Clayton McMillan: 'For all the pats on the back it’s a short distance from that to a kick up the backside'
Munster head coach Clayton McMillan. Pic: Tom O’Hanlon/Inpho
Clayton McMillan has warned there is only a short journey from a pat on the back to a kick in the rear as he looks for his Munster squad to back up their impressive victory over Leinster with a repeat performance at home to Connacht this Saturday.
The head coach and his players have been receiving rave reviews since they turned over the URC champions at Croke Park last Saturday with a 31-14 bonus-point victory to continue their winning start to the season to four from four.
Yet the first-season boss has warned against complacency as he prepares a much-changed matchday squad for the visit of Stuart Lancaster’s westerners to Thomond Park on Saturday night and he said turning the page from celebration to next-job focus had not been a difficult task this week.
“It’s been pretty easy, to be honest,” McMillan said. “We were delighted with the outcome on the weekend but come Monday, we just reviewed the game, like we would every other week, and just keep reminding ourselves that’s in the rear-vision mirror now.
“And for all the pats on the back it’s a short distance from that to a kick up the backside if we don’t get the job done again this weekend so, yeah, it’s been a good week.”
McMillan also acknowledged Connacht’s form, which he felt belied their return of one victory from three games.
Lancaster’s first game saw his new charges defeat Benetton at home before their round-two clash with Scarlets was postponed due to storms hampering the Welsh region’s attempts to travel to Dexcom Stadium.
Then came back-to-back defeats in rounds three and four, at Cardiff and then an agonising 27-28 defeat on home turf to the Bulls.
That left the Munster head coach agreeing Saturday’s derby opponents had something to prove in Limerick.
“One hundred percent, that’s what we are expecting,” McMillan said. “They potentially haven’t got the outcomes they’ve wanted from the first few rounds but they certainly haven’t been far away, they were unlucky last week.
“A lot of the guys have talked about the rich history between Connacht and Munster and it’s never an easy game. We are expecting them at their best and we’ll need to be at ours if we want the desired outcome.”
McMillan has handed fit again duo John Hodnett and Diarmuid Kilgallen their first appearances of the season as two of seven changes to a winning Munster side.
Jack O’Donoghue captains from the back row, shifting from openside to blindside flanker to accommodate Hodnett, who was recovered from a facial injury sustained in pre-season.
Alex Nankivell, JJ Hanrahan, Lee Barron, Jean Kleyn and Gavin Coombes all step up to starting places after featuring as replacements at Croke Park while Kilgallen has recovered from the ankle injury that forced him out of the first four games to start on the right wing.
Club captain Tadhg Beirne is one of five absentees this weekend on Ireland duty with last Saturday’s Leinster win accounting for the further absences due to injury of Diarmuid Barron, Edwin Edogbo, Brian Gleeson, Paddy Patterson and Andrew Smith.
JJ Hanrahan comes off the bench for Ireland fly-half Jack Crowley to face the team he left after two years in Galway to return to his home province during the summer.
The Kerryman is partnered at half-back by Ethan Coughlan, who started against Leinster and claimed Munster’s third first-half try.
Tom Farrell’s call-up to the Ireland squad now in Chicago to prepare for the Test against New Zealand on November 1 means a midfield reshuffle with Alex Nankivell coming off the bench as Dan Kelly switches from inside to outside centre, the starting duo renewing their partnership of the first two rounds.
There is also a new-look back three following Smith’s hamstring and MCL injury at Croke Park, with another former Connacht player, Kilgallen moving onto the right wing alongside full-back Shane Daly and left wing Thaakir Abrahams.
Barron’s neck injury in Dublin, sees Lee Barron promoted from the bench to starting hooker, while Niall Scannell returns from a lacerated hand to serves as covering hooker. Michael Milne and John Ryan continue at loosehead and tighthead prop respectively with Jeremy Loughman and Ronan Foxe providing their cover off the bench.
Jean Kleyn, called up in midweek by South Africa for their November Tests in the Northern Hemisphere, replaces the concussed Edogbo having replaced the 22-year-old from the bench and partners Fineen Wycherley, making his fifth consecutive start of the season, in the second row.
Hodnett’s first involvement of the campaign comes at openside flanker as O’Donoghue switches to blindside as Beirne’s replacement, in the back row and as captain. Gavin Coombes takes over at No.8 from Gleeson having replaced him following a first-half fractured elbow last weekend.
Academy scrum-half Jake O’Riordan, 20, makes his first appearance in a matchday squad and is set for his senior Munster debut from a bench which also includes lock Evan O’Connell and back-three cover Shay McCarthy, both in line for their seasonal debut. If the trio makes it onto the pitch, Munster will have fielded 41 players over the first five rounds of the URC season.
McMillan on Thursday provided an update on his newly injured players with Gleeson set for up to 10 weeks on the sidelines.
“Brian’s had his surgery. It turned out to be a relatively nasty elbow fracture and I think that’s probably going to have him out from six to 10 weeks so it might be closer to the Christmas window before we next see him.
“It’s really unfortunate after he was named in a supporting role for the Irish team and the time he was out on the field, he was impressive. That’s a setback but that happens in rugby. We are grateful we’ve got someone with the experience of Gavin Coombes to come in and continue the good work he’s been doing.”
The Munster boss said Edogbo was being targeted to return from his concussion against the Stormers in Limerick on November 29 in URC round six but there was no clear timeframe for Smith’s recovery.
“Couple of things going on (for Smith), the hamstring and an MCL injury on the other leg. In the space of five minutes he had a few things go wrong. He’ll bounce back, not entirely sure of timeline.”
McMillan added that Diarmuid Barron’s neck strain was “clearing up every day, don’t imagine it will put him out for long,” while scrum-half Patterson, injured after replacing try scorer Coughlan in the second-half at Croke Park, had “presented well with HIA, couple of trainings, little under the weather”.
“Jake O’Riordan gets a little bit of a lick of it this week,” he added of the potential scrum-half replacement debutant.
Shane Daly; Diarmuid Kilgallen, Dan Kelly, Alex Nankivell, Thaakir Abrahams; JJ Hanrahan, Ethan Coughlan; Michael Milne, Lee Barron, John Ryan; Jean Kleyn, Fineen Wycherley; Jack O’Donoghue - captain, John Hodnett, Gavin Coombes.
Niall Scannell, Jeremy Loughman, Ronan Foxe, Evan O’Connell, Ruadhan Quinn, Jake O’Riordan, Tony Butler, Shay McCarthy.
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