Conor Murray on first meeting with Paul O’Connell – “I was just like a rabbit in the headlights”

This week Vodafone launched the ‘Who We Are Is How We Play’ campaign as part of their #TeamOfUs sponsorship of the Irish rugby team.

The advert portrays how the foundation had been laid for a young Conor Murray to become the world-class scrum half that he is today, and fittingly coincided with the 28-year-old winning the Rugby Writers of Ireland player of the year award.

The Patrickswell man’s first competitive appearance in the red of Munster was as a blood replacement in April 2010 as he emerged from the bench against Connacht in The Magners League.

Just year later he was starting for Ireland in the World Cup in New Zealand, a nation who he now holds a significant record over, becoming the first International player to score four tries against the All Blacks, he did so when he went over against them, yet again, during last summer’s British and Irish Lions Tour.

Back before Murray became one of the most prominent figures in rugby he encountered the larger than life figure of Paul O’Connell, this was in the Young Munster dressing room at Tom Clifford Park during his stint with the cookies. The scrum half spoke about the experience in an interview featured on Joe Sport’s The Hard Yards podcast.

“When I left school, I went to Young Munster. Garryowen is my club really, I played my rugby with them when I was younger, then after school we had a really good school team and we decided to go to Young Munster. The end of the first year I got called up to the senior team to play Bective at home in Tom Clifford Park.

“I remember being in the dressing room beforehand and Paul O’Connell walked in, I know Paulie now he’s a friend of mine but back then he was ‘Paul O’Connell’ and he walked into the dressing room and he knew everyone by name.

“He said, ‘best of luck today Conor, hope you go well, I’ve heard good things about you’ and I was just like a rabbit in the headlights. I think it was under a year later and I was in the academy and I was in the academy playing with him, and throwing balls to him and being given out to by him.”

Murray also reminisced about his earlier memories as a Munster fan visiting Thomond Park with family friends. Often, arriving at the ground hours before kick-off in order to soak up as much as the atmosphere as he could.

“We used to be there two or three hours early before kick-off and get a place just near the tunnel so you’d be really close to the players coming in and out of their warm up and you could soak up the atmosphere. That’s my Munster memory, heading to Thomond when there was no one there just waiting for the place to fill up.”

It wouldn’t be long before the Garryowen clubman would be turning up to the ground early once again, but for a different reason.

“I love it, I absolutely love it, it’s my home. I’m from Munster, a Munster man, a Limerick man and I’m very proud of that. You sense it off the crowd that you’re all similar and you share a common goal, the Munster fans are unbelievably intelligent about rugby, they know what they want, they know how to win.

“The bigger the game the more you should enjoy it because there’s a bigger crowd, a bigger buzz in the lead up and in the atmosphere on the day. If you can’t enjoy that you’re putting yourself under too much stress and you’re in the wrong game.”

With Murray’s injury problems towards the end of last season, it looked as though there may have been a chance that he could miss out. This wasn’t to be though, as Murray went on to start all three tests in the drawn series.

“To start in three tests was massive for me, it was definitely something I wanted to do. I think more importantly to be able to contribute in the three tests and not to be overawed by the occasion and not to be taken aback by all the great players that you’re surrounded by. Strange end to the tour but looking back now and looking at how well New Zealand are going, I know they’ve lost a couple of games recently but they’re still the number one side in the world.

“It’s not a win but it’s not a loss, it’s a weird feeling of drawing, to draw with a team like that that are so settled, when you’re in a team that shouldn’t really work if you think about it, four countries coming together and trying to win a test series against the best team in the world. We can definitely be proud of it but it’s a weird feeling.”

Click below to listen to the podcast in full on SportsJoe.ie