We’ll draw positives from adventure, says Murray

CONOR MURRAY believes Ireland will be able to take plenty of positives from the 2011 World Cup campaign, once the pain of their quarter-final exit has faded.

Despite the gloom surrounding Ireland’s tournament coming to an end, the half-back said Ireland were well set for the future.

“I think the team is in a very good position. We’ve had a good tournament,” Murray said. “Obviously we would have loved to have gone further. We definitely believed we could have done and I’m sure a lot of other people did too.

“We’re massively disappointed with this result but maybe if you asked me tomorrow, we’ll draw positives from the tournament and can take a lot of good things away from it and work on that in the future.”

Murray agreed the 22-10 defeat to Wales was made even more disappointing given the encouraging victories over the Wallabies and Italy that helped Ireland top Pool C and avoid the Tri-Nations big guns in the knockout stages.

“We were playing really well going into this game and it’s hard to think of moments where we brought the kind of intensity we had in other games into the game tonight.

“It’s disappointing but we were playing pretty good rugby up to now and one game doesn’t change a team. It doesn’t make a bad team out of you so we will take positives. But it’s pretty hard to take for now.’’

Murray praised Ireland’s commitment to the cause but admitted the Welsh had been successful in slowing down Irish ball at the breakdown.

“I don’t think we ever lost heart. They got through a lot of phases and you lose numbers when teams do that to you. And we were short a few times because of the sheer amount of phases. They got quick ball and I don’t think we got quick ball all day. They just made more of it than we did.

“A few people have said it to me already that I’m going to learn from this but it’s so hard to take. They didn’t surprise us, we were expecting them to play like that. Maybe we would have liked to counteract them a bit better. We were defending a lot and then we were struggling to get our own game plan into action. That’s hard to take. I wasn’t surprised with how they played. I was just disappointed with the way we used the ball when we got it.

“From what I remember of the game, I don’t think we got a lot of front-foot football. They defended us pretty well but I’ll have to see it again. We struggled in that we were playing static rugby as opposed to go-forward rugby. We were trying to get our own game plan going but obviously you need front-foot football to do that but we just found it a bit difficult to get that today.”

Murray also paid tribute to senior team members Brian O’Driscoll and Paul O’Connell, who more than likely played the last World Cup games of their careers in Wellington at the weekend.

“They’re invaluable to the team. The things they say in dressing-rooms, just the presence they bring in training. They up your own game. You see them around and see how hard they work and you just want to be as professional as them and try and replicate what they do and play like they do – in your own position. They’ve been brilliant all tournament and you never know, they might make another one.”