Two of Munster’s most talismanic players, captain Tadhg Beirne and Jack Crowley, will not be part of the travelling squad which will leave for Pretoria on Tuesday ahead of Saturday’s URC quarter-final against the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld (kick-off 12pm Irish time).Crowley looked sprightly enough in the warm-up before Munster’s win over the Lions in Thomond Park last Saturday week, which sealed their place in the URC playoffs, but the outhalf has a leg injury which has been troublesome to diagnose.“Clearly it’s something that’s a little bit obscure, something that comes and goes so a little bit more investigation required really. If you saw him walking around the building now you wouldn’t have any concerns, but obviously when he gets running something happens that brings about a kind of a dead leg feeling so we can’t take the risk of taking him to South Africa and not being able to play, so he’s going to have to stay back.”It is likely that Crowley will see a specialist over an injury which places a doubt over his availability for Ireland’s summer matches against Australia, Japan and New Zealand.“All of those sorts of things are being explored,” said McMillan. “As I said, 99 per cent of the time he feels absolutely 100 per cent, so we’re just going to get to the bottom of it and hopefully it’s something that can be fixed pretty quickly and then if we’re good enough to get through to a semi-final we’ll explore that option then.” Beirne appears to be a better bet for the semi-finals were Munster to upset the Bulls and certainly the Irish tour.“Yeah, clearly he’s not going to travel with us, but he’s getting closer. Given how important he is to the national squad, let alone our squad, we won’t rush him back into anything. But again, all of those things will be revisited if we’re here in another week.”Munster will be underdogs in this quarter-final but can take heart from pushing the Bulls to a 34-31 win in difficult conditions in Loftus at the end of March.“It’s been good to get a good old 23 or 24 degree Limerick day,” noted McMillan with a wry smile and evident astonishment over this relative heatwave in Ireland. “That’s probably fairly close to what we’re going to encounter in South Africa. Obviously, you’re dealing with altitude, which brings a whole new factor in.“The Bulls are a quality side and I think I said it again when we played the Lions, you’re under no illusions around what you’re going to encounter in terms of the opposition.Munster's head coach Clayton McMillan in training before Bulls match. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho “They are big physical men who want to impose that physicality on you through their set-piece, through their carry clean, through the way that they defend. This is a team that probably the last time we played them, those battles were probably shared, but they cut us to shreds with a little bit of X-factor and speed in broken play.“So, that’s probably a reminder for us that we need to be really tight and connected and don’t switch off because these finals games can be won or lost in the moment. We’ll get a couple and they’ll get a few and we want to be on the right side of those.”Three years ago Munster finished fifth in the table before negotiating three odds-defying away wins in the knockout stages to claim the URC. And though that squad looked stronger, and wasn’t missing such key figures as Beirne and Crowley, once more McMillan said they are in it to win it.“You work hard all year to give yourself an opportunity now and form doesn’t necessarily go out the window but it just comes down to one game. Like I said, we’ve prepared really well over the last couple of days and we can go over there with some genuine excitement and the reality is that not too many people have given us a bit of a shot.“I wouldn’t say that it’s a free pass but I imagine the pressure is all on them and we’ll go over there and throw the kitchen sink and see how it goes.”However long Munster extend this season, McMillan confirmed he plans remaining as head coach next season.“That’s certainly my intention. That’s always been my intention. I guess the line that I’ve talked about beforehand is just having confidence in a few things that I think need to happen in this team and in the club to give me confidence that actually we all want the same things and we’re all heading in the same direction. “There’s a review that’s going to take place and I don’t want to pre-empt anything that’ll come out of that review but I’d imagine if it’s thorough that everyone will come out with clarity around the way forward and we’ll get on with it.”