Hanrahan gets a helping hand

When JJ Hanrahan made the mistake that led to Munster’s Heineken Cup downfall against Edinburgh at Murrayfield last week, it resonated with his more experienced colleague Conor Murray.

The Ireland and Lions scrum-half has come a long way in a year since an error in round one away to Racing Metro probably cost Munster another match; therefore he was in the perfect position to offer consolation to the talented youngster.

As Munster prepare for tonight’s Thomond Park joust with Gloucester, Murray credits Ronan O’Gara with helping him recover from the embarrassment of conceding a penalty to allow Racing back into the game 12 months ago.

He explained: “The first thing I said to him [Hanrahan] after the game was to have a bit of a laugh and joke about it. When it happened to me in the Racing game last year ROG came up and he slagged me pretty much straight away, that kinda got the awkwardness out of it.

“There were all sorts of thoughts that went through my head that week. It was a huge mistake at a crucial period of the game, and like I said it was a long week for me. I had to come back against Edinburgh the next week but I was happy with how I reacted.

“It definitely makes you mentally stronger but lots of things go through your head when you do something like that. It was a pretty long week for me last year and so [this time] I tried to talk JJ through it just to let him know that things will get better and that you learn from it.

“I’m certainly glad we got out of the group last year. I’m glad [in a sense] I had that moment and that I learned from it. This week he [JJ] is back in training and he’s being his usual chatty self and moving on with it.”

Munster had no time to moan about their Edinburgh experience as he recalled the squad’s involvement in a RugbyForce event — a meet and greet the fans day — at Richmond RFC in Limerick on Sunday.

“It was good. I woke up on Sunday morning and went down to Richmond for 10 o’clock and the kids were ripping into us straight away slagging us about the loss — it makes you smile and have a laugh about it — they’re supporters as well and looking at them all in their Munster gear you kinda feel for them.

“A few of them were probably at the game and you feel you let them down. It was good to get out there and have a laugh with the kids but there was no hiding from the seriousness of what we did.”

Yet, Murray insisted there was no point in beating themselves up about that opening day slip.

“Personally, I just prefer to move on with it,” he said, “the whole squad has a belief in our game plan [overall this season] and there’s nothing wrong with the way we’ve been playing.

“We were creating chances in the game against Edinburgh but we just didn’t convert due to individual errors by the whole squad at the end of it. I don’t think you can coach or train a team how to prevent that happening. However, we’re moving on with it, there was [this week] a huge lift in intensity and concentration and there were very few mistakes, so there is a reaction there already.”

There is, Murray says, full realisation there is no room for further slip-ups in Pool 6.

“That’s been brought up in our meetings and the comfort I am taking from it anyway is that we had a similar situation last year and managed to get through it; if you look at the team now as compared to last year, we’re a lot stronger and we have a lot more belief in the way we’re playing.”