ALL EYES WILL be on Conor Murray’s box kicks at Murrayfield in two weekends’ time, after the Munster scrum-half complained that Glasgow Warriors dangerously targeted his standing leg in a Champions Cup tie this month.
Murray will be in Ireland’s nine shirt on 4 February for their Six Nations opener against Scotland, who will include many Glasgow players in their starting team.
Jonny Gray and Josh Strauss, both of whom Murray felt had put him in danger of serious injury, are likely to be starters for Vern Cotter’s Scots, meaning their physical interactions with Murray will be under the microscope.
Indeed, Cotter has a total of 16 Warriors to choose from in his Scotland squad for the upcoming championship.
“I’m properly pissed off about that,” said Murray in the days after Munster’s win in Glasgow. “I don’t see any benefit in charging down someone’s standing leg. I only see it as a danger or as a potential to get injured.
“I don’t think it’s a good tactic. You could put another label on that type of tactic… I’m not blaming the players. I don’t know who told them to do it, but it’s dangerous.”
Speaking at the Six Nations launch in London yesterday, Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt indicated that he believes Murray’s gripes were justified.
However, the Ireland boss does not foresee anything similar happening in Murrayfield.
“What happened in that game is probably done and dusted now,” said Schmidt, before supporting his scrum-half. “It was fairly public that there was dissatisfaction and I totally understand Conor being disappointed with how it happened.
“You can’t charge a ball down from the blindside, you have got to go through the standing leg and the potential for injury there is clearly evident.
“You only have to see how Conor just managed to lift his foot in that first 25 seconds, otherwise if his foot is anchored he’s going to blow his knee out – potential ACL, MCL, the whole shebang.
“I think that is the past. It will be incredibly intense, incredibly combative, but I certainly don’t anticipate anything like that happening [in Murrayfield].”
Glasgow head coach Gregor Townsend, who will take on the Scotland job in June, has denied that there was any intention to deliberately injury Murray in the clash with Munster at Scotstoun two weekends ago.
And current Scotland boss Vern Cotter stated the same when asked about the fallout at yesterday’s Six Nation event.
Cotter said that Murray, like all playmakers, will face pressure from Scotland at Murrayfield, but stressed that everything his team do will be legal.
“There was a discussion afterwards and some of it went to the press,” said Cotter. “I’ve talked to the coaches and the players and it was not a deliberate tactic to injure Conor Murray.
“He is a key member of the team, as any half-back or decision-maker is, so there was pressure applied on him at certain parts of the game. But there was no deliberate attempt to injure the player. It was unfortunate what came out in the press.
“There will be pressure applied on players, but all done within the laws of the game.”
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