Clayton McMillan: 'Rich history doesn't give Munster a rite of passage'

The province suffered a huge setback last Saturday in the form of a 31-29 Investec Champions Cup defeat at home to Castres that knocked them out of the Champions Cup.

MUNSTER MADNESS: Clayton McMillan before the Investec Champions Cup match between Munster and Castres.Pic: .Seb Daly/Sportsfile

Clayton McMillan won’t be turning his nose up at Challenge Cup rugby when April swings around with the Munster head coach declaring that the province’s rich heritage gives them no right to expect any higher ground.

The province suffered a huge setback last Saturday in the form of a 31-29 Investec Champions Cup defeat at home to Castres that knocked them out of the main attraction at the pool stages for the first time in six years.

Their ‘reward’ now is an away round of 16 tie to Exeter Chiefs in the aforementioned Challenge Cup at the start of April, a year on from a famous defeat of La Rochelle in France when Mick Galwey rallied the Red Army from a forklift.

“There is nobody in this building that is happy about receiving the consolation prize of having to go and play in the Challenge Cup but we also understand that, though we have a rich history in the Champions Cup, that history doesn't give us a rite of passage.

“We have got to earn our right to be there. There's been lots to be proud about around how our game is progressing but, ultimately it hasn't been good enough.”

The Kiwi reiterated post-game take from the weekend: that it is the small things that hurt you against the best sides out there, and that an accumulation of these small errors had conspired to “really hurt us all season”, especially so the last few weeks.

“When the stakes rise, those little things are magnified whereas, if you win, sometimes it's a little easier to probably brush past some of those and convince yourself that you are a better team than you actually are.

“One thing I think we have been pretty open and honest about right from the get-go, even on the [winning] runs early on in the season, has been realistic around the performances that we are actually at now.

“We haven't made the gains that we needed to get through the European Cup. But there's a long way to go.”

McMillan’s appearance at the week’s first media engagement was a good sign. The best leaders tend to front up in the bad times and the former Chiefs man will be speaking to the press again on Thursday prior to the side’s URC game against Dragons in Cork.

The 51-year old was honest in stating that the dressing-room he entered after the Castres game contained “as much disappointment as I’ve seen in a changing-room, no matter what environment I’ve been in”. A sign of how low the mood must be in Limerick.

The normal post-match review, or deep dive as he termed it, takes about an hour every Monday morning. This one took twice that time as the group searched for answers and took accountability as individuals for the weekend’s blow.

Getting that tone right is important.

Munster's Tadhg Beirne stands dejected after the Investec Champions Cup loss to Castres in Limerick last Saturday. Pic: INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Honesty and declarations of intent are all important but there is a game to be played on Friday evening and that doesn’t leave a whole lot of time to read riot acts and then build confidence levels back up. There is a balance to be struck here.

“You find yourself on this merry-go-round where you are going extremely hard at players, other weeks where you give them a big pat on the back around some stuff, other days when you find a bit of a balance of both.

“Some days you get them to reflect on their performances and give feedback.

“You're constantly looking at different ways of reviewing. There's always a danger that when you are just erring on the negative side all the time that you feel like you never can get anything right.

“So it is a little bit of a balancing act but today was one of those days where we actually needed to do a deep dive. We needed some honesty, a bit of vulnerability, and we got that.”