Just three or four months ago, Munster's new Kiwi recruit Rhys Marshall was still dreaming of one day lining out for the All Blacks.
Still just 24, the highly-regarded former 'Baby Black' had made 28 Super Rugby appearances for the Chiefs, and represented his own province, Taranaki, on 41 occasions - all of this while balancing his gig as a rugby player with his life as a shepherd, as is wonderfully described in Charlie Mulqueen's Irish Examiner interview with Marshall today.
The physical hooker is now a fully-fledged Munsterman, and addressed the press a full 18,500 kilometres from where he once called home. To say he's embracing the rugby culture in the south of Ireland would be underplaying his experience thus far:
The first week over here, we played down in Cork and it was unreal ... a capacity crowd with everyone singing and I was thinking ‘what is this?’
But that was only a warm-up to Thomond Park the following week against the Maori. It gives me goosebumps thinking about it.
It is unreal to play in that kind of atmosphere. I have not experienced anything like it. In New Zealand it is a bit harsher, a bit more critical.
They all give me a hard time when they call me from back home but that’s just how it feels.
When the Chiefs didn't offer Marshall a new deal last year, new pastures beckoned. Offers were forthcoming, too, but it was Munster which tickled Marshall's fancy the most.
It would appear the legacy of '78 lives on in New Zealand, because Marshall's own grandfather and their chats about rugby played at least a subliminal role in his decision to head for Thomond from Taranaki:
Once the Munster idea came up, I didn’t give it a second thought because knowing Munster’s history and how passionate they are and all the legacy that is with them – my granddad used to talk about Munster, everyone talks about Munster – and so for my family and myself, it was a no-brainer.
You can read Marshall's chat with Charlie Mulqueen in full - including watching Ireland vs the All Blacks in an Irish pub, and his surreal second job as a shepherd - on the Irish Examiner.
