Clayton McMillan: 'Our internationals came bouncing back in, in pretty good nick'

“We're really clear around how much rugby they can play over the next nine weeks.”

Thu, 27 Nov, 2025 - 17:16

Simon Lewis

Clayton McMillan believes Munster’s Ireland international quintet have returned in good shape following the autumn international window and all five were keen to face the Stormers at Thomond Park this Saturday evening in a URC top-of-the-table clash between the league’s last remaining unbeaten sides.

Tom Ahern, Tadhg Beirne, Craig Casey, Jack Crowley and Tom Farrell have all been selected to start against the league leaders, who lead second-placed Munster on points difference after five rounds, while McMillan has also included four players making returns from injury in his matchday 23 with Thaakir Abrahams and Diarmuid Barron starting and Edwin Edogbo, John Hodnett and Niall Scannell named on the bench.

Despite their month away in Ireland camp, the Munster head coach said his players reported for duty this week fit and fresh as he suggested they were all lightly raced across the four Test weeks. Ahern, who was unused by Andy Farrell, starts in the second row while Beirne captains the team from blindside flanker, with Casey named at scrum-half in tandem with Crowley at fly-half and Tom Farrell at outside centre having earned his first two Test caps against Japan and off the bench in last week’s defeat to South Africa.

Beirne started all four Tests, though the former Chiefs boss joked about his skipper’s early red card against his native New Zealand in Chicago at the start of the month.

“I think the first thing is we needed to see what condition the internationals came back in,” McMillan said. “Obviously, a massive three or four weeks for them. Our guys didn't play a hell of a lot of rugby, really, over the balance of the four games, Tadhg probably being the exception, but even he had an early rest in one of the games.

“And respecting the quality that the Stormers bring to the table… but our internationals came bouncing back in, in pretty good nick.”

IRFU player welfare guidelines will force Munster to rest their Ireland players at some point between now and the Six Nations in February but with back-to-back Champions Cup pool games on the horizon following the Stormers URC clash, the Reds look set to be fully loaded, injuries permitting, until at least the final game before Christmas, away to URC rivals the Ospreys on December 20.

“We're really clear around how much rugby they can play over the next nine weeks,” McMillan said. “So we have a plan and they're all keen to play this week as part of that plan. They'll get their break in the weeks ahead.”

The Kiwi said the rest of his squad had undergone something of a reset during the international window having signed off on the first phase of the URC season with five wins from five and a friendly victory over an Argentina XV on November 1, a run which earned the players an extra break on top of the planned eight-day rest. When they returned to training, McMillan emphasised the change in emphasis by revisiting some pre-season tweaks that went down well with the players, with returns to boxing, hill running and swimming.

“They've done well. They've rested up, they've stayed active, filled up their cup and come in with good energy.

“Last week, there wasn't a game at the end of it. We just saw it as an opportunity to get back to a bit of a formula that seemed to have worked for us well in the pre-season, but also an opportunity to work on a few areas of our game that we felt we needed to advance ahead of the next block of games.”

Referencing the trip to English Premiership champions Bath and the visit of Gloucester to Cork’s Páirc Uí Chaoimh on December 6 and 13 respectively, McMillan also hinted that a change of approach in terms of gameplan was also part of the reset.

“I think you have to respect that there's European Cup games, we're a lot deeper into the season where everyone's knowledge of each other is a lot more amplified.

“The weather conditions start to turn and for the worst, I think you shoot yourself in the foot if you don't factor those things into how you want to play your game.

“So, what you saw in the first five or six weeks isn’t necessarily what you will see moving forward. You don't reinvent the game but you've just got to acknowledge that there's going to be some changes over the next little while and we need to be a more rounded team.”

MUNSTER: Shane Daly; Diarmuid Kilgallen, Tom Farrell, Alex Nankivell, Thaakir Abrahams; Jack Crowley, Craig Casey; Jeremy Loughman, Diarmuid Barron, John Ryan; Tom Ahern, Fineen Wycherley; Tadhg Beirne - captain, Jack O’Donoghue, Gavin Coombes.

Replacements: Niall Scannell, Michael Milne, Ronan Foxe, Edwin Edogbo, John Hodnett, Ethan Coughlan, Tony Butler, Dan Kelly.