Munster Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread.

bamboozle

totallegend wrote: »

I wouldn't be surprised to see him on the bench, with Pienaar at 10. If I was picking the Ulster team, that's what I'd do anyway.

he started at 10 for Leicester the day they won in TP, dry weather, harder grounds will suit his game.

another factor will be the 1.45 kick-off, the later in the day the more booze on board & more intimidating the atmostphere for the visitors.

either way its going to be a great game for us neutrals...

shuffol

Haven't seen Wallace playing since his return, how's he looking, is the general feeling that as long as he proves his fitness he's a nailed on starter for the QF?

padraig.od

shuffol wrote: »

Haven't seen Wallace playing since his return, how's he looking, is the general feeling that as long as he proves his fitness he's a nailed on starter for the QF?

He was fairly anonymous Saturday night. Came off at half time.

CiaranMT

padraig.od wrote: »

He was fairly anonymous Saturday night. Came off at half time.

I'm not worried about him. I'd imagine he was taken off to make sure he wasn't over-exerted before Leinster and Ulster.

CatFromHue

CiaranMT wrote: »

I'm not worried about him. I'd imagine he was taken off to make sure he wasn't over-exerted before Leinster and Ulster.

I think I read it was McGahans plan to just give him a half. He only got 23 mins at Aironi so he won't be up to speed yet. It's a bit different coming back from injury in the middle of the season as everyone else is flying but you need a few games yourself to catch up. It's been pretty much 7 months since he last played so it will take him time.

Amazotheamazing

shuffol wrote: »

Haven't seen Wallace playing since his return, how's he looking, is the general feeling that as long as he proves his fitness he's a nailed on starter for the QF?

I can't see him starting tbh, we need a fully fit Wallace but Wallace isn't at that level yet. If we could get a good 20 mins from him it'd be amazing, considering his age and injury.

shuffol

I think it'll be important for Munster forwards to try up the tempo, often when I've seen Munster this season their pack has looked a bit sluggish with forwards taking the ball behind the gainline at no real pace. Ferris and Henry will be very quick out of the line to put pressure on the ball carrier so this is something Munster will have to be wary of, dont think the early kick off will help them in this respect either.

I dont think I've been as excited about watching a game all season and I'm not even a fan of either side. Two excellent evenly matched teams with lots of added sub plots, hopefully both sides do themselves justice.

NikNak8

Yea Have to admit I'm a bit worried to be honest. Pienaar has been outstanding in my view and he is the danger man for me, he makes them tick. We will have to really get under his skin to win, if we can do that Ulster are very beatable especially their backline which I think is overrated.

Amazotheamazing

NikNak8 wrote: »

Yea Have to admit I'm a bit worried to be honest. Pienaar has been outstanding in my view and he is the danger man for me, he makes them tick. We will have to really get under his skin to win, if we can do that Ulster are very beatable especially their backline which I think is overrated.

They are a great front foot team I think but are also well capable of strangling games. worth remembering Ian Humphreys was the outhalf the day Leicester won there, he'd going to be at his best, imo, and he's well capable of having a great perfomance.

CiaranMT

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

I can't see him starting tbh, we need a fully fit Wallace but Wallace isn't at that level yet. If we could get a good 20 mins from him it'd be amazing, considering his age and injury.

Don't think age is half as big a factor when Wally is being talked about as most other players.

onlyrocknroll

CiaranMT wrote: »

Don't think age is half as big a factor when Wally is being talked about as most other players.

He was playing excellently towards the end of last season, but he was a little slow regaining form when he came back from injury first. I'd say that is down to age.

CiaranMT

onlyrocknroll wrote: »

He was playing excellently towards the end of last season, but he was a little slow regaining form when he came back from injury first. I'd say that is down to age.

Or... The fact that he was just back from injury... Pretty common with most players.

Amazotheamazing

CiaranMT wrote: »

Don't think age is half as big a factor when Wally is being talked about as most other players.

It's still a factor, great as he is he can't stop the march of time. If you were watching last Saturday's game with no prior knowledge of either player, you'd think TOD was the better of the two, imo. It'd be wrong to rush Wallace back into the team on reputation when he's below his best.

onlyrocknroll

CiaranMT wrote: »

Or... The fact that he was just back from injury... Pretty common with most players.

Took him a few months to hit his own very high standards IMO. The Wally we saw in the ML final was a very different player to the one playing in January-February.

It's no disrespect to say that a 35 year old player would take a little longer to fully recover from an injury than a younger man.

jm08

onlyrocknroll wrote: »

Took him a few months to hit his own very high standards IMO. The Wally we saw in the ML final was a very different player to the one playing in January-February.

It's no disrespect to say that a 35 year old player would take a little longer to fully recover from an injury than a younger man.

i donno. luke fitz & O'Leary are taking their time coming back from injury, whereas Kearney came back very quickly.

Amazotheamazing

jm08 wrote: »

i donno. luke fitz & O'Leary are taking their time coming back from injury, whereas Kearney came back very quickly.

Everyone's different though, O'Driscoll has always bounced back fairly quickly too. I think Luke Fitz would have been in the six nations squads but for a separate neck injury in Jan and it's only recently you could say kearney is really back to his (brilliant) best.

jacothelad

Tox56 wrote: »

I think the pack is very even, a lot depends on POC but Tuohy and Muller are top quality players, the backrow is probably in Ulster's favour because of Ferris but it's even otherwise, and the front-row is hard to call. It's exactly the same story with the backs, it's hard to tell who has an edge.

It will be a very interesting game for neutrals.

bamboozle wrote: »

Front rows are equal - Botha bett than Court but Best better than Varley
Back row - ulster are a far better unit, munster dont have a set back row at the moment.
2nd row- advantage munster although POC could be rusty if he doesnt play this weekend and Muller & Touhy deserve a lot of respect.

2 things stand out in this game to me, Piennar will run amok if given a platform & Ulster have won in TP before and wont be too intimidated.

The likes of Touhy, Gilroy, Cave & Marshall will be looking to prove a point to watching Ireland selectors.

Munster will be hoping the crowd will get behind them and Humphries is fickle otherwise I'd fancy Ulster to sneak the win.

One of the interesting match-ups for me will be Botha v. Court. They were great buddies when they played together and Court gave up playing 3 when Botha arrived - much to his and Ireland's detriment I may say. He was becoming a very good t.h. and was frequently Ulster's outstanding forward. I wouldn't like to see McAllister against B.J. just as I'm sure most Reds would be wary of Archer against Court.

A lot depends on Humphreys. If he plays well we have a chance. If he doesn't, it will be a very hard decision for McLaughlin exactly when to bring Marshall on and move Pienaar to 10.

It will be a great occasion and sadly for me, if Munster are pretty much playing their best available team, I fear Ulster will eventually succumb. I think Munster's all round forward grunt and team work is going to win the day. Ulster's forwards need to show more cohesion and stay on their feet at rucks.

Flincher

I always think a team needs a mentally strong hooker, goal kicker, and fullback to have half a chance of winning in Thomond. They are the 3 individuals targeted by the crowd. If any of those 3 fold, Munster capitalize - if the lineout goes, ROG will kick the corners, if the fullback folds, the ball will come down into the sun with snow on it, and if the kicking goes......

Ulster have the hooker, if Pienaar misses early he could have a few troubles - he is prone to the off day, and I think Ulster could be in trouble at fullback.

phog

Why did I read the last couple of pages, I'm nervous now and that's a fortnight beofre the game

Anyway, for something lighter, for Limerick based fans.

An exhibition of some of the finest Munster Rugby action photographs taken over the last decade by Limerick sports photographer Ivan O'Riordan, will be launched at the Raggle Taggle Gallery, Sarsfield Street, Limerick at 6pm on Thursday 29th March next and will be on show for a three week period

More info here.

Tox56

Flincher wrote: »

I always think a team needs a mentally strong hooker, goal kicker, and fullback to have half a chance of winning in Thomond. They are the 3 individuals targeted by the crowd. If any of those 3 fold, Munster capitalize - if the lineout goes, ROG will kick the corners, if the fullback folds, the ball will come down into the sun with snow on it, and if the kicking goes......

Ulster have the hooker, if Pienaar misses early he could have a few troubles - he is prone to the off day, and I think Ulster could be in trouble at fullback.

I think Ulster have arguably their 3 most experienced players in those 3 positions. It might not count for much, but those are some wise old heads, they could certainly do worse than those 3.

Amazotheamazing

jacothelad wrote: »

One of the interesting match-ups for me will be Botha v. Court. They were great buddies when they played together and Court gave up playing 3 when Botha arrived - much to his and Ireland's detriment I may say. He was becoming a very good t.h. and was frequently Ulster's outstanding forward. I wouldn't like to see McAllister against B.J. just as I'm sure most Reds would be wary of Archer against Court.

A lot depends on Humphreys. If he plays well we have a chance. If he doesn't, it will be a very hard decision for McLaughlin exactly when to bring Marshall on and move Pienaar to 10.

It will be a great occasion and sadly for me, if Munster are pretty much playing their best available team, I fear Ulster will eventually succumb. I think Munster's all round forward grunt and team work is going to win the day. Ulster's forwards need to show more cohesion and stay on their feet at rucks.

It's impossible to call I think, I was surprised by how much trouble Wian was in against Connacht. Botha will know a lot about the Ulster scrum but that doesn't mean he'll be able to stop it.

d-gal

I reckon Wallace will play a massive role in the outcome of this game.
Providing all are fit imagine Wallace coming on in the last 20mins replacing DOC (Ryan into 2nd row). Ulster don't have that quality coming off the bench.
Really looking forward to it.
Not really looking forward too much to the Leinster Munster match, the QFs are playing a big part on what teams will get picked and I say both will be weakened

jacothelad

Flincher wrote: »

I always think a team needs a mentally strong hooker, goal kicker, and fullback to have half a chance of winning in Thomond. They are the 3 individuals targeted by the crowd. If any of those 3 fold, Munster capitalize - if the lineout goes, ROG will kick the corners, if the fullback folds, the ball will come down into the sun with snow on it, and if the kicking goes......

Ulster have the hooker, if Pienaar misses early he could have a few troubles - he is prone to the off day, and I think Ulster could be in trouble at fullback.

Humphreys also kicks goals and from inside his own half.
As for full back. Terblanche?

Flincher

jacothelad wrote: »

Humphreys also kicks goals and from inside his own half.
As for full back. Terblanche?

Humphreys is a bit hit-and-miss though. Excellent on his day, but I wouldn't bet money on him having his day in such an important game. From an Ulster perspective, I'd prefer to be relying on Pienaar to land the important kicks.

Terblanche at 15 would be more solid than Darcy alright. Extraordinary how he has maintained the level of performance considering his age. I thought he was ancient when he played against the Lions in 09, and that is almost 3 years ago now.

jacothelad

Flincher wrote: »

Humphreys is a bit hit-and-miss though. Excellent on his day, but I wouldn't bet money on him having his day in such an important game. From an Ulster perspective, I'd prefer to be relying on Pienaar to land the important kicks.

Terblanche at 15 would be more solid than Darcy alright. Extraordinary how he has maintained the level of performance considering his age. I thought he was ancient when he played against the Lions in 09, and that is almost 3 years ago now.

Yes. Humphreys is very erratic and has had a poorish season. Despite his lack of reliability he is still Ireland's 3rd best 10. - when he hits form.

Fireball07

Both games are going to be tough but as has been said, the Ulster game is infinitely more important. A win against Leinster would set us up brilliantly for that match though.

I think Wallace should be on the bench for the Leinster game, start TOD. See how Wallace does when he comes on, if he impresses, start him against Ulster, otherwise keep the same back row.

I'd like to see Sherry get a chance to prove himself, it's very tight between him and Varley. Looks like Sherry is a stronger scrummager but Varley's darts are probably more consistent (he's improved in that area a lot imo). Both are good players.

If POC is injured, we should play DOC and Ryan in the 2nd row against Ulster with POM, TOD/Wallace and Coughlan in the back row. I'd favour TOD over DOC2. And if POC is fit, I'd nearly keep the same back row and put DOC on the bench but McGahan will likely move Ryan to 6 and POM to 7. But I think he should show faith in the youngsters who have done well.

We still have a question mark over our centres though. I have no idea what our best pairing is. Probably too late to try Hurley in the centre now, so Mafi and Earls is most likely, though Barnes probably has a shot too. I'd favour Hurley over Murphy on the wing, but think he's a much better player at full-back although Jones has that spot nailed down.



As for Ulster themselves, they have some brilliant players all over the pitch. If Munster want to win, we'll have to reduce Pienaar's influence as much as possible, he's a class act. I think Humphreys should be targeted and hope that he has one of his off-games because if he plays well, Ulster will have a big advantage. Their back row is very strong but ours isn't too bad- Coughlan is still being underrated by people, he's really been in form since the turn of the year, POM is class (though this will be his biggest test to date) and TOD/DOC2 won't let us down. We definitely need POC too... if he's missing, I think Ulster will win. His influence can't be underestimated, he's crucial to everything we do.


It's going to be a cracking game, I'm really looking forward to it.

durkadurka

Michael Corcoran tweets:

@MichaelC_RTE: Reported that NZ u20 coach Rob Penney is a contender 4 @Munsterrugby Head Coach, he led Canterbury to last 4 ITM Cups in a row #rterugby

Amazotheamazing

Fireball07 wrote: »

We still have a question mark over our centres though. I have no idea what our best pairing is. Probably too late to try Hurley in the centre now, so Mafi and Earls is most likely, though Barnes probably has a shot too. I'd favour Hurley over Murphy on the wing, but think he's a much better player at full-back although Jones has that spot nailed down.

Not sure what Jones has done to say he's nailed down the fullback spot. I think it's really a call between who we'd rather on the pitch, Jones or Murphy. Not sure how I'd call it yet.

Amazotheamazing

durkadurka wrote: »

Michael Corcoran tweets:

@MichaelC_RTE: Reported that NZ u20 coach Rob Penney is a contender 4 @Munsterrugby Head Coach, he led Canterbury to last 4 ITM Cups in a row #rterugby

Peter Borlase is pulling all the stops, good work.

Cpt_Blackbeard

durkadurka wrote: »

Michael Corcoran tweets:

@MichaelC_RTE: Reported that NZ u20 coach Rob Penney is a contender 4 @Munsterrugby Head Coach, he led Canterbury to last 4 ITM Cups in a row #rterugby

Whether he turns out as a great coach or not, it would be/is a bit of a let down to hear we are in talks with a top NZ coach with rumours surfacing that it could be Smith, only then up to end up with an U20 and provincial coach. Could turn out to be a great find..

Cpt_Blackbeard

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

Peter Borlase is pulling all the stops, good work.

Hopefully he's not the forwards coach responsible for unloading Ah You and Borlase on our shores anyway.

CIARAN_BOYLE

Cpt_Blackbeard wrote: »

Hopefully he's not the forwards coach responsible for unloading Ah You and Borlase on our shores anyway.

He's a former number 8 and was lineouts coach for Crusaders so I reckon he did the forwards coach job and the club he was head coach for.

At least he was smart enough to offload them

To be honest I'd prefer Munster sign a coach with experience as a backs coach because I don't rate Holland and any new coach will want to put his stamp on the team by doing work within his specialist area. I wouldn't like to see foley marginalised.

Amazotheamazing

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

He's a former number 8 and was lineouts coach for Crusaders so I reckon he did the forwards coach job and the club he was head coach for.

At least he was smart enough to offload them

To be honest I'd prefer Munster sign a coach with experience as a backs coach because I don't rate Holland and any new coach will want to put his stamp on the team by doing work within his specialist area. I wouldn't like to see foley marginalised.

Afaik, we have Holland next season regardless of who comes in as head coach. Strange set-up, whoever gets the gig has no choice but to work with Foley and Holland.

Fireball07

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

Not sure what Jones has done to say he's nailed down the fullback spot. I think it's really a call between who we'd rather on the pitch, Jones or Murphy. Not sure how I'd call it yet.

I think Jones is immensely superior to Murphy tbqh. Well that might be a bit of an exaggeration but Murphy is a good player who is a valuable squad member because of his versatility but Jones has the potential to be an international standard full-back.

CIARAN_BOYLE

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

Afaik, we have Holland next season regardless of who comes in as head coach. Strange set-up, whoever gets the gig has no choice but to work with Foley and Holland.

Yeah but that doesn't mean Holland will be pulling the strings as a backs coach. Gaffney apparently didn't do much as a back coach for Ireland because Kidney kept digging his oar in.

He'll still have the title but I think he should be marginalised withing the setup. That said to be honest I don't know cause I don't know how much backs coaching is being done by Holland and how much by McGahan whose own speciality is the backs.

jm08

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

Afaik, we have Holland next season regardless of who comes in as head coach. Strange set-up, whoever gets the gig has no choice but to work with Foley and Holland.

Think Foley is the only one with a contract for next season (apart from the fitness fellow who joined this year).

jm08

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

Yeah but that doesn't mean Holland will be pulling the strings as a backs coach. Gaffney apparently didn't do much as a back coach for Ireland because Kidney kept digging his oar in.

He'll still have the title but I think he should be marginalised withing the setup. That said to be honest I don't know cause I don't know how much backs coaching is being done by Holland and how much by McGahan whose own speciality is the backs.

Did kidney stop putting his oar in when Gaffney left? Leinster were happy to see the back of him as well.

Amazotheamazing

Fireball07 wrote: »

I think Jones is immensely superior to Murphy tbqh. Well that might be a bit of an exaggeration but Murphy is a good player who is a valuable squad member because of his versatility but Jones has the potential to be an international standard full-back.

But like Wallace, he's not fully ready yet, imo. The Jones who ripped it up at the end of last season isn't fully back yet, and even then he was prone to lapses in positioning etc. I've no doubt he should be our long term fullback if he can stay fit (which judging by his reckless abandon is a big if) but he has a long way to go to fulfill his potential.

Amazotheamazing

jm08 wrote: »

Think Foley is the only one with a contract for next season (apart from the fitness fellow who joined this year).

They both have contracts, afaik.

CIARAN_BOYLE

jm08 wrote: »

Did kidney stop putting his oar in when Gaffney left? Leinster were happy to see the back of him as well.

I dunno, just there was a lot of complaints (Matt Williams for one) about Gaffney getting the blame when Kidney was pushing out a lot things that Gaffney uses.

Amazotheamazing

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

Yeah but that doesn't mean Holland will be pulling the strings as a backs coach. Gaffney apparently didn't do much as a back coach for Ireland because Kidney kept digging his oar in.

He'll still have the title but I think he should be marginalised withing the setup. That said to be honest I don't know cause I don't know how much backs coaching is being done by Holland and how much by McGahan whose own speciality is the backs.

Hard to know, our backs are severely limited by an outhalf with absolutely no break and a 12 who is on a different wavelength to the rest of the team, and no matter what we try seems determined to stay that way. I like Mafi for a lot of reasons but he's never really been the 12 we need.

jm08

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

I dunno, just there was a lot of complaints (Matt Williams for one) about Gaffney getting the blame when Kidney was pushing out a lot things that Gaffney uses.

Don't understand what you mean when you say Kidney was pushing out a lot of things that Gaffney uses.

Probably nothing more than Williams looking out for his old pal Gaffney. Didn't hear too many complaints from anyone about Gaffney leaving either Ireland or Leinster.

Fireball07

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

Hard to know, our backs are severely limited by an outhalf with absolutely no break and a 12 who is on a different wavelength to the rest of the team, and no matter what we try seems determined to stay that way. I like Mafi for a lot of reasons but he's never really been the 12 we need.

I thought the backs were good against Northampton. The potential is there, even with Mafi at 12 and ROG at out-half.

I think a proper backs coach could make them very effective.

Flincher

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

I dunno, just there was a lot of complaints (Matt Williams for one) about Gaffney getting the blame when Kidney was pushing out a lot things that Gaffney uses.

Williams could well be sticking up for his mate there. One obvious difference about Ireland's backplay this year has been the use of depth. I can recall Gaffney saying depth looked pretty, but wasn't very effective. Off the top of my head, both our tries v Wales, both of Bowe's v Italy and Trimble v Scotland all came directly from the backs lying deep. Actually, Bowe's tries against Wales, and the second against Italy, came straight from a move where Sexton stood almost directly behind a ruck.

Depth was something which Gaffney didn't use, and we have seen tangible benefits from it over the course of the 6 Nations, without a recognised backs coach.

jm08

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

They both have contracts, afaik.

Holland signed his last contract two years ago (feb 2010) when McGahan, fisher & Payne also signed contracts. Hard do see how McGahan would have got a 2 year contract and Holland a 3 year one.

Cpt_Blackbeard

jm08 wrote: »

Holland signed his last contract two years ago (feb 2010) when McGahan, fisher & Payne also signed contracts. Hard do see how McGahan would have got a 2 year contract and Holland a 3 year one.

There was definitely a lot of chatter on MunsterFans that we can't just offload Holland as he is contracted for another year. Personally I wouldn't mind him staying the other year provided our next head coach is a recognised backs coach (not EOS).

It's why the Smith rumour made sense to me. A backs coach proven at the highest levels coming in to work with our forwards coach for 2-3 years before Axel steps up to be head coach. Smith would oversee the backs with Holland having little input other than implementing the systems etc. With Holland gone the year after it would allow Howlett to seamlessly slot in as backs coach.

It would be a period of high turnover but, in 3-4 years time we'd have a settled ticket with Axel and Dougie calling the shots. Jobs for the boys may be, but its a great principal to promote provided they are the right men. A lot of wishful thinking on my part too.

jm08

Cpt_Blackbeard wrote: »

There was definitely a lot of chatter on MunsterFans that we can't just offload Holland as he is contracted for another year. Personally I wouldn't mind him staying the other year provided our next head coach is a recognised backs coach (not EOS).

It's why the Smith rumour made sense to me. A backs coach proven at the highest levels coming in to work with our forwards coach for 2-3 years before Axel steps up to be head coach. Smith would oversee the backs with Holland having little input other than implementing the systems etc. With Holland gone the year after it would allow Howlett to seamlessly slot in as backs coach.

It would be a period of high turnover but, in 3-4 years time we'd have a settled ticket with Axel and Dougie calling the shots. Jobs for the boys may be, but its a great principal to promote provided they are the right men. A lot of wishful thinking on my part too.

From what I've heard about Smith he is interested in an international job and he prefers to be coaching rather than be head coach, so you could probably rule him out.

The info I posted was from the Munster website. I still think its highly unlikely that Mcgahan would get a 2 year contract and he would give Holland a 3 year one. Holland extension was given after McGahan had got his. I wouldn't believe everything id read on munsterfans

castie

Ryan out according to Irish Times.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2012/0327/1224313955233.html

CIARAN_BOYLE

jm08 wrote: »

Don't understand what you mean when you say Kidney was pushing out a lot of things that Gaffney uses.

Probably nothing more than Williams looking out for his old pal Gaffney. Didn't hear too many complaints from anyone about Gaffney leaving either Ireland or Leinster.

Gaffney is brilliant at one thing (and one thing only imo) desinging backs moves to launch off a scrum or lineout.

This disappeared completly from the Irish game after 2009, while in 2009 I'd say half of our breaks came from backs moves off the back of scrum or lineout.

Every team he has been with (except for Ireland after 2009) has been very good at launching backs moves off the back of a lineout or scrum so why would he have stopped doing it. Someone must of given orders to stop or else Gaffney decided to stop doing the only thing he knows how to do competantly as a backs coach.

Not to derail the thread my point is that a head coach can have a massive influence on an element even when there is a specialist coach.

irishbucsfan

I've heard that Wayne Smith informed Munster that he's going to be working for the RFU. It'll be announced by this time next week supposedly.