Murray On Fine Margins

Following Munster’s second home loss in this season’s Guinness PRO12, Conor Murray discusses how the losses have come down to small margins and the improvements needed for Leinster this weekend.

Despite Munster losing two from three league fixtures so far this season (Edinburgh 13-14 and Ospreys 14-19), when speaking to media post match on Saturday, Murray highlighted what he called the ‘fine margins’ between victory and defeat in both PRO12 losses.

“There is belief and talent within the squad. It comes down to really small margins and it’s just about players clicking and getting a few more things right.

“We’re creating the opportunities and line breaks. I think our line breaks are well up on this time last year so we’re getting into the positions we need to be in. Retaining the ball is another area we need to work on and if we can fix that and convert our chances we’ll be in a much better place.

“I’d be more worried if we weren’t creating these chances in the first place. What we need to correct are simple things and we can rectify them in training. It’s doesn’t take too much skill or effort to do so, it’s just about having the mind-set that this needs to get done.

“It’s by no means panic stations and there’s a few players still to come back from injury and that excites me.”

The scrum-half, who captained Munster for the first time on Saturday night, also looked ahead to Leinster in
Round 5 of the Guinness PRO12 and the point that needs to be proved next weekend.

“Obviously people are going to write us off – we haven’t given them any reason to back us. It’s going to be a long and frustrating week at training but no better way to get it right than up in the AVIVA Stadium.

“There will be no problem getting up for the game at the weekend. It’s Leinster away in front of a huge crowd – 40,000 plus hopefully and our lads will be well up for it. It’s the games where stadia are half empty is where we need to worry about our performance. We need to give fans a reason to come and see us.

“When our backs are against the wall we seem to up it and that can’t be the case anymore. We need to go out and have a real hunger to perform from the off, be aggressive and play with serious intensity, not just doing so when it’s really needed.”