McMillan challenges Munster to back it up against 'confident' Ulster

The sides face off in a key interpro on Saturday.

NORTHERN EXPOSURE: Munster Rugby head coach Clayton McMillan. Pic: INPHO/James Crombie

With a playing squad close to being at full strength at the most important time of the season and morale restored by a dominant performance at Benetton last time out, now would be an appropriate time for Munster to finally string together back-to-back URC victories for the first time since October.

Clayton McMillan is certainly hoping that is the case as he prepares his side for a must-win derby clash with play-off rivals Ulster at Thomond Park on Saturday. On Thursday, he named the same matchday 23 which hammered the Italians 45-15 in Treviso last Saturday, making just one change to his starting line-up in rotating Oli Jager in for Michael Ala’alatoa at tighthead prop.

The head coach also praised his players for blocking out the outside noise surrounding Munster Rugby in recent weeks, at a time when his maiden campaign since joining from New Zealand’s Chiefs could easily have spiralled into outright disaster.

A request for voluntary redundancies within the organisation, the fast-approaching departures of assistant coaches Mike Prendergast and Alex Codling and the divisive appointment of his former attack coach Roger Randle to replace the Bath-bound Prendergast have all threatened to derail Munster’s bid for a top-eight finish as the finishing line for the regular seasons comes into view.

Yet McMillan is grateful such distractions have been dismissed by his squad as they bid to cling on to a qualifying spot which would ensure Champions Cup rugby next season and a place in the URC knockout rounds in this.

Munster lie in sixth place with three rounds to play and a victory on Saturday would inch them closer to the top four and a home quarter-final draw. Defeat to an in-form but injury-hit Ulster could see their two-point cushion to ninth place evaporate in an instant but spirits remain high.

“A confident team is a tough one to beat, and we've certainly taken a lot of confidence out of last week's performance, and we hope that that stands to us,” McMillan said.

“But the learning really was how we applied ourselves in a big pressure week to be able to deliver that performance.

“It wasn't perfect, but there were good learnings from that, and a repeat will give us a chance on the weekend. Ulster are a good side. I know there's probably been a bit made about them bringing down... less than their strongest side.

“We wait to see. End of the day, they're Ulster. They'll be wearing a red and white jersey, and when you talk about confidence, they're a team that's full of confidence.

“We've seen their coach come out and talk about them being the number one-ranked team in Ireland, and at the moment we're the worst team in the world so there isn't too much problem for us to get motivated for the game.” 

Jager’s return to fitness off the bench last weekend is another fillip. The former Crusader, with one Ireland cap, missed three months following a concussion sustained against Edinburgh on October 10 and then picked up a foot injury in Glasgow three games into his comeback on January 30.

The 30-year-old will make his first start since that night in Scotstoun as the durable Michael Ala’alatoa moves to the replacements, and the Munster boss is hopeful to get at least a half of rugby into Jager’s body.

“Look, the first thing is that you never want to be mucking around with people's heads. And he's had his fair share of trouble. So we've made sure that we looked after him in the best possible way.

“He's come back really, really strong, and we've got some really good external support around, you know, clinical, specialist help around concussions over in the States, and that's been really helpful for Oli.

“Identified a few things that probably were new to him that he could work off in his own time to help build up, I guess, his resilience around brain and, yeah, he's in a really good space.

“But even now we're still managing his minutes. I mean, he got 40 minutes off the bench last week. He's starting this week. Anticipate he'd probably play around about the same amount of minutes.

“But you don't have a team if you don't have a tighthead in this game, and he's pretty important to this environment, so it's great that he's out on the rugby field.” 

Ireland wing Calvin Nash is another key player to have back fighting fit and he starts on his 100th appearance for the province having returned from a concussion lay-off of his own with a try against Benetton.

MUNSTER (v Ulster): Shane Daly; Calvin Nash, Tom Farrell, Alex Nankivell, Andrew Smith; Jack Crowley, Craig Casey; Jeremy Loughman, Diarmuid Barron, Oli Jager; Jean Kleyn, Tadhg Beirne - captain; Tom Ahern, John Hodnett, Gavin Coombes.

Replacements: Lee Barron, Michael Milne, Michael Ala’alatoa, Edwin Edogbo, Brian Gleeson, Ben O’Donovan, Dan Kelly, Alex Kendellen.