Munster Rugby

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 (to be increased to 26,000). They also play in Musgrave Park in Cork where the capacity is 8,000. Crowds at Thomond Park are famed for their support and their silence during kicks at goal, and the Munster spirit is perhaps best shown by the local phrase, "We don't do that sort of thing". Munster fans are often referred to as "the Red Army" due to the color of the team strip and their willingness to travel to away games in large numbers to support their team. For an away game the Red Army is often said to be "on the march".

The Munster selection is drawn from local clubs like Shannon, Cork Constitution, Garryowen, UL Bohemians RFC and Young Munster. These clubs play in the All-Ireland League competition.

The 'three crowns' emblem used by Munster alludes to the three constituent historic kingdoms of Munster; Thomond in the north, Desmond in the south, and Ormond in the east. In 2003 a stag's head was added to the crest. Stags have been associated with Munster folklore as far back as the 11th century.

Munster versus All Blacks

Munster are the only Irish side ever to have beaten New Zealand. The 12-0 victory occurred on 31 October 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: When Munster Beat the All Blacks by Alan English. Both have been commercially successful.

Munster also drew with the All Blacks in 1973.

Recent history - Heineken Cup

Munster were previously called 'the best side never to have won the Heineken Cup'. They also hold the distinction of never losing a Heineken Cup game in their home "Fortress Thomond Park". They reached the Heineken Cup quarter-finals in 1998/1999, 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 1999/2000, where they lost by one point to Northampton at Twickenham. Nevertheless, that season was most memorable with a fantastic win over Toulouse 25-31 in Bordeaux.

Their good form and bad luck continued in the following year (2000/2001) with a semi-final defeat to Stade Français, again by one point. In 2001/2002 Munster lost the last match of their pool in Castres,but qualified as best runners-up. Munster beat Stade Français 16-14 in Paris. The only try of the game coming from Anthony Horgan. It was then on to Béziers to meet Castres for the semi-final. Munster were triumphant and we were on our way to the Millennium Stadium and to the final to meet the reigning champions, Leicester. Munster lost a tight game remembered as 'the hand of Back' final as a Leicester flanker used his hand illegally in a scrum when Munster had a last-chance attack.

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 folklore. They faced Leicester at Welford Road and defeated the reigning champions to progress to the semi-finals. They faced Toulouse in the semi-finals and lost out on a place in the final after losing by a single point in France.

In 2003/2004 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.

In 2004/2005, after a shaky performance in the Pool stage, they qualified as 5th seeds and played Biarritz away. The match was played at Real Sociedad's ground, the Anoeta Stadium, in San Sebastián in Spain — the first Heineken Cup game ever played in Spain. Biarritz won 19-10 to avenge a 38-29 defeat at the same stage in 2001. Munster eventually won the game 19-10 to set up a semi-final against arch rivals Leinster, which they won convincingly by 30 points to 6 in front of an ecstatic crowd. They would return to the Millennium Stadium for the final against Biarritz which they won 23-19 to become European champions for the first time. Alan English, author of Stand Up and Fight: When Munster Beat the All Blacks has been commissioned to write an official account of the 2005/2006 European campaign, entitled Our Road To Glory, with photographs by Billy Stickland. The book is expected to be launched before the start of the 2006/2007 campaign.

Supporters

This fanatical support was demonstrated during Munster's recent (2006) Heineken Cup win. The travel arrangements and acquiring of tickets are already achieving near-mythical status in the region. There were many news reports of the lengths some fans were willing to go to secure tickets to the game and to travel to the game. Some Munster fans traveled to Biarritz to buy up the French allocation of tickets. On the day of the game the Millennium Stadium (which is in Wales) was filled with a capacity 74,500 crowd. Of those numbers it is estimated that in excess of 70,000 were Munster supporters with the remainder being Biarritz supporters. The Millennium Stadium was intended to be a neutral venue but commentators on the day remarked that it could hardly be counted as such.

Record attendances

Munster have played in all games holding attendance records in the knock-out stages of the Heineken Cup. These are:

Final. 2002, v Leicester, Millennium Stadium, Cardiff - 74,600
Semi-final. 2004, v London Wasps, Lansdowne Road, Dublin - 49,500
Quarter-final. 2006, v Perpignan, Lansdowne Road, Dublin - 49,500

Munster's 2005 quarter-final against Biarritz Olympique in Estadio Anoeta, played as it was across the border in San Sebastián, with an attendance of 32,000 also set the record for the biggest rugby match ever played in Spain.

Munster's 2005 pool game away to NEC Harlequins holds the record attendance for a pool game in the Heineken Cup with 33,833 attending the game.

Their 2005 Celtic League game against Leinster at the RDS, with an attendance of 14,000, held the record for that competition until it was beaten on April 18th 2006 by the Ospreys and Llanelli Scarlets at the Liberty Stadium. This record was subsequently broken in May 2006 when Leinster played Cardiff at the Millenium Stadium.

Honours

Celtic League 2002/3
Celtic Cup 2004/5
Irish Inter-Provincial championship. Munster have won the Inter-Pro 22 times.
Heineken Cup 2006

Munster Squad 2005/06

Tony Buckley | Paul Burke | Gary Connolly

Anton Pitout | Mike Prendergast

Former players

Keith Wood
Tony Ward - who, interestingly enough, played in the UEFA Cup for Limerick FC in the 1980s against Southampton FC.
John Langford
Jim Williams
Mick "Gaillimh" Galwey
Peter "The Claw" Clohessy

Senior Clubs

Major Club Competitions

Schools Cups

References

English, A, (2005) Stand Up and Fight : When Munster Beats the All Blacks, Random House, London
Murphy, E, (2006) Munster Rugby: The Phenomenon, Maverick House Publishers, Dublin

External links

Celtic League teams | Rugby union in Ireland | Irish rugby union teams

Munster Rugby | Munster (rugby)

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