'He finished about 15 or 20 minutes before anyone else': When Benji Marshall stunned the Blues
Benji Marshall’s retirement after the 2021 NRL Grand Final finished a storied career as one rugby league’s greatest players, spanning three different decades from 2003 to 2021.
The retired South Sydney Rabbitohs playmaker spent one of those years in rugby union, signing with New Zealand Rugby and the Blues in 2014 after leaving the Wests Tigers, where he had played his entire career to that point.
Marshall’s goal of making the All Blacks and playing at the 2015 World Cup never came to fruition as he only played six games for the Blues before calling it quits to return to the NRL, but his brief stint in union caught the attention of many at the time.
Former Blues players James Parsons and Bryn Hall were both teammates of Marshall’s that season, and the pair reflected on his spell at the franchise in the wake of his retirement announcement on the latest episode of the Aotearoa Rugby Pod.
“I’ll never forget, we usually have our first days of pre-season you always have your yoyo test and your bronco test,” Hall, now with the Crusaders, re-called.
“I’ve never seen so many cameras for a yoyo test in my life. It highlighted the magnitude of what Benji Marshall was at that time. We were fortunate enough that he signed with the Blues at that time.”
Hall, who was starting his own career in just his second season of Super Rugby, said the 36-year-old was a great squad member who put his ego aside to try and make his rugby union transition a success.
“He was really open, really open and honest around his journey. He probably didn’t succeed in the way he wanted to, but was open knowing that, ‘I’ve transitioned from rugby league to rugby and I am struggling a little bit’,” Hall said.
“He was always wanting to know and had that growth mindset. That was Benji to a tee. He knew his weaknesses and he would be very open to the coaches and playing group.
“At the same time, he was a great guy. He was also very approachable and was great for our young guys. I was young at that time, we all knew what a big star he was in rugby league, he was never too big for us.
“He never had an ego, he put that aside. When you can talk to a guy like that, with that kind of stature, it talks to what a great person he was.”
Parsons, a Blues centurion who captained the franchise towards the end of his career, also had great admiration for his former teammate, re-calling a training session where Marshall blitzed the entire team in a circuit session.
“He touched me so deeply, I managed to bring rugby league and rugby together with a flick pass against Canterbury behind my back to Matt Duffie,” Parsons joked in reference to his Marshall-esque try assist while playing for North Harbour against Canterbury in 2018.
“One of my big motivations was to pay tribute to him while I was still playing, managed to do that which was great.
“In all seriousness, one thing that surprised me the most, not his running fitness. We went to Ludus Magnus once, it’s like a bodyweight circuit gym, ruthless sort of crawling, and all sorts of gut-busters.
“I remember he finished about 15 or 20 minutes before anyone else. His up-off-the-ground fitness, you know in the NRL they’ve always got to backtrack 10-metres, he was just incredible.
“All the bodyweight stuff and crawling, he just absolutely demo’d it. I said to him afterwards, ‘How’d you get so fit at that?’ and he’s like ‘Mate, that’s all we do in the NRL’.
“They do that wrestle [once they’ve been tackled], they are always going back the 10 [metres], so they are so used to that physical, up off the ground, burpee-style fitness, which surprised me.”
Despite his ultimately failed transition to union, Marshall still managed to produce glimpses of what he was capable of in the XV-man game.
In his one Super Rugby start against the Lions in Johannesburg, the fullback scored his only career try – assisted by Hall – and racked up 130 run metres on 10 carries, produced two line breaks, two try assists.
He produced a similarly eye-catching display in his union debut when he came off the bench against the Highlanders in the Blues’ season-opener as he wowed the Dunedin crowd with a typically spectacular flick pass that eventually led to a Patrick Tuipulotu try.
“Although he left early, if you look at some of his highlights for the Blues, he was pretty exceptional,” Parsons told the Aotearoa Rugby Pod.
“Especially on that South African tour, he set-up some beautiful tries, scored one himself against the Lions. He had his moments even when he came off the bench against the Highlanders.
“He certainly had a skillset, I guess it just wasn’t the right fit for him and he had an opportunity to go back to the NRL and he played a Grand Final this year, so it shows he still had plenty to offer.”
Marshall ended his playing career with 346 NRL appearances for the Wests Tigers, St George-Illawarra Dragons, Brisbane Broncos and South Sydney Rabbitohs, and six Super Rugby outings for the Blues.
He played a key role in guiding the Tigers to their 2005 NRL Premiership, their only title to date, and was a runner-up with the Rabbitohs earlier this month.
Internationally, he played 31 tests for the Kiwis in a test career spanning 15 years, during which time he captained them on numerous occasions as he guided them to the 2008 World Cup and 2010 Four Nations titles.
Listen to the latest episode of the Aotearoa Rugby Pod below:
Comments on RugbyPass
Great story. Rugby needs new investment in teams like Brussels another pro league in Europe would be great.
1 Go to commentsAlso, looking at the data from last year, it seemed like by far the two biggest predictors of success were (1) kicking more than your opponents, and (2) having a higher rate of line-out wins than your opponents. I haven’t gone through the stats this year with a fine tooth comb, but the increase in kicks per game and the increase in tries from lineouts would suggest that these two metrics are only getting more important. England’s move away from a kick-heavy game to win against Ireland was seen by some as evidence that running rugby is on the rise. Alternatively it could be taken as evidence that if one team kicks more, and the other team wins more lineouts (as England did) a match is bound to be close to a draw.
2 Go to commentsI have been finding it odd that points per 22 entry has become such a talked about stat, given that your points per entry can be driven down by having more entries. These data would seem to confirm that it isn’t a useful metric, or at any rate is less useful than total entries.
2 Go to commentsI think the last two games England have played is some of their best rugby they have played under Borthwick. There has been a lot more attacking instinct and as a reward have created some well worked tries. Ollie Lawrence is a good foil at 12 as he offers the hard direct lines whilst the rest of the backs can play open. As much as it pains me to say but I do hope England keep playing this way. On a side note my favourite try of the weekend was Lorenzo Pani’s for the nice loop play that put him away and his finish was excellent. Thanks as always Nick.
39 Go to commentsMost exciting player on the planet right now, worth the price of a ticket.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith and Ireland live rent free in Safa’s heads. Their comments only triggers because its true. If the Boks had dismantled a 14 man AB’s, then there would be more respect. But they didnt, in fact quite the opposite, the 14 man NZ were clearly better. And the Bok have always been ordinary between RWC’s, thats why their supporters are now ‘only RWC’s matter’. They know thats BS. Its BS to both AB’s and Bok’s due to their history. But now its all the Safas have. Now we’ll hear excuses when they lose “oh we didnt have all our players available, the ABs/France/Eng/Irel were at full strength”, forgetting for a minute that its because of their own dumb policy. Oh well, makes a change from blaming ‘cheating refs’.
23 Go to commentsNo Nick, they did not, in fact, justify any ‘probables’ label. At no time did they seriously compete for the championship. Ireland led from start to finish and in the end, as a result of glaring referee errors, were never under serious pressure to lose their crown.
39 Go to commentsMoney for him, and his family, has been the sole motivator since he signed for Queensland aged 17. Why else sign for Melbourne. Tupou is poorly advised. If he’d stayed and developed in NZ he would have had a long Test career. If Leinster offer him a few more coins than he’s currently earning, he’s goneburger.
4 Go to commentsFinn. No one would say Ford had played well up until the last game. One standout performance in 5 is hardly in form . It should be a given that a 10 will control play . Not in Fords case be praised for suddenly doing so. Where was he against Scotland ,Italy. The pundits were saying how far away from play he was standing and one even said that the Ireland game was his last chance saloon to perform . Not exactly top form catching anyones eye. If he can play like this game after game then great. Keep him in . But after 90 odd caps we all know he just doesnt keep it going . By all means keep him there but the issue is that Borthwick will persist even when he plays poorly. Which is more often than not. Thats why i am concerned that Smith ,despite fab form , cannot get a game at his preferred spot. Can you imagine Ford at full back .
5 Go to commentsI do not really get why put Ollivon at 6 when he’s a 7, while Cros was the best Frenchman of the tournament, playing at…6. His only game replacing Aldritt at 8 doesn’t change much in terms of his impact. Lamaro was also outstanding in that brilliant Italian side, probably better than Reffell. So putting 2 Welsh players from the wooden spoon holders, and none of the 4th nation (Scotland) is also strange. Is it about showing that in this harsh transition Wales is, there were some standouts…?
6 Go to commentsThe events at this year’s six nations should undermine many of the arguments made against promotion and relegation between the six nations and the REC. If Italy had been allowed to yo-yo between divisions it conceivably could have really hurt their development, but if Italy, Wales, and Scotland are all at risk of relegation, with none of them being relegated more often than once every 3 or 4 years, you’d have to back all of them to muddle on through it, especially when you factor in the likelihood they’ll still be guaranteed world league matches against tier 1 opponents. Another way of looking at italys resurgence would be to say that the development model of adding an extra team to the six nations has worked, and now must be done again. Georgia could join to make it a 7 team round robin, and if and when Georgia demonstrate an ability to consistently win games, Portugal can also be added to make it an 8 team 2 conference competition. Frankly at this point I think it falls to world rugby to demand that the 6N act in the interests of the game. If the 6N won’t commit to expansion then the 6N teams should be handicapped in world cup draws (i.e. world cup seedings would not be based on their ranking points, but on their ranking points minus a 5 point penalty).
6 Go to commentsSteve Borthwick deserves credit for releasing the shackles on his England side and letting them play in a manner that somewhat resembles the top sides in the Gallagher Premiership. Will they revert to type in New Zealand in July.?
39 Go to commentsJames Lowe wouldn't get in any other 6N team. He's a great example of Farrell’s brilliance, and the Irish system. He is slow. His footwork is poor. But he fits perfectly in that Irish system, and has a superb impact. But put him in another team, and he'll look bang average.
6 Go to commentsCrusaders reached their heights through recruitment of North Island players, often leaving those NI teams bereft of key players. Example: Scott Barrett and Sam Whitelock robbed the Canes of their lineout and AB locks. For years the Canes have struggled at lock. This rabid recruitment was iniated by rule changes by a Crusader dominated NZR Head Office. Now this aggressive recruitment has back-fired, going after young inside back Hamilton Boys stars. They now have 4 Chiefs region 10s and not one with the requisite experience at Super level. Problems of their own making!
2 Go to commentsOver rated for a long time…exposed at scrum time too.
4 Go to comments“Firing me” should have been Gatland’s answer.
2 Go to commentsFinn Russell logic: “World” = 4 countries. Ireland may be at or near the top. FR’s bigger concern should be he and his fellow Scots (incl. the Bloemfontein ones) sliding back down to below top 10
42 Go to commentsMind games have begun. Ireland learned their lesson after saying they could beat England with 13 players or whatever. Still, if they win at Loftus, that would be impressive - final frontier etc.
58 Go to comments$950k for a Prop that isn’t fit enough to play 10 mins of rugby? Surely there is someone better to replace Big Mike with
4 Go to commentsFour Kiwis in that backline. A solid statement on the lack of invention, risk-taking and joy in the NH game; game of attrition and head- banging tedium. Longterm medical problems aplenty in the future!
6 Go to comments