WRITTEN off at a young age for being too slow and too small, Cadan Murley has since proved the critics wrong and then some.
The Harlequins flyer is not only one of the quickest players in the Premiership but was also without peers as a finisher for two seasons in the Premiership.
Murley, still only 24, scorched home for 15 in the 2021/22 campaign, one fewer than Max Malins, and then became the first Harlequins player to be top Premiership try scorer the season after having matched his tally from the previous year.
Such form brought him to the attention of Eddie Jones and Steve Borthwick and Murley was involved in three England training camps until injury ruled him out of contention for what would have been a first cap in this year’s Six Nations.
Murley has no fears that he may be another Paolo Odogwu and is confident that if he returns to the form of 2021-23, his England chance will eventually come.
“Fraser Dingwall was in loads of squads and he got an opportunity that he thoroughly deserved so hopefully if I can get back to form I can hopefully get a cap,” he said.
Murley announced his return to fitness with a hat-trick in England A’s demolition of a callow Portugal team at Welford Road in February and followed it up by starting Harlequins’ last two Premiership games – the 52-7 defeat to Saracens and the 40-36 win over Bath.
“It was a frustrating start to the season, I did the MCL on my left knee and then came back and did the syndesmosis on my ankle. But I had three years before that with virtually no injuries at all.
“These things usually come around and when you do one you are normally more vulnerable to doing another. But I am back fit and that little time off during the Six Nations although it was frustrating to not be involved, it was actually really good to get my body right.”
Born in Frimley, Surrey but raised for a number of years in Cornwall and then Wiltshire, joining a West Country club would have been the most obvious outcome for Murley, the son of a Lieutenant Colonel in the British Army, who was also posted in Germany for a while.
“It was a bit lucky that I got in (at Quins). I didn’t get selected by my county, Dorset & Wilts, and that was the route into the academy back then so I never really got a sniff at Bath, I got told I wouldn’t make it, that I was too small, not quick enough, but then I did a 7s tournament in Newbury and I got scouted from there. I went for a trial at Quins and they gave me a shot and I have never looked back really,” he explained.
“It was definitely a good decision and I am very grateful to Quins for giving me that opportunity. We had quite a good year group, I am in the same year group as Marcus Smith and below me, there�
