Munster looking to freshen things up with timely win in Exeter

This would be as good a time as any for Munster to put down a marker.

KEY MAN: Munster's Jack Crowley. Pic: Bryan Keane/Inpho

Freshness isn’t a word you expect from a head coach just back from a mini-tour to South Africa and facing in to a tricky visit to England’s south coast, but it's exactly what Clayton McMillan is banking on right now.

His Munster party only returned from their two-match southern hemisphere expedition on Monday afternoon. 

Two quick training sessions later and they were off again, to Exeter, where the Chiefs lie in wait at Sandy Park in an early Saturday kickoff.

It’s a daunting ask for multiple reasons, logistics just being one, and Munster will want a smoother landing on their return to the Challenge Cup for the first time since 2011 than the one endured as their flight from Dublin bounced in to Bristol on Friday.

The Kiwi has tried to work it so there is new blood coming in. Most notable is Tadhg Beirne who is back in the pack after a post-Six Nations break, but McMillan has made 10 changes in all to the side that lost narrowly to the Bulls in the URC last week.

“If you have a good look at the squad, it's a fresh one,” said the head coach. “A lot of the guys that are starting have either been occupying the bench and maybe didn't get as many minutes in Africa.

“And then there's guys that have been back at home, so Tadhg, Jack O'Donoghue. Gavin Coombes obviously didn't play because of sickness in the last game. Jeremy Loughman was injured through the Six Nations, came off the bench against the Bulls.

“Lee Barron was over in Africa, he only played half a game or something like that, so we’ve gone for some experience, but also a lot of freshness. It's a long haul back from Africa, two big games, one of them at altitude, and a short turnaround.“ 

A balancing act, he called it. Players have been told to grab the chance - Thaakir Abrahams and Diarmuid Kilgallen on the wings among them - to put “a little bit of a shot across the bow” of others as the squad faces in to a crucial end-of-season run.

Jack Crowley and Craig Casey showed how integral they are to the team again in Loftus Versfeld, but Munster need a solid effort from the supporting cast. 

Cutting out the concession of soft scores would be a great place to start.

As always, injuries have coloured the canvas and there is a debate to be had about the relative importance of a Challenge Cup tie when compared to a URC campaign where a position in the elite and crucial top eight isn’t in any way guaranteed.

Winning this Challenge Cup would provide another avenue to Champions Cup rugby next season, of course, but the Chiefs away from home makes for a difficult afternoon in what will only be the province’s second time in this second-tier event.

Exeter are on the up again after some time in the doldrums.

The feelgood factor has been helped this week by news that Director of Rugby Rob Baxter has signed another new deal to extend a service in the role stretching back to 2009, and the club also announced the signing for next year of Bath’s young half-back Sam Harris.

They are doing good business off the field with a Sandy Park sellout awaiting a visiting team that has lost twice and drawn the other times they have played here competitively, and a province that has lost seven of its last nine games this season.

Exeter are still without Wallaby star Len Ikitau through injury but fellow Aussie Tom Hooper is on the blindside in a noticeably strong side that has Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, Henry Slade and Dafydd Jenkins all back on board after absences.

The home team will start favourites. 

Munster’s struggles after a blistering start to the campaign and to life under McMillan have been dissected to death, and the announcement of a voluntary redundancy scheme has only added to the gloom and the noise.

McMillan has signalled that financial issues won’t impact the potential recruitment of an attack coach to replace Mike Prendergast or new players, but the club has to start making themselves a more attractive proposition than they have looked in recent months.

Defeats are one thing, sub-par performances another.

There have been too many games where their levels have fallen off a cliff since the second-half slippage at home to the Stormers in October: Bath at The Rec, Ulster in Belfast and the 45-0 spanking by the Sharks in King’s Park stand out.

McMillan could survey all those and more this week and, Ulster aside, make some allowances for aspects of the displays or scorelines. The response in defeat to the Bulls last time out was as welcome as it was needed.

“The thing that comes out of the [Stormers] game when you get such a big punch in the nose is generally going to be a response of some description and we saw that,” he explained.

“But as I've said since day one, we are aspiring to be a team that doesn't need to get that slap on the wrist, punch in the nose, kick up the backside to turn up and give a good account of ourselves every weekend.” 

This would be as good a time as any to put down that marker.