Conor Murray keen to stay at Munster after contract ends

Munster supporters, after three successive defeats and with their Champions Cup hopes hanging in the balance, could do with some good news these days so Conor Murray's declaration that he wants to stay with them will be warmly greeted.

The Lions scrumhalf, out of contract next summer along with other key players such as Simon Zebo and Keith Earls, on Tuesday said he wants to stay with the province and is hopeful that a new deal can be agreed soon.

His commitment will come as a major boost to a side bidding to avoid a fourth successive loss and likely exit from Europe next Sunday when they travel to Welford Road to take on a Leicester Tigers who inflicted the biggest ever defeat on Munster in the competition at Thomond Park at the weekend when they triumphed 31-19. Murray said contract negotiations are ongoing at the moment but he has made it clear he doesn’t want to go anywhere.

“I make no bones about it. This is a great club, a great set-up. It’s my home and there’s an unbelievable set-up here. It’s almost a no-brainer, I’d love to continue playing here,” said the Patrickswell native, with refreshing candour which did not even contain a hint that he might be considering France or one of the big-spending English clubs.

Big weeks

“Negotiations have started and it’s something you don’t want to be thinking about for these big weeks, so it’s been put on the back burner for these games.

“Maybe after Europe, we’ll look at finishing it off and getting it done so I don’t see too many problems with myself. I love playing here, I love playing in Ireland and I want to continue doing that so . . . it’s not done yet but hopefully it will be.

“With Munster, we’ve been in Europe for the last three or four years and haven’t done too much. I want to be part of some Munster team that does something,” said Murray.

The commitment by the 26-year-old is a timely boost for coach Anthony Foley ahead of Sunday's showdown in Welford Road when Munster will attempt to make it three wins from as many visits there.

Foley played in those two previous wins in 2003 and 2006 and believes the hostile reception awaiting them on Sunday should get his men fired up.

“It’s a great place to go. It’s hostile. It’s like the old Thomond Park, you walk down on to the ground. It gives a great feeling as you walk down the steps of walking into a cauldron which it is. It’s an old-fashioned pitch and they’ve obviously done work around the ground since I was playing there and they’re a very knowledgeable crowd.

“It’s a good place, it’s a good club and there’s a lot of history and tradition and that’s seen around the place . . .”

Race to be fit

He may have to plan without World Cup-winning prop BJ Botha who is going through the return-to-play protocols following concussion while Tyler Bleyendaal, who suffered a quad injury in the captain’s run last Friday, also faces a race to be fit.

Foley said outhalf Ian Keatley was dealing with the fallout from Saturday’s defeat positively and the player needs to deal with it after a poor performance. “He turned up today and he knows himself things need to be better . . . ,” he said.

“I don’t think he intentionally missed any of those kicks. It wasn’t something he did on purpose. It happens to everyone. I’ve played with enough outhalves who have missed kicks.

“We left him alone for the first few days. I’ve spoken to him a couple of times on the phone and in person and with all professional players they have to figure it out for themselves and then we need to get back into it. You can’t mollycoddle a fella either. We need to get our work done, we need to go over and play on Sunday and try and get a result.”

Foley admitted he may have gone over the top post-match in describing Romain Poite’s decision to reverse a penalty in the opening half as “disgraceful”, even if it did have a massive bearing on the outcome.

“Look, I probably shouldn’t have said it afterwards the way I did but I just saw that incident fairly similar to the Saracens yellow card last year, I think, the TMO [television match official] had recommended a yellow card and they were looking for a mark and then they saw half a picture and suddenly it’s a reversal.

“When you see the whole picture you can understand why, so there was a lot of that going on in my head. I probably shouldn’t have gone out in the media and said it but I wasn’t thinking straight at the time.

“It was a big moment in the game and it goes down at that but there’ll be other big moments going forward and hopefully we’ll get one or two go our way,” Foley said.