LIFE HAS CHANGED significantly for Conor Murray over the last few months. In October Murray’s wife, Joanna, gave birth to their first child, Alfie.
The timing of Alfie’s arrival made life interesting for the Munster scrum-half. Murray was in South Africa with Munster when his son decided to enter the world. He scrambled for a flight home while Joanna drove herself to the hospital. Murray made it back in time for the birth but just four days later he was flying off again with Ireland for their pre-November training camp in Portugal, which was followed by the guts of four weeks spent away from home in Dublin.
Thankfully, the routine of parenting has since fell into a more manageable rhythm. Back at Munster, Murray was rehabbing an elbow issue across December and into the New Year, with his frustrations around that injury softened by a busier home life.
“It’s been the best thing ever,” says Murray. “I think it gives you a boost (as a sportsperson), a bit of energy coming home and seeing him and now he’s starting to interact a little bit, smiling and giggling and stuff, that’s class.”
There’s been change on the pitch too. After last weekend’s win over Saracens, Tadhg Beirne joked that new laws aimed at protecting scrum-halves could add five years to Murray’s playing career.
Naturally enough, the man himself welcomes the change and adds that he’s in favour of the various law tweaks brought in across the season.
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Murray returned from injury in the win over Saracens. Dan Sheridan / INPHO
Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
While the change that sees players no longer being able to reach out from rucks and grab a scrum-half’s arms only came in this month, earlier in the season World Rugby told match officials to clamp down on ‘kick escorting’ in a bid to create more contests in the air.
“I think the ruck thing especially, sometimes you go to a ruck and you try and rip a pass and an arm comes in and yanks at your arm and the ball goes along and you look quite silly,” Murray says.
So probably, subconsciously, (I’m now) a little bit less stressed about being caught or things like that, which I think will speed the game up as well, which is a positive.
“The scrum stuff with the opposition not being able to go at the base of the scrum and disrupt it is nicer to play off. It’s definitely more difficult to defend because they can obviously use both sides now, so every team I presume is just looking at ways you can exploit that and turn it into a positive for you.
“And the aerial stuff, I know it was a bit before that, but I think that’s great. I think it’s a proper contest in the air now because that wall thing that every team was doing, I think it was really boring, it was ruining it a little bit. That skill of being one-on-one in the air and claiming high balls is pretty cool. So thankfully that’s there.”
This weekend’s Champions Cup trip to face Northampton Saints will see Murray make his 199th appearance for his home province. It’s been a typically eventful season at Munster but the 35-year-old, who is out of contract at the end of the season, feels any disruption which followed Graham Rowntree’s departure in October has since settled, with Ian Costello steering the ship as interim head coach.
“We’re all familiar with Cossie, especially lads who’ve been here for a while since Academy days and we know how he operates.
He knows Munster, he’s been around long enough, he knows the culture here, he knows a lot of the players, he knows what makes the players tick and he’s just managing it nicely.
“I think in the situation we’ve gone through, there’s a freshness about the place. When there’s a change, there’s an automatic kind of reaction. People just seem like ‘Oh maybe we’ll be under pressure now, people from the outside will think that it’s a bit of a mess’, but it’s about how we react within this building and last week was huge, getting a result like that. It allows you to build something hopefully.”
In the aftermath of Rowntree’s departure, Costello spoke to the players about taking on ‘shared ownership’ alongside the coaching staff, with players increasingly encouraged to voice their own thoughts and opinions.
Murray is a senior voice within the Munster squad but remembers what it’s like to be at the younger end of the scale.
“I was definitely that player. You’re sitting in a meeting room and I remember being young and looking at a screen and being like, ‘I know the answer to that’, the coach was like ‘what should we do here?’ and the room was silent and I was like ‘I know, I know the answer’ and it’s just because you’re young or there’s an O’Gara in the room or whoever and then someone like O’Gara would say it and you’re kicking yourself, ‘that’s exactly what I was going to say’.
“Cossie’s definitely emphasised it and put more of a spotlight on it,” he adds.
Interim head coach Ian Costello. Ben Brady / INPHO
Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO
“I think it’s really important that keeps growing. Like if you’re in a room and there’s a training presentation on the TV and it’s about young players not being afraid (to speak), because they’re probably thinking the right thing a lot of the time. Or maybe they’re a bit confused about something and they don’t want to ask a question.
“Whatever it is, it’s getting people comfortable to ask a question, to say ‘here, I don’t know what that scrum play is’, or ‘what should I do with that option in front of me’, or whatever it may be because at the end of the day it’s us on the pitch and us making decisions on the pitch. Obviously we have messages coming down and there’s a gameplan but live, it’s just us so why not it be us during the week leading as much as we can.
“Andy (Farrell) always talks about that, ‘just ask the question’. There’s no such thing as a stupid question, it’s one of our things, just ask it and if someone has an answer, or an older player has an answer, or someone your own age, they’ll tell you. That’s a nice environment to be in.”
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'It's about how we react within this building' - Murray on how Munster have managed disruption
LIFE HAS CHANGED significantly for Conor Murray over the last few months. In October Murray’s wife, Joanna, gave birth to their first child, Alfie.
The timing of Alfie’s arrival made life interesting for the Munster scrum-half. Murray was in South Africa with Munster when his son decided to enter the world. He scrambled for a flight home while Joanna drove herself to the hospital. Murray made it back in time for the birth but just four days later he was flying off again with Ireland for their pre-November training camp in Portugal, which was followed by the guts of four weeks spent away from home in Dublin.
Thankfully, the routine of parenting has since fell into a more manageable rhythm. Back at Munster, Murray was rehabbing an elbow issue across December and into the New Year, with his frustrations around that injury softened by a busier home life.
“It’s been the best thing ever,” says Murray. “I think it gives you a boost (as a sportsperson), a bit of energy coming home and seeing him and now he’s starting to interact a little bit, smiling and giggling and stuff, that’s class.”
There’s been change on the pitch too. After last weekend’s win over Saracens, Tadhg Beirne joked that new laws aimed at protecting scrum-halves could add five years to Murray’s playing career.
Naturally enough, the man himself welcomes the change and adds that he’s in favour of the various law tweaks brought in across the season.
While the change that sees players no longer being able to reach out from rucks and grab a scrum-half’s arms only came in this month, earlier in the season World Rugby told match officials to clamp down on ‘kick escorting’ in a bid to create more contests in the air.
“I think the ruck thing especially, sometimes you go to a ruck and you try and rip a pass and an arm comes in and yanks at your arm and the ball goes along and you look quite silly,” Murray says.
“The scrum stuff with the opposition not being able to go at the base of the scrum and disrupt it is nicer to play off. It’s definitely more difficult to defend because they can obviously use both sides now, so every team I presume is just looking at ways you can exploit that and turn it into a positive for you.
“And the aerial stuff, I know it was a bit before that, but I think that’s great. I think it’s a proper contest in the air now because that wall thing that every team was doing, I think it was really boring, it was ruining it a little bit. That skill of being one-on-one in the air and claiming high balls is pretty cool. So thankfully that’s there.”
This weekend’s Champions Cup trip to face Northampton Saints will see Murray make his 199th appearance for his home province. It’s been a typically eventful season at Munster but the 35-year-old, who is out of contract at the end of the season, feels any disruption which followed Graham Rowntree’s departure in October has since settled, with Ian Costello steering the ship as interim head coach.
“We’re all familiar with Cossie, especially lads who’ve been here for a while since Academy days and we know how he operates.
“I think in the situation we’ve gone through, there’s a freshness about the place. When there’s a change, there’s an automatic kind of reaction. People just seem like ‘Oh maybe we’ll be under pressure now, people from the outside will think that it’s a bit of a mess’, but it’s about how we react within this building and last week was huge, getting a result like that. It allows you to build something hopefully.”
In the aftermath of Rowntree’s departure, Costello spoke to the players about taking on ‘shared ownership’ alongside the coaching staff, with players increasingly encouraged to voice their own thoughts and opinions.
Murray is a senior voice within the Munster squad but remembers what it’s like to be at the younger end of the scale.
“I was definitely that player. You’re sitting in a meeting room and I remember being young and looking at a screen and being like, ‘I know the answer to that’, the coach was like ‘what should we do here?’ and the room was silent and I was like ‘I know, I know the answer’ and it’s just because you’re young or there’s an O’Gara in the room or whoever and then someone like O’Gara would say it and you’re kicking yourself, ‘that’s exactly what I was going to say’.
“Cossie’s definitely emphasised it and put more of a spotlight on it,” he adds.
“I think it’s really important that keeps growing. Like if you’re in a room and there’s a training presentation on the TV and it’s about young players not being afraid (to speak), because they’re probably thinking the right thing a lot of the time. Or maybe they’re a bit confused about something and they don’t want to ask a question.
“Whatever it is, it’s getting people comfortable to ask a question, to say ‘here, I don’t know what that scrum play is’, or ‘what should I do with that option in front of me’, or whatever it may be because at the end of the day it’s us on the pitch and us making decisions on the pitch. Obviously we have messages coming down and there’s a gameplan but live, it’s just us so why not it be us during the week leading as much as we can.
“Andy (Farrell) always talks about that, ‘just ask the question’. There’s no such thing as a stupid question, it’s one of our things, just ask it and if someone has an answer, or an older player has an answer, or someone your own age, they’ll tell you. That’s a nice environment to be in.”
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Champions Cup Conor Murray Energised Munster Rugby