'Probably two or three season-enders there' -Huge Munster win comes at cost for McMillan
WALKING WOUNDED: Munster's Jean Kleyn leaves the field due to injury. Pic:INPHO/Nick Elliot
Clayton McMillan admitted he had mixed emotions around his Munster side’s performance in beating Ulster 41-14 but there was no disguising his pleasure at securing back-to-back bonus-point victories that have edged the province closer to the end of season URC play-offs.
The head coach also admitted that among the injuries to six of his frontline players, there were two “season-enders” though that was not thought to include captain and lock Tadhg Beirne, who limped out with a leg injury in the second half, and fly-half Jack Crowley, withdrawn before kick-off with a dead leg.
South Africa lock Jean Kleyn (bicep), wing Calvin Nash (hamstring), centre Tom Farrell (shoulder), and tighthead prop Oli Jager (concussion) may be more of a concern as McMillan plots the final two matches of the regular season, against Connacht in Galway on May 9 and a week later at home to the Lions at Thomond Park.
Saturday’s outcome saw Munster move onto 51 points and climb to fifth in the URC standings following their 41-14 derby win. Four tries from man of the match John Hodnett, the openside flanker who played much of the second half as an auxiliary right wing, and a hat-trick from replacement back-rower Alex Kendellen, saw Munster overcome the concession of an early converted try to Aitzol Arenzana-King to dominate the understrength visitors.
They scored five unanswered tries between the 24th and 55th minutes before Ulster grabbed a consolation score from sub hooker John Andrew. Yet the opening 20 minutes, when an unfancied and understrength Ulster made a stronger start, scored first and also had two potential tries held up over the tryline, clouded the head coach’s assessment of a second seven-try victory in a row, following the previous Saturday’s 45-15 win at Benetton.
“Yeah, to be honest, probably mixed emotions around the performance,” McMillan said. “The first half, I thought we did well to hold them out to seven (12-7) at half time, but what we encountered was a young Ulster team that was passionate, probably feeling like they had a lot to play for.
“Nobody was probably giving them a chance and they just had us on our heels for the whole first half. I think possession and territory was about 70-something percent. So I felt we were on our heels, didn't get up and bang them and then when we did get a couple of opportunities with the ball, we were trying to create something out of nothing instead of just respecting the ball and going another phase.
“So the first half was pretty disappointing from my perspective, but it was much better in the second half.” McMillan said the injuries played their part in Munster’s slow and error-strewn start to the match.
“Look, some of the clunkiness of the performance I think can be attributed in part to a bit of disruption.
“Obviously Jack pulled out before the game, just not too sure, he's kind of had like a dead leg that just wouldn't go away, couldn't generate any power from it, so we made a call literally in the last minute of the warm-up to pull him, but JJ (Hanrahan) was ready to go and he jumped in there.
“But there's a few other dings, you know. Tadhg took a bit of a nasty fall there, and he's done something to his leg. JK, John Kleyn, he's done something to his bicep. Calvin Nash, hamstring, Tom Farrell, shoulder, so look, I'd say there's probably two or three season-enders there.”
As for Jager, the tighthead who only returned from an almost three-month absence at Benetton seven days earlier, and who has taken time out to deal with a series of head injuries, McMillan said: “I feel for him in particular because he's come back strong and to have another setback is pretty concerning, but yeah, I don't want to jump to any conclusions yet around that.”
There was a positive outlook for Beirne, though, with the head coach insistent his captain was not a player whom he feared his season was over.
“No, he's walking around all right, but something just doesn't feel quite right now, and hopefully that's just, it feels a bit sore and he'll bounce back.”
Ulster head coach Richie Murphy fielded a matchday 23 missing all his frontliners through either injury or rested with a Challenge Cup semi-final at home to Exeter Chiefs in Belfast next Saturday. He was proud of his young side’s fast start and wondered what might have been had his academy flanker Tom Brigg not been yellow carded for a deliberate knock-on. Hodnett scored twice during his opposite number’s 10 minutes in the sin bin and Munster never looked back.
“Guys earned an opportunity over the last number of weeks in training and I think you can see the potential that's in that group,” Murphy said.
"James McKillop, Tom Brigg, Lorcan McLaughlin hasn't started the game this year and then Aitzol King with a really good finish in that first half.
"Yes, there's parts of our game that we were a little bit green in and in fairness to Munster in the second half, when they smelled blood I thought they looked after the ball a hell of a lot better, I thought they turned over the ball quite easily in the first half.
"They were a bit more clinical in the second half and then the pace of play made it very difficult for us to get our foothold back into the game."
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