Murray living the Ireland dream

HURLING yourself off a ledge on the side of a mountain makes for an exhilarating descent, as long as you’re attached to a bungee cord, but for a young scrum-half thrown into a World Cup campaign, the ascents tend to be just as thrilling.

That is certainly the case for Conor Murray, who just 10 months ago was making his first start for Munster in his final year in the academy set-up and now finds himself in contention for the Ireland No. 9 jersey for the Pool C opening game against the United States on Sunday.

For now, though, the 22-year-old from Patrickswell, Limerick, is enjoying the attractions of Queenstown, Ireland’s pre-tournament base in New Zealand’s South Island, where the players have been given a little free time between training to explore some of the safer adventure sports on offer ahead of today’s first full-contact training session.

“It’s one of the cooler places,” Murray said on Sunday, “with lots to do here so I am really enjoying it. We had an activity day Saturday, a little bit of jet-boating, bungee jumping and we went up the gondola thing as well, and the luge thing. It was great craic. About eight of us did the bungee. It was my first and it was some rush.”

Murray’s rise to Ireland’s World Cup campaign was the big surprise at Declan Kidney’s squad announcement two weeks ago, coming at the expense of fellow Munster scrum-half Tomás O’Leary, and the sudden elevation in status is only now beginning to dawn on him. In fact, it was all his house-mates — Munster players Mike Sherry, Declan Cusack, Paddy Butler and Dave Kilcoyne — could do to get a smile out of him when the call came.

“The enormity of it is hitting me since we arrived here. Before when I found out, I had no emotion, it didn’t really hit me at all. I was just at home with the lads I live with and they were physically shaking me, trying to get me excited. It’s definitely starting to hit me now and I’m looking forward to it.”

Murray has made a big impression on the senior Munster players since Tony McGahan put his faith in the young scrum-half at the end of last season, to a man praising his composure and the sense that he plays as if he has been operating at the highest level for a long time. Asked if he is as calm and comfortable as he appears to his team-mates, the half-back betrayed huge self-confidence in his response. “Yeah, even talking with Deccie before, rugby isn’t that different when you go up the levels, obviously it gets a bit quicker and you make quicker decisions but if your basics are good... obviously you have to have some bit of skill to be able to play at another level but I find it okay at the moment. I’m sure I have to be tested yet but so far, so good.”

Nerves on his Ireland debut last month were inevitable but Murray’s position demands an instant command of the game and that means barking orders at players with considerable achievements on their CVs, including his Munster and Ireland out-half Ronan O’Gara.

“I think you have to, you can’t be intimidated by anyone on your team. Playing with him at Munster has really stood to me, he’s great to play with. He barks at me, I bark at him but it works really well. It was a bit daunting at the start, my first game against Cardiff with ROG at 10 but it was just to get it over with, get a game under my belt playing with him. But I enjoy playing with him, same with Johnny (Sexton), I had 20 minutes with him against England so it’s good to get that game time under your belt.”

Murray, who won the Munster Academy player of the year award last season, has also been in contact with his provincial coach, Tony McGahan, during his time preparing for the World Cup at Carton House. And no doubt McGahan will have reinforced Murray’s belief that he is every bit as worthy of a starting place against the USA this weekend as his scrum-half rivals Eoin Reddan and Isaac Boss.

“First of all I was delighted to get into the squad, of course,” Murray said.

“But you see other players that are over here and you know they are going to get game time and you want to be like them, you want to train as hard as you can and if you get on the pitch, then great. I’m just going to focus on my game and do as well as I can and if I get a bit of game time, great. I’m really going to try and get some game time over here, it would be great.”