McMillan laments lack of 'starch' after Munster lose physical battle

Munster had had the opportunity to confirm their end-of-season play-off berth with a victory but instead allowed Connacht to keep alive their hopes of knockout rugby

Munster head coach Clayton McMillan at Dexcom Stadium in Galway. Photo by Thomas Flinkow/Sportsfile

Clayton McMillan bemoaned Munster’s lack of “starch” in the physical battle at Dexcom Stadium as Connacht ran away with a 26-7 bonus-point win in a one-sided URC derby on Saturday night.

Munster had had the opportunity to confirm their end-of-season play-off berth with a victory but instead allowed Connacht to take their hopes of knockout rugby and Champions Cup qualification into the final round of the regular season next weekend.

Munster, in sixth place in the standings, now face a must-win home clash with Lions at Thomond Park next Saturday, while ninth-placed Connacht, a point outside the top eight qualification spots, travel to Edinburgh on Friday night, with either a place in the play-off draw or a premature end to the season on the line for both provinces.

Connacht were full value for their victory in front of a full house of 12,481 in Galway but this was a performance well below par from injury-hit Munster, who trailed 19-0 at half-time having played with a stiff breeze at their backs for the first 40 minutes. They were trailing 7-0 to a converted Ben Murphy try on 12 minutes when hooker Diarmuid Barron received a yellow card for a croc roll on Dylan Tierney-Martin. With 14 men they conceded twice more, the yellow upgraded to red soon after Shamus Hurley-Langton had added Connacht’s third.

A try apiece in a more even second half, first from Munster captain Craig Casey, quickly followed by the bonus-point score from player of the match Sean Jansen confirmed the outcome and a seventh win in Connacht’s last eight matches.

“Got beaten by a better team on the night,” Munster head coach McMillan said. “Always knew it was going to be tough coming here, a tough team to play at home on a decent roll over the last couple of months.

“You can see their confidence in their game and they were high stakes, you know, win and we were in, and lose they were out. We challenged our guys to make sure their motivation wasn’t any stronger than ours but it was, because you see that in the collisions.

“I thought they had a little bit more starch in their collisions than we did and that allowed them to play on the front foot and it's the sort of game that serves the rest of their game well. So we applaud them for that.” 

There was much for McMillan to be frustrated with from his team as they not only lost the physical battle to a fired up Connacht led impressively by captain Cian Prendergast but compounded error upon error throughout.

Yet the Munster boss was measured in his assessment of his players’ performance and pinpointed an early-second half try ruled out for a marginal knock-on decision against Alex Kendellen as a pivotal moment.

“It wasn't like there was bad stuff out there, we just didn't see enough of it.

“Obviously put ourselves in a little bit of a hole in the first half with a little bit of wind at our back, we didn't utilise that too well. And then in the second half, for a long period of time, it was a bit of an arm wrestle.

“It was a bit of a shame that Alex Kendellen's try was ruled out. I think that might have just pushed us a little bit closer and put a bit of wind in our sails. But when those things go against you, it actually puts a bit of wind in their sails. But there was a fight there that we can build off.” 

Returning to the disallowed try, from a five-metre tap penalty, McMillan added: “We don't have all of the views that obviously the TMO has a look at, but from all the views I had, I couldn't see any separation.”

There was also a little frustration with Diarmuid Barron’s costly 20-minute red card.

“Look, I think he probably paid the price for a few incidents that have happened over the last 24 hours or in the last couple of weeks. It's a tough job for referees,” the Munster head coach said. “It's a complicated game and sometimes I struggle myself to understand the law. I don't know what a breakdown looks like these days. And that's not their fault.

“We've got to have a look at how we can simplify the game for everybody.” 

Already missing Tadhg Beirne, Jack Crowley, Tom Farrell, Jean Kleyn, Michael Milne and Calvin Nash through injury, Munster had to withdraw wing Shane Daley from their starting line-up due to a sore calf and then lost Saturday’s starting lock Edwin Edogbo to a first-half shoulder injury, adding to the fitness concerns ahead of next Saturday’s clash with Lions.

“I haven't caught up with Ed to talk about what the shoulder was, but that's obviously not a good sign, which is not good given the rest of the injuries. But everybody has injuries and you've just got to deal with them.

“And we don't have a choice next week. We're at home at Thomond Park and it's another high-stakes game and whoever we put out just has to be good enough to get the job done.”