Loose Pass: Players missing a trick by not following Joe Marchant’s lead and disgraceful scenes in Sevens game

This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with sabbaticals and a lack of leadership…

There’s been quite a few young fringe players from Premiership clubs announced to be disappearing in the close season, not to the murky confines of the championship, but further afield to places such as Otago, Manly and Stellenbosch.

It’s said to be for experience-gathering, which it surely is, even if it also quite clearly something to do with salary cap adjustments at times as well, but Loose Pass will study the returning crop with no small curiosity.

Little has really been made of the highest-profile of such enriching expeditions abroad: that of Joe Marchant who, after dealing with the disappointment of missing out on the 2019 England World Cup squad, opted to head to Auckland and have a crack at Super Rugby as a result of a clause he had had written into his contract. To be more precise, plenty has been made of Marchant, little credit has been given to his spell in Auckland as a catalyst for his career.

There is very, very little doubt that he came back a significantly better player, not just in terms of his ability to weave, step and run delicious support lines but also in his positional intelligence and adaptability to different positions on the field. He hit last season running at full tilt; he has not looked back.

Others to have made the effort include Frederic Michalak, who had two spells in South Africa, the first of which was stutter but also clearly made him a more intelligent player. The second spell was an unmitigated success. Danny Cipriani and Michael Lipman both had good times in Australia.

And of course, Martin Johnson. It may have been a different age, but he has always reflected that his time in New Zealand