McMillan wants players to fight for Munster's economic future
PRESSURE: Munster will take to the field against a backdrop of economic unrest this week. Pic: Steve Haag
Clayton McMillan has urged his players to bring a smile back to Munster Rugby after a difficult week for the organisation on and off the pitch, but the head coach wants his team to focus wholeheartedly by putting in a strong performance at the Bulls on Saturday afternoon.
McMillan’s squad will leave their Cape Town tour base on Friday and fly across South Africa to the Highveld ahead of their URC clash at Loftus Versfeld, a meeting between the eight-placed hosts and his own side in sixth.
With five matches of the regular season remaining there is plenty of pressure on a misfiring playing group to atone for last Saturday’s 45-0 drubbing by the Sharks in Durban and get their push for the end of season play-offs back on course at altitude this weekend.Â
Yet Munster will take to the field against a backdrop of economic unrest within the province with the wider staff in Cork and Limerick this week informed by chief executive Ian Flanagan that voluntary redundancies are being sought.
As those staff members assess whether to avail of the programme, McMillan must try and find the balance between harnessing non-rugby pressures from inside the organisation and getting the best out of a team on the ropes ahead of their meeting with the Bulls.
How to do that successfully has been the question of the week.
“It's a good question,” Munster boss McMillan said on Thursday from Cape Town. “I suppose everybody deals with emotion and pressure differently. I think the first part is that we want to create an environment where people feel they need to speak and talk to people for an outlet to understand and to get clarity around how we've ended up in the situation that we are in. That's a priority.
“But it's also important that we (coaches), and players, understand how we can make a difference and contribute to more positive news for Munster.
“It's primarily around going out and performing on the rugby field. That's really where we need to put our energy.
“Other people back at home will be fighting the fight around all of the news that's come out in the last 24 to 48 hours and they'll be doing everything that they can to ensure that part of the business is taken care of.
“But right now, our attention has to be on the Bulls. If we take shortcuts around that, we're selling ourselves short on the rugby field already.”
McMillan believes strong performances on the pitch can have a significant impact on the overriding economic situation but he also implored the whole organisation as a collective to roll up their sleeves in order to “stick in the fight”.
Players and coaches will not be affected by any redundancies but the head coach said: “There's absolutely no doubt that, you know, if we win rugby games and we put ourselves in contention to play finals and stuff at home, that that's going to have a significant impact.
“So, we have been working hard and we'll continue to work hard to do what we can to help in that regard.
“But there was also some recognition on the call the other day that there's a few other parts of the business that we can be better at, so as a collective we just need to roll up our sleeves and do what we can to stick in the fight.”
McMillan conceded it had been a concerning week to be a part of a struggling organisation.
“Look, at a human level, it's less than ideal. In no industry do you want to see you get to a couple of days ago, and there's a bit of work to be done behind the scenes to navigate our way through that process.
“To my understanding, no decisions have been made around any roles at this stage, it's literally that the opportunity is there for some that may see taking that avenue to be a good one for them.
“It's not ideal, but it's a reminder that In rugby, just like any other business, despite everybody's hard work, it's challenging times out there, and clearly we're going through some at the moment.”
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The New Zealander, who left Super Rugby’s Chiefs last summer to become Munster head coach, may have wondered what he had let himself in for when the voluntary redundancies were announced to all staff members on Tuesday but two days later he insisted his new job was not bigger than he imagined.
“No, I don't think so. I'd done a fair amount of homework and the stuff that really appealed to me was the vision and the ambition of the club. That ambition and vision wasn't a short-sighted one. It wasn't just around wanting the game directly in front of you. It was bigger than that.
“In my playing career and in my coaching journey, that's been my lot. I'm not overly-excited about walking into readymade teams and just enjoying the ride.
“I actually enjoy the process of being part of something that starts with a vision and then helping bring that to fruition. That's not going to happen overnight.
“There have been challenges along the way, but I anticipated that those challenges would be there. I think it just informs us and gives us clarity around what we need to do to be more consistent as a rugby team and as an organisation moving forward.
“All of that stuff excites me. I don't like the fact that some of the news that we've had or some of the performances that we've put in have happened, but it hasn't detracted me from the challenge and the opportunities that lie in front of us.”
The immediate challenge is to secure qualification for the URC play-offs and with it, next season’s Champions Cup. A home quarter-final is still within reach with a top-four finish but so too is a final position outside the top eight and this Saturday’s clash could determine the trajectory of this campaign’s run-in for Munster with five rounds remaining.
On top of that, McMillan has been double-jobbing as forwards coach in the absence on tour of his assistant and lineout specialist Alex Codling, absent through illness, as well as scrum coach Sean Cronin.
“I had a fairly dusty day at the office last week,” the head coach said. “In these sorts of situations, you rely on the balance of work that you've done over a whole season.
“We've got some good leaders, some good scrum leaders and some good lineout leaders that you would expect when these sorts of things happen, step forward and accept more responsibility for how the operation unfolds.
“It's no different to the way that you plan for when some of your best players aren't there. Our training week was barely compromised.
“It was highly unfortunate that Codders got crooked. We weren't able to bring him with us, but we're better than the performance that we put in last week and I'm sure we'll see some improvement.
“I've really allowed the opportunity for those leaders to step forward and take some leadership and add my five cents. But like I said, we really rely on the balance of the good work that our coaches and our players have done over the balance of the season.”Â
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