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
