Munster Team Talk Thread - Beirne After Reading

Gavin Coombes got 2 chances to show his talents for Ireland in 2021, 9 mins v Japan and the full 80 v USA in a 71-10 win when it really was hard to assess anyone in a one sided game- Doris was at 6 that day and has played in every International since. Has any other Irish or any other nationality player played their countries last 42 internationals. Did we need to play our first choice backrow player in every single game, NO.

The Irish Management are at fault in this, obviously they had issues with Coombes, should they have tried to develop a 23 year old No 8 who had scored 15 tries in 22 games (17 starts) for his province. Of course they should.

As it stands at the moment Doris + Conan are the 1st & 2nd choice No 8's, but the Irish coaches have not been developing a 3rd choice No 8, yet they have been doing this in virtually every position. Since Coombes played his 89 mins, Ireland have capped another 24 players and countless previously capped players earned further caps.

For example, at out half, four players gained first caps, Crowley, H Byrne, C Frawley + Prendergast.

Has Coombes had dips in form, yes, but very few players will be getting 8/10 in every game.

Did he deserve another opportunity, yes, very few No8's have his scoring record, 49 tries in 115 games for Munster, Doris + Conan have 53 tries between them in 249 games. People say" that's only part of the game, there are a lot of gaps in his game".

Looking at the URC stats for the season, 3rd highest no. of successful carries, 5th highest offloads, 9th highest carries, 3rd highest tackles made.

UrC stats are meaningless when your comparing a player who plays every week in URC against players who don't.

So are try scoring records When your comparing players who are playing at different levels. That's no disrespect to Coombes but your talking about the Lions #8 from 2021 who is currently playing some of the best rugby of his career and potentially the Lions #8 and captain for 2025 who had been outstanding in the last few years and is now Irish captain.

I dont see what the Irish Management are at fault for? They have been developing players across the park and we do have issues at LHP and to a lesser extent at Scrum Half but we most certainly don't have issues in the backrow currently. Timoney had been around squads for the last while and he can fill gaps there if ever needed. So that's Doris, Conan and timoney albeit Timoney hasn't played much.

Add in Baird in recent seasons, plus the more recent additions of Izuchukwu and Cian Prendergast to squads etc.

but he played somewhat badly in an A game against a NZ XV in 2022 so he doesnt deserve another chance apparently

even though pretty much the whole team played badly that game

i get what you mean, but in an actual game though

for example, every member of the pre RWC23 training squad got at least a couple of minutes in the warm ups apart from Coombes and Kieran Treadwell (I guess Sexton didnt either but that was a different story). Maybe they were involved in the 'game' against Portugal but that doesnt really count for much either

to be honest, as much as i would have loved for coombes to have been in the original squad, i do think conan has been playing really well and doris is obviously doris so he didnt really fit in. the problem i had/have is that he never got a look in even when conan was injured/off form

ive heard so many different versions of that story:

-he wanted to bring the actual trophy into camp

-he wanted to wear a t-shirt/ hat/ hoody saying 'urc champions'

-as above but saying 'sorry leinster'

-he wanted to bring his medal to camp

-he wanted to wear his medal to training

im sure there is some truth in it, maybe he tried to bring the medal with him, but id be slow to believe anything else to be honest.

would andy farrell have been happy? id say he probably wouldnt give a sh1t either way and is a good enough coach to know that it wasnt that big of a deal either way in itself. if he (or anyone else) had turned up wearing a la rochelle jersey or something like that it would be different (as it would have been genuinely mean spirited then), but a bit of light hearted joking about munster's success would likely have been taken in the right way by the coach (and the other players)

maybe he didnt train well but it is still odd that almost every other squad member got gametime and coombes didnt

i dont really know what the rest of what you are saying has to do with it though all the same, yes its great that the irfu are doing well but does that mean coombes shouldnt be in the squad?

Farrell doesn't seem like the sort to deprive himself of a good player over some dressing room bantz, I would guess this story (which I hadn't heard) has grown legs over the last two years and has nothing to do with squad selection.

Speaking of Casey, it's great to see him back training with Ireland, would be a massive addition for the European knockouts.

Looking better for Munster chances with La Rochelle continuing to perform poorly in the top 14 with a big loss to Lyon.

Happy to see JJ coming back.

I like the signing too as he has position versatility at a replacement. Gives us the option of going 6-2 on the bench. He’s still playing at a decent level too.