Nick McCarthy

[harblstuff]

Does that make 10 senior half backs at Munster now?

How many in the academy?

Better sign another joker to cover Mathewson

[arsebiscuits1]

Does that make 10 senior half backs at Munster now?

How many in the academy?

Better sign another joker to cover Mathewson

McCarthy got a puncture in Barack Obama plaza on the way to Limerick.

Mathewson gets a 2 year deal as cover

[harblstuff]

Does that make 10 senior half backs at Munster now?

How many in the academy?

Better sign another joker to cover Mathewson

McCarthy got a puncture in Barack Obama plaza on the way to Limerick.

Mathewson gets a 2 year deal as cover

Mathewson? I'd say complete and utter Faf

[riocard911]

An example of the reactions down Thomond Park way, courtesy of the Munster Fans Forum (Red Army Section):


We have Stafford and Casey in the academy and Poland playing well for the As. I haven't seen Casey play at all and I know he's been out with a serious injury for more than 12 months but from what I've seen of Stafford and Poland they both appear to be better than McCarthy. Given that Murray is signed on for 3 more seasons and we have these 2 home-grown players plus Williams and Cronin as back-ups I'm not sure we needed to go to Leinster for this signing.

Being realistic this signing means at least two and up to three of Williams, Cronin, Stafford, Poland, Casey will not be contracted for next season. That seems like a slap in the face to me and sends the wrong signal to players coming through our system. If I was a young player now in Munster I'd be more willing to listen to offers of the Pau academy from Coughlan.

Last edited by AwayFromHome; Today, 10:49.

[mildlyinterested]

Leinster rugby have confirmed McCarthy move.

[olaf the fat]

He's not the messiah he's just a naughty boy

Top drawer - or considering who it is, top shelf

[Peg Leg]

He's not the messiah he's just a naughty boy

Top drawer - or considering who it is, top shelf

[LeRouxIsPHat]

I hope this doesn't mean he loses out on game time for this season, could easily see the coaches giving HOS more minutes because of the move.

The move makes total sense for him really. He won't be first choice while Murray is there but he's pretty much guaranteed to be second choice and obviously Murray will be away with Ireland or rested a lot so he'll get loads of game time. Even if he became second choice here he'd still have Luke and/or JGP around all the time and would be off early even when he started games.

Gutted to lose him though, enjoyed seeing him develop and hoped he'd become an important player for us, plus he's a really nice guy.

[arsebiscuits1]

I hope this doesn't mean he loses out on game time for this season, could easily see the coaches giving HOS more minutes because of the move.

The move makes total sense for him really. He won't be first choice while Murray is there but he's pretty much guaranteed to be second choice and obviously Murray will be away with Ireland or rested a lot so he'll get loads of game time. Even if he became second choice here he'd still have Luke and/or JGP around all the time and would be off early even when he started games.

Gutted to lose him though, enjoyed seeing him develop and hoped he'd become an important player for us, plus he's a really nice guy.

I hope it does mean he misses out on game time. Not only that, I think it guarantees it will mean that.

He's currently a much more complete and experienced player than Hugh. But Hugh seems to have all the attributes except for experience. If I were Leinster coaches, any 50 50 call for a pro14 game goes to Hugh so he can come into next season not undercooked.

[OTT]

I hope this doesn't mean he loses out on game time for this season, could easily see the coaches giving HOS more minutes because of the move.

The move makes total sense for him really. He won't be first choice while Murray is there but he's pretty much guaranteed to be second choice and obviously Murray will be away with Ireland or rested a lot so he'll get loads of game time. Even if he became second choice here he'd still have Luke and/or JGP around all the time and would be off early even when he started games.

Gutted to lose him though, enjoyed seeing him develop and hoped he'd become an important player for us, plus he's a really nice guy.

Why would we give HOS more minutes? Should we not get in a joker? Playing an academy lad? Get outta here!

[LeRouxIsPHat]

I hope this doesn't mean he loses out on game time for this season, could easily see the coaches giving HOS more minutes because of the move.

The move makes total sense for him really. He won't be first choice while Murray is there but he's pretty much guaranteed to be second choice and obviously Murray will be away with Ireland or rested a lot so he'll get loads of game time. Even if he became second choice here he'd still have Luke and/or JGP around all the time and would be off early even when he started games.

Gutted to lose him though, enjoyed seeing him develop and hoped he'd become an important player for us, plus he's a really nice guy.

I hope it does mean he misses out on game time. Not only that, I think it guarantees it will mean that.

He's currently a much more complete and experienced player than Hugh. But Hugh seems to have all the attributes except for experience. If I were Leinster coaches, any 50 50 call for a pro14 game goes to Hugh so he can come into next season not undercooked.

Mainly because the move probably won't change the fact that Nick will usually be the back up in Europe so we need him to be ready.

But also because I rate him and think he could be very useful for us anyway. It's not like our third choice 9 gets much time as it is, so to lessen that even further would be a bad idea IMO. HOS is still very young and still a good bit behind Nick IMO, plenty of time for him to get games and next season we won't have to worry about leaving JGP out so shouldn't be overly reliant on HOS anyway.

This works out really well for HOS IMO. I know that sounds obvious given that he'll move up the pecking order but Nick is at the stage where he needs more game time than he's getting, whereas HOS getting the same amount is pretty much perfect for his age and stage of development.

[curates_egg]

I hope this doesn't mean he loses out on game time for this season, could easily see the coaches giving HOS more minutes because of the move.

The move makes total sense for him really. He won't be first choice while Murray is there but he's pretty much guaranteed to be second choice and obviously Murray will be away with Ireland or rested a lot so he'll get loads of game time. Even if he became second choice here he'd still have Luke and/or JGP around all the time and would be off early even when he started games.

Gutted to lose him though, enjoyed seeing him develop and hoped he'd become an important player for us, plus he's a really nice guy.

I do not understand this logic. We need to have whoever will be our back-up 9 ready to start next season. We will be down at least one of JGP and McGrath due to the world cup.
McCarthy is the IRFU's problem now.
I was very optimistic about him but I now couldn't care less. If he can be of use to us, then fine; but we need to give whoever the IRFU leaves us with game time, so they are ready for the challenge next season.

[deco]

I hope this doesn't mean he loses out on game time for this season, could easily see the coaches giving HOS more minutes because of the move.

The move makes total sense for him really. He won't be first choice while Murray is there but he's pretty much guaranteed to be second choice and obviously Murray will be away with Ireland or rested a lot so he'll get loads of game time. Even if he became second choice here he'd still have Luke and/or JGP around all the time and would be off early even when he started games.

Gutted to lose him though, enjoyed seeing him develop and hoped he'd become an important player for us, plus he's a really nice guy.

I do not understand this logic. We need to have whoever will be our back-up 9 ready to start next season. We will be down at least one of JGP and McGrath due to the world cup.
McCarthy is the IRFU's problem now.
I was very optimistic about him but I now couldn't care less. If he can be of use to us, then fine; but we need to give whoever the IRFU leaves us with game time, so they are ready for the challenge next season.

Spoken like a true Leinster fan. Fully agree.

[bails]

Once again this stinks. One injury at 9 next season and we have 2 x academy players to cover, one with 1 senior appearance, the other with none.

Meanwhile Munster currently have the following 9's on their books:-

Murray 116 appearances (B&I Lion)
Williams 159 appearances
Harte 16 appearances (also played Top 14 with Grenoble and Stade Francais)
Cronin 7 appearances
Stafford Academy Player
Mathewson 2 appearances (All Black international)

What really irks me, is that when they do have an injury, they are reluctant to expose any of their other players, rather they just sign an overseas as a medical joker (last medical joker stayed an entire season even when Taute was fit again). This was the younger 9's get no exposure and IRFU feel the need to move a player from Leinster. How can the younger developmental 9's get any experience when they keep getting usurped by overseas signings

Id love to know where Munster get the budget for all these signings

By way of re-enforcing my point, Munster currently have a plethora of outhalves . In no particular order:-

Carbery 7 appearances
Blyenthan 39 appearances
Keatley 178 appearances
Hanrahan 89 appearances
Johnston 7 appearances

How are Hanrahan and Johnson, for example expected to develop and gain experience in the 10 shirt, when they are rarely trusted and then Carbery parachuted in ahead of them.
Yet even when Carbery arrived, nobody was moved elsewhere

As you can see from above there is absolutely no incentive for Munster to develop half backs, from within, as we did with Carbery, McGrath, Ross B and Nick McCarthy

Every time they whine, IRFU acts and move someone we have spend time and money developing.

It stinks !

[LeRouxIsPHat]

I do not understand this logic. We need to have whoever will be our back-up 9 ready to start next season. We will be down at least one of JGP and McGrath due to the world cup.
McCarthy is the IRFU's problem now.
I was very optimistic about him but I now couldn't care less. If he can be of use to us, then fine; but we need to give whoever the IRFU leaves us with game time, so they are ready for the challenge next season.

Presumably you wouldn't have picked Joey or Jordi for the European Cup final then?

I don't get your logic at all. This season we have an issue because JGP is TOO foreign, but we won't have that problem next season. We only took two scrumhalves to the last world cup, if that happens again then it's likely that the second one would be Marmion. A lot can change there, but I think it's highly likely that we'll have JGP available regardless of how many go because he just won't have time to be tested at international level.

But none of that even bothers me, I just don't see why you wouldn't want us to be in the best shape possible for the big games this season. Why prioritise next season over this one? We don't need to develop, we've done that and in our in great shape, it's trophies we need.

[wixfjord]

I hope this doesn't mean he loses out on game time for this season, could easily see the coaches giving HOS more minutes because of the move.

The move makes total sense for him really. He won't be first choice while Murray is there but he's pretty much guaranteed to be second choice and obviously Murray will be away with Ireland or rested a lot so he'll get loads of game time. Even if he became second choice here he'd still have Luke and/or JGP around all the time and would be off early even when he started games.

Gutted to lose him though, enjoyed seeing him develop and hoped he'd become an important player for us, plus he's a really nice guy.

McCarthy is the IRFU's problem now.
I was very optimistic about him but I now couldn't care less. If he can be of use to us, then fine

What a load of throw your toys out of the pram nonsense.

We're running a professional rugby team. McCarthy is an important player.

It would be ridiculous for our management to take this approach.

He may get slightly less gametime and we may use HOS more to get him ready, but you don't disown a guy because he has chosen to move on.

As LRIP has said, pro teams don't cut of their nose to spite their face. We'll squeeze every last bit out of McCarthy, and rightly so.

[harblstuff]

As LRIP has said, pro teams don't cut of their nose to spite their face. We'll squeeze every last bit out of McCarthy, and rightly so.

You play your strongest team with the goal in mind to win.

Which needs to be balanced with development of players and talent, which is why Leinster will mix in academy players wherever possible.

Dumping NMC and his experience would be spiteful and could hurt us in a key fixture if one of LMG and JGP are injured, yet not developing HOS (or even PP) because all you want to do is win the fixture in front of you is also short sighted.

I hope we'll see a lot more of HOS, but where necessary, we play NMC. I don't feel we have to 'squeeze every last bit out of' him, but we can't ignore him.

[wixfjord]

As LRIP has said, pro teams don't cut of their nose to spite their face. We'll squeeze every last bit out of McCarthy, and rightly so.

You play your strongest team with the goal in mind to win.

Which needs to be balanced with development of players and talent, which is why Leinster will mix in academy players wherever possible.

Dumping NMC and his experience would be spiteful and could hurt us in a key fixture if one of LMG and JGP are injured, yet not developing HOS (or even PP) because all you want to do is win the fixture in front of you is also short sighted.

I hope we'll see a lot more of HOS, but where necessary, we play NMC. I don't feel we have to 'squeeze every last bit out of' him, but we can't ignore him.

What I mean by that is we'll use him when we need him, rather than discarding him.

Certainly HOS will get more gametime than if Nick were staying, that's just prudent. But it's also prudent to use the guy who's three years older and has a lot more experience rather than putting him in the corner!

I'm sure he's disgusted that an anonymous forumster 'couldn't care less' about him though!

[harblstuff]

What I mean by that is we'll use him when we need him, rather than discarding him.

Certainly HOS will get more gametime than if Nick were staying, that's just prudent. But it's also prudent to use the guy who's three years older and has a lot more experience rather than putting him in the corner!

I'm sure he's disgusted that an anonymous forumster 'couldn't care less' about him though!

Grand, maybe it's the choice of phrase that made me react, 'squeeze every last bit' out of someone is how I think of the Gallagher Premiership to be honest.

But yeah, so we are definitely aligned in how we want to see HOS/NMC managed in the rest of the season.

If HOS is in the senior squad ahead of him, I wouldn't mind NMC in Leinster A with PP - share the knowledge and experience around beyond just the senior squad.

[curates_egg]

I hope this doesn't mean he loses out on game time for this season, could easily see the coaches giving HOS more minutes because of the move.

The move makes total sense for him really. He won't be first choice while Murray is there but he's pretty much guaranteed to be second choice and obviously Murray will be away with Ireland or rested a lot so he'll get loads of game time. Even if he became second choice here he'd still have Luke and/or JGP around all the time and would be off early even when he started games.

Gutted to lose him though, enjoyed seeing him develop and hoped he'd become an important player for us, plus he's a really nice guy.

McCarthy is the IRFU's problem now.
I was very optimistic about him but I now couldn't care less. If he can be of use to us, then fine

What a load of throw your toys out of the pram nonsense.

We're running a professional rugby team. McCarthy is an important player.

It would be ridiculous for our management to take this approach.

He may get slightly less gametime and we may use HOS more to get him ready, but you don't disown a guy because he has chosen to move on.

As LRIP has said, pro teams don't cut of their nose to spite their face. We'll squeeze every last bit out of McCarthy, and rightly so.

I don't disagree that we should squeeze out of him what we need.
I disagree that we should care about his gametime or development. That is totally irrelevant to Leinster.
If we need him, use him. But the other priority we now have is to get the other players exposure and gametime.