Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is an Irish independent podcast. Hello, everybody, and welcome to today's episode of the Indoor Sport Podcast. Joe Malloy is currently sequestered in the east wing of Talbot Towers, preparing for what will be a bumper day of podcasting tomorrow. So it is I, Will Slattery, stepping into the breach today. And I know what you're thinking. It's a football day.
So we put our heads together and thought, what is the one podcast we might do today? Because it's probably a little too close to kick off to do another football show that might get a little bit of traction, have a little bit of staying power. So I went into my Rolodex. I looked up one of the biggest hitters I know. Rory O'Connor is joining me to discuss rugby today. Rudd, how are you?
I'm very well, thanks, Will. Pumped, pumped. Play off fever as well? Yeah, I think so. Getting there. Where are you watching it? I'll watch it at home. I think my little six-year-old kid is going to try and stay up at least for the first half. So, I mean, he'll probably play Lego while I'm watching it in reality. But yeah, no, looking forward to it. I wasn't there earlier in the week.
I'm kind of dreading it a little bit. I kind of feel like the country's lost its mind and that worries me a little bit. And I do think, you know, given this is our rugby show and I think the only people listening to this are committed rugby listeners.
But like if people get annoyed with Ireland getting carried away with World Cup quarterfinals in rugby, I think this is getting a bit carried away with a playoff semifinal. But people seem like having a good time. So hopefully they're having a good time and we're all looking forward to a final or a final playoff spot.
Yeah, but by the time people listen to this, the result might even be decided. So hopefully we're all in a celebratory mood.
Well, look, it's...
unbelievable what the football team do isn't it like the like the rugby team during the world cup like france was amazing that was the closest it's ever felt to this the level the football team get to is incredible and it's just good for it's good for everyone like the mood is good it's just hopefully they can do the business so well fingers crossed otherwise it'll be back to the urc and the and uh and uh that'll be the main event with the the league finals at the weekend
Well, look, it might seem small fry, but it was a very interesting New Year's Eve weekend, I thought, to reintroduce us to the club scene after what was an unbelievable Six Nations. But first, before we get to that, our rugby coverage on Indosport is sponsored by Energia.
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Chapter 2: What financial issues are Munster facing this season?
They lost a lot of leadership and experience. Stephen Archer, another one, you know, John Ryan is a year older. A couple of their tight end props haven't been able to go on to the pitch this season. And Olly Yeager. and Roman Salanoa, who hasn't played for a couple of years now. The squad is not as strong as it once was. We're seeing the financial implications.
They're in almost a self-fulfilling prophecy of the strong isn't a squad, the income isn't as good, things get weaker as it goes. And... What was one of the strongest brands in Irish sport 20 years ago is being diminished and diminished all the time. And the team is now in a real battle every year to finish in the top eight of a strengthening competition.
The reason the URC is so much better now, the reason that there is no weekends off is because the South Africans have come in and made it really difficult. But Ulster, Connacht and Leinster look like they're, even though Connacht are way behind, or not way behind, but behind Munster at the table, they all look in better form.
They'll be most likely ahead of them after this weekend. If you think they're at home to the Ospreys and Munster and Loftus, there's a good chance they could overtake them on points difference.
And Macmillan's job is to pull all this together and take that squad, which has still got a lot of good players in it, even though it's not as strong as it was, and get performances. And what I think Munster fans will be really frustrated at the moment is, even though I don't think there's a championship winning team in there,
there's still a team that can go to the Sharks and put up a fight that's better than losing 45-0. There's Scrum. Look, the Sharks have a great Scrum. The Scrum struggle that's been struggling all year. The line-out, they thought they'd fixed it. I'm sure Codling's absence has fed into...
The line-out performance, I thought the Sharks were really aggressive in their own 22, which I think teams are not expecting right now. I think it's a tactical innovation that more teams should look at. But when those two things go against you and you're also losing the physical battle and you're kind of going from side to side, you're going to struggle.
And it's really hard to pull that back together. They've gone back to Cape Town this week But, you know, this two week tour in South Africa, it really lives or dies near results. You can feel great in Cape Town when you're feeling good about your rugby.
But if you're having massive introspective meetings and feeling sorry for yourself when you're thousands of miles from home, even if the weather is good, that can get on top of you. And we saw last year, like this is this is the tour that led to Graham Ranchi losing his job because we never got it.
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