Murphy reiterates powerful case for Ireland recognition

Leicester 53 Béziers 1

John Connolly, who knows a thing or three about this daft old game, reckons Ireland are close to achieving something significant: to be precise, a top five place in the global pecking order and the genuine respect of those élite nations who like to damn them with faint-praise phrases like "good on their day" while privately dismissing them as an under-achieving bag of wind. "What they need," said the former Queensland Super 12 coach, who now earns his corn at Swansea, "are another couple of Brian O'Driscolls. If they can unearth those from somewhere, they'll be bang in business."

One of these O'Driscolls is already in evidence, and he goes by the name of Geordan Murphy. The Irish selectors know all about him, too – they first capped him two years ago, and have been dabbling with him ever since. But no selector blessed with a full complement of faculties merely dabbles with a player like Murphy, any more than he would faff around with a Wilkinson or a Howlett or, not to put too fine a point on it, an O'Driscoll. There is only one thing to do with a rugby genius, and that is to build a team around him.

Quite why the Irish persist in ignoring Murphy – they prefer to play Girvan Dempsey, the Leinster full-back, instead – is one of the enduring mysteries of the age. Perhaps they do not see him as a full-back at all, and are waiting for Leicester, where he wows the public on a weekly basis, to give him a run in some other position, such as outside-half. (That is a frightening thought, actually. If Murphy, who has some experience of the role, were let loose at No 10, he would wreak havoc from one end of the northern hemisphere to the other, and might even keep a little back for the swaggering super-powers down south).

As it is, he is occupying his most familiar position, and playing rugby fit for the Gods. His performance on Saturday against the hapless Frenchmen of Béziers – hapless because they are buried at the bottom of their domestic heap, horribly short of money and down among the dead men as far as this Heineken Cup is concerned – was as good as anything seen in European competition since Alfredo di Stefano last turned out for Real Madrid. He did it in the wet, for good measure. Artists like Murphy are not meant to perform in the wet.

Characteristically, Dean Richards lavished praise on his most inventive footballer the way that Michael Heseltine lavishes it on the current Tory leadership. "Geordan? He played well, but Béziers allowed us more space than most opponents," he muttered, his expression not so much stony as cast in reinforced concrete. The full-back deserved better. "Wonderful" would have been a more appropriate description of his contribution, "spellbinding" an accurate reflection of the pace, wit, vision and trickery he brought to the party. Maybe Murphy does not respond well to unqualified acclaim.

He started the game with a sly little glide-and-give down the touch-line that left the Frenchmen, who had struggled to contain him in the Languedoc six days previously, fearful of what might follow. It was almost as if Murphy was telling them to "be afraid, very afraid". At the start of the second quarter, with Leicester already up and running through a rather fortunate hack-ahead score from Fereti Tuilagi, he cut the Béziers midfield to ribbons to create a try for Louis Deacon. After the break, he really caught fire: he scored one try himself – Darren Garforth, the roly-poly prop, might have run in himself from 20 metres, but almost expired after 10 and off-loaded the ball – before slicing his way from one 22 to the other and presenting Tuilagi with his hat-trick. There was no stopping the lad.

After all their troubles in the Premiership and a grim struggle at Neath in the first round of Heineken matches, Leicester are suddenly back in the pink. A home quarter-final is a virtual certainty, now that Gloucester and Bourgoin have slipped up on the road; more to the point, the champions are beginning to click out wide. Richards was fairly flat about this, too. "People like Leon Lloyd, Rod Kafer, Austin Healey and Geordan had injuries in the early part of the season, and we missed them," he said, omitting to mention that the new generation of Tiger talents, from Ollie Smith at outside centre to Sam Vesty and Harry Ellis at half-back, have forced their more experienced colleagues to improve their acts.

It is interesting to note that Leicester's two outstanding performances of the campaign to date, the Premiership victory over Gloucester last month and this merciless disembowelment of Béziers, were achieved with young, hungry players in positions generally filled by hardened internationals. Neil Back and Lewis Moody were not around for either game. Nor was Ben Kay. Graham Rowntree missed the Gloucester match, while Josh Kronfeld spent Saturday afternoon in suit and tie. All those pages devoted to Leicester's decline and fall are looking like fish-and-chip paper right now.

The champions must still beat Calvisano in northern Italy and Neath at Welford Road to guarantee themselves home advantage when the knock-out stage begins in April, but the chances of them failing on either front are as remote as the planet Neptune. Béziers, meanwhile, can kiss goodbye to Europe, which, given their parlous position in the Ligue Nationale de Rugby, is probably a good thing. They have won only five of their 13 matches in all competitions, and one of those was against Mont-de-Marsan, the weakest side in the French first division. They face a long, difficult six months, and can well do without distractions.

If Murphy also faces a testing time – with the World Cup in Australia approaching fast, he is up against the clock in international terms – he is far better placed than Béziers to work his way through it. Assuming the Irish hierarchy comes to its senses before next October, he could be a sensation in Sydney and a magician in Melbourne. Here's hoping.

Leicester: Tries Tuilagi 3, Deacon, West, Kafer, Murphy, Vesty. Conversions Murphy 5. Penalty: Murphy. Béziers: Try Nadiradze. Conversion Quesada. Penalty Quesada.

Leicester: G Murphy; L Lloyd, O Smith (S Booth, 50), R Kafer, F Tuilagi; A Healey (S Vesty, 66), T Tierney (H Ellis 66); G Rowntree (D Garforth, h-t), D West (G Chuter, 63), F Tournaire, M Johnson (capt), L Deacon, M Corry (P , 76), A Balding, W Johnson.

Béziers: S Bonetti (J-F Dubois, h-t; N Durand, 66); J Laharrague, J-M Aue, J-P Grandclaude, T Dejardin; G Quesada, P Mignoni (capt); J-F Pedesseau (S Chobet, 48), J Selva (D Swarzewski, 48), S Bonnorino, K Ghezal (F Gommard, 53), V Nadiradze, R Castel, F Mounier, F Martinez.

Referee: N Williams (Wales).