Marmion’s ticket to the big time
The 20-year-old academy player from Wales was earning a few extra euro working the turnstiles when Conor O’Shea’s came to Galway nine months ago but he will have a different set of duties tomorrow evening as Connacht bid to repeat their memorable 9-8 win.
Injuries to regulars Frank Murphy and Paul O’Donohue created an opening during the summer at scrum-half and Marmion, an Irish U20 for the past two seasons, jumped at the chance.
He has started every game for Connacht this season and has impressed, including his Heineken Cup debut last weekend against Zebre in Italy and can’t wait for tomorrow evening’s clash with Quins.
“I was lucky to get a go in the pre-season. It was unfortunate for Frank and Paul but I was lucky to get the chance at the beginning of the season,” said Marmion, who grew up in Brecon in Wales but who has strong Galway connections.
“My grandad and nan are from Loughrea. To come over here having a family here has made it a lot easier. Lexie, my grandad’s brother, comes to all the games as well as some of my relatives.”
Marmion was picked up initially by the IRFU Exiles branch and with Connacht academy Nigel Carolan working closely with Irish underage sides, the promising scrum-half was offered a place in the academy.
“I came over as an academy player. I played a lot with Corinthians last year and quite a bit with the Irish U20. It ended up I didn’t spend so much time in Galway.
“I was away in Dublin in camps for the U20 Six Nations and I only played a few A games for Connacht,” said Marmion, who was a key player for Mike Ruddock’s Irish side at the Junior World Championship in South Africa where they beat the hosts and came so close to reaching the semi-finals.
“We backed ourselves to get to the final. We lost out to England, who we ended up beating later on in the tournament. If we won that first game I’d say we would have made it to the final.
“I was lucky to get picked for the start of the tournament and I had a few alright games. I was happy with that,” said the former student at University of Wales Institute in Cardiff.
He is looking forward to the visit of Quins but says the squad are taking it in their stride.
“It feels like a usual Rabo week but there is a bit more hype about the game and there’ll be a much harder challenge anyway.”
Most of his colleagues are drawing hope from how they played in January when they knocked Harlequins out of the competition on a very wet and windy night, but the scrum-half has no such memory or experience to fall back on.
“I wasn’t involved that night. I was working collecting the tickets on the door. It is great to be involved this time,” he added.
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