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3rd December 2018
03:56pm GMT

"We had a... let's call it a squad day out," Murphy began, "where we went out and had the craic. We were on a bus and there was about 40 on it - from the development [squad] right up to the senior players.
"We went out on the bus and we stopped off halfway for a drink. We went to leave an hour later and all the young players had safety belted themselves into the back row, where all the hard, old-school boys usually sit. "It was the likes of Conor Murray, Peter O'Mahony, Keith Earls, Dave Foley, Tommy O'Donnell, Mike Sherry. It was brilliant. They put on their safety belts and they had megaphones and signs, as if they were a union. It was like, 'HELL NO, WE WON'T GO!'"When it came time for the bus to set off, Paul O'Connell let the impudence stand. That was until Doug Howlett sidled up to the captain and said, "Wouldn't happen on my watch, mate." That was it, and O'Connell needed no more encouragement. Murphy continued:
"He just gathered Tony Buckley - Mushy, Mick O’Driscoll and John Hayes. "Paulie just went back and let’s just say they moved. Actually, before that, Paulie turned and goes, ‘Right’. "And he turned away, and then he turned back to me and he took his front teeth out and he handed me his teeth. And he was like, ‘Hold onto them a second kid’, and then they went back and they moved them, let’s say."The mutiny was ended right then and there and the old-school gang regained their seats in the back row. Simpler times.

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