No miracles, no magic pills to accelerate Munster rebuild

Saturday’s bonus-point victory on Leeside was far from ideal fare.

Mon, 15 Dec, 2025 - 07:00

Simon Lewis

THIS was no miracle match but Munster and Gloucester’s reprised rivalry in a new setting at SuperValu Pairc ui Chaoimh was an apt reminder of past glories and the quest to return to previous heights.

From the side sent over from England by George Skivington to Cork, showing 15 changes from their Champions Cup Pool 2 home win over Castres seven days earlier, it is clear their director of rugby sees his club’s domestic competition, the PREM as the route back to the top table and in his post-match comments he described the scenario of fighting on two competitive fronts this season as “unrealistic”.

Yet while Gloucester, who like so many teams over these first two rounds of pool play have prioritised home fires over continental success and are merely hoping they can pick up scraps from their foreign travel to reach the knockout stages, Munster continue to barrel on at full bore.

Saturday’s bonus-point victory on Leeside was far from ideal fare, a rain-soaked arm wrestle that erupted into a Munster power play and three-try blitz in the final quarter to send the majority of the 36,208 supporters away from the Pairc soggy but contented.

Yet it represented a welcome return to winning ways for head coach Clayton McMillan after chastening back-to-back defeats, one apiece in the URC and Champions Cup.

Munster’s demolition at scrum-time by the league-leading Stormers a fortnight ago ended a six-match winning start to McMillan’s tenure.

Seven days later, a 40-14 humbling at the hands of former boss Johann van Graan’s English-champion Bath will have reminded the New Zealander of the size of the task he faces in his quest to “raise the floor” of his squad’s performance levels on a consistent basis.

So the relief and certain satisfaction derived from this victory over Gloucester was, for the former Chiefs head coach, tempered by an urgency to crack on with overriding project. He is now three games into a 10-match block which will define his inaugural season at the Munster helm.

A return to the URC comes next, with a trip to west Wales to face a newly resurgent Ospreys Friday night followed by the rematch with Leinster at a sold-out Thomond Park on December 27 and a first derby of the campaign with Ulster in Belfast on January 2.

Rounds three and four of the Champions Cup Pool 2 will follow in the New Year with a trip to Toulon and home date with Castres before URC rounds 10 (Dragons at home) and 11 (Glasgow away) take the rugby calendar into the Six Nations break.

And there is lots of scope for improvement between now and then, with the goal of an acceptable level of consistency of performance the main objective.

"That's the goal,” McMillan said. “Keep getting bigger every week. Clearly, we've got plenty to work on, but you look around at the competition and everybody's in the same sort of boat.

“You could argue the Stormers have been out in front and they've had an impressive performance this morning (beating La Rochelle 42-21), but everyone's kind of just searching for some consistency.

“There are some big fixtures ahead of us, but it's really important that we just focus on the one that's directly in front of us, and that's the Ospreys. So, they are a team that's been steadily getting a few bodies back in and they've had some good results over the last couple of weeks.

“So, they will have our full respect, and that's the challenge, to go away from home when you don't have 35,000 people supporting for you, and go over the ditch and perform and get a job done there. It won't be easy, so just a full, honest week of preparation.”

To begin the task off the back of a five try to nil victory would appear to be ideal circumstances on which to build. Yet it was a contest in which a weakened Gloucester did not progress beyond a second-minute penalty and while Dan Kelly’s opening try on 22 minutes, converted by Jack Crowley, gave the home side a 7-3 interval lead, and four second-half tries, from Mike Haley, Ruadhan Quinn, Tom Farrell and captain Tadhg Beirne, delivered the try bonus point and victory there were also plenty of missed opportunities to give a focus to the aforementioned week ahead.

McMillan said the areas for improvement required between now and the end of January were “across the board”.

“I still think that just the fundamentals of the game are either what gives you access or puts you under pressure. Our set-piece has had good and average moments.

“One half our line-out might function really well, the next we'll miss a couple of opportunities where we should really be scoring; the scrum the same thing. So, consistency in our set-piece and territory, playing in the right parts of the field, and then when you've earned the right to do that, being really clinical in your execution.

“So there is no magic pill, there's no magic player, we've just got to stick in the grind, enjoy that, and commit each day to getting better, and we know that if we do that, it'll manifest into better performances on the next day.”

MUNSTER: M Haley (JJ Hanrahan, 70); S Daly, D Kelly (T Farrell, 53), A Nankivell, B O’Connor; J Crowley, C Casey (P Patterson, 70); M Milne (J Wycherley, 61), N Scannell (D Barron, 61), M Ala’alatoa (C Bartley, 70); J Kleyn (E Edogbo, 61), T Beirne - captain; T Ahern, J O’Donoghue (R Quinn, 61), G Coombes.

GLOUCESTER: G Barton; J Hathaway, W Knight, M Knight, R Russell; C Atkinson, M Austin (R Price, 63); D Bleuler (C Knight, 50), J Innard (K Freeman Price, 68), J Ford-Robinson (A Fasogbon, 50); C Jordan (H Bokenham, 68), A Clark – captain (D Eite, 63); J Basham (A Fasogbon, 40-h-t, YC scrum rep), H Taylor, J Clement (C James, 63).

Yellow cards: J Ford-Robinson 32-ht, C James 67-77 Replacement not used: J Cotgreave.

Referee: Ben Breakspear (Wales).