Jordi retires

[Caliphi]

Spare a thought to Jordi Murphy, who has retired after Ulster's defeat last night.
Mixed feelings about his decision to go North, but back in the day he was an asset to his school and to Leinster rugby.
Hope he enjoys his retirement and well deserved.

[ronk]

Super player who had some great days for us, and hair that just a bit too awesome for a rugby player to have. I salute you. You played the game right and are a worthy inspiration to many.

Your big mistake was trusting your ex-provincial coach who was now your national coach that you needed to do an ill advised club move. Players now know but only because it happened to you and others. It could have happened to anyone.

[artaneboy]

Super player who had some great days for us, and hair that just a bit too awesome for a rugby player to have. I salute you. You played the game right and are a worthy inspiration to many.

Your big mistake was trusting your ex-provincial coach who was now your national coach that you needed to do an ill advised club move. Players now know but only because it happened to you and others. It could have happened to anyone.

An excellent player for clubs and country. I wish him well in whatever he does next.

From a Leinster point of view, of course I was sorry not to have a player of his talent available. But given the pipeline of back row talent that was behind Jordi here, I’m not sure he was worse off in playing terms from the move.


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[ronk]

Jordi played more rugby when he was a Leinster player, consistently, even after he came back from his knee injury.

That was the narrative, and it sounds plausible. It's just completely wrong.

The simple and unfortunate fact is that Leinster won a Heineken Cup with Carbery, Murphy and McGrath. The IRFU intervened and the consequences are damaged careers for all 3 players directly caused by their moves, downstream players who missed out, damage to Leinster (who have since lost 2 finals), loss of those players to Ireland and disappointment and underperformance at the other provinces. The only good thing to come out of it is the belated recognition of just what a colossal failure that policy was. And it isn't even that widely recognised.

Anyway, Jordi had a super career before he left and I wish him well in retirement.

[Oldschoolsocks]

Jordi played more rugby when he was a Leinster player, consistently, even after he came back from his knee injury.

That was the narrative, and it sounds plausible. It's just completely wrong.

The simple and unfortunate fact is that Leinster won a Heineken Cup with Carbery, Murphy and McGrath. The IRFU intervened and the consequences are damaged careers for all 3 players directly caused by their moves, downstream players who missed out, damage to Leinster (who have since lost 2 finals), loss of those players to Ireland and disappointment and underperformance at the other provinces. The only good thing to come out of it is the belated recognition of just what a colossal failure that policy was. And it isn't even that widely recognised.

Anyway, Jordi had a super career before he left and I wish him well in retirement.

not sure if it's true wrt big Jack McGrath - that man has had to retire due to chronic hip injury - twice resurfaced I believe. I think someone made a list of ex Leinster players who have gone onwards and awards after living the province. if I remember correctly it consisted of Tagdh Beirne

[ronk]

McGrath is on record that he tried to play through the pain (lots and lots of it) to pay back his new employers for the faith they had shown.

As a Lion and central contracted player in a team with depth I think he wouldn't have taken the same risk.

The issue started before he left Leinster but I think it looked clear in his first few months at Ulster that it wasn't working for him and he wasn't the same player carrying the injury. But was he going to have surgery out of season before a move? That's hard if it's only optional.

[Clontarf_Jazz]

There's a very long list of players who have left the Leinster setup either by choice or by IRFU edict whose careers and international prospects either crashed and burned or at best fizzled out. Conway and Beirne are the only real exceptions I can think of.

[laighin heart]

Unread post by Clontarf_Jazz » May 7th, 2023, 10:30 am

There's a very long list of players who have left the Leinster setup either by choice or by IRFU edict whose careers and international prospects either crashed and burned or at best fizzled out. Conway and Beirne are the only real exceptions I can think of.

Yes, but if he stayed Conway would probably have a couple of Heineken Cup medals together with a number of Pro 14 medals to his name.

[Blueberry]

Best of luck to Jordi in whatever he does next.

And yes the list of successful moves from Leinster isn't exactly a long one....Beirne is probably the only really glaring one. Not so sure about Conway, suspect he would have done far better if he had stayed but guess we will never know.

[ronk]

There's a very long list of players who have left the Leinster setup either by choice or by IRFU edict whose careers and international prospects either crashed and burned or at best fizzled out. Conway and Beirne are the only real exceptions I can think of.

Leo and Jennings. But it was a different era.

Beirne was cut, Scarlets didn't poach him.

[blockhead]

There's a very long list of players who have left the Leinster setup either by choice or by IRFU edict whose careers and international prospects either crashed and burned or at best fizzled out. Conway and Beirne are the only real exceptions I can think of.

Cooney, eventually. Cult hero up north. One or two have had a decent run in Connacht, don't ask for names. A'OC is captain up in Ulster and Timoney is on the edge of the Ireland team in the insanely high class back row.

[naraic]

There's a very long list of players who have left the Leinster setup either by choice or by IRFU edict whose careers and international prospects either crashed and burned or at best fizzled out. Conway and Beirne are the only real exceptions I can think of.

Cooney, eventually. Cult hero up north. One or two have had a decent run in Connacht, don't ask for names. A'OC is captain up in Ulster and Timoney is on the edge of the Ireland team in the insanely high class back row.

The most successful players to leave Leinster are those who have been discarded rather than those who choose to leave.

AOC and Timoney were Leinster sub academy not being offered an academy spot when he went north.

Beirne didn't have an offer here.

Conway is basically the only player to leave Leinster having been wanted by Leinster to go on and have a successful international career.

[FLIP]

There's a very long list of players who have left the Leinster setup either by choice or by IRFU edict whose careers and international prospects either crashed and burned or at best fizzled out. Conway and Beirne are the only real exceptions I can think of.

Cooney, eventually. Cult hero up north. One or two have had a decent run in Connacht, don't ask for names. A'OC is captain up in Ulster and Timoney is on the edge of the Ireland team in the insanely high class back row.

The most successful players to leave Leinster are those who have been discarded rather than those who choose to leave.

AOC and Timoney were Leinster sub academy not being offered an academy spot when he went north.

Beirne didn't have an offer here.

Conway is basically the only player to leave Leinster having been wanted by Leinster to go on and have a successful international career.

Even that was delayed by 5 years

[ronk]

He won a lot, I'd imagine most players would be proud of that. Junior and Senior Cup, U20 6N, URC, Heineken Cup, Grand Slam, beat NZ the first time.

He was a really good all action backrow with no obvious weaknesses in his game and a natural leader.

He played a fair bit of rugby until last season with Ulster and that was because he was out until March. Then he ended up passed out by Timoney.

[Flash Gordon]

There's a very long list of players who have left the Leinster setup either by choice or by IRFU edict whose careers and international prospects either crashed and burned or at best fizzled out. Conway and Beirne are the only real exceptions I can think of.

Cooney, eventually. Cult hero up north. One or two have had a decent run in Connacht, don't ask for names. A'OC is captain up in Ulster and Timoney is on the edge of the Ireland team in the insanely high class back row.

The most successful players to leave Leinster are those who have been discarded rather than those who choose to leave.

AOC and Timoney were Leinster sub academy not being offered an academy spot when he went north.

Beirne didn't have an offer here.

Conway is basically the only player to leave Leinster having been wanted by Leinster to go on and have a successful international career.

Beirne we'd take back in a heart beat, probably a fit Conway too. Like most things in life it's not black and white. In the case of Jordi the environment and the pressure from the kids coming through might have pushed him on to higher levels. Carbery definitely made a mistake, he went from a high performance development environment to stagnation with Van Graan and the Munster set up. Beirne made his own choices and has become a fantastic player, Conway may have won more silverware but he's had a very good Ireland career out of the move. Part of me would love to see him and James Lowe in training together......

[fourthirtythree]

Cooney, eventually. Cult hero up north. One or two have had a decent run in Connacht, don't ask for names. A'OC is captain up in Ulster and Timoney is on the edge of the Ireland team in the insanely high class back row.

The most successful players to leave Leinster are those who have been discarded rather than those who choose to leave.

AOC and Timoney were Leinster sub academy not being offered an academy spot when he went north.

Beirne didn't have an offer here.

Conway is basically the only player to leave Leinster having been wanted by Leinster to go on and have a successful international career.

Even that was delayed by 5 years

Guy was an absolute star leaving Leinster, record underage try scorer with 42 Leinster caps and two winners medals in his pocket when he left here at 21 to go ride pine for years and stagnate. Fair play to him he eventually got Ireland game time (Joe Schmidt was obviously a fan) but he done f%~ked up.

With Beirne Leinster f%~ked up.

I think we can live with all the others.

[ronk]

The story was that Leinster were too strong and could share players around, Jordi was missing out for Ireland because of the depth issue.

Jordi generally played less for Ulster, anyway, didn't do well for Ireland (missed the initial RWC squad) and Leinster lost a Heineken Cup final the next year where Jordi would have made the 23.

If Leinster had still had Carbery and Murphy, if O'Sullivan hadn't ended up being on the bench as part of the fallout of the McCarthy move, if Beirne had been recruited to Leinster instead of Munster; do we think the result might have been different in 2019, or one of the other years since. No one ever knows for sure.

Jordi moved in direct and urgent response to IRFU interference.

If we don't acknowledge history, we don't learn from it.

[Flash Gordon]

The story was that Leinster were too strong and could share players around, Jordi was missing out for Ireland because of the depth issue.

Jordi generally played less for Ulster, anyway, didn't do well for Ireland (missed the initial RWC squad) and Leinster lost a Heineken Cup final the next year where Jordi would have made the 23.

If Leinster had still had Carbery and Murphy, if O'Sullivan hadn't ended up being on the bench as part of the fallout of the McCarthy move, if Beirne had been recruited to Leinster instead of Munster; do we think the result might have been different in 2019, or one of the other years since. No one ever knows for sure.

Jordi moved in direct and urgent response to IRFU interference.

If we don't acknowledge history, we don't learn from it.

Joey might have made a difference depending on injuries etc of course. I remember at the time saying that losing a back up Ireland outhalf would hinder our ability to win a Champions Cup, there were Champions Cup games when Ross was lower down on his developmental curve that we lost along the way. The 2020/21 semi final vs La Rochelle a case in point. One of the reasons we lost that game was the half backs. Of course a portion of conjecture here!

Jordi staying I'm not so sure would have made a difference. The argument on game time was a bit ridiculous, Leinster and Ireland have and need 2 top class backrow units to be competitive, he would have got all the game time he needed without question. As I said before, the competition and coaching would certainly have pushed him beyond the level he got to at Ulster.