'Relief more than anything' - Clayton McMillan sums up mood after Munster save season

RELIEF: Munster's Head Coach Clayton McMillan during the warm up ahead of the match. Pic: ©INPHO/Bryan Keane.

Clayton McMillan took a big deep breath of relief after his Munster side saved their season with a 24-17 victory over the Lions on Saturday night to reach the URC knockout rounds and claim a Champions Cup berth for 2026-26 on the last day of the regular season.

Munster had kicked off outside the qualifying spots in the final game of the Round 18 league schedule and having lost talismanic fly-half Jack Crowley to recurrence of the neural leg injury which had sidelined the number 10 for the previous two matches.

With lock Fineen Wycherley and centre Alex Nankivell also withdrawn ahead of kick-off to add to an already extensive injury list, the odds appeared stacked against McMillan’s squad reaching their objective in this must-win match-up against a South African side two points ahead of them in the standings and with play-off ambitions of their own.

JJ Hanrahan was told he was starting in Crowley’s place for the third game in a row just four minutes before kick-off and the fly-half kicked a penalty and all three conversions of tries for Evan O’Connell, stand-in captain Craig Casey and Tom Ahern.

Munster had been reduced to 13 men for seven minutes towards the end of the first half after yellow cards for Andrew Smith and Sean O’Brien within three minutes of one another, but took a 17-14 lead into the interval. Ahern’s 54th minute converted try extended the lead only for Lions fly-half Chris Smith to slot a penalty four minutes later and the home side still needed a big defensive effort in the final quarter to thwart the Lions and claim fifth place in the table. They now face a trip to South Africa on Saturday May 30 to play the fourth-seeded Bulls at altitude at Pretoria’s Loftus Versfeld.

Asked to sum up the mood in the Munster camp after the match, head coach McMillan said: “Probably relief more than anything. Not just the blokes out on the field but the 15,000 in the stands and lots in their homes.

“Just relief, big pressure coming into a game like this where it's pretty obvious what we needed to do. It was never going to be easy but I thought our guys acquitted themselves well tonight under those circumstances. Tough when we needed to be.

“Probably the first 40 minutes outside of the two yellows was probably as good as the first half that I reckon we produced this year. We did a lot of good things and probably unlucky not to score a few more points.

“But pleased for the players because I've been working hard to give ourselves an opportunity to get to finals rugby and that's been achieved.”

Securing Champions Cup rugby for next season was just as important for McMillan.

“Yeah, there's that as well,” he said. “That's the premier competition in this part of the world and it would have been a massive disappointment to not be there.

Munster's Head Coach Clayton McMillan during the warm up ahead of the match. Pic: ©INPHO/Bryan Keane

“When we reflect on this year we'll look at a few moments during the year where what could have been a couple of little things gone our way.

“We might have done a lot better in the Champions Cup than what we did. We'll give ourselves another chance next year but that's in the future.

“We'll just turn our attention now to enjoying tonight and taking a few days to breathe, soak it all in and then later in the week we'll turn our attention to the Bulls.”

McMillan backed hooker Diarmuid Barron’s character following the replacement’s claim made to referee Andrea Piardi that he had received a spit in the face from a Lions player in the 60th minute.

No television evidence could be found to back the Munster front-rowers allegation of a spit during the on-field TMO review but Piardi said the matter would be referred to the match Citing Commissioner.

McMillan said: “Ah look, he's been around a long time and we're not a team that plays silly buggers, so you'd imagine he felt or he saw what he saw.

“We only have three or four angles available to us. I'm sure others might have a look at it but that's not our job to do now, other people will have a look and if there's something there to see then they'll deal with it and if there isn't, then we'll move forward.

“But in terms of Diarmuid's integrity, that's not in question.” Casey said he did not see the alleged incident but added: “Just going off what Barronsy said to reiterate what Clayton said I think Barronsy is a very honest bloke in everything he does, so I would take his word for everything.

I haven't seen it live, I haven't seen it on replay or anything like that, so can't really comment but I trust Barronsy with everything I own.”