Munster Team Talk Thread - Beirne After Reading

Rowntree should have made the switch earlier, Butler was having a tough time out there and Murray clearly made a difference.

RTE still has no report about the loss up yet....

Shocking...

Edit...up now...hours after the fact...

RTE news : Munster suffer shock loss to Zebre

http://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/2024/0928/1472501-munster-suffer-shock-loss-to-zebre/

can anyone explain to me why Leinster who have an embarrassing amount of riches are the only province that have been able and allowed to strengthen their squad this season?

We have brought in players the other provinces are happy to leave go, billy burns is a 5/10 player, the connacht recruits are never going to be pushing for Irish places, basically all players not near international level, while perfectly good players like Frisch and RG have had to make way. We had a 13 playing 12 today, a wing playing 13 and an AIL player covering and having to put in a massive amount of minutes.

Haley is international level but cant get a look in, hes one solid season away from being brought into the English fold. Hes a better player than Nash who has proven to be able for the green jersey, its all the exact same thing that happened with Ben healy and frisch. Aint no way any of leinsters 10’s are a better player than Ben healy.

Even Crowley is only in the 10 jersey because frawley got injured on a tour designed specifically for him to play 10 and Jack took his chance. This years tour is being done for nobodys benefit only prendergast and Munster can ill afford to spare the players picked for that shite, we need Sean obrien, Ben oconner and Alex Klendennen in red against SA clubs not in Green, we are giving up capped starting players while others are not. Its fckuning ridicilous.

Its beyond a joke tbh, every move in Irish rugby is done to the betterment of the biggest bunch of chokers that have ever taken the field because they dont have the bottle to realise their headcoach is useless and should have been sacked a few years back.

Anyone know will the star players return for the croke park clash or is it likely the B teams will still be playing??

I think if your first port of call after a loss is to bemoan Leinster, then you're already on to a loser. Wrt Haley, Ireland are the best side in rugby currently. Making the squad is incredibly hard and selection is at a premium. He covers 15 exclusively and unfortunately for him, Hugo Keenan has probably been the best fullback in the world for the last few years.

Also Ben Healy clearly isn't that good. Lost his place to Crowley soon after the latter broke through. He's now close to losing his starting spot at Edinburgh and is 3rd/4th choice flyhalf for Scotland.

This is utterly hilarious.

Edit: an utterly embarrassing too, of course.

Which part do you think is true?

The bit where you **** on your own signings and players?

The paranoia about how England are going to call up 30 year old Mike Haley any minute now?

The piece about how the Ginger Scottish Ross Byrne is supposedly better than any of Leinster’s out halves? (This is my personal favourite).

Blaming defeat on the absence of Sean O’Brien, Alex “Klendennan” and Ben O’Connor?!

Munster are by far and away the least impacted team by the EI tour btw.

Or the embittered, nonsensical rant at the end where you just take pot shots at Leinster?

As I said - utterly embarrassing post. Nothing short of just provoking rows with mindless nonsensical provincial sniping.

Billy burns is a **** signing. Aint no two ways about that.

Mike haley is our best back 3 player.

I never blamed the defeat on missing players, but squad depth is a massive issue now and the shite going on off the field is making it worse. Thats indisputable.

Its not a pot shot when its true.

Munster got beaten up up front today, with 6/8 from their first choice pack playing; the very guys who on other occasions you and others are bemoaning their lack of recognition like Hodnett, Coombes, Barron etc.

The two guys you’re missing are 32 and 35 years old, so there is a very near future where Munster will be without both in all likelihood.

The loss today to Zebre, who played well and have some dangerous players but are still a team who hadn’t won a game in 10 months and lost to Cardiff last week, had next to nothing to do with the IRFU, or Leinster or anything else. It was your own players not showing up and taking the opposition for granted.

Mike Haley is a solid full back who defends the position well and carries hard in contact but he has an extremely limited distribution, is prone to brain dead decisions when trying to pass and is an average athlete at the top level who got beaten for pace over 40 metres by a Leinster second row. If he’s our best back 3 player (he’s not) we are in trouble.

What's the stuff going on off the field?

Terrible performance from Munster stalwarts though I really enjoyed Murrays cameo at ten. I’d really hope to see a massive reaction next week or this bodes very badly for the season. Nobody to blame but the players, they absolutely turned off for half an hour in the second half.

Ben Healy 😂😂

God I enjoyed that. Healy’s not even close to first choice for Edinburgh. Comical reaction to blowing a 13 point lead against a team with 2 wins in 3 years.

How much does a performance like that harm Coombes getting closer to an Ireland squad? Or does it impact people's conviction that he's been robbed or badly treated in not being given a fair shot to date.

I'm wondering if we've changed something this year, we were the best defensive team last season but we've conceded 75 points in two games and our D was a concern for me during the two preseason games too. Have we tried to change something to suit our attack, the players that we have now or trying something somewhere else that players are falling between two stools leaving gaps for the opposition to be exploit.

I had a similar view too but yesterday we looked out of position, drifting away from rucks that we hadn't won, then add in JOD no pressure forward pass, after we won a turnover, Haley's forward pass that was intercepted and the pillars going missing allowing two tries to be scored just makes me think there's some change that the lads haven't mastered yet.

Quinn is a great player, but we are already over reliant on him this season and he not Klendennen should be in the emerging irish squad as we know alex isnt going to get a chance in the Irish squad proper

Its great that quinn is getting minutes but the lack of depth across the squad has gotten worse not better this season.

We are in massive trouble in midfield, down past the bare bones at 10 already and we are now in a big hole for back 3 players, while also still reliant on the same props.

If the likes of Beirne / Crowley get injured things could get very very embarrassing.

Without some personal making it off the treatment table onto the pitch and the mistakes getting eliminated we could be in for an utterly embarrassing hiding in croke park.

Two games in there is very little to be optimistic about, and while some might disagree that the decisions made at national level are having a detrimental effect on the club it clearly is.

we had a winger playing 13. A player who has never played in that position before expected to lead the defence, we then had to replace him with a player from the AIL making his debut. We had no OH option on the bench to cover 10.

Casey an Irish international is already after playing 160 minutes of rugby, what a way to treat him this early in the season, where is the player welfare there?

Sure the errors and the performance are the problem in that loss, i never said otherwise the performance was dogshit.

But your pissing into the wind having a squad like that expecting to compete in the league not to mind in Europe.

So pick a backline for the ospreys game. Will it be something like this?

Casey - again for another 80 mins?
Murray - channeling his inner dupont and playing 80 mins at 10?
Abhrahams
Farrell - A player so good connacht let him go
Fitzgerald - an AIL player with a short term deal
Nash
Haley.

With one experienced player on the bench in shay mccarthy. You can have all the back 3 players you want but that halfback and midfield is pants.

All while other experienced players who are needed are off down to SA to play SA clubs in friendly games in an effort to give prendergast gametime.

Its a complete crock of ****, its disrespect-full to the league, we are quick enough to chastise SA teams sending second string side to the NH at times, how is this different?

Munster have 44 senior contracted players and another 18 Academy players.

10 on the injury report, and 8 gone on the EI tour (of whom 5 are Academy players). Munster also had 10 players playing AIL the previous weekend.

There’s more than enough depth there - you just don’t like or rate some of the options. Why did Casey need to play 160 mins? There was a senior contracted scrum half sitting on the bench for the Connacht game who wasn’t given a minute.

You had no out half on the bench because you opted not to select your Year 2 Academy out half. Crowley will most likely be back this coming weekend in any event.

The problems at centre are largely of Munster’s own making because they haven’t produced a single top international quality centre in the last 20 years.

The problem here isn’t that you don’t have enough players, you just don’t like the players you have.

that is never going to be at international level, he just doesn't have the pace needed and that wont ever change

I think you could apply that to the guy who left just as much as the guy who arrived, tbh.