It is an unwritten rule that nobody talks about what happens in the scrum. Some say that it is so horrible that they couldn’t talk about it even if they wanted to.
However, that rule was correctly overruled last week, with Joe Marler banned for six weeks – four of them suspended – after accepting a charge regarding comments made to Bristol flanker Jake Heenan.
He apologised to Heenan on Twitter after the match at Twickenham Stoop, but has also been ordered to give a presentation to a local club or school, and to a Premiership academy, on the core values of the game.
Full transcript:
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?’
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’.
Other Marler scrum comments:
#1.Welcome
In one of his first internationals Marler was greeted off the bench with his opposite number saying ‘welcome to hell’.
He simply responded: “If this is hell, I’m the Devil.”