Appointing Richie Murphy would 'put stability' into Ulster

Johne Murphy believes Richie Murphy has earned the right to be given the Ulster job on a permanent basis beyond this summer.

The Ireland U20 boss has been taking interim charge of Ulster since March, following the departure of Dan McFarland in February.

In six games in charge, Murphy has had a mixed return of three wins and three defeats, with the caveat that he was thrown in at the deep end; his first two games brought him on a tour of South Africa, before two more away trips to France in the Challenge Cup.

Back-to-back home wins over Cardiff and Benetton have steadied the ship, in spite of a large injury list, and with three games to go the province are seventh in the BKT United Rugby Championship, with play-off rugby and Champions Cup qualification in their sights.

Murphy has made no secret of the fact that he wants to earn the job permanently, and speaking on the RTÉ Rugby podcast, his namesake Johne Murphy says it would give the team the stability they need both on and off the pitch.

"My opinion on it is always that I think it's an opportunity for Richie to be given a job for three to four years, given his own team, and really try put his own stamp on Ulster Rugby as a whole," the former Munster wing said on the RTÉ Rugby podcast.

"I think that [off-field negativity] can all be helped by taking away any lack of knowledge around what their future is, put stability there, and going 'this is what's going to happen, this is who the head coach will be, this is who his defence coach will be', and have it very clear."

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