IT WAS HEADLINED as a ‘blow’ to Connacht when it was confirmed earlier this month that Josh Murphy would take a year out of rugby to further his career in medicine.
Certainly, the western province will feel Murphy’s absence: the forward made 17 starts across the back five of Connacht’s pack last season, clocking up 1,172 minutes as Andy Friend’s side salvaged a URC play-off run from a poisonous start.
But Friend’s successor, Pete Wilkins, would have been planning for a season without the big Wexford man even before his promotion to head coach was formalised back in February. Indeed, Connacht knew as far back as the 2021/22 season, when they first sounded out Murphy about swinging west from Leinster, that a more dramatic career pivot lay ahead in ’23/24.
“I was honest with Connacht, I just told them the craic,” recalls Murphy, who recently started his intern year as doctor. “I would need to do the internship after one year there — because you can’t leave it for too long after you graduate.
“So, it was up to them whether they wanted to offer me a two-year contract or a one-year contract.
They knew this was important to me and they were really supportive: they offered me the two-year contract and they very kindly gave me the option to either continue playing after my first year or to go and do this internship and then complete my contract a year later.
“So I was able to choose this,” Murphy continues, having just finished a day shift for his new team: the ENT (ear, nose and throat) department at St James’ Hospital in Dublin.
“It was a really nice security that I was given by Connacht. There were no bells or whistles about it, I suppose.
“This is a lot to take on but it’s nice to see the fruits of your labour from college, which I was doing for so long. It’s nice to apply some of the information that’s in your head, to go and use it, even if I am missing out on a year of rugby.
“And it’s nice to be able to give this my full attention for the first time since I started studying it a good few years ago.”
In all, it’s taken him eight years of book work and training to get this far.
When Murphy first sat down to fill out his CAO form as a student at St Michael’s College, he found himself torn between engineering (“I like maths”) and medicine (“I also like science”).
His grandfather was a surgeon in Galway but this didn’t consciously influence Murphy’s eventual choice. Ultimately, a general love for people and, more pertinently, the idea of treating them, struck him as being the more fulfilling way to one day make a living. “It sounds real generic…” Murphy scoffs at himself. “I just don’t have a big poetic answer for ya, unfortunately.”
Indeed, the romance might instead be found in one of his college jobs: Murphy has balanced his studies with professional rugby for the last six years since coming through the Leinster academy, making 61 appearances for his native province before joining Connacht at the start of last season.
Work-wise, it was always going to be medicine. And while was rugby was no accident, either — Murphy played schools ball with Michael’s and went on to represent Ireland U20s, captaining them against Wales in the 2015 World Cup — it typically sat a rung below his studies in UCD on his list of long-term priorities.
“When you’re in college and you’re actually trying to make it in rugby, you never actually know if it’s going to become a career — you just always want to make the next team,” Murphy explains.
It took a while for it to cross my radar that it would actually be possible to do rugby professionally — which was really cool, but because it took me so long, I had never made one big plan in relation to, ‘I’ll do medicine at this point,’ or ‘I’ll leave rugby at that point’. Rugby’s such an enjoyable thing to play that you just keep going until someone says ‘no.’
“Long-term-wise, no one told me medicine would be eight years in college — but I was in too far to try and change it,” Murphy laughs. “And now, long-term, I’m happy that I did it.”
For the two years after he graduated in 2021 — which encased his final season at Leinster and his first season at Connacht — UCD allowed Murphy to tackle his post-grad in a part-time capacity: he would continue his hospital training mostly on days in which he didn’t have rugby training, or after half-sessions.
For the first time in his life, sport became the primary focus, but he describes the feeling of not having college exams hanging over him as being merely “interesting” rather than especially alleviating.
See, it was always in the back of my mind, even while playing rugby, that this internship was coming up. That was a bit strange for the last six months of rugby: you’re wondering if you need to go over your notes from the whole eight years. ‘What the hell do you do while you’re waiting?’ It was weird not having that specific focus.
In retrospect, ‘weird’ was probably good.
“Now, my days have taken a bit of a turn!” Murphy says. “Earlier starts and later finishes would be the best description of it — and less sleep.
“I’m mainly based on the wards, day to day, and then you’ve got certain bits of on-call that you have to do as well on the weekends or at night.
“I kind of do what I’m told,” the 28-year-old laughs. “I’m trying to think of how I can best describe it to you, but… I don’t want to sound too casual about it.
“Basically, I make some management and treatment decisions and, if someone is sick, I try to do my best; and then I tell someone more senior if I’m not sure what I’m doing.
“Being an intern is all part of the training to become a fully registered doctor in Ireland — but in practicality, you are a doctor on the team.
“It’s not just sitting back and observing, which is the case when you’re a student. I’m now making some decisions. It’s learning by doing, I suppose. That’s what an intern is: I’m a doctor but a very junior doctor!”
Murphy, who began this latest stage of his training in July, will spend just over four more months in St James’ and then a further six months in Kilkenny.
Then, it’ll be back to Connacht next summer ahead of his deferred second season.
In the meantime, of course, he’ll have to keep himself in good nick. Murphy says the western province have been “class” on that front, both offering him any kind of S&C content he needs and stressing that it’s fine if he wishes to take a break from their official program.
He won’t be much shy for rugby fitness, anyway, because Murphy has already joined 2021/22 AIL champions Clontarf ahead of their upcoming Division 1A campaign, even enjoying a joint training session with former employers Leinster at Castle Avenue on Tuesday night.
“I thought I’d actually want more of a break from rugby, maybe, to give my body a rest. But I found I was finished with my break pretty quickly over the summer!” Murphy says.
“So, I’m going to play AIL and hopefully we’ll go well in that. I’ve been doing a good bit of gym and stuff, which is good to clear the head anyway, but training and playing with Clontarf should keep my body up to scratch.
“I think people underestimate how good the AIL is,” adds Murphy, who previously represented UCD for several seasons before breaking through at Leinster. “It’s not that big a step-down from professional rugby — you just kinda train less.
“I’ll just be trying to fit into this team and help us win. It’s not like I’ll be scoring 10 tries a week. These are very, very good teams and I’m really looking forward to going back to it and seeing what I can add to Clontarf. It should be fun.”
Along similar lines, Murphy reflects with a real fondness on his first season with Connacht.
The versatile forward made career-high appearances for a single season last term, becoming a fans’ favourite as the men from the west transformed ominous early-season form into their most enjoyable run since their Pro12 title seven years ago.
And fans across the province can rest assured that Murphy will be back in a year’s time to see to his unfinished business at The Sportsground and beyond.
“It was great. I loved it. I loved playing for Connacht,” he says.
“I loved — once I performed, I suppose — getting to play more games. I really, really enjoyed that side of it, trying to improve on things on the pitch as opposed to my games at Leinster which were a little bit more sparse depending on what time of year it was.
“In that regard, it was hard to build on any momentum you might have gained at Leinster, whereas at Connacht last year, I played — I dunno, whatever it was — 20-odd games and got to try to improve nearly every week.
It was still very competitive in Connacht and by no means was I a guarantee on the team, but it was nice to try and push yourself in a different environment and to push for slightly different objectives, as well: the URC was almost a given for Leinster for a few years, so it was a really enjoyable goal in Connacht to go after that and get to the play-offs.
“I really, really enjoyed it.”
“I’m missing it — I’m missing it a little bit, now, to be honest,” Murphy adds, pausing for a moment. “You see that the train just rolls on without you. It’s a strange feeling.”
All of that being said, Murphy didn’t think twice about ducking out of the team WhatsApp group earlier this summer as he prepared for 12 months on the wards.
“I said I’d better get out for the year and come back in fresh, start introducing myself again next year,” he laughs.
“I couldn’t be dealing with all the chat in it… with all the free time the lads have!”
Excellent read which the result and results over the past number of years in perspective.
Stick with Stephen and staff .it will eventually prove fruititous.
@John Kenny: John I think we should stick with him for sure but disagree with your final sentence. Look at the teams that we would call in the past our barometer: Belgium, Austria, Serbia, Croatia, Romania, Hungary, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Denmark, Turkey, Czech Republic, Poland. These were sides that not so long ago Ireland had a 50/50 shot of beating. Over two legs you’d of said yes. How many of those would we compete against never mind get a result off of now? Our level is tier 4/ seeded 4 whatever they call it now. This Luxembourg team is our current level. Here are some others Azerbaijan, Faroe Islands, Macedonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Estonia. This is our level now
Thanks for the article Paul. The result from last night is the repercussions of over 20 years of mismanagement from the FAI. The problem with this team as been apparent since the 2018 World Cup Qualifiers, in the final stage of the O’ Neil era. We should follow the footsteps Wales made at the beginning of the 2010′s under Toshack. They blooded in young players such as Bale and it was worked for them. We are in this process under Kenny. The players are the problem not the manager and it won’t change if we change the manager.
@Sorcha Morrissey Excellent points re. Wales.
Had forgotten that .
Look, Michael O Neill in Northern Ireland went through a similar string of poor results. Won 1 in 19 ,I think. Lost to Luxembourg away and drew at home.N.I. were ranked 129 in world rankings and he got to 20 in his 8 years stint.Built a side over these years.
More time required with this project.
@John Kenny: I also forgot about Micheal O Neill. We just badly need to restart the whole concept of football in Ireland.
Out of his depth end of
@Bar Hay: Bar stool expert …..elaborate please?
@Austin Shields: fairly self explanatory at this stage go back to bed man
@Bar Hay: your wrong about Kenny, he’s forgotten more then you will ever learn . You go back to bed or at least , educate yourself
@Shane Lad: ok lad you stick with Kenny it will be great craic
@Bar Hay: Explain why? What would a new coach do differently with this squad?Some thought we were going to qualify for World Cup, most football people knew was’nt going to happen this time with this squad.Fair play to Kenny for trying to get them playing decent football, not his fault they can’t get the ball into the net, but these are the players he has at the moment. At least with Dundalk he had players who were used to winning and knew how to play….
@running man: kenny has a league of ireland C. V his last step up in level in Scotland didn’t go to well… He is not and has not enough high level management… Way out of his depth… A dic##ead Delaney appointment…
@running man: we can’t score and just got beat by Luxembourg and the manager was actually frightened talking on tv last night and you want me to explain seriously
@Damien Garvey: Damien – he isn’t just a league of ireland manager he is a league of ireland manager that made a league of Ireland team competitive in the europa league getting points on teams with vastly more money and experienced and playing great football……. that’s exactly the type of cv we need someone who can do more with less – but last night wasn’t good enough.
@Bar Hay: Honest question…do you think NI fans thought Micheal O’Neill was out of his depth??
@Damien Garvey: You’ve chosen to ignore what he did with the under 21s there
Exactly. Let’s develop our own academies and stop hoping the British do that for us. At least its out of our hands now with Brexit.
Perspective is needed. Irish players are of poor quality which took the field last night. Injuries have ravaged the squad. Everyone has said how poor the opposition are but they have beaten Georgia and drew with France in the past few years which we struggle to do. People calling for his head when I dont know what other manager could do better unless you go back to playing ultra defensive and hope for a draw or to sneak a set piece win !
@John Michael Mcdonald: ah this is the problem though. I agree we don’t have the players to be confident that we’d be in the 13 that would qualify. But we have better players than Trap, and O’Neill gave us credit for, we can play football and average more than a pass a minute. and kenny has proved that. But we also have far better players and a far deeper squad than Luxembourg. I’ve been all for the development we need, BUT despite all our signs of development against Slovakia and Serbia (and even Finland). None of it counts for a lot when you can’t beat a team that you are much better than. It’s dejecting. The only thing saving kenny is that there is no obvious alternative – other than one that will revert to the outdated tactics that we are trying to move away from.
@Augustus hoop: but chalk and cheese from the quality that o’Neill and trap had. That’s exactly the problem. I could barely watch them play under trap and o Neill. Then they were totally found out at the Euros. It’s time to get a philosophy of play from the ground up. How many times have we seen players who cant play a ten yard pass to a team mate. Michael o’Neill had the north playing much better football than us. Says it all.
@Augustus hoop: We are not “much better” than Luxembourg though are we Augustus? Serbia gifted us the second on Wednesday night & all we heard was ah we scored two goals away from home. Totally outplayed on Wednesday and it was clear from the off last night who had the better ball players. THEM.
@John Michael Mcdonald: Kenny Cunningham has been slated on the comments here for bigging up the opposition. While he went a bit too far with some of his assessment, he was right about a lot of it. They were more comfortable and creative on the ball than we are (regardless of who them being from a tiny country), they were confident and hungrier to. Sadlier made the point that when we went behind we played with more urgency and that would suggest that we didn’t play with any attacking tempo for 80 mins which I would agree with. Again there was no passion in the players in the anthem, and no heart or desire by most involved. Perhaps Kenny is too soft on them when they could do with a kick up the hole
@Noel Doherty: I just want to know who everyone thinks they should get in and what else they would do with the squad that is available at the moment. Think the players are good enough to win last night but didnt have the appetite for it. Motivation comes from within. If they cant get themselves up for a match then it’s a reflection on the players. Managers cant make players better in a few days at international level
@Noel Doherty: re Serbia – they gifted us the second, but we arguably gifted them all 3, and should have had a peno. That was the best we’ve played in an away game since 2016 euros….
Re Luxembourg my point is that player by player we are much better than Luxembourg in terms of quality and depth of squad, but last night it didn’t look like that, which is a killer. Because up to now I’ve felt we’ve been really unlucky but the change in approach was worth it (I was so sick of watching us not be able to put a pass together and cling on for lucky draws in previous regimes) but if change of approach means you can’t beat poor teams I don’t know where it leaves us.
@Augustus hoop: I agree with you change was needed & no way do I think Stephen Kenny should go. I’m only saying, which I think we are both in agreeance, that we are at a poor level now player wise and it’s depressing. I beg to differ on Wednesday night with you but that’s fair enough we are allowed to banter ;-)
@John Michael Mcdonald: I think Kenny should be retained & supported John.
@Aidan Prior: remember a few years back watch Georgia pass us off the pitch and we scraped a draw. Players definitely need to be pulled up.
@Aidan Prior: when he tried to light a fire under them, someone dobbed him into the Press for it.
Needs to stronger support for the league of Ireland. Too much money from Irish football fans going across the water
I still think all this mess over the last few years is one person’s fault for not doing his job – John Delaney!!
@Garry: I agree. Nobody in the FAI with any foresight. Hell, it doesn’t even take foresight! The IRFU have provided a blueprint.
Fewer professional teams with a more secure funding structure. A more competitive cross border league including teams from N Ireland and Scotland would be my suggestion.
We simply don’t have good enough players, there has been glimpses under Kenny of potential. But realistically the players coming through are not ready yet and the older generation of Brady, McLean , Hendrick among others are not up to it, and there is nothing in between. A few poor campaigns on the horizon I think.
If anyone can convince me that Stephen Kenny kicks the ball for players, who couldn’t play a simple 3 yard pass last night, then I will concede that he has to go. But last time I looked, he stood at the side of the pitch with the same bemused look on his face as all the Irish fans had. If the players energy levels are drained, how can the tempo go from zero to frenetic after Luxembourg scored. How come they put in their best shift in the last 5 minutes plus stoppage time when their lack of game time and match fitness is used as an excuse. Kenny isn’t the problem, the lack of quality coupled with the lack of spirit from the players is a couple of the many problems deep rooted in Irish football. It’ll be a long time before we will be able to consistently compete at a high level again.
@Paul Linehan: his interview last night after the match showed he can’t handle it and he knew
@Bar Hay: His interview showed how devastated he was, nothing else. The Seamus Coleman interview was similar, so I suppose by your assessment he can’t handle whatever your ‘it’ is either. The difference in performance between last night and the one in Belgrade were light years apart. The players let him down big time
Stephen Kenny is going nowhere. The FAI don’t have the resources or the will to sack him even if they wanted too.
I would like to see thou the acceptance that (A)
there is no excuse for not having pride in the jersey.
(B)
the failings in the development structures argument have been going on for decades and it was never a reason for any other manager for not getting the boot.
(C)
Results matter. If we are short players for whatever reason, than play a system that suits the game in hand now. If thats long ball or park the bus for a game or two than so be it. If SK is the man with the plan than he must have more than 1 way to play.
As this train wreck of a campaign has to go on can we at least call it as we see it and not make excuses for him as we pretend time will solve everything?
I’ve a pain in my hole reading about great young lads “coming through”. Lads in the reserves of Premier League teams or playing for Stoke or Millwall or the like.
@Tuesday Paddy: sorry about your hole, but you must enjoy it if you keep going back for more!
Under Noel Kings reign as Under 21 manager we hardly ever read an article about talented young Irish players that had done well in his team or in the UK
Michael O’Neil had a shocking start to his Northern Ireland career (6-0 loss to Holland), but they stuck with him. I believe we have to do the same otherwise the whole Kenny experiment is a waste of time. If we revert to the Trap style approach we’ll never move forward.
These young lads are decent players but they’re not ready yet for this level. Playing them isnt the managers fault as he’s little choice.
Some may not go on to be Premier League class, but hopefully some will and if playing regularly at international level they will gel and progress if given time.
Kenny’s luck has to change, if Connolly, Parrot, Obafemi and Idah start kicking on things will look brighter.
We’ve decent players in Kellegher, Bazuna, O’Shea, Knight, Molumby, Cullen, possibly Ronan, Kilkenny, Connell, Collins
The project is right but he’s the wrong person to implement it. I know a lot has gone on and the luck with situations hasn’t been great, and the FAI are a shambles but it’s clear to see that Kenny is really out of his depth.
Now I haven’t a clue who is the right person to be honest. We’d all have our dream choices, really world class coaches who can handle this project. They’d be too expensive and no interest in the Ireland job. Then there’s the next group, level 2, with the likes of Hughton in there and even he wouldn’t want it. So we would need to look at 3 or 4 levels down and that’s where we got Kenny from. So who is the right person, the fall guy for this campaign, probably Kenny. So we will end up sticking with him even tho he is out of his depth.
@Ultimate FM: This culture Ireland have soccer if team’s do badly sack the manager has to change kenny in the job a wet weekend he needs time,once players go on to the pitch it’s up to them to take responsibility for how they play manager’s can’t do anymore, changing manager’s Willy nilly does nobody any good they need time to built up a relationship with one another and as the team don’t play together week in week out they need to gel, soccer unlike GAA the Dublin player’s train together a couple of times a week they know what to expect from their team mates I know GAA is an amuter sport unlike soccer, the Irish soccer team don’t train together very often before they play a match and most off them don’t play together when play for their clubs rome wasn’t built in a day
@Moya Power-kelly: I 100% agree with you that the culture of changing managers willy-nilly isn’t great, 100%. However 10 games in international football is enough time to judge someone. I like Kenny, I really do but he is clearly out of his depth and as I said in my comment he will be kept on because I don’t think anyone better than him will want the job. So he won’t lose his job for now.
If we’re going to stick with Kenny let him start playing an U23 side from now on. Start giving these young players experience.
Why are the media so defensive of this guy, guy plays average football and is naive. His greatest managerial achievement is managing in Scotland where he didn’t last very long. Only reason he’s in a job is because the FAI are broke.
Stephen has shown himself to be extremely naive. Throwing in a bunch of unproven kids to a competitive World Cup campaign was crazy. He dismissed a lot of the under performing regulars too easily. McCarthy would have ground out a point in Serbia and won ugly last night. We are not Barca. His substitutions were poor, taking off centre half’s cost us the points last night. It’s lucky theirvwere no fans there last night as it would have been a case of a crowd calling for his head
@Pat Brennan: “he dismissed at lot of underperforming regulars to easily”
You’re a gas man Pat.
No he doesn’t. He just isn’t qualified to deal with players of several levels above where he is at. Who appointed him and in the first place. Looks like the yellow pack option. His whole demeanor lacks confidence. He is not able to look at an interviewer. This lack of confidence will seep down to players they see their manager struggling and will automatically loose confidence in him. The manager has to always appear confidence and in control not matter what’s going on around him this is not Kenny grat in loi but this is not loi.