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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Robert Hynes

Conor Murray sends message to Ireland rugby fans after emotional few days since dad Gerry's crash

Conor Murray has thanked Irish fans for their support after an emotional few days for the scrum-half.

The Munster star made the difficult decision to play for Ireland against France just days after his father Gerry was hurt in a collision while out cycling.

Gerry suffered serious injuries in a collision in Limerick on Tuesday, with his son playing 57 minutes of Saturday's Six Nations clash at the Aviva Stadium.

READ MORE: Conor Murray's Ireland team-mates rallied around him ahead of historic victory

Murray took to social media on Sunday to thank fans for their support, saying he is always grateful for it, but that he especially felt it on Saturday.

He posted: "What a battle!

"Always grateful for the support, but especially yesterday!

"Surrounded by an unbelievable team of people."

Johnny Sexton paid tribute to his half-back partner after Saturday's massive win.

The Ireland captain said: “Unbelievable really, isn’t it? It’s mark of the character and the player.

“In my eyes, he’s always been a class operator and always been world-class in his position. It just amazes me that he could show up today, be so calm and put in the performance that he did.”

Conor Murray and Johnny Sexton (©INPHO/Morgan Treacy)

Saturday's win leaves Ireland in the driving seat for the championship in a huge year, with the World Cup taking place in France in a few months time.

But Sexton stressed Saturday's win will mean nothing if Ireland can't push on towards the Six Nations title.

He added: “It was an incredible game, wasn’t it? It felt like we were on the up after getting that (Keenan) try and then suddenly out of nothing they can come alive, that’s what we spoke about.

“Even though we won and got five points in the end, you still didn’t feel very comfortable.

“We knew how big it was in terms of the championship and now we’ve got to decompress, take a few days off and come back.

“It’s not worth anything if we let it slip now in terms of against Italy in the next game.”

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