44
ULSTER
RUGBY
He was born and bred in Ireland, but he lived
in Australia for 14 years. He was part of the
Leinster Academy, but made his name playing
for the Canberra-based Brumbies. He has
represented Ireland at under age level, but he
once had aspirations of pulling on the green
and gold of Australia.
He might have strong associations with
Australia and Ireland, but home for the 26
year-old now however, is very much Belfast
and Ulster Rugby.
“It’s been a pretty smooth transition back
from Australia,” says the loosehead prop.
“There are a lot of parallels between rugby
organisations so it has been easy. The
professionalism here matched with the
facilities, the attention to detail and how we
prepare each week is something similar to the
set up at the Brumbies so I have found it easy
to settle in.”
Having spent two months in the set up,
Murphy has also been impressed with the
passion and commitment of his team-mates:
“You can see how much it means to the
guys week in and week out no matter what
competition we are playing in, everyone
expects big things and that is really exciting.
The weather has been fantastic and generally
life here is great and we are settling in well. I
like to immerse myself in the local culture and
I am keen to check out all the local spots, so
if anyone has any good suggestions let me
know!
“St George’s Market on a Sunday is good, my
girlfriend enjoys the museums and the history
side of the city, so we are taking a black cab
tour this week. 5A café has to be my favourite
spot so far, down in Stranmillis.”
Having left one of the top rugby franchises
in the southern hemisphere to join one of the
best in Europe, Murphy believes that there are
similarities and differences between Australian
and Irish rugby:
“No matter where in the world that I have
played, the same trends pop up in terms of
training so as a forward, we prepare as a unit,
we go through the week with training, analysis,
reviewing the weekend.
“I don’t think I have been here long enough
to necessarily learn something new but the
emphasis has certainly
changed from what I am
used to, in Australia the game
revolves around post-set
piece but here it is much more
focused on the scrum, lineout
and maul – they are the absolute
number one priority, which has
been a big change.
“I have had to change my mind-set
- the number one role that will affect
me getting picked now is being able
to scrum well, lineout and set piece
from there. The flow on from that
is just a bonus whereas in Australia
the onus lay
heavily on the
post-set piece.
So that has
been the biggest
learning curve for
me so far.
“I just want to play
as much as possible,
keep my head
down, train hard and
continue to work with
Clarkey (Allen Clarke) at
set piece and make sure
I am ticking that box. Like everyone I aspire to
play in the European Cup games but firstly just
play as much rugby as possible and see what
happens.”
Like every player in the squad he has big
ambitions for the season ahead:
“Every time we play at Kingspan Stadium I
am surprised by the intensity of the crowd.
There are so many clubs around the world that
would kill for a set up like this and to have so
many people cheering you on.
“I recently met the supporters club and it
was great to see how informed they are, how
passionate they are. They wanted to know
what type of people we were and what we
would do to be a part of this community
they have created and they told us about the
history of the club and the city and they were
just so proud. I thought that was incredible,
so it’s fantastic to be back playing at home in
front of those guys.”
RUAIDHRI MURPHY:
AT HOME IN ULSTER
RUAIDHRI
MURPHY
Ask Ruaidhri Murphy where home is and
he might give you two different answers.
