McMillan planning without quintet but hope for Crowley and Beirne

The southern province take on Connacht this weekend.

Dan Kelly and his team-mates during Munster Rugby squad training session at the University of Limerick in Limerick. Pic: Matt Browne/Sportsfile

There is hope Jack Crowley and Tadhg Beirne will return before the end of the season, if Munster reach the URC knockout rounds, but Clayton McMillan is resigned to losing another quintet of Ireland internationals as his bids for a play-off berth.

The head coach was forced to name a side missing seven newly-injured frontliners to face Connacht in Galway on Saturday following a successful but attritional home clash with Ulster on April 25. Though fly-half Crowley (leg) and captain Beirne (knee) will miss the derby at a sold-out Dexcom Stadium but are the most likely to play a further part in Munster’s bid for silverware. On Thursday, McMillan delivered a bleaker outlook for centre Tom Farrell (shoulder), props Oli Jager (head) and Michael Milne (calf), wing Calvin Nash (hamstring) and South Africa lock Jean Kleyn, whose bicep injury sustained in the first half of the 41-14 win at Thomond Park could have brought a premature end to his decade-long, 167-cap career at the province.

“A lot of those guys that are on the injured list, I wouldn't expect to see them for the rest of the season,” McMillan said. “That's not absolute, but I think that's probably the prognosis as it stands today.”

There is a more optimistic outlook for fly-half Crowley, forced out of the Ulster pre-game warm-up, and club captain Beirne, who landed heavily after being taken out in the air from a restart in the second half.

“Jack Crowley has just got an unusual injury where he's losing a little bit of strength in his leg,” McMillan said. “It's kind of a neural thing, so he could be running around free as a bird, feel nothing, and then the next day it feels like a dead leg.

“So we just weren't prepared to roll the dice with him this week, even though it's a big game. We have a lot of faith in JJ Hanrahan. It's familiar territory for him so we don't lose anything in that regard. I don't think his injury is going to be long term.

“And Tadhg's will definitely have him out of the next two weeks, three weeks, and if we're good enough to get beyond that then hopefully he's back.” 

MUNSTER (v Connacht): Mike Haley; Shane Daly, Alex Nankivell, Dan Kelly, Andrew Smith; JJ Hanrahan, Craig Casey - captain; Jeremy Loughman, Diarmuid Barron, Michael Ala'alatoa; Edwin Edogbo, Fineen Wycherley; Tom Ahern, John Hodnett, Gavin Coombes.

Replacements: Lee Barron, Josh Wycherley, Conor Bartley, Jack O'Donoghue, Brian Gleeson, Ben O'Donovan, Seán O'Brien, Alex Kendellen.