Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Andy Farrell has revealed 'biggest compliment I could pay Conor'

By PA
(Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Andy Farrell has claimed he is in awe of Conor Murray after handing the scrum-half a rare recent start on the occasion of his 100th Test cap for Ireland. Munster man Murray will become his country’s eighth centurion on Saturday when world champions South Africa visit a sold-out Aviva Stadium in Dublin.

ADVERTISEMENT

The 33-year-old has been a mainstay of the Irish team for more than a decade after making his international debut against France in 2011 but has slipped behind Jamison Gibson-Park in the pecking order in the past year.

Despite restricting him to just one start since the 2021 Six Nations, head coach Farrell hailed Murray as a top-class bloke and a legend of Irish rugby during a glowing tribute on Thursday. “It’s pretty special because we all know that to be able to get to that type of milestone what it really does take,” said Farrell.

Video Spacer

Video Spacer

“When you are a coach or when you are a player, you see all the ups and downs and all the pressures that come in from all sorts of directions and you see everyone wants to move on to what they perceive to be the next best thing.

“I just think somebody who stands up to be counted time and time again, to get to a point like that, I’m in awe of it because the hardest thing is to stay at the top.

Related

“Of course, there are ups and downs but the biggest compliment I could pay Conor – he is a legend of Irish rugby and his abilities are second to none – is that he is a top, top-class bloke. I don’t know anyone who has a bad word to say about him. We are all obsessed with rugby but when it comes to how he has managed himself throughout his career – and there are big things still to come – he is classed as a fantastic human being by his peers.”

Murray will join Brian O’Driscoll, Ronan O’Gara, Rory Best, Cian Healy, Paul O’Connell, John Hayes and captain Johnny Sexton on the exclusive list of Ireland centurions – yet he has not started at international level since victory over Argentina last autumn. Leinster’s Gibson-Park has to settle for a place on the bench against the Springboks, having not played competitively since the series win in New Zealand in July due to a hamstring issue.

ADVERTISEMENT

With Ireland in form and currently top of the global rankings, Murray faces a challenge to dislodge Gibson-Park on a permanent basis ahead of next year’s World Cup. “He is a tough old character, Conor,” continued Farrell. “He’s steely strong mentally and he cares a lot about his own game and he gets a chance now to show us how he wants to push forward.

“It’s a respectful, competitive battle. Conor has been an unbelievable ear for Jamison because of his experience. You would definitely think that Conor would be thinking, ‘I’ll just leave him alone and let him find out for himself’ but Conor has been all over, helping Jamison be the player that Jamison has been from the start.

He is a fantastic human being. And Jamison, over the last ten days, has been exactly the same back and that is exactly what we want in our environment.”

Farrell has made two enforced changes for the South Africa clash, with centre Garry Ringrose and wing Robert Baloucoune coming in for the suspended Bundee Aki and the injured James Lowe. Ulster wing Baloucoune is set to win a third Test cap after a torn hip tendon ruled him out of the All Blacks tour.

ADVERTISEMENT

“We feel he is ready, that he can offer something different,” Farrell said of the 25-year-old. “It’s up to Rob – and his teammates helping him – to grab the opportunity and show what he is about at the top level.”

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 58 minutes ago
Why England's defence of the realm has crumbled without Felix Jones

This piece is nothing more than the result of revisionist fancy of Northern Hemisphere rugby fans. Seeing what they want to see, helped but some surprisingly good results and a desire to get excited about doing something well.


I went back through the 6N highlights and sure enough in every English win I remembered seeing these exact holes on the inside, that are supposedly the fallout out of a Felix Jones system breaking down in the hands of some replacement. Every time the commentators mentioned England being targeted up the seam/around the ruck or whatever. Each game had a try scored on the inside of the blitz, no doubt it was a theme throughout all of their games. Will Jordan specifically says that Holland had design that move to target space he saw during their home series win.


Well I'm here to tell you they were the same holes in a Felix Jones system being built as well. This woe is now sentiment has got to stop. The game is on a high, these games have been fantastic! It is Englands attack that has seen their stocks increase this year, and no doubt that is what SB told him was the teams priority. Or it's simply science, with Englands elite players having worked towards a new player welfare and management system, as part of new partnership with the ERU, that's dictating what the players can and can't put their bodies through.


The only bit of truth in this article is that Felix is not there to work on fixing his defence. England threw away another good chance of winning in the weekend when they froze all enterprise under pressure when no longer playing attacking footy for the second half. That mindset helped (or not helped if you like) of course by all this knee jerk, red brained criticism.

32 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING World Cup-winning halfback on Cam Roigard’s substitution in France loss World Cup-winning halfback on Cam Roigard’s substitution vs. France
Search