McMillan creating a positive environment where leaders naturally show themselves

Clayton McMillan will need all the leadership qualities he can muster if he is to win the first interpo derby of his tenure and end a four-game losing streak in the fixture.

LEADERS: Tom Farrell and Fineen Wycherley have stepped forward as two leaders for new Head Coach Clayton McMillan.

An off night for Munster in Cork proved an ideal platform for Clayton McMillan to witness which of his players would emerge as leaders when their side needed it most and against Edinburgh at Virgin Media Park, the new head coach found at least two in Tom Farrell and Fineen Wycherley.

A man of the match performance from last season’s Munster player of the year and outside centre Farrell on his seasonal debut and a game-clinching fourth try on 74 minutes scored by the workaholic lock Wycherley, a late addition to the side following a head knock to intended starter Tom Ahern, played their parts in extending a winning start to the URC campaign to three games with a 20-19 bonus-point victory on Friday night.

A week on from an “ugly” 23-20 win, McMillan’s words, against Cardiff at Thomond Park, Munster once again had to claw their way over the finishing line to defeat an Edinburgh side that had outplayed them and then imploded in equal measures after losing four players to yellow cards.

The former Chiefs and All Blacks XV boss has not been interested in looking back on the what ifs and might haves that preceded his arrival from New Zealand in the off season, certainly not when it comes to the departures of four cornerstones of his predecessors’ teams: Stephen Archer, Dave Kilcyone, Conor Murray and Peter O’Mahony.

McMillan said as much when he spoke to the Irish Examiner late last week, instead looking forward to a new breed of Munster leadership to take his recently inherited squad to the next level.

Despite the exit of 928 appearances-worth of experience from the dressing room, there has been some continuity and three weeks on from being confirmed as Munster’s captain for a second season, Tadhg Beirne is set to make his first appearance this Saturday when he leads the province out to face Leinster at Croke Park following a delayed pre-season after a Player of the Series effort on the British & Irish Lions tour to Australia.

Yet while Munster will welcome back a sole representative of that Andy Farrell-led elite touring group, their hosts in Dublin this weekend could easily have a dozen of their 2025 Lions available and McMillan will need all the leadership qualities he can muster if he is to win the first interpo derby of his tenure and end a four-game losing streak in the fixture.

In that regard the Kiwi was delighted for Wycherley and Farrell to lift their heads above the parapet in Cork last Friday night. He had stood down his midfield pairing of Alex Nankivell and Dan Kelly from the first two rounds and paired Sean O’Brien and Farrell at 12 and 13 respectively, being rewarded with another well-connected partnership.

“A silky player, isn’t he?”, McMillan said of Farrell. “You wouldn’t say he's the fastest or the biggest, or, you know, he’s got a unique skill set, I think. Six-foot-three, six-foot-four, just knows, good timing of his runs, good lines, strong at the line, makes good decisions. He had some really big moments that got us on the front foot today. It was great to see him back.” 

And he added: “I had a lot of time for Fineen… his contribution through pre-season, really stepped up in the leadership role. He’s taken a real big leadership role around our lineout. He’s got a massive work rate, and his physicality is as good as anybody else in our team, at least what we’ve seen so far. So I’m really, really happy for him.

“And he was actually a late inclusion in the squad. We were going to give him a little bit of a rest because he’d been through a bit of work, but when Tom Ahern picked up his little kick to the face at training, then we had to make that shift.

“And we had moments today where our lineout didn’t function well, but that’s probably a reflection of the late changes, and we’ll be better for it moving forward.” 

The presence of both O’Mahony and Archer in the stands on Friday night was a reminder of the rugby IQ and experience now absent from the Munster brains trust and in his interview with the Irish Examiner, McMillan had spoken of the task of negotiating the departures of totemic players from a playing group.

“They are some iconic players and it's not easy to replace a thousand-odd caps of experience and any number of internationals. No matter what way you slice that up, it's hard to replace.

“My angle really is that, well, it's happened and I can only turn my attention to the people that are in the building and inevitably when you lose that level of experience then it will be felt but it creates an opportunity for others to step forward and take on a leadership role and create the next generation of future stars and leaders in this team.” 

McMillan saw a similar narrative unfold at the Chiefs following the 2023 World Cup when stalwarts Sam Cane, Brodie Retallick and Brad Weber were among the departures ahead of the 2024 Super Rugby campaign.

“We ended up still making the final that year but it was a transitional year. It took people a little bit of time to figure out who's in the zoo. It wasn't that the capacity or the capability wasn't there but sometimes smart players, they just recognise that there is a void there to be filled but also don't want to rush in and say, ‘I'm that guy that's going to fill the void’.

“Everyone just needs to sort of feel that out and let that leadership come through organically instead of trying to manufacture it. I think if you can create a really positive environment, especially around your leadership, that it's organic, that people are authentic, they be themselves, they don't try to be somebody else.

“I don't want people to try to be a Peter O'Mahony, I don't want people to try and be this, that or the other. Just be yourself and find your space and be comfortable and just let your actions speak for themselves. That's what we’re driving.”