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

The feeling that I got was that Munster didn't train with sufficient intensity during the six nations break.

There was something like a dozen knock ons that led to scrums. People complain that the Munster scrum was weak. I'd say that the weakness was more on the Glasgow put in. The Munster scrum was reasonable on their own put in. I'd say fixing their handling would be easier than improving that scrum.

In the wake of that Casey coming on with a bit of niggle seemed to lift the intensity of the entire team.

Kleyn was what he usually is. A powerful player thats a little slow and not athletic enough.

Mod: Friendly reminder folks, this is the Munster thread. Some posters of other Provinces have posted during a match for the first time in awhile, so it seems worthwhile to bring a section of the new Charter to your attention:

“Fans of any province are welcome to post in any provincial thread, but when you post in the thread of a province other than your own you must accept that if you are deemed to be trolling or griefing you will be dealt with more harshly”.

Difficult to know, and we probably won’t have our answer until next week at least. But I worry it’s more the latter than the former.

The defensive issues have started to surface since the Benetton game. Both that, and the Scarlets game, we were cut up thru the middle a number of times. (That does coincide with the start of the 6 Nations tho).

To me, the first half 2nite absolutely seemed like a team who had done their homework on us. That, coupled with our ruck inaccuracy in the 1st half and really, there was no coming back. For me, both Carbery and Patterson were really poor defensively 2nite. Having a 9/10 of Casey/Patterson and Carbery could be an issue going forward.

Some of my thoughts on that:

• Starting with the obvious, that first half was as poor as we’ve played since the start of the season. 
• Jack O’Donoghue was the biggest disappointment for me 2nite. Captain subbed off after 52 mins tells it’s own story. 
• And front-row more generally continues to be a real area of weakness.
• Patterson is a live wire, but I still maintain some of his passing (and defending) is poor. 
• Lineout issues, primarily from the throw. I think both Barron and Buckley threw a crooked lineout, and Barron got caught for a double-pumped (and was lucky to get away with it once or twice previously this season). That’s a pretty basic error, and something we need to iron out. Cost us possession in key positions. 
• Onto the few positives, Nash was excellent. Casey was brilliant off the bench. And I’d like to see more of Crowley from 10, which I think we will see for the rest of the season, with Healy leaving. Good to get some more minutes into Snyman as well.
• Thought Coombes did well too, got his customary try from 3m, but showed good hands through out. And Hodnett went well too. 
• And still think our skill levels and handling in attack are looking a cut above where they were last season. (Albeit with some handling errors in the 1st half). Big question marks about our defence now tho, from both phase play and set piece.
• Ultimately, a disappointing end to what could be our last home game of the season.