McMillan urges Munster charges to embrace Loftus Versfeld challenge

Clayton McMillan is trusting a team captained by scrum-half Craig Casey to write their own history by embracing the opportunity and claiming a famous knockout victory.

Munster head coach Clayton McMillan. Pic: Morgan Treacy/Inpho

Clayton McMillan urged his players to forge their own memories and reputations by fronting up for Munster in Saturday’s URC quarter-final clash with Bulls in Pretoria.

The challenges facing an understrength and injury-hit Munster side are lengthy following a long-haul journey to South Africa in midweek, playing a quality powerhouse opponent at altitude in Loftus Versfeld, a stadium the head coach, in his first season since joining from New Zealand’s Chiefs, described to the Irish Examiner as “one of the biggest cauldrons in world rugby”.

Yet he is trusting a team captained by scrum-half Craig Casey, essentially the same players who secured a play-off berth with a final-round league win over Lions a fortnight ago, to write their own history by embracing the opportunity and claiming a famous knockout victory to reach the semi-finals against the odds.

“These are the arenas that you want to be in,” McMillan said. “In a lot of ways the season's gone really fast and in others it seems like such a long time ago that we met for the first time here and sat down and chewed the fat around what could happen.

“But at the end of the day what we wanted to do was get to this weekend and still be having a chat about playing a game. And we've earned the right to do that. It would be a disappointment if we just got here and thought we've made it or this is the end of the road.

“We want to give it a good shake and it won't come easily and we're going to be relying on largely the guys that played against the Lions in one of the biggest cauldrons in world rugby but instead of being daunted by that just embrace it.

“Embrace the week and embrace the challenge and the opportunity. Memories and reputations can be forged from fronting up in a game like this.” 

Casey, who leads the team in the absence of injured club captain Tadhg Beirne (knee), partners fly-half JJ Hanrahan, who stands in at number 10 for the still absent Jack Crowley (leg) having twice started at late notice in his last three appearances.

McMillan sees a pair of half-backs who have impressed him with the way they have stepped to their new challenges as individual players.

“With JJ, it's not his first rodeo here. He's been around the block a long time, and regardless of whether he's playing on the reserves or just warming up as a training reserve just in the event that somebody gets injured, one thing I know for certain around JJ is he'll prepare all week like he's going to be playing.

“And his mental capacity and maturity, I suppose, is probably a better word to just be able to deal with those sorts of challenges that can get thrust upon you from time to time. So that probably explains him.

“And then Craig is always a vocal leader in the group. He's, in Tadhg's absence, he's probably one of the stronger voices in the room. I actually think that captaincy and leadership is something he thrives on and takes seriously, which is good for his game because he's a half-back and he's got a lot of strings to his bow.

“I just think that gives him something else to focus on other than just doing his role. He's taking a bit of a wider view around what the team needs from him, which I think is beneficial for his own game.”