Munster head coach Clayton McMillan set out to turn Saturday’s United Rugby Championship match in Croke Park into a hard scrap in the hope of getting around Leinster’s quality. Beaming after the match, McMillan was proud of the way his players knuckled down to win the game.
“I just wanted to make it a dogfight. Leinster are just too good a side that if you sit and wait and sort of give them a moment to impose their game on you, then you’re going to be losing,” said the New Zealander.
“So, we needed to be in the scrap for everything and want to be the hunter, not the hunted. So that’s the basic gist of it.”
Four tries to the good and the first win over Leinster since the 2023 league semi-final and Munster have now won four games from four in this year’s championship.
RM Block
Although Leinster were dominant in the set piece and scored the first try of the match, Munster’s team spirit earned them the much-deserved win.
“I thought we were pretty good across the board. We were under pressure early, particularly around our scrum, but we wanted to work hard for each other tonight. We wanted to win all the little moments and we did that,” said McMillan.
“A few turnovers late in the second half showed just how committed Munster were in the breakdown and most particularly when Leinster applied pressure just after the half-time break.
Highlighting the performance of his captain Tadhg Beirne, McMillan added: “This guy is probably the epitome of somebody who’s got a high [ceiling] in terms of where he is in terms of his performances. The roof is pretty high and you don’t see too much of a dip in him.
“Our challenge as a team is to raise that floor so that the days between our bad performances and our good ones aren’t so big.
“The last couple of weeks have been tough. We haven’t been concerned looking at the points, the ladder and patting ourselves on the back. We wanted to be better in our performances, come off the field, look in the mirror and be proud of what we’re producing. And today will be one of those days.”
Beirne added that he was proud of the players, who to a man put their bodies on the line, especially during the second half where they kept Leinster scoreless until replacement Scott Penny scored with the final play of the night.
“We haven’t beaten Leinster away since the [2023 URC] semi-final or beaten them actually. So it’s been a long time. It was a nice way to do it. Very proud of the lads,” said Beirne.
“One to 23, our coaching staff gave us a game plan and we stuck to it from minute one and I think that’s the reason we were able to come out with the win.
“Defensively it’s something we’re working on. We know ourselves there’s much improvement that we need to keep getting better there in terms of our contacts and ruck, all that kind of stuff. I think we took a step forward today, which is great.”
