Munster Team Talk Thread - Beirne After Reading

Thakir is a dangerous runner from 15 but was a liability under the high ball in the game v Bulls and they did target him. nothing he can do about that at 5'9

When a commentator says "I know what the reason is but I'm not saying" it generally means they don't know but need to fill up some minutes on a show

The man is gone, the reason hasn't been released to the public so now you must shut up and keep giving the suits in Munster your money. Or not, whichever you prefer

I'd have liked if we could have kept him but with Casey & Coughlan ahead of him he was always going to have to make a decision about what's best for him. Even with Casey away with Ireland or rested then he had the Patterson/Coughlan logjam to consider.

The best of luck to him

From the squad update:

There is good news for Tom Ahern, Stephen Archer, Liam Coombes, John Hodnett, Oli Jager, Conor Murray, Peter O’Mahony and Josh Wycherley as they all return to training this week having missed the Cardiff clash.

At least it's something positive to see some injuries ease.

The update also noted that Chris Boyd is returning to NZ. It certainly didn't appear that he added anything to the coaching ticket given the level of performances this year.

If that news is true about Salanoa and Munster decide not to extend his contract, just wonder what is the plan for the tighthead prop depth chart.

We’ve just got the two senior guys under contract for next season, an injury prone Jager and a soon 37 year old Ryan. After that it’s Foxe in the academy, who just isn’t ready yet in the couple of senior appearances he’s had. Darragh McSweeney is in his final year of the academy, he’s back from injury playing for Shannon, but he’s never made a senior appearance yet.

Bit worrying the position given its May and the vast majority of professional rugby players have their contracts sorted by now for next season.

Looks like the majority of Munster fans are choosing the hurling between Cork v Limerick rather than Thomond/Musgrave. The hurling is a sell out yet the rugby will be lucky to half fill. A pity considering how important Munsters 2 matches are

The hurling always had a great following across the province, even when Limerick were dire it had a decent following. The problem for Munster now is that the Munster Championship is a round robin so there's more matches for each county. Add Clare & Kerry in the football last week and you lose a huge chunk of rugby fans this time of year to the GAA

Forgot Conor Bartley is on a short term contract as well. He may actually get a contract next season down to there just not being any other options.

Yep, I'm expecting we'll comfortably be above half full. "lucky to half fill it" seems way off to me.

Munster Rugby attendances traditionally are weak in month of May.

Having the game on a Friday won't help matters either.

Lot of draws on peoples time and money at this time of year. Hurling, communions, confirmations…and the team are not playing well so i'd expect a small crowd for a friday night game

Flipside to that is it's the business end of the season, weather is nice, it's a chance to send off for the players leaving at end of the season and next 2 games are very important in deciding whether they get to a quarter final and be in Champions Cup next season.

Andrew Smith signs a one year deal well deserved imo