Murray determined Ireland will draw strength from England loss

Conor Murray wants Ireland’s heaviest home defeat in six years to kick-start a bid for World Cup glory.

England bested Ireland in every department but most of all physically in Saturday’s 32-20 Guinness Six Nations victory in Dublin.

Ireland leaked more than 30 points at home for just the second time under Joe Schmidt, with the head coach branding the loss a World Cup “reality check”.

British and Irish Lions scrum-half Murray conceded Schmidt’s men must now use the scale of the defeat as a jolt to drive Ireland towards the goal of a maiden World Cup semi-final in Japan.

“Now that this has happened, we need to make sure we use it well, learn from it,” said Murray.

“And in the future you want to be able to look back on this and say ‘that actually did us some good because we learned and improved off the back of it, and found more ways to be successful’.

“So it’s exactly that. You can look at it that way and spin it that way if you like.

“It doesn’t feel like that now because it’s a loss and any loss is tough to take.

“But we were off physically to start things off.

“We didn’t front up enough and lost the collisions, and that was that in a nutshell.

“Physically we know we can be up at that level, but we were just off and we’ve got to sort that out.

“I have big confidence in this group though, I really do. We’re an honest group, we’ll have a hard look at ourselves, regather ourselves and go again.”

Fit-again wrecking-ball trio Manu Tuilagi and brothers Mako and Billy Vunipola battered Ireland in the pivotal gain line exchanges on Saturday.

The 2018 Grand Slam champions’ record home winning run of 12 matches was halted in stunning style by a ferocious England, with Leicester powerhouse Tuilagi to the fore throughout.

Munster half-back Murray admitted Ireland were physically subdued – a source of great frustration that will be channelled into no-holds-barred inquests this week.

Ireland move swiftly on to face Scotland in Edinburgh on Saturday, with Murray well aware only a rapid recalibration can set Schmidt’s men back to winning ways.

“The players will drive it as much as Joe and the coaching staff,” said Murray.

“We’re bitterly disappointed because we’re a group that drives high standards and we didn’t meet that.

“All credit to England, they were good. We were just a little bit off.

“As a playing group we’ve got to be honest with ourselves and drive that as a team.

“I think we’re a very realistic group, we don’t get ahead of ourselves.

“It was a little bit flat at the start, they got momentum off that line-out, it was a quick way to give them momentum and they grew into that.

“We’re going to have to be really tight this week, but that’s exciting I think.

“We’ve got to dust ourselves down, not feel sorry for ourselves.

“I think Murrayfield’s a great place to go to try to get a win and get back on track. Scotland are a quality side, it’s a tough place to go, so we’ll dust ourselves down and go again.”