IRISH ARE BACK CON THE MARCH

Conor Murray insists Ireland are right back in the mix for the Six Nations title after a crucial win over France.

Murray’s early try got the Irish up and running at the Aviva Stadium before 11 points from the boot of Johnny Sexton and a late Paddy Jackson penalty secured a massive victory.

Joe Schmidt’s side lost their opening match to Scotland but they now sit top – although England can move back to the summit with a win over Italy today.

And scrum-half Murray said: “We’re still in the hunt for this championship.

“A win and nothing else over our shoulder. I wasn’t surprised that he was sacked because you know how football thinks. Rugby will be the same, there’s no doubt, because everyone wants instant results.

“I’ll lose a game and people will be asking, ‘When’s he on the plane home?’. That’s the reality of sport these days. That’s the reality of life.”

Ben Te’o will start a Test for the first time after being named at outside centre against Italy.

Te’o replaces Jonathan Joseph to form a newlook centre partnership with Owen Farrell after winning all five of his caps off the bench.

Jones said: “Ben at 13 gives us another way of playing and we are excited about seeing him, Owen and George Ford in the midfield.”

Ford continues to pull the strings at fly-half but he starts alongside a new half-back partner in Danny Care, who has swapped places with Ben Youngs.

The two other changes see Jonny May restored to the right wing and James Haskell at openside. we wanted to show we can get out of that cycle of not following up wins. We showed we can back things up.

“It was nice to get that monkey off our back as we are now back in this championship.

“We’ve had two good wins and are sitting in a good position. But we can play better and we have put ourselves in a good position to kick on.

“Finn Russell was outstanding – a really mature performance – and he had us all singing off the same hymn sheet.”

Barclay deputised for missing skipper Greig Laidlaw and led a side out containing five changes from the narrow defeat to France in Paris two weeks ago.

British and Irish Lions coach Warren Gatland again watched from the Murrayfield stand as he continues to mull over his squad for the tour of New Zealand in the