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

why would you pick on projected form continually though? surely there has to be a point where you decide enough is enough and move on though? carbery hasnt really shown anything since his first season imo and yet hes a guaranteed starter still?

by bringing JC straight back into the starting team everytime he is fit they are making that claim when he simply isnt that talented of a 10 for that to happen.

and that is rubbish that JJ or Healy were never good enough. at many times over the last few seasons both have being playing infinitely better than carbery

why were lancaster and cullen (correctly) convinced that he was a 15 so if thats the case?

nobody is saying there is some grand conspiracy (or at least im not), what im saying is that farrell/irfu see carbery as the next best option at 10 and are dictating that he is the starting 10 for munster when available and i , among others, disagree with this as he hasnt shown enough at 10 to warrant this.

the irish coach dictating to provincial coaches isnt unheard of, kearney was picked for leinster ahead of JC down to schmidts intervention and carbery was likewise on the bench ahead of ross byrne

IRFU absolutely aren't dictating Munster selection.

Why would they? It would be absolutely counter productive for both Munster and Ireland.

No. This is pure mental gymnastics.

When a player was the 'Next big thing' and the IRFU invest a lot of political capital to move him to Munster as the annointed replacement for Johnny Sexton, then they pick up a long term injury (while playing for Ireland). There is a huge reluctance to change the depth chart until that player comes back, especially if its in a period where almost all of the minutes were being given to Johnny Sexton and everyone else is fighting for scraps off the bench or against weaker teams in heavily rotated sides.

these are two of the most sensible posts ive seen in a while

I went very cold on Joey after the Connacht game, but to be fair to him, he as proven me wrong since then

you said it was to the chagrin of leinster management and fans but you forget carbery didnt really want to move either, but cullen and lancaster wanted at 15 so his hand was forced

if you dont think the irfu/national setup has influence over provincial selection then youre very wrong in how you think the system works

'Why would the IRFU, who's primary mandate is the success of Irish rugby, not want Munster and Ireland to develop and select the best possible player available?' - not that i think this is the case, but its pretty easy to think of justification here if you wanted. for example, the irfu could have looked at the situation in 2018 and thought, okay munster arent going to be successful for the foreseeable future anyway so lets give them carbery, if he eventually comes good we get an option for the national team and if he doesnt, theyre not going to be winning anything for a while so theres no great loss. leinster have the byrnes for when sexton is injured so theyre fine - problem solved. do i think this is what happened - no, is it inconceivable - also no.

'Any other kind of tinfoil hat theory suggesting otherwise doesn't stand up to scrutiny.' - except for the fact that it has been confirmed by a number of people, rob kearney for one, that this kind of interference by the irfu does happen

kearney has said that the irfu intervenes in provincial selection from time to time, pretty simple

i have vague recollection of cullen mentioning it in a post-match interview previously too but i could be incorrect in that

also, given how the main irfu and the individual provinces work i dont see why you are so incredulous at the idea of them intervening? it is far from the realms of possibility

remember, this is an organisation that wanted to keep van graan.....

The IRFU might intervene when an NIQ is depriving an IQ of game time. That might make sense. It would make no sense when both players are Irish.

This theory is predicated on the idea that JJ Hanrahan is/was good enough to be Munster's first choice and in the mix for Ireland. He isn't and never was and it's laughable to suggest otherwise. Ben Healy isn't and never was either, but he at least has time to develop.

JJ was a kind of wildcard appointment. He was no longer thought to be international standard but he was brought in as 3rd choice cover behind Carbery and Bleyandaal. While Carberry was injured, it was a chance for Burns, Carty and Ross Byrne to overtake Carbery on the international scene, but inside munster, we had blown our budget on 2 10s who were almost never fit to be selected

Since 2021, we have seen Ben Healy graduate from the academy, and Crowley coming in directly behind him, while Carbery has finally found some fitness and has been given space to re-discover his match form at club and international level.

Rugby is a cruel mistress sometimes. Munster went years without having a fit 1st choice 10, and straight into having 3 fit international standard 10s and having to play academy players in the league before the 6 Nations (they pretty much confirmed Butler is either starting or Benching for the Benneton game during the press conference today)

The Munster players named in the Irish 6Ns squad - Casey, Crowley, Earls, Murray, Beirne, Coombes, Kilcoyne & O’Mahony

As already mentioned Ben Healy is in the Scottish 6Ns Squad.