THERE WAS A moment near the end of Ireland’s 30-22 win over Wales that Toby Faletau looked certain to have scored against the posts.
Referee Romain Poite allowed both sets of spent players a pause catch a breath as he consulted his touch judge. Yellow was flashed and Conor Murray was off to the sin-bin.
As Murray trudged reluctantly to the sideline, thoughts turned to 30 seconds previous when it looked, for all money, that the Welsh No.8 had touched the ball at the base of the lefthand post.
Replays showed he was agonisingly [for the home support] short and Ireland battled on.
The loss of Murray, yellow carded for not releasing, was an easier pill to swallow. Brian O’Driscoll sidled in and played emergency scrum-half until the clock ticked red.
“He did a good job,” Murray told TheScore.ie. ”I think I have to take him for one box kicking lesson during the week after his kick to touch. Other than that, he was brilliant.
“He had a great game at outside centre and he’s that talented that he can fill in anywhere.”
Murray grimaces at the big screen after his yellow card. (©INPHO/Dan Sheridan)
The Munster scrum-half added, “I would have preferred to have been on the pitch to see out the last 10 minutes and not have the team under that sort of pressure.”
It was probably a silly decision on my part. It was an instinct thing; I felt we were under pressure. I just went for his arm, tried to get away with it but didn’t.”
This Sunday, Ireland will face an out-half that personally put 20 points on them at Twickenham last season.
Owen Farrell followed up a match-winning effort for Saracens against Racing Metro in the Heineken Cup, when he kicked 32 points, by landing 18 points against Scotland.
“This weekend, I don’t think we are going to get away with silly things like [my yellow card],” Murray admitted.
“We played Saracens, with Munster, twice this season and Farrell is a world-class goal-kicker.”
Murray, in line for his 16th cap this weekend, feels England have every reason to be confident going into the match-up at the Aviva. He warns them to expect likewise.
“They had a huge result against New Zealand and another good win at the weekend over Scotland, quite convincingly.
“We’re not going to begrudge them that but we are going to look after ourselves.”
