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

phog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121799280#Comment_121799280

As part of the team announcement, MR provided this link for the Game

thomas 123

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121802350#Comment_121802350

https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/rugby/arid-41335966.html

Maybe he's just not being played in case he gets injured for the real games.

50HX

Double world cup winner logging out in a mid season friendly.....not a chance😁

Cookiemunster

There are quite a few first XV players not involved. Frisch, Nankivell, Daly, Niall Scannell and Coombes and well as Snyman who passed the RTPPs after being removed last week.

It's a mid season money making jaunt, so you risk as few starters as possible.

aloooof

Seems like the contract situation finally got sorted, but it is an odd one that the Irish captain is not on a central contract proper.

Peter O’Mahony and Conor Murray offered contracts by Munster and Ireland

EDIT: seems like any acceptance / confirmation won't be announced til after the 6 Nations.

phog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121805992#Comment_121805992

I said it at the beginning of the discussion here that if the lads were going on a provincial contract then the IRFU had to contribute to a top up of their contracts to bring their wages up to a central contract level, I'm happy enough that this is what seems to have happened.

Foxtrol

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121805992#Comment_121805992

Not sure what is odd about it. POM is captain currently and is currently on a central contract.

It only becomes odd if POM is still Irish captain and starting the big Six Nations games in 2025 or 2026 (depending on whether he is asking for a 1 or 2 year deal).

aloooof

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121807415#Comment_121807415

Would you say it's more or less likely that POM will be captain come the Autumn Internationals? I'd wager the former.

Foxtrol

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121807422#Comment_121807422

I disagree, if POM keeps his extremely poor run of injuries and the young players keep progressing like they are then I see AF moving on post SA. Could even be the right decision before SA but even in that scenario I'd see AF would want to save everyone's blushes and have POM the tour captain but he doesn't start.

Even if you're right, what happens at the AIs doesn't matter unless POM only wants a contract until the end of the AIs. What would be odd would be the IRFU locking themselves into a 1 or 2 year central contract with a player based on an event in the first 3 months of the first season.

phog

Are all players on central contracts currently starting the big 6Ns games.

Foxtrol

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121807485#Comment_121807485

How many of those got their central contract at age 34?

aloooof

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121807482#Comment_121807482

Is it an extremely poor run of injuries? He got an injury at the start of the season and missed, what, about 6 weeks? Then he got a knock and missed one single game for Ireland, the Italy game and was straight back in for 2moro.

For the 2-3 years prior to that, he didn't miss a single Tier 1 for Ireland.

That's not an extremely poor run of injuries by anyone's standards.

Also, describing it as "saving everyone's blushes" seems like a silly way to frame things tbh. He's been named Ireland captain for a reason. There's virtually-zero chance Farrell names a different captain prior to SA.

Foxtrol

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121807624#Comment_121807624

He has started 4 games this season and gotten injured enough to miss time following it in 3 of them. How is that not an extremely poor run of injuries?

Add to that between this season and last he has been involved in 36 games and played the full 80 minutes in just 8 of them. That doesn't point to a player that is trending in the right direction regarding what he can handle physically given his age - not the type of player you want to lock a central contract to.

You still haven't engaged with my original point, whether POM would be starting and captain during the six nations in 2025 and 2026. If he isn't then there is nothing odd about him being moved from a central contract.

aloooof

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121807907#Comment_121807907

Like I said, he got 1 injury where he missed ~6 weeks and one knock where he missed one game? If that qualifies as "an extremely poor run of injuries" then we may as well send them all off to the glue factory.

Add to that between this season and last he has been involved in 36 games and played the full 80 minutes in just 8 of them

Being injured and not going the 80 are not the same thing. This is moving the goalposts.

You still haven't engaged with my original point, whether POM would be starting and captain during the six nations in 2025 and 2026.

I think it's more likely than not that he will be Ireland captain for the 2024/25 season, yes. Less certain about 2026. But if it happens for next season (which I expect it to) yes, I think it'll be odd he won't be on a central contract.

nerd69

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121807415#Comment_121807415

He wont be captain this summer so i guess

nerd69

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121807568#Comment_121807568

Our last captain got his older as did the one prior i believe

Cookiemunster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121807907#Comment_121807907

He has started 4 games this season and gotten injured enough to miss time following it in 3 of them. How is that not an extremely poor run of injuries?

You really should try getting your facts right. He got injured during the Stormers game. There were no games between Northampton and France. So that's once. And I'm pretty sure that he and some of the other rested players would have been available to play if we'd been playing the likes of England rather than Italy.

Also the RWC, where he started 5 games in a row, was this season.

Foxtrol

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121807961#Comment_121807961

we may as well send them all off to the glue factory

Love the list of players who have gotten injured this season that forced them to miss time in 75% of their games.

Being injured and not going the 80 are not the same thing. This is moving the goalposts.

Never said they were the same thing. I pointed that out to add to the case of why it isn't odd to move him from a central contract, when he isn't able or trusted to last 80min by his club or country in even 25% of his games.

I think it's more likely than not that he will be Ireland captain for the 2024/25 season, yes. Less certain about 2026. But if it happens for next season (which I expect it to) yes, I think it'll be odd he won't be on a central contract.

You've again only dealt with part of my point. My point was captain and start the big 6 nations games in 2025 and 2026.

nerd69

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121808049#Comment_121808049

So if hes irish captain for the summer or autumn post his central deal will you be on here holding your hands up or will you do a dissappearing act

aloooof

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121808049#Comment_121808049

I've literally no idea what you're talking about, and I'm not sure you do either. I was 1 injury that caused him to miss about 6 weeks, and the knock vs Italy. That's not "an extremely poor run of injuries".

I think the Italy game was the first Tier 1 game he's missed for Ireland in around 4-5 seasons.

For the sake of clarity, yes I think it's more likely than not he will be captain and starting the big games in 2025 6 Nations. Less certain for 2026. But a 1 year central contract could make an awful lot of sense.

And fwiw, I think him being captain and starting in the big 6 Nations 2025 games is orders of magnitude more likely than Farrell replacing him as captain prior to SA....

Foxtrol

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121807994#Comment_121807994

You're trying to have it both ways.

I am taking what came out from the coaches. POM came off for an injury during the Northampton game and the implication was that he'd struggle to make the 6 nations so the following weekend was unlikely. He was flagged by AF as not being available due to injury.

If you want to be pedantic, I can update my statement to 'POM has been injured enough to be taken off or miss the following match 75% of the games post World Cup'. The point still stands that it is a poor run of injuries for a 34 year old

Foxtrol

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121808127#Comment_121808127

Summer and AI have little to do with it, he needs to be at that level for the duration of his contract. Anything else it would be odd to put him on a central deal

aloooof

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121808175#Comment_121808175

POM has been injured enough to be taken off or miss the following match 75% of the games post World Cup

Can you explain how you're quantifying this?

Foxtrol

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121808204#Comment_121808204

He played 4 games:

Stormers came off injured and missed several weeks.

Toulon played 63 minutes and didn't get injured - good for him.

Northampton came off injured, framed that he might not make the first 6 nations game despite it not being the following weekend.

France played 53 minutes, unclear whether him coming off was injury or not but AF said the guys who didn't start against Italy had knocks

3 out of 4 games = 75%

leakyboots

This is gas stuff.

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121808150#Comment_121808150

And fwiw, I think him being captain and starting in the big 6 Nations 2025 games is orders of magnitude more likely than Farrell replacing him as captain prior to SA....

While I agree on this, I wouldn't be shocked if he wasn't captain next season. Though I'd probably call it 60-40 in the more likely than not camp that he is.

Foxtrol

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121808150#Comment_121808150

A run of injuries is recent - talking about his injury history 5 years ago when POM was 29 is utterly pointless.

We can disagree on 2025 and 2026. Unless there are injuries, I don't see him starting in 2025 and I'd put it incredibly unlikely he'd be starting in 2026 even with injuries.

I feel your 'more likely than not' is a cop out though. The IRFU shouldn't be giving central contracts out based on that level of certainty. Given how few there are they should be very confident on the outcome before signing a player up

aloooof

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121808287#Comment_121808287

Which, if we grant all this to be accurate, begs the question of how someone (Foxtrol) gets to "saving everyone's blushes" from there.

It's ridiculous hyperbole.

aloooof

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121808246#Comment_121808246

So, in summary, 1 game where it's clear the injury caused him to miss gametime. Right?

Cookiemunster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121808246#Comment_121808246

He's played 12 games this season, starting 10. Is there a reason that you're ignoring the Summer warm up tests and the RWC other than to be obtuse? I mean they were this season and they were Ireland games.