Conor Murray says Ireland need to improve with England on the horizon

Caught between the end result and the way it was achieved left Ireland less bubbling over than with their feet firmly on the ground. There was a warm glow but Irish success in Aviva Stadium was very much qualified.

Paul O'Connell was delighted but frustrated. Joe Schmidt was satisfied but picked holes and Conor Murray saw the win as another foothill before conquering England in less than two weeks.

If anything Schmidt has bred into this team a patience and awareness that regardless of winning there is always another challenge. This week it is Stuart Lancaster's side and after next month it will be the friendly matches in the summer and after August the World Cup.

And so it goes. Nine wins now in succession but the players are still reluctant to marinate in the feel-good juices of that run of victories. In the past Schmidt might have had to pull hard on the bridle but now the players do that themselves and there is no giddy bolting away.

More work, and more analysis has been prescribed and for the Irish scrumhalf there is also the possible milestone of beating England. He has never done it before.

“As people say, we’re winning even though we’re not firing on all cylinders,” says Murray. “Two out of two is a good place to be but it won’t be good enough to beat England, I know that. We’re going to have to keep on improving. We stepped it up a good bit from last week. But there are still a few areas that we need to get right.

“We’d be punished if we don’t be as accurate against England, particularly exiting our own half. We gave them a little bit too much ball with too much time and space and they exploited us a few times.

“We’re winning and we’ve a week of to re-generate ourselves and have a long look at England. Hopefully we can put ourselves in a good mindset to take them on. I haven’t beaten England yet in my career. They beat us last year in a hard-fought game and I expect the same again.”

That France are in Ireland's pool D in the World Cup may do something for Irish confidence and for the players when they are looking to unearth positive memories for the next meeting in the Millennium Stadium in October. French coach Philippe Saint-Andre pouted a little and dismissed Ireland's recent record of two wins and two draws against them.

“We have six months and a half. We are better than people think,” said the French coach.

Murray had less attitude than Saint-Andre and while he took the party line that England was the focus and the win had little relevance for the World Cup, the French record could just settle in players’ minds and subliminally play a part come the autumn.

“I suppose with the French two draws and two wins over the last four years is a good place to be and coming into the World Cup that will be a nice reminder to have for ourselves,” said Murray. “But that is parked and put to bed now. We’ve got to look at England now. Obviously, the public will talk about the World Cup, all the usual stuff, but we will just carry on.”

Ireland's unbeaten run of nine games is a more immediate statistic to have in the armoury. England are demanding respect but to turn nine into 10 would open up the Championship with two matches remaining, Wales and Scotland away from home. The difference now maybe is that the results are going Ireland's way, whereas in the past they might have fallen away.

“You take confidence from it 100 per cent,” said Murray. “That many games unbeaten is a great place to be, especially when every game you play is so intense.

“To look to the future, we have to be a higher standard because that record could easily be broken if we take our eye off the ball or become complacent. But I can assure you our squad is not like that. We take pride in the way we won and the way we battled. It wasn’t an open type of game that you might have expected on a nice day but one we ground out.”

There were other reasons why Ireland would have enjoyed the post-match banquet. And as hard as critics may look, a large chunk of the second half was a defensive masterclass. There was no leakage after the French try, with centre Robbie Henshaw leading the way with a match-high 12 tackles and Johnny Sexton freely spreading his blood around the pitch and silencing, for now, any more talk about concussion.

"We owe ourselves a lot of credit for the way we defended. It was really, really good especially the lads on the front line," acknowledged the Munster man. "They didn't manage to get many line breaks against us so we in the back didn't have that many tackles to make. They got into their French flair game at times with a lot of off loads and really stretched us and did manage to get in.

“I can’t put my finger on it how we managed to be down so many numbers [for the French try]. It’s just the pace they play at and they kept the ball alive for so long. To keep them out for the remainder of the game was really positive, probably a bit disappointing we didn’t get over the try line when we had one or two chances and that’s something we will continually try to improve as we train towards England.”

Bet they will too.