Articles

Conor Murray gives Gatland reason not to jump Posted over 11 years ago

Should Lions coach Warren Gatland fall off another high ladder tomorrow, the British police would wonder if it were an accident or attempted suicide. The current state of British and Irish rugby is enough to drive any Lions coach to despair.

Subscribe to The Rugby Site and win a pair of Dan Carter’s signed boots – existing members automatically entered

Scotland can’t beat Tonga; Wales were hammered by Samoa; England have only managed to beat Fiji in their previous six tests and (ignoring that largely irrelevant game) have mustered two tries in 240 minutes of rugby, one from a charge down and one from a quick tap; Ireland lost five matches in a row before they beat an Argentina team who played like they had been out on the sauce.

One small piece of comfort for Gatland is that the body of Robbie Deans might break his fall, as the Australia coach is just as likely to jump. The Wallabies scraped home against Italy at the weekend, were annihilated by France in Paris and have contrived to lose to Scotland and Samoa in recent times. The Dullabies and England are expected both to make the shortlist for the IRB’s new award, the world’s most boring team.

On which subject, is there anyone out there who can explain to me how Owen Farrell joined Richie McCaw, Dan Carter and Frederic Michalak on the list for IRB player of the year. Where was Conrad Smith or Michael Hooper or Leigh Halfpenny or Kieran Read? I thought it must be a misprint to begin with. Then I saw that John Eales was chairman and realised it was part of a devious Aussie plot to confuse the Lions selection.

Not that it could be much more confused than it is at the moment. Currently the Lions are without an obvious captain, hooker, tighthead prop, second row, blindside flanker, number eight, fly-half, inside centre and outside centre.

The only area of comparative strength lies in the back three where the likes Halfpenny, Tommy Bowe, Stuart Hogg, George North, Manu Tuilagi (if put on the wing where he belongs), Rob Kearney, Craig Gilroy, Ben Foden and Chris Ashton offer a semblance of competitive quality. At a stretch you might argue that the performances of Sam Warburton and Chris Henry at the weekend has upped the current market value of opensides.

But the greatest anti-depressant for Gatland must be the emergence of Conor Murray. It is very hard for the Lions to win a test series without a decent number nine. The ’71 and ’74 teams had the great Gareth Edwards, the ’89 team were driven by Robert Jones and in ’97 the underrated Matt Dawson made one of the key plays of the series.

Murray’s performance against Argentina suggested that he may become an important man in Gatland’s side. He is a strong lad and a decent defender, who often plays as a close-in sweeper, stepping forward to block the holes that oft appear in Ireland’s defence.

But particularly impressive at the weekend was Murray’s switches of direction with his pass and arcing flat runs to hold the opposition defence. Jonathan Sexton frequently stands far too deep at fly-half, but Murray is at last providing Ireland with some sort of sustained threat near the gain line.

Don’t jump just yet, Warren.

Enter your email address to continue reading

We frequently post interesting articles and comment from our world class content providers so please provide us with your email address and we will notify you when new articles are available.

We'll also get in touch with various news and updates that we think will interest you. We promise to not spam, sell, or otherwise abuse your address (you can unsubscribe at any time).

See all News & Opinions videos

Comments

comments powered by Disqus

Mark Reason has been a sports journalist for over 25 years. He currently works for Fairfax Media and will also be part of the Telegraph's World Cup team and a regular panellist on Radio New Zealand during the World Cup. He has covered every Rugby World Cup since 1991, the 2000 and 2008 Olympics, over 40 golf major championships, the FA Cup final, the Epsom Derby and a lot of other stuff he can't remember. Mark emigrated to New Zealand in 2010 having spent over 20 years covering sport for the Telegraph and Sunday Times in Britain.

Comments
Topic News & Opinions
Applicable to Coaches  

Related articles

Winging it

The Hurricanes wing play destroyed the Crusaders in Super Rugby’s round 7. Mark Reason points out the lessons to be learned from Savea et al.

In search of the perfect pass

The Hurricanes delivered a lesson in how to execute the right pass at the right time against the Cheetahs in Super Rugby round 5.

The art of the kick in behind

Jonny Sexton and Ireland tried to exploit England’s rush defence by kicking in behind. Unfortunately for the Irish, Sexton lacked the kind of precision that Aaron Cruden showed against them in November.

Schmidt plots a course through England's defence

Joe Schmidt and Ireland found a way to breach both the All Black’s and the Welsh defences. Can they repeat the trick at Twickenham on Saturday and stay on course for the Grand Slam?

Ah, the rolling maul

Josef Schmidt’s Ireland identified Wales’s weaknesses and were relentless in exposing them writes Mark Reason