Confidence intact as Clayton McMillan says Munster 'closing the gap' on Leinster after narrow loss

CLOSING THE GAP: Clayton McMillan injected a bit of old-school bite into the Munster-Leinster rivalry as he claimed his side was closing the gap on the URC champions, despite Saturday’s 13-8 loss at Thomond Park. Picture: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

Clayton McMillan injected a bit of old-school bite into the Munster-Leinster rivalry as he claimed his side was closing the gap on the URC champions, despite Saturday’s 13-8 loss at Thomond Park.

The first-season head coach doubled down on his captain Tadhg Beirne’s assertion that Munster had let slip the opportunity of a first home win over their interprovincial foes in seven years and missed out on a first league double over the men in blue since 2014-15.

“I think Leinster will probably walk away from here feeling like they got away with one too,” Beirne had said after Leinster had avenged their 31-14 Croke Park loss on October 18 with a narrow victory in front of a sell-out 26,006 crowd in Limerick.

Munster’s losing bonus point lifted them to second in the URC table on points difference after eight rounds, ahead of Cardiff but two league points behind unbeaten leaders the Stormers, who have played one match less. Leinster, meanwhile, gained ground on the top four with their fourth URC win in a row and now sit five points behind Munster on 25 points with another round of derby fixtures scheduled for this weekend.

Leinster welcome struggling Connacht to Aviva Stadium on Saturday evening, with Munster visiting Ulster in Belfast the previous night.

McMillan, speaking in a joint post-match press conference with Beirne, said his squad will travel north with “massive confidence” following a performance he was greatly encouraged by despite the loss to Leo Cullen’s side.

“I don't take too much notice of what gets written in the media but I've been around long enough to know that not many people really give us a chance, like a little bit of an outsider's chance because we got the job done against them last time.

“But when you compare the two teams, there's no way that we should be right in the contest to the last minute of the game but we are. They'll be celebrating the win but I wonder whether they'll start to think that people are starting to catch up?

“We feel like we're catching up. We lost today, we take it on the chin. We congratulate them for the win but nothing distracts me from the trajectory we're on.

“We're building good confidence in our squad. We're putting depth in our squad. We're getting fit and available bodies. To me that's all positive.

“I'm super proud of our guys. There's huge disappointment in the room that they lost but I'm super proud of them. I think our supporters, the 26,000 people that were out there would be super proud of them too.

“Because people are smart enough to recognise that you're playing virtually an international side. We've got this bloke (Beirne) and a couple of others but we're closing the gap. We feel like we're closing the gap.” 

Despite Munster slipping to their second URC loss of the campaign in this round-eight derby, Beirne shared his boss’s sentiment “100%” that the chasm in terms of quality which once existed between his team and Leinster was now narrowing.

“You've seen it with the way we started the season and where we are in the season. I'd be amazed if most people didn't watch that game and feel like we didn't leave it slip by us.

“And I think the same with the Stormers game. We should have won that game. And they're the things that if we can get right, we're going to take a massive step forward.

“And I think it's very exciting. I'm very excited for where the next couple of months are going to go for this club. I think we're getting better and better as the season's gone on.

“We're fixing things up as we go and if we can continue to do that and go on that trajectory, we're going to have a very exciting end to the season.”