Murphy waiting in the wings to strike
There’s no bitterness, no chip-on-the-shoulder remarks from this chirpy, good natured young man who has built a remarkable profile in the British midlands.
Top try-scorer this season (14), Tigers Player of the Year for 2007-08, Leicester recognise his importance to the club, particularly as a squad member, which he’ll be at Edinburgh today. The returning Alesana Tuilagi returns from suspension, taking over from the Kildare man, who was making the left wing his home for the last few weeks.
Meeting him at Leicester’s training ground on Tuesday, Murphy was receiving treatment on a nerve problem in his shoulder, sustained against London Irish in last weekend’s Premiership final, but he was still hopeful of a starting berth against his province of birth. However, he’s come to accept the rotational system at a club he joined in 2005.
“I was here for two or three months, playing for the seconds, and Paddy (Howard) goes, ‘right Johne you’re going to playing in two weeks against Bristol’.
“So I played on the Monday night for the second team, but ended up tearing my ACL and I was out for the whole season.
“I got stuck into it the following season (2006-07) and played 19 or 20 games. I knew I was second choice but I was still a valuable part of the squad playing in the Premiership, in the EDF and the two cups we won that season. Since the World Cup, I’ve been there or thereabouts week in, week out. I’ve probably not started as many games as I’ve wanted, but I’ve been involved in the 22 in nearly all the games, bar injury.”
A product of the Newbridge College rugby nursery, whose alumni also feature Geordan Murphy, Jamie Heaslip, Tony Buckley and Bernard Jackman, Johne (24) represented Leinster at Academy and U21 level, and was playing with Lansdowne when Leicester – via the Geordan Muprhy link – asked him to post some DVDs to Dusty Hare. There wasn’t a song and dance made in the Leinster Branch when, after a successful trial period in Leicester, he upped sticks. Four years later, he’s not one to bear grudges towards the province’s powerbrokers who let him go.
“You can look at it that way; you can think about it and it can give you motivation, but you’re playing with one of the biggest teams in Europe so I don’t really think you need stuff like that to motivate you.
“I did slip through the net; maybe I didn’t play well with the U21s or in the game I played with the academy. Maybe it just didn’t work out for me back there. I got an opportunity over here and that’s it. I took that opportunity and there’s no grudges held here – I just slipped through the net.
“It happens in every walk of life, people just get missed along the line.
“It happens a bit more back home because there are only four professional clubs, and that’s the way it is. Over here it’s a lot harder – there are massive academies in every club. I got the opportunity, I took mine. That’s life.
“You look forward instead of back.”
Murphy recently put pen to paper on a one-year extension to his current deal but hasn’t ruled out the possibility of returning home at some stage.
“I signed a couple of weeks ago for another year, so I’ll see how things go. The contract process was pretty long drawn but I think it’s business at the end of the day. A couple of years were on the table but it was personal decision. I’m a young guy, and when it comes down to business your value at being young can go up a lot quicker than if you sign and are stuck in long deals. I’ve got no dependents, nothing to worry about. I don’t mind taking that risk.
“Returning home? Never say never – there are different opportunities all across the world wherever you’d like to play. I’m enjoying playing for Leicester at the moment.”
A Welford Road favourite, Murphy says he’s left alone on a walkabout around a city he compares to Galway because of its laid-back approach.
“They wouldn’t be coming up to people like me – maybe to the big-timers! I slip under their radar, but that’s the way I like it.”
He also clears the way his name, ‘Johne’, is spelt: it’s not Anglo-Saxon for ‘Johnny’ but a hybrid of the name on his birth certificate, ‘John Edmund’. He got the final ‘e’ after his uncle Edmund and because his mother didn’t want to call him John Junior.
He fitted right in upon his arrival, bought into the club’s culture, and thrives on their siege mentality, the kind of psychology that makes them old hands at collecting silverware.
“People talk about the Leicester culture, all this sort of stuff, but it’s really just embedded in you when you come here. You have to understand the history of the club. If you don’t like it, it’s tough, very tough. You get your head down, you get on with it.
“The spirit we have is unbelievable. We’re back now to where the spirit we had during the last World Cup when no one really gave us a chance. We were missing loads of players, and we were second in the Premiership after all those games.
“This year people were saying the same when we were languishing mid-table. That all changed and we went on a run. I don’t think we’ve lost that many games since Cockers (Richard Cokerill) took charge. Cockers tells us every week, ‘we are a good side’, people need to realise that. Sometimes during the year we might not have got the respect we deserve.”
He would love nothing more but to come off the bench and face Leinster. The banter has been flying back and forth from home – he has even posted Leicester car-flags to his family who are displaying the Tigers emblem proudly around Rathangan and Naas.
“I suppose playing Leinster adds an extra bit of spice. It’s tougher on my family than anything else. The family are definitely Leicester supporters, all my mates are probably Leinster wearing blue but they’ll still be shouting for myself and Geordy too.
“I’m a Leicester man, they gave me my opportunity, something I owe them massively. They stuck by me through my injury. I have to replay that loyalty. That’s something I think I’m doing and loving every minute.”
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