By Irishexaminer.com,Simon Lewis

Copyright irishexaminer

Yet this pre-season, under his fifth different head coach, has been a breath of fresh air as far as the Waterford man is concerned and credit for that goes to new boss Clayton McMillan.

The buzz coursing through the squad was palpable at the province’s High Performance Centre in Limerick this week as seasoned players including back-rower O’Donoghue, gave their impressions of the former Chiefs boss’s first six weeks in the driving seat.

McMillan has impressed them with his vision not just for how he wants his team to play, but also for the way they conduct themselves off the pitch and connect with the wider Munster community.

“Culture comes before performance,” McMillan told reporters on Tuesday and O’Donoghue has been impressed with the 51-year-old from the start and he hopes that transmits to supporters when they get their first chance to see their team play under new management in Cork on Friday night against pre-season visitors Bath.

“People have been itching to get to work with him,” O’Donoghue said. “When they announced it, I think everyone started tuning into Chiefs games and stuff like that, seeing how they play and getting a flavour for types of players he likes to pick.

“From the get-go, from the pre-season he set the stall out and there’s been a great mood and a great energy around the place and we’re really excited.

“We had a good run out against Gloucester (at Kingsholm last Friday) and we’re excited to show Munster fans at home now in Virgin Media Park what we’ve been doing for the last few weeks.”

The back-rower added: “His mission statement is about holding on to the ball, playing the opportunity that’s in front of you, but not necessarily overplaying.

“If the kick is on or if it’s on to get the ball out wide, if that’s the right play, that’s it and you back it and you go with that.

“Off the field, we’ve been doing a lot of variety, a lot of connecting with one another. We had a camp down in Rockwell which was really good, spending time back in the dorms and stuff like that, back to the under 20, under 18s days back in Munster.

“It was really good… from a connection point of view, lads really gelled together and we got to know each other really well and there’s a nice tight group there now forming, leading into the season.”

O’Donoghue, who said he had a “clean-up job” on his ankle at the start of the summer and had bulked up during his post-op rehab, said he was enjoying the variety brought by both the new head coach and his head of athletic performance Brad Mayo, a fellow New Zealander who was part of McMillan’s All Blacks XV backroom staff that played Munster at Thomond Park last November.

“I was really looking forward to getting back in pre-season. We went boxing, hill running, swimming, different varieties of training. We’re not just out on the field constantly, but that just keeps the bit of drive there and stuff like that.

“It’s not going to be like, ‘oh, let’s just come back out on the field now to run sprints’. It’s different every day. And that variety certainly was infectious throughout the group.

“Some lads hated the swimming, some lads hated the hills, but I think it just kept everyone on their toes. And while some people were really good at the swimming, other people were really good at boxing, there was always one that you found yourself that you could excel on and probably step up in terms of leadership and stuff like that.” It all sounds like a throwback to simpler times and O’Donoghue is a fan.

“Yeah, absolutely, the old-school way, didn’t care. The mantra was just ‘find a way’. So carrying weights, carrying each other, whether you got there first, got there last, just find a way.

“And that’s I think maybe something that in games you might resort back to. You know, it’s terrible weather, behind on the scoreline, just find a way to win. And that’s something that we might see later on in the season.”

There has been a method behind every move made by the new man and his efforts to build a connection with supporters appear to be at the top of his priority list.

“He’s big on the standards we set off the field in terms of portraying a Munster man and connecting with the public or fans,” O’Donoghue explained. “He was amazed at how many people turned up to Rockwell, how many people turned up to his open sessions. And he really wants to give back to those lads because at the end of the day, they’re the lads who are coming out to Thomond Park and filling the seats and buying tickets.

“He loves getting connected with the community and that’s something great. We love that. So trying to do training sessions in different counties is really cool. We’ve tipped Tipp. Where else have we done? Ennis out in Clare.

“And we’re going to Kerry next week. So we’re trying to get to each county to be able to really spread that love, to try to get back to the fans. He’s big on that, but he likes connecting off the field as well.

“I think he really sees the value in that, which is class. And that’s why I think he was a big driver of the mini-camp that we did during pre-season. It was perfect timing. The internationals were coming back from the break and really we had good craic.”