He says there were plenty of positives to take from last Sunday's 44-38 loss to Auckland in Rotorua.
"I thought the boys brought a lot of energy, perhaps a little bit of desperation to get a victory and our performance for about 60 minutes was top notch.
"The other 20 when we conceded a lot of points just wasn't good enough. We need to be an 80-minute team to get across the line and that has been the focus this week."
McMillan defended his team selection over the last few weeks within the context of the Mitre 10 Cup format of so many games played in a short time frame.
"There probably has been quite a lot made of what are perceived to be a number of changes from week to week," he said.
"But the reality is we contracted 36 players at the beginning of the year and for the last five or six weeks we have had 24 or 25, if you're lucky, available for selection.
"We haven't gained anyone back from the injury list so we will see some continuity in selection and a few minor changes based on form."
The loss to Auckland was controversial with Bay of Plenty hard done by a lack of yellow cards awarded to Auckland players for consistent infringing near their line at a critical period in the match.
But McMillan is taking a diplomatic view on it.
"The referees have a bloody tough job and everybody is trying to adapt to these new law variations so I sympathise with them.
"The situation on Sunday with repeated infringements at scrum time was acknowledged by the referees after the game which isn't going to do much for us post-game.
"But the reality for us is that as a team we need to turn up and be that much better than the opposition so we take any decisions away from the referee that may have an impact on the game.
"We are not looking any further than ourselves for areas we need to get better in. It is our own responsibility to get everything right and when we do that we are good enough to win games."
