Munster Team Talk Thread - New season title pending....

Erik Shun

Rattlehead_ie wrote: »

Conor O'Shea anyone?

No, person in situ (Quinn) doing the job for the last year

ki

Erik Shun wrote: »

No, person in situ (Quinn) doing the job for the last year

Quinn to take over fulltime, hence cleaning house - Howlet - prior to official take over.

Lucas44

sydthebeat wrote: »

think it was jordan joseph? whos only 10" taller and 34 kgs heavier

Joseph was moving at just above walking pace and if I remember correctly Casey was the second to try halt him, if he carried into him at pace the likelyhood is Casey would of needed a hia as he did when the English centre Lawrence carried directly at him

slingerz

ki wrote: »

Quinn to take over fulltime, hence cleaning house - Howlet - prior to official take over.

Howlett is going back to NZ of his own accord hardly cleaning house

jm08

ki wrote: »

Quinn to take over fulltime, hence cleaning house - Howlet - prior to official take over.

I wouldn't be too sure of that. How much experience has Quinn got of negotiating contracts? Things have hardly gone well off the field for Munster since Garret's illness.

leakyboots

Not sure if it's been mentioned on here but we've a hell of a lot to thank Garrett for, he steered us from amateur through to the professional era (I know he started in '99 but I don't think professionalism really hit us til after that). Oversaw our best days, I wish him the best of health

Cookiemunster

jm08 wrote: »

I wouldn't be too sure of that. How much experience has Quinn got of negotiating contracts? Things have hardly gone well off the field for Munster since Garret's illness.

Well he was the head of finance and Carbery and Beirne have both extended their contracts before the end of their first season, so I'd say he's pretty good at it.

And what exactly has gone wrong off the field that we don't know about?

Sabre0001

Try of the season

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFkXoJdQV6Y

yerrahbah

Stats, stats, stats

https://munsterrugby.ie/2019/05/29/season-in-stats-2018-19/


Munster reached the semi-finals of both the Guinness PRO14 and Champions Cup in the 2018/19 campaign but fell short in their quest for silverware.

Munster suffered away semi-final defeats to the eventual winners of the Champions Cup (Saracens) and the Guinness PRO14 (Leinster).

Over 31 games across the Guinness PRO14 and Champions Cup, the province won 22, drew one and lost eight.

Munster scored 790 points, including 99 tries, over the season. The province boasted the best defensive record in the PRO14 regular season, conceding fewer tries than anyone else with 44.

Munster also had the meanest defence in the Champions Cup Pool stages, conceding an average of just 12 points per game.

Munster were unbeaten in 14 home games this season, winning all 10 at Thomond Park and all four at Irish Independent Park.

The province finished second behind Glasgow Warriors in Conference A of the Guinness PRO14 with 77 points – 16 wins and five defeats.

Munster were the third highest try-scorers in the PRO14 regular season with 82 tries in 21 games. A record win over Ulster at Thomond Park in September saw Johann van Graan’s side secure a nine-try 64-7 victory.

Munster topped Pool 2 of the Champions Cup with Premiership finalists Exeter in second place. It was the third year in succession that the province qualified for the quarter-finals as pool winners.

Munster’s Champions Cup records were extended with the province qualifying for an 18th quarter-final and 14th semi-final, both competition records.

55 players were involved over the course of the season with 37 of those following the Munster pathway into the professional game with eight current Greencore Munster Rugby Academy members named in matchday squads.

There were 11 debuts (6 Academy players) over the course of the campaign as Diarmuid Barron, Tadhg Beirne, Arno Botha, Joey Carbery, Craig Casey, Gavin Coombes, Liam Coombes, Shane Daly, Mike Haley, Alby Mathewson and Alex McHenry all made their first appearances for the province.

Carbery was Munster’s top points-scorer with 154 points while Andrew Conway and Keith Earls were joint top try-scorers with eight each.

Billy Holland became the tenth player to reach 200 caps for the province.

Rory Scannell became the youngest player to make his 100th appearance for Munster at the age of just 25 with Conway, JJ Hanrahan and Jack O’Donoghue also reaching 100 Munster caps.

Mike Haley played more minutes than any other player for Munster this season with the full-back racking up 1,876 minutes in 26 starts.

The collective team effort saw 10 players receive Man of the Match recognition across the PRO14 and Champions with Tadhg Beirne and Joey Carbery leading the way. Darren Sweetnam, Chris Cloete, Joey Carbery (4), Tadhg Beirne (5), Alby Mathewson, Kevin O’Byrne (2), JJ Hanrahan (2), CJ Stander, Keith Earls and Peter O’Mahony were all awarded Man of the Match.

With Peter O’Mahony as squad captain, Tyler Bleyendaal and Billy Holland also led the squad in O’Mahony’s absence during the season.

On the international front, 13 Munster players represented Ireland this season – Sammy Arnold, Tadhg Beirne, Joey Carbery, Andrew Conway, Keith Earls, Chris Farrell, Dave Kilcoyne, Niall Scannell, Conor Murray, Peter O’Mahony, CJ Stander, Darren Sweetnam and John Ryan.

11 Munster players were involved for the Ireland U20s in their Grand Slam success in the U20 Six Nations including Academy players Craig Casey, Seán French, Ben Healy, James McCarthy, Jonathan Wren and Josh Wycherley.

Jake Flannery, John Hodnett, Conor Phillips, Luke Masters and Billy Scannell were also involved.

Both of the Ireland U20s’ home games were played in front of excellent attendances at Irish Independent Park with 5,764 at Ireland v England and a capacity crowd of 8,008 at Ireland v France.

Munster A finished second in Pool 1 of the Celtic Cup table, winning 5 of 6 games.

There were six sell-out attendances across the season in Thomond Park and Irish Independent Park with games against Ospreys, Edinburgh, Leinster, Exeter Chiefs, Southern Kings and Cardiff Blues all full houses. All four games at Irish Independent Park sold-out for the first time ever.

Attendances increased by 15% across the season with a 10% rise in ticket sales.

In all three of Munster’s Champions Cup Pool games, the attendances (23,068 at Munster v Gloucester, 21,861 at Munster v Castres Olympique and 26,267 at Munster v Exeter Chiefs) were the highest for their round of the competition.

Incoming players
Craig Casey (Academy)

Gavin Coombes (Academy)

Shane Daly (Academy)

Nick McCarthy (Leinster Rugby)

Seán O’Connor (Academy)

Outgoing players
Stephen Fitzgerald, James Hart, Bill Johnston, Ian Keatley, Dave O’Callaghan, Ronan O’Mahony, Mike Sherry, Jaco Taute and Duncan Williams.

Cookiemunster

Graham Rowntree confirmed as the new forwards coach. Joins after Georgia exit the world cup until 2022. https://munsterrugby.ie/2019/06/04/graham-rowntree-to-join-munster-rugby/

sydthebeat

excellent addition

budhabob

Cookiemunster wrote: »

Graham Rowntree confirmed as the new forwards coach. Joins after Georgia exit the world cup until 2022. https://munsterrugby.ie/2019/06/04/graham-rowntree-to-join-munster-rugby/

I think that's a really positive appointment! Going after the right level of coach in any case.

Donald Trumped

budhabob wrote: »

I think that's a really positive appointment! Going after the right level of coach in any case.

Very happy with that appointment. Expect Munster to have a very good set-piece game next season and an even improved scrum (which was good anyways) under Rowntree.

Now the big question which is on everyone's lips is who will become Munster skills and backs coach?

Jupiter Mulligan

Donald Trumped wrote: »

Now the big question which is on everyone's lips is who will become Munster skills and backs coach?

My money's on Girvan Dempsey. Put your mother in law's mortgage on it!

phog

Cookiemunster wrote: »

Graham Rowntree confirmed as the new forwards coach. Joins after Georgia exit the world cup until 2022. https://munsterrugby.ie/2019/06/04/graham-rowntree-to-join-munster-rugby/

Great news, only downside is he joins us after the world cup but other than that it's very positive news.

Cookiemunster

phog wrote: »

Great news, only downside is he joins us after the world cup but other than that it's very positive news.

It's Georgia. He'll be joining mid world cup.

phog

Cookiemunster wrote: »

It's Georgia. He'll be joining mid world cup.

I know but the icing on the cake would have been to have him for pre-season

Anyway, we've him signed up until 2022.

Jump_In_Jack

https://twitter.com/PRO14Official/status/1135866192235810818
Graham Rowntree announced to be joining Munster.

Ah, someone already beat me to it!

Squidgy Black

Superb signing. Really highly respected and has some serious experience under his belt.

Jupiter Mulligan wrote: »

My money's on Girvan Dempsey. Put your mother in law's mortgage on it!

I'd be amazed if it's Dempsey, Bath cleared house of the rest of their assistant coaches in December with only Girvan being retained, and their CEO has said he's central to rebuilding the team next season.

Jupiter Mulligan

Squidgy Black wrote: »

I'd be amazed if it's Dempsey, Bath cleared house of the rest of their assistant coaches in December with only Girvan being retained, and their CEO has said he's central to rebuilding the team next season.

Me too. But I though I'd throw it in the fire! Why not, it's baseless rumour season!

But Wiggy is a very good signing - and I'm sure he didn't come cheap.

Larbre34

Thats a juicy bit of business. The only way Munster will progress is by dispensing with the Foley/Flannery mentality, that just because they are from Munster they deserve a shot at a critical role, regardless of whether they are talented enough or experienced enough for it.

I wonder was Flannery's contract offer low-balled to the extent that he could never accept and they knew they couldn't be blamed for binning a Munster man? Whatever, it worked.

phog

Larbre34 wrote: »

Thats a juicy bit of business. The only way Munster will progress is by dispensing with the Foley/Flannery mentality, that just because they are from Munster they deserve a shot at a critical role, regardless of whether they are talented enough or experienced enough for it.

I wonder was Flannery's contract offer low-balled to the extent that he could never accept and they knew they couldn't be blamed for binning a Munster man? Whatever, it worked.

Shur if that's what you want to believe then go ahead and believe it

Eod100

Is there any talk of who will take over for preseason/til and of RWC?

Larbre34

phog wrote: »

Shur if that's what you want to believe then go ahead and believe it

I don't believe anything, I'm just wondering aloud if it was serendipity that led to Munster acquiring one of the very best forward coaches in the World.

That's a brilliant signing and a bit of a coup by Munster because I reckon Rowntree would have had a lot of interest. I think the commitment to bringing through players and the long standing culture at Munster must have had a lot to do with it. I do however wonder if VanGraan being a relatively weak head coach had an impact on his thinking, Rowntree is now no.2 to a somewhat insecure coach in one of the top 4 clubs in Europe. I hope he imparts that kind of shrewdness into the Munster forwards!

phog

ROM "It was relentless pain, a continuous circle and I couldn't find a way out of it"

thomond2006

I hope some of the U20s on display last night will get a look in for some senior action next season. The trimmed squad will rely more on academy players. I assume Hodnett will be added to the academy.

Cookiemunster

thomond2006 wrote: »

I hope some of the U20s on display last night will get a look in for some senior action next season. The trimmed squad will rely more on academy players. I assume Hodnett will be added to the academy.

There'll be plenty of game time to go around for the first 6 weeks of the season.

kingofthekong

Munster need to get O'sullivan involved form the academy, one of the most gifted backrows I've seen in a while

thomond2006

Cookiemunster wrote: »

There'll be plenty of game time to go around for the first 6 weeks of the season.

Niall Scannell (Dolphin/Munster) 14 caps
Dave Kilcoyne (UL Bohemians/Munster) 29 caps
John Ryan (Cork Constitution/Munster) 18 caps
Tadhg Beirne (Lansdowne/Munster) 5 caps
Jean Kleyn (Munster) 0 caps
Tommy O’Donnell (UL Bohemians/Munster) 12 caps
Peter O’Mahony (Cork Constitution/Munster) 57 caps
CJ Stander (Shannon/Munster) 31 caps

Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster) 72 caps
Joey Carbery (Clontarf/Munster) 18 caps
Chris Farrell (Young Munster/Munster) 5 caps
Rory Scannell (Dolphin/Munster) 3 caps
Andrew Conway (Garryowen/Munster) 12 caps
Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster) 77 caps
Mike Haley (Munster) 0 cap

Of the 15 selected in the training squad, I'd expect one of Beirne or Kleyn, TOD, R Scannell and Haley to not make the final RWC squad, which leaves something like:

Cronin, Marshall, Archer, Kleyn/Beirne, Wycherley, JOD, TOD, Botha;
McCarthy, Bleyendaal, Wootton*, Scannell, Goggin, Sweetnam, Haley

KOB, LOC, Scott, Holland, Coombes, Mathewson, JJH, Arnold

*TBC if he's available after surgery