Marler and Haskell in ugly clash as Quins swat Wasps

WASPS 21 24

Joe Marler goaded James Haskell into a yellow card as Harlequins squeezed past Wasps 24-21 at the Ricoh Arena.

Quins inflicted Wasps’ first Aviva Premiership loss in Coventry since a 26-16 defeat by Saracens in Decem- ber 2015 in a bad-tempered affair.

Two late penalties for teenage stand-off Marcus Smith edged the visitors home, Wasps paying the price for yellow cards to both Haskell and Danny Cipriani.

British and Irish Lions and England team-mates Marler and Haskell clashed in an unsavoury first-half incident, that saw Wasps flanker Haskell sin-binned.

Haskell, pictured, lost his cool and throttled Marler off the ball – but insisted that was because the Quins prop choked him and squirted him in the face with water. An irate Haskell called on referee Andrew Jackson to review the incident, claiming of Marler “he choked me with my scrum cap” and also “he squirted water in my face”. Christian Wade and Tom Cruse grabbed tries for Wasps, but Marland Yarde and Charlie Walker responded for Quins.

But it was 18-year-old play- maker Smith who eventually booted the winning points as Wasps surrendered their 20-match Premiership winning streak at the Ricoh Arena.

Marler avoided punishment for clashing with Haskell but his latest controversy adds to his catalogue of previous issues.

The 27-year-old sought the help of sports psychologists after back-to-back bans for calling Wales prop Samson Lee “gypsy boy” and then kicking Grenoble’s Arnaud Heguy in the head in 2016.