New Zealand Rugby boss expects Clayton McMillan to ‘come back to us at some point in the future’ after Munster stint
NZR general manager of professional rugby & performance Chris Lendrum and Chiefs and All Blacks XV head coach Clayton McMillan.
New Zealand Rugby (NZR) believe Chiefs boss Clayton McMillan’s move to Munster at the end of the current Super Rugby Pacific will benefit him as a coach in the long run.
That was the view of NZR general manager of professional rugby & performance Chris Lendrum after it was announced that the governing body and Munster agreed terms on allowing McMillan to move to the Irish province despite his current contract expiring in 2026.
While Lendrum believes McMillan‘s move to Munster will help his coaching career, he also expects him to return to New Zealand in the future.
McMillan will join Munster on a three-year deal after the Chiefs’ 2025 Super Rugby campaign and although Lendrum would not expand on the finer details of his contract, he said the 50-year-old will leave his current role with the NZR’s blessing.
“That’s all obviously private,” Lendrum told The New Zealand Herald. “But you can imagine there is a value transaction that has to occur when we are releasing Clayton a year earlier than we planned.
‘We’re happy’
“We had those discussions with Munster and with Clayton and we are where we are today. We’re happy.”
McMillan’s departure from the Chiefs comes after a five-year stint at the Hamilton-based outfit and during that time they have finished as runners-up in three Super Rugby finals.
They’ve also made a superb start to their 2025 campaign, beating the Blues and Crusaders in their first two matches.
During the announcement of his impending move to Munster, McMillan revealed that he had informed his current bosses some time ago that he was hoping to move to an overseas club when his contract with the Chiefs expired.
“We’re not overflowing with high-level opportunities for people to work in full-time senior head coaching roles, that’s why Clayton’s looking offshore to gain some further experience and we’ll see how that plays out,” Lendrum said.
“I think he’s going to go well but you can never predict anything with 100% certainty.
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“I’m sure that at some point he would like to be in the running for the All Blacks head coach role, but you never know when that might come up.
“There’s never an heir apparent for the All Blacks coach. There’s a lot more that goes into it than that.”
McMillan coached the All Blacks XV against Munster and Georgia last year and he has also coached the Maori All Blacks.
Those stints and his impressive record as Chiefs head coach would put him in the frame for the All Blacks head coaching position, if it becomes available, but with Scott Robertson set in that role until the 2027 Rugby World Cup – barring a run of poor results – he would have to bide his time in New Zealand for that job.
Expects McMillan to be approached by other national unions
Although NZR expect McMillan to eventually return to coaching in New Zealand, Lendrum said the governing body expects him to be approached by other national unions over the next few years.
“It’s part of the nature of the game and the business that we’re in,” he said. “There can only be one person that leads the All Blacks at any one time
“We’re really happy with the person that we’ve got leading the All Blacks right now and there’s no end date on that necessarily.
“Other clubs or national unions probably will take an interest in Clayton at some point and that will be a decision for him to make.”
Lendrum is confident that McMillan will eventually return to the system in New Zealand and that his stint at Munster will make him a better coach.
“This is an opportunity for him to improve further as a leader,” he said. “He’s still young. We would love to get the benefit of what he’s about to learn at Munster and in Europe coming back to us at some point in the future.
“I think he’s got every intention of coaching in New Zealand again.”
