Conor Murray and Ruan Pienaar are two of the best scrum-halves in the world, never mind the Guinness Pro12. Yet it is a measure of the demands on frontline test players, and their curtailed availability for Pro12 games, that in the five seasons they have effectively been the first-choice number nines for Munster and Ulster, they have only ever crossed swords once.
Even that wasn't in the league, but in the 2011-12 Heineken Cup quarter-final at Thomond Park in April, when Pienaar's four penalties and a conversion contributed significantly to Ulster's 22-16 win.
Murray himself was as amazed as anyone listening when revealing as much during the week. Of his four league appearances against Ulster, his sole venture up north was as a replacement in a 20-19 defeat in December 2012, and in none of those four did Pienaar appear.
They have also met once at test level, when Pienaar was a try-scorer in South Africa’s 16-12 win of November 2012, but the Springbok was injured for last November’s meeting when Ireland won by 29-15.
‘Admired him’
“I’ve admired him for a long time,” admitted Murray. “I don’t think I’ve played against him that much, maybe once or twice in early games in the season where I’ve come off the bench. I think the last start was in the quarter-final when they won here, so it’s a big game against him and I’m looking forward to it and it would be nice to get one up on him this time around.
Looking ahead to this tie, which could amount to a play-off for a home semi-final, Murray described it as “huge”.
“I don’t think I’ve started up in Ravenhill, maybe once, actually maybe not even. It’s a big game, it’s got a lot of reward at the end of it if you can get a win up there. We’d stay in the top two and it’d be great to get a home semi-final. We’re trying to keep down the talk of a home semi-final but it’s a reality now there’s only two games left. We need to keep winning to stay up there.”
“It’s a big weekend for all the top four sides and we’ve got a bit challenge heading up to Ravenhill. It’s a great atmosphere up, the crowd kind of get on your back but that’s something I enjoy anyway. It’s a huge game and there’s a chance of winning a trophy and that’s something you want to keep doing so, yeah, definitely a big game.”
Despite a very anti-climactic pool exit from Europe this season, lessons have been learned in the Munster camp, and Murray maintains that, no less than Ulster, they are in a better place than they were in January. “We’ve spoken about Europe, we learnt a lot about ourselves in those games. Clermont away, we learnt an awful lot . . .
“Returning from international camp and getting the internationals back is a boost to the squad, we’re in a stronger position. We’d a new coaching group this year, we’re nearly a year down the line with them now and we find that we’re a more settled side now. Hopefully, you’ll find that this weekend.”
