Brian Moore, England's growling hooker from the early 1990s, addressed the dilemma facing Conor Murray. Alan Quinlan denounced Glasgow for their treatment of Murray in his Irish Independent column. Quinlan labelled the Scottish side's tactics "an absolute disgrace" and "ultimately, dangerous."
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Moore takes a less moralistic approach to assessing Glasgow. This is standard practice for the hard chaws of the Will Carling era England team. Not for them fears about health and safety. Only last month, Carling derided anyone who thought Dylan Hartley a stiff punishment for his swinging arm hit on Sean O'Brien.
Dubbing Murray "the outstanding Irish player at the moment", Moore noted that he was vulnerable prey for all manner of sneaky, cynical hits.
Rather than castigate the Scottish side, Moore emphasised the cleverness with which they targeted Murray. They did so repeatedly while managing to remain out of the referee's bad books. Top stuff.
Instead, Moore suggested that Murray made a bad error by retaliating. This has alerted rival coaches to the fact he can be needled.
Perhaps the outstanding Irish player at the moment is scrum half Conor Murray, who was targeted very cleverly in Glasgow in his side's narrow win. The first couple of late contacts were timed so well that you could say they were not deliberate.
It was only fourth, fifth and so on went in that you knew this was planned. What also stopped it obvious was that the hits were not of the cheap-shot, whiplash variety. They were simply the completion of a normal tackle or the attempted dive to charge a box-kick down. Nevertheless, each action resulted in contact and Murray being knocked over.
Murray eventually concluded the number of apparent accidents meant they were no such thing and reacted accordingly. You can understand him doing this but his wisdom is rather less obvious. Both the Six Nations and the All Blacks coaching teams will have noted this tactical success.
Murray was injured in the 65th minute after he tackled second row Tim Swinson. The cameras captured Murray lying motionless on the turf for a time. Munster are being investigated over their decision to allow Murray remain on the pitch after he appeared to lose consciousness.
