Conor Murray’s career has been, more or less, on a steady incline since breaking into the Munster team on their Magners League title-winning run-in in 2011. Through two Lions tours and two World Cups, securing his status as Ireland’s best scrumhalf and the best in the world over a period of time, it’s been onwards and upwards. No hiccups.
Missing out on the first three months of the season with a neck injury was the first major one of his career and, it transpires, literally so.
In each of the three Tests on Ireland’s series against Australia last summer he recalls taking a bang. His neck felt a little stiff the subsequent day but he knew from a previous, unrelated neck injury two years ago not to take any chances.
He completed his end-of-season medical checks and went on holidays in Mykonos with his girlfriend Joanna. One day, they hired a car and explored the island.
“I hiccupped in the car. That’s the way it can happen; a sneeze, a hiccup or any sudden movement. Getting hit with cold water in the shower, something like that. Two days later I was in pain and spasm. The disc had bulged to the point that it was on the nerve. Horrible pain. I didn’t sleep for three days. Joanaa was like ‘let’s go home’. I said: ‘No, the damage is done. Let’s stay. We’re back in five days anyway.’ And it did settle down, and we could chill out and enjoy the sun.”
On returning home a scan confirmed a bulging disc. At first, it was unclear whether this would require surgery or eventually settle down, before they opted for the latter.
It's only other people that filled the void with rumours
Murray opted not to make the details public but given the choice to do it again admits he’d do so differently.
“It’s only other people that filled the void with rumours, and I don’t care about that, as long as my family and my coaches knew what was wrong with me. I was up and down to Dublin to Ashley Poynton,” says Murray, in reference to the Mater Private based specialist in Neurosurgery, Orthopaedics and Spinal Surgery. “Thankfully it settled down to exactly where it was before, and it was just about getting the strength back in the arm.”
But there could be no timeline on his recovery and return, and in the ensuing vacuum, the good ‘aul Irish rumour mill went into overdrive. Then, he held a Q&A after speaking to the cadets in the Limerick Defence Forces to open a sports hall.
“I answered as if we were in a room chatting and said that if a distant relative heard the rumours that it probably would be a bit hurtful’.”
Nonsense rumours
Murray actually did not want to respond to what he calls “nonsense” rumours. “I didn’t want to go public. That is something I wouldn’t fuel. I know I left the void but that’s just the way it is. If people want to talk like that they can, it’s not important to me. Maybe in my younger days it would have upset me more.”
Murray has agreed to meet for this interview in the offices of his agent Dave McHugh on Haddington Road last week. He was in great form and chatted freely for an hour.
He is pain free and symptom free, adding: “The strength in my pec and triceps was the main thing. That could take a long time to come back, like a year, but in terms of rugby and passing it’s all sweet.”
It was the first tour or Test window he’d missed since making his Test debut in 2011, and so he watched the historic home win over the All Blacks from a corporate box. He was thrilled for his team, but found it tough.
"As Andrew Conway once put it to me, whether you're selected or injured, there's nothing worse than missing out when the lads have a massive one. Because that was rare. The whole country was watching. That was the game.
“But that’s the selfish part of being a player, although the selfish part of me also knew I needed to get this right, not come back and take another knock and prolong it.”
With the time out he also took stock. He’s achieved plenty, but he’d be disappointed if that was it. There’s also progressing beyond that World Cup quarter-final glass ceiling.
“If there is a squad I’d like to be a part of and I feel can do that (get to a semi-final) it’s this one, with the coaching and the players, the competition in the group. This is the one I want to be involved in.
“In the 2011 World Cup I can say it now, it was almost a novelty to me,” reflects Murray of a tournament when he ended up starting the quarter-final. “I jumped on the lads’ coat-tails. I wouldn’t consider myself to be fully part of that.”
The 2015 World Cup quarter-final defeat to Argentina, after winning the Six Nations in 2014 and '15, was different.
“We started slowly and went two tries (and 17-0) down. They played with width and completely did us. We had trained for that and knew it was coming. That was disappointing, the way we played.
“We didn’t panic and got back to 23-20, but then it slipped again. We all have nightmares about that game, and I had a personal one at the base of a scrum when I knocked it on. It gave them the ball back and they scored a couple of phases later.”
There have also been no more medals to go with Munster’s 2011 League triumph. “Munster are a good side, and I’ve said it before, we just happen to be in the same country as Leinster.” Hence, he could live a little better with last season’s Pro14 semi-final defeat than the European semi-final loss against Racing. “It was like we weren’t there. We didn’t show up until it was too late.”
Simon Zebo has since decamped to Racing, and they've met up in Paris twice, but though they're good mates they're different.
“I’m loving life here. I’m hungry with Munster, and that’s my club, and in terms of Ireland I don’t see why you’d leave. There’s too much of a chance to be involved in something special. I couldn’t live being away and seeing the lads win something huge. That was definitely a fear.”
Against that, it comes with attention.
“I’m reserved enough and I don’t like that side of things. Walking down the street the other day, someone asked the two of us (him and Joanna) to step into a photo with them. I just said no politely. I’m not about that. I don’t like that, and Joanna doesn’t either. She has her own success and her own career.
“I appreciate it would be worse if people were turning away from you or didn’t want your photo, but it’s different in Limerick, where people are just like: ‘All well Conor?’ Which is good.”
Passion
His and Joanna’s parents met at the England game. That defeat hurt badly, but he says that when the game becomes all-consuming is when you over-think and play poorly. Aside from time away with friends and family, the time out enabled him to further explore business ventures outside rugby.
“Food is my passion. I don’t want to be a chef, but my Sky planner is full of food programmes. So I explored a few avenues like that. There’s nothing off the ground yet, but that’s definitely an area I want to go into it.
“I’d be OCD by nature. I like having that clarity off the pitch, when everything is organised. I like focusing on one thing at a time, be it on rugby and training, or something else.
"I love Jamie Oliver and the fun he brings to food. I love getting all the ingredients ready on my island top in the kitchen. That is an hour and a half to myself. I find it very therapeutic.
“Playing golf is also a nice way to switch off, and we’re getting into the weather for it again,” adds Murray, whose handicap is “a solid 18”.
Recently in these pages, Murray's composure prompted his former Munster half-back partner Ronan O'Gara to liken him to Roger Federer. You wonder where that temperament comes from?
“It’s in your nature. I am competitive, and I do blow up at times. But trying to relate it back to someone, maybe my grandfather, who was the only real rugby connection in my family,” he says of Con Roche, who played for Garryowen and Munster.
If I beat him at golf, he gets fired up
“He was a very laidback, relaxed man. My mother (Barbara) who played squash for Ireland, is like that as well, but she’s a bit more impatient and fiery enough.
“My dad (Gerry) is big into triathlons and cycling, but he’d be a hothead playing sports I’d say,” reveals Murray, smiling. “Yeah, if I beat him at golf, he gets fired up, whereas I’d be relaxed.”
Tomorrow morning, like any other match day, he'll get butterflies but won't be especially nervous. After the morning walk through, he'll go back to his room with Keith Earls and put on some tunes.
“The work is all done, and now it’s just about getting excited. I don’t find myself struggling to put myself in a mind frame to be ready for a game.
“Then, when you’re on the pitch I suppose I possibly look clam, but my heart is racing like anyone else. In my position you do have to think clearly and do what’s best for the team.”
This will be Murray's 50th Test start with Ireland alongside Sexton, putting them within three of Peter Stringer and O'Gara's Irish record.
Temperamentally, Murray and Sexton don’t seem especially alike.
“I think it’s good, because you need a balance there as well. We get on great. We’re proper mates now,” Murray says, while admitting they couldn’t have been when starting out together in the 2011 World Cup pool win over the USA on a sodden night in New Plymouth.
“We were strangers; Leinster-Munster, I’m trying to get into the team, he was fighting with Rog to get into the team, so it was a different dynamic. Over time you get to know and understand each other. We don’t clash that much. He lets you do your own thing and backs you to do it.”
Narky
The Grand Slam coronation at Twickenham is the pick of many great days together, during which there were also a couple of cameos with Joey Carbery.
“They have two very different styles, but they are two very talented and good players. Joey’s fiery as well. He demands a lot as a ‘10’. I suppose if the ship sinks, it’s the ‘9’ and ‘10’ that usually goes down with it. That’s the way, so you kind of have to be a bit narky at times and get people in the right space.”
Murray was particularly impressed by Carbery when he first arrived at Munster.
“Straight away he was telling people what he wanted. He was 22, in a completely new set-up, which could have been daunting. I was sitting at the front of the first meeting and thinking ‘go on Joey, that’s good.’ He didn’t wait to find his way.”
If Ireland are to achieve big things in 2019, then they’ll need their world-class players at the peak of their powers, and Murray has set high standards for himself.
I want to be the best, definitely, and I know that in the first two games I can be better
“I want to be the best, definitely, and I know that in the first two games I can be better,” says Murray, who freely admits he was a little tentative at first, but physically he feels great now.
Still only eight games into his comeback, there have been little landmarks, like the skip pass off his left hand for Carbery’s try away to Gloucester. He loves the contact side of the game and felt better for making 10 tackles in his 64 minutes against Exeter. He also carried the ball more often in Murrayfield where, of his 13 kicks out of hand, nearly all were exit kicks and only three could be considered contestable.
“That was 100 per cent deliberate. You were in Murrayfield? Did you feel the wind? It was very hard, and we were exiting so much and we were getting slow ball.
“Joe knows I do it, Andy knows I do it, Richie knows I do it. If it’s windy I’ll just hit a long kick and back our chase, because putting it up in that wind it was unbelievably hard to judge.”
It’s been a difficult season, by Murray’s exalted standards, but he didn’t need his first protracted absence to appreciate something else.
“I think we’re really lucky. I know we lost against England, but it was our first defeat in how long. You’re doing what you love, around an unbelievable group of people and representing your country. There’s pressure with that, but I think the pay-off trumps the pressure.
“Walking to the stadium for the New Zealand game, and I know it was extra special, I was like ‘is this what happens?’ Because you work in a bubble. Sometimes you can just get in a routine of ‘game-review-prep-game’ and not appreciate that almost everyone seems to be watching this game. There’s a buzz. Yeah, it’s the best job in the world. Definitely.”
