Northampton Saints
Tales from the Members Bar 24 - Euan Murray
By David Lowrence
April 20 2008
Filling in for the redoubtable OSB is not a task to be undertaken lightly, but I felt that, the club having been good enough to grant us access to the players, it would be a shame for the understudy to pass on the opportunity of producing a pale imitation of the column. I feel a little bit like Jay Leno producing Jeremy Clarkson’s Sunday Times piece, but here goes.
Tales from the Members' Bar
No. 24 Euan Murray
No. 24 Euan Murray
Filling in for the redoubtable OSB is not a task to be undertaken lightly, but I felt that, the club having been good enough to grant us access to the players, it would be a shame for the understudy to pass on the opportunity of producing a pale imitation of the column. I feel a little bit like Jay Leno producing Jeremy Clarkson's Sunday Times piece, but here goes.
Euan's introduction to rugby came when he changed schools in Scotland at the age f 11. One of his classmates took one look at his physicality and said that the best place for him was the weekly rugby training. Not having had any involvement with the sport, he was unsure of the appropriate footwear. He chose his sister's hockey boots. Oh how they laughed! The first item on the training agenda was tackle practice. Oh how they stopped laughing! To me that sums up Euan - an outwardly other-worldly guy, who was destined to spend half his life with an arm in a bovine posterior, but a ferocious and committed practitioner of the dark arts.
Euan's five year Vets degree was well under way, and he was just another impecunious student, when, in the second year, Glasgow Warriors came calling and offered him a scholarship. His most abiding memory of that time was that in return for a few hours training, the club would feed him - undergraduate heaven. He decided to finish his degree before turning professional, and when he did, his rise was very swift. With icons such as Sean Fitzpatrick and Jonah Lomu to inspire him, he was soon not only making a mark at Glasgow, but also for his country.
In the fullness of time, Saints came calling, and he threw in his lot with Northampton, just before we were relegated. He has had some interesting away trips, but missed out on some of the more riotous trips to the West Country by dint of being on International duty. This year he has been mostly living out of the back of his car.
I asked about his domestic arrangements. On coming to the Gardens he was assigned a berth in the lifebuilding company development by the ground. "Ahh - Kiwi corner" I opined. "Well it's more like Scotch corner now" he says. On his return from world cup duties, he discovered that he had a sharer, the new club fitness assistant. He hardly had time to get to know him when he was off on the six Nations. Returning from there - and we will gloss over the England result, he found his housemate had been replaced - by Nick Johnson. Upon enquiring as to the effect sharing with Nick has on the domestic side of life - he replied "Well, no more fish suppers for me then!"
Euan still keeps his hand in (literally) as a vet, an has spent some time this season helping out in a practice at Towcester, run by a Saints supporter, and hopes to do a little more next season while improving his game and working at his rugby oriented goals.
I had been bracing myself to ask the OSB $64,000 question, and having explained the process, Euan protested that he is not a
habitual consumer, but hypothetically, would plump for a Tunnock's Caramel Wafer"Deeee- licious"
djl
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Discussion started by ComeOnYouSaints.com , 20/04/2008 16:38
Advice - always give vets the Boy Scout handshake.
"Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun. If you do not, the sun will soon set, and you with it."
-- Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor 161-180 A.D.
"Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun. If you do not, the sun will soon set, and you with it."
-- Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor 161-180 A.D.
A very good read,David.Tunnocks Caramel Wafers.....(insert lip-licking smilie here)
Bridesmaids no more.
Bridesmaids no more.
Never quite understood the attraction of either being a vet or a Tunnocks.
“Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”
Benjamin Franklin
Tetleys Block F E143
“Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”
Benjamin Franklin
Tetleys Block F E143
Well, he's in good company... "more than 4,000,000 of these biscuits made and sold every week".
Before moving south I worked for a church in Lanarkshire (not far from Tunnochs) and they used to give us boxes (usually about 20 boxes with about 100 wafers) to the Kids clubs 
Oh yeah, the article about Euan is good also!
Oh yeah, the article about Euan is good also!
mmmmmm Tunnocks - the plain ones are fabulous with a cup of tea.
I am looking forward to seeing Air Euan in the GP. I'll leave the bovine bit to him!
I am looking forward to seeing Air Euan in the GP. I'll leave the bovine bit to him!
Personally, I much preferred the Tunnocks caramel log with the coconut on the outside but, at a push........
Euan - a gentle giant who quietly goes about his business very well indeed.
Euan - a gentle giant who quietly goes about his business very well indeed.
well stood in, Sir!
"It's not the despair, Saints, I can take the despair. It's the hope I can't stand."
"It's not the despair, Saints, I can take the despair. It's the hope I can't stand."
What a proper biscuit and a reasonable attempt but if you think a member of the David clique outshone one of the Richard's you are sadly mistaken
and just in case " * "
No alcohol for January. I'm a dryathlete in aid of cancer research.
Dryathlon
and just in case " * "No alcohol for January. I'm a dryathlete in aid of cancer research.
Dryathlon
Unlike your new found friend Mr Flatt - I am not an old softie fluffy nice person.
I take my wounds and nurture them.
Expect retribution sometime in June when you are least expecting it.
& if it aint me it'l be one of the clique
(Sm2096)
I take my wounds and nurture them.
Expect retribution sometime in June when you are least expecting it.
& if it aint me it'l be one of the clique
(Sm2096)
All that experience with bovine backsides will serve Euan well when he meets some of the more robust types in the GP...
I had the pleasure of meeting Mr Murray on Saturday...what a lovely bloke that seemed happy to put up with our drunken waffling
I have always been a fan of the TCW, (as we called them in Ayr) but to have discovered the other day that they now do them in dark chocolate........Oh Heaven!!
However, as my body is a template, I must ration myself to just under "4 million every week"
Oh and that chat wi Euan Murray wisnae bad either, by the way!
However, as my body is a template, I must ration myself to just under "4 million every week"
Oh and that chat wi Euan Murray wisnae bad either, by the way!
aaaahhhh those were the days, sitting by the river @ Dam Park, can of Irn Bru in one hand, TCW in the other.
Dam Park Jim. Awfie posh.
I was usually at the Old Racecourse after rugby hiding from the wind behind a wall.........No! not that wind....the west wind that brought the rain straight from Arran and there's me in ma wee shorts!
I was usually at the Old Racecourse after rugby hiding from the wind behind a wall.........No! not that wind....the west wind that brought the rain straight from Arran and there's me in ma wee shorts!
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