Sounds exactly like the big man.
Before he was a Munster fan-favourite, Conor Murray was a fan. The memories of sitting in the Thomond Park stands, and of Heineken Cup dog-fights, seem close enough to touch.
“Our family friends, the Kellys – Mary and Dom, were big Munster fans and they used to bring me and my sister along with their two daughters, Eimear and Beibhinn, to the games. We’d arrive two or three hours early and get a place beside the tunnel, so we could be close to the players coming in and out of their warm-up and you could soak up the atmosphere.
“That’s my big Munster memory [as a fan] – getting to Thomond early and just waiting as the place would fill up.”
Murray was there for some big European clashes and can still recall the game when Duncan McCrae – three years after walloping Ronan O’Gara during the Lions Tour to Australia – scarpered down the tunnel after his Gloucester side had been well beaten by a ferocious home side.
“He sprinted into the dressing rooms because I presume he just feared for his life,” Murray remarks.
Murray was a special guest on The Hard Yards this week and [from 26:00 below] he shared some great tales about his experiences with the Lions, his friendship with Simon Zebo and his first encounter with the legend that is Paul O’Connell.
Murray, who helped launch Vodafone’s ‘Who We Are Is How We Play’ campaign, recalls being an up-an-coming Young Munster scrum-half and being awe of the former Munster and Ireland captain.
Garryowen is Murray’s club but himself and his school friends [from St Munchin’s College] formed a decent Schools Rugby side and all agreed to play club for Young Munster. “We had a great two years there and loads of fun,” he says, “and we won a fair bit.
“At the end of the first year, I was called up for the senior team and we played Bective at home, in Tom Clifford Park. I just remember being in the dressing room, before the match, and Paul O’Connell walked in… “
“I know Paulie now,” Murray continued, “and he’d be a friend of mine but back then he was PAUL O’CONNELL.
“He walked into the dressing room and he knew everybody by name. He came up to me, shook my hand and said, ‘Best of luck today Conor. I hope you go well. I’ve heard good things about you’.
“I was like a rabbit in the headlights. Was like, ‘Oh my God, did he just come in and say my name?!’
“That’s a moment you look back on as something big that happened.”
Within another year, Murray was in with the Munster academy, impressing his coaches and getting calls to train with the senior team.
“Then you were throwing balls to him and getting given out to by him!” he jokes. “It was an interesting comparison to make, those two times.”
As soon as Murray got that chance, and played alongside O’Connell, he never looked back. A little over two years after the pair first met, they were playing together in New Zealand at the 2011 World Cup. Not bad going.
For more on Murray, the full interview on the podcast is definitely worth a listen.
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