The news that Clayton McMillan is heading to Munster later this year caused as much surprise in New Zealand as it obviously did in Ireland, but for vastly different reasons.
Whereas the prevailing view in Ireland appears to be a collective wondering about who on Earth this guy actually is, the surprise in New Zealand only relates to the timing, as McMillan will be leaving with a year still to run on his Chiefs contract, with everyone expecting him to see it out and further establish his credentials as the hottest emerging coach in the country.
[ Clayton McMillan appointed new head coach of Munster on three-year contractOpens in new window ]
Having steered the Chiefs to three Super Rugby finals in his five years so far at the helm, and having last week destroyed the Crusaders in a record victory that saw his side produce the best 40 minutes of rugby in the last decade, McMillan has established himself as arguably the next All Blacks coach-in-waiting.
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McMillan has produced the sort of results – he’s also produced victories in his side hustle as the coach of the All Blacks XV who beat both Munster and Georgia last year – to say that if he had hung around in New Zealand until 2027, he’d be the strongest internal candidate – which includes the likes of Vern Cotter and Jamie Joseph who have international experience – to challenge the incumbent All Blacks coach Scott Robertson for his job.
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He didn’t say, when speaking to New Zealand media hours after his impending departure was announced, that he was taking the Munster job to enhance his prospects of one day becoming the All Blacks coach, but he certainly didn’t do much to dispel the feeling that he’s heading to Ireland to put another critical element on his coaching CV.
“I don’t see how this is going to be detrimental to my career,” he said. “A lot has been made in the past around gaining international experience. I’ve been really fortunate and blessed to have done just about everything that can be done here in New Zealand from a coaching perspective.”
It has taken a while for him to win the recognition his achievements deserve, which may be because he’s a graduate of the old school where he doesn’t believe in self-promotion or chasing popularity ahead of results.
He is Mr Low Profile, perhaps befitting an upbringing that was steeped in real world values and saw McMillan pick up degree in the University of Life before meandering his way into professional rugby coaching.
Born in Perth, his Australian mother died from cancer when he was six months old, so he returned to the ancestral home of his Māori father, Rotorua, where he was brought up by his aunt.
His cultural connection to his Māori heritage is real and lived, and after attending Rotorua Boys’ High school – a prodigious producer of tough rugby players such as former All Blacks captain Buck Shelford – he joined the police force.
For the better part of two decades he would combine rugby with police work. The rugby component was first as a number eight for his beloved Bay of Plenty and a brief stint in Japan – then it switched to coaching with part-time roles in Wellington.
It was in 2015, when he was offered the Bay of Plenty head role that he made the decision to leave the force and give the professional coaching gig his everything, and after he took his side back up to the top division, he joined the Chiefs as an assistant to Warren Gatland in 2020.
And it was in 2021 when Kiwis first came to take him seriously as he stepped into the head coaching role that year as Gatland had pre-agreed to coach the British and Irish Lions, and took the Chiefs to the final of Super Rugby Aotearoa.
New Zealand’s border was shut that year so the achievement of taking the Chiefs to a final in a competition that had just five teams was not necessarily massively impressive, but when Gatland had been at the helm in 2020, he posted eight defeats in eight games.
It made for an acutely awkward period for the Chiefs as it was apparent to everyone inside the organisation that McMillan commanded respect in a way Gatland didn’t and that his understanding was better of what it took to play the brand of pass and catch rugby that Super Rugby demands.
The solution was to promote both men – Gatland to director of rugby and McMillan to head coach, but there is no doubt the Chiefs were relieved when the former returned to Wales at the end of 2022 because it was becoming increasingly difficult to pretend that the latter needed a mentor or wasn’t in total command of the team.
And this is what Munster will find – McMillan knows how to take charge and rebuild a team from the ground up.
When he took over in 2021, his vision was based on re-establishing the team’s identity and reconnecting them with their Māori culture which has always been such a strong theme for the Chiefs.
He’s said to be tough and uncompromising with the players. A stern, authoritative figure who doesn’t go in for smiling much but is someone who has a softer, empathetic side that may not come out much in public but does in private.
McMillan is not effusive, he’s not flamboyant or colourful and his media engagements will look awfully like he still thinks he’s in the police and that the journalists are not there to interview him but interrogate him, hoping to extract some kind of confession he is never going to make.
His strength is not in wowing the media with soundbites and memorable one-liners, but in building an environment that inspires the players and then makes them accountable to live up to the agreed values and take ownership of their respective roles.
The emphasis he has placed on building the team’s culture, however, shouldn’t be seen as something he has done in lieu of a strategic vision for the brand of rugby the Chiefs play.
In their two games so far in 2025, the Chiefs have pulled apart the defending champion Blues and Super Rugby’s best performing team, the Crusaders.
The rugby has been fast and brutal. A forward pack that is made up of rugged, bruising athletes has done its bit to win all the necessary possession and dominate the collisions, to unleash a backline that is being controlled by All Black utility back Damian McKenzie.
There is a long way to run in Super Rugby, but the Chiefs have given every impression that having lost the last two finals, there is no way they are going to make it three in a row, and that McMillan is determined to arrive in Ireland as a champion.
