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Ronnie O’Sullivan aimed a thinly-veiled dig in the direction of Shaun Murphy after the 41-year-old brought three cues to the Northern Ireland Open. The Rocket was on punditry duties for Eurosport as Murphy faced Chris Wakelin for a place in the quarter-finals at Waterfront Hall.<\/p>\n
Murphy ended up crashing out of the tournament after losing by a 4-2 scoreline, with The Magician getting just two points on the board in the final three frames. It prompted a brutal dig from O’Sullivan, who took aim at his rival for bringing two extra cues despite failing to reach the last eight.<\/p>\n
He said: “Have three cues if you’re winning, but when you keep getting pumped it don’t look good, does it? So start winning some matches before you start doing that.”<\/p>\n
O’Sullivan has previously clashed with Murphy as a result of the former’s outspoken comments on the state of modern snooker. He said earlier this year that the game was ‘probably as bad as it has ever been’ in a public row over prize money, although he went on to skip a meeting with the WST in which the issue was discussed.<\/p>\n
JUST IN: <\/strong> Northern Ireland Open snooker venue evacuated with all play suspended<\/strong><\/p>\n Murphy, who was present at the meeting, later took aim at O’Sullivan by insisting that he is not helping anybody by speaking publicly about the sport’s issues.<\/p>\n “This isn’t about gagging orders or restricting free speech, it’s having the sense to realise some of these things are sensitive, and need dealing with in-house,” said Murphy. “We need to be a unified voice in snooker to grow the game and make it bigger and better and there is very little of that going around at the moment.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/4\/590x\/secondary\/5039027.jpg?r=1698623622419\")
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