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The 120kg All Black 'casually' clocking 9.4 metres a second in Blues training sessions

England centre Joe Marchant, who’s currently enjoying a club swap with the Blues in Auckland, has been revealing just how athletic his new teammates are. Marchant has spent 2020 in New Zealand with the Blues thanks to an agreement between the two organisations and is due to return on July 1, allowing him to take part in the opening rounds of the all-New Zealand tournament which began this weekend.

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Speaking with Harlequins coach Nick Evans and centre Francis Saili on a video call, Marchant was gushing in his praise of his colleagues.

‘To be fair a load of the boys have crazy skills. Some of the back rows especially, like Hoskins Sotutu, the No.8 that’s come through, he’s been unreal,” said Marchant.

“Mark Telea just beats people, for anything, he can sprint, stop, fend, anyone. In games there’s nothing they [defenders] can do about it. It’s just crazy.

“I can’t remember what game it was but, I think it was the Waratahs, where he scored two. He got the ball and the winger is just coming across, and he just did the most casual fend. I’m like ‘mate, how are you doing this?’.

Derby games between the New Zealand Super Rugby sides have been especially hyped-up.

“The difference with the New Zealand games, not only were they all derby games, but when you’re playing against a New Zealand team, they were like this is a huge, huge game. All three of them were your derby games. There was a bit of everything in those games.”

Marchant says that despite their size, some of the Blues forwards are ‘absolutely rapid’, including one 6’6, 120kg All Black second row, Patrick Tuipulotu, who has shocked the Englishman with the GPS times he’s clocking in training.

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“When you come up against the South Africans you just know they are going to be more direct and physical. It was weird because I was kind of thinking that when you go into, you want to dominate at set-piece, but actually a lot of the forwards we got were still enormous but you forget about that, as the game is quite quick.

“Even the second rows are absolutely rapid. Like Patrick Tuipulotu who is getting 9.4 metres a second in training.

“That’s ridiculous. If I’d got that in a session, I’d be like ‘yeah, sweet, I’d done my metres. Just a second row casually doing that.”

Marchant was also asked about ‘Big Dog’ Beauden Barrett, who was back training with the Blues.

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“I’ve only played two sessions with him. He came in the week before lockdown. We had come back from three away games on the bounce.

“We walked past him in a little kicking session. So we went over and say hello.”

Marchant by his own admission is loving the experience of living in New Zealand and playing Super Rugby.

“It’s been amazing, I’ve absolutely loved it. Just living on the other side of the world. Just travelling around and seeing the beaches, getting down to Queenstown, it’s just made such a difference. The rugby as well, it’s just been such a different experience. You know, going for two weeks to play in South Africa, playing New Zealand rugby. It’s just been amazing.”

Marchant has previously labelled the competition as being “on a different planet”. He’s starred for Leon MacDonald’s side as they won five of their seven Super Rugby matches before the tournament was suspended by SANZAAR, but he will now have the opportunity to play alongside new signing Dan Carter in the Blues’ star-studded backline.

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J
JW 1 hour ago
Where is the new breed of All Black 10?

Players like Prendergast and Finn Smith already have a few seasons at top club level under their belt and are now test players, at an age when NZ players make their debuts in SR.

That’s just a difference in standards. You’re confusing SR for being their local domestic comps, where it’s more accurately comparable to Champions Cup, apart from that teams are happy to throw games as it’s in a bit of a limbo in terms of importance atm.


All these kids have been playing for a comparable NPC team for years now. Sam is no where near ready for tests but he has a great temperament, much like Sextons, that makes it a good choice to speed up his development. He wasn’t even a comparable Super Rugby starter before playing for Ireland, so not a great comparison.


Fin would be much better example, but then England don’t have 3 world class Test tens in front of him (not that I’d put Beauden their but obviously in terms of young NZ players chances, he is). Would he otherwise have debuted at the same age as Fergus Burke (injury and leaving withstanding), around 24, a couple of years later? England also aren’t as pedantic to who they give jerseys to, in NZ a test jersey is very hard earned for the most part.


In general I think the effects are as you say, but the only difference is the money involved, as you yourself said, their paths are just as all over the show being loaned out playing for clubs etc. My solution to that, and what you perceive as the problem, would be to introduce university football that utilitizes the large investment they have into high performance sport.

88 Go to comments
J
Jennifer Ross 4 hours ago
One rule for Europe's copycats, another for the Springboks

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Regards.

28 Go to comments
J
Jennifer Ross 4 hours ago
One rule for Europe's copycats, another for the Springboks

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28 Go to comments
J
JW 4 hours ago
Where is the new breed of All Black 10?

JJ and DMac shows how little attention you actually pay to the substance of the articles.

What do you mean by that? For lack of an answer from you I’d suggest yuo need to look at the game again and then read your article. Because although I’m not going to again but I did quickly review the videos and they all match correctly with my perception.

JTPL is shifting towards overseas players being JQP in future

No they’re not, thats a flatout lie Nick. You can find an article on here with their CEO where they want more out of their deals but it’s standard professional sports fair, nothing underhand like the NH does. I find that quite foul that you would share such a view.


I suppose the new World Club League thats starting would die for the best ABs even for just a year, and probably set them up even better. Mo’unga hadn’t done enough to earn a sabbatical though. This is where NZR needs to start questioning itself. You can’t blame the player if the NZR are not even interesting in offering you a contract. In situations where say NZR aren’t able to reach 70% of the offer I think a great starting point would be for them to be treated differently than someone who just left for money. NZR could say make that player immediately eligible if NZR decide to make a fair offer and they sign to return, with players putting in their overseas contracts a right to leave early if they resign back with NZR.


Even with Japans fading desire for sabbaticals I still think NZ can make it a good destination and have many reciprocal agreements with JRFU and the JRLO teams. The situation still very much favours NZ and Australia but it’s upto them to make the most of it or the JRFU won’t see any reason to be the ones always giving the favours.

88 Go to comments
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