Munster Team Talk Thread - Snymans are(n't) Forever

Neil3030

I'm still just going off the projections. So take this with a pinch of salt, etc.

50 for 7th

59 for 4th

Admittedly a huge task to get the home QF. But a clean sweep of 5-pointers over the course of the 6N, and we're on 52 points going to SA...

phog

Not many times do you play away from home where the home team scores the TBP but you come away with a TBP win. To be fair, it didn't look great in the first 20 mins.

Neither team were great in defense but a few beautiful tries scored too. Great to see Kleyn go over for one, he's been great for us in that last block of games, a well deserved rest awaits him.

You gotta love Hodnett getting that kind of ball out on the wing, you just know he's going to make yards.

We coped well with the two cards, I think we actually got a try during Ben's card.

Overall aside from conceding 4 tries I think we can be very happy with the result.

Poorside

Salanoa has been quietly brilliant for us so far, fantastic in the loose and teams haven't copped on to that yet, keep him fit and he's key to silverware.

ulsteru20s

Kind of a weird game. IMO munster’s D was their strongpoint all year and it was kind of weak today.

They did score some lovely tries though. Hodnett’s combo of great carrying and chop tackling seems like an international level skill set possibly. Quinn looks like a beast.

jcon1913

Hodnett running in for the try - if that doesn’t put a smile on your face….

not the most athletic- looking guy but deadly effective

Yeah_Right

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120173601#Comment_120173601

I know what you mean. He doesn't look that big or strong but he hits hard, busts tackles, great jackler and is quicker than he appears. Could be a great player.

cuttingtimber22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120176327#Comment_120176327

If he was in Leinster, the hype machine would be going into over drive.

stephen_n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120176370#Comment_120176370

If he was in Leinster he wouldn’t get near the starting backrow. So his development would probably stall. It’s a good thing he’s in Munster.

realhorrorshow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120176370#Comment_120176370

I think it's more that he had injury problems and new players emerged (incl. Kendellen). Hodnett has been on everyone's radar for a long time and was unanimously one of the most highly rated players of his age grade.

snotboogie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120176476#Comment_120176476

Of course he wouldn't be in the first choice back row but Leinster do an excellent job with rotation. Hodnett would be getting significant minutes with them.

sydthebeat

It's hard to believe Scott penny is actually younger than John hodnett, he's been around that long

stephen_n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120176586#Comment_120176586

He would be in the same way Penney and Deegan do. He will get far better experience being with Munster. As was pointed out, the only reason the hype around Hodnett cooled, was his injury. His potential at both club and international level has been flagged since 20’s, from all corners.

Penny and Deegan are a bit wasted at Leinster. Deegan is an international standard 8 and whilst injury has done more to hold him back than anything else, he should still be playing first team rugby in the URC / Europe. Penny is a classy footballer, efficient and smart in how he goes about his game but I don't see him obviously forcing his way into the starting 15 at any of the other provinces in the way I think Deegan would.

I'd be very surprised if Hodnett isn't on the radar for Ireland, his performances the last few months can't have gone unnoticed and I don't think the transition to international rugby would phase him. I checked his wikipedia as I wasn't sure of his age and somewhat ironically he grew up in RossCarbery.

Neil3030

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120176586#Comment_120176586

That all depends though. If Hodnett was coming up through the Leinster academy, Nucifora likely wouldn't have granted many extensions to van der Flier's contract.

sprucemoose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120169991#Comment_120169991

i think there might be, have had a few games with very crooked throws but the ref has let them go because we/they didnt compete. i suppose if it speeds up the game then fair enough

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120170051#Comment_120170051

JC is also a very good goalkicker even if hes off form at the moment

TRC10

Question, if everyone is fit. Does POM get in Munster's strongest XV?

If Snyman gets back (granted, that's a big 'if'), you'd imagine him and Kleyn will start at lock and Beirne will shift to 6. Assuming Coombes is nailed on at 8, 7 is the only position up for grabs, and the way Hodnett is playing, you'd be hard pushed to leave him out.

Jump_In_Jack

I'd say Snyman or Kleyn would start with the other on the bench.

aloooof

Just got to watch the match last night.

I'd say it must've been a really enjoyable game for the neutral. But that's a poor as we've been defensively all season. They seemed to attack very deeply (Umaga was very good, I thought) which allowed them use our linespeed against us once they got past the lead defender. They cut us up through the middle a couple of times.

Still thought we did well to fight back from 12-0 down tho, and good to get the bonus point too.

Benetton a good team to watch tho, and every time I see the sun shining over there during a match in Jan/Feb I always think I must put it on my list to go for a game. 

Hodnett the pick of the bunch, continuing his excellent season, and down for 73m off 9 carries, 16 tackles, 1 turnover, 1 assist and 1 try. Can't be far off an international call up on his current form.

Thought Kendellen the best of the rest then, Paddy Patterson with a very mixed game and Josh Wycherly was poor. 

Couple of weeks to right those mistakes in defence tho, so not the worst time for it to happen.

@Jump_In_Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120179137#Comment_120179137

TBH - and considering the injury issues in the second row they've faced this season, this is one of those good problems you'd have to say.

I agree with @Jump_In_Jack that they'll probably rotate Snyman and Kleyn (and Edogbo) in the 5 shirt, alongside Beirne (or Aherne). They'd have the option then to bump to a bigger pack where they picked Snyman and Kleyn together if they wanted with Beirne in the 6 shirt in certain situations.

aloooof

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120179137#Comment_120179137

I think Jump in Jack's got it right; It'd be one of Snyman/Kleyn + Beirne which seems like a pretty complementary 2nd row to me. Ultimately, Beirne has only started 5 games for us at 6. (vs 46 at lock).

It might increasingly be an option to play Beirne at 6 tho, as Edogbo and Ahern return from injury; hopefuly they can get a good injury free run.

aloooof

Josh VdF an obvious point of comparison for Hodnett, so put together their comparative stats for the season from the provincial sites, and they're pretty comparable.

I think there's a case that Hodnett is a better carrier than VdF was at his age. Maybe the number of tackles stat the most surprising for me, Hodnett with almost 50% more than VdF.

Yeah_Right

Completely off topic but I had to laugh when the commentator mentioned that Jacob Umaga was the son of Mike and the grandson of Tana. Considering Mike is 7 years older than Tana that's some achievement.

stephen_n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120181653#Comment_120181653

It’s hard to compare across teams though. VDF might simply have to tackle less, as Leinster have defended less.

Hodnetts stats are unsurprisingly very good. If it wasn’t for injuries, he would already have been involved with Ireland I’d imagine.

Brief_Lives

he's some buachaill with a tractor too.

Cookiemunster

New 2 year deals for both Scannells.

John Ryan will return next season on a 1 year deal.

Edwin Edogbo will finish his last year in the academy before moving onto a 2 year contract in 2024.

https://www.munsterrugby.ie/2023/01/31/niall-scannell-rory-scannell-edwin-edogbo-john-ryan-contracts/#post

I'd say the above means that Archer will be leaving and we won't be signing a new hooker.

theVersatile

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120182862#Comment_120182862

Presumably Dan Sheahan 2.0 will come into the Academy to replace Chris Moore in the depth chart

Jump_In_Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120182862#Comment_120182862

Happy with that, the Scannells are worth their place in the squad and have proven that recently.

Ryan is definitely well worth the 1-year deal. Hopefully he will return in the same form as he showed the last few months.

Edogbo has shown glimpses of what he can do, just hope he can avoid injury in the long run.

Dubinusa

Good bit of biznis

letowski

To be fair to Niall Scannell, he has been playing some of his better rugby this season. Great set piece technician.

Delighted to have John Ryan back too. I think Kilcoyne is out of contract this summer, there hasn’t been much news on that front. I wonder what James Cronin’s contract situation is with Leicester, if he might be in consideration.

I don’t expect any overseas signings, Fekitoa and Synman are under contract next season.

Cookiemunster

When you're seeing unexpected contract announcments like today, I wouldn't put too much thought into Killer not having a new deal announced yet. When Munster do contract announcements like this, they usually do a number of them over a week or so, so it wouldn't surprise me to see another press release towards the end of the week.

James Cronin is in year 1 of a 2 year deal at Leicester.