NO HUGE CONCERN ABOUT IT
BY
ANDY FARRELL has jumped to the defence of Conor Murray after the veteran was central to social media abuse aimed at Ireland players after their Twickenham defeat.
Murray’s former team-mate
Andrew Conway described the criticism as “staggering” and called out the “hate and vitriol” of posters after the 23-22 loss last Saturday.
Ireland boss Farrell said: “It’s certainly unfair because this is the way of the world, that the more successful some people are, the more that people – I don’t what the word is, other than they get p ***** d off with success, longevity, people staying at the top as long as they possibly can.
“Everybody always wants somebody else to come in and a new fresh young rookie to light everything up.
“It takes an unbelievable amount of dedication and courage to stay at the top and keep riding with the punches, throughout a long career that’s been so successful for somebody with 120-odd caps like Conor.
“I can only marvel at somebody like that and when you ask me to describe what I think of him it’s right there in all that, isn’t it?
“In regards to mental toughness, that’s how it is.
“He’s been there, seen it all and worn the badge. So, he’s in good spirits.”
Farrell, who was aware of the social media abuse, said that his players must “roll with the punches”.
His own son Owen stepped away from the England set-up after the World Cup after being on the receiving end of massive abuse.
Farrell commented: “That’s been the way of the world for some time now, hasn’t it, really, in regards to social media?
“But that’s the way of the world, you’ve got to roll with the punches as far as that’s concerned because we’ve all talked about it, we’ve all discussed it at length.
“It’s not for changing any time soon. Hopefully it will do, though.”