Munster Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread.

CIARAN_BOYLE

thomond2006 wrote: »

I'm not having a go at McGahan but it would have been good if a new guy had been given a chance, say for the first game against Dragons. Murphy's done well so we'll be ok at 15.

If Cusack was fit I think Scanlon would have been on the bench.

Amazotheamazing

thomond2006 wrote: »

I'm not having a go at McGahan but it would have been good if a new guy had been given a chance, say for the first game against Dragons. Murphy's done well so we'll be ok at 15.

It'd be good, i'd like to see it but look at it from McGahan's point of view. He's only got a few weeks to sort out what our backline is now that Jones is out. He has to give Murphy as much time as possible to win the position, imo. Scanlon isn't anywhere near the HEC team, Murphy is.

phog

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

It'd be good, i'd like to see it but look at it from McGahan's point of view. He's only got a few weeks to sort out what our backline is now that Jones is out. He has to give Murphy as much time as possible to win the position, imo. Scanlon isn't anywhere near the HEC team, Murphy is.

I suppose that's what I was trying to say but it was too early in the morning for my brain to engage.

Scanlon played in the 3 pre season friendlies so it's not that he's being ignored either but I think McGahan's hand has been forced with Jone's injury.

PhatPiggins

GerM wrote: »

Probably true, unfortunately. He signed a new contract earlier this year which was a serious show of support from Munster given his injury record. I assume it was a 2 year deal so the first half of that season is now gone. If he suffers another long term injury during the remainder of the contract Munster have to consider cutting their losses. There's no point putting money into a player that can't play for them as harsh as it may be.

Rugby is a business not a lot of room for sentiment anymore. I'd be more concerned that he's going to do himself permanent physical damage. We all like to think we're indestructable when we're in out twenties but being 40 with two gammy knees, a bad back and an inability to look left and right without moving your whole body is not worth it.

ormond lad

Munster Rugby Academy Update
14 September 2011, 1:16 pm
By The Editor

The recently advertised vacancy for a Munster Rugby Elite Player Development Manager has now been filled with UCC and Munster U20s former head coach Conor Twomey securing the role.

The Elite Player Development Manager (formerly Academy Manager) will oversee the strategies and long-term objectives of the elite player development pathway in Munster. Cork man Conor Twomey has coached the UCC Senior XV for the past five seasons, and has held the positions of assistant coach and head coach for a number of sides including Munster U20s, Munster U19s and Irish Universities.
Also joining the Academy management is former Garryowen F.C. Director of Rugby Greig Oliver, taking over the position of Elite Player Development Officer vacated by Ray Egan who is emigrating to the U.S.
Greig worked with the Limerick senior club for four years, has coached the Munster U19s and is currently involved with the Munster U20s representative side. He has also worked with the Scottish Rugby Union in similar roles.
http://www.munsterrugby.ie/news/9400.php

profitius

Interesting news. Anyone know anything about them? UCC have a good track record in producing players.

Also, will the academy be run differently or the same as before? I remember reading a while back that the IRFU wanted to restructure all the academies.

PhatPiggins

Should Flannery retire?

I think he'll be thinking about it seriously

thomond2006

PhatPiggins wrote: »

Should Flannery retire?

I think he'll be thinking about it seriously

I don't think he will (of his own accord). I got the feeling when I spoke to him a few months ago that the World Cup wasn't going to be his last hurrah.

Could be wrong but I just got that sense.

From a Munster POV, it wouldn't hurt us that much since we've been without him for pretty much two seasons. On the other hand, if he gets back fit he'll be like a new signing.

Cpt_Blackbeard

Is it just me or, do Munster players have the worst luck when it comes to touring parties? TOL, Flannery and Quinlan before the lions tour, and Flannery, Wallace and Jones for the world cup (maybe TOL again too). When you couple that to the early retirements of Murphy and Dowling this season, there must be something to it.

Or should I remove the tinfoil hat?

CatFromHue

Cpt_Blackbeard wrote: »

Is it just me or, do Munster players have the worst luck when it comes to touring parties? TOL, Flannery and Quinlan before the lions tour, and Flannery, Wallace and Jones for the world cup (maybe TOL again too). When you couple that to the early retirements of Murphy and Dowling this season, there must be something to it.

Or should I remove the tinfoil hat?

Must resist urge to slag off wimpy Munster players!!

:pac:

Seriously though TOL and Flannery have been struggling with injury for quite a while now and I suppose would be susceptible to picking up another or getting a flare up. If TOL had been picked to go the World Cup would have been able to play considering he is out injured now?

Wallace and Dowling would be the only ones who got freak injury's. Murphy and Jones were and are very injury prone.

Does anyone know if the calf tear Flannery has at the moment is on the same calf that was giving him all the trouble before?

GerM

Repetitive long term injuries such as Flannery´s, POC´s groin, TOL´s back etc. mean that the level of skill and care afforded to players medically has to be called into question at some level. Recently, I saw that Arsenal had their fitness and conditioning staff criticised in some parts of the media and, given the soft tissue injuries that are repeatedly occurring there, it has to be a consideration. Cesc Fabregas employed his own personal trainer to prepare him as he felt his body wasn´t receiving the necessary conditioning with his club.

It does tend to be more in relation to the Munster players which, at this point, has to be purely more than a coincidence and that is before we bring the likes of Murphy or Dowling into consideration. Rugby is a contact sport and will always suffer a fair number of injuries but the delay in the injuries clearing up, the "niggles" that persist and the regularity of them definitely raises eyebrows.

CatFromHue

GerM wrote: »

Repetitive long term injuries such as Flannery´s,

have you seen his wiki page?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Flannery

"On the 14th September Jerry, being a useless injury prone bastard, had to return home from the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand."

Nothing to do with me and I disagree with it's sentiment!

Anyway I would have thought that POC, Flannerys, and TOL wouldn't just have the Munster medical team looking after them. I would have thought that the Irish medical team would be involved too.

There is also the case of CJ van der Linde and Trevor Hogan at Leinster who seemed to be always having problems.

SomeFool

I think it mght be a case of key players being rushed back for injury/playing while injured because there is no faith in Munsters back up/young players.
Or maybe I have a tinfoil hat too

Monty Burnz

CatFromHue wrote: »

"On the 14th September Jerry, being a useless injury prone bastard, had to return home from the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand."

Nothing to do with me and I disagree with it's sentiment!

Anyway I would have thought that POC, Flannerys, and TOL wouldn't just have the Munster medical team looking after them. I would have thought that the Irish medical team would be involved too.

There is also the case of CJ van der Linde and Trevor Hogan at Leinster who seemed to be always having problems.

Yeah, that's exactly what you want to read after yet another injury blow, this time ruling you out of the WC. What kind of moron thinks that is funny?

phog

GerM wrote: »

Repetitive long term injuries such as Flannery´s, POC´s groin, TOL´s back etc. mean that the level of skill and care afforded to players medically has to be called into question at some level. Recently, I saw that Arsenal had their fitness and conditioning staff criticised in some parts of the media and, given the soft tissue injuries that are repeatedly occurring there, it has to be a consideration. Cesc Fabregas employed his own personal trainer to prepare him as he felt his body wasn´t receiving the necessary conditioning with his club.

It does tend to be more in relation to the Munster players which, at this point, has to be purely more than a coincidence and that is before we bring the likes of Murphy or Dowling into consideration. Rugby is a contact sport and will always suffer a fair number of injuries but the delay in the injuries clearing up, the "niggles" that persist and the regularity of them definitely raises eyebrows.

I seriously doubt that Munster have anything to do with the medics/profesionals that provide that skill and care to the injured players. My guess would be the players head for the best of the best in the required medical field.

phog

ormond lad wrote: »

Munster Rugby Academy Update
14 September 2011, 1:16 pm
By The Editor

The recently advertised vacancy for a Munster Rugby Elite Player Development Manager has now been filled with UCC and Munster U20s former head coach Conor Twomey securing the role.

I thought I read somewhere that another guy had taken over this role a few weeks back, did it not work out?

Anyway, this guys seems to have had some success with developing players in UCC as a lot of seniors clubs keep signing the UCC players.

ormond lad

phog wrote: »

I thought I read somewhere that another guy had taken over this role a few weeks back, did it not work out?

Anyway, this guys seems to have had some success with developing players in UCC as a lot of seniors clubs keep signing the UCC players.

It had been posted on mfs.com that ken o connell had got the job, so either he didnt get the job or he rejected it.
Hes done good work with UCC, strong AIL teams recently despite the likes of Con waiting in the wings to get any of their better players

Amazotheamazing

So, the great hope Dave Foley starts tomorrow, he's another player who's picked up injuries just as he was due to get gametime, hope it works out for him. Anyone know if Brian Hayes is fit, think he was injured for some of the preseason?

phog

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

So, the great hope Dave Foley starts tomorrow, he's another player who's picked up injuries just as he was due to get gametime, hope it works out for him. Anyone know if Brian Hayes is fit, think he was injured for some of the preseason?

He played in the A game V Connacht but I'm not sure if he picked up an injury during or after the game or if he picked up an injury at all.

Amazotheamazing

Interesting to see POM is captain when you realise how inexperienced he is. I knew he'd been captain since the season started but didn't realise just what little gametime he'd had up to now. Massive vote of confidence in him. He seems to be a bit bigger this year too, which was all he was really lacking up to now.

O'Driscoll Firmly Focussed
16 September 2011, 10:37 amBy The Editor
Munster won't lack for experience tomorrow night as they seek to maintain their unbeaten start to the RaboDitect PRO12 League in the game against Scarlets at Musgrave Park (7.45pm). Five of the Munster starting pack tomorrow have accumulated over 700 competitive caps while the other three have just 40.
Five of the Munster starting pack - Marcus Horan, John Hayes, Mick O'Driscoll, Niall Ronan & James Coughlan - have accumulated over 700 competitive caps while Peter Stringer is set to win his 220th cap.
The side will be led however, on his 22nd birthday, by Peter O'Mahony, winning just his 14th cap but it's a role that he enjoys and one that's accepted by all in the squad.

"I've played with Peter as captain for a long time now with Pres and Cork Con. I know exactly what he's like. He's a brilliant captain. You wouldn't find a better motivator around the place to be honest." says Simon Zebo.

O'Mahony is just 176 caps behind Mick O'Driscoll who wins his 190th cap tomorrow and has captained the side countless times but arguably most effectively and most often, in 2008/09 when they captured the League title.

O'Driscoll has no problem handing over the captain's armband. "I think it's great to see it go from arm to arm if you like. James (Coughlan) and Dougie have led the side and their always there to lend their support. We've always said there are plenty of leaders in the squad and that shows there is."

"With new fresh faces, I think it's a good thing that one of them is leading the side. Peter has plenty of experience at it, at club, in school and Under 20s so he knows what's required. and he's shown he's well up to it."

O'Driscoll is not really one for numbers when it comes to playing rugby so when the talk turns to how many successive league games Munster has won, he interrupts straight away. "Look, what we won last season counts for nothing this time around. What we'll be aware of is that we've won our two games so far. That's it. You don't carry forward points forward from last season."

"And next up is Scarlets at home and the aim is to win that. Pure and simple. Others can talk of records or whatever, but we start the season with a clean sheet. Two games gone, two wins and even they're consigned to history for now because all that matters is the eighty minutes or so tomorrow night."

Munster: J Murphy; D Howlett, T Gleeson, L Mafi, D Hurley; I Keatley, P Stringer; M Horan, M Sherry, J Hayes; D Foley, M O'Driscoll; P O'Mahony capt, N Ronan, J Coughlan. Replacements: D Fogarty, W du Preez, BJ Botha, B Holland, T O'Donnell, D Williams, S Deasy, S Zebo.

guapos

Glad to see Hayes is playing, I thought he had retired after not getting a place in WC squad or being offered Munster contract

ormond lad

guapos wrote: »

Glad to see Hayes is playing, I thought he had retired after not getting a place in WC squad or being offered Munster contract

His contract is until the end of the world cup, hopefully some of our younger props can step up as the more hayes plays the worse off munster will be in the long term, we need to find options at tight head and these games would be perfect for looking at younger players in every position

Amazotheamazing

ormond lad wrote: »

His contract is until the end of the world cup, hopefully some of our younger props can step up as the more hayes plays the worse off munster will be in the long term, we need to find options at tight head and these games would be perfect for looking at younger players in every position

Speaking of which, is Considine injured, don't see him in any u20 or u19 (if he still is) squads?

We badly need to get shot of Horan too, imo. I'd high hopes Cotter and Kilcoyne would step up this year but they don't seem to be in the reckoning.

ormond lad

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

Speaking of which, is Considine injured, don't see him in any u20 or u19 (if he still is) squads?

We badly need to get shot of Horan too, imo. I'd high hopes Cotter and Kilcoyne would step up this year but they don't seem to be in the reckoning.

He is o/age for 19s, he was(is??) in 20s squad, played in the warm up games including game v leicester 2 weeks ago so imagine he is still in squad as youd expect players not to be dropped that close to the interpros

Amazotheamazing

ormond lad wrote: »

He is o/age for 19s, he was(is??) in 20s squad, played in the warm up games including game v leicester 2 weeks ago so imagine he is still in squad as youd expect players not to be dropped that close to the interpros

He played last week against Leinster, just wondering if he was dropped or injured.

ormond lad

20s lost to ulster 17-9

phog

Injury Update from Munster

Munster report a clean bill of health from the game at the weekend with the added bonus of the anticipated return to action of Danny Barnes and Ian Nagle while Darragh Hurley resumes full training this week.

Barnes missed last weekend's game with a minor hand injury but he was in action when the squad trained this morning in the Sports Arena at the University of Limerick.
He is expected to be included in the squad when it's announced tomorrow as are Nagle and Hurley who has recovered from the achillies injury that has seen him miss the opening three games of the RaboDirect PRO12 League.

Nagle picked up a shoulder injury against London Irish but has fully recovered and took a full part in this morning's session.

Tomas O'Leary will do light training this week with a return to full training next week on the cards and an indication then when he might be available for squad selection.

Peter Borlase remains on the 'unavailable for selection' list along with Troy Smith who had knee surgery last week and David Wallace and Felix Jones.

Jones and Smith were in UL this morning working with Rehab Physio Colm Coakley.

and Munster Players injured while being in the Irish Camp.

In terms of injury around the RWC, Munster have suffered the greatest toll with Jerry Flannery the latest to join an injury list that includes Tomas O'Leary, Felix Jones and David Wallace.

Of that quartet only Flannery made the departure lounge, O'Leary has been troubled with a back injury since, Jones limped out of the French warm-up game, Wallace a week later.

There's no information on when Flannery will return but the others were all in UL this morning, Wallace getting himself there by car and driving it himself.

"Yeh, I'm mobile now, driving today for the first time. Once I'm driving I can get out of the house a bit more under my own steam. It's no harm anyway cause you just sit at home taking care of it. And keeping it moving. They gave me a machine, a continuous movement machine. It's good for the joint to keep it moving and working on it. Pretty boring right enough but best for the knee."

"In terms of Physio stuff it's single squats, double leg squats, doing balancing passing balls, walking in the pool, bit of aqua jogging. It kinda varies from week to week but I'm almost walking properly on it now without crutches."

Determining when to use the crutches or not is simply determined. "What I've been told is basically, on how it feels, so using pain as a guide. If it's sore I'll obviously back off. I'll probably have good days 'n bad days so some days I'll use them (crutches) and some days I mightn't use them at all. I'm happy with the way it's gone so far."

"I've been in since half eight this morning. It's now 12, going non-stop, just weights or physio or in the pool so that's good too, it's keeping me occupied."

Amazotheamazing

Think it'd be harsh to drop Foley after last week, he deserves a few games to showcase himself, I suppose the same could be said for Gleeson but i think McGahan will want to give Barnes as much time as possible as he could be starting in the HEC.

I'd like TOD to start as well, but with Ronan most likely to start at 7 in the HEC I expect he'll be kept on.

phog

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

Think it'd be harsh to drop Foley after last week, he deserves a few games to showcase himself, I suppose the same could be said for Gleeson but i think McGahan will want to give Barnes as much time as possible as he could be starting in the HEC.

I'd like TOD to start as well, but with Ronan most likely to start at 7 in the HEC I expect he'll be kept on.

All 3 did grand on Saturday night, I thought Foley was taken off a bit early. I was hoping TOD would get a run in Cardiff just to see how he'd manage against Williams. but Williams picked up an injury against Ulster so that aint going to happen.

Risteard

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

Think it'd be harsh to drop Foley after last week, he deserves a few games to showcase himself, I suppose the same could be said for Gleeson but i think McGahan will want to give Barnes as much time as possible as he could be starting in the HEC.

I'd like TOD to start as well, but with Ronan most likely to start at 7 in the HEC I expect he'll be kept on.

Do you think Ronan will be at 7?

I think POM could make the switch over to 7 after the WC, presumably Ronan's on stand by. Captaining the ML shows a lot of faith has been put in him and he's performed pretty well so far.