McMillan pleased with his sides 'grit and determination' in narrow win over an ill-disciplined Edinburgh

Clayton McMillan will travel to the capital satisfied his team maintained their early season momentum having found a way to get the job done in front of a sell-out 8,800 crowd on Friday night.

GRIT AND DETERMINATION: Munster's Tom Farrell is tackled by Edinbugh's James Lang. Picture: Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile

Clayton McMillan accepted Edinburgh’s ill-disciplined gifts as his Munster side squeaked a 20-19 victory in Cork to continue a winning start to the URC campaign with a performance he described as a step in the right direction.

Without the benefit of four yellow cards and 14 penalties from the visitors to Virgin Media Park, the New Zealander might have seen his unbeaten start to life as Munster head coach stall at two matches but the former Chiefs boss took comfort that his third straight league win of the new season had come through hard work and a will to win.

With a URC derby against a potentially full strength Leinster, the defending champions, at Croke Park next Saturday in Dublin, Munster are going to need all the assets they can muster if they are to break a four-game losing streak to their rival and claim a first win since their play-off semi-final victory at Aviva Stadium in their title-winning run of May 2023.

Yet McMillan will travel to the capital satisfied his team maintained their early season momentum having found a way to get the job done in front of a sell-out 8,800 crowd on Friday night.

After an opening second-minute try from wing Andrew Smith, Munster had found themselves on the back foot for most of a fast-paced contest as Edinburgh, with four British & Irish Lions 2025 tourists in their ranks, replied through one of them, hooker Ewan Ashman finishing a maul five minutes later. Scrum-half Ben Vellacott nudged the visitors in front on 15 minutes, with former Munster fly-half Ben Healy converting to open a 12-5 lead.

Replacement lock Glen Young’s 28th minute yellow card, followed by prop D’arcy Rae’s in the 31st was the first lifeline handed to a Munster team who had found no answer to Edinburgh’s early breakdown dominance. Loosehead Michael Milne grabbed the first of his two tries on the night with a pick and go after a driving maul two minutes later to make it 12-10 to the visitors at half-time as Munster’s efforts to make hay with a two-man advantage were undermined by a misfiring lineout.

Those missed opportunities were punished when Edinburgh extended their lead once more through a crossfield kick to right wing Darcy Graham eight minutes after the restart, Healy again converting to leave the home side trailing 19-10, only for the Scots to hand back the initiative to their hosts through more indiscipline, replacement back-rower Freddy Douglas sin-binned on 53 minutes. 

Milne grabbed his second try five minutes later but with fly-half JJ Hanrahan enduring a difficult night off the kicking tee, Munster needed a try to get back in front from 19-15 and they were given another present when Edinburgh captain Magnus Bradbury became his side’s fourth recipient of a yellow card for a croc roll on replacement hooker Lee Barron with 11 minutes remaining. Munster lock Fineen Wycherley’s try two minutes later nudged his team back in front with the bonus-point try and there was nearly a fourth as Gavin Coombes crashed over at the death, only for his score to be ruled out for a knock on.

Six days after shading a Thomond Park victory over Cardiff 23-20 in round two, McMillan said: “I was really pleased with the grit and determination. Again, another week where we didn’t have everything go our own way.

“I saw improvement from last week, but really just the determination to stick in the fight and, you know, they were a bit ill-disciplined and they gifted us opportunities and we were good enough to take (them).

“There was a great injection from our bench. It was awesome to see Edwin Edogbo back out there, I thought he made a real difference as did guys like Josh Wycherley, Brian Gleeson, everyone, really. They all came on and I felt we really sort of came over the top of them. We didn’t quite put them away; would have been nice to have scored that (Coombes) try, but overall, still a step in the right direction.” 

McMillan added: “You’re going to have days where things don’t go all your way. (Edinburgh) are a quality side, big side, physical side but I thought we stood up well for the most part around our scrum, which they generate a lot of momentum and energy off.

“When we got our carry height right, I think we looked a lot better. We were guilty in the first half of trying to run over the top of people, getting stacked, slowing down our ball, really just running into brick walls. So that was a focus at half-time and we were better.” 

Munster may have to do without starting front-rower Oli Jager for their Croke Park encounter, the tighthead prop having been removed for a head knock on 23 minutes in Cork.

“He’s still yet to be assessed,” McMillan said of Jager. “He’s somebody that we just need to take a cautious approach with, he’s had some concussion issues in the past. So as soon as he went down, (it was a) no brainer. We’ll assess it over the next couple of days.” 

The Munster head coach said there would be some difficult selection decisions in store for the team to face Leinster after using 35 players across his first three matchday squads.

“We made some significant changes this week. I thought early on maybe it hurt us a little bit, for a bit of a lack of rhythm and cohesion, but it got better as the game wore on. And the benefit is, you know, giving more people a run and a lot of them stood up well tonight. And those are exactly the sort of conversations we want to be having on a Monday morning.” 

McMillan also praised his players and staff for maintaining their focus on the Edinburgh game when the outside noise had been increasing in anticipation of the Leinster clash eight days later.

“I think there’s been a few whispers around the place, but I give credit to the guys and everyone in the organisation, really, that we have kept a lid on whatever’s coming next week, because we fully respected what Edinburgh were going to bring to the table.

“I would encourage the lads to take a breath and celebrate getting another tough victory at home, rest up over the weekend and come in with plenty of energy on Monday.

“And it’s an oval ball in a rectangular field, I believe. So we’ll turn up and see how it goes.”