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The Parisian housewarming Joe Marchant never imagined happening
By Liam Heagney
How incredibly ironic. Joe Marchant jumped on board a train from Marseille to Paris on Monday afternoon, not to embrace his new life in the French capital but to prepare to draw a celebratory line under his old existence with England.
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It was last December, following an Autumn Nations Series where national team boss Eddie Jones hadn’t given him a sniff, that the Harlequins midfielder decided his future was best served by absconding to the Top 14 and an offer from Stade Francais, the club where Paul Gustard, his old Premiership coach, is now assisting.
Instead of pitching up at his new home in October and getting stuck into his new surroundings ahead of the resumption of the French league season, Marchant has more important business to do elsewhere – attempting to win the Rugby World Cup with England. This assignment picks up again next Saturday when the Springboks are the semi-final opposition.
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Marchant will head into that fixture feeling about 10 feet tall. His Test selection fortunes changed at the start of 2023 when Steve Borthwick succeeded Jones, but not hugely as one start and another as a sub didn’t suggest he was a major piece of the new coach’s jigsaw.
That perspective has since very much changed. There were three successive starts at outside centre in the Summer Nations Series as well as a block-ending run off the bench versus Fiji that also featured a try in the corner.
And now at the World Cup, his name has remained on the teamsheet as he has started England’s four main matches and scored twice, clinching the bonus point last month versus Japan in Nice and, more importantly, exhibiting some sweet footwork to bag England’s second try in Sunday’s quarter-final victory over the Fijians.
Chuffed with life right now? You bet! “I’m excited. I’m moving in (to Paris) in two weeks’ time. It was so uncertain before with wherever we got to (in the World Cup) but yeah, we’re in it right until the end now so looking forward to my new chapter from there.
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“Absolutely buzzing, everyone is so excited in there [the dressing room]. Semi-finals, many of us haven’t been there before so we are all really excited about it. It was a great day. I’m thankful to have this opportunity and excited to have been involved in the whole thing. I have absolutely loved it and I’m looking forward to the next week.
“Especially over this tournament we have just got better and better at it. There have been games where we have come up against it. Argentina with the red card early on, we found a way to win there. Samoa, they came flying at us and we got a win there. And Fiji, they just kept coming and coming and coming and we got the win. It’s always improving and hopefully that continues.”
England’s six-point win turned the tables on the Pacific Islanders after they had won the Twickenham warm-up by eight points just seven weeks ago. “It [the turnaround in the result] is kind of hard to put into words really, that was a tough day for us all.
“It was Courtney’s 100th in that game and we all wanted to do him proud. We couldn’t win that day and Fiji came out on top. For us, it was just about learning from that game and taking everything we have learned from this whole tournament so far and putting that into a bigger week again.
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“It was the same messages as always, to go and do our job and do what we want to do,” he added about the situation in Marseille where England, having been comfortably ahead for a long stretch, were suddenly hit by two scoreboard-levelling converted tries. “We got down there, we got the points when it mattered and we kept them out which was huge. We’re obviously buzzing.”
All the while, Marchant has kept his head up, revelling in every moment after a 2022/23 season that didn’t ignite for him at Test level. “You have got to be confident. If you start to lack confidence, that is when you start to struggle so for us it was always about getting to the next job, getting the job done.
"I don’t really care what other people think of us, I care about the development of the team…"
– The Steve Borthwick reaction to England beating Fiji and reaching the Rugby World Cup semi-final versus South Africa. #ENGvFIJ #RWC2023 #EnglandRugby pic.twitter.com/W9H8gsWT2y
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 15, 2023
“The messages I have kind of been having with myself have always been the same, keep enjoying it, take every moment as it comes and make the most of it really. I have loved every minute of it and am just really happy to have played so much.
The final word from Marchant goes to Borthwick and how the coach has turned things around on the pitch. “He is brilliant with that, he plans out the weeks and he plans out the games and stuff and we get on board with it. For us, it’s about getting the results and doing the stuff on the pitch.
“It’s just stick to the system; it’s about everything we do in the week, everything we do in the prep to it and sticking to our system, our plan. When it goes well for us the team goes well.”
Marchant is going to be severely missed at Quins.
Ridiculous the best Eng back is now not illegible for Eng after the WC. Marchant has been a breath of fresh air in attack and defence (even jackals). Obviously brilliant Quins player. Dumb overseas rule. But then this is the Eng team that won’t play Arundell the best winger (insisting on old slow man May) because he had a fight with Farrell in training.
Agreed that Marchant is (and has been for a few years) England’s best back. He somehow gets through entire games pulling off breaks, jackals, big tackles and great handling without ever getting a mention from commentators or coaches post-match. Probably the only under-rated player in this over-rated side.