Munster 2015-2016

[scrum5]

Wonder how Razzie will get on Nucifora

[BaggyTrousers]

Cosgrove & Micko on their way out, no decision on Fla & Brian Walsh. Looks like Axle will be operating without his men and a one year contract.

I wouldn't be giving great odds on him being there for too much longer, despite what Carrot Fitzscrewup says.

Maybe the guys who made the 2 centre decisions should be out the door before you could say, "Irish Independent Park"

[mikerob]

Widely rumoured that Erasmus will be bringing his own defence coach along with him so nobody knows what Foley will be doing next season, including Foley.

[Shan]

so nobody knows what Foley will be doing next season, including Foley.

Similar to this season so.

[rocky]

so nobody knows what Foley will be doing next season, including Foley.

Similar to this season so.

Now, now, Shan, heads up and get that tighten up syrup down your gub. In the immortal words of Professor Brian Cox and Peter Cunnah - "Things........................................can only get better!" It may take a while though.

[Amiga500]

Munster taking lessons from Ulster on how to feck up the media announcement of a new coach.

Not quite as cringe worthy as the interview with Brian McLaughlin after he'd been told there would be a new coach, but getting there...

To be honest, Fitzgeralds head should be on metaphorical platter for that.

Disgraceful way to treat anyone, never mind a former player on the pitch that'd bleed for the team but is struggling in the coaching role.

[UlsterNo9]

Not Tony Wards biggest fan, but worth a read.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/m ... 59254.html

Rassie Erasmus is an interesting and well-qualified choice as Munster's first director of rugby - and credit to the province for confirming the appointment so promptly - but much about this decision still confuses me.

If I were Anthony Foley I'd already be over the hills and far away.
According to CEO Garrett Fitzgerald, former Springbok flanker Erasmus will "lead Munster's senior team, academy and coaches to deliver Munster's Strategic Plan with ultimate responsibility for team performance and results. The role will have overall responsibility for defining on field strategy and ensuring its implementation".
To me that is sure-fire indication that the director of rugby will essentially be head coach, and current head coach Foley will be his assistant.
So the Reds will have two main coaches, both former forwards - albeit great forwards - yet Munster are crying out for a specialist skills/attacking/backs coach and have been for some time.
The fact that the CEO and current head coach appear to be singing off different pages suggests imminent 'trouble at mill', as does Fitzgerald's statement that "there has been no decision made on how many coaches Erasmus will have around him next season, ultimately it is our decision".
If that isn't an immediate recipe for disaster, then I don't know what is - although apparently a new defensive coach, in Jacques Nienaber, is already on the way.
It should be up to Erasmus, given this all-encompassing position of responsibility, to appoint who he wants. The emphasis on it being "ultimately our decision" - our being Munster's Professional Games Committee - is disconcerting to say the least.

I feel really sorry for Foley because he and his management team are being hung out to dry, although collectively they have underperformed to the point of no return. The writing is on the wall.
If Munster have problems, one consolation is that things could be a lot worse - they could be Italian.
I supported the extension of Five Nations Rugby to Six at the turn of the Millennium, but the time has come for a radical rethink.
When the Italians were admitted to the Six Nations, it was an upgrade well earned. The late '90s had been a golden era for Italian rugby. In three of their first four official internationals against Ireland, victory went to the Azzurri.
Home internationals are now played at the Stadio Olimpico (in place of the smaller Stadio Flaminio), and the ground is usually almost full to its 70,000 capacity. But there the fairytale ends.
Aside from Sergio Parisse, It's difficult to name an Italian player of substantial note. And even then, their national side and Pro12 teams are less than the sum of their parts.
I want to see Italian rugby succeed, but what is the point when year upon year the Azzurri finish bottom (occasionally second from bottom) in the Six Nations with their clubs 11th and 12th in the Pro12, and distort their European pool?
Something's got to give and I'm not sure promotion and relegation to the Six Nations is the answer.
Having a relegation play-off between the bottom team in the Six Nations and the top team in the European Nations Cup - Georgia for the last six years - is a no-brainer but where is the guarantee that the winner will be good enough to beat the fifth-placed team in the season that follows?
Five strong teams and one weak (going up and down like a yoyo) would serve little purpose.
Six Nations Rugby has no stomach to change the current status of the competition but I suspect the time is fast approaching when TV companies will.
And in the Pro12, it must be soul-destroying for the Italian players to take a near-guaranteed thumping every week in front of half-empty stadiums? And to what end? Quite how the rights holders haven't called a halt before now is a miracle.
I don't have a quick fix solution. It's frustrating because Italy should be the European equivalent of Argentina, and they are anything but.

I admire Conor O'Shea (above) and Steve Aboud (the new elite youth performance director) for taking on the Italian job - although I wish O'Shea was heading to Munster. He said recently that he was never approached. What would it have taken for a discreet enquiry?
Should O'Shea succeed where so many others have failed, the Pro12, EPCR and Six Nations Rugbywill all benefit hugely.
Any organisation or team is only as strong as its weakest link and for some time now Italian rugby has been that weakest link.
It would appear from the outside that Treviso and Zebre are backboned by professional journeymen from afar. The challenge is to put much more efficient structures in place.
But for now the target for Connacht and Leinster, as well as Glasgow - the only other realistic challenger in the race for home semi-finals - is to exploit Italian weakness to the full.
Glasgow at home to Zebre next weekend and Leinster in the RDS to Treviso on the last day look like guaranteed five-pointers.
Connacht will no doubt face a stiffer challenge in Treviso on Saturday but should come away with maximum points - and that despite the fact that Zebre and Treviso are supposedly battling for a Champions Cup place, with just three points separating them at the basement.
Maybe it's the cynic in me, but why do I suspect a Challenge Cup place is not the glittering prize for them that it is for our provinces?
On the plus side for O'Shea and Aboud, the only way is up. Italian rugby can hardly go any lower than a second Wooden Spoon in three years, with painfully heavy defeats in the last two matches to Ireland (58-15) and Wales (67-14).
O'Shea's capture is timely, with Munster's loss most definitely Italy's gain.

[Snipe Watson]

Not Tony Wards biggest fan, but worth a read.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/m ... 59254.html

Rassie Erasmus is an interesting and well-qualified choice as Munster's first director of rugby - and credit to the province for confirming the appointment so promptly - but much about this decision still confuses me.

If I were Anthony Foley I'd already be over the hills and far away.
According to CEO Garrett Fitzgerald, former Springbok flanker Erasmus will "lead Munster's senior team, academy and coaches to deliver Munster's Strategic Plan with ultimate responsibility for team performance and results. The role will have overall responsibility for defining on field strategy and ensuring its implementation".
To me that is sure-fire indication that the director of rugby will essentially be head coach, and current head coach Foley will be his assistant.
So the Reds will have two main coaches, both former forwards - albeit great forwards - yet Munster are crying out for a specialist skills/attacking/backs coach and have been for some time.
The fact that the CEO and current head coach appear to be singing off different pages suggests imminent 'trouble at mill', as does Fitzgerald's statement that "there has been no decision made on how many coaches Erasmus will have around him next season, ultimately it is our decision".
If that isn't an immediate recipe for disaster, then I don't know what is - although apparently a new defensive coach, in Jacques Nienaber, is already on the way.
It should be up to Erasmus, given this all-encompassing position of responsibility, to appoint who he wants. The emphasis on it being "ultimately our decision" - our being Munster's Professional Games Committee - is disconcerting to say the least.

I feel really sorry for Foley because he and his management team are being hung out to dry, although collectively they have underperformed to the point of no return. The writing is on the wall.
If Munster have problems, one consolation is that things could be a lot worse - they could be Italian.
I supported the extension of Five Nations Rugby to Six at the turn of the Millennium, but the time has come for a radical rethink.
When the Italians were admitted to the Six Nations, it was an upgrade well earned. The late '90s had been a golden era for Italian rugby. In three of their first four official internationals against Ireland, victory went to the Azzurri.
Home internationals are now played at the Stadio Olimpico (in place of the smaller Stadio Flaminio), and the ground is usually almost full to its 70,000 capacity. But there the fairytale ends.
Aside from Sergio Parisse, It's difficult to name an Italian player of substantial note. And even then, their national side and Pro12 teams are less than the sum of their parts.
I want to see Italian rugby succeed, but what is the point when year upon year the Azzurri finish bottom (occasionally second from bottom) in the Six Nations with their clubs 11th and 12th in the Pro12, and distort their European pool?
Something's got to give and I'm not sure promotion and relegation to the Six Nations is the answer.
Having a relegation play-off between the bottom team in the Six Nations and the top team in the European Nations Cup - Georgia for the last six years - is a no-brainer but where is the guarantee that the winner will be good enough to beat the fifth-placed team in the season that follows?
Five strong teams and one weak (going up and down like a yoyo) would serve little purpose.
Six Nations Rugby has no stomach to change the current status of the competition but I suspect the time is fast approaching when TV companies will.
And in the Pro12, it must be soul-destroying for the Italian players to take a near-guaranteed thumping every week in front of half-empty stadiums? And to what end? Quite how the rights holders haven't called a halt before now is a miracle.
I don't have a quick fix solution. It's frustrating because Italy should be the European equivalent of Argentina, and they are anything but.

I admire Conor O'Shea (above) and Steve Aboud (the new elite youth performance director) for taking on the Italian job - although I wish O'Shea was heading to Munster. He said recently that he was never approached. What would it have taken for a discreet enquiry?
Should O'Shea succeed where so many others have failed, the Pro12, EPCR and Six Nations Rugbywill all benefit hugely.
Any organisation or team is only as strong as its weakest link and for some time now Italian rugby has been that weakest link.
It would appear from the outside that Treviso and Zebre are backboned by professional journeymen from afar. The challenge is to put much more efficient structures in place.
But for now the target for Connacht and Leinster, as well as Glasgow - the only other realistic challenger in the race for home semi-finals - is to exploit Italian weakness to the full.
Glasgow at home to Zebre next weekend and Leinster in the RDS to Treviso on the last day look like guaranteed five-pointers.
Connacht will no doubt face a stiffer challenge in Treviso on Saturday but should come away with maximum points - and that despite the fact that Zebre and Treviso are supposedly battling for a Champions Cup place, with just three points separating them at the basement.
Maybe it's the cynic in me, but why do I suspect a Challenge Cup place is not the glittering prize for them that it is for our provinces?
On the plus side for O'Shea and Aboud, the only way is up. Italian rugby can hardly go any lower than a second Wooden Spoon in three years, with painfully heavy defeats in the last two matches to Ireland (58-15) and Wales (67-14).
O'Shea's capture is timely, with Munster's loss most definitely Italy's gain.

Aside from the fact that I'm less convinced about O'Shea's qualities than he is, I agree whole heartedly with Tony Ward's piece. I suspect that Neil Doak always knew he was going to be number 2 despite his job title, but poor old Axel Foley was the actual number 1 and has clearly been demoted. Who knows maybe he was offered a dignified exit and declined it, opting to remain with his beloved Munster, but the whole thing is a wee bit strange.
The Italians are going backwards and when Parisse retires they are likely to crumble. I wouldn't chuck them out of the 6N or the Pro12, but to have an Italian team guaranteed a spot in the premier European competition is incongruous to say the least.

[BaggyTrousers]

I always thought O'Shea was overrated as a player being picked at 15 for Ireland when he was an ordinary error prone player. As a DR he has resolutely stayed away from frontline coaching ...........rather like our dear departed DR who always liked a bit of "unaccountability" preferring to sack better men.

Quite what he will bring to Italy I know not, maybe he is smart enough to get others in to make him look good. I've also been very disappointed that he has backed Marler so openly when defending the indefensible is clearly something that only washes in England as the eRFU attempted whitewash over gypsy-gate showed. Fair fecks to WR for not biting on it.

Whether or not O'Shea would have been good for Munster is the mootest of moot points, but as the Tony Ward experience has shown, paper does not refuse ink and one man's opinion is a'marra's chip paper.

Whilst speaking of Munster, I am indebted to my close friend and former drinking partner - before his liver packed up - Proinsias O'Lunacy from the important and world renowned Media Studies faculty at the University of Limerick who has researched and concluded that George Clancy, great-nephew of Mayor Clancy of Limerick who was murdered in the coldest of blood by the Black and Tans, is actually a Clanger.

Pictured below is Proinsias, who has a striking resemblance to Oliver Postgate, with referee George Clancy.

Clanger.jpg (45.68 KiB) Viewed 1289 times

[scrum5]

Munster taking lessons from Ulster on how to feck up the media announcement of a new coach.

Not quite as cringe worthy as the interview with Brian McLaughlin after he'd been told there would be a new coach, but getting there...

To be honest, Fitzgeralds head should be on metaphorical platter for that.

Disgraceful way to treat anyone, never mind a former player on the pitch that'd bleed for the team but is struggling in the coaching role.

You know the way the love beating Ulster well they saw the way we treated McGlocks and said we can beat that.....

[Neill_M]

7:35pm Kick Off - On TG4. Big game for Euro qualification - loser could be playing Saracens next year in Europe - Timisoara Saracens to be precise!

Munster: Simon Zebo; Andrew Conway, Francis Saili, Rory Scannell, Keith Earls; Johnny Holland, Conor Murray; Dave Kilcoyne, Niall Scannell, Stephen Archer; Dave Foley, Billy Holland; Dave O'Callaghan, Tommy O'Donnell, CJ Stander - capt.

Replacements: Mike Sherry, James Cronin, John Ryan, Robin Copeland, Jack O'Donoghue, Duncan Williams, Ian Keatley, Ronan O'Mahony.

Edinburgh:15 KINGHORN Blair 14 HOYLAND Damien 13 SCOTT Matt 12 STRAUSS Andries 11 BROWN Tom 10 TOVEY Jason 9 KENNEDY Sean 1 DICKINSON Alasdair 2 FORD Ross (C) 3 NEL WP 4 BRESLER Anton 5 TOOLIS Ben 6 RITCHIE Jamie 7 HARDIE John 8 DU PREEZ Cornell

16 MCINALLY Stuart 17 SUTHERLAND Rory 18 ANDRESS John 19 TOOLIS Alex 20 BRADBURY Magnus 21 HIDALGO-CLYNE Sam 22 DEAN Chris 23 FIFE Dougie

Referee: Ian Davies (WRU, 46th competition game)
Assistant Referees: Nigel Correll, Paul Haycock (both IRFU)
Citing Commissioner: Murray Whyte (IRFU)
TMO: Brian MacNeice (IRFU)

[Setanta]

I wish we had had Davies instead of Clancy! Maybe he'll surprise me and jump over those flying pigs.

[BaggyTrousers]

7-0 went to 7-10, 10-10 & Zebrother has just scored after great work by Conway who was the man who started the 1st try too with a great chase & beat the defender to the high ball. Best I've seen Conway this year. 15-10

[mea97mb]

Zebo with an embarassing attempt to tackle tovey while one on one and didn't even get a hand to him. Then redeems by scoring a try but showboats by catching one handed....no need for the risk!

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[mea97mb]

Munster starting to go through the gears here, BP win coming I think after the dodgy start!

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