It was out of character from the Munster and Ireland scrum-half.
Conor Murray definitely did not have it all his own way during Ireland’s 18-9 loss in the First Test against Australia.
Murray conceded three turnovers, a penalty and was subject of a few crunching tackles from a wired Wallabies side. Class player that he is, he rallied well to call a lot of shots for his side and remained on the field until late in the piece.
Ireland may have been planning on replacing him for Kieran Marmion anyway, but Murray’s late exchange with referee Marius van der Westhuizen after a knock-on at the ruck hastened his exit. With a couple of Australian paws and legs deliberately stuck in the ruck to slow the ball down, Murray made a mistake before spinning on the ref.
Approaching the South African, Murray’s reproach quickly escalated as he pointed to the big screen:
“How long are you going to let them stay there? How long? How long?
“You guys have to f***ing watch.”
With that, the referee whistled and ordered the No.9 away. “Get back please,” he requested.
Conor Murray lost his cool with the ref in the closing stages pic.twitter.com/lRVN1aBsNp
— Pat McCarry (@patmccarry) June 9, 2018
Murray did not receive any post-match sanctions for his questioning of van der Westhuizen and the incident itself did not come up until five days later. During his interview with RTE Radio’s Michael Corcoran, Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt conceded:
“Conor lost his cool and that is unacceptable and he’s well aware of that now.”
Schmidt believes the rough treatment Murray was subjected to shows how important a player the Aussies consider him to be. Schmidt added:
“We are going to have to be well aware of David Pocock, but Michael Hooper is also a real threat on the ball, but we have to make sure we clean them right out.
“We had guys who were in and around the ruck, putting hands back on…I know Conor lost his cool and that is unacceptable and he’s well aware of that now, but if we don’t get rid of them completely, they do tend to slow your ball really effectively.
“While that was a frustration for us, we have to look after that.”
The referee for the Second Test, in Melbourne, is Paul Williams and former Ireland flanker Kevin McLaughlin believes Schmidt will have a priority one to discuss with him ahead of the game.
“Joe Schmidt is going to have a meeting with the referee ahead of the game,” McLaughlin told The Hard Yards, “and the first thing he is going to say is, ‘Pocock needs to release after he makes the tackle and before get gets back over the ball’.
“It is going to be the number one thing Joe will ask him to look at. The second thing is they will look to target him earlier.”
