Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
IRISH HUNGRY FOR SLAM
CONOR Murray insists Ireland are ravenous for a Grand Slam main course after slurping down their 6 Nations title starter.
And the world-class scrum-half vows that Joe Schmidt’s men won’t make a dog’s dinner of their Twickenham mission after learning they were champions while eating last Saturday evening.
England’s loss to France confirmed that Ireland were the new 6 Nations champs but Murray wants to do his celebrating on the pitch by beating England.
“If we had won it (against Scotland) and there was a lot of celebration on the pitch or whatever, then it would have been a lot more difficult this week,” said the 28-year-old.
“The fact that we won it while we were sitting down having dinner and there wasn’t that much celebration, it actually shows the mentality of the group – that we want something a little bit more.
“It’s obviously fantastic, it’s a massively proud achievement to win a championship.
“At the end of it all, whether it goes good or bad, we’ll be very proud of that.
“But yeah, I think it focuses us for the week ahead and what we need to do and what we want to achieve – and that’s obviously a Grand Slam”.