Murphy's mastery proves catalyst for Perpignan revival

France have never really had a Dean Richards to call their own. There have been some candidates down the years - Joinel, Rodriguez, Cecillon, Benazzi, Pelous, some of whom could perform dynamic feats entirely beyond the imaginings of the great shambling bear from Leicester - but no Tricolore No 8 of the last quarter of a century quite achieved the combination of muscular mastery and cohesive control that earned the Midlander his Godfather status. The fact that Richards has bought himself a second home near Carcassonne, in the very heart of French rugby territory, merely adds insult to injury. So near, but yet so far.

Drive a couple of hours south towards the Spanish border, however, and you will immediately spot a second- generation Richards thumping his way around Stade Aime-Giral in the red and gold strip of Perpignan. The Heineken Cup finalists had to go to Toronto to find him, but it was well worth the effort. Phil Murphy is 26 now, and in his third season with the Catalans. It is probably his last, for the English are on his case. Two Premiership clubs, one of them London Irish, fancy the look of this New Deano, and are throwing money in his direction.

In a way, it is surprising that the Old Deano did not get in well ahead of the competition. Murphy turned in a couple of exceptional performances against Leicester in last season's Heineken Cup, and Richards, in his capacity as director of rugby at Welford Road, must have been tempted to pinch the Canadian's passport - an Irish one, courtesy of two years of schooling at the Methodist College in Belfast - as a means of preventing him re-crossing the Channel. Judging by the way the Tigers have played this season, they could have used his services.

Perpignan are among the most go-ahead clubs in France, anxious to jettison a history that does them no favours and replace it with a future worthy of the passionate rugby community they serve. On the field, they have under-achieved for decades - the last of their six national titles was achieved 48 years ago and if they had a golden era, it was in the early 1920s. Off the field, the stain of Vichy France and the wartime activities of the Petainist sports minister Joseph Pascot, a former Perpignan outside-half, has not quite been erased. (Pascot was heavily implicated in the suppression of French rugby league and the seizure of its assets, and as bad luck would have it, the modern-day club finds itself surrounded by Le Bacares, Saint-Cyprien and other league outfits). Happily, Murphy and his fellow outsiders - the likes of Manny Edmonds and Rimas Alvarez Kairelis - have both raised the bar in terms of playing standards, and broken down the barriers of insularity.

"These are exciting and positive times for the club, definitely," Murphy said this week, after a heavy training session in advance of this afternoon's Heineken Cup final with Toulouse. "The degree of ambition is considerable. There is huge local support for the club, but the people in charge want to take it much further by making it a sporting centre for the whole of Catalonia. We have Barcelona to the south, and more big-time football in Montpellier to the north. But Perpignan rugby could, if it is managed well, capture the interest of sports people from a very wide area. This game against Toulouse is just the beginning."

Win or lose at Lansdowne Road today, Perpignan will be handsomely equipped to mount another meaningful European campaign next season. Dan Luger, the England wing, is a confirmed signing from Harlequins, as is Daniel Herbert, the Wallaby centre from Queensland. Assuming Scott Robertson, the All Black No 8, does not have a late change of mind, he too will head for the Roussillon coast after this autumn's World Cup in Australia. Unencumbered by any form of salary restriction, most of the élite French clubs have been busy on the recruitment front. None, not even Stade Français or Montferrand, have been more predatory than Perpignan.

When Murphy joined, the club were going through a flat spell in European rugby. They had reached the last four of the European Cup in the English boycott season of 1998-99 - they were beaten 10-6 by Colomiers at the semi-final stage - but nondescript performances in the domestic championship left them slumming it in the second-tier Shield competition for the next two years. They missed out on a knock-out place in 1999-2000 when Pau, their fierce rivals from Basque country, outscored them in the pool stage, and then lost narrowly at neighbouring Narbonne in the quarter-finals of the 2000-01 tournament. Something needed to happen, and that something was Murphy.

"I was playing for the Oakfield Crusaders club in Toronto when I got a call from Mike James, my fellow Canadian," he recalled. "Mike had spent four seasons at Perpignan, but was moving to Paris to join Stade Français. I guess he fancied the big city. Perpignan had Thomas Lievremont, a very good player, at No 8, but he was also on the move, to Biarritz, so Mike thought I might fit the bill. He knew I was considering pursuing a professional career in Europe, sounded me out to make sure I was interested in going to France, and then arranged things with the president and the coach. He made all the running. I just turned up when he told me.

"It's been a heck of an experience. Coming from Canada, as I do, it takes your breath away to see crowds of 12,000, sometimes 15,000, turning out for the big club matches here in France. And matches don't get any bigger than the ones against Toulouse, who set the standards in this country. I've played them six or seven times now and each game has been something to remember. There is a fear factor at work, because you know what will happen to you if you don't get it right. Play fast and loose with them, and their backs will cut you up; allow them to dictate the terms of the forward confrontation, and they will make you suffer. You have to be completely organised, completely committed and totally clear-headed just to live with them."

Murphy expects to be sorely tested this afternoon, but in the grand and rugged tradition of Canadian forwards, all of whom give the impression of being unrefined products of some mountain-blasting concern in the Rockies, he will give his two euros worth in return. His strength and aggression from the base of the scrum, his implacability at close quarters and his Richards-esque talent for staying in immediate proximity to the ball for hours on end will give the Toulouse enforcers all the hassle they can handle.

And if Perpignan do lose him to the Premiership after this final, they will bid him the fondest of adieus. The feeling is mutual. "I have no clear idea of where I'll be playing my rugby next season," Murphy admitted. "I have a deep desire to try new things and embrace other rugby cultures, but I also have to make a living - a pretty important factor for a Canadian rugby player, because we're never completely sure if we'll get paid for playing for our country. In the end, I'll do what is best for me. But if that means leaving here, I will do so with regret. The last three years have been everything I could have wished for, and more. It's quite a place for a rugby guy, south-west France."