Conor Murray takes his seat in the massive drawing room at Carton House and looks quizzically at the empty seats. There are seven or eight journalists in attendance and a couple of cameras rolling but the same room is often packed on Test match week.
When he is informed Ireland assistant [football] manager Roy Keane is holding a press briefing at the same time, he nods in understanding.
“There’s nobody here!” he jokes. “I’ll give you a Roy Keane moment, let’s see.”
The Munster and Ireland scrum-half will be trying to watch that World Cup playoff between Ireland and Denmark too, like so many of us, but his main focus is on turning South Africa over at the Aviva Stadium.
Murray is not long off the back a season that confirmed him as the truly, undoubtedly world-class. Only Aaron Smith can hold a candle to Murray but the Limerick man often blew him away in their 2016/17 encounters [particularly at Soldier Field and Wellington’s ‘Cake Tin’]. His performances for the Lions in New Zealand were damn impressive. He recently told The Hard Yards:
“Going out there, the competition was big for scrum-halves. Big time. I got to know Rhys Webb quite well and I have a lot of respect for him as a person and a player… So, for me, to start all three Tests was massive. Looking back, and being honest, starting in three Tests was a goal and it was something I wanted to do.
“More importantly, to contribute in the Tests and not be overawed or taken aback by the occasion – all the great players you are surrounded by – was the goal… Then you say yo yourself, ‘You’re there for a reason so go out and play, and be as good a player as you can be’.”
Murray is a player to be feared but he has his own shuddering recollections of what the South Africa are capable of. Back at Carton House, he told us:
“They’re a side that are moving forward and who have expanded their game in recent times. They’ll always have that physicality that they bring – they’ll try and outmuscle you and they’ll have a really strong set-piece. In their backline, watching [Ross] Cronjé and Elton Jantjies, they’ve developed a really good [half back] partnership and have delivered some highlight moments in the Rugby Championship. They seem to be clicking well.
“Obviously, Damian de Allende is a really powerful runner. I know that from the summer tour there a couple of years ago. Their back three are really explosive and they are players that will risk a few offloads or make something out of nothing. They are guys you have to watch.”
It is the delivery of ‘really powerful runner’ from Murray that brings it all back.
Ireland were leading 26-22 in the Second Test against the Springboks in Johannesburg, last June, when de Allende – all 6-foot-3, 16-stone of him – steamrolled Murray and shrugged off Rhys Ruddock to make it 27-26 with three minutes to play.
At the time, Murray owned the error and vowed he would fix the flaw in his game.
He stayed true to his word and stuck all five tackle attempts in that deciding Test but the Boks edged Ireland 19-13 to take the series.
“Their back play has gone up another level since we played them last summer,” Murray cautioned, “and they’ve got that physicality with the likes of Eben Etzebeth and Lood de Jagr. It’s a massive challenge for us to go into fresh, if you will – as we’ve just linked up – where they are quite battle-hardened. Quite a challenge, but exciting.”
Murray spoke extremely well in the press briefing and his strong take on criticism over Bundee Aki making the Ireland squad ended up challenging Keane for headlines that Tuesday evening.
Well said https://t.co/oWHtHqNjDM
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) November 8, 2017
During the Q&A, Murray actually broke the golden rule of sporting press conferences by admitting that many of the players are keenly aware of what is being said about them, and their team, in the media and on social media.
“Bundee is just buzzing around the place and enjoying training, and that side of it,” Murray began.
“For me, I’m sure he’s seen it as we see most things, whether it be on your phone or someone telling you. You’re going to see it.
“From what I see, he’s handling it really well and just enjoying rugby.”
You can be sure as hell the players and coaches are aware of the latest attempt by certain parts of the media to paint Aki as some sort of usurper and taker of jobs for our boys.
“Bundee is a strong player,” Murray added, “a competitive person and I’m sure he’ll just take it on his shoulders and move forward with it. I don’t see it being a problem.
“I don’t think it’s fair to be singling out someone like that.”
Murray spoke from the heart in defence of a man he will go into battle with this weekend.
Roy Keane could not have put it better himself.
