HAMISH BIDWELL, writing on stuff.co.nz, says Blues coach John Kirwan should be embarrassed about how badly the Benji Marshall experiment backfired.
Marshall was this week released from his contract with the Blues, having got just 212 minutes of Super Rugby game time. He is now set to return to rugby league.
According to Bidwell, 'Marshall's hasty exit from Super Rugby was a failure of recruitment, selection and coaching. He could have done great things at the Blues but first-five [flyhalf] wasn't going to be his best spot straight away. That was plainly obvious … Marshall wasn't helped by Kirwan's indecision about who he wanted to be the Blues' first-five but – and this is where you bring in all the coaching staff, including [Graham] Henry as the technical advisor – if you take a punt on a guy with Marshall's myriad physical gifts and then decide you can't do anything with them, what are you doing in the coaching game?
'You don't give up on a guy such as Marshall and tell him he's better off in senior B club footy. That's a dereliction of duty.'
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