It’s only a year and eight months ago that Conor Murray was named Lions captain. Alun Wyn Jones would swiftly re-inherit that mantle and Murray was then on the bench for two of the three Tests against South Africa. He has since been replaced as first-choice Irish scrumhalf after almost a decade in the role. Even last month, astonishingly, he was left out of a Munster Champions Cup squad against Northampton. Such a turn of events might have broken lesser men, but not him.
He never grumbled, he never acted like a prima donna. It’s not in his phlegmatic nature. Instead, whenever he’s been called upon he’s delivered, most notably when coming on as a replacement and coolly helping to steer a wobbly Irish ship home in Twickenham last year. He had the least game time of any of the 41 players used on Ireland’s tour of New Zealand, seeing out a total of 30 minutes in each of the three Tests, but his value remains.
Murray had the honour of leading the team out on his 100th cap against South Africa last November, only for a hamstring injury to cut short his and his family’s proud day. But the main thing, for him, was that Ireland won.
Last weekend, at the Friday Captain’s Run, Jamison Gibson-Park sensed a problem with his hamstring and Murray was alert to what this could mean.
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“You wake up the next morning and you are kind of waiting for Andy [Farrell] to catch your eye. I was trying to fish him out. He came up to me early in the morning and said: ‘yeah, you’re ready to go’. That was all good.”
It was Murray’s first Six Nations start since the 32-18 win over England two years ago. You wondered which was more nerve-racking, his first cap in a World Cup warm-up match against France in Bordeaux in 2011 at the age of 22, or his 101st at 33?
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“My 101st, by a mile,” he said. “Now more than ever when you get a chance, if you want to stay in there, you’ve got to play well. Johnny [Sexton] spoke last weekend about being nervous before the game. That was one of the most nervous games I have had in a long time.
“Just a lot of stuff going on and you really wanted to take your chance and you want things to go well. The way we started that game from a team perspective was brilliant and personally it just settled you into the game.”
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It helps that Murray is innately unflappable, prompting Ronan O’Gara to once liken his former halfback partner as akin to Roger Federer. Murray was his usual laid-back self when talking to some of the written media last Tuesday. He began by revealing that he’s a Leeds United fan. And nothing wrong in that.
“I inherited it from my father [Gerry]. It was all the Irish back in the day playing with them,” said Murray, referring to Gary Kelly and Ian Harte.
He and his family have since had a traumatic few days after his father’s bike collided with a lorry while cycling near his home on the N20 near Patrickswell on Tuesday afternoon. Murray senior was taken by ambulance to University Hospital Limerick and later transferred to Cork University Hospital with serious head injuries.
Murray left the squad to be with his family but, clearly, his mother Barbara, a former Irish international squash player, and his sisters Aisling and Sarah, wanted him to play on Saturday.
And as was the case last Saturday, Ireland are fortunate to have their greatest ever scrumhalf.
When word filtered through before kick-off in Cardiff that Gibson-Park had been ruled out and Murray was starting, no doubt it prompted some of the usual tiresome stuff about Ireland resorting to box-kicking.
One Welsh colleague asked as much, and was told that, no, Murray had actually box-kicked once in one game for Munster this season. And it’s not as if it isn’t a handy weapon, or that Faf de Klerk didn’t leather the ball ad nauseam when the darling of the 2019 World Cup, or that Gibson-Park, Craig Casey et al don’t box kick as well, or that it isn’t usually a pre-planned call.
Murray must be weary of being pigeonholed.
“Yeah, I’d be lying if I didn’t say it has annoyed me in the past. I look at the game and the way we play it and the way I play it. It’s just a game-plan thing. We don’t actually kick that much at times any more at Munster.
“It’s a strength when we do go to it and it’s a good territory tactic and the boys chasing it are brilliant. It’s part of the game. Whatever chat goes on outside of my group, it really doesn’t affect me. I’m probably too old to allow that kind of stuff to affect me. So, no, all good.”
It’s not as if he never played a quick-tempo game.
“I know myself that I’m absolutely well capable of playing in a team with front-foot football, with tempo and with other coaches who are driving the standards that were there.”
Murray’s interview had already been interrupted once by the ebullient James Lowe.
“Mur is back,” he shouted. “Mur is back.”
“Thank you James,” Murray said, laughing.
Then, as the box-kicking chat developed, Lowe walked right into the interview and chided: “It is just that Munster are very good at slowing the ball down, so every ball is slow ball.”
As Ireland launched their quick-tempo start in the Principality Stadium, the vantage point of the pitchside press box underlined the speed and length of Murray’s pass through the air. Johnny Sexton, or any other first receiver, never had to stoop or reach up.
“Yeah, 100 Tests of experience,” Sexton said of Murray. “Not too long ago people thought he was the best scrumhalf that we’ve ever had. There was certainly no doubt internally that anything would drop off with him. I was delighted for him to come in and show his class once again.
“He’s been pushed hard down at Munster by Craig and he’s risen to that. He’s come into camp, has trained really well and was ready to play when called upon. You’d expect nothing different from a top professional.”
They’re back in harness again on Saturday, starting a 67th Test together, a record in the international game bettered only by Australian duo George Gregan and Stephen Larkham (78 Tests). Some partnership.
