Murphy’s law inspires rampant Perpignan to victory

Perpignan 23 Munster 8

The son of Dublin parents who were among the Stade Aime Giral crowd to see the French side pull off a hugely impressive victory, Murphy was the only capped player in a Perpignan pack that outplayed their Munster rivals throughout a second half in which they were playing into the teeth of a strong, cold wind.

"It's a great day for the club," said Murphy. "It's been a big transition for the past couple of months and although everybody isn't happy at the way we are going, we've now had three good wins in a row against Gloucester, Narbonne and Munster. We were ready for a tough match. Munster like to play with the ball, they like to try things and they're very physical as well and I'm going to have a few bumps and bruises in the morning."

Murphy wasn't complaining. Not only was it a good day for Perpignan but also for the Murphy family and Phil was thrilled that his parents should have come over from Canada and that his team had been able to give them something to cheer about.

"We won it because of our pack's aggressive nature, not just in the scrums and line-outs but also in the contact points, that was a focus point for us," he said.

"When we were up in Thomond Park, we lost the contact point; every single time we tackled or were tackled, we were being put out the backdoor. Today, we concentrated on winning more than we lost."

Murphy insisted that Perpignan prefer to play against the wind and that's why they weren't too upset when Anthony Foley scored a Munster try just before half. But he also rubbished the idea that Munster hadn't given them a worthwhile match.

"It wasn't a no-contest and they were definitely up for it," he responded. "But I was surprised at the lack of Ronan's boot, he usually puts the ball into the corners so well and we had worked on it all week, how to defend it and deal with it. Sometimes you have to do other things to win rugby matches and maybe that's what they decided to do."

Perpignan are now as good as in the quarter-finals. They travel to hapless Viadana (64-16 cannon fodder for Gloucester at Kingsholm on Saturday) with six points safely in the bag and two more and another hatful of tries assured next Saturday. If Munster beat Gloucester they will all finish on eight points but with Munster needing to score four more tries than the English side to have any chance of reaching the quarter-finals.

After that, Perpignan will only need a home draw to really be on a roll. They just don't lose at the Stade Aime Giral. Ask Munster.

PERPIGNAN: J.M. Souverbie; P. Bomati, P. Giordani, C. Manas, F. Cermeno; M. Edmonds, L. Loustau; P. Meya, P. Koniekiewicz, N. Mas, J. Thion, R. Alvarez Karelis, G. Le Corvec, P. Murphy, B. Goutta cap. Replacements: S. Descombes for Meya and C. Porcu for Murphy, both 63; M. Dal Maso for Koniekiewicz 77; S. Deroeux for Le Corvec 79.

Scorers: Cermeno, Giordani, Le Corvec, Alvarez Karelis tries; M. Edmonds pen. Yellow card Goutta.

MUNSTER: J. Staunton; J. Kelly, M. Mullins, J. Holland, M. Lawler; R. O'Gara, P. Stringer; M. Horan, F. Sheahan, J. Hayes, D. O'Callaghan, M. O'Driscoll, J. Williams capt, A. Quinlan, A. Foley. Replacements: D. Leamy for Quinlan 76; M. Galwey for O'Driscoll 78.

Scorers: Foley try, O'Gara pen and con.

Referee: Nigel Williams (Wales).