“I'd played a huge amount of games in the space of four or five years and it was taking its toll.”

Johann van Graan has praised his Munster players for embracing the “opportunity” of a return to rugby under unique circumstances following the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Munster squad stepped up preparations on Monday for the return of the Guinness PRO14 campaign in August as they trained for the first time in groups of up to 14 players at the High Performance Centre in Limerick.

Having only one Limerick man in the current Munster academy? That is not a cause for concern but a positive sign of a successful, province-wide rugby development programme, Munster chief executive Ian Flanagan insisted this week.

Nenagh RFC's Seán McCullough was tonight elected as the new President of the Munster Branch of the IRFU.

The return to Thomond Park cannot come quick enough for Munster chief executive Ian Flanagan and nor can the selling of the famous stadium’s naming rights.

Munster Rugby CEO Ian Flanagan lauded reviews into the process of dealing with the James Cronin case as “very thorough”.

Supporters eager for a glimpse of World Cup winners RG Snyman and Damian de Allende in Munster training gear will have to be patient a little longer.

Munster are expecting World Cup winner Damian de Allende to recover from a short-term injury in time to make his debut for the province when professional rugby returns to action in August but Joey Carbery will have to wait another month.

Time in lockdown has solidified Conor Murray's ambitions to end his career on a high and the Munster scrum-half believes the province has now got all the ingredients to claim its first silverware since a Celtic League title in 2011.

Education, esports, and tech data may not seem like a natural fit for your favourite club but these are some of the areas that teams as varied as Munster, the New York Mets, and Barcelona are branching into at a time when sport looks to absorb the loss of its traditional income streams.

Munster CEO Ian Flanagan has confirmed that the province has reviewed its anti-doping protocols in the wake of James Cronin's recent one-month ban and added that the dispensing error at the heart of the matter could have happened to “the man on the street”.

Subscribers will get to relive the 2006 and 2008 Heineken Cup final victories over Biarritz and Toulouse, as well as the 2006 semi-final victory over Leinster and the 2003 'Miracle Match' against Gloucester at Thomond Park.

Jerry Flannery says his partner Katy being from Guildford, half-an-hour from Harlequins' London base, should also help with the transition.

Munster’s repayments on the €11.7 million loan it received from the IRFU towards the €42m redevelopment of Thomond Park in 2008 no longer appears to be the millstone it has been perceived to be in some quarters, writes Simon Lewis.

The supermarket slogan “Every Little Helps” is starting to add up for Munster Rugby with a number of Supporters Club members taking to Twitter to declare their decisions to forego the offer of refunds or credit for the last four home games of the 2019-20 season.

Munster has announced its academy make-up for next season.

The 2006 Heineken Cup final is poised at ten apiece. Peter Stringer is poised at the base of a scrum. This week's 'Moment In Time' sees Brendan O'Brien revisit one of the most famous scores in the history of Irish sport.

“I’m devastated to be finishing my career prematurely.”

Ronan O'Gara shares his thoughts on "coach-in-waiting" Bleyendaal upon his retirement from playing.

Tyler Bleyendaal has been forced to retire from rugby with immediate effect following a long struggle with neck injuries, Munster Rugby announced on Wednesday.

Munster Rugby have confirmed that new signings Damian de Allende, RG Snyman, Matt Gallagher, and Roman Salanoa will join the province on July 1.

Munster announced the signing of exciting young Leinster tighthead prop Roman Salanoa as Sammy Arnold and Conor Oliver's exits from the province were confirmed on Monday.

Sport Ireland will not appeal the one month ban which Munster and Ireland prop James Cronin incurred for a doping violation to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The explosive back-row was Munster's top try-scorer this season.

Plays and books have been written about Munster rugby's most elevating moments so maybe it shouldn't come as a huge surprise to find that the province now finds itself in the company of organisations as stellar as the Royal Shakespeare Company and NASA.

The All Black centurion has backed proposals for a world club tournament.

The judicial officer who heard James Cronin’s anti-doping violation case has defended his decision to hand the Munster player a one-month suspension.

A trio of All Blacks legends has called for New Zealand to return to midweek tour fixtures and put the likes of Thomond Park back on the itinerary in the post-pandemic world.

Sport Ireland has yet to decide if it will appeal the one-month suspension imposed on Munster forward James Cronin for an anti-doping violation committed late last year.

Sport Ireland are still reviewing the James Cronin doping violation decision and have yet to decide whether they will appeal his one-month suspension to the Court of Arbitration in Sport.

Rugby is back on the agenda for Munster players — at least talking about it. Coach Stephen Larkham says the province this week added online coaching sessions to the squad’s individual fitness and conditioning programmes.

Cork Constitution second-row Brian Hayes and Ballynahinch winger Aaron Cairns will share the honour of top try-scorer in the 2019/20 Energia All-Ireland League.

Get your compass readings and timepieces out. We are about to return to one of the most vexed items in this increasingly scrambled head of mine, writes Ronan O'Gara

It was the biggest game of rugby ever seen in Ireland, Leinster and Munster meeting in Europe for the first time and in a Heineken Cup semi-final no less.

Ireland’s lockdown could provide an upside for Munster’s new coaching team as the province prepares to return to action later this year.

James Cronin’s “unintentional anti-doping violation” can serve as a valuable reminder for fellow players of the importance of personal diligence regarding prescribed medicines, former Munster team-mate Johne Murphy has said.

Munster’s JJ Hanrahan hit “rock bottom” when he was axed for last season’s European Cup quarter-final after playing “the worst game of rugby of my life”.

The Munster prop has been suspended for one month.

Johann van Graan says Munster players are working at home in three-week blocks as part of their remote training programme.

“Esports is just an extension of the Munster brand and if that allows us in the long term to have more followers and more people coming to our games, then great.”

Plenty of tough calls in this team!

I t was a season that saw Munster ranked 66-1 Heineken Cup outsiders and treated with such disdain by Saracens that John Kelly remembers his team running out at Vicarage Road to the theme tune of American 60s ghoulish sitcom ‘The Munsters’.

Such is the rise of esports that it will become a demonstration sport at the Paris Olympics in 2024.