Season 2015/16 In Stats

577 points, 71 tries, 13 new Munster caps and more, check out Munster’s 2015/16 season in facts and figures here.

With a total of 16 wins to their name, Munster scored an average of 21 points per game, scoring 71 tries across all competitions.
 
A total of 13 players made their competitive debuts for Munster this season – Tyler Bleyendaal, Mark Chisholm, Jordan Coghlan, Lucas Gonzales Amorosino, Mario Sagario, Francis Saili, and Shane Monahan, as well as academy talents David Johnston, John Madigan, Sean McCarthy, Stephen Fitzgerald, Liam O’Connor and Conor Oliver.

On the European front Mark Chisholm, Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino, Francis Saili, Jack O'Donoghue and Rory Scannell all made their Champions Cup debuts for the province against Treviso in November.

Less than a month later, Rory's brother Niall Scannell, made his first European appearance when starting against Leicester Tigers at Thomond Park, while the week previous against Dragons, the Scannell duo made history by becoming the first set of brothers to start for Munster in the professional era. 

Mario Sagario made his Champions Cup debut in red from the bench in Munster's return encounter with Tigers at Welford Road, and, at just 20 years age, academy loosehead Liam O’Connor won his first Munster cap in Munster’s final European clash of the season against Stade Francais at Thomond Park.

Strong home-grown family connections were also evident in this year's pre-season where two sets of brothers were named in a matchday squad – Tipperary natives Bill and David Johnston joining the Cork-born Scannells in facing London Irish at Irish Independent Park.

In terms of player milestones, Dave Foley, John Ryan, James Cronin, Dave O'Callaghan and Andrew Conway have all won their 50^th Munster cap this season with Duncan Williams, Stephen Archer, Simon Zebo and Dave Kilcoyne all reaching the 100 cap milestone.

Featuring in 27 of Munster’s 28 competitive games this season, Robin Copeland has made the most appearances, but it's Francis Saili who has played the most minutes in the season, accumulating 1,750 minutes of rugby in 22 appearances where he played the full-80 in all but one game, the one exception being 10 minutes in the sin-bin away to Edinburgh in Murrayfield last November.

Mike Sherry, CJ Stander and Simon Zebo share the spoils for season’s top try scorer on 7 touchdowns a piece with 2015/16 also seeing Zebo become Munster’s all-time top try scorer on 45 tries – overtaking Anthony Horgan’s previous record of 41.
 
Just recently named IRUPA Players’ Player of the Year, CJ Stander, like the previous season, led the charge in terms of Man-of-the-Match awards, receiving the honour on four occasions.
 
With the injury enforced absence of squad captain Peter O’Mahony, Stander assumed the role of captain for most of the season, leading Munster in 18 games, with Billy Holland (7), Felix Jones (2) and Denis Hurley (1) also captaining the province.

Munster’s away trip to Glasgow Warriors in February saw Munster field an entirely Irish starting XV, while against Zebre at Thomond Park in March, each starter was a product of the Greencore Munster Academy system.

Munster’s Champions Cup clash with Leicester Tigers in December saw Thomond Park welcomes its one millionth European Cup supporter – Claire O'Brien of Cork – through the turnstiles.