Following on from here
New Munster chat thread folks. warning deserved there. https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=109477571#post109477571
Separately, have heard it rumoured that James French is signing for Ulster post his stint in Australia.
The thing I can't understand is they gave him a 1 year contract which obviously suggests a level of not being sure about him, he did little or nothing in that year, and they responded by giving him... another 2 year contract? Just doesn't make sense.
He simply hasn't featured this season - 5 appearances, 1 try in a blow out win against Ospreys.
He’s had injury issues this season. Daly and Nash have pushed passed him since. That’s how it’s supposed to work.
I thought he was retiring this year....something about the tax break on what he earned at Racing
Quins didnt give a good account of themselves. They were beaten up and down the pitch for 77 minutes before the stormers took pity on them and stopped beating them up and down the pitch at which point quins made the scoreboard appear like it was a close game
He’s signed up until the end of next season.
I expect he would want to keep playing rugby in Ireland as long as he can keep getting a contract. Not sure he’ll have much of a career as a TV personality so being paid to play rugby is as good as it will be for a while unless he gets lucky with a business venture I’d imagine.
Found the info here:
You must have permanently finished or retired from that profession. You may continue to participate in the sport on an amateur or unpaid basis.
At the time of retirement, you must be resident in one of the following locations:
You may claim a deduction of 40% of certain income (applies to your earnings directly from participation in the sport only, such as wages or prize money) arising in any 10 of the following years:
You must make your claim within four years from the end of the year in which you retire.
Id say hed be as good a candidate of anyone to have a decent career as a pundit tbh
He can retire whenever he wants and claim the tax back, but only on his Irish earnings.
I can easily see it too. He's got a personality and isn't shy of a different take.
He could eek out a good niche being a bit of a devils advocate punter. While they're not always popular, they get the chatter going.
The Indo reporting that Sean O'Brien playing with Exeter might be signed. https://m.independent.ie/sport/rugby/munster-rugby/munster-line-up-exeter-centre-sean-obrien-as-graham-rowntree-sets-sights-on-stormers-42429669.html
Good signing I think. He's a handy player, who's looked good for them.
Called it here 6 days ago:
Dylan Hicks had a great game in the U18 Men's Festival match against Wales earlier today:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnrZSD6I2UA
Posted this in the Connacht thread, but curious to get Munster fan's views: What would you think are the prospects of Conor Fitzgerald being signed by Munster as a third choice OH option?
I think he's a decent, serviceable player at a URC level. Comparison I made was to Jake Flannery - I think Fitzgerald has shown a lot more and isn't materially older.
I think the biggest thing for munster is to get a non Irish 10 hooker& tight head of a high standard asap
As a club we are not big enough to have a second string team that would compete/beat most teams when the international camps &tests are in progress.
Long term the director of rugby role should be to ensure a smooth transition of players& coaches over a7 -10 year period
Certainly a player to make an offer for.
I'm not sure if he is a player that would necessarily accept an offer of the scale that Munster can offer a 3rd choice given that he is someone with 60+ professional caps.
I'd be very happy with it tbh; he'd presumably cost more than Jake Flannery, but there may be cause for that if Crowley and Carbery are likely to be involved with Ireland.
Covers 15 too, tho Haley is pretty robust injury-wise and Shane Daly is a more than capable back-up (his first call into the Ireland squad was after a number of assured performances there).
They’re not going to get the budget to bring in a “high standard” NIQ player in three of the most expensive positions to recruit rugby players, and nor should they.
They’ve been allowed to sign an NIQ centre and already have an NIQ second row who is probably the most expensive player in Irish rugby.
I think they’ll likely get the budget to bring in one NIQ player in the front row.
they wont be bringing in a 10 that cant play for ireland regardless of budget, id think the same for hooker tbh but that might be slightly more likely.
But Nankivell is likely to be on significantly less than DDA and Fekitoa were.
We have the lowest number of NIQ players of any Province. We clearly have scope.
If you bring in 2 or 3, you would have the most.
Ah ya, crossed-purposes; I’m not arguing we should be allowed 3 more in those positions mentioned, but we clearly have scope for 1 more.
It won’t be at TH with Ryan coming back, but I’d love to see it in one of the other front-row positions.
(Fwiw, if we brought in 2, we’d still be level with Ulster).
RG's deal runs until June '24 so there's two (RG, Nankivell) already on the books for next season.
I'm not following your logic.
"There's space in the suitcase for more stuff"
"Yes, but if you put stuff in the suitcase, you will have used more space"....
It needs to be a TH though or failing that a big ball carrying hooker. That’s consistently Munsters weakness in the business end of things.
It is but I also think it’s extremely unlikely to be a TH, imo.
Archer is signed on for 1 more season, John Ryan is coming back and we have Salanoa and Knox too.
Any more would probably be too many in a position we don’t really have any international involvement.
Ya, that’s what I meant; we only have 2, so the lowest number of NIQ’s of any province.
Given Ireland's options at hooker I'd say its one of the positions they could actually bring in a NIQ
its more likely than 10 but id still think it more likely that someone gets moved from another province (leinster lets be honest) rather than importing a foreign player. maybe if it were someone world class like marx as working with a player like that could help younger hookers, but i would still be very surprised
Yeah, I’m not saying they shouldn’t be allowed bring in any, and as others have mentioned I think a hooker is feasible given Ireland have four good options there and it’s an obvious position of weakness for Munster.
I just meant you won’t get the budget to bring in 3 in those positions (alongside Snyman and Nankivell).
Pretty sure both Snyman and Nankivell are privately financed, not paid for by the IRFU.
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