I WASN’T AN ANGEL!
Yarde says switch to Sale has changed his life after messy exit from Quins
‘THREE weeks in Bali,’ chuckles Marland Yarde, pointing out a framed collage of loved-up photographs on his living room wall. ‘I needed that... rice, carbs, more rice. I put on eight kilos [1st 3lbs]!’
Together with his girlfriend Georgia, the dreadlocked winger packed his suitcase in June and headed for the Indonesian Islands.
‘It was my first summer with no rugby — no England tours or junior World Cups — since I left school,’ he says, slumped into his new leather sofa.
‘Sunrise, breakfast, explore, local food for lunch, beach, local food for dinner, eat some more. I needed to enjoy and relax.’
New club. New city. New house. New girlfriend. Another new house. It has been quite the year for Yarde, who was marched out of Harlequins last October.
He left his family in London and relocated to Manchester at 48 hours’ notice. Now, 11 months later, life has settled down in a quiet suburb on the banks of the Bridgewater Canal.
‘In a matter of three or four days, I’d gone from living in London to living in Manchester,’ he says. ‘My life changed really quickly and, I won’t lie, it was pretty tough to deal with at the start.
‘ My parents l i ved j ust around the corner in London. I had a dog, I’d just built a new kitchen and I abandoned it all. That’s life. I was a Harlequins player on Tuesday and a Sale player on Thursday.
‘I moved into an apartment in the middle of Manchester — totally new surroundings — and I had no clue where I was. I was having to use a satnav to find a supermarket that was 500 metres away!
‘I had to grow up a bit in terms of standing on my own two feet. Suddenly I couldn’t just drive home to my family. It took a while to settle, six months or so, but I can’t imagine living in London now. I moved again in March and met Georgia pretty soon. I’m settled. This feels like my home now.’
It helps that Georgia grew up just outside Burnley, so she has a better grasp of the local geography.
In January, Yarde will enrol in a business management degree at Northumbria University and cuts a happy figure in his new surroundings — laughing, joking, smiling.
Nine tries in 11 Premiership appearances has also helped with the bedding in process.
Sale have lost three from four this season but Yarde, 26, is close to his best form since he ran over the top of Richie McCaw on England’s 2014 tour of New Zealand.
He is clearly benefiting from the stern leadership of Steve Diamond, with the poor time- keeping that cost his Quins career consigned to the past. ‘I was probably a bit laid- back and lazy in my younger years,’ he says. ‘That caught up with me a little bit. People mistook my laidback attitude for not caring. I cared 100 per cent.
‘Maybe people thought there was some favouritism because I wasn’t being dropped. I wasn’t an angel and I made mistakes but I pride myself in the fact that I always turned up and gave 100 per cent. That’s been and gone. I’m a Sale player now.
‘ I’m never late any more. My mum would whack me on the bum with a slipper as a kid! Dimes can be pretty harsh on you. All coaches are different and I had to make a bit of a personality shift. Training’s three junctions down the M62 and the traffic’s pretty bad so, if our start time is 8, I get in for 7.30am!’
Yarde’s new residence is on a plush townhouse estate. Marouane Fellaini lives nearby, Juan Mata was spotted at a local restaurant and Marcus Bent recently asked for a pair of Sale tickets. It is football territory and Sale realise they must play exciting rugby to pull in crowds from Old Trafford and the Etihad Stadium. Yarde has been a benefactor of that, scoring a brace of pitch-length tries. Sale are bottom of the pile after four rounds but today they face a Leicester side who are also struggling.
‘Our style of play has helped me personally,’ says Yarde. ‘Attacking opportunities were pretty limited at Quins. Players didn’t really understand our style.
‘Now I’m getting more quality ball in space. We’ve got the personnel, we just need the finishing touches. There’s no reason to panic at this stage. We’re four games in. You just want to make sure that, come November/December/January, there are no more excuses.’
Yarde will be wearing the same number as Leicester’s Jonny May, who has recently emerged as one of England’s outstanding wingers under Eddie Jones.
It is 15 months since Yarde won his last cap — his longest run out of the team since his debut in 2013. ‘That fire still burns, of course,’ says Yarde. ‘I spoke to Eddie on the phone and he says what he expects. I’m not content with being a guy who just plays Premiership rugby. Playing for England is something I want to do — and I want to do it pretty quickly.’
Yarde knows all too well how quickly things can happen.