Good Start For Murphy

A highlight of Munster’s win over the Dragons last Saturday in the RaboDirect PRO12 League was the length of the pitch move that ended with a try for Danny Barnes.

One of the architects of that score was Johne Murphy whose break took play to metres short of the line before he popped the ball up in the tackle for Barnes to touchdown.

“That twenty minute period there when we scored those tries, when we scored that first phase try. Y'know, that's the way we're trying to play, with tempo and accuracy and we showed that. Keats loves to run the ball and that's what we're trying to do. We want to play in the right areas as well so it's about taking the opportunities when they come and we took them on Saturday for twenty minutes. Hopefully we can do that again.”

His overall assessment of the game. “First half good. Second half struggled as the tempo of the game got us. The three yellow cards didn't help us much. But we were really  good  in that first quarter. So we just have to take the positives.”

“We just wanted to keep playing the way we were playing but unfortunately we didn't keep the tempo of the game up. There were a couple of opportunities that we left out there but first game and tough opposition, we have to be happy with the four points.”

“A win's a win at home first time up so we'll work from those twenty minutes, try to get it to forty, sixty, eighty hopefully.”

His own performance was nearer to the Johne Murphy we saw when he first arrived from Leicester? ” Yeh enjoyed that alright. I was happy with the way I started last season. Then had a bit of a lull around Christmas time. Got back to some form then had another bit of a lull towards the end of the season.”

“So it was a bit of an up 'n down one for me. I just want to find that consistency.  I'm after losing a few kilos, got down a bit lighter so I feel good.”

“Hopefully this is just the start.  There's a few things for me to work on but I'm just looking for that consistency throughout the whole season.”