Nose To the Grindstone for Munster 18s & 19s

Those in contention for places in the Ireland RWC squad make their way home from Poland (Spala) today and return to their respective provincial centres for the next fortnight.

The build up to the World Cup then begins in earnest on the weekend of July 29th when the players assemble for a pre RWC training camp in Limerick.  That leads into the game against Scotland in Murrayfield on August 11th and between then and the Italy friendly (24th), Eddie O’Sullivan will name his squad for France.

Meanwhile, activity with the ‘next crop’ continues with the Munster 18’s/19’s 3 weeks into a 10 week skills and conditioning programme. The programme involves 2 hours of supervised weights and 2 hours of skills sessions each week.

There are 50 players in the 19’s programme and 35 in the 18’s programme. The Limerick sessions take place in Garryowen RFC & UL and Stiofan Naofa & Forge Hill in Cork.

This year a third center has been added in Rockwell College to cater for players from Tipperary.

The 18’s schools team go into a 2 day camp in UL on the 21st August in preparation for Interpro’s in October. The 19’s squad begin training on the last week of July and the Club 19’s interpro takes place in September with the schools interpro taking place in October.

The Munster 20’s squad began training on 30th June with a Squad Day in UL involving fitness testing in the morning and a training session in the afternoon. The squad trains seperately in Cork & Limerick centre for 4 weeks before meeting in Cork for a trial match on Sat 28th July. The squad will be reduced to 26 players for the 4 week run into the September interpro.

The team will travel to Leeds to play their academy on the weekend of 18th August and will play a final warm up game on 25th August against UL/Bohs.