Having written two relatively upbeat posts on Connacht and Ulster, it would have been nice to be able to do the same for Munster. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Munster, but it was still shocking that no Munster player started the recent test against Australia. Too many of the Munster squad are just bang average by the rising standards of the URC and only Tadgh Beirne stands out as world class. All in all, not the best environment for long term planning and player development. Even Munster’s player recruitment has been characterised by short term thinking and plugging holes rather than enhancing the team’s long term potential.