Jacques Nienaber’s army: Conor Murray makes case for Munster defence

Munster may be looking to go on the offensive when Racing 92 roll into Thomond Park this evening but Conor Murray has credited defence coach Jacques Nienaber for turning his side’s ‘D’ into an A-plus project.

The province has reached the Champions Cup quarter-finals with a game to spare having won four of their five games to top Pool 1. Their success this season has been built as much on defensive strength as offensive might, conceding just three tries in those fixtures.

That gives Munster the best defensive record in the competition as they go in search of a win that will guarantee a home quarter-final and Murray believes it is South African Nienaber’s approach since arriving in the summer alongside director of rugby Rassie Erasmus that has reaped huge dividends.

“We’ve a defensive day every week but I think the key is the way Jacques is presenting it to us and the way he has us believing in ourselves and giving us confidence to shut down attacks,” Murray said.

“He brings a real energy. When he comes into a room there’s a bit of a buzz around the place. He can be serious, he can be funny and all the guys really like working with him.

“We defend for each other and there’s people like Jaco Taute in the centre who drives defence a good bit. You know, defence can be boring at times but Jacques and a few of the other guys have made it exciting and made that day a day to look forward to in our training week and that’s played a big part in it. We like to put pressure on teams when we don’t have the ball.”

Murray recognises it will take plenty of that pressure to contain Racing, whom he believes have rebounded since losing 32-7 at home in the reverse fixture a fortnight ago. The French champions got back on track last weekend with a rousing 34-3 win in Paris to end Leicester Tigers’ qualification hopes and that, for Murray, was the ideal warning signal against any complacency in Limerick this evening.

“Looking at them last week, they seemed to have turned a corner for the second half of their season and they want to put things right.

They’ve actually changed the way they play a little bit in the last couple of weeks, believe it or not, and they’re going to bring world-class players to Thomond Park.

“Looking at their games against Glasgow and a couple of previous ones, they can open up a score really early and score two or three tries really quickly with the talent they have and all of a sudden it’s a nervy affair.

“No, we approach this that they’re the French champions and a great side for a reason. We got off to a good start over there in bad conditions and managed to keep them at arm’s length for the remainder of the game but they can come over here and put on a show and score a try from nothing and then it’s like I said, a nervy affair.

“So we’re preparing as we always do. We’re greedy, we want a home quarter-final and we want to perform as well as we can, so there’s no stone left unturned this week.”

Confidence is high at Munster, with 11 victories in 12 games since the death of head coach Anthony Foley in October. While the grief of his passing provided initial motivation for the Munster players as they resumed playing, Murray believes less emotional factors have taken over as the driving force behind Munster’s winning run.

“Before Axel passed away there was definitely something building. Look where we are (in the new High Performance Centre), we’re training, we’re together, it’s easier to access coaches and players together and I think that’s a factor.

“Rassie, Jacques, Felix, Fla, the way they’re coaching us, the confidence they’re giving us as a team, the systems we have, they’re using our ability and putting it into a system and giving us freedom to make decisions in there.

“I think as a group we really understand each other, we’ve a clear gameplan week to week, we tweak it here and there, and I think confidence – they portray confidence in their players and that bounces into us.

“We go out there on a Saturday and we can’t wait to play. Some of these big days, it can be a little bit overwhelming and the pressure’s on you but this Saturday, the guys have built it up so much that it’s really exciting for us as a group of players and we want to go out and express ourselves and play within our system but be ourselves in that system, if you know what I mean.”