Aside from his voracious work-rate and versatility, one of the attributes that marks Jordi Murphy apart from most is his ability to pick very good lines. Coupled with his support play, it has made him a prolific try scorer, but after dotting down for eight tries last season with Leinster, last Friday's stunning 30 metre effort when beating three Glasgow defenders was, curiously, a belated first 'meat pie' of this campaign.
“I’ve been waiting for one of those for a while so definitely happy to get it,” he said with relief this week as thoughts turned to Saturday’s European Champions Cup quarter-final against Bath at the Aviva Stadium.
“At international level it’s kind of the best of the best and defences are so tight and there’s not really that much room for opportunity. Zane (Kirchner) gave me a good pass and I just found myself in that little bit of space and it just kind of opened up a bit and I was fortunate enough to be able to go under. It’s one of those things. It’s mostly about luck, about 90 per cent luck I’d say.”
"That was a pre-planned move for us and I thought we ran it well. (Ben) Te'o did a good job breaking it up and getting some space on the outside, Seán Cronin ran a good line with me as well and it kind of gave me that little bit of space. That's obviously the end goal, it's what we want. It doesn't always happen. It very rarely happens. It was just a bit of luck on the day and it came off."
Murphy only made his Test debut as a late replacement in the loss to England at Twickenham last year, and his progress in the 12 months up to starting against the same opponents has been marked. His tackle count, ruck clear-outs and carries were Jamie Heaslip-esque in the win over England, and aside from the grunt work he is a good passer and is a good lineout option.
Murphy played in all five games as Ireland retained their Six Nations title, starting in those wins over Italy and England, although celebrations had been cut shorter for him than others, with Matt O’Connor texting him to inform him that he was due in for training on the Tuesday after the Murrayfield win.
Yet, like other Leinstermen who had even less game time in the Six Nations – Cian Healy, Seán Cronin, Marty Moore, Eoin Reddan, Ian Madigan and Luke Fitzgerald – he was grateful for some match practice last Friday at the RDS. "I knew well I had to be ready and prepared, so I had that in the back of my mind."
Now comes Leinster’s biggest game of the season, with Murphy seemingly set to start alongside Seán O’Brien and Heaslip in the backrow. Despite his meteoric rise in the last 12 months, he had only started two European Cup games (the win away to Castres last season, and defeat away to Harlequins in September) prior to starting the concluding pool games against Castres and Wasps, as a shoulder injury delayed his seasonal return until November.
A replacement in the 29-14 quarter-final defeat away to Toulon last season, when appearing off the bench to fleetingly revive Leinster hopes with a try off a lineout maul, Murphy says: “Last year we were away to Toulon and weren’t able to get past this stage. It’s the biggest game of the season and that’s the way to put it; it is. Myself personally, and I know the rest of the squad as well, are just dying to get out there and give them a good game. It’s great that we can play it at home as well. Hopefully we’ll get a packed house now come the weekend.”
While Glasgow would have been good preparation for playing, Murphy admits that Leinster can ill-afford to slip off tackles next Saturday as they did in the first half against the Warriors.
“They have a physical pack, with the likes of (Stuart) Hooper and (Dave) Attwood, who played most of the games in the Six Nations and then obviously some really creative backs as well,” Murphy says of their quarter-final opponents. “They had the bulk of the English backline with (Anthony) Watson, (Jonathan) Joseph and (George) Ford. They’ve done some job considering they lost the first two games of their group stages in the Champions Cup to come back and do some job on the likes of Toulouse away. They’re a seriously impressive side and it’s going to be a tough battle definitely.”
No province or club has supplied more players to the Six Nations than Leinster, who have won only one of their last six matches (albeit there have been three draws) and thus no-one has been more disadvantaged by the revised knock-out format.
With Jack McGrath, Mike Ross, Devin Toner, O'Brien, Heaslip and Rob Kearney to be welcomed back this week, Leinster also look a bit underdone coming into this game compared to previous campaigns, but at least last Friday's second-half comeback has given them something to build on.
“We’ve got a few lads to come in and I think our confidence is good,” maintains Murphy. “We were disappointed with our first half last week but I thought we bounced back well and were unfortunate not to come away with the win. I think we’re in a good place and we can only improve. This week is going to be big for us.”
