Munster's 'Journey': Analyzing the Recent Slide

As statement victories go, beating Leinster at Croke Park was up there. A fully loaded Leinster, brim full of Lions, at home, against a meandering Munster finding their feet under a new coach. A turning point, a sliding doors moment? The 31-14 bonus-point victory looked a real statement of intent from Clayton McMillan's men. To be fair to the New Zealander, in the interviews after the early run of victories, he never gave the sense of a man happy with a job well done. One imagined the immediate post-match dressing room briefings contained as many observations about what they did wrong as praise for what they got right. He was "kind of" happy after creeping past Cardiff and felt they "need to be better" after edging Edinburgh. But the success in Croke Park - their first regular-season win over Leo Cullen's side in seven years - was different. Munster stood up when it mattered and delivered across the park. The following week, Munster made it back-to-back interpro wins with a 17-15 success over Connacht. After five URC wins on the trot, everything appeared rosy in the garden. It all started to go awry in the last quarter of their sixth league game, at home to table-toppers Stormers. Three first-half tries, all converted, had the hosts in good shape at 21-6 up and they still looked good to see out the game when the South Africans scored two tries. Gavin Coombes was sent to the bin attempting to stop the first of those and the pack was struggling to deal with the visitors' power game. Munster tried a loop move in midfield which resulted in Jack Crowley's pass being intercepted by Ruhan Nel who ran half the length to win the match. An away win at Ospreys followed but since then it's been a downhill ride, from joint top to sixth. The bloodbath in Bath, when Lions player of the series Tadhg Beirne got an early yellow card in which time Munster conceded 21 points, was a shock to the system but there was still a belief that defeat to the Premiership champions was an aberration. However, the nature of the Champions Cup win over Gloucester at Páirc uí Chaoimh, when they needed late tries to secure a bonus point against a English side dutifully fulfilling a fixture, hinted that all was not right. Domestically, the struggles also continued with a brace of derby defeats to Leinster at home and Ulster away. The toil in Toulon could easily have resulted in another famous European win but two yellow cards - for Beirne (14 points conceded during that sin-bin) and Alex Nankivell - proved fatal. For all the talk about the phantom late penalty call against Tom Farrell, they shouldn't have been within reach in the crucial final stages. That set up the 'loser goes home' clash against Castres ahead of which those issues had been widely spoken about. And what happens? With the game in the balance, Farrell illegally clears out a ruck and goes on the naughty step. It's another 14-point mistake with the visitors scoring what turned out to be the winning tries. That led to a first pool-stage exit from the Champions Cup since 2020 - and may become a statement defeat of some note. Another period of reflection but how do you relay the same message to the same players? "It's one of the big challenges as a coaching group...to navigate over the season and find different ways of previewing and reviewing," McMillan told RTÉ Sport on Monday afternoon following a fourth loss in a row. "You find yourself on this merry-go-round where you are going extremely hard at players, other weeks where you give them a big pat on the back around some stuff, other days when you find a bit of a balance of both. "But [Monday] was one of those days where we actually needed to do a deep dive. We needed some honesty, a bit of vulnerability and we got that." McMillan, a former policeman, cuts a serious figure and the players have spoken in glowing terms of the former Chiefs boss, who arrived as the seventh head coach in a 13-year period and seemed to add some much needed stability to the organisation. Take out the 2023 surprise URC title, no mean feat, and the team have lived in the shadow of Leinster since 2009. Ulster, riding high under Richie Murphy, appear to be on the right track, too, while Connacht will give Stuart Lancaster time to settle. The majority of the Munster fan base are used to the high life, however, and second tier competition doesn't chime with the legacy of 2006 and 2008. Exeter away in April may be a hard sell. McMillan said he wasn't surprised that there were high expectations at his new club. "You do your homework and you understand where a squad is at, and what the competition is like," he said. "I would have spoken to a lot of people and was well informed when I came in here. "I would like to think that one of my real strengths is that my playing journey and my coaching journey has never been one of privilege. "It's always been inheriting teams. I don't know why, I don't always want this to happen, but inheriting teams that are perhaps in a state of transition or have been through some change. "I like to think that one of my skill sets is to go into those environments and put a plan in place that will bring about the change that's needed to be consistently competitive and contesting titles on a regular basis. "That's what we're seeing unfold. We all want things to get better at an accelerated rate, but we're just living the reality of where we currently are. "We're not happy about it, but I'm also realistic to know that we are on a little bit of a journey. "I say that with a bit of trepidation because it can be interpreted as you're looking for a free pass, and it's not that.". The head coach (above), who signed a three-year deal, had already dismissed the suggestion his head might be turned by the surprise vacancy at the All Blacks after Scott Robertson was sacked last week and added: "I made a commitment to come here and I fully intend to see that out." The next block of URC games - against Dragons on Friday in Cork and away to Glasgow the following week - will be instructive. The Welsh side, who won just twice last season, have won four and drawn twice in all competitions this season already and look a more awkward opponent. Glasgow, one week out from the Six Nations, will have more players on international duty so a gritty performance is the least McMillan's charges need to produce against a second-string Warriors team. After bursting out of the blocks at the start of the season, it's been a worrying slide over the last three months and McMillan will be fully aware more is expected.