"He's right" - Sir Clive Woodward responds to Joe Marler jibe

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Writing in his column, the former England boss commented: "There are two things that matter in the world of the Marines — getting the job done and everyone coming back alive.

"They told us that you do everything in your power to get the result you require. Rugby is not life and death, but the first of the Marines’ lessons certainly applies to sport."

He added: "o that extent, Joe Marler is absolutely right. After England’s win over Japan — which made it back-to-back victories for Steve Borthwick’s side — Marler said that, on the biggest stage, it is only winning that counts."

Marler had said: "You’ve just got to win, haven’t you? What did England do 20 years ago? Find a way to win the World Cup. You talk about style of play. A lot of people do.

"They won ugly for a lot of that tournament. But we don’t talk about that now, do we? Results are all that matter. Performances are secondary."

Responding, Woodward added: "I’ve got absolutely no issue with Marler’s views. I enjoy listening to him and I agree with his comments on the whole. But I also think they reflect the fact England may well be missing a trick. Sometimes, you have no choice other than to win ugly. But — and this is the key — you cannot go into a game planning to do so.

"In my time as England head coach, I prided myself on my team’s ability to go out and get 80,000 people at Twickenham off their feet and going crazy with excitement."

These two have history. Henson was ruled out for a number of weeks in 2016 after Marler clattered the Welsh Prince off the ball.

The England prop was returning to rugby after a troubled 2015-16 season, that prompted the loosehead to take a break from the game in the summer missing England's historic 3-0 whitewash of the Wallabies Down Under.

A story from Marler's book shows the ego of Henson in 2005 was off the scale. Being told to hurry up with his hair by his captain Gareth Thomas, the playmaker showed his skipper little respect.H

enson's reply to Thomas was: "Alf, your mother and father have come to watch you play today, but there are 72,000 out there who have come to watch me."

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Woodward tore apart Eddie Jones' side during a webinar, slamming Marler and fellow prop Dan Cole for their behaviour in a press conference prior to the loss against South Africa back in November. This wasn't the first time the 2003 World Cup-winning coach called out the prop.

After reading an article on the Rugby Pass website highlighting Woodward's comments, he tweeted him directly, saying: "Change the record Sir Clive - you should be grateful you can 'milk the cow' for another 3 years."

Over 1,000 days since Folau last played a professional match of rugby union, Marler's old Twitter sparring partner made his return to the sport over the weekend.

The loose-head prop takes any chance he can to call out the former Wallabies fullback, who could soon represent Tonga, for his homophobic views.

In a series of tweets sent directly to Folau, Marler attached pictures and GIFs of men kissing, in a display of defiant humour which was praised by fellow players and LGBTQ fans alike.

Marler later named Folau in his dream team in a tongue-in-cheek fashion.

On selecting Folau as his fullback, Marler commented, "On the night out, after we had played our match on the Saturday, I'd take him out in Brighton to The Blue Oyster... a couple of clubs."

The winger dramatically left Harlequins in 2017 to join Premiership rivals Sale Sharks in an unusual mid-season move.

Marler said: “I hadn’t spoken to the bloke in 18 months,

“I’d lost the plot with him a good while ago. And let him be, let him do his own thing, because I’d given up on it

“He’d made the decision that he wanted to leave…you know, all the best to him. I wish him all the best. I don’t wish nastiness upon anyone.

“He’s one of those to just leave, as he won’t change in my mind. Me and him just don’t get on.”