McMillan rewards Munster pre-season, with x-factor in reserve

Munster's Ireland stars must wait for a URC start

Head coach Clayton McMillan at Munster training, in UL. Pic: James Crombie, Inpho

Munster’s Ireland players will have to wait for URC starts as Clayton McMillan rewards his non-internationals for this Saturday’s season-opener at Scarlets.

The new head coach has resisted for the most part the opportunity to start the players who toured with Ireland to Georgia and Portugal this summer for his first competitive fixture since joining from New Zealand’s Chiefs in the off-season, with Tom Ahern, Gavin Coombes and Jack Crowley assigned bench roles for the trip to West Wales.

Scrum-half Craig Casey, who captained Ireland in Tbilisi and Lisbon in July, does start and will skipper his home province for the first time in the absence of club captain Tadhg Beirne, who was late to pre-season following the British & Irish Lions tour. And there is a start at openside flanker for Alex Kendellen, an Ireland debutant against Portugal, due to the facial injury sustained by John Hodnett against Bath a fortnight ago.

Otherwise the New Zealander will deploy the players he met on day one of pre-season.

“To be 100 per cent transparent and honest, we probably came to the conclusion that the guys that have been here for the duration of the pre-season are actually more ready to play rugby,” McMillan said.

“Given that the internationals came in a little bit later, we've largely rewarded performance through the pre-season to those who have been here for the balance of pre-season, knowing that having that international experience and x-factor coming off the bench is really a luxurious position to be in. We hope they will come on and be in a position to finish the job for us.

“There are a few caveats around that; John Hodnett, who is injured, means we've gone with a specialist seven in Alex Kendellen, and obviously Craig Casey is the captain. In those two instances, that theory hasn't quite played out, but it was certainly our intention to do that.” 

Starting hooker Niall Scannell will make his 200th Munster appearance on Saturday while there are competitive debuts in the starting line-up for summer signings Dan Kelly at outside centre and fly-half JJ Hanrahan at the start of his third stint with his home province.

Scannell starts in the front row alongside props Jeremy Loughman and Oli Jager, both of whom make their competitive returns from injuries sustained last April, as does Shane Daly, injured last February, while Jean Kleyn returns from a knee injury sustained on international duty with South Africa to start at lock. Tighthead prop Conor Bartley is also in line for his Munster debut off the bench having signed from Young Munster last season but Hodnett, Tom Farrell (calf), Diarmuid Kilgallen (ankle), Michael Milne (calf), John Ryan (elbow) and Andrew Smith (chest) were all unavailable with what the province said were “considered short- to medium-term injuries”.

Munster also announced that Alex Codling has started his new role as forwards coach following the completion of his commitments with Ireland at the Women’s Rugby World Cup. Also confirmed was former Ireland hooker Seán Cronin’s appointment as scrum coach, in addition to his existing role as Provincial Talent Coach.

MUNSTER (v Scarlets, Saturday 5:30pm): Mike Haley: Shane Daly, Dan Kelly, Alex Nankivell, Thaakir Abrahams; JJ Hanrahan, Craig Casey (C); Jeremy Loughman, Niall Scannell, Oli Jager; Jean Kleyn, Fineen Wycherley; Jack O’Donoghue, Alex Kendellen, Brian Gleeson.

Replacements: Lee Barron, Josh Wycherley, Conor Bartley, Tom Ahern, Gavin Coombes, Paddy Patterson, Jack Crowley, Seán O’Brien.