Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Marler sparks Twitter spat over Premiership player welfare

(Photo by Ashley Western/MB Media/Getty Images)

Harlequins and England prop Joe Marler has sparked an online debate among rugby fans about player welfare in the Gallagher Premiership. The restarted 2019/20 top-flight season will have seen the loosehead’s club play seven games in 31 days after they finish up at Gloucester next Monday.

ADVERTISEMENT

That will then extend out to nine games in 51 days by the time their Premiership backlog ends at Leicester on October 4. Marler’s appearance versus Bath last Saturday meant he had started in four of Harlequins’ five matches so far, clocking up 271 minutes on the pitch over a 22-day period. 

Although creating a Twitter debate isn’t necessarily a difficult task in this day and age (in fact, anything typed by a celebrity is likely to lead to tonnes of bile in the comments section), Marler’s recent comments have proven inflammatory. 

Video Spacer

Watch the Lions in South Africa in 2021

Video Spacer

Watch the Lions in South Africa in 2021

He tweeted: “9 games in 7 weeks……… what a bloody fantastic idea that was,” referring to the game-load that Premiership players currently have. The 30-year-old is certainly not the only player to voice concern. 

However, his tweet was like a red rag to a bull to some people with keyboards who were quick to question how much he is paid while also suggesting that he could retire. The Premiership’s five-month rest period between the March stoppage and the August restart was also mentioned. 

Comments like this, in turn, evoked another response from fans who agreed with Marler highlighting the physical toll of being a professional rugby player. 

Player welfare has been a point of discussion since the Premiership returned last month, and the topic has only intensified given the revelations by former players Dylan Hartley and James Haskell about the state of their bodies in retirement. 

ADVERTISEMENT

Hartley’s recently released book explained the price he paid with his body, an issue which Haskell expanded upon on here on RugbyPass and on his podcast. Being a player that has never shied away from voicing his opinion, Marler, who himself is publishing a book next month, has now provided his views in typical terse fashion. 

Yet while players will inevitably succumb to injury during this intense schedule, the true effects of this season may only come to light in the next campaign or beyond, particularly when looking at the calendar that lies ahead for some players that are aspiring to play for the British and Irish Lions in 2021. 

https://twitter.com/Perky_Originale/status/1302918212133294081?s=20

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 2 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

286 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING Tyrone Green decision has huge bearing on his international future Tyrone Green decision has huge bearing on his international future
Search