James Colman Murphy-O'Connor (6 June 1925 – 10 August 2014) was an Irish international

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player.

Biography

The son of a doctor, Murphy-O'Connor was born in Reading, the eldest of six siblings. He attended Prior Park College with his four brothers. His youngest brother was the British cardinal

Cormac Murphy-O'Connor Cormac Murphy-O'Connor (24 August 1932 – 1 September 2017) was a British Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Westminster from 2000 to 2009. He was also president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales. He was made ...

and he was also a cousin of priest and biblical scholar

Jerome Murphy-O'Connor Jerome Murphy-O'Connor (born 10 April 1935, Cork City, Ireland – died 11 November 2013, Jerusalem) was an Irish Dominican priest, a leading authority on St. Paul, and a Professor of New Testament at the École Biblique in Jerusalem, a posi ...

. Murphy-O'Connor studied medicine at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, where he was involved in Hospitals Cup rugby, and undertook further studies at the Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin. He practised medicine in

Slough Slough () is a town in Berkshire, England, in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the M4, M40 and M25 motorways. It is part of the historic county of Buckinghamshire. In 2021, the ...

. A 6 ft 6 in forward, Murphy-O'Connor captained Bective Rangers to the Leinster Senior Cup title in 1948. He was a

Leinster Leinster ( ; or ) is one of the four provinces of Ireland, in the southeast of Ireland. The modern province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige, which existed during Gaelic Ireland. Following the 12th-century ...

representative player and was capped once for

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

, against England at Twickenham in the 1954 Five Nations, with his penalty goal accounting for his team's only points in a 3–14 loss. His biggest contribution to rugby came through pioneering the kicking technique of striking the ball using his instep, instead of the toe. Murphy-O'Connor married the sister of Ireland prop William O'Neill.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Murphy-O'Connor, Jim 1925 births 2014 deaths Irish rugby union players Ireland international rugby union players Rugby union players from Reading, Berkshire English people of Irish descent Rugby union number eights People educated at Prior Park College Bective Rangers players Leinster Rugby players

Biography

See also

References

External links