LEINSTER : 15. Ciarán Frawley 14. Jordan Larmour 13. Jamie Osborne 12. Robbie Henshaw 11. Jimmy O’Brien 10. Ross Byrne 9. Luke McGrath
1. Andrew Porter 2. Rónan Kelleher 3. Tadhg Furlong 4. Ross Molony 5. Jason Jenkins 6. Ryan Baird 7. Will Connors 8. Caelan Doris (c)
16. Dan Sheehan 17. Michael Milne 18. Thomas Clarkson 19. Jack Conan 20. Josh van der Flier 21. Jamison Gibson-Park 22. Charlie Ngatai 23. Tommy O’Brien
OSPREYS : 15. Max Nagy 14. Luke Morgan 13. Owen Watkin 12. Keiran Williams 11. Keelan Giles 10. Dan Edwards 9. Reuben Morgan-Williams
1. Nicky Smith 2. Dewi Lake 3. Rhys Henry 4. James Ratti 5. Huw Sutton 6. Harri Deaves 7. Justin Tipuric (c) 8. Morgan Morris
16. Sam Parry 17. Gareth Thomas 18. Tom Botha 19. Victor Sekekete 20. Jac Morgan 21. Luke Davies 22. Jack Walsh 23. Evardi Boshoff
A selection of five eye-catching egg-chasing quotes & links from around the ruggersphere, now including a few thoughts added by myself (JLP).
…several English press outlets have used strange language to subtly chastise Leinster and Toulouse for hosting their semi-final encounters in their home cities over the weekend.
JLP : Not even going to go into much detail here, because whatever way you slice the actual subject matter, these stories all boil down to the same thing. English clubs winning Champions Cup = everything is fine. English clubs not winning = format must change. Boo hoo. Maybe spend more time reporting on why the financial model has failed so many clubs and what’s being done to sort it?
Mr Hogg will return to court on 15 July for an intermediate hearing ahead of his trial on 30 July.
JLP : Of course I believe in the concept of innocent until proven guilty but with the above dates so relatively close and given the severity of the accusations, I don’t see why any broadcaster would consider putting him in front of a camera or any microphone until due process has full taken place. Just baffles me to have seen him since the first reports came out. And it’s not just TV where we see his reputation-washing, this article on Ruck.co.uk from just last Sunday would have you think he wasn’t having any legal issues at all.
“In the past, players would start in sevens, and move to 15s, which was the much bigger focus in Ireland. In the past few years, there has not been much movement, and look at the quality they have delivered. They are sevens players, and have consistently performed in that code.”
JLP : The South China Morning Post is far from a normal source of Front Five material for these pages but I wanted to see if the Irish sevens were getting much coverage over the past week or so and well, this was up near the top of the list, despite some respectable results from both genders, especially the men who reached the final in Singapore as you’ll see further down the page.
‘F***ed it. Sorry. Harlequins fans were huge. Boys were incredible. Juvé.’
JLP : If you weren’t watching the Toulouse/Harlequins match then you heard Quins had a penalty towards the end that could have given them a chance of staging another amazing fightback, only for one of their players to go and get the penalty reversed, you wouldn’t believe it. Unless you heard it was Joe Marler of course, in which case you’d TOTALLY believe it. To his credit though, at least he owned it. So there’s that.
Ulster are poised to steam the flow of players leaving Belfast after swooping on Champions Cup semi-finalists Leinster to land Ireland back row Max Deegan on a two-year deal.
JLP : Now – to be fair, much like Joe, Neil has owned up to this and I have made more than my fair share of mistakes on these very pages over the years. Still, this is a pretty big one, and the reports we’re hearing now since it was announced that Deegan has decided to stay at Leinster that the agreement was reached ‘several months ago’. So assuming the story was rushed to maximise exclusivity and thus to maximise clicks, Neil wins this week’s COTWA.
I deserve a kick in the bollocks. Sometimes you get things wrong. I’ve gotten one wrong
I brought the same team back from the quarterfinal against La Rochelle and Tom & Mark did a their usual excellent job going back over the match, striking the right tone when it came to the scary finish. We used the final thoughts section for our latest YouTube clip.
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 : WOULD YOU BE ABL???
When I switched from an article-based to podcast-based format, our first show was a chat on the whole concept of what I call “ABL” or “Anyone But Leinster” but this TikTok is basically my taking another swing at defining it and expressing its relevance to contemporary Irish rugby discourse.
We discussed on the pod how Leinster selections would go over the coming weeks and we kind of agreed we’d like to see a combination of returning injured players given game time and keeping the team for the final fresh, with some cotton wool for the likes of Lowe & JGP but not many more.
Harpin’ matchday 23 v Ospreys
Keenan, Russell, Ringrose, Ngatai, Larmour, H Byrne, McGrath
NB : the above matchday 23s are completely from my own mind, I’m certainly not suggesting I have any ITK a la Thornley
There is good news for Jimmy O’Brien who came through the game at the weekend with no issues after his return from a neck injury and also for Tommy O’Brien who has returned to full training from a hamstring injury.
Garry Ringrose returned to full training last week from a shoulder injury and will be further assessed this week before a final decision is made on his involvement.
Hugo Keenan will also be further assessed this week for a hip injury before a final decision is made on his involvement.
There is no further update on James Ryan (arm) and Alex Soroka (foot).
URC IRISH SHIELD UPDATE
The Shield comes back into play with Connacht still mathematically in contention and Munster trying to get off the mark.
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
CHURCH 111
We didn’t actually mention this on our wrap pod, but it did come up in our preview with Kino and to be fair, when he did come on Leinster fans were kind of more focused on us, you know, winning the match! And I thought the PA guy went a little bit too far with his announcement, they should never bleed into the actual gameplay IMO.
All that said, what an amazing achievement and so fitting for him to reach the milestone at Croke Park given he’s a link back to the classic 2009 encounter.
Speaking of Croke Park according to reports all was not plain sailing, and not just when it came to getting the full complement of bums on seats either. Look – overall I’m happy enough to accept that for what is effectively a one-off event rugby-wise there were always going to be some issues, but if this one below is genuine (and I’ve no reason to believe otherwise) then never mind what the policy of the stadium is, I’m looking squarely at the EPCR, as they had control of the event. Surely it’s in their policy for these spectators to be guaranteed an unobstructed view, and if that meant keeping some areas clear that meant the attendance would be a thousand or so less, then so be it? Will definitely have to be sorted before more matches are played there next year.
Might as well get my money’s worth from this clip and repeat it here…I decided to go all in with some Star Wars puns what with the Leinster v Northampton match being on May the 4th and all, and after the preview show was recorded I got the idea to look for a site that helped produced a video like this one, I was very confident I would easily find one, and I was right.
Yet another exciting weekend for the Irish sevens programme, with the men coming within a whiskey of a first leg victory yet still closing the gap with Argentina at the top of the standings, and the women fighting back from defeat in the quarterfinals to clinch fifth spot with the help of the usual plentiful amount of tries from Aimee Leigh Murphy Crowe. Now the circuit moves to its finals stage, the points are wiped clean and the top eight playoff in Madrid at the end of May. No reason to believe why both Irish sides can’t push for podium finishes, same goes for the Olympics.
SINGAPORE 7S
WOMEN
POOL STAGE
V CANADA W 5-0
V NEW ZEALAND L 12-31
V SPAIN W 25-7
QUARTERFINALS
V AUSTRALIA L 24-14
5TH PLACE PLAYOFF
V JAPAN W 19-17
MEN
POOL STAGE
V GREAT BRITAIN W 19-5
V USA L 7-10
V FIJI L 19-26
QUARTERFINALS
V ARGENTINA W 21-5
SEMIFINALS
V GREAT BRITAIN W 15-12et
FINAL
V NEW ZEALAND 14-17
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…
MADRID (FINALS) MAY 31-JUN 2
🔝🐱🐴 UPDATE
Toulouse v Stade Français is obviously the match of the weekend as the home side have little time to be impressed by reaching another CC final.But I’d wonder if the Bordeaux v La Rochelle tie could have more significance. When the last 16 bracket of the Champions Cup was set many thought this could have been the final, yet now defeat could leave either with doubts as to making the 🔝🐱🐴 playoffs at all.
NO MATCH LAST WEEKEND
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
The English press might have a been in their bonnets about Irish clubs resting players for European matches but if Gloucester don’t put out mostly academy sides for their remaining two Premiership matches ahead of their Challenge Cup final date with the Sharks, then I don’t know what to say because they are totally stranded in 9th place on the table and can’t move so their only bet is to push for the automatic Champions Cup qualification that would come with the trophy, which would probably deny Leicester a spot. For this reason I’m expecting Northampton to have an easy enough return to domestic action while the four clubs in pursuit somehow avoid each other in round 17.
NO MATCHES LAST WEEKEND
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
SUPER RUGBY PACIFIC UPDATE
Thought maybe the Crusaders were on the march in the last round then boom! Up come the Reds to knock them back again. Seriously wondering if they’re going to make the quarterfinals now. Hurricanes and Blues still taking the top two slots and they meet each other in Auckland next.
ROUND 11
HURRICANES 41-12 WARATAHS
REBELS 11-38 BLUES
MOANA PASIFIKA 17-28 HIGHLANDERS
CRUSADERS 28-33 REDS
CHIEFS 56-7 WESTERN FORCE
BRUMBIES 28-20 FIJIAN DRUA
ROUND 12
FRI MAY 10
MOANA PASIFIKA V CHIEFS
REDS V REBELS
SAT MAY 11
BLUES V HURRICANES
HIGHLANDERS V CRUSADERS
WARATAHS V BRUMBIES
WESTERN FORCE V FIJIAN DRUA
JAPAN LEAGUE ONE UPDATE
No surprises in the final round of matches and the playoffs are set for two weeks from now.
ROUND 16
HONDA HEAT 31-33 KOBE STEEL
CANON EAGLES 14-43 WILD KNIGHTS
SUNTORY 26-45 SPEARS KUBOTA
KINTETSU LINERS 36-46 MITSUBISHI
SHIZUOKA 20-59 BRAVE LUPUS
BLACK RAMS 18-45 TOYOTA VERBLITZ
SEMIFINALS
MAY 18
WILD KNIGHTS V CANON EAGLES
MAY 19
TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS V SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH
MAJOR LEAGUE RUGBY UPDATE
GO HOUNDS!!!! We have adopted Chicago for this season and they really did a number on the conference-leading Free Jacks as they matched each other for tries with 3 each only for the placekicks of Hounds outhalf Adriaan Carelse to keep the visitors ahead and it narrows NEFJ’s lead down to just 3 points and things dont get any easier for them as high flying Seattle come to town next while Chicago host DC. Houston are also doing really well and got their 8th win of the campaign at Utah.
ROUND 10
SEATTLE 29-13 ANTHEM
OLD GLORY 13-10 MIAMI
UTAH 24-29 HOUSTON
NEW ENGLAND 20-26 CHICAGO
SAN DIEGO 30-24 DALLAS
ROUND 11
SAT MAY 11
ANTHEM RC V HOUSTON
DALLAS V LOS ANGELES
NOLA GOLD V SEATTLE
CHICAGO V OLD GLORY
SUN MAY 12
MIAMI V UTAH
CHALLENGE CUP UPDATE
To be honest I would not have been surprised if both semifinals went the other way but the result is that whoever looks like finishing 8th in the URC or Premiership will be anxious watching the final as their spot in next season’s Champions Cup will be in jeopardy. Despite all the negative talk about formats around the place, I for one like this rule. Scraping into the last qualification spot should have some kind of jeopardy to it.
SEMIFINALS
SAT MAY 4
SHARKS 32-31 CLÉRMONT
GLOUCESTER 40-23 BENETTON
HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE
Just 31 matches left to predict so I’ll need a good round this weekend to make up for all the ground I’ve lost over the past month or so. Might even need to take a few gambles along the way.
NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
It’s Those Pesky Birds up next for Leinster, on Ross Molony’s 30th birthday no less. I’m doing a guest appearance on Mauls, Balls and All on Wednesday evening, while their host Peter Burke is down to help with our Ospreys wrap on Sunday. We will of course have our usual preview show on Friday plus all the other usual features around the different social media channels so please be sure to comment, like, share & subscribe whenever you can.
And as ever, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP
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 Caelan
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.
HARPIN' ON RUGBY 