Advertisement
The Donegal captain is next up on AIB's 'The Toughest Trade'.

French adventure - Michael Murphy swapping life with Donegal for Clermont

The 2012 All-Ireland winning captain is going trying his hand at rugby.

HEโ€™S NOT FROM a rugby hotbed, heโ€™s not really sure what position heโ€™s best suited to play and given he studied German in school, heโ€™ll need to try to break the language barrier as well.

Still thereโ€™s no masking Michael Murphyโ€™s enthusiasm for his next sporting project, heading to the Massif Central in France to try out the life of a professional rugby player with Top 14 outfit Clermont Auvergne.

Itโ€™s part of โ€˜The Toughest Tradeโ€™ โ€“ the brainchild of GAA football championship sponsors AIB โ€“ which has seen in recent years Kilkennyโ€™s Jackie Tyrell try baseball, Armaghโ€™s Aaron Kernan experience soccer, Tipperaryโ€™s Brendan Maher sample cricket and Mayoโ€™s Aidan Oโ€™Shea get a glimpse of American Football.

Murphy jumped at the chance when it was offered to him. Last week Welsh rugby great Shane Williams was immersed in Gaelic football life with Murphyโ€™s home club Glenswilly.

โ€œI met him (Shane Williams) the first day when he was up and I barely laid eyes on him for the week,โ€ says Murphy.

โ€œHe seemed to be quite busy and thatโ€™s generally all I know. The lads got on very well with him in the club, they had a very good word on him.

โ€œThe brief meeting that I had with him too is that heโ€™s a lovely fella. As I say, I heard he scored four points.

โ€œWe were training that night, not too far away with Donegal and it was a bad one, going through the full elements.โ€

A trip to France is a novelty at this time of year for Murphy compared to the usual grind and hardship of pre-season training with Donegal.

โ€œOnce I heard the rugby thing, it definitely was something that would have interested me. The time of year, everything just works out perfectly to go and give it a rattle.

โ€œItโ€™s a game I havenโ€™t played too much of. It wasnโ€™t huge where I was growing up back at home in Letterkenny. It was always a game I would have followed, would have watched.โ€

His time in college in DCU allowed him to have more of a front-row view of rugby.

โ€œItโ€™s just a game I do enjoy watching. When I was up here in college over the four years too, got to a good few of the Leinster games, couple of the Ireland games, various things like that.

โ€œIt probably would have been one of the sports I would have liked to have played if it had have been a wee bit more prominent back home. Yes, I would sit down and watch soccer, Iโ€™d be a Liverpool fan but after that itโ€™d be rugby. I just enjoy watching it, I enjoy the physical nature of it.

โ€œIโ€™d be watching more European stuff rather than watching the weekly French rugby. I would know a bit about Clermont, you would have seen them in the Heineken Cup. I know a few of the Claremont players, Fofana, Parra, and Rougerie is still knocking about too. It would be good to possibly meet them and rub shoulders with them.โ€

What position he will have to get to grips with remains to be seen.

โ€œNot a clue, hopefully somewhere not in the front row anyway!โ€, laughs Murphy.

โ€œI donโ€™t think I would have enough mastery of the oval ball to play fly-half! You would think somewhere along the backs, I would think anyway.

โ€œObviously the challenge of being able to hold and kick an oval ball is going to be something to get used to. The challenge is set out there and I will go for it and try to nail it anyway.โ€

Heโ€™s not concerned about the prospect of incurring injury or that the experience will hinder his upcoming season with Donegal.

โ€œObviously itโ€™s something thatโ€™s going to be thrown at us, the possibility of getting injured. Come here, you could just as easily get injured at a training session back home.

โ€œI certainly wonโ€™t be going into it like that. I will be going into it to try and get as much out of the week as possible, whatever is in store for me, to get into it, learn as much, and really challenge myself.

โ€œIโ€™ll be back in sufficient time for the first national league game. I have done a hell of a lot of training so far this year and being away for five or six days isnโ€™t going to affect things too much. Iโ€™ll be back with 10 days to go before the start of the national league.

โ€œI donโ€™t know the actual whole itinerary but what Iโ€™m expecting is to be going over with the first team and to figure out what theyโ€™re at on a week to week basis.โ€

Taking the Donegal sidestep to Clermont Auvergne
1 / 3
  • Taking the Donegal sidestep to Clermont Auvergne

  • Trading an O'Neill's football for a Gilbert oval ball

  • A dual star - swapping Gaelic football for rugby

Adjusting to a sport with a defined tackle will be a notable difference.

โ€œI did a bit in Australia the time with the compromise rules. I donโ€™t know if itโ€™s a similar tackle, itโ€™s probably a lot more technical than that tackle was.

โ€œThat tackle was just you get the player down in any way possible. Iโ€™m sure there could be a couple of crossovers there but, again, thatโ€™s the bit of the apprehension I have with it.

โ€œIt looks physical but Iโ€™d say itโ€™s a hell of a lot more technical. Anything in and around a ruck is going to be one of the main challenges over the course of the week.โ€

The mention of Australia links in Murphyโ€™s previous brief foray into professional sport. The Donegal captain was a prime target as a youngster for Australian Rules clubs, with Geelong at the head of that pack chasing his signature.

But Murphy reckoned homesickness would have affected him too greatly and he turned it down. Five years ago he captained Donegal to Sam Maguire glory and is enthused about the prospect of leading a Donegal squad in 2017 that is infused with youth after being stripped of experienced figures over the winter.

A stint playing rugby with Clermont Auvergne in late January is a pleasant warm-up for the year ahead.


The42 GAA / SoundCloud

The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!

Limerick recover from mauling by Cork with late Nash goal key to success over Clare

Horgan and Kearney the scoring stars as Cork stay unbeaten in Munster with win over Waterford

Close
9 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Camroc
    Favourite Camroc
    Report
    Sep 26th 2016, 6:31 PM

    Mike Ditka is an idiot. His response was entirely predictable.

    Unsure where this protest is going. Aside from anything else, itโ€™s been fun to see the likes of Ditka, Jerry Jones etc. get their knickers in a twist.

    31
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Kris Ertz
    Favourite Kris Ertz
    Report
    Sep 26th 2016, 7:31 PM

    It really is quite scary how jingoistic some old people in America are. Itโ€™s a feckin national anthem lads, get over yourselves. There are things bigger than you or it.

    18
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Robert O Farrell
    Favourite Robert O Farrell
    Report
    Sep 26th 2016, 8:17 PM

    Kapernick is fast turning into an absolute hero. Thereโ€™s nothing wrong with being proud of your country and itโ€™s military, but putting a flag and some quaint old song ahead of peopleโ€™s lives has no place in todayโ€™s society.

    20
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute ET PHONE HOME
    Favourite ET PHONE HOME
    Report
    Sep 26th 2016, 10:06 PM

    Think the whole thing a class issue rather than a racial issue. The entire protest is a load of codswallop.

    13
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Conor Murray
    Favourite Conor Murray
    Report
    Sep 27th 2016, 9:31 AM

    @ET PHONE HOME: Class and race go hand in hand in America

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute eddie kenneally
    Favourite eddie kenneally
    Report
    Sep 26th 2016, 8:10 PM

    Facts please Stephen.
    Not your opinion!

    10
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute David O Connor
    Favourite David O Connor
    Report
    Sep 26th 2016, 8:41 PM

    Itโ€™s marked as an opinion pieceโ€ฆ

    16
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute vv7k7Z3c
    Favourite vv7k7Z3c
    Report
    Sep 26th 2016, 8:53 PM

    Hi Eddie,

    A) Itโ€™s an opinion piece as Redzone has been for five years now.

    B) Itโ€™s clearly marked as opinion piece.

    C) As for facts, Keith Lamont Scott was shot dead by a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer, Mike Ditka is an idiot and Colin Kaepernick has right on his side. Not sure what more โ€˜factsโ€™ you need.

    D) Have a nice evening.

    40
    See 5 more replies โ–พ
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Miall Noloney
    Favourite Miall Noloney
    Report
    Sep 26th 2016, 9:42 PM

    Oooooo, thatโ€™s a deep burn Eddieโ€ฆ.

    14
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Brown Boots
    Favourite Brown Boots
    Report
    Sep 26th 2016, 9:46 PM

    Are those Eddieโ€™s options? I would go with E. Read the piece first before commenting! I ainโ€™t no journalist writer type person but itโ€™s always best to leave out such things as calling someone โ€˜an idiotโ€™, regardless of how true it may be, it just stoops to a level it doesnโ€™t need to go. โ€˜The moral high ground to which you aspire could turn into into a slippery slope.โ€™ As for my optionโ€ฆ Iโ€™m gonna pick D.

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John Mitchell
    Favourite John Mitchell
    Report
    Sep 26th 2016, 10:03 PM

    Another fact might be that he had a gun and disobeyed both the police officer and his relative who were shouting at him to stop multiple times. Another fact might be that 5 white men were also shot dead by police the same day. Another fact might be that not one of those shootings resulted in race riots where black people were getting attacked by vicious mobs of whites, looting stores, destroying public and private property. A reactive opinion on those facts might be that were such riots were to take place the people perpetrating them would not be mollycoddled by the media and referred to as โ€œprotestersโ€. There are 2 sides to every story. I respect your opinions and thank you for writing the article but my personal assessment of the facts leads me to a conclusion different to yours. Which I am sure you will respect also.

    19
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Conall Finn
    Favourite Conall Finn
    Report
    Sep 27th 2016, 12:19 AM

    What the some of the cops have been doing is totally wrong but there are 30 shootings plus a week in Chicago black/black crime and there has never been any protests about it.
    They are all on the bandwagon at this stage. CK tryna be relevant because he hasnโ€™t been that on a football field in almost 3 years

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute PScald
    Favourite PScald
    Report
    Sep 28th 2016, 12:45 AM

    Colin Keapernick is performing a peace civil protest designed to engage. Itโ€™s worked, it seems blacks arenโ€™t allowed to protest peacefully or with violence without criticism. Fyi, there have been many many protests about crime in Chicago and beyond. You just donโ€™t hear about it, why? Because their black and Noone gives a chitโ€ฆ.. until those protests are about the white establishment.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Robert O Farrell
    Favourite Robert O Farrell
    Report
    Sep 26th 2016, 11:00 PM

    I think one thing everyone can probably agree on is that the race issue and trouble at the moment in the US is one hell of a complex , emotive and deeply polarising subject. Rights , wrongs , double standards and hypocrisy on both sides.

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Barry Newell
    Favourite Barry Newell
    Report
    Sep 26th 2016, 11:03 PM

    YouTube Shannon Sharpe heโ€™s brilliant at explaining. You will understand it after.

    1
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.