Jordi Murphy ready to grasp World Cup opportunity with both hands

Jordi Murphy was right on the edge of making the final cut for Japan, so would have been heartbroken to get the bad news from Joe Schmidt.

But rugby at this level moves fast and now the 29-year-old's return to the world stage will happen on Thursday.

Such is the nature of World Cups, injuries provide coaches with difficulties but for players on standby, they provide golden opportunities.

And the Ulster flanker landed in Narita Airport in Tokyo on Sunday, having got the call the day before that Jack Conan's finals were unfortunately over due to a fractured foot in training last Thursday.

The injury happened just before Conan was to be named at no 8 against Japan.

Instead, it was CJ Stander who played a punishing second 80 minutes in six days, and it showed as the Munster star had so little of the impact he showed against Scotland.

With Conan gone, Stander is Ireland's only specialist no 8 in Japan, but Murphy has worn that jersey five times in 29 Test appearances - including twice this year, against Italy in the Six Nations and again in the first warm-up game.

Ulster's Jordi Murphy (©INPHO/Gary Carr)

Schmidt trusts Murphy, who started and scored a try in the first win over the All Blacks in Chicago in 2016 - before suffering a cruciate injury - and played in the World Cup quarter-final defeat to Argentina the previous year.

And although he only joined up with the squad on Monday afternoon - under RWC rules, a replacement has to wait 48 hours before he can become involved - the Ireland boss is throwing him straight in against Russia.

Stander has backed him to do the job.

"Jordi always fits right in," Stander said. "He’s been a part of this team even before me so were we're looking forward to getting him back in.

"He's going to bring good balance in our back row. He's someone who understands the game, someone  who will bring a lot of energy.

"His ball carrying and his defence are very good so we're looking forward to having him in there".

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