Murphy enjoying being part of the fray

WHEN the Ireland team was announced in Buenos Aires on Tuesday, text messages came flooding into Barry Murphy’s mobile.

“Congratulations on your first cap,” was the simple but well meaning line.

Tempted to tell them he’d be winning his second on Saturday at the Estadio Jose Amalfitani, Velez Sarsfield, he found out later that few of his Limerick buddies actually saw him make his entrance in Santa Fe for a three minute cameo at a stage in the match when the intensity levels has risen a couple of notches.

“I wouldn’t say it was hostile. I’ve never experienced an atmosphere like it before – the singing, the chanting during the game and how the supporters bobbed up and down on their seats when their team got on top was incredible,” Murphy said.

When the moment arrived to answer Ireland’s call, it was one he’ll treasure all his life and one he dreamt about since starting as a kid with Bohemian RFC, progressing to St Munchin’s, returning to UL Boh’s and holding down a regular place with Munster.

“I felt I might get a chance towards the end,’’ Murphy recalled. ‘‘When I got on I said, ‘thank God’. Then, obviously, in the last minutes all I saw was (Felipe) Contepomi slotting over the drop goal.’’

It seems a first Ireland start for Murphy must be coming for almost a year now, but an opportunity might have arisen in 2006 had it not being for an ankle break sustained against Ulster in Ravenhill in March of that year.

Heartbreakingly, he missed out on Munster’s Heineken Cup odyssey and Ireland’s summer tour to New Zealand and Australia.

‘‘Injuries happen to everyone,’’ Murphy says. ‘‘I don’t particularly enjoy talking about it because I don’t want to be reminding myself of it. I’d prefer to get on with it – everyone goes through injuries in their career. I’m just happy to be back, I’m no different to any other player.”

Murphy loved training with senior players like Paul O’Connell and Brian O’Driscoll during January, February and March at Ireland camp. What stood out was the intensity of training at international level.

“It’s not easy up there in Dublin in the sense that guys like Brian O’Driscoll, Paul O’Connell and Ronan O’Gara lift it to a level which they have to do.

‘‘It was brilliant being involved. I learnt an awful lot for the four or five weeks I was up there for the Six Nations. And, over the last couple of weeks out here, the coaching has been brilliant.”

Like everyone else on tour the former St Munchin’s College student will be aiming to stake a claim for a Rugby World Cup place in one of the most difficult test environments.

“It’s a happy camp out here and training and preparations for both tests have gone well. The result last weekend wasn’t what we wanted but I thought we played some great rugby, and the game could have gone either way at the end. Hopefully we can do it this weekend, because I think we need a win to top off the tour.

“It is a difficult place to play. Argentina are a sticky team, they’ve some brilliant players and they’ve added a few players this weekend. It’s going to be a difficult game.”