FOR ALL THE talk of competition for places, there are a couple of slots in Irish rugby’s strongest XV that are as good as cast iron.
The half-back combination is one area where Joe Schmidt can confidently pencil names if he ever found time to doodle his way through his preferred starting line-up at next year’s World Cup.
Jonathan Sexton is a central focus of his attacking gameplan and in Conor Murray Ireland have one of Europe’s best scrum-halves. It’s an obvious pairing to make in the pivotal positions, but Murray remains acutely aware of a time when he wasn’t a shoe-in.
He has had to work hard and play to an incredibly consistent level to make picking Eoin Reddan or Kieran Marmion ahead of him feel like a flight of fancy rather than a tactical change of pace.
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“Me and Johnny have been playing together for a while now,” says Murray, “at the beginning, people were probably questioning our relationship and [asking] ‘were we able to read each other on the pitch?’
“I think we’ve come an awful long way, I think we can read each other a lot better than in previous years that’s just a relationship that’s still growing and I’m enjoying working with him.
Dan Sheridan / INPHO
Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
“He’s a leader and he lets you in no doubt about what he wants on the pitch. That’s what we’re doing this week and last week, getting our reps together and getting the understanding back.”
The scrum-half is a leader too, a huge part of Munster’s resurgence this season. Murray will be asked to shoulder a relatively smaller portion of the burden for Ireland’s success or failure, but the pressure is still firmly on:
“It’s a natural progression,” says the 25-year-old, “I’m enjoying the place I have in this squad at the moment and the atmosphere within the group. We’ve a lot of leaders here: Paulie’s the captain, but throughout the whole squad there are people leading.
“We all have a good idea of how we want to play and what we want to do on the pitch at a particular time.
“Whoever’s on the pitch and in the starting 15 has pressure on them anyway. So I don’t see it different. If you’re selected, great, you take that pressure on board and the responsibility and it’s how you cope with it.”
He adds: “I think any time you come in to international camp there’s pressure put on you to perform and we want to keep growing as a team.
“We know what’s down the line – there’s a Six Nations, there’s a World Cup – but especially in November you’re more than likely playing top southern hemisphere teams and that’s a huge challenge in itself.”
'We've come an awful long way': Sexton partnership still improving, says Murray
FOR ALL THE talk of competition for places, there are a couple of slots in Irish rugby’s strongest XV that are as good as cast iron.
The half-back combination is one area where Joe Schmidt can confidently pencil names if he ever found time to doodle his way through his preferred starting line-up at next year’s World Cup.
Jonathan Sexton is a central focus of his attacking gameplan and in Conor Murray Ireland have one of Europe’s best scrum-halves. It’s an obvious pairing to make in the pivotal positions, but Murray remains acutely aware of a time when he wasn’t a shoe-in.
He has had to work hard and play to an incredibly consistent level to make picking Eoin Reddan or Kieran Marmion ahead of him feel like a flight of fancy rather than a tactical change of pace.
“Me and Johnny have been playing together for a while now,” says Murray, “at the beginning, people were probably questioning our relationship and [asking] ‘were we able to read each other on the pitch?’
“I think we’ve come an awful long way, I think we can read each other a lot better than in previous years that’s just a relationship that’s still growing and I’m enjoying working with him.
“He’s a leader and he lets you in no doubt about what he wants on the pitch. That’s what we’re doing this week and last week, getting our reps together and getting the understanding back.”
The scrum-half is a leader too, a huge part of Munster’s resurgence this season. Murray will be asked to shoulder a relatively smaller portion of the burden for Ireland’s success or failure, but the pressure is still firmly on:
“It’s a natural progression,” says the 25-year-old, “I’m enjoying the place I have in this squad at the moment and the atmosphere within the group. We’ve a lot of leaders here: Paulie’s the captain, but throughout the whole squad there are people leading.
“We all have a good idea of how we want to play and what we want to do on the pitch at a particular time.
He adds: “I think any time you come in to international camp there’s pressure put on you to perform and we want to keep growing as a team.
“We know what’s down the line – there’s a Six Nations, there’s a World Cup – but especially in November you’re more than likely playing top southern hemisphere teams and that’s a huge challenge in itself.”
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November Internationals 2013 Conor Murray Ireland Ireland November Tests South Africa South Africa winning combination