Ireland sealed their first series win in Australia for almost forty years yesterday with a 20-16 defeat of the Wallabies in Sydney. A momentous triumph for Joe Schmidt's side, Australia's David Pocock was not too downtrodden after the series defeat to resurrect an old alliance with Ireland's Conor Murray.
Revealed this morning via Pocock's Twitter account, the Australian explained his prior relationship with the Munster scrum-half.
Travelling with the Australian Schoolboys team as a 17-year-old in 2005, Pocock and his team arrived in Ireland and the UK for a series of games. As luck would have it, whilst staying in Limerick the Australian players were designated to various homes to stay for their duration.
Sure enough, Pocock ended up staying with the Murrays.
In 2005 on the Australian Schoolboys tour of UK and Ireland we were billeted out with families in Limerick. The family I was billeted with: the Murrays. I don't think @ConorMurray_9 or I were thinking we'd go on to face each other in test rugby. Great to catch up after the game. pic.twitter.com/MRF9BRsQY0
— David Pocock (@pocockdavid) June 24, 2018
Although the Australian Pocock almost looks a full-blown Wallaby in the photograph from 2005, he is slightly less than one-year older than the 16-year-old Murray.
Incredibly, Pocock had to make do with a place on the bench, however, as the visitors claimed a 24-16 win in Limerick.
While an Australian report of that game is available here, the travelling Schoolboys soon ventured to Donnybrook where they took on an U19 Ireland 'A' team featuring the likes of Keith Earls, Ian Keatley, Cian Healy, among others.
The Australians would record another 17-11 win in Dublin. You can see a report of that game here.
