Marmion eager to escape from Murray’s shadow
LIKE any Irish-qualified rugby player, Kieran Marmion wants to be the first-choice pick in Joe Schmidt’s national side.
But he knows that, in the short term at least, it’s an unrealistic ambition, because he is playing second fiddle to a man widely accepted as the best scrum-half in the northern hemisphere, and perhaps even the world.
The trouble with being back-up to Conor Murray is not just that Test starts are strictly rationed – Marmion has won all but four of his 16 caps as a replacement – but that game-time off the bench is heavily restricted.
If a match is in the balance, Murray generally stays on – Marmion was unused in the opening Six Nations defeat to Scotland, and often is granted just a couple of token minutes to prove himself.
The Connacht man is no apprentice; at 25, three years on from his Test debut, and with a Guinness PRO12 medal on his CV, he should be entering the prime of his career. When he has had a chance – he started the Championship-concluding win over England when Murray was injured – he has shown that he belongs at Test level
But he doesn’t complain. He accepts that Murray – still only 28 – is ahead of him on merit, having copper-fastened his exalted status on the Lions tour, and he is working hard to close the gap, while also making sure he keeps ahead of Leinster’s Luke McGrath.
Asked if he ever despairs of getting his hands on the No 9 jersey, he gives a slightly resigned smile.
“You don’t lose heart but you know you’re up against pretty good competition,” says Marmion (right), who started two of Ireland’s three games on their summer tour of the USA and Japan.
“It’s going to be tough. You’ve just got to make sure you make the most of every opportunity you get, and there are not that many opportunities when there is someone like that ahead of you.
“I’ ve just got togo out week to week and try and improve my game. As a scrum-half, the basics of the game are the most important – you never stop working on your passing and kicking.
“I was happy with how the summer tour went. It was great to get that exposure and game-time. ”
Marmion, an English-born, Welsh-raised son of Irish parents, acknowledges that his chances in the international arena will be helped if Connacht improve on their form of last season, when their PRO12 title defence petered out into an eighth-placed finish.
“Last season was disappointing,” he concedes. “We just lost too many of the games that we should have been winning, like Zebre and the Dragons. We threw away a lot of points.
“This season, a big aim for us is to get back into the Champions Cup, then to be as competitive as possible and push for silverware at the end of the season.” He is looking forward to working with new head coach Kieran Keane when he returns to his province on Monday after his summer break, and he is excited about the prospect of the league’s expansion into South Africa, despite the extra travel involved. “It’s hugely exciting,” he says, “getting a trip to South Africa and testing ourselves against the teams down there. I hope it goes ahead. It’s definitely something different. “The travel is just part of the game now, so there’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes to make sure that we’re ready – when the Ireland team f lew from the US to Japan, we had special face-masks to reduce the risk of picking up illness. “It helps that there’s no serious time difference in South Africa, so jet-lag isn’t a factor. So bringing in those teams would be great for us players and great for the league.”