Conor Murray must prove himself by Monday if he is to take on All Blacks, reckons ROG
Conor Murray must prove he can take the knocks next Monday if he’s to take on the All Blacks, according to Ronan O’Gara.
The former Munster out-half claimed recently he thought Murray would be involved when the world champions come to Dublin in two weeks’ time. But he has reassessed his view of the scrum-half’s potential return from injury, and says Murray would ideally need two games to be ready to face the Kiwis.
Murray is not involved with Ireland or Munster this weekend, so next week’s game against Argentina would be the only other possible game time for the Munster man to prove his fitness.
The Lions No 9 has not played for any team since Ireland’s third Test against Australia in Sydney on June 23, due to a neck injury.
“I can’t see how his first game — well, maybe it is — would be the All Blacks game,” O’Gara said.
“I’d say in his own head he’d probably like two games before he’s playing them. He’s been out a long time... November 17, isn’t it? It’s November 1 now, he needs to be playing.
“I can’t see how he’ll play. I met him at the Munster dinner in London [on October 9] and I got the impression from him that he thought he was days away, rather than weeks away.
“Even if he starts next Monday as a full week, that’s still two [weeks]...well, that’s easy to do — if he was able to do full contact on Monday.”
Working without Murray, who has four tries against New Zealand in his Lions and Ireland career, will be a relatively new experience for Joe Schmidt, who has selected the Limerick man at No 9 for the majority of his games since taking charge in 2013.
Fifty of Murray’s 67 Ireland caps have come under Schmidt, including 48 starts.
Luke McGrath and John Cooney will battle it out for the No 9 shirt when Ireland play Italy in Chicago on Saturday, while Kieran Marmion — who started against England in the 2017 Six Nations, when Murray last missed a major Test — will play for Connacht against the Dragons on Saturday.
Marmion’s 22 caps are more than Cooney and McGrath combined, but the Connacht man has started just five Tests, with just one of those against Tier 1 opposition.
“I saw Luke McGrath playing for Leinster live and I thought he was very good,” O’Gara said. “To be fair, Kieran Marmion, when he’s played for Ireland, has been very good. I haven’t seen enough of his Connacht form to comment accurately on it.
“In fairness to Cooney, he’s driven Ulster to wherever Ulster have got to. I don’t know where that is, exactly, but he’s been very good on probably an average team, at best. But PRO14 is a different game to Test rugby. Europe is very relevant to a Test match, but sometimes you could be the main man at European level but in the Ireland team you may not be because you need to essentially at the minute serve Johnny [Sexton] or Joey [Carbery] at 10.
“When Conor is there he’s probably on a par with Johnny and, when Joey plays, he would be the senior partner. But for the other 9s, it’s a case of ‘how will they help their 10?’ I’d say, the answer to the question will be that, whoever has a big game, will probably play...I don’t see much of a pecking order, who is second, who is fourth. I’d say it’s all to play for.”
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