John Ryan, James Cronin and cathal Sheridan sign on for 2 more years.

Munster win but got three players injured. Duncan Casey, BJ Botha and Dave O'Callaghan. Niall Scannell did well but Scarlets shot themselves in the foot with two needless yellow cards in the last ten minutes which let Munster get back in the game.

MRSC today announced that they(we) will be donating 120k to Musgrave parks redevelopment. This is on top of 150k donated per annum to the academy.

Jesus thats some amount. Fair play to them.

A huge amount of time and expertise has been invested in archer to get him to where he is today. In many ways it is similar to Tony Buckley except for the rule change has come at the perfect time for archer. I can think of at least 2 occasions over last season when archer started and Ryan benched. On both occasions archer was struggling for 50/60 min and Ryan cameon and pummelled his opposite number.
Sometimes your face fits and iIMO archer and Rodney both have benefitted from that at the expense of others.

One for the clan supporters club committee.

MRSC today announced that they(we) will be donating 120k to Musgrave parks redevelopment. This is on top of 150k donated per annum to the academy.
Something to aspire to lads! Lol.

Tbf Duncan Casey has played led than 30 min for Munster and that's 30 min more than scanell AFAIK. Munster are in the hunt for 2 trophies as we speak and varley is hit and miss out of touch.

That said Penney has denied it so that should be the matter closed.

Totally get your point about Casey but it irritates me when young guys aren't given there chance when it arises. I think Penney should have also have being smarter about it and realising that Casey was now his third choice given him more gametime at the earlier part of the season. Hindsight is 20/20 I suppose.

Interesting your observations on Ryan and Cotter. They seem to be the same levelled at Ross when he came back from England. Ireland and England's approach to props seem to be very different where Ireland the emphasis seems to be on all round skills rather than just their primary ones of propping and lifting. Where in england it's the opposite as if they can do anything outside scrummaging its considered a bonus. Don't who is right but its interesting nonetheless.

salmson wrote: Or maybe because even when they're poor Munster believe they can win?

It's funny that this came up, the exact same thought crossed my mind while watching the Viera v Keane documentary earlier on TV. Viera was commenting on why Arsenal haven't won a title since he left and he said something like "Great teams should be able to play badly and still win games". Munster have been able to win ugly for years, even when they've been behind. Connacht need to build this kind of attitude as well.

Loughney proved 2 seasons ago that when given a run of games he can do more than a decent job at TH. He went on tour to NZ that summer and he hasn't gotten a run of games since. If he had gotten the number of chances that rodney has gotten who knows where he might be and by chances I mean regular starts in spite of terrible scrummaging performance.

Maybe cos Connacht have an appalling kick conversion rate? Or maybe because even when they're poor Munster believe they can win? If we knew that we'd have told them what they're doing wrong!

Good rundown. Connacht are weakest at hooker when sherry is fit both in terms of quality and experience. I was ranking the depth purely in terms of experience as when you come to the pointy end of the heineken or league you don't want to have to depend on a player who hasn't started a game before. Munster have a small window of time to offer Cotter and Ryan gametime to bring them up to speed in some way.
For me from that head to head I'd probably take Connacht's tightheads over Munster and Munster's looseheads, and I'd pick sherry and jhw as varley's throwing is too inconsistent. Would you really have Loughney as third choice th for connacht now or have you listed him as most likely to cover both sides as opposed to Rodney?

I don't think the arrival of kilcoyne last season and cronin this season is luck. They knew what they had which is why they let du preez go.

The opposite applies at TH which is why botha was kept and given 2 years. Archer is improving all the time and the rule change has suited him. Ryan is an animal in the scrum but offers very little in the loose which is probably holding him back. He is also a converted loosehead and is 3rd choice cover for there. They loved him at LI and Bath . Cotter is also a scrummager and very little else atm.

Henry was allowed go because Sherry and Varley were 1 and 2 respectively and he had an opportunity to play at a higher level regularly than the B + I. He has taken it and proven many wrong here. If he was at munster ironically he would now be getting the same opportunity but that's sport. Rael took his opportunity as he was jumping from 6th choice to 3rd at connacht. I hope it works out for him.
I don't think any team is prepared for losing a frontline specialist for a season hence the hore speculation.

Killer, cronin v wilko, buckley.
Sherry, varley v jhw, henry.
Bj, archer, v white, rodney,
Cover for both sides- ryan v loughney.
6th prop. Cotter v cooney.
3rd choice hooker- casey/ scannell v rael/heffernan.

While id take munsters options over connachts the quality of connachts squad has clearly risen. It begs the question- why are munster top and connacht bottom?

Munster are in an odd situation in terms of their front row. They've gotten extremely lucky so far (Sherry's injury notwithstanding) as by most measures they have very little depth. They let their third choice hooker (Henry) go which is fine except their next two back up hookers hadn't played a minute between them as rossie noted. Their other academy hooker Rael hadn't any more experience than them so at least they didn't lose out there, but it seems a dangerous way to go about blooding players.

They already got incredibly lucky at loosehead with Kilcoyne - last year was his breakout season and with Horan retiring it could have been a real weakness for them, not knowing if Kilcoyne would have second season syndrome, or get injured his first game, etc.
Their back up to Kilcoyne had two sub appearances, it could have been a nightmare that made Rodney's worst days look like gifts.
Instead Cronin has threatened to take over the starting jersey himself.

For their heineken squad they need 10 front row forwards afaik. Their next two development props down are John Ryan (25) and Alan Cotter (27). The former has 17 senior appearances mainly as a sub and the latter none for Munster although he has one for Bath and three for London Irish.

These last two could be monsters by the end of the season I don't know, but its an odd situation when Connacht have both more depth and more experience in depth to call on than Munster. The Sherry injury was unfortunate, but possibly the easiest to deal with of any of the senior front row players. Anyone else goes down this season and Munster's dreams of winning trophies could be quickly dashed.

Tbf Duncan Casey has played led than 30 min for Munster and that's 30 min more than scanell AFAIK. Munster are in the hunt for 2 trophies as we speak and varley is hit and miss out of touch.

That said Penney has denied it so that should be the matter closed.

Saw this, if anyone should be after him its Leinster. I don't think he should go to them. Duncan Casey hasn't done much wrong and for him to be screwed out of his chance by a 35 year old who would just be here for a paycheck p*sses me right off

Andrew Hore being linked to Munster. Retired from international rugby now.

phatguerilla wrote: Laulala confirmed leaving Munster at the end of the season. This adds more credit to the Griff to Munster rumours. Say it ain't so Lam. Its vital to have at least two option in each position for all teams, Henshaw may or may not be Ireland's future 13 but he can't be our only one. I think the next option after Griffin would be Parata which is a big drop experience wise.

Much as I don't want to see any Connacht born player playing for another province, I still think it may help Griffin's development to move away for a couple of years. After five seasons with us his move could also clear the way for other players to progress,

Poolman is like Earls someone who can play centre but is really a winger. I'd always try and play a player in his optimum position to get the best out of them and for me that's Poolman on the wing.