MUNSTER HEAD COACH Clayton McMillan was pleased with having achieved consecutive bonus point wins, which have boosted the province’s push for the play-offs, though there was a downside to their 41-14 victory over a much-diluted Ulster.

The home side, who are now fifth in the URC table, picked up a number of injuries with McMillan admitting that there were “season-enders” for some of those who left the action early, though it is believed that Tadhg Beirne is not one of those in that bracket, nor indeed Jack Crowley, who withdrew from the team before kick-off due to a dead leg.

“Probably mixed emotions around the performance, and in the first half, I thought we did well to hold them out to seven (Munster led 12-7) at half-time, but what we encountered was a young Ulster team that was passionate, probably feeling like they had a lot to play for,” he said.

“Nobody was probably giving them a chance, and they just had us on our heels for the whole first half.

“So, I felt we were on our heels, and then when we did get a couple of opportunities with the ball, we were trying to create something out of nothing instead of just respecting the ball and going another phase.

“It was much better in the second half,” said McMillan when Munster managed to push it out to 29-7 before Ulster were able to respond.

“Some of the clunkiness of the performance can be attributed in part to a bit of disruption,” he said of the injuries which hit Munster, Jean Kleyn, Calvin Nash, Oli Jager and Tom Farrell having to be taken off.

“Jean Kleyn, he’s done something to his bicep. Calvin Nash, hamstring, Tom Farrell, shoulder.

“I’d say there’s probably two or three season-enders there.”

As for Beirne, McMillan said: “Tadhg took a bit of a nasty fall there, and he’s done something to his leg.

“He’s walking around all right, but something just doesn’t feel quite right now; it feels a bit sore, and he’ll bounce back,” McMillan added.