One suspects there could be a few bleary-eyed Munster fans sitting in front of their TV screens at 3:35am on Saturday morning when the Chiefs host the Brumbies in Hamilton.
With Munster's new head coach Clayton McMillan seeing out the current Super Rugby season before moving to Ireland in the summer, the viewing figures for Chiefs games are sure to spike as the province’s supporters get a feel for how their new boss operates.
Munster and the IRFU took their time to confirm Graham Rowntree’s replacement, with four months separating his departure and the news that McMillan would join, with the likes of Stuart Lancaster, Felix Jones and Michael Cheika all touted as potential candidates, as well as Munster’s own Mike Prendergast, who has been promoted to senior coach as part of the restructure.
The coincidence of it all is that McMillan was at Thomond Park just four days after Rowntree’s departure, when he brought his All Blacks XV to Limerick for a tour game against the province, a 38-24 win for the New Zealanders that was far closer than the scoreline suggests.
At the time, McMillan wasn’t a live contender for the role. Speaking to media in New Zealand today, he revealed the province first got in contact with him during the Super Rugby off-season.
"I didn’t go looking for this opportunity, it literally landed on my doorstep," he said.
While McMillan didn't seek out the job, his experiences of Thomond Park in November will certainly have played a big part in luring him to the province.
Looking back through his comments to the media after the game on 2 November, the All Blacks XV coach had been struck by just how big a deal Munster rugby was to those invested in it.
"It was an unbelievable experience," he told reporters that night
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