Munster face 'must-win' night in Cork after Bath blowout

Clayton McMillan said there are "lots of little lessons" for Munster from the defeat to Bath. Though he added they do not need to start looking for problems where there are none

Michael Ala'alatoa will make his first start for Munster in the Champions Cup clash with Gloucester. Pic: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Munster will take the field at Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday evening having been told to embrace the pressure of a must-win Champions Cup fixture against old rivals Gloucester.

That the pressure is there at all is down to last Saturday’s major mis-step at Bath, when Clayton McMillan’s side kicked off their Pool 2 campaign in disastrous fashion at a rain-drenched Rec by conceding 28 points without reply inside 18 minutes en route to a 40-14 defeat.

The head coach on Friday described his team’s performance as “bordering on embarrassing” and for good measure added: “That embarrassment has been sitting in the pit of the stomach.” 

Needless to say the New Zealander is demanding a positive response as Munster play their first competitive fixture at the home of Cork GAA. With ticket sales near to the 40,000 match capacity, and the squirm-inducing memory of a flat performance that he believes let down the 4000 supporters who made the trek to the English west country seven days prior, McMillan said there could be no mitigation for a repeat.

“I think it's certainly big. We go out to win every game but the ones that are at home do give you some sort of advantage. Home crowd advantage, familiarity around where you're playing, less travel.

“All those things all add up and so no excuses for us this week in a must-win game.” 

The cold light of Monday’s game review suggested to the head coach that outside the first quarter, there was a decent performance on the road at the home of the English champions and that it was important for his players to remember the positives as well as the negatives from last Saturday.

“There were lots of little lessons. The small things are the big things and in high stakes games those margins become pretty small and against good teams you get punished for errors. We just made way too many too early and as I've said many times the game was over pretty quickly.

“But also it's important to recognise the stuff that's still going well, not lose confidence in the direction that we're heading. Not to go looking under rocks for things that you don't need to go looking for.

“I think in a lot of respects we created our own pressure and the answers, I think, are within our room to rectify that.

“Just concentrate on the things that we can control and then go ahead and deliver.” 

In short, facing a weakened Gloucester team showing 15 changes from last Sunday, and in front of a near full house on Leeside, is as good an opportunity as any to atone for past misdeeds and prove to supporters that last Saturday’s performance was a temporary blip.

“I think I've been pretty consistent around saying that this team needs to be one that raises the floor (not the ceiling) and the gap between our good days and our bad days is pretty narrow and you could argue that last week we didn't get there.

“But for the most part we've been there or thereabouts and it's about maintaining belief and anyone who puts the jersey on, that we support them wholeheartedly to go out and do a job for us.

“We're well aware of the pressure around the game, the need to win. We've got to lean into that. We can't let it push us into our shells and become conservative and shy away from the big moments.” 

Having Jack Crowley, Jean Kleyn, Michael Milne and Jack O’Donoghue back in harness after missing round one, adds a degree of experience to the mix to ensure Munster will not look inward in those important moments and the head coach has also handed a first start to former Crusaders and Leinster tighthead and Samoan international Michael Ala’alatoa, whose resume includes appearances in both Super Rugby and Champions Cup finals.

Having arrived on a seven-month contract to the end of the season from Clermont Auvergne, Ala’latoa made an instant impression in his debut off the bench in Bath and McMillan said: “Michael's just an experienced rugby player and we were never going to start him last week because he'd only been in camp for a little while. I don't think that would have been the right thing to do for him or the other people in the squad.

“But he was good when he came on the field. He had some good moments at scrum time. He carried hard, did his job around the field, you know, just a seasoned professional who's well aware of what's required at this level of the game.” 

Ala’alatoa’s presence in the front row adds to the belief that a hurt Munster side can get back to winning ways after back-to-back defeats while also grasping the opportunity, in McMillan’s words, to “earn a little bit of respect back”.

"They're fully fizzed, ready to go. Collectively, we just know what we're capable of achieving and we'd be disappointed if we don't give a performance this coming weekend."

MUNSTER: Mike Haley; Shane Daly, Dan Kelly, Alex Nankivell, Ben O’Connor; Jack Crowley, Craig Casey; Michael Milne, Niall Scannell, Michael Ala’alatoa; Jean Kleyn, Tadhg Beirne - captain; Tom Ahern, Jack O’Donoghue, Gavin Coombes.

Replacements: Diarmuid Barron, Josh Wycherley, Conor Bartley, Edwin Edogbo, Ruadhán Quinn, Paddy Patterson, JJ Hanrahan, Tom Farrell.

GLOUCESTER: George Barton; Josh Hathaway, Will Knight, Max Knight, Rob Russell; Charlie Atkinson, Mike Austin; Dian Bleuler, Jack Innard, Jamal Ford-Robinson; Cam Jordan, Arthur Clark - captain; Josh Basham, Harry Taylor, Jack Clement.

Replacements: Kealan Freeman Price, Ciaran Knight, Afolabi Fasogbon, Danny Eite, Hugh Bokenham, Caio James, Rhys Price, Jack Cotgreave.

Referee: Ben Breakspear (Wales).