Season So Far | Stats & Pics

Munster’s Guinness PRO14 Rainbow Cup campaign kicks off next weekend with the province set to play their 21^st fixture of the season against Leinster at the RDS next Saturday.

Ahead of the new competition, take a look back at the stats from our season so far.

Johann van Graan’s side have won 16 of their 20 games with 53 players featuring throughout the campaign so far.

Gallery | Click here for the best pics from the season so far

Top-Scorers

Gavin Coombes leads the way on the try-scoring front with 11 tries in 18 appearances, including three in his first three Champions Cup appearances.

Keith Earls’ two tries against Toulouse saw the winger move up to 59 tries, one behind record-holder Simon Zebo’s 60 tries.

JJ Hanrahan has scored the most points with a total of 118 (two tries, 21 penalties, 21 conversions and one drop-goal).

In total, Munster have scored 519 points and conceded 337 points so far this season, scoring 58 tries and conceding 36.

Munster conceded the least tries in the Guinness PRO14 with no side securing a four-try bonus point against the province. There were 27 tries scored against Munster in 17 PRO14 games.

Most appearances/minutes

Gavin Coombes leads the way for appearances having featured in 18 of Munster’s 20 games (15 starts) racking up 1,107 minutes of action.

Mike Haley top the charts for minutes on the pitch, playing a total of 1,252 minutes in his 16 starts.

Damian de Allende is second in both appearances and minutes played with 17 appearances and 1,176 minutes.

Accolades

Damian de Allende, Kevin O’Byrne and Billy Holland were all included in the Guinness PRO14 Dream Team for their excellent performances throughout the season.

Munster’s JJ Hanrahan won the Guinness PRO14 Try of the Season award after a brilliant team move that also involved Craig Casey, Rhys Marshall, Damian de Allende, Darren Sweetnam and Rory Scannell.

Watch the try below.

Tadhg Beirne leads the way with three Player of the Match awards ahead of Craig Casey and Gavin Coombes (two each) with Jack O’Donoghue, JJ Hanrahan, CJ Stander, Billy Holland, Joey Carbery and Academy player Thomas Ahern also picking up Player of the Match awards.

Landmarks & Debuts

There were senior debuts for Academy players Thomas Ahern, Jack Crowley, Jack Daly, Seán French, Cian Hurley, Alex Kendellen and Josh Wycherley.

There were also Munster debuts for new signings Matt Gallagher and Roman Salanoa along with loanee Paddy Patterson.

Gavin Coombes, Academy prop Wycherley and Damian de Allende also made their Champions Cup debuts this season.

Billy Holland (245 caps) moved up to second on the province’s all-time list of leading appearances and Stephen Archer (227 caps) moved up to fifth on the list.

CJ Stander made his 150th Munster appearance and played his 50th Champions Cup game as Chris Cloete and Fineen Wycherley made their 50th appearances for the province.

International

Craig Casey and Shane Daly became the latest Munster men to make their debuts with Ireland this season.

Tadhg Beirne, Andrew Conway, Keith Earls, Chris Farrell, Dave Kilcoyne, Conor Murray, Peter O’Mahony, John Ryan and CJ Stander also featured for Ireland this season, bringing Munster’s total representation to 11 over the Autumn Nations Cup and Guinness Six Nations.

Fineen Wycherley was also included in an Ireland training camp for the first time this season.

Beirne and Stander were named in the Six Nations Team of the Championship with Stander making his 50th international appearance.

Academy

10 Greencore Munster Rugby Academy players have featured so far this season.

Thomas Ahern, Jack Crowley, Jack Daly, Jake Flannery, Seán French, Ben Healy, Cian Hurley, John Hodnett, Alex Kendellen and Josh Wycherley have all represented the province.

Out-half Ben Healy leads the way with senior appearances on the Academy front this season having featured in 14 of Munster’s 20 games, scoring 77 points.

In total, there have been 41 senior appearances for Academy players so far this season.

Thomas Ahern (21) and Cian Hurley (20) became the province’s youngest starting second-row partnership against Benetton in March 2021.

Thomas Ahern, Jack Crowley, Jack Daly, Jake Flannery, James French, Seán French, Ben Healy, John Hodnett and Josh Wycherley all move up to senior contracts next season.