Geordan Murphy hopes retail therapy eases relegation fears

Geordan Murphy has been banned from watching Newcastle’s crunch Gallagher Premiership clash with Gloucester by his wife – and will instead spend the afternoon shopping.

Leicester secured a losing bonus point in their 23-19 defeat to Harlequins at The Stoop on Friday but it was not enough to guarantee their top-flight survival.

Newcastle cling on for another day at least due to events in south west London and must secure bonus-point wins from the final two rounds to have any hope of escaping relegation.

But Murphy has been told that viewing the Falcons’ visit to Kingsholm on Saturday is off limits due to the tension it would create in the household.

“I’d be happy to watch the Newcastle game,” Leicester’s head coach said.

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“On most Saturdays I’d sit down and watch all of the rugby on the TV with the two young kids if I was allowed.

“But my wife has told me she can’t take it so she’s taking me shopping instead. I’ll probably just follow it on my phone – sneakily!

“We’re still in control of our destiny. We’ve got a really big game at home to Bath and that’s all I want to focus on.

“I don’t want to worry about Newcastle and their result. I don’t want to wish any ill on them, I wish them the very best of luck.

“We’ve had a really disappointing season but we can finish on a high against Bath. Hopefully we can give the fans something to cheer about which they haven’t had much of this season.”

Tries by Danny Care and Semi Kunatani helped Quins build a comfortable lead that was distorted when Mike Fitzgerald burrowed over almost three minutes into over-time to secure a crucial bonus point.

It was not a vintage display from Paul Gustard’s men, who remain in top-four contention after ending a five-match losing run in the Premiership.

“Where do I hope to finish? I want to win it. There’s no point entering something without the desire to win it, otherwise I might as well sit back in my armchair,” Quins head of rugby Gustard said.

“We’ve made hard work out of it over the last five weeks. We put ourselves in a great position 10 weeks ago but our recent results haven’t been what we wanted.

“We’ve made it tough which is a shame because to miss out on the top four now would be really disappointing.”