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

With all due respect you havent a clue what your talking about

He has as many caps as players like Stockdale and mcfadden and a good few more caps than players like Conway, fitzgerald, Daverage and Jared Payne. He has more caps than leo cullen.

And none of them ruled themselves out of international contention for 3 years.

wasn’t enough of a systems player

Quite the opposite, Zebo was at his absolute pinnacle when playing the Joe Schmidt way.

When he chased back, cleared out rucks and worked hard off the ball, he was as good as anyone. If someone had sat him down, forced him to watch his own performance in Chicago over and over and told him just to keep doing that, he’d have a lot more caps. He was incredible that day.

It wasn’t Kearney who denied him caps, Kearney was a world class FB who’d have racked up a heap of caps under any coach. Zebo’s issue was sitting in the stands while more nuts and bolts players like Trimble, McFadden, Conway, Jones and even Earls hoovered up caps, because they could do what he seemingly could not or would not. He is a talented player but not so talented to force a coach into picking him.

Going to Racing might have been good for his bank balance but it was a disaster for his career, it was the absolute worst place he could have gone. Any prospect of working hard and knuckling down went out the window and eventually it cost him his job there.

He was only 31 coming home, with Joe and Kearney long gone, but he never got close to another cap.

Kearney got way too many caps in the latter end of his career. World class earlier on perhaps and the rule changes were made for a 15 with GAA background… but latterly he was lauded on here for doing the basics of his job (catch, clear the ball, run the ball back and don't lose possession), and the basics he couldn't do (tackle, jesus he was woeful at that as last man - compare to Keenan or Haley - poor distributor and wasn't good to beat a defensive line on the counter-attack like Hogg for e.g.) seemed to get glossed over. He had superb positioning, that definitely set him apart from his peers. He could catch a ball but not any better than say Halfpenny or Dan Biggar who were both good in the air. I thought Joe gave him way too much rope over the years when his form was average, but I guess he did what the coach wanted, we know how prescriptive Joe was and didn't stand for errors. I'd have wanted more out of my 15 personally, in attack especially. Keenan is already miles better than him.

I agree somewhat that Racing wasn't the best place for Zebo, would have loved to have seen him at Toulouse but he has French background and wanted some life experience over there… can't blame him for choosing Paris to live in. Disaster for his career… he reached a Heineken Cup final and scored two tries in a 4 point loss… I don't think so. He's been a good signing for Munster since his return, especially this season. He's had some injuries also in his time back which would have impacted on any potential Ireland involvement. I don't expect he'll be called up but wouldn't begrudge him if he was, he's in great form.

I’ve no interest in debating Rob Kearney, he had no impact on Zebo’s lack of caps.

Racing was a disaster for Zebo. He absolutely ballooned up and for a winger to be that heavy was always going to end badly. To be coming home on a 1 year contract for (allegedly) peanuts and not being in the Ireland frame probably wasn’t the plan. He has been a good signing for Munster but he has never been the player he was and I doubt he saw his homecoming panning out like this. I know he’s shoving on a bit but there are too many defensive lapses.

The original question was whether he underachieved, no I don’t think he did, but if he’d pushed himself harder I think he could have done more.

Kearney got way too many caps in the latter end of his career. World class earlier on perhaps and the rule changes were made for a 15 with GAA background… but latterly he was lauded on here for doing the basics of his job (catch, clear the ball, run the ball back and don't lose possession), and the basics he couldn't do (tackle, jesus he was woeful at that as last man - compare to Keenan or Haley - poor distributor and wasn't good to beat a defensive line on the counter-attack like Hogg for e.g.) seemed to get glossed over.

I think, those that defended Kearney way back can now see what they were missing out on when you see the likes of Keenan play FB.

It was PR. Munster had literally just let a winger/full back go because they claimed they couldn’t afford him, and there was a lot of resentment towards IRFU over Zebo’s non-selection for Ireland while in France. This was win-win for both sides.

It would also be odd for IRFU to shell out big money on a contract and then never call the guy into a squad.

Munster are blocked from front rows, blocked from second rows,dont need back rows,blocked from centers

Its a 10 or a back 3 player are the options. Wouldn't surprise me if nobody was signed

A few tickets for Munster v All Blacks have come available on TM

If he was on 300k, what an utter waste of money.

Fair enough, but the idea that the IRFU had to pitch in to meet his wage demands is just not accurate IMO.