There was no way the senior side were going to do an Aston Villa.
Over the festive period, Villa organised a training match against their Under 21 side behind closed doors. The seniors lost and word eventually filtered out.
In early March, days after Ireland lost to England at Twickenham to end their Six Nations title hopes, the seniors took on the Under 20s in Mullingar.
Those in attendance at the open training session remarked that there was some bite to the training session. This afternoon, Conor Murray explained how the match escalated quickly:
“If you lose a game and don’t play your best rugby, you’re always going to be in a bad mood for the early part of the week. You probably take it out, or try and release it, on the training pitch.
“That’s the way we are. It’s a great thing.
“We trained against the 20s following the English defeat and it was a great session for us. It was supposed to be two-handed grab but it almost turned into full contact. There was a good bit of bite.
“I think you need that release. You need to get that anger out of you. It shows people care; that they want to win and perform well.
“If we had lost to England trained against the 20s passively, and let it flow, you would be questioning ‘Do we want it bad enough?'”
Murray says Joe Schmidt was on hand during the match but was not too quick on the whistle.
“Joe has been around long enough at this stage and he knows that is part and parcel of rugby.
“When things overheat a little and there is a bit of bickering – a few arguments in the training pitch – as long as it doesn’t go too far, it is healthy for a rugby squad.”
