The Ireland scrum-half lost the run of himself here.
Conor Murray was right to be livid with Australia for slowing the ball down as his side tried to rally, late on, but his tirade against referee Marius van der Westhuizen was several steps too far. The Munster man will surely acknowledge that himself.
Ireland fell to an 18-9 loss at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium after letting spill a winning position in the final quarter. Joey Carbery’s three penalties had the tourists 9-8 ahead but a Bernard Foley penalty and a converted David Pocock try had the Wallabies well clear going into the final five minutes.
Robbie Henshaw and Jordan Larmour almost combined for a try before an excellent Tadhg Furlong carry and offload to Bundee Aki put Ireland in a great position to score. Australia, knowing they could concede a penalty and still lead by six, did a fantastic job of not releasing Aki and slowing down ball at the ruck.
Murray furiously flagged for van der Westhuizen to penalise the hosts but, seconds later, a stray Irish boot forced him to knock the ball on. The scrum-half reacted angrily.
Approaching the South African, Murray’s reproach quickly escalated as he pointed to the big screen:
“How long are you going to let them stay there? How long? How long?
“You guys have to f***ing watch.”
With that, the referee whistled and ordered the No.9 away. “Get back please,” he requested.
With that, the Australian scrum was upgraded to a penalty and Reece Hodge kicked to touch.
Here is the incident in question:
Conor Murray lost his cool with the ref in the closing stages pic.twitter.com/lRVN1aBsNp
— Pat McCarry (@patmccarry) June 9, 2018
Highlight of the match was @ConorMurray_9 telling the ref to look at the fucking screen. #AUSvIRE
— Adam Crawford (@aCrawfordz) June 9, 2018
Conor Murray is a legend and all but it’s fairly thick to go talking to the ref like that at such a crucial moment, no matter how bad the call #AUSvIRE
— Eoin Ó hArrachtáin (@EoinLH15) June 9, 2018
Another wrong call which Conor Murray politely pointed out to the gobshite with the whistle #AUSvIRE
— Paddy Murray (@paddytmurray) June 9, 2018
Murray was replaced by Kieran Marmion soon after. It will be interesting to see if van der Westhuizen notes the exchange in his post-match report.
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