Jack Murphy taking Ulster progress in his stride after nailing down out-half role
Jack Murphy has seized his opportunity to become Ulster’s starting out-half this season.
The 20-year-old had agreed a move to Kingspan Stadium before his dad Richie was installed as interim and then permanent coach.
Jack has started Ulster’s last five games, including Friday night’s bonus point win over the Stormers when he scored his first try in a white shirt and earned the man of the match accolade.
Murphy never thought his chance would have come some quickly since coming up the road from Dublin.
“No, not really, but look, it's gone my way a little bit, I got an opportunity early enough and yeah, just trying to build on the performances that I put in the week before and it's going well at the minute,” he said. "I wouldn't say I expected it, but it's nice to have, I guess.
“It's just every time I get a chance, I try to do the best I can and try to run the team the best I can so, you know, I think if I can do that, it puts the team in a better place and we can get wins like that.”
Jack has no issues with the dynamic of his dad being Ulster’s head coach.
“He's pretty good at home – he comes home and tries to switch it off a little bit, so yeah, that's good,” he said. “I try to get all the rugby chat out when we're here in Kingspan and then when we go home, try to keep family life, you know.”
Murphy is enjoying being Ulster’s playmaker at this early stage of his career and is grateful for the help he has had from the other players.
“They've been great, Stu’s (McCloskey) been great with me. Having Stu’s (help) and last week it was James Hume, and this week Carsey (Ben Carson), you know, guys who've been here,” said Murphy.
“It's great to get. They help you out a lot. For me, (John) Cooney as well inside and Doaky (Nathan Doak), always having experience inside and outside – it's hard to go too far on because they've put a lot of time into me as well, so I have to say thanks to them.”
His try against the Stormers helped Ulster to three consecutive wins for the first time this season.
“I didn't expect the ball to land, to me anyway, in that close of a line, but just picked it up and tried to put it down, so I'll take it – not the prettiest – but I'll take it,” he added.
“Three wins in a row, that's quite good, like we're a very confident team. A couple of times, you know, this season we've just been quite unlucky at times, one-score games, but look, we're really confident.
"We knew coming into this game that there was an opportunity to cause them some trouble, which I thought we did, so we're delighted with that and three wins in a row, so we're in good spirits going to Bordeaux next week.
“Last week, obviously, I'd say it was an ugly enough game. Obviously, started kind of similarly to the Stormers, but we always find a way back and I think that's so important to us, because when you have that team spirit you can come back from anything.
“We were 17-0 down after seven minutes or something today, so we really believe in ourselves as a team and like you said, the morale, so we really want to fight for each other and I think that showed.”