RD Pro12: Munster vs Scarlets, Musgrave Park Sat 17 Sep 7:45pm; Live on TG4

thomond2006

Back in March 2007, Munster fetched up at Stradey Park as Heineken Cup title holders for the quarter final to be beaten every bit as emphatically as the 24-15 final scoreline suggests.

And those who claim that you learn much, if not more about yourself in defeat than in victory will be chuffed to hear that since then Munster have won their subsequent eleven encounters with the Welsh side including back-to-back win in the Heineken the 07/08 season on their way to be crowned champions again.

Munster looked out of it at half-time that March night in Stradey as they trailed seventeen points to zip. And if they won the second half 15-7, naturally it was of no consolation, the Scarlets thru to a semi final against Leicester Tigers.

Interestingly, of the 22 players on duty that night, only five - Lifeimi Mafi, Peter Stringer, Marcus Horan, John Hayes and Mick O'Driscoll - were included in the extended squad named today after training in CIT.

Five more - Ronan O'Gara, Jerry Flannery, Donncha O'Callaghan, Denis Leamy and Donnacha Ryan - are in Auckland this afternoon preparing for the RWC game against Australia and nine players on duty that night - Christian Cullen, John Kelly, Barry Murphy, Trevor Halstead, Ian Dowling, Alan Quinlan, Frankie Sheahan, Federico Pucciariello and Anthony Foley - have retired from a profession they served so well.

Between them, Mafi, Horan, Hayes, O'Driscoll and Stringer, have amassed over 900 competitive caps. If Peter Stringer gets game time on Saturday it will mark the 220th time he has pulled on the Munster jersey.
Munster Squad (v Scarlets, Musgrave Park, Saturday, 17th September, 7.45pm).

Munster:
J Murphy, D Hurley, S Deasy, D Howlett, S Zebo,
D Barnes, L Mafi, T Gleeson
I Keatley,
D Williams, P Stringer;

D Fogarty, M Sherry, D Varley
W du Preez, BJ Botha, J Hayes, M Horan, S Archer,
D Foley, B Holland, M O'Driscoll,
T O'Donnell, P O'Mahony, N Ronan, J Coughlan.

http://www.munsterrugby.ie/news/9392.php

Nagle not back yet and Sherry returns.

I'd like to see:

du Preez, Sherry, Botha, Holland, MOD, POM, TOD, Coughlan;
Stringer, Keatley, Zebo, Mafi, Barnes, Howlett, Murphy

Bench: Varley, Horan, Hayes, Foley, Ronan, Williams, Deasy, Hurley

I think this will be a tricky game, Scarlets are a young team who are playing some good rugby. Newton at 10 looks a decent player while their backrow of McCusker, Turnbull and Morgan is very effective.

SomeFool

It will get very interesting at hooker when Flannery comes back from the WC
Can't see past a Munster win here, hopefully Foley gers some good game time.

thomond2006

Aye it will. We'll have excellent depth at hooker and scrum-half after the World Cup.

I reckon Flannery will be first choice when he comes back and it will be up to Sherry to overtake him rather than the other way round. To have a player of Varley's quality as third choice is brilliant.

phog

So Stringer will get his 220th cap for Munster, great achievement for him, still I reckon he'd prefer to be in NZ. He mentioned on the local radio recently that he doesn't intend to hand up his boots just yet.

Fla - I heard Woody recently on Newstalk and he said Fla built himself back up for the W/C and if that means that will see him end his career afterwards then he's be saying so be it, hopefully it doesn't come true but no one can question his dedication to province or country.

On the match itself, hard to call, still early days and all are using almost experimental sides during the W/C window, it would be great to get the win as that would extend our record of being undefeated in the ML/RPD12 to 13 matches. A real pity we lost our away game to Treviso last season, as it was probably a game we should have won.

thomond2006

thomond2006 wrote: »

Aye it will. We'll have excellent depth at hooker and scrum-half after the World Cup.

I reckon Flannery will be first choice when he comes back and it will be up to Sherry to overtake him rather than the other way round. To have a player of Varley's quality as third choice is brilliant.

I'm getting very excited by this Sherry lad. He's looked busy and aggressive whenever I've seen him. Would be great to have a good consistent and non-injury prone hooker playing regularly this year.

It's a position we seem to have plenty of depth in around the country, so they should be well able to spur each other on to new heights!

Cpt_Blackbeard

I would really like Foley to get the nod in the second row. He has looked good, if a little under-powered, whenever I've seen him.

PhatPiggins

Whats this? A game in Musgarave Park not involving Glasgow,Treviso,Aironi or the Dragons :eek::eek::eek::eek:

We really are being spoilt this time!!

profitius

Cpt_Blackbeard wrote: »

I would really like Foley to get the nod in the second row. He has looked good, if a little under-powered, whenever I've seen him.

Thats his problem. From what I've seen he doesn't look up to Pro12 level. Nagle looks a far better athlete than him but up until a year ago many people rated him higher so he must be some bit decent.

I'd like to see Sherry, POM, Archer, Zebo and Barnes in the side again. Every game for them is a learning curve so its a great opportunity to give them more experience.

SomeFool

PhatPiggins wrote: »

Whats this? A game in Musgarave Park not involving Glasgow,Treviso,Aironi or the Dragons :eek::eek::eek::eek:

We really are being spoilt this time!!

Thats a bit harsh, I'm fairly sure I have a programme from a Calvisano game somewhere :pac:

CIARAN_BOYLE

Has anyone seen Foley this season. Has he come on under the new strength and conditioning coach

thomond2006

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.

Barnes out with a minor hand injury, Varley is on his way to New Zealand.

Big chance for Tom Gleeson at 13 and Foley at lock.

PhatPiggins

SomeFool wrote: »

Thats a bit harsh, I'm fairly sure I have a programme from a Calvisano game somewhere :pac:

I see your Calvisano with Celtic Warriors and raise you Border Reivers

phog

Munster currently have 7 possibly 9 injuries (not sure about Nagle or Darragh Hurley and it includes Fla, poor fello ) 8 away at W/C which includes Varley leaving a squad of 29 to pick a match day sqaud of 22 + Hayes. With that in mind that's not a bad team, hopefully good enough to get the win against Scarlets but I doubt we'll be strong enough to beat Cardiff the following week-end, they seem to be on a roll at the moment.

Big chance again for Gleeson but really sorry to see Barnes picking up his injury in the early part of the season when he needed time to bed a place down.

durkadurka

Surely the Bull's last appearance at musgrave?

PhatPiggins

Hard for a guy like Gleeson who trains all season and gets 2 meaningful starts, hope he has a good hit out but I think Barnes is already twice the player and has the potential for even more.

Haven't seen Foley play at senior level, good luck to him. If nothing else the WC is great for developing the players left at home.

thomond2006

Scarlets team against Munster, Saturday 17th September 7.45pm kick off Musgrave Park:

15 Dale Ford, 14 Lee Williams, 13 Rhodri Gomer Davies 12 Gareth Maule, 11 Andy Fenby, 10 Dan Newton, 9 Ruki Tipuna, 1 Iestyn Thomas (capt), 2 Kirby Myhill, 3 Rhys Thomas, 4 Lou Reed, 5 Dominic Day, 6 Rob McCusker, 7 Josh Turnbull, 8 Ben Morgan.

Replacements: Emyr Phillips, Phil John, Rhodri Jones, Aaron Shingler, Johnathan Edwards, Gareth Davies, Aled Thomas, Lee Rees.

Debut at fullback for 19 year old Dale Ford. Scarlets are really churning out the youngsters.

CIARAN_BOYLE

Score is Munster 8-3 up with a conversion to come

good man Dougie

edit conversion made thought it was going wide but it came around well

Samich

That was like the famous Dan Carter conversion there.

CIARAN_BOYLE

10-6 now

Otacon

Any streams?

CIARAN_BOYLE

anseo
http://www.tg4.tv/

Otacon

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

anseo
http://www.tg4.tv/

Cheers but that isn't available to us expats

CIARAN_BOYLE

penalty try 18-6 conversion has to be a cert 20-6

Burgo

20-6 now, munster scrum dominating

CIARAN_BOYLE

http://www.justin.tv/twomintpork1#/w/1782973648

expat friendly stream

Otacon

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

http://www.justin.tv/twomintpork1#/w/1782973648

expat friendly stream

Legend. Thanks.

budhabob

POM really needs to mature, especially if he's being picked as captain. It's not the first time I've seen him get on the bad side of a ref with his remarks.

irishbucsfan

Does POM look a bit undersized to anyone else?

I always thought he was bigger.

CIARAN_BOYLE

Duncan Williams try 28-12 move from the back of a maul conversion to come and just one more try for the bonus

budhabob

Great try by TOD...dunno why he doesn't start. I've always been impressed by him when I see him.

CIARAN_BOYLE

TOD try. Bonus point for Munster as scarlets are put to the sword

Munster lead 35-12

Judgement Day

Great try from O'Donnell. It's not Scarlets night is it.
Dougie's try was worth watching the game for alone. Good performance by everybody in ****ty conditions. Mick O'Driscoll, Keatley and Peter Stringer and his velcro passes.

CIARAN_BOYLE

budhabob wrote: »

Great try by TOD...dunno why he doesn't start. I've always been impressed by him when I see him.

Apparently Deccie has put the fix in that Ronan starts at 7 because he is in line for a RWC callup in case Jennings is injured and 7 is TOD's best spot

At least thats the story according to munsterfans site

Horan Hayes MOD and Stringer are supposedly also Kidney selections

budhabob

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

Apparently Deccie has put the fix in that Ronan starts at 7 because he is in line for a RWC callup in case Jennings is injured and 7 is TOD's best spot

At least thats the story according to munsterfans site

Horan Hayes MOD and Stringer are supposedly also Kidney selections

ah right,suppose that makes sense. Hopefully after the world cup he can get more game time.

Good result anyway, on what looked a horrible night.

Fireball07

Very good performance from Munster in bad conditions though Scarlets were pretty poor.

Munster completely dominated the scrum- it was pretty impressive. The tries were all very good too, TOD's was brilliant.

phog

Great result against what I thought was a fairly promising side. 4 try BP for the 1st time this season, though we waited a long time from out 2nd try to our 3rd one and in that period we kind of let Scarlets back into the game, though they missed a shot a goal thast would have brought them to within 5 points of us. The 2nd half tourned into an awful wet and wind half and playing rugby becasme a lottery.

Both sides kicked a lot of ball, Munster probably even kicked more but I suppose as they being in our H/C group both side were holding something back.

Our scrum seemed king and for a finish they would play the advantgae for a Munster knockon rather than take the scrum.

Dave Foley looks like he needs to bulkup but had a decent enough game and did well in the lineouts and resulting mauls, think he may have been partially responsible for the time we were held up when we mauled over the the try line.

TOD looked hungry for ball when he came on for Ronan who had a good game and I thought Gleeson did well with one exception, knocking on the ball and we in their red zone.

Keatley did well with ball in hand and his kicking, I think he missed 2 kicks to touch from penalties and a conversion but overall a promising player.

Overall, a piss poor game, hampered by a wet ball, too many scrums, resets and ball being kicked when running might have made the game more enjoyable.

thomond2006

Great result. Bonus point in the bag and no tries conceded in 3 games is very good indeed!

phog

Munster V Scarlets in pics.

phog

The game is up on TG4 Player

1st Half


2nd Half

CatFromHue

phog wrote: »

The game is up on TG4 Player

1st Half


2nd Half

no rugby on tonight so might watch it

phog wrote: »

Overall, a piss poor game, hampered by a wet ball, too many scrums, resets and ball being kicked when running might have made the game more enjoyable.

or maybe not

:pac:

phog

CatFromHue wrote: »

no rugby on tonight so might watch it



or maybe not

:pac:

For the purists I wouldnt recomend it, for the fan I would

Skip forward to 23.20 to see Stringer's inch perfect kick to touch then the eventual turn over that lead to Howlett's try.

Amazotheamazing

Thought TOD was good when he came on, would be great to see him start next week. He showed a lot of strength for his try too.

phog

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

Thought TOD was good when he came on, would be great to see him start next week. He showed a lot of strength for his try too.

He certainly made it look easy but the try was made by Zebo, he was dancing through the Scarlets for fun, then quick ball to the other side of the field lead to TOD getting his try.