Munster Rugby 2012-13

given the fact that some of our regular contributers here reckon that connacht will finish higher than Munster in this years pro12(at least they did before saturday) i thought we should have a thread on them.

Rob Penney gave keatley serious praise after saturdays performance and stated that he played with maturity beyond his years which should do his confidence the world of good. IMO penney implied heavily that if he keeps it up he will stay in the team and thats all any player wants to hear.

keatley problem at Munster has been twofold imo. Principally his goal kicking hasnt been to a high enough standard and he has tended to panic under pressure and do silly things with the ball in the wrong area of the field on occasion. Some people like to blame these on the presence of ROG but Rog is his reality and Keats knew he was in situ before he joined.He has had some very good games but unfortunately some stinkers so he now has to sort that out and if he does it sounds like he will get his chance. He will be judged on his goalkicking though and the bar is set high so he will have to work his socks off in that department.

Think Penney is a good fit but Munster will struggle this season I think it really depends on how fast the young guys bed in and how many players Kidney takes from there squad. Not sure of Howlett as captain either I think it was the right time for POC to give up the band but I always prefer a forward as captain.

I was at the Munster V treviso game on friday night. Keatley named man of the match for 2nd game in a row. Had a great 60 min until he tired and if he keeps that up he will play against leinster in 3 weeks time. He was knackered going off tho and was a bit predictable towards the end. if he could vary it a bit more by kicking behind the defensive line a bit more i for one would be happy.

I was impressed by O'Dea alot imo he's the better player than Zebo and will eventually surpass him in that position. The young pack did well also but I was scratching my head at the lavish praise of Archer in the scrum when it was fairly obvious that it was du Prez who was making the gains. I think Kidney might also finally get his head out of his ass and realise that Downey is a huge asset.

connachtexile wrote: Think Penney is a good fit but Munster will struggle this season I think it really depends on how fast the young guys bed in and how many players Kidney takes from there squad. Not sure of Howlett as captain either I think it was the right time for POC to give up the band but I always prefer a forward as captain.

100% agreed re forwards as captain .After POC though ,it had to be Howlett .What other Munster player is guarenteed to be playing if fit ? By Christmas a few Munster lads may establish themselves as regulars,but there's no definites at the moment.Thats not to say there isn't bucket loads of talent ,which there is ,but it's a team very much in transition .I'd imagine they'll be back on track HK wise in the next couple of years .Will qualify but don't think they'll go beyond the quarters.

Without a doubt Downey has to play for the November Internationals .Lunacy if he doesn't .He's playing great guns with Munster at the moment .Deserved a shpt before this .Crazy that he hasn't been tried somehow at international level.

Keatley -Playing well also ,but think this is the height of his game .Don't think he has the consistency or temperment for Internationals .Madigan can kick now ,and so removed the absolute huge stumbling block that had him behind Keatley .

O'Dea -Jees he's fast .Loads more to come from him .

well the first interpro is over and what a game it was too.Munster wont be too disappointed at losing in ravenhill and imo are where we want to be at this stage of the season. Doc answered all his critics and led from the front all night. Baby doc looks the real deal as do dougall, o dea and kilcoyne and keatley had another good game at 10. Coughlan going off injured was the game changer imo as he was going really well and tod is no 8 but tried hard. The new centre partnership also looks very exciting. With poc, d ryan, stander, o mahoney and zebo to come back yet its all positive down south atm.

There's some serious shouting going on down south about should ROG be demoted to no. 2 and Keatley promoted. I gotta say yes on current form.

sea_point wrote: but if he gets the backing (properly and no flip-flopping to RO'G if he has one bad day) I think he'll deliver for Munster...

This is a big but and probably why it would actually be the wrong move for Keatley. It's one thing to have competition for a position to bring out the best in both players, it's another to be constantly looking over your shoulder worried if you put in one bad kick you'll be replaced by a player getting by more on reputation than skill at this point in his career. IMO it's hampered Sexton's international career to some degree. Which brings up another point. Is Kidney ready to drop ROG as second choice outhalf? If not you have to assume there would be some pressure on Penny to keep ROG as Munster's 1st choice 10. If Kidney is ready to make a change than that opens things up at Munster.

It would probably serve Keatley better to continue as understudy for this season taking his chances when he comes on as a replacement and when/if ROG is on international duty. Plus with ROG getting older he is more susceptible to injury over the course of the season so a change to Keatley could happen without anyone's feelings being hurt.

At the end of last season(and pre this season) i was firmly in the ROG camp.This was almost exclusively based on the belief that Keatley would never be able to deliver the consistancy as a points machine that ROG has been for a very long time now.
Having seen all of this seasons competitive games im now convinced that keatley can deliver that level of consistancy from the boot and is deserving of the starting position next week.

IMO Munsters best available backline is Murray, Keatley, Dougie, Downey, Casey, Zebo and Earls.
Stringer, ROG and O Dea/Hurley off the bench offer a definate plan b.

I see that JJ Hanrahan has made the bench for the H Cup game. Has he played senior level yet for Munster?

1 cap afaik. lookin forward to seeing him tomorrow.

sunday! sorry.

I hope I didn't jinx ROG talking about his increased susceptibility to injury. Looking forward to Keatley putting in a strong performance. I'm sure he's of the mind that the less JJ is seen the better.

The pack thats been picked in front of him should give him the platform to do what he does best. Hopefully his Goalkicking form holds as thats what he will ultimately be judged on.
There will be plenty of scarlets fans wishing that stephen jones was still with them after todays game. 3 from 6 kicks isnt good enough from a frontline kicker and missed kicks cost teams games as connacht fans know well enough.