Full back for Munster

Tim Robbins

Who do you reckon will play full back for Munster next season?

GreenHell

Mossie Lawlor I'd say

Nukem

GreenHell wrote:

Mossie Lawlor I'd say

Oh god no! He is a handy utility player.
Reckon they need to blood, Denis Hurley more and he will be the next Munster Rock!

bugler

Lawlor, Hurley and maybe even Warwick at different stages. It will be interesting to see how things pan out, especially with regard to Warwick. I hope he's played at 10 when ROG is away, as I don't trust Manning. But what happens when ROG is back?

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Nukem

bugler wrote:

Lawlor, Hurley and maybe even Warwick at different stages. It will be interesting to see how things pan out, especially with regard to Warwick. I hope he's played at 10 when ROG is away, as I don't trust Manning. But what happens when ROG is back?

Personnally i thought Warrick was Connachts best player all season and a good play maker. Would pick him at 10 or 12 preferably, but then again he is a natural full back and while not world class would still be ahead of Hurley and Lawlor. Nice to have the arguement!

GreenHell

I'd say Mossie will get a chance to impress during the world cup, if he does the job well then fair play, if he is pants then we have options with Hurley, Warwick and even Carney though I'd before to see him remain on the wing.

Mossie has been solid for munster with a career dogged with injuries and to be fair missed chances on his part, so I'd be more than happy to see him get a run at the position.

Amazotheamazing

Hopefully Mossie will get a prolonged run there, he's been very unlucky with injuries but I don't recall him ever letting us down.

Sandwich

Nukem wrote:

Oh god no! He is a handy utility player.
Reckon they need to blood, Denis Hurley more and he will be the next Munster Rock!

Munster are missing a quality player at full back - should have tried to buy in someone (with better luck than Cullen).

"handy utility player" means "has tried all the positions but didnt make the grade in any of them".

Sandwich

Amazotheamazing wrote:

Hopefully Mossie will get a prolonged run there, he's been very unlucky with injuries but I don't recall him ever letting us down.

I dont think he ever has let us down. But thats part of our problem in recent years - too many of our backs are of a level that "doesnt let us down", but doesnt offer enough flair or cutting edge either. Cullen should have been it but it just didnt work out. I would like to have seen someone of a similar level replace him - there seem to be enough southern hemisphere quality players open to offers these days Im surprised we didnt nab one.

Nukem

Sandwich wrote:

Munster are missing a quality player at full back - should have tried to buy in someone (with better luck than Cullen).

"handy utility player" means "has tried all the positions but didnt make the grade in any of them".

Yes as my comment went "god no" he is not the answer,but is a very effiiecnt player to call upon. The purchase of someone of the calibre of Chris Latham is required but then thats required in every team;)

bugler

Buying from the SH is not the answer every time. If Irish provinces adopted that approach, what would happen the Irish national team?

Who will be the Irish full-back in 5 years? Maybe one of the obvious contenders will have lost form, or retired injured. Why can't it be Hurley?

The Irish provinces should not be looking to fill every shortcoming in their team with sub-prime SH players. No one strolls out of the provincial academies world-class, they need games.

Sandwich

So we would have something like three roughly equal squads, selected cetrally by the IRFU, with the leftovers sent to Conaught, and original province of secondary importance only. And no foreign players unless there is a genuine nationwide drought in that position that would harm a privinces chances of competing in the HC?

zAbbo

Your man Hernandez (Puma) could be off to Leicester, thats the type of player Munster could be getting.

bugler

Hernandez is going on condition he plays outhalf from what I hear. So that means it was never a runner for Munster (or Ireland). I'd also imagine he would be far too expensive, though a Leicester fan recently said they were "famous for paying big players very little", and that this is how they keep a large squad together. How true this is I don't know.

Leicester also signed Roncero along with Hernandez. So now their props are: Roncero, Moreno, Ayerza, White and Castro :eek:

We need to give young Irish players a chance. Let's face it, the SH imports Irish clubs get are either no names or at the end of their career looking for a pay-day. Now one are two are great, and recent successes would be Puc/Halstead/Payne for Munster. For Leinster, obviously Contepomi has been a great import.

But we can't go filling every problem position with someone from the SH. Munster really don't seem to have any inside centres, for whatever reason. Nationally, they are in short supply. The best one we have is converted, David Quinlan just retired injured, James Downey had a shot with Munster but went to Italy (not sure what he's doing now), and Paddy Wallace is being groomed as an outhalf. There really didn't seem to be any choice for Munster except go looking for a natural IC abroad, and they've done well with who they've got.

Full-back is a different matter. Lawlor is perfectly competent, and in terms of lacking flair is definitely no worse than any of the HC winning backline, probably better. Hurley, from what I've heard is quite exciting and seems to have impressed with his brief appearances to date. Why knock one of these out of the squad in favor of some guy winding down his career who'll be gone in 20 months time?

It was terrible to see Cheika bring in tripe like Stanley Wright and Fosi whathissecondname while the Leinster A props wasted away. How could they have been any worse? They certainly couldn't have retreated any quicker in the scrums. Vermaas too. Who decided to give this guy a contract? And how did Cheika rate him over Jackman for so long?

If the same logic had been applied to the backs we'd never have seen Kearney or Fitzgerald come through. God knows what would have happened Girvan Dempsey, he'd long ago have been booted out in favor of someone 'quality'.

There is no compelling reason to bring in an import when there are Irish guys waiting and able to do the job...one or two exceptions can aide the squad and Irish players development if used correctly. Pucciariello's being at Munster hasn't stopped the development of a good line of young props, in fact I'm sure he helped them come along.

Munster's first choice pack next season will be all Irish players, as will their half-backs, and the backline will have probably Tipoki, Mafi or Warwick in it. That is a good balance for me. Ireland only has 4 provinces (3 in effect), and to have capable Irish players left out in favor of non-qualified players would impact the national team. It's a careful balancing act, and I hope we get it right. We're already an injury away from disaster with respect to outhalf.