Kieran Marmion was raring to go but Ireland opted to give Conor Murray more time.
Murray’s injury looked bad in real-time and worse on the Principality Stadium big screen. His arm had been trapped as he was being cleared out of a ruck and one sensed he was in some bother.
He was able to play on the remainder of Ireland’s first half, against Wales, but his arm hung heavily by his side for the final 10 minutes. We did not expect to see him out for the second half.
Marmion went in at the break preparing to get the call. He was ready to make an impact. What followed, though, had a massive bearing on a result that ended Ireland’s Six Nations hopes. The Connacht scrum-half recalls:
“I was ready to go. Conor came in at half-time and I was there with the lads. He said he would try shake it off and that hopefully he’d be all right.
“Joe [Schmidt] pulled me to one side and said ‘Make sure you’re ready in case you have to go on’.
“I was preparing myself anyway so as soon as Joe called for me to go on, I was ready.”
Marmion acquitted himself well but, before he was taken off, Murray’s passing lacked any bite. One laboured pass to Sean O’Brien had two Welshmen on top of him by the time it arrived. An O’Brien knock-on saw Wales get the turnover and Ireland did not get it back until after George North, 90 seconds later, crossed for his second try of the match.
Following the damaging defeat, Schmidt explained:
“Conor [had a] stinger. The shoulder was getting better, through the half time it improved sufficiently he felt he was okay to go.
“We said ‘try it, see how it goes’, he felt he could have probably played on, but his passing wasn’t as good as it usually was, it was 15-20% off so we wanted to get Marmion on.”
With the championship heading England’s way, Marmion got the start at scrum-half for Ireland’s final game. Stopping the English Grand Slam, finishing second and restoring some pride were the goals and Ireland achieved each one. Marmion looked assured in that victory and is set to start at 9 on the summer tour.
The 25-year-old was back at the Aviva Stadium, on Wednesday, to officially hand over the Guinness PRO12 trophy back to the tournament organisers on behalf of Connacht, the reigning champions.
“Obviously I was happy with how it went but I feel I can get better,” he said. “Hopefully if I get a few more opportunities, I can improve and keep pushing forward.”
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