Richie Murphy: 'It's been a little bit of an unsettling period'
For new Ulster Rugby boss Richie Murphy, coaching is very much a vocation. It can mean long hours and plenty of pressure, but he wouldn’t rather be making a living any other way.
Murphy has been coaching for some 25 years, having started out in his late 20s after a knee injury curtailed his playing career as a goal-kicking fly-half.
Now he’s a month into a new role at the helm of Ulster, having come on board in the wake of Dan McFarland’s departure.
It’s a position that comes with a lot of scrutiny, especially when results don’t go your way. But, as for whether he is still enjoying coaching as much as ever, he instantly replies: “I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t!
“I love rugby. The idea of working in an office job doesn’t really appeal to me.
“I have no problem being on my laptop at 10 o’clock at night and then getting up at 6 o’clock in the morning and going to work.
“It’s probably a bit of a vocation all right, coaching rugby.
“But it’s something that I really enjoy.
“Being around the players on a daily basis keeps you young and I am definitely excited to see what we can do over the next while.”
Born and raised in county Wicklow, Murphy played at No 10 for Greystones, Clontarf, Carlow and Old Belvedere, while also representing Leinster.
With his knee problem forcing a change of direction, he began coaching at club level.
From 2003, he worked for the IRFU, initially at development and Academy level before being brought in as a kicking coach at Leinster.
He then spent the best part of a decade as a member of the Ireland coaching team, going on to take charge of the U20s in 2021, winning successive Six Nations Grand Slams and reaching the World Championship final last year.
Now he’s embarking on a new challenge in Belfast.
“It’s definitely a different role,” he says. “But the U20s was a really good stepping stone for coming up here in terms of shaping the way I wanted it and forming a very tight bond between the players.
“That gave me a lot of confidence stepping into a role like this.”
The 54-year-old Murphy could hardly have had a more testing initiation in his new job.
First there were two BKT URC games out in South Africa – hard-fought defeats against the Hollywoodbets Sharks (22-12) and the DHL Stormers (13-7).
Then came successive trips to France in the EPCR Challenge Cup – a notable 40-17 last 16 victory away to Montpellier followed by a 53-14 quarter-final exit at the hands of Clermont Auvergne.
“It definitely feels like it was a tough start, even just to be away for those four weeks,” says Murphy.
Now Ulster are back on home soil and back on BKT URC duty, with Cardiff Rugby the visitors to the Kingspan Stadium on Friday night.
“We are coming off the back of a difficult enough four weeks on the road – two weeks in South Africa and then two weeks back and forth to France,” said Murphy.
“It’s been a difficult period for players and staff and obviously with the turnover of coaching it’s been a little bit of an unsettling period.
“But I don’t think you get an easy week when you are in professional rugby. While we all love it, it is a bit of a grind. “You are turning up every week and trying to re-invent and add on so your team is always going forward.
“If you stand still, everyone else will go past you. It’s an interesting role.”
He continued: “We know what we need to do in relation to the next number of weeks and we are hoping to get a good start on Friday night.
“I’ve only been here four weeks, so we are at the very early stages of it, but everyone is pulling in the right direction and wants to see Ulster Rugby succeed.
“We have got some tough games coming up, but it’s also something to be excited about. We can go and chase trying to get into the quarter-finals.”
Ulster currently lie eighth in the table – the final play-off spot – with five rounds of matches to go.
“There are definitely two or three teams that are clearly out in front at the moment and everyone is trying to chase them,” said Murphy.
“You can see how tight it is from 11th up to fourth. There is probably a lot of movement going to happen over the next number of weeks.
“The competition is extremely strong, with big names and big opportunities to do things you don’t normally get to do.
“I spent my first two weeks in the job in South Africa. Going to Durban and playing the Sharks in their stadium, it’s an incredibly tough place to go at this time of year in the heat, but it’s also an incredible experience for young players to play there. The Stormers ground in Cape Town is also a very special place. The atmosphere and the games are very different to what we have up here.”
Murphy’s title is interim head coach, so does he have ambitions to continue in the role beyond this season?
“I have loved my time with the U20s and would be quite happy to go back to them if that happens,” he replies.
“But I’m also very keen on the idea of a longer term thing in Ulster. It’s a job that I’d really like to do and I suppose that will come down to whether Ulster want me or not.”
Comments on RugbyPass
I’d say France was far more hard done by in the 2011 final than the All Blacks in this game. Joubert simply refused to call a penalty against the All Blacks in the last quarter even directing an All Black to drop a ball he picked up in an offside position rather than penalizing him. This article also totally discounts the efforts of PSTD. Ask Jordie how well he played. Or the backup flank who played hooker for the entire game. Siya was also a brilliant tackle by Richie from scoring a blinder. Pollard was also fantastic. Look I don’t like the boks style but the only thing more questionable than the content of this article is the timing of it. Get over it already
139 Go to commentsDad Marty was also a handy rugby player for Linwood back in the day. Great bloke. Sensational softball career.
2 Go to commentsWhat ifs are always dangerous. If you look at the game before Sam cane got sent of SA was dominating. You could make the argument the going down to 14 men rallied the troops and made them have to play to win which is always dangerous.
139 Go to commentsOmg… you are bruised And battered Benny. Stop crying … the scoreboard speaks. What a pathetic lover you are.. 🤣🤣🤣
139 Go to commentsPacific Lions, cry me a river
139 Go to commentsThis is the single worst piece of journalism I have ever seen since your last one. As a neutral, who really states that there should be an asterisk next to a win? You are an utter embarrassment to real AB fans, journalism and that joke of a house which pays you for this nonsense. Get a life, Ben.
139 Go to commentsGuys. Cancel the World Cup champions after this analysis. It changes everything. Ben knows. We’ll have to unengrave the Bokke off the trophy and hand it to the ABs, now that I’ve been enlightened about this illegitimate win. This needs to be done. Now!
139 Go to commentsBen is right here though, Springboks were woefully poor with the advantage they had throughout this game. The France match was heroic because that was an even contest this match had it taken place in Rugby Championship would have been an easy win for NZ. If anything this match should tell the Bok coaches that a lot of this team should be changed. They beat this same NZ team by record margin with the same circumstances but with a different core. They bring back the tried and tested guys and they nearly botch this game.
139 Go to commentsI knew who wrote this article from the first few words in the headline…lol. The red card actually did the ABs a favour. It galvanized them, only then did they step up a gear. Before that there was zero momentum.
139 Go to commentsFirstly the foul on Bongi was a planned move just like the NZ master plan with Bryce Lawrence you kiwis are filthy fux perhaps try to play a cleaner game next time I doubt that’s possible tho but don’t worry world rugby is on yr side they trying to take away all the BOKS strengths to help all you weakling as Jeremy Clarkson would say LA OO ZA ERR..🤣
139 Go to commentsAbsolutely spot on Ben. I certainly wouldn't gloat over a win like that. Frustrating as it is it's done and dusted and history will forever show the result.
139 Go to commentsHo hum.
139 Go to commentsNo question they were the better team. But that is the beauty of sport isn’t it!
139 Go to commentsEveryone is into Hurling in Ireland according to Porter, but only 11 of Ireland's 32 counties enter a team into the national competition. Same old blarney.
1 Go to commentsLet’s be honest. The draw and scheduling in the World Cup was a joke but South Africa found a way after having to go the hard (nearly impossible) way to the Cup Final via France and England. NZ had a hard game against France (lost) and had 5 weeks to prepare for the Quarter, 3 weeks knowing it was Ireland. NZ theerfore had to win one big game against an Irish team who played SA and then Scotland 7 days before. They won and it was de facto a semi final because they were playing a relatively weak Argentina team and it was a walk over. In the final a very rested NZ team was playing a very tired SA team and still lost. They couldn’t score more than 11 points. Put another way SA had to find a way to win while tired and they achieved that. NZ should thank their lucky stars that they fixed the scheduling in 2015 otherwise they would be dealing with a Bok treble.
139 Go to commentsPerhaps if Bongi wasn’t targeted and removed from the game in the first 3 minutes it would have been quite a different game. Maybe if NZ also faced the same competition the Boks faced to their win NZ would have looked quite different. The final score shows who outplayed who.
139 Go to commentsRubbish article! Abuladze played most of Exeters matches when fit. He got injured against Glasgow a while ago and is out for the rest of the season, thats why he hasnt played for Exeter and Georgia recently. Do some proper research next time!
1 Go to commentsGotta love it when kids throw their toys out the pram and can’t hack it with the grown ups debate. Here’s looking at you turlough! 😉🤣
148 Go to commentsThey lost the game period move on
139 Go to commentsSpringboks won! Stop winging. You can change the game however much you and your rugby colonizing IRB want to and the Springboks will win you at that too. Your mind is colonized my friend get a life
139 Go to comments