Pro12: Munster vs Cardiff Blues, Fri 24 Feb 7:05pm; Live on RTÉ

thomond2006

The Munster squad to face Cardiff Blues in the RaboDirect PRO 12 fixture in Thomond Park on Friday has been named.

Paul O’Connell , Donncha O’Callaghan, Conor Murray, Keith Earls, Donncha Ryan, Peter O’Mahony, Ronan O’Gara and Denis Hurley will not feature in the squad due to international commitments in the upcoming 6 Nations fixture against Italy.

Munster Squad:
Marcus Horan, Wian du Preez, John Ryan, Stephen Archer, BJ Botha,
Damien Varley, Denis Fogarty, Sean Henry,
Mick O’Driscoll, Billy Holland, Dave Foley, Ian Nagle,
Dave O’Callaghan, Tommy O’Donnell, Paddy Butler, James Coughlan,

Tomas O’Leary, Duncan Williams, Cathal Sheridan,
Ian Keatley, Scott Deasy,
Lifeimi Mafi, Danny Barnes,
Sean Scanlon, Luke O’Dea, Simon Zebo, Johne Murphy, Felix Jones.

Not available due to injury (9):
David Wallace (knee), Jerry Flannery (calf), Darragh Hurley (back), Tom Gleeson (shoulder), Doug Howlett (achilles), Denis Leamy (hip), Niall Ronan (knee), Mike Sherry (thumb).

http://www.munsterrugby.ie/news/10148.php

Sherry injured again, I hope it's not serious.

I don't get why Ireland would require Hurley, surely Dave Kearney would be the 23rd man given he was on the bench ahead of Hurley for the Wales game?

I'd like to see:
du Preez, Varley, Archer, MOD, Nagle, DOC2.0, TOD, Coughlan;
TOL, Keatley, Zebo, Mafi, Barnes, O'Dea, Jones

Bench: Henry, Ryan, Botha, Holland, Butler, Williams, Deasy, Murphy

I really hope Nagle and O'Dea get starts. Archer needs pitch time too.

Roomic Cube

Archer would get a run out I imagine, should be an interesting enough game since the International heavyweights will be gone!

Rattlehead_ie

This will be my 1st game in Thomond..... the stadium not the thread starter
Making a long weekend of it. Staying Friday and Saturday to watch the Irish game and then the English one. Looking forward to it. Would have been good to see Hurley there. Hopefully we can put Cardiff away, but it will be tough.

CIARAN_BOYLE

Players not named in the squad could be released at the last minute. A few weeks ago they got Ruddock and Kearney back on the day before the match and even though they were previously unavailable they joined the 23 for the game

phog

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

Players not named in the squad could be released at the last minute. A few weeks ago they got Ruddock and Kearney back on the day before the match and even though they were previously unavailable they joined the 23 for the game

I doubt that the players will be released in time as our game is on Friday night, better chance if the the 6Ns game was before ours.

@Thomond, there's only 8 players listed as injured, I know you copied from MR but any idea who the 9th player is? Troy Smith injured

CatFromHue

The Leinster guys were released for the Thursday Treviso game so should be time for them to make the Friday game if required.

profitius

Here would be my team. Give Coughlan, Botha, Mafi and Varley a rest. Let DOC2 continue in the 6 jersey and team Nagle up with MOD, youth and experience. I'd have Deasy at 15 to give him some playing time and Jones might be better off with a few sub roles to get back into the swing of things.

It shows the depth of the Munster squad when you have about 16 players missing and can still field a team like that.

du Preez, Henry, Archer,
MOD, Nagle,
DOC2.0, TOD, Butler;
TOL, Keatley,
Zebo, Barnes, Murphy, O'Dea,
Deasy

Bench: Varley, Ryan, Botha, Holland, Coughlan, Williams, Jones, Mafi

ceegee

Quick question (sorry if its the wrong thread to ask in)

I bought a pair of the 3 match tickets (cardiff/leinster/ulster) that Munster were selling but cant go to this match - can someone else collect the ticket if they have my credit card or will I need to contact the ticket office about changing the name on the ticket??

cheers

phog

ceegee wrote: »

Quick question (sorry if its the wrong thread to ask in)

I bought a pair of the 3 match tickets (cardiff/leinster/ulster) that Munster were selling but cant go to this match - can someone else collect the ticket if they have my credit card or will I need to contact the ticket office about changing the name on the ticket??

cheers

Was it the ticketoffice or ticketmaster? Ticketmaster are awful to deal with, ring the ticketoffice and I'm sure you'll be able to get the tickets collected for you.

ceegee

phog wrote: »

Was it the ticketoffice or ticketmaster? Ticketmaster are awful to deal with, ring the ticketoffice and I'm sure you'll be able to get the tickets collected for you.

Bought them on the Munster website, will give them a ring tomorrow

Fireball07

Slightly surprising Hurley isn't released but I suppose it means Jones will come straight in at full-back which will be good to see. A back 3 of Zebo-O'Dea-Jones could be really exciting.

I'd pick the same team as thomond except maybe have Butler ahead of Coughlan. I know we all want Nagle to play but I think it will be Billy Holland. Surprise me, McGahan.

Fishooks12

Word on the grapevine is that Butlers not happy with the game time he's getting so it'll be interesting to see if he starts

GerM

Fishooks12 wrote: »

Word on the grapevine is that Butlers not happy with the game time he's getting so it'll be interesting to see if he starts

In fairness, Coughlan is a great pro but he's never going to be top class and will be winding down soon. The No. 8 jersey is there for the taking. If Butler can put in a couple of big performances when he does get his chances, he'll be well positioned to get some serious game time next year. Unhappy or not, he should keep his head down and earn his shot. He's only turned 21; time is completely on his side.

Rattlehead_ie

slightly off topic guys, but seeing as Im down in Limerick for this, the next day, where is decent to watch all the 6Ns games?

totallegend

Fishooks12 wrote: »

Word on the grapevine is that Butlers not happy with the game time he's getting so it'll be interesting to see if he starts

He might not be happy, but what is he going to do about it?

ormond lad

Rattlehead_ie wrote: »

slightly off topic guys, but seeing as Im down in Limerick for this, the next day, where is decent to watch all the 6Ns games?

Claws place the SinBin is on the river but id recommend The Office Bar which is on Carr street and is owned by the father of ex munster player colm mc mahon

phog

Rattlehead_ie wrote: »

slightly off topic guys, but seeing as Im down in Limerick for this, the next day, where is decent to watch all the 6Ns games?

Any of these and in no order of choice - I probably go to Breen's if it was me.

Fla's on Catherine St
Flannery's or Myles Breen's on Shannon St
Dolan's out the Dock Rd
SinBin on Howley's Quay
The Office Bar on Carr St, near the market, maybe not great on market day.
Willie Sexton's on Henry St (up past the garda station)

Mr.Applepie

Fishooks12 wrote: »

Word on the grapevine is that Butlers not happy with the game time he's getting so it'll be interesting to see if he starts

Isn't he the same player that kicked up a fuss until he got a full contract instead of an academy one?

profitius

Fishooks12 wrote: »

Word on the grapevine is that Butlers not happy with the game time he's getting so it'll be interesting to see if he starts

On the one hand he sounds like a bit of a pain in the arse. On the other hand he is a good player and sounds confident and he is not willing to sit on his arse on the bench for half of his career waiting for players to retire, like certain other players.

leftleg

profitius wrote: »

On the one hand he sounds like a bit of a pain in the arse. On the other hand he is a good player and sounds confident and he is not willing to sit on his arse on the bench for half of his career waiting for players to retire, like certain other players.

Or get injured

thomond2006

Munster:
F Jones; J Murphy, D Barnes, L Mafi, S Zebo; I Keatley, T O’Leary;
M Horan, D Varley, BJ Botha; B Holland, M O’Driscoll capt; Dave O’Callaghan, T O’Donnell, J Coughlan.

Replacements: D Fogarty, W du Preez, S Archer, D Foley, P Butler, D Williams, S Deasy, L O’Dea.

No real surprises, Nagle should pack his bags and head away though.

Cardiff Blues:
15 Chris Czekaj 14 Richard Mustoe 13 Gavin Evans 12 Gavin Henson 11 Tom James 10 Dan Parks 9 Richie Rees
8 Maama Molitika 7 Martyn Williams 6 Michael Paterson 5 Paul Tito (c) 4 Cory Hill 3 Scott Andrews 2 Ryan Tyrell 1 John Yapp

Bench: 16 T Rhys Thomas 17 Nathan Trevett 18 Sam Hobbs 19 Macauley Cook 20 Thomas Young 21 Lewis Jones 22 Ceri Sweeney 23 Ben Blair

Not available due to injury:

Xavier Rush - illness
Casey Laulala - hamstring
Fau Filise - shoulder
Dafydd Hewitt - hamstring
James Down - ankle
Andries Pretorius - knee
Deiniol Jones - shoulders

It's a shame we won't see Laulala. Although Henson might make up for that! :pac:

Fireball07

Murphy ahead of O'Dea is a disappointment. And McGahan must really not like Nagle, even though Foley has looked good in his few appearances too.

profitius

Maybe Nagle is injured?? To be honest I have actually seen very little of Nagle play so I don't even know how good he is. Maybe he was hyped up too soon?? He really should have moved away for a few seasons, even on loan. Billy Holland will do a decent job but you'd have to wonder why Munster "need" all this secondrows.

I'm happy with the backrow. TOD actually looks like a decent player the last few times I've seen him. With D Wallace, Ronan and now possibly POM ahead of him he might also be better off leaving. Hes about 25 years old now? I really think its a waste of resources having players hang around until their mid 20's. A season loan to Connacht could be the making of TOD.

Good to see DOC2 getting another start. He played well last week and deserves to keep his place. I'd like to compare himself and Ruddock in the next few seasons just to see how wise the attempted signing of Ruddock was.

Disappointed LOD isn't starting but at least he'll get some time on the pitch. Johne Murphy might need the game to keep up his match sharpness which is fair enough if they see JM as being ahead of LOD in terms of selection for the rest of the season.

Horan is in the same boat as Johne Murphy. I'd have liked to see John Ryan/Kilcoyne there but Horan might need the games. I'd prefer to see Munster play Botha less because theres less chance of an injury, although he has had a good injury free run lately.

Big game for Keatley. He is Mr Inconsistent but to be fair he needs a run of games too. At the start of the season he played some very good games.

CIARAN_BOYLE

profitius wrote: »

Maybe Nagle is injured?? To be honest I have actually seen very little of Nagle play so I don't even know how good he is. Maybe he was hyped up too soon?? He really should have moved away for a few seasons, even on loan. Billy Holland will do a decent job but you'd have to wonder why Munster "need" all this secondrows.

POC DOC Donnacha Ryan MOD Holland Nagle Foley
O'Flaherty, DOC2.0, Hayes and Buckley

There is seven in the squad, four in the academy, thats eleven overall. That said one is likely to retire at the end of the season (MOD) and three which you expect (given Kidney as manager) will be in the Irish 22 (POC, DRyan, DOC). Then DOC2.0 Holland and Donnacha Ryan get time at 6 as well and Hayes Buckley and O'Flaherty aren't considered ready yet at all.

Still a few too many imo but its understandable. I would prefer to find a loan home for either Foley or Nagle to get them more game time but other than that the numbers might be right.

totallegend

profitius wrote: »

Maybe Nagle is injured?? To be honest I have actually seen very little of Nagle play so I don't even know how good he is. Maybe he was hyped up too soon?? He really should have moved away for a few seasons, even on loan. Billy Holland will do a decent job but you'd have to wonder why Munster "need" all this secondrows.

For me, this is the only conclusion. Fair enough he had a good outing against Australia but there's been little enough evidence of anything special since then. I know he's had injuries and he's competing with POC, Ryan and DOC, but to not even make the bench when they're away is not a ringing endorsement.

That's a strong Cardiff team considering the injuries they have and the 6N is on.

Moflojo

Would like to see Duncan Williams getting more game time now that O'Leary's future with the province is uncertain. I was impressed with Williams when he came on last week. He added a lot of zip from the breakdown and I couldn't believe how brave he is around the ruck! He was acting like a frontrow forward at some of the rucks! Hopefully he'll get at least 30 minutes on Friday night.

CatFromHue

The result of this game has some important bearing on the top 4. Munster are third and Cardiff are fifth. If Munster win it'll put a good bit of distance between the two team, (pretty much 8 points) so could not necessarily cement a top 4 finish but certainly gives them a lot more safety.

profitius

CatFromHue wrote: »

The result of this game has some important bearing on the top 4. Munster are third and Cardiff are fifth. If Munster win it'll put a good bit of distance between the two team, (pretty much 8 points) so could not necessarily cement a top 4 finish but certainly gives them a lot more safety.

Lets hope Ulster beat the Ospreys too. Every point counts now for that home semi final.

buck65

I think Nagle is only back from injury that has kept him out for the past few games. I would imagine he would start if fully match fit.
Don't get the knickers in a twist.

Fishooks12

Played a lot of rugby with Paddy down through the years and I can say he's not one to act the Diva so I reckon he's just looking for a bit for game-time

phog

thomond2006 wrote: »

Cardiff Blues:
15 Chris Czekaj 14 Richard Mustoe 13 Gavin Evans 12 Gavin Henson 11 Tom James 10 Dan Parks 9 Richie Rees
8 Maama Molitika 7 Martyn Williams 6 Michael Paterson 5 Paul Tito (c) 4 Cory Hill 3 Scott Andrews 2 Ryan Tyrell 1 John Yapp

Bench: 16 T Rhys Thomas 17 Nathan Trevett 18 Sam Hobbs 19 Macauley Cook 20 Thomas Young 21 Lewis Jones 22 Ceri Sweeney 23 Ben Blair

Not available due to injury:

Xavier Rush - illness
Casey Laulala - hamstring
Fau Filise - shoulder
Dafydd Hewitt - hamstring
James Down - ankle
Andries Pretorius - knee
Deiniol Jones - shoulders

It's a shame we won't see Laulala. Although Henson might make up for that! :pac:

Henson is probably worth the ticket price alone but my favourite non Munster player is without doubt Martyn Williams, I've huge regard for him and really felt his pain when he missed that penalty kick to lose out in progressing to the H/C final in 2009. Delighted to see him back in TP.

I'd liked to have seen Pretorius and Laulala too. Both teams are missing a lot of their first 15 and if Cardiff's backs get decent ball they could cut through us, Molitika, Williams and Paul Tito could be disruptive at the breakdown but I hope we should have enough firepower to get a win. We've won our last couple of games against them but last time around I think we were very lucky to get the win, iirc they owned the ball.

Looking forward to being back at live rugby and especailly in TP.

PhatPiggins

phog wrote: »

Henson is probably worth the ticket price alone but my favourite non Munster player is without doubt Martyn Williams, I've huge regard for him and really felt his pain when he missed that penalty kick to lose out in progressing to the H/C final in 2009. Delighted to see him back in TP.

I'd liked to have seen Pretorius and Laulala too. Both teams are missing a lot of their first 15 and if Cardiff's backs get decent ball they could cut through us, Molitika, Williams and Paul Tito could be disruptive at the breakdown but I hope we should have enough firepower to get a win. We've won our last couple of games against them but last time around I think we were very lucky to get the win, iirc they owned the ball.

Looking forward to being back at live rugby and especailly in TP.

We were haunted in that one. Cardiff had 70% possesion in the last quarter, pounded our line for the last ten and some donkey threw a forward pass to the unmarked winger so winning try was ruled out. Thems the breaks

leftleg

thomond2006 wrote: »

Cardiff Blues:
15 Chris Czekaj 14 Richard Mustoe 13 Gavin Evans 12 Gavin Henson 11 Tom James 10 Dan Parks 9 Richie Rees
8 Maama Molitika 7 Martyn Williams 6 Michael Paterson 5 Paul Tito (c) 4 Cory Hill 3 Scott Andrews 2 Ryan Tyrell 1 John Yapp

Bench: 16 T Rhys Thomas 17 Nathan Trevett 18 Sam Hobbs 19 Macauley Cook 20 Thomas Young 21 Lewis Jones 22 Ceri Sweeney 23 Ben Blair

Look at the age of that backrow; Molitika is 38 and Williams is 37; jeez not bad for auld codgers; fair play for still going strong at that age; pure professionals

Fireball07

Cardiff 3-0 up early on, scrum went down. I think Archer collapsed it.

ed7890

Fireball07 wrote: »

Cardiff 3-0 up early on, scrum went down. I think Archer collapsed it.

Archer is not even on

Botha and Horan are the props tonight

Fireball07

ed7890 wrote: »

Archer is not even on

Botha and Horan are the props tonight

Oh Botha so. My mistake, I was only half-watching and with muted volume, and someone told me earlier he was playing. Sorry about that


EDIT: Really really strong scrum from Munster there. And what a try!!!!

ed7890

Fireball07 wrote: »

Oh Botha so. My mistake, I was only half-watching and with muted volume, and someone told me earlier he was playing. Sorry about that

I'll let ya away with it this time :P

Savage scrum that time, really drove em back

durkadurka

Brilliant zebo

justsomebloke

Great try

thomond2006

Great try!!

Taco Corp

Cracking try from Jones made by MOD and Zebo

Fireball07

What a line from Zebo, that was pure class. Great for Jones to get the try.

ed7890

Savage try, break from Zebo, lays it off to Jones for the run in

Fireball07

Cardiff had a lineout inside their own 22, Munster now have a free-kick, taking the scrum. Great opporunity.

And it's a penalty.

durkadurka

Cardiff are a mess

ed7890

Savage night for keatley so far, 4 from 4 and good game management

thomond2006

Great start by Munster.

Fireball07

16-3, Keatley kicking very nicely so far. No really tough ones but all straight down the middle. Kicking out of hand looks very good too.

Coughlan and Barnes have been impressive so far.

thomond2006

Gorgeous kick into the corner by Keatley, he's having an all round great game so far.

Fireball07

Wow, what a kick from Keatley. He's obviously been listening to ROG, that was like watching ROG.

Hope we get a 2nd try before half-time, they're not great at all. Good play by Zebo to rob them at the breakdown when they did get close.

Fireball07

The whole ground lights up when Zebo gets the ball, he was a bit unlucky there. Maybe we're a bit sloppy when we get into the 22. Still been impressive though.