Wigan’s Liam Marshall ready to fly after 10-hour trip in a tiny St Helens kit
LIAM Marshall hopes Wigan’s season does not prove as tight a squeeze as the one he endured in the off-season – wearing a tiny St Helens kit for an entire flight to Las Vegas.
That is from Amsterdam to Nevada – all 10 hours of it.
And whatever he does on the wing, he will not attract looks as bemused as the Dutch couple who sat next to him.
Marshall suspected something was coming was he headed to Vegas for his stag do after starring for their arch-rivals last term.
What he went through was thousands of miles of blushing, explaining and itching!
“It was a very tight-fitting Saints kit,” Marshall recalled about his costume. “It was pretty funny, my mates thought it was hilarious.
“But we sat separately on the plane, we were dotted around and I was very uncomfortable in this tight-fitting rugby kit.
“It was funny for half an hour or so but not for me being sat in it for 10 hours! I was thinking, ‘This is very uncomfortable and I’ve another nine hours of this!’
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“The couple sat next to me were looking thinking, ‘I don’t know what’s going on.’ They didn’t recognise anything but an hour in, they asked and I explained.
“They got the jist of it, thought it was quite funny and shared a beer on the plane.
“I went with five or six close mates, my dad, my uncle, my brother and a couple of cousins.
“We flew from Manchester to Amsterdam, then Amsterdam to Vegas and I thought it was a but fishy they hadn’t dressed me up at Manchester.
“But when we got there, I was just given a plastic bag and told to go to the toilet and get changed.
“They didn’t go as far as putting a name on the back of the shirt – I think my brother was annoyed he had to find and buy a Saints kit!
“It didn’t even make it home. I took it straight off, not because it was a Saints kit but because it was that uncomfortable, very itchy.”
Now he is only wearing a Wigan kit, maybe an England one too in 2023, Marshall is determined to show the Warriors can kick on after last year’s progress.
Their season started with a loss at Hull KR but he hopes things can get started at home to Wakefield tonight.
And one of the overall aims is not to be a two-man team – of Bevan French and Jai Field.
The 26-year-old added: “Everyone will expect Bevan and Jai to produce but as a team, we’ve got to be more well-rounded and not lean on them as much.
“That will help both them and us.”