OUR TOUGHEST TASK FOR SURE
your back pocket, if you have a chance to slot one over, it’s always a good thing.”
And does he feel the pressure? “Definitely a bit,” Murray confessed. “The situations I’ve kicked in this season, there has been a bit of pressure. When it comes off it’s enjoyable. I’ve been working with Richie Murphy to have a really solid technique to go to and focus on rather than the situation or the crowd. It’s been good lately.”
Despite Sexton’s erratic kicking in the first half against Wales, Murray does not expect to be called into action this weekend.
“He’s flying it,” insisted Murray of his half-back partner. “Against Wales, with one or two kicks, the wind was a bit weird in the stadium.” BACK-TO-BACK wins over France and
England have put Scotland’s campaign on the right track again.
But hooker Stuart Mcinally is convinced the challenge which arrives on Saturday will surpass anything they have confronted so far. Mcinally (above) said: “We are under no illusions this will be our biggest task yet. Doing it over there will be special knowing how important a win would be for us.
“We are putting all our efforts into this one game and will see where it takes us but we are in a great position in the table.
“We know the strength Ireland have all across the park. They are so well coached by Joe Schmidt and have had real consistency for a number of years.
“They pride themselves on their contact work and their physicality and that is something we have to be ready for.
“Their accuracy is brilliant and they make a lot of metres because they look after the ball. Their carry numbers a lot of the time are twice as many as the opposition.
“But we can win and it’s a challenge for our defence – and this challenge is an exciting one. They are a great team but we are looking forward to taking them on.” JACK MCGRATH insists Ireland will repair the defensive “frailties” that could threaten their Grand Slam dream.
Next up are Scotland who are exciting with ball in hand and can be ruthless when given opportunities.
“Like Italy and Wales, their attacking threat is always there and if one person gets one thing wrong, they exploit it,” said the Leinster prop (inset).
“They showed up a few frailties but we’ll fix them. We know we have to be extra sharp against Scotland because we saw the tries they scored against England and they’ve beaten Australia twice and ran New Zealand close - they were only beaten by five points.
“So there’s much quality there and we know we have to be really sharp on both sides of the ball because they’re flying high.
“We owe a good performance against Scotland because we didn’t do ourselves justice last year. We really want to get stuck into them.”