Conor Murray laments Munster’s lack of quality at 10 since O’Gara retirement

Strong words.

Munster and Ireland icon, Conor Murray, made headlines yesterday when excerpts from his new autobiography, 'Cloud Nine', came to light.

We reported on the stinging criticism aimed towards former head coach Graham Rowntree, who guided the province to a URC title in 2023, before leaving under controversial circumstances last season.

Murray also blasted the overall management of the province, lamenting the 'penny-pinching', poor recruitment, and a failure to replace older players from the golden years of the 2000s.

The two players he singled out were lock Paul O'Connell and out-half Ronan O'Gara.

The former scrum-half wrote: "I would argue we were let down by recruitment decisions over the years. Munster's recruitment policy hasn't been nearly good enough in my time.

"I don't know if they recruited on the cheap but I do know to win Champions Cups you need a cohort of world-class players and I don't think we had enough of them. 

"[Ronan O'Gara] was a world-class 10. He had an incredible forward pack in front of him, driven by another world-class player in Paul O'Connell. Did we ever replace them? Of course we didn't. And we were expected to emulate what they achieved without players of that calibre.

"Financially we were far too conservative. We ended up skimping on the talent that's needed to win the big one."

Since O'Gara's retirement, Munster have signed the likes of Tyler Bleyendaal, Joey Carbery, and Billy Burns, and have had home grown talent in JJ Hanrahan, Jonny Holland, Ben Healy, and Jack Crowley.

However, Murray is perhaps being overly harsh on the men who have donned the red jersey in this pivotal position.

None had, or have had, much long-term success, but a lot of this can be put down to injuries and bad luck, while Crowley has already put together an impressive career, and starred in their run to the league title.