Super Rugby: Joe Marchant preparing for rugby restart in New Zealand
- Published
Marchant is congratulated by All Black wing Reiko Ioane after scoring a try against South Africa's Stormers
Joe Marchant says that he and his Auckland Blues team-mates are not being afforded any special treatment as New Zealand’s elite rugby teams prepare to return to action next month.
New Zealand’s Super Rugby teams will play a mini-series behind closed doors from 13 June.
“Everything they have done has abided by the government rules, there has not been anything different because we play rugby,” he told the BBC’s Rugby Union Weekly podcast.
Marchant, who won three England caps in the run-up to last year’s Rugby World Cup but failed to make the final squad, is on loan in Auckland from Harlequins.
New Zealand is to become the first major rugby nation to return to action, after limiting the number of coronavirus cases to fewer than 1,500 and suffering only 21 deaths after infection.
Rugby’s return in the northern hemisphere is further off with Pro14 teams working towards a resumption in late August and Premiership Rugby aiming for the best-case scenario of a restart in early July.
Marchant, 23, believes that three weeks of training together should be sufficient for New Zealand’s teams to start playing again, with players having followed their own schedules during their time apart.
“From next week we will start training again together," he said.
“We have been given a load of kit, I got a bench and a load of dumbbells, speed sleds and there have not been any bans on the number of times you can go outside like there have been back home so we have been able to train a lot. For three weeks we will go pretty hard and play after that.
“The hardest thing will be no crowd at matches so our families won’t be able to go which, for home games, will be a bit of a strange one.”
Marchant moved to Auckland in January and has scored three tries in six appearances so far for a Blues team that also includes that likes of All Blacks Beauden Barrett and Rieko Ioane in their squad.
“Everyone just goes for it here, the play is a lot looser, even in training there are just offloads all the time,” he said as he reflected on his time in Super Rugby.
"There is a big emphasis on keeping the ball alive. There was a 10-minute period in a pre-season game – one of my first here – when the ball was constantly in play. Honestly, I almost died. It was fun, but it was so much running.
“I reckon the defence in England is better, a lot more solid, but I think that is about the size of the blokes and the speed of the game.
"I was hoping I was going to be able to come here and bring defence as a big part of my game, but I just can’t get set quick – I’m trying to get back onside the ball is already gone. My tackle stats have gone down a lot and I have found it a lot more difficult.”
Marchant says while the Blues' big-name stars were a big attraction to moving out to New Zealand, he has also been impressed by the depth of quality, name-checking wing Mark Telea – “I have never seen someone beat so many people” – as one to watch.
With Manu Tuilagi, Henry Slade and Jonathan Joseph competing for centre spots and captain Owen Farrell also deployed in midfield at times, Marchant must fight his way through a logjam of quality to claim an England starting spot.
He says his move to the southern hemisphere was approved by England’s Australian head coach Eddie Jones.
“We only had a real brief conversation, but he was really supportive. He thought it would be a good idea, that the experience of playing on the other side of the world and that kind of rugby would be really good,” said Marchant.
Marchant is due to return to Harlequins on 1 July and, under current restrictions, will spend 14 days in quarantine on arrival before yet another block of intensive training.
"It is going to be my third pre-season after the mini one here. I have done more training runs than I have done in my life," he added.