A great big Munster thread

snoopy snoopy dog dog · Feb 22, 2011

Is Scanlon primarily a fullback? I only saw him play a couple of times and he looked a decent player.

David Wallace has signed a one year extension to his contract with Munster until the end of the 2011/12 season. He's still their best backrower so re-signing him is good news. It also spreads out the need to rebuild the team for a bit longer which can only help. If Quinlan, Wallace and Hayes all left at once at the end of this season, that would leave a huge experience deficit in their pack next season.

profitius · Feb 23, 2011

Yeah hes mainly a fullback. I think he can play on the wing too and maybe even at 10. I'm not too sure about 10 but he has taken kicks for Cork Con.

munstermuffin · Feb 23, 2011

Scanlon can play along back 3 only. A fine player but waspoor last night

coonor · Feb 25, 2011

http://www.munsterrugby.ie/news/8712.php

The rumors have been confirmed and Botha will sign a 2 year deal with Munster at the end of the season as the province tries to rebuild its scrum.

snoopy snoopy dog dog · Feb 25, 2011

That's an excellent signing. Fully capped Springboks Du Preez and Botha should go a long way towards fixing Munster's woeful scrum.

One small issue it raises could be that the pack may now need another ball carrier. For all Buckleys faults, he generated a lot of go forward ball outside the set pieces. Botha won't do that- he's a scrummager and that's it. Du Preez, O'Callaghan and O'Connell aren't great with ball in hand either. Flannery, Wallace, Leamy and Coughlan must pick up the slack.

The next area that needs to be addressed is centre I think. Maybe a new backrower too.

Peat · Feb 26, 2011

If Botha has the same effect he is credited with at Ulster, Munster's young props are in for a treat.

snoopy snoopy dog dog · Feb 26, 2011

Botha seems to have been a de facto scrum coach for Ulster. Court improved a lot and McAllister looks like a decent prospect- if that's down to Botha, hopefully the SA international will have the same effect on Munster's props. Maybe he'll help make Peter Borlase look someway competent!

Perhaps that's being harsh on Borlase and it's too early to judge him, after all he's had a long extended season with the Crusaders, Canterbury and Munster. Then again Connacht also recruited a tighthead from Canterbury at the same time (Rodney Ah You) and he's looked far better than Borlase. Maybe Munster just bought the wrong Cantabrian prop.

Good to see Simon Zebo and Ian Nagle start in a farly strong Munster team against Aironi tomorrow. Being surrounded by experienced players will help them more than throwing in a bunch of kids en masse.

munstermuffin · Feb 27, 2011

Just back from Italy hence not on this but Botha will be a great asset and will help and generate higher standard expected from our prop
I think the critism of Borlase is unfair and plead for people to give him a preseason and then judge as he was burnt out when joining us and still hasn't had a break.
Snoop I agree we low on carriers but it easier train a guy in to doing that than scrummage and that is a problem we can fix.
On today's game great win in poor weather. A nice tough game and well Zebo showed bit of class in his try I think

coonor · Feb 27, 2011

munstermuffin said:
Just back from Italy hence not on this but Botha will be a great asset and will help and generate higher standard expected from our prop
I think the critism of Borlase is unfair and plead for people to give him a preseason and then judge as he was burnt out when joining us and still hasn't had a break.
Snoop I agree we low on carriers but it easier train a guy in to doing that than scrummage and that is a problem we can fix.
On today's game great win in poor weather. A nice tough game and well Zebo showed bit of class in his try I think

Zebo didn't score a try :lol: I do rate him though. He should get more game time.

munstermuffin · Feb 27, 2011

coonor said:
Zebo didn't score a try :lol: I do rate him though. He should get more game time.

He did score but it was ruled out "wrongly".

greybeard · Feb 28, 2011

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ontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--> Well, yesterday afternoon I went along to see my local team take on Munster, saying to my friend that I hoped Munster wouldn't be out of reach by half-time. They weren't; they led by only 6 -3 and should have gone in 15 - 6 under! Marshall had a terrible game kicking and missed three penalties and a DG, none of them difficult, and that score would have reflected play. In a game missing internationls on both sides and a host of injuries to the Aironi I suppose it was too much to expert a good game, but there were an incredibile number of errors by both squads. It's a long time since I saw such poor kicking – kicks out on the full, kicks which didn't go out at all, and kicks giving away possession. Demas – playing out of position at 15 (the first 2 choices both injured) - made me worried every time he got the ball; not even he knew where it was going to end up, but both sides kicked and handled badly.
The second half started badly with Toniolatti yc'd for a tackle on an airborne opponent & then got worse. A 4-man (!!!) 5m lineout with Aironi put in was called, complete misunderstanding between thrower and jumpers; ball sails beautifully over the lineout. Ryan was doing his duty lurking about but probably not expecting to be involved in that play, finds the ball bouncing in front of him and – not believing his luck – runs over without a tackler in sight. He'll never score an easier try. Crowd couldn't believe it either. The next 15 m were a complete blackout. If Munster had chosen the right options and handled better they could have had another three tries, as sit was they had to settle for a penalty try for a scrummaging offence, and the game was over. Towards the end Aironi got back into attacking mode and 3 mins from the end Wilson (the best Aironi forward) got over to score.
A poor match technically which, ironically, the Aironi will take more away from than Munster.

profitius · Feb 28, 2011

That sums up Munsters season Greybeard. Munster badly need a new backs coach as well because they're getting worse all the time.

munstermuffin · Mar 1, 2011

Munster are looking to appoint a specialized backs coach

profitius · Mar 1, 2011

munstermuffin said:
Munster are looking to appoint a specialized backs coach

Thank god for that!

The backs look clueless and although they're not the most talented they should be doing better.

Logorrhea · Mar 1, 2011

I thought McGahan was the backs coach,. In the same way that Schmidt is for Leinster?

munstermuffin · Mar 1, 2011

Munster want a complete over haul as in Tony, Shaun Payne and Dutchy Holland are 3 who have input but
Tony is really a specialized defense coach with good drills for skills.
Shaun is only a helper and hasn't got coaching knowledge.
And Dutchy isn't experienced or got the standard of coaching required for this level yet. He also doubles up as video analyst and is stronger in that area

profitius · Mar 1, 2011

I see that East Munster are very strong this year in the youths section with a backbone of Waterpark players. I wonder will we start seeing some of them filter into the academy in the coming seasons. With Waterparks record you would think so.

munstermuffin · Mar 1, 2011

Waterpark aren't great though in Munster Junior 1. Tipperary seems to be hotspot of talent at moment. It hard to tell at that level though as the schools players don't be in that selection

profitius · Mar 1, 2011

munstermuffin said:
Waterpark aren't great though in Munster Junior 1. Tipperary seems to be hotspot of talent at moment. It hard to tell at that level though as the schools players don't be in that selection

Yeah they're struggling in that division. I'd say the work they're putting in at underage would filter up to their senior team eventually in the coming years even if many of those players leave Waterford. No doubt Tipp is a good place to look too.

I'd like to see Waterpark youth team play some of the school teams. If they're getting hundreds of young players training with them at all age levels their primary skills should be at a high level. Its hard for any school to compete with that. From a Munster point of view the schools are not producing too many HEC standard players.

munstermuffin · Mar 1, 2011

That is our problem the schools standard has dipped. But I agree Waterpark have good set up and excellent facilities but they find it hard to keep players who go to 3rd level education in Cork Dublin or Limerick etc as they join AIL clubs and try work their way up through that system

A great big Munster thread

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