“It is tough at the moment”- Blair Murray breaks down the difficulties under the highball

Friday, 27 February 2026 at 16:58

byHarry Tovey

Wales and Scarlets, Blair Murray offered a candid assessment about the challenges he is facing under the high ball. Ahead of last year’s autumn internationals, World Rugby wanted to stamp out players blocking team-mates catching high balls after their objectives were made clear in November.

The decision to prevent “escort runners” from getting in the way of attacking teams chasing their own kicks has led to a considerable increase in contestable kicks in the air. It’s created a trickier situation for players, with Wales being brutally exposed in the autumn.

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Teams are kicking more often, but with no real protection around the catcher, it’s almost impossible to stand still, awaiting the ball, as the opposition has a strong run-up. It’s absolutely brutal for players like Murray, who has struggled on numerous occasions, but it’s really no surprise.

Coaches will more than likely focus solely on plays and confidence in securing the high ball, rather than posing attacking threats. It seems like a backwards step by World Rugby, with the likelihood of catches spilling forward and resulting in more scrums, which ultimately slows down the contests even more.

“It’s a tough job, really,” said the 24-year-old, who has been clearly targeted in the air by the opposition.

“Without people being able to escort or block, it does become a straight one-on-one in the air.

“We’ve done a lot of work here, talking about how many balls actually get caught cleanly, it’s quite a low percentage.

“So it’s more just about, we’re focusing on trying to make a collision, don’t shy away from the contact in the air, and try to win the space early in the air. It is tough at the moment.

“You got to have the mindset of just winning the collision, it is tough, especially when the attacking team, a lot of the time, are just slapping it back as well.

“We just got to try and win the space early and be able to get a catch, or if not catch, get it to bounce back on our side.”

Murray, who has not had a great deal of game time in recent weeks for Wales since the return of Louis Rees-Zammit, moving to fullback. But it must be said the Bristol Bears player is not thriving.

He sat on the sidelines as Wales fell to brutal defeats against England and France, before making his first appearance of the Six Nations against Scotland last Saturday. “It’s frustrating seeing the boys go out and put in a good effort, but can’t come away with the result,” continued Murray, who had started in all four of Steve Tandy’s first games in charge.

“England and France, they were class sides, played really well against us. We probably didn’t play as well as we wanted to.

“Scotland was a very good shift for us. We wanted to take the game to them more, rather than wait for opportunities to come to us. I thought we did a really good job of that.”

“Asked whether Wales can build on the Scotland defeat, Murray added: “Absolutely, we have to keep moving forward. We have to keep building.

“It was a really tough loss against Scotland, I thought we deserved to win, we all did really. If we can keep building on it, then it will bode well.”

Wales face the challenging task of heading to Aviva Stadium next Friday evening (KO: 20:10), as they head to the Irish capital in search of their first win since March 2023.

A number of Tandy’s squad have been released back to their respective regional sides for this weekend’s United Rugby Championship action, but for those who remained in camp at the Vale Resort, they trained against the U20s.

On facing Ireland following their thumping 42-21 victory against England, Murray added: “We haven’t spoken too much about Ireland just yet, trying to focus on ourselves the last couple of days.

“It’s been nice (to have a break), I’m obviously a bit fresher than some of the boys who have been playing more game time.

“(We’ve) used it to clear the headspace, I guess, and get ready for next week.

“Ireland, similar to Scotland, they do like to throw the ball about. They like to play a lot. In some ways, it’s a similar challenge.

“For us, we have the mentality going into every game that we can win.”