Johne Murphy ready for life after Munster as French club hovers

Johne Murphy will decide on his post-Munster future in the next week.

The Ireland A (Wolfhounds and Emerging Ireland) international, a 91-cap veteran with Munster who also played 99 top class games for Leicester Tigers, is considering offers, including one from a club in France.

“I’ll be making a decision in around a week’s time,” Murphy said yesterday. “There are options both inside and outside (professional) rugby, so I’ve looked at them and there are a couple of clubs talking. It will all be done and dusted in the next while.

“I got married recently, I wanted to enjoy that and then come back and get stuck into whatever was going to come my way.”

One player who will certainly be in France next season is Cork Constitution’s inspirational captain Gerry Hurley, who has won all there is to win in the Irish amateur game, both with Con and his previous club Garryowen. Hurley is now headed for Federale 1 side Rugby Olympique de Grasse in the south of France.

The move came about after a chance meeting with former Leinster and Munster out-half Eoghan Hickey, who has just retired after a spell with Massy Essonne in Paris.

“I bumped into Eoghan and he asked me whether I’d be interested in heading over to Grasse who were in the market for an experienced scrum half,” says Hurley.

“At the start, I wasn’t that pushed given that I’m just finishing up doing a teaching qualification, but he insisted on getting my email. He knows the coach of Grasse, messaged him about me and they made me an offer.

“My own situation was that I was looking around for a job, but this, I suppose, was a bit of a no-brainer. I have a bit of French from college although I suppose I am a bit out of practice so I’ll have to get down to it quickly.

“From a rugby point of view, it was a huge thing for me to leave Con, but I wish them luck and I think they just might have a good season, with the experience of last season surely standing to the young players.”

For Ivan Dineen, however, rugby could be consigned to the back burner this coming season. Having exited his Munster contract, Dineen is currently finishing a Masters in Economics.

“I may just pursue something else. I had a look in France (when the Munster contract expired). A couple of clubs were interested, but I had a thing in my head of what I wanted out of it and if the clubs didn’t meet that I wasn’t prepared to go, so I might try to bite the bullet and go into the workforce.”

Meanwhile, flanker Barry O’Mahony has been forced to retire from the game after breaking his leg in Munster training last November. Negotiations to prolong his tenure with the province broke down towards the end of his last contract, with O’Mahony unable to prove his fitness — he had to undergo two operations — and medical advice is to call time on his career. The 28-year-old had two spells with Munster, firstly as a development player, and then back on contract on foot of top-class form as skipper of Clontarf RFC. Now he will concentrate on developing the company (Krunksoft, in the App Development field) he set up four years ago and leave professional rugby to his younger brother, Munster winger Ronan.

“It’s disappointing,” he says. “There was no contract available because I couldn’t prove my fitness, it was a chicken and egg situation. My plan now is to concentrate on developing my company, I have been quite busy with it and there’s good potential there.”