CONOR MURRAY TOOK a limited part in Munster training at the University of Limerick today as Anthony Foley awaits scan results to determine whether the international scrum-half will be fit to face Saracens.
The away trip to Allianz Park this Saturday is a must-win fixture if the southern province are to extend their interest in the Champions Cup beyond the knockout stages. However, the scrum-half is a doubt for the game having sustained a neck injury in the act of scoring a try in the weekend win over Zebre.
“The bang Conor took scoring the try is obviously a concern that we’re looking in to to see if he’s okay. We’ll see where he lies come Thursday.”
Foley added: “He did a bit of org [indoor organisational work] this morning, but then we felt that it wouldn’t be right for him to be out on the pitch and we made sure we gave him another activity to do.
“We’ll get the scan read and see where that lies.”
While Dave Kilcoyne and Robin Copeland remain out of commission for Foley, the head coach was keen to accentuate the positives of an injury list that is, on the whole, growing shorter. Along with Keith Earls and James Cronin coming off the bench against Zebre, Dave Foley came through an hour of action in Italy and hooker Duncan Casey played a full part in training at UL today.
“Dave O’Callaghan started at the weekend for the first time in a long time, it was great to see him out there. Earlsy and Jamesie Cronin came on and got a half an hour each. They made an impact in the game and got a good blow-out. It adds another bit of depth to our squad going in to the weekend.”
If Murray is out then forget about it…. basically irreplaceable at this point.
That’s the blood pressure gone up another few notches… Thought he was fine after coming back on??
Jaysus!
Ah no, if we go into a six nations with reddan we won’t be champions at the end of March
Unless Marmion blossoms…stranger things have happened!
Cian that would be best case. Marmion plays most of the six nations and we go into a World Cup with two top class 9′s
Still I’d like Murrary to be ok.
I’ve enough trust in Schmidt’s systems to win the 6N with Marmion and Reddan. Would even be curious to see how a Madigan Marmion combo got on for the whole tournament. Watch the abuse for saying this now.
@ Cian Walker: I agree, we know that Murray/Sexton are one of the best halfback pairings in the world. Looking on to the WC it would be nice to know that their replacements could do the Job. New Zealand won the last WC with their 5th choice out half. I’d like to believe that Marmion, Reddan, Madigan, Keatley and Jackson could pull off the same feat.
THE best half back pairings I think! There are arguably better 9s and better 10s but not better pairings!
And yes it could do our WC campaign good. Madigan/Marmion pairing’d be very dynamic and unpredictable!
The time for that kind of experimentation was over the autumn internationals. We have not won enough 6 nations championships to be looking past it to RWC….
Don’t risk him! Doesn’t even need to be back for the Italy match.
Looked at the slowplay replay of Murrays try and it looked like he got a knee in the head before he hit the padding. Is this the real reason he’s sidelined ??