McMillan aiming to build Munster momentum on Bridgend return

The New Zealander has made six changes from the Gloucester win at Pairc Uí Chaoimh, in part due to IRFU player welfare mandates regarding Ireland internationals.

Premier Sport's Graham Little, Tom Shanklin,  Simon Zebo and Matt Banahan speak with Munster's Head Coach Clayton McMillan after the match at Cork GAA HQ. Pic: INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Munster switch back from Champions Cup rugby to the URC campaign when they visit Bridgend for the first time in 24 years to meet Ospreys on Saturday (5:30pm) and the learnings keep coming as far as Clayton McMillan is concerned.

Ten games into his tenure since leaving the Chiefs for life in the Northern Hemisphere, the New Zealander is playing the long game as he ushers Munster into a new era. His arrival during the summer coincided with the retirements of some key dressing-room figures such as Stephen Archer, Dave Kilcoyne, Conor Murray and Peter O’Mahony, as well as long-standing team manager and former coach Niall O’Donovan and the getting-to-know-you process has seen the incoming head coach run the rule over 49 players.

The squad rotation will continue at Brewery Field for this round seven game as Munster seek to gather the momentum regained to a degree in last Saturday’s 31-3 European pool win over Gloucester.

The two previous outings handed McMillan back-to-back defeats. Both of them were chastening, the 27-21 home lost to URC leaders the Stormers came from a second-half collapse having led 21-0 at the interval when the Munster scrum was pulverised. The 41-14 hammering at Bath in round one of the Champions Cup seven days later began by conceding a 28-0 lead inside 19 minutes and each setback underline the size of the task facing McMillan.

On Thursday he delivered a terse “no” to the question of whether he knew his best first XV yet having made six changes from the Gloucester win at Pairc Uí Chaoimh, in part due to IRFU player welfare mandates regarding Ireland internationals. Calvin Nash and Fineen Wycherley return from injuries but captain Tadhg Beirne and Craig Casey must sit out this trip to west Wales, another adjustment the former Super Rugby coach must make as he knuckles down to the novelty of a three-game Christmas schedule when ordinarily he would be in a t-shirt and shorts basking in 30-degree-plus summer heat on the other side of the world.

Yet the Kiwi has bought into the realities facing him and he is prepared to see the job through, and he outlined why supporters should not expect too much in the short term.

“I think collectively… the coaching and management group and the leadership group, we're really clear around the direction we want to head but we're equally realistic around where we're at in that journey,” McMillan said.

“I'm not making any excuses here, but we lost some experience. We've got some new additions to an existing coaching group, brought some new management in.

“We've disrupted a few things within the environment to force a little bit of change while trying to make sure we balance it with all the good stuff that's been happening here. We've been growing a new leadership group. We've had a high turnover rate in our playing group for all the reasons I already articulated before around creating competition and that's all done with the end goal in mind.

“We have to create competition in this environment. We have to grow depth because the challenges we have here in Ireland around recruitment and retention are different to other parts of the world. So instead of complaining about that, you've just got to have a plan and work hard to help bring that plan to fruition.

“We've got good young players in this group that, given a bit of time and a bit of exposure, are going to be good, and they will end up playing for Ireland but to expect that we're going to be playing perfect rugby right now is not where we see ourselves, even though others might want us to be there.

“We'll definitely have good days at the office where it all comes together and we pat ourselves on the back but there's a journey, and we'll keep working hard to keep heading north.” 

Ospreys had appeared to be heading south after a poor start to their URC campaign but have found some form with back-to-back Challenge Cup wins over Connacht and at Montauban. Yet the threat of disbandment at the hands of the Welsh Rugby Union looms large with their captain Dewi Lake and Wales’ only 2025 British & Irish Lions tourists Jac Morgan, absent this weekend, both set to join Gloucester next season. With the home side fighting for survival and Munster steeling themselves for the long-term, it is clear this fixture throws together two organisations on very different trajectories.

OSPREYS: M Nagy; D Kasende, E Boshoff, O Watkin, K Giles; D Edwards, R Morgan-Williams; S Thomas, D Lake - captain, R Henry; R Davies, R Smith; J Ratti, H Deaves, M Morris.

Replacements: S Parry, C Jones, T Botha, H Sutton, M Morse, K Hardy, K Williams, J Walsh.

MUNSTER: Mike Haley; Calvin Nash, Tom Farrell, Alex Nankivell, Shane Daly; Jack Crowley, Paddy Patterson; Jeremy Loughman, Niall Scannell, Michael Ala’alatoa; Jean Kleyn, Fineen Wycherley; Jack O’Donoghue - captain, Alex Kendellen, Gavin Coombes.

Replacements: Lee Barron, Michael Milne, Conor Bartley, Edwin Edogbo, Tom Ahern, Ethan Coughlan, JJ Hanrahan, John Hodnett.

Referee: Sam Grove-White (Scotland)