Munster v Connacht Friday 6th may thomond Park

seanin4711

Lets get the ball rolling for this one eh?
Hope we can put in a performance as good if not better than ravenhill .
s

freyners

bit early for this considering the semis have to be played yet?????
looking forward to a good game.....after Connacht being robbed at home id love to see us putting one over Munster.

Expecting a big performance from all the departees...Keatley in particular..he'll want to prove himself before the transfer...

what team Munster will put out will be interesting..with O'Connell being left out of the semi final squad i can see him making his return

phog

Quinny to captain the side, POC and TOL to get gametime. Warwick to get the outhalf jersey, all the leavers and newbies to get gametime too.

some_dose

phog wrote: »

Quinny to captain the side, POC and TOL to get gametime. Warwick to get the outhalf jersey, all the leavers and newbies to get gametime too.

My thoughts exactly. No offence to Connacht fans but I realistically see Munster by 15 with Quinlan and PO'C having stormers.

Zzippy

some_dose wrote: »

My thoughts exactly. No offence to Connacht fans but I realistically see Munster by 15 with Quinlan and PO'C having stormers.

No offence to Quinny, but I'd be a lot more worried about Coughlan - he destroyed Connacht's backrow last season in Galway. I'll be there supporting Connacht, but will be great to see Quinny in action one last time before he retires. Just hope he has a shocker!

porterbelly

Zzippy wrote: »

No offence to Quinny, but I'd be a lot more worried about Coughlan - he destroyed Connacht's backrow last season in Galway. I'll be there supporting Connacht, but will be great to see Quinny in action one last time before he retires. Just hope he has a shocker!

Naoupu was the outstading player on the pitch last year. Nearly dragged Connacht over the line single handedly as were bloody awful. Nick Williams had a big game that day as well.

thomond2006

TOL will be involved in some fit if he's fit.

Assuming Munster gets to both the ML final and ACC final they'll have to go full strength for three weeks in a row, meaning the selection against Connacht will be entirely second string. Quinny will definitely start to get a deserved send off. Depending on how he does against Quins POC may get gametime too.

Zzippy

porterbelly wrote: »

Naoupu was the outstading player on the pitch last year. Nearly dragged Connacht over the line single handedly as were bloody awful. Nick Williams had a big game that day as well.

Forgot Williams, he was great that day too. You're right, we were awful that day, could and should have beaten that Munster team, then did beat a much stronger Leinster selection 3 days later...

CIARAN_BOYLE

I wouldn't be surprised to see

Horan/Hurley
Sherry
Hayes/Archer
POC
Nagle
Ryan
TOD/Quinlan
POM
TOL
Cusack
Zebo
Deasy
Tutupu (how every you spell it)
Hurley
J Murphy

thomond2006

No point playing Tuitupou in what is effectively a development game, stick Barnes there instead.

Cusack injured his shoulder against Scarlets, is he gonna be available?

CIARAN_BOYLE

thomond2006 wrote: »

No point playing Tuitupou in what is effectively a development game, stick Barnes there instead.

Cusack injured his shoulder against Scarlets, is he gonna be available?

I'm not sure about Cusack, I selected Tuitupou because I wanted a couple of experienced backs although I wouldn't mind seeing Barnes in there

thomond2006

Well after today's shambles this game takes extra significance for a lot of players. Many of the youngsters might fancy their chances of breaking into the side after many of the incumbents to put it bluntly ****ed up today.

PhatPiggins

thomond2006 wrote: »

Well after today's shambles this game takes extra significance for a lot of players. Many of the youngsters might fancy their chances of breaking into the side after many of the incumbents to put it bluntly ****ed up today.

Both of the youngsters who started today were equally awful though. Hard to know where to go after that mess. I was really beginning to think we'd turned a corner when we beat Leinster.

thomond2006

PhatPiggins wrote: »

Both of the youngsters who started today were equally awful though. Hard to know where to go after that mess. I was really beginning to think we'd turned a corner when we beat Leinster.

Sorry I only saw the second half. Who are you referring to?

PhatPiggins

thomond2006 wrote: »

Sorry I only saw the second half. Who are you referring to?

Felix Jones was atrocious and Murray was mugged on a few occasions. I'm probably being hard on Murray as the pack were running backwards for most of the game and Quins spoiled a lot of ruck ball. Does Varley count as a young player.

irishbucsfan

I didn't think Murray was poor at all today. Thought he was one of the more encouraging performers actually.

Munster need O'Driscoll/Horan/Hayes etc. to step aside now. They're not close to good enough and there are players there who could do with the "ice time."

Risteard

EDIT - Wrong thread for this to be in.

Anyway, I hope Sherry gets a start next week along with Nagle. Whatever about 'hyping' young players, we should be playing the ones that have performed well whenever they've been given an opportunity.

seanin4711

CMON CONNACHT

thomond2006

Hurley, Sherry, Archer, Nagle, POC, Quinlan, TOD, Butler;
TOL, Deasy, Zebo, Warwick, Barnes, Hurley, Murphy

May as well play O'Leary in this if he's fit.

danthefan

thomond2006 wrote: »

May as well play O'Leary in this if he's fit.

Why? He's awful.

durkadurka

Will this be Quinnys last game?

Will he make the bench for the play offs?

thomond2006

danthefan wrote: »

Why? He's awful.

Maybe so but give him a chance to prove us wrong.

In my mind Murray and Stringer are our 1st anc 2nd choice SHs. O'Leary will definitely play in this if fit.

PhatPiggins

thomond2006 wrote: »

Hurley, Sherry, Archer, Nagle, POC, Quinlan, TOD, Butler;
TOL, Deasy, Zebo, Warwick, Barnes, Hurley, Murphy

May as well play O'Leary in this if he's fit.

I'd play him on the wing, think its a position he covers well.

Cpt_Blackbeard

The big selection issues surround giving Quinlan and (possibly) Hayes one last swan-song in the Munster jersey.

Personally I'd like to see a team like:

1. Hurley
2. Sherry
3. Hayes
4. Nagle
5. POC
6. Quinlan
7. TOD
8. POM
9. TOL (Murray deserves a rest, but will hopefully start in the semi)
10. Warwick
11. Zebo
12. Hurley (We have a lot of more dangerous options on the wing, but he could be a big strong runner, like Halstead, at 12)
13. B. Murphy (He will, hopefully, be fit. It could be his last game for Munster too)
14. Howlett
15. Jones (He needs all the games he can get to earn a WC place)

Bench:
16. Fagarty
17. WdP
18. Archer
19. Ryan
20. Butler (Hopefully he will get a game)
21. Stringer
20. Cusack (Bring him on at 50. Stringer and Warwick either side of him will give him every shot. Hopefully he will take all the responsibilities of a 10 though. Deasy on the bench to play 10/12 if he is injured)
23. Barnes (Hopefully he gets a shot at 13 with Warwick at 12)

PhatPiggins

Cpt_Blackbeard wrote: »

The big selection issues surround giving Quinlan and (possibly) Hayes one last swan-song in the Munster jersey.

Personally I'd like to see a team like:

1. Hurley
2. Sherry
3. Hayes
4. Nagle
5. POC
6. Quinlan
7. TOD
8. POM
9. TOL (Murray deserves a rest, but will hopefully start in the semi)
10. Warwick
11. Zebo
12. Hurley (We have a lot of more dangerous options on the wing, but he could be a big strong runner, like Halstead, at 12)
13. B. Murphy (He will, hopefully, be fit. It could be his last game for Munster too)
14. Howlett
15. Jones (He needs all the games he can get to earn a WC place)

Bench:
16. Fagarty
17. WdP
18. Archer
19. Ryan
20. Butler (Hopefully he will get a game)
21. Stringer
20. Cusack (Bring him on at 50. Stringer and Warwick either side of him will give him every shot. Hopefully he will take all the responsibilities of a 10 though. Deasy on the bench to play 10/12 if he is injured)
23. Barnes (Hopefully he gets a shot at 13 with Warwick at 12)

That team would lose to Connacht, we need to whip them after yesterdays farce

Cpt_Blackbeard

PhatPiggins wrote: »

That team would lose to Connacht, we need to whip them after yesterdays farce

I don't really care if we win or lose. All we need to do is put in an honest performance and for the youngsters to give us a glimpse of a bright future, that we desperately need.

I don't think that it would lose anyway. The backrow is inexperienced but young unproven players generally put in huge efforts to prove themselves. Connacht generally save their best performances for derbies like this, but the youngsters included will equally do their best to prove their worth. POC and TOL will be trying to prove fitness and the centres will be playing for (possible) places in the semi and final of the Magners.

thomond2006

durkadurka wrote: »

Will this be Quinnys last game? Yes probably.

Will he make the bench for the play offs? It's unlikely. Ryan seems to favoured atm to cover backrow and Ronan is also ahead of Quinlan. If he has a stormer against Connacht he should be considered.

.

danthefan

thomond2006 wrote: »

Maybe so but give him a chance to prove us wrong.

In my mind Murray and Stringer are our 1st anc 2nd choice SHs. O'Leary will definitely play in this if fit.

Makes no sense at all to me, Murray should be getting every possible minute of gametime. TOL has had ample opportunity to prove us wrong, not sure what you expect in one game.

Amazotheamazing

PhatPiggins wrote: »

That team would lose to Connacht, we need to whip them after yesterdays farce

No we don't.

Yesterday's farce, as it were, more than anything proves we need to ditch two types of players. a) Longtime heros like Horan and Hayes and b) honest pro's who just aren't top level players like MOD and Coughlan.

This game is a genuine shot to nothing.

With that in mind

Hurley (if fit)
Sherry
Archer/Hayes (only sentiment)
Nagle
POC
Quinlan/POM
TOD
POM/Butler
Murray/Williams
Warwick
Zebo
Dineen
Mafi
Barnes
Jones

Tbh, I'd expect that team to lose and honestly I wouldn't mind if I felt it was an important step forward in getting these players ready for next season.

buck65

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

No we don't.

Yesterday's farce, as it were, more than anything proves we need to ditch two types of players. a) Longtime heros like Horan and Hayes and b) honest pro's who just aren't top level players like MOD and Coughlan.

Absolutely ridiculous statement. Micko has proven himself for years as a very good player and Coughlan has been consistently our best player for a couple of seasons. Remember the Leinster match anyone. Short short memories.

ormond lad

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

No we don't.

Yesterday's farce, as it were, more than anything proves we need to ditch two types of players. a) Longtime heros like Horan and Hayes and b) honest pro's who just aren't top level players like MOD and Coughlan.

buck65 wrote: »

Absolutely ridiculous statement. Micko has proven himself for years as a very good player and Coughlan has been consistently our best player for a couple of seasons. Remember the Leinster match anyone. Short short memories.

Maybe wrong examples but hes right munster need to get rid of the likes of niall ronan, tom gleeson(26 and only 9starts+3 sub appearances in 3 seasons), billy holland. we have to big a squad and they are the players to get rid of if its to get smaller

Amazotheamazing

buck65 wrote: »

Absolutely ridiculous statement. Micko has proven himself for years as a very good player and Coughlan has been consistently our best player for a couple of seasons. Remember the Leinster match anyone. Short short memories.

Both are very good players trying to play at a level where being very good isn't enough. We can duck and dive around the issue as much as we want, imo, our pack is physically weak and that's down to having guys like Coughlan in it.

onlyrocknroll

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

Both are very good players trying to play at a level where being very good isn't enough. We can duck and dive around the issue as much as we want, imo, our pack is physically weak and that's down to having guys like Coughlan in it.

Completely disagree about Coughlan.

The fact that the guy didn't break into the Munster first team until he was quite old meant that people were judging him as being the finished article when he was still developing. I think that right now he's peaked and is very much at a HC standard. A few weeks ago he was the best back row player in a game that included O'Brien, Leamy Wallace and Heaslip.

profitius

onlyrocknroll wrote: »

Completely disagree about Coughlan.

The fact that the guy didn't break into the Munster first team until he was quite old meant that people were judging him as being the finished article when he was still developing. I think that right now he's peaked and is very much at a HC standard. A few weeks ago he was the best back row player in a game that included O'Brien, Leamy Wallace and Heaslip.

I agree with Amazotheamazing. Coughlan is technically very good but doesn't have the physicality for top level rugby. You can see what he does but its harder to measure the impact physical players bring.

Amazotheamazing

onlyrocknroll wrote: »

Completely disagree about Coughlan.

The fact that the guy didn't break into the Munster first team until he was quite old meant that people were judging him as being the finished article when he was still developing. I think that right now he's peaked and is very much at a HC standard. A few weeks ago he was the best back row player in a game that included O'Brien, Leamy Wallace and Heaslip.

Meh, I remember seeing Des Dillon outplay every forward on the pitch for Leinster against Munster in a Celtic Cup semi-final in Lansdowne, thing is the next week he'd go back to being an ordinary player. A one off game proves nothing, imo. He was shown up in the pool stages this year where Leamy carried him.

onlyrocknroll

profitius wrote: »

I agree with Amazotheamazing. Coughlan is technically very good but doesn't have the physicality for top level rugby. You can see what he does but its harder to measure the impact physical players bring.

I agree that Munster need a very physical backrow player to be more competitive, and that Coughlan isn't that.

I'd disagree that Coughlan isn't physical enough for top level rugby. Not every player needs to be a Stephen Ferris type brute. I think that Coughlan could comfortably hold his own in any top level backrow as long as massive physicality is being provided elsewhere. Munster's problem is that this is not being provided for from anywhere.

By analogy, or problem with the backs is that we don't have a creative player that can create space for Earls or Howlett, not that Howlett or Earls are not good enough for top level rugby because they aren't creative enough.

onlyrocknroll

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

Meh, I remember seeing Des Dillon outplay every forward on the pitch for Leinster against Munster in a Celtic Cup semi-final in Lansdowne, thing is the next week he'd go back to being an ordinary player. A one off game proves nothing, imo. He was shown up in the pool stages this year where Leamy carried him.

Certainly, but I'd disagree that Coughlan has been ordinary this season. I think he's been immeasurably better in the 8 jersey than Leamy and has been a far better player this season as a whole.

profitius

I see what you're saying but every player counts.

South Africans always pick big players in their pack with some exceptions ie Brussow. Brussow wasn't even considered for ages because of his size so he had to be an exceptional player to make it. Strauss wouldn't be considered for SA either because he's too small.

Small forwards might be good players but have a few of them in the team and the forwards become underpowered. Look at Northampton pack. They're nothing special on paper but as a unit their size and power starts to wear teams down. Munster used to be similar. We had a big pack that used to bully teams.

The individual players need to be able to do the basics well too and make an impact around the field. No point having a big hooker if he can't throw or a big prop who isn't mobile enough to make an impact.

Coughlan is good at the basics and is intelligent but overall Munster need to up the physicality so some forward changes will have to be made in the coming seasons.

durkadurka

Tomas o Leary hopes to play on Friday

sioda

durkadurka wrote: »

Tomas o Leary hopes to play on Friday

God i hope he doesnt

jolley123

He's a changed player. He's even got a Chabalesque beard going on.

Amazotheamazing

jolley123 wrote: »

He's a changed player. He's even got a Chabalesque beard going on.

Chabal is another overhyped player, so it makes sense.

sioda

Even so dont think he warrants auto selection Strings and Murray are what we need at the moment imo.

Judgement Day

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

Chabal is another overhyped player, so it makes sense.

I'm not a big Chabal fan and had him written off 2 years ago but this You Tube clip of the recent Racing Metro vs Perpignan game shows there's life in the old dog yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5luwdKWwQFA

buck65

Was the Perpignan winger trying to tickle him there? :eek:

Cpt_Blackbeard

Munster Squad for the match has been named:

O'Leary & Quinlan Named In Munster Squad.

O'Leary was set to make a return to action a fortnight ago in the A game in Moseley but was forced to withdraw with a back spasm while Quinlan's last appearance was off the bench in the game against Scarlets.

Munster: F Jones, D Barnes, K Earls, S Zebo, L Mafi, D Howlett, P Warwick, J Murphy, S Tuitupou, P Stringer, C Murray, T O'Leary, R O'Gara, M Horan, W du Preez, S Archer, J Hayes, T Buckley, D Varley, M Sherry, D O'Callaghan, M O'Driscoll, D Ryan, P O'Connell, I Nagle, T O'Donnell, D Wallace, J Coughlan, A Quinlan, N Ronan, D Leamy.

Needless to say that I'm more than disappointed with the squad. Its the same old **** of not giving the youngsters a chance in a dead rubber of a match. It was the perfect chance to give Da.Hurley and POM gametime. The team will probably look like this:

Du Preez, Varley, Hayes.
POC, Nagle.
Quinlan, Coughlan, Ronan.
TOL, ROG.
Mafi, Murphy.
Zebo, Jones, Howlett.

:mad:

thomond2006

Munster Squad:
F Jones, D Barnes, K Earls, S Zebo, L Mafi, D Howlett, J Murphy, S Tuitupou,
P Warwick, R O'Gara,
P Stringer, C Murray, T O'Leary,

D Varley, M Sherry
M Horan, W du Preez, S Archer, J Hayes, T Buckley,
D O'Callaghan, M O'Driscoll, D Ryan, P O'Connell, I Nagle,
T O'Donnell, D Wallace, J Coughlan, A Quinlan, N Ronan, D Leamy.

I'd like to see:
Horan, Sherry, Hayes, Nagle, POC, Quinlan, TOD, Coughlan;
TOL, Warwick, Murphy, Tuitupou, Barnes, Zebo, Jones

Bench: Varley, du Preez, Archer, MOD, Leamy, Murray, ROG, Earls

I'm very pissed off with the squad selection. Where are the likes of Deasy, Darragh Hurley, O'Mahony and Butler?

ormond lad

thomond2006 wrote: »

Munster Squad:
F Jones, D Barnes, K Earls, S Zebo, L Mafi, D Howlett, J Murphy, S Tuitupou,
P Warwick, R O'Gara,
P Stringer, C Murray, T O'Leary,

D Varley, M Sherry
M Horan, W du Preez, S Archer, J Hayes, T Buckley,
D O'Callaghan, M O'Driscoll, D Ryan, P O'Connell, I Nagle,
T O'Donnell, D Wallace, J Coughlan, A Quinlan, N Ronan, D Leamy.

I'd like to see:
Horan, Sherry, Hayes, Nagle, POC, Quinlan, TOD, Coughlan;
TOL, Warwick, Murphy, Tuitupou, Barnes, Zebo, Jones

Bench: Varley, du Preez, Archer, MOD, Leamy, Murray, ROG, Earls

I'm very pissed off with the squad selection. Where are the likes of Deasy, Darragh Hurley, O'Mahony and Butler?

dont know about the others but Peter O'Mahony didnt start for Con last week despite being available. From what ive heard he's a little off the pace in training after being out injured. His time will come and he stands to gain nothing being thrown into a magners league game when he's off the pace.

PhatPiggins

ormond lad wrote: »

dont know about the others but Peter O'Mahony didnt start for Con last week despite being available. From what ive heard he's a little off the pace in training after being out injured. His time will come and he stands to gain nothing being thrown into a magners league game when he's off the pace.

Less of your common sense. Sensational OMG I can't believe we didn't pick the entire A team posts only.

Robbo

Looking forward to this, I picked up the tickets yesterday, first time down to Mordor.

What's the East Terrace like? Does the puritan anti-pints policy apply there or just in the seats?

Risteard

Robbo wrote: »

Looking forward to this, I picked up the tickets yesterday, first time down to Mordor.

What's the East Terrace like? Does the puritan anti-pints policy apply there or just in the seats?

East Terrace is the good side. I'm pretty sure you can bring pints there. Seen other people with them anyway.