Presidents Message

November in the Christian calendar is the month of the Holy Souls. I know there are those of you who may not contribute to these notions but let us all dwell for a short while.

November in the Christian calendar is the month of the Holy Souls. I know there are those of you who may not contribute to these notions but let us all dwell for a short while on our glorious Munster people of the past.

Returning to the near past, congratulations are due to our Ladies Senior team, our Under 21s and our Youth (U18) team on winning their respective Interprovincial championships for this season. Well done all.

The performances of the Irish side down under have afforded us all enormous pleasure and in particular for the Munster community we must be greatly enthused at the massive contribution that our Munster players have made. I would like to commiserate strongly with Alan Quinlan and offer him a warm welcome home. I believe that by the time you have read this Quinny will be back safely and I wish him a successful and speedy recovery.

His misfortune of course has led to a further opportunity for David Wallace to prove his worth. Congratulations to him and good luck to the whole squad ahead of the quarter-final clash with France. They certainly have the full support of our southern province.

Whilst our internationals are missing our current squad appears to have turned the corner and results are now starting to come in our direction. So I must say well done to all of them (perhaps our harvest is coming a little earlier than I expected, but I did expect it to come).

In other team news the Paekakariki Express (Christian Cullen) is due to arrive in Munster very soon. We are all looking forward to seeing him but I suppose we should not exert too much pressure on him, just enjoy his rugby. Hopefully he will be available for selection for our next home match against Cardiff Blues in Musgrave Park on the 28th November.

I also notice that our first opponents in the Heineken Cup, Bourgoin, are stringing together some very impressive results so I expect our clash with them in France in December will be another enormous cha llenge for us.

On a personal note my term of office as president of Munster is proceeding apace with goodwill and respect from every direction. To all those other grandparents Lucy has passed the 10lb marker. Our eldest son married Rebecca in September and the rest of the family are good save my wife s patience with rugby which is thinning by the month.

Looking forward to December and the challenges that month will bring. But for now let s just all enjoy November.

Best wishes to you all.

Len Harty President Munster Branch 2003/2004.