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Munster announce a whopping 12 contract extensions
Munster Rugby and the IRFU are pleased to confirm 12 player contract extensions for the province. Nine of the 12 players are products of the province’s underage or Academy pathway.
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John Ryan has signed a three-year deal that will see him remain with Munster Rugby until at least June 2022.
Tighthead prop Ryan has made 130 appearances in red since his debut in 2011 and has 16 Ireland caps. The 30-year-old most recently scored his first international try in Ireland’s win against the USA in November.
Ryan is ranked second in the world in RugbyPass Index for tighthead prop with an RPI of 89 and a scrum score of 87.
Brothers Niall and Rory Scannell, Darren Sweetnam, Jack O’Donoghue, JJ Hanrahan, Alex Wootton, Rhys Marshall and young guns Fineen Wycherley and Calvin Nash have all signed on for a further two years, committing to the province until at least June 2021.
Hooker Niall Scannell made his Munster debut in December 2013 and has made 79 appearances to date. On the international front the 26-year-old has earned 11 Ireland caps and like Ryan recently featured in the November Guinness Series.
Centre Rory Scannell has played for Munster on 92 occasions and has three Ireland caps. The 24-year-old became the first player to win both Munster Academy and Young Player of the Year in the 2015/16 season.
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25-year-old Sweetnam has represented the province on 66 occasions and was named Young Player of the Year at the 2016/17 Munster Rugby Awards. The winger made his third appearance for Ireland when starting against the USA in November.
Back-row forward O’Donoghue has made 93 appearances in red and won the Academy Player of the Year in 2015. The 24-year-old became the first Waterford player to captain Munster in the professional era in February 2018. He has represented Ireland on two occasions.
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26-year-old Hanrahan, who returned to the province in 2017, made his Munster debut in September 2012 and has 92 Munster caps. Featuring across the backline, the 26-year-old won the province’s Young Player of the Year and the League’s Golden Boot Award in 2014.
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Taking the exiles route, 24-year-old Wootton joined the Munster Academy in 2013 making the step up to the senior ranks in 2016. The winger has scored 13 tries in 34 appearances and was the province’s top try-scorer last season.
Kiwi hooker Marshall joined the province on a three-year contract in 2016, making his Munster debut that November. The 26-year-old has featured for the province on 55 occasions, scoring ten tries.
Promoted to the senior ranks on a development contract at the start of this season, 20-year-old lock/back-row forward Wycherley was awarded Academy Player of the Year in 2018 and has scored one try in 11 games for Munster.
Fellow development player Nash also made the step up from the Academy at the beginning of the season with the 21-year-old winger scoring two tries in eight Munster appearances.
Arno Botha and Jeremy Loughman have signed one-year extensions and will remain with the province until June 2020.
Back-row forward Botha joined Munster in the summer and has made an immediate impact with two tries in nine appearances.
Prop Loughman joined the province midway through last season and has made five PRO14 appearances to date including his first start against Zebre last month.
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Comments on RugbyPass
What a dagg in more ways than one
5 Go to commentsRegroup come back next year but sack some of the coaching team and don't be like the ABs last minute sacking. If Crusaders don't do well ABs don't do well.
5 Go to commentsProctor Definitely inform again this year had a hell of a season last year and this year is looking even better. Still mixed feelings about Ioane tho.
4 Go to commentsDagg is still trying to get enough headlines to make himself relevant enough to get a job. The Crusaders went back to square one at all levels. Shelve this season and nail the next one.
5 Go to commentsHe was in such great form. Sad for him but only a short term injury and it will be great to see him back for the finals.
1 Go to commentsAfter their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
5 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
3 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
4 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
38 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to comments