Conor Murray calls for Ireland to think outside - not through – the Boks

Conor Murray

is doing a good impression of not being too unsettled that loosehead

Cian Healy

and backrow Sean O’Brien won’t be playing at the weekend against

South Africa

.

He reckons that if Ireland must use strong men to run through the Springboks, they are taking a step closer to defeat.

Physicality will play a part in Saturday’s match but the Irish scrumhalf, no stranger to the confrontational side of the game, hopes Ireland can play smarter. The Springboks have traditionally excelled in close quarters and in that department Ireland hopes to match them where and when it matters.

Murray is talking about emphasis. “Even if Sean and Cian were here, you still probably wouldn’t look to run through South Africa,” he says. “They get off their line hard and make their hits. You’re going to be on the back foot. South Africa is a team of really big ball carriers, big hitters. Running through them is not something we’d want to do

“I think we still have really good ball carriers, who can fill their [Healy and O’Brien’s] shoes throughout the pack. I don’t think it’s an issue.”

There would be dissenters there about whose filling whose shoes, but not about having good ball carriers. Jamie Heaslip, in a changed role for Leinster at least, has emerged as a capable threat in the flanker's absence. But Healy is probably unmatched in this hemisphere as a loosehead prop and a broken play runner who can also score tries.

“Obviously, instead of carrying into a big man it’s about stepping, finding a soft-shoulder and being a bit smarter, maybe having a few micro-plays that we’re looking to play just to drag them out of the line and to create a few softer gaps for us,” says Murray.

Schmidt’s influence

It could be head coach Joe Schmidt himself talking and Murray acknowledges that a year into the job players have begun to settle into his way of thinking and how he wants the Irish team to play.

He avoids answering the assertion that Ireland have to beat one of the three southern hemisphere giantsto be competitive in the World Cup or that there must be some sort of declaration from the team in terms of match outcome so as not to go into the competition as a second class team.

And Schmidt’s words again seem to be in the head of the scrumhalf. “Control the controllables”, a team get-out phrase, comes out. But Murray knows never to make bold declarations that can later be used against the team.

“I’ve had my fair share of new coaches over the last four years,” he says. “This time last year we were, not feeling Joe out, but we were unsure how he wanted us to play and what he thought of you as a player.

“A year down the line you are under no illusions as to what he thinks of you and how he wants you to play. That’s a good place to be and we are a more confident squad looking back on what we did last year and especially coming so close [to beating New Zealand].”

His personal quest comes second to that of the team but Murray has found maturity in his play and certainly within Munster a growing responsibility that he hopes will transfer to the Irish cause.

Captaining Munster

More organic than strategic, Murray’s footprint in matches is naturally taking on larger dimensions. In September Munster boss

Anthony Foley

gave him the captain’s armband for their Pro12 clash with the Ospreys at Thomond Park.

“Bit of both maybe,” he says. “Particularly at Munster we’re playing a little bit differently than we had in the past two seasons with Rob [Penney]. I’m automatically in the game more, automatically making more of those decisions, so it’s part of the game plan and it’s part of me just growing as a player.”

A changing landscape then.

“I’m loving it,” he says.