Clayton McMillan will have 'deep understanding' of how to challenge Munster players says Tyler Bleyendaal

DEEP UNDERSTANDING: Head coach Clayton McMillan talks with his players during a training session. Pic: ©INPHO/Morgan Treacy

Croke Park will make for an unlikely meeting point for Clayton McMillan and Tyler Bleyendaal this week.

Just not the most unlikely yet.

McMillan is a former police officer from the North Island who made the move up here on the back of a successful stint with the Chiefs. Bleyendaal is a South Islander and former Crusaders former out-half who also played for Munster and coached with the Hurricanes.

If the home of Gaelic games in Ireland, on the far side of the world, is an unusual setting for their latest meeting as opposing coaches then it pales in comparison to the course they attended back home, in Manawatu, a few years back.

“It was actually with horses of all things,” said Bleyendaal, still chuckling at the memory.

“A leadership course where you have to train horses. It was different, challenging, and created some good self-awareness.

“You're given your horse and you're told this is what you need to do. You try to lead it around, and you got videoed doing it, so your body language and your communication, how you react to a stubborn mule, or you've got a big stallion.

“Then you've got the hang of things, and the next day they swap your bloody horse for something else and you have to start again. It was good. We gave each other feedback where you got to see yourself do it.”

If that got both men out of their comfort zones then so have their decisions to up sticks to the northern hemisphere, McMillan making his move to Ireland this past summer in the wake of Bleyendaal’s return to the island the year before.

Bleyendaal knows something of what to expect in this URC tie thanks to those Chiefs-Canes encounters when McMillan put out sides that were attack-minded, sprinkled with dangerous talents and, it felt, in no way worried about making mistakes.

McMillan’s other strength is in building a team and a club culture, something which started during the off-season in Munster with talk of an “old school” approach and training sessions that involved swimming, boxing and hill-running.

“By all accounts that's the feedback, he's really good in that area. I'm sure it's not copy and paste from the Chiefs, I'm not sure that's going to paste directly to Munster, but he'll have a deep understanding of how to nurture that and challenge the players there.”

Leinster-Munster in Croke Park should nurture itself.

Leinster, unusually, will start Saturday’s URC game looking up the table at their southern neighbours after just one win in their opening three games. Munster have harvested 14 points from their trio of opening efforts.

Bragging rights and league points won’t be the only motivation, not least at out-half where the Irish sporting public looks set to finally witness Sam Prendergast and Jack Crowley wear their team’s No.10 jerseys at the same time.

And with Ireland’s game against New Zealand in Chicago just a fortnight later.

“It’s an exciting battle, two great players, and I’m sure there are many more battles to come in the future. Everyone is pretty excited to see it eventuate. I know in this environment here it’s not just about the individuals, whether that’s Sam or Harry [Byrne].

“It’s all about leading the team,” said Bleyendaal. “The individual performances come on the back of that, and especially the forwards laying down a good platform and giving us go-forward. That’s really important.”

Leinster will have a slew of their British and Irish Lions back in tow, with Tadhg Beirne due to make his seasonal bow for Munster, while RG Snyman is another candidate for a slot in the home pack after his four Rugby Championship appearances with South Africa.

Snyman played 22 times last season, more than he managed across four injury-jinxed seasons at Munster, but there was a tendency at times to indulge in too many offloads when a harder carry and reset might have served Leinster better.

“Sometimes it’s not easy to plan around because he’s also quite instinctive. Some of the unstructured play that he can create is equally chaotic but beneficial for us. It’s about guys, that probably took a few games last year, [to understand] where he’d carry into a brick wall, but suddenly the ball’s flying out and we’re playing off it again.

“So it’s about staying alive around him,” said Bleyendaal.

“He also just brings a really good energy. He’s such a lovely bloke, in the week he’s quite a relaxed kind of character, so he adds that kind of difference to our group and then he plays with a mean kind of physicality with just a great skill set.”