CONOR MURRAY SHOWED no sign of umbrage after being replaced with 20 minutes remaining of Ireland’s 13-13 draw with France.
When Murray was called ashore, Ireland led by seven points and he was having the game of his life.
He had controlled much of the opening hour, passing, kicking and tackling like leader of this increasingly inexperienced team.
Though his replacement, Eoin Reddan, showed some fine touches of his own, many pointed to the coach’s call as an emblematic reason for Ireland’s awful second half record in recent years.
Murray certainly won’t be one to voice his criticism in public. He is well versed in PR and will not forget who fast-tracked him into a World Cup squad ahead of the Grand Slam winning Tomas O’Leary.
Interviewed on the pitch as man of the match, Murray issued a prelude to Kidney’s assertion that the scrum half was tiring after an hour on heavy ground.
“That usually happens with halfbacks.” He says after having to time to change into a suit in a quiet, rueful dressing room. “There is a substitution around the hour mark.
“It was quite heavy going; the ground was quite wet and heavy. I probably was a bit tired at that time. There was complete confidence in our bench – Reddan nearly put Earls in for a try near the end. I think it was a good move.”
Murray would be called back briefly to fill the blindside wing slot as Brian O’Driscoll hobbled off before Louis Picamoles’ game-levelling try. With Luke Marshall also headed for the tunnel, the Toulouse number eight profiting from a green defence creaking under the weight of injury and a scrum on the wrong end of Steve Walsh’s whistle.
“You have to be ready to fill in a position. I don’t think we were confused they just had a quick penalty and had enough force to get over.”
He added: “I heard the front-row having a bit of chat about that (scrum) inside the dressing room after the match. I’m not one to talk about scrums. From what I could gather, they felt a little bit hard done-by on that scrum. They were instructed to stay square and they did stay square. I don’t know what happened.”
Murray would soon return to his jacket on the replacements bench as O’Driscoll warred on through what may be his last competitive appearance at Lansdowne Road – though Leinster may well switch a late-season fixture the venue.
Freak out
As the famous number 13 slowly disappeared down the tunnel, the young members of this squad are being forced to come of age. Murray, with close to two years experience is making himself a leader of this Ireland team.
“I don’t think people need to freak out. There’s no issue of confidence within the team.” Said the 23-year-old. “We’re not getting smashed by teams and not creating opportunities. We’re creating a lot, we’re controlling games, we’re controlling territory.
“It’s little things like today when we needed to keep the scoreboard ticking over in the second-half and e probably would have kicked on again. I can’t put my finger on why we didn’t do that.”
