McMillan laments Munster's inability to make early supremacy count after Stormers bite back

After tasting his first defeat in charge of the promise, the coach admitted the visitors' bomb squad replacements made a major difference

Sat, 29 Nov, 2025 - 22:19

John Fallon

Munster head coach Clayton McMillan said his team didn’t make the most of when they were on top against the Stormers in the opening half and paid the price with a first defeat of the season.

McMillan was pleased with a lot of the hosts' opening-half performance but felt they should have pushed on for an even bigger return than their 21-6 interval lead.

“In that first half I thought we probably played some of our best rugby, but we received forced passes, we missed opportunities to create, we could get a little bit more reward than we actually got,” McMillan said afterwards.

“And then in the last ten minutes we lost our way a little bit and never regathered it after that. We want a little bit more from ourselves, but also they put a huge amount of pressure on us and we weren't good enough to find a way out of it.”

The introduction of a bomb squad of six replacement forwards at the same time five minutes after the restart swung the top of the table clash in favour of the Cape Town side.

“I certainly give credit to the Stormers for what they brought to the fixture, particularly in the second half,” he added. “They are a quality side, they put us under a lot of pressure, but there were many moments we had there that created a little bit more scoreboard pressure and do ourselves a few favours and we didn't do that.

“Whilst they brought something to the table, we also let ourselves down, so that's disappointing, but we learn, we grow, we move forward.”

The dominance of the Stormers in the scrum, coming a week after Ireland’s woes against the Springboks, was another sobering lesson.

“We just got beaten to the punch,” added the Munster head coach. “They were good on the hit and we were absorbing. It's always going to be tough after that.

“We weren't surprised about what they brought, we just needed to be better.” ends