It is no surprise that Leicester Tigers' new assistant backs coach Geordan Murphy has taken to his role like a duck to water. The 34-year-old played the game in an wonderfully effortless manner on his way to 72 Test caps for Ireland and 322 appearances for his club.
And a potentially difficult transition from player to coach seems to have been made in a heartbeat.
Having been mocked by head-office staff at Oval Park during his first week for "struggling with the computers", tales of the former club captain's early impact as a coach have been rife during pre-season training.
Murphy will be working under new backs coach Paul Burke.
The former Munster and Tigers fly-half knows all about making the transition from player to coach, having done the same at Leicester five years ago.
He is just one person singing Murphy's praises.
"He's very level-headed and I think he will thrive in the coaching environment," said Burke.
"He has a good personality, is good with the players and they all respect him.
"As a coach, that is half the battle. You need to respect the players and treat them with dignity, and then you will get the best out of them.
"Geordy ticks all of those boxes."
For Murphy, the transition has been made smoother by the work he did with the team last season while struggling with injury. He admits that the full-time title is "daunting" but that the job is not altogether new to him.
"I was always telling them what to do when I was playing so, in theory, this is no different," he said.
"You just have to think about these things a bit more when you are a coach.
"I'll admit that it's daunting. But the way I look at it, is that I came to Leicester to be a rugby player and I started at the bottom of the tree back then, trying to earn my stripes with the first team.
"It's like that for me again now.
"I have to listen and learn from the guys to become a better coach and, hopefully, get myself in a situation where I am well respected by everyone at the club as a coach.
"I was nervous before my first session, which was a funny one.
"I walked on to the pitch to do a skills session and the guys I knew stood on one side and had a chat to me – while the ones I didn't know so well stood on the other side expecting to hear some 'coaching gold' from this new coach!
"It has been good fun but the serious stuff has started now.
"The way I look at coaching is the same as when I was playing. I was friends with people but, when push comes to shove, the most important thing was the performance at the weekend.
"If you are going to hurt someone's feelings, you might as well say it to his face.
"It's an exciting role and it should be fun. It's a young squad with lots of talented players. It's the best place to be coaching. The players here know the game so well, it makes my job a lot easier."
