Brumbies recruit young Irish prop!!!

http://www.rugby365.com/tournaments/super14/news/2835144.htm

Brumbies feel the luck of the Irish
Fri, 06 Jan 2012 14:08

Luck of the Irish. (c) Getty

If the luck of the Irish is on the Brumbies side in 2012, then ACT supporters can shoot a big thank you to one of their newest recruits, Ruaidhri Murphy.

Joining the Brumbies after playing his way through the Irish aged-grade system and a two-year spell with English Premiership side Exeter has hardened the young prop into a quality scrummager and able defender.

But it's his move to Canberra and to the Brumbies that Murphy is most proud of. 2012 will provide the young bookend with ample chances to impress and he is fully aware of the opportunities that await him.

"I've settled in nicely, living in Kingston with the vast majority of the team has been a great way to get the group together," Murphy said.

"Most of the boys live within one or two blocks from my front door so there are plenty of coffee opportunities.

"We're living in each other's pockets spending most of the day together at training and then away from rugby too so we've all become pretty close in a short amount of time."

If you are struggling with the Celtic pronunciation of Murphy's first name don't feel like you're alone.

Rhuaidhri - or ‘Rory' as it would have been spelled had he been born to Australian parents - has proudly represented Ireland at Under 19 and Under 20's but is now keen to wear the gold of Australia.

It will take some time to gain residency and to be classed Australian by the IRB, but that's not a problem for Murphy as his development into a world-class prop steadily continues.

"Moving to Canberra has been a good opportunity for me to come to terms with what it takes to be a Super Rugby player and to move into international rugby in comparison to what I've played before," Murphy said.

"I learned tough lessons about professional rugby while I was young - I was involved with some of the best set ups in Europe at Exeter and Leinster.

"But being in Canberra, preparing for a Super Rugby season with the Brumbies is the dream. It's where I want to be and what I want to do with my life."






This is interesting,he can't be a major prospect or Leinster wouldn't have let him go but props are thin on the ground so it'd be very dissappointing if we let a good one slip through our fingers.Anyone know much about him?

If he is a prop who wants to play for Australia it means he can't scrummage even by our standards. Im not worried.

Lol yeah I know what you mean it reminds me of the time Ronnie O'Brien signed for Juventus. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronnie_O%27Brien

There was a lot of hype about him but nothing ever really happend.In fairness good luck to the lad and I hope he does well.

red_stag wrote:If he is a prop who wants to play for Australia it means he can't scrummage even by our standards. Im not worried.

Or is he a very good scrummager who has seen an opportunity to become their go to man as the best scrummager in Australia, and thus set himself up nicely for the future??? A calculated risk maybe?

Good on the kid,If he has the opportunity to make a team that is consistently ranked in the top three in the World why shouldnt he? gets to play with Ben Alexander and Stephen Moore as well..

asoreleftshoulder wrote:


This is interesting,he can't be a major prospect or Leinster wouldn't have let him go but props are thin on the ground so it'd be very dissappointing if we let a good one slip through our fingers.Anyone know much about him?

Ireland U20s prop in the team that won the grand slam in 2007 (which included Healy & Hagan). Was in the Leinster academy, but not offered a contract. Gas that an Aussie head coach would have gotten rid of an Irish propping prospect and he ends up in Australia

Went to Castleknock - that wouldn't have helped his career prospects in Leinster. Think he has a brother in Blackrock now. The family obviously learned from their mistakes.

http://www.irishrugby.ie/squads/ireland_u20.php?player=33251&includeref=dynamic

aucklandlaurie wrote: Good on the kid,If he has the opportunity to make a team that is consistently ranked in the top three in the World why shouldnt he? gets to play with Ben Alexander and Stephen Moore as well..

Its actually very sad really - Ireland isn't going to have much of a rugby team in 20 years time - not the way people are emigrating at the moment. It will be like what it was in the 90s (Stephen Moore's parents are irish. Stephen was born in Saudi and his family then moved to Australia).

Sine
But if this kid wants to better himself how can that be a sad thing?
If he makes the Wallabies,wouldnt that be testimony of the success of the Irish development system?

aucklandlaurie wrote: Sine
But if this kid wants to better himself how can that be a sad thing?
If he makes the Wallabies,wouldnt that be testimony of the success of the Irish development system?

I've no problem with him bettering himself out there. Best of luck to him.

Its just sad that so many have to emigrate. Emigration is regarded as a curse in Ireland and its most people's dream that they come back home. Unfortunately, for most its very unlikely. In 25 years times, there will be loads of players with Irish names popping up in team all over the world.

One of the main reasons why Ireland was so poor at rugby over the years is that many didn't stay around long enough to play. A lot would have emigrated to the US & Canada.

Looking at the recently announced foreign player restrictions for the Irish heineken cup teams also seem to imply that Immigration is a problem as well.
I dont think the Irish can claim that emmigration is the reason for Irelands poor showing at rugby union over the years.Emmigration affects all rugby nations,not just the Irish.

aucklandlaurie wrote: Looking at the recently announced foreign player restrictions for the Irish heineken cup teams also seem to imply that Immigration is a problem as well.
I dont think the Irish can claim that emmigration is the reason for Irelands poor showing at rugby union over the years.Emmigration affects all rugby nations,not just the Irish.

Aukland I agree with you about emigration, it affects us all. On the Ireland immigration thing, I don't think the rules were brought in due to county wide immigration but more to do with rugby immigration, if that makes any sense. I don't think they get a huge amount of country wide immigration like, say, the UK and France. And I think it's not done much in other sports either. But, in rugby there have been complaints about foreign players blocking the development of Irish players in certain positions such as prop, and this they perhaps feel is affecting the international team. It's a bold move and I take my hat off to them, but I can see it causing a lot of infighting amongst the provinces. Not sure who gets to decide who has the token foreigner in each position? Do they have to do a presentation/pitch to the IRFU?!

On another note, it could also lead to players once deemed crap or not up to HC standard, e.g. Tony Buckley or even this young lad in the article, suddenly being very sought after and offered big sums to come home, when not long ago they couldn't get a contract. Are any Irish fans worried about his? It's a double edged sword: it will either lead to the discovery of new talent or you'll end up playing players who are not good enough and who you'd rather replace with a foreigner, but can't.

aucklandlaurie wrote:I dont think the Irish can claim that emmigration is the reason for Irelands poor showing at rugby union over the years.Emmigration affects all rugby nations,not just the Irish.

Rugby is a numbers game and those countries with plenty of professionals generally do well and those with few (like Ireland) don't do as well. Therefore while emigration affects all nations, it affects those with small pro numbers most.

As for Murphy, it seems he is effectively a "project" player for Australia, so it's interesting to see how that seems to be a lot more palatable in the reverse direction.

I'll be very interested to see how he gets on. The fact that he was rejected by an Irish province means little - just look at Mike Ross. The Lions play Brumbies at some point during the tour of Oz next year so we'll have a good opportunity to see how he's going . It'll be 3 years before he can play for Oz - if he excels down under, I don't believe that there is anything preventing one of the provinces making an offer to bring him back home.

Fair play to him for going for it, I hope it works out. Don't know much about this guy, any Exeter fans care to update me?

I don't think emigration is a curse for the people who are leaving. Most of my friends my age have spent a few years working in Australia and the USA. They bloody loved it. It's an adventure for them. It's not the 1800's where you have leave Ireland and your family never bleedin see's you again. There's such thing as Skype and return flights.

Feckless Rogue wrote:I don't think emigration is a curse for the people who are leaving. Most of my friends my age have spent a few years working in Australia and the USA. They bloody loved it. It's an adventure for them. It's not the 1800's where you have leave Ireland and your family never bleedin see's you again.There's such thing as Skype and return flights.

Spot on there feckless.

The Great Aukster
I think the reason that Murphy is seen as more palatable as a "project" player for Australia is because he travels on an Australian passport and he has lived the majority of his life in Australia.

From the Brumbies site:

Player Profile: http://www.brumbies.com.au/Team/PlayerProfile/tabid/1208/playerid/49/Default.aspx

Article about his promotion from the EPS:
http://www.brumbies.com.au/News/Article/tabid/1213/ArticleID/5090/Default.aspx

OOPs...now there's one that we didn't see coming. An Irishman that wants to play for another country??? *Cough, gowl, put his name in the - Black Book -* We usually like to think that the Yak herder from eastern Mongolia is sadly musing about his Irish heritage and wondering when the scouts will come see his downright phenomenal yak throwing skills.

But yeah, nice to see how it feels from the other side. It feels ok - if it's what he wants, and where he wants to be, fine. If he makes it, we'll all become Australia supporters off and on, depending on who they play!

I'd assumed he was Irish, till I heard him speak - he must have spent most of his formative years in Oz, and I'm surprised that he still needs to qualify for them. I guess his parents emigrated when he was at an early age, and he came back to finish off his schooling.

He played on both sides for Chiefs, pretty much 2nd choice LH in his first season (in the Championship) and 3rd choice LH, 4th TH last season with one appearance off the bench in the Jeff. He's a big fella but pretty mobile, and apparently a more than useful baseball player (some talk about him moving to the States for a baseball career).

He suffered a pretty bad arm injury (dislocated elbow, broken arm) against Newport RFC in the B&I Cup two years ago, and it may be that he's taken a long time to get over it.

Oh no! The Southern hemisphere want to get their own back on us! Hide the china! Where's Joe Marler? Get him under wraps!

Red Right wrote:

Feckless Rogue wrote:I don't think emigration is a curse for the people who are leaving. Most of my friends my age have spent a few years working in Australia and the USA. They bloody loved it. It's an adventure for them. It's not the 1800's where you have leave Ireland and your family never bleedin see's you again.There's such thing as Skype and return flights.

Spot on there feckless.

Ah the innocence of youth...wait until your mates/family end up staying whereever for another year and then another because there is nothing to come home to. Also there is a difference from some cosseted gap year trip with the lads roysh coz daddy will look after you when you come home rather than having to make a life for yourself.

DOD wrote:

Red Right wrote:

Feckless Rogue wrote:I don't think emigration is a curse for the people who are leaving. Most of my friends my age have spent a few years working in Australia and the USA. They bloody loved it. It's an adventure for them. It's not the 1800's where you have leave Ireland and your family never bleedin see's you again.There's such thing as Skype and return flights.

Spot on there feckless.

Ah the innocence of youth...wait until your mates/family end up staying whereever for another year and then another because there is nothing to come home to. Also there is a difference from some cosseted gap year trip with the lads roysh coz daddy will look after you when you come home rather than having to make a life for yourself.

DOD - given that I'm in my 30's I'm long past gap years, actually gap years didn't and still don't exist in West Cork - if you want to go travelling you work and pay for it yourself!!
As regarding emmigration - a large number of my friends have had to emmigrate to Oz/US/Canada over the last 3/4 years - quite a few have had to uproot families as there was no work or prospects of it at home. Unfortunately that is life. It was good to see most of them over Xmas as most were home - this is a far different tale from what happened in my parenst and grandparents day where if someone left they were generally gone for good.

"World Class"!!!

Who said world class?

Red Right wrote:

DOD wrote:

Red Right wrote:

Feckless Rogue wrote:I don't think emigration is a curse for the people who are leaving. Most of my friends my age have spent a few years working in Australia and the USA. They bloody loved it. It's an adventure for them. It's not the 1800's where you have leave Ireland and your family never bleedin see's you again.There's such thing as Skype and return flights.

Spot on there feckless.

Ah the innocence of youth...wait until your mates/family end up staying whereever for another year and then another because there is nothing to come home to. Also there is a difference from some cosseted gap year trip with the lads roysh coz daddy will look after you when you come home rather than having to make a life for yourself.

DOD - given that I'm in my 30's I'm long past gap years, actually gap years didn't and still don't exist in West Cork - if you want to go travelling you work and pay for it yourself!!
As regarding emmigration - a large number of my friends have had to emmigrate to Oz/US/Canada over the last 3/4 years - quite a few have had to uproot families as there was no work or prospects of it at home. Unfortunately that is life. It was good to see most of them over Xmas as most were home - this is a far different tale from what happened in my parenst and grandparents day where if someone left they were generally gone for good.

Well, wait until the grandparents, parents start getting on a bit and need caring. Skype won't compensate for not being able to visit them in a nursing home. Grandparents like to see their grandchildren grow up around them.

Coming back from Australia myself, I met a bloke who was on his way home for his father's funeral. The poor devil - I was the only one he had to talk to (Irish person around). Apart from the shock of losing a parent (it took him 2 days to get home), he was really concerned about his mother now being on her own and what he was going to do.

I agree with DOD and Sin E actually ( )....the development and advancements of communication and aviation technologies may mean that emmigration isn't what it was in the past but it is still extremely sad that so many people, in particular the young are forced to go overseas to find employment opportunites and a better quality of life.

Its the same on both sides of the border and the talent and brain drain that was stemmed during the celtic tiger is in full flow again.

There is no doubt that this will have a detrimental effect on our sport teams both from a performer and spectator point of view.

Yes, the sad part is never that so many young people have to go away, every 15 to 20 years it seems! Young people can feel homesick but learn quickly to adapt, and in truth, most families left have too much life to lead to be forever lamenting the loss (I speak from both sides with experience). So life goes on and we as humans are adventurous and want to see what's over the hill.

The sad part for me is always that just when Ireland get enough young people of drive and ambition and with the attitude that says we're not going to lie down we're going to create...just when those people grow up and become independent and ready - they have to leave and give the rest of the world that great Irish jovial attitude that we'll get it done.

...and the tragedy is what eternally stays at home. The ye olde Irelanders (not age, attitude) who creep back into the places of power (police, judiciary, parliament) and get on with Dev's work of miserable contentment in a land of nothing.

Hope it doesn't last too long this time!

Mickado wrote:Who said world class?

Original article

What an amazing attitude to young people going overseas.
Here in NZ its a given that most young people will have a go. Pretty much all my mates have had a turn living overseas for a few years. Most of us have come back and enjoyed the leaving, living and returning. I didn't go until I was thirty one and came back when I was forty.

I've done some work with an expat organisation about the numbers of Kiwis overseas and the opportunities it brings for NZ. Roughly 1/4 of all Kiwis live overseas. On the otherhand almost 1/4 of people in NZ were born overseas. Opportunities all round.

nganboy wrote:What an amazing attitude to young people going overseas.
Here in NZ its a given that most young people will have a go. Pretty much all my mates have had a turn living overseas for a few years. Most of us have come back and enjoyed the leaving, living and returning. I didn't go until I was thirty one and came back when I was forty.

I've done some work with an expat organisation about the numbers of Kiwis overseas and the opportunities it brings for NZ. Roughly 1/4 of all Kiwis live overseas. On the otherhand almost 1/4 of people in NZ were born overseas. Opportunities all round.

That's similar to how I see Irish people going abroad. My sister is in Australia. Spent Christmas soaking up the sun on the beach. She's not lamenting anything in the photo's she sent. Some Irish people seem addicted to this victim complex. They need to see a terrible tragedy in everything. Living abroad is not a tragedy for the vast majority of people going away. Most are having the time of their lives. They weren't forced to go onto ships abroad to find food. They're travelling abroad to find work, see new places and make a better life. And they can stay in contact with home and visit home very easily. And the Irish aren't the only ones. That's the modern globalised world. Sometimes it seems half the barmen in Dublin are Kiwi's and Aussie's. They normally pop over here for a year when their UK visa's run out.

They will be missed in Ireland mind you. But if we can fix our country over coming years they can always come back. If they want to.

nganboy wrote:What an amazing attitude to young people going overseas.

Moving overseas out of choice and forced immigration due to economic hardship and lack of employment opportunities are not the same.

The Reds are into poaching former NH schoolboy reps as well. No suprises it's another prop, but this one English.

http://www.redsrugby.com.au/Reds/ExtendedPlayingSquad/ExtendedPlayingSquadProfiles/tabid/829/playerid/2/Default.aspx

roddersm wrote:

nganboy wrote:What an amazing attitude to young people going overseas.

Moving overseas out of choice and forced immigration due to economic hardship and lack of employment opportunities are not the same.

I think thats the crux of the arguement that a lot of people are missing. A huge number of Irish would have gone anyway for limited periods anyway but now many will have their hands forced into staying abroad when they most likely would have returned. What has changed is that people who had no intention of going anywhere are now having to go, this is really the sad part of it.

nganboy wrote:What an amazing attitude to young people going overseas.
Here in NZ its a given that most young people will have a go. Pretty much all my mates have had a turn living overseas for a few years. Most of us have come back and enjoyed the leaving, living and returning. I didn't go until I was thirty one and came back when I was forty.

I've done some work with an expat organisation about the numbers of Kiwis overseas and the opportunities it brings for NZ. Roughly 1/4 of all Kiwis live overseas. On the otherhand almost 1/4 of people in NZ were born overseas. Opportunities all round.

The issue with Ireland is that those leaving now are not sure if or when there will be something to come back to. Ireland is very similar in that you expect most young people to travel for at least a year or two, the problem now is that everything is indefinitely. I was in NZ last christmas, its a beautiful country and the outdoor lifestyle will always attract a lot of inward migration. Although, to the same point I think every Kiwi I met was actually living in Oz and was just home for the holidays!

boomeranga wrote:The Reds are into poaching former NH schoolboy reps as well. No suprises it's another prop, but this one English.

http://www.redsrugby.com.au/Reds/ExtendedPlayingSquad/ExtendedPlayingSquadProfiles/tabid/829/playerid/2/Default.aspx

Can't say I've heard of him, but good luck to the lad.

On another note the 'Strategic Airlines Queensland Premier Rugby Minor Premiership' has to be the most longwinded name for a league ever!