{"id":439826,"date":"2026-05-09T05:13:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T05:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/439826\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T05:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T05:13:11","slug":"clayton-mcmillan-staying-on-as-munster-head-coach-is-in-the-interest-of-both-parties-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/439826\/","title":{"rendered":"Clayton McMillan staying on as Munster head coach is in the interest of both parties \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another week and yet another episode of both predictable and unpredictable twists and turns in the pure soap opera that is Munster Rugby<\/a>. Whatever else Munster do, they rarely do dull.<\/p>\n

All too predictably, of course, it was left to the players on Monday to understandably give \u201cno comment\u201d straight bats to any questions regarding the off-field drama that has accompanied the province in recent weeks, followed by Clayton McMillan<\/a> fielding questions in his characteristically blunt and candid manner on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Yet one cannot help but feel that were the late Garret FitzGerald still the chief executive he would have fronted up on behalf of Munster Rugby. Amid it all too, staff have been notified that on foot of Munster seeking voluntary redundancies, there will now be a \u201cminimal\u201d number of compulsory redundancies.<\/p>\n

In the fallout of the decision not to appoint Roger Randle as their next attack coach and the resignations of voluntary members of the Professional Games Committee and the Commercial Advisory Group, one can only imagine what morale must be like within the organisation.<\/p>\n

Yet, true to form, in their latest time of crisis it would appear as if Munster have pulled together on the training ground and on the pitch. Munster squads have long since wanted to rid themselves of an us-against-the-world mentality and needing a cause to rally together. Yet after a run of just two narrow wins in 10 matches, at home to Zebre and the Dragons, they have put together back-to-back bonus-point wins over Benetton and Ulster.<\/p>\n

There has been shows of defiance in the way they earned two bonus points against the Bulls in Loftus Versfeld and even in the second half of their loss to Exeter. The ensuing, eye-catching 45-15 win in Treviso was put into perspective by Benetton\u2019s victory over Leinster a week later and was probably Munster\u2019s best display since their win at Croke Park last October.<\/p>\n

On the field at any rate, Munster are close to salvaging their season. They\u2019re weakened by injuries to key players like Tadhg Beirne and Jack Crowley, but they make for dangerous foes for Connacht in a packed Dexcom on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

What has surprised was the degree to which McMillan himself raised the possibility of him not staying beyond the end of this season. For us in the media, McMillan has been refreshing. He has a straight, uncomplicated nature which leads him to give questions due thought and answer them honestly. Don\u2019t go changing Clayton. <\/p>\n

But two comments in particular stood out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m fully committed to the team until the end of the season,\u201d he said, \u201cThere\u2019s no doubt about that. Other people might make a decision around whether I\u2019m here next year or the year after. If that\u2019s what people decide, if I\u2019m not the best person to lead this team forward, that will be their decision. But I don\u2019t walk away from a fight easily.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are plenty of people in this building who, I believe, want me to stay here and believe in the direction that we are heading. To walk away would feel like I\u2019m letting them down.\u201d<\/p>\n

This placed a shortened time frame on his stay for the first time ever despite his three-year contract. There\u2019s no doubting his disappointment over the non-appointment of Randle, whom he has steadfastly backed in response to the fallout from the accusations of rape against his former Chiefs assistant which dated back to 1997 and were subsequently withdrawn without charge.<\/p>\n

One also senses that the decision not to appoint Randle was indeed \u201cmutually agreed\u201d and was in the best interests of Randle and his family, rather than the result of any opposition from within Munster.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, it\u2019s believed that many of those who stepped down from the aforementioned voluntary boards did so in protest at the decision-making process and the governance within Munster.<\/p>\n

In stressing he and the players had each other\u2019s back, McMillan also said: \u201cI think there\u2019s still a bit of water to run under the bridge. There are things that people are going to reflect on and I encourage that because there are changes that I think need to be made to give me, I guess, the confidence that I have the support to be able to do the job that\u2019s needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Irish rugby\u2019s structures are somewhat more centralised than in New Zealand and one ventures that, most likely, this is a classical appeal from a head coach to have more autonomy in choosing his coaching and playing staff.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, too, one imagines, McMillan would like to be the All Blacks coach one day. To that end, New Zealand rugby is, seemingly, more accepting of coaches who partially cut their teeth abroad than in the past \u2013 witness the appointment of Dave Rennie as All Blacks coach.<\/p>\n

So, if McMillan is to one day follow suit, then restoring Munster to former glories rather than departing one year into a three-year deal would look the better path.<\/p>\n

Pending an external investigation into the initial decision to hire Randle and the resulting fallout, it does seem likely that there will be further consequences. For there not to be any wouldn\u2019t stack up.<\/p>\n

But one ventures this will not include the departure of McMillan. More instability is the last thing Munster want or need, and that goes for the IRFU and, most probably, for him too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Another week and yet another episode of both predictable and unpredictable twists and turns in the pure soap…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[11896,61,60,11897,112,63463],"class_list":["post-439826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-clayton-mcmillan","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-munster-rugby","tag-sports","tag-the-counter-ruck"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}