Harpin' On Rugby

This week we’re looking ahead to Sunday’s big Six Nations clash at Murrayfield so I welcomed Edinburgh & Scotland fan Sandy Smith back to the pod to give his thoughts on how Gregor Townsend will be preparing.  Sandy is also representing his country on our Lions selector panel and he gave us his updated XV. Our Harpin match writeup for Ulster v Leinster > http://www.harpinonrugby.net/20...

This week we’re pressing on with our series of selections from our Lions panel, offering us his second round of choices is Ian Frizzell, who also brought his Ulster hat along to look ahead to Saturday evening's big interprovincial clash at the Kingspan. Our Harpin match writeup for Italy v Ireland... > http://www.harpinonrugby.net/2021/03/italy-10-ireland-48.html ...and for Leinster v Glasgow &...

On this week’s pod I was joined by Mark Jackson who gave us his updated Lions selection, and naturally we couldn’t harp on that without bringing up how the Ireland squad is looking right now.  He offered some great takes from a coach’s perspective on Garry Ringrose being underused, Andrew Porter’s versatility and our range of back row options among other things. Our Harpin match writeup for D...

This week it’s time to begin the second round of our Lions Selector panel - over the next six weeks or so I’ll be going back to my panellists to find out if they’ve seen anything in the Six Nations to change their minds after their initial selection.  Once again first up is Michelle Tobin and we also talked about Ireland's last two matches as well as the return of the Pro14. Our Harpin match...

This week while we will talk about the Six Nations kickoff, my guest is a new contributor named Mark Strange who would like to turn the spotlight on the club game which as we all know is still on pause due to COVID.  Mark joined me to talk about a series of posts he’s going to be doing over the next few weeks to give different clubs around the country some much needed exposure. Our Harpin mat...

This week we have our sixth and final Lions Selector in the form of Brandon Smith who also gives his thoughts on the Welsh squad ahead of the Six Nations.  After our chat I’ll read out a full Lions matchday 23 as determined by the overall panel, as well as my own suggestion for what can be done to fix the Lions Tour dilemma. Our Harpin match writeup for Scarlets v Leinster > http://www.har...

This week we turn the spotlight back on Leinster & Ireland - my guest was Ciarán Duffy from Post to Post Sport and we talked about the match in Thomond Park last weekend, Leinster players who have stood out so far this season and also Andy Farrell’s squad which was announced on Monday. Our Harpin match writeup for Munster v Leinster > http://www.harpinonrugby.net/2021/01/leinsters-season-so...

Edinburgh fan Sandy Smith joined me to talk about his Lions XV for the test series, last weekend's 1872 Cup match at Scotstoun and what Nic Groom might have been thinking before halftime. Leinster’s season so far & “Next Gen” matchday squad > http://www.harpinonrugby.net/2021/01/leinsters-season-so-far-next-gen.html Episode 1.1 of this season’s Lions selector panel featuring Michelle Tobin...

This week we introduce our fourth Lions Selector panellist and it’s Debbie Knight representing England and returning to the pod for a second time.  Then I had a quick chat with Keego about the varying opinion surrounding Johnny Sexton’s contributions for Leinster and Ireland. Our Harpin match writeup of Leinster v Ulster > http://www.harpinonrugby.net/2021/01/leinster-24-ulster-12.html Deb...

Ahead of Friday’s potential Conference A decider, I spoke to Ulster fan Ian Frizzell about how their side is looking these days; he has also agreed to join our Lions Selector panel and took his first stab at naming a starting XV. Our Harpin match writeup of Leinster v Connacht > http://www.harpinonrugby.net/2021/01/leinster-24-connacht-35.html Ian Frizzell’s original pod appearance where he out...

As you’ll know there has been a lot of uncertainty surrounding the seasonal interpros, so it’s probably just as well that we’ve recently started our Lions Selector Panel which means we can use the pod to look ahead to rugby that we hopefully have to look forward to in the future.  This week I introduced my second panellist Mark Jackson; as well as his picks for the first test he also went thr...

A longer show than usual just before the Christmas - to start I’m bringing back my Lions Selector Panel where I ask a group of fans to pick their best starting XV for the First Test against the Springboks before returning to them a couple of times before the squad is announced to see if they have any changes.  First up we have Michelle Tobin who also will share with us an opposition view of h...

So Leinster kicked off a new European campaign last weekend with a controlled performance on the way to maximum points in Montpellier.  Next up in round 2 we welcome the Northampton Saints to the RDS and I was lucky enough to find a perfect guest in Nathan Johns for the latest in our series of “opposition view” pods.  We talked about the Premiership outfit’s season so far and the kind of...

So I took a bit of time off from the pod but I’m back now and there’s a lot to harp on.  Keego was on hand to discuss the Scotland match, the Autumn Nations Cup itself, the social media abuse directed at Andrew Brace (#DBAD) and Leinster’s upcoming trip to Montpellier. Keego’s “The Couch Pundit” > https://thecouchpunditireland.com/ The Harpin writeup of Ireland v Scotland, titled “The Thir...

With two matches every weekend for me to harp on, I’m trying to trim the workload down where I can, so for this week’s pod I’m simply going to share an audio version of my writeup from last weekend’s match at Twickenham in case you missed it on the website.  I reckon I didn’t have to look too far for positives, but I’ll let you judge for yourself. Read the original text here > http://www.h...

With a new European campaign on the horizon I’m switching the focus back to the boys in blue and for this pod I’ve assembled an elite panel of Harpin contributors to discuss a possible matchday squad for our pool matches, also looking at how we might approach the competition. Follow the lads on twitter Neil "Keego" Keegan @nkeegan , Conor Cronin @ccbooms & Richard Mifsud @RichMif Harpin Irelan...

In the latest from my series of “Opposition View” chats I spoke to Edinburgh fan Sandy Smith  who has both supported the club from the Scottish capital and written extensively on them over the years.  We covered their history, recent form and players to look out for when they come to Ballsbridge. Ospreys v Leinster writeup > http://www.harpinonrugby.net/2020/11/ospreys-7-leinster-26.h...

This weekend has Leinster travelling to the Liberty Stadium so for the latest in our “Opposition View” series I spoke to Ospreys fan Brandon Smith about their varying fortunes over the years, what key players we can look out for this weekend, and the task ahead for coach Toby Booth.  We also spoke about the full Welsh test team and what they’ll be looking for from the upcoming Autumn Nations...

In the latest from our Opposition View series I asked one of Glasgow Warriors' biggest fans David Arnott to tell us about how their squad is looking this season.  Then as a bonus I’ve recorded an audio version of my Ireland v Italy match writeup which you can read here . To read our Leinster v Zebre writeup click here . And you can follow David Arnott on twitter here > https://twitter.com/...

This weekend sees both Leinster & Ireland in action, against Zebre and Italy respectively, so for the latest in our “Opposition view” series I was lucky enough to be able to talk to Italian rugby super fan Andrea Tronchin, who is curator of the Italy twitter account for RugbyUnited as well as those for both Benetton and Zebre.  I asked him how the game has grown in Italy since they joined...

Ready to start thinking about an Ireland matchday squad that can win the 2020 Six Nations?  Here's as good a place as any to get you started.   Joining me for the discussion this week were Michelle Tobin ( @CorkSeashell - Munster), Padraig Kelly ( @the2ndrow - Connacht) and David Topping ( @davethewingnut - Ulster) and we had a slightly different way of putting a squad together that you...

In this week’s Harpin writeup I talked about the Player Of The Match performance of Jamison Gibson-Park, so I thought I’d use this pod to expand on those thoughts and joining me is Big Joe Shep, who has a thing or two to say about scrum halves and box kicking but just about manages to put them aside for a decent chat on the Irish-qualified Kiwi and where he might fit down the line for both Leinste...

With a new season about to kickoff, I assembled a panel of fellow Leinster fans for our first ever pod of 4 to discuss the careers of recently retired Leinster stars as well as looking ahead to the futures of the boys in blue in particular and league in general. This week's guests... Conor Cronin (aka @ccbooms on Twitter) Richard Mifsud ( @RichMif ) Kevin O'Brien ( @johnshine89 ) - check out Kev's...

Well you won’t need me to remind you that last weekend didn’t exactly go to plan for Leinster fans, and joining me on the pod this week to find the positives is Neil ‘Keego’ Keegan who shared some thoughts from his own writeup which can be found over at TheCouchPunditIreland.com.  We also discuss whether or not Leinster’s season as a whole was defined by this result as well as a brief look ah...

To start the build up to Saturday’s Heineken Champions Cup quarterfinal, in the latest of our “Opposition View” series of chats I invited Saracens fan Debbie Knight onto the pod to talk about how she came to follow them, what the salary cap and Owen Farrell situations were like from her side, and also how their starting XV might look at the weekend. Debbie has her own sports writing blog here >...