The Province Formerly Known As Munster 2018-19

[blockhead]

Lads. The Munster team was named nearly 2 hours ago and no one has seen fit to go through it and point out how many players in it were developed outside of Munster.

WTF? Are yiz going soft? Finally growing up? Bored with the joke? Say it ain't so.

6 Munstermen in the starting 15

[ronk]

Isnt that better than average?

[desperado]

Isnt that better than average?

I think there were only 2 Ulstermen in the starting Ulster team.

[Oldschool]

Isnt that better than average?

I think there were only 2 Ulstermen in the starting Ulster team.

Cue thread for TPFKAU.

[johng]

For some unknown reason there is not the same hatred for Ulster on here.

[Peg Leg]

For some unknown reason there is not the same hatred for Ulster on here.

They don't have the same inferiority complex, so there's never a need to temper stupid commentary from up there, on here.

[mildlyinterested]

looking forward to 5 in a row.

[CiaranIrl]

Given the bad run they're on, I think we need to be very prepared to deal with angry faces left right and center. O'Mahony is certain to unleash his angriest face. He'll have been practicing it in front of the mirror all week.

[fourthirtythree]

Given the amount of scuffles and off the ball shenanigans last night we can be certain of it. They seem to be trying to fix the wrong problem from last week.

[ronk]

For some unknown reason there is not the same hatred for Ulster on here.

Or Connacht.

Ulster's hand was forced a bit with the devastation to their backline last year (& their pack was affected too). They recruited but they also have aggressively promoted young players and they deserve credit for that.

Their recruitment hasn't been especially damaging to the other provinces. There's a difference between signing surplus guys when you have a need and stockpiling talent that was still being developed and getting gametime elsewhere.

Ulster have respected the rules as far as I've seen when it comes to poaching.

Eric O'Sullivan, Nick Timoney the development work that Ulster have done is a benefit for Irish rugby and didnt hurt another province. Why would people hate Ulster for it?

[OTT]

Is it because most of us have stories from when Munster were dominant and we were the D4 team with no heart members of their fan base were patronizing and condescending git’s towards us (I include Munster friends in my personal experience). And now that they are not where they once were they live for Leinster results and jump on a loss or a bad performance like it was them winning a 3rd Heineken Cup. You could be watching a Leinster match in a pub anywhere in the world and there would be a Munster fan in a jersey hoping they would lose. I think the arrogance probably came from when Cork Con, Garryowen and Shannon dominated the AIL back in the day, I would go with my dad when I was a kid to games and it was easy to spot the arseholes at even a young age.

I just don’t see that level of spite with other teams like Connacht and Ulster. Like in my personal experience for every Jackie Brown ( ) you could get 100 roosters in Ulster and the same with Connacht fans, good hearted Craic and banter, the spite just isn’t there, you get the same with most big teams in England, success has not defined their behavior. We probably react a bit childish to some fans but it’s hard not to indulge the temptation at times. And as always there are good guys who get caught in the cross fire eg dropkick on this board but they usually understand what’s going on and who the posts are aimed at.

You tell us Johng.

[tomthefan]

Fear breeds hate. It's as simple as that.

[ronk]

It's not just the rivalry, there are grievances over the spending drain when they can't support themselves, the exceptions to common rules on number of NIQ players and the poaching of players.

These thing have made Leinster weaker as much as they have strengthened Munster.

[XyzFoo]

The Ireland coach has 3.5 provinces to choose from (Connacht still a work in progress). That is tough enough - any less than that is a real problem. So we need a strong and competitive Munster. Running Munster at a loss is worth it for that alone. In fairness to them, even when they are relatively sh!te they never show fear of any other team they meet and have a valuable expectation of beating anyone. Are they coddled relative to, say, Ulster? Yeah it appears that way. A bit more even handedness would make it less grating. But the IRFU, and us as (presumably) Ireland fans, get value from the arrangement.

Munster need to get their house in order and work on expanding the game at a local level, getting more prospects into their academy and bringing them through. The coddling should be conditional on that. (Maybe it is and I'm unaware of changes going on.)

[ronk]

Precisely, there are other provinces that could have benefited from the resources demanded by Munster.

What's with the attacking Connacht thing? Not the first time I've see it lately when defending Munster. Are they greedy enough to devour a while province.

[XyzFoo]

Attacking Connacht? I didn't intend to. They had that epic season under Lam when they were deserving winners of the league but since then they seemed to have regressed to where they were before. Mind you, I saw them last week for the first time in ages and they were superb - maybe that is now standard? I don't know.

Anyway, my reference to Connacht was just that they haven't quite hit the same level as the other provinces - either Munster or Leinster (success), or Ulster (depth of the sport - which I admit isn't the same thing as success but does give more value to the franchise from team Ireland perspective). I really hope they do, though, and if last week against us is how they generally play then they could take my second favourite team title.

I agree that the resources directed to Munster might have been more productively spread across M, U and C, though.

[ronk]

Ulster won a Heineken Cup and they had a few good years.

Connacht were good value for their Pro12, and their relative decline wasn’t helped by the Heineken Cup changes, losing players & Munster getting increased support from the IRFU.

[XyzFoo]

Agreed on both points.

I'm not having a pop at Connacht just my impression was that they were nowhere till Lam cam along, then were superb and won the league, then went back to nowhere. Glancing at their record (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connacht_Rugby#Pro14_2) that is harsh - their decline from Champs was pretty big but they were still respectable mid table results.

Anyway, pretty tangential at this point. I'd like to see three provinces being in the mix for challenging for silverware every year, and I'm not that fussed who the other two are. Munster are never far away but certainly Ulster are looking at their best for quite a few years, and maybe Connacht are on the up too.

[ronk]

All the provinces had setbacks when coaches failed to rebuild.

Current crop are all doing better and rebuilding. Leinster came out of the tunnel first.

Not 100% sure on van Graan yet. He signed a lot of talent so he will have to jump a higher bar (eventually).

[RAILWAY1]

I totally agree that Munster need to spread the net around local talent and after a number of years concentrating on the schools so much that they ignored talent from non schools areas of the province, gladly there seems to be some changes in the branch attitude to the clubs at age grade and hopefully we can start producing more homegrown players again.