MUNSTER HEAD COACH Clayton McMillan has welcomed the announcement that the province has commissioned an independent governance and organisational review.

The review was prompted by the fallout from the appointment from next season of McMillan’s former assistant at the Chiefs, Roger Randle, as attack coach and the decision then not to proceed with it.

“There’s a lot that we need to digest as an organisation and I welcome any review that’s going to ultimately help us be better,” said McMillan at the press conference to prepare for their crunch URC clash with the Lions on Saturday evening.

McMillan said last week that there were changes he felt were needed to give the confidence to be able to do the job, but he declined to disclose those changes ahead of the review.

“I hope that’s what the independent review will give us; direction around what independent people think we need to do, to get better,” added the New Zealander.

Munster have received a boost with Jack Crowley looking good to return to play this weekend after missing the defeat to Connacht in Galway with a troublesome leg injury, but McMillan confirmed that captain Tadhg Beirne will not be back from injury.

“Jack Crowley’s trained fully in the last couple of days, so he’s looking positive, given the nature of his injury where it’s sort of been intermittent. Maybe counted chickens before they hatch, but it’s all looking very positive.

“He’s about the only one I think that’s been on the long-term injury list, it would be a realistic option for this weekend.”

Munster are also sweating on the availability of hooker Diarmuid Barron following his red card for a croc roll on his opposite number Dylan Tierney-Martin in the 26-7 loss to Connacht.

“We haven’t heard back when that’s going to be yet, so we’re hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst in terms of his availability. But he’s fit and ready to go if we get the green light, which we intend to contest the decision,” added McMillan.

Munster will finish in the top half and qualify for next season’s Champions Cup if Connacht do not win away to Edinburgh, but a victory for Stuart Lancaster’s men could make it uncomfortable for Munster, who would probably need to win against the Lions to ensure safe passage.

McMillan knows the stakes are high and that failure to qualify for the Champions Cup for the first time in history would be enormous.

“That would be huge,” he added. “It’s not where we want to be, but we’ve put ourselves in this position and we’re the only ones that can fight our way through to a solution.

“But we can’t put our attention on what might be. We just have to focus on the performances directly in front of us.

“Last week, it wasn’t a great performance. We need to be significantly better against the Lions team, who will be equally desperate to put in a performance. I know it sounds cliché, but if we get distracted by anything other than what we need to do to bring that performance to fruition, then we’ll be caught with our pants down.”