Conor Murray preparing for well-oiled Scottish machine

Conor Murray explained that any lingering satisfaction at the nine-try victory over Italy was condensed into a few hours after the final whistle on Saturday evening.

“We were searching for a win for about four games, so it was nice to be in a winning dressing room. It was a good feeling, a good buzz and, yeah, it was a pretty decent performance.

“Italy were well stretched with injuries, so we won’t get too ahead of ourselves, but a lot of things clicked on the day; we were pretty accurate. It was a great day to play rugby, dry and warm at a packed out Aviva.”

It's important to enjoy the victories but by the time the squad reconvened on Sunday evening at Carton House ahead of Monday's first training session, thoughts were firmly focused on Saturday's final Six Nations Championship match against Scotland at the Aviva stadium.

"You can be tricked into thinking that this Six Nations is just going to fade out and we'll finish it well and whatever, but Scotland are going really well at the moment and they'll be gunning for us after last year's result.

“That team that played that day is completely different to what we’re going to face on the weekend. We have to bring ourselves back to earth and work really hard this week.

“Some of the tries we scored against Italy, some of the ones later on that seemed a bit easier than normal; they won’t happen this weekend so it’ll be a different story. But it was a good weekend, so there’s a bit of pep in the step.”

The Ireland scrumhalf pointed to an accuracy rate of about 99 per cent in terms of passing and ball handling but while acknowledging that statistic he also accepted that there were issues in the concession of tries and falling off tackles late in the game that can’t be replicated against the Scots.

He offered an overview of the Scotland team and the challenges they’ll pose. “They’re playing with real width, they’ve a really strong scrum and that’s a weapon for them at the moment. Their backrow is really dangerous at slowing down opposition ball and I think (Greig) Laidlaw and Finn Russell, if he’s back fit - if not, (Peter) Horne can come in and do a really good job as well.

“They run well and then they’ve (Tommy) Seymour, (Tim) Visser and (Stuart) Hogg, especially Hogg who I know quite well. He’s in a rich vein of form. He had massive impacts on the (France) game at the weekend because his confidence is sky-high. They’re going to be a well-oiled machine.”

Murray paid tribute to the impact of the bench against Italy and how they guaranteed that Ireland sustained a tempo and momentum right up until the final whistle.

He also revealed that there was a certain crankiness in training, pent-up frustration and disappointment following Ireland’s first three matches in the tournament that yielded a draw and two defeats.

“If you lose a game and you don’t play your best rugby, you’re going to be in a bad mood for the early part of the week and release it on the training pitch.

“We trained against the (Ireland) Under-20s following the England defeat and it was a great session for us. It was supposed to be two-handed grab (tackle), but it almost became full contact; there was a bit of bite and you need that release to get that anger out of you and it shows people care.

“You need that. If we had lost against England and then trained against the Under-20s passively and just let it flow, then you’d be questioning if we wanted it badly enough. The hunger and drive is definitely there. The work ethic off the pitch is definitely there as well. So, hopefully, we perform well at the weekend and can take positives out of this tournament.

“It’s been a disappointing Six Nations overall. We always want to be in with a shout. Looking at the way the last two years have gone we’ve been successful and not to be in with a shout of winning, it is quite disappointing.

“But we’ve a few new faces, some good performances and positives to take out of it so we’ll hope for another big performance next weekend and then go back to our provinces, eye up the summer tour which is a massive challenge as well.”

The Munster man expects a different game to the way things panned out in Murrayfield last season when Ireland won 40-10. “We probably did take a few more risks last time because of the points’ difference. Obviously we had to wait for the England game, but after the Welsh game we knew what we had to do, we knew the minimum score that we needed.

“That’s in the back of your mind, so if that’s in your mind you tend to play like that. I think Scotland are much better, they’re going to play a lot better than they did that day and they let us off the hook; reviewing that game, they made a few line breaks and forced a few things.

“That’s too long ago now, after their World Cup and the Six Nations, their performance against France, it’s a different Scotland team and we’ve got to eye it up a bit differently.”