Late, late on Thursday morning, Joe Schmidt had to admit defeat. He would send his Ireland team out to face England without Conor Murray.
Kieran Marmion would make only his second start of his Test career and Leinster’s Luke McGrath was back-up.
Murray is world-class and no doubt about it. Ireland would have to halt England’s winning run without him. They did it the hard way and did it thanks in no small part(s) from Marmion and McGrath.
While the Connacht scrum-half had a fine game in the 9 jersey, McGrath showed he has the stones for Test rugby with his nerveless 15-minute cameo at the Aviva Stadium.
Following Ireland’s 13-9 victory of the English, Joe Schmidt highlighted one of McGrath’s most important contributions as courageous. He said:
“Luke McGrath was selected late on Thursday after we decided Conor was too big a risk.
“I thought his kick into the corner was unbelievably good. It was not just tactically sound but huge courage-wise, and then technically to get that close to the corner was was spot on.
“We just have to keep investing and sowing confidence in these [young players].”
The McGrath kick pinned England onto their 5-metre line with two minutes to go and the clock ticking. It was a sign of a young player backing himself to make a difference and doing it with utter confidence.
Right at home, mixing it with the best.
