The Munster Rugby Thread 2019/20

[How bad boy]

See they're sticking with the absolutely shite format.

Hard pool, I think it'll come down to the home vs away fixtures. Should have one of the French at home, one away, if I remember the format correctly. At home vs Stade in the new year, followed by away to Castres would be handy. Castres have regularly deprioritised the champions cup and hopefully would focus on the T14. Stade lost 60% of their away games last season.

That said, Castres lost 81% of their away matches last season, so having them at home would bring a fairly strong chance of 5 points.

 

[nelly sham]

As long as Munster take their heads out of their arses this year unlike the Bayonne game!


Nankivell to miss the season opener through suspension.
3 game ban but it covers the 2 friendlies beforehand.
Stick a 3rd in there quickly!

 

[Meridian]

Just saw SA have withdrawn the LadyBoys latest recruit RG Synam due to a foot injury.
A bag of bones it seems.

 

[jeepers]

Just saw SA have withdrawn the LadyBoys latest recruit RG Synam due to a foot injury.
A bag of bones it seems.

That's worrying.







Normally he's pulled for his club games but available for the Saffers.

 

[dahayeser]

See they're sticking with the absolutely shite format.

Hard pool, I think it'll come down to the home vs away fixtures. Should have one of the French at home, one away, if I remember the format correctly. At home vs Stade in the new year, followed by away to Castres would be handy. Castres have regularly deprioritised the champions cup and hopefully would focus on the T14. Stade lost 60% of their away games last season.

That said, Castres lost 81% of their away matches last season, so having them at home would bring a fairly strong chance of 5 points.

It really is an awful format, group of 6, difficult not to get out of the group, what a mess. The days of 4 team pools with 3 home and 3 away games were savage. Those do or die battles were the making of Munster, they generated a huge fan base in the province and beyond.

Nothing generates that profile for Munster games anymore, aside from fairly meaningless event games in Pairc Ui Caoimh. Nice to bring the family to but nothing compared to take out a crack English team in a group of death. Those were the days.

 

[How bad boy]

It really is an awful format, group of 6, difficult not to get out of the group, what a mess. The days of 4 team pools with 3 home and 3 away games were savage. Those do or die battles were the making of Munster, they generated a huge fan base in the province and beyond.

Nothing generates that profile for Munster games anymore, aside from fairly meaningless event games in Pairc Ui Caoimh. Nice to bring the family to but nothing compared to take out a crack English team in a group of death. Those were the days.

Indeed. It's confusing, unfair and inefficient. It needs to go.

That said, they were a little bit of glory days for Munster. People reminiscing about the Gloucester match, etc...

Getting out of your pool was fucking hard, with only the top team and the best 2 runners up. If you were in a group with an Italian team and a welsh team, you might as well get planning for a quarter final. Otherwise, you're in an absolute dogfight from day 1 and a single loss can put you out.

For the weaker teams, the latter rounds of the group stage were frequently a waste of time. There was always the Challenge Cup qualification to make things a little more interesting though.

Despite any weaknesses, it's still miles better than this dogshit format.

 

[How bad boy]

Incidentally, I wonder if the new(ish) Thomond park has an influence on the buzz factor too? Back in the glory days, before the second Heineken Cup win, the capacity was only 11k, which could be boosted to about 13k or so. Tickets were very difficult to come by, demand massively outstripped capacity. The old Thomond park was only a few thousand smaller than the current Musgrave Park, it was quite a small stadium overall. At least they have it, Cork really needs to get its shit together with stadia. Having Musgrave Park, Pairc Ui Rinn, Pairc Ui Chaoimh and Turners Cross all within a relatively small area in the south side of Cork is horrible waste of resources.

 

[Stacky]

Incidentally, I wonder if the new(ish) Thomond park has an influence on the buzz factor too? Back in the glory days, before the second Heineken Cup win, the capacity was only 11k, which could be boosted to about 13k or so. Tickets were very difficult to come by, demand massively outstripped capacity. The old Thomond park was only a few thousand smaller than the current Musgrave Park, it was quite a small stadium overall. At least they have it, Cork really needs to get its shit together with stadia. Having Musgrave Park, Pairc Ui Rinn, Pairc Ui Chaoimh and Turners Cross all within a relatively small area in the south side of Cork is horrible waste of resources.

They are all happy out in their silos.

The old Thomond was a bit of a shambles but at least it was right on the pitch and the vocal fans in the faces of players and officials leading to a better atmosphere. The new Thomond is like one of those mid-sized regional municipal stadia that you see dotted all over France but even more soulless.

 

[How bad boy]

They are all happy out in their silos.

The old Thomond was a bit of a shambles but at least it was right on the pitch and the vocal fans in the faces of players and officials leading to a better atmosphere. The new Thomond is like one of those mid-sized regional municipal stadia that you see dotted all over France but even more soulless.

Yeah, it's a shame. Cork could really use a good, multi-purpose 20k stadium.

It'd never happen but the Mardyke would be an excellent venue for one, would be a real buzz in the city centre on match days.

 

[Stacky]

Yeah, it's a shame. Cork could really use a good, multi-purpose 20k stadium.

It'd never happen but the Mardyke would be an excellent venue for one, would be a real buzz in the city centre on match days.

The Mardyke even in its ancient state is a great venue for AIL/UCC matches over the winter-it just has that special atmosphere that some grounds seem to have historically.