THERE’S NO HIDING from the big questions this week. On Saturday, Ireland bid to make history as they look to topple the All Blacks and reach the World Cup semi-finals for the first time. Naturally, that means the week has been packed with questions about painful defeats from the past and lofty ambitions for the very near future.
With that in mind, it was no surprise that the first put to Conor Murray yesterday cut straight to the point. Is this squad more primed than any other Ireland team to finally win a World Cup quarter-final?
“Yes. I suppose yes is the short answer,” Murray replied.
“We’ve talked about and people have talked about what we’ve done over the last number of years. I suppose the level of performance we’ve been able to achieve, and the bigs wins, and things like that.
“Yes is the short answer. It gives us massive belief in terms of the ability we have in the squad, and what we can do. And on the other side there’s enough of us in the room who’ve been through these quarter-finals, and know how tough they are to win. It all comes down to on the day. So yeah, we’ve done good things over the past few years. There’s probably a bit more built up behind us in terms of what we’ve done. We feel in a good space in terms of what we can deliver.
“You don’t really know what’s going to come with the All Blacks. You have an idea but with Joe (Schmidt) and people like that behind the scenes, we’ve got to be ready for things that we might not expect. I suppose we’re in a good place. It’s as good as a position as we’ve ever been in, but saying that, we know how tough it’s going to be.”
The squad haven’t been shy to outline their goal of winning this tournament, and Murray feels the group are now in a place where the mental baggage of having never made it past the quarter-finals doesn’t play on their minds.
“It would mean everything (to reach the semi-finals). On the outside it’s obviously a talking point that we’ve never got there and within the group we think this is a different team and the capabilities are different.
“To get to that point would be everything. This weekend is the biggest game I’ve ever played and it’s the same for everyone in the group. That alone, to get through that would be a huge, huge moment, a huge milestone. Breaking the quarter-final isn’t something we talk about. It’s cliched but game by game, we’re focusing on the next moment.”
Ahead of such a box-office game, there was plenty of New Zealand media present to pick the mind’s of the Irish players at their training base north of Paris yesterday. One of those in attendance asked Murray to give some insight into how James Lowe, Jamison Gibson-Park and Bundee Aki have been around camp ahead of this latest meeting with their home nation. Murray took a moment to mention Aki’s Samoan heritage before offering his reply.
“Those three boys are so important to our squad. What they did, taking the chance to come over here and start a new life for themselves and prove themselves, all three of them have really done so. They’re three world class players who we’re really going to rely on heavily and have performed unbelievably well in this competition.
“Particularly Bundee. I hate saying it, but he’s been playing the rugby of his life. He can come across as a bit of a messer or jolly fella, but behind the scenes Bundee is incredible. The level of detail, he’s always on the computers and always trying to figure things out, so he’s actually a smart fella, believe it or not.
“But yeah, it hasn’t really been mentioned, the New Zealand thing. They’re part of our Irish team now and they’re really important to us. I’m sure there’s a part of them, that little bit extra that they want to get one over on their place of birth but they’re fully part of our Irish squad now.”
And that squad is a very different group to the one that crashed and burned in 2019. Of the 33 players Andy Farrell selected for the World Cup, 18 are playing at the tournament for the first time. This weekend, Jimmy O’Brien is primed to become the last member of the squad to make his World Cup bow, having been named on the bench for the New Zealand game.
Murray explains that the players who joined the squad post-2019 have injected fresh energy into the group.
“There’s something about those guys, like Mack (Hansen) or even Jimmy coming in on the bench, there’s no issue, there’s complete confidence in Jimmy and these kind of guys. Like you said, they weren’t there in 2019 and that was a tough World Cup for all of us. We had to dust ourselves off and go get rid of that scar tissue, whereas these guys have come into a really good environment and winning more often than not is something they’re used to.
“So you talk about Jimmy coming in on the bench, it’s a huge game but he’s used to it. He’s delivered for us in the past in the limited number of caps he’s had, so I think that for us and for me, and I’m sure the more experienced lads will agree, those lads coming into the environment have added a freshness, and a fearlessness is the word I’d use again, that drives us on to chase success and expect to win.”
