The controversy surrounding this issue isn’t going away.
Almost a week has passed since Munster defeated Glasgow Warriors 14-12 at Scotstoun. The game was filled with plenty of debate surrounding Conor Murray.
One of the talking points as you probably know was the ‘roughing up’ treatment he received throughout the game.
The majority of this concerned the late challenges which he received once he completed a box-kick. The clear cut examples are below but there were more incidents like this throughout the game.
It’s been talked about all week, with Murray telling reporters that he was “pissed off” due to the dangerous challenges he was on the receiving end of.
The grievance is that Murray could have been seriously injured from these type of challenges. The onrushing players are tackling the standing leg from the blindside position.
The significance of this is that the ‘attempted’ block down was never intended, as you are very unlikely to successfully complete this coming from the side of Murray’s standing leg.
Glasgow head coach, Gregor Townsend, met with reporters in the build-up to their clash with the Leicester Tigers at Welford Road and he dismissed any dangerous play on his side’s part.
“We put really good pressure on. There was one occasion where I think we didn’t get the timing right, but all the others we put on legitimate pressure. The referee was there, he saw a couple of replays on the screen and said that’s fine.”
Racing 92 coach, Ronan O’Gara, also aired his views on the incident in his column for The Examiner and it’s safe to say he didn’t exactly have the same view as Townsend.
“But going after someone totally exposed with one foot planted is a disappointing low in rugby and something I view as absolutely scandalous and appalling — and I have a fair idea of what I am talking about in this area.”
O’Gara certainly does, as Munster’s most influential player over a long and distinguished career, he would have been targeted multiple times by the opposition, so his disbelief surrounding this incident just shows how dangerous the ‘tactics’ employed by Glasgow were.
