'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
What ifs are always dangerous. If you look at the game before Sam cane got sent of SA was dominating. You could make the argument the going down to 14 men rallied the troops and made them have to play to win which is always dangerous.
129 Go to commentsOmg… you are bruised And battered Benny. Stop crying … the scoreboard speaks. What a pathetic lover you are.. 🤣🤣🤣
129 Go to commentsPacific Lions, cry me a river
129 Go to commentsThis is the single worst piece of journalism I have ever seen since your last one. As a neutral, who really states that there should be an asterisk next to a win? You are an utter embarrassment to real AB fans, journalism and that joke of a house which pays you for this nonsense. Get a life, Ben.
129 Go to commentsGuys. Cancel the World Cup champions after this analysis. It changes everything. Ben knows. We’ll have to unengrave the Bokke off the trophy and hand it to the ABs, now that I’ve been enlightened about this illegitimate win. This needs to be done. Now!
129 Go to commentsBen is right here though, Springboks were woefully poor with the advantage they had throughout this game. The France match was heroic because that was an even contest this match had it taken place in Rugby Championship would have been an easy win for NZ. If anything this match should tell the Bok coaches that a lot of this team should be changed. They beat this same NZ team by record margin with the same circumstances but with a different core. They bring back the tried and tested guys and they nearly botch this game.
129 Go to commentsI knew who wrote this article from the first few words in the headline…lol. The red card actually did the ABs a favour. It galvanized them, only then did they step up a gear. Before that there was zero momentum.
129 Go to commentsFirstly the foul on Bongi was a planned move just like the NZ master plan with Bryce Lawrence you kiwis are filthy fux perhaps try to play a cleaner game next time I doubt that’s possible tho but don’t worry world rugby is on yr side they trying to take away all the BOKS strengths to help all you weakling as Jeremy Clarkson would say LA OO ZA ERR..🤣
129 Go to commentsAbsolutely spot on Ben. I certainly wouldn't gloat over a win like that. Frustrating as it is it's done and dusted and history will forever show the result.
129 Go to commentsHo hum.
129 Go to commentsNo question they were the better team. But that is the beauty of sport isn’t it!
129 Go to commentsEveryone is into Hurling in Ireland according to Porter, but only 11 of Ireland's 32 counties enter a team into the national competition. Same old blarney.
1 Go to commentsLet’s be honest. The draw and scheduling in the World Cup was a joke but South Africa found a way after having to go the hard (nearly impossible) way to the Cup Final via France and England. NZ had a hard game against France (lost) and had 5 weeks to prepare for the Quarter, 3 weeks knowing it was Ireland. NZ theerfore had to win one big game against an Irish team who played SA and then Scotland 7 days before. They won and it was de facto a semi final because they were playing a relatively weak Argentina team and it was a walk over. In the final a very rested NZ team was playing a very tired SA team and still lost. They couldn’t score more than 11 points. Put another way SA had to find a way to win while tired and they achieved that. NZ should thank their lucky stars that they fixed the scheduling in 2015 otherwise they would be dealing with a Bok treble.
129 Go to commentsPerhaps if Bongi wasn’t targeted and removed from the game in the first 3 minutes it would have been quite a different game. Maybe if NZ also faced the same competition the Boks faced to their win NZ would have looked quite different. The final score shows who outplayed who.
129 Go to commentsRubbish article! Abuladze played most of Exeters matches when fit. He got injured against Glasgow a while ago and is out for the rest of the season, thats why he hasnt played for Exeter and Georgia recently. Do some proper research next time!
1 Go to commentsGotta love it when kids throw their toys out the pram and can’t hack it with the grown ups debate. Here’s looking at you turlough! 😉🤣
148 Go to commentsThey lost the game period move on
129 Go to commentsSpringboks won! Stop winging. You can change the game however much you and your rugby colonizing IRB want to and the Springboks will win you at that too. Your mind is colonized my friend get a life
129 Go to commentsBen, nobody gets fooled anymore by selective and biased data to support an hypothesis. Games are decided on such small margins these days that you win some and lose some, and dominance is a thing of the rugby past. Look at the RWC circle of fortune…. Ireland beats SA who beat France who beat NZ who beat Ireland. And so it goes on. Match officials help to eliminate real indiscretions. If they had been with us years before, no doubt results would have been different. Remember Andy Haden’s dive from a lineout in 1978 for which a match-wining penalty was awarded? Wales should have beaten the ABs that day. They took the loss like the gentlemen they were.
129 Go to commentsWith all the analysis and how good the all blacks were.The fundamental mistake with the ABs is that this is a test match and not an exhibition.There is no better team(country) in world rugby than the Boks that knows how to win a test match(we are post masters at this).We know our rules, we have the discipline, we tackle like beasts, we take our points and we never give up.I now have educated the ABs supporters(at least say thank you).Please stop “bitching” , accept what the outcome is and move along swiftly.
129 Go to comments