Even by Munster's standards, this has been a season like no other.
On the pitch, the highs have been high and the lows have been low. Very few days have sat somewhere in the middle.
Off the pitch, the last three months in particular have been a remarkable soap opera; Mike Prendergast’s departure, possible redundancies, Roger Randle’s hiring, the backlash to Roger Randle’s hiring, PGB (Professional Games Board) resignations, the u-turn on hiring Roger Randle, Alex Codling’s departure, and Clayton McMillan’s very welcome and unvarnished approach to giving us his honest thoughts in a press conference.
There will certainly be a few Munster supporters out there who will be glad to see the back of 2025/26. But can they make it last another week?
As play-off assignments go, McMillan’s side have it as tough as it comes this afternoon.
The Bulls. Pretoria. Altitude. No Jack Crowley. No Tadhg Beirne. No Calvin Nash. No Jean Kleyn. No Edwin Edogbo. No Oli Jager. No Michael Milne. No Tom Farrell.
The form book and the injury list would suggest they have no chance, but they have built one of rugby’s most famous brands around proving form books wrong.
If they are to keep their season going for one more week, they will need something truly special, and ironically the kind of performance that McMillan wanted to get away from when he first arrived at Munster last summer.
The New Zealander’s (below) goal for this season was to make watching the province on a weekly basis less of a rollercoaster ride than it has been in recent seasons. Fewer nine-out-or-ten days and fewer four-out-of-ten days, and more seven-out-of-tens. A little bit more boring, in the best sense of the word.
That plan can be put on the shelf until pre-season, because if they can find one of those nine-out-of-ten days at Loftus Versfeld this afternoon, nobody will care.
While they survived a nervous run-in to grind out their play-off and Champions Cup qualification for next season, this afternoon’s quarter-final isn’t a "free hit" for the 2023 champions, even if they are major underdogs.
At times this season, and particularly in games where they have been without both Crowley and Beirne, the performance levels have been worryingly poor, and a meek performance in today would leave a cloud hanging over them for the summer, as they try to cobble together a new attack and forwards coach.
While they manged to get past the Lions without Crowley and Beirne in the last round of the regular season, they relied heavily on Craig Casey, who was the difference between the two sides.
The scrum-half will need another special game at Loftus Versfeld this afternoon, and he captains a team that shows just one change from the 24-17 win two weeks ago, as Alex Nankivell (below) returns at centre where he partners Seán O’Brien.
Two months ago Munster lost out in a 34-31 thriller to the South Africans in Pretoria, but the province are much-changed from that afternoon, where they picked up two bonus-points.
Crowley, Milne, Kleyn and Nash all started that game, and Edogbo scored a try off the bench, but all five miss out this week due to injury, with McMillan’s starting team for this week showing nine changes from that afternoon.
On the flip side, the Bulls retain 12 of their started from that day, with Johan Ackermann able to bring Springboks Wilco Louw and Cameron Hanekom into his pack, which has the potential to cause major problems for Munster’s scrum and lineout.
To combat the power the Bulls have, McMillan has gone with a 6:2 split on the bench, with Fineen Wycherley, Gavin Coombes and Alex Kendellen - all of whom arguably could have started - kept in reserve as the head coach looks to give his side the best chance of lasting the 80 minutes at altitude.
The Bulls, finalists in 2022, 2024 and 2025, endured a real wobble mid-season when they lost seven successive games across all competitions, but Ackermann has got his side peaking down the stretch, with six URC wins in a row, and nine wins in their last 10 to secure fourth place in the table.
Munster have won at Loftus before, the only Irish province to do so across the last five seasons, but you have to go back as far as the URC final in 2024 against Glasgow Warriors for the last time one of the northern hemisphere sides has picked off a win in Pretoria in this competition.
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