Munster Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread.

leftleg

.ak wrote: »

Would JJ Hanrahan be ready to play some games for the senior team in the pro12?

I alluded to this a while ago but never got a concrete answer?? any update would be much appreciated as he looked really good for the u20s 2 weeks ago

Benny Cake

theKramer wrote: »

He's up there with Nick Williams as most complete waste of money as was injured all the time... :rolleyes:

That award has to go to Christian Cullen...

Junior

Borlase has gone to Connaught on loan, I've seen mention of another short term signing, but can't find it again.

profitius

.ak wrote:

Would JJ Hanrahan be ready to play some games for the senior team in the pro12?

He would indeed but he needs to improve his defense. He is the same size as D'Arcy and strong but needs to improve his tackling technique. I said before that he has more talent then all the other Munster centers put together and it was no surprise to see Chambers have a great game in the B&I cup against Ulster because he was playing outside Hanrahan. I think Hanrahans long term position is probably at out half.

They might prefer him to keep playing U20 and Munster A games since he is in the second year of the academy. I think he'll skip the third year of the academy and get a development contract next season.

Danny Barnes can feel hard done by. He has got shag all game time this season after impressing last season. There were a few posters who were talking about him as a potential international, I never rated him that highly but he could easily be as good as Mafi ie mid range HEC standard.

Munster have to sort out their squad in the summer. Gleeson is injured when he is needed, which sums up his career. Dineen has gotten niggly injures all season too and Scott Deasy is the new Tom Gleeson. :rolleyes:

Amazotheamazing

Benny Cake wrote: »

That award has to go to Christian Cullen...

Cullen was our top try scorer one season. He was a way better signing than guys like Wyatt etc.

Rattlehead_ie

Cullen was prob one of the best modern day rugby players of his time and would have been a great assist in long term, unfortunately you cant predict injury

Amazotheamazing

profitius wrote: »

He would indeed but he needs to improve his defense. He is the same size as D'Arcy and strong but needs to improve his tackling technique. I said before that he has more talent then all the other Munster centers put together and it was no surprise to see Chambers have a great game in the B&I cup against Ulster because he was playing outside Hanrahan. I think Hanrahans long term position is probably at out half.

They might prefer him to keep playing U20 and Munster A games since he is in the second year of the academy. I think he'll skip the third year of the academy and get a development contract next season.

Danny Barnes can feel hard done by. He has got shag all game time this season after impressing last season.

Have you ever seen Hanrahan at 10?

Btw, Barnes has started 10 games this season and come on as a sub 6 more times. In what way do you mean he's gotten "shag all" game time?

profitius

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

Have you ever seen Hanrahan at 10?

Btw, Barnes has started 10 games this season and come on as a sub 6 more times. In what way do you mean he's gotten "shag all" game time?

Compared to what he should be getting. He started alot early season but hasn't started much for months.

Yes I saw Hanrahan play at 10 last season.

Amazotheamazing

profitius wrote: »

Compared to what he should be getting. He started alot early season but hasn't started much for months.

Yes I saw Hanrahan play at 10 last season.

Munster have played 19 competitive games this season and he's been involved in 16 of them. That's loads of gametime for a guy who's just breaking into the team.

profitius

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

Munster have played 19 competitive games this season and he's been involved in 16 of them. That's loads of gametime for a guy who's just breaking into the team.

Ever hear the saying lies, damn lies and statistics? The fact is he was first choice for a while, had a few patchy performances and was then dropped like a stone. I agreed at the time that he should not have kept his place but he should have gotten more starts since then especially since its only Mafi who is keeping him out of the team.

Hagz

I don't see how it's lies. He has been involved in 16 games this season. Minutes wise, he has played in and around the same amount of time as Carr has for Leinster this season, give or take 10-30 mins.

I prefer watching him play at 13 though as opposed to 12.

CatFromHue

Chiefs centre loaned to Munster

Munster have announced that Waikato and Chiefs centre or wing Save Tokula will be joining them for the rest of the season.

This follows the return of centre Will Chambers to Australia in January and injuries to contracted centres Tom Gleeson (shoulder) and Troy Smith (knee). Smith will require a second operation following a re-occurrence of the knee injury which has sidelined him for most of the season.

The 26-year-old Fijian-born Tokula was a member of the New Zealand Sevens squad in 2009 and 2010. He has played 36 times for Waikato since making his debut against Wellington in 2008 and last season played Super Rugby with the Chiefs.

He is expected to arrive over the coming weekend.
http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,16024_7525020,00.html

---

I don't see him mentioned anywhere on the Chiefs website and I think he is more a Waikato player (Waikato are one of the regional teams that the Chiefs Super rugby team is drawn from, it's the level below Super rugby) but his Waikato page is:
http://www.mooloo.co.nz/ITM-Cup/Player-Profiles/Savenaca-Tokula/

Amazotheamazing

profitius wrote: »

Ever hear the saying lies, damn lies and statistics? The fact is he was first choice for a while, had a few patchy performances and was then dropped like a stone. I agreed at the time that he should not have kept his place but he should have gotten more starts since then especially since its only Mafi who is keeping him out of the team.

Barnes isn't really a 12, it's Earls, J. Murphy and Zebo keeping him out. Now, Dolphin are trying him at 12 so maybe it's where he sees himself in the future.

Benny Cake

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

Cullen was our top try scorer one season. He was a way better signing than guys like Wyatt etc.

Ya, but when you consider the astronomical wages he earned over 3 seasons I stand by what I said, he was a collosal waste of money. I'm sure those Munster fans here that were following the province at the time would have heard the rumours that Cullens work ethic while at Munster left allot to be desired...

Amazotheamazing

Benny Cake wrote: »

Ya, but when you consider the astronomical wages he earned over 3 seasons I stand by what I said, he was a collosal waste of money. I'm sure those Munster fans here that were following the province at the time would have heard the rumours that Cullens work ethic while at Munster left allot to be desired...

Afaik, in his first two seasons his wages while injured were covered by insurance and in his last season he was on some sort of pay to play contract.

Actually heard his work ethic was very good when he was fit enough to work. Halstead, I think, singled him out for it.

grumpymunster

Benny Cake wrote: »

Ya, but when you consider the astronomical wages he earned over 3 seasons I stand by what I said, he was a collosal waste of money. I'm sure those Munster fans here that were following the province at the time would have heard the rumours that Cullens work ethic while at Munster left allot to be desired...

I have been following Munster for more years than I care to remember. I have never heard those rumours in fact he signed on for an extra year as he wanted to show what he could actually do. No player wanted to succeed more than him he was just very unfortunate with injuries.

To label Cullen a collosal waste in my opinion is a travesty of the truth.

Benny Cake

grumpymunster wrote: »

I have been following Munster for more years than I care to remember. I have never heard those rumours in fact he signed on for an extra year as he wanted to show what he could actually do. No player wanted to succeed more than him he was just very unfortunate with injuries.

To label Cullen a collosal waste in my opinion is a travesty of the truth.

Looks like I'm outnumbered on this one!

bamboozle

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

Barnes isn't really a 12, it's Earls, J. Murphy and Zebo keeping him out. Now, Dolphin are trying him at 12 so maybe it's where he sees himself in the future.

he played at 13 against Clontarf 2 weeks ago...didnt really stand out.

PhatPiggins

Benny Cake wrote: »

Looks like I'm outnumbered on this one!

2 things went wrong for Cullen, the injuries were obviously horrific but he was way ahead of the rest of the Munster backs in terms of creativity and spatial awareness. I remember reading an interview with ROG where he kept mentioning the lines that Cullen was running in training and how much he was learning from him. Unfortunately this knowledge transfer didn't materialise onto the pitch and I lost count of the number of times Cullen was ignored by the ball carrier mainly because he had chosen a different angle of running to 'straight up crash ball'.

buck65

Lads are we not getting a bit carried away with a short term signing? We are just another injury from a backline crisis.
Supposing Earls (injury prone) picks up a knock in the 6 Ns we will probably be starting Barnes at 13 with very little cover.
Good bit of short term business by Munster. Nothing to see here.

totallegend

Benny Cake wrote: »

Looks like I'm outnumbered on this one!

I'm always one to kick a man when he's down... apparently he was a demon in the gym and could out-lift most of the forwards in the NZ squad.

Every now and again, I go back and watch Cullen on YouTube, he was the best full-back of the pro era by a considerable distance. It's a shame it didn't work out for him at Munster, but comparing him to Nick Williams is sacrilege.

GerM

Rattlehead_ie wrote: »

Cullen was prob one of the best modern day rugby players of his time and would have been a great assist in long term, unfortunately you cant predict injury

Nope but when the player arrives badly injured requiring surgery, Munster should have been more cautious than they were. The lure of the glamour signing proved too much. Will join the masses, Benny, and say that I only ever heard positive things about his attitude. He was supposed to be a monster in the gym and the epitome of a professional according to anything I ever heard.

Awful shame; aside from Dempsey, he was the best 15 in the world.

Amazotheamazing

GerM wrote: »

Nope but when the player arrives badly injured requiring surgery, Munster should have been more cautious than they were. The lure of the glamour signing proved too much. Will join the masses, Benny, and say that I only ever heard positive things about his attitude. He was supposed to be a monster in the gym and the epitome of a professional according to anything I ever heard.

Awful shame; aside from Dempsey, he was the best 15 in the world.

Easy to look back but don't think anyone could have predicted how bad his injuries would be.

dfkorg

In my opinion, watching Keith Earls from the start of his career, there's always been an air of Cullen around him. It's not that he's the best back to ever play the game, as Cullen arguably is, but there are lines he runs and moves he makes that must have been influenced by getting to work with the senior team when Cullen was involved. I'm sure this goes for a lot of Munster backs that have broken through in the last few years, but I really think that Cullen's legacy will be more from the training ground than the time missed on the pitch due to an unfortunate series of injuries.

CiaranMT

Cullen's still only 35 :O

Amazotheamazing

dfkorg wrote: »

In my opinion, watching Keith Earls from the start of his career, there's always been an air of Cullen around him. It's not that he's the best back to ever play the game, as Cullen arguably is, but there are lines he runs and moves he makes that must have been influenced by getting to work with the senior team when Cullen was involved. I'm sure this goes for a lot of Munster backs that have broken through in the last few years, but I really think that Cullen's legacy will be more from the training ground than the time missed on the pitch due to an unfortunate series of injuries.

What Cullen had couldn't be coached, imo, but it's possible he changed the mindset in young players training with him alright.

castie

GerM wrote: »

Nope but when the player arrives badly injured requiring surgery, Munster should have been more cautious than they were. The lure of the glamour signing proved too much. Will join the masses, Benny, and say that I only ever heard positive things about his attitude. He was supposed to be a monster in the gym and the epitome of a professional according to anything I ever heard.

Awful shame; aside from Dempsey, he was the best 15 in the world.

Asside from Dempsey?? Are you having a laugh?

Amazotheamazing

castie wrote: »

Asside from Dempsey?? Are you having a laugh?

I'd say it's more of a wistful smile as he remembers the greatness that was Dempsey.

Podge_irl

castie wrote: »

Asside from Dempsey?? Are you having a laugh?

Cullen used to dream of swerving like Dempsey.

He was never actually injured. Just too afraid of the inevitable comparisons with the Swerve and how poor it would make him look.

funky penguin