IF YOU WANT to get a sense of the health of Irish rugby, you’d do well to find someone better placed to comment than Richie Murphy.
He’s the head coach of the Ireland U20s, who won a Grand Slam in 2022 and are on track for another one this year after winning their first three games in the Six Nations in impressive fashion.
Murphy was previously an assistant coach with Leinster and then Ireland for the guts of a decade. He didn’t get many of the headlines but his efforts behind the scenes were influential and he was a right-hand man for Joe Schmidt.
In 2021, Murphy left the senior Ireland set-up as he looked for more responsibility. He landed as the U20s boss. There were initially questions as to whether it was a sideways move or a step down the ladder, but it’s now clear that he has greatly improved his standing in the coaching world with his leadership of this group.
“The 20s is a great opportunity to get your hands on a team and mould them,” says Murphy. “You have young guys coming in hungry for information.”
The young players Murphy and his assistants work with are more advanced in their development than ever. There are still deficiencies in their games that need to be smoothed out, but Murphy outlines that the efforts in the pipeline underneath the U20s are strong.
“There’s a massive amount of work going on in each of the provinces between the academies and then the National Talent Squads that are below the academies,” he explains.
“I go out to the provinces and see what’s happening. The work that’s being done is excellent, both in physical development and with the rugby player.
“What we’re finding is that the player we’re getting in the door is much further down the track than a couple of years ago. That allows us to go a bit harder and further with this 20s group.”
Murphy is quick to praise the coaching team around him. Connacht academy coach Mark Sexton, Johnny’s brother, works with the attack and backs. Murphy says Sexton is “very clever, sees things early, he’s building good relationships with players.”
Ulster’s Willie Faloon coaches the forwards and defence, while Aaron Dundon has come in as scrum coach. Murphy also flags the quality of the U20s’ backroom staff and stresses how lucky he is to have so much support.
While many head coaches find themselves too far removed from actual on-pitch coaching once they take the step up, Murphy’s background as an assistant means he was determined to stay thoroughly involved in that sense.
“I work in with Mark on the attack and I work in with Willie on the defence,” says Murphy.
“The philosophy we went with is that in the early part, I set that all up and then the lads took it over and ran with it. What I try to do is find cracks within our system. If I can find something, we go back and look at it and try to find a solution.”
The U20s have a standalone programme but it has been hugely beneficial for them to train against the senior Ireland team in recent years. In the past three weeks, the U20s have gone up against Andy Farrell’s side twice during the Six Nations fallow weeks. Thursday’s session in the Aviva Stadium was excellent.
This year, the U20s also added in two training sessions against the senior Ulster team and Murphy believes these connections are extremely important for his players.
“The feedback from the players is how quick it moves,” says Murphy.
“If you see something and don’t act on it, it’s gone. You don’t get time to get off the ground and walk. You’ve got to get off the ground and run into place. You’ve got to work harder to get set. Time and space is the big thing they remark on.
“The other thing that shows up quickly is whether they have the basic skills to be able to play at that level. The pressure you feel puts your skills under massive pressure and gives you a good idea of what you need to work on. Because the 20s is all about us getting better as individuals and then being able to feed that into the team.”
Murphy also explains that his link to the senior Ireland coaching staff means he can speak to them about any coaching issues he and his U20s assistants encounter. It’s all joined up.
Anyone who has watched the Ireland U20s play will surely have remarked on the exciting style of attacking rugby they employ. The sell-out crowds at Musgrave Park in Cork have been no surprise given that entertainment value.
The U20s actually look quite similar to Farrell’s senior team. Their attacking approach has long been evident under previous head coaches like Nigel Carolan and Noel McNamara, and this is how Murphy wants the game played too.
“We try to test the players every day, we put them under a hell of a lot of pressure in training, and we also try to upskill them in opening their eyes to the opportunities that are there,” says Murphy.
“There’s a framework they play within but we’re always encouraging them to make decisions based on what’s happening around them.”
You could easily be listening to Farrell with remarks like those above. Another similarity is how Murphy speaks about the Ireland U20s players’ mental skills.
Long gone are the days when young Irish players had big doubts about their place in the rugby world.
“Irish rugby no longer has an underdog status,” says Murphy. “They’re used to playing against big teams and trying to compete. The French game this year came down to the kick of a ball in the end and the same thing happened last year.
“They were the games we were losing a few years ago so I think players are a bit more confident in how they’re prepared to get to this level.”
Murphy’s U20s have a huge fortnight ahead of them. First, they travel to Scotland on Friday and the hope is that they will then take on England in a Grand Slam decider in Cork on Sunday 19 March.
Whatever comes next, Murphy has clearly done an excellent job with the U20s. He has highlighted his ability as a head coach and is happy to say he has higher ambitions.
“The reason I ended up here was to change my career path,” says Murphy. “I was very much seen as a skills and kicking coach but I always felt I had done more than that.
“I had kinda done 10 years in the pro game with skills and kicking, assisting, feeding information in. To go away and do it for myself has been something that’s been good.
“Over the next while, I would see myself hopefully trying to move on from the 20s and back into the pro game.”
