Clayton McMillan will get a taste of old-school rugby when he brings his Munster side to the Brewery Field in Bridgend for Saturday’s URC clash with the Ospreys (5.30pm).
Munster have not been back at the club ground since a 16-12 Heineken Cup win over Bridgend 24 years ago in their sole appearance at the venue.
Ospreys, who, like the other three Welsh sides, face an uncertain future, have moved their home games from Swansea in a bid to reduce costs.
The heavy grass pitch can take a toll on wet days as Connacht found out recently there when blowing a 21-0 lead in the Challenge Cup and McMillan said this was one of the reasons for going with a 6-2 split on the bench for Saturday’s game.
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“We’re anticipating it’s heavy ground. It’s going to be wet. And that will take its toll, I think, on the forwards in particular. So that’s why we’ve gone with a 6-2. But we’ve also got the luxury at the moment of having a number of available bodies.
“And our high rotation in part has been around creating competition internally for spaces. And some of that has created a little bit of the clunkiness that you’re seeing because there’s obviously value in having cohesion.
“But right now that’s at the low end of our priority around building cohesion. It’s a long way to go into this competition. And what we want is we want more bodies being available and pushing hard at training and then in games,” said McMillan.
He expects to draft most of the replacement forwards in the third quarter and expects momentum from them.
“You don’t select a 6-2 bench with a view to leaving half of them still sitting on the bench at the end of the game. It does give you the luxury of putting two-thirds of a pack on at some stage in the second half.
“And you’re going back to that sort of everybody adding value that they’ve got to come on and add value. And if they do that, then the team benefits. But also it forces the selection in the following week.”
McMillan said that while they were pleased to get the bonus-point win over Gloucester in the Champions Cup at Páirc Uí Chaoimh at the weekend, they weren’t pleased with the display.
A lot of work during the week has been trying to get them to be more ruthless in attack and converting chances into scores.
“Particularly in and around our 22 metres,” added the New Zealander. “I think we had 15 entries, which is a huge amount. If you’re getting that many and you’re converting even half of them, you’re winning rugby games and you’re winning them comfortably. So a big focus around the execution in that area. I guess better clarity. Yeah, so that’s probably been our biggest focus.”
Munster hold the edge in this fixture, having won 26 of the 43 previous clashes between the sides. The Ospreys have won 16 of them with one draw.
Munster may have lost their winning start to the season last time out in the league when they went down at home to the Stormers but they have won both away games in the URC so far in this campaign with victories against Scarlets and Leinster.
He knows that the Ospreys, like the other three Welsh sides, are battling for more than match points this season.
“We all feel for the current situation they’re in, no one likes to see rugby teams fold or get forced to reduce from four down to three. That’s not a situation we like to be seeing in rugby and we feel for everyone involved.
“But it does create some internal motivation to go out there and perform and maybe force the hand of the decision-makers.
“I’m not too sure if they’ve already made the decision around which team is staying in. But I imagine they’ve all got a lot to play for. You respect that emotion,” added McMillan.
MUNSTER: Mike Haley; Calvin Nash, Tom Farrell, Alex Nankivell, Shane Daly; Jack Crowley, Paddy Patterson; Jeremy Loughman, Niall Scannell, Michael Ala’alatoa; Jean Kleyn, Fineen Wycherley; Jack O’Donoghue (capt), Alex Kendellen, Gavin Coombes.
Replacements: Lee Barron, Michael Milne, Conor Bartley, Edwin Edogbo, Tom Ahern, Ethan Coughlan, JJ Hanrahan, John Hodnett.
