RUGBY: WOMEN’S SIX NATIONS REACTION – JENNY MURPHY
Murphy targets the French after victory on Italian soil
By Daire Walsh
IN their first game under new head coach Tom Tierney, Ireland made a winning start to the 2015 RBS Women’s Six Nations Championship with a 30-5 victory over Italy in Florence.
With a game against current champions France on the horizon, it was important that the Green Army made a strong start to the campaign, and the Limerick native would have been delighted to see his side amassing five tries during the course of the contest.
One of these five-pointers came from Kildare native Jenny Murphy, who felt that (in testing conditions) it was an ideal way to start life under the former international scrum-half.
“Yeah, it was good. It’s always tough to start off away from home. The first game of the Six Nations, especially with so many new caps, it’s good to get a good win under our belt and get settled in,” Murphy stated.
“We’re really happy. Conditions weren’t ideal for a nice, fluid game of rugby, but the forwards were absolutely immense and did a job. So we’ll just come away now and set our sights on France.”
However, having dominated the majority of the opening period, Murphy did reveal that the team were disappointed to only have a 7-0 cushion at the break. With this in mind, she felt it was important that they were more clinical after the restart.
“We kind of realised that territory and putting massive amount of pressure on would be the game plan early on. We were disappointed going in at half-time only having a 7-0 lead. We spent the majority of the time camped in their half, on their ‘22’.”
“We would have liked to rack up more scores in the first-half, but luckily in the second-half we kind of upped a few more gears and eventually started putting some tries down. It was good, and the kicking from [Niamh] Briggs and [Nora] Stapleton were very good, especially in the first-half.”
Murphy was also understandably thrilled to get her own name on the scoresheet, though she was quick to praise the build-up play from the pack and her midfield partner Jackie Shiels.
“Yeah, it’s always nice to maybe get yourself on the score line, but I have to say it was really pressure coming in from the forwards and Jackie [Shiels] had a nice kick through for me and I was just lucky enough to chase over. I didn’t really have as much work to do as some of the other tries in the game. But yeah, it’s always nice to get a try.”
As satisfying as the victory over Italy might have been, though, it will quickly be placed on the back burner as they welcome the French to Ashbourne RFC this Friday (KO 7.30pm) for their opening home game of the year.
They suffered narrow 2014 losses to France in both the Six Nations and the third/fourth place World Cup play-off, and Murphy revealed the desire within the squad to gain revenge in the Meath venue, which always attracts a loyal and passionate group of Irish supporters.
“Yeah, obviously our last outing against France, both in the Six Nations and in the World Cup, the score line didn’t go our way in the end. Particularly with the World Cup match, we were very disappointed coming away from that. We felt ourselves that we could have performed an awful lot better and come away with third place in the end.”
“This is definitely like wanting to get a bit of revenge. France are always a tough and extremely physical team. It’s great to have them at home at Ashbourne, and last time they came over we beat them and we aim to do the same this year.”
“The supporters we get up in Ashbourne are absolutely fantastic. We mightn’t be able to fit an awful lot into the area, but the people that go there, they make up for it in volume anyway. It’s great, it’s having a 16th man on the pitch, which is massive. We’ve had a really good spell in Ashbourne. I can’t remember the last time we were beaten there, so it has been really good to us and just really looking forward to getting out there and playing on the pitch,” Murphy added.