McMillan lauds Munster's ability to back up Leinster scalp with more derby grit
POINTING UP: Munster's Ethan Coughlan, Ruadhan Quinn and Evan O'Connell celebrate after the match
Clayton McMillan praised his Munster players for responding to the challenge of backing up their previous week’s victory at Leinster with a gritty 17-15 win at home to Connacht in Limerick on Saturday night.
Munster extended their winning start to the URC season with a fifth-straight victory under their new head coach, who on arrival this summer had made adding a consistency of performance from week to week one of his major objectives.
The former Chiefs boss wanted Munster to break out of a cycle of one-off highs followed by disappointing defeats and seven days on from a famous 31-14 bonus-point victory over a fully-loaded Leinster at Croke Park, he was impressed at his understrength team’s ability to once again find a way past a difficult opponent.
Two tries from matchday captain Jack O’Donoghue, either side of an intercept score from Diarmuid Kilgallen saw Munster maintain their 100 per cent start to 2025-26 as Connacht slipped to a third-straight defeat but it was a close-run thing at Thomond Park. The westerners matched their hosts' try tally with a double from Byron Ralston and another from captain Paul Boyle but ultimately, JJ Hanrahan’s conversion of Kilgallen’s 32nd-minute score made the difference with the only two-pointer of a six-try game.
Asked if he had got what he had hoped for from Munster’s performance in terms of backing up from the previous week’s win, McMillan replied: “Yeah, I think so. I was just talking to Jack (O’Donoghue) outside that one thing that wasn’t missing today was effort. And after last week, when you play those sorts of games, a lot of the emotion, a huge amount of energy spent, it can be tough to back up the following week and we acknowledged that early.
“I thought the coaching staff and the players really responded well to the challenge during the week. We parked the euphoria of the previous week and got on with the business knowing that Connacht were going to come here and throw the kitchen sink at us and that’s what we got.
“So really pleasing and I could sense through the warm-up that we were there mentally and the effort was there. We weren’t gifted a lot, and we had to work for everything, but we got there.”
For new Connacht head coach Stuart Lancaster there was the disappointment of a third-straight defeat, albeit with successive losing bonus points but the former England boss and Leinster senior coach refused to be downhearted.
“Obviously very disappointed to not get over the line, having had a really good first half,” Lancaster said. “We went in 15-12 (at half-time), it could have been a little bit more if we slotted a couple of conversions and obviously the intercept was a big moment.
“We had a lot of adversity to deal with, a lot of injuries, four guys going off early in the game. Probably 50 minutes in I'm looking thinking Jeez, we've used a lot of the bench already and there wasn't an intention to use any.
“But ultimately in the second half Munster had all the territory and all the possession and then they sort of strangled the life out of us, scored the try, but we still have opportunities and ultimately it's disappointing.
“As I said to the boys in the changing room, it's a very difficult place to come and win, but it's no consolation to get a point, and we need to use the break well now to work hard, improve, because obviously there's elements we can improve, and attack the next block which is 10 games straight.”
This weekend’s round five of URC action marks the end of the first block of matches before a month off during the international window. Munster’s next league game will be at home to Stormers at Thomond Park on November 29, the same day that Connacht welcome the Sharks to Galway, though McMillan’s side are back on the field next Saturday, November 1, when Munster welcome an Argentina XV to Limerick
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
