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Conor Murray: ‘No hiding from the abuse’ after Six Nations defeat to England

Munster scrumhalf was criticised for kicking to touch in the end game of the defeat, a decision which he said he would come to again

Munster and Conor Murray take on Northampton Saints in this weekend's Champions Cup action. Photograph: Billy Stickland/Inpho

Gerry Thornley
Sat Apr 6 2024 - 06:00

He’s been one of Ireland’s greatest players, no doubt. He’s the most capped Irish player of all time in his position. He’s been a three-time Lions Test player in a position where Ireland hadn’t produced a Lion since 1980.

This season he became a five-time Six Nations champion, including two Grand Slams. In those 25 games from title-winning campaigns in 2014, ‘15, ‘18, ‘23 and ‘24, he’s played in all bar one of them, this season’s home win over Italy.

Now in his 13th season, he’s parked his ego and adapted to becoming an invaluable, experienced back-up whereas before he was first choice for a decade.

With less than three minutes remaining in Ireland’s penultimate game against England at Twickenham there was a break in play as Jack Conan received treatment before an Irish lineout inside their 22. The agreed call from both the coaches’ box and on the pitch was for Conor Murray to find touch, which he did, outside the Irish 10 metre line.

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Following another break in play, England attacked wide off the ensuing lineout, making swift inroads. There was an inevitability about Marcus Smith kicking the winning drop goal.

Whether it’s the morons rising anonymously to the surface of social media, a sense of entitlement or maybe even a bet that the historic back-to-back didn’t seem come to pass, we seem to increasingly love a scapegoat. And so Murray, who’s had more than his unfair share of abuse, fitted the bill. Cue the avalanche of abusive messages.

“That was a weird one, yeah,” he recalled this week of the fallout to that Twickenham defeat, Ireland’s second in 22 matches. “There’s no hiding from the abuse you get. You can’t get away from it, but that clip didn’t even come up in the review, that’s how irrelevant it was.

“Genuinely, we’ve been around long enough to know how long you can hold on to the ball in your own 22. That was the right call. We’d do it again. It was what happened after,” said Murray, in reference to the far more flawed defensive set which followed.

Ireland's Conor Murray received criticism for the decision to kick to touch in the end game of the Six Nations defeat to England. Photograph: Dan Sheridan/Inpho

One can argue about the call to kick to touch rather than into the England half, but Nika Amashukeli was playing the second of two penalty advantages when Smith kicked his drop goal. So, if Ireland had attempted to run down the clock with pick-and-jams, and the Georgian referee had penalised an Irish player for going off his feet, a different set of morons, or perhaps even some of the same ones, would have lambasted Murray for not kicking the ball.

“Chatting to Andy, we had a giggle about it. It was wild. Unfortunately, that’s just the way the world is. But I was taken aback by it, the level of messages coming into my phone.”

Such as?

“Just abuse, really. Just: ‘What the f**k are you doing kicking the ball away’. People who, in fairness, support Ireland and are frustrated that we lost and they’re just looking for some way to vent and they see they can message you on Instagram.

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“It was mad. If I’d made a mistake or missed a tackle you’d think, not fair enough, but you could see the reason for it. But, genuinely, that [kick to touch] didn’t come up in the review.”

Given the game’s relatively small pool of players, and those who can be described as genuinely world-class, one of the underlying factors in this unprecedented era of success for Irish rugby is the careful management which allows frontline internationals to have long careers.

So it was that Murray spoke with some of the media during the week on foot of signing a new one-year deal with Munster and the IRFU. It had, he said, been an easy decision. “Like the years before, just a great place to be, a great place to play. I suppose in the latter half of your career you appreciate where you are and what you have.

Ireland’s Conor Murray and Tadhg Furlong with the Six Nations trophy. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho

“Before I would have been like, I’ll play ‘til 30-odd or whatever but I think you sell yourself short. There’s no point putting a cap on it, I think, if you feel good and you’re fit and you’re producing, and you feel you can contribute to the team. And you’re not a passenger, and I don’t feel anywhere near that.”

Murray did admit: “It gets tougher the older you get. You have to look after yourself and box a bit smarter, how you look after your body and the level of training you get through. But especially in Munster with so many young lads there, [who are] really gung-ho, you have to be able to train to that intensity too.”

To that end, he talked about how athletes have learned to look after themselves, citing “sleep and recovery, ice baths, compression, massage,” and planning his week more assiduously.

With age comes wisdom too, of course, and Murray said he plays with greater calmness now, although that was always a strength anyway, and physically he feels good.

“In general, it might be fair to say ‘a yard of pace’ or whatever but I feel great. GPS data is there to back up that you’re not losing any pace. That’s when it becomes a serious decision - are you getting slower or weaker? Until the scores start going down, you keep the pedal down.”

Increasingly, and tiresomely, rugby is being judged in the prism of World Cup cycles but, refreshingly, Murray doesn’t see it that way.

“The outside is very different from the inside in terms of how coaches see you or value you. That’s an easy narrative on the outside: ‘It’s a World Cup cycle and that age profile player is gone now.’ If you’re producing and are still an asset to the team or squad, then you keep going.

“I want to play rugby for as long as I can. It’s an unbelievable job and I’ve been really lucky to get to this age and still be feeling good and still be contributing to two squads.

“You just ignore it. The longer you’re around the more shit you hear from the outside, excuse my language. You really learn what’s important and what opinions matter. The longer you’re around, the more stuff you hear that’s complete nonsense and an easy narrative to go by.

“What matters is the conversations you have with your coaches, your fellow players and your family - they were a big part of it as well. Loads of things. Outside noise is very irrelevant. Especially the last few years, you realise what’s true really.”

Families have became much more part of the Irish squad’s fabric under Andy Farrell’s influence, and so this story continues for his parents, Gerry and Barbara.

“I wasn’t telling her much and she was worried that we might go elsewhere so she’s delighted, she can go to Thomond. But she loves going and if your son is involved, and it’s part of the decision as well, do you know what I mean? They’ve been there the whole way through, ups and downs and the whole lot. So, she’s delighted she has another year at least in Thomond.”

Ireland's Conor Murray with his parents Barbara and Gerry and wife Joanna. Photograph: Dan Sheridan/Inpho

Murray’s new deal was announced ahead of Munster’s crunch Champions Cup round of 16 game in Northampton. He was among the crowd in Cardiff when Munster beat Biarritz in 2006 and would love to emulate his boyhood heroes. But if they are to do it, they’ll have to do it the hard way, after backing themselves into a corner again.

“We have indeed. Classic. Leams [defence coach Denis Leamy] was talking this week, someone who’s been there and done it with Munster over the years, and he painted a picture of how big this game is for us. We’re aware of it, but it’s nice to have someone who’s been through the mill and done it a couple of times for Munster and come out the other side of it.

“Yeah, huge game, huge game. We’re frustrated with the game at home obviously [Northampton beat Munster in the pool stages]. We felt we didn’t play to our potential, or near it really. We slogged our through that game at home in Thomond. So, going over there now it’s a huge challenge but I think we can take confidence from what we’ve done in the last year, and in glimpses of what we’ve done this year.

“I think if we manage to put it all together, or close to it, we’ll have a good shot.”

As for the abuse, it’s gone away now, and for better or for worse, no-one criticised him in person. “Yeah, zero. It’s funny how that works.”

Maybe him being 6′2″ is a factor.

“Yeah, and I was ready for them after the England game if anyone came up to me,” he quipped.

“No, they don’t, and that’s unfortunately the world we live in, and a lot of those messages were probably from profiles with fake pictures.

“It’s a tough part of being a professional athlete in this day and age,” he admitted, prompting him to briefly think of Owen Farrell stepping away from the England team before dispelling such notions.

“I just let lads know. I was like: ‘Jesus, I’m getting serious heat here.’ And genuinely the lads in the dressing room were saying: ‘About what?’. I told them and I knew but it was just nice to share that with your teammates and your coaches, who said ‘It’s irrelevant’.

“But it’s not right at some point. Some of the messages aren’t just aimed at you, they’re aimed at your family and stuff and you’re like, ‘who’s writing these’.

He’s never reported them.

“I genuinely just looked at a couple. I looked at my phone and it just flooded up with messages. I looked at a few and it was just ‘f**king hell’ and then just deleted all at the bottom. There was no point. If you read it all, some of it’s going to seep into you. Whether I made a mistake or not, I wouldn’t read it.

But there can be no escaping it entirely either.

“You’re aware of it. You can’t not be aware of it, that’s the thing in this day and age, you can’t not see it. Whether you read it all is up to the player themselves but I just saw enough to go, ‘No, I’m gone’. The joys of it!”

His composed, calm nature serves him well. He deserves better, but not for the first time in his career, Murray has the temperament to cope.

Gerry Thornley

Gerry Thornley

Gerry Thornley is Rugby Correspondent of The Irish Times

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