Geordan Murphy, the captain of the Leicester rugby team, has signed a new long-term deal to keep him at the home of the Premiership champions.
There had been fears that Murphy would either resign or move to another club to seek a brand new challenge in the game. However, it now seems that he will play out the remainder of his playing days at the club he has come to define.
This news will please many members of the coaching team at Leicester who may have been worrying over the fact that they would need to go and find another player with a similar playing style and a similar influence over the current team. This is a great weight off of many minds at the club and it will provide a huge boost to many different areas.
Murphy has a number of fantastic attributes that have helped him throughout his career and it’s very important that he keeps displaying the same things in order to give Leicester the best possible chance of retaining their Premiership crown.
The experience to teach
Experience is everything to a club that is going for back-to-back titles. There will be a few players introduced to the Leicester team this season and Murphy will play a huge role in helping them to settle in and take to the side very easily.
Murphy can also use his experience to help younger players in the playing squad. He can offer technical advice as well as offer them the best advice in terms of how to play against specific teams. There is no one better in the Leicester team at reading the player and his influence will be huge over the young lads in the team.
He will know how the club is run down to the very last letter. This will be very useful because nothing will have to change. A new captain would have to take time to brand his leadership style over the club but now Murphy can walk through the door on the first day of pre-season as though nothing had ever changed.
Defending the title
Leicester is also going to find it very difficult next season to try and maintain its Premiership title. There are a number of clubs who are actively signing very good players and this means they will be able to up their level of quality next year.
Murphy’s side will still be the strong favourites to retain the title because they probably have the best-balanced squad in the country. However, there will be a few sides trying harder than ever to try and knock Leicester off of the top spot and Leicester will need to pull together in every possible aspect to make sure they stay champions.
Leicester also have one or two areas of their squad to address and if they bring in more quality, as they are expected to do, then it will shorten the odds on them being champions again even further. They are a very imposing club to play against and Murphy is playing a big role in making sure they stay where they are.
Advice for Murphy
If you fancy Leicester to win the title again next year then by all means back them. Avoid any specific bets on Murphy because he is not the sort of player who will run around the field like a headless chicken scoring tries for fun.
Focus on other players in the squad such as Toby Flood, the kicker, who will always be there or there abouts when it comes to the highest points scorer. These sorts of bets will be your best option early on in the domestic campaign because some of the odds in Leicester to win matches will be very short.
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