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Pocock reveals picture taken with Conor Murray 13 years previously in Limerick

Wallaby flanker David Pocock has revealed a stunning picture taken with Conor Murray thirteen years when stayed with the Irish scrumhalf’s family in Limerick while on a rugby tour of Ireland.

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Ireland completed an outstanding 2017-18 season with a series win in Australia, edging the third and final Test 20-16 at Allianz Stadium.

Joe Schmidt’s side claimed a Six Nations Grand Slam earlier this year, with their only defeat of the campaign coming in the opening match of this tour.

And Ireland turned the series on its head with victory in Sydney on Saturday, as they followed up a first away win over the Wallabies since 1979 by scraping through a tough contest decided again by the influential boot of Johnny Sexton.

Pocock met with Murray in the changing rooms afterwards, before tweeting a picture from the first time the pair met in Ireland in 2005.

Pocock wrote: “In 2005 on the Australian Schoolboys tour of UK and Ireland we were billeted out with families in Limerick. The family I was billeted with: the Murrays.

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“I don’t think @ConorMurray_9 or I were thinking we’d go on to face each other in test rugby. Great to catch up after the game.”

Australia coach Michael Cheika revealed referee Pascal Gauzere declined an invitation to his media conference after the Wallabies suffered a series defeat to Ireland.

Cheika took issue with a decision that went against Tolu Latu, which enabled Johnny Sexton to give Ireland an ultimately decisive four-point cushion with a 79th-minute penalty.

“I invited him [Gauzere] to come to the presser [news conference] but he didn’t want to,” Cheika said.

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“You guys have seen what happened out there, you saw the decisions, the only people who can answer the questions are the referees, not me. I’ll say something and you’ll say it’s a biased view.

“I don’t want to be the guy who looks like: ‘oh, he’s a moaner’. That’s how it always ends up. They can answer it themselves to be honest.

“Across the series we’ve been talking about really trying to build a good rapport and have clarity around decisions and have a no excuses mentality, which I really want to maintain.”

On the Latu penalty, he added: “I think you guys saw what happened. Tolu is first there with no ruck formed and he gets a penalty awarded against him. Like I said, that’s the fact.

“The only people who can answer the questions are the referees or the referees’ boss, if we’re fair dinkum. I’ll keep it to myself.”

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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.

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LONG READ
LONG READ Brendan Fanning: 'It doesn’t matter how good or bad Wales are, what can Ireland do for themselves?' Brendan Fanning: 'It doesn’t matter how good or bad Wales are, what can Ireland do for themselves?'
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