Munster Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread IV

phog

Earls' interview from the Examiner

Keith Earls may be back to his brilliant best in a red jersey, but the Munster flyer admits breaking into a winning Ireland team is out of his hands.
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“I think every game is important to me,” says Earls. “I know I keep repeating myself but staying injury-free is the main thing, and I just have to do my best every week.


“Whatever Joe (Schmidt) thinks, it’s his decision — he knows best. You see from Ireland’s results, it’ll be very hard to change a winning team but I’m keeping the head down; I’m happy to be helping out the lads and being down here with Munster.


“If Ireland keep winning, it’ll be even harder to change a winning team. To get a run of games with Munster gives me confidence, and the lads confidence. My body is in a good place at the moment.”


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Earls chased down a superbly placed grubber from Ian Keatley, flicked the ball up into his hands with his right foot before diving over in the corner.


“It was a try out of nothing,” admits Earls. “Keats (Ian Keatley) showed great vision. Their winger was up, their full-back had gone across to the other side, and Keats put it through. I chased it down. I think in 2008 against a Dragons, I again had a flick-up so I had to prove to a lot of lads that it wasn’t a fluke back then!”


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.ak

Is there highlights of the game anywhere yet?

phog

.ak wrote: »

Is there highlights of the game anywhere yet?

TG4 showed highlights so it might be on their Realplayer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUF8l8M9g-M

Keatley's efforts for trys 1 and 3 are excellent. Lovely line to leave JOD a run in and then great vision and an inch perfect kick for Earls (who still did quite a bit of finishing!).

Serious result from Munster, no quaking once Glasgow got back to 12-10 either.

Micky Dolenz

That Earls try was something else.

buck65

Fireball07 wrote: »

De Villiers didn't make the impact you'd have hoped he would, but he was only here for a season, it takes a while for players to settle and once he got going, he was top class, as you'd expect. Just a pity it wasn't for longer, class player.


I think part of the problem was we didn't utilise him right at the start too, only when he was put inside Earls did he really look the business.

I remember him scoring a try against Glasgow in Thomond Park in the league and it was one of the best individual tries I've witnessed first hand. Thought he did very well for us all told.

phog

Officials for Saturday

At Liberty Stadium, 2.40pm. Live on Sky Sports
Referee: Marius Mitrea (FIR, 37th competition game)
Assistant Referees: Sean Brickell, Simon Rees (both WRU)
Citing Commissioner: Ray Wilton (WRU)
TMO: Simon McDowell (IRFU)

hendo12

Jean De Villiers was used very badly by Munster - accomodating that muppet Mafi at 12

Cookiemunster

hendo12 wrote: »

Jean De Villiers was used very badly by Munster - accomodating that muppet Mafi at 12

No he wasn't. JDV played at 12 for 18 of his 21 starts that season. He played outside Mafi 3 times in total. He was simply not putting it in until he got dropped for the Perpignan games. He admitted this himself at the time.

DDC1990

Jaysus, Mafi being referred to as a muppet!

Talk about a short memory.

Towards the end there were some wild offloads etc. but his partnership with Tipoki and sometimes with Earls was a joy to watch.

A great player for us.

Fireball07

A BP win against Glasgow is great, if we can somehow get a win away to Ospreys, I think we'll definitely get a home semi-final. If we lose, we probably won't... it'll be a struggle anyway, might come down to us getting something in Ravenhill, which is always difficult.

We were so fluent the last day that it's hard not to feel optimistic about going to Wales, with Ospreys missing some big players. And they weren't great against Leinster at all, although they haven't lost at home all season (in that context, it was a very good result for Leinster- first team to take points from Ospreys).


I don't know if we'll have TOD, we should have Jones. Hopefully Killer will be able to start too.

phog

Hopefully, just hopefully he'll be deemed ready for Ospreys

Munster’s Donnacha Ryan is set to make his first appearance of the season against Ospreys in Saturday’s Guinness Pro12 game at the Liberty Stadium. 

The 31-year-old Ryan played a mere 12 matches for the province last season due to knee and toe injuries which some feared threatened his career. 

However coach Anthony Foley had some positive news to report yesterday in terms of the Nenagh man’s recovery.

“We will see what way Donnacha is by the end of the this week. He trained fully today so it is always a good sign. It is about managing him, to see what way he wakes up tomorrow, is there any more pain in it, can we push it on a bit further.

"It’s all about making sure we don’t do anything to undo all the good work that has been done.”

If he doesn't make his return for this game then he should be available v Connacht in TP

Newtown90

Guys, Quick question from your past experiences.

We're hoping to go to the Ulster game in May.

Which is the best hotel to be looking at for the trip? Don't want to be a million miles away from whatever travelling support we have.

Hoping the game is on Saturday or Sunday and not Friday :rolleyes:

Thanks.

thomond2006

Munster are down to using DOCII and Buckley as second row cover so it's fantastic to see Ryan back.

slingerz

Glenviewjf wrote: »

Guys, Quick question from your past experiences.

We're hoping to go to the Ulster game in May.

Which is the best hotel to be looking at for the trip? Don't want to be a million miles away from whatever travelling support we have.

Hoping the game is on Saturday or Sunday and not Friday :rolleyes:

Thanks.

reckon it will be a friday night to be honest, ulster have a big after work social scene around the ground so it sells out there pretty fast

Newtown90

slingerz wrote: »

reckon it will be a friday night to be honest, ulster have a big after work social scene around the ground so it sells out there pretty fast

Ya I was thinking it probably will be Friday night after seeing some of their games, Ravenhill is normally rocking on a Friday night.

We live in hope!

phog

Glenviewjf wrote: »

Guys, Quick question from your past experiences.

We're hoping to go to the Ulster game in May.

Which is the best hotel to be looking at for the trip? Don't want to be a million miles away from whatever travelling support we have.

Hoping the game is on Saturday or Sunday and not Friday :rolleyes:

Thanks.

I think Ulster at home in the Rabo had all Friday night games last year and only had 2 Saturday games there so far this season so in all probability it will be Friday night game.

phog

Academy Update

Elite Player Development Manager Peter Malone on the happenings of the Greencore Munster Rugby Academy over the past month.

Ireland U20 6 Nations representation…"
The team over the three games has done very well, albeit they will be disappointed to have lost last weekend to England. They created chances that they didn't finish and you can't afford to do that at international level.

"The three lads we have involved - Greg O'Shea, Stephen Fitzgerald and Jack Cullen have all acquitted themselves really well and we're pleased with their performances.

"Stephen has done well to score a couple of tries. He still has some areas to work on and improve but he's shown himself to be very comfortable and capable at that level.

"Jack is behind the team captain in terms of selection (Nick McCarthy) so it's hard to get a lot of time off the bench. However he has made an impression in those appearances as well as doing the simple things well. He is well regarded within the squad so needs to keep the head down and wait for his opportunity to arise.

"Greg finished his try very well in tough conditions over in Italy. While bravely going for the ball there was a clash of heads in which he sustained a slight crack on the cheekbone. He is currently rehabbing the injury and while a return for the end of the 6 Nations is possible, it might be a bit tight for him. We have to wait and see how he goes."


Senior Representation for Jack O'Donoghue, Darren Sweetnam and Rory Scannell…"

Jack is going well and has taken his chances in the last three PRO12 games. Obviously the tries (3 across the 3 games) are great for him to get, but more importantly he's looked really comfortable at that level and now the job for Jack is to keeping driving improvements in himself as he moves into the senior ranks next season.

"Delighted that Darren got to feature against Cardiff, and it's nice for him that he made his competitive debut in Cork. He did well under the high ball and created a few opportunities. As well as that Darren is playing very well for his club Cork Constitution every weekend. After a few injuries at the start of the season he is now getting a good run of games and that's standing to him.

"Rory has really stepped up this year and also impressed against Cardiff. This year he has become the mainstay at 10 for Micko's (Mick O'Driscoll) 'A' team in the B&I Cup. You now see how comfortable he is running a game and he's also brought that form into his club appearances for Dolphin - winning the AIL 'Rising Star of the Month' for January. He now attacks the line very well and his physicality has also improved."


Upcoming Munster 'A' v Ulster Ravens fixture…"

This is another important opportunity for players and it gives them a chance to impress in the Munster jersey. Hopefully we'll have a few guys who missed out previously due to injury coming back into the fold in time for the game.

"Games like this are played at a high level of intensity and it's a chance for guys to showcase that they can play at that level and are ready to step up from there to B&I Cup and then possibly on to PRO12."
Munster 'A' v Ulster Ravens, Thursday March 19th 2015 at Nenagh Ormond RFC - KO 4:30pm.


Injury Update…

"We are very hopeful that John Madigan will be back playing in the next two weeks. The rehabbing of his shoulder has gone really well and is on, if not slightly ahead of, schedule. He also used his time on the sideline to focus on college and we're now managing his return to play to ensure that he's 100% before taking to the field, be that for Dolphin or Munster 'A'.

"Niall Horan (thumb) is hopeful of lining out this weekend for Shannon and like John has used his rehab time to work on other areas, focusing on his physical development - his strength & conditioning and his body mass. Hopefully he will see some time off the bench in the AIL this weekend.

"We have yet to put a definite timeline on injuries to Rory Burke, Darragh Moloney and Sean McCarthy (all ankle), while Ryan Foley (knee), Ryan Murphy (arm) and Brian Scott (neck) continue to rehab their respective long term injures and won't play competitive rugby until the new season.

phog

Interview with Keith Earls

"We're going really well though. There doesn’t feel like there has been any transition with the young lads coming in.

"Peter O'Mahony is a quality player but Jack O’Donoghue has come into the back row and done brilliantly, while Ronan O'Mahony has come in on the wing when Zeebs (Simon Zebo) has been missing. They've probably been our standout performers in the last three or four games.

"Joe always keeps you on your toes, asking questions," said Earls, who has scored 12 tries for Ireland. "I'll be covering most of the backline so I have to learn four of five different positions.

"He's big into the basics like good, accurate passing. My passing has really come on over the past couple of weeks. During our unit sessions we do a lot of passing under fatigue, replicating match situations. I felt I've improved in that area.

phog

Preview of Osprey v Munster via South Wales Evening Post

tommycahir

Team announced for Ospreys match

Munster: JJ Hanrahan; Felix Jones, Keith Earls, Denis Hurley - capt., Ronan O'Mahony; Ian Keatley, Duncan Williams; Dave Kilcoyne, Eusebio Guinazu, BJ Botha; Donncha O'Callaghan, Billy Holland, Dave O'Callaghan, Sean Dougall, CJ Stander.

Replacements: Kevin O'Byrne, John Ryan, Stephen Archer, Donnacha Ryan, Jack O'Donoghue, Neil Cronin, Andrew Smith, Andrew Conway.

great to see Donnacha Ryan back ! also just noticed that Felix has been shifted to the wing, wonder if Joe has had some influence on that?
I guess JOD needed a break after the last few matches aswell

.ak

Jones on the wing... interesting.

.ak

tommycahir wrote: »

I guess JOD needed a break after the last few matches aswell

Probably wanted to give someone else a chance to score the tries.

Mahatma Geansai

Fantastic to see Ryan back. Hopefully he is over his injury troubles and he can begin to find the form of a few years ago. Jones on the wing is likely a call by Joe.

If Earls manages to put in another performance at the weekend, he has to be involved for Ireland against Wales. He should be starting, but I'd be happy to see him given the #23 jersey.

phog

Donnacha Ryan and Dave O'Callaghan back

That's a strong team and hopefully we'll do the business over there.

timaru89

leakyboots

.ak wrote: »

Jones on the wing... interesting.

Surely a decree from Joe? If I was Conway I'd be feeling a wee bit aggrieved either way. I can't remember any match where Jones started on the wing for us

Buer

Pretty sure he's never started a game on the wing for anyone (not including Schools or Seapoint).

granty1987

leakyboots wrote: »

Surely a decree from Joe? If I was Conway I'd be feeling a wee bit aggrieved either way. I can't remember any match where Jones started on the wing for us

Yeah I'd say so, if he's on the bench for Ireland he needs more experience on the wing.

That and it allows Foley to select JJ whilst not dropping Keatley. I think he thrives coming into the line from the viewpoint of fullback and releasing people outside him. (I don't want him to turn into Jeremy Staunton 2.0 but the lad can play in several positions and I want him on the pitch one way or another)

More of the same from last week please (minus the last 50-50 offload to the opposition)

yours sincerely, an excited Munsterman.

Mahatma Geansai

Munster offloaded more against Glasgow last week than Ireland have under Joe Schmidt*. Hopefully we'll continue to see the gameplan evolve as the season progresses.






* Note: Stats used may not be 100% accurate.

thomond2006

Excellent that Ryan is back. Let's see how he goes for the next few weeks.

I suppose it's understandable that JOD gets rotated out this week. He should be still involved in the 23 when POM returns IMO.

The Ospreys team looks a lot less threatening without Biggar and Webb who were both excellent in the other matchup in Thomond. No Ashley Beck either who is a very good centre.

Fireball07

tommycahir wrote: »

Team announced for Ospreys match

Munster: JJ Hanrahan; Felix Jones, Keith Earls, Denis Hurley - capt., Ronan O'Mahony; Ian Keatley, Duncan Williams; Dave Kilcoyne, Eusebio Guinazu, BJ Botha; Donncha O'Callaghan, Billy Holland, Dave O'Callaghan, Sean Dougall, CJ Stander.

Replacements: Kevin O'Byrne, John Ryan, Stephen Archer, Donnacha Ryan, Jack O'Donoghue, Neil Cronin, Andrew Smith, Andrew Conway.

great to see Donnacha Ryan back ! also just noticed that Felix has been shifted to the wing, wonder if Joe has had some influence on that?
I guess JOD needed a break after the last few matches aswell

Strong team. Interesting to see Jones at 14, and ROM ahead of Conway too. I like the look of the backline though, JJ brings a lot of creativity from 15.

Brilliant to see Donnacha Ryan back, and not surprised to see JOD given a bit of a break, with DOC2.0 also a good prospect. Is Paddy Butler injured out of interest?

ionadnapokot

thomond2006 wrote: »

Excellent that Ryan is back. Let's see how he goes for the next few weeks.

I suppose it's understandable that JOD gets rotated out this week. He should be still involved in the 23 when POM returns IMO.

The Ospreys team looks a lot less threatening without Biggar and Webb who were both excellent in the other matchup in Thomond. No Ashley Beck either who is a very good centre.

Delighted to see Ryan back. He must be well off the pace. Hopefully he can stay fit for the remainder of the season and forces his way into the Irish team again.

ki

Great to see him back.

At the moment there is 6 locks looking for 4 places in the RWC squad.

2 defo's unless injured
O Connell
Toner

and 2 from
McCarthy - poor form lately
Henderson - Playing well and can cover back row too at international level.
Tuohy - Injured quite a bit in Schmidt time in charge
Ryan - Has played best under Schmidt but may have an uphill battle



Avoiding injury I'd guess it would be Henderson & Ryan

CatFromHue

There's only 6 regular season games left so he has his work cut out for him but he can defo make a case to be in the squad for the RWC and from there anything can happen.

Bridge93

ki wrote: »

Great to see him back.

At the moment there is 6 locks looking for 4 places in the RWC squad.

2 defo's unless injured
O Connell
Toner

and 2 from
McCarthy - poor form lately
Henderson - Playing well and can cover back row too at international level.
Tuohy - Injured quite a bit in Schmidt time in charge
Ryan - Has played best under Schmidt but may have an uphill battle



Avoiding injury I'd guess it would be Henderson & Ryan

Has Ryan played under Schmidt at all? Hardly played best under him.

You're forgetting Dave Foley too who is ahead of him at the minute.

slingerz

A win today would be huge in the push for a home semi final. If that happens Id be confident of getting in the top 2

Fireball07

On tv?

crasy dash

On sky sports I think

phog

On SKy Sports, followed by the Leinster Scarlets game, highlights later on TG4 and I think Ml Corcoran is broadcasting it on RTE radio.

kub

After this afternoons 'performance', is there any chance of silverware this season ?

Wang King

kub wrote: »

After this afternoons 'performance', is there any chance of silverware this season ?

Of course there is, it was a poor performance if we had won by 20 points I wouldn't be calling us world beaters

Fireball07

kub wrote: »

After this afternoons 'performance', is there any chance of silverware this season ?

Yeah, a single bad performance isn't too much to worry about. Okay, we've had a few more than just one- Sale, Clermont, Saracens, Edinburgh, Connacht were all bad too but all the opposition have had plenty of awful performances too. Leinster won the league last year and most of their fans thought they were hopeless up until the final few games.

A home semi-final isn't beyond us and if we get that, I'd expect us to win it. We'd need to sort out a lot of issues that we had today, I think we missed TOD a lot.

Seemed to be a lack of leadership too, which is surprising considering Holland & DOC were both on the pitch. And the gap between Murray & Williams is phenomenally big.

thomond2006

Connacht (H)
Edinburgh (A)
Treviso (H)
Ulster (A)
Dragons (H)

The home games are all very winnable, I'd expect 13/14 points from those. I wouldn't fancy us in Ravenhill but we should be favourites to win away to Edinburgh.

Glasgow and Ulster have both got tougher run-ins than than the above. Ospreys and Leinster have it easier but Leinster have Europe to deal with.

omerin

We wont win any of the 2 competitions under this management team.

case885

Finishing in the top 2 is a must i think, i dont think we'll beat Glasgow/Ospreys/Ulster away in a semi. If we make it to the final we have a good chance of winning, presume ticket allocation would be 50/50 even against Ulster.

Rightwing

Poor result, but particularly without POC & Murray we're a shadow of the real Munster.

phog

Piss poor effort from Munster, could have got a penalty try early in the first half that might have given us the start we needed but overall we conceded too many penalties and allowed Ospreys a foothold that we couldn't recover from.

This is only our second Pro 12 game this session that we did get points from and we've scored at least one try in each of our Pro12 games.

Cookiemunster

kub wrote: »

After this afternoons 'performance', is there any chance of silverware this season ?

Yes. They didn't turn up today, but they're capable of playing much better. Plus the internationals have to come back Looking at the run ins they still have a great chance of a home semi.

case885

Cookiemunster wrote: »

Yes. They didn't turn up today, but they're capable of playing much better. Plus the internationals have to come back Looking at the run ins they still have a great chance of a home semi.

Glasgow, Leinster Ospreys and Ulster do too so they will be up another level as well.