‘Bitter stuff’ – Conor Murray slammed after ‘incredibly unfair’ tirade at Graham Rowntree

Ireland and British and Irish Lions legend Conor Murray has been largely slammed for his criticism of former Munster head coach Graham Rowntree in an extract from his new book.

The book titled ‘Cloud Nine: My Life in Rugby’ has now been released, and the 36-year-old has not held back on Munster’s hierarchy, the recruitment policy and Rowntree.

In a stunning attack, Murray, who was usurped for the starting scrum-half jersey by Craig Casey at Munster during Rowntree‘s successful tenure, went in on his ex-boss.

In poor taste

“I didn’t rate Graham Rowntree at all,” the former Ireland and British & Irish Lions star said in his book, with the extract published by the Irish Independent.

“And, in his last season, even the younger players were starting to see through him.

“Personally, I didn’t see a lot of rugby knowledge there.

“I won’t be two-faced here and say I was sorry to see him go. In all honesty, I wasn’t.

“I will let other players speak for themselves, but the way he’d spoken to myself and one or two of my close friends in the squad was, at times, unacceptable.”

This criticism has brought a backlash from supporters on social media who hold Rowntree is high regard after he led Munster to United Rugby Championship glory in 2023.

Rowntree, who had taken over as head coach at the beginning of the 2022/23 campaign, would also go on to lead the squad to a table-topping finish the following season.

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In a shocking turn of events, Rowntree and Munster would part ways in October 2024 after a disappointing start to the campaign, this after a difficult tour of South Africa.

That surprised many across the game, and it seems fans feel bemused by Murray’s broadside at Rowntree, with some users on X making their feelings clear on the platform.

Journalist Brendan Gallagher has responded to a post Will Slattery wrote on X, seemingly coming out to bat for the former head coach: “Yet Munster won a brilliant URC title under him and played some great rugby. Dont think we are getting a full rounded picture of what went on here.”

@denismu30264881 added: “Seems incredibly unfair. The bottom line is that he brought them a trophy in session 1 against the odds. And topped the URC regular season the next year.”

“Player power was clearly out of control in Munster,” was @tvpc8’s view, while @Stephen_Forster simply wrote, “Wow.”

The negative reaction to Murray’s verbal attack on Rowntree continued in the replies, with one reader hailing Rowntree’s impact at the Irish province during his tenure.

“I saw a genuine man who bought into Munster, a man with 54 caps, a prop in the six-man scrum that held out, repeatedly, against 8 AB’s on their own line, 3 Lions tours and 6N wins, but sure, what does he know compared to Conor? Bitter stuff,” wrote @MarkL0722.

So sad

@christo85766536 added: “Sounds like somebody was upset at being dropped when his form was off instead of being automatically selected.”

Elsewhere, @simonjcohen responded to All Things Rugby’s post on the quotes, writing: “I find it very sad that a great player so loses sight of what’s important in the game that he feels it’s ok to so publicly try to denigrate a really good bloke just to sell some books – he’s absolutely entitled to that view in private but that’s so poor.”

Murray’s other criticisms during his book launch were on cost-cutting measures, stating Munster did things such as travel “on the cheap” and had a high coaching turnover.

Former England international Rowntree has recently taken up a new role as head coach of Japan Rugby League One club Urayasu D-Rocks.

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