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Conor Murray admits he was 'shocked' to make Lions

(Photo By Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Ireland and Munster scrum-half Conor Murray has said he feels ‘in form’ after being selected for his third British and Irish Lions tour, but admits he was ‘shocked’ to get the call from Warren Gatland.

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Munster recently shared an interview with the 32-year-old on social media after he was selected in Gatland’s 37-man squad to take on world champions South Africa this year.

Murray said that Munster’s form this year was a contributing factor to his selection, after the province made the Guinness PRO14 final this season, losing to Leinster in the decider.

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Spirit of Rugby – Ep 2

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      Spirit of Rugby – Ep 2

      Murray’s selection was not guaranteed at the beginning of the year, but a strong end to the Guinness Six Nations on top of Munster’s performances would have convinced Gatland to take him as one of his three No9s.

      “[I’m] Very shocked,” the five-cap Lion said. “You obviously think you’re in with a shout, but I suppose as the time comes closer and the announcement dragged on there were people chatting and being interviewed before and I was just hoping to get it over with. Be in or out, just get it over with. But it dragged on and in the time leading up to it doubt starts to creep in a little bit, no matter how much you think you have a chance, there’s always that chance that it might not go to plan.

      “I’m over the moon. It’s an incredible feeling. A bit of relief because your family are on to you wondering have you heard anything and you’re sick of telling them you don’t know. You find out along with everyone else.

      “We were in South Africa in 2016 with Ireland. It’s an incredibly special country, rugby mad, world champions, the storyline is going to build up nicely. Obviously Rassie [Erasmus] and Jacques [Nienaber] are involved still which will be nice to reacquaint with them. I suppose from a personal point of view having been involved in two tours, after the one in New Zealand in 2017, you are trying to map it out what age you’ll be and do you have a chance and there’s always that outside chance. The body feels great, I feel fit, I feel in form playing in a great team here with Munster. We’re a really happy squad, a really content squad and I think that makes an awful difference to how you play on the pitch.

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      “Very grateful to be involved in a club like this and that probably puts you in the shop window and puts you in with a chance.”

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      J
      JW 4 hours ago
      France player ratings vs England | 2025 Six Nations

      Sorry my delivery on that joke was a bit bland. But to reply to the couple of good points you make, to me it just seemed like they had no plan with why Gatland was staying on. I mean the plan seemed to be “just get us a win against Italy and we can continue on as we are”, which is just terrible if that’s what Gatland was trying to achieve for Wales imo.


      Did it just happen to be Italy that he saw his team weren’t able to achieve his vision of success? I mean Italy are a very good side so its by no means a lost cause to not look like world beaters. Sure his focus should have been on more transient factors like growth and style for a full rebuild, not trying to avoid the wooden spoon.


      Which brings me to you main point, that would be exactly what the benefit of dropping down a tier would be. A chance to really implement something, get good at it, then take it up a level again once you’re ready. Even for Italy it must have been an incredibly brutal environment to have been trying to develop as a side.


      Not saying of course that the other EU teams would be any better, but it might be better for everyone if say ‘years of tough losses’ are shared between countries, rather than see Wales go through this journey two, three, possible four years in a row. Of course the main reason they don’t want to miss just one 6N season is because it would probably tank the game in their country missing out on all that revenue. I have always said they should look at widening the revenue share, there are plenty of competitions that have systems to keep bottom teams competitive, and the 6N would only make more money if it was a tierd competition with prom/rel.

      36 Go to comments
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