If France were dangerous, says Murray, England are going to be lethal.
As a man who spends most of his time hovering near scrums and breakdowns, Conor Murray was quick to praise the effort of his forwards. The win, he added, was down to each of the 22 players that featured ‘getting off the ground, getting off the line and making those tackles’.
It is a sign of promising Irish times that a seven-point win over France can still leave room for introspection, from players, coaches and reporters alike. ‘We had a one or two good chances to get over the line and just put down that final pass,’ Murray conceded. ‘That was a little disappointing but the French are a really good squad and we got away with a win.’
Murray was delighted to have a huge leader like Johnny Sexton beside him, after the out-half missed the Six Nations opener against Italy. He never doubted, either, that Sexton would stand up to the likes of Wesley Fofana and, in particular, Mathieu Bastareaud. Murray said:
‘There was talk about that, but Johnny is a big lad. He’s well able to look after himself and he doesn’t shy away from anything like that. If he heard that during the week it probably revved him up a little bit more, to get a bit more out of himself.’
While Ireland captain Paul O’Connell expressed his disappointment that Ireland could not finish the French off in the final 20 minutes, England raced in 19 points in the closing stages against Italy.
Murray commented, ‘We will have a good long look at England this week. We have a two week lead up to the game against them which is plenty of time to get to know them and see where they are strong. We had a tough start in Italy, a 23-point margin isn’t too bad.
‘We came up against a really good French team that stuck it to us all through the game and we have to be proud of ourselves that way.’
Joe Schmidt believes Ireland’s first two performances would not be enough to turn England over. Murray, for his part, is expecting a very tight game on March 1.
‘It’s going to be a really hard fought, intense game and we are going to have to lift it up again. Being a bit biased on my role, our exiting needs to be a little bit better. We need to be able to contest the likes of Mike Brown, Anthony Watson and Jonny May in the air. If they get long balls kicked to them and they run it back, they can be lethal.
‘That is one area that will have to improve and I’m sure Joe will find us a few more things to work on.’
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