THE SUNDAY HERALD REPORTS
Faith, hope and clarity
By Alisdair Reid
After a horrific injury, Euan Murray has re-evaluated his career and his life and is determined to relish his Six Nations debut
THE IMAGES are almost 18 months old, but their sense of horror is still fresh. First the collision itself: his head snapped back as it smashed into Anthony Horgan's knee, that left him unconscious on the Hughenden pitch. Then the anxious moments, when his body started to shake uncontrollably as he lay on the ground. Finally the real chiller, the dramatic seizure he suffered as the Glasgow medical staff led him from the field.

For Euan Murray, it was the smallest mercy that he was not a helpless and horrified witness to the spectacle in which he played the central part and which is so vivid in the memories of those who watched it unfold.

"I've seen the pictures since," he smiles now, leaning back against the wall in the Murrayfield dressing room, "and I have to admit they were pretty shocking to watch. Then again, at least I knew the ending when I saw them, which made it OK."

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His recovery from the concussion and vertigo he suffered as an immediate consequence of the incident would be a happy enough ending in itself, but the dramatic sequence of events surrounding it also provoked a period of personal reassessment that in turn led to a powerful strengthening of the religious faith that had long been a part of his life, but never its cornerstone.

Finally, he enjoyed the lengthy period of fitness that led, in time, to his acquiring the status he now enjoys as Scotland's first-choice selection at tighthead prop.

"You have to accept injuries, up to a point," he says. "Rugby is a hard contact sport and it's inevitable that things will happen, whether they're innocuous or serious. Sometimes you'll get one, as I did, that makes you wonder about the wisdom of what you do, but those thoughts are fleeting.

"Rugby is still something I do well, it's something I love. It's one of my talents and I really want to fulfil my potential."

Murray revealed the new significance of his religious beliefs in an interview with a rugby magazine last October, then repeated the points when he spoke to the Scottish press a few weeks later. While proselytising was never part of his agenda - "it's not my intention to sell the brand or anything" - neither did he feel he had to clam up when the issue was raised.

"I didn't have any reservations," he explains. "I was asked some questions, so I answered them. I'm not worried about what people think of me as a result; I didn't keep quiet about it with my friends or anyone else. It's the most important thing in my life, so why not tell people?"

At one time, Murray's laconic manner might have betrayed a slightly lackadaisical approach, both to rugby and life. Blessed with a squat and powerful physique from which you could almost create the mould to cast players in his position, he also had the academic ability to qualify as a veterinary surgeon before finally committing himself to professional rugby three seasons ago.

Since his dramatic injury, however, there has been a harder and more obvious sense of purpose about Murray.

It is as though its intimation of mortality had finally persuaded him to buck up his ideas.

As Frank Hadden observed before selecting him to face Romania last November - a place he kept for the subsequent November Tests against the Pacific Islanders and Australia - Murray always had raw ability but had never been able to persuade the Scotland management team that he also had the durability he required to thrive at international level. However, an injury-free run and consistent selection at the start of this season gave him all the game time he needed and, one minor achilles problem apart, he has never looked back.

"It's not just about durability," the player says. "It's also about the fact that the more you play the more experience you get and the more momentum you have. All of those factors can be pretty important when you're going into a series of international matches.

"It was hugely beneficial to me to get all those games early in the season. At prop you're learning all the time and every opponent is different. In the past, injuries meant I could learn something in one game and then not be able to apply it for another month.

"The good thing about playing in the Magners League is that just about every prop you come up against is of a pretty high standard, an international or pretty close to it, which is good because it means you're learning all the time. I'm not sure if there's any one player in particular who I find particularly difficult, because the challenge is that every player is different and tests you in a different way.

Sometimes you can come up against a prop who's not generally all that highly thought of, and you find that he gives you a real problem."

No player may have benefited more from Glasgow's revival this season than Murray, although it might just as easily be argued that few have contributed as much to that phenomenon as he has either. The consequence for Murray is that he now has the chance to nail down the tighthead prop position in the international side for years to come. Not since the era of Iain Milne has Scotland had the luxury of a player who has truly made the position his own for any extended period of time, but Murray is perhaps the most credible candidate since the legendary Bear quit the scene.

Perhaps because of that, it seems all the more remarkable that Murray has never played in a Six Nations game before now. Identified at an early age as a Test player of the future, his development has been hindered by injuries, academic considerations and other assorted misadventures.

Two season ago, Murray seemed on the verge of making his breakthrough when a bizarre and inexplicable sending-off in a club game against Llanelli was followed by an equally potty SRU disciplinary process that saw him banned from rugby for eight weeks. Only at the end of that season was he able to squeeze in his Test debut, in a low-key match against Romania in Bucharest.

Not the sort of game, you might say, that small boys dream of. So little wonder that Murray is now anticipating a first start in the Six Nations with some relish. Prefacing his remarks with the obligatory "if selected" qualification, his enthusiasm for getting in about England at Twickenham was clear.

"It will be like another debut for me. As a child, you grow up imagining yourself doing things like that; running out against England for your country. And there's certainly still some truth in the auld enemy thing, so it will be another dream fulfilled if I'm there. I won against England playing at under-19 level in a tournament in Wales a few years ago, and that was a really brilliant day."

Will he enjoy another at Twickenham next weekend? The bookmakers say no, but their forecasts hardly favoured Scotland at Murrayfield last year either. If England are to get their hands on the Calcutta Cup again they will first have to wrest it from Murray's powerful grip.

This article was posted on 28-Jan-2007, 08:51 by Hugh Barrow.