Head coach Clayton McMillan has welcomed the Munster board’s review of the province’s governance announced on Tuesday morning.
In a statement the board said that it would commission an independent governance and organisational review to assess the organisation’s governance, leadership, culture and communications structures and to provide recommendations back to the board.
“I think I took note of that last week,” said McMillan. “That is a lot that we need to digest as an organisation and I welcome any review that’s going to ultimately help us be better.”
How Connacht are proving a stark contrast to reeling Munster
The move comes following the recent decision not to go ahead with the appointment of Roger Randle as attack coach by “mutual agreement”. Randle had previously worked with McMillan for six years at the Chiefs.
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Randle’s appointment had provoked disquiet among Munster supporters and activists due to an allegation of rape against him made in 1997 in Durban, South Africa, when the one-time winger was touring with New Zealand’s Hurricanes for a Super Rugby fixture.
All charges in the case were dropped, with Randle saying recently that he maintains his “complete and unwavering innocence, as I always have”.
Last week, McMillan said there were changes that needed to be made to give him the confidence and the support to be able to do the job that’s needed. However, he was unable to provide those details.
“No, at this stage, I think that’s what the independent review will give us direction around what independent people think we need to do to get better,” he said.
When asked if his experience was like that of Munster Rugby chief executive, Ian Flanagan, who said in the Tuesday statement, that the past number of weeks “have been difficult for staff, players, coaches, supporters, and everyone who cares about Munster Rugby”, McMillan conceded it hadn’t been easy.
“I think what I’ve communicated in the past is that I think the players have done an extremely good job of focusing on what they need to focus [on],” said McMillan.
“As coaches, personally, we have a greater awareness of the challenges that the club have been facing. It hasn’t been easy, but we understand that the way that we can help influence how other people feel is through our performances on the weekend.
“Again, performances like last week, don’t do a hell of a lot to inspire and make people feel better. That weighs heavier on us than any noise from the outside.”
Munster were beaten 26-7 by Connacht at Dexcom Stadium last Saturday and defeat on Saturday to the Lions in Thomond Park (kick-off 7.45pm) could leave them outside the URC playoff positions and next year’s Champions Cup.
The coach, however, does not believe the outside noise has seeped into the players thinking, or affected play.
“I don’t believe so, no,” he said. “There were elements of the game [against Connacht] afterwards that I thought we did well, particularly in the second half. When you’re playing a desperate team in front of a passionate crowd and a lot at stake, if you don’t produce your best then you lose.
“I saw that the emotion that they [Connacht] brought to the game was reflected mostly in the collision parts of the game. They ran harder into contact, they tackled harder, they competed harder for everything.
“People probably thought it looked one-sided because one team was accelerating into collisions and the other was sitting on their heels. Unfortunately, that was us.”
Should Munster miss out on the playoffs and Champions Cup, it could be hugely damaging to where the team are trying to get to in terms of consistent performances.
Munster are placed sixth on the table with Lions one place above them in fifth place and among several tightly grouped teams hoping to make the cut-off for the top eight.
“That would be huge [not to qualify]. It’s not where we wanted to be,” said McMillan. “We’ve put ourselves in this position and we’re the only ones that can find our way through. We just have to focus on the performances directly in front of us.
“Last week, it wasn’t a great performance and we need to be significantly better against the Lions team, who I feel would be equally disappointed not to put in a perfect performance.”
McMillan is hoping that Ireland outhalf Jack Crowley will be in contention to play on Saturday after returning to training following a leg injury.
“Jack Crowley’s trained fully the last couple of days, so he’s looking positive,” said McMillan. “Maybe we can’t count chickens before they hatch, but it’s all looking very positive.”
