Marshalling the troops

The Marshall brothers, James and Tom, caught up with each other again as Tasman continued its home turf domination 22-7 over Canterbury last Saturday.

Tom has succeeded James as an assistant coach for the Mako this season.

Although not for the first time, confusion reigned with James appearing as back coach in the official match programme along with Tom.

“He couldn’t resist sending me a photo before the match,” said James, who was officially at the game in his capacity as a Crusaders assistant coach.

“James just won’t go away. Tasman loves him. Maybe it’s a sign he should come back,” laughed Tom.

The similarities in their career paths are remarkable, or as the brothers both put it, “a bit weird”.

That probably goes a long way to explain why people get them mixed up.

James, at 35 years old, readily agrees that the year younger Tom seems to be following in his boot steps, playing in Europe and Japan as well before moving into coaching.

But Tom does have this impressive double to himself – part of the first Tasman side to beat Canterbury in his 2010 debut campaign and now helping guide the Mako to overcome them again in his rookie coaching season.

“Canterbury is a good side but I think we caught them on a little bit of an off day.
“Their discipline (17 penalties) let them down and Willie Havili was on fire with the boot,” said a modest Tom.

He wasn’t disappointed that his backs didn’t score any tries against Canterbury.

“The ground was wet, so kicking for territory was always going to play a big part.”

Brother James was impressed with their performance and expects Tom to be pushing his players’ claims for the Crusaders

“And maybe his own. He will probably want to rock up as an assistant coach there next year,” suggested James, who has another two years on his Crusaders’ contract.

He stayed on in Nelson after the weekend to watch how the Mako and, of course, Tom operated at training.

And how’s this - James confirmed the Crusaders wanted to re-sign Tom last year after eight seasons playing in Europe and Japan but the yen was too powerful. The brothers admit, despite their rivalry, they are pretty close and usually talk once a week and not just about football. For example, their families.

James has four children aged eight, six, three, and eight weeks while Tom has two - aged four and two, with a third on the way.

So the similarities abound off the rugby field too.

By Stephen Stuart