Munster re-sign forward trio while adding two South Africans to their Academy

Munster have re-signed forwards Billy Holland, Stephen Archer and Kevin O'Byrne to new deals while academy players Liam O’Connor, Fineen Wycherley and Calvin Nash have also committed to the province.

Holland, Archer and O'Byrne have all penned a two-year deals to remain with the province until June 2020. Academy prop O’Connor will move to a two-year senior contract at the start of the 2018/19 season while lock  Wycherley and wing Nash have both signed one-year development deals. The province have also added South African 18-year-olds Keynon Knox (prop) and Matt More (centre) to their academy. Knox moves to Thomond Park from Michaelhouse, KwaZulu-Natal, while More arrives in Limerick from St. Andrews of Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, and not its namesake in Blackrock, Dublin. The pair arrived in Ireland before December 31 and will therefore qualify to play for the national team under the three-year residency rule. World Rugby voted to increase the required residency period to be eligible for international rugby from three to five years in May of last year. However, the new initiative will come into force when the global calendar is re-structured in 2020, therefore allowing players who arrive in a new country before December 31, 2017, to decalre for that country in 2020.