A WIN IS a win. For Clayton McMillan, that was more than enough to signal a job well done on Saturday night. 

Munster’s 17-15 victory over Connacht wasn’t the most convincing or cohesive display, but when such a performance adds to a five game winning streak, it can get held in a different light. In previous seasons Munster have at times frustrated with their inaccuracies and wastefulness. Here, against a good – albeit depleted Connacht team – they came through some sticky spells and found a way to win. The mark of a good team.

The province are still in the very early days of their journey with new boss McMillan, but five rounds into the new URC season, they are taking on the look of a group who are becoming hard to beat. At this point in time, that feels like more than enough.

“We always go out and want to win every game,” McMillan said.

“History or common sense or the reality of high performance sport is that that’s not going to happen. So we’re grateful that we’re building points, there’s a long way to go but every point matters. It hasn’t come to us easy and that’s been something that we’ve talked about a little bit, that we’ve found a way, we did that again tonight.

I still think we’re miles away from playing our best rugby. When we get all of our best players available I reckon we could be some hell of a team, but for the time being we’ll just accept that we aren’t quite that team.

“But we are growing a bit of belief, we’re getting a better understanding around the team that we want to be. Not just out on the field but day-to-day habits and we’re growing in depth so there’s a huge amount of positives.”

That depth is already getting a good test across an attritional start to the season. Academy scrum-half Jake O’Riordan came off the bench to make his senior debut against Connacht, and McMillan was full of praise for the way a youthful Munster bench helped deliver a fairly controlled end game, singling out 22-year-old flanker Ruadhan Quinn and the scrum work of prop Ronan Foxe (22). Half-backs O’Riordan and Tony Butler (23) also had a positive impact.

“At the end of the day the difference was our bench,” McMillan said. “They came on and in that pivotal moment they provided us with just enough to get on the front foot.

Munster's Jake O'Riordan with his first cap. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO

“I think we’ve used 41 players in the last five games, I haven’t taken any liberty to see if other teams have used the same amount but I just think that’s the only way we’re going to get better and build depth, giving people opportunities.

“Obviously when your internationals leave your hand gets forced a little bit, we’ve had our fair share of injuries but it’s nights like tonight where the minutes that other people got earlier on in the year, you hope that pays dividends, and it wasn’t perfect tonight but Connacht were pretty bloody good, there wasn’t many holes there, they filled the field really, really well.

“I think we were guilty of probably going a little bit east-west when we just needed to go a little bit more north-south but they were good. We got across the line, five from five, there’s nothing to sneeze at and once we get through next week we can take a bit of time to reflect on the last five weeks and then get ready to go again.”

One of those players who has stepped up over the last few weeks is flanker Jack O’Donoghue. The Waterford man was excellent in the win against Leinster and played a captain’s role against Connacht, scoring two of Munster’s three tries.

“Yeah, it’s not often I get over the try line,” O’Donoghue said, continuing to explain how Munster had approached the game after the high of Croke Park.

“It was tough to match the emotion of last week but we spoke about it during the week, about if you can’t get there emotionally you have to go bring accuracy, and at times we had that, at times we didn’t.

“But from my own personal point of view I was trying to do what Tadhg (Beirne) did (for the Leinster game), lead from the front in your actions, in your work rate, in getting into battles and showing up for the lads around you.

“It’s incredibly satisfying. We kept pounding away at their line, there was probably times where we weren’t too happy with the backs taking the ball out but as a forward pack I think we fronted up, we kept working and ultimately we got over the line in the end which was really pleasing.”

“We stay grounded, there’s a long, long way to go,” McMillan added.

“You’ve just got to celebrate these sorts of moments to get through this block, five from five. Next week (Saturday) we play an Argentina XV, we want to really respect that game, it’s another opportunity to build on the proud legacy of what Munster have done against international teams.

“We’ve also got to assess the injury clinic and it might be another opportunity for a few blokes that have been doing a hell of a lot behind the scenes to help us get ready for games, it might be an opportunity to go out and see what they can produce.”