Conor Murray admits disbelief at being named new Lions captain - but tour remains under cloud of uncertainty
Conor Murray admits he is still in a state of disbelief at his appointment as the new captain of the British and Irish Lions after Alun Wyn Jones was ruled out of the tour of South Africa with a dislocated shoulder.
Warren Gatland, the Lions head coach, moved quickly to replace Jones by offering the role to Murray before the official caps ceremony following the 28-10 victory over Japan at Murrayfield on Saturday night.
It was a surprise choice, given that the 32 year-old has never captained his provincial side Munster or Ireland before, and Gatland had other strong candidates to choose from, including England captain Owen Farrell, Maro Itoje and Ken Owens, who had taken over the captaincy during the match when Jones sustained the injury in the eighth minute.
Gatland has clearly identified him as one of the guaranteed Test starters however but his lack of leadership experience represents something of a gamble.
“Warren asked me just before the cap ceremony and it was surreal,” said Murray, who has won 89 caps for Ireland and started all three Tests against New Zealand on the 2017 tour. He also won two caps on the tour of Australia four years earlier. “I still don’t have my head around it, but it’s something that is an unbelievable honour, it’s something that I never thought would be possible.
“We’re very disappointed to lose Alun Wyn. He’s been brilliant for the first two weeks. I’ve known him from the past two tours and he’s been incredible. It’s a huge loss.
“It was a little bit of a surprise (to be asked) to be honest. I didn’t even think about it. I knew that Al was out and then you just, you look around the squad and there’s so many contenders. It’s a huge honour, but there’s such a good group of leaders in this squad that it makes it less daunting, definitely. I think there’s lads that you can lean on.
“What kind of puts me at ease is that we’ve such a good leadership group that it means I can continue being myself. There’ll be a little bit more responsibility, but I don’t think it should change anything around the camp. I think that’s one of the most important things - that I remain myself, and I assume that’s why Warren asked me to do it.”
The injuries took the sheen off an otherwise impressive victory for the Lions, who ran in four tries with Josh Adams, Duhan van der Merwe, Robbie Henshaw and Tadhg Beirne all scoring. Wales duo Adam Beard and Josh Navidi will join the squad on Sunday as replacements for Jones and Tipuric before the squad fly to Johannesburg from Edinburgh tonight.
Exeter Chiefs quartet, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Stuart Hogg, Jonny Hill and Sam Simmonds also joined up with the squad following their Premiership final defeat by Harlequins.
Murray revealed that Jones, who has returned to Wales today along with Justin Tipuric, who was also ruled out of the tour after sustaining a shoulder injury during the four-try victory, told him “just to be himself” as leader after congratulating him on his appointment.
“I think that’s really important,” Murray added. “I think, you know, growing up, you probably thought you had to try and be a certain type of person to be a leader, but you just have to be yourself. I think once you have the respect of the group around you, I think that’s a massive plus, a massive thing that can calm you down a bit.
“If you have the respect of the lads and you do what you do and you do it honestly and then yeah I think it should be fine. And again, I keep coming back to it, but there’s various guys you can lean on in this squad. You know, it’s more of a group effort.”
Murray says he will also draw on his experience from the two previous tours to set the tone, and will attempt to make his words count when addressing the squad.
“I think you have to definitely understand how we’re trying to play, what we’re trying to do on the pitch, that’s the most important thing,” he added. “I think your messaging has to be well thought out, you know, I think, in my career I suppose when I do speak it’s thought out.
“You know, it might not be that often, but it definitely has meaning and there’s thought behind it, and a genuineness to it.
“When you’re a Lion, you realise who you’re playing for, what you’re trying to achieve as a player and who you want to make proud. That’s what I’ve learned from team talks in Lions changing rooms and Ireland changing rooms and Munster changing rooms.
“I’ve been lucky enough to experience a lot of leaders and they always bring it back to who you’re trying to make proud and what you’re actually here for. I think driving that message is important.”
Those leaders he has played under included 2009 Lions captain Paul O’Connell, 2005 captain Brian O’Driscoll and Rory Best, who captained the Lions midweek side in 2013 and 2017 and he says he may turn to them for advice.
“I’m quite close to Rory, he is a really good friend of mine, I obviously know Paulie really, really well too and Drico (Brian O’Driscoll),” Murray added. “If there’s something that I’m thinking about saying, or whatever, then there’s guys there I’m lucky enough to draw on them if something crops up.
“But, you know, right now in this group, there’s such a good buzz. There’s such a tightness already after two weeks and obviously today getting off on a good note with a really good win against a top Japanese side we’ve grown closer again.
“So, I think this group is really good and can figure things out on their own for the moment and if things crop up it’s great to have those guys on the phone, as well as the coaches here. To have such experience, it’s a big thing.”
Covid and injuries mean Lions arrive in Johannesburg under cloud of uncertainty
An air of doubt and uncertainty hangs over the British and Irish Lions squad as they arrive in Johannesburg. Having lost their talismanic captain, Alun Wyn Jones, and another of their most experienced forwards, Justin Tipuric, to injury, the challenges of staging a tour amid the Covid-19 pandemic are growing by the day.
If Warren Gatland, the Lions head coach, felt the previous tour of New Zealand was virtually a mission impossible, that drawn series is now looking like a summer vacation compared to the mounting challenges of taking on the world champions in their own backyard.
No sooner had the emergency meetings, following the 28-10 victory over Japan at Murrayfield, been concluded on Saturday – culminating in Conor Murray’s surprise appointment as new tour captain, and logistics sorted to call-up Adam Beard and Josh Navidi as replacements – than the tour schedule itself was subject to debate again.
As Beard and Navidi, as well as the Exeter quartet, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Stuart Hogg, Jonny Hill and Sam Simmonds travelled to Edinburgh to join up with the squad following their Premiership final defeat by Harlequins, Lions managing director Ben Calveley and South African Rugby chief executive Jurie Roux were in talks to assess the state of the pandemic and potential contingencies.
The rising rates of infection as South Africa experiences its third wave evidenced itself when the Springbok squad assembled in Johannesburg on Sunday and PCR tests revealed three positive cases, forcing Rassie Erasmus to self-isolate the entire squad. Their match against Georgia in Pretoria on Friday night must now be in doubt.
With the epicentre of the wave in Gauteng, the province where the Lions are due to play five of their eight games, one possibility is to relocate the games to Cape Town, where the number of infections is significantly lower, after the opening match against the Emirates Lions at Ellis Park on Saturday.
South Africa had recently heightened their lockdown restrictions, with president Cyril Ramaphosa expected to announce a move to “level four” including a complete ban on alcohol for the next three weeks and a 9pm curfew.
Already without the colourful backdrop of supporters, this will now not resemble anything like a Lions tour off the field either.
Gatland was kept abreast of the discussions ahead of the departure but the impact of the disruption caused by the two injuries had to be his main focus.
The loss of Jones and Tipuric took the sheen off an otherwise impressive victory for the Lions, who ran in four tries with Josh Adams, Duhan van der Merwe, Robbie Henshaw and Tadhg Beirne all scoring.
Murray was a surprise choice to take over the captaincy, given that the 32-year-old has never captained his provincial side Munster or Ireland before.
Gatland had other strong candidates to choose from, including England captain Owen Farrell, Maro Itoje and Ken Owens, who had taken over the captaincy during the match when Jones sustained the injury in the eighth minute.
Yet it appears that this was a gut pick, based on Murray’s experience – this is his third tour, having already won five caps – and the fact he is one of the few guaranteed Test starters. Itoje is also in that camp, but this is only his second tour while Murray has won 89 caps for Ireland, compared to the 26-year-old’s 48 for England.
Farrell’s place is not guaranteed and although he is in the leadership group from which Murray was drawn, there is a feeling he may benefit from a break from the pressures of captaincy. Owens also faces stiff competition for the hooker’s position.
At least Murray’s elation was a light relief on a troubled departure weekend for the Lions, even if it was matched with his own disappointment for Jones.
“I still don’t have my head around it, but it’s something that is an unbelievable honour, it’s something that I never thought would be possible,” Murray said.
“We’re very disappointed to lose Alun Wyn. He’s been brilliant for the first two weeks. It’s a huge loss.
“It was a little bit of a surprise [to be asked] to be honest. I didn’t even think about it. I knew that Al was out and then you just, you look around the squad and there are so many contenders. It’s a huge honour, but there is such a good group of leaders in this squad that it makes it less daunting.”
Whether Murray gets to captain the side in the Test series remains another question. Uncertainty and doubt are in the air. But at least the Lions are travelling with the right spirit.
