Munster Team Talk Thread - Beirne After Reading

there were a few times were i thought both of the munster 8s werent controlling the ball at the base at all, even allowing for a retreating scrum. JOD had a bizarre brain fart with trying to slap the ball back in at one stage as well despite it being a munster lineout

Munster have shown that they can beat line speed defence, by getting the ball wide quick. Conditions and a creaky scrum didn't allow that.

Anyone know if any of the short-term/long term injuries are back for this weekend ?

assuming Edogbo, Snyman are out for a while and Beirne and Murray are back in the squad

any one/two/three of POM, Klyne, F. Wycherly, Carberry, Campbell, Salanoa, Scannell, Haley, would be handy to have.

any updates on Kilcoyne and Barron injuries ?

cant keep flogging the same horses so maybe a team like this for Connacht

1. Loughman
2. Clarke
3. Jager
4. Coombes
5. O’Connell
6. ?
7. Kendellan
8. JOD
9. Patterson
10. Butler
11. Daly
12. Scannell
13. Frisch
14. Nash
15. Zebo.

Don’t worry, you will learn to love Rassieball, as its ultimately successful (once you have the right players, hence, expect more big cattle to arrive to leinster next season)

Now, can we get back to taking about Munster on the Munster thread.

Strange game the other night, at one stage it looked like Leinster were going to Pummell Munster and run up a score, and then Leinster seemed to run out of ideas, and Munster battled back after the initial 3 injuries to an already disrupted team.

Fair dues to the squad for sticking with it. Being able to bring on Sheehan and Baird made the difference and Leinster held on for the win. Hopefully we have a squad to go play Connacht as we are having to flog the same player each week without a break.

I was surprised that Munster didn't adjust though a bit more. Drill the ball into the corners, using the conditions. They kicked a bit but it was largely hoisted kicks that had no pressure on the receiver and caught easily enough.

Strangely, they did this in one of the very first attacking drives (which would have been against the wind), and the leftward hop of a ball turned a 50-22 into a Leinster scrum at halfway. Never seemed to go back to it. Perhaps Leinster made an adjustment themselves when they saw how much space they had left.

That's not true tho. Off the top of my head I can think of the try, Nash's entry into the 22 and the Conor Murray break, which came from a lovely bit of play to get beyond the edge of the rush.

But the bigger issue that day was scoring from the 22. We had 189 passes which is much more typical of Munster under Prendergast.

This time we had 77 passes. In large part because of the conditions. We couldn't even get into the 22.

With injures in Munster’s second row, who might they look at bringing in as a medical joker? DOC was singing Jack Dunne’s praises pre game on Tuesday, might not be a bad option? Hasn’t been getting huge game time for Exeter.

How much rugby do you think DOC has seen Jack Dunne played recently. My guess is very little, not least given he can't get near the 23 when they're near full strength. I would generally advise against looking to DOC for anything beyond light hearted banter.

Not getting minutes at Exeter is probably a good reason not to bring Dunne to Munster. He's rarely showed very much in terms of being a good 2nd row. It's telling that 2 Welsh locks who are younger are eating up the minutes. For me, Dunne has been a disappointment.

Dunne's best performance last season was on First Dates.