Conor Murray confident Ireland can pass Twickenham test

Conor Murray occasionally reaches for words like anger, frustration and disappointment to describe aspects of Ireland's performances in the opening two matches of the Six Nations Championship that have yielded a draw against Wales and a maddening 10-9 defeat to France in Paris.

While the results offer very little in the way of consolation, delving beneath that veneer exposes reasons why the Irish players are bullish about the prospect of squaring off against an unbeaten England side under new management at Twickenham this weekend.

The Ireland scrumhalf believes that relatively small incremental improvements in a couple of areas will transform Ireland's performances.

The most obvious adjustment is a lack of precision to the point of carelessness at times in what is now known in rugby parlance as the red zone.

Murray argues: “Our first game against Wales was a really good performance across the board, attacking-wise and defensively, and then the French game was a disappointment.

“We didn’t take our opportunities, didn’t convert them into scores, especially in the second half and it’s not often you come away from France losing narrowly and be quite frustrated and annoyed.

Tactical blemish

“But looking at the Welsh game and combining it with the disappointment of France, I know we’re confident we can do something about that this weekend.”

Quite apart from the occasional individual technical and tactical blemish, Murray offers interesting observations on the issue of leadership and Seán O’Brien’s absence has challenged others to step forward and assume a leadership role.

“He’s [O’Brien] a guy that would really drive our defence, our line-speed and other areas like that and now he’s gone, unfortunately, with his injury.

“That’s another challenge for other players, maybe not in the same position, but for someone else to stand up and drive that line-speed, that defensive focus.

“I’m not going to tell you there’s someone like Seánie to come in; there isn’t. Seánie really drove that area. I always go on about it; everyone knows what they are supposed to do. Bestie [Rory Best] is doing a great job at driving home a few little concentration points throughout the week.

Key messages

“Players like Johnny [Sexton], Jamie [Heaslip] really drive home the key messages through the week. So far that hasn’t been an issue, you haven’t had any lack of vocal support throughout the week on the pitch. We’re still barking at each other, trying to get things right, but yeah, it’s a challenge.

“I’m not going to hide away from that. It is a challenge missing players. We have to step up; that’s what we have to focus on this week and make sure it happens.”

Murray spoke about the magnitude of the task that Ireland face against an England team that has responded positively to the tweaks made by their new coach, Eddie Jones, and the difficulty of bearding their neighbours in the backyard.

Playmaking options

He singled out the momentum England had gleaned from victories over Scotland and Italy, the power of the pack, the twin playmaking options in

George Ford

and

Owen Farrell

, who will give the home side direction and width when alternating in the outhalf role and the folly of kicking injudiciously to a back three of

Jack Nowell

,

Anthony Watson

and

Mike Brown

.

But closer to Murray's sphere of operations is another big player for England, literally and figuratively, in number eight Billy Vunipola.

“He is right up there in terms of ball carrying. I found that out last year in the Aviva; he picked off the back of the scrum, I didn’t concentrate on tackling him and he made a big burst up the field,” said Murray.

“He always seems to break the first tackle, he will try to switch the ball from one hand to the other and in offloading, he is a handful. We see them as a really strong outfit, a team that are playing really well.

“I don’t think they will be overconfident especially with what has happened between us over the last two years. They have been tight, Test matches. We know how good a team they are.

“Mentally for us it is about preparing to go into a cauldron, a place England are really, really hard to beat.

“Personally and collectively you have to ensure your game is as good as it can be for the weekend.

“I don’t think mentally, trying to take them down a notch or them being overconfident is in our mindset.”