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Tyler bleyendaal and Andrew smith to Munster

danmorrissey

Academy Player
Joined
Jun 15, 2014
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25
Was just wondering if anyone's knows what these players are like? Munster signed both of them for next season but I can't seem to find much footage of either of them which I must admit is quite worrying but I'm hoping someone could prove me wrong
 
Tyler Bleyendaal captained the New Zealand U20 side to winning the 2010 IRB Junior World Championship but isn't quite reaching his potential yet.
 
He's not a starter for the Brumbies. A bit of a bosh merchant apparently. He's on a one year contract so he's most likely a stop gap until the post World Cup Exodus.
 
Smith only a player to fill gap for 1 year. Will be good squad player. Tyler is a good playmaking 10 who can do the job at 12
 
Ah **** it anyway, A lump so with minimal skill

That's how his mother describes him to her friends ;) I think it does sum him up pretty well though. He's got plenty of size (1.94m, 104kgs), but isn't overly quick, and doesn't really have any distribution skills of note.

Smith only a player to fill gap for 1 year. Will be good squad player. Tyler is a good playmaking 10 who can do the job at 12

I'm not sure whether you can say he can do a job at 12 until he actually plays there :) I do think he is a good pick-up though. He is a pretty well rounded 10, and if he ever reaches his potential it wouldn't surprise me to see him in an Ireland jersey...
 
That's how his mother describes him to her friends ;) I think it does sum him up pretty well though. He's got plenty of size (1.94m, 104kgs), but isn't overly quick, and doesn't really have any distribution skills of note.



I'm not sure whether you can say he can do a job at 12 until he actually plays there :) I do think he is a good pick-up though. He is a pretty well rounded 10, and if he ever reaches his potential it wouldn't surprise me to see him in an Ireland jersey...

That's true. Just meant it in hopeful term and I think he has skillset
 
and if he ever reaches his potential it wouldn't surprise me to see him in an Ireland jersey...

It would suprise me hes got Sexton, Jackson, Madigan, Keatly and JJ ahead of him before hes even landed and I really don't think hes got much about him having watch him in the ITM cup and Super Rugby. He'll be a good addition to Munster but I very much doubt he'll ever see the green.
 
It would suprise me hes got Sexton, Jackson, Madigan, Keatly and JJ ahead of him before hes even landed and I really don't think hes got much about him having watch him in the ITM cup and Super Rugby. He'll be a good addition to Munster but I very much doubt he'll ever see the green.

That's because you perhaps underestimate his potential ;) While it is true he has been average for he Crusaders, and good but not great for Canterbury, Bleyendaal has (or had) a ridiculous amount of potential. He was absolutely brilliant at U20 level. We have had some good 10's at U20 level - Lima Sopoaga, Gareth Anscombe, Ihaia West, some guy called Aaron Cruden - but Bleyendaal has been the best of them (by some margin in my opinion). Of course he may never live up to that initial potential, but if he does he would be more than capable at test rugby.....
 
That's because you perhaps underestimate his potential ;) While it is true he has been average for he Crusaders, and good but not great for Canterbury, Bleyendaal has (or had) a ridiculous amount of potential. He was absolutely brilliant at U20 level. We have had some good 10's at U20 level - Lima Sopoaga, Gareth Anscombe, Ihaia West, some guy called Aaron Cruden - but Bleyendaal has been the best of them (by some margin in my opinion). Of course he may never live up to that initial potential, but if he does he would be more than capable at test rugby.....

I didn't see him at JWC but he hasn't done anything at super rugby whereas the others have (some more than others)
 
Is there a limit to the number of imports you can play on a national team at any one time? It's getting ridicilous at this stage. International rugby should be about where you are from, not where you are paid to play rugby. With European rugby seemingly getting richer & richer we could conceivably end up with half the six nations teams being antipodeans.
 
Is there a limit to the number of imports you can play on a national team at any one time? It's getting ridicilous at this stage. International rugby should be about where you are from, not where you are paid to play rugby. With European rugby seemingly getting richer & richer we could conceivably end up with half the six nations teams being antipodeans.

Yeah the limit is 0 so anyone that isn't Irish can't play for Ireland. :)
 
Didn't see much of the game today but Bleyendaal seemed poor enough.

I watched the whole game and only saw one real mistake from him toward the end and thought that he looked a promising prospect for you guys actually!
 
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