Ireland scrum-half Conor Murray feels that Ireland’s ability to execute their own gameplan in the heat of battle against England was key to their 19-9 victory in the Six Nations last Sunday.
Joe Schmidt’s team adopted a strategy of raining down high balls on England’s back three, and attempting to rob the visiting team of possession in their own half. A strategy which England say they had anticipated but were unable to deal with on the day.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport, Murray said: “There was a lot of pressure in the build-up to it. And to get a good performance and to execute the gameplan we intended to go out and execute is fantastic.
“It was four years coming for me (a victory over England) and a number of other players in the squad. So to finally beat them in a big game meant an awful lot to people.”
“We looked at clips of the New Zealand game before we went and played England to try and get those intensity levels " - Conor Murray
The Munster man also revealed that the game had been targeted by the Irish camp as the most important moment of Schmidt’s reign thus far and a challenge similar to the one that New Zealand posed to Ireland back in autumn 2013.
He also stated that Ireland equalling the nation’s all-time record run of ten games unbeaten was not an accolade the team had spoken about in the build-up.
“We had mapped it out as the biggest game since Joe took over. We had it up there with the New Zealand game. We looked at clips of the New Zealand game before we went and played England to try and get those intensity levels going into the game,” said Murray.
“It’s a huge victory for us in terms of this competition. But in terms of this record of going ten games unbeaten, that was in the back of players’ minds. It wasn’t talked about too much. But it was mentioned after the game and that’s a nice place to be in.
“And it does put us a in a good place in the championship. It was a big game with big pressure and we performed, which is nice to know.”
Next up for the Ireland squad is a training camp in Belfast as attentions turn to the challenge of facing Wales in Cardiff in round four.
“We’re off to camp tomorrow in Belfast and we’ll review things we need to work on. It was a good performance and we executed really well,” said Murray.
“But there will be points that Joe will pick out of it that we need to be better at going into the Wales game.
“We’ll review it and then start to look at Wales. Because if you stall, or start to fall in love with yourself, or take your eye off the ball, it will be very costly. Especially going away to Wales next, which is massive.
“Wales have their tails up after that performance after their win over Scotland and their huge win over France. And if they beat us they’re equal on wins and losses, so it’s a huge game. We’ll be in our little bubble thinking about nothing else. We’ll be focused solely on that game ahead.
“We can’t look beyond Wales, if we go there and get a win then we can talk about championships.
“Joe has given us more than enough and perform to go out and win a game. But it’s still about the players going out and performing, and especially with the playing England there was that extra bit of motivation as well.”
The scrum-half's box kick led to Robbie Henshaw scoring the only try of the game against England and Murray admits that the current Ireland back five make a superb target for box kicks and cross field kicks in the opposition 22.
“I think it was a 50-50 ball and Robbie did really well to jump above him and claim it. He was a special player for us on the day,” said Murray.
“I put it in that area. Robbie, and Tommy Bowe and Simon Zebo getting in those areas makes it so much easier for myself and Johnny Sexton.
“I think in any team the half-backs, if there’s a good understanding there you’re in with a good shout.
"There was a lot said about England’s Ben Youngs and George Ford in the build-up. I think we had a point to prove and it acted as another little motivating factor for us.
“Things are going well at the moment and long may it last.”
The media and coaching staff of the other Six Nations teams have been putting huge emphasis on Ireland’s kicking as the key to their victories and attacking game, but Murray feels it is no more intricate to Ireland’s game than any other top Test side.
“I think there’s a lot of attention being put on the kicking game, but that’s part of every team’s game, it’s an exit strategy to get out of your own half,” said Murray.
“Maybe we do sometimes bring that gameplan a little bit forward into the opposition half as well and we use it to good effect to scoring points as well. I think it’s something we practice an awful lot. I think we’re just quite effective at it, but I think it’s part of most team’s games at the moment."
Ireland's propensity to use the choke tackle was also recently criticised by Wales assistant coach Shaun Edwards as a cynical attempt to slow the game down and prevent offloading and creative rugby. However, Murray says that Ireland have no intention to use the tackle more than other teams.
“We don’t go out to intend to choke tackle. It just happens in a game," said Murray. "If someone gets held up it’s an opportunity to choke tackle them and develop a maul. If the opportunity comes up we take but it’s not something in our gameplan.”
