Murray happy with display against Parisse

THERE is clearly little that fazes Conor Murray just five caps into his Ireland career and the 22-year-old’s nullification of Italy captain Sergio Parisse is just the latest example.

Few seasoned players would relish the chance to go toe-to-toe with the Azzurri’s talismanic back rower yet the robust Munster youngster accepted the role willingly and executed it with gusto at the Otago Stadium on Sunday, pouncing on Parisse’s every move at the back of the Italian scrum and thwarting his side’s ability to offer a platform to the backs.

“I don’t think we targeted that but he is obviously a quality player and we had to keep an eye on him a good bit off scrums and stuff,” Murray said. “Yeah I got him down a few times all right, I was happy with that.”

Murray’s swarming of Parisse was just one aspect of a confident and assured starting scrum-half and the Patrickswell, Co. Limerick kid said he was having the time of his life.

“There was an unbelievable atmosphere out there. And it was good to get a convincing win and a good performance, we’d been building that game up, we knew they were going to be really physical and we managed to get through that alright with no too many injuries.”

Of his own form, Murray added: “There were a few little messy bits but it was always going to be physical and messy around the rucks and stuff, but we expected that. As a team we dealt with it pretty well and tried to get on with our own game.

“Even me personally, I feel I have grown with the lads over the last few weeks and getting more comfortable and stuff and things might be happening a bit easier but it will be a huge challenge again next week.”

Wales will be Ireland’s next opponent and Murray is way of the threat Warren Gatland’s side possess.

“They have been playing really well and they have had a couple of big wins. Obviously against South Africa, they ran them really close and probably should have won the game so, yeah, they will be a huge threat to us and there is a lot of study to do.

“It’s really one match at a time we’re looking at and building a performance based on the team we’re playing next week and we have managed to that this far. We have Wales next week and that will be a huge challenge for us.”