McMillan counts cost of Toulon trip as Casey faces spell on sidelines

FRENCH TEST: Munster's Head Coach Clayton McMillan arrives ahead of the match. Pic: INPHO/Billy Stickland

If Clayton McMillan’s instincts about the extent of Craig Casey’s shoulder injury, the Munster boss could have to rely on his two least experienced scrum-halves for this Saturday’s must-win Champions Cup pool home tie against Castres.

The Ireland number nine left the field at Stade Felix Mayol seven minutes from full time of a 27-25 defeat at Toulon which leaves Munster needing a Thomond Park victory over their old foes in the fourth and final round of Pool 2 action to be assured of reaching for the knockout stages. The head coach had been forced to draft in travelling reserve Ethan Coughlan for a spot on the bench after his named replacement Paddy Patterson was ruled out, having sustained a head knock during the warm-up.

Should both Casey and Patterson fail to pass fit for this weekend, Coughlan, 23, would become the presumed start against Castres, backed up by academy number nine Jake O’Riordan, the 21-year-old who impressed in his first two senior appearances before Christmas, against Connacht in the URC and the friendly against Argentina XV, both of the bench.

Also assessing a second-half withdrawal for hooker Diarmuid Barron and the loss of lock/flanker Tom Ahern before the game, bringing Ruadhan Quinn onto the replacements bench, McMillan said: “Tom Ahern got an injury to his neck in some lineouts. Diarmuid hurt his knee and then Craig Casey's got a shoulder which looks reasonably serious.

“Haven't had the full diagnosis but he's a bit of an Energizer bunny, so he's showing good form in there at the moment, but we'll get a scan. We'll have a good look and see what the impact as well.” 

Regarding Patterson, the Munster head coach added: “Yeah, he took a bang in the warm-up, you know, just ran into one of our big forwards. He's had a couple of bangs to the head, and he didn't feel well.” 

The good news for Munster is the expected return to availability of South Africa lock Jean Kleyn, who missed the trip to Toulon with a calf injury, and tighthead prop Oli Jager, absent following a concussion against Edinburgh on October 10.

Of the Springbok Kleyn, McMillan said: “He ran around in Friday's training run, he's just wasn't good enough to be a realistic option to be playing but we're pretty confident he'd be all right next week.” The same applies to Jager, the former Super Rugby title winner with Crusaders, who returned to training last week and travelled with the squad to the south of France at the weekend, taking part in the pre-game warm-up.

“If he gets through the week he'll be there,” McMillan added. “He was here (in Toulon), yeah. You don't bring anyone if they're don't have the capacity to play, so, so he was there.

“It was just precautionary, that we just give him another week of contact training. He's fit and ready to go. He would have fizzed somewhere if somebody had fallen over in the front row and he got an opportunity today, but, all things going well he'll get out there next week and, you know, it'll be great for him.” 

McMillan also had words of praise for Quinn, called up at short notice having flown with the squad to Toulon as a reserve, whose 25 minutes off the bench ended with a hand underneath the ball alongside Jack Crowley to prevent Tomas Albornoz from scoring a fourth try which would also have denied Munster a losing bonus point.

“Yeah, that's not easy, you know, for a game of this standing, to basically get a call to come in at late notice, but you try and prepare for those sorts of situations.

“Yeah, that's what they're there for. That's what the bench is for, to have an impact and their profile helped us, and we got a number of other things right through that period of the game that's helped them inject themselves into the game.”