Munster Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread.

theKramer

Cpt_Blackbeard wrote: »

I would take the stats on the Munsterrugby with a pinch of salt though, they had Danny Barnes as 5ft4 for ages.

True that

CiaranMT

Wouldn't pay an ounce of attention to what the Mrugby stats say, POM is definitely heavier than that.

phog

Munster A put Esher to the sword this evening, eventually running out winning 64 - 9. Nine tries, 8 conversions and one penalty. It was a decent enough game to watch on a bitterly cold night. Hard to know how good Munster were or how poor Esher were. Dineen and Barnes seemed to have the freedom to what they liked and cut them to pieces a few times. Scrum looked alright and our lineouts were superior. Have high hopes for TOD and Paddy Butler.

They opened with a try from Danny Barnes after just two minutes and ended the first half with the sixth, from Sean Scanlon two minutes into injury time.
In between there were tries from Ivan Dineen, Stephen Archer, Tommy O'Donnell and Dave Kilcoyne.

Esher's out-half Rob Kirby landed three penalties.

Munster were then held scoreless until the 56th minute when Simon Zebo scored wide on the left and there were further tries from Conor Murray and Troy Smith.

Munster: Sean Scanlon; Danny Barnes, Ivan Dineen, Troy Smith, Simon Zebo; Declan Cusack, Duncan Williams; Dave Kilcoyne, Sean Henry, Stephen Archer; Ian Nagle, Dave Foley; Billy Holland capt, Tommy O'Donnell, Paddy Butler. Replacements: Duncan Casey, Peter Borlase, Dave O'Callaghan, Brian O'Hara, Conor Murray, JJ Hanrahan, Corey Hircock.

A few photos from the game here

thomond2006

Nice result.

What was the attendance?

CIARAN_BOYLE

Munster are now finished their B&I cup group schedule. They are currently top of their group with a seven point lead.

That said Llanelli have two more games and Nottingham (14 points behind) have three more games so they could overhaul Munster

It is only top teams qualifying for knock out stages, right?

[Jackass]

AboveandBeyond wrote: »

I am just wondering could we be seeing something like this from Munster next season?

1.Du Preez
2.Varley
3.Hagan
4.O'Connell
5.O'Callaghan
6.Leamy
7.McCaw
8.Wallace
9.Stringer
10.O'Gara
11.Howlett
12.Nonu
13.Earls
14.Murphy
15.Felix Jones

The players in bold being new (or newish i.e last 2 seasons) injections into starting 15. How would everyone feel about a team like that?

Hmmm, if Sexton and Heaslip are struggling to get contracts, you can be fairly sure Nonu and McCaw wont want to listen to what the IRFU have to say. Probably can only offer them a weeks worth of wages compared to what they would get in France.

I think we need to focus on retaining Irish talent and saving money by promoting youth. I think we also need to look at longer term deals for younger players (more than 2 or 3 years) and I think older players (30+) should be given no more than 1 years deals at a time. RO'G and O'Callaghan are a disastor with the contracts we've given them. One is firmly a back-up player (and ironicly his wage being a major hamper to the man in front of him who'll be earning less) and the other, based on current form, isn't even good enough for the world cup squad, never mind international starter!!

CouchSmart wrote: »

Reddan, Ross, Fogarty etc. \t Leinster. It's professionalism, winning comes first.

As of next season, Leinster will have three Munster players in the squad. Cronin, Ross and Reddan. All great players, but none of them crucial to Leinsters sucsess.

Cpt_Blackbeard

[Jackass] wrote: »

Hmmm, if Sexton and Heaslip are struggling to get contracts, you can be fairly sure Nonu and McCaw wont want to listen to what the IRFU have to say. Probably can only offer them a weeks worth of wages compared to what they would get in France.

I think we need to focus on retaining Irish talent and saving money by promoting youth. I think we also need to look at longer term deals for younger players (more than 2 or 3 years) and I think older players (30+) should be given no more than 1 years deals at a time. RO'G and O'Callaghan are a disastor with the contracts we've given them. One is firmly a back-up player (and ironicly his wage being a major hamper to the man in front of him who'll be earning less) and the other, based on current form, isn't even good enough for the world cup squad, never mind international starter!!



As of next season, Leinster will have three Munster players in the squad. Cronin, Ross and Reddan. All great players, but none of them crucial to Leinsters sucsess.

You have no proof whatsoever of the part in bold, just speculation.

ROG is needed at international level as there is currently no backup to Sexton and Sexton is also still relatively unproved at the highest level.

DOC was offered a 3 year deal which will expire soon after he turn 35. Locks are still competitive at this age, Brad Thorn is 35 and Simon Shaw was a Lions test starter at ~37.

Cronin and Reddan as players may not be crucial to Leinster's success, but they play in positions that Leinster are/have been unable to produce from their academy.

Amazotheamazing

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

Munster are now finished their B&I cup group schedule. They are currently top of their group with a seven point lead.

That said Llanelli have two more games and Nottingham (14 points behind) have three more games so they could overhaul Munster

It is only top teams qualifying for knock out stages, right?

Top two teams from each group qualify, there's quarter finals this year (last year went straight to semi-finals, iirc).

We also still have to play Bristol, the game was called off in December due to bad weather.

[Jackass]

Cpt_Blackbeard wrote: »

You have no proof whatsoever of the part in bold, just speculation.

ROG is needed at international level as there is currently no backup to Sexton and Sexton is also still relatively unproved at the highest level.

DOC was offered a 3 year deal which will expire soon after he turn 35. Locks are still competitive at this age, Brad Thorn is 35 and Simon Shaw was a Lions test starter at ~37.

Cronin and Reddan as players may not be crucial to Leinster's success, but they play in positions that Leinster are/have been unable to produce from their academy.

Actually, you'll find that the central contract system is predominantly based around caps, and yes, whatever Sexton gets, unless it's a massive save face deal, O'Gara will be on more than him and as it stands, about 75% of the out-half quota for wages has already been signed away to O'Gara. All the details have been listed on a Leinsterfans.com thread and if I was arsed I would dig out the link for you.

As for the locks, there are plenty of younger and better locks than DOC in this country, and he currently, as I said, is about 5th choice. But he will start based on contract, not form. Would you disagree with any of that?

On the final point. How did you think Jason Harris Wright did tonight? Very good I thought. Massively promising young Leinster lad getting plenty of game time. Sexton (the hooker, as you seem unaware) is chomping at the bit for senior game time now too. But not as good as the best hooker in Ireland at the moment, Richardt Strauss, who will be Irish qualified after the world cup. Cronin will be a great addition to Leinster, but do we need him? Absolutely not.

And scrum half, Boss has been great, and O'Donohue has plenty of young lads in the academy chasing after the 9 jersey too.

RuggieBear

Jackass this is the munster team talk thread. Please do not post on this thraed again

phog

thomond2006 wrote: »

Nice result.

What was the attendance?

Attendance was poor and to make matters worse the game started 15 minutes early because of the frost, so I reckon there was two tries in the bag before the majority of the crowd got there.

Hanrahan got about 10 minutes and looked promising but as I said earlier, what's the real quality of the opposition.

Our 5 and 6 I think looked a lot lighter than theirs and their No4 was massive but that didn't stop TOD put him back in more than one tackle.

Risteard

phog wrote: »

Attendance was poor and to make matters worse the game started 15 minutes early because of the frost, so I reckon there was two tries in the bag before the majority of the crowd got there.

Hanrahan got about 10 minutes and looked promising but as I said earlier, what's the real quality of the opposition.

Our 5 and 6 I think looked a lot lighter than theirs and their No4 was massive but that didn't stop TOD put him back in more than one tackle.

He made a good break but just slipped after he was through. I wonder how many years it'll be before we see some of these players?

Also did anyone notice that the scrum seemed to get worse with Borlase on?

some_dose

Risteard wrote: »

I wonder how many years it'll be before we see some of these players?

Also did anyone notice that the scrum seemed to get worse with Borlase on?

If we get to see they players

Borlase is looking more and more like a bad bad mistake. A waste of money.

AboveandBeyond

some_dose wrote: »

If we get to see they players

Borlase is looking more and more like a bad bad mistake. A waste of money.

Anyone have an idea of what type of money hes on?

CouchSmart

Borlase just needs time, he was a good player in NZ. It takes time to adjust to playing up here, the game is played so differently. Clint Newland is struggling similarly but there has been a marked improvement over the last few weeks from him. As far as I know Borlase is a project player so he's here for 3 years, I think he'll do fine after some more time.

CIARAN_BOYLE

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

Top two teams from each group qualify, there's quarter finals this year (last year went straight to semi-finals, iirc).

We also still have to play Bristol, the game was called off in December due to bad weather.

my mistake (on two fronts), you are right that last year was just semis.

I found a website with B&I cup group tables on friday evening and assumed that they hadn't updated it yet

Here is the actual tables
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/tables/8369048.stm

phog

Some highlights from the A game.

LuckyGent88

So Brive away in Amlin quarters. Seems like a decent draw but will need serious improvement and quickly.

BCSG7

Yea they will need to improve to beat brive and it will take a huge effort to win the cup overall. I wish mcgahon would start giving the younger lads a chance more regularly, the first team is ageing big time now and are not able to play the high tempo, off-loading game that leinster and the top french teams play.

BCSG7

I hope your right, munster can't afford to carry any more props that can't scrummage. Until they sort the scrum out they will struggle to progress past the knock-out stages of the HC in the future.

PhatPiggins

BCSG7 wrote: »

I hope your right, munster can't afford to carry any more props that can't scrummage. Until they sort the scrum out they will struggle to progress past the knock-out stages of the HC in the future.

Seeing as we have a total of one prop who can actually scrummage Borlase should feel right at home.

buck65

We actually have 3 loose head props that can scrummage

PhatPiggins

buck65 wrote: »

We actually have 3 loose head props that can scrummage

I might have been a bit harsh as we can't really say how good Ryan/Hurley are untill we have a decent TH.

profitius

There was high hopes for Darragh Hurley a few years back. Himself and Cian Healy were being talked up as 2 exciting props that'll play for ireland. Since then Hurleys career has not taken off due to injury. The potential remains though. If he can stay clear of injuries and get a run of games I'm sure he'll come good. Likewise Dave Ryan has got some niggly injuries for the past year. Dave looks like a more promising scrummager than his brother Timmy.

PhatPiggins

profitius wrote: »

There was high hopes for Darragh Hurley a few years back. Himself and Cian Healy were being talked up as 2 exciting props that'll play for ireland. Since then Hurleys career has not taken off due to injury. The potential remains though. If he can stay clear of injuries and get a run of games I'm sure he'll come good. Likewise Dave Ryan has got some niggly injuries for the past year. Dave looks like a more promising scrummager than his brother Timmy.

Whats the word on Marcus Horan? Is he going to play again?

Risteard

PhatPiggins wrote: »

Whats the word on Marcus Horan? Is he going to play again?

On his way back form injury I think. I actually think I read a report that he's back training but after so long out and his age, and the other, younger options we have at LH, I don't think he'll reach the heights he did before his injury lay off IMO.

thomond2006

Risteard wrote: »

On his way back form injury I think. I actually think I read a report that he's back training but after so long out and his age, and the other, younger options we have at LH, I don't think he'll reach the heights he did before his injury lay off IMO.

Personally I'd let him go at the end of the season if he's out of contract. Dave Ryan and Darragh Hurley have shown (when fit) that they do a good job and could develop into decent props.

Clareman

You can't let Marcus go, there'd be no-one in the squad from Clare then

durkadurka

I get the impression from my occasional visits to Clare that rugby is on the rise. I see a lot on munster shirts about the place anyhow.

Clareman

It is, very popular now, Scariff are doing great things at the moment. With Ennis, Kilrush and Shannon (Senan's) going strong it's only a matter of time before we get more Munster and Irish captains

It's alot easier for people to get a game now than it was before, I had to go to Limerick cause I didn't get on with a lot of people in Ennis, now I'd have options