RugbyRebels

I'll start a Munster thread before I'll admit that the Fields of Athenry are in Connacht!

Holy F*ck! The thread's only been up 10 seconds and there's only 2 of us online and yet its already ratcheted up 7 views!!!

Its a fecking mirikle, I tell ye!

A pint of Murphys pulled in County Cork will beat the yeast out of any pint of Guinness pulled anywhere on the planet, so it will.

Beamish is what comes out of ye after 10 hours of experimenting to see whether a gallon of Murphy's makes your farts smell sweeter than a gallon of Guinness.

He coulda doid

Anto would have skinned Jonah Lomu - if only he'd ever had the chance, so.

Come to think of it, Marcus would have skinned him too.

Is there anyway to embed youtube videos here?

Munster Preseason starts

Player Position
Archer Prop
Cronin Prop
Kilcoyne Prop
McCabe Prop
Ryan Prop
Andress Prop
Casey Hooker
O'Byrne Hooker
Scannell Hooker
Sherry Hooker
Chisholm Second Row
Foley Second Row
Holland Second Row
Ryan Second Row
McCarthy Second Row
Madigan Second Row
O'Shea Second Row
Copeland Back Row
O'Callaghan Back Row
O'Donnell Back Row
O'Donoghue Back Row
O'Mahony Back Row
Stander Back Row
Bleyendaal Half Back
Holland Half Back
Keatley Half Back
Murray Half Back
O'Leary Half Back
Williams Half Back
Bohane Centre
Saili Centre
Scannell Centre
Arnold Centre
Johnston Centre
Conway Back 3
Earls Back 3
O'Mahony Back 3
Sweetnam Back 3
Zebo Back 3
Fitzgerald Back 3
Wooten Back 3



Erasmus Coach
Nienaber Coach
Foley Coach
Flannery Coach
Jones Coach

15 Zebo
14 Earls
13 Saili
12 Scannell
11 Conway
10 Bleyandaal
9 Murray
8 Stander
7 O'Donnell
6 O'Mahony
5 Chisholm
4 Ryan
3 Archer
2 Sherry
1 Cronin

16 Casey / Scannell
17 Kilcoyne
18 Ryan
19 Madigan
20 O'Donoghue
21 Williams
22 Holland
23 O'Mahony

the first 15 isn't that bad, the bench is meh, the cover after that is weak.

we desperately needed some cover at 3, 7 and 9 but I doubt anything will happen now

the new SA coaches are the real area of interest.

hellovating wrote:the first 15 isn't that bad, the bench is meh, the cover after that is weak.

we desperately needed some cover at 3, 7 and 9 but I doubt anything will happen now

the new SA coaches are the real area of interest.

Hope to see Holland challenge Bleyandaal for the 10 shirt. He played well at the end of last season.
Re. cover at 7 - O'Donohue looks fairly comfortable right across the back row. What is is long term term spot?

I'd be surprised if Blyandaal manages 80 minutes of game time next season. Johnny is the future so he's the starting 10 for me.

Dave Foley never looked anything but outclassed last season and the same was largely true of Dave O'C; Billy H barely impressed and Donnacha's MOTM performance against the Italians was just about the only thing he did well all season. Best 2nd row by some margin was Chisolm, and hopefully his concussion is all cleared up as we'll need him to prop us up all season unless the others rediscover their mojo.

Back row, we are pretty flush, but a couple of injuries and we're fecked. 2nd row we're just plain fecked. James Cronin has pulled a Mushy; 1 blinding season and thence a penalty magnet - wouldn't even get near the matchday 23 without injuries elsewhere so I would say our problems are at 1, 4/5, 9 and 10 (and 2, 3, 6-8, and 11-15 too).

Fortunately there's only 3 or 4 of them likely to get nabbed by Joe.

15 Simon
14 Andrew C/Darren Sweetnam
13 Saili
12 Rory Scannell
11 Keith
10 Johnny H
9 Connor
1 Kilcoyne
2 Mike
3 Stevie Archer
4 Donnacha
5 Billy H
6 POM
7 TOD/JOD
8 CJ

16 Nail Scannell
17 McCabe
18 John Ryan/Andress
19 Chisolm
20 Copeland
21 Dunc
22 Bleyandaal - but we know it will be Ian and probably A.N.Other back with Rory Scannell covering the 10 spot if needed.
23 Ronan O'M

yeah, agree with a lot of that Serj... Bleyandaal is more hope than expectation... Johnny H is no spring chicken himself, I think long term there are a lot of fingers being crossed for Bill Johnston. He looked good until getting injured at the u20s.

agree on the second row, i thought it was a disaster zone last year. most munster supporters like billy but he really is just an honest trier. he's not athletic enough to compete at the highest level. you wouldn't mind the rest of them having some of his heart though. the good thing about the second row is there seems to be genuine quality coming through in madigan, mccarthy and o'shea (back from the uk).

i thought the single biggest error from Axle last year (admittedly, it's tough to narrow it down to one) was not having cover at openside. i assume peter o'mahony was supposed to cover if there was an injury to tommy and there was zero plans if there was an injury to both. anyway, 12 months on, and we're in the same situation. JOD is no openside... but he is a gem of a number 8. i actually thought dave o'c was our best player up until december, when the wheels started to come off.

front row, well, it's going to be a struggle again. i hope we see mike sherry back to his best but i'm starting to wonder. i like james cronin and he's definitely ahead of killer when it comes to scrummaging. tight head, well, i had hoped for a big signing there, but it seems none is forthcoming. archer finished the season ok, but in his 5 years as a full time pro, he's been mostly crap or injured.

the coaching ticket is the real cause for optimism. now that axle's role has clearly been defined as forwards coach, i am hoping rassie has a free hand to do whatever he likes. signing neinaber appears to be a real coup, going by SA reports.

Spiffy wrote: Hope to see Holland challenge Bleyandaal for the 10 shirt. He played well at the end of last season.
Re. cover at 7 - O'Donohue looks fairly comfortable right across the back row. What is is long term term spot?

8... i don't like him at 7. can do a fine job at 6.

Piece of piss! We'll do the double on Dan, screw the Weege home and away and beat the Tigers right and proper.

Maybe ...!

3 home wins. that's the goal. bring back a bit of fortress Thomond. top 2 league finish for a decent seeding the year after.

22 year old lock Jean Kleyn reported to be on his way to Munster from the stormers after the super XV season finishes. a few front rowers next please, Rassie.

he would be the 4th overseas player..... an a project one

chilsholm
saili
bleyendaal - project
kleyn - project

of course it could mean that chisholm won't be back after his concussion issues, which would be awful.

looking forward to the european cup..... 3 wins would be a miracle

racing, top 14 champions, have signed fijian second-row nakawara and samoan afatia to go with carter, rokocoko, imhoff, carizza, masoe, etc... (17 non french)
glasgow have signed former all black hooker corey flynn, jarrod firth, south african tjiuee uanivi and italian leonardo sarto (11 non scottish)
Leicester, who beat us twice last season, have made a couple of high-profile signings in springbok wing jp pietersen and australian centre matt toomua (19 non english)



we've signed centre Sam Arnold, prop John Andress and second-row Darren O’Shea.... (3 non irish in the squad currently)

That is an extremely tough group to say the least. I don't expect us to get out of it, we will be lucky I think to come third.

hellovating wrote:looking forward to the european cup..... 3 wins would be a miracle

racing, top 14 champions, have signed fijian second-row nakawara and samoan afatia to go with carter, rokocoko, imhoff, carizza, masoe, etc... (17 non french)
glasgow have signed former all black hooker corey flynn, jarrod firth, south african tjiuee uanivi and italian leonardo sarto (11 non scottish)
Leicester, who beat us twice last season, have made a couple of high-profile signings in springbok wing jp pietersen and australian centre matt toomua (19 non english)



we've signed centre Sam Arnold, prop John Andress and second-row Darren O’Shea.... (3 non irish in the squad currently)

Thank feck we'll be up against so few Frenchmen, Scots and English - we'd be in real trouble then.

We'll be lucky to come 5th!

hellovating wrote:looking forward to the european cup..... 3 wins would be a miracle

racing, top 14 champions, have signed fijian second-row nakawara and samoan afatia to go with carter, rokocoko, imhoff, carizza, masoe, etc... (17 non french)
glasgow have signed former all black hooker corey flynn, jarrod firth, south african tjiuee uanivi and italian leonardo sarto (11 non scottish)
Leicester, who beat us twice last season, have made a couple of high-profile signings in springbok wing jp pietersen and australian centre matt toomua (19 non english)



we've signed centre Sam Arnold, prop John Andress and second-row Darren O’Shea.... (3 non irish in the squad currently)

I'm glad you've picked up Sam Arnold. He might become a useful player in time.

Preseason Week 1
Preseason Week 2
Preseason Week 3
Preseason Week 4
Preseason Week 5

Rassie Interview
Sam Arnold Interview

Cheers for those videos hellov.
From the glimpses I had of Jack O'Donohue, he seems to have bulked up significantly.
Munster should be able to field a great backrow this season with POM, TOD, JOD and Stander to the fore as well as Dave O'Callaghan and Copeland in contention.
I hope the team does well under Erasmus. I think it will.

Tackling bags have been thrown away at training looks like we might play a bit of ball which would be a relief