The humdrum in-game interview which is conducted during a rugby game with a backroom staff member was enlivened during Saturday's game between Munster and Glasgow by an irate Jerry Flannery.
The Munster scrum coach felt that Conor Murray was being targeted by the Glasgow defence. Not a surprise considering Murray's influence for this Munster side.
It was the focus of the targeting which particularly irked Flannery. In the first half, both Jonny Gray and Josh Strauss aimed tackles at the scrum-half's standing leg as he boxkicked from behind a ruck. Flannery felt there had been no effort to block down the kick. He also added that it was a possible tactic which the Munster staff had brought to the attention of the referee prior to the game.
Murray was visibly riled the tactic during the match, remonstrating persistently following the Glasgow efforts. The 27-year-old has also voiced his annoyance ahead of this weekend's final Champions Cup group game against Racing 92.
Quoted by the Irish Independent, Murray said that when the artificial Scotstoun surface is taken into consideration, it's lucky that he did not suffer a serious injury. He also added that Glasgow gave similar special attention to backup scrum-half Te Aihe Toma earlier in the season.
I'm properly pissed off about that. I don't see any benefit in charging down someone's standing leg, I only see it as a danger or as a potential to get injured. I don't think it's a good tactic. They did it to us at Thomond Park, they got our scrum-half Te (Aihe Toma) with it in the league game and they almost got me a couple of times.
Luckily my leg came out of the ground and I managed to fall over, but if my leg stayed in the ground - especially in that (artificial) surface - you're looking at syndesmosis, you're looking at the cruciate (ligament). I'm not blaming the players. I don't know who told them to do it but it's very dangerous. Thankfully I didn't get injured. They're the only team I've come across that did it.
