Toulouse – Clermont: Marvin O’Connor (ASM), back to his first love
More than a month after the serious injury of Sam Ezeala (disinsertion of a hamstring and eight months of absence), Clermont is preparing to launch his medical joker. A player drawn from the French team at 7, where he played since 2018, following a dirty blow from the Stade Français, his last club at fifteen.
The non-qualification for the last Olympics was a bit difficult to digest
“It’s true that it ended badly for me with rugby fifteen. I was in the wrong basket with 12 players made redundant for overtaking the club’s Salaray Cap. I had other options but as I was a little disgusted, I left at 7. I had a great sporting and human adventure there. Only the non-qualification for the last Olympics was a bit difficult to digest, ”admits Marvin O’Connor, a Haut-Savoyard with a very Anglo-Saxon surname.
Top 14: ASM Clermont takes an XXL test in Toulouse, this Sunday
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“I have dual nationality because my father is Australian. He arrived in France to play in the 80s, four or five years in Aurillac in the first division. Then he found a job in Geneva at the UN and I was born (30 years ago) and grew up in Annemasse ”.
Grenoble, his training club, Bayonne, perhaps his most prolific years, then Montpellier and Paris before three seasons on the international circuit at 7, O’Connor undoubtedly has the temperament of the globetrotter.
Xavier Sadourny: “Marvin ticked all the boxes”
Why then this return to fifteen? “I already wanted to go back to fifteen because I felt very good thanks to 7. The instability of tournaments, sometimes canceled due to the Covid, also played a role. And when Jono Gibbes called me, I jumped at the chance. When a big club like Clermont contacts you, the question is quickly resolved ”.
With Ezeala’s serious injury, the possible unavailability of internationals (Penaud, even Raka), ASM could lack solutions as a winger. “We were looking for a puncher. Relations being very good with the French team at 7, we had positive feedback on Marvin. It was easier to take it too than an Australian or a New Zealander and the stories of Covid-related quarantines. He therefore ticked all the boxes, ”says Xavier Sadourny, the coach of the Clermont back lines.
“I think I am faster and more explosive since my transition to 7”
A trainer who attends this medical joker that he expresses his qualities. “He’s tough, strong on impact. He has a nice temperament, he fights hard. He played at the highest level, I’m not worried about his adaptation. He just needs to familiarize himself with the team’s lexicon ”.
ASM Clermont rugby players in search of a feat this Sunday in Toulouse
The person concerned considers his move to 7 as essential and he hopes it will be profitable for his return to rugby fifteen with ASM. “When I got to 7 I was coming out of a big knee injury. The 7th made me thinner, I lost 8 kilos and I really think I am faster and more explosive today ”.
This Sunday evening, against the leader, Marvin O’Connor will start on the bench. Ready to reconnect with his first loves. “I’m very excited … and I have no real apprehension,” says the newcomer, all smiles.
Christophe Buron
