Geordan Murphy does not come from the leafy suburbs of south Dublin or the rugby hotbeds of Limerick or Cork. As a teenager he played Gaelic football for Kildare minors. But his greatest love, and his true genius, was for rugby.

Now nearing the end of a career that has seen him win over seventy Ireland caps - a number that a great many supporters and pundits believe should be considerably higher - and attain the captaincy of the top English club, Leicester, Geordan Murphy tells his own story for the first time.