Lions scrummy excited to front up against Irish legend Murray

Lions’ scrumhalf Morne van den Berg is excited and fired up to front up against Irish legend Conor Murray when the hosts take on United Rugby Championship (URC) defending champs Munster at Ellis Park on Saturday evening.

Van den Berg will continue his impressive halfback partnership with Sanele Nohamba this weekend and they face a very tough challenge against Murray, who has over a hundred caps for Ireland, as well as in-form flyhalf Jack Crowley and up and coming scrumhalf Craig Casey.

ALSO READ: Lions coach sings Munster’s praises – ‘One of the toughest teams in the URC’

So it will be a great encounter for both Van Den Berg and Nohamba to test themselves against some of the best halfbacks that Ireland has to offer.

“They have world class halfbacks and their flyhalf has been great. So it is going to be a great battle and I am really looking forward to it,” said Van Den Berg.

“He (Murray) has been one of the best scrumhalves for a while now. I have been learning from him and taking what I can from his game. It doesn’t start this weekend. I have been watching him.

“He has over a hundred caps for Ireland and has been on the scene for a while. So it is a challenge I am really looking forward to and it should be good.”

Morne Steyn

Lions kicking consultant Morne Steyn is also looking forward to seeing Murray, who he played against many times over his career, and admitted that he will be one of the key cogs in the Munster backline.

“We will definitely look for that beer after the game. But he is an awesome player. He is a core of the Munster team, and Ireland over the last few years. He is a very exciting player and he will definitely take control in the game. So we will look out for him and his box kicks,” said Steyn.

Although the Lions enjoyed a big morale boosting win over Leinster in their previous match, Van Den Berg said that they had to go back to the drawing board as Munster were a different challenge that they had to be prepared for.

“Every game going forward is important. So at the start of each week we have to take the momentum and lessons (from the previous match) and start over. We are expecting Munster to be more physical and they are a different threat (to Leinster),” explained Van Den Berg.

“They have a number of internationals in their side. But we are not looking into them more. It’s a process of us enforcing ourselves on them.”