As befits a player who is now 25 and has 29 caps to his name, and is entering the prime years of a career which has the capacity to make him Ireland’s best scrumhalf, Conor Murray’s influence for both province and country grows more and more pronounced.
His temperament has always impressed. Whether breaking into the Munster team at the tail-end of the 2010-11 season, or the Irish 2011 World Cup squad and the team itself, or the Lions squad and then the match-day squad, no step seems to faze him. Described by his one-time Munster Academy director Ian Sherwin has the ideal prototype of a three-year graduate, similarly his professional career has followed a consistently upward curve.
This season he has even captained Munster, where his running and kicking game have become much more of their attacking fulcrum under Anthony Foley, and likewise Ireland utilise these strengths to his game with strike moves identifying him as the primary carrier or creator.
“I really enjoy the spot I have in the squad at the minute,” he admitted yesterday. “I enjoy the responsibilities that come with it. Whatever type of player I’m viewed as, whether it’s experienced or not, I’m just enjoying playing rugby in the squad and the role I have at the moment. It’s a nice place to be, I’m relishing it. It’s a challenge, something I’m not used to, but it’s definitely somewhere I want to go, to keep improving as a player and you have to take those steps if you want to go up the ladder.”
Murray has always been a superb defender around the fringes and when corner flagging, and his carrying _ rarely if ever turning the ball over _ has always been a feature. When he first broke into the Munster and Irish teams, he had a tendency to take a step or two which he all but eradicated during the Lions tour with the help of Rob Howley. Similarly, with hard work, his box kicking has become more consistently accurate and influential. He kicked out of hand 17 times against Saracens, declaring it as “boring” but imperative, and seven times against South Africa.
“It’s effective and it’s something I do work on. It’s probably a strength of my game and I am happy to use it in a game if the pressure is put on you to kick a bit more. It’s just part and parcel of being a ‘9’, whether you do it more often than not can sometimes be down to the type of game you are playing.”
The story goes that when the Irish players returned to the dressing-room after the win over the Springboks, Schmidt approached Murray about the crosskick for Tommy Bowe’s try (a move that they have been practising on and off for much of Schmidt’s reign) and reminded his scrum-half that the ball was meant to land in Bowe’s hands as opposed to bouncing in front of him. (Albeit checking his stride and gathering to score is a Bowe trademark.)
“It was just a kind of joke, a light moment but they’re the kind of standards we’re trying to set here,” said Murray. “I knew when I kicked the kick it should have gone into his hands straight away, but Tommy chased it and made it work, when you have great wingers and full-backs chasing it can make your kick look a bit better than it was.”
There could be a greater emphasis on Murray and Ireland’s kicking game depending on the degree to which long-range forecasts of showers comes true, although Murray and Ireland would prefer no rain even if that means facing Australia’s best game as well.
“We’re going beyond that now, hoping for rain, tough conditions. Dry ball suits us and that is the way any team likes to play. You can be a lot sharper and play at a better pace so that is absolutely what we’d like. Any team can drag another team down when it rains and use those excuses but we’re a confident enough group now at this stage that we’d be hoping for good weather and a dry ball where we can really express ourselves to our full potential.”
Murray was a replacement in the rain-affected World Cup win in Eden Park three years ago and the defeat to Australia a year ago, and in addition to having two of the world’s best players in the air in Israel Folau and Adam Ashley-Cooper, he acknowledges the Wallabies will pose altogether different threats compared to South Africa.
“The South Africans were really physical but the Aussies all seem to be really good footballers and have really high skill levels. If the game breaks up in any way they can be quite dangerous, all of their footballers can throw good passes and they’re really smart. They tip it on into space and they’re a different type of team. It will be a different tactical battle.”
“We’re not falling in love with ourselves by any means,” he added. “We know when we don’t show up and we lose out on those little margins we have seen what Australia do – we were well beaten last year. We know, for us, to play well and get results, we have to be really sharp, and that’s how it’s been in training.”
