Following on from here
New Munster chat thread folks. warning deserved there. https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=109477571#post109477571
Smith was fairly well signposted though as leaving
With Nash and Kilgallens injury profiles, and Abrahams gone, woud have thought keeping Smith would be a good bit of business,
Has Werner Kok signed wth anyone after leaving Ulster?, would like to sign him
Andrew Smith leaving is a surprise, prone to the occasional blunder but had done enough to show he's a capable player
https://www.munsterrugby.ie/2026/06/19/eight-players-joining-munster-rugby-academy/
I don't really know the youth prospects these days, any surprise inclusions or ommissions
Foley & Barrett are great prospects
Hopefully we can develop a centre in the coming years
Those are the two centres from this year's u20s right?
Both looked very good in the 6N
Edit : I mean O'Leary and Casey mentioned in the release, not the two you referred to
Letting Butler go is the right call. Bar the Argentina game (?) he didn't really impress.
I'd have kept Smith
Yeah, o leary played all 5 games & looks powerful
many in here know more about the internal working of the club than i do.
but can we say hand on heart that we have done rugby by Tony Butler? Has he been coached properly and helped to develop into the player he could be? Or is his peak just not high enough? We have lost a lot of outhalf talent over the years for various reasons - Healy, Flannery, Holland, carbery, Johnston, also Dylan hicks is leaving
When we brought in Billy Burns and then JJ I would have preferred Butler get a lot of that game time but he didn’t.
What do others think?
Since the GAA have moved their season forward, rugby has become second fiddle at this time of year! In a month where GAA matches are getting huge attendances rugby just can't compete!! More so on URC, things have to change or attendances will go through the floor
Its been covered a good few times here on this thread with various opinions.
Time will tell I suppose, if Munster & 3 coaching set ups failed to get the best out of & trust him then i'm sure he will kick on somewhere else.
I wish him well but his time is up at Munster & i honestly don't think if the club had been more stable over the previous 2 years he wouldnt have gotten more game time.
it’s clashing with the soccer as well.
Yet they still sold 46,000 tickets for the final tonight! If Leinster had Lansdowns Rd available this weekend, they could played the final at an optimal time on a Saturday afternoon and I think Landsdown Rd would have been sold out.
Rugby is never going to come near to GAA figures in this country but I think there's less doom and gloom than these forums reflect. Not just on Munster and Irish discusions here, but look over on the Leinster fans thread tonight and you'd be forgiven, based on the comments, for thinking that they finished mid-table in the URC when they came second in Europe and won the URC. The URC has improved year and year and is very competitive now. We've 3 Irish teams qualified for the Champions Cup again next and we were very near to 4. I would think when they release figures in the next few months, average ttendance for the URC will be incrementally higher year on year.
I suppose one could say if I was a GAA official. Where are the gaa fans when league games are played?
https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/rugby/arid-41866182.html
Feel bad for him on a personal level, but this seems inevitable.
Never nice to see. Best of luck to him.
Confirmed. Real shame, but the right decision on personal grounds.
https://www.munsterrugby.ie/2026/06/20/oli-jager-to-retire-on-medical-grounds/
Nankivell has made a great start in the BaaBaas game so far.
Big crowds at plenty of league matches, particularly when Cork hurlers are involved
Agreed on the Cork hurlers but other than that.
That’s not really how things work though. If a player isn’t being developed correctly between the ages of 20 and 24 he is very unlikely to move somewhere else in his mid 20’s and suddenly make a jump.
Soccer guys/FAI on the Govt tit for a long time now, not sure if they are bothered about crowds, waiting for the next Messiah to come in, chances are he will be named Delaney, have had two conmen already by that name, runs in the family.
I see Jean Kleyn has become an Irish citizen. Does he have plans to come back to Ireland?
Just read more of the article...I see his other half is called Aisling! Irrespective of that, he's a great addition to Ireland 😁
His wife is from Galway. No idea if they'll return to Ireland, but an Irish (EU) passport opens a lot more doors than a SA one.
That process takes months after years of residency.
It could have been in train before the decision to move club/country.
If they see their future lives being anywhere in the northern hemisphere its the obvious decision. He wouldn't be entitled to citizenship anywhere else for a long time bar SA which is a sh1t passport. (SA also dont allow dual citizenship so he had to revoke that)
My wife is a Saffa and has citizenship here for 12 years now having lived here 25.
I wonder if it affects eligibility for the SA national squad.
https://www.munsterrugby.ie/2026/06/24/will-harrison-to-join-munster-rugby/
Munster confirm the signing of Will Harrison
Only a 1 year deal which seems small..
Its appropriate to his recent injury profile & minutes he has played over the past few seasons.
Billy Burns had played double the minutes of Harrison & was pretty much injury free at Ulster yet only got a 1 year deal as well.
Its worth a punt imo
I can think of a few reasons for that: Munster don't have the money to take long-term gambles on injury-prone players. The IRFU are tightening their belt coming into the World Cup year, which is always a loss-making year. We've two high-potential out-halves in the Academy, both could be filling in for the senior squad the season after next. Keeping the option open to make a signing of an NIQ/NIE Tighthead Prop after the World Cup.
The Conor Bartley story seems rather odd.
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