Following on from here
New Munster chat thread folks. warning deserved there. https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=109477571#post109477571
Its a pretty conservative selection Bar EOC in the 2nd row, but the backs do look very good, Its a pity about the weather, but if we can get any space and keep handling errors to the minimum, we have the potential to get the 4 tries
Lots of IRFU enforced game time limitation across the four provinces by the looks of it.
I'd say it's voluntary. Like, van der Flier and McCarthy are starting and they played all four Ireland matches, but then Beirne, Doris and Porter did likewise and are benching.
Munster are going to romp home tomorrow so now is the time to rest anyone who needs it.
It was really important to see how he fared v Fiji alright. It's infuriating.
Can't blame Farrell for that...his job to pick the best team
Anyways it must be a big boost to o connells confidence to get the start & great to see
Conservative? Who would you have put in instead? It looks to me like anyone who's fit is playing.
And as I said earlier, the weather will be fine by KO.
But that's the point, he didn't need his best team and he certainly didn't pick his best team for Fiji.
Everyone has an opinion on team selections, my own is you really don't need to pick the same player as a starter for all Autumn or Summer games. They're your opportunities to mix it up a bit.
Interesting team, not sure what’s up with Ahern, may still be dealing with a knock or something.
I think the openside call is the correct one to be totally honest, I think Kendellen frankly has been in better form than Hodnett since last spring.
Our lacklustre draw against a second strong Bayonne side at home in the 1st round last year should focus complacent minds. Hopefully anyway.
always thought Beirne playing all 4 games was too much…and no update on Aherne, must have aknock, but wasnt listed on the players injury update
Any of ye at the Lions match last weekend
Pitch didn't look great, or else it was my TV😀
Your TV.
I easy there and the field didn't stand out to be anyway poor. We did get an unmerciful shower of rain before kick off but I can't recall it gathering on the surface or cutting up
Was one of the first things I noticed. Pitch did look pretty poor from the stands. The cold weather in the weeks leading up to it probably didn't help as it looked fairly bare.
Screenshots from the highlights
Does the pitch look bad or are we getting used to watching rugby on artificial pitches
Yeah the pitch was fine. It's a hybrid surface, so can easily withstand games in poor weather conditions.
How is Ruadhan Quinn getting on this season? Does he look like he could breakthrough in the coming years? Lots of back row talent in Munster with Edogbo and Gleeson also coming through without mentioning the likes of Kendellen and Hodnett who are both young enough.
Not a Munster fan but Quinn has disappointed me this season. Seems to be suffering from the same issue as many Munster players in that he looks flat and heavy legged, which apparently was due to overtraining. We'll see if that changes with the changes made to the backroom team. He's obviously an excellent athlete, just hasn't been able to show it or make much of an impact on games this season. I thought he looked more dynamic when he was first playing senior rugby straight out of school.
If the implication is that Beirne's Ireland workload detracts from his provincial contributions (which is a complete misunderstanding of how the Irish rugby system works but we can park that), how do you reconcile that with the fact that Beirne has played more for his province since the World Cup than any other player selected for that tournament?
implication is that Beirne's Ireland workload detracts from his provincial contributions
No, that wasn't my point at all.
Do you think over a series of friendly games that a national coach (that has a have a far bigger playing pool than any provincial team) should start the same player in all the games in the series?
I could well be wrong here but I think there were 4 players used in all 4 AIs, in a year where we could be team building that's disappointing.
I don't think chopping and changing more in response to a sudden loss in form would be helpful personally. I think our age profile at lock is pretty good and the most obvious candidates to be brought into the international fold (Ahern and Edogbo) were injured so I don't feel there was a pressing need to rotate. Ultimately I'm reasonably happy with the selections and have faith in Andy Farrell generally.
With Beirne specifically, he plays so consistently for both Munster and Ireland, and almost never gets replaced, that I believe it must be by design. I remember when Billy Vuniplola was at his peak, the talk was that he had to play every week to maintain form. Maybe there is something similar with Beirne, I don't know.
The last time Beirne didn't play the full 80 minutes for Munster (apart from getting sin binned) was when he came off at 70 minutes in the URC semi against Leinster in 2023.
We won three on the trot, the Fiji game was after we beat Argentina. So swapping out Beirne for Fiji would have been after a win
the pitch is going to get a pretty stern test tonight anyway
That Munster jersey is utterly horrendous.
Munster did well not to concede early and then have been on top but they’ve nothing to show for it. SF not lacking in appetite but you’d still expect it’s a matter of if not when for Munster.
Casey has been superb so far
Yeah he looks very confident, making good decisions and passing is excellent as always.
So many empty seats, I remember when you couldn't get a ticket for love nor money, what's gone wrong?
Abrahams looks like a great bit of business, pace and dog about him
REd card i think
That is a ridiculous call from Pearce
That should have been red I think
there is no dip there at all. Blessed that’s not red.
Very lucky not to see red there
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://wa.vanillicon.com/v2/ad289898c0c6dda7e667bf900ae26d0c.svg)
