Munster Squad for US match

Hansel

Denis Hurley; Kieran Lewis; Ian Dowling; Brian Carney; Keith Earls; Barry Murphy; Rua Tipoki; Lifeimi Mafi; Anthony Horgan; Paul Warwick; Mike Prendergast; Jeremy Manning; Tomás O'Leary; Darragh Hurley; Federico Pucciarello; Denis Fogarty; Frank Sheahan; Tony Buckley; Donnacha Ryan; Mick O'Driscoll; Mark Melbourne; Billy Holland; Tommy O'Donnell; Niall Ronan; John O'Sullivan.

From that, I'd like to see the following starting XV:

Hurley
Dowling
Earls
Mafi
Murphy
Warwick
O'Leary
Buckley
Sheahan
Hurley (rumour of attitude problems still surrounding this guy)
O'Driscoll (captain)
Ryan
O'Donnell
Ronan
O'Sullivan

Amazotheamazing

Put Warwick to fullback and Manning to outhalf.

Props are wrong way round, no?

Hansel

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

Put Warwick to fullback and Manning to outhalf.

Props are wrong way round, no?

Indeed they are, but props are props to me. I don't know the difference between tight and loosehead, and I don't really have much interest in what the difference is either.

Why are you moving Warwick to fullback? Do you not rate Hurley, or is it to accomodate Glass Head?

Heroditas

Hansel wrote: »

Why are you moving Warwick to fullback? Do you not rate Hurley, or is it to accomodate Glass Head?

Warwick is a far superior player to Hurley and would offer more of a threat IMO.
I wouldn't put Murphy at 11 either. He's not a winger - stick him in the centre and put Mafi out on the wing. He has loads of pace. The back three that you picked could do with a bit of injection of pace.

Amazotheamazing

Hansel wrote: »

Indeed they are, but props are props to me. I don't know the difference between tight and loosehead, and I don't really have much interest in what the difference is either.

Why are you moving Warwick to fullback? Do you not rate Hurley, or is it to accomodate Glass Head?

Bit of both, Manning was the standout outhalf in the AIL last year, and if we're going to keep him then we should play him. Hurley had a very poor Churchill Cup, I'd like to see what Warwick could do from fullback in case we need to use him later in the year. I expect Hurley to be our starting fullback this season though.

feel very sorry for Barry Murphy, he's been very unlucky with injury, wouldn't mind seeing him at 13 and Earls on the wing, though that being said, Earls could be the starting 13 for Ireland soon if he's body holds together. Would like to see if Murphy could make a go of it a 12, he's played there a bit underage and Ireland need more 12's. Hard of Mafi, but you have to look to what's best for Ireland sometimes.

Amazotheamazing

According to RTE the team is

Munster XV v US Eagles on Saturday, 23 August - Denis Hurley; Brian Carney, Keith Earls, Lifeimi Mafi; Anthony Horgan; Paul Warwick, Mike Prengergast; Federico Pucciariello, Denis Fogarty, Tony Buckley; Mick O'Driscoll (capt), Donnacha Ryan; Billy Holland, Niall Ronan, John O'Sullivan.

No bench named yet.

Am astounded Anthony Horgan is there, apparently he's in great shape but he should have worked harder in his 20's and really made the most of his talent. Denis Fogarty is an odd one, sometimes he looks good enough for Ireland, other times he doesn't look like an AIL player. I personally would have kept Cronin, but hopefully Fogarty can come through.

Hansel

Can't say that I'm happy with that selection at all, McGahan's off to a bad start in my books. More conservative nonsense.

Predy for feck sake? This is an ideal chance for development.
Same goes for Horgan. How he even got a new contract is beyond me.
Carney's a bit of an Enigma. Some serious attitude problems from that guy, stemming all the way to the World Cup.

Stev_o

Hansel wrote: »

Can't say that I'm happy with that selection at all, McGahan's off to a bad start in my books. More conservative nonsense.

Predy for feck sake? This is an ideal chance for development.
Same goes for Horgan. How he even got a new contract is beyond me.
Carney's a bit of an Enigma. Some serious attitude problems from that guy, stemming all the way to the World Cup.

Care to enlighten?

Hansel

Stev_o wrote: »

Care to enlighten?

Not without getting myself and probably this site in trouble, no.

suppafly

this is on tonight at 20:00 on setanta. Should be a decent enough game

Stev_o

American commentary should be interested. They have the GNR song a bit loud....

trout

Just turned on the coverage ... it's really weird listening to ESPN cover Rugby

American commentators ... only 4 mins in and they've already equated trys to touchdowns.

Welcome to the Jungle ... indeed

Stev_o

Iv seen phones that take better videos then the camera's used here.

trout

Yeah ... the camera work is poor ... it's a college stadium, they could be using students/facilities.

I really hope they don't play that Blur song so loud every time there's a score :mad:

Stev_o

Some classic commentary "And theres that Earls kid....." XD

Is it me or does the pitch look EXTREMELY wide

Stev_o

Wow thats a great try. Nice one Eagles


And Ow my ears they bleed:mad:

trout

I can't make sense of the pitch ... there are so many line markings, it's quite confusing.

Maybe I'm just dazed from the volume of that bloody Blur song :mad:

8-0 Septics

Stev_o

trout wrote: »

I can't make sense of the pitch ... there are so many line markings, it's quite confusing.

Maybe I'm just dazed from the volume of that bloody Blur song :mad:

8-0 Septics

Its a football pitch i guess just seems very wide

trout

Nice score from Warwick ... 8-3 now.

Thankfully no more rawwk muzak :cool:

phog

Anyone know is this is available online?

trout

Try Mafi! Nice line, good form to slide over in the tackle.

Soft enough try ... Warwick has converted easily ... 10-8 Munster

Funkstard

"The US dodges the proverbial bullet once again"

"This is as close to a putt as you can get for a conversion....BOOM through the posts"

"Shee-HAN with the ball"

Commentary is gas!

MooseJam

the commentators keep talking about new laws, whats the story with that

Kristopherus

What a load of messing by Munster there !!!!

trout

Some big hits going in ... just like the last time we saw the Eagles

MooseJam

what are the new laws ?

Jackz

Little league world champions etc . . . . . .

Heroditas

MooseJam wrote: »

what are the new laws ?

Eh the ELVs perhaps?

ScrubsfanChris

Watched it on the laptop, wasn't great quality, but hey its free.
Any way, the game was not great but certainly entertaining, a few soft tries given away especially by Munster but I was happy overall with the way the team functioned well together for the first game of the season.

Final score:

USA Eagles 22 - 46 Munster

Full Story:
http://www.setantasports.com/en/Sport/News/Other-sports/2008/08/23/Rugby-Setanta-Challenge-Cup/?facets/sport-space/rugby/ireland-locale/

Hansel

Earls looked really good this evening. Such an exciting talent.
Great to see Barry Murphy back too with his two trys. We've some serious options in the backline this year.

WithCheesePlease

Only caught the last few minutes of this match but noticed that a few of the players had no numbers on their jerseys. There was also close to 10 minutes added time and I got the impression from the commentators on Setanta (who were laughable) that there might have been a bot of trouble earlier on. Was there a bit of a flare up does anyone know?

WithCheesePlease

Skip to 3:40

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3xi19E9dfA

Doesn't seem too bad though, and looks like Dowling already has no number on his jersey at that stage anyway.

theKramer

That video is hilarious. From that video, you would think the US kicked our asses :pac: There is not one Munster try shown in it.

Hansel

gearoid_healy wrote: »

Doesn't seem too bad though, and looks like Dowling already has no number on his jersey at that stage anyway.

Munster used 11 subs. None of Murphy, Dowling, Tipoki or O'Donnell had a number on their jersey, which made it double hard for the commentators.