Ireland Catch-Up With O’Connell & Murray

With two wins from two in the 2015 RBS 6 Nations, Munster and Ireland’s Paul O’Connell and Conor Murray discuss the lessons learnt from the campaign to date and look ahead to the visit of in-form England in under a fortnight’s time.

The final quarter of last Saturday’s encounter saw the French enjoy a purple patch that netted them the game’s only try. Looking ahead to the remainder of the campaign, captain O’Connell has earmarked the final 20 minutes as an area for improvement – to finish out games on the offense rather than the defence.

“We’d love to be defending with the ball, having the ball and going at them. When you give teams like France the ball for long periods, with the quality, individuals and size that they have, inevitably something happens. Unfortunately we conceded one try. I think it is better than it was in that fixture last year, and in our last games against New Zealand and South Africa but it’s still something you’d love to do – to finish those games in their half going at them.”

For Murray, the ability to get serious height, distance and ‘hang-time’ (depending on what the situation might require) on his box-kicks has always been a strong facet of his game and one which the 25 year old feels will be an effective tool for the remainder of Ireland’s 6 Nations campaign.

“It's an exit strategy for the team. If we have a lineout just outside the 22, we might go to a maul and if that collapses we might set up a ruck and take another phase. Just have a winger or full-back ready to chase with a good line of support on the outside. And just make sure we are on our feet and ready to put pressure on the ball in the air.

“[Against France] some of them were contested in the air, some were a little bit long and the lads tackled man and ball for the majority of the game. I know one in the second half, down the left-hand side, they managed to get away and put us under a little bit of pressure.

“The majority of our exiting was quite good but there's one or two that probably won't be good enough against England that we will have to go away, work on and make sure our game is a little bit better than it was.”

The scrum-half also looked ahead to Sunday week’s home encounter with England – the only side to defeat the Irishmen in their last 12 tests. A hard fought away win over the Welsh and a comprehensive home win over the Italians will no doubt add to the visitor’s justifiable confidence as they roll into the Aviva Stadium.

“England last year was a very tight game. A one-score game, 13-10 the final score. It's going to be a really hard-fought, intense game and we are going to have to lift it up again. Like I said, one point, being a bit biased on my job or role, is our exiting needs to be a little bit better.

“We need to be able to contest the likes of 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.”