43-21 win over Scotland<\/a>.<\/p>\n“We\u2019ve been running our own plays for the last couple of weeks. So the lads took me under their wing and guided me through, we had walk-throughs whenever we needed it.<\/p>\n
“Look, I got called in as cover at the time and I took it as it came.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s been unreal, getting to learn off James Ryan, Tadhg Beirne, Joe McCarthy, their experience is unbelievable, what they taught me is class.<\/p>\n
“[Paulie’s] been unbelievable. Like Irish history, like, he\u2019s an unbelievable operator and he\u2019s helped so much through calling and lineouts and everything.<\/p>\n
“Just the detail he goes into for lads to get better, like, no-one else could see it, but he’ll see it. It’s just been class.<\/p>\n
“He’s always encouraging you; keep going and get better. It’s just been great for me.”<\/p>\n
![\"14](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/00240fc6-614.jpg\"\/)
\nDarragh Murray meets Uachtar\u00e1n na h\u00c9ireann Catherine Connolly<\/p>\n
Named on the bench, Murray got called into action when Beirne was withdrawn to deal with a cut on his head in the 51st minute.<\/p>\n
Six minutes later the Six Nations debutant had his first senior try.<\/p>\n
Incredibly, the lineout specialist had never dotted down for Connacht in 51 games, although he had a try to his name for Ireland XV against Spain.<\/p>\n
With Ireland leading by five points, they manufactured a 17-phase move that ended with Murray (below) neatly stepping inside his man and powering over close to the line.<\/p>\n
“I was ready to go,” he said of the unexpected cameo.<\/p>\n
“I saw Tadhg [Beirne] had blood so we got ready then.<\/p>\n
![\"14](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/00240eef-614.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
“And sometimes it’s kind of nice to get in for 10 minutes just to get into it and then you come back off. I was on fairly quick after that as well.<\/p>\n
“I don\u2019t know how [the try] happened but it happened.<\/p>\n
“I got there in the end, the lads got into it and big Joe had a great carry and handed the ball back to me and I just got over the line, great.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s definitely up there, it\u2019s surreal at the moment, it has to kick in. It was class at the time, the atmosphere was unreal out there.”<\/p>\n
Murray went back to the bench after Beirne returned but came back on for McCarthy with 15 minutes to go.<\/p>\n
Across his 26 minutes he took one lineout catch, blocked down a kick and made eight tackles.<\/p>\n
As championship debuts go it couldn’t have gone much better, with a Triple Crown the icing on the cake.<\/p>\n
\n
The Buccaneers clubman added: “That was special, that was. Even after the game, just letting it all sink in, taking in the crowd, unbelievable.<\/p>\n
“You just look around, and the stadium is still full. Jeez, this is what you want to be part of.<\/p>\n
“I think my Dad was shouting and kicking after I scored.<\/p>\n
“Mam and Dad\u2026a lot of sacrifices growing up.<\/p>\n
“There are four of us in the family, I don\u2019t think they had a weekday on their own, they\u2019d always be on the road for us, it\u2019s got us to where we are, I\u2019m really thankful for what they\u2019ve done for us.<\/p>\n
“It’s just a special feeling, and going out there on the pitch, it’s just class.”<\/p>\n
Watch all the weekend’s highlights on Against the Head, RT\u00c92 and RT\u00c9 Player, 8pm<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a campaign where Ireland boss Andy Farrell handed out 11 Six Nations debuts, none was more left…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-348847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n