Starting as the new coach of an underperforming team is like taking over the helm of a giant ocean going tanker that is off course and travelling at full throttle.
The new person swings the wheel, charting a new direction, but nothing happens. Despite turning the rudder, the momentum built up inside the giant structure is so great that the ship continues to plough straight ahead in the wrong direction.
Clayton McMillan is now in charge at Munster. How long it will take his team to respond to his change of direction is a great unknown in Limerick.
Ireland suffer at the hands of a vengeful New Zealand
He is the latest in a now very long line of Munster head coaches who have been charged with changing the direction of this iconic club. Rob Penney, Rassie Erasmus, Johann van Graan and Graham Rowntree have all pulled on the wheel but not much has happened.
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Winning the URC title in 2023 was a major achievement. However, the giant edifice that is Munster Rugby is carrying so much baggage from its glorious past that the old momentum just keeps pulling it off course.
Firstly, I wish Clayton every success. Irish rugby needs a vibrant and successful Munster. His coaching record is exceptional. Under his stewardship, the Chiefs in Super Rugby have been a joy to watch. Their cohesion, belief and execution have been of the highest standard.
Having walked the same coaching path as McMillan from Super Rugby to Ireland, he will be learning that the two rugby environments are very different. The Super Rugby season is a three-month sprint. The northern season is a complex marathon spanning seven countries, tens of thousands of kilometres and two competitions.
As Charlie Darwin reminds us, it is not the strongest that survive but those who can best adapt to their changing environment. For success, McMillan will have to adapt his craft. What worked in Waikato may not necessarily benefit Munster.
Here, let us remember that coaches are not panaceas. McMillan does not carry a silver bullet that will miraculously change Munster’s fortunes.
The easy part of the massive challenge facing McMillan is to identify the areas where Munster are failing. Convincing the players, coaching staff and administrators to change appears to be Munster’s major internal problem.
The cultural element of brutal honesty that is essential inside every winning organisation, one that empowers players, coaches and administrators to hold each other accountable for their actions and drive performance, appears to be absent.
For over a decade, Munster have blamed the coach and not shared the responsibility across the entire organisation.
Erasmus departed Munster and then won two World Cups. Stephen Larkham returned to the Brumbies and has guided them to multiple playoffs. Penney has just won the Super Rugby competition, while Van Graan has lifted Bath from the bottom to the pinnacle of the English Premiership.
Munster do not have a coaching problem. They have a cultural problem with players and administrators not taking responsibility for their performances.
Munster’s scapegoating of coaches has allowed generations of players and administrators to avoid the necessary, genuine scrutiny of their actions.
Organisations flourish when players, coaches and administrators are aligned to collectively attack the challenges they face with a unity of purpose. This is missing here.
Cultural change is McMillan’s mission and it is a massive one.
The lack of internal evaluation of Munster as an organisation can be seen by their almost pathological obsession with their fans. According to many in Limerick, the people who sit in the stands determine the standards of the team’s performance.
On such mystical foundations are fairy tales based.
The Red Army are immense and I have nothing but admiration for the tens of thousands of Munster supporters who travel massive distances to support their beloved team. They deserve every piece of praise that comes their way.
However, whenever Munster’s players and coaches face the media, I can rarely recall them addressing the real and substantive issues that are so obvious to the rest of the Irish rugby community. The spindoctors are constantly talking about the Red Army while Munster’s problems and solutions are on the field, not in the stands.
I was disappointed that in McMillan’s first interview, the supporters were once again the main topic.
If someone inside Munster came out and said: “We love our supporters, yet the standards of our players and staff are not where we need them to be and we are addressing these difficult issues and we will fix them,” then I am sure the Red Army would be delighted.
It has been my experience that, as the Kiwis say, ‘the fish smells from the head.’
It is Munster’s back of house, the executives, the CEO and support staff that need to align themselves with the club’s reality and support McMillan with every tool required to perform the job that he is eminently qualified for.
When Van Graan left Munster and went to Bath, they realigned their leadership roles so he was given total control.
In short, that means every aspect of the rugby department should be bending to the will of the new coach.
On the field, the first area McMillan must address is Munster’s defence. Last year, in their two matches in South Africa, Munster leaked 71 points and let in 42 against Zebre. The lack of commitment and aggression in the players’ tackling was more than embarrassing. After the match against the Sharks, when they conceded 41 points, their response was the perfect example of Munster’s cultural problem – they blamed the coach. So much for player empowerment.
In every winning rugby organisation, the foundational principle is that each player must take total responsibility for every tackle they attempt. Tackles that are made or missed belong to the player, not the coach.
I am sure a coach of the high quality and experience of Clayton McMillan understands all of that and much more. I am also sure that since his arrival, he has tried to set Munster towards a new and positive direction.
What I am very unsure about is whether Munster as an organisation can respond and stop talking about how great their supporters are and get on with the difficult task of implementing the cultural change required for consistent success.
