A WISER JENNY MURPHY STILL GETTING JOY FROM RUGBY
Women’s Interprovincial Championship
By Daire Walsh
It might be some time since she picked up the last of her 31 international caps, but Brannockstown’s Jenny Murphy is still going strong in the blue of Leinster.
A two-time Six Nations winner with Ireland – including the groundbreaking Grand Slam success of 2013 – Murphy most recently donned the green jersey at the home-based World Cup in 2017.
Despite stepping away from the national set-up in the aftermath of their eighth-place finish at those finals, she continued to feature for Old Belvedere at club level. An anterior cruciate ligament injury kept Murphy sidelined for an extended spell, albeit she took up a coaching role with the Naas senior women’s team during her recuperation.
After bouncing back to full fitness, she not only resumed club duty with Belvo, but also linked up at the provincial grade with Leinster once again. Last weekend saw her lining out at inside centre for the eastern province’s 38-10 victory over Connacht in a Women’s Interprovincial Championship opener at Energia Park, where she scored two second half tries to round off an impressive individual display.
It had been almost 16 months since Leinster last played a competitive game with a revamped women’s rugby calendar seeing the interpro series moving from its previous summer slot to the start of 2023. Having helped Old Belvedere to reach the semi-final of this season’s truncated All-Ireland League, Murphy felt ready for the visit of the westerners to south Dublin.
“With a home game, it’s always really nice to play. It has been a while since all of us were in blue and so many new caps as well. It was exciting, lovely to be back. I’m not the most prolific of try scorers, so to get two as well, I’d be greedy and take that as well. Take some of the glory,” Murphy remarked at a Leinster media briefing this week.
“I felt a little bit sharper. My body was in good nick, I was being a bit more patient with myself. I think when you get to the winter of your career, you have to be a little bit savvier with how you’re training.
“Listen, I don’t need to be doing deadlifts and PBs anymore. I know I can do it, but is that going to benefit me on a pitch? I’ve put in the training years already, so it’s just about being smarter and listening to my body that little bit more.”
A couple of hours after recording her brace in front of an enthusiastic Energia crowd, one of Murphy’s club-mates was doing likewise up in the south. Although she plies her trade with Old Belvedere, Deirbhile Nic a Bhaird is a native of Cork and featured alongside Blackrock College duo Dorothy Wall and Maeve Og O’Leary in the Munster back-row for their 34-0 demolition of Ulster at Musgrave Park.
The versatile Nic a Bhaird also played hooker during the course of the contest and the clinical edge she showcased in bagging two tries for the competition’s defending champions is one of many reasons why Murphy is wary of what awaits them on the Leeside this Saturday.
“Going to Munster is always tough, but it’s always a game that I really enjoy playing. Deirbh has been in flying form, both in Belvo and you see at the weekend with Munster too. It’s going to be a tough and abrasive clash against Munster, it always is. I’m looking forward to it.
“Getting down there on Friday evening and prepping, getting the ball rolling. There’s still a few training sessions to go between now and then. A few things to work on, but we’ll be more focused on ourselves and what we can bring I guess. As opposed to looking at what Munster are going to bring to the table.”
Although she has become known for her prowess on the rugby field, Murphy previously excelled across a variety of sporting disciplines. In addition to winning an All-Ireland ladies club football intermediate championship crown with London outfit Parnell’s in 2012, she also donned the green and black of women’s soccer heavyweights Peamount United.
Across both of these teams, she played with some noteworthy sporting personalities. In Parnell’s, she joined forces with current Republic of Ireland defender Niamh Fahey – who won an All-Ireland senior football title with her native Galway in 2004.
At Peamount, Murphy played alongside Irish boxing legend Katie Taylor, her close friend Louise Quinn (a former student of Newbridge College) and Aine O’Gorman. In unison with Fahey, the latter duo are amongst a select group of players to have accumulated 100 caps or more for the Republic of Ireland women’s national team.
This makes them virtual certainties to make the cut for this summer’s World Cup finals in Australia and New Zealand.
Given she was once on a similar footing to the likes of Quinn and O’Gorman, it is tempting to think that Murphy might have been joining them on the plane to the southern hemisphere. However, she is more than content to have chosen rugby as her main sporting outlet.
“I’m absolutely delighted for the girls. I always really liked soccer and really enjoyed it, but when I first started playing rugby I genuinely fell in love with it. I think that’s the difference,” Murphy added.
“I love soccer, got to play it at a decent level with some fantastic players that are now qualified for a World Cup and doing amazing things, but I just fell in love with rugby and it’s something that I knew I wanted to do and be better at. I got so much and I’m still getting so much joy from it. If I stuck with soccer, I’m pretty sure I’d be going as a fan.”