WATCHING A PLAYER make strides of improvement on the rugby pitch is one of the great pleasures of the sport.
Conor Murray is a man who has been doing exactly that for Munster and Ireland over the last four seasons, to the point where he will be one of the key influences in the province’s clash with Toulouse in the Heineken Cup quarter-final tomorrow.
When the 24-year-old is at his unflustered, confident best, a strong team performance usually follows. With four direct assists for tries in the pool stages of the competition, Murray’s playmaking has been important for Munster, while his defensive contributions have stood out too.
In calling on Murray at scrum-half, the southern province have a great advantage over other teams when forced to defend. The Limerick man’s power and size are relatively greater than most number nines, allowing him to offer Munster reassurance in his role sweeping behind the front-line defence.
Rob Penney’s side conceded 12 line-breaks in the five pool games that Murray played in this season, but invariably the scrum-half was in position to rescue the situation. Against the dangerous Toulouse attack tomorrow, that role will be crucial again.
I think that’s part of my game and I try to do it most games,” says Murray. “Maybe because it’s a bit more of a threat this week, you’d be working a little bit harder.
“How we work with our back three and with our chip line against them [is important]. They’ll either run the ball back or they’ll try little chips over the top or those speculative passes that can be spectacular. We’ve got to be very aware of that.”
22 tackles in five pool games showed that Murray is willing to make his tackles, while his positioning will be tested by Luke McAlister’s range of dinks over the first-up defence.
Another key element of Murray’s display tomorrow will be his box kicking, an area of scrum-half play in which he has shown progress since bursting onto the professional scene with Munster in 2010.
Last weekend’s kicking display against Leinster was poor from a Munster team point of view, and Murray has warned that another poorly-executed strategy in that regard could be disastrous.
“Kick chase is going to be crucial and kicking in general is going to be crucial, especially making it contestable. We’ve got to make sure we get our wingers in the air and not give [Yoann] Huget, or whoever it may be, time on the ball and time to run it back.
No matter how good your chase is, they’re the type of players who can breach a line just with a bit of footwork. They’re really good players and that’s going to be a huge part of our game.”
Murray admits last weekend’s kicking malaise was one of the “aspects of the game that were disappointing” in Dublin. The Ireland international points out that Munster “probably stopped playing” in the second half, but there is a sense Penney’s men did not unleash their full attacking skillset against Leinster.
“I think we didn’t play enough and I know when we do play, we take teams through the phases. We know we can create loads of try-scoring opportunities. I don’t think Keith Earls touched the ball in the first half last weekend, which was quite worrying for us.
“But saying that, we played a different type of rugby in the first half and got a 12-3 lead.”
Toulouse strengths
The Leinster review was well and truly parked early in the week by Murray and his teammates, with focus instead switching to Guy Novès’ talented team. The former St. Munchin’s student insists Munster need to harness home advantage in the early stages of the game.
You just have to look at the amount of lads they have playing for the French team and how well they played during the Six Nations, at times. They’ve really threatening runners, especially their back three.
“They’re a team that can be very dangerous, they can run it from anywhere; they’re a typically French team that will try things from anywhere on the pitch. They try a lot of things and sometimes they come off and look very spectacular.
“I suppose early on in the game, we’ve got to be very aware of that stuff and make sure we don’t give them a soft opening into the game.”
