McMillan: Not too late for more Munster men to target World Cup slot with Ireland

Andy Farrell has picked just two players from the southern province.

Munster head coach Clayton McMillan. Pic: INPHO/James Crombie

Clouds and silver linings. If there was disappointment at the fact that Tadhg Beirne and Craig Casey are the only Munster players to have earned call-ups to Andy Farrell’s Ireland squad then that leaves Munster with a much stronger hand to play with this week.

The Sharks come to Thomond Park this Saturday on the back of two impressive wins in Lyon and Cardiff so the extra talent and muscle will be welcome in Limerick. And there is other motivation besides for some of the province’s leading lights beyond that.

Dan Kelly, Michael Milne and Evan O’Connell were among the men who featured last November when an Ireland ‘A’ side took on Spain outside Madrid. Another ‘A’ fixture, this one against Fiji, is on the horizon next month.

It’s not too late to make an impression on Farrell & Co.

“The first thing is that it's always an honour and privilege to be selected in a national side of any type,” said McMillan, and the ‘A’ fixtures, I guess, those that are just sitting in behind the top team, perhaps the selectors want to keep close eye on them.

“There’s still obviously the November Tests to undertake, there's the Six Nations next year, and there's a World Cup. So it would be foolish to think that anybody's been completely ruled out of being in contention.

“And every time you pull on a Munster jersey, or you get an opportunity to pull on a green jersey, it gives those players the opportunity to put themselves in the shop window for coaches to get a closer look at them in that environment, in a different environment, and to assess their capability to go to the next level.” 

 Munster’s season has not been as rewarding in terms of wins as the start to their last campaign but there is a sense that they are in a better place now than then. The input of some impressive younger talent is a big part of that.

Charlie O’Shea has dominated headlines with his displays at out-half but the likes of Shay McCarthy, Sean Edogbo and Ben O’Donovan have shown signs that they can push on now and hope to one day feature in green jerseys as well as red.

“They can be proud of themselves, but a bit like us as a group, we don't want to be patting ourselves on the back when we haven't actually achieved anything. There's a long way to go in the in the competition, but they've shown that we've got some good young talent coming through the system.

"I said to the group right at the beginning of the season, our ability to go to the next level, a large portion of it is going to be on the ability of those type of players to step up and bring more to the table than what we've asked of them in the last 12 months or so.

“A lot of them are doing a really good job of it.” 

For McMillan and Munster it is onwards and upwards after last week’s six-point defeat to Leinster and the controversy created by the incident before half-time that has overshadowed what was a very good game.

Tadhg Furlong was on Monday cited under Law 9.27 which states: “A player must not do anything that is against the spirit of good sportsmanship including but not limited to grabbing, twisting or squeezing the genitals.” The alleged incident occurred in the 37th minute. The URC statement stated that the “Citing Commissioner in charge has made a complaint about an act of foul play by the Player (Tadhg Furlong No 3) against opponent Gavin Coombes (No 8)”.

A disciplinary committee, made up of Simon Thomas (chair: Wales), Attie Heyns (South Africa) and Pamela Woodman (Scotland), will meet on Thursday with Furlong appearing via video conference.

“Nothing has changed for Gavin,” said McMillan. “Like, yeah, he turned up on Monday, and obviously, what's happened on the weekend is now in the hands of the judicial committee and, like the rest of the group, he's just turned up and focused on preparing for the Sharks this weekend, allowing whatever happens in the background to take care of itself.” 

Peter Ferguson of Scotland was the citing commissioner. His decision comes after TMO Colin Stanley was unable to find sufficient evidence of any potential wrongdoing when the matter was first brought to the attention of referee Andrew Brace.

It is understood that Ferguson has seen footage that was not shown at the time and, while Leinster head coach Leo Cullen expressed doubt about the allegation after the game, McMillan feels the opposite was obvious.

“I think it was obvious after the game when the Citing Commissioner was there that they saw a case to answer, and that's been proven to be the case. And again, we leave it in the hands of the judiciary. There's nothing more for us to add in that regard.”