By Grainne McGuinness and Shaun Cronin
After
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The Leinster player earned his seventh senior Ireland cap on Sunday, coming in at number eight to replace Jamie Heaslip who was injured in the previous Six Nations match against France.
“It definitely is the biggest test of my career so far,” he said, when asked was he happy with his performance in a post-match. “I don’t really look at myself personally, I’m just looking at the collective and the contribution that I made to the collective effort.
“The fact that we got a win, obviously I’m very pleased with that and just pleased all round really.”
The 23-year-old was asked if he felt confident playing at the top level of international test rugby.
“Yes, absolutely I do feel comfortable at the level," he answered. “Today was my seventh cap.
“One of the things that Joe (Schmidt) drills into us is even if you’ve only got one or two caps - in comparison with the likes of Jamie Heaslip who has 70-odd caps - you still have to go out and try and put out the same level of performance.”
Heaslip may be able to return to the starting XV in time for the
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“Obviously Jamie’s a great person to emulate and even go out and try and do better,” he said.
Like team-mate
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“We only look at one game at a time,” he insisted. “That’s the thing about the Six Nations, every game is a Cup final because we don’t want to lose a game.”
England, who were unbeaten before the Ireland match, now have two home games left in the tournament whereas Ireland have to go to the Millenium Stadium and Murrayfield to face Wales and Scotland respectively.
That means Stuart Lancaster's still pose a significant threat in the Championship, but Murphy said the Ireland squad were only concerned with what was within their control.
“We can’t do anything about them now,” he shrugged. “We just have to look at ourselves.
“We’ve got a big game in two weeks and that’s what we’re going to focus on.”