John Ryan going to London Irish on a short-term loan

[Bromance]

I skipped through a couple of them.

Cotter looked under a lot of pressure against the Saints. This was after Tonga was gone off too, but the whole Saints pack seems really powerful, so I wouldn't be too hard on him. Doing a bit better against Bath, bit of a mixed bag, some were alright, some were bad.

Skipped through a bit of the Wasps game, Ryan was well on top.

Was Cotter not up against Mujati not Tonga for a while? Say he learned a bit from that

[ed7890]

Was Cotter not up against Mujati not Tonga for a while? Say he learned a bit from that

No, well Tonga is the LH sure. Tonga was still on for about a minute after Cotter came on, there was a scrum and a reset, but neither lasted very long.

[redkop]

Ryan looked solid in the games he played. Cotter looked very good in the first 2 games but seemed to be under a bit of pressure on against saints but the saints pack are huge. Either one should be on the bench for Rabo games. Both are versatile in that they can play lh or th but Ryan seemed to struggle a small bit at tight last week in the A game.

[the plastic paddy]

Both Cotter and Ryan play both sides, last yr they were directly opposite each other at scrumtime in Greenfields and Cotter destroyed Ryan, need some more of that this weekend!!

How did the battle between the lads go on saturday?

[Thomond78]

Con won, from memory.

[ed7890]

Alan Cotter is on the bench for Bath tonight against Quins. Game is on Sky Sports 1 in case anybody wants to watch it.

[the plastic paddy]

Alan Cotter is on the bench for Bath tonight against Quins. Game is on Sky Sports 1 in case anybody wants to watch it.

Is he on loan to Bath or is the move permanent? Think it would be a shame if it is a permanent move.

[ed7890]

Is he on loan to Bath or is the move permanent? Think it would be a shame if it is a permanent move.

Another month long loan as far as I am aware. He got a 25 minute run in their game last weekend, hopefully will a decent run again today. It's great experience for him.

[Mardyke Maverick]

These 1 month loans are far from optimal. Munster seem terrified of another Mike Ross debacle. Imagine where Ryan would be now if he had been retained even on a 3 month spell? Archer has been shocking again this season, but in spite of Ryan's good showing at LI he's barely had a sniff of a chance.

[Evil Omer]

Thing is with the variety of time at various clubs all we're doing is putting the lad in the shop window and allowing a selection of clubs to try before they buy

[Mardyke Maverick]

Thing is with the variety of time at various clubs all we're doing is putting the lad in the shop window and allowing a selection of clubs to try before they buy

How does that benefit us though, in the long run?

Imagine, if Ryan had had 3 fantastic months at LI then we could have confidently seen him dropped right into the HEC squad for Sarries a la Bent at Leinster. Instead, he's twiddled his thumbs for 2 months, while watching Archer snap, crackle and pop in the scrum. Condon and Archer got destroyed by a couple of kids in the A game, while Ryan was stuck at loose head; which would be a lesson learned, if Ryan was starting on Sunday.

[Evil Omer]

Not trying to say it's a positive at all, if anything it is a negative because if we don't do something to convince him to stay then why would he? But on the other side, at least for once we're seeing a guy getting rugby instead of warming benches for 70 minutes

[Mardyke Maverick]

Not trying to say it's a positive at all, if anything it is a negative because if we don't do something to convince him to stay then why would he? But on the other side, at least for once we're seeing a guy getting rugby instead of warming benches for 70 minutes

Agreed. But the initial point I was making was that if it was written in stone - which clearly it was - that Archer was going to get all back-up BJ game time, however poorly he performed, then wouldn't it have been better back in late August to have sent Ryan to LI and/or Cotter to London Welsh for 3 months (with a break clause)?

[bugler]

It may have been, but I'm not sure either of the clubs would have been looking for them for that period.

Open to correction on this, but LI's need for a TH came from injuries, with Bath's seemingly coming from being off-guard by Wilson's international call up (?)

Funnily enough, it may be Archer who would benefit us more having 20 minutes here and there in the AP.

[lahinch_lass]

AFAIK if a player is on 3 month contract he could be submitted to the ERC as a squad member, but on a 1-2 month deal he wouldn't be eligible. Munster may be simply trying to avoid the players getting cup-tied in case there's a major run of injuries back here. We've seen enough instances over the years when we suddenly get a string of players being injured in one particular position.
#13's in 2006, the #7's at the start of this season.
I think Bath had some injury issues as well which is why cotter went over.

[Colliniho]

Cotter got 5 minutes tonight for Bath. I missed it but good to see him getting a run.