year’s Day against Connacht was to his last in Leinster blue.
For now I’d rather turn my attention to our possibilities for selection for the Champions Cup this weekend, hosting an Ulster side who I am very sure will come to Dublin with a decent chance of knocking us out if we’re not careful.
The way I see it the immediate concern of the injury report is the HIA protocols for Ringrose, Keenan and Doris. Obviously it’s paramount that they see them out fully, but if as suggested by the injury report they could be available pending further assessment, I’m pretty sure all three would start.
Which leaves us with a quandary in the selection process, where we’d need to decide on back up if they are unavailable. We have tried several different options at 15 this season without HK but I’m thinking since Larmour wore the 15 most recently then he must be considered for Saturday. Then in the centre obviously Robbie will play 12 or 13 depending on Garry’s fitness with Frawley ready to play inside centre if required.
That all in turn makes the 23 jersey an interesting debate and I had no hestitation putting Liam Turner in the mix for it as he is having a fine season. And speaking of the bench I decided to also go for a 6/2 split option as with the likes of Jimmy O’Brien, Larmour and Frawley likely to be involved we could afford to beef up our pack replacements and while Scott Penny has done brilliantly of late I think Deegan might just pip him for the extra spot although it’s very, very close.
POSSIBLE 23 V ULSTER
Keenan/Larmour, J O’Brien, Ringrose/Henshaw, Henshaw/Frawley, Lowe, R Byrne, Gibson-Park
(note – the above team is purely from my imagination, it’s certainly not one of those quasi-leaked Thornley teams which are always 22 out of 23 correct)
INJURY UPDATE – AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Ed Byrne: came through the game at the weekend with no issues after his return from a knee injury
INJURY UPDATE – FURTHER ASSESSMENT REQUIRED:
Garry Ringrose: will continue to follow the Graduated Return to Play Protocols this week
Hugo Keenan: will continue to follow the Graduated Return to Play Protocols this week
Caelan Doris: will continue to follow the Graduated Return to Play Protocols this week
INJURY UPDATE – UNAVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Johnny Sexton: will see a specialist tomorrow and have a procedure on the groin injury picked up in last Saturday’s game against England which will likely keep him sidelined for the remainder of the Leinster Rugby season
There are no further updates on:
Jamie Osborne (knee), Rónan Kelleher (shoulder), Joe McCarthy (ankle), Cormac Foley (hamstring), Martin Moloney (knee) and Charlie Ngatai (hamstring)
AIL UPDATE
With all of the top four at home in round 16 of Division 1A it was kind of inevitable that all would cement their places and the gap of 9 points to fifth place will be tough to close. It’s looking very much like we’re going to have two Leinster v Munster semifinals to look forward to.
Meanwhile down at the bottom although both UCD and Shannon lost the Students did manage a precious losing bonus which gives them a crucial four point lead over the Limerick side with both teams at home in Round 17 against mid-table opposition.
As you can see I’ll be including the race to qualify for next season’s top division in this section for the rest of the season. And what a finish it promises to be with not only four teams vying for the two top spots (winner goes straight up, runnersup get a playoff) but theres the added bonus of there being one club from each province in the four!!!! City of Armagh would appear to have the inside track but there will no doubt be more twists and turns to this division before the season is out.
DIVISION 1A
ROUND 16
Clontarf 24-14 Hinch
Cork Con 36-19 Shannon
Trinity 10-32 Lansdowne
Terenure 52-0 Garryowen
Young Munster 23-17 UCD
ROUND 17
FRI MAR 31
Lansdowne v Clontarf
UCD v Dublin University
SAT APR 1
Cork Con v Terenure
Shannon v Ballynahinch
Garryowen v Young Munster
DIVISION 1B
ROUND 16
Banbridge 35-29 Malone
Buccaneers 7-27 Highfield
Naas 25-17 Old Belvedere
Wesley 13-6 City of Armagh
St Mary’s 40-32 UCC
ROUND 17 (ALL APR 1)
Old Belvedere v Banbridge
City of Armagh v UCC
Highfield v Naas
Malone v St Mary’s
Old Wesley v Buccaneers
SEVENS UPDATE
For reasons I have still yet to find on the internet, the 2022/23 World Series Sevens circuit is making two visits to Hong Kong, at least for the men, maybe it’s to make up for an event lost to COVID?
The Irish men, who nudged up one place to 9th after a final four appearance in Vancouver, got themselves a stinker of a pool draw with New Zealand, South Africa and Kenya all finding their way into the deathiest of pools of death with us.
Meanwhile the women, still fifth despite a poor outing in Canada by their standards, don’t have it too much easier with Fiji, Australia and Brazil on the horizon.
Friday, March 31
6:04AM – IRELAND WOMEN V FIJI
8:04AM – IRELAND MEN V SOUTH AFRICA
10:28AM – IRELAND WOMEN V AUSTRALIA
Saturday, April 1
2:32AM – IRELAND WOMEN V BRAZIL
4:28AM – IRELAND MEN V KENYA
7:16AM – WOMEN’S PLAYOFFS BEGIN
8:49AM – IRELAND MEN V NEW ZEALAND
Sunday April 2
1:30AM – MEN’S PLAYOFFS BEGIN
UPDATE – The tweet below posted shortly after I published this article.
The IRFU have announced the 2 squads for the Hong Kong Sevens
And buried in that announcement they have a 7s women's coaching update.
For this week’s feature match I stayed in the Eastern Conference to check out Old Glory DC as they hosted NOLA Gold.
The venue was the soccer ground of Loudon United, a feeder team for DC United from the MLS. It’s actually located in Virginia not Washington, although that’s not surprising as most of the people who work in the nation’s capital actually live in Virginia.
Normally I have issues watching these MLR games because of the visible lines on the pitch from other sports yet although you could see the soccer markings my attention was more drawn by the actual grass itself, it looked like it could have done with a wee trim that morning, the conditions underfoot looked a bit sub-standard.
And whether it was the grass or not the match itself was something of an error fest with several penalties and knockons and although the visitors did have a stingy defence, Old Glory must have concerns that it took them an hour to cross the line with all the possession they had.
They were winning penalties in the first half enough to go into the break with a 12-10 lead thanks to the boot of their former Puma outhalf Joaquín Díaz Bonilla although New Orleans made the most of their one chance as JP du Plessis finished off a fine exchange in loose play.
After the break the scrappiness continued with nobody seemingly able to control the ball until eventually Jordan Lautaro got them ahead only for Gold fullback and former Auckland Blue Jordan Trainor to hit straight back and with less than ten minutes left Aussie 10 Rodney Iona kicked the three points that gave the visitors the win.
Far from a classic but still both sides look well in contention for the playoffs.
More on the league next week.
ROUND 6 OGDC 17-20 NOLA NEFJ 10-9 DAL UTAH 47-19 TOR HOU 40-28 ATL CHI 5-27 SEA
ROUND 7 UTAH V NEFJ DAL V TOR CHI V HOU NOLA V SEA NYI V ATL SD V OGDC
HARPIN’ PREDICTION LEAGUE
Not a good weekend for the actual predictions, with nobody ever risking a draw as their forecasted result plus there were unexpected wins for the Scarlets and Lions, but I still managed to claw my way closer to Kino at the top of the HPL with the gap now just half a point, although even with just 23 matches left you could say all of the top five are in contention. As for “No Picks Keego”, well, he’s clearing a space in his wardrobe for The Jersey Of Shame…
THE NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
I hate the chopping and changing around competitions as it is over the course of the European season, but this time of year it gets extra crazy as we must go from Six Nations to URC to Champions Cup in successive weekends.
But you can be sure I’ll be ready to give Saturday’s visit of the Ulstermen the full Harpin treatment with a preview Friday, wrap Sunday and all the usual features in between.
In the meantime, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP
Conor Cronin We’re still undefeated, but I feel we could’ve won that.
It’s easy to blame certain factors, the weather being one, but you have to play what’s out there. We tried an offloading game in the first half that wasn’t suitable to those conditions. That’s inexperience.
The other major inexperienced person it they’re was the ref imo. He needs to trócaire his interpretation of the ruck, in from the side and the offside line. I would also argue that leinster avoiding s try before half time wasn’t a reason nor to yellow the cynical behaviour within 5m leading up to that try.
We take 3 points from that game to their 2, and are guaranteed to spot in the league. We were given a challenge greater than any we’ve faced so far this season. We were pushed in a way that forced the players out there to show more and dig deep. It might be a draw on the score board but its a win for me.
Greg Kelly Winning is a habit but so is not losing. To be fair though we left that game out there. Byrnes missed kicks were the difference. 3rd string team against a much more experienced Stormers outfit and we draw with a 3-2 match point win. Perhaps an indication that the SA teams are not as strong relatively speaking as the competition needs them to be.
Alan Murphy Physical game. The wind and the rain probably balanced each half. 17-5 to each team in each half. A bonus point draw for us is probably more than we expected before the game against a fully loaded Stormers team. Well done Leinster.
TWITTER
#LEIvSTO WHAT A GAME…fair play to both teams for some endeavour and serious physicality in trying conditions #bestleague#BKTURC
— Marcas Mac Siacais 🇪🇺🇮🇪☘️ (@hoomanbear) March 24, 2023
#LEIvSTO Eating my complaints here with grace. A shame the SA teams weren't part of this competition years ago. What a great match. Jeez we are spoiled. 🏉
A draw for Leinster but considering they were missing their international players and were 0-17 down at one point against a strong Stormers side, gotta say that’s a great effort from a great side.#LEIvSTO | #BKTURC
Rich Mifsud Given the respective lineups, getting 3 match points from this match is nothing short of awesome. Well played both teams in seriously rubbish conditions. Haven’t been this happy about drawing at home..ever 🤣. Credit to our @leinsterrugby boys especially the young guns for that comeback against a very strong @thestormers team. Great match and a credit to the @urcofficial
Dominic Doyle really good game. Stormers will fancy coming back to RDS again in better weather later in the season and will have no fear. Shame our first team don’t get this test. Much needed for the serious battles ahead.
Brian Nisbet Spent the match surrounded by a very jolly French barristers rugby team. They were very much up for Leinster and we were all rewarded by a great match. The Stormers came to win and they went away with a 22-22 draw and lacked the try BP that Leinster got. Result.
Welcome to my 80+ column, a weekly post featuring final thoughts from the week of rugby just gone.
FANZO GUINNESS PINT PREDICTOR LEAGUE RESULT
Well, this got awkward…
“Back in the day” we used to hold competitions under a format I called “the unriggable raffle” where we got 100 entrants to earn a square on to a 10×10 grid and the winner would be determined by the final score of our feature rugby match of the weekend. We only stopped doing them because the admin became too much but one thing you can say for sure was that I had no possible say in the winner.
Since those times we have had a few more conventional competitions and the latest one was in conjunction with the FANZO app which ran a prediction league for the Six Nations. There were pints on offer for getting individual results right but you also won points on a league table so over the five weeks we were working towards an overall winner.
HOWEVER…to encourage people to join the league even after the Six Nations kicked off, we had an extra prize for Best Score In A Single Round and going into Super Saturday it looked like Andrew Byrne had posted an unassailable 67 in round 3. As I was in town celebrating the Grand Slam a mate texted me to point out that I had gotten TWO of that Saturday’s winning margins bang on (including Ireland’s) which meant not only had I jumped to the bronze medal slot in the overall league, I also won the bonus prize with my score of 70!!!!!!!
Now the reason my mate was interested in letting me know was that he could also tell me that he actually jumped to second overall ahead of me!!! And in a final twist to the whole thing the overall winner was actually fellow content creator Stephen “Master of None” Murphy, who also won his own Fanzo competition!!!
We plugged the competition with lines like “see if you can beat the experts”…I suppose with the exception of Ken, ye couldn’t ha ha ha….and just in case I need proof of my predictions here they are…
Seriously though, many thanks again to the FANZO crowd for getting involved it definitely added to the experience over the past couple of months.
CHARITY RAFFLE
Please get involved in the actual raffle below, an awesome prize for an extremely worthy cause.
Johnny Sexton has donate a signed, match worn jersey from this years’ Six Nations campaign!
We will be raffling this off over the next few weeks for two fantastic causes. All r/t’s appreciated to help us reach our goal
Obviously it was an even greater pleasure to wrap last weekend’s match, and many thanks to Conor & Kino for being on hand to help me do so. It was great to be able to say the words “Grand Slam” out loud on the pod again although shortly before recording I came up with a loophole for future years…once I make it clear that I’m actually talking about an elderly relative’s cooking, ie “Gran’s Lamb”, then I should be able to say it freely in future years.
If you missed it, check it out here or on most major platforms.
HARPIN ON…SIMON EASTERBY & IRELAND’S DEFENCE
For the bonus clip this week we looked at what I consider to be the bedrock of Ireland’s success and wait until you get a load of the stat Kino highlights about tries conceded…it’s mind-blowing.
If you’re playing the clip above maybe pop over and subscribe to the channel too? That’s where we post our Preview Show as well as other content throughout the week.
IRELAND’S RWC CHANCES TIK TOK
Two TikToks to share this week, first a great point made by Kino as he wrapped up his pod contributions…
…and this other one I’ll just link to (click here) I vowed to break my “Grand Slam” embargo as soon as possible after full time if we won so what you see is a rather drunk me talking to my phone outside a pub on King’s Street Dublin between 7 and 7:30 Saturday evening…
STEWARD’S ENQUIRY
Much has been said about that Freddie Steward red card all over social media I know, including by yours truly on the pod, but I still have a few final points to make.
First, while I try to be open minded and take in views from the other side on decisions like this one, I now have a policy whereby should I hear something like “that was no way intentional” then I just stop reading or listening. It’s not about intent. It’s about duty of care. And reckless can also be red.
Finally I’d like to show receipts from my views expressed on the pod. When we see Twitter clips of the Steward/Keenan collision they always make it look like the two players’ starting positions were just feet apart, with the implication being that Steward had little or no time to react.
IMO this photo tells a different story. Steward came from a good bit away and Keenan was always his man so he had a lot more time to prepare for the collision than many are letting on. And again…to be very clear, that doesn’t mean he set out to clatter him in the head, I’m just saying he had more time to prepare better for contact.
You could even argue that those saying he had little time to react are effectively saying he’s a shit full back because one of the most important roles they play is seeing all that is happening in front of them!
I mean, even if he WAS just “bracing for impact” like he claims, you can do that in many different ways and when you do it by turning your elbow you put yourself in a position to cause damage. THIS is why the decision is red, in the hope that he, and others looking on, will change their behaviour in future. But that objective becomes trickier when a host of commentators, including decorated former players like Matt Dawson, try to make it out like nothing was wrong about it.
UPDATE : the commission ruling has since dropped…
The player denied that he had committed an act of foul play worthy of a red card as described in Law 9.11. Having reviewed all the evidence, the Committee decided that: (i) head contact with an opposing player had occurred; (ii) there had been an act of foul play in breach of Law 9.11 in that the Player had been reckless in his actions and in his upright positioning as he approached and came into highly dangerous contact with the other player; and (iii) there were sufficient mitigating factors including the late change in the dynamics and positioning of the opposing player which should have resulted in the issue of a yellow card rather than a red card.
On that basis, the Committee did not uphold the red card and the player is free to play again immediately.
Guinness Six Nations press release
Obviously social media is going to be full of “I told you so’s” over the next few days but FWIW I still hold my own opinion expressed above and I’m really not sure what this outcome does to help the overall intent of these guidelines which I thought were designed to change behaviour. It also makes a mockery of Jaco Peyper’s on-field interpretation.
GRAND SLAM GROAN SLUMP
Can we not just have at least a couple of days to be happy about a double Grand Slam??????? I mean, is that too much to ask???
To be fair, I expected the taunts from outside of Ireland, like the “bet you still won’t get past the RWC quarterfinals”, so that isn’t included here.
But to see tweets from Irish fans, clearly still upset that so many from the 23 were from Leinster no matter what the achievements of the team, drudging up the age old debates about provincial selections and “private schools” and such was really really disheartening.
I mean, let’s be clear, those debates are worth having, but no matter what the composition of the team at the weekend, it was still Ireland, and they won the tournament comfortably which makes the selection process extremely difficult to argue against.
Even on the subject of supposed favouritism towards Leinster, which I already harped on last week’s version of this column, there is news of change going forward with the proposed Munster Centre of Excellence, so maybe if it’s balance we’re looking for we could also bring it to the discussion from the other side as well.
One area where I didn’t mind a spot of post-Grand Slam negativity was with women’s rugby. Things in general are improving for the Irish team and I wish Nichola and all the squad the best of luck in their Six Nations campaign which kicks off next weekend.
But there are still a host of issues which have yet to be addressed and one of these is that members of the heroic 2013 Grand Slam squad were unbelievably without tickets for Saturday’s decider despite their being celebrated during the week. Also there was an article in the Indo by John Cronin outline many of the outstanding problems (here’s the link though it’s unfortunately behind a paywall) so clearly it’s a case of some things done, more still to do.
WORLD RUGBY BLUEPRINTS
An exclusive this morning in the Telegraph about World Rugby’s plans for the future, also behind a paywall, but above you see the main points. Here’s what I thought about it.
First glance of World Rugby blueprint – looks like most of the bigger CVC cake goes to Tier 1, with crumbs to tiers below. Are we surprised? On World League, meh, like any comp if your country wins it will be great but not seeing a lot of worldwide growth for the sport pic.twitter.com/zCUOoD6xhZ
— @HarpinOnRugby@mastodon.ie (@HarpinOnRugby) March 21, 2023
WINS AS A TIEBREAKER
Many congrats again to Richie Murphy and his Under 20s or “Wolfuppies” team that also won the Grand Slam with their own convincing win over England at the weekend, the similarities in that game in Cork and Saturday’s in Dublin were uncanny.
But on the competition overall I’d just like to find a tiny kernel of fault if I may…as you can see from the table below, the Italian Under 20s did an amazing job in finishing 3rd on the overall table and I have no doubt that it will do the sport there a world of good and we can hope that these underage squads will go on to serve their test performances well in the years to come.
However, as much as we Irish fans would much prefer to see Italy above England in any league table, I wonder if it’s fair that they got ahead of them here. All I’m saying is that when we’re using bonus points, while I get why points difference is an important tie breaker, I’m not so sure it should be the first on the list behind matches won. Sorry, but IMO England’s 3 wins should beat Italy’s 2 and I reckon we’d be shouting from the rooftops if an Irish team missed out this way, especially in the senior Six Nations where the financial difference between 3rd and 4th is great.
WORLD CUP DRAW
Here’s a pair of tweets I agree with, despite the fact that they contradict each other. In the first one, a Leicester Tigers podster shares my view that we might be making too much of this “World Cup draw” situation. Is it a fiasco? Yes. Is there anything we can do about it before RWC2023? No.
Wow, it didn’t take long for people to turn from celebrating the Grand Slam to re-moaning the RWC draw.
We all know it’s shit & done far too far in advance.
But, it is what it is, we all knew the ludicrous timing (hence the rush to get top 4 3 yrs ago!).
That said, it was interesting to see this mock up of how the RWC2023 draw would look had the rankings been based on current standings, although I do wonder if the draw would allow for three from the six nations to be in the same pool.
By the way, the picture on the left is what the World Cup draw currently looks like, and the one on the right is what it would like if the draw was being done now based on current rankings: https://t.co/zNmZP3Nrappic.twitter.com/PouoJxvoDS
Biggest downers from Saturday for Ireland but more immediately Leinster were the early withdrawals of Messrs Keenan & Sexton, and the injury reports do not look good although neither were ever going to feature in the the top of the table URC clash on Friday against the reigning champion Stormers.
It was however extremely good news that Tommy O’Brien and Ed Byrne are back available for selection and while I have a feeling there won’t be too many changes to Leinster’s 23 than the one from Edinburgh, they could feature on the bench…
POSSIBLE 23 FOR FRIDAY
Cosgrove, Larmour, Turner, Frawley, Kearney, H Byrne, McGrath
Barron, E Byrne, Clarkson, Deeny, Connors, N McCarthy, Tector, T O’Brien/Russell
(note – the above team is purely from my imagination, it’s certainly not one of those quasi-leaked Thornley teams which are always 22 out of 23 correct)
INJURY UPDATE – AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Tommy O’Brien: has returned to full training after recovering from an ACL injury
Ed Byrne: has returned to full training after recovering from a knee injury
INJURY UPDATE – FURTHER ASSESSMENT REQUIRED:
Garry Ringrose: will continue to follow the Graduated Return to Play Protocols with Leinster Rugby
Hugo Keenan: will continue to follow the Graduated Return to Play Protocols with Leinster Rugby
Caelan Doris: will continue to follow the Graduated Return to Play Protocols with Leinster Rugby
INJURY UPDATE – UNAVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Johnny Sexton: will have a scan today on a groin injury picked up in Saturday’s game against England
Jamie Osborne: Sustained a knee ligament injury in the game against Edinburgh and will be unavailable for a number of weeks
There are no further updates on:
Rónan Kelleher (shoulder), Joe McCarthy (ankle), Cormac Foley (hamstring), Martin Moloney (knee) and Charlie Ngatai (hamstring)
Meanwhile on the Stormers side of things I hear they could well be bringing a few Springboks to the RDS so that should make it a very interesting occasion indeed.
MLR UPDATE
This week I decided to check in on the Eastern Conference for once and no better match than the rivalry between the New York Ironworkers and the New England Free Jacks.
The Irish interest in the lineups wasn’t as strong as I thought it would be all I could see was the New England scrum half John Poland who played for Ire U20s and had a cap for Munster before moving stateside – on the New York side there was just their Aussie-born outhalf Sam Windsor who has 8 Ulster caps from the 2015-16 season.
It was played at the Memorial Stadium at Mount Vernon in New York – I winced at the sight of both gridiron and soccer lines on the pitch but in the end it wasn’t too bad.
Overall although New York led a couple of times including as late as 55m, the visitors were always in control as their halfbacks Poland and Jayson Potroz always seemed to have a score in them and once they got back the lead going into the final quarter there was only to be one winner and they will be more than happy with a 5-0 points split away from home, especially as the teams went into the game level at the top of the conference.
More on the league next week.
ROUND 5
NOLA 37-14 UTAH
ATL 10-35 SD
OGDC 29-3 TOR
CHI 24-22 DAL
NYI 18-33 NEFJ
ROUND 6
OGDC v NOLA
NEFJ V DAL
UTAH V TOR
HOU V ATL
CHI V SEA
HARPIN’ PREDICTION LEAGUE
Obviously there has been no change in the league since the last time I included it in this column but I thought I’d post the table again anyway as there are just three rounds left and it’s getting close at the top, if not so much at the bottom!!!
THE NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
The original plan was to have a bonus pod to look back over the Six Nations but I chose instead to give myself the week off; this has been an enjoyable period for content creating here at Harpin Manor of course but also very hectic admin wise so we could do with the few extra days without another pod to process.
Then we turn our focus back to the URC and the visit of the Stormers with a preview show before, a wrap pod after and also all the other usual features in between so be sure to follow us on any or all of our social media platforms to keep up with it all. In the meantime, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP
Ryan Baird immense ..kudos must go to all coaches n staff and squad
10 tries conceeded in 2 6 Nations campaigns combined telling stat..hats off to Simon Easterby for defensive work especially
James Griffin
England brought physicality but not a lot of game nous. Ireland, while not always as precise as in previous games, matched their physicality but in addition, had good game management and made good decisions at crucial times. Delighted for the entire squad; a fully deserved slam.
Gavin Hegarty
Not a good Irish performance but always great to get a slam.
Up for discussion is where rugby is going. A red card should be for a malicious act, not for what steward did. His offence was a yellow at most.
TWITTER
The best part of all this?
After the trophy is lifted. After the job is done.
Seeing who they are. Kids in tow, joy, delight, banter.
Utter professionals week to week, but they let the emotions lose once it's done.
Cried looking at POM and Sexton with their kids.
Wholesome
— IrishWomensRugbySupportersClub (@IrishWomens) March 18, 2023
HARPIN' ON RUGBY 