RUGBY: KEITH DUGGANfinds the former Leicester player is relishing the challenge of making his mark for Tony McGahan's side, especially in Europe's premier competition
IN PROFESSIONAL rugby, patterns do not take long to emerge. Rugby’s fan base may have expanded enormously in recent years but for the players, the same faces wearing the same jerseys present themselves season after season. When Johne Murphy made his debut in the Heineken Cup, Munster were the opposition.
He was an up-and-coming prospect then with Leicester, a fullback operating on the wing with an eye for a break. Tonight, he is back in another hotbed of English rugby, making his first appearance with Munster.
Just being on the same field as the Irish club gave him the shivers a few years back so he has reason to look forward to the atmosphere that awaits him in Reading this evening.
“Running out on my own with The Fields of Athenry sounding out in Welford Road,” he says when asked to recall that match – his Heineken Cup debut – against Munster, “and Leams (Denis Leamy) pulling and dragging at me in a ruck. I was quite nervous.
“To play against an Irish province made it a bit more special and to hear probably for the first time that song, and for Welford Road to be half red and half green was pretty cool for me and for the other Irish guys there. The result didn’t go our way but it is something that I will always remember.”
The lot of the Irish rugby professional in England is a strange one. Time was when the notion of an Irish player attracting the attention of an elite rugby club across the water would have elevated his status at home. But since Ulster won the European Cup 12 seasons ago, since Munster rugby reinvented itself as something of a dynasty and Leinster quickly followed suit, playing in the English Premiership meant players could fade off the radar.
Many Irish players in the past decade found themselves drawing rave notices from Fleet Street while getting scant attention here. The IRFU policy of trying to keep their flock on home pastures was paying dividends and it could become hard for Irish players to get a look in. That was the environment Murphy signed up to when he put his name to a contract embossed with the Leicester Tigers signature in 2005.
He had originally gone on a short trial basis after Dusty Hare spotted him playing for Lansdowne and recommended him.
It helped that namesake and fellow Kildare man Geordan Murphy was already established at Welford Road. He stayed with Murphy initially and found himself immediately warming to the Leicester way, which managed to combine exacting professional demands with a genuinely warm atmosphere; a professional sports franchise built around families.
His progression was impressive from the beginning. At 25, he has already played through the most intense club rugby matches of recent years, enduring a penalty miss during a dead ball shoot-out after Leicester’s Heineken Cup semi-final against Cardiff was still level after extra time.
Leicester won, only to lose by three points to Leinster in the final but Murphy finished the season as top try scorer for Leicester. It was of little surprise that with his contract due to elapse after last season, he was offered another extension.
It was the first time he had time to pause for breath but when Munster made enquires about his interest, he knew it was time to push on. The decision was based on lifestyle rather than being driven by an ambition to put himself in the eye of international selectors. He has already been capped for the Ireland A team so they are aware of his talents.
“No, I just kind of found that I was there for five years and if I had stayed it would have been another two years and I wanted my life after rugby to be in Ireland. The youngest of six kids, I am a home bird and when the opportunity to come back arose, I jumped at it.”
Murphy was talking after a midweek training session on a showery afternoon at Thomond Park. His play-anywhere quality has always been his strength; at Leicester, he quickly learned to stake his claim for the left-wing berth given Geordan Murphy was already a cult hero at 15 and it has served him well in his early days at Munster.
When Tony McGahan, facing into a sizeable injury list at the start of the season, handed him a start at outside- centre against Gloucester in late August, Murphy just got on with it. He quickly formed a solid partnership with Sam Tuitupou and even if the position has curtailed his opportunity to exploit gaps around the fringes of the action, he has enjoyed it.
Munster began the season pounding out results before they were halted by Leinster last weekend but they have not exactly been scoring tries for fun.
“I think we just need to be more patient in the red zone. We have been giving ourselves good opportunities but not finishing them off. We did against Glasgow and last weekend against Leinster we were a bit unlucky because if that ball had stayed in it was a definite try. So the bounce of a ball one way and we would have scored and it would have been a different game. We just need to trust what we were doing before the Leinster game.”
That early season collision with Leinster quickly reacquainted Murphy with the intensity that defines the Irish provincial teams’ encounters. From the beginning, he felt there were comparisons between how Munster and Leicester went about their business but he admitted the match at Lansdowne Road was something new to him in terms of the raw and unrelenting intensity.
It was a significant return for Murphy, who had been knocking about on the Leinster Under-21 and Academy sides before he was snapped up by Leicester. So it was a real homecoming and it also marked the first real setback for Munster.
“I am not going to lie. Saturday did hurt. And I had never experienced that before, that kind of rivalry. I tried to prepare myself for it. But it did hurt. Sunday I was very down in the dumps but we are professionals and we have to leave that behind us and I hope we are sitting here next Tuesday talking about a good thing. Because we don’t want to have that same feeling next Sunday.”
A few hours earlier, Murphy had his first chance to get a look at Keith Earls up close and personal. The imminent return of the Limerick man underlines the formidable range of options available to Munster. At some level, all of these players are fighting for a finite number of spots but there is something terrifically self-possessed about Murphy and he was confident enough to admit that Earls, who shares Murphy’s versatility, will bring another dimension to the position that he has been occupying.
“He looked very sharp today. I played against him a few times and he is a pretty tough marker so I am looking forward to being with him. So it should be good fun and hopefully he can bring a bit of edge that probably when I was playing in the centre we didn’t have.”
What Murphy does have is pragmatic opportunism and a proven ability to get across the try line. The Madjeski Stadium in Reading brings him back to familiar turf, with London Irish featuring on Leicester’s domestic programme each season. He grinned ruefully when asked to compare the Magners League to the Premiership and then neatly sidestepped the question but he has a keen knowledge of Munster’s opponents. Currently setting the pace in the English league, Murphy expects them to run the ball aplenty, and rejects the notion they are a cavalier, run-and-gun outfit.
“I wouldn’t really say that. They are a quality side. They like to play attacking rugby and have that mentality that if you score three, we will score five. They are a good defensive side and they have guys like (Seilala) Mapusua who can certainly hit.
“So we will see how we go but we will give it a lash and hopefully we can break them down. It is a massive game for them. They see us probably as one of the big sides in Europe so to take a scalp like, they will be up for it.”
It promises to be a unique occasion in Reading, with tributes to the late Moss Keane certain to feature in the pre-match ceremonies. Murphy served his rugby apprenticeship in England and Irish rugby has been handsomely rewarded by Leicester’s investment in him. Now he has come home to the tightest family in international sport. And five years in, a European night remains a milestone occasion.
“Yeah, it is special. I have been involved with big games with Leicester but your first Heineken Cup game wearing the red jersey is something that I am really looking forward to.”
