Geordan Murphy confined to coaching role as Leicester chase Premiership title

The Irish interest in Saturday’s Premiership final between Leicester Tigers and Northampton Saints – the most ferocious derby in the English game – is mostly off-field, what with Matt O’Connor leaving the Tigers for Leinster and Geordan Murphy also riding into the sunset after a glorious 16-year playing career.

Still, Niall Morris, indirectly Murphy's replacement at Welford Road as Matthew Tait has fitted in at fullback, is a player worth tracking over the coming seasons.

Overshadowed on the 2006 Blackrock College cup winning side by the presence of Luke Fitzgerald and future Russian international Vasily Artemyev in the back field, Morris struggled to break out of the bottleneck of talent in his position at Leinster but has excelled on the Tigers right wing this campaign.

Recognition has come in the form of selection for the Emerging Ireland squad that goes to Georgia next month to compete in the Tbilisi Cup.

He is the only exile selected for either Irish touring squad.

"Geordan will be there on Saturday," said the Tigers' director of Richard Cockerill yesterday confirming that Murphy will be restricted to a coaching rather than playing role. "Selection is on merit. Geordie's done his bit, but he doesn't merit a spot on the team on performance.

Last appearance
"For Matt O'Connor, Martin (Castrogiovanni), Geordan and a few others it will be their last appearance from a playing point of view or coaching point of view. But we've just got to focus on the game.

“We’ll worry about the sentiment about guys leaving afterwards, good or bad.

“So we just have to make sure we get our training right, our attitude right, get the result and then we can talk about how good these guys have been for us afterwards.”

Leicester are heavy favourites to finally end a three-year drought since their last title, but the big picture focus is on the seven Lions that will take the field at Twickenham.

Dylan Hartley is the only Saints representative, with Leicester supplying Dan Cole, Geoff Parling, Manu Tuilagi, Ben and Tom Youngs, along with the hugely influential second time tourist Tom Croft.