Jordi Murphy chose Ulster to preserve World Cup dream

By Ciarán Ó Raghallaigh

Jordi Murphy admits he considered following Simon Zebo and Donncha Ryan out of the country, but picked Ulster instead to keep his World Cup hopes alive.

The former Leinster back row made the surprise announcement last December, just two months after Zebo had stated his intent to leave Ireland at the end of the season.

Like Zebo, Murphy was left out of the initial November international squad and he took that omission as a sign that something had to change.

“I came to a crossroads last year when I knew,” he said. “Every international player has the ambition to keep playing international rugby, so when I was left out of the November squad by Joe [Schmidt] last year, I just thought that I probably wasn’t playing enough with Leinster.

I was stuck in a rut and needed a new challenge. I went to my agent and we started looking at places overseas, but ultimately I wanted to stay in Ireland, and be under the IRFU umbrella, especially in a World Cup year.

“I had a good conversation with Ulster and it really felt like the right fit. I’m delighted I made the move. I’m very grateful to Ulster for giving me that opportunity and I want to help out wherever I can.”

Murphy said he did talk to Ireland head coach Schmidt “once or twice”, but ultimately this was a call the 27-year-old was going to make for himself.

There were tempting offers from overseas, and, though he considered the idea, giving up on the green shirt cut any consideration short.

“I just weighed everything up and I realised that playing for Ireland, my international ambitions, were going to come first, I wanted to stay in Ireland,” he said.

“Moving abroad was realistic for maybe a week or more, but I decided to park it and just look solely within Ireland.

“My greatest ambition as an Irish rugby player is to play for Ireland. It was great to be in the [Six Nations] squad and then sneak in for the last few and to go to Australia in the summer. Basically, playing for Ireland was my main ambition. I’m glad I’m at Ulster for the foreseeable future and I’m going to do as well as I can. Hopefully, that leads to playing more for Ireland.”

Some have questioned Murphy’s timing, coming as it did before Jamie Heaslip’s retirement and following 17 starts for Leinster, including three in the Champions Cup knockout stages.

He won two caps off the bench in the final Six Nations’ tests against Scotland and England and then started the first Test in Australia last June and came off the bench in the second and third.

However, Murphy recalls starting historic wins over South Africa and New Zealand and he is determined to try and get back into Schmidt’s starting XV.

I think seven has always been my favourite position, but the move wasn’t really about playing seven, I just wasn’t playing there that much, I just felt that there might be more opportunities elsewhere,” he said.

“I’m a player who can play across the back-row, and that’s always been a strength of mine. In some ways, it does feel like maybe you can’t nail down one position if you don’t get to play there that much. Nowadays, in the back-row, you could have a seven on your jersey, but be playing as a six in the lineout and things like that. It was just about playing.”

Ulster have three wins and a draw from their opening four Guinness PRO14 games under new boss Dan McFarland, though Murphy has played just once, thanks to an ankle injury on his debut. He’s likely to miss the interprovincials against Munster and Connacht in the next fortnight, but he does not expect to see any dilution of the traditional rivalries following the movement of players like him and Joey Carbery.

“I’ve been asked about it, ‘do I think I started a trend?’ because then you’ve got Robin Copeland going from Munster to Connacht and Joey going over to Munster during the summer, it may start happening more, especially if you want to play for Ireland,” he said.

“Maybe it’s not the traditional thing to do, for Leinster players to go to Ulster, but I don’t see why it can’t happen more.

“Will it dilute the interpros? I don’t think so. I don’t think the Leinster game I’m going to play this Christmas is going to be any less spicy. We’re playing Munster this weekend and, people were saying a few years ago that the games weren’t what they were, but I don’t think it’s going to happen.”