All Blacks could have ended Murray’s career
Gatland accuses New Zealand players of targeting Lions scrum-half in first Test defeat
Warren Gatland has accused the All Blacks of deliberately targeting British and Irish Lions scrum-half Conor Murray with dangerously late collisions that could have left the Ireland player with a careerending injury.
Gatland highlighted a number of incidents in which New Zealand players were involved in late collisions with Murray after he had kicked the ball, or had pushed him to the ground, during the Lions’ 30-15 defeat in the first Test at Eden Park, Auckland, on Saturday.
Jerome Kaino, the All Blacks flanker, made a low diving lunge at Murray in the 10th minute, catching the Lions scrum-half on his standing leg after he had kicked the ball, while Murray could be seen holding his wrist after a collision with Brodie Retallick just before half-time.
Sam Whitelock could also be seen to push the 27-year-old Munsterman to the ground in the first half as the All Blacks attempted to put pressure on the Lions’ box-kicking game.
Gatland is concerned that if one of the All Blacks forwards had made heavy contact with Murray’s standing leg just after he had kicked the ball it could have resulted in a serious knee injury.
The Lions head coach said he would raise the matter with the match referee, Jérôme Garcès, ahead of Saturday’s second Test in Wellington in an attempt to protect the player’s welfare.
It is the second time this year that concerns have been raised about dangerous tackles on Murray, who criticised Glasgow Warriors for also targeting his standing leg in a Champions Cup game in January. Joe Schmidt, the Ireland coach, later backed up Murray’s claims.
“The concern for me was that there were a couple of times where there’s a charge-down where someone has dived at Conor’s legs,” said Gatland.
“I thought that was a little bit dangerous. After he’s kicked, he’s been pushed to the ground a few times. I don’t know if it was a tactic.
“From my point of view, if someone pushes him afterwards that’s fine, but diving at his leg ... I know other teams have used that in the past and I think Joe [Schmidt] has come out and was pretty critical about that being a tactic other teams have used against Conor.
“It’s just a safety issue for me. I’d hate to see someone dive at his leg and have him blow a knee and wreck his rugby career.”
The allegation rekindled memories of the controversy during the 2005 tour of New Zealand when Lions captain Brian O’driscoll was ruled out of the Test series after suffering a dislocated shoulder following a spear-tackle by Tana Umaga and Keven Mealamu in the first minute of the opening match in Christchurch.
Murray said in January that he had been “properly pissed off” at how Glasgow Warriors had tackled his standing leg, saying it was “a danger or a potential to get injured”.
Schmidt added: “You can’t charge a ball down from the blindside, you have got to go through the standing leg, and the potential for injury there is clearly evident.”
Gatland is determined to protect Murray, who was described by Daily Telegraph columnist Sir Graham Henry as the best scrum-half in the world, and is regarded as integral to the Lions’ hopes of salvaging the series.
“It’s just a case of making sure he’s being looked after and protected and not harassed after he’s box-kicked,” Gatland added.
“We will probably just get some clarity from the referee later in the week.
“Conor has had a bit of treatment like that previously. It’s a little bit tough. When you see someone dive at someone’s leg, you feel for the player.
“It’s a little bit concerning that they are not actually trying to charge the kick down, because they are nowhere near it. They are actually diving blindly and hitting someone’s leg.
“For me, it’s just about protecting the players and making sure they are safe. That’s my biggest concern. I will just be asking politely that the officials look at that and make sure they protect him.”
Gatland welcomed the appointment of Frenchman Garcès to referee the second Test, claiming his lack of English could prevent him being influenced by off-field comments as his side attempt to reduce the number of soft penalties they conceded against the All Blacks in the first Test.
“We’ve been happy with the French referees,” Gatland added. “The good thing is that they don’t speak English, so they’re probably not so influenced by the media. They just go out and do what’s in front of them.
“We can’t be bringing the referee into it. We’ve got to fix things up ourselves.
“I said one of the things [that we wanted to do] was keep the penalty count under 10, and the other is to fix up that contact area, which has been pretty good for us, and has got better as the tour has gone on.
“Unfortunately we weren’t quite up to scratch on Saturday night against a very, very good All Black team.”
‘It’s just a safety issue. I’d hate to see someone dive at his leg, blow a knee and wreck his career’