Conor Murray says ‘angry’ Irish still aiming to make history

It’s a measure of Conor Murray’s increasing importance to this Irish team that this Saturday’s game will be his 15th Test out of Ireland’s 17 this season. It will also mark his 50th cap for his country, a haul achieved in just five seasons.

Since making his debut as a replacement in Ireland’s second warm-up match before the 2011 World Cup against France in Bordeaux, Murray has played in 49 of Ireland’s last 59 matches. What’s more, 44 of those have been as the starting scrumhalf.

It is also a measure of the IRFU's game management that despite Murray starting out in pre-season 52 weeks ago, this will 'only' be his 27th game of the season, having played for Munster a dozen times.

Accordingly, the 27-year-old says the “body’s good”.

“I said it before I came on tour, not making the playoffs with Munster gave us two good weeks without contact and allowed us to train as hard as we could and get rid of any little niggles that were hanging around, so coming into the tour, I felt really good.

Recovery

“The first game was a bit of a shock to the system for me, having not played for so long. It probably took me a few days more to recover but today I feel pretty good. I could train today but it’s good to have another day’s recovery.”

Nor was he attributing the concession of 22 unanswered points in the final quarter to altitude, or at any rate he maintained he didn’t feel any noticeable effects at playing 5,700 feet above sea level.

“No, genuinely, being honest, I didn’t feel anything like that. I know if you look at our performance, we probably looked as if we faded but it wasn’t due to fatigue or fitness levels.

“We ended up standing off the South Africans and soaking a few tackles, which gave them frontfoot ball and allowed them get into their rhythm.

“I felt really fit out there. People will probably raise that question: did we fade or did the altitude get to us? I don’t think we can use that as an excuse.”

The message at half-time had been to continue taking the game to South Africa, to continue playing. "We just didn't seem to have that many platforms to do that off. We'd a couple of scrums and a couple of lineouts that we didn't execute properly and then we just struggled to get into the game. Did we get nervous? I'm not too sure. I don't think so. I just think we didn't have the platform and then they started to gain momentum and we started standing off them."

There's been a momentum shift towards the Springboks, and Murray is a survivor from the three-Test tour to New Zealand at the end of 2011-12 World Cup season when Ireland came within a whisker of beating the All Blacks in Christchurch only for them to lose the third Test 60-0 in Hamilton.

Murray is adamant that a different mindset applies on this tour, not least because “I think we’re really angry out ourselves.

Snatched it

“I think we could have snatched it at the weekend so I think there’s such motivation there, genuinely. There’s massive motivation, there’s no danger of us looking beyond this game, looking to our holidays.

“This a chance at history, it would have been unbelievable to have won at Ellis Park and it’s very disappointing the way it ended, but we’ve got a chance now to win a series in South Africa which is very, very difficult and very, very rare.

“I can assure you everyone is looking at that and no further.”

Furthermore, Murray believes that this tour will be an invaluable experience for this squad, not just for newer members, but established ones such as himself.

“This could potentially be my 50th time playing and I don’t think I’ve ever learnt more on a tour or with a group of lads . . .

“For young lads coming in, guys who’ve been around for a while it’s been a great growing experience together and we’ve been understanding how to play Test rugby in tough environments.

“We’re handling it quite well, it’s just that 20 minute block is going to annoy us for a while. But it’s not the last game of the year and we’ve a chance to play again this weekend. Hopefully we can string together a good performance and hopefully look at something good.”

Something that will, one way or the other, determine much of their summer reflections.