The Limerick man keeps on producing the goods and yet the best team in the world haven’t figured him out yet.
A few weeks before he jetted off to New Zealand with the Lions, we caught up with Conor Murray out in Sandyford and asked him about his knack of playing sensationally well, and scoring tries, against New Zealand.
With rapid name-checks for “awesome” Aaron Smith and TJ Perenara, he reasoned:
“When you play the best teams, you just want to play well against them. You want to compete against them and see where you rank or how you perform against them.
“That’s always a thing for me and, yeah, for bigger occasions you probably get a little more from yourself. That’s not to say that you shy away and you don’t play your best in club games, but on big occasions you look to play that bit better or you’re even more determined to play well.”
Murray left for New Zealand having scored three tries in six Tests against the All Blacks. Two matches into the current Test Series and he has another try to his name.
https://youtu.be/X1pkUFJUzjc
Four tries is a record-setting return for a northern hemispere player against New Zealand and the Ireland scrum-half has achieved that in just eight Tests. Time and again, Murray has figured out how to punch holes in the All Black’s defensive lines. He’s lauded, and loathed, for his box-kicks but he’s one hell of a threat with ball in hand.
The evidence and performances are clear but Murray is still available at 25/1 to score the first try in Saturday’s third and deciding Test at Eden Park. If one fancies Murray to score a try at any stage of the game, he is available at 5/1.
Jordie Barrett is making his first international start for New Zealand but such is the hype and high praise around the Hurricanes star that his odds are much lower – 6/4 to score a try at any stage and 11/1 to be first man over the white-wash.
In terms of the game itself, and what the Lions are up against, Murray may be the best chance of a return by backing red.
Hayley O’Connor was on The Hard Yards rugby podcast ahead of the Third Test and she ran through some of the more interesting bets on offer. She commented:
“New Zealand are 4-to-1 on favourites but we are looking to lay them. They were 9/2 [on] with us earlier but we had to push them out because we really don’t want to take on the Lions and we’ll be as short a price as we can get away with… we’ll be avoiding them at all costs.
“The handicap opened up at -9 with sum firms but it has kind of levelled off at -12. Because we want to duck the Lions, we’ll probably be New Zealand -12 at around 11/10.”
The Lions are available at 7/2 to win the game and clinch the series but, for optimistic supporters and punters out there, one other market is certainly worth looking at.
In the Half-time/Full-times, one can get 11/1 on New Zealand to be leading at the break only to lose it by the final whistle. Were that to happen, a whole heap of Irish, English, Welsh and even Scottish fans will be hoarse and happy for days to come.
The Third Test between New Zealand and the British & Irish Lions takes place at 8:35am [GMT] this Saturday. You can get all the match odds here.
