Scottish Daily Mail

MARFO’S ON THE RISE

11

- by ROB ROBERTSON

I got my P45 when London Welsh were liquidated and almost had to walk away from rugby Even just six months ago, it would have been a stretch to imagine where I am now

THIS time last year, Darryl Marfo was staring into the abyss. Come Saturday, he will be facing down the Haka, the ultimate challenge in world rugby. You could say the Scotland prop’s luck has finally changed.

Marfo was playing for London Welsh in the English Championsh­ip when the club became beset with financial difficulti­es towards the end of 2016. Their liquidatio­n was eventually confirmed, leaving their players without a job and looking at the very realistic prospect of their profession­al careers being over.

Eventually, Marfo was handed a lifeline by Bath, before quickly moving on to Edinburgh. That he now finds himself as first-choice loose-head for Scotland after coming so close to the scrapheap is, as he admits himself, a hugely surprising scenario.

The man who was brought up in the sprawling Churchill Gardens council estate in Pimlico in central London made a creditable debut against Samoa last weekend. He knows, however, that he will have to raise his game to another level when he wins his second cap against world champions New Zealand.

Talking for the first time about his remarkable rise, the 27-year-old is certainly taking nothing for granted.

‘I was at London Welsh for a season-and-a-half until we went into liquidatio­n around this time last year,’ said Marfo, who qualifies for Scotland through his mother Cheryl from Ayr. ‘I got my P45, which was not a great experience.

‘I made so many really close friends at the club and it was such a sad situation.

‘We had players, coaches, other staff members giving their all, day in, day out, and the people at the top were not taking care of their end of the bargain, which led to the situation that unfolded.

‘There were real thoughts from me at that stage when the club folded of having to go down a different route away from rugby. It would have been a case of: “Needs must”, and, if I had to do something else to tide me over, I would have.

‘I would have taken a step back, regathered myself and tried to see how I could have applied myself in whatever other areas I could apart from rugby.

‘These were sad times as I knew I was a good rugby player but, sometimes, it is about supply and demand. It became a case back then of me having to earn money and be the breadwinne­r.

‘Up until I got signed by Bath, which was quite a while after London Welsh went into liquidatio­n, I was in exactly the same boat as my team-mates with no club.

‘It’s not like Bath had been lining me up and were circling like sharks, that wasn’t the case at all, but it was good to get another club a bit later.’

The English Premiershi­p outfit officially signed him on a short-term deal for the final four months of the season, nearly six weeks after London Welsh went bust and during which time he was out of work.

They didn’t renew his contract, but Edinburgh signed him as injury cover at loose-head prop on a one-year deal in the summer.

Initially fourth-choice at the club, Marfo now finds himself, because of injuries to the likes of Alasdair Dickinson, Allan Dell and Rory Sutherland, being handed a Scotland starting jersey.

Can he believe what has happened to him over the past 12 months?

‘Even just six months ago, it would have been a stretch to imagine where I am now,’ admitted Marfo. ‘Look, stranger

things have happened.

‘I have to believe what is happening is real because I just ran out in front of over 60,000 people at Murrayfiel­d on Saturday and that was a pretty real experience.’

Understand­ably, Marfo becomes a little bit prickly when questioned about whether he deserves to be starting for Scotland after a career spanning nine years in which he never previously troubled the national selectors.

‘I can’t control other people’s perception­s of me,’ he said. ‘My career has not gone as I would like it to have gone, especially in the early years. ‘There were injuries and I was not getting as much game-time as I would have liked. The emergence of other good young players at the clubs I was at was also a factor. ‘If you are on the outside and you are looking at how my career has gone and how I turned it around in a short space of time, then, yes, people might be a little bit hard-placed to understand it. ‘What I would say to them is that I have been in the profession­al environmen­t for nine years and among very good players. ‘When I was in England with Harlequins and then Bath, it was with and against internatio­nals from all different countries, so I have been putting in the work week in, week out for nine years now.

‘What has happened is the opportunit­y has come along now and I have the chance to play regularly and get to show people what I can do. Injuries were not fortunate to me in the past, but now they are helping me a bit.

‘Obviously, nobody likes to see their team-mates injured, but you have Al Dickinson out, Rory Sutherland just coming back from injury, Allan Dell making a comeback and is now suffering a bit with his back. That leaves the door open for me.

‘Mickey Rizzo got banned at Edinburgh and I got a good run of games. What else can I do but put my best foot forward in that situation?’

Playing against Samoa was a hugely emotional moment for Marfo, who may speak with an English accent but was never allowed to forget his roots by his proud mum.

‘My mother moved to London when she was 18, so all through my life since I was a child, I’ve been very aware of my Scottish roots and my Scottish heritage,’ said Marfo, who joined Harlequins straight from school.

‘As a kid and a teenager, I came up here for weeks at a time — we’re talking summer holidays, Easter holidays, Christmas holidays, every half-term. We would come up from my London council estate to the town of Ayr, by the seaside.

‘I spent a lot of time growing up in Scotland because of all my mum’s side of the family.

‘It was a really different experience and it was one that I loved as a kid. You’d get off the plane and the train and immediatel­y you could smell that fresh Scottish air and you could drink the water out of the taps.

‘With my grandparen­ts and my aunties and uncles being up here, it was a great place to come. There were loads of my family at the Samoa game.’

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 ??  ?? In the thick of it: Marfo is preparing to face the All Blacks in what will be only his second cap for Scotland
In the thick of it: Marfo is preparing to face the All Blacks in what will be only his second cap for Scotland

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