by Michael McCann

Tommy Bowe and Conor Murray both feel that the favourable support when playing at Cardiff could be crucial in their Rugby World Cup quarter-final against Argentina tomorrow.

Ireland have already played there twice in this tournament, beating Canada 50-7 and France 24-9 to top Pool D, with winger Bowe revelling in the atmosphere.

“Cardiff is as close to a home ground as we’re going to encounter and the France match was close to a home game. It was probably the best anthem I’ve ever seen and I was as close to crying as I have ever been.

“Hopefully we will have a similar level of support against Argentina because we’re going to need that to try and push us through.”

Scrum-half Murray was also delighted by how the 72,153 attendance against France in Cardiff contained a clear majority of Irish fans.

“Cardiff has been incredible,” he said. “I have never experienced anything like that atmosphere against France, with the roof closed and the noise that can generate.

“Going to the stadium, there were definitely more than 80,000 Irish people in Cardiff, they came just to soak up the atmosphere and party on the street which is a testament to their support.”

Murray added that this Irish side are better at dealing with pressure after recent success, including back-to-back Six Nations titles.

“This Irish team has managed to shake off the tag of not playing well when favourites,” said Murray. “We can now handle the expectation on us to do well better than before. When I came into the squad four years ago we liked that underdog tag.”

Though Ireland are favourites to win, forward Mike Ross expects a difficult task to reach the semi-finals for the first time.

“Our games with Argentina are always quite tight because they have one of the best scrums in the competition, good defence, a strong pack, some really dangerous backs and are incredibly physical.

“Playing in the Rugby Championship now has also improved their level through regularly facing three of the best teams in the world.”