Joe hoping to March into Eddie’s future plans
SIZZLING centre Joe Marchant hopes his most productive season in a Harlequins shirt will fire him into contention for England’s Six Nations campaign.
Marchant, 22, has started every Premiership game for Quins this season, racking up 944 minutes from a possible 960, and, along with Sale’s Sam James, is looking well equipped to challenge for England’s No.13 jersey after helping himself to six tries.
Henry Slade, Manu Tuilagi and Elliot Daly will expect to fight it out for England’s outsidecentre spot against Ireland next month. However, the door could yet remain ajar for a bolter, with Marchant having trained before under boss Eddie Jones.
“I just need to keep working hard and if I stay fully focussed on Quins and things continue going well, who knows what’s going to happen?” Marchant told The Rugby Paper.
“There are boys who are going well elsewhere but we’ll just see what happens come the Six Nations. I just want to make sure I do my best here but it (England) is obviously what I want going forward, so I’ve got to keep nailing down my shirt at Quins. You literally never know what’s around the corner in rugby but it’s been great to be getting good game time and I’ll just try to take any opportunities.”
Marchant’s form has been central to Harlequins’ march into third place, with last week’s crushing 38-17 win at Newcastle proof that they have banished the soft-touch reputation and must be considered genuine title challengers to Saracens and Exeter.
Harlequins boast the joint-second meanest defence, along with Saracens, in terms of tries conceded, with Marchant explaining:
“Paul Gustard has made a huge impact, especially when he first came in and fitness was one of his main focuses.
“He worked us really hard there, and then he’s made sure we have a really solid defence which means teams aren’t scoring a lot of tries against us.
“Our attack is improving all the time – speed of ball and doing things in a slightly different way – and we’re getting good results from that work.
“To get a big win on the road, especially at Newcastle, was good and to win back-to-back league games after beating Wasps was also a big target.
It puts us in a good place in the Premiership and we really want to kick on and challenge now.”
With Marchant on course to beat his previous seasonal best league try tally of eight, in 2016/17, he adds modestly:
“I haven’t made too many of those myself being honest, it’s mainly been a case of intercepts or Danny Care kicking through.
“The hard work’s being done by others, I’m just finishing, but I’ve been delighted to get all this game time and I’m loving this season so far.”