Munster experience fits in with All Blacks' commitment to old-school tours

“It was an unbelievable experience,”said touring coach Clayton McMillan whose day job is Chiefs boss.

GREAT EXPERIENCE: All Blacks XV head coach Clayton McMillan before the match between Munster and All Blacks XV. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Modern elite rugby waits for no man or woman.

On Saturday night the All Black XVs accounted for Munster in Thomond Park. By Sunday morning they were flying to France to start a week that will end with a game against Georgia in Montpellier.

Needs must.

That games like these are even happening is a wonder given the amount of rugby being squeezed into the calendar on an annual basis and the touring coach Clayton McMillan was eager to get in a quick beer with his hosts in the small window between game and flight.

“That’s a great part around the nature of this game,” said McMillan whose day job is Chiefs boss.

“Sometimes that is being lost in the modern game, just that ability to connect and enjoy each other’s company and share a few stories and make a few memories.”

Munster have done more than most to keep this concept alive having faced the Barbarians, the Crusaders, a South African XV and a Kiwi equivalent in Cork and Limerick this past 24 months and Saturday’s night’s addition to the cannon was worth the trouble.

A capacity crowd north of 26,000 was not dissuaded by the fact that New Zealand’s brightest and best were actually appearing in Twickenham earlier in the day and the game itself threw up a multiple of tries and a genuine contest against a brilliant backdrop.

“It was an unbelievable experience,” said McMillan. “We had heard about the passion of the Limerick people and the Munster supporters and we got that in spades, I thought. Coming in we saw the energy of the crowd, they come in early.

“They sing and they are right behind every play. The silence when the goal kickers are on: there are some things that we just don’t see back in New Zealand so it was a hell of an experience and the game contributed massively towards that.”

Andy Farrell went back to build a future when adding two Maori games to Ireland’s three-Test tour to New Zealand in the summer of 2022 and the Kiwis themselves are going all in on old-school touring culture in 2026 when they travel to South Africa.

Three Tests will be buttressed by four games against URC opposition and a tie with a South African XV. It will be their first full, proper tour of the country in 30 years. That’s an enormous petri-dish in which to look at new players in unfamiliar circumstances.

McMillan spoke of the varied challenges that Munster threw at them: the use of two and even three defenders in every breakdown, the aggressive line speed that caught them behind the gain line and the willingness to contest every facet on ground and in air.

So he had little time for cynics questioning the value of an 80 minutes between a side that could be described as New Zealand’s third-string and a Munster team devoid of half-a-dozen internationals and twice as many again with injury.

“Watch the game and maybe rethink that,” he said. “Munster had a few of the old dogs like John Ryan there but they had a few youngsters out there as well.

“They have had a bit of a tough run of injuries and that has opened the door for some of the younger academy guys to come in and get some experience. I’m sure for them it was memorable.

“They will learn and grow so Munster will benefit from that and equally our guys.”