The youth of today, eh?
Conor Murray can still recall the scowldy face he’d get from Ronan O’Gara if he did something wrong out on the pitch.
“At times, when he wanted to steer me in the right direction,” Murray recalls, “he’d make this face – an angry face – and it just meant I had picked the wrong option and, next time, to give him the ball!”
The Munster and Ireland star joined The Hard Yards rugby podcast [from 44:40] to talk about his journey with Munster, the extras he works on to hone his game and the players that helped guide him in his early days. O’Gara, his old half-back partner, features prominently. Of course he does.
Murray also shared a nickname that some of Munster’s younger generation gave O’Gara.
Murray said:
“Ah, Montgomery Burns?!
“Yeah, he did have a lot of advice for me.”
“Seriously though,” Murray continued, “the greatest thing about ROG is that he always backed you.
“He understood the game-plan really, really well and drove the team around well but if I tried something and it didn’t come off, he didn’t give out to me.
“He might have said it to me later on – ‘Maybe you should’ve looked at this option’ – but he let me do his thing in and around the forwards.
“Obviously, getting the ball to him as quick as I could, as a nervous youngster playing with Ronan O’Gara, was a massive thing the majority of the time but he did always back me to play heads-up rugby by myself.”
Murray, who is set to embark on his second Lions Tour, also praised the likes of Paul O’Connell, David Wallace and Donncha O’Callaghan for giving him that backing in his early years with the senior team.
We wonder if himself and the younger Munster lads had novel nicknames for Paulie, Wally and Donners too?
Conor Murray recently helped re-launch the MaxiMuscle range if protein bars in Ireland.
