Jordi Murphy is well placed to break down the art of back-row play.
The 24-year-old forward has played across the back row for province and country, over the last four years, and has two Six Nations winners’ medals to his name.
Despite this, and his place in Joe Schmidt’s World Cup squad, Murphy eyes room for improvement.
He told us, ‘I have grown in confidence, in myself, in the past year and I find that I get more involved in games; putting my hand up for carries and extra work.
‘There are still work-ons. I want to increase my work-rate levels. I can go harder and for longer in games. I don’t want to tail off, even for a minute.’
Murphy has, very kindly, broken down what he feels the three key areas of back-row play are.
‘No missed tackles’
As a back-row, it is imperative that you have 100% tackle success. You may not achieve that in every game but that must be your primary goal going into matches.
Making a tackle does not only mean taking a guy down. It often means making a hit that forces a spill or turnover, or putting the team on the back foot.
Breakdown
You have to be a threat at the breakdown. In defence, that means turning the ball over or making it as difficult as possible for the opposition.
For someone like Peter O’Mahony, that would be one of the biggest strengths to his game. He would go out for a game, targeting multiple turnovers.
Involvement
This would mean having a work-rate that is second to none out there. It means carrying ball, running support lines, covering in defence and getting involved in backline moves.
As I have said, this is an element of my game that I feel is improving but there is significant room to increase my work-rate levels.
*Under Armour athlete Jordi Murphy was speaking as part of the launch of the company’s new Armour campaign. For more information on Earn Your Armour, please visit here.
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