Season In Stats | 2019/20

Munster’s marathon 2019/20 season ended last week having begun 12 months ago with a pre-season game against London Irish at Irish Independent Park.

The campaign saw Munster edged out of the Champions Cup at the group stage by Saracens and Racing 92 with Leinster continuing their unbeaten run to the Guinness PRO14 final last week.

Check out the best photos from the 2019/20 season here.

New Additions

Munster’s pre-season training programme began on July 1, 2019, with Nick McCarthy and promoted Academy players Craig Casey, Gavin Coombes, Shane Daly and Seán O’Connor the new additions to the senior squad.

Senior Coach Stephen Larkham joined the province in mid-August and new Forwards Coach Graham Rowntree joined Munster in late October following his Rugby World Cup commitments with Georgia.

Graham Rowntree ahead of his first game as part of the coaching team in November 2019.

Nine players joined the Munster senior squad in the summer of 2020 – Diarmuid Barron, Liam Coombes, Keynan Knox, Alex McHenry and Jack O’Sullivan were promoted from the Academy with Damian de Allende, Matt Gallagher, Roman Salanoa and RG Snyman joining the province.

Landmarks

Nick McCarthy and Academy players Jake Flannery, Ben Healy, John Hodnett, Keynan Knox and Jack O’Sullivan all made their Munster debuts this season along with short-term signing Jed Holloway, Damian de Allende and RG Snyman.

There have been Champions Cup debuts for Calvin Nash, Shane Daly, Craig Casey, Ben Healy and Jack O’Sullivan.

Billy Holland has now made 230 appearances for Munster and has the fourth most appearances in the province’s history. Stephen Archer surpassed the 200-cap mark against Edinburgh in November and is eighth on the list with 211 appearances.

John Ryan made his 150th Munster appearance with Niall Scannell reaching the 100 landmark as Dan Goggin surpassed 50 appearances.

Keith Earls has now scored 57 tries and is three behind Simon Zebo’s all-time record of 60 Munster tries with Andrew Conway moving up to third on the list with 46 tries.

Man of the Match Awards

There have been Man of the Match awards for JJ Hanrahan (three), Shane Daly (two), Mike Haley (two), Rory Scannell, Jeremy Loughman, Jack O’Donoghue, CJ Stander, Conor Murray, Academy player John Hodnett, Kevin O’Byrne, Chris Farrell and Tadhg Beirne.

Captains

Squad captain Peter O’Mahony, Billy Holland, Jack O’Donoghue, Tommy O’Donnell, CJ Stander and Niall Scannell all captained Munster this season with Scannell captaining the team for the first time against Zebre in February.

Appearances

51 players lined out for Munster in the Guinness PRO14 and Champions Cup this season.

Seven players have played competitive rugby for the province as members of the Greencore Munster Rugby Academy – Diarmuid Barron, Liam Coombes, Jake Flannery, Ben Healy, John Hodnett, Keynan Knox and Jack O’Sullivan.

Rory Scannell played the most games for Munster this season with 21 appearances and also played the most minutes (1,276).

Top Scorers

JJ Hanrahan ended the season as Munster’s top points-scorer with one try and 166 points off the tee for a total of 171.

The out-half also won the Guinness PRO14 Golden Boot award for the second time having also earned the accolade in 2013.

Andrew Conway was Munster’s overall top try-scorer with eight tries.

Attendances

There was a record-equalling attendance at Thomond Park for the December game against Leinster as additional seating helped to cater for a fantastic 26,267 crowd. In all three of Munster’s home Champions Cup games, the attendances (25,600 v Racing 92, 25,034 v Saracens & 19,891 v Ospreys) were each the highest for their respective round of fixtures.

Record Win

Following last season’s record PRO14 64-7 win over Ulster at Thomond Park, Munster secured another record win this season thanks to a 68-3 victory over Southern Kings at Irish Independent Park.

Internationals

On the international front, 12 Munster players represented Ireland at the Rugby World Cup – Tadhg Beirne, Joey Carbery, Andrew Conway, Keith Earls, Chris Farrell, Dave Kilcoyne, Jean Kleyn, Conor Murray, Peter O’Mahony, John Ryan, Niall Scannell and CJ Stander.

To date, six Munster players have lined out during the 2020 6 Nations campaign: Andrew Conway, Keith Earls, Dave Kilcoyne, Conor Murray, Peter O’Mahony and CJ Stander.

Three Munster players were involved for the Ireland U20s in their Triple Crown success in the U20 Six Nations – Thomas Ahern, Jack Crowley and Ciaran Ryan.