Following on from here
New Munster chat thread folks. warning deserved there. https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=109477571#post109477571
Have to say I'd have kept Fekitoa either at 12 or on the bench.
If Earls and Murray are fit but just excluded, that would be a massive call, Murray particularly. Good to see Salanoa get the start.
Munster to get a BP win.
Lots of guys reward for their form their; Patterson is the obvious one, XCrowley also, but Salanoa too.
No Earls, injured? Or just more picking guys on form?
Strong team. Murray went from starting against SA in November to not making the bench. Wonder will he make Irish squad at this rate.
a team selected on form??
i still fancy munster for a 5 pointer here.
northampton are a very poor travelling team; 0 for 7 this season
Team is in. No Murray on the squad. Fekitoa and Healy also out.
Munster: Mike Haley; Calvin Nash, Antoine Frisch, Jack Crowley, Shane Daly; Joey Carbery, Craig Casey; Dave Kilcoyne, Niall Scannell, Roman Salanoa; Jean Kleyn, Tadhg Beirne; Jack O’Donoghue, Peter O’Mahony (C), Gavin Coombes.
Replacements: Scott Buckley, Josh Wycherley, John Ryan, John Hodnett, Alex Kendellen, Paddy Patterson, Rory Scannell, Liam Coombes.
I mentioned it on the U20s thread, but I went to see the game last Friday between Ireland U20s and Leinster Development - and despite a number of good performances from some really promising players, I thought Ruadhan Quinn was probably the most promising player on the field.
The comparison I used in terms of style and power mismatch was Sean O'Brien. He also looks to be a good footballer, with good handling and passing ability, and I liked that he seems to have a good level of aggression and fire about him too.
Really promising player in my opinion, and really looking forward to seeing him for the Irish 20s this year.
Exactly ya, a large part of the reason for his appearance was because of the injury list at the time. He was Munster's youngest ever player in the pro era when he came on. Seem well able tho.
It's a smart way to use a teenager in adult rugby, I suspect he will do a lot of hard carrying closer to the ruck for the 20s as he should be physically dominant at that level, we shall see.
Hes 24 at this stage with some extremely talented young back rows coming through itl be tough for him. I dont tmrecall him being a prospect like kendellan/hodnett/quinn but we will see
Jack O'Sullivan has had a bad run of injury, but he had huge potential at U20's, he has shown flashes of it at senior level but injuries have robbed him of the opportunity to demonstrate what he can do. It remains to be seen if he might find that form again.
Od think their a level below the others as prospects. Maby not lower than okeke but he may be the best carrier of the lot
Add to that depth, Jack O'Sullivan 6,7,8 and Jack Daly 6,7.
I'd also add a list for 5.5, i.e. lock/blind-side flanker, so I'd say Fineen Wycherley, Cian Hurley would both fall under that heading.
Hes a bigger guy already which will help. Hodnett was a great 8 at 20s but is a bit small for it at senior level. Having said that i thought kendellan was similar but hes played a bit of 8 at senior already
From the small amount I’ve seen of Quinn, he seems to carry in similar channels to Hodnett. Obviously, fairly small sample.
Not sure to many of thr young back rows will be tied down to one spot,
Kendellan 6,7,8
Hodnett 6,7
Quinn 6,8
Okeke seems loke an out and out 8 and iv been told edogbos younger brother is but haven't seen him play
Thanks
Played 8 at age grade but that wouldnt necessariy mean much. put your best option at 8 at age grade even if it wont be there position later. hard to say about his position when you consider other options Munster have. Will likely move between 6/8 a lot
What position will Ruadhan Quinn end up playing? I think I read he played 8 in schools and I believe he has come on at flanker for Munster. Seems to have serious weight/condition for someone so young.
I'd presume RTE will have one game per round and will be following Leinster in the Knockouts. They will probably have access to the final as well no matter who is in it
Also Gloucester V Leinster is on ITV on Saturday for anybody interested
RTE has one match each weekend of the HCC pool games and as Munster & Leinster play at home in alternative weekends they'll show the Munster & Leinster home matches.
I'm not sure what happens once we go into knockout rugby
Cheers, hadn't copped that. Set to record now.
I don’t know what injuries they have within their squad, but aside from the Benetton players in the national squad, they still have a decent team, some foreign players in key positions and a few names that I recognise so may be former internationals. I must look up their team that beat Ulster and see how many of them would be available.
We’ll be missing a few too of course.
First choice Italy players won't be released back to them. And the camp is 6 days long ending the day before the match, so any players who might be released wont be able to train with Benetton the week of the match.
Benetton being at home, and the training base being a little over an hour away might mean less disruption perhaps, but I don’t know.
"The squad are set to meet for a camp in Verona between January 22-27..."
Benetton will surely be missing a lot of players if they will be in camp all week leading up to our next URC match with them on the 28th.
I make out the following is the list of Benetton players in the Italian squad for the 2023 Six Nations:
Forwards: Simone Ferrari, Federico Zani, Giacomo Nicotera, Niccolò Cannone, Federico Ruzza, Lorenzo Cannone, Michele Lamaro, Sebastian Negri, Giovanni Pettinelli, Manuel Zuliani.
Backs: Alessandro Garbisi, Giacomo Da Re, Juan Ignacio Brex, Tommaso Menoncello, Matteo Minozzi, Edoardo Padovani.
Sure, why not, take it away Michael:
And did it again the following week over in Castres as well too!
Never get tired of hearing it 😅
Munster v Northampton at Thomond Park, seems only good and proper to post this, complete with Michael Corcoran's 100,000 phases.
I don't necessarily have a problem with him asking the question in the context of a 2 hour interview - largely for the reasons @Buer articulated above (Steve Thompson etc).
But he has to recognise that Rowntree is well within his rights to not have any interest in discussing it.
I think what he's done wrong in this instance, is include the excerpt in the published piece. In fact, of the whole 2 hour time they spoke, this 5-10 min snapshot has become the only piece getting discussed since.
I don't think it's beyond the realms of possibility that Kimmage secured this interview under false pretexts, and that the real target of the piece was to get some controversial comments (either way, anything GR said on this would have been a headline for Kimmage) and spin that. And to me, that's shoddy journalism.
I think he's attempting to do what he's done successfully in the past of making it appear that once again here's crusading Paul Kimmage trying to get to the truth, and the rugby old boy's network are out there being defensive and practicing the culture of omerta again, which, I think is bullshit.
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