Munster Team Talk Thread - Beirne After Reading

We live in a country of religious freedom so believe what you want

Some URC/Pro/Magners/Celtic League games were always held in Musgrave Park. During the reconstruction of Thomond I think all games were played there. That was a time when tickets were very hard to get and I was not one of the lucky few at the time so open to correction

The change in structure was, of course, outside of the clubs control but the moving of one of our premier games to a GAA stadium is very much within their control

It's a professional game where we have to pay our players and coaches etc etc. If they make money from this, which is obviously no guarantee, then yeah more power to them, they'd be silly not to try and improve the finances

Not a single game - this I said from the off was the thin end of the wedge. First it was a 'one off' SA game, then it was another - now it's one EPCR match. How long before it's the Xmas derby match and then every 'home' ECPR match? Giving up home advantage for a few shillings is showing just how much winning matters vs making money.

I'm not disputing what Cork contributes. Clare, Waterford, Kerry, Tipperary all contribute too - but I haven't seen anyone mentioning having games in those counties?

I'm not at all against Cork matches, what I'm against is having them in that god awful white elephant there. Why is Munster Rugby bailing out Cork GAA's largesse? I have been told by several different sources (several club committee members) that in fact Munster make next to nothing extra in PuC because of the charges and costs involved.

Munster rugby has sold it's soul IMO.

I get the feeling they're eventually going to move the interpros and the Europeans to PuC with the other URC games moved to Musgrave and their home ground converted to apartments

Ideally you want to grow the fan base but without pissing off your current fan base, however small the current fan base is. There's no point in dropping 10,000 Limerick based STHs for 5,000 Cork based ones for example

Like yourself, I'd like to see more games in TP, but if Munster want to give Limerick the middle finger they're within their rights to. Don't expect us to be happy about it though

Imo PUC will always sell out for Munster, probably in record time! Look at the League final next weekend. I know it's a different sport but Cork fans are the best in the country

So you are trying to argue against me saying it was a novelty match by pointing to a novelty match. Do you actually think Connacht have 30k match going fans.

"Consistently" also isn't a word you can use when you are talking about 2 games.

Having the odd game there is a good idea but it's folly to think that the attendances would be better than Limerick if every game was there based on the few games seen so far.

Munster should be playing in Cork because A) the province was partially based there for many years and B) it’s where most Munster fans live. Crazy that it’s taken until now to make arrangements that could allow regular matches there. And even crazier for the province not to play there given they can sell more tickets. Munster fans should be happy that the suits are at least showing signs of commercial creativity, they’ve not done much else.

Munster should be playing in Cork because…

Munster regularly play matches in Cork at a place called Musgrave Park. I make my way there from Limerick for most of the matches that are on there every season and believe you me, it's definitely in Cork.

Also Musgrave Park is a fantastic stadium, you should go for that reason alone