Eight competitive matches into his reign, and halfway through the four-game Champions Cup pool stages, Clayton McMillan admits his Munster side are still searching and still striving to reach the levels of performance he is demanding.
But they could at least heave a collective sigh of relief after labouring to subdue a limited Gloucester for an hour before pulling clear to register a bonus-point, 31-3 win at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday night.
All the while, the games come thick and fast in this meaty middle part of McMillan’s first season at the helm, and he will juggle his squad for the upcoming URC games against the Ospreys (away), Leinster (home) and Ulster (away) before defining Champions Cup pool games away to Toulon and at home to old foes Castres.
Following Castres’ 33-0 win over Edinburgh on Sunday, Toulon beat Bath 45-34 at their Stade Felix Mayol fortress, which underlines the task facing Munster in January, but also threw Pool 2 wide open. Each team has one win and one loss, with Bath’s four-try bonus point in Toulon putting them top on six points, with the other five teams on five points. Munster sit third overall on points difference.
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Munster emerged unscathed from their exertions on a wintry night in Cork, but McMillan appreciates full well he will be obliged to rest his Irish contingent of captain Tadhg Beirne, Craig Casey, Jack Crowley and Tom Farrell for next Saturday’s URC trek to the Ospreys, ahead of their annual marquee Christmas fixture against a vengeful Leinster at Thomond Park on December 27th.
“Yeah, the internationals are going to have to have a break over the next couple of weeks. I’d probably get my head cut off if I decided that week was going to be the Leinster week,” he admitted with a wry smile, “so there’ll be a few that will miss out next week.
“There’s a few guys that I think put their hand up today that will make their selection easy, but we select a team each week that we think has the capacity to go and win the game, and sometimes that’ll mean very little changes; sometimes that will mean more than you would normally see.
“So definitely in a 10-game stretch, fourth game in, [there will be] some strategic thinking into who’s going to play next week.”
All the while, said McMillan, the goal was “to keep getting bigger every week”, adding: “Clearly we’ve got plenty to work on, but you look around at the competition and everybody’s in the same sort of boat. You could argue that the Stormers have been out in front and they’ve had an impressive performance,” he added in reference to their 42-21 win at home to La Rochelle. “But everyone’s kind of just searching for some consistency.”
No team more so than Munster. Having made nine changes in personnel after a 40-14 defeat in Bath which was “almost bordering on embarrassing”, McMillan will learn more again about his squad this week with Saturday’s tea-time meeting with the Ospreys in Bridgend’s Brewery Field.
“They will have our full respect, and that’s the challenge – to go away from home when you don’t have 35,000 people supporting for you and go over the ditch and perform and get a job done there. It won’t be easy, so just a full, honest week of preparation.”
Come January, and those games against Toulon and Castres, McMillan is looking for improvement “across the board”.
This starts with Munster’s set-piece, which “has had good and average moments”, and continued with “playing in the right parts of the field” and then executing more clinically than has been the case so far.
“There is no magic pill. There’s no magic player. We’ve just got to stick in the grind, enjoy that, and commit each day to getting better, and we know that if we do that, it’ll manifest into better performances on the next day.”
The stand-out result of the weekend was undoubtedly Glasgow’s 28-21 comeback win over Toulouse on Saturday evening. The Scots trailed by 21-0 at half-time after tries by Antoine Dupoint and two by 20-year-old centre Kalvin Gourges, before hitting the six-time champions with a four-try blitz in 21 second-half minutes, courtesy of Josh McKay, Gregor Brown, Sione Tuipulotu and Gregor Hiddleston.
Glasgow now lead Pool 1 with a maximum 10 points, while Toulouse are third on six points behind the Stormers on points difference, and face a battle to secure a top-four seeding for the knock-out stages.
As McMillan noted, the Stormers have shown real intent in this season’s Champions Cup and backed up their win away to Bayonne last weekend by beating an under-strength La Rochelle 42-21 in Cape Town on Saturday to lead Leinster in Pool 3 on points difference.
Both sides have nine points ahead of Leinster hosting a La Rochelle side likely to be at full throttle and visiting Bayonne in January, while the Stormers are away to Harlequins – bonus-point winners at home to a weakened Bayonne on Sunday – and at home to Leicester.
It may be a sprint, but plenty to do yet.
