Murphy starting to lay down law

European Cup:  Gerry Thornleyasks Munster's Barry Murphy how he got to this point in his career, and where he goes from here

As a kid growing up, football was his first sporting love, but Barry Murphy could always see the main stand from his home across the river in the Hermitage. He never missed a pilgrimage to the Limerick citadel and he was amongst friends in the left-hand corner behind the goal in the Ballynanty end when a boyhood hero turned team-mate, John Kelly, completed the Miracle against Gloucester.

Wind on four years, to the day he memorably announced himself with his virtuoso try against Sale, those spindly legs criss-crossing at full tilt and transfixing defenders like rabbits in headlights, and it's the stuff dreams are made of, for he was also a fully fledged member of the Red Army.

"Any match in Thomond I went to and I went to a few abroad, like the semi-final in Bordeaux against Toulouse. What a day! Some craic that day! The sun was unbelievable and the Toulouse fans were unbelievable! My brother was on crutches and they were buying us drink after the game, despite just losing."

He dreamt about donning the red one day, but although he was cutting his teeth in the UL Bohemians Under-20 team from 17 onwards, typical of this softly-spoken, modest and late developing 24-year-old, he never thought he'd make it.

"Everyone does dream about it, but I didn't think it was realistic. I didn't really to be honest. Munster were class back then and up on a pedestal. You presume the standard is just so much higher than AIL. But once you get in there you adapt to it fairly quickly."

European Cup games at Thomond Park seem to bring the best out of him. In 16 Magners League games, he's scored one try. In six European Cup games he's scored three tries. All of them, he's the first to note with a hint of embarrassment, in Thomond.

Well, it is his home patch.

An audience with Barry Murphy is a rarity, but you wouldn't think so as he slips easily into his fledgling life story in the Silver Springs bar at lunchtime last Wednesday near Temple Hill. Munster had trained there that morning, and he helpfully leaves aside his plate of chicken and mashed potatoes until we're finished talking. Interviews, or the public glare, are not particularly his bag.

Rugby was his destiny really, his father Mick having served as a flanker, coach and president of Bohemians. "He was even smaller and skinnier than myself." As integral a part of his innate talent are the genes on his mother's side - according to his mother. "I was a runner, that's where you get your speed." she reminds him.

His older brother, Brian, played prop for Bohs for years, but is now retiring due to knee injuries, while his 19-year-old younger brother, Damien, has scarcely touched a rugby ball.

"Never one bit interested," says Murphy, "he'd be off climbing trees when he was younger. He's a kickboxer and a lead guitarist in a band called Castro, and they're playing in the Helix in a battle of the bands in a few weeks." His 16-year-old sister Evette is not very sporty, "despite my best efforts to use her as a goalie".

He started playing rugby at seven with Bohemians, and with St Munchin's, across the road from his home, from 13 onwards, dallying with the outhalf position for a while before settling on centre. A running outhalf? "Yep, never kicked a ball, so I was moved. I can count on the fingers of my hand the times I've kicked a ball."

Born to run with it, not kick it.

"I'm looking to constantly develop, but that's a major one. I get enough abuse for it. I don't know what it is, I can kick a soccer ball no problem, but I just can't kick a rugby ball. Tomás O'Leary was slagging me again about it at training this morning."

Despite St Munchin's wining a first Munster Schools Junior Cup in his time there in 1998, a 7-5 win over Pres in the final in Musgrave Park, his one senior campaign witnessed a heavy first round defeat to Crescent, despite having "a savage team" including Stephen Keogh, Eoin Cahill, Colm Tucker and the Shannon number eight Gareth Noone.

Pat Cross was a big influence at Munchins and also at the Munster under-21s. It was only then that rugby began to take precedence over football. He played senior premier soccer with Corbally United and describes himself as more of a box-to-box midfielder than a goalscorer.

"I could pass a ball and I was good in the air. 'Barry's ball,' was the shout," he says with a smile, nodding his head in motion. He remains a big Aston Villa fan, but the Saturday double shift, from football in the morning with Corbally before rugby in Annacotty in the afternoon, ceased.

At UL Bohemians, Munster and Irish Under-21s, his midfield partner was Keith Matthews, and when Murphy missed the entire 2004-05 campaign with a groin injury it began an uncanny sequence of injuries in tandem with Matthews, who sustained a similar groin injury two weeks beforehand and then, like Murphy, also broke his leg last season. The groin problem was almost worse, he admits, because it required six months total rest and left him unsure of his future.

Alan Gaffney and Declan Kidney retained faith in him and last season was his overdue breakthrough campaign. After three outings at fullback and on the wing, an injury to Trevor Halstead in the warm-up gave him his first start at centre in Musgrave Park against Leinster, and his Munster career began to take off from there.

Here, at last, was an indigenous Munster back with real game-breaking elusiveness and pace, whose unpredictable running style helped check defences to create space for those outside as well as providing Ronan O'Gara with a target to hit. Murphy's spindly-legged running style has prompted Anthony Foley to liken the 24-year-old centre to a foal. Defenders don't know which way he's going.

In the return meeting, at the RDS on New Year's Eve, he was nervous about playing against Brian O'Driscoll and Gordon D'Arcy. For 75 minutes, he created a very good impression, but then failed to back himself when having the beating of D'Arcy on the outside, before an ensuing knock-on saw Leinster break up field for Felipe Contepomi to score at the other end.

He thinks back on the incidents now and realises that D'Arcy had made a spate of ball carries just beforehand, the Leinster centre subsequently admitting to Murphy that he had the beating of him. "Deccie encouraged me to back myself more," he admits. Against Sale he did that. The foal had become a thoroughbred.

Yet, in the course of a lengthy interview, this was the topic he was most reluctant to talk about. "Yeah, it was a high point to date, but I want to move and get new high points. People are always saying it to me, and it was a great moment, but I want to get another few."

Alas, just as he was about to break into the Irish A team, a cruelly timed broken leg in a Magners Celtic League game in Ravenhill ended his season and being a part of Munster's belated call of destiny in Cardiff last May.

"That was just a freak. I'd changed my studs about a week before the game. The grounds down here were soft and I'd been wearing blades, but the ground up there was rock hard. I felt it even going out on the field. All that was on my mind going off the pitch was making the quarter-final against Perpignan. Disaster."

He became a fan again, not least in Cardiff on May 20th. "I was swept up in it. I wasn't bitter at all." Did he make his way on to the pitch,? "I did," he says proudly. "It took me a while. I was up with Len Dinneen for the radio for the quarters, semi and final, and I had to climb over a few laptops. I was wearing jeans and a hoodie and a security guard wouldn't let me into the changing rooms. I showed him my passport, but that meant nothing to him. Luckily, a few fans came by and persuaded him to let me through."

It's been a long seven months, but now, he says, he feels better than ever. He admits that the Leicester game next week at Thomond Park had briefly infiltrated his mindset, but now all his thoughts are on the Bourgoin game tomorrow. "I watched their game against Biarritz and it's going to be tough. A big, physical side. They've certainly done something since we played them."

Longer term, personally, he'd love to become involved in the Irish squad again, and get to the World Cup, but he's actuely conscious of the rich quality around.

"Absolutely unbelievable. The standard of training is brilliant. They kick six lumps out of each other. It's more physical than any training I've ever done and you learn a lot from Drico and D'Arcy. I love it." Adding with typical modesty: "I'd even hold bags just as long as I'm up there."

He'll be doing more than that.

Barry Murphy

Club:UL Bohemians

Province:Munster

School:St Munchin's College

Date of Birth:Nov 28th, 1982

Height:6ft (183cm)

Weight:13st 6lb (86kg)

Official Munster Caps:29

Ireland Caps:0