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

Sleepy Joseph

Casey should be starting in the 6 nations

phog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119929211#Comment_119929211

Did you only focus on some of my post? 🤔

phog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119929196#Comment_119929196

I'd need to see them all on TV but from the east terrace it looked to me that Connacht were illegal in a few of the scrums.

Lineout was a huge improvement from our last two outings v Connacht. Windy night probably accounted for some of the errors at lineout times and Connacht suffered their share of turnovers at lineout time.

3 of our tries came from mauls created from kicking to the corner so I wouldn't be too harsh on our lineouts last night

A lot more good than bad from yesterdays game. Casey looks to have kicked on from his time with Ireland, is full of confidence and played with real authority. Bit temperamental in the second half but all in all an impressive outing.

That period from 55 minutes - 65 was really impressive from the Munster pack. Controlled the game well, kicking was on point and any mistakes Connacht made were instantly punished.

Big impact from Loughman when he came on - his star continues to rise and was good to see Ryan have such a strong outing given the few months he's had.

The intercept try really isn't acceptable at this level, Haley won't want to watch that one back and Carbery had another so so but not stand out game. His defence continues to be suspect and was cleaned out by Aki in the second half.

Tadgh Beirne imperious again, playing the best rugby of his career and really has a complete game these days.

phog

Tadhg Beirne made only his 50th for Munster on Saturday night, it was a long time coming because of injuries. Last year we missed him from the 6Ns right through to the end of season, he's one player that you need in the business end of the season and it showed in some of our games how much we missed him. He's king of the turnover.

nerd69

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119927895#Comment_119927895

2 games a month apart id not say its airtight but sure we will see

Former Former Former

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/2022/11/28/munster-make-the-most-of-home-comfort-and-potent-maul-to-maintain-momentum/

Extraordinary match report from Thornley, not even bothering trying to appear impartial.

stephen_n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119930912#Comment_119930912

Really?

Cookiemunster

The latest squad update is in. These are the important bits.

On the injury front, Mike Haley failed his HIA on Saturday night and will enter the graded return to play protocols.

Peter O’Mahony passed his HIA but was removed due to a facial/blood injury and will return to training this week.

Jack Crowley will go for a scan today for a lower leg/calf complaint.

https://www.munsterrugby.ie/2022/11/28/squad-update-preparations-begin-for-edinburgh-away/

phog

Bad news on Crowley, hope for himself that he's not going on the injury list

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119931796#Comment_119931796

What the hell is with as soon as guys find themselves in the reckoning for that back up Irish outhalf shirt, the little niggly injuries start?!

Hopefully it's nothing serious.

Akrasia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119930912#Comment_119930912

That article is just the usual type of reporting on all things Munster except he forgot to pretend to be neutral

aloooof

Only caught the game last night, some thoughts on it:

• Important win, and bonus point, in difficult conditions. 
• Casey MOTM for me. His pass quality and tempo is so important to us, was instrumental in the Nash try and his exit kicking was excellent here, a real area of improvement for him over the last while.
• Jean Kleyn returns. Both sides of the maul significantly improve. No coincidence. (And Connacht got 2 maul pens when he went off). 15 tackles in his 66 minutes as well.
• Frisch has looked excellent in his 2 appearances. Saw it mentioned elsewhere that he had more passes than carries which is probably unusual for our 13, but exactly what we need.
• In the last try, we saw Frisch and Scannell in the lineout as Munster continue their “backs in the lineout” variation.
• Tadhg Beirne has been playing this well for 2 years or more now. It’s an incredible run of consistently excellent performances.
• Actually thought Joey was pretty decent, tbh. Seemed to be taking it flatter, passing later and more willing to take the hit to get the ball away later. Sometimes leading to an intercept, but still encouraging. Still issues in defence, mind.
• Atypical mistake from Haley. He’s clearly being tasked with counter attacking in deep positions where we previously would’ve seen him kick. Hopefully his injury isn’t too bad.
• Scrum issues a concern, but Buckley seems to be a nuisance to scrummage against (and I think the majority of the infringements came when the ref was standing on Bealham’s side; clever). Would like to see Loughman, Barron and Ryan start v Toulouse.
• Thought Nash had a very tidy game on both sides of the ball.  
• John Ryan has been playing great stuff since he came back. A try and a jackal off the bench, along with his usual nuts and bolts. 
• And thought Hodnett was his usual industrious self also, and had a couple of good carries.
• And on that, the tackle in the air was a very clear penalty, imo. He’s in the air when he receives the ball and Carty tackles him so by definition isn’t jumping into a tackle. It’s been reffed that way for years now. 
• And finally the cursory handful of Leinster fans with almost exclusively negative comments on the Munster thread happens almost every game now and is utterly, utterly tedious at this point….

phog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119934851#Comment_119934851

Good summation of the match

And on that, the tackle in the air was a very clear penalty, imo. He’s in the air when he receives the ball and Carty tackles him so by definition isn’t jumping into a tackle. It’s been reffed that way for years now. 

I've yet to watch it on TV but from that end of the ground on the east terrace I thought it was it was a pretty clear penalty myself and assumed the ref would award a penalty try.

As for your last point, they usual culprits fizzle away as we start to win in a game so the more we win the less likely they'll get enjoyment from trolling.

aloooof

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119935399#Comment_119935399

I’d have to see it again, but penalty try for the Hodnett incident didn’t come to my mind, anyways. I thought it was more a possibility for the Porch/Carbery incident in real time, but in the replays, with Wootton covering, the yellow seemed like the right decision.

I was pretty happy overall, individual errors aside. Some moments of the attack coming together, it’s a large improvement from the start of the season anyways.

What were conditions like at it, phog? Heard from a few that it didn’t come across on tv how bad it was.

Next weekend feels like a big one for momentum now. Edinburgh will be looking for a reaction after their defeat to Benetton. And 5th place is exactly the teams we need to take points off; I’d nearly take a win on Friday over a win in the Kingspan in January.

aloooof

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119930912#Comment_119930912

Just read it and can’t say I’ve seen anything particularly egregious. What parents in particular are you referring to, FFF?

phog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119935482#Comment_119935482

From memory, Carty was the closest to making the tackle, had Hodnett made it to the ground without been "take out" then it was almost certainly a try. I'll put it this way, if Carty hadn't tackled Hodnett and Hodnett just dropped the ball most on here would claim he butchered a try.

Conditions (wind more so than rain) was cat, it was a very blustery wind blowing lengthways but across the field towards the city too, the ref called at least two lineouts as crooked, I thought it harsh as both seemed to leave the hookers hands down the middle of the lineout but ended up crooked. Oddly enough as we walked to the stadium we we got a shower of rain that was driving into our face as we walked but we were coming from the far side and walking towards the city. So it was really hard to know which way the wind was blowing. It seemed to favour the team playing into the Balla end.

We have to beat Edinburgh, even if they rested players last weekend on prep for this weekend.

Former Former Former

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119935552#Comment_119935552

Full disclosure, I have a bee in my bonnet about Thornley's repeated claims of referee bias against Connacht.

He says that the home crowd influenced the ref, then lists a litany of calls that he thinks were wrong, most notably when Carty "was adjudged to have tackled John Hodnett in the air, even though Carty was already committed to the tackle and the Munster flanker only jumped because of Craig Casey’s looped pass." Like, a looped pass is irrelevant, you can't tackle a guy in the air and he knows that. Or at least, he should.

Just more of the constant piling on referees that is really starting to p*ss me off, and it's particularly odd given Gerry was so exercised about Rassie's outbursts.

He's lost all objectivity when it comes to Connacht.

kabakuyu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119929240#Comment_119929240

Are you serious? he gets thrown around like a rag doll and is not great in defence , Gibson-Park is ahead of him at the moment,the best scrumhalf on display the last night was Marmion.

phog

Mmmmm, I smell something fishy

theVersatile

If ye want fish bait, ye should've read the Connacht thread before the game. Some "odd" comments

aloooof

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119937327#Comment_119937327

Na. Casey was absolutely excellent.

phog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119937525#Comment_119937525

Absolutely, for me he was close to motm.

aloooof

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119937533#Comment_119937533

Agree entirely. I’d nearly say he’s been our best player this season tbh.

kabakuyu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119937525#Comment_119937525

I'll have another look, I like some aspects of his game but not convinced yet.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119937550#Comment_119937550

Surely its Beirne.

phog

It looks like we have a ref swap across tournaments this weekend.

For our match v Edinburgh we have

Referee: Mathieu Raynal (France)

Assistant referees: Ian Kenny (Scotland), Ross Mabon (Scotland)

TMO: Philippe Bonhoure (France)

Leinster v Ulster have an English ref and there's another French ref reffing another URC game.

Edit to add - I skipped the opening paragraph to see who our ref was but it says it here

A number of this weekend’s appointments are part of the on-going referee exchange programme between the URC and English and French leagues.

International referee Mathieu Raynal of France will hold the whistle for Munster’s visit to Edinburgh, his compatriot Tual Trainini will take charge of Zebre Parma v Glasgow Warriors and Christophe Ridley of the RFU will be the leading match official for Leinster’s top-of-the-table clash with Ulster.

https://www.the42.ie/antoine-dupont-appeal-5933797-Nov2022/

Antoine Dupont got his ban reduced to 2 weeks - so free for Dec 11th.

Munster: Shane Daly; Calvin Nash, Antoine Frisch, Rory Scannell, Simon Zebo; Joey Carbery, Craig Casey; Jeremy Loughman, Niall Scannell, John Ryan; Jean Kleyn, Tadhg Beirne; Peter O’Mahony (C), John Hodnett, Gavin Coombes.

Replacements: Diarmuid Barron, Josh Wycherley, Roman Salanoa, Jack O’Donoghue, Alex Kendellen, Paddy Patterson, Jack Crowley, Patrick Campbell.

Crowley fit to sit on the bench again, Coombes back in at 8. Strong side.

Eod100

Strong side. I wonder is it our position in the table, Champions Cup game next weekend or the 9 day turnaround between matches making it a relatively stronger team than expected or bit of all 3.

aloooof

Tadhg Beirne starts again. He’s putting in some amount of rugby. We might not see very much of him after Europe over the Christmas period.