Munster have announced another small number of contract extensions and renewals with Alby Mathewson signing another extension to see out the current year with Munster. Keynan Knox  has signed a long term deal to move from an academy deal to a three year deal from next year. Sean O Connor has signed on for a further year on a development deal, Tyler Bleyendaal has signed on for two years with Ciaran Parker moving to a full time deal for next year.

Munster have been clever in getting there squad in shape for season 2019/2020. The retention of both Parker and Knox is interesting , tight head prop has been an issue for Munster since John Hayes retired and both guys were signed by ex Munster boss Rassie Erasmus and will continue to develop in the AIL , Munster A and the Munster senior side.

BJ Botha was signed in 2011 and went on to make the number 3 shirt his own with competition from Stephen Archer. The one issue people may look to is that both these players are not native to Ireland having learned there trade in South Africa and England respectively.

Both men will need to get past Stephen Archer and John Ryan even though John Ryan could be away with Ireland at the World Cup in Japan at the beginning of next season and in that instance both men may see game time early next season.

The Munster squad is now a real mixture of home grown talent ala Tommy O Donnell , Jack O Donohue , JJ Harahan then you have other players who learned there trade in Leinster  like Conway and Carbery and then there guys like Bleyendaal , Marshall and Alby Mathewson who have come in to ply their trade with Munster in the professional game.

The romantics will say Munster are losing touch with the grassroots and the amount of non home grown players is growing by the year and getting bigger as the years go on but that is professional sport and also Munster may not just be producing the quality of player in certain positions at the moment that is required.

The one thing that can’t be denied is Munster are doing their utmost to put a competitive squad in place and look to be continuing the work started with those 12 contracts announced back in November. The work of the Munster academy will need to step up and seeing a player like Craig Casey pushing on with the Ireland 20s is a good sign for the future.

The signing of Nick Mc Carthy on a two year deal may signal the end of the road for Duncan Williams and with Craig Casey pushing on Jack Stafford the current academy 9 may be looking anxiously over his shoulder in the rear view mirror at the progress Craig Casey is making. Only time will tell though about the future of both men.

Munster are now well stocked at half back with Mc Carthy ,Murray ,Casey in place for next year and the two men who will benefit from Conor Murray’s absence will be Mc Carthy ,Casey. At out half , Munster will have Joey Carbery , JJ Harahan , Tyler Bleyendaal , Bill Johnston so Munster should be in a strong place next season.

With a World Cup at the beginning of next season , we may just see some of that young talent in the Munster ranks from the opening week of the new season…….

 

 

 

15 Andrew Conway

14 Keith Earls

13 Tom Farrell

12 Robbie Henshaw

11 Jacob Stockdale

10 Joey Carbery

9 Conor Murray

8 Jack Conan

7 Josh Van Der Flier

6 Peter O Mahony

5 James Ryan

4 Ultan Dillane

3 Andrew Porter

2 Sean Cronin

1 Cian Healy

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16 Niall Scannell

17 Dave Kilcoyne

18 John Ryan

19 Iain Henderson

20 Sean O Brien

21 John Cooney

22 Jack Carty

23 Rob Kearney

Here is the 23 I would select to face Italy next Sunday. It is an opportunity to give guys a shot at pushing for selection further down the road and for France and Wales also. It will be tough in Rome next week but a strong showing will have them well in tune to play France in Dublin on March 10^th.

The Championship is back on track for both Joe Schmidt’s men and for Adam Griggs’s charges both sides winning in Scotland over the weekend while the 20s who are coached by Noel Mc Namara made it 2 from 2 with a 24-5 win also on Friday evening.

Both the 20s and women played at the same time with the women having their game covered by RTE unfortunately for rugby fans the 20s games was not covered on any channel or any social media outlet but alas these are the breaks when you have so many masters to please.

The women will be pleased to have got back to winning ways after being humbled the previous week by England 51-7. This win has to be credited to the Irish forwards with the Irish scrum dominating there Scottish counterparts.

The Irish back row of Ciara Griffin, Claire Molloy and Anna Caplice were outstanding and it was their dominance along with the scrum that helped the Irish ladies pick up a much needed win where Alison Miller made a try scoring return to the starting team.

On a challenging evening for either side to try and play any real attractive rugby, it was more of an arm wrestle that the Irish just seemed more in tune to the game and this type of attitude was important in Ireland grinding out the result.

Now there is a two week break until Ireland head for Italy in search of a second win, this will be a game that the squad will have targeted in the build up to the Championship.

Even in victory Adam Griggs will know he side can still improve and he will really need to use whatever window of opportunity that is afforded to him to get some key messages to his players and he will also be hoping some more players who are involved in the 7s programme may be freed up to get involved in squad training to boost the options ahead of a tricky fixture away to Italy.

It was a good win by the women on Friday evening and hopefully now they will use the next two weeks sharpening up the attack and defence with Italy in mind.

The men got there campaign back on track after defeat last time out at home to England. After results this weekend, Ireland are 4^th in the standings but I do honestly feel the game with England was a blip and Ireland will use the 2 week break to reassess where things went wrong in the opening two rounds because although there was a win over Scotland there is plenty to work on.

The attack is extremely rigid and very much still a real work in progress and maybe the fact that Joey Carbery saw game time for over 57 minutes last Saturday might work out for the best in the long term because Ireland are still hugely dependent on Jonathan Sexton to run the show and if the worse was to happen in the next few months and Jonathan Sexton was to be ruled out of the Six Nations or the World Cup, the likes of Carbery and Ross Byrne will need to be trusted to run the show in green.

Yes he threw an intercept pass but he will learn, he is still only 23 and it is far more beneficial that he learn on the field rather than sitting there to get on with 10 or 15 minutes remaining and have no chance to show off the skill set that is beginning to hone down with Munster.

Others like Chris Farrell, Quinn Roux and Ultan Dillane put up the hand to suggest to Joe Schmidt that it is not only Iain Henderson and Tadgh Beirne he has at his disposal behind the first choice pairing of Devin Toner and James Ryan. The squad depth was challenged at the weekend and came up with some if not all the answers to the questions asked.

It is now a two week break to look back and take stock before they go again in Rome. It’s back to Pro 14 action for a few members of the squad to get valuable game time while aiding there club sides quest for league points…

So Ireland have made 5 changes for the Scottish game in Murrayfield this weekend. Rob Kearney, Chris Farrell, Quinn Roux, Jack Conan and Sean O Brien have been drafted in by Joe Schmidt and in this case we will finally see the squad depth tested after the past 3 years where Schmidt has build up a reserve that he can dip into.

Last weekend was a wakeup call for Ireland and you can be certain there will be reactions this week and we will finally get to see the squad depth tested in a game with have consequences at full time. Knowing the way the squad has reacted in the past something similar will be needed this time round.

The reaction to the defeat was over the top, like the reaction to the winning streak that saw Ireland win 18 of the past 20 matches. One defeat doesn’t mean the whole situation isn’t redeemable in the rest of the campaign. Let’s face it Joe Schmidt and his squads have delivered 3 Championships since 2013 including the Grand Slam last year. Yes the 2015 World Cup will be pointed to as a failure because of the manner of the defeat to Argentina in the quarter final.

This Saturday is the first true test of the squad depth and by Saturday evening we will know if the changes worked out or haven’t worked at all.  Looking at the way the players have spoken since the loss to England, one gets the feeling that there was real honesty last Monday at the video analysis session in Carton House.

Scotland will be driven by their win at home last week and they also defeated Ireland in 2017 at home 26-22. Ireland started slowly that afternoon and they will be wary of starting slowly this year because they were playing catch up last week after conceding a minute in and although they did manage to dominate for 20 minutes in the opening half scoring a try through Cian Healy and that was converted by Jonathan Sexton.  Although Ireland dominated the stats they still didn’t put enough points on the board to win the game.

On 65 minutes, it was 17-13 to England and it was only after Jonathan Sexton threw a pass that Henry Slade intercepted and dived over that you could truly say that England were going to pull away and win the game.

I think it is time to calm ourselves and stop getting so tied up in knots by a defeat, it happens and will happen again but it is how you react to last week that will define this Championship. We have been incredibly fortunate since Joe Schmidt took over that we have won a Grand Slam and two Championships in his time in charge. No other Irish coach has achieved anything like that since Ireland began playing in the Championship.

Schmidt deserves to be criticised and has so often come up with solutions to the questions that were previously asked and he deserves another chance to try and weave his magic and if the performance this week does not follow, then players and coach will be correctly questioned further and they will be the ones that will have two weeks to find the right solutions to the questions. Ireland haven’t been far away in the past few years and with the right result this week , they will be back on track in the 2019 campaign…..

 

So after week one of the 6 Nations , both our senior men and women’s teams have some soul searching to do after chastening defeats in Donnybrook and the Aviva. The women were humbled 51-7 and the senior men were beaten 32-20. The only bright spot on week 1 was the 20s who won down in Cork 37-28.

All three sides will head to Scotland to try and find form in the case of the men and Women’s sides and to continue the good form of the 20s. The 20s started the weekend off in fine style scoring some scintillating tries in a first win at this level over England since 2015.

The women also had good spells of possession in the opening half of their game in Donnybrook  but they could never force home the advantage and England led 13-0 at the half time break and took full advantage in the 2^nd half and pulled away to win convincingly 51-7.

Adam Griggs will need his side to bounce back in confident form and redress the balance after Scotland came to Donnybrook and won last season. Will Alison Miller come back into the side on the wing and what 7s players will Griggs have at his disposal for this game will be interesting to see.

Unfortunately, the pros vs amateurs’ argument has to be had because it was plain to see that Ireland struggled fitness wise in the face of a constant pressure as the game wore on. This is again going to be laid bare when they face France at home in a few weeks when they visit Dublin in Round 4.

It will again open the question of professional contracts for those players to let them compete at this level. The appetite for this discussion will have to wait until the end of the competition but it is a discussion that will need to take place to just decide where the 15s game is actually going in Ireland.

For the Senior men, it is a case of where the game plan went wrong and why in the face of an England onslaught, they did not have a real plan B to fall back on ?? The loss of CJ Stander for a month is a blow but with Sean O Brien and Jack Conan in the squad , Ireland should have strong replacements and Dan Leavy is also knocking around so he may train this week in the build up to the Scotland game.

Last weekend was not what was expected by many but let’s be fair ,England had the home work well done and executed the game plan that Eddie Jones gave them and they dispatched Ireland in good style. For Ireland , there will really need to be a strong reaction to the loss last Saturday and the 23 selected will really need to show the type of aggression and skill in attack and defence that England showed. Round 2 is next up so the training week will be interesting in Carton House….

The Women’s 6 Nations 2019

This evening Ireland take England in the opening 6 Nations game in Energia Park Donnybrook at 5pm. Not the best time to expect a huge crowd at rush hour in Dublin. That will not matter to the 23 players who will take to the field for Adam Griggs this evening.

This is a huge task as the England squad is a fully professional paid side and the Irish side is still amateur , now this should not be used as a reason to say that if Ireland are beaten tonight , then the fact it was pros vs amateurs should not come into it. The Irish team has good experience within it with Claire Molloy, Ciara Griffin and Sene Naoupu. If Ireland mange like they did to France two years ago to hold their own at the set piece then maybe just maybe they may be able to cause a shock and beat this English side.

England are in a position where they recalled Natasha Hunt and Emily Scarrett who had been on 7s duty in the last two years. In that time the RFU has again handed out full time deals and will allow there women’s side to flourish in the run up to the 2021 World Cup in New Zealand. They will of course want to dethrone France from their place as defending champions.

Ireland have recognised that fact they may already being playing for 3^rd in this campaign and that is a very honest assessment at this point in a campaign but the two sides ahead of everyone else are clearly France and England and that is down to professionalism pure and simple. Also the fact that the other side’s like Wales and Scotland have made strides forward and they will fancy taking Ireland on in the quest for wins in this Championship.

From an Irish perspective it’s about securing wins at home to the big two in 2019 , a number of players have been capped in the past 12 months wand Adam Griggs has worked tirelessly to try and build up a reserve of players her can call on when others are on 7s duty or out injured.

They beat Wales in a warm up fixture a few weeks ago and that will boost the confidence with a new campaign about to start. England under Simon Middleton will be here full sure of the win and bonus point but if Adam Griggs can get his team firing for the 80 minutes ,one doesn’t know what may happen.

So the 6 Nations will start at 5pm this evening then the 20s go into battle at 7.15pm down in Cork in Irish Independent Park , the Irish Legends play there English counterparts this evening in the RDS in aid of Charity.

As Always, enjoy the next 7 weeks, because whether you enjoy rugby or not, I can promise thrills and spills. I hope you all enjoy this year’s fair as much as this author will…… Enjoy….

Ireland Six Nations 2019

Ireland will begin preparations for the 2019 Six Nations with a weeklong training camp in Portugal before returning to Carton House next weekend to prepare for England’s visit in week one of the competition.

Tadgh Beirne picked up a knee injury in the 2^nd half of Munster’s 9-7 win over Exeter Chiefs at the weekend but should be back in contention for the round 3 visit to Rome. Quinn Roux will travel to Portugal in Beirne’s place.

A few other players will stay in Ireland and prepare for this weekend’s Pro 14 action like Rob Kearney and Jack Mc Grath. Andrew Conway will also stay behind and prepare for the England game having picked up a knock in the Exeter game. He should be back in contention to fight for a place in the 23.

Ireland will go into this year’s campaign after the 4 Irish provinces advanced in the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup , Ulster face Leinster in late March in Dublin ,Munster will head to Edinburgh and Connacht will take on familiar foes Sale Sharks in the Challenge Cup quarter finals.

Eddie Jones has already kicked off the verbal jousting by claiming the Jonathan Sexton has access to a “bat phone” when it comes to communicating with referees. It is just another in a long list quotes that can be attributed to Jones. The game with England in two weeks time will set the tone for both sides in this Championship.

England could be in a better place with Jamie George and Luke Cowen Dickie as the starting hooker and back up for the Dublin game. The impact that Henry Slade had on the Chiefs game plan vs. Munster at the weekend will be crucial to England’s chances if he starts in the centre.

Ireland will want the next few days in Portugal to count and the selection of Jack Carty along with Joey Carbery to understudy Jonathan Sexton suggest that we may see a slight change in the way Ireland will attack during the Championship. All three out halves have had regular game time since last November and are beginning to make each club side tick. This is bound to have a positive impact on Ireland.

Ireland will be in good shape heading into this Championship, There is no better way to open the Championship than England in Dublin. Here’s hoping for a good competitive campaign and I will now try and select the 23 to take England on in two weeks time.

15 Andrew Conway

14 Keith Earls

13 Garry Ringrose

12 Robbie Henshaw

11 Jacob Stockdale

10 Jonathan Sexton

9 Conor Murray

8 CJ Stander

7 Josh Van Der Flier

6 Peter O Mahony

5 James Ryan

4 Devin Toner

3 Tadgh Furlong

2 Rory Best

1 Cian Healy

–

16 Sean Cronin

17 Dave Kilcoyne

18 Andrew Porter

19 Ultan Dillane

20 Jack Conan

21 John Cooney

22 Joey Carbery

23 Bundee Aki

Ireland 2019 Men’s and Women’s Squads

The 2019 Six Nations is only 2 weeks away and all our Irish teams will face England in Ireland on week 1, the senior women will play England in Donnybrook at 7pm on the Friday night, the 20s will take on England in Irish Independent Park on the same evening. On the Saturday at 4.45pm Ireland will begin the defence of the title they won in empathic fashion on St Patricks Day 2018.

The women’s team will play Wales this weekend in a warm up fixture in Donnybrook and Coach Adam Griggs has named a 29 woman squad for that game and he continues to add more new blood to the squad. The hope this year will be to consolidate the position from last year when they finished behind England and France.

Both Wales and Scotland have made strides forward in the last few years and are catching Ireland rapidly but England and France are still some way clear of the chasing pack due to fact that they have a few professionals in their ranks.

Ireland will also have to qualify for the 2021 World Cup and that will also be in the back of Adam Griggs mind when selecting his squads and also the fact he will not have a few key players down to the fact they are playing in the 7 circuit is still an issue that he will contend with throughout the Championship.

The depth chart that is so regularly associated with Joe Schmidt is beginning to take shape for the Women’s side also and it may not be to the same levels as the men’s team but the work is being put in and more will have to be done to continue to grow the game at grassroots level.

For the men’s team ,it will be tough to emulate 2018 but that is what will need to be done to keep the good feeling going and at least another Championship is the minimum requirement to end the 6 Nations and then and only then the World Cup will come into view.

That’s the big prize at the end of the year but the defence of the 6 Nations title won in good style last year will be the main focus. Joe Schmidt will want to end his involvement in the 6 Nations like he started out winning consecutive titles in 2014 and 2015.

The Ireland squad is strong and people have made a lot of the fact that Ross Byrne out but Schmidt selected the squad to play in the opening two rounds and men like Leavy, Ross Byrne and others will come into the equation in round 3 or before depending on injuries.

This way of doing things has served Schmidt well in the past and will serve him well in 2019. This year is his swansong and he will no doubt want to go out in the best possible fashion. England first up in Dublin is the best start , it will focus the mind and you can be sure that Eddie Jones and his band of merry men will get a very warm reception in 2 weeks time……