Marler could land season-ending ban for grabbing Jones
Prop facing minimum 12-week suspension Tuilagi and Lawes cited for dangerous tackles
Joe Marler is facing a lengthy suspension after he was cited for grabbing Alun Wyn Jones’s genitals during England’s Guinness Six Nations victory against Wales on Saturday.
The Harlequins prop is one of three England players who will attend separate disciplinary hearings on Thursday in Dublin. Under World Rugby guidelines, Marler would face a minimum 12-week ban if found guilty of acting against the spirit of good sportsmanship by “grabbing, twisting or squeezing the genitals” of an opposing player.
Courtney Lawes has also been charged for making a dangerous tackle on Wales captain Jones, while Manu Tuilagi was automatically cited after being sent off by referee Ben O’keeffe for a shoulder-led tackle on Wales wing George North.
Eddie Jones, the England head coach, who described that decision as “complete rubbish” and claimed his team were playing “against 16 men”, may yet face a disrepute charge for his comments. Wales centre Hadleigh Parkes, however, has escaped sanction for his high tackle on Tuilagi in the same game.
Yet it was Marler’s interaction with Jones that attracted the most attention and is likely to draw the longest punishment. The court of social media is divided between those who feel it was just a bit of “banter” and others who argue that it was borderline sexual assault.
Former England captain Will Carling, who works with Jones’s squad as a mentor, was among those to defend Marler, tweeting: “Think perspective is needed. Surely by just watching the footage we can all see it was not aggressive, did not cause pain. So jumping to all these ludicrous assumptions is just total overreaction to what was intended to be a humorous wind-up.”
Jones, as the victim, was most angry that the transgression was not picked up by the officials, despite the footage quickly going viral on the internet, and he called for World Rugby to take action.
Although suspensions are often reduced for mitigating factors, Marler’s previous transgressions, including calling Wales prop Samson Lee a “gypsy boy”, will count against him. A 12-week ban would see him miss the rest of the season for Harlequins, unless they make the Premiership play-offs.
On Sunday, Marler tweeted, “B-----s. Complete b------s,” which may not help his cause with the disciplinary panel. London Irish lock George Robson received a six-week ban in 2016 for grabbing an opponent’s testicles.
There will be questions whether Marler will be willing to continue his international career after finding himself at the centre of another storm. He stood down from England’s tour of Australia in 2016 after the “gypsy boy” controversy, and in September 2018 retired from internationals, citing family concerns.
Marler came out of international retirement before last year’s World Cup and was in excellent form in this year’s Six Nations.
Lawes could be facing a ban of at least six weeks after making contact with Jones’s head with his shoulder. Even if the suspension is reduced on mitigation, he could still miss Northampton’s Champions Cup quarter-final against Exeter on April 4. Leicester centre Tuilagi is facing a similar punishment.
It is not quite Bloodgate is it? Though Brian Moore’s brilliant description of Joe Marler’s inspection of the front of Alun Wyn Jones’s shorts during England’s Six Nations game with Wales perfectly caught the current urge to find scandal in everything. So Fondlegate it is.
You could tell by the wry look on Marler’s face as he went about his nefarious rummage that his intention was to spread mischief, rather than inflict damage.
Anyone who has met the Harlequins prop knows humour is never far from the surface. Whether it be his lengthy metaphor about leading a horse to water during an interview or his sartorial habit of wearing shorts and wellies to a formal event, this is a man for whom life is not something to be taken seriously. His problem is, while silliness may not yet be a criminal offence, in the era of intimate scrutiny of everything that happens on the field, in sport it is no longer tolerated.
It matters not that he caused his opponent little more than a brief moment of embarrassment. It is of no consequence that, if his intent was to provoke Jones into a response, the Welsh veteran was way too canny to fall for such japery.
There is no point insisting that the rhythm of the game was not disturbed. Even if the referee missed it at the time, the second the television replay made it clear that Marler had got a little too intimate with his former Lions colleague, you knew he would be cited. Once the evidence existed, the committees that sit in judgment of these sort of things were certain to act. Otherwise, what is the point of them?
Not that Marler was remotely original in his japery. Glasgow’s Ryan Wilson conducted manual inspection of Northampton’s Lee Dickson in a Champions Cup tie in 2016.
He was cited, but, without clear pictures, the panel of the great and good who deal with these things concluded there was insufficient proof to ban him. The same year in the Premier League, Steven Naismith, of Norwich City, grabbed Daryl Janmaat, then of Newcastle United, in his private area during the obligatory push-me-pullyou tussle ahead of a corner. Again, because the footage was inconclusive, he did not face any sanction.
As for Vinnie Jones, who attempted on-field emasculation of Paul Gascoigne in 1988, there were no television cameras to record his assault. And the famous still of his grab and squeeze did not emerge until long after the referee had missed it.
For sure, there have been those who have got away with such trickery, even when the cameras have caught them red-handed.
Chelsea’s Dennis Wise was a master of the provocative rummage. In October 1999, he wound up Manchester United’s Nicky Butt to perfection with a sly grope after the two had tumbled together on the halfway line. Butt took the bait, kneeing his midfield rival as the referee sought to separate them. Wise crumpled as if under sniper fire and Butt was shown the red card.
The incident may have been caught in full by the cameras, but back then there were no committees around to move into retrospective action. So Wise got away with it.
And this is Marler’s problem. Even as you read this, a group of blazers will be picking over every last angle of the incident. They will be obliged to take action to justify their existence. Maybe we should rewrite the old saw about if nobody hears a tree collapse in the wood, did it really fall? Unless a committee sit in judgment about an incident, did it really happen?
Indeed, given the new exposure, Marler faces sanction beyond the ban likely to come his way. Old-school rugby forwards have long waxed lyrical about certain activities that went on well away from the referee’s eye-line.
If the England man has just revealed that the so-called “dark arts” are not much more than a bit of schoolboy tickling, he could be in danger of being, in the manner of a rogue magician expelled from the Magic Circle, blackballed from the front-row union.
And that, unlike his assault on Jones, will hurt.
The blazers feel obliged to take action to justify their existence