Murphy back in business

JUST like buses, Geordan Murphy has been waiting for an opportunity to stake his claim in the Ireland team and then two come along at once.

He has knocked at the door of the Ireland team for so long since bursting on the scene in the English Premiership with Leicester only to repeatedly find his entry barred, by selectors and doctors in equal measure.

That the former should have stood in the 24-year-old’s way so often, restricting his mercurial talents at either full-back or wing to just 12 appearances since his international debut almost three years ago has been a cause for considerable consternation across the water, not least from his Leicester boss Dean Richards.

So it is ironic, then, that having come on as a substitute in last Sunday’s Six Nations opener against Scotland and stealing the show with a brilliant breakaway try to kill off the home side’s hopes, he has been named in the starting line-up to face Italy tomorrow not once but twice.

Murphy could end up starting at either wing or in his preferred position of full-back if regular No 15 Girvan Dempsey fails to shake off a niggling groin strain. Concern for team-mates aside, he doesn’t care one jot where he ends up.

“I’m just delighted to be picked in the starting line-up,” Murphy said in well-rehearsed fashion, before adding: “I really enjoyed my run on the wing last week and I’ve enjoyed playing full-back for Leicester so it doesn’t really make much of a difference at this level. The way the Irish are playing the game now I’m going to get as much ball on the wing as I am at full-back so I don’t really mind.

But full-back is where Murphy is happiest, for club and country.

“I’ve made no secret of the fact I enjoy playing at full-back a little bit more and thankfully this year Leicester have started to pay attention to me. I think they always knew but I played my first game back from injury there during the summer against an Italian side and played pretty well and got some good raps from the Leicester management. So they said to me ‘maybe we’ll keep you there’ and I’ve played pretty much all season for Leicester at full-back. It’s a case of keeping Tim Stimpson out and he’s been playing on the wing.”

It was from the wing, however, that Murphy made his mark at Murrayfield, replacing hamstring injury victim Shane Horgan early on and effectively sealing an Irish victory with a second-half breakaway try that relieved a Scottish siege on the Irish try line and put the visitors out of sight.

“I was aware that it was important in that we’d been under pressure for a few minutes,” Murphy said.

“Humps had just kicked a penalty to take us to about 13 points clear but the Scots had us under a lot of pressure and it was at that stage of the game, around the 60th minute, that if we had conceded a try then it may have been panic stations, game on.

“So from that point of view it was a real sucker punch to score when I did having soaked it up at the other end. I know it’s never nice to concede a try when you’ve been attacking so I was delighted with it.”

Irish fans were delighted, too, with the manner in which it was taken as Murphy found himself on the wrong side at a ruck, deep inside his own half but with the ball in front of him.

“I didn’t really have that long to think about it, to be honest. I was slightly offside but I asked the referee and he said I could play away,” he recalled. “My first touch looked good but I was trying to take it with my right foot and it bounced on to my left which caused a bit of panic.

“When I kicked the ball I was knocked off balance and it turned me sideways a little bit and it seemed to take an eternity to start running. Then I looked up and saw this prop (Gavin Kerr) and I thought to myself ‘I’ll never live this down if I don’t out sprint him’. I thought he was going to step into my line but he didn’t and probably made my job a little bit easier.

“But then I saw Kenny Logan coming across. So I was under a bit of pressure to control the kick, I needed it to go straight and if it had gone in any other direction he might have picked up on it. But once I got my toe on it I knew I was there.

“I never doubted I would make it. I always back myself and you’d be wrong not to back yourself in that position, a few yards clear with the ball on the ground. There was a big enough in-goal area and I had a bit of leeway but thankfully I didn’t really need the extra space.”

It was Murphy’s ninth in 12 internationals, a fantastic strike-rate that makes his non-appearances all the more mystifying.

Murphy is diplomatic. “There is a lot more to rugby than scoring tries. In fairness, all I can do to get myself picked is to play my best. Fortunately, I’ve played for Ireland 12 times, which is a great honour. Obviously I would like to play more but I don’t pick the team. The management do and it’s up to me to impress them.”