Marler’s moment of madness could give Obano his chance

Ben Obano, the uncapped Bath loosehead, could be a beneficiary if Joe Marler is banned for the start of the Six Nations after the Harlequins prop was sent off for a dangerous clear out off the ball at a ruck.

Obano was called up by Eddie Jones for the training camp in Brighton last week as further backup in a position dominated by Marler and Saracens’ Mako Vunipola. However, the reserve plan is splintering because of injuries to Leicester’s Ellis Genge and Matt Mullan, of Wasps, which puts further attention on the improving Obano for England’s game against Italy on Feb 4.

Neither Genge nor Mullan are likely to play for their clubs much before then.

Marler will appear before a disciplinary hearing this week after his latest episode of hot-headed behaviour earned him a red card for using his shoulder to clear out TJ Ioane, the Sale substitute flanker, from a ruck in the 58th minute.

Any disciplinary hearing is serious for Marler because of his poor record over the past few seasons, despite vows to go “squeaky clean”.

To make matters worse, this challenge could be viewed dimly because he made no attempt to bind into the ruck with his arms and used his shoulder to cuff Ioane on the back of his head and neck.

The latest disciplinary guidance from World Rugby dictates that such challenges which strike the head should start at the midway point on the sanctions table.

The marker for this type of dangerous play is presently set at an entry point of four to six weeks depending on how the panel interprets the offence. This could be offset if Marler pleads guilty, but he must expect his poor disciplinary record to be taken into account.

Any disciplinary panel does not have to look far because, most recent, is a three-week ban for using his elbow to hit Wasps’ Will Rowlands in a Champions Cup match in October.

This incident followed a Premiership match in which Marler was reprimanded for ripping the scrum cap off Wasps’ James Haskell and using a bottle to squirt water at his England colleague.

Marler pledged at the start of the 2016-17 season to be “squeaky clean” following a two-week ban and a fine of £20,000 for calling Samson Lee, the Wales prop, “gypsy boy”.

Therefore it was no wonder on Saturday that it took John Kingston, Harlequins’ director of rugby, time to talk about Marler.

Kingston refused to comment on whether he felt referee Matt Carley was right or wrong to send off the international. However, he added: “Joe will be unbelievably disappointed and upset about the whole thing. He’s taken someone out without the arms and dropped a shoulder. It’s a physical game and an awful lot of people do that.”

Marler, who had suffered a cut eye, departed when Quins led 22-17 in the 58th minute. He was followed off by AJ Macginty six minutes later, after the Sale fly-half was carried off on a stretcher, having badly hurt a knee in the lead-up to a try by Jamie Roberts for Quins.

Besides his general playmaking ability, Macginty has emerged as the most consistent kicker in the Premiership, having started Saturday with a near 90 per cent success rate. He was equally impressive in converting Sale’s first-half tries by wing Byron Mcguigan and the first of two from centre Rohan Janse van Rensburg.

Quins struck back, scoring three tries before half-time and were ahead again when Roberts notched a fourth in the 64th minute.

However, Sale forced their way back through Van Rensburg’s second and a penalty from Faf de Klerk. They also had a dollop of luck in the closing minutes, which caused Kingston more frustration.

Despite the use of the big screen, it took Carley and his officials a prolonged period to decide that a Quins player – either Tim Visser or Chris Robshaw – had hit the touchline in the build-up to another try by Roberts. “You could look forever and never know,” Kingston said about the consultation process.