Conor Murray: Scrum-half says communication in Irish set-up improved under Farrell

Ireland scrum-half Conor Murray believes the lines of communication are better since Andy Farrell took over from Joe Schmidt as coach last year.

“It’s more free flowing,” said Murray, who made his Ireland debut in 2011.

“Now a young player or an experienced player can stop a walk-through and say ‘I don’t know that’ [rather] than maybe try to guess it.”

He added: “You can feel it around the place when you’re in little mini-groups before you get out on the training pitch.”

However, Farrell’s record is under scrutiny – Ireland finished third in the 2020 Six Nations and have had an inconsistent year under their new head coach.

They began the Autumn Nations Cup with a comfortable home victory over Wales, but were then soundly beaten by England at Twickenham before struggling to a 23-10 win over Georgia last weekend.

Licking their lips

Murray believes the underwhelming performance against Georgia has left Scotland “licking their lips” before the Aviva Stadium encounter despite Ireland winning eight of their last nine meetings.

“If Scotland played against Georgia last week and struggled to put them to the sword, we’d be more confident than we usually would,” Murray said.

“I’m sure they are licking their lips and that’s the challenge for us, to right the wrongs of last weekend and put it up to the Scots. We expect to perform a lot better, especially given the way the first half went.

“We reviewed the game and we were harsh on each other. It was the way it needed to be and we didn’t shy away from it. We all fronted up, accepted the mistakes and move forward.

“Scotland are a good side. Over the last few years we’ve won the majority, but they’ve been really close battles and we’ve tagged on a few scores late in most of those games.

“They’ve got new fellas in there, exciting players, and have no fear of coming to the Aviva. They always seem to put it up to us and it’s a game they always play well in.”

Autumn Nations Cup tables