LOVE HIM OR hate him, Joe Marler’s interaction with the media certainly isn’t boring.
The 31-year-old England prop clearly doesn’t take it very seriously, even if he is serious about his actual job as a rugby player.
Marler isn’t much of a man for work-ons, learnings, and trusting the process when he’s in the public eye. He remains an important player for Eddie Jones’ England, providing an experienced option at loosehead prop alongside Ellis Genge, while he provides plenty of energy off the pitch too.
He’s relatively honest too, admitting that this weekend’s clash against Ireland has seen England stepping up a level in their prep.
“There’s definitely a bigger sense of, ‘OK, Ireland are very good,’” said Marler this afternoon.
“England v Wales games are always big and you know come kick-off it’s going to be tasty against them, but with the greatest respect Wales were missing a fair few names and there was probably a little more expectation on us to win that game, whereas Ireland are full-bore and have been together for some time now.
“It was definitely noticeable in training. Boys were like, ‘OK, serious game this Saturday’.
“Not saying that last Saturday wasn’t serious because I know how sometimes the media can twist things. It’s a generalisation… just double-checking and covering my own ass!”
How much tastier have things been in training this week?
“Gengey punched me four times,” said Marler. “He put my nose that way and then that way. The rest were rib shots. The hits tend to be a little bit stickier and there’s a little bit more sharpness.
“Whenever I try to make a gag, sometimes I get a couple of laughs out of it, but today they weren’t having any of it. They were looking at me like, ‘Shut up’. And I was like, ‘Right, OK. You lot are serious today.’”
It seems likely that Genge will continue in the number one shirt against Ireland, with Marler coming off the bench, so that might mean the latter scrummages against Finlay Bealham rather than Tadhg Furlong.
Marler knows the Wexford man from the 2017 Lions tour and found him an interesting character, as well as a top-class player.
“I’m still trying to work it out, but he told me on that tour in 2017 that he is a truffle pig farmer and to this day I have still not worked out if he was trying to pull my leg or not,” said Marler of Furlong. “Do you use pigs for truffles?
“In terms of the stuff on the pitch, he’s world-class. I think he has actually stepped up his game around the field, particularly in an attack even more so this season. You have seen in this tournament that he is standing more at second and third receiver off the 10, so they are doing a lot of playmaking through him and he’s just so comfortable on the ball.
“I try and think of it sometimes as a fan and you go, ‘Look at that massive lump on the field that you just think is going to bend over and push.’ But then he’s also so comfortable on the ball, his work-rate, and it’s really good to see as a fan that he is, not ahead of the game, but the likes of him and Kyle Sinckler are just taking front row play to another level.”
Marler was also full of praise for Genge’s increased maturity and understanding of the game, as well as the abrasive qualities he brings for England.
The aggression will obviously be required in this big battle with Ireland. Marler pretty much goes along with Eddie O’Sullivan’s recent assertion that this game will be like a barroom brawl.
“Jesus! I’m trying to think of the last barroom brawl I was in… is it going to be like that? Nah, it’s going to batty. They are very, very aggressive at the breakdown. They love chucking numbers in there.
“Off the top of my head, you get 40-plus attempts at attacking our breakdown from Ireland, so it is going to be a ding-dong.
“And did you say that it was Eddie O’Sullivan that said that? It’s probably a fair assumption. I quite like that. A nice, clean bar brawl, though. None of the dirty stuff. No gouging or glass-throwing, just the clean stuff.”
