Get your ticket, grab your seat and take in a master at work.
I have seen Conor Murray at his finest in Chicago, Christchurch, London and Cork but there is something truly special about watching him run the show in Limerick.
Munster needed Murray at his very best to help them get over the line against a Racing 92 team that brought a whopper knife to a gun-fight. He produced and performed again. He was immense. This was his park and these were his players.
When it came time to make that huge, crucial play, it was Murray that stepped up. Not only did he charge down Maxime Machenaud’s kick, he was the one to chase after it, the one to pick the ball off his laces and the one to break the stalemate with a brilliant score.
This was a game of guts and a game of will.
It was a night for the forwards to grind their opposite numbers down but Murray, the man that goaded, encouraged and man-handled them around, was the one that made the difference.
From early doors it was clear that Racing were in Limerick for a scrap. Ronan O’Gara, their defence coach, will have driven it into each and every player how this was as much mental warfare as straight-out, bludgeoning carnage.
It would be both teams standing toe to toe and taking their best swings and seeing who took a backwards step first. See who breaks. Cup rugby as it was intended.
Murray matched the brio of his teammates in those fractious early exchanges. When Dan Carter tried to drill him out of a ruck, Murray took the impact and grabbed himself a handful of Kiwi. Carter was rag-dolled to the turf.
Munster made the first parries but Racing soaked it up and responded with waves upon waves of pressure. Murray was in the thick of it and shoving his forwards about – get back in the line, get up, get away from that ruck.
There was another spot of jersey-wringing as he squared up to Antoine Claasen [below] before his handling skills came to the fore. With Munster pressing again, he showed a deft touch to somehow hang onto a loose pass. Somehow, he was able to stun the spinning pass with his left paw and let it drop into his right as Yannick Nyanga and Bernard Roux heaved towards him.
Soon after, he pounced on a breaking ball, regained his feet and dished back an offload as he was been wrangled to the deck.
Still, Racing were not faltering. They marched back down the pitch and jailed Munster in their own 22 for over six minutes until they were turned over in the corner. It was Murray that eventually got his team back into the Racing half with a wonderfully placed, and hooked, kick.
The second half began like the first – Munster 0, Racing 0 and both sides climbing into each other.
The hosts were the ones trying to get some daylight established on the scoreboard and their No.9 featured twice in a move that could have ended up as one of the tries of the season. Off a ruck, just on halfway and over on the right flank, Murray spun a pass that cut out two men and found Rory Scannell. One phase later and he was back at another ruck and keeping the move alive with a pass to Ian Keatley. He chipped over the top and Simon Zebo took it on the charge. If only that pass, out the back, to Keith Earls had stuck….
Murray was not perfect – there were a couple of high passes [to Jean Kleyn and Mark Flanagan] that left them exposed and one box-kick, under pressure, that went high and handsome but put his team in trouble until a knock-on brought relief – but he was not far from it.
He has a habit of making huge plays when they are most needed.
Ireland fans saw it with his try against New Zealand in Chicago. Lions fans saw it with his try [All Blacks again] in Wellington.
Munster fans saw it tonight but they’re used to it now. Used to it yet damned appreciative too.
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