‘We were probably beaten up a little bit’
Conor Murray still has a startled look about him as he addresses the media at Munster’s University of Limerick training facilities. That is probably down to the punishing training session taken by Anthony Foley and his fellow coaches but there is no doubting that after-shocks from last Friday’s Clermont defeat remain.
In and away from the biting winds, Murray reflects on a frustrating game that resulted in defeat due to a Munster team that did not perform and who were out-fought at Thomond Park. He insists his colleagues were not surprised by Clermont’s physicality but failed to pick up the gauntlet thrown down as early as Fritz Lee’s first minute try.
He says, ‘That’s a huge step we got to take this week – looking at training and gearing up for the weekend – it’s physicality. It’s a huge thing. It’s a basic of rugby. If you win the physical battles, you get the momentum and in a good position to win the game.’
Murray believes the French side were particularly adept at getting off the line at speed and suffocating Munster as they tried to work phase plays. ‘Saying that,’ he adds, ‘we are a good physical team as well. We stuck in there, had a chance to get a score and maybe a draw towards the end of the game. We have to take positives from it. The way I’m looking at it, is we didn’t perform as well as we could have and we within seven points of them.
‘So, if we perform this weekend, it will be a different game. They will play a lot differently. They will probably kick a lot less and try to attack us a bit more but we’ve got to be ready for that and take it up a level.’
The scrum-half mulls over tweaks, kicking possession away and upping performance percentage levels but he constantly returns to fighting spirit and ‘the willingness to be physical’. One thing that Murray is expecting, too, is for Clermont to play a more expansive game so they can put Munster to bed early and take command of Pool 1.
All the motivation Munster need, he adds, can be found in the video replays of their 16-9 Limerick loss. ‘To be under pressure going away to France is annoying, is frustrating but if you want to draw on the historic Munster mentality of being able to get up for these French games is fair enough.
‘We would rather not be in this position but you are looking for a reaction out of a team that didn’t perform and we are lucky we get the chance to do that against a team we played last weekend. It is an ideal situation to put things right.’
Hat-tip to Word in Sport
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