Munster 2013/14

First topic message reminder :

Some news of players leaving Munster.

Doug Howlett has announced his retirement.

Other departures from the current squad - besides Peter Stringer who remains with Bath, Marcus Horan who announced his retirement recently, Sean Scanlon (Rotherham Titans) and Sean Henry (Connacht) - include Wian du Preez who returns to his native South Africa, Scott Deasy and Christy Condon.

BJ Botha will continue on with Munster having signed a two year contract extension while Danny Barnes has not been re-contracted but is understood to have negotiated an opportunity to play abroad and news of that will be confirmed in the coming weeks.

Not given yet, Dodger

knock on?

Knock on?

TMO says no clear knock on

Try. really hard luck, Scarlets.

Scarlets should have won that. Munster very very lucky, but you ride your luck nd get the results some times.

Get some class Steffan.

How was that knock on not given? Bad luck Scarlets.

There's an advert for neutral TMOs. Fair play Munster. Never give up and JJ kicks a beautful ball for that try

Dragons and Scarlets both losing right at the end out in Ireland this evening. Bugger!

Griff wrote:Dragons and Scarlets both losing right at the end out in Ireland this evening

Great init

The Great Aukster wrote:How was that knock on not given? Bad luck Scarlets.

There was no evidence that he knocked it on. I actually thought he did at first but after seeing the first replay I was fairly sure he had his hands on it all the time.


Munster were lucky to win mainly because of some silly yellows conceded by the Scarlets.

Steffan, people like you are the reason they took pro rugby away from the valleys. Typical low life, soccer fan, half wits who revel in the defeat of sides from their own country. Your bitterness will drive you mad eventually.

Griff wrote:Steffan, people like you are the reason they took pro rugby away from the valleys. Typical low life, soccer fan, half wits who revel in the defeat of sides from their own country. Your bitterness will drive you made eventually.

Ignore him, nobody is listening to him. He will clear off eventually.

Scarlets genuinely cheated imo, first yellow wasn't a yellow as it was a Munster player who tipped over the Scarlets' loosehead.
There was a knock on, albeit marginal on the ruck leading to the try.

Observations from a neutral.

Griff wrote:Steffan, people like you are the reason they took pro rugby away from the valleys. Typical low life, soccer fan, half wits

Not that your making xenophobic stereotypes about Valleys people at all???

Griff wrote:Steffan, people like you are the reason they took pro rugby away from the valleys. Typical low life, soccer fan, half wits who revel in the defeat of sides from their own country. Your bitterness will drive you mad eventually.

While I don't agree with Steffan's attitude I must admit I do find this comment rather offensive. Pontypridd RFC was and still is a fantastically supported club with passionate and knowledgeable (and rather biased lol) fans. The reason the Valleys had pro-rugby taken away was for two reasons, lack of money and the disadvantage of being so close to Cardiff. Calling Valley's people 'low life' and 'half wit' is rather unacceptable just because you don't agree with someones attitude.

I think nigel made a few mistakes in that game but nobodies perfect. It was fairly even to be fair. Was a knock on but not that clear from that angle although neutraltmos would be better. Gutted we weren't able to finish it off but two silly cards have it away. Well impressed with the scrum though.

Steffan wrote:

Griff wrote:Steffan, people like you are the reason they took pro rugby away from the valleys. Typical low life, soccer fan, half wits

Not that your making xenophobic stereotypes about Valleys people at all???

with respect it's not really xenophobic.  This is what really frustrates me about Welsh Rugby.  There is no sense of unity at all.  childish bickering as always will stop Welsh Rugby from growing in the way it should.  Obviously I'm not blaming you two but this conversing is Welsh Rugby in microcosm.

Jimmy Moz wrote:

Griff wrote:Steffan, people like you are the reason they took pro rugby away from the valleys. Typical low life, soccer fan, half wits who revel in the defeat of sides from their own country. Your bitterness will drive you mad eventually.

While I don't agree with Steffan's attitude I must admit I do find this comment rather offensive. Pontypridd RFC was and still is a fantastically supported club with passionate and knowledgeable (and rather biased lol) fans. The reason the Valleys had pro-rugby taken away was for two reasons, lack of money and the disadvantage of being so close to Cardiff. Calling Valley's people 'low life' and 'half wit' is rather unacceptable just because you don't agree with someones attitude.

Dont bother Jimmy. Hes not worth the effort. Just ignore him and he will take his bile elsewhere

Mitrea or Vivarini should have reffed this, they are decent and would have been unbiased...

Just back from the game and i amsick of going to Munster games in Cork with most of the B&I team on it for PRO12 games. Load of Shiite and totally p.ssed off

oh and hard luck to scarlets they deserved the win.

Are Barry and Ronan O'Mahony related to Peter?

Jimmy Moz wrote:

Griff wrote:Steffan, people like you are the reason they took pro rugby away from the valleys. Typical low life, soccer fan, half wits who revel in the defeat of sides from their own country. Your bitterness will drive you mad eventually.

While I don't agree with Steffan's attitude I must admit I do find this comment rather offensive. Pontypridd RFC was and still is a fantastically supported club with passionate and knowledgeable (and rather biased lol) fans. The reason the Valleys had pro-rugby taken away was for two reasons, lack of money and the disadvantage of being so close to Cardiff. Calling Valley's people 'low life' and 'half wit' is rather unacceptable just because you don't agree with someones attitude.

I was calling people like Steffan low life half wits, not everyone (like my family) from the valleys. However, I can see how it may be misconstrued. Apologies to those good folk from the valleys who get behind teams from their own country.

Apologies too to the Munster fans for derailing their thread somewhat.

Problem with posters like Steffan is they have a knack for dragging you down to their level.  They are best ignored.

Artful_Dodger wrote:Are Barry and Ronan O'Mahony related to Peter?

Ronan and Barry are brothers from limerick. Peter is from cork. Its a common surname in Munster

Jimmy Moz wrote:

Griff wrote:Steffan, people like you are the reason they took pro rugby away from the valleys. Typical low life, soccer fan, half wits who revel in the defeat of sides from their own country. Your bitterness will drive you mad eventually.

While I don't agree with Steffan's attitude I must admit I do find this comment rather offensive. Pontypridd RFC was and still is a fantastically supported club with passionate and knowledgeable (and rather biased lol) fans. The reason the Valleys had pro-rugby taken away was for two reasons, lack of money and the disadvantage of being so close to Cardiff. Calling Valley's people 'low life' and 'half wit' is rather unacceptable just because you don't agree with someones attitude.

Whilst the comments were over the top and not should not be used it does illustrate a big problem with Welsh rugby

Ulster will be playing both Leinster and Munster in the next fortnight.
I will hope we put them to the sword and give both a sound thrashing (although I'll settle for a couple of 4 point wins   )

However come HC time I will cheer for both without reservation.
That is the difference between Welsh and Irish rugby.
For us the rivalry is fierce but the common bond is equally strong.
Wales has only the former and it is crippling the game there

Its the Welsh way Geoff.  Its been like this for centuries

Nigel is supposed to be the best referee in the world but, he really has a problem refing the Scarlet's. I am not sure if he is over compensating in case people think he is biased, or whether his problem is based on any issues he experienced growing up in a tough mining community in the Gwendraeth valley. He either needs to avoid games involving the Scarlet's or learn to deal with it.

I thought he was fine last night to be honest.

Seagultaf wrote:Nigel is supposed to be the best referee in the world but, he really has a problem refing the Scarlet's. I am not sure if he is over compensating in case people think he is biased, or whether his problem is based on any issues he experienced growing up in a tough mining community in the Gwendraeth valley. He either needs to avoid games involving the Scarlet's or learn to deal with it.

For goodness sake, it seems every referee has a problem with the Scarlets if you go by the comments on here.

Hello Munster and Ulster fans. Anyone know where I could nab two tickets for the Ulster v Munster game on the 3rd of Jan in Raven Hill?

Decent win tonight. Hope we put a good team out against Ulster..a win there and we are sorted, with Leinster to do a job on them tomorrow.

JJ has to be made first choice now over that Leinster has been

Surely Penney will continue to rotate to keep the pressure off JJ? Game to game he is inconsistent and made a few mistakes last night despite scoring all the points. When he gets a bit more experience he is bound to be the Munster starting 10 next season.

It wasn't pretty but I guess it rarely is these days but it is effective and you just can't dismiss 10 wins from 11!

Next week is a huge game and I expect penny to put out a strong team. A win in ravenhill would be massive and a real statement about where this team really is. I do think he will go with keatley though it's like Penney has told him your my number 1 10 all season no matter what.

A solid win, on JJ/Keatley, JJ has more talent and a greater ceiling then Keatley ever will, at this point there isn't a lot between them I don't think. Keatley hada really good spell at the start of the year as well don't forget. Moments like the Perpignan try and the crossfield kick last week can overshadow a performance (I can't be the only one who thought he was okay but not great against Scarlets)

Go with the "hot hand" as the San Francisco 49ers Coach Jim Harbaugh once said, right now that is JJ

Hmmm i suppose yourself and profitius have to make excuses for keatley as he was the bees knees last year. However keatley should be consigned to a support role which he is good at. JJ to start the hc games...

Great chance next week to put out strong team and turn them over in their own back yard! Hopefully not our usual rubbish performance before hc!

I see no reason why JJ cant be made the starting 10 over Keatley. I personally believe that JJ offers a lot more and is continuing to improve.

Munster team vs Ulster named. Its weaker than I thought it would be. No JJ, Cronin, Downey, Earls or Donn Ryan.


Munster: Felix Jones; Andrew Conway, Casey Laulala, Ivan Dineen, Ronan O'Mahony; Ian Keatley, Cathal Sheridan; Dave Kilcoyne, Damien Varley, Stephen Archer; Donncha O'Callaghan, Paul O'Connell; Peter O'Mahony Capt., Tommy O'Donnell, James Coughlan.

Replacements: Duncan Casey, John Ryan, BJ Botha, Dave Foley, CJ Stander, Duncan Williams, Johnny Holland, Johne Murphy.


Murray is back in training and Zebo must be nearing a return also.

We really do have a lot of injuries when you add them all up but still a very strong pack! Pity Cronin is still out  as he is a super scrummager..

Penney has it in his head that keatley is his first choice so no matter what jj does he won't start ahead of keatley this year! I would like to see keatley at 12.

We have won 10 from 11 but some of those were against the weaker teams (Leinster :-) ) and scraped a couple of wins so this will tell us if we have really reclaimed second irish spot! A win in ravenhill and I believe we have.

Keatley!###!!!!####!!#£***&!

ME-109 wrote:Keatley!###!!!!####!!#£***&!

Munster will win nothing with him starting at 10. Time for Penney to make JJ the number 1 out half. I don't by this protecting of him, he is good enough now to do it.

Look he is a decent player but nothing more than a good backup. JJ has to start now (but i don't think Penney will take the jump).

pluses last night were Foley, Williams and Casey, also Archer completely outplayed court.

He wasn't that bad with ball in hand last night but I never feel confident with him for some reason. Agree that he is worth his place in the squad as a backup player but I really don't think that Munster will win anything with him being the number 1. People think that Penney is protecting him but I have no idea why, he is already good enough and proven that he can do the job so why not give it to him?

JJ will get the call next week and he will play most of the big ones, Keatley will get chances but he will have to work his ass off to prove he deserves the starting gig. He is a great backup to have and that's incredibly improtant too. JJ is by no means the finished article and you wouldn't expect him to be but on pure talent he can go far.

Nope Thomond, no where near the finished article but in order to get to that stage I feel that Penney has to give him the responsibility of starting 10. I also think that he will go far with that responsibility placed on him. I actually expect him (based on his continuous improvement over the last while) to figure very strongly at the RWC.

He'll get that now, Keatley had a shocker from the tee last night, one of those days where nothing went right, was okay besides that but our backs really lack cutting edge most of them regardless of whose ten. There's rumours of Doug Howlett becoming backs coach next year, it might help.

I was actually hoping that ROG would have stayed on in a coaching capacity. I truly think that he will be head coach material one day and right now Munster could use him to help Keatley with his kicking problems.

Thomond wrote:He'll get that now, Keatley had a shocker from the tee last night, one of those days where nothing went right, was okay besides that but our backs really lack cutting edge most of them regardless of whose ten. There's rumours of Doug Howlett becoming backs coach next year, it might help.

His missed touches were nearly as bad as the missed penalties! From hand he passed to Casey 3 times when he was less than 2 yards away. I've tried to keep an open mind on keatley but all season he had been poor. He is anything but a reliable place kicker.


The big problem is that I don't think jj will be available next week