The season is done, the numbers are crunched and I thought, hey, who would be interested in Munster’s breakdown of minutes and appearances over 2017/2018?

TRK Patrons – that’s who’d be interested.

So here are the details.

Player	Minutes	Starts	Bench
Stephen Archer	1319	18	10
Sam Arnold	1339	17	1
Tyler Bleyendaal	420	6	1
Chris Cloete	722	10	0
Andrew Conway	1248	17	2
Robin Copeland	1197	12	12
James Cronin	759	8	10
Keith Earls	863	11	0
Chris Farrell	991	12	1
Stephen Fitzgerald	231	2	3
Dan Goggin	420	5	3
Gerbrandt Grobler	427	4	7
JJ Hanrahan	1032	12	8
James Hart	605	7	7
Billy Holland	2029	27	1
Bill Johnston	62	0	4
David Johnston	80	1	0
Ian Keatley	1361	17	7
David Kilcoyne	1105	15	8
Jean Kleyn	1620	23	2
Jeremy Loughman	30	0	2
Rhys Marshall	1279	18	8
Conor Murray	1186	15	1
Kevin O'Byrne	279	2	10
Dave O'Callaghan	327	3	4
Tommy O'Donnell	866	12	1
Jack O'Donoghue	1447	18	12
Peter O'Mahony	1137	15	0
Ronan O'Mahony	56	1	0
Darren O'Shea	397	4	7
Conor Oliver	319	5	1
Ciaran Parker	86	0	4
John Ryan	917	11	13
Niall Scannell	704	9	9
Rory Scannell	1832	22	5
Brian Scott	290	3	9
Mike Sherry	210	2	4
CJ Stander	1254	16	0
Darren Sweetnam	1423	17	6
Jaco Taute	217	4	1
Duncan Williams	641	9	8
Alex Wootton	1461	19	3
Simon Zebo	1474	19	6
Sean O'Connor	253	4	2
Liam O'Connor	448	7	4
Calvin Nash	384	5	2
Jack Stafford	18	0	3
Fineen Wycherley	112	0	4
Sean McCarthy	18	0	1
John Poland	21	0	1

First up, Billy Holland is Munster’s top minute man again with 2029 minutes and 27 starts which is just astounding, and a testament to his incredible durability. Rory Scannell and Jean Kleyn follow closely behind with 1832 minutes and 1620 minutes respectively.

Jack O’Donoghue made 30 appearances in total, with 18 starts and 12 appearances off the bench for a total of 1447 minutes. He was Munster’s Mr Fixit in the back row, with 5 starts at #8, 8 starts at blindside and five starts at openside combined with 12 appearances as cover off the bench in all three roles as needed.

At 10 – something that’s been a bit of a focus this week – the majority of game time was split between three players. Tyler Bleyendaal only saw 420 minutes with six starts and one appearance off the bench. Ian Keatley saw 1361 minutes, with JJ Hanrahan lagging behind on 1032 minutes. Keatley started 17 games in the #10 shirt, with Hanrahan starting 9 times at #10 and 3 times at fullback. Bill Johnston saw 62 minutes off the bench on four different occasions. You’d imagine that minute breakdown will change drastically next season in light of Carbery’s signing.

Nifty Fifty

Munster used 50 players in total going on what I can see. That tallies with Munster’s own release on these numbers but seems to be missing one compared to Opta. I’m not sure who that one missing player is going on the numbers I collated from Munster’s site, so I’ll presume their own numbers are the accurate ones.

Our primary internationals racked up around 15/16 appearances on average, with Keith Earls falling a bit below that number due to injury. That’s pretty good representation from the central contract crew but, as with the 10 shirt, I’d expect that number to change next season with the World Cup on the horizon.

Munster XV 2017/2018 by Minutes Played

15. Simon Zebo
14. Darren Sweetnam
13. Sam Arnold
12. Rory Scannell
11. Alex Wootton

10. Ian Keatley
9. Conor Murray

1. David Kilcoyne
2. Rhys Marshall
3. Stephen Archer
4. Jean Kleyn
5. Billy Holland
6. Peter O’Mahony
7. Jack O’Donoghue
8. CJ Stander