The Munster Rugby Thread 2019/20

[Barry K O Bama]

I am gob smacked at some of the recent negative posts.

We have a horrendous injury list :- Kleyn, Jager, Killer, Salanoa, Liam Coombes, Barron, Edogbo etc

Then we licked up injuries to Nash and Daly, illness to RG and suspension to John Ryan plus the illness bug in the camp in recent days - all going into the Northampton Clash.

As for not having players of International Level - We have awesome players in the back row - POM, Hodnett, Coombes, Ahern - the latter three will be capped IMO

Our midfield are already internationals - Nanks and Frisch are at international level IMO

With the Leinster Bias, It's extremely difficult to get capped.

Our academy is producing top quality - Gleeson, Edwin & Sean Edogbo, Evan O Connell, Ben O Connor - all could be capped IMO

Our coaching ticket is first class - Wig, Leamy & Prendegast are all top quality

The club is being run very well with amazing recruitment - Nankivell, Fritsch, Jager, Sean O Brien are all excellent signings - I expect Kilgallon and Burns to do very well for us.


We won the URC in an awesome manner and we are very close to competing in the CC again - we outplayed Northampton in the first half, playing into a gale but ran out of steam due to the illness.


We are not at Leinsters level in quality and academy production but few are - however we are getting there.

Criticism now is completely unfair and inaccurate

 

[How bad boy]

I mostly agree, maybe a little too positive for my tastes, however it's a very long way from doom and gloom IMO.

They do seem to be missing some level of grit and the ability to just dig out a win, second half collapses are way, way too common, but the potential is there.

 

[How bad boy]

Europe and Super Rugby agree to 2028 Club World Cup

Rugby chiefs sign initial agreement for inaugural global club tournament, scheduled to take place every four years between top sides from northern and southern hemispheres

www.thetimes.co.uk

"The tournament would do away with the latter stages of the Champions Cup every four years, so there would be no European champion that year. Instead, it would pitch the eight quarter-finalists against six top-ranked Super Rugby Pacific teams and two guest sides, probably from Japan."


Jesus fucking christ, are they deliberately trying to make the European Cup format as shit and incomprehensible as possible?

 

[How bad boy]

Gah, I'm annoyed about this now.
Here's the Times' view of potential match ups:

How the fuck would this even work logistically?
Like, would the Hurricanes have to get their asses over to Ireland this week to play Leinster, Exeter figure out how to get 40 players down to Melbourne and adjust for weather & timezone for a match this weekend?

It's already crazy enough with the SA teams, but with fuck all notice it'd be almost impossible.
When would the matches be played?

Say La Rochelle are away to the Chiefs. Grand, two big teams, let's give it a premium time, 8pm local time, which is 10am French time. Viewing figures in the toilet.

3pm kick off for Leinster Hurricanes? That's 2am in Wellington.

7.30pm Friday evening match? 5am in AEST, 7am NZST.

Australia 3pm kick off? 6am over here.

Zero travelling fans. Splitting your TV base. Massively increased costs. Wrecking player prep. It's fucking idiotic.

 

[How bad boy]

The travel problem for the current Champions Cup is already pretty damned close to a disaster:

Bulls eight-flight nightmare schedule for Champions Cup quarterfinal | SuperSport

The Vodacom Bulls may be the only surviving South African franchise in the Investec Champions’ Cup, but they face a nightmare travel scenario to even get to their quarterfinal match-up with leading English side Northampton.

supersport.com

"the Bulls head to England in no less than eight different flights, as the squad split up amid the lack of seats for the trip.

The nightmare scenario sees some players fly overnight on British Airways, while others will go via Frankfurt, Paris, Doha, Dubai, Amsterdam, Zurich and even Birmingham to get to their training base in Northampton.

And the terrible travelling schedule has played havoc with their preparations, as the team tried their best to finalise their game plan before heading their separate ways on Tuesday afternoon and evening.

The travel chaos had a further knock on effect as the team will need to travel on eight different airlines back to South Africa, arriving late Monday in different spurts for their next Vodacom United Rugby Championship game against defending champions Munster.

The net effect is that the team can only train on Thursday in England and lose Monday as a training day on their way back."
...
“Two weeks ago we went to Leinster and it took us 28 hours to get to Dublin and 27 hours to get back. "



I guess Munster have a better chance against the Bulls now...

The World Club Cup thing should die as an idea though, I just don't see how it works logistically, environmentally, financially and physically.

 

[Thehighroad]

Spare us the rubbish that the URC is a big competition and great success if we win it. It’s the rugby equivalent of the national leagues in hurling or football , nice to win but no what our aim was .

 

[TheOutdoorThreadmill]

Spare us the rubbish that the URC is a big competition and great success if we win it. It’s the rugby equivalent of the national leagues in hurling or football , nice to win but no what our aim was .

Ah stop, the URC is no way the equivalent of the National league, the clue is in the title

 

[How bad boy]

Spare us the rubbish that the URC is a big competition and great success if we win it. It’s the rugby equivalent of the national leagues in hurling or football , nice to win but no what our aim was .

It's not treated with quite that level of distain.

 

[outdagap]

I think Munster do have a serious financial challenge though, especially with POM and Murray coming off central contracts.

Snyman was apparently being offered €500k a year, but he was previously funded by benefactors. Not sure if that's been true in recent years but if so, it means there's no savings to be had in him leaving.

I'm not sure Munster have the funds to splash the cash on anything other than journeymen right now.

Personally, I would much prefer the money be spent on an expanded academy. With 17 players now in the academy, I suspect more money is indeed going that way, with 5 props in there now. Only one hooker, still a decent improvement on May last year:

I suspect they're trying to build a new set of front rowers from the academy. That can take a long time to pay dividends but if I'm right, would expect another prop and hooker added by August.

It can be riskier than just buying in talent but bulking up the academy is likely to pay off long term.

The benefactor stuff is true but the operation is badly run and needs to be completely overhauled by professionals who know what they are doing. It's amazing how an organisation can be turning down money on renaming Thomond Park year after year and profess being cash strapped.

I see a lot of the old mistakes with the academy in terms of making the original representative panel and not getting off it until u20....or the newer one when you get a leg over others if daddy has already played for Munster..

 

[Meridian]

The benefactor stuff is true but the operation is badly run and needs to be completely overhauled by professionals who know what they are doing. It's amazing how an organisation can be turning down money on renaming Thomond Park year after year and profess being cash strapped.

I see a lot of the old mistakes with the academy in terms of making the original representative panel and not getting off it until u20....or the newer one when you get a leg over others if daddy has already played for Munster..

Or if your Uncle / Dad is the team doctor.