Murphy and Bowe rue missed point

Geordan Murphy and Tommy Bowe echoed the sentiments of captain Brian O’Driscoll after yesterday’s underwhelming 22-10 victory of the USA, stating that the four try bonus point should have been achieved.

On the back of four straight defeats, yesterday’s clash with the Eagles was Ireland’s opportunity to make amends and lay down a marker in Group C against a predominantly amateur side ranked 10 places below Declan Kidney’s men.

Despite dominance in the scrum and lineout Ireland failed ignite in attack and struggled to contend with the conditions.

“We elected to play into the wind and into the conditions in the first half so we knew it would be very difficult,” Murphy told RTÉ.

“The United States were wholly committed to their defence, they put in some big hits and made it really difficult for us.

“The ball wasn’t too easy to handle.

“We knew we were going to be in a game for the first half. We came out in the second half and again they had a sniff and they played some good rugby.

“We managed to put it away but I think we’re a little bit disappointed we didn’t get a bonus point.”

Bowe, who only featured in Ireland’s final warm-up game against England, overcame a shaky start to cross for two of Ireland’s three tries, either side of Rory Best’s five pointer, but like Murphy the Ospreys man believes the team weren’t clinical enough.

“They’re a very difficult side to play against, especially in the conditions.

“We made a lot of handling errors and they really capitalised on it.

“They put us under a lot of pressure and we struggled at different stages of the match.

“We started to pile a bit more pressure on at the start of the second half and it’s just disappointing that we didn’t get the bonus point in the end.”

Ireland’s next opponents Australia recovered from a lacklustre first half against Italy to outscore the Azzurri 26-0 after the break, picking up a bonus point in the process and Murphy knows the performance must improve if Ireland are to have any chance of overcoming the Tri Nations champions.

“It’s only a six day turn around. We’re off to Auckland tomorrow”

“Training will be important this week, we’ve got to do a good bit of homework, we know the quality that Australia have and the style of play they have so it’s going to be a huge game for us.”