Munster Rugby coach Graham Rowntree: '18-year-old Ruadhan Quinn's grown week by week'

MUNSTER Rugby face the second of two pre-season friendlies this Friday night when locking horns with Premiership side London Irish at Musgrave Park, 7.30pm.

Munster will be looking to bounce back to winning ways following their 28-19 defeat to another Premiership side Gloucester in the first of the province's pre-season friendlies at the Cork venue on Friday night last. The home side was left to rue a slow start as the Cherry and Whites led 21-0 by half-time.

New Munster head coach Graham Rowntree handed senior debuts to five players in the game, Conor Phillips, Malakai Fekatoa, Edwin Edogbo, Ruadhan Quinn and Chris Moore.

Eighteen-year-old Quinn, a Munster Schools Senior Cup winner with Crescent College Comprehensive in March, marked his Munster senior debut by scoring one of his side's three tries.

Quinn was introduced as a replacement in the opening minutes of the game after Jack O'Sullivan picked up an injury.
New Munster head coach Rowntree was fulsome in his praise of Quinn after Friday night's game.

“It was a real game of two halves. Some big performances. Proud of some of the young lads. Ruadhán Quinn for example, he played longer than he expected.

“He is growing. He’s been force-fed. He’s had to grow up a lot in terms of his development in the game with the way we’re training. He’s grown up a lot week by week and you could see in that game, he grew, he just learned, and I was delighted for him.”

Another player to make hi Munster debut on Friday night was exciting centre Malakai Fekitoa, the former All-Black.
A World Cup winner in 2015, the 29-year-old can play in either centre position and has signed a two-year contract with Munster.

Graham Rowntree said Fekitoa had made a major contribution to the set-up since his arrival this summer from Wasps.
“He showed it all tonight. Classy, hands, aggression. That tackle he made, wow! He’s been great around the environment, great for the young lads. he has given every day with his experiences, he’s in incredible condition as well. We saw tonight glimpses of exactly what we’ve got.”

Rowntree described Friday night's workout against Gloucester as 'invaluable' in the lead-up to the start of the new URC season.
“We learned a lot there. That was a proper team, a Premiership team. They have been back in pre-season longer than us, it was a proper work-out, particularly around maul, maul defence, our breakdown, it has given us a lot of pictures to look out for the week in terms of breakdown and generating quick ball.

“They scored off a good crossfield kick early on, then an intercept. One guy then made a mistake for the third try. At half-time we kept our composure because we didn't have a lot of field position and a couple of individual errors in the first half hurt us. The second half I am delighted with, we won it 19-7. What does that say, what does that say about our lads. We kept playing there at the end, some big stand-out performances.

“For a pre-season game, learning about people was invaluable.”

Meanwhile, the GAA's Central Council gave the go-ahead for Munster to face a South Africa Select XV on Thursday, November 10 at Páirc Uí Chaoimh in Cork. The venue boasts a capacity of 45,000.

Commenting on the venue announcement Munster Rugby CEO Ian Flanagan said: “This is a huge honour and significant milestone for Munster Rugby, one we are very proud to be associated with.

“Our thanks to the IRFU, GAA and Cork GAA for all their input, time and consideration given to reviewing this proposal and for permitting us to host our touring game against the South Africa Select XV at Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Thursday, November 10, on what will be an incredible and historic occasion.”