Podcast ep 9 : "Tweets & Tweaks after Twickers" featuring Keego

On this week's pod we welcome regular Harpin contributor Neil 'Keego' Keegan from CouchPunditIreland.com and we discuss what went wrong for Ireland at Twickenham as well as how wrong some people were with their reactions.  I also review Leinster's win in Canada plus there's a Harpin Point about whether or not Joe Schmidt should look beyond Irish shores to fill his squad.  

Gwan, subscribe and have a listen, you know you wanna!  JLP

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THIS WEEK'S RUNNING ORDER

INTRO

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BACK & FORWARD CHAT 

with Neil "Couch Pundit"/"Keego" Keegan 

check out his content at TheCouchPunditIreland.com

Keego (@nkeegan): Blogger, professional wrestler, sometime attempted rugby player (@TheThirsty3rds), professional procrastinator and attempted musician with a fondness for long walks on the bar, tea and the couch. Opinionated Leinster fan and constant gardener.

We planned to chat about more than just the Twickenham tragedy but there was so much to go over we had to split the interview in two!

To round things off, Keego has a go at our game called Association Rugby, where I fire 10 rugby terms at him in quick succession to see what he says in return.  Here's what I gave him...

1. WINGER
2. LINEOUTS
3. TADHG BEIRNE
4. GRASS ROOTS
5. RANKINGS
6. EDDIE JONES
7. BOX KICK 
8. WALES
9. TACKLING
10. WORLD CUP

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EIGHTY-WORD REVIEWS

Normally I do brief summaries here on matches involving teams on Leinster & Ireland's radar but this time I included Leinster's preseason match in Canada so I did one review of each half  :  

CAN v LEI (1st half), CAN v LEI (2nd half), SCO v FRA

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HARPIN' POINT

"THE UNPICKABLES"

Are Ireland missing a trick by not calling on players who leave for the Premiership and Top 14?

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OUTRO 

...including our Final Whistle quote

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If you want to be part of a future pod, you can leave a voice message by following this link, or alternatively just get in touch by email at paganoblog@gmail.com 

Front Five - 28.08.19

Start your day with five eye-catching egg-chasing quotes & links from around the ruggersphere.

ICYMI click here for the audio

version of our #ENGvIRE writeup

aka "speakup"

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Sentiment won't come into the equation in the coaches' meeting come Sunday...and (Ross) Byrne will realise that harsh reality.

Carty set for start as raft of fringe players face final World Cup audition

Cian Tracey - Irish Independent

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It’s not a good thing to lose a game like that. We’re not going to bullshit ourselves by saying, ‘that might be the best thing for us’.

O’Mahony: Twickenham display inexcusable

Brendan O'Brien - Irish Examiner

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If Jones arrives, he will also link up with former Munster coaches Jacques Nienaber and Aled Waters. 

South Africa looking to appoint Felix Jones to coaching team - reports

Ben Blake - The42.ie

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"It has the ingredients for a real fierce Test match and I just hope everybody comes through unscathed."

Wales v Ireland: Josh Navidi right man to lead Wales - Ryan Jones

BBC Rugby

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with five incumbent All Blacks midfielders already doing the rounds...it would’ve taken something exceptional from Nonu to find his way back into the national squad.

Door all but slammed on Ma'a Nonu's international career

Tom Vinicombe - RugbyPass

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Feel free to share any interesting links you spot yourself about t’internet by email, Twitter, Facebook, blog comment or carrier pigeon – whatever works for you. JLP

Note - views expressed in "Front Five" links do not necessarily reflect those of HarpinOnRugby

International Window of Opportunity by Ciarán Duffy

World Cup Warm-Ups Should Be A Chance For Developing Nations 

Before I start I’ll give my thoughts on last weekends game.  England were miles ahead of us and look ready for the World Cup, they will likely top their group over France and Argentina.  I don’t care about the scoreline, these are the only friendlies in international rugby. The performance on the other hand is important, and it was fairly shambolic.  Read Jeff's write-up if you want a more indepth look.  

I never liked World Cup warm-ups.  They seem like they are just a chance for players to get injured.  High intensity games against competitors aren’t really going to help anything, at this stage in the build-up teams aren’t going to come up with anything drastic and they don’t want to give anything away, so they’re just games for the sake of games.  

But there is an opportunity for development here.  Contenders don’t need to play hard hitting games, and as I’ve wrote and spoken about before, lower tier nations don’t play enough games.  Here are the highest-ranked teams from each region who did not qualify for the World Cup.  

Africa	Americas	Asia	Europe	Oceania
Zimbabwe	Brazil	Hong Kong	Spain	Cook Islands
Kenya	Chile	Korea Republic	Romania	Tahiti
Tunisia	Colombia	Philippines	Portugal	Papua New Guinea
Cote d’Ivoire	Mexico	Sri Lanka	Netherlands	Niue Island
Uganda	Paraguay	Malaysia	Belgium	Solomon Islands
Morocco	Cayman Islands	Singapore	Germany
Madagascar	Trinidad & Tobago	UAE	Switzerland
Senegal	Guyana	Thailand	Poland
Zambia	Venezuela	China	Lithuania
Botswana	Guam	India	Ukraine
	Peru		Czechia
	St Vincent and Grenadines		Malta
	Barbados		Croatia

I’d propose these teams tour around nations who are in the World Cup and play them in friendlies.  For Example, Spain could play Ireland, England, & Wales. Hong Kong could play Fiji, Japan, & Tonga.  Brazil could play Uruguay, & Argentina. Zimbabwe could play Namibia, & South Africa. Even if most of the teams listed above get a chance to play one team in the World Cup that would greatly benefit them.  

And this could be made into a proper international window where there are fixtures for every team.  Ireland aren’t going to learn anything about themselves playing England and Wales at this stage, because they are just going to be trying not to get hurt while giving players game time.  If they played smaller nations in the build-up, that would allow them to test out more players, and play at a lower intensity.  

I’d argue that during the November internationals, Tier 1 nations should play 2 of their 4 games against Tier 2 or lower nations.  It gives these teams a genuine chance to improve themselves. It would require World Rugby to back the smaller nations with actual funding.  

It’s not necessary to disrupt competitions like the Victoria Cup and Oceania Rugby Cup for these friendlies either.  Those tournaments could be moved earlier. Having tier 1 nations play against lower tier nations would be beneficial to all involved.  It would make it less likely players would get injured, and would help lower tier nations develop. It would also be an opportunity for double-headers with the womens team.  And it would be a chance to play these games around the country rather than always in Dublin.  

Ciarán is the Producer and Presenter of Post to Post Sport (@PostToPostSport), a sports podcast that covers rugby, football, wrestling, and Irish Sport News. You can get their podcasts on MixCloud our Spotify (Search PostToPostSport) and PlayerFM (Post to Post Sport).

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