SCRUM Magazine – September 2019

(Barré) #1
Conor Murray
Position: Scrum-half
Club: Munster
Age: 30
In an eight-year international career, the Munster
scrum half has appeared just seven times off the
bench - that statistic alone should show his
importance to the Ireland side. Their dip in form
towards the middle-to-end of 2018 coincided with
Murray’s absence from the team, and he was off his
best form when he did return to the green jersey in
the 2019 Guinness Six Nations.
With a full pre-season campaign behind him, the
30-year-old should be raring to go for the Rugby
World Cup. He’s one of the best box-kicking
scrum-halves in the game, and Ireland will use that
as a weapon. Also watch out for the Limerick man’s
long-range goalkicking.

Johnny Sexton
Position: Stand-Off
Club: Leinster
Age: 34
Ever since Joe Schmidt took charge of Ireland in
2013, Johnny Sexton has been crucial to executing
the coach's exacting approach to international
rugby. One of the best in the world at taking the
ball to the line and with a cultured boot, an on-song
Sexton could almost single-handedly take Ireland
deep into the tournament. The talismanic stand-off,
though, has looked out of sorts of late, and he is
becoming increasingly fragile with injuries ruling
him out of several games last term. A lot of how
Ireland do at the World Cup will come down to the
Leinsterman.

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