Nobody gives a fuck i say. It was absolutely dire
Jesus Christ. Matt Gallagher at 15 and shane Daly on the wing.
I just donât understand it at all.
Gallagher and Jenkins are both heading away in the summer. What is the point in playing them today? Iâd give Thomas ahern the jersey in a flash.
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They should have put out a stronger team if they had it available to them at all. As I understand it win and a home semi final is likely secured but lose and itâs unlikely? That makes this game more important than any of their upcoming games surely, big opportunity with a weak enough Leinster lineup too.
Jenkins is probably good if he is going to Leinster.
Was it Gilgamboa saying Farrell wants Coombes at second row? Having seen the match the other week, Coombes isnt cut out for that and theyre losing Jenkins.
The New Zealander coming in at centre is probably good but not as good as De Allende, you couldnât really say theyre moving forward at the minute.
Gallagher was a pointless signing, exposed as not good enough for Saracens. Theyâd have been as well working with one of the backs they shunted off to Connacht
Tis true it isnt Fitzgerald park
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âTis lucky ye have the hurling team now
Munster hurling team,?
Thereâs a railway cup win in ye yet.
I love twitter on nights like this. The 16th man is salty
Are the Munster faithful beginning to lose the faith?
Gerry Thornley
Itâs a strange state of affairs when what appears to be the most alarmingly low attendance of the United Rugby Championship this season also happens to be the competitionâs highest crowd of the campaign to date. Maybe that could only happen to Munster.
Of course the official attendance for last Saturdayâs derby against Leinster, which was given as 20,657, undoubtedly included absentee season ticket holders, of whom there are 6,000 in total. While many of us there felt the number of spectators at Thomond Park was a good deal less, Munster themselves believe there were 18,000-19,000 in actual attendance.
Whatever about all of that, the official attendance eclipsed the 19,419 for Leinsterâs URC seasonal opener against the Bulls at the Aviva Stadium, even if that looked a more credible figure, as well as the 19,000-plus at Loftus Versfeld for last Saturdayâs Bulls-Ulster match, which was swelled by ticket prices of âŹ1.55.
At face value, last Saturdayâs less than full attendance at their citadel looks quite alarming, specifically for Munster themselves and potentially also for this fixture, the competition and maybe even the provincial end-of-season run-in.
After all, the sides hadnât met since last May and the last time that crowds were permitted for a Munster-Leinster derby was for the Christmas meeting in Thomond Park in December 2019. Then, as with all previous Thomond Park derbies between the two, there had been a 26,267 capacity. Saturday at 7pm on a pleasant spring evening also looked tailor-made for a bigger attendance than was the case.
Furthermore, time was when Munster-Leinster was the best attended non-international fixture in the world, attracting as it did a then club record attendance of 80,000-plus to Croke Park for the 2009 Heineken Cup semi-final, and regular capacity crowds at the old and new Lansdowne Road as well as Thomond Park and the RDS.
If you asked 12 different people in attendance last Saturday night as to why the attendance appeared to be relatively low, you had a dozen different answers. Most probably if you asked 20 different people youâd have had 20 different answers.
For starters, when this fixture was originally scheduled for St Stephenâs Day last December, it had long since been a sell-out. The annual meeting in Thomond Park over the festive period is a particularly popular date, which is always pencilled into diaries since the start of the season, and with so many ex-pats home for Christmas and eager to avail of potentially their only opportunity to see Munster in a given year. Last Saturdayâs revised date, which was when Leinster were scheduled to host Munster at the Aviva Stadium, was only agreed upon in late February. This is significant. Any of the provinces will say that the longer they have to market and sell a game, the bigger the take up of tickets.
Perhaps the most overriding factor is that in contrast to previous years, the game was on terrestrial television, and specifically on RTĂ. That obviously gives interested supporters the opportunity to watch for free at home or with friends in the pub.
Furthermore, the Thomond Park clash (kick-off 7pm) also clashed with the all-Munster Division One Allianz Hurling League final between Waterford and Cork in Thurles (throw-in 7.15pm) which, in addition, was also on terrestrial TV, namely TG4.
The option of terrestrial television is all the more pertinent in the midst of the post-pandemic economic times we live in, and specifically the sharp increase in fuel prices over the last two years.
Season ticket holders
This factor is particularly pertinent given the distance some Munster supporters are obliged to travel to Thomond Park. Munster are different from the other provinces. The majority of season ticket holders are from outside Limerick. For those from west Cork, who might be inclined to support the Coombes and Wycherley brothers et al, it is virtually a six-hour round trip to Thomond Park, which is all the less appealing for a 7pm kick-off.And while a 7pm Saturday night kick-off might be more appealing for Limerick-based supporters, youâd have to wonder if the relative absence of Limerick-reared players â only Conor Murray and Keith Earls of last Saturdayâs match-day 23 fell into this category â has become a factor at all.
In any case, Munster have been making entreaties to RTĂ for less night-time kick-offs, having only had one mid-afternoon kick-off this season.
The amount of communions and confirmations last Saturday has also been cited as a factor, and judging by the parties in Matt the Threshers, that may have been a factor as well.
A bigger factor may have been Covid, with one former player saying that about six of his mates could not attend the game as they had tested positive.
The Munster hierarchy remain content with the attendance, noting that the last time this fixture was scheduled outside the festive period, in October 2013, the official attendance was 20,646. They also maintain that there was not an undue level of fatalism among their supporters about their prospects against Leinster, despite them winning 10n of the previous dozen encounters. Nevertheless after a trophy-less decade, you have to wonder if the faithful are, well, losing faith, particularly when it comes to meetings with their near and not so dear, allconquering neighbours.
Talking to three former players before kick-off, none were remotely optimistic about the chances of Munster ending their sequence of six League defeats in a row against Leinster, particularly after the teams were announced the day before.
Six meetings
Or, after a surfeit of six meetings during lockdowns, might there also be an element of Munster-Leinster fatigue?A couple of diehard members of clubs in Munster also cite an increasing disconnect between them and the province.
The Euro second leg against Exeter next Saturday week will tell a tale. Ticket sales had been slow, but had ramped up to 16,000 as of yesterday, and season tickets do not apply for Champions Cup games.
But bearing in mind the slow take-off for Munster in particular when the All-Ireland has been coming to a conclusion in September, disconcertingly the URC runs into late June for the first time ever, and this in a year when the All-Ireland Championships have been brought forward to finish in July. Never before have the rugby season and the All-Ireland Championships overlapped to this extent.
Then you throw in, as it were, that Limerick have a great hurling team right now, and last Saturdayâs reduced attendance may well be a portent of things to come, and perhaps not just for Munster.
Beginning?
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A lot of explaining there by Gerry⌠Confirmations and communions and the lack of a motorway between Limerick and Cork.
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It isnât just a decade of no trophies. Munster have won just 6 of the 25 fixtures in the last decade despite been given access to more Leinster talent and a host of top notch international players.
It just a shame that Ulster made such a balls of the last decade as the natural order was beginning to be restored in 2012.
Gerry has no mention of the fact that the real rugby supporters had surely already attended one of the games from a full programme of AIL games earlier that day. But I suppose those lads and lassies arenât really the demographic following Munster?
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The long and the short of it is; the name change league is a bucket of shite that no one, least of all the clubs themselves, have any respect for.
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There was probably 100 or so at the cookies con game that would only have been there en route to the URC game, judging by the provisional tops walking around ( usually only a handful on display). Wouldnt be much of an excuse that the munster game would be effected, 6000 less would not be because of the AIL.
Rowntree and costello were in the popular side to watch the first half before heading to work
A lot of whataboutery in the article. Ticket priceses and munster being clain mediocre would be the main points i would go with. Tv coverage is only an effect if ticket prices are too high
âThe majority of season ticket holders are from outside Limerick.â
It ainât rugby country, clearly.
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Donât think thatâs any part of the issue tbh. The league is no worse than it has been in any of its former guises