THINGS TEND TO move fairly quickly in professional sport, but it’s worth remembering that only a couple of weeks ago there were real concerns around Conor Murray.
Munster and Rassie Erasmus didn’t know for sure when he would return from nerve damage in his neck/shoulder area, Warren Gatland was concerned about him making the Lions and the scrum-half himself even had brief fears for his career.
Happily, the issue appears to be in the past after Murray’s return to play two weekends ago against Connacht.
The Ireland international is now set for his first start since the Six Nations defeat to Wales on 10 March when he lines out in Munster’s nine shirt against the Ospreys in Saturday’s Guinness Pro12 semi-final at Thomond Park.
Murray was missed as Munster lost their Champions Cup semi-final to Saracens last month, but taking into account the real fears around him director of rugby Rassie Erasmus says the caution around his recovery was absolutely worthwhile.
“How terrible it was to lose that European semi-final and that was definitely not because Duncan [Williams] played, it was because of coaching, matureness of the team, it was a lot of things that Saracens were just better at,” said Erasmus yesterday in UL.
Looking back now, because we were tempted to push him and push him and push him earlier, but well done to the medical team. We didn’t always agree in those weeks leading up to those important games against Toulouse and Saracens, but he’s fairly young, he’s going on a Lions tour, playing for us in a semi-final.
“Hopefully if we make the final he can play for us, so it’s easy to say it now but the disappointment of losing against Saracens is now out of the window and we’ve got a fit Conor playing for us.”
Murray looked healthy and fresh as he got through around 25 minutes of action for Munster in their big win against Connacht, although Erasmus is aware the scrum-half may not be at his very best this weekend against the Ospreys.
“He came through well and I think any player in the world… even take CJ [Stander] who was out for a few weeks and he didn’t immediately fire in the next game and play unbelievable, smashing people all over.
“Look at Peter O’Mahony when he came back after his knee, it took a while and now he’s back into the Lions team.
“Conor will be the same. What you always understand is that nobody is Superman, where you stay out for nine weeks and just fall back into the same form. He’s definitely injury-free at this stage but match sharpness would be, like with anyone else, a bit of a problem.”
Murray remains the leading Lions contender at nine in most people’s eyes, and this weekend brings an interesting match-up with the Ospreys’ Rhys Webb, also part of the Lions squad.
These ‘head-to-heads’ often attract much more attention on the outside than within the teams’ analysis sessions, and Erasmus doesn’t see it as being a distracting issue for Murray and Webb this week.
“I don’t think it would be a distraction,” said Erasmus. “I don’t see Rhys as that kind of player either.
“They will be competing but they’re experienced and old enough to know that… if you get selected for the Lions you’re sharp enough to know that, ‘If I’m going to make this a personal battle, I’ll be the one to lose out because my team will be losing, I might stand out as having a terrible game.’
“I don’t think either of the coaches will be worried about that. It’s going to be a nice battle though.”
Meanwhile, Erasmus confirmed that Munster are close to finalising and announcing which players will be leaving the province this summer.
It is understood that one of Jaco Taute and Francis Saili will be staying on, with the All Black having been targeted by a number of Premiership sides, and Erasmus said there will be confirmation soon.
“We’ve got a fairly good idea but I just think we want to do it formally from our side,” said Erasmus.
“Obviously, we know where we are but we’ll do it in the next day or two, we’ll finalise all of that. But I don’t want to say it here when I haven’t spoken to all of the players. It’s the wrong time to do it right now, right here, if you understand that.”
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