MUNSTER BOSS CLAYTON McMillan hailed the impact of 30-year-old tighthead prop Conor Bartley off the bench in his side’s Champions Cup win over Gloucester in Cork.
Young Munster RFC man Bartley made his Champions Cup debut in the closing stages of Munster’s 31-3 bonus-point victory, helping McMillan’s side to two scrum penalties during his 11-minute stint on the pitch.
Bartley had the power of lock Edwin Edogbo behind him at scrum time and did an impressive job in his first taste of Champions Cup rugby.
A standout player in the All-Ireland League over the last decade, Bartley first joined Munster on a short-term basis in November 2024 and has since earned two extensions to that deal despite injuries hampering him.
Having recently made his return to action for Young Munster in the AIL, Bartley was promoted onto the Munster bench for tonight’s clash with Gloucester and did well on what was just his second professional appearance for the province.
“They all had their moments, but I was particularly happy for Conor Bartley,” said McMillan as he praised the Munster bench’s impact at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
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“He’s pretty unheralded. He’s a guy that’s beavered away for 30-odd years of club rugby. Never thought he’d put on a Munster jersey until he did in round one [of the URC against the Stormers], got injured.
“He’s been sitting out for the last seven or eight weeks and then went out and had a couple of really big impacts at scrum time. Super proud of him and he’s going to get more opportunities.”
Although they finished with a flurry of three tries in the closing 13 minutes of their clash with Gloucester, it was a frustrating evening for Munster for large parts of their Pool 2 game in Cork.
Five match points are a pleasing return after last weekend’s hammering at the hands of Bath, but McMillan was understandably disappointed with the scrappy nature of the Munster showing.
“To be fair, we never expected it to be easy, but I think we’re grateful for the win,” said McMillan.
“We’re happy to get ourselves on the scoreboard in terms of the European Cup stuff, but I think we’ll probably wake up in the morning or even now, and know that we could have been a lot better.”
McMillan felt his Munster side forced things as they tried to score tries.
“I still think we’ve got a long way to go in terms of reaching that level of consistency that you need to have to really be contenders at the end of the day,” said the Munster boss.
“But there were still lots of positives. I think my overriding sense would be that sometimes your will to do something so well becomes the reason it doesn’t.
“And, you know, there’s a lot of care in the team and there’s a lot of willingness to want to step up and do something well for the team, but I just feel like we forced a lot today instead of just letting the game come to us.”
McMillan also pointed to Munster’s “habit of stacking a couple of negatives before we get a positive” as restrictive.
As with last weekend’s defeat to Bath, there was frustration about Munster’s inability to turn visits into the opposition 22 into points on the scoreboard.
“Our 22 metre entry conversion rate is something that we have talked about a lot in our training weeks, and we’ve put a fair amount of time into actually training it out on the rugby field.
“So the disappointment, I guess, comes from knowing that we’re putting in the work but not necessarily seeing the reward come game time.”
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'He's pretty unheralded. I'm super proud of him' - McMillan
MUNSTER BOSS CLAYTON McMillan hailed the impact of 30-year-old tighthead prop Conor Bartley off the bench in his side’s Champions Cup win over Gloucester in Cork.
Young Munster RFC man Bartley made his Champions Cup debut in the closing stages of Munster’s 31-3 bonus-point victory, helping McMillan’s side to two scrum penalties during his 11-minute stint on the pitch.
Bartley had the power of lock Edwin Edogbo behind him at scrum time and did an impressive job in his first taste of Champions Cup rugby.
A standout player in the All-Ireland League over the last decade, Bartley first joined Munster on a short-term basis in November 2024 and has since earned two extensions to that deal despite injuries hampering him.
Having recently made his return to action for Young Munster in the AIL, Bartley was promoted onto the Munster bench for tonight’s clash with Gloucester and did well on what was just his second professional appearance for the province.
“They all had their moments, but I was particularly happy for Conor Bartley,” said McMillan as he praised the Munster bench’s impact at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
“He’s pretty unheralded. He’s a guy that’s beavered away for 30-odd years of club rugby. Never thought he’d put on a Munster jersey until he did in round one [of the URC against the Stormers], got injured.
“He’s been sitting out for the last seven or eight weeks and then went out and had a couple of really big impacts at scrum time. Super proud of him and he’s going to get more opportunities.”
Although they finished with a flurry of three tries in the closing 13 minutes of their clash with Gloucester, it was a frustrating evening for Munster for large parts of their Pool 2 game in Cork.
Five match points are a pleasing return after last weekend’s hammering at the hands of Bath, but McMillan was understandably disappointed with the scrappy nature of the Munster showing.
“To be fair, we never expected it to be easy, but I think we’re grateful for the win,” said McMillan.
“We’re happy to get ourselves on the scoreboard in terms of the European Cup stuff, but I think we’ll probably wake up in the morning or even now, and know that we could have been a lot better.”
McMillan felt his Munster side forced things as they tried to score tries.
“I still think we’ve got a long way to go in terms of reaching that level of consistency that you need to have to really be contenders at the end of the day,” said the Munster boss.
“But there were still lots of positives. I think my overriding sense would be that sometimes your will to do something so well becomes the reason it doesn’t.
“And, you know, there’s a lot of care in the team and there’s a lot of willingness to want to step up and do something well for the team, but I just feel like we forced a lot today instead of just letting the game come to us.”
McMillan also pointed to Munster’s “habit of stacking a couple of negatives before we get a positive” as restrictive.
As with last weekend’s defeat to Bath, there was frustration about Munster’s inability to turn visits into the opposition 22 into points on the scoreboard.
“Our 22 metre entry conversion rate is something that we have talked about a lot in our training weeks, and we’ve put a fair amount of time into actually training it out on the rugby field.
“So the disappointment, I guess, comes from knowing that we’re putting in the work but not necessarily seeing the reward come game time.”
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