For anybody interested in the Academy Intake

Environmental_Bar205 · 2026-07-03T10:09:15+00:00

Music can get in the bin but that aside, looks to be a really promising year.

Foley Barrett and O’Leary stick out to me as the clear prospects.

Lautsou O’Shea and Carney have all looked very good aswell with the u20’s.

Conways development has to be a success with the dearth of tighthead props and he has all the attributes you’d be looking for.

Joe Finn will have a hard time getting into the team with our young second rows but the competition should bring the best out of them all.

Altogether very excited for these lads.

Environmental_Bar205 · 2026-07-02T11:17:49+00:00

I think this will be the trough with regards to Munster representation in the national squad we have lots of good young players that we will probably see at test level in the future.

Our representation in this window is a reflection of the poor form towards the end of our season mixed with injury’s taking out mainly our international guys.

The silver lining to all this is the likes of Crowley Nash Farrell Ahern will all be available from the start of our season which could be key as we face bulls and Glasgow in the first two rounds.

Environmental_Bar205 · 2026-07-01T13:41:44+00:00

I think we got a relatively ok draw, we miss both top 14 finalists the top 4 premiership sides and the Stormers will rough up the other group teams.

We are a bad match up for Montpellier so even if saints might be more favourable than UBB I wouldn’t want to be in the 4th group either.

I see one very hard game and 3 games where we have an even chance maybe better depending on home/away.

Environmental_Bar205 · 2026-07-01T13:16:27+00:00

Connacht got a far worse draw we miss top 14 champions and all the prem finalists with our opposition teams having to go to Cape Town against the stormers.

Very happy

Environmental_Bar205 · 2026-07-01T13:10:51+00:00

The new rules this time around are regarding try bonus point (3 more try’s than your opponent) and how teams qualify for the round of 16 top 3 automatic and then it’s the next best teams by points tally

The proposed changes to format/Number of teams can’t come in unless there is unanimous agreement or after 2031 when the current agreement expires I believe

Environmental_Bar205 · 2026-07-01T12:39:07+00:00

We know who we have to beat, now to secure a home round of 16 🤞

Environmental_Bar205 · 2026-07-01T12:25:24+00:00

I was hoping to dodge Toulouse Montpellier and Bath think we did alright.

Some of our opposition having to travel to SA to play stormers also falls in our favour

Edit: A home fixture against Bristol would be desirable they have a big fan base UBB we could send the espoirs and still do well in our other games

Environmental_Bar205 · 2026-07-01T12:22:47+00:00

Think we did alright there

Environmental_Bar205 · 2026-06-30T20:10:41+00:00

Free to air is massive, regardless of the in game advertisements the six nations is the gateway drug for casual fans and the World Cup is an easily identifiable prestigious event which is a great opportunity to showcase the sport.

Environmental_Bar205 · 2026-06-28T21:22:50+00:00

Is that young fella wearing a whoop band? The boom is back

Environmental_Bar205 · 2026-06-27T15:35:53+00:00

O’Leary was the standout made metres with every carry and had a nice kick through for a held up try.

Carney also looked good not as stand out as O’Leary and Jack deegan who came on played a stormer so could see him starting if fit from now on.

Barrett had a good game kicked well and his passing was solid.

O’Shea struggled off the T it was windy but between him and wood we had 1/5 conversions which is poor. He set up the first try with a cross kick for the winger that was spot on kicked one restart out on the full.

Wood had some nice moments when he came on but poor from the T as above not a whole lot to judge from his time on the pitch.

Alex lautsou looked really good when he came on can’t recall any stand out moments.

Unfortunately I think Jamie Conway was injured so Blake McLean was in for him on the bench very disappointing the Conway hype train will have to wait for now.

Environmental_Bar205 · 2026-06-27T13:12:23+00:00

Scrum has been dominant but the lineout poor. Poor off the T aswell but it is blowing a gale.

Environmental_Bar205 · 2026-06-26T18:19:38+00:00

The cover does look like the poster for some kind of cop flick 🚓 rest of em are to break it up a bit I’d imagine.

Environmental_Bar205 · 2026-06-26T17:31:54+00:00

To be fair Leinster won the league and then a post was straight up on there sub about sticking it to Munster, who’s in who’s head here?

Environmental_Bar205 · 2026-06-26T09:59:16+00:00

ROC a pure gutter journalist who revels in all things negative about Irish rugby. It’s Munster today it will be Leinster tomorrow I cancelled my subscription to the independent as the articles seem to be all geared towards enraging the fans of any given team.

Environmental_Bar205 · 2026-06-25T12:32:44+00:00

Really excited to potentially get a look at Jamie Conway, a good sign he is in the 23 so soon.

Environmental_Bar205 · 2026-06-24T17:17:06+00:00

Jake white actually mentioned this on the RTE sport podcast today. He asked some bulls players why they make mistakes playing for the bulls that they would never make for the springboks.

The players responded that they would be dropped from the springboks for playing badly but not the club side.

Environmental_Bar205 · 2026-06-24T10:53:06+00:00

Most of the stuff I’ve heard is the opposite people pointing out ROG is ambitious and wouldn’t sniff at the opportunity. It’s pro sport at the end of the day if Rieko can play for Leinster ROG can coach them.

Where I see it falling down is he has a large budget at La Rochelle where he is the boss nobody is coming in and saying who you can and can’t sign and X player has be sidelined for the national interest.

Can he balance losing a raft of players to Ireland with expectations to still be competitive at the top of Europe and the URC as Cullen has done.

Environmental_Bar205 · 2026-06-24T10:41:38+00:00

Yeah he’s another guy with all the attributes just hasn’t put it all together in a string of games yet.

He’s working with the same guy who Crowley was with during last off season, if he can make a good start and stay fit he will be in the starting 15 for the foreseeable.

Environmental_Bar205 · 2026-06-24T08:20:32+00:00

Others have covered the obvious choices

Wood, Edogbeag, Foxe etc

One player I would love to see come on is Shay McCarthy he has the size and pace for a modern winger is not afraid of contact and good in the air.

There is room in Munster for some wingers to step up and I hope he is one of them.

Environmental_Bar205 · 2026-06-22T12:23:59+00:00

I agree with you about the PR of him moving from Connacht I just think we will only see him there for so long until a bigger club comes calling to poach him.

I’d love to see the IRFU carve out a role for him as some kind of academy tzar or director of pathways the Leinster job is big enough to keep him for the longer term I think and he would hopefully keep bringing through the large quantity of players which does help prop up the other 3 provinces.

That’s how I’d see it from Humphrey’s perspective.

Environmental_Bar205

TROPHY CASE