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

No idea. Whatever he decided, hope it works out for him.

An article on Munster's game by Overthehillprop

https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/rugby/arid-41036039.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Small pet peeve - if they're going to play Zombie as teams run onto the pitch, don't skip straight to the chorus. Play it from the beginning. Let the song eerily build as it was originally intended.

A very soft ten minute period and a lack of Furlong/Sheehan/Kelleher/Porter style front-rows killed us. Of all the Munster front rows, I think right now Salanoa is the only one capable of reaching that quality (Ryan great in his own way though; had Porter twisted all sorts of ways in the scrums).

Nash is the breakout players of this season.

Frisch handy again, just such a silky smooth ball player.

Daly looked very tidy too - I think he plays a lot better at 15 than wing; he's a little unlucky that Haley's been operating at such a high level for so long.

Casey changed the game when he came on.

Back five not lacking in effort.

Coombes has to be back in the Irish squad for the 6N. He's had an immense run of form since being released to play in the SA A game in PUC

Was the second 5m penalty correctly awarded? I thought there was a fair jackal in place?

I think the issue with the frontrow is its hard to produce those big, power frontrow specimens that you need at the highest level. We have produced good frontrow forwards in the past for sure. But even in our hey days, the likes of Marcus Horan, Jerry Flannery, John Hayes, etc were very good players no doubt, but not big powerful ball carriers around the field. Horan and Flannery in particular were mobile frontrow forwards. I would say in the last 20 years the only big frontrow units we produced would be the likes of Tony Buckley and Denis Fogarty, maybe you can say Kilcoyne moreso in the way he plays, but he is not a big guy.

I think Salanoa is coming on well under the radar and I'm excited to see what he can do with presumely more gametime when Ryan departs. Loughman and Scannell are solid, Barron has shown nice flashes in the loose. But we need more. No doubt a signing will be needed next season, but hopefully though we can find/produce more Irish qualified players.

I think the team is going in the right direction overall though and the academy is producing more players than it did ten years ago.

Coombes can't be relied on for ALL the carrying. And really, since De Allende's departure, there's nobody else offering anything even close to that level of penetrative threat off the first phase. Top defenses like Leinster can spread and the wider game will stall. Salanoa, to be fair, had one of the most impressive carries of the night when he came on. Might be something to work with there.

That said, are Munster better than they were 6 months ago? Unquestionably yes.

Is there scope to improve even further before any new signings come in? I'd argue also yes.

Crowley will get better with more top quality game experience. Earls will get sharper after returning from the layoff. Edogbo, Ahern, Haley, Loughmann and Hodnett will come back. One of Farrell or Fekitoa may still come back in and establish themselves as a starter. Snyman might play again. Casey seems to be on a continuously positive trajectory. Joey had a blip tonight but has otherwise been in form recently, and will hopefully recapture that (for e.g., did we score again after he went off?).

Onwards and upwards.

I think while Crowley and Frisch individually played well, I don't think them as a centre partnership works. The first phase strike moves were a mess tonight, it was like Munster were trying to be too finesse because we don't have a carrier in midfield that can win collisions. It was noticable that the only strike move that worked was the Casey/Nash lineout move on the lead up to the 3rd try. I'd love to see if Fekitoa can play in Belfast next week. As you said, Farrell is a big loss too.

Carrying power is definitely the biggest weakness in this team, stemming from mostly the front row and midfield offering little in this department. Leinster were happy enough to give us the ball around halfway and defend. Casey can help a bit in bringing more tempo and pace to the attack, but we need more units that can drive through the gainline.

I had hoped to get to watch the game before posting but I'm back at work tomorrow so may not get to see it before the weekend.

I haven't read too much on the game either so my thoughts are more or less based on the score and timeline of the scores. Seems to me we really lost that game while Leinster were down to 14 and even after missing the conversion to win it neither team scored in the final 15 mins. Had we any opportunity to try a drop goal in that period, they almost seem to be a thing of the past.

Odd that Leinster didn't try to get one so, a one or two point lead is the worst lead with 15 mins left on the clock, no matter what control button you have

They did try but Munster defended very well. Leinster weren’t taking many risks though, a lot of low percentage plays in attack. Keeping possession while knocking on the door.

I’m not sure Munster can complain about sealing off in that game. Both sides were at it because Busby just didn’t officiate the breakdown well at all. It was a complete mess all game and both sides took advantage. But for me it definitely was partly responsible for the lack of back line effectiveness for both sides.

Hey, I’ll have you know we’re better at identifying refereeing issues than you. I mean, no, wait….