Video | Clayton McMillan Interview

23rd July 2025 By The Editor

New Munster Head Coach Clayton McMillan. Inpho

New Munster Head Coach Clayton McMillan started his role this month and the pre-season training programme began on Monday ahead of the 2025/26 campaign.

Before beginning his new role, he flew to Limerick from New Zealand in March during a Chiefs down week to get a feel for his new surroundings and lay the groundwork for pre-season.

We sat down with Clayton to talk about his journey in rugby so far.

Clayton has a wealth of coaching experience over the past 18 years and led the Chiefs to four Super Rugby finals in five seasons between 2021 and 2025.

McMillan began his coaching career while still playing professionally in Japan before returning to New Zealand in 2007.

He held a number of roles at age-grade and club level before becoming Head Coach and Director of Rugby at Bay of Plenty in 2015, leading the province to the Mitre 10 Cup Championship in 2019.

In 2017, he led the New Zealand Provincial Barbarians as Head Coach for their clash against the British & Irish Lions and later that year was appointed Head Coach of the Māori All Blacks.

He progressed to the role of Assistant Coach of the Chiefs in 2020 and moved up to the position of Interim Head Coach in 2021 before being appointed to the position permanently later that year.

A former Police Officer in New Zealand, McMillan lined out for Whakarewarewa along with captaining the Bay of Plenty as a no.8 during his playing days, scoring 22 tries in 113 appearances for the province.

He also played professional rugby in Japan for three years before transitioning into coaching.