As Luke Marshall trudged from the pitch following a European Champions Cup match at Parc y Scarlets he shared
Ulster’s acute communal disappointment, albeit laced with a tincture of personal satisfaction.
It wouldn’t have exclusively related to the quality of his performance, although he had a fine game, but rather the longevity. Marshall completed the 80 minutes, an achievement of note when weighed against the misfortune of an injury-ravaged season.
In truth, his travails started in preseason when he picked up a groin issue and a couple of other niggling injuries that compromised his ability to train. It could not have materialised at a worse time as the 23-year-old was facing a battle royal for the number 12 jersey at Ulster, pitted against Stuart Olding (21) and Stuart McCloskey (22).
In the first five rounds of the Guinness Pro12, Marshall started one match while Olding and McCloskey were named in the walk-on team, twice apiece.
In week six, McCloskey enjoyed primacy of selection at inside centre, Olding was named in the replacements and Marshall suffered knee ligament damage while playing for the Ulster Ravens, keeping him out for more than two months.
Last weekend’s defeat to the Scarlets marked Marshall’s return, ironically facilitated to a degree by the fact that Olding (head) and McCloskey (elbow) were ruled out.
“I was delighted just to get back on the field,” Marshall admitted.
“Getting through the 80 minutes is a personal victory in the context of the season so far and I was reasonably happy with my performance but that was a minor consolation given that the team lost. There were one or two wee mistakes and a little bit of rustiness too but it’s great to be back.”
Unfortunate
He’s been ridiculously unfortunate with injuries since making his Ireland debut in February last year and would reasonably have hoped to win more than six caps – the last of which came against Argentina in Resistencia during the summer – all of which were starts during that time.
The medial ligament damage was compounded by losing his place on the Ulster team but at a time when his confidence was buffeted by those setbacks, he received a tonic in the form of a phone call. "Joe Schmidt rang after I got injured. He just told me to concentrate on getting back fit and not worry about anything else.
“I really appreciated that he took the time to ring. It gave me that extra bit of motivation to work as hard as I could to get back as quickly as possible.”
Although hampered in what he could do, Marshall appreciated he couldn’t allow himself to stagnate physically or mentally.
He elaborated: “given our injury list this season I had a few boys to keep me company in the gym. It made it a wee bit easier when rehabbing but the other side of that was the frustration in having to sit and watch matches.
Want to be out there
“Obviously I wanted to be out there when we were playing Toulon at home in the European Cup (for example) and also looking at Ireland doing so well in the November test series makes you want to be out there.
“There was only so much I could do because of the knee but I was aware that my game had to improve and get stronger in various areas if I was going to fight for my place. There is plenty of talent (at inside centre) with Stu Olding and Stuart McCloskey. You can see that in what they have done.”
When he couldn’t run, Marshall worked on his passing; when he could run he concentrated on his acceleration, footwork and speed. It was about refining his talents while identifying and then aping what Olding and McCloskey brought to the team.
Timely return
Marshall’s return is timely because the Christmas and New Year period is festooned with inter-provincial derbies where a young fella might make a bit of a name for himself. These matches can redefine the pecking order. There’s also an A international, between the Ireland Wolfhounds and the England Saxons at the end of next month.
That's a long way off, metaphorically. He just wants to play, something he'll be pestering Ulster coach Neil Doak about this week, next week, the week after. Playing in a successful team would help and he's keen to try and stablise the helter-skelter nature of Ulster's performance graph: match by match.
