Amid the Six Nations hype, the provincial coaches beaver away with decreased playing sources, seeking to keep the ship afloat and a season’s work on course over a series of Guinness PRO14 video games which, using and massive, bypass not noted. During this window, Munster defeated the Southern Kings and the Ospreys but fell to a slim defeat to Scarlets, enabling Glasgow to leapfrog them into a three-point lead on the top of Conference A, with five rounds to play. With no game until March 23, Munster may have enjoyed a down week. However, it proved completely encouraging.
It has been an efficient and informative few days for those entrusted with figuring out and shaping the subsequent wave of talent to keep the flag flying inside the provinces. With so many players from outside, the province is now starting regularly for Munster; a sturdy middle of homegrown skills must be coming through the faculties, youth, and membership systems to maintain that specific provincial identity.
Over a decade ago, when Munster had been reviewing the key factors that underpinned the Heineken Cup-triumphing squads of 2006 and 2008, it was set as a center value that Munster would try to find to have 75% of the matchday squad staffed through gamers who discovered their alternate from within. Over time, this is proving increasingly challenging. Leinster is the simplest Irish province, attaining everywhere close to that ratio. It says something for their manufacturing line that 18 of the matchday 23 who received the Champions Cup in Bilbao, closing May, were direct products in their device.
