Michael Murphy spent last week in France training with Top 14 side Clermont Auvergne. It was part of the Donegal man's participation in the AIB-backed TV show The Toughest Trade.
Former Wales international Shane Williams is the other participant in the show. He spent a week training with Murphy's club Glenswilly which culimated with him scoring four points in a challenge game.
Murphy's time in France appears to have been equally as successful as Williams's in Ireland.
Speaking to the Irish Times, two former England internatinals, Nick Abendanon and David Strettle, were highly complimentary about what they saw from Murphy.
Abendanon, who has two caps for England, felt there were no clear signs of Murphy's status as an amateur sportsman.
He didn’t look out of place at all in any of the training sessions we did. He’s obviously very well athletically built. He was there or thereabouts in terms of lifting the same weights as us in the gym.
I was pretty impressed with his speed. He seemed pretty quick in his agility off the mark . . . you wouldn’t be able to tell that he was actually an amateur.
Strettle, who played 14 times for England, felt Murphy's catching and kicking stood out as strengths.
Definitely – his kicking and his catching. Especially being a back-three player, you do appreciate somebody who’s obviously got a good catch on them.
We were doing some high balls in one of the training sessions and you can see the skill set that the boys have so it’s definitely impressive.
Clermont head coach Franck Azema also spoke positively about Murphy, saying that the 27-year-old has 'has some strong athletic qualities and good kicking ability'.
#TheToughest #press Franck Azema said " @murphm95 has some strong athletic qualities and good kicking ability. " @AIB_GAA #WelcomeMichael pic.twitter.com/EKwleAlS2e
— ASM Rugby (@ASMOfficiel) January 24, 2017
