NEVER MIND Limerick, south Dublin or any of the other traditional hotbeds of Irish rugby, let’s hear it for Kildare. In what is assuredly a first from that or any other county in Ireland, next Saturday’s finalists in the Guinness Premiership decider at Twickenham will be captained by Geordan Murphy, from Naas, and Bob Casey, from Maynooth. C’mon the Lilywhites, as these two keen GAA football fans would put it themselves.

Curiously, the following week when Murphy captains Leicester against his native Leinster in the Heineken Cup final, there will be four products of Newbridge College; the Tigers skipper and his team-mate Johne Murphy, as well as Leinster’s Jamie Heaslip and Bernard Jackman.

Brian O’Driscoll isn’t the only one having a vintage year. The silken-skilled Geordan Murphy is having quite a testimonial year in his 12th campaign with the Tigers. While his role off the bench in Ireland’s Grand Slam campaign would probably have frustrated him a little, he will be forever immortalised for having the honour of applying the finishing catch and kick into the stands when Stephen Jones’ penalty fell short. And he now stands on the threshold of what would be his sixth Premiership medal with the serial Leicester big-trophy hunters, as well as his third Heineken Cup winners medal – thereby eclipsing the several Munstermen and Trevor Brennan as the only Irish three-time winner in the competition.

His form has been as good as ever, scoring eight tries in his 25 starts for the Tigers this season and in the absence of the injured Martin Corry, and with Toby Flood and Aaron Mauger also sidelined of late, Murphy has assumed even more responsibility in Leicester’s colours lately.

Not alone has he inherited the captaincy, and led the team in an undefeated run of eight matches, it’s been noticeable how often Murphy stepped in as first receiver in the Premiership quarter-final win over Bath and the Heineken Cup semi-final draw/victory (dilute to taste) over Cardiff.

Last Saturday, in their hugely emphatic 24-10 Premiership semi-final win over Bath at the Walkers Stadium, Murphy was first receiver on 10 occasions – kicking five times and running or passing five times. One of his kicks off a scrum on the run – an unerring one-bounce 40–metre touchfinder – was straight out of the Ronan O’Gara manual.

There was also a leaping catch on the run, a couple of catches and cheeky one-handed offloads to his wingers, a couple of sublimely timed runs into the line and the usual deft hands in releasing backs outside him.

Watching his performances of late one couldn’t help but think again how much this exceptional talent has been wasted in his native land, even if 63 caps sounds like a decent haul over the last decade. It’s just in latter years he was so rarely given any run of starts at fullback.

After Saturday, Martin Johnson said he couldn’t understand how Murphy, whom he believes is playing as well as ever, didn’t make the Lions cut. Of course, a la Munster, such slights are used as motivational tools by the Tigers.

They would have gone into their Heineken Cup semi-final with an additional chip on their collective shoulder given they had one Lion to Cardiff’s six, and Harry Ellis is being kept out of the team by the superior game management of Julien Dupuy.

There’s more to them than that, of course, though every bit helps. Since a late converted Johne Murphy try earned them two bonus points in a 36-29 defeat away to Wasps in mid-February, Leicester have lost only once in their last dozen matches. So Leinster are running into another European standard-bearer bang in form.

All this has been achieved despite losing their newly-installed head coach Heyneke Meyer mid-way through the season when he had to return to South Africa because of a family illness. After a relatively high turnover in playing personnel last summer, which has seen a younger, more dynamic Leicester emerge over the course of the season, Meyer had been credited with installing much of the foundations for their current success.

Richard Cockerill has continued that work as a temporary stand-in to such effect that he has been made head coach on a permanent basis, while in the background is their Alan Gaffney-type figure, Matt O’Connor. Also an Australian, and specialising as a backs coach, O’Connor is the calm and shrewd tactician behind the scenes.

The son of a former rugby league professional, O’Connor played most of his club rugby in Canberra with ACT and then the Brumbies, as well as the Wallabies, before coaching spells in rugby league, Japan and with the Brumbies’ backline before arriving as Meyer’s assistant cum backs coach before the start of this season.

Drawing on their history, since the turn into the end-of-season straight, Leicester have quickened their pace and timed their run perfectly. Their lineout work was faultless against Bath and they also went after their scrum.

Cian Healy is liable to face Martin Castrogiovanni for an hour or so in Murrayfield and then, for light relief, Julian White. But it is their breakdown work which excels, and against Bath they engineered a dozen turnovers to two. Akin to Leinster, the first man tackles low and the second or third man either tries to wrestle the ball away in contact or position himself a la O’Driscoll and Gordon D’Arcy to win the ball off the deck. Technically, they are adept from one to 15. Indeed, even Geordan did so once, and this wouldn’t have been seen as his primary virtue.

The Tigers are not invincible, and even on Saturday appeared to defend quite narrowly and were thus vulnerable to quick ball. But they have the whiff of silverware in their nostrils and seem superbly conditioned, making just one change from the starting XV from their 100-minute ordeal against Cardiff just six days beforehand. They have a very strong bench, and are likely to have Mauger and Alesana Tuilagi back for Murrayfield.

One wonders, if looking at next Saturday’s Premiership final from a purely Leinster perspective, what outcome would be best for Michael Cheika’s team. Most likely, neither a Leicester or “Irish” win will make much difference to the Tigers’ mindset or performance levels come Murrayfield.

But if one had to choose, one suspects the thought of them coming to Edinburgh with one trophy already secured is marginally preferable to them arriving in town smarting from a final defeat, with one last chance to atone for a runners-up medal.