15 January 2026; Irish rugby icon and Munster legend Conor Murray is pictured as Virgin Media Television announce that he will join its expert rugby panel as an analyst for the upcoming Guinness Six Nations Championship, kicking off on 5 February 2026. (Image: ©SPORTSFILE)
Conor Murray can’t wait for the start of the 2026 Six Nations, the first one he will miss since debuting for Ireland in 2011.A competition he insists is decided by momentum, the side that starts quickly can find themselves in the happy position of the pressure being heaped on the opposition as the weeks progress.Indeed if Ireland can repeat the 2024 victory in France then having Italy second up in Dublin could be very helpful to the cause.It’s not an impossible dream either, the 125-times capped Murray sees no problem with Ireland’s thirtysomethings – because he knows (itals) Andy Farrell has no problem with the squad’s age-profile.”There is murmurs of an age profile but I’ve had this conversation with Andy before and he’ll pick players that are playing the best. He doesn’t look at age.”He was like it doesn’t matter what age you are at, if you’re performing, if you’re adding to the team and you’re the best option to whether you’re starting or you’re on the bench or whatever way it works I’ll pick you.”I’m sure those lads who are in their 30s or whatever are hearing those exact same messages.”At that stage you know your body well enough, you know exactly what you need to do to be ready to play, what you need to do to recover, what you need to do to perform at your highest ability.Sure, Murray was almost invariably younger than the out-half he played with – notwithstanding the very odd start inside Joey Carbery or latterly Jack Crowley – for almost all his Ireland career!”You look at someone like Johnny Sexton who played probably his best rugby in his 30s. He won World Player of the Year when he was 34, well into his 30s by the time he won that.”So that age thing it’s kind of like an old school way of looking at it. I think lads nowadays are conditioned way better. They can go for longer. They can play well into their 30s.”There’s players when they are 40 year old playing professional, if not international rugby. So the age thing, because I am, I wouldn’t say a victim of it at all, but I’ve been there and I’ve gotten the questions about how are you feeling.”You’re there. If you’re in the group and you’re playing well enough and you’re in good condition, Andy has an option to pick you.”Moreover Ireland’s starting in France will be seen as an advantage by Farrell.“Straight shooting, no, he doesn’t care,” says Murray who expects the entire squad to embrace the challenge. “He doesn’t care because the standards expected in Irish rugby are so high.”His coaching staff and the players, they don’t think like that in that group. I know it’s a question people would be like, what about Italy first, then we can build momentum.”It’s that you are expected to go into camp at a certain standard and be ready to play the week before you play France, so it doesn’t really matter who you’re playing.”In my time, I saw the shift from it really turning towards us looking at ourselves as the Irish team where we’re at this level, this is our level, whoever is coming to play us.”From there we will perform at our level and we’ll see where that takes us, obviously confident that if we go well, we’ll get a win, but I think those days are gone.”I know there’s a bit of talk about November not going quite right, but I don’t think it matters who he comes up against.”Murray likes the idea the tournament will start at fever pitch, the idea that France-Ireland will get the proceedings under way on the Thursday night (the match was put back a night at the request of French TV because of a clash with the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympics.What the former Grand Slam winning Six Nations star doesn’t want to see is too much focus on referees and decisions and TMOs and all that surrounds games, for that side of the sport to dominate.“Yeah, you never do. Absolutely, you want a pure game of rugby and the best team win, but unfortunately, because there’s so many laws and interpretations and it can get a little bit muddy.”Sometimes a really hotly contested game can come down to just maybe a wrong call or someone’s interpretation of a law.”Obviously, you want it to be a pure sport and rugby teams going up against each other and the best team winning, rather than the man in the middle.”You’d like referees, I know a couple of them, and their goal is to not be talked about. They just want to facilitate a really good game and not have a big controversial decision that makes headlines on the Monday.