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

Not defending the chip but we got a penalty out of it, if that's the one I'm thinking about.

I thought crowley was fine to good. Not great but not bad. I often think 10s not imposing themselves on games is just a pack that gets beat up.

So a few small things combined to a perfect storm, on reflection.

1. The D. Bayonne grew in confidence as they passed and offloaded their way through the midfield channels in the first half. Something went badly wrong here. Baptism of fire for Nankivel, who has otherwise looked fantastic since joining. Might just be a few games to early to have him defending the 13 channel. Might not all be on Nank though. To be fair to Leamy, this would be hist first time facing a Gallic monster offloading pack, and a few tweaks might be needed in future.

2. 10. Hearing a lot of how Crowley failed to "impose himself" on the game. But those defensive issues really left him with no good options. Classically, under the pump, you want your 10 to kick the leather off the ball and at least get you into the right areas of the pitch. But this is a lot less appealing when the opposition are running back through you so easily.

Add 1. and 2. together, and this leads then to 3: Trusting the process a little too much. There was one incident attacking off the right hand 15m channel, we had an overlap on the far side and (I think) Kendellen went for a reverse pass back inside to absolutely nobody. Beirne's pass into touch was another. We were rattled, and lacked the confidence and composure to make heads up decisions.

Not to mention the set-piece and breakdown issues, a lot which would be fixed by a returning Kleyn. But overall, I'm buoyant on our chances if we can sort out a defensive system and personnel (was Frisch injured? I think his D in the 13 channel is spectacularly underrated). Get the confidence to use more varied kicks, less panic and more heads up play when needed.

Not to mention how his offloading often unlocks the wider channels, where you ideally want to be attacking against larger packs that get narrow on D.

There's a serious "what have the Romans ever done for us" vibe with Frisch.

Think he's lucky that's all he got and that Mikautadze didn't do his best Trevor Brennan impression.

Would assume the IRFU would make this a nationwide ban for all games and not just games in Thomond and Musgrave.

A lifetime ban seems quite draconian. Anyone can make a mistake. Would a season or two ban have been punishment enough?

Maybe there's an element of virtue-signalling and scapegoating from Munster Rugby. The fan's mindset didn't appear in a vacuum. He was emboldened by an attitude of entitlement he sees and feels around him. But it's easier to push all the blame on to him.

There must be zero tolerance. Absolute and total.

The ban is appropriate. The alternative is a slippery slope with people trying it on, either in the crowd, or onto the pitch.

Yes its a rare occurrence, lets keep it that way.

Very harsh to ban people for analysing an incident.

It's not remotely harsh. A fan aggressively intervening with player has the potential to escalate into something very nasty.

He could easily have got a dig in the heat and then the player would have suffered afterwards. It’s a fair reward for a moment of stupidity.