Behind the scrum, the future’s bright

GREIG OLIVER, the former Scotland scrum-half and now director of rugby at Garryowen, and his Cork Constitution counterpart Brian Walsh believe Munster have two more outstanding number nines ready to follow in the illustrious footsteps of Peter Stringer and Tomás O’Leary.

Oliver watched Conor Murray (Garryowen) and Duncan Williams (Con) in direct opposition in Saturday’s AIB League draw at Dooradoyle and left more convinced than ever that these are a couple of young players with bright futures. They are both big, strongly built youths with football skills to burn and certainly looked a couple of class acts even though the foggy, cold afternoon and heavy pitch militated against constructive rugby. Accordingly, it was little surprise that in the end both sides were happy witha share of the points.

“There certainly is an abundance of outstanding scrum-halves in Munster,” said Oliver. “Conor and Duncan are still at a relatively early stage of their development and will only improve with more intense games like this. Nothing here at Garryowen is a problem for Conor and Duncan is also progressing nicely given that he has been plagued by injuries. They are both students of the game and if they can learn the right habits and execute them, should go a long way.”

Oliver has worked with the scrum-halves in the Munster squad at regular intervals over the past couple of years with Tomás O’Leary one of those to benefit from his wisdom. Brian Walsh is equally pleased with the progress made by Williams while also happy to praise Murray’s all-round game.

“Conor is the lynchpin of much of what Garryowen do and directs the game very well for them,” he lauded. “For us, Duncan shows big physicality and is clearly very talented. In many ways, they are different types of players and Munster are lucky to have young players of this quality coming through. There were others out there, guys like Billy Holland and Tom Gleeson for Con and the two Sherrys, David and Mike, for Garryowen, and I only hope the league stays in its current form so they can develop still further.”

It was a pity that two young, positive teams and the few hardy souls who turned up at Dooradoyle had to contend with pretty miserable conditions. Garryowen probably shaded the first half but Con were the more likely side on the turnover to grab what would undoubtedly have been a match winning try.

Con’s lead at the top of the table has been reduced to two after Shannon’s win over UL/Bohemians while Garryowen marginally eased their relegation worries although they still remain in second last place in the Division 1 A table. Saturday’s was a big game for contrasting reasons for both clubs and perhaps that’s why for the most part they adopted a safety first approach with far too much high and often aimless kicking. They will hope for far more favourable conditions when meeting once again in next Saturday’s final of the AIB Cup at Dubarry Park, Athlone.

In the end, Con had a couple of penalties by impressive full-back Scott Deasy while Murray demonstrated that he has yet another string to his bow by putting over both kicks for Garryowen.

GARRYOWEN: R O’Mahony; I Hanley, C Doyle (capt), K Hartigan, A Gaughan; W Staunton, C Murray; J Harney, M Sherry, D Lavery; F McKenna, E Mackey; P Neville, A Kavanagh, D Sherry. Replacements: A McCloskey and M Melbourne for McKenna and Mackey (58).

CORK CONSTITUTION: S Deasy; R Lane, T Gleeson, E Ryan (capt), C Healy; D Lyons, D Williams; G Murray, R Quinn, S Archer; M O’Connell, I Nagle; B Holland, P O’Mahony, F Cogan. Replacements: M Gateley for Murray (47); E Leamy for O’Connell (79).

Referee: C Shanley (IRFU).