A great big Munster thread

[big ginger 8]

Tadhg Beirne has returned to team training after rehabbing a rib injury he sustained in the Heineken Champions Cup clash with Toulouse.

RG Snyman has progressed to the final stages of his rehab from a long-term knee injury and will be reviewed for a possible return to squad training next week.

On the Academy front lock Thomas Ahern is unavailable for training this week as he continues to rehab a knee injury, while prop Josh Wycherley (neck) will increase his training load with a decision on his availability for Saturday's match to be made later in the week.

Continuing to rehab: RG Snyman (Knee), Neil Cronin (Knee), Paddy Patterson (Ankle)

 

[big ginger 8]

James Cronin confirmed to be leaving Munster at the end of the season. No word where he's going. You'd have to imagine if he wanted to stay in Ireland Connacht or Ulster would have a spot for him.

 

[Jakedood]

James Cronin confirmed to be leaving Munster at the end of the season. No word where he's going. You'd have to imagine if he wanted to stay in Ireland Connacht or Ulster would have a spot for him.

Not sure re ulster, with McGrath and Moore, plus two good young props coming through, along with Callum Reid as well... I think we're unlikely to be investing, though wouldnt mind a big time upgrade here. But wouldnt be for a journeyman. What I'd give for a John Afoa to be back with us

 

[big ginger 8]

Not sure re ulster, with McGrath and Moore, plus two good young props coming through, along with Callum Reid as well... I think we're unlikely to be investing, though wouldnt mind a big time upgrade here. But wouldnt be for a journeyman. What I'd give for a John Afoa to be back with us

I mean Moore and O'Toole don't play the same position so are pretty irrelevant.

EOS is currently your starter but you need to be two deep in the frontrow, at least, to be at the level Ulster want to be at. Jack seems likely to be rehabbing for most of next season and we've no idea what level he'll come back at. Reid looks very good but clearly still has a way to go and isn't trusted more than Warwick yet by the looks of it. Depending on the cost Cronin would be a very useful signing over the next two years or so. Especially with two NIQ slots already gone.

 

[Jakedood]

I mean Moore and O'Toole don't play the same position so are pretty irrelevant.

EOS is currently your starter but you need to be two deep in the frontrow, at least, to be at the level Ulster want to be at. Jack seems likely to be rehabbing for most of next season and we've no idea what level he'll come back at. Reid looks very good but clearly still has a way to go and isn't trusted more than Warwick yet by the looks of it. Depending on the cost Cronin would be a very useful signing over the next two years or so. Especially with two NIQ slots already gone.

Wasnt sure which side of the row he's on

This is true, I mean i wish we used our NIQ slots better than we do, given alby is here for a runaround and a paycheck, and Carter probably shouldnt be in our starting second row. Plus Nakarawa, so actually its all 3

Good point mind, yeah Reid has potential so we'll see how that develops, we're certainly not known for bringing through top Props these days

 

[Groundhog]

Sorry to see Cronin go. He had some really good games for us this season, so I wouldn't have let him go voluntarily. At the same time if it's a vote of confidence in Wycherley I'll say fair enough. Doesn't fully sit right with me if it's cost cutting though.

 

[Groundhog]

Rhys Marshall leaving the province as I think most expected. I always thought he was a pretty good player, while not being a top tier European hooker. Whatever about not trusting youth, we are losing a huge amount of experience in Holland, Cronin, Stander, O'Donnell, Hanrahan, Marshall and next year we will have literally no choice but to rely heavily on the likes of J. Wycherley, Hodnett, Crowley, Barron, O'Sullivan etc next year. I would feel a lot more comfortable if they'd had more exposure this year before likely being mainstays of most matchday squads next year, but they will all need to step up in a big way and the staff clearly have faith or a few more players would have been renewed.

9 guys being promoted from the academy in a year feels pretty unprecedented to me, some of whom have definitely skipped the que and I think they all have the physical attributes to play at a top level which is great for the squad. Really hope we can refill the academy below them with similar quality. I think we only have Scott Buckley, Cian Hurley, Paddy Kelly, Eoin O'Connor, Alex Kendellen and Conor Phillips left at the moment.

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Just when you thought you'd heard it all. All seemingly largely OK.

Munster's CJ Stander, Damian de Allende, RG Snyman and Mike Haley injured after player 'threw petrol on fire'

Munster quartet CJ Stander, Damian de Allende, RG Snyman and Mike Haley sustain burns after a player "threw petrol on a fire".

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Jimbo37]

Any idea what happened

 

[Groundhog]

Not sure what cosmic entity RG Snyman ****** off, but the guy seems cursed. Bizarre situation that is! Hopefully everyone will be perfectly ok.

 

[Groundhog]

Right so they were by the firepit and someone decided to pour petrol on it. Petrol can catches fire, explodes.

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Right so they were by the firepit and someone decided to pour petrol on it. Petrol can catches fire, explodes.

Christ. Something like that was my initial guess, but I discounted it on the grounds that no-one could possibly be so stupid.

Incredibly lucky that none of them are up for a Darwin Award.

 

[Groundhog]

Christ. Something like that was my initial guess, but I discounted it on the grounds that no-one could possibly be so stupid.

Incredibly lucky that none of them are up for a Darwin Award.

Yeah, pretty bizarre. Pouring gas from a cannister on an open flame is insanely stupid and all involved pretty lucky to only have superficial burns.

 

[sugary tae]

Underwhelming selection for the zebre game. Good to see Gallagher back but why we haven't gotten more minutes into salanoa knox and jack O Sullivan's and josh Wycherley beggars belief.

 

[sugary tae]

Kendellan impressed for the u20s

 

[unrated]

Whats this thing about half the team trains in Cork and the other half is based in Limerick? Whats the reason for this if its real? How does it effect the team?

 

[Groundhog]

Whats this thing about half the team trains in Cork and the other half is based in Limerick? Whats the reason for this if its real? How does it effect the team?

I'll tell you if you commit to being a Munster Fan

 

[unrated]

I'll tell you if you commit to being a Munster Fan

Well if I did not have soon to be skin in the game with the URC then I could have easily loved Munster. I only hear good things about the club and Limerick. Also the culture.

And in the Chasing the Sun documentary they had a little section on the Munster days of Nienaber and Rassie which was also very positive.

So I could have easily supported them, but now Munster becomes one of the primary competitions for trophies, it would be sacrilege.


Anycase, i will link a video of CJ Stander speaking to Jean de Villiers about his Munster days and there De Villiers mentioned the Interesting squad split.


He said one week he met the cork guys, and the other the Limerick guys. Also that the club players trains with the Munster players but is not necessarily part of the squad. This to me is unheard of in SA.

 

[Groundhog]

Well if I did not have soon to be skin in the game with the URC then I could have easily loved Munster. I only hear good things about the club and Limerick. Also the culture.

And in the Chasing the Sun documentary they had a little section on the Munster days of Nienaber and Rassie which was also very positive.

So I could have easily supported them, but now Munster becomes one of the primary competitions for trophies, it would be sacrilege.


Anycase, i will link a video of CJ Stander speaking to Jean de Villiers about his Munster days and there De Villiers mentioned the Interesting squad split.


He said one week he met the cork guys, and the other the Limerick guys. Also that the club players trains with the Munster players but is not necessarily part of the squad. This to me is unheard of in SA.

That's fair! Yeah I'm sure you will get to know all about the teams in the URC and I'm happy to chat about some Munster history!

Yes so the Limerick-Cork thing is an odd one. It has actually been resolved now, the team trains together exclusively in our High Performance Centre in Limerick, but you're right it was the case during Rassie and Nienabers time! Munster is a weird case where it has two pretty large cities with Cork being the larger city but Limerick traditionally being the centre of power in rugby terms and our actual main stadium Thomond Park being in Limerick although we do also have a stadium in Cork. There was a very political situation whereby the powers that be in Cork were very against all of the training sessions taking place in Limerick. There's also the fact that travelling between Cork and Limerick takes a good while and a lot of young guys go to college in Cork so the travel element was a real problem but as I said it's been solved now!

On club guys training with Munster it's a reasonably common thing in Ireland we call up (sometimes temporarily) guys from the All Ireland League which is the level below provincial rugby when we're hit by injury. Not as professional as Curry Cup or anything, but a high standard we can draw from if needed.

 

[Groundhog]

Good win against Chiefs to round out the pre-season. Both sides down a lot of players, but was apparently a pretty high quality game. Disappointed we couldn't have our game against Bath, but that's the world we live in. Don't think Exeter got another game either. Tough to glean from the 2 mins of highlights Munster had, but by all accounts Healy and Nash looked really good, and apparently the likes of Ahern did tonnes of disrupting in the line out. Kendellen as well went really well apparently and generally we were in good control of the game.

Would expect the side we send out against the Sharks to be pretty experimental with maybe a few internationals allowed to play from the bench? Should be manageable game for us anyway with Sharks down their internationals.