Murphy major doubt for Wales showdown after straining Achilles

GEORDAN MURPHY could miss Saturday’s Six Nations game against Wales in Croke Park after straining his Achilles tendon while lining out for Leicester Tigers at the weekend.

Murphy’s injury problem is bad news for Ireland coach Eddie O’Sullivan, who is facing a crisis at full back with Girvan Dempsey’s hip flexor continuing to give the Leinster man problems.

Murphy picked up his injury 22 minutes into his side’s 34-21 victory over Leeds and yesterday he was reported as saying that his ankle “doesn’t feel great”.

Murphy added: “I’m not sure how it happened. I was tackled, got to my feet and immediately knew I had a problem. I tried to run it off but had to be replaced. It’s just a case of strapping it up, getting my weight off it and icing it as much as possible.”

If Murphy and Dempsey miss out, O’Sullivan could move Rob Kearney from left wing to his preferred slot of full back, which would free up a position on the left wing. However a likely candidate to fill that position, Shane Horgan, might have damaged his prospects of a full return to the Ireland starting XV after running into disciplinary problems with Leinster.

Horgan was reprimanded by Michael Cheika before Leinster’s Magners League game against Connacht last Friday after missing the Captain’s Run on Thursday. He failed to return on time from a trip to London and Cheika didn’t spare the Meathman, demoting him to the bench and promoting Academy star Felix Jones in his place.

It was felt Horgan needed a full 80 minutes against Connacht to put him in contention for a full Ireland call up, but his chance have been dented following this incident. He did appear in the second half for Cheika’s side and scored the crucial, match-winning try in Leinster’s 16-10 win.

Meanwhile Ireland hooker Rory Best has been stoking the flames ahead of Saturday, saying Wales haven’t been tested yet.

Former Ireland coach and now Wales boss Warren Gatland returns to Dublin following successive Six Nations wins over England, Scotland and Italy, but Best says: “We feel they’ve not been pressurised yet. England put a bit of pressure on them at Twickenham but let them off the hook in the last 10-15 minutes. We want to start well and then do that for the full 80 minutes.

“We will sit down and do our homework on them. We’ll take their line-out apart and see how we can benefit from it and put the pressure on them.

‘‘Croke Park has been a happy hunting ground for us. We want that to continue. We’ve been going well recently and we’re confident. We will do everything we can to keep that record going.”