Rugby-Marshall officially released from NZ contracts

April 23 (Reuters) - Former New Zealand rugby league captain Benji Marshall has been released from his rugby union contracts in New Zealand, officially ending the 29-year-old's brief foray into the 15-man game. Marshall had asked for a release from his Auckland Blues and New Zealand Rugby Union contracts on Monday after speaking with Blues coach John Kirwan about his future following a lacklustre performance against the Wellington Hurricanes last week. "I sat down with Benji and said I wouldn't be able to pick him in the 23 this week and felt that he needed to take a step backwards to come forwards, playing some club rugby and for the Blues development team to work on his game," Kirwan said in a joint statement from the NZRU and Blues on Wednesday. "I asked him honestly if he felt rugby was the game for him and his response was that he felt like a league player playing rugby union and that things weren't happening as fast as he would have liked so we both decided it was probably best for him to return to playing league." Marshall's release had to be signed off by the NZRU, which it did on Wednesday. The 2008 rugby league World Cup winner had switched to union in an attempt to make the All Blacks squad for the 2015 World Cup and possibly the All Blacks sevens squad for the 2016 Rio Olympics. His foray into rugby was less than convincing as he struggled adapting to the game he had not played since a teenager and Kirwan's uncertainty on where to play the former rugby league standoff. Marshall made eight appearances for the Blues, just one of which was a start at fullback, though he was unable to crack the starting lineup with All Blacks utility Charles Piutau the preferred option in the position. "On the field I certainly wanted to achieve more than how it panned out," Marshall said in the statement. "It didn't go that way but in terms of life it did 100 per cent. "The Blues gave me the opportunity to be myself and express myself and I feel like I'm leaving as a better player and a better person for it." (Reporting by Greg Stutchbury; Editing by Patrick Johnston)