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The full ref mic audio of what Joe Marler said to Jake Heenan
By Ian Cameron
A video with the audio of what Harlequins’ England prop Joe Marler said Jake Heenan has been published online.
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Marler was given a two-week ban for comments made to a Bristol Bears player while playing for his club
The 32-year-old Marler faced a Rugby Football Union (RFU) hearing on Friday over charges of making comments “prejudicial to the game” during Tuesday’s defeat by Bristol.
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Below is a transcription of the exchange between Marler and Bristol back row Jake Heenan.
Jake Heenan: ‘Hey, brother, you’re better than that, hey?’
Joe Marler: ‘I’m not your brother. I’m clearly not your brother am I.’
Heenan: ‘You’re better than that mate’
Marler: ‘There’s no way I’m from the same mother as you. Your mother is a ****ing whore.
[players were audibly taken aback by comments. Heenan says something to the referee Karl Dickson about what Marler which sounds like ‘He said my mum was a whore to my face’]
Marler [again]: ‘Your mother’s a whore’
At this point the scuffle breaks out with some inaudible exchanges.
Referee Karl Dickson: ‘Who stared that?’
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Max Lahiff: ‘Marler called his mother a whore’.
Players continue to clash.
Heenan: ‘My mum’s in hospital with cancer’
Referee Dickson: ‘Alex just take him back. Take him back. I know there was an allegation of what was said. I actually didn’t hear what was said. If it was really clear on the comms afterwards, it will be dealt with’.
Here is the audio from the Marler incident.
Dispicable behaviour and indefensible.
He’s 30 something years of age, grow a pair of cajones and grow up https://t.co/e2vFjxBOYd pic.twitter.com/lWVB3zRLIV
— CaolanSRugby (@CaolanSRugby) December 31, 2022
Marler later apologised to Heenan over social media.
The England prop was given a six-week ban by the RFU, four of which were suspended. The loosehead will be available for the Six Nations which gets underway on February 5.
“The player accepted that his conduct was prejudicial to the interests of the game,” RFU panel chair Gareth Graham said.
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“The insulting and offensive comments made by the player were wholly inappropriate; such comments should form no part of the modern game.”
The panel also handed down an additional four-week ban suspended until the end of the 2023-24 season, which may be activated should Marler commit a similar offence.
“The panel also had regard to the player’s poor disciplinary record (as an aggravating feature) and to the fact he had accepted the charge and had apologised to the Bristol player (as mitigating factors),” Graham said.
Marler has a chequered disciplinary history.
In 2016 he called Wales prop Samson Lee ‘gypsy boy’, while in 2020 he was hit with a 10-week ban for grabbing the testicles of another Wales player, Alun Wyn Jones.
additional reporting AAP
I'm a Bears fan and I actually like Joe, he is a class player and the mental health advocate must be applauded but this is unacceptable and disgusting. Got off stupidly lightly IMO. Really gone down in my estimation now. I forgot about the Lee situ.
Joe's a good guy, he did something wrong in the heat of the moment and deserves punishment. He's got his own issues, and this is part of them. But when he's not losing his head, he does a lot of good.
He deserved citing, he deserves a long ban. But as soon as the game finished and he regained his composure, he recognized he'd been an idiot and apologized.
Like us all, he's a flawed person and when he's wound up he acts like an idiot. Just like Sinkler, who has had issues in the past.
But it's not as though he gouges eyes or blindsides people is it?
He was an idiot, he deserves punishment, but most of the time he does a lot of good. A LOT OF GOOD... if you are going to lose respect for someone who said something bad in the heat of the moment and if for you that wipes out all the good he does to people who really need help then it says more about you.