THE UNUSUAL ELEMENT of this season’s Champions Cup campaign is that everyone plays one game in October and then has to wait another two months to play their second pool match in December. 

Those who started well last weekend would surely love to roll straight into another Champions Cup game, but attention shifts elsewhere this week.

Munster were pleased to be among those to open with a victory, taking pride in their 33-25 success over Racing on an emotional night at Páirc Uí Chaoimh in Cork.

Munster now have another big challenge to help immediately get their minds back onto the URC, with Clayton McMillan’s men visiting Dublin to take on Leinster at the Aviva Stadium this weekend.

Speaking on Saturday night in Cork, McMillan said he hadn’t yet spent much time looking at Leinster, but he knows what lies ahead.

“To be honest, I haven’t given it a hell of a lot of thought,” said McMillan. “A lot of energy went into this week, and we can now turn our attention to Leinster. I watched a good portion of the game [Leinster's clash with Clermont] before coming here.

“We know the quality that Leinster have. It’s an international side running around but our guys will celebrate tonight and then turn our attention on Monday to Leinster.

“I imagine after looking at the game tonight, they [Leinster] would have seen a number of avenues that they can look to attack us with. We’ll need to make sure that we do our homework and tidy up the areas where I think we were a little vulnerable tonight, but also look at where we can have a crack at them.”

McMillan was happy with Munster’s showing against Racing, particularly how they dealt with the French side’s physical power. The Kiwi head coach noted how the Munster scrum had gone well, their maul recovered from a poor opening, and how “a lot of our defensive sets were outstanding.”

Unfortunately for Munster, their five-try haul wasn’t enough to gain them a bonus point due to the change to the system for this Champions Cup campaign, which means scoring three tries more than your opponent to grab the extra match point.

Munster head coach Clayton McMillan. Dan Clohessy / INPHO Dan Clohessy / INPHO / INPHO

Racing bagged three tries of their own in Cork, denying Munster, but McMillan is a fan of the change to the bonus-point system.

“I like it personally,” said McMillan.

“I’d be a big advocate for no bonus points; I think you just win or lose, and that’s it. This is a format that’s used in Super Rugby so it’s not unfamiliar to me and I think it rewards teams that are clearly dominant for scoring three more tries than the opposition and doesn’t allow that team to loosen off late in the game and perhaps give opposition teams an opportunity to walk away with one or two points that they might not have got on another day. So, I like it personally.”

The Munster boss also likes the direction his team is moving in now.

They’ve won two and drawn one of the opening four games of their season, and McMillan believes there is evidence of genuine progress at the start of his second campaign in charge.

“I think so, yeah,” said McMillan.

“I hope what people are seeing is they’re seeing people that are happy to turn up to work, seeing the evolution of a clear identity around how we want to play; a team that when put under pressure is going to fight hard to win more moments than we lose. I think we’re seeing some good evidence of that.

“I think what you’re seeing is a youthful team and one that’s missing probably 10 starters. As a coach, you’d love to have all your bodies available but in the early part of the season when we’ve had tough games, we’ve been there or thereabouts, and I think that’s hugely positive.

“We look forward in the coming weeks and months to having a lot of those guys back and when we do, I think we could be a pretty good rugby team.”

It will be interesting to see how much McMillan changes his starting XV for the clash with Leinster on Saturday.

Shay McCarthy with Munster fans. Nick Elliott / INPHO Nick Elliott / INPHO / INPHO

He gave young players like 20-year-old out-half Charlie O’Shea, 22-year-old back rows Brian Gleeson and Seán Edogbo, and 23-year-old wing Shay McCarthy chances to impress against Racing. And McMillan was delighted with their efforts.

“I thought they did really well,” said McMillan. “They didn’t appear to be any different. They walked towards the challenge when they were named.

“I thought they all played exceptionally well against the Bulls and, over the first four weeks, we’ve had a fairly heavy rotation. It’s a pretty arduous first six weeks of the competition for us.

“There’s absolutely no easy games and we just won’t have the capacity to roll the same people out, week after week, so they’ve stepped up and forced people like Jack [O''Donoghue] to get… and know that there’s people breathing down his neck and that makes him get better and that’s what we need as a squad.

“They got some really bright moments out there, but equally we named a fairly experienced bench today, anticipating that it would go down to the wire and that’s what happened.

“I think some of our experience that came on had some influential moments that perhaps helped us get across the line, so it’s a collective effort, but those young guys are doing great.”