St Helens winger, Lewis Murphy, is hoping for a season of consistent playing time, after his first year at the club was hampered by a number of injuries.
Murphy came through the ranks at Wakefield, and became one of the brightest young wingers in the league. Making his debut in 2022, he played 24 times for the club before moving to Sydney Roosters in 2024.
An ACL injury cut short his time at Trinity, and also hindered his start to life down under. Whilst he never made a senior NRL appearance, he featured seven times for the NSW Cup squad, crossing once.
What was originally a two-year deal, Murphy returned to the UK with Saints after just 12 months, but again injury has meant his first season at the Red Vee was anything but smooth sailing.
With a new coach at the club and a new sense of optimism around the fan base, on the surface it seems that Saints are set to have an improved year, with a potential trophy coming at the end of it.
Murphy has set out his goals for the season, both on a personal level and as a club, with consistency being key to both targets.
Talking on the Nova Sport Podcast, he said: “I think it’s definitely an exciting time [to be a Saints fan].
“Rowls [Paul Rowley] has already said what type of rugby he likes to play, and I think everyone’s seen it when he’s been at Salford.
“It should be exciting, especially as a winger. I love to attack. Obviously, I’m not that big. I don’t love running into big middles, I’d rather be scoring tries, but it’s enjoyable. We’ve got lots of depth everywhere now, so it’s a lot of competition, so everyone’s training hard.
On a personal level, he explained: “Just being on the pitch again. Because I know what I can do when I’m on the pitch, it’s just being on it for long enough.
“…Being on it for long enough to have a good run of games, because I know with the talent we’ve got in our squad, and the way we’re looking to play, I know I should be scoring a good amount of tries and we should be winning a lot of games. So it’s just about cementing my place, cementing that wing spot really.”
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St Helens winger discusses controversial Magic Weekend yellow card
Perhaps the most notable event of Murphy’s Saints career so far was the incident at Magic Weekend against Leeds Rhinos that saw him sent to the sin bin.
As he jumped to catch a high ball, his knee collided with the head of Alfie Edgell, forcing the Leeds youngster to the floor.
After a lengthy video referee decision, it was deemed worthy of a yellow card, despite Murphy only having eyes for the ball. The verdict was met with a lot of backlash, with many feeling a yellow card was harsh for what was clearly an accidental challenge. Whilst Leeds didn’t score a try in his absence, they did manage to kick a drop goal, which took them to a two-score lead.
Commenting on the incident, he said: “I just couldn’t believe it. Obviously, I saw the video after and I did clip him pretty hard. I was surprised he wasn’t fully knocked out, it was pretty bad, but I’ll never intend to hit someone like that.
“I never even knew he was there, I just jumped to catch the ball. Probably would have helped if I’d have caught the ball, like, but yeah, no one could believe it.
“I couldn’t believe it and it was my first ever yellow card that, as well… I was just sat on the bike, I remember just hoping that they don’t score while I’m off.”
