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.”