Munster Rugby
From Freepedia
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Munster |
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The Irish Rugby Football Union Munster Branch (also known as Munster Rugby) is one of four branches of the IRFU, and is responsible for rugby union in the Irish province of Munster. The branch is also responsible for the Munster team, which plays in national and international competitions. It was founded in 1879.
Munster play most of their games at Thomond Park in Limerick which has a capacity of 12,000. They also play in Musgrave Park in Cork where the capacity is 8,000.
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History
Munster are usually considered the best side never to have won the Heineken Cup. They reached the Heineken Cup quarterfinals in 1998/99, after three years of not being able to get out of the group stages. This led them to their first appearance in the competition's final in 1999/00, where they lost by one point to Northampton.
Their good form and bad luck continued in the following year with a semi-final defeat to Stade Français, again by one point, and was compounded by another defeat in the final in 2001/02 to Northampton.
In 2002/2003, they reached the quarter-finals after a win against Gloucester, later issued on DVD under the title "The Miracle Match". In this game, Munster needed to win by a margin of at least 27 points and score a minimum of four tries. They won 33-6 with four tries in a game that has become part of Munster rugby fokelore.
They faced Leicester at Welford Road and defeated the reigning champions to progress to the semifinals.
They faced Toulouse in the semifinals and lost out on a place in the final after losing by a single point in France.
Munster won the Celtic League in 2002/2003 after being beaten by 14 man Leinster in the final the year before.
In 2004 it was more of the same. After an assured performance in the Pool stage they defeated Stade Français at Thomond Park to set up a semi-final date with English champions Wasps, but they were again undone in the last four minutes when a late surge by Wasps resulted in a Wasps v Toulouse final.
Munster versus All Blacks
Munster are the only Irish side ever to have beaten New Zealand. The 12-0 victory occurred on October 31st, 1978 at Thomond Park. Christy Cantillon scored a try with Tony Ward converting. Then Ward added a drop goal in each half.
The game is immortalised by a stage play "Alone it stands" by John Breen and a book "Stand up and fight" by Alan English.
Club honours
- Celtic League 2002/3
- Celtic Cup 2004/5
- Irish Inter-Provincial championship. Munster have won the Inter-Pro 22 times.
Munster Squad 2005/06
- Paul Burke
- Tom Buckley
- Christian Cullen
- Paul Devlin
- Conan Doyle
- Anthony Foley
- Jerry Flannery
- Anthony Horgan
- Rob Henderson
- Trevor Halstead
- Marcus Horan
- Trevor Hogan
- John Hayes
- Stephen Keogh
- John Kelly
- Denis Leamy
- Mossie Lawlor
- Conleth Manning
- Mike Mullins
- Eugene McGovern
- Mick O'Driscoll
- Donncha O'Callaghan
- John O'Sullivan
- Paul O'Connell
- Ronan O'Gara
- Thomas O'Leary
- Shaun Payne
- Federico Pucciariello
- Alan Quinlan
- Frank Roche
- Frankie Sheahan
- Peter Stringer
- Brian Tuohy
- David Wallace
Former players
References
- English, A, (2005) Alone it stands, Random House, London
External links
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Competitons |
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Federation Links |
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Celtic League Regions |
