The pressure of a Rugby World Cup is nothing new to veterans like Conor Murray.
The Munster scrum-half is part of a select group of Irish players who will travel to their fourth tournament next month in France, alongside Johnny Sexton and Keith Earls.
Cian Healy would have joined them in that group, had it not been for his leg injury in Saturday's warm-up game against Samoa cruelly ruling him out of contention for selection.
It was a bruising night physically for Healy, and a bruising night for the Irish team as a whole, as an unfamiliar XV stuttered to a 17-13 victory in Bayonne, in the final warm-up game before the World Cup.
Just as the performances against England and Italy had left question marks in certain areas, there was much left to be desired by the performance against Samoa - but Murray believes that the test posed by the Samoans in Bayonne will stand to Ireland when the tournament gets underway in France.
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Conor Murray thinks Samoa test will stand to Ireland at World Cup
26 August 2023; Conor Murray of Ireland goes over to score his side's second try during the Rugby World Cup warm-up match between Ireland and Samoa at Parc des Sports Jean Dauger in Bayonne, France. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
Conor Murray was one of the few Irish players who came away from Saturday's game with a positive mark beside his name.
The 34-year-old scored Ireland's second try in the game early in the second-half, to cut into what was at the time a ten-point lead for Samoa.
It was not Ireland's best ever performance, but Murray believes that the experience of slogging out a victory will be worthwhile to Ireland when the going gets tough in France.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport, Conor Murray said:
Along the road we're going to have games when things don't go perfectly and we have to find a way.
The World Cup could be like that - and probably will be like that. It won't go perfectly.
There's going to be nights like this, the atmosphere was really hostile - in a good way - but we're going to have to deal with that kind of thing as well.
We know how much pressure there's going to be, how the atmospheres are going to be.
Ireland will be grateful that they have two games in France to gel their game plan together before the sternest tests of the pool stage against South Africa and Scotland. They will expect to come out on top against Romania and Tonga though, as Murray says, they know that they must be wary of respecting the opposition and being prepared for hostile atmospheres.
That first game against Romania takes place in Bordeaux on September 9th, and will be the first glimpse of how Ireland are truly shaping up in World Cup form.
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