This week’s Heineken Cup hero has played in as many finals as any other Irish player and is one of the all-time leading try scorers in the competition. It’s Leicester Tiger’s finest, Geordan Murphy.
Before Leinster’s current dominance and Munster’s successful streak in the mid 2000s, the one Irish player who most represented Heineken Cup success was Geordan Murphy.
When you think about the teams that have the most profound impact on the Heineken Cup since its inception, Leicester Tigers are up there with Munster and Toulouse.
Granted, Leinster may have won more titles than both Leicester and Munster, but they didn’t start dining at the top table until relatively recently – their first final appearance was only three years ago – and they had long yearned to be regarded, maybe even feared, in the same manner as the European heavyweights mentioned above.
Think of Leicester at their peak and names like Martin Johnson, Neil Back, Martin Corry and Austin Healey come rolling off the tongue, but Geordan Murphy played as big a part in the Tigers’ success as any of his illustrious teammates, playing in all but one of the club’s five Heineken Cup Final appearances to date.
With Tim Stimpson filling the full-back berth, Murphy had to be content with a place on the wing in the 2001 Heineken Cup victory over Stade Francais, as he did in the victory over Munster a year later, a game that has since gone down in infamy because of Neil Back’s wandering hand.
Murphy, complete with brilliant handlebar moustache, receives a cap from Martin Corry following his 50th Heineken Cup appearance against Leicester in 2007
That it should be remembered for those reasons is a pity for Murphy, who scored a try in an excellent overall performance, one of the 25 he has managed in the competition for the Tigers.
No Tigers player has scored more tries in the Heineken Cup, only four players – Vincent Clerc, Brian O’Driscoll, Dafydd James and Shane Horgan – have scored more in the history of the competition and Murphy’s try-scoring ratio is a little better than one every three games. Whatever way you look at those stats, they’re mightily impressive.
Given the calibre of the Leicester side in 2002, Murphy probably thought he’d go on to win a lot more Heineken Cups in his career but he hasn’t won any since, although it’s not from the lack of trying.
Murphy was at full back by the time Leicester faced Wasps in the 2007 final, but the Tigers were on the end of a bit of a trimming from Lawrence Dallaglio and company and although the scoreline was much closer, the end result wasn’t much better when Murphy captained the side against Leinster at Murrayfield two years later.
Although he’s now retired from international rugby and totting up 74 caps is no mean feat, many Irish supporters will be of the opinion that Murphy was underused during what were his peak years in the middle of the last decade, a time when Dean Richards saw fit to call him ‘The George Best of rugby’.
It didn’t help that himself and Eddie O’Sullivan didn’t quite see eye to eye, but while he wasn’t always valued by steady Eddie, that was never a concern at Welford Road, where the Naas native remains as captain in his 15th season at the club.
Given the start the Tigers have made to the Heineken Cup so far this season, making an appearance in his fifth final will be a tall order for Murphy, but even if he never makes it back there, he can reflect on an outstanding contribution to the competition when he eventually hangs up his boots.
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