Murray full of praise for Ireland's front line after France win

By Grainne McGuinness and Shaun Cronin

Number nine Conor Murray credited Ireland's front line for holding firm in what he described as a "bruising" encounter in the Aviva Stadium yesterday.

"A win against the French is always nice," Murray said after the game. "Defensively first and foremost I thought we did really well to hold them out."

"They eventually broke through and got the score and if it wasn't for such a good defence from the lads in the front line for the rest of the second half it could have been a lot worse.

"A lot of credit needs to go to them for getting off the ground and getting off the line and keep making those tackles."

Murray was upbeat after Ireland's 18-11 win, although he acknowledged there was still plenty of room for improvement.

"We had one or two good chances to get over the line and put down that final pass so that was a little disappointing," he admitted. "But look it we played the French, a really good squad, and got away with a win.

"We've certain parts of our game that are really good, especially the defence.

"In terms of territory I thought we played well enough, there were a few kicks that the went a little bit long, from a host of us, which is a bit disappointing , but we got a win. We'll reassess now and look forward to England."

The Munster man said Johnny Sexton's return was a huge boost for the side, and felt the Racing Metro out-half was just as responsible as Mathieu Bastareaud for their collisions.

"He's a huge leader in the team," Murray said about Sexton. "Having him back is always going to be a positive and it's going to add and bring something to the group.

"He got Man of the Match and kicked our points and put us in really good areas throughout the game. Naturally enough it was a good thing to have him back."

Of the clashes with Bastareaud, and suggestions that the Frenchman would target Sexton, Murray said: "Johnny's a big lad, he's well able to look after himself and he doesn't shy away from anything like that."

"If he heard that during the week it only revved him up a bit more to get more out of himself."

Murray said Ireland would use the break next weekend to focus on what needed to be done to beat their next opponents.

"We'll have a good long look at England," he said. "We've a two week lead up to the game so we've plenty of time to get to know them and see where they're strong.

"We've two weeks now to try and make a few adjustments and keep improving. England last year was a very tight game, a one score game, so it's going to be enforced really hard-fought, intense game. We'll have to lift it up again.

"Our exiting needs to be a little bit better, we need to be able to contest the likes of Mike Brown and Anthony Watson and Johnny May in the air. If they get long balls kicked to them and they run it back they can be lethal."

Murray felt Ireland's battered front three, in particular, would benefit from the rest.

"For the forwards it's a bruising encounter, a really intense game, it was up a level from last week," he said.

"They could play next week, but the week off gives the body an extra chance to recover. And get ready to go again."