LONG READ Ben Murphy – Connacht’s ‘quiet guy’ making some noise in race to succeed Ireland icons

Take a trip to the west of Ireland and you will find a world of change at Connacht Rugby. ‘The Sportsground’ still has a dog-track hooping around the pitch but it now lies in the shadow of a huge, new stand. This is part of the ongoing revamp at what was rechristened Dexcom Stadium last season. Connacht have kept the old gym, equipment and that hard-earned Pro12 trophy (from the 2015-16 season). Most everything else has been ripped up and started again.

Former Leinster and Ireland lock Malcolm O’Kelly still shudders when he recalls trips to Galway when it was wind-swept, rain-sodden, freezing or all of the above. Single-pane windows rattling in the cramped ‘away’ dressing room as drafts swept up and in from everywhere.

The Westerners have borrowed from Tottenham Hotspur and will have a new, exclusive tunnel-view lounge in that main stand. Lucky punters can look through a one-way window that allows them to see both sides lining up in the tunnel, before games, and conducting pre- and post-match interviews. The ‘home’ dressing room now has access to a mini indoor pitch for last-minute drills and instructions. The new ‘away’ dressing room will be cosier than the previous version, but not too much. Connacht do not want visiting teams getting too comfortable.

The other big change – as the playing squad has not been reinforced much – is the arrival of former England, Leinster and Racing 92 coach, Stuart Lancaster. The Penrith native is highly regarded in Ireland and was close to an IRFU gig when Pete Wilkins stepped away from Connacht and they needed a new head coach. There was still a possibility of taking over the Wallabies, until Joe Schmidt opted to extend his stay and then draft in Les Kiss to get them to the World Cup.

The Connacht squad has been invigorated by the major advances to their stadium and training facilities, and the arrival of a world-class coach. Back-row Sean Jansen insists they are capable of being ‘a top-four side’ in the United Rugby Championship. Jansen was conscious, when I spoke to him, not to talk down the previous coaching staff. He is so high on Lancaster, however, that he almost drifts into the stratosphere when discussing ‘Stu’.

I felt there was a window of opportunity there and I put a plan in place for myself to be in a position to take it.

“There’s a lot of belief in the squad and that belief isn’t false,” confirms Connacht scrum-half Ben Murphy. “It has come from how we have trained over the summer, which has been top-class. What’s most important now is that we get off to a great start. Three of our first five games, this season, are at home. The biggest focus has to be getting off to a winning start, building a buzz around the Dexcom and getting the fans involved.”

Connacht got off to that winning start against Benetton, last Saturday. The Italians caused some scares but Lancaster’s side claimed a try-scoring bonus point in their 26-15 victory.

Murphy made his senior Ireland debut during the summer, with bench appearances in wins over Georgia and Portugal. He will be keen to build on a debut season with Connacht that included 14 starts and a host of fine performances. On Saturday, though, it was needs must. When centre Byron Ralston was helped off, the backline was rejigged and Murphy played 34 minutes on the wing.

For all of the early season shine surrounding Lancaster, the former Leinster scrum-half credits the previous coaching regime for his big shove into Ireland contention. Murphy had played 14 times for Leinster over three seasons, including three Champions Cup appearances, but jumped at the chance to head west. “As soon as I got the call from Pete (Wilkins), I was chomping at the bit to go. I felt this club really suited the way I played, and felt I could add to the environment here. Really, it was a massive sense of excitement.

“My big goal was settled upon, after I moved here, when I sat down with the coaches. We all felt, collectively, that there was an opportunity to get into the Ireland squad, at that stage, as a young scrum-half. Looking ahead to the [2025] summer, then, you had Conor Murray retiring and Jamo (Jamison Gibson-Park) away with the Lions. I felt there was a window of opportunity there and I put a plan in place for myself to be in a position to take it.”

Being thrown in for the first game last season was a big call by the management… I wanted to make sure that I repaid their faith.

Impediments to that plan came in the form of his new Connacht team-mates. Caolin Blade has played three times for Ireland and, at 31, still has Test ambitions. Matthew Devine has been touted as a future, long-term No.9 for the province and started every game of the U20 Six Nations, in 2022, when Ireland clinched a Grand Slam. Colm Reilly is another Ireland U20 player on the Connacht books.

“Being thrown in for the first game last season was a big call by the management,” says Murphy. “After making that big call, I wanted to make sure that I repaid their faith. Thankfully, I had a good game that day. Then it was a matter of just building, game on game. I found that while I started well, I had a couple of the more shaky games. I learned more from those games than anything, and was able to push on even more, come the end of the year. It was a big learning curve, the whole year, really.”

“Coming to Connacht,” he adds, “I felt my game was in a good place. I didn’t feel I was coming in and needing to make massive changes. Just working on that consistency of what I was doing. The coaches last year were great in terms of giving me little pointers. I approached it game to game and thankfully got to a place when I got into that Ireland squad.”

Murphy is the son of current Ulster head coach, Richie Murphy, and brother of Ulster out-half Jack. Last season, 25 of the extended Murphy family headed to Galway to watch Ben and Jack go up against each other as Ulster edged Connacht 17-7. There were photos of the lads with proud family members after the game, and a lot of post-match analysis back at the Connacht Hotel, just down the road.

Murphy describes his household, growing up, as “sports mad”. It was the two lads, their rugby coach father and mother, Stephanie. Their father started as Leinster’s skills and kicking coach, when they were in primary school, before job-sharing that role with Ireland from 2013 to 2015. Richie joined the Ireland coaching ticket full-time after that, and remained there until 2021, when he took over as the national U20 head coach.

“We started off going to Leinster games, then Ireland,” Ben Murphy recalls. “I always remember the more I went to the matches, the more of a taste I got and the more I wanted to be involved. I was lucky enough to go along to some training sessions, too, and watch the likes of Conor Murray, who would have been one of the best scrum-halves in the world. I would have watched him intently, those times I was lucky enough to get in, and would have been wishing and hoping to be in a similar position, one day.”

“I started out as a 10,” he continues. “I was quite a small child, though, so I got moved to scrum-half before I moved into secondary school. Once I was there, it became clear that I was never going to move out of scrum-half. From then, I started looking at nines out there. The big one for me would have been someone like Aaron Smith, who would have reminded me of myself, height and stature-wise, and I loved the way he played the game. I never really tried to base my game off one player – I try to take things from everyone – but Aaron is probably one I took the most from.”

There was that concern I wasn’t going to be big enough. I suppose that gives you a chip on your shoulder, and you want to prove that you’re physically able.

In terms of controlling the tempo and dictating terms, Murphy cites Conor Murray as an early role model. “You look at Conor’s peak, from what would have been around 2016 to 2020. When you went to the Aviva Stadium, himself and Johnny Sexton were the lads really running the game. That is something I’ve really been working on with Stuart here – trying to impose myself in that way. Even now, I would look back over old games and see how he managed that.”

Murphy is 5ft 9in now but says his lack of height was a concern, personally and in the family, during his secondary school years. “I didn’t get picked for the first team in my school (Presentation College, Bray) because of my height. There was that concern too in my first year of senior rugby in school, that I wasn’t going to be big enough. I suppose a little bit of that gives you a chip on your shoulder, and you want to prove that you’re physically able.

“Being that little bit smaller made me improve things like tackling, carrying to a point where I could survive, then try to build up to a point where I could dominate or have the edge.”

Despite having deep-seated ambitions to make it at Leinster, Murphy’s first proper senior squad experience arrived in the 2020-21 season when he was invited down to train with Munster. “I was still with the sub-academy, at that stage, and wasn’t even up with the main squad, at UCD,” he recalls. “We were down in Donnybrook. I got a phone call one afternoon to ask me about it, and it seemed like a no-brainer. Get a bit of experience with a professional team.

“When I went down, of course, Conor was there and Craig Casey was just coming through. It was a complete eye-opener for me, in terms of how the professional game was run. I learned so much in that three months that I’ve still carried forward to now.

To see the detail that goes into an international Test was great. To then be able to get out on the pitch in the summer and contribute was brilliant too.

“Conor was great. Even when I went into Six Nations camp, earlier this year, he was very good. He’s always been there to answer any questions and make sure I was okay. He would be the one initiating conversations and feedback, which made me asking him questions a lot easier.”

Back in February, Murphy was rewarded for a fine start to the 2024-25 season when Andy Farrell named him – along with James McNabney, Hugh Cooney and provincial team-mate Cathal Forde – as one of four ‘development players’ in his Six Nations squad. “I got an email, on the day the squad was announced, letting me know,” he recalls. “I was non-stop on the email, all morning, hoping for a message to come through. It was great. Got to tell the family, which was special. The whole experience was top-class.

“I got to watch it in the Six Nations and I was 24^th man for the England game. Getting to see it all, experience it and live it for those two weeks was just incredible. To see the detail that goes into an international Test was great. To then be able to get out on the pitch in the summer and contribute was brilliant too.

“When you initially get told you’re going to be that involved there’s that feeling of… not shock, but it does give you a jolt. From there, you then just have to prepare as if you are going to play because there are lots of stories in the past of situations where lads have been called in, last minute. You have to make sure that if you are thrown in, it will probably be the biggest game of your life so far. You have to get ready to experience something like that. England is definitely one of the biggest games, each year, so it was a great taster for something that I’ll hopefully get to experience in the future.”

He deputised for Ireland’s tour captain, Craig Casey, during the summer and was taken by the huge levels of preparation interim head coach Paul O’Connell and his staff put into every aspect of their time away.

The scrum-half hopefuls have already formed a snaking queue, but Murphy is right at the top, behind Casey, and eager for more action this autumn.

In early August, he was back scooting around Galway with his team-mates and friends – Forde, Seán O’Brien and Eoin de Buitléar – but now as an Ireland international. With Lancaster now in-situ, Murphy’s next big goal is to start speaking up, and out, more.

“I’m naturally quite a quiet guy and introverted, but Stuart has chatted with me and encouraged me to try to develop that side of my game. I’d like to think I’ve tried to meet that challenge. It is probably more of a long-term thing but I feel like I’m making steps in the right direction.”

The Conor Murray era officially ended, in September, when Ireland’s greatest ever scrum-half retired. The man that most threatens that title, Jamison Gibson-Park, is 33 and will be 35 when the World Cup rolls around. The scrum-half hopefuls have already formed a snaking queue, but Murphy is right at the top, behind Casey, and eager for more action this autumn.