Cameron Murray (rugby league)


Cameron Murray is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a lock or second row for the South Sydney Rabbitohs in the NRL.
He played for New South Wales in the 2019 State of Origin series.

Background

Murray was born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
He played his junior rugby league for the Mascot Jets, before being signed by the South Sydney Rabbitohs. He attended Newington College completing his HSC in 2015 and was captain of Newington's GPS Championship Winning 1st XV Rugby team that same year. In his final year at the College he turned down captaincy of the Under-18 NSW Origin side in favour of playing for his school.

Playing career

Early career

In October 2015, Murray re-signed with the Rabbitohs on a 4-year contract until the end of 2019. Late in 2015, he played for the Australian Schoolboys. In 2016, he played for the South Sydney Rabbitohs' NYC team. He also featured for the Rabbitohs' Intrust Super Premiership NSW team, North Sydney Bears in 2016, playing a total of 6 games and scoring 1 try.

2017

Murray started off 2017 by playing in the Intrust Super Premiership NSW for North Sydney. In round 8 of the 2017 NRL season, he made his NRL debut for the Rabbitohs off the bench against the Brisbane Broncos in round 8. Murray went on to play 9 NRL matches in 2017, scoring his maiden try in round 24 against the New Zealand Warriors. Souths ended the season in 12th position, missing out on the finals.

2018

Murray was part of the Souths side which finished 3rd on the table at the end of the regular season in 2018. In week one of the finals against Melbourne, Murray scored what Souths thought was going to be the winning try before a late try and field goal to Melbourne handed Souths a 29-28 loss. Murray then featured in both of Souths other finals matches, the 13-12 victory over St George and then a 12-4 defeat by arch rivals Eastern Suburbs in the preliminary final.

2019

Murray started off the 2019 NRL season in good form as Souths won 10 of their first 13 games. In Round 11, Murray scored 2 tries as Souths defeated the Wests Tigers 32-16. The following week, Murray earned his first representative honour as he was selected to play for New South Wales by coach Brad Fittler.
Murray played in all 3 matches for New South Wales in the 2019 State of Origin series as the Blues won the series 2-1. It was the first time since 2005 that New South Wales had managed to win 2 series in a row.
In Round 18 against North Queensland, Murray scored the winning try as Souths won the match 30-18 at 1300SMILES Stadium.
In Round 24 against the New Zealand Warriors, Murray scored 2 tries as South Sydney won the match 31-10 at Mt. Smart Stadium.
At the end of the 2019 regular season, Souths finished third on the table and qualified for the finals. In the elimination final against Manly, Murray scored two tries as Souths won the game 32-26 at ANZ Stadium.
Murray featured in the club's preliminary final match against the Canberra Raiders the following week which Souths lost 16-10 at Canberra Stadium.
On 2 October, Murray was named as the 2019 Dally M Lock of the Year at the Dally M Awards ceremony. In addition, Murray received the Rabbitohs Jack Rayner's Players' Player award as judged by his teammates.
On 7 October, Murray was named in the Australian side for the Oceania Cup fixtures and made his Test debut on 2 November against Tonga, who won 16 – 12 to defeat Australia for the first time.

2020

In the 2020 NRL season, Murray was moved by South Sydney coach Wayne Bennett to the starting 2nd row position, often playing the opening minutes of the match there before shifting back to his traditional lock spot. South Sydney finished with a 1-1 record before the season was indefinitely suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.