Ben Murphy's 'far-fetched' Ireland ambition realised after big year at Connacht

Ben Murphy has gone from surplus to requirements at Leinster to one of Connacht's key figures. Picture: Ben Brady/Inpho

Go back to the end of the 2024/25 season and Ben Murphy was stuck in a long queue of scrum-halves angling for game time at Leinster where Jamison Gibson-Park and Luke McGrath were the elder statesmen proving so hard to dislodge.

Now the 24-year old is coming off the back of a first season at Connacht where he played more minutes than any of their nines and he is poised for a summer mini-tour to Georgia and Portugal having already spent time in Ireland camp during the Six Nations.