{"id":315292,"date":"2026-02-24T20:28:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/315292\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:28:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:28:07","slug":"richie-murphy-challenges-ulster-players-to-follow-in-the-footsteps-of-ireland-quartet-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/315292\/","title":{"rendered":"Richie Murphy challenges Ulster players to follow in the footsteps of Ireland quartet \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Though he has Saturday\u2019s URC<\/a> fixture with the Ospreys uppermost in his thoughts, Ulster<\/a> head coach Richie Murphy<\/a> is prepared to linger over matters Ireland<\/a> and what took place at Twickenham last weekend.<\/p>\n

Particularly pleasing has been Stuart McCloskey<\/a> ripping it up in a green jersey having finally nailed down the number 12 jersey after some standout performances this season. <\/p>\n

The sight of the 33-year-old somehow finding the gas to chase Marcus Smith down in the closing stages and then deposit the England replacement in touch with an all-enveloping bear hug was one of the highlights on the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s always had it in him,\u201d Murphy said of McCloskey\u2019s influential performances in this season\u2019s Six Nations Championship so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s nice to see is the desire he had late on in the game, when the game was won, to close that space and get back and catch Marcus Smith.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose he\u2019s getting a fair few nicknames now as well, with the Irish Fridge (the French have dubbed him \u201dFrigo Irlandais”). But there\u2019s so much more to his game than just his size.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd all four lads have done really well,\u201d added Murphy, also tipping his cap to Robert Baloucoune, Nick Timoney and Tom O\u2019Toole, the latter having played in the unfamiliar position of loosehead prop.<\/p>\n

\"UlsterUlster head coach Richie Murphy. Photograph: Ben Brady\/Inpho <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very satisfying to see how well the lads have done on the weekend and over the other two games as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the minute you start focusing on green jerseys you\u2019re in trouble. It\u2019s really what you do in the white jersey and one of the things that we\u2019ve tried to drive with the players is that if they play really well for us and the team is successful, well, more players are going to shine and more players are going to get that opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you think about a few weeks ago, the Irish 20s were beaten by France and the senior team were beaten by France. Last week we\u2019ve beaten England 20s and we\u2019ve beaten England in the senior game<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, you know, things change very quickly and it\u2019s really important that we get on [board with] the positivity that\u2019s there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murphy has five Ulster players released to him for this weekend\u2019s fixture at Brewery Field as the province returns to URC action. They are Cormac Izuchukwu, Nathan Doak, Jude Postlethwaite, Tom Stewart and Bryn Ward.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be interesting to see how we go,\u201d said Murphy of Ulster\u2019s first senior game since beating Cardiff at the end of last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been in Wales twice this year and lost twice. That\u2019s something that we need to put right.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Though he has Saturday\u2019s URC fixture with the Ospreys uppermost in his thoughts, Ulster head coach Richie Murphy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43,147239],"class_list":{"0":"post-315292","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-ulster-vs-ospreys"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}