CONOR MURRAY DESCRIBED Ireland’s 34-10 win in Cardiff as “a great start” to the Six Nations, but Andy Farrell’s squad will acknowledge there is plenty to work on following a somewhat mixed display at the Principality Stadium.
The visitors did most of the damage across a brilliant first half as they stormed into a 27-3 lead, before a more disjointed second-half showing saw Ireland soak up large periods of Welsh pressure before striking late for the bonus-point score through Josh van der Flier.
And Murray was delighted to play his part in Ireland’s first win in Cardiff since 2013.
“If you had given us that scoreline at the start of the day we would have taken it,” the scrum-half told Virgin Media.
“We had a great opening 20/25 minutes and then we knew Wales would come back.
“The first 20 of the second half we’ll have to look at a little bit, we couldn’t get out of our half, gave away a good few penalties. But overall a great start to the campaign.”
The Munster player had been due to start the game on the bench but was promoted to the starting team in place of the injured Jamison Gibson-Park on Saturday morning.
“It’s about keeping faith in your own game and backing yourself and then when you get the chance, taking it,” he continued.
“When we got into camp I tried to train as well as I could and commit myself fully, and it worked out today thank god.
“2013 was the last time I was here and we won and that’s a long time ago, so we know exactly how hard it is to come here, the crowd when Wales get up and running and how difficult that is to stop. We spoke about it all week, how difficult it was going to be, we were going to have to start (strong) especially, and we did that. Overall, a great win.”
“The way we started was great,” added hooker Dan Sheehan.
“All week we talked about needing to put the foot down from the first minute and not let them get a sniff, so I think the way we came out was brilliant.
“(There was) Plenty of things in the second half maybe where we lost the run of ourselves, ill-disciplined, but then towards the end of the second half getting back into our groove.
“If we can keep our foot down like we did at the start of that game for the rest of the tournament, we’ll be in a good way.”
