Jack Crowley has signed a two year contract extension to stay with Munster and Ireland until at least 2027. It is great news coming in the week as preparations for Bordeaux Begles go into top gear. It is the positive news that was required for both player and province as the will he /won’t he saga had gone into over drive since the 6 Nations in particular.
He can fully focus on Bordeaux now and seeing can Munster go the well once more and pull off another win in a knock out European game. It’s 25 years since Toulouse were vanquished on the very ground that will host Saturday’s game between Bordeaux and Munster.
It is going to take another special performance to see them through but Munster will know they need to back up the performance of last weekend once more. The pairing of Casey and Crowley is very like the pairing of 25 years ago with Peter Stringer and Ronan O Gara in the driving seat back then.
The way Munster went after Toulouse on that hot April afternoon in 2000 in something similar to the way that the Munster of 2025 will have to go at Bordeaux. It is crucial that they slow the Bordeaux ball down and then if they manage that they will have to get parity at scrum time to allow them to get the ball out to guys like Crowley, Farrell and Abrahams to try and inflict damage on them.
Joey Carbery may well be at out half for Bordeaux and he will want to release his own power packed back line with Penaud, Moefana and Buros to name three opposition players who will want to try and score tries to help end Munster’s quest for a semi-final spot.
Munster have to climb over their own mental hurdles to get over in Europe as the conquered the URC in 2023 and have not had much look in Europe since the trophy was won for the second time in 2008.
Munster will be hoping the journey for season 24/25 in Europe doesn’t end on Saturday afternoon in the quarter final. They will have a strong support as they did in La Rochelle last weekend. Amazing again how the support keeps coming up for them and they will play a key role to help the side at key moments…
I will select the 23 I feel are best placed to and beat Bordeaux….
15 Thaakir Abrahams
14 Calvin Nash
13 Tom Farrell
12 Sean O Brien
11 Andrew Smith
10 Jack Crowley
9 Craig Casey
8 Gavin Coombes
7 John Hodnett
6 Alex Kendellan
5 Tadgh Beirne
4 Jean Kleyn
3 Oli Jager
2 Diarmuid Barron
1 John Ryan
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16 Niall Scannell
17 Josh Wycherley
18 Stephen Archer
19 Tom Ahern
20 Peter O Mahony
21 Conor Murray
22 Tony Butler
23 Sean Edogbo