Munster v London Irish 24/8/2012

[taz]

Just starting a thread to focus on the last pre-season outing before the new season begins in earnest.

Hopefully we will see a decent crowd in Musgrave for this one.I'd imagine most folks who availed of the free tickets would have picked this one to go to.

I hope we see a good usage of about 25-30 players in this match again,while the management are trying to piece things together for the coming season.

[Waterboy]

Speaking off free tickets!!! has anybody got their tickets from MRSC yet??

[oilean]

Probably tomorrow The ones for Bristol game arrived on Monday last

[Paddy Whac]

I'm heading down too, hopefully, we'll see TOL star for LI too. My first game of the new season, looking forward to it.

[fullback15]

Munster A play Connacht A Thursday in Galway. This could allow Penney more scope for the London Irish game as he won't necessarily have to give fellas a bit of game time if they were involved with the A team

[taz]

I hope they give a few of the props who featured in La Rochelle but not against Bristol another run out.

[Sketchy]

Anyone know when the Internationals are back for selection?

[Cowboy]

Anyone know when the Internationals are back for selection?

around round 4 of the league

[The Last Stand]

Munster A play Connacht A Thursday in Galway. This could allow Penney more scope for the London Irish game as he won't necessarily have to give fellas a bit of game time if they were involved with the A team

It's a long season. The cream will rise.

[Sketchy]

around round 4 of the league

Cheers Cowboy. Didn't think it was that far in but glad the new boys have a decent chance to raise the hand.

[Cowboy]

Cheers Cowboy. Didn't think it was that far in but glad the new boys have a decent chance to raise the hand.

Not a bother Sketchy!

This preseason has been much more straightforward and hopefully we'll see results off the back off it.

It's not an easy opening few rounds.

[redster]

Munster A play Connacht A Thursday in Galway. This could allow Penney more scope for the London Irish game as he won't necessarily have to give fellas a bit of game time if they were involved with the A team

What time is that game on? Might have a wander up the road.

[McCloud]

What time is that game on? Might have a wander up the road.

3pm.

[Colliniho]

Munster A play Connacht A Thursday in Galway. This could allow Penney more scope for the London Irish game as he won't necessarily have to give fellas a bit of game time if they were involved with the A team

If he is sending 22 guys or so up the road to Galway on Thursday, would that suggest that the Irish lads might be involved on Friday against LI?
He could send a glorified academy side up to play connaught I suppose but otherwise he could be spreading the squad a bit thin

[taz]

If he is sending 22 guys or so up the road to Galway on Thursday, would that suggest that the Irish lads might be involved on Friday against LI?
He could send a glorified academy side up to play connaught I suppose but otherwise he could be spreading the squad a bit thin

I think we wont see our Irish players for a few weeks yet.

[Sketchy]

Not a bother Sketchy!

This preseason has been much more straightforward and hopefully we'll see results off the back off it.

It's not an easy opening few rounds.

A difficult start is what we need to really focus the minds. No point in lulling ourselves into a false sense of security by taking out the Zebras! We need to know what level we need to get to quicksharp!

[taz]

I better wear my Munster shirt this Friday,there are spies everywhere I tell ya.

[oilean]

Surprised tickets for London Irish have not arrived
Any one get theirs in the post??

[Grandpasimpson]

Will there be tickets available on the night?

[taz]

Will there be tickets available on the night?

Kiosk outside Dolphin entrance last friday,imagine the same for this friday.

[Captain Average]

I've decided only today that I may as well go to this as I'm heading to Cork this weekend anyway. How much are the tickets? I'm too lazy to look it up.

[jeepers]

Tomos O'Leary interview in Irish Post.

IT WAS a long night for Tomás O’Leary. There was an important phonecall coming the following morning and he feared the worst.
A few hours earlier at Lansdowne Road, his mistake cost Ireland victory over France in their last warm-up game before the 2011 World Cup squad would be named.
That match had been a chance for O’Leary to install himself as Ireland’s first-choice scrum-half for the tournament. Instead he played himself out of contention.
“It didn’t go well against France,” he says. An intercept pass that gifted Francois Trinh-Duc the winning try sent O’Leary back to pre-season training with Munster while Conor Murray, Eoin Reddan and Isaac Boss boarded the plane to New Zealand.
“There was a bit of a push against me being selected from media and fans because I wasn’t playing well, so that didn’t help. The France game was the defining factor in terms of selection.”
It’s now 12 months on from the biggest disappointment of O’Leary’s career. He maintains he’s over it, but the pain is still there beneath the surface.
He doesn’t enjoy recalling that Sunday morning last August when Declan Kidney phoned him to confirm that his services weren’t required in New Zealand.
“I had a feeling it was coming alright,” he says. “Obviously based on my performances in the warm-up games the coaching staff felt I wasn’t up to it.
“I still think I would have been a good option for the World Cup and that Ireland would have been better off having me there. I’d love to have played in the World Cup but that’s all in the past now and I don’t have any issues with it.”
There have been more lows than highs for Tomás O'Leary over the last two years, but missing out on the World Cup was the nadir. The scrum-half turns 29 in October but has yet to play in the tournament.
He doesn’t shy away from the fact that his form recently has dipped. The Tomás O'Leary who earned Lions selection in 2009 hasn’t been seen for a while, although a series of injuries haven’t helped.
The emergence of Conor Murray pushed him down the food chain for club and country. Munster offered O’Leary a two-year extension to stay and fight for his place, but he felt a fresh start was required.
Like all Corkonians, he’s proud of his patch. But he needed to get away for the sake of his career and there were attractive options abroad.
“I pretty much had my mind made up last January,” O’Leary says. “The way the last year or two had gone at Munster, I just felt that I was down the pecking order and I felt that I needed a fresh environment to reinvigorate myself.
“There was nothing left for me to achieve with Munster. It would have been great to win more stuff with them while I was there but it’s about a life experience as well; living away from home.”
Reports suggested that a move to Perpignan had been agreed, so London Irish’s announcement of the capture of O’Leary on a three-year deal in March took everyone by surprise.
“I spoke to Perpignan and a couple of other clubs but when I met Brian Smith I was impressed by his vision and his ambitions for London Irish,” says O’Leary.
“He wanted me too and that’s always good to hear. It felt like the right move to make. I always enjoyed visiting London and it’s a different lifestyle over here compared to Cork, but the change isn’t too drastic either.
“There’s obviously no language barrier or anything like that. Perpignan has got the sunshine and a nice lifestyle, but I felt London Irish would be a better fit.
“I went with my gut instinct on this because it felt right. It’s definitely something I would have regretted if I hadn’t done it.
“Very few Irish players leave Ireland so clubs in England and France sometimes wonder if they’re being used as a bargaining tool by a player trying to bump up his contract in Ireland.
“But I knew I wanted to go. I knew I needed to leave Ireland to try and get my career back on track and start playing regular rugby again.”
As that career veered off track, O’Leary acted as reserve to Conor Murray for Munster throughout last season – he started on the bench for all seven of their Heineken Cup games – despite believing he was worthy of far more game-time.
However, he denies ever clashing with then-coach Tony McGahan over the issue of selection.
“I always got on well with Tony. We never fell out with each other, I just fell out of favour.
“There were no issues. We always got on well personally. It was his job to pick what he thought was his best team so it was nothing personal.
“I wasn’t playing my best rugby. Sometimes I thought I deserved to be picked but I wasn’t, whereas other times when I was dropped I totally deserved to be.
“At times last season I felt I should have been starting in the Heineken Cup but I wasn’t. But I certainly don’t think I was hard done by over my Munster career either.
“Munster had become a bit of a comfort zone for me. You’re hanging around with your mates from home, growing up with the same squad for seven or eight years and you know everyone inside out.
“It would have been a fresh challenge with a new coach coming in but I really think I needed a totally new environment.”
He has looked like a player suffering from a loss of confidence lately, but London Irish could be the perfect place to rebuild it. The Exiles have waited a long time for a high-profile Irish international so O’Leary will be cherished.
But he’ll also be expected to deliver on the field, particularly as one of the senior players in a young but promising team.
“Coming into a new club is a different experience for me but the lads have been pretty good. Getting to know so many new faces and names in the first week or two was pretty hard but the fresh challenge has been enjoyable.
“The club don’t go too well last season but the positive thing is that there doesn’t seem to be any sort of hangover from it.
“There’s a bit of pressure and responsibility on my shoulders here in terms of my role within the club. Munster had more established senior players but it’s a young and inexperienced squad here.
“But that’s good. That’s what I want. I know I’m new to the club but I’m also one of the more experienced lads in the set-up and that’s part of the reason they signed me.”
O’Leary is still not quite sure what to expect from the Premiership, but he’ll have a clearer indication after London Irish begin their campaign against Saracens at Twickenham on September 1.
Boss Brian Smith wants to end the season in the top four and, having seen some of the talent at Smith’s disposal since he began pre-season training last month, O’Leary believes that goal is attainable.
“There are some really exciting players here so I definitely think it’s realistic for the club to target the top four.
“From chatting to the lads who have been here for a few years, they’re saying this pre-season has been totally refreshing and totally different to the last few years. Hopefully that can translate on to the pitch.”
While his primary focus will be on performing for London Irish, adding to his 24 international caps will never be far from O’Leary's mind. Declan Kidney has assured him that he’ll be watching.
“He’s said he’ll keep an eye on how I’m doing over here so hopefully it won’t restrict me from getting back in with the international set-up as long as I’m playing well.
“It’ll obviously be more difficult getting picked for Ireland when I’m over here, but I also felt this was a move I needed to make if I wanted to get back in because I wasn’t going to get back in anyway if I stayed with Munster as wasn’t playing regular rugby.
“This is an opportunity for me to put myself back into the minds of the management. Hopefully if I’m playing well they’ll see the odd game.
“It’s when you’re not being picked that you realise how much it means to you. When you see the team playing without you it does hurt.
“Where I’ve fallen down over the last couple of years is that I haven’t been performing consistently at club level. The hope is that the new environment here can allow me to make a fresh start.”
These next few years are when O'Leary should be hitting his peak and he’s now got that clean start that he craved.
He proved himself to be one of the northern hemisphere’s top scrum-halves between 2008 and ’09, winning a Heineken Cup, a Grand Slam and a Lions call-up.
He’s convinced he’s capable of recapturing that form and London Irish will need him to do so if their top-four goal is to be achieved.
O’Leary says: “I’m confident I can hit peak form over the next few years. If I can get a good run and an injury-free season I definitely think I can get back to that kind of form.”

http://www.irishpost.co.uk/index.php...tart-in-exile-

[taz]

I've decided only today that I may as well go to this as I'm heading to Cork this weekend anyway. How much are the tickets? I'm too lazy to look it up.

€14 terrace,€18 stand.

[Bitter As A Lemon]

Hopefully there will be a better attendance than 3000 for this weeks game.

[Dumptruck]

I've decided only today that I may as well go to this as I'm heading to Cork this weekend anyway. How much are the tickets? I'm too lazy to look it up.

You are not going to Cork.. Bet you are only going to Malla

[Captain Average]

You are not going to Cork.. Bet you are only going to Malla

Last time I checked, Malla was over the border in that horrid red county.

[Dumptruck]

Last time I checked, Malla was over the border in that horrid red county.

Ah but the pure langers wouldn't consider those Malla Mudbloods as Pure Langers ...

[flsghujslkuo]

http://www.irishpost.co.uk/index.php...tart-in-exile-

Maybe its my juvenile sense of humour, but I find the end of that link hilarious: "tart-in-exile" What has O Leary been up to I wonder?

[McCloud]

munsterrugby.ie




Munster Named For London Irish
21 August 2012, 1:33 pm
By The Editor


Rob Penney makes five changes to his starting XV for Munster's final pre-season game against London Irish this Friday while A team Head Coach Ian Costello names his side for a pre-season friendly against Connacht A on Thursday.


Johne Murphy is named in the backline in place of Luke O'Dea while du Preez, Botha, Dave O'Callaghan and Coughlan all start in the pack with Archer, O'Donnell, Butler and O'Dea named on an extended bench.


Dave Kilcoyne joins the Munster A's where Ian Costello has named a side that includes a mixture of senior, academy and club players to take on Connacht A in a pre-season game at the Sportsground on Thursday, ko 3pm.


Luke O’Dea, Sean Scanlon and Philip Donnellan will get some game time starting out against Connacht A and have also been named on the bench for Friday night’s game against London Irish, ko 7pm.


Munster: D Hurley; D Howlett capt, C Laulala, J Downey, J Murphy; I Keatley, D Williams; W du Preez, D Varley, BJ Botha; D Foley, B Holland; D O’Callaghan, S Dougall, J Coughlan.


Replacements: M Horan, S Henry, S Archer, P Donnellan, T O’Donnell, P Butler, P Stringer, S Deasy, S Scanlon, L O’Dea.


Tickets are available for Munster v London Irish online here, from the Munster Rugby ticket offices, the Cork Munster Rugby Store (Maylor St.), and by phone on 061-421103 and 021-4315767


Munster A: L O’Dea; R O’Mahony, I Dineen, S Scanlon, A N Other; JJ Hanrahan, G Hurley (Cork Con); D Kilcoyne, D Casey, J Ryan; P Donnellan, D O’Shea (Dolphin); B Hayes, B O’Mahony, S Buckley.


Replacements: J Cronin, G Slattery (Young Munster), C Condon, E Kelly (UL Bohs), S Rennison (UL Bohs), N Cronin (Garryowen), J Holland, C Hircock, C Bohane, R Mullane (Shannon).

[taz]

There is definitely a bit of a trend with the teams picked using the fringe players in the squad.

Archer ahead as cover at TH.

Williams ahead of Stringer.

Casey and Downey starting in the centre again.

Keatley consistently picked with Deasy in the match squad 22 and Hanrahan down in the A squad.


I like the look of the backrow as well for this match with DOC2,Dougal and Coughlan.


Hurley getting decent time at FB.