As we are gathering our phones and dictaphones off a table, Conor Murray is asked about Alby Mathewson’s quarterback throw to Rory Scannell on his Munster debut.
“Pretty cool, wasn’t it?” he replies. “No, hasn’t done it in training. He saves it for game-day.”
Murray was out of the country when Mathewson, a former All Black, unfurled that exquisite piece of skill. Munster are only likely to have Mathewson until January – Toulon are keen to get him back – but Neil Cronin has been offered a contract extension and Nick McCarthy is arriving from Leinster next summer.
Munster have long needed another scrum-half to provide some genuine competition to the world-class Murray. Right now, Mathewson is playing a blinder (man of the match in the win over Glasgow) but Johann van Graan will be hoping McCarthy and Cronin will push the senior scrum-half. One hopes, too, that Duncan Williams is sorted out too as he is a fine man to have in any squad, and an underrated 9.
Murray is up to 90% training and taking ‘modified contact’. One suspects the modification is somewhere near the order, ‘Go easy on him’. He is hoping to return in late November and Munster have two games in five days (craziness!) to achieve that – Zebre away (Nov 25) and Edinburgh at home (Nov 30).
“Just stingers, repetitive stingers,” says Murray when asked about the nature of an injury that began as a mystery and is now out in the open.
“It’s a good window for me to get this right… That’s a good window. I kind of knew that [about not making the Ireland squad] anyway, I hadn’t talked to anyone but I knew that it would be a push to get back for November.
“I’ve had that window to make sure I can get this as strong as possible, see the back of it, put this injury to bed – because way more of it was made out of it that I ever intended – so thankfully it’s nearly there.”
Murray is out of the Guinness Series, next month, as well as the return to Chicago’s Soldier Field to play Italy. He is split about being a onlooker, a fan, next month but acknowledges that he has had a good run in the green jersey.
“With Ireland,” he comments, “we’ve said it before, no matter what player it is – a player gets injured and another player comes in and the machine keeps going, it keeps on turning out performances and results.
“That’s how I envisage November going. It will be a really exciting November, I can see it going really well for Ireland and it will be tough to miss but if I’m missing this and if I’m not picked and I’m getting myself properly fit, there’s a lot of big things down the line that you can eye up.
“If you push this injury, get back early and take a bang again and not be fully ready it, you can derail that whole thing. So, I got to be realistic and take the time. It’s not enough you get a bit of breathing space to get yourself fully right. So I appreciate that and I appreciate the injury, respect the injury and thankfully, the majority of it is gone. It’s the next few weeks that I’ll be back playing and we won’t be talking about this.”
Murray hogged the No.9 jersey on the summer tour to Australia – with Kieran Marmion and John Cooney getting four and six minutes apiece, off the bench. The 28-year-old insists his dominance Down Under was never a case of him asserting his desire to start. You show up on the Sunday after a match, present yourself for a mdical and it is up to Joe Schmidt to make the call.
“That was a summer tour down to Australia, a place where we haven’t won in a long time, particularly a Test series,” he says.
“So we were down there to do a job and everyone went down there wanting to play, I’m no different, I went down there wanting to play as much as I could and thankfully I did. We ended up taking the series which was great and you would rest after that.”
I try to glean from Murray who he feels has the best chance of stepping into that starting scrum-half role against New Zealand. He spots it coming a mile off and deflects the query with a joke before heaping praise upon Marmion, Cooney and Leinster’s Luke McGrath.
“Those three lads you’re talking about… they’ve done really well, they’re really good players. Me, over the last few seasons, I’ve started quite a number of games and played quite a few minutes for Ireland.
“Those lads have been flying it for their provinces. Lukey, Marms and Coons. They’re going really well. That’s going to be the tough part of this November, watching those guys play well. They’re good players. That’s the way it is. That’s tough, but that’s professional sport and that motivates me to get back and play well and put myself in a position to play well and be selected again. But yeah, I can see it from your fan’s point of view, it will be interesting definitely.”
Murray, if he hits all his markers, should be back for Munster’s Champions Cup fixtures in December before the festive interpros and then five more months of high stakes rugby. His contract was dealt with a number of weeks ago but he understands that the IRFU like to sprinkle out good news rather than deliver in heavy dollops.
Asked why he opted to stay at Munster, and remain in Ireland, he delivers an emphatic response and you feel sorry the question was even asked. Of course he was staying.
“From a Munster [perspective],” he begins, “I grew up here in the academy, it’s the place I want to win, I want to win something. I’ve been saying it for years, every time this crops up, it’s ‘Oh, we’re building something, we’re getting there’ and then we change coach or something happens or we don’t quite perform at the semi-final stage.
“This year, more than ever – and it might sound like I’ve said it before – I’m really excited about Munster, really, really excited. Joey (Carbery) has settled in really well. Joey has a couple of man-of-the-matches. Tadhg (Beirne) does too, against Exeter. He’s been class, he’s been really, really impressive.
“Mike Haley, he’s bubbling. He’s turned in a few good performances. I’ve given Zeebs plenty of stick that he’s better than him. I think the additions we’ve made and Johann having a good run at pre-season and implementing his gameplan. He inherited half Rassie [Erasmus], half Jacques [Nienaber] and then his own stuff. It was difficult for him. Was that a factor in the semi-final? I don’t know but it would have been a lot better had he been there all year.”
As for Ireland? Well, he says, if he left or went to play somewhere else ‘you know you’re going to miss out on big days’.
“It’s just the playing group we have now and the coaching that we have,” he says. “The buzz around the national team is unbelievable.
“When international season comes around, that will be disappointing, not playing in November. That will be hard to deal with. I will enjoy it because I’m getting fit and I have a chance to get back again.
“You just see the buzz, particularly around Dublin, where we play, it’s unbelievable. That kind of stuff was easy. Straight away, I’d love to stay.”
PINERGY has teamed up with Conor Murray, for the season, as part of its #WeAre16 campaign. The official energy partner to Munster Rugby will continue its Fan of the Match competition. The winner will be presented with a match jersey at every home game along with two tickets to the game. Munster fans will have the chance to nominate themselves through their Facebook page before every home game this season
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