It's hard to know where James Marshall's career would have gone had he remained in Nelson.

With 36 games under his belt for the Tasman Makos and no bites from the Crusaders, Taranaki eventually came calling at the end of the 2011 season and offered a sweetener - a spot in the Hurricanes wider training squad - that proved too hard to ignore.

Back in those days Marshall needed to be plying his provincial trade within the Hurricanes catchment to secure a Super Rugby contract with the team he had supported all throughout his childhood, so the carrot dangled by Taranaki was one he grabbed with two hands.

"I've got no regrets about moving. It was a tough decision to move but when I weighed the options up it was actually an easy one. I had been at Tasman for four years and when the opportunity came to go to a side that I had always loved growing up, the Hurricanes, the move to Taranaki was actually pretty easy," he said.

And in hindsight, the decision to move away from his hometown was clearly the right one. He has since captained Taranaki to the NPC title, beating Tasman in the 2014 final, got his hands on the Ranfurly Shield and now he's a Super Rugby champion too after the Hurricanes got the business done against the Lions on Saturday night.

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"I was so passionate about the Hurricanes growing up. Obviously being in Nelson most of the guys were Crusaders fans and I used to cop it a fair bit at school wearing my Hurricanes top around," Marshall said, looking back to his days at Nelson College.

"It's weird how it's all worked out and I managed to not only play for the Hurricanes but start for them in two Super finals and win one of them. I wouldn't have dreamed about it two years ago let alone 10 years ago."

A skillful fullback, who is equally as comfortable at first five-eighth, the 27-year-old has been one of the quiet achievers in the Hurricanes this year, with most of the attention focussed on x-factor players such as Ardie Savea, TJ Perenara and Beauden Barrett.

With a three-year contract with London Irish next on the cards, Marshall said he "couldn't have written a better script" as he signed off from New Zealand on a winning note.

"It was a pretty amazing sort of experience on the weekend. It is the perfect way to go out. I've won the ITM Cup, the Super Rugby and the Ranfurly Shield so I can pretty much tick off all the things there are to tick off in New Zealand provincial rugby.

"Now I've got an opportunity to go over to England and hopefully win a championship over there."

London Irish were relegated after a horror 2015-16 season, which Marshall labelled "disappointing", but he's eager to steer the team back up to the top flight - earning promotion his sole focus in his first season in the UK.

"I'm there for three years so I've got no doubt that we'll be able to go straight back up this year. Looking at the side and the players we've got compared to the rest of the competition they should just go back up, but a lot can happen in rugby and you can't take these things for granted."