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Murray And Munster Out To Make Amends

As Munster prepare for round 4 of the European Champions Cup and the province’s first trip to Welford Road since 2006, scrum half Conor Murray has spoken about their ambition to get their European season back on track this weekend.

Last Saturday marked the fifth occasion that Munster and Leicester Tigers have met in European competition and the English club’s 31-19 victory continued the trend of neither side ever winning against the other on home soil.

Indeed, that is a trend Munster will hope to continue this coming Sunday but they will face a massive challenge in doing so with Leicester having won 26 and drawn two of their last 29 home games.

Leicester’s Brendan O’Connor and his back row colleagues proved hugely influential last time out – Lachlan McCaffrey also picking up man of the match – and O’Connor will again be on Munster’s radar this weekend having now won more turnovers (seven) than any other player in the tournament to date.

Tigers became the first visiting club in history to record two European wins at Thomond Park, however, Conor Murray and his Munster team-mates will look to bounce back at Welford Road and make it three wins apiece in six meetings with Leicester.

“It was a tough and quiet dressing room on Saturday night. Heading into this weekend we’ve got to make things happen as a group and we can’t be negative with each other, we’ve got to put an arm around each other’s shoulder and say let’s go do this, which is exactly what we did at the start of the week,” explained Murray.

“We had a really good, tough and physical session today (Tuesday) and it represented what it’s going to be like on Sunday. We’re fully focused as a group together.

“It’s been a frustrating time, especially over the last three week where we’ve had three consecutive defeats, but I can tell you there’s no one working harder than the players and management to get this one right.

“We grew up watching this team win and we want to win with this team and put our own mark on the jersey and the history of this province.”