'He'll do the homework': McMillan backs 'ambitious' Charlie O'Shea to keep improving

The Cork native took another stride forward in his rugby development last Saturday night as he successfully negotiated a Champions Cup debut with a start in Munster's 33-25 pool victory over Racing 92

HOMETOWN HERO: Munster's Charlie O'Shea with supporters after his side's win against Racing 92. Pic: Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile.

Clayton McMillan has insisted rookie fly-half Charlie O’Shea will not be shackled as he backed his adventurous young playmaker to continue expressing himself in the Munster number 10 jersey.

The 20-year-old Ireland Under-20 international from Cork took another stride forward in his rugby development last Saturday night as he successfully negotiated a Champions Cup debut with a start in the 33-25 pool victory over Racing 92 at his hometown Supervalu Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

O’Shea, who captained CBC Cork to the Munster Schools Senior Cup title in 2025 and is playing his first season with UCC in AIL Division 1B, was making just his fourth senior appearance for Munster at the weekend and he demonstrated why management, team-mates and supporters are so excited about his potential with a performance against Racing that delivered attacking flair and intent and goal-kicking composure to nail all three of his conversions from both sides of the posts.

There were also frustrations with some of the first-year academy player’s tactical kicking decisions but just eight weeks after joining Munster for pre-season following the U20 World Championship, his head coach does not want to sacrifice O’Shea’s playmaking ambition.

"I like to think that we encourage all of our players to express themselves and to bring to the table what they're naturally gifted at,” McMillan said.

“Charlie is a fairly ambitious man. You never want to take that away from him. There were some moments tonight that he'll review himself. He won't need me or any of the senior players to tell him what he needs to do better.

“He'll do the homework and come in and know our job is just to keep supporting him, keep being honest with him, keep challenging him and he'll be a really good prospect for us, moving forward.”

As well as O’Shea, flanker Seán Edogbo, 22, was making his European debut against Racing, the similarly aged No.8 Brian Gleeson scored Munster’s opening try, while 23-year-old wing Shay McCarthy continued his fine start to the season with a well-taken solo score in the 12th minute as he ran an excellent line from 40 metres out, stepped a defender and beat another for pace.

It was the sort of youthful adventure which both impresses veteran back-rower Jack O’Donoghue, a replacement on Saturday night, and keeps the 32-year-old on his toes during pre-match preparations at Munster’s High Performance Centre.

“It's really exciting for the group to bring a lot of energy to training, to every day coming into the building and it just gives you a bit of energy to turn up and do your job and I think they're pushing us,” O’Donoghue said.

“They're pushing for competition for places and ultimately you're growing a bigger, better squad and that's exactly what we do. We want to be competitive, we want to be competing for trophies and we need these young lads coming through and pushing for places.”

With the second round of Pool 3 games not until the December 12 trip to Bristol Bears, Munster return to URC action this Saturday with a Round 4 trip to Dublin to face champions Leinster at Aviva Stadium.

Post Racing, McMillan wanted his squad to savour their European victory before turning their focus to their derby rivals as Munster bid to emulate their comprehensive 31-14 victory over Leinster at Croke Park 12 months ago.

Leinster made an impressive start to their Champions Cup campaign with a 48-23 beating of ASM Clermont Auvergne in France last Saturday afternoon and the New Zealander knows recording back-to-back victories in the capital will be a huge challenge.

" A lot of energy went into this week and we can now turn our attention to Leinster. I watched a good portion of the game before coming here. We know the quality that Leinster have. It's an international side running around but our guys will celebrate tonight and then turn our attention on Monday to Leinster.”