Clayton McMillan to leave Chiefs for Munster at end of Super Rugby Pacific season

Thursday, 27 February 2025

Clayton McMillan will leave the Chiefs at the end of the Super Rugby Pacific season.

McMillan will take over as head coach of Irish club side Munster.

The Chiefs won’t be looking to appoint McMillan’s successor until the end of the Super Rugby Pacific season.

Clayton McMillan says he, and a host of others in the game, knew he was always planning on leaving the Chiefs after his current contract expired in 2026.

So, while Thursday’s announcement that he will join Irish club Munster on a three-year deal at the end of this Super Rugby Pacific season came as a bolt from the blue, and he admits was even a surprise to some of his family and friends, the wheels had been slowly set in motion for his departure.

In the end, it was a phone call over the summer break which served to expedite the process, as the Chiefs’ coach with the best win percentage in history (73%) was head-hunted for an offshore role too good for him to turn down.

“I’ve been really transparent with the club, the players and New Zealand Rugby that it was always my intention to leave after the next Super Rugby season,” McMillan said, as he fronted media on Thursday.

“And I didn’t go looking for this opportunity, it literally landed on my doorstep.”

That was after Munster, who departed ways with Graham Rowntree last October, sounded out his interest in the job, before things got parked for some time, then ramped up quickly again.

“I got a call over the summer break, around any interest in the role,” McMillan explained.

“And it didn’t really progress anywhere for probably a month until it was revisited, and there needed to be a number of things that needed to be fleshed out before it became a real option.

“But I was real impressed with the process that they went through, and I got a really good feel for the passion of the Munster people, their aspiration, and they talked a lot about their vision for the club, and goals, and they aligned really strongly with mine, so we eventually came to the decision that we have.”

Chiefs chief executive Simon Graafhuis revealed McMillan in fact had an early-release clause in his contract anyway, even if he had hoped it wouldn’t necessarily be required.

“Clayton’s been absolutely up front with me the whole time,” he said, admitting the tough pill it still was to swallow losing a coach who had transformed the Chiefs from strugglers under Warren Gatland to a highly-consistent outfit, making three finals in four years, and who has also overseen several players’ progress to All Blacks status.

“Obviously a bit of disappointment,” Graafhuis said of the feelings when McMillan initially dropped the news on him. “But we’re a development organisation, too, so there’s an element of celebration that he’ll go off onto something bigger and better, and that’s a key part of what we’re about.

“Clayton is an impressive coach, and you only have to look at the results on the field. But the bit that people don’t see, too, is just what he’s done in the wider organisation around embedding really strong cultural values.

“At some stage I think we’ll probably see him coaching the All Blacks.”

Is that, then, the motivation behind this move? While Scott Robertson has a hold on the top job at the moment, McMillan could return in 2028 (he wouldn’t answer whether he had an out-clause if the All Blacks gig came up) with some valuable overseas experience on the resume.

“I don’t see how this is going to be detrimental to my career,” he mused.

“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 [having also coached the Māori All Blacks and All Blacks XV].

“Obviously we’ve still got some aspirations around what we want to achieve this year. But I couldn’t ask for any more in terms of my coaching journey, and the timing was just right to put myself out there, outside my comfort zone, and see if I can cut the mustard up in the northern hemisphere.

“I’ll learn a lot, I’ll make some mistakes, I’m far from the perfect coach, but experiences I anticipate I’m going to get will make me a better person and a better coach.”

Ironically, McMillan was in Munster, whose last Kiwi coach was current Crusaders mentor Rob Penney (2012-14), shortly after Rowntree’s departure, coaching the All Blacks to a victory over them. He said he has not been back to check out the facilities at the club, though he has spoken to former Chiefs player Alex Nankivell, and also has two props in John Ryan and Oli Jager on the roster there who he has coached previously.

“It’s an iconic club, one steeped in history, and when I did a little bit of digging, I feel like I could add some value there,” he said, noting the contrast in game styles he was about to experience in the United Rugby Championship, involving sides from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Italy and South Africa.

“They definitely challenge you in different spaces to what we’re accustomed to in Super Rugby. So to become a well-rounded coach, I think exposure to that can be helpful.

“And one of the things I’d love to take to Munster is some ambition and some courage to perhaps play with a bit more of the ball.”

Having fed the news of his move to his coaching staff a couple of weeks ago, and told some senior players on Wednesday, McMillan then tried to keep it all in check when addressing the rest of the playing group on Thursday morning.

And, equally proud of on-field performances as he is of the Chiefs’ organisation as a whole, and the promotion of their players, and staff, to the next level, he says it’s easy to pinpoint what he will miss the most when he does depart in a few months’ time.

“The people,” he said. “It’s fundamental to how I operate as a coach, and one of my philosophies is ‘people first’. It’s a high-performance environment, but that generally takes care of itself if you look after the people around you.”