Murray makes his mark as Lions tour beckons

The laws of physics prove that a meteoric rise is impossible but you can't help but wheel out the old cliché when it describes Conor Murray.

Although the Munster man has been on the scene since 2010, this season has no doubt been the one where those outside his immediate following have sat up and taken notice.

Capped only nineteen times for his country, the Garryowen scrum-half has impressed many including Warren Gatland. He has impressed so much that the Lions coach is putting his faith in him and is taking him on the Lions tour to Australia.

Speaking as the Lions squad gathered in Carton House, Maynooth during the week, Murray knew that there was no better year than to make his mark.

“At the start of the year you know it was a Lions year and it was in the back of your mind for the year – even if people were asking you and you tried to deflect it and tell reporters you weren’t thinking about it but really you were.”

He added “Your constantly looking at all the competition you have and how they are playing and hoping that you would be selected and it was a long wait that morning until the name pops up its surreal for the first few days and even now to be training with the lads you set goals and its sunk in and it’s real.”

The focus on the weeks training sessions in Maynooth was to get players used to each-other and making sure players could adapt to different styles of play.

“When we first got together we were given the game plan and were looking at how we were going to approach this and it is new to a few of us but for the Welsh boys they will be used to what Warren (Gatland) expects.”

“With the experience of working under the coach those players are trying to help us get things like calls right and in doing that you pick up traits about certain players like your ten or the eight ad they are things you have to work on a little more as the time frames are much smaller.

Murray unlike Leinster or Ulster players hasn’t played in quite a while since their season ended in disappointment in the Heineken Cup and Rabo and some have questioned the focus of him and others like the Welsh and Scot’s when it comes to the Barbarians on June 1st – However the scrumhalf says they have been keeping themselves fit and ready and constantly changing gear.

“It has started a little bit slow but sessions have been very intensive as you would expect and even today we looked very sharp. There were no gaps in between drills and we were jumping around different scenarios and it is now very much in the mind set.”

The objective from everyone in the Lions squad is simple - To win the series against the Wallabies, its one thing they will all have in common. However there is no doubt that the competition will be huge to gain a place on the match-day squad whether in the starting fifteen or on the bench.

For Murray, he sees his main competition in Mike Phillips. There have been a lot of comparisons made between Murray and the Bayonne nine.

The Munster man says “People are quick to point out similarities probably because of height and physicality.” He added “There are differences though in our game but it’s not for me to say if Warren is going to pick them out and see which he prefers but you also have Ben (Youngs) who is a different kind of nine so there is a great mix – saying that there are seven games before the first test against the Wallabies so plenty of time for guys to put their hands up.”