Conor Murray: Munster is in safe hands
Having boosted his CV with a huge contribution to the successful British and Irish Lions tour to Australia, Murray is determined not to settle for second best with last year’s Heineken Cup semi-finalists and promises nobody else will either.
“I almost feel like an outsider coming back to Munster because they’re in week six (pre season) and have their own buzz going. They’re really sharp. I have to do a lot of computer work now and catch up.”
With a change of captaincy following the forced retirement of Doug Howlett and with Ronan O’Gara moving on, Murray insists the future of Munster rugby is in safe hands and hopes to play an influential role himself too.
“We’ve lost a lot of players through retirement and injury but that obviously helped speed up our development a bit. We had no choice really. We were in the front line ourselves. New captain Peter O’Mahony, Mike Sherry, players like that, we were accelerated into those roles. That played a big part.”
The responsibility on players of his age, he admitted, has heightened: “Absolutely. I think last year was the time. I think Paulie and Rog were there and I think a lot of the leadership came through from the younger players during the season that people probably didn’t see. A lot of younger players stood up and it will be another challenge now after losing Rog.
“Paulie is going to be there, but he is just going to want us to lead. He’s not going to take control away from anyone, he’s going to want us to lead. I think from last season, maybe even the season before, when it started, there was talk of (younger players) taking over this leadership role; people are looking forward to it.”
He hopes his own experience Down Under, and the confidence he gained from playing such an important role in the success of the tour, will benefit both province and country in the months ahead.
He recalls the Lions experience fondly: From being on the Lions Tour I’ve taken a huge amount of confidence from that. Now I want to take my game to another level and see how good I can be. The self-belief I have from the tour is unbelievable compared to when I first went on it.”
His intention is now to become one of the top scrum-halves in the world. “I’d be looking at being known as a really good scum-half in Europe and then by the time the World Cup comes — all going well — I want to be one of the top scrum-halves in that tournament.”
First, he has to keep his place on the Irish team, and he’s not taking anything for granted on that score. With a new coach in Joe Schmidt and essentially a new coaching team, he figures he might have to start from ground up to impress.
He had his first official meeting with Schmidt on Wednesday at what was essentially a bonding exercise. “I’ve met him a couple of times before but that was my first time chatting to him properly.”
And what does he expect? A new challenge? “Yes, absolutely, 100 per cent. Chatting to fellas, there was a bit of nervous tension around. People know they have to impress and that was laid out yesterday by the coaches as well.
“They are going to be looking at everyone’s first couple of games and see how they play. That’s what they are going to base selection on. That was the way with Rob (Penney) in Munster last year. I’ll admit it, I was nervous but excited as well.”
* Conor Murray was interviewed at Thomond Park at an Adidas sponsorship open day.
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