Murphy ready for Les Bleus bow

HERE’s a tough six-marker quiz question. How many times has Geordan Murphy lined for Ireland in the Stade de France?

For those who answered in double figures, it’s back to rugby stats school for you. To the few who put it between 1 and 9, wipe the smile of your faces, its bad news for you too. Incredibly Saturday will be the Kildare man’s first appearance in the Paris Stadium, in the Six Nations Championship.

Thus, here he is at 27 years of age about to make his bow against Les Bleus in their own back yard of Saint Denis. As he suggests himself, better to have it like that than be thrown in at the deep end as a raw young buck still on his first razor blade.

“It will be a tough test. It is unusual for a guy like myself who has been playing rugby at this level for a few years to be playing at Stade de France for a first time. I’ve played most venues. I’ve had the pleasure of playing at the Parc des Princes and that was amazing. I’ve played a few other French venues as well. They’re always very vocal with a real carnival atmosphere. Stade de France will probably be all that but bigger.”

If the Stade will be new to him then Paris certainly isn’t. Leicester and Stade Francais have clashed on any number of occasions most memorably in the Heineken Cup final of 2001 when the Tigers finished the desirable side of a 34-30 scoreline.

“I have good memories of Paris but there’s a few bad memories too. We lost to Stade Francais twice. But it’s not so much the venue anyway - it’s more about concentrating on the performance.

“I’d like us to play slightly better than we did last week. We’re going to have to because the French are going to come out at full pelt. It’s going to be a real backlash from their performance last week.”

Murphy toes the party line in declaring his delight for the previously downtrodden Scots while lamenting the frame of mind it will leave the chastened French in this Saturday.

“Scotland have been having a very tough time and I think everyone, especially the other Celtic nations, will have been really pleased to see Scotland do so well. It’s mixed emotions really because you’re thinking, ‘God, we’ve got to go over there and play France now’. That’ll be a tough one.”

While talk of the backlash may well be overstated, the French have proven before how dangerous they can be with their backs to the wall.

Priority number one will be to ensure the game is still winnable after the opening quarter when Ireland would be forgiven for donning tin hats and holding an ambition no higher than surviving the opening barrage.

“If you go into any game with just the view to batten down the hatches and hold them for long stretches you’re not going to win the game,” Murphy countered.

“It’s tough because you’re going there to win the game.

“Why go there otherwise? We’re going with a game plan to do that. There will be times in the game when the blue wave will be coming at us and we’ll just have to try and stick together and see that out.

“Then when we get the opportunity to get the ball in our hands we’re going to have to show what Scotland did at the weekend which was a bit of passion and spirit and try and take it from there. I suppose everyone has written us off after last week so in one way we have nothing to lose.”