Stats & Pics: The Season So Far

As we approach the midway point of the regular season, we look back – through stats and pictures – at the season to date, one that has seen Munster play 13 competitive games, score 248 points and run in 27 tries across the Guinness PRO12 and European Champions Cup.

So far a total of ten players have made their competitive debuts for Munster this season – Tyler Bleyendaal, Mark Chisholm, Jordan Coghlan, Lucas Gonzales Amorosino, Mario Sagario, Francis Saili, and Shane Monahan, as well as academy talents David Johnston, John Madigan and Stephen Fitzgerald.
 
On the European front Mark Chisholm, Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino, Francis Saili, Jack O’Donoghue and Rory Scannell all made their Champions Cup debuts for the province against Treviso in November.
 
Less than a month later, Rory’s brother Niall Scannell, made his first European appearance when starting against Leicester Tigers at Thomond Park, while the week previous against Dragons, the Scannell duo made history by becoming the first set of brothers to start for Munster in the PRO12. 
 
Mario Sagario was another who made his Champions Cup debut in the red jersey, doing so from the bench in Munster’s return encounter with Tigers at Welford Road.
 
Strong home-grown family connections were also evident in this year’s pre-season where two sets of brothers were named in a matchday squad – Tipperary natives Bill and David Johnston joining the Cork-born Scannells in facing London Irish at Irish Independent Park.
 
In terms of player milestones, Dave Foley, John Ryan, James Cronin and Dave O’Callaghan have all won their 50^th Munster cap since the beginning of September with Duncan Williams and the rehabbing Stephen Archer (neck) drawing ever closer to the 100 cap milestone – both players have currently made 99 appearances for the men in red.
 
Dave Foley, Robin Copeland and James Cronin are the only squad members to have played in every competitive game to date, but it’s CJ Stander who has played the most minutes so far this season, accumulating 896 minutes of rugby in 12 appearances – Munster’s away loss to Dragons earlier this month the only game that has not featured the stand-in captain.
 
The South African powerhouse is also out in front when it comes to scoring tries.  So far Stander has dotted down four times for the province – coincidentally the same number he had scored at this stage last season after which he went on to end the season on nine tries.
 
Now that you have the stats, CLICK HERE to see our Season So Far gallery.