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'Really sorry' Joe Marler revisits Jake Heenan incident on podcast

By PA
(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Joe Marler has reiterated an apology to Jake Heenan, his Harlequins teammates and his club after he was suspended last week for comments made towards the Bristol forward. Quins and England prop Marler was hit with an RFU charge for conduct prejudicial to the game, making an offensive remark about Heenan’s ill mother during a Gallagher Premiership game on December 27.

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Marler received a two-week ban, with a further four weeks suspended, in his latest brush with the rugby authorities. In 2016, he was handed a two-week suspension and fined £20,000 for calling Wales prop Samson Lee “gypsy boy”, and two years ago he received a ten-week ban for grabbing Wales lock Alun Wyn Jones’ genitals during a Guinness Six Nations game.

An independent disciplinary panel took Marler’s chequered history into account, but also noted that he had apologised to Heenan. “I’m really sorry to Jake Heenan and his family, the guy I insulted or tried to insult, and also to my teammates and to the club because they must really now be at a point where they are like, ‘Here we go again’,” said Marler on his personal podcast, The Joe Marler Show.

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“At what point do you go, ‘Yeah, you can say sorry, mate, but just stop f***ing doing it?’ I guess this is the point, is it? I have been back and forth about the whole situation of, ‘Oh, it goes on all the time; you should hear some of the stuff’. All this lot. ‘What’s the big thing, and would there be a hoo-ha if his mum wasn’t in hospital?’ Probably not.

“But, actually, we always have a choice, don’t we? We have a choice whether you can actually use this for good, regardless of what the RFU have done in terms of banning or setting an example.

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“It’s about what can I do to make this be useful and good for me moving forward. And I guess it is a realisation that I haven’t got long actually being able to play the game left, so I want to use whatever time I have left at the club to actually embrace it and play the game.”

Marler said he had “absolutely no idea” that Heenan’s mother was in hospital and the prop revealed that his own wife took him to task over the whole episode. “She turned round to me after and she was like, ‘You’re an idiot, aren’t you? You’re just a moron’,” Marler added.

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“I went, ‘What do you mean? I thought you are meant to defend me’. And she went, ‘Why am I defending you? That’s not even a funny attempt. Why don’t you just stop doing it? Or, if you feel the need to do it, just don’t bring family members into it. You never know what is going on in people’s lives and just because it doesn’t affect you on the pitch doesn’t mean it’s not going to affect other people’.”

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Easy_Duzz-it 27 minutes ago
Are the All Blacks doomed to a 70% flatline?

The world never caught up the All Blacks just went backwards . After 2015 they had a plan to build the team around 2 players . Sam Cane and Beauden Barrett , Cane was hailed as the next Mccaw and Barrett the next carter . Unfortunately Cane sustained too many injures and Barrett despite being a great ball runner didn't have a high enough conversion rate or the game management skills to control the team and the game . Then to make matters worst , the selections were so bad year after year the forward pack became shockingly weak .

New Zealand had so much talent wasted betwen 2016 - 2023 . Laumape , elliot dixon , ben tamefuna , pita gus , ben lam , vaea fifita and so many other in form players that never got a look or the time to develop into great All Blacks .


Then you have the dual playmaker system that never worked , but they kept using it . why ? cause some men cant admit when they're wrong . thats the All Blacks between 2016-2023 . wrong coaches with the wrong vision , going in the wrong direction . now it appears the world caught up . but like I said the world never caught up . then you add the obvious flawed referee calls that happen to go against us more often then for us now . the worst of which that never gets called is when the opposition use rush defence but have players offside . this has been going for years , but who cares ? .


anyway its almost 10 and i need to get some shut eye .

Go the might All Blacks !!!!

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LONG READ England need to face a few home truths if they are to relearn that winning habit England need to face a few home truths if they are to relearn that winning habit
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