80+ column : June 24
Our weekly newsletter looking at the wider rugby world
ON THIS WEEK’S COLUMN…
WRAP OF A WRAP
SUCCEEDING LEO
GORDON BLUES
RAGING BULLS
PARSONS PROJECT
EQUAL RANKS
THE LONG LIST OF LEGENDS LEAVING LEINSTER
IRELAND SQUAD UPDATE
TROLL PATROL
COMPETITION UPDATES
SUPERBRU DRAMA
NEXT HARPIN’
WRAP OF A WRAP
Needless to say I was gutted when I realised that I wouldn’t mke it from work to Croke Park in time for kickoff on Friday, but it’s also needless to say watching such a comprehensive victorious display from the boys in blue did much to make me feel better!
And when it came to the wrap pod recording, although we normally aim to be finished by 9pm, myself and Conor had no qualms with going over until about quarter past as he did an excellent job not only harping on the final itself, but also paying tribute to all the lads leaving the province for the bonus chat.
If you missed the pod recording be sure to check it out you’ll find it here.
SUCCEEDING LEO
…as club jobs go, there are few anywhere near as attractive
Leinster job set to have a long list of suitors to replace Leo Cullen
Neil Treacy - RTÉ.ie
While it was of course a very satisfying weekend for Leinster fans, spare a thought for the legions of rugby followers for whom the success was literally the last thing they wanted to see. No doubt the news bothered them so much that they would follow anything else in the news cycle, possibly even including the round ball World Cup.
Given how the week following defeats in finals are always followed by days of articles telling us all “what’s wrong with Leinster” (see flow chart below), it’s only natural to assume that after a victory the focus might change to eyeing the province through a more positive lens (cue JK Simmons GIF) but I guess we’ll never know since on Monday the news of Leo Cullen’s impending departure dropped, also offering a perfect distraction for the vast “ABL” community.
Well, I say impending…it is to be a long goodbye of an entire rugby season but that certainly won’t stop us all speculating over who will eventually replace him.
I suppose the first question has to be this - will they necessarily appoint a direct replacement or his position? It always has been something of a unique role. He had only been coaching a year when he assumed it and the remit was slightly different to that we know for a “head coach”, while the buck did stop with him he was also of a public face of a coaching ticket where the unit coaches appeared to have more responsibility, as demonstrated by the appointment first of Stu Lancaster and then Jacques Nienaber as “Senior Coach”.
Eventually I will wade into the debate over who is to fill his shoes, or indeed over what he himself is to do next, but to be honest with him to be there for another full season I just don’t see the point in doing so right now. All the proposed candidates seem fine, yes, even ROG. I know a lot of people assume Leinster fans would pull their hair out at the thought of him taking the reins, but my own reservations would be less about what province he played for in the past and more about how he continuously got into trouble with the 🔝🐱🐴 for bad mouthing the officials.
Anyway, this article is one of several looking at the various possible candidates, all a decent read, but personally I’d rather bask in Leo and Leinster’s back-to-back title glory for a little longer.
GORDON BLUES
Over the course of the 2025/26 season…Leinster’s senior men’s team fielded 56 different players.
Every Player Who Played for Leinster in 2025/26
Hugo Gordon
An absolute must-read for Leinster fans, and I’m not just saying because Hugo is a regular contributor to our pods. He goes through all 56 players and offers up to 100 words each on their season, starting with those who made the most appearances all the way down to those who just made the one.
RAGING BULLS
Ackermann conceded the Bulls “probably could have looked at a few different lineout options”.
Ackers: We never gave ourselves a chance
SARugbyMag.co.za
A glimpse of what Friday’s final was like from the other side, which couldn’t have been easy since the Bulls have been falling at the final hurdle quite a bit in this competition (four of the five finals, plus we mustn’t forget the Rainbow Cup as well) and this year’s opposition venue AND final score were virtual carbon copies of last year’s.
Credit to Johan Ackerman for offering kudos to the Leinster performance in his presser - there were of course several who lamented some 2nd half refereeing calls and awarding what I call “phantom scores” to the Bulls saying it could have been a different game had decisions gone the other way if the score had become 29-21 in the closing stages. This included TV pundits. I was of course heartbroken to see their hopes dashed.
But again, it was good to see the Bulls coach went in another direction and looked more for fault on his own side of the ledger.
PARSONS PROJECT
“…the fans showing up to each and every game and getting behind us, it just made it that extra bit special.”
Béibhinn Parsons: Autumn history, Perry retirement and Wafer impact
Emma Duffy - The42.ie
Nice interview with one of Ireland’s senior players about the continued success under Scott Bemand and what lies ahead for the squad.
EQUAL RANKS
Effective from July 1st, ‘home weighting’ will now be removed when calculating how many ratings points are riding on the outcome of a match.
Major change introduced to world rankings in time for Nations Championship
Jon Newcombe - RugbyPass.com
One for the rugby nerds - although I honestly don’t think anyone FULLY understands exactly how the ranking system works, this is definitely an interesting tweak. Home wins used to earn you fewer points but now that weighting has been removed. It will have an impact on how the rankings change going forward although I doubt we’ll notice it too much. Still definitely worth noting IMO.
HARPIN ON…THE LONG LIST OF LEGENDS LEAVING LEINSTER
“At the end of every season we normally say goodbye to one or two players but this season unfortunately that list is a little longer than we’d like. So I have asked Conor to quickly go through them to pay tribute to what they have done for the province and you want to start with the lads leaving our academy…”
IRELAND SQUAD UPDATE
Myself and Keego did a whole bonus video on Andy Farrell’s original selection but the injuries to Caelan & Tommy at Croker put a big dent in his plans as I’m sure both were due to start.
Now captaincy falls to Dan Sheehan with the Ward brothers joining the squad. I’ve had a stab at selecting a 23 to play the Wallabies which IMO should be very close to that which plays at Eden Park two weeks later.
HARPIN’ POSSIBLE MATCHDAY 23 V AUSTRALIA
15 Hugo Keenan 14 Rob Baloucoune 13 Garry Ringrose 12 Bundee Aki 11 Jacob Stockdale 10 Sam Prendergast 9 Jamison Gibson‑Park
1 Jeremy Loughman 2 Dan Sheehan (c) 3 Tadhg Furlong 4 Joe McCarthy 5 Tadhg Beirne 6 Cian Prendergast 7 Josh van der Flier 8 Jack Conan
16 Rónan Kelleher 17 Tom O’Toole 18 Thomas Clarkson 19 James Ryan 20 Nick Timoney 21 Craig Casey 22 Harry Byrne 23 Jamie Osborne
caveat : I have no “ITK” a la Thornley
REVISED SQUAD
TROLL PATROL
Now it’s time for Troll Patrol where we ‘detain’ a social media commentator and charge them with gaslightery and general online mayhem.
It’s a bit mean I know, and coming from a Leinster fan I also know it’s a bit rich what with our own recent bout of final-losing, but I love this troll for both its word play and its simplicity. Also you could argue that unlike both the American football franchise and the South African rugby one, Leinster have at least won the competition in question at some point…
Leinster were of course not the only champions to be crowned this weekend…congrats to Jordie Barrett who won another title, this time in embarrassingly convincing fashion. Northampton also won a final against Chiefs but theirs was a lot closer. Then in the USA the Chicago Hounds proved to be the best of the six surviving Major League Rugby franchises as they put away the California Legion. No word as yet on how many teams they will have for 2027.
Arguably the biggest drama of the weekend was in the final stages of the 2025/26 Harpin Prediction League, so much so that I have written about it separately in its section below…
Has to be Toulouse 71-17 Racing this week, for both the margin of victory in a major semifinal but also for it’s symmetry. Here’s an 80-word review…
Toulouse demolished Racing 92 71–17 to reach the Top 14 final, producing one of the most dominant semi‑final displays in league history. Racing led briefly through an early penalty, but Toulouse replied with a relentless ten‑try onslaught featuring scores from Teddy Thomas, François Cros, Emmanuel Meafou, Jack Willis and Antoine Dupont before half-time . Further tries from Gourgues, Lebel, Marchand, Mauvaka and Capuozzo sealed the rout, as Racing’s indiscipline and three yellow cards compounded their collapse
WOMEN’S INTERPROVINCIALS
Round 1
Saturday, 8 August
Munster v Leinster
Ulster v Connacht
Round 2
Saturday, 15 August
Leinster v Connacht
Munster v Ulster
Round 3
Saturday, 22 August
Connacht v Munster
Ulster v Leinster
Finals Day
Saturday, 29 August
Dexcom Stadium
URC IRISH SHIELD
2026/27 fixtures
10 October
Ulster v Munster
24 October
Leinster v Munster
30 October
Connacht v Leinster
27 December
Ulster v Connacht
Munster v Leinster
2 January
Connacht v Munster
Leinster v Ulster
23 January
Munster v Connacht
30 January
Connacht v Ulster
17 April
Leinster v Connacht
23 April
Ulster v Leinster
8 May
Munster v Ulster
JUNIOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
Pool A: South Africa, Wales, Georgia, Uruguay
Pool B: New Zealand, Italy, Scotland, Japan
Pool C: Argentina, England, Ireland, USA
Pool D: France, Australia, Spain, Fiji
Sat June 27 : Ireland v England
Thu July 2 : Ireland v Argentina
Tue July 7 : Ireland v USA
PREMIERSHIP
🔝🐱🐴
CURRIE CUP
WEEK 1
Fri 17 Jul
Airlink Pumas v Hollywoodbets Sharks
DHL Stormers XXIII v Suzuki Griquas
Sun 19 Jul
Toyota Cheetahs v Fidelity ADT Lions
Sanlam Boland Kavaliers v Vodacom Bulls
SUPER RUGBY
MAJOR LEAGUE RUGBY
The HPL has been going as long as the URC, and the competition is just as fierce.
Basically there are three “titles” on offer - top of the Superbru league at the end of the season is of course the overall champion, we also have a “knockout” competition throughout the season for the “Harpin’ Mug” and the biggest “honour” goes to He Who Finishes Last and he receives what we call The Jersey Of Shame which he must post himself wearing on social media.
Anyway FWIW there was high drama in the final round in the race for the 2026 title. Going into Friday night’s decider in Croke Park, there was just two points separating the top 5 meaning any of them could have been elevated to the top.
The first question was, “does anyone have the stones to back the Bulls?”. Back in 2023 I committed the Original Sin of predicting Munster to defeat the Stormers which may have catapulted me from third to first, but it also left my title forever tainted.
For this season’s final round I chose to go in another direction - on our preview show myself & Keego agreed it was likely to be a one-score Leinster victory but for Superbru I chose to extend my winning margin to 12 in the hope that it would be more than anyone else’s and maybe I could snag what would be a victorious bonus point.
And with 15m left to kickoff, I “locked” my prediction which meant I couldn’t change it BUT I could check to see what all the others had predicted. I noticed two things - first, yes, all had gone for Leinster and my predicted margin was the highest, and second, worryingly, Tom Coleman, who was also half a point behind Kino, had yet to make his pick.
So being the arbiter of fairness that I was, I messaged Tom to remind him to get in his pick, while also being concerned that something serious in “real life” had happened to him. Cutting straight to the end of this side plot, Tom was fine and had just forgotten to make his pick and thus couldn’t win.
But when I checked the predictions a second time just before kickoff, I noticed something had changed…Mark, stuck in midtable and unable to finish top, had chosen at the last minute to switch his predicted margin from 4 to 15, thus making his the highest!!!
Since, as I said earlier, my 12 was locked I couldn’t change it, with the eventual winning margin being 29, it meant Mark got the bonus point instead of me, handing the 2026 title to Rugby Kino, ironically the first to win the competition for a second time just like Leinster.
Yes I know I just wrote 523 words on an in-house Superbru comp you probably care nothing about. But in my defence I could not produce any content at all without the input from the Harpin WhatsApp group and besides that, it is a vital companion to all my rugby-watching throughout the season.
The league provides extra banter plus a competitive edge to our conversations and it will continue to have a place in these 80+ columns going forward; congrats to Kino and his stats-based approach to prediction, and thanks to all for buying in to the craic throughout the season.
FINAL STANDINGS 2026
ROLL OF HONOUR
CHAMPION
2026 - Kino | 2025 - Tom | 2024 - Kristian | 2023 - Jeff | 2022 - Kino
MUG WINNER
2026 - Hugo | 2025 - Conor
JERSEY OF SHAME
2026 - Kristian | 2025 - David | 2023-2024 - Keego | 2022 - Jeff
NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
We’re going to take advantage of another weekend without Leinster/Ireland rugby and have an aul’ break; we’ll be back on Wed July 1 with our next 80+ column before turning our attention fully to Ireland’s participation in the new Nations Championship.
In the meantime be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP