Murphy's Law won't stop Geordan

How come Geordan Murphy seems to perform better for his club than his country? Gerry Thornley asks the gifted fullback

A horror half at the office and that hoary old chestnut is revived again. How come Geordan Murphy looks a different and better player with Leicester than he does with Ireland? Those three first-half errors against France ensured a few negative headlines, and not only did he cause the headlines, he even provided them.

It took a degree of honesty to face up to his mistakes and go public with them, stating he had some idea how the Corinthians felt in the colosseum after his crossfield intercept pass for one of Cedric Haymans' tries - his third mistake of the half.

It prompted more telephone calls and inquiries from sympathetic friends and team-mates than normal. He's still feeling the hurt, but while the issue of player burn-out and the pull of club-v-country has been felt again in England this week, in some respects it may have been no bad thing that Murphy had the distraction of playing for Leicester against Worcester last weekend. Getting back on the bike and all that.

"I didn't really at the time feel 100 per cent. My legs were still hanging off me on Monday and Tuesday, and even in the team run on the Thursday in Leicester I felt a bit drained, but I got through the game against Worcester. It wasn't a classic, but at least I got to catch and pass a few balls."

Analysing the French video nasty was cathartic to a degree as well. "It wasn't as bad as a I thought, but still and all I expect better of myself."

When Tommy Bowe slipped, it forced Murphy to check his run and watch Christophe Dominici, although even then Murphy should have nailed Aurelien Rougerie in such a narrow corridor close to the touchline. The slip when colliding with Denis Leamy for Frederic Michalak to put Olivier Magne over for the second French try was the most forgivable, Michalak having overtaken Leamy in the chase to Haymans' quick long drop-out, prompting Murphy to dive in just as Leamy bravely regained the lost ground on Michalak and did likewise.

Again, if you look at the video of Murphy's long infield pass to Brian O'Driscoll, had it gone to hand there were huge counter-attacking opportunities, and in his defence Murphy states simply he didn't see Haymans through the thicket of bodies, but he refutes the idea that it was panicky, premature catch-up rugby.

"If it was nil-all I still think I'd have thrown the pass. I threw it because I thought it was on, not as a knee-jerk reaction to the situation we were in."

He's not immune from the feeling out there amongst some supporters that Geordan Murphy of Leicester is not consistently reproduced in an Irish jersey. "I get asked all the time. I can't put my finger on it. Obviously, it's a different standard of rugby, Test rugby is a big step up and I genuinely can't put my finger on it. It is frustrating because people say what is it. I'm not doing anything differently. I'm eating the same things, I'm wearing the same boots.

"I enjoy playing for Ireland. Obviously, things are a little different with Leicester, as I've been there for nine years, moves are called around me and the pattern of play is a little bit different. It frustrates me, nah it doesn't frustrate me, that's not the right one. It's strange. I don't mind whatever is written about me, it's Joe Public, the person I meet in the pub, coming up to me and saying, 'are you not trying'? or, 'do you not want it as much for Ireland'? That's difficult, because you say, 'of course I do and I'm sorry you feel like that'. That's very rare and people are generally very supportive."

THAT MURPHY of late again doesn't appear to be playing to the same effect for Ireland which he does with Leicester could be down to many factors. Welford Road is, by now, akin to playing in his back garden.

"I suppose after nine years you'd have to feel pretty relaxed about playing there," he concedes. "But I'm not one of those players who is massively into headbanging a wall. As far as I'm concerned when I go out on the field for Ireland it's the very same as going out at Welford Road in that I'm relaxed and I'm just there to play.

"Obviously, there's more responsibilities in playing for Ireland. You have a whole country who wants to see you play well, and equally," he adds with a wry little chuckle, "they come down on you if you don't. But it's not something I think about."

Hmm, you wonder. He certainly doesn't convey the impression that he's enjoying himself as much. In the Tigers' green and red, there just appears to be a cockier bounce in his stride, and better judges than this one have long since maintained that his body language conveys as much.

There's long been a belief that, whereas at Welford Road Pat Howard and Co just tell him to go out and play, at Ireland he has been constrained by Eddie O'Sullivan's overtly structured approach. In fairness to O'Sullivan, this is undoubtedly far too simplistic. Of course, at Leicester, Murphy must operate within some set patterns, as he does with Ireland.

In the course of his pre-championship, counter-charm offensive, O'Sullivan himself highlighted the example of Murphy, and in particular an incident in which he kicked a ball when he should supposedly have run it against Australia, in disputing the theory that he was putting shackles on his players and specifically the Leicester fullback.

The Irish coach told the Sunday Times: "Like, there was talk of Geordan Murphy being told to do xyz and it's nonsense. His strength is playing what's in front of him. Against Australia, he kicked a ball and there was an overlap. I was shouting, 'it's on'. It was his decision. You have to let fellas go and play, but you have to give them a road map they can work around. I think the players would verify that. The fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants approach only works once out of 10."

In attempting to refute criticisms of his own coaching style, it was nonetheless highly surprising that O'Sullivan named one of his players and picked out one instance to defend himself. Ironically, this came directly above Murphy's weekly diary for the same newspaper, on the same page, and you couldn't help but wonder whether reading this, and other critiques of his game, might only fill Murphy with self-doubts, or at any rate undue navel contemplation, especially for a player who certainly appears to be at his best when playing on instinct and confidence.

If there is a technical difference in the approaches of Leicester and Ireland, most likely the former is one he's both more familiar with and is more suited to him.

At Leicester, it appears that he is more of a playmaker, and that his team-mates play off him, whereas at Ireland he is used more to play off others, be it Ronan O'Gara, Gordon D'Arcy or Brian O'Driscoll.

You think back to the Leicester Heineken European Cup pool wins at home to Stade Français and away to Clermont Auvergne. Living off slim rations, Murphy only came into the Stade game in snatches, and especially toward the end, yet he created a match-turning try for Louis Deacon and then sent Dan Hipkiss over for the dramatic match-winning score.

Murphy is the first to concede that Stuart Barnes' decision to award him the man of the match award was a tad over the top.

"I blatantly didn't deserve it. The game went alright for me, but there've been games before when the forwards are slogging it out, running themselves to a standstill and have come off bloodied, and I've got three stripes on my shirt, made two breaks and scored a try."

This is also in keeping with a balanced view of these things.

"A lot of times in the last four or five years when I've got man-of-the-match that's when I go back over games and I think, 'jeez, how did I get man-of-the-match'? Look at that mistake or that. And then in the games when you supposedly didn't so well, you see yourself working at those rucks, or working on that kick. Sometimes I think it's like that and I don't heed especially positive press too much."

NEVERTHELESS, although Tom Varndelltook the kudos with four tries away to Clermont Auvergne the following Friday, to an even greater extent it was Murphy, starting on the left wing but moving to fullback after 20 minutes, who again provided the creative edge.

People have short memories of course. While it took Murphy inordinately long to finally cement a place in the Irish team, after becoming something of a cause celebre at Leicester and in sections of the British and Irish media, in 2003 he was outstanding in Ireland's run to a Grand Slam showdown with England.

He came on as a replacement against Scotland, scoring a try, and added another in the win over Italy, before a classily taken drop-goal was ultimately the difference between the sides in the 15-12 win over France.

Even in the anti-climactic 42-6 rout by England, Murphy thrillingly took on the almost impenetrable white line and was Ireland's most dangerous player. He was voted both Leicester's player of the year and, by the Rugby Writers' of Ireland, the Irish player of the season.

That form continued into next season when, sadly, he suffered a fractured leg in the final warm-up game against Scotland in Murrayfield. That World Cup stage looked made for him.

Even so, he retains a healthy strike rate for Ireland of 16 tries in 36 games, and this overlooks the creativity he brings to the party. You think of that blindside run, when drawing the man and putting O'Driscoll away for the match-winning try against England last season. A few moments like that and, such is the fickle nature of these things, the enigma-wrapped-in-a-riddle debate will subside again.

Interestingly, when you ask to pick a favourite try or two, he struggles to think of one. "I don't really score spectacular tries," he admits, and right enough many of his scores are sharply taken efforts, more often than not the result of intuitive support runs. Indeed, he admits that this has been his leanest season for tries, only three for Leicester, says he derives as much if not more pleasure from creating one.

"I see myself more of a creative player than a strike runner. I don't know if I've ever scored exceptional tries. I score easy tries or make tries. I hit those lines not thinking I'm going to score here, but I'm going to put somebody through. But I'm not scoring easy tries this season. Must be something wrong," he says with a wry smile.

Yet, surprisingly, Murphy doesn't necessarily see himself as a one-club man to the end of his career. "I'm not sure. I've always felt I'd like to experience something different, whether it be abroad or it could be at home, because I've never played here. But I do enjoy things at Leicester and Pat Howard is staying there for another year and I'm tied up there for another year, and I've an option for another year after that. To be honest, I'm not sure yet."

He's well-educated, having been through Newbridge College and then business studies in Waterford Institute of Technology and chartered surveying in De Montford University in Leicester, which he has yet to finish. However, he's not too sure what life after rugby will hold.

"Do I stay in Leicester, or do we move to London or to Ireland? That's as big an issue for Lucie (his girlfriend) as it is for me," he says with another smile.

Despite having all the credentials for a celebrity couple, and enjoying nights out at his girlfriends' concerts, or socialising with Lucie or friends, he tends to keep a low profile and even somehow remains somewhat private. Perhaps, it's a perception that comes with being based in Leicester as opposed to a club in London or his native Leinster.

A move to Munster has somehow seemed more fitting, if only because the two fit more, and either way a move to an Irish province might make the rugby public here appreciate his exceptional attacking gifts more.

In the shorter-term, he admits that, "it would be very nice to wake up on Monday and reflect that we'd played really well. As I've been saying for a long time now, there is a quality in this side, and it's just a question of getting it out there. If we click it will be good. It's a question of doing that as opposed to saying we did it in the second half, but gave it up in the first half.

"There's a lot of quality I'd like to bring out there. Hopefully, things will be different for me, and a lot smoother. What happened in Paris is a motivating factor, it would be difficult not to be. So it's something that it will be in the back of my mind, but I don't want to feel I have to redeem myself by trying too much.

"If mistakes are made, leave it go. Just positives. And I think we all are."