It might be early in the season but if Clayton McMillan is true to form, his instincts will be to coach Munster to become a more attack-minded team.
But Munster are different from McMillan’s former club, the Chiefs, and bringing what he did in New Zealand to the high-performance centre in Limerick may not directly transfer.
But if teams that McMillan has previously been involved with are anything to gauge things by, attack is in his DNA.
New Zealand-born Leinster coach Tyler Bleyendaal has occasionally brushed shoulders with the former policeman and when Bleyendaal was with the Hurricanes he attended a coaching course with McMillan in Manawatu on the North Island.
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“I obviously coached against his style of team that he’s led, and they’re also very attacking-minded, dangerous individuals, teams that are not conservative or necessarily worried about making errors. He’s definitely coached some pretty dangerous teams,” says Bleyendaal.
How are Leinster and Munster stacking up ahead of their first meeting of the season?
McMillan also built up a reputation in New Zealand for building culture within the clubs and teams he has been with, as well as instilling the offensive theme.
“Yeah, definitely. By all accounts that’s the feedback, he’s really good in that area,” says Bleyendaal. “I’m sure it’s not copy and paste from the Chiefs. I’m not sure that’s going to paste directly to Munster, but he’ll have a deep understanding of how to nurture that and challenge the players there.”
Culturally, McMillan saw his time spent in the police force dealing with people as a key part of his development, which he has said helped him connect with people and build up the strong team environment.
Tied in with the All Black ethos, he is a coach who believes the New Zealand mental skills coach under Steve Hansen, Gilbert Enoka, got it about right.
Enoka taught the players to police standards and hold themselves and coaches accountable. Rampant egos, regardless of talent, were not tolerated.
The course Bleyendaal attended with McMillan was organised by New Zealand Rugby and is an interesting insight into how they develop coaches.
“It was actually with horses of all things,” he says. “A leadership course where you have to train horses. It was different, challenging, and created some good self-awareness.
“You’re given your horse, and you try to lead it around. You got videoed doing it, so your body language and your communication, how you react to a stubborn mule, or you’ve got a big stallion.
“Then you’ve got the hang of things, and the next day they swap your bloody horse for something else, and you start again.
“The actual leadership is more of your self-awareness of how, in certain situations, you can be assertive, or you need to be a bit more of the caring type vibe, or just how you communicate in general. How you think you look versus what you actually look like.”
As a former Munster player Bleyendaal knows the deal and the heightened rivalry between the sides. In recent years, it has been one-sided, although this year it will have more edge because Leinster are needy for points after their slow start with those two opening defeats in South Africa.
But the numbers are poor for Munster, who have won just twice in the last 15 derby meetings with Leinster, making it less of a competitive rivalry in recent years, although the cultural battle zone is alive and well. The bragging rights remain an important matter for both teams.
“Not always good memories,” says Bleyendaal of his time with the Munster team.
Despite McMillan’s influence and that the two competing Irish outhalves Jack Crowley and Sam Prendergast will probably face each other, Bleyendaal does not see the game developing as a beauty contest, with the ball being flung around.
“They’ll be coming up there [to have a] really proper crack at us,” he says. “And it looks like we’re expecting that. So now, you know, here’s the challenge this week, what are we going to do? How’s our preparation going to look and, you know, we need to match that around our physicality and intent and understand the challenge that’s going to come.
“I mean, they’re not always the prettiest of battles between the two clubs, you know.”
Like brawling siblings they rarely are.
