Confirmed - Jordi Murphy to leave Leinster for Ulster

Leinster Rugby have this morning confirmed that Jordi Murphy has agreed to join Ulster Rugby for the start of the 2018/19 season.

The 26 year old back row has played 95 times for Leinster scoring 17 tries since his debut in September 2011. In his time at Leinster he captained Leinster ‘A’ to the British & Irish Cup in 2012/13 and was also part of the PRO12 winning squad in 2013/14 starting 18 league games that season.

Murphy has also represented Ireland on 18 occasions, scoring two tries and has two 6 Nations medals to his name. Most recently in the Guinness Series, he started against Fiji in a 23-20 home win.

The Fiji game was also his first game in green since the historic win against the All Blacks in Chicago in November 2016. In that game he scored an early try but went off soon after with an ACL knee injury which would rule him out of contention for the rest of last season.

Speaking to leinsterrugby.ie this morning, Leinster Rugby Head Coach Leo Cullen said, “Jordi is a hugely talented player and a very popular member within our squad.

“It is to his enormous credit that he has come back as strong as he has from his knee injury last year in Ireland’s famous win over the All Blacks in Chicago.

“We respect Jordi’s decision to move and everyone at Leinster wishes him the very best with his future.”

For his part Murphy said, “I’ve loved my time at Leinster and have made friendships that will last a lifetime. Having attended Leinster games in Donnybrook and in the RDS, it was a dream to play for Leinster and to run out as often as I have done in front of such brilliant support is something that I am very proud of.

“The messages that I received from Leinster fans in the last 12 months, in particular, I’ll never forget.

“But after long consideration and at this stage in my career, this move to Ulster is an exciting challenge and one that I am very much looking forward to. Having spoken to Les and to Jono the future for Ulster is very bright and I look forward to playing my part in that.

“Of course until then, all my efforts will my geared towards helping Isa and the rest of the squad achieve as much as we can on two fronts with Leinster.”