Murray Eager For Europe

12th November 2015 By Munster Rugby

Following his exploits with Ireland at the Rugby World Cup, Conor Murray prepares to embark on European competition in just his second Munster game of the season. The scrum half discusses settling back into the provincial setup and the lessons learnt against Italian opposition at the World Cup.

Understandably returning to the provincial fold a little earlier than he might have liked with Ireland failing to progress past the quarter final stages of the World Cup, Murray is enjoying his re-integration to Munster where he hopes to lay to rest any lingering World Cup demons.

“Six wins from the first seven games obviously, there’s a good, positive feel around the squad and that’s exactly what I needed to come back into and it’s been great back playing against Edinburgh last week, bar one hairy moment towards the end! But it was really enjoyable to be back with the squad and it really focuses the mind for the future and it’s a really good thing, you can’t dwell on the past too much, obviously you’d have a few demons living with you for a while from the World Cup but you park those and get into Munster mode and we’re heading into Europe now which is a very special competition for us so it’s exciting.”

Last season saw Munster exit Europe at the Pool stages for just the second time in seventeen years, something that will serve as added incentive heading into this year’s competition.

“It was very disappointing and that will be a source of motivation for this team moving forward. Having said that, there are a lot of new players and there’s a new look to the group this year. The senior guys have educated the younger players and driven on the standards and you can see that with the likes of CJ captaining the side now, he nearly sounds like Paulie the way he’s talking at the moment which is what we need. And a lot of the other players are leading by example, which is great.”

With Ireland playing out a highly contested Pool clash against Italy at the Rugby World Cup last month, Murray is more than familiar with a number of the attacking threats Treviso will possess heading into this weekend.

“They’re getting a lot of internationals back as well with the likes of Edoardo Gori and Luke McClean who we played against in the Italian game in the World Cup and they’re really good players. They were in really good form for the World Cup and especially Gori, he came on last week against Connacht and he looks like he’s continuing that form so whatever about their form so far this season, Europe is a different kettle of fish, everyone raises their game for it and we’ll have to be ready for them.”

In concluding, the Limerick native is looking forward to what he hopes will be a strong show of support as Munster open their 2015/16 Champions Cup account at Thomond Park on Saturday.

“A 5.15pm kick-off on a Saturday at Thomond Park is the ideal time. The crowd will be very, very vocal at that time of the evening you would hope. The support has been unbelievable through Europe as long as I can remember so to be able to play in Europe in Thomond Park on a Saturday evening is very exciting and a good thing to look forward to.”

Munster v Benetton Treviso, European Champions Cup Pool 4, Saturday November 14th at Thomond Park – KO 5.15pm.

Be there to show your support for Conor and the team. Tickets can be purchased from just €;60 for Families (2 adults & 2 kids), €;20 for Adults and €;10 for Juniors & Students.

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