Academy Update

December was a busy month for the academy with players involved with Munster A, Ireland U19s and Munster U19s over the course of the month.

As we are now well into the new year, it’s time to hear from Elite Player Development Manager and Munster A Head Coach Peter Malone and get the first monthly academy update of 2014.

Academy players in action for Ireland and Munster against the touring Australia U19s…..

"Jack Cullen played for Ireland U19s against Australia in Belfast and did very well, they were very happy with him and he gave a good account of himself. On the back of that, Jack actually got called into the Irish U20 squad and trained with them over Christmas so he’s gone very well over the last month.

“Greg O’Shea and Gearoid Lyons played for Munster U19s against Australia. Greg unfortunately picked up a groin injury in that game and Gearoid came on for the last 30 minutes.

"We were very happy with the Munster lads, they gave a reasonable account of themselves and coming into the last few minutes they were right in the shake-up to draw or win the game but Australia are a strong team and probably deserved to win the game.”

Mixed results for Munster A against Plymouth…..

“It was a good performance in Waterford and we did well to beat them by more than seven points because we didn’t pick up a bonus point in Plymouth. I was disappointed with the performance over there, I felt we didn’t show our best hand really and we didn’t leave our best performance on the pitch.

“There was no problem with the effort just the performance wasn’t what we wanted it to be. It was better in Waterford and now it comes down to a bit of a shoot-out between ourselves and Plymouth so we have to win our last two games and really target a win against Nottingham this Friday at St. Mary's.”

Nottingham this Friday night at St. Mary's RFC…..

“We’ve watched their last few games, we obviously played them previously over in Nottingham and beat them by a point with a late score.

“They’re a big, physical team, similar to Plymouth and they have a good out-half in Matt Jarvis – he’s got a big boot on him and played with Garryowen previously and he was involved with Connacht.

"Neilus Keogh is involved with them as well – Stephen Keogh’s brother – he’s a second row and is ex-UCC so we have a bit of history with them already and we just have to be sharper than we were and improve the performance."

Playing the game at St. Mary’s RFC……..

“I think it’ll be great, the games we have played away from Cork and Limerick this year have been brilliant out in Bandon and Waterford.

"We’re looking forward to playing in St. Mary’s on Friday night and hopefully there will be a good crowd there and it’s important the team put on a good performance for the fans."

Academy impact on senior squad…..

“It’s great to see Johnny Holland, who’s still in the academy, progressing and getting into a few Rabo squads and he’ll push on and hopefully challenge the two boys [Ian Keatley and JJ Hanrahan] over the next year or two.

“Duncan Casey and Niall Scannell left the academy last year, we know they’re two good hookers and they’ve filled the breach very well with Mick Sherry and Damien Varley out for a few weeks.

“That’s what the academy is about – pushing on top-level players to slot into the team when needed. The academy programme hopefully helped them and their ‘A‘ experience would also have helped them slot into the Munster senior team.”

Injury front…..

“There are some frustrating injuries for a few guys, John Madigan is still a few weeks away with a groin injury, that will take time and it’s a slow one to heal but he’s under no pressure.

“Seán McCarthy unfortunately hurt his foot and he’ll be out for a period of 4-6 weeks so those two have played a limited amount of games over the whole season and that’s disappointing from their point of view.

“Other than that, Darren Moroney is hoping to come back this month from a long-term hamstring injury but apart from that we’re in good nick and hopefully a few of them will challenge for the B&I Cup squad this week against Nottingham.”