Murphy tunes up for Lions swan song
Geordan Murphy must certainly have felt he was going round the bend as he toiled through the rugby outposts of New Plymouth, Invercargill and Palmerston North playing his own impressive brand of rugby at full-back yet experiencing the cold shoulder from the Test selectors.
As the Saturday team has stumbled from Christchurch to Wellington and now to Auckland, the Leicester and Ireland back has been ploughing his own furrow in midweek.
On Tuesday, his fifth non-Saturday start out of six appearances in a Lions shirt since his debut against Argentina on May 23, saw him sign off with one of his more low-key efforts against Auckland but it was enough to finally earn him promotion to the Test 22 and he will return to Eden Park tomorrow to at last pit his talents against the world’s best.
Hopefully it will return a little clarity to his thought processes.
Asked what he thought he could bring to the Test team having sat out the previous two Tests, Murphy replied: “I’m not too sure, to be quite honest. I’m delighted to be here. I was having a bit of craic with the guys on the way here and I was telling them I’m not actually a rugby player, I’m part of the Faking It project and I’ve managed to bluff my way this far.”
Murphy is no fake but his chance has unfairly come too late to make an impact on this series. He has seen Jason Robinson struggle at full-back in the first Test yet still keep his place in the side for the second Test with a switch to the wing. And when it still looked likely he could get the call for that match as Gareth Thomas moved into the midfield, Murphy’s consistency was overshadowed by a perky five-try performance from Shane Williams against second division NPC lightweights Manawatu.
An even better performance than Williams’ from Mark Cueto, against stronger opposition in Auckland on Tuesday, could easily have done for the Irishman again but both have made it into the side for the Lions swansong.
“I’m just happy to get a chance,” Murphy said. “It’s been a long season, I was totalling up my minutes played the other day and I think there’s nigh on 3,000 now. Like any other season you start with a lot of hard work and luckily for me I’ve been injury free and I’ve been enjoying my rugby.”
And with that follows more madness. A question from the back of the huddle, from a mischievous Donncha O’Callaghan “of the Irish Examiner”. “Who’s you’re favourite squad member?” he asks. Murphy doesn’t miss a beat, telling the ‘reporter’ his least favourite player is, in fact, Donncha O’Callaghan from Munster, and moves on.
With his notepad put to one side, O’Callaghan is looking forward to tomorrow’s Test with a different set of positives to his buddy Geordan.
The lock once again partners Munster team-mate Paul O’Connell in the second row and there are increasingly familiar faces in front and behind him in a Lions pack kept together from the Wellington Test.
“It’s a big help,” O’Callaghan said. “You learn a lot of things about fellas, just little things, like the way they might take a ball into contact and you just begin to recognise it a bit more. So it’s good to go a second week with each other. That’s what happens when you get with a pack of players, you get used to each other and just know each other really well. That’s what will happen in the Test.”
O’Callaghan will also benefit individually from his first experience of a Lions Test last weekend.
“Pace-wise it was something you’d be used to with Ireland but for me I suppose I will be a bit more composed going into this match, less nerves because I’ve now done stuff like this. Having said that, this is a Lions Test match in New Zealand and it’s still huge, the pinnacle of your career.”
For another Irishman though, the chance has passed. Gordon D’Arcy was added to the Lions casualty list along with Simon Shaw (neck and forearm), their problems preventing them from being considered for Test selection.
The description of D’Arcy’s ailment on the team-sheet was “general fatigue” but Clive Woodward seemed to suggest the Ireland centre had removed himself from the selection process rather than been ruled out by medical staff.
Woodward also dismissed the possibility that D’Arcy’s absence had been due to the stamping incident in the second half of the Auckland game that led to centre Sam Tuitupou beng cited and then banned for six weeks.
“We spoke with Gordon D’Arcy and he just feels that with 48 hours before the game he still hasn’t really recovered from what was a very tough game on Tuesday night. So we didn’t feel he could be included in our selection thoughts. It wasn’t a stamp on the head.”
D’Arcy could well have been in the frame for a Test spot as Woodward noted his good performance against Auckland and midfield was a particularly vulnerable area for the Lions in the absence of Brian O’Driscoll, Tom Shanklin and Gavin Henson. Will Greenwood is the last man standing and will partner captain Gareth Thomas.
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