Following a ‘weird week’ scrum half Conor Murray says it’s time for Ireland to prove that they haven’t become a bad team overnight and kick-start their Six Nations campaign with a win over Italy.
Joe Schmidt’s side crashed to a surprise defeat away to Scotland last Saturday at Murrayfield, leading for calls for a major shake-up in personnel.
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Murray admits that defeat was tough to take and now that it’s up to the players to prove that they are good enough to salvage their championship dreams in Rome on Saturday.
“There is very little room for error,” he said, speaking to RTÉ Sport. “We have to take confidence from what we did in November. It’s a sporting thing – you do so well for so long and then you lose a game and people get on your backs saying your a bad team, change is needed, asking were the tactics right.
“Last weekend we started poorly, we were second to most things, Scotland got off to a flier and we let them in for three tries in 20-odd minutes. We made it difficult for ourselves.
“I know you can’t just isolate that, but if you take from the end of the first half through the whole second half we did really well to get back in the lead away to Scotland.
“The ending was frustrating, but we know that we can play really well and we just have to be better off the mark. We came out of the traps so slowly against Scotland and that’s so annoying.
“We trained really well, the coaches gave us absolutely everything we need to win a game and we’ve said it manys the time – if we go out and execute the game plan we’ll have a chance of winning in most games,” said Murray.
“We have to keep faith in ourselves and our own game plan and that’s definitely there – one game doesn’t make you a bad team.”
The contender for the British and Irish Lions number nine jersey explained that the hours and days in the aftermath 27-22 defeat in Edinburgh were tough to take.
We have to keep faith in ourselves and our own game plan and that’s definitely there – one game doesn’t make you a bad team - Conor Murray
Now though, the players are fully focused on Saturday’s trip to Rome to take on Conor O’Shea’s Italy, a team that pushed Wales hard before falling to a 33-7 loss.
“It has been a weird week,” said Murray. “At the time after the Scottish game we were frustrated, really down, and there was barely a word said on the way home. It was all doom and gloom, but you have to be realistic – we are still in with a shot of this Championship.
“I believe it, the other players believe it, the coaches believe it, so you’ve got to stay positive and get a better performance this weekend.”
Watch Ireland v Italy live on RTÉ2 from 1.30pm Saturday, listen live on Radio 1's Saturday Sport and follow our live blog on RTE.ie/the News Now app
