So Munster are out of the Champions Cup for the second time in succession. To be beaten is one thing but that was one of the worst performances in there long famed European history.  They honestly looked like a team that put together in a hurry in the pub just before kick off , No game plan , no real idea how to attack Stade when the opportunity’s arose. The scrum went backwards from minute one and as soon as BJ Botha had to leave the field with a leg injury it looked like Stade were going to just squeeze the life out of Munster which they did in the 2^nd half.

This was to put it mildly the worse Munster performance of the lot, no character, no idea, no passion, although I feel there has been a lack of passion for a while. This performance has been coming for a while. It was made a hell of a lot worse by the fact Stade Francais went down to 14 men with the sending off of there right winger for gouging the eye of CJ Stander. The Munster performance was so poor that none of the players can really hold their heads high.

This performance can be viewed in two ways , it can be used as the moment that the whole of the Munster season goes down the drain or the branch can act and relieve Anthony Foley of his duties and try and find a short term solution until the season ends. The Munster brand has been built on, Pride, Passion and those two qualities were severely lacking in particular game.

Anthony Foley was installed as Munster coach back in 2014 as the successor to Rob Penney, remember him!! He had been forwards coach under Penney, In Penney’s time in charge Munster made two European Semi Finals and he was sacked for trying to change the way they play. What the supporters and team would give for a European Semi Final now. The men that Foley has around him are not up to the job either. Brian Walsh was the head coach at Cork Con but was given the backs job at Munster without any prior experience, Mick O Driscoll and Jerry Flannery were promoted from within, with no prior coaching experience. As a number of people have said, it really is an old boys club in the coaching department.

Looking to the future both short and long term , it doesn’t look too good , two rounds left in Europe to try and find some sort of form heading into the rest of the Pro 12. Like last season the players need to find it within themselves a way to try and come back from a huge kick in the teeth like today’s game in Paris. The Munster Myth is now gone forever and it is time for the Branch to take a long hard look at the whole organisation. If this was a business like Ryanair, after missing two key targets, you would be shown the door.

Time for the Branch to act to try and STOP THE ROT!!

By

Cian Mc Gibney

09/01/2016

 My Ireland Team to face Wales in Six Nations opener on February 7^th:

 15 Rob Kearney

14 Andrew Conway

13 Robbie Henshaw

12   Stuart Mc Closkey

11   Luke Fitzgerald

10 Jonathan Sexton

9   Conor Murray

8 CJ Stander

7 Sean O Brien

6 Dominic Ryan

5  Donnacha Ryan

4  Devin Toner

3  Martin Moore

2   Rory Best

1 Jack Mc Grath

-

16 Sean Cronin

17 Dave Kilcoyne

18 Tadgh Furlong

19 Ultan Dillane

20 Jamie Heaslip

21 Kieran Marmion

22 Paddy Jackson

23 Gary Ringrose

Here is the squad I would choose for the first Six Nations game against Wales on February 7^th. Ireland head into this Six Nations as defending champions just in case people had forgotten that fact as the performance at the World Cup has dominated the last few months. Ireland will be missing a few key players for the current campaign with both Tommy Bowe and Iain Henderson both ruled out and question marks over the participation of Cian Healy.

First choice back row Peter O Mahony will also miss out on this competition through injury. Looking at this year’s Six Nations, even though no Six Nations side made the last 4 , 3 of the teams made the quarter finals. Ireland will need to move away from the power play game plan and try and utilise the quality backs that are in Ireland at the moment.

With France now being coached by Guy Noves and England under the stewardship of Eddie Jones , Joe Schmidt has two new adversaries to try and outwit as he tries to plan how Ireland will defend the crown they won on points last March.

This is the team that I feel will do the best job at defending the crown and with some players now retired or injured these are the men I think that can do the job.

By

Cian Mc Gibney

06/01/2016

Irish Rugby – Half Term Report

As we have just pasted the half way point of the Pro 12 season, It is time to take stock of where the four Irish provinces are, Connacht are having a great season so far even though they have suffered many injuries and have gone into a couple of fixtures with only 22 players not even enough for a full complement of 23. In fairness to Pat Lam he hasn’t let those issues effect the team and barring the last two weeks where Newcastle Falcons and Ulster have beaten them, they have started this season in fantastic shape and let’s hope this continues into 2016.

 Looking through the squad , it is full of home grown talent that is sprinkled with some outside talent namely Bundee Aki and Tom Mc Cartney to name two players with Super 15 experience that have come in and made a huge difference and given Connacht the hard edge that they have lacked in year’s past. Looking to the rest of this season they will need to weather the Six Nations period where I feel they will be missing more than just Robbie Henshaw, players like Kieran Marmion and Jack Carty should be on Joe Schmidt’s radar. In the forwards guys like Denis Buckley and Ultan Dillane can’t be too far away from a call up. They have been the feel good story of a strange season for Irish Rugby so far.

Moving to Leinster, they resigned Jonathan Sexton in the summer to try and regain lost ground but alas so far it has been far from plain sailing, out of Europe after 4 rounds and until last night against Munster struggling to find form in the Pro 12, but with guys like Sean O Brien, Dominic Ryan and Luke Fitzgerald getting back to form at this key point of the season things are brighten for the boys in blue. Leo Cullen took on his first big head coach’s role after the sacking of Matt O Connor at the end of last season.

Cullen like Foley in Munster was in charge of the team’s forwards before being promoted to the big job. Leinster have done well in recent years in integrating the academy graduates into to the main squad through the Leinster A side and then straight into the first 23. Players like twins , Emmett and Bryan Byrne , Josh Van Der Flier , Jack Conan , Luke Mc Grath have made the step up to the Leinster senior side.

After such a poor start to the season , things looked glum for Leinster but to be fair to Cullen and his coaches they have steadied the ship and with players like Isa Nacewa and Ben Teo’o driving things on the field the pressure has slightly been lifted  from Sean O Brien and Jonathan Sexton. With Europe gone for this year, Leinster may just spark and make a real push for Pro 12 honours this year.

Up to Belfast, things are going well for Ulster two massive wins over Toulouse has reignited there European campaign. Players like Luke Marshall and Stuart Mc Closkey have taken up the batten from injured players like Jared Payne and Tommy Bowe. Paddy Jackson has started firing since arriving back from the World Cup , he along with Ruan Pienaar have steered Ulster into a position where they can go after honours in Europe and the Pro 12. The arrival of Les Kiss has also signalled a change in fortunes before he arrived they were just cruising but now they are in flying form and one wouldn’t bet against them at home and abroad to at least get to the knock out phase of both the Champions Cup and Pro 12.   

Munster now find themselves in a position that they have been in before almost certainly out in Europe barring a miracle and after a humbling 24-7 defeat at the hands of Leinster in Thomond Park where teams used to fear coming to unfortunately this is no longer the case as throughout this season and last things have changed, crowds have become less vocal and results have changed with Clermont Auvergne and a number of teams in the Pro 12 have arrived and stormed “Fortress Thomond”. That myth is sadly no longer the truth with teams coming to Limerick and having an easy time of it. Gone are the days of Ronan O Gara scoring a winning drop goal or penalty to secure another famous win , Since 2011 when the last trophy was secured things have just gone on a downward spiral and although Rob Penney arrested the slump with two European Semi Finals he was disposed with after trying to change the way that Munster played and while this didn’t sit well with many Munster fans I am sure they wouldn’t mind a European Semi Final at the end of this season.

Here’s hoping that Munster‘s fortunes will turn and they can try and find a way out of this current situation or it will be a long finish to the current campaign.

By

Cian Mc Gibney

28/12/2015

The Irish Sports Year in Review

2015 – The sporting year saw a number of milestones reached and also saw some very special moments including Ireland reaching Euro 2016 after a play off win over Bosnia and Herzegovina , In GAA , Dublin and Kilkenny won the Senior Hurling and Senior Football titles. Cork did the double in women’s football and camogie with both All Ireland titles heading for Leeside this year.

In Rugby, while the World Cup took up most people’s minds, there was a special few days last March when both the Men’s squad and Women’s squad went after both Six Nations Crown’s. On the Saturday Paul O Connell and his men went into battle needing to score a big victory to stand any chance of winning the Six Nations for the 2^nd time in three years, although both England and Wales racked up plenty of tries they didn’t do enough to deny Ireland a 2^nd title. In Clyde FC the following day the Irish women’s team led by Niamh Briggs finished off the unique double with a 73-3 win over Scotland.

In Boxing we had a World Champion crowned as Andy Lee won the WBO middleweight Title but at the tail end of 2015 he lost the WBO middleweight title to Billy Joe Saunders. Michael Conlon was crowned a European and World Champion in 2015. He heads in 2016 with high hopes of Olympic gold in Rio. Katie Taylor also won gold at the first ever European Games beating Estelle Mosely of France in the final.

In 2015 Racing saw the end of Tony Mc Coy’s career , he won 20 consecutive Jump Jockey Championships. He won well over 4,000 races. It was a career that saw him involved with some successful owners and trainers like Nicky Henderson and owners JP Mc Manus.

The Premier League saw Chelsea were crowned the 2014/2015 Champions , Arsenal were FA Cup winners for the second straight season. On the home front Dundalk were Airtricity League winners with St Pats and Dundalk winning the two FAI Cups that were on offer. The year will of course be remembered for Ireland securing there place at Euro 2016 with a memorable 1-0 win over Germany and also a hard fought play off win over Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In Golf, Shane Lowery won the WGC Bridgestone Invitational, Rory Mc Illroy also found some form in 2015 while Darren Clarke was named 2016 Ryder Cup Captain.

They are some of my highlights of the 2015 sporting year , a special mention has to go to the supporters that made the World Cup so special. The fans that make the GAA championships so special year after year must also get a mention. I realise I may be leaving out some important moments but these are just a small selection of key moments this year. Here’s hoping 2016 will be as successful with Ireland involved in the Six Nations, The Republic Of Ireland and Northern Ireland involved at Euro 2016 and the Olympics in Rio. 2015 was good but I just have a funny feeling that 2016 will be something special for Irish sport.

By

Cian Mc Gibney

23/12/2015

Munster Rugby – An Open Letter

After the last few weeks and the three defeats on the spin I though it important to write an open impassioned open letter to the Munster squad and management. I have been a long-time supporter of Munster since the age of 8. The team has given me some of the best days of my life and the team means so much to me I just felt that I needed to pen this letter.

After the league win 2011 under Tony Mc Gahan I never thought that the glory days would be few a far between after that day. Since then there has been another Pro 12 Final appearance and also a few Semi Finals in Europe and also some glorious away days in Europe like Harlequins in 2013 and the magnificent day in Limerick against Toulouse when they put 50 points on the 4 time winners. They are special days and I really want those days back again.

I realise that the team has changed and will continue to change over the next few season’s but that Red Jersey is still the same one that it was in 78 , 92 , 06 ,08 and 2010 when some of the greatest days happened like beating New Zealand , Australia twice and winning two European Cups.

Anthony Foley has tried to get back to the old days of back to basics rugby and that worked on certain occasions and he has tried to come up with solutions to dilemmas that have cropped up since he took over from Penney, like putting a centre combination in place that will get the team going forward , ala the days of Holland , Mullins , Mafi , Tipoki and even Downey and Laulala yeah remember them , they were three centre combinations that always succeeded in getting Munster over the gain line. Since the latter pairing of Downey and Laulala left Munster have struggled to find the right combination with a number of pairings tried not all really having the desired effect. Hurley and Saili was the latest incarnation and that was tried out but Foley reverted to type with Keith Earls moving in from the wing and Conway was moved to the right wing.

Cian Bohane is a man that many may not recognise but he is another option at 13 that Munster may well try out in the coming weeks and months, watch this space!! Getting back to the letter I just hope that Fans can get behind the team this weekend in Leicester and just see where that takes us. This weekend again is huge, we are hanging by a thread in Pool 4 even with one game to spare to be played against Stade Francais in early January. But first a foremost another huge European night in Welford Road to come this Sunday at 5.15 where Munster will do what has made them a legendary team is Europe and that is try and win on the road.

The performances in the last few years has seen people turn away from Munster and say they are finished and that is a person’s prerogative but I do feel that this team has a big performance within them every team does and Munster may just need to call on that performance this weekend. I know in my heart and soul it is there and what better way than to roar back into contention with a win in Welford Road , It has been done before , No reason why it can’t be done again. TO THE BRAVE AND FAITHFUL NOTHING IS IMPOSSAIBLE, this particular motto is needed this weekend like no other time , So Lads go out this Sunday and show everybody what wearing that famed Red Jersey really means.

By

Cian Mc Gibney

17/12/2015