ANDY FRIEND IS hopeful that scrum-half Kieran Marmion will put his World Cup snub behind him and remain with Connacht.
Friend says he appreciates the level of disappointment that the 27-year old felt when he didn’t make the plane to Japan.
But he stressed that both Connacht and Ireland want to hold on to him.
Saracens are understood to be leading the chase to sign Marmion, who is out of contract at the end of the season and who is now weighing up his options after his World Cup omission.
Friend said that new Irish coach Andy Farrell is keen for Marmion to stay.
“There has been a lot of conversations going on behind the scenes. Andy Farrell is the new coach coming in. I know Andy speaks very highly of him so he definitely sees him as a player he would like to keep involved.
“It is probably an assumption on my behalf. He probably doesn’t know, I am assuming that he knows. He certainly knows Connacht — I can’t speak on behalf of Andy Farrell — he certainly knows that we want him.”
Friend said that Marmion, who has won 27 caps, was very disappointed not to be going to his first World Cup.
“Yeah that was a real blow,” admitted Friend. “He had four years of planning and believing that he was going to be there. It didn’t work for him. Selection didn’t go his way. He is definitely trying to process all of that, and continues, and will continue to process all of that. Whatever decision he makes, we will respect him for that, but hopefully, it will be to stay here at Connacht.
That is Kieran’s decision. He knows that we don’t want him to leave. He is very aware that Ireland don’t want him to leave too. Every man makes his own decisions. At the end of the day he will make a call. We will certainly be very disappointed if he did [leave] but we have seen that happen previously.
Marmion made his first start for Connacht at the weekend and crowned it by scoring for the third match in a row in their dramatic 24-22 win over Cheetahs, having also touched down coming off the bench against Benetton and Dragons.
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