Players are confident of changing fortunes, says Richie Murphy

Ireland’s Six Nations title defence may be over but that will not stop Joe Schmidt and his coaches from trying to squeeze as much as they can from the final two games of the championship this month.

Defeat to England at Twickenham last Saturday marked head coach Schmidt’s first back-to-back losses in the championship since he succeeded Declan Kidney after a dismal 2013 Six Nations campaign.

After an opening draw with Wales and round-two defeat in Paris to France, it also means Ireland are winless after three games as they head towards Aviva Stadium dates with Italy and Scotland on March 12 and 19 respectively.

But first comes a down week in terms of fixtures, and while an extended break between games often leads to greater reflection of what has gone before, skills coach Richie Murphy yesterday insisted there would be no time wasted licking the wounds caused by that 21-10 defeat by the English.

The positivity from the Irish camp began with news that first-choice outside centre Jared Payne had come through a solo training session with squad medics yesterday having recovered from the hamstring injury that forced him out of the trip to London and was on course to be fully fit to start against fellow winless side Italy.

Scrum-half Conor Murray is also slated to be ready for the next game although he sat out training at Carton House yesterday to protect the eight stitches in the corner of his left eye that were needed after the weekend defeat.

Murphy noted no lack of confidence among the Ireland players, despite their last victory coming five games ago in the World Cup pool fnale with France last October.

Morale was high in the camp despite the side’s failure to take chances in each of the first three meetings of this Six Nations.

“We just haven’t been accurate enough in those situations,” Murphy said yesterday.

“I can think of two balls against Wales where we coughed up just a couple of metres off the line where we definitely... one against France, maybe even two.

“I don’t think it is a case of players losing confidence... it is just an accuracy thing where our ball focus hasn’t been as good as it needs to be.”

Murphy insisted Ireland’s performance against England from an understrength side, albeit with more caps than the home side but featuring three Test debutants, was significant, in that the squad was moving in the right direction. He added that players had been given licence to express themselves and confidence could only improve if they started to finally score some tries, the men in green having managed just two in the last three games, both scored by Murray from close range.

“I don’t think players’ confidence is going down, it would go up massively if they were converting those line-breaks.

“There wasn’t a massive shift in how we were trying to play the game. There is definitely a shift in the wider channels in how we were trying to play the game wider. We got good success out there.

“The inter-play is there, the way we want to play the game is the way we played at the weekend. Players have the licence in this team, it is just a case of when they are doing that they are expected to look after the ball.”

Ireland’s more expansive approach against England might not have delivered a victory but it has produced the optimism and belief within the camp that they are heading in the right direction.

“I don’t think any of the players have any fear,” Murphy said.

“I really don’t. If you asked the players themselves I don’t think they have any fear about what they are doing out on the pitch. I think they go out on the pitch and they try to play and they try to make decisions based on what’s happening in the game but I don’t think there is a fear factor from the players. If a player makes mistakes and make bad decisions, that is going to be talked about but I don’t think there is a fear factor.”