Munster Team Talk Thread - Beirne After Reading

What was this? I didn’t see anything, and have seen zero suggestion online of anything untoward.

Any clips of it?

A lot of bile and bitterness on the back of last night's result.

I mentioned the yellow and acknowledged I was wrong having not seen the head on head due to watching it on a mobile. And Beirne was 100% offside. He did retreat, but not far enough. The pictures and footage are pretty clear. He was offside. It’s completely okay to acknowledge that. It’s not like the result is going to be reversed or anything. And these things happen in games. There’s almost like some sort of siege mentality here with some when people aren’t gushing over Munster. It’s bizarre.

We got away with it on Saturday night, serious questions need to be asked about the kicking and the lineout... Not naming or blaming any particular player

4 games into an 18 game season, or ~20% of the season

Fair point haha

Two unused subs at the weekend (Cronin and Flannery) which is a little unusual.

I'd expect us to go close to full strength again vs Ospreys with just a few changes depending on whos fit

Ospreys likely to be missing their internationals due to the NZ game

Conor Murray should be available following the Lions tour

Big call to be made at OH,

Do you back Joey to play himself into form or do you go with Healy who impressed against a poor Scarlets side?

what about trying carbery at Fb and Healy at OH?

Watched this yesterday after hearing about the result and performance, and I didn't think Munster were as bad as was made out, especially in the first half. There were positives like Conway's break from Casey's reverse pass, Killer's break and offload and the huge overlap we engineerd that Coombes threw the forward pass from. Things just weren't quite sticking, and then deteriorated in the 2nd half. 

Some points:

1. That try. It's as poor a decision as I've seen in awhile. I remember back to the Rainbow Cup game and Conway had a disallowed try for a knock-on in the build up that didn't at all look clear and obvious to me. This was orders of magnitude worse so can understand Connacht fans frustration. 

2. Just from a technical perspective, the stills showing Beirne's position at the time the ball left Scannell's foot aren't reflective of the offside tho as Beirne retreats after. (Not nearly enough, so please don't jump down my throat, just thought this was an interesting observation). 

3. Coombes, Aki and Beirne were the stand outs for me. Carty as well played very well, and always comes across like a gent in interviews. (As an aside, loved Mike Haley's comments about Thomond as well).

4. Earls at centre just doesn't work, he's in far too much heavy traffic and has to get involved in rucks too often. Needs must, and he's game with his rucking, but you're just not getting the best out of him there.

5. Conway is beginning to gain some form, his kicking in particular was excellent yesterday. 

6. Congrats to Stephen Archer with 233 caps, becoming our 4th most capped player. He's having a good season as well. 

7. Wycherly with a game-changing cameo off the bench. He's becoming increasingly important for us; doubly so with Snyman's injury and Billy Holland's retirement. 

8. Some of Joey's kicking (the awful block-down aside) looked excellent, but he just looks shorn of confidence at the moment with everything else. I think I'd go with Healy next week. If he goes well, then Joey could need some serious improvement with any opportunities he gets with Ireland over the AI's or else he could be out of favour for the trip to SA.

I would say we have enough FBs, Haley, Gallagher, Zebo and Daly are all well capable of playing there

I'm more surprised to find out there isn't one already, to be honest.

I think it's no harm for the league to look at how they can improve officiating standards anyway, it seems to be one of the main criticisms levelled at them from every side. The South African teams have vocally been less than impressed since joining.