Jack O'Donoghue has given his full backing to Munster boss Clayton McMillan and said that the New Zealander "inspired" him to sign a new deal.
Dealing with the fallout from the Roger Randle appointment U-turn, McMillan last week hinted that his future at the province beyond this season could be in doubt.
"There are changes that I think that need to be made to give me the confidence that I have the support to be able to do the job that's needed," he said.
And yesterday Munster Rugby announced an independent review dealing with the "organisation's governance, leadership, culture and communications structures".
Back row O'Donoghue recently signed a new contract with the club and asked about his extension, the 32-year-old notably name-dropped the Kiwi in his reply.
Munster Rugby has commissioned an independent review into the organisation's governance structures, as the fallout from the Roger Randle saga continues #RTERugby #RTESport pic.twitter.com/r6uPJ7gAlX
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) May 12, 2026
"[Agreeing the contract] was from early on, speaking to Clayton and he saw me as part of his plans," said O'Donoghue, who has won 237 provincial caps since making his debut in 2014.
"I wanted to be here. I love working with him and I see where he wants to take this group and that definitely inspired me to sign on and to stay.
"We have aspirations to win a trophy and I think he's the right man to do that.
"He's the right man to bring us to where we need to go.
"He's finding his feet this season in terms of learning about the URC, learning about a long season.
"He'd probably admit that himself. He's learned a lot dealing with two competitions but I think it's going to pay dividends going into next season.
"[I'm] really excited to be here with my boyhood club.
"Why wouldn't I want to be here and to get opportunities to run out in Thomond Park and to make the people of the province proud?"
Munster's insipid defeat to Connacht at the weekend means they must beat the Lions on Saturday to guarantee a URC play-off place and Champions Cup rugby for next season.
The Waterford man was also asked if the squad was affected by the 'outside noise', including resignations from the Professional Games Committee and the club's Commercial Advisory Group linked to the Randle episode.
"To be honest, it doesn't really matter for us," said O'Donoghue, twice capped by Ireland.
"The funny thing about Munster is we have two different centres. Like all that stuff is going on down in Cork and in the offices.
"The HPC here [in Limerick], the vibe is really good, we're on the right track, we're preparing for rugby.
"That's ultimately our job, that's what we're paid to do and by all means, you hear about it, you see about it but I think what we're looking at is us staying tight as a group, enjoying each other's company and then going out there and making each other proud, doing what we should be doing for each other.
"The most frustrating thing about the Connacht match there was that we let each other down.
"We let the supporters down, we just didn't give a good enough account of ourselves that made our other team-mates proud.
"That's something that we speak about regularly, about making each other look good out there and that just was absent. That's something that we want to rectify now for Saturday."
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