AFTER 66 caps and a couple of weeks short of 10 years since his debut, Euan Murray, the Scotland tighthead prop is retiring from international rugby, just four months before the Rugby World Cup kicks off.
He cited family reasons for the decision with his third child due in August, mid way through the warm-up games and he wants to stay at home and help share the baby's first few weeks.
However, he has been so dominant in his role as the best in his position available to Scotland for so long that he is bound to leave a hole. "He was always on the radar as a good front row scrummager," recalled George Graham, the forwards coach when Murray won his first cap. "It was very, very evident that he was going to become something special.
"It was not just his scrummaging which was world class, but his attitude and his desire to get better. When you are working with people like that, it is very easy, a joy working with him. He has been around and acquitted himself very well with any club he has joined, culminating in being a British and Irish Lion.
"Scotland will miss him hugely. We are going to struggle for a quality tighthead, there are one or two but when you go into a World Cup you want quality, seasoned guys who are capable of playing at that level. Losing Euan will be a bit of a headache for Vern Cotter [the head coach]."
On the other hand, according to Peter Wright, another former Scotland prop who has been watching Murray his whole carer, you can't help wonder what happened to Murray after that Lions tour in 2009.
At that stage, everybody expected him to push on and become one of the world greats; instead he remained a top-class international player but not as feared as people had expected.
"I thought he would motor on after the Lions but be seemed to plateau, didn't seem to get that much better," said Wright. "I was surprised because I thought he had all the makings of a world class prop - I don't want to be negative, he still had a decent career, but he did not hit the heights we expected regularly enough.
"A very funny guy, a nice guy, a good all-round team guy, a good scrummager. I am surprised he has retired at this point. I did think he would go to the World Cup and retire after that."
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