MUNSTER HEAD COACH Clayton McMillan said there has been interest from around the rugby world in the soon-to-be-vacant position of attack coach at the province.
Current senior coach Mike Prendergast, who is in charge of Munster’s attack, is leaving at the end of this season.
Mossy Lawler is Munster’s skills and assistant attack coach, making him an obvious contender from within the set-up.
But while McMillan was quick to praise Lawler’s influence and coaching ability, the New Zealander said Munster will bring in a new coach.
“The first thing is that I have a huge amount of respect for Mossy Lawler,” said McMillan.
“I think he’s a very intelligent coach with a big future ahead of him. So any decisions we make in the attack space, it’s really important for me that he’s an important consideration in and around that.
“But we do see it as a two-person job and so we’re actively in the market. We’ve had a lot of interest throughout the whole world, as you can appreciate, and we’ll bring the right person in.”
An obvious candidate is Chiefs attack coach Roger Randle, with whom McMillan worked closely with during his time in charge of the Kiwi club.
McMillan confirmed that Randle’s representative has contacted Munster about the job, but he said there have been many more contenders signalling their interest too.
“Yeah, his agent got in contact with us, yeah,” said McMillan of Randle.
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Roger Randle [right] is interested in the role. Photosport / Aaron Gillions/INPHO
Photosport / Aaron Gillions/INPHO / Aaron Gillions/INPHO
“There’s been people back in New Zealand that I would have worked with before.
“There’s people that I would have had a good relationship with through Super Rugby that are in Australia that have put their names forward. There’s Kiwis that were coaching in the Premiership that no longer have jobs.
“There’s an abundance of coaches out there but as I said, for me, it’s around do they have the skill set to come here and help us be better, but also have they got the personality to work alongside Mossy.”
As McMillan and Munster look to make the right appointment on the attack coach front, they are also finalising their playing squad ahead of next season.
They have already confirmed the signing of Springboks hooker Marnus van der Merwe, while Munster are expected to sign tighthead prop Jack Aungier from Connacht.
As for departures, Munster lock Jean Kleyn will move on to Gloucester and hooker Niall Scannell will retire. Short-term tighthead signing Michael Alaalatoa is also set to leave.
Furthermore, McMillan essentially confirmed that South African wing Thaakir Abrahams will be moving on at the end of the season. Abrahams has been strongly linked with a move to the Bulls.
“We’ve communicated with Thaakir quite early that his position in the squad isn’t guaranteed,” said McMillan.
“We love him as a bloke. He’s one of the best humans you’ll come across. We love what he can do as a rugby player, but one of the areas you have to recognise is where you need to plug some gaps in your roster and sometimes that means that you’ve got to let good people go in order to fill the gaps, and NIQ is obviously one of those avenues.
“So, look at this stage we haven’t promised him an opportunity beyond next year because to be perfectly frank, we need to keep a spot open to fill gaps in the squad in positions where there’s a higher need.”
Abrahams, Alaalatoa and Kleyn are all NIQ [non-Irish-qualified] players, so their exits could leave Munster with scope to bring in at least one more player in that category.
Thaakir Abrahams is set to move on this summer. Bryan Keane / INPHO
Bryan Keane / INPHO / INPHO
Munster centre Alex Nankivell is NIQ, as is new signing van der Merwe, and McMillan said there is room for one more in the squad.
There have been concerns that last week’s announcement of voluntary redundancies in Munster might impact the scope for McMillan to go to the market for players, but he said that this isn’t the case.
“It’s delicate at the moment because obviously the club is in, you know, there’s some challenges financially that’s been well documented, but none of the communication that I’ve had has said that that’s going to have a huge impact on our ability to be able to retain or recruit the talent we need to be competitive at the next level.
“Now, it’s not an empty bucket. We’re not going to be frivolous or anything like that, and the reality is we’re probably only looking for two or three players to round out our squad.
“We’ve got one NIQ spot to fill, with some of our ones that we have now moving on, Jean Kleyn and that. So, some decisions to make around that, but in that particular one, not rushing into it.
“So to answer the question, no, I don’t believe that the news that’s come out is going to have a huge impact on our ability to recruit and to retain quality players or staff.”
Even with Aungier expected to join from Connacht and academy prop Ronan Foxe being promoted to the senior squad this summer, it still feels like Munster could benefit from a top-class signing at tighthead prop ahead of next season.
It remains to be seen if anything happens there, but McMillan was happy to report that Roman Salanoa, who hasn’t played since the 2023 URC final, may make his long-awaited comeback before the end of this season.
Tighthead prop Salanoa has struggled with knee injuries since but Munster have stuck by him, while the Hawaii native has also been training with IRFU staff at the union’s high performance centre in Dublin.
“He’s in the building, he’s training,” said McMillan. “He had a little setback with a calf strain, but nothing that was related to… just the increased load of getting going from what he was doing down in Dublin, working down there, and then coming back and integrating into rugby.
“So he had a little setback but he’s working his way back in and we’re really hopeful that he’ll get out on the park this year. We’ve got a couple of A games coming up, and that’s really his avenue to keep putting himself in front of the coaches and the club to keep him here longer term.
“He’s in good spirits, he’s looking in good nick.”
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'We've had a lot of interest' - McMillan's Munster seek attack coach
MUNSTER HEAD COACH Clayton McMillan said there has been interest from around the rugby world in the soon-to-be-vacant position of attack coach at the province.
Current senior coach Mike Prendergast, who is in charge of Munster’s attack, is leaving at the end of this season.
Mossy Lawler is Munster’s skills and assistant attack coach, making him an obvious contender from within the set-up.
But while McMillan was quick to praise Lawler’s influence and coaching ability, the New Zealander said Munster will bring in a new coach.
“The first thing is that I have a huge amount of respect for Mossy Lawler,” said McMillan.
“I think he’s a very intelligent coach with a big future ahead of him. So any decisions we make in the attack space, it’s really important for me that he’s an important consideration in and around that.
“But we do see it as a two-person job and so we’re actively in the market. We’ve had a lot of interest throughout the whole world, as you can appreciate, and we’ll bring the right person in.”
An obvious candidate is Chiefs attack coach Roger Randle, with whom McMillan worked closely with during his time in charge of the Kiwi club.
McMillan confirmed that Randle’s representative has contacted Munster about the job, but he said there have been many more contenders signalling their interest too.
“Yeah, his agent got in contact with us, yeah,” said McMillan of Randle.
“There’s been people back in New Zealand that I would have worked with before.
“There’s people that I would have had a good relationship with through Super Rugby that are in Australia that have put their names forward. There’s Kiwis that were coaching in the Premiership that no longer have jobs.
“There’s an abundance of coaches out there but as I said, for me, it’s around do they have the skill set to come here and help us be better, but also have they got the personality to work alongside Mossy.”
As McMillan and Munster look to make the right appointment on the attack coach front, they are also finalising their playing squad ahead of next season.
They have already confirmed the signing of Springboks hooker Marnus van der Merwe, while Munster are expected to sign tighthead prop Jack Aungier from Connacht.
As for departures, Munster lock Jean Kleyn will move on to Gloucester and hooker Niall Scannell will retire. Short-term tighthead signing Michael Alaalatoa is also set to leave.
Furthermore, McMillan essentially confirmed that South African wing Thaakir Abrahams will be moving on at the end of the season. Abrahams has been strongly linked with a move to the Bulls.
“We’ve communicated with Thaakir quite early that his position in the squad isn’t guaranteed,” said McMillan.
“We love him as a bloke. He’s one of the best humans you’ll come across. We love what he can do as a rugby player, but one of the areas you have to recognise is where you need to plug some gaps in your roster and sometimes that means that you’ve got to let good people go in order to fill the gaps, and NIQ is obviously one of those avenues.
“So, look at this stage we haven’t promised him an opportunity beyond next year because to be perfectly frank, we need to keep a spot open to fill gaps in the squad in positions where there’s a higher need.”
Abrahams, Alaalatoa and Kleyn are all NIQ [non-Irish-qualified] players, so their exits could leave Munster with scope to bring in at least one more player in that category.
Munster centre Alex Nankivell is NIQ, as is new signing van der Merwe, and McMillan said there is room for one more in the squad.
There have been concerns that last week’s announcement of voluntary redundancies in Munster might impact the scope for McMillan to go to the market for players, but he said that this isn’t the case.
“It’s delicate at the moment because obviously the club is in, you know, there’s some challenges financially that’s been well documented, but none of the communication that I’ve had has said that that’s going to have a huge impact on our ability to be able to retain or recruit the talent we need to be competitive at the next level.
“Now, it’s not an empty bucket. We’re not going to be frivolous or anything like that, and the reality is we’re probably only looking for two or three players to round out our squad.
“We’ve got one NIQ spot to fill, with some of our ones that we have now moving on, Jean Kleyn and that. So, some decisions to make around that, but in that particular one, not rushing into it.
“So to answer the question, no, I don’t believe that the news that’s come out is going to have a huge impact on our ability to recruit and to retain quality players or staff.”
Even with Aungier expected to join from Connacht and academy prop Ronan Foxe being promoted to the senior squad this summer, it still feels like Munster could benefit from a top-class signing at tighthead prop ahead of next season.
It remains to be seen if anything happens there, but McMillan was happy to report that Roman Salanoa, who hasn’t played since the 2023 URC final, may make his long-awaited comeback before the end of this season.
Tighthead prop Salanoa has struggled with knee injuries since but Munster have stuck by him, while the Hawaii native has also been training with IRFU staff at the union’s high performance centre in Dublin.
“He’s in the building, he’s training,” said McMillan. “He had a little setback with a calf strain, but nothing that was related to… just the increased load of getting going from what he was doing down in Dublin, working down there, and then coming back and integrating into rugby.
“So he had a little setback but he’s working his way back in and we’re really hopeful that he’ll get out on the park this year. We’ve got a couple of A games coming up, and that’s really his avenue to keep putting himself in front of the coaches and the club to keep him here longer term.
“He’s in good spirits, he’s looking in good nick.”
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big job Clayton McMillan Munster Roger Randle