Banned Marler must understand he is going to be 'a target'
Joe Marler's woeful disciplinary record means he is going to be consistently targeted by opponents and must learn to cope with it, says Harlequins director of rugby John Kingston.
The fiery prop received a six-week suspension following a red card for striking TJ Ioane with his shoulder in Quins' 30-29 loss at Sale Sharks on Saturday, ruling him out of England's first two Six Nations matches.
Ioane was banned for two weeks after it was deemed his elbow connected with Marler in an incident five minutes prior to the forward's dismissal.
Kingston expects Marler to continue finding himself at the centre of such altercations, unless he develops a greater capacity to restrain himself.
"Joe has to learn to understand that he is going to be a target and sometimes when people target you, it is not seen immediately," Kingston told The Telegraph.
"Let's be clear - a few minutes before [the clear-out] he was elbowed in the face gratuitously by Ioane, who then gets two weeks. How someone can do that, something which is nothing to do with rugby... at least Joe is trying to clear a ruck, albeit illegally by not wrapping his arms around. I struggle to understand that.
"[Marler] is cheesed off and suffering the ultimate sanction which is not to play for his country. I've spoken to him and had an internal hearing.
"I'm sorry for him and for England that he is not going to get a chance to play for a couple of the internationals, maybe a bit longer if he needs some matches to get back up to speed."
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Spot on Ben. Dead right. Havili looked great at 10. Easily the highest rugby IQ of any NZ player these days. Getting a kick charged down is a result of getting used to adjusting your depth to the line at 10, which he will sort out with time. But other than that it was an outstanding first effort in that position this year. I think the NZ media has misunderstood this directive from Razor. Havili might rank behind B Barrett this year, but Beuden is 33 this month and won't last much longer. DMaC is great but flaky and not really a test match animal (his efforts in Dunedin versus Aus last year for example). If Razor can't have Mounga, DMaC is too unstructured for Razor (and is just too small for test rugby). Havili will end up our first choice first five, and in partnership with Jodie will be excellent. Two triple threat operators in tandem, and big bodies and tough tacklers to boot. Jordoe will be the ABs goal kicker. I am an Aucklander and Blues (and Warriors) fan, but Havili at 10 is going to be sensational in time… he can be the best first five in the world by the end of this year. No question.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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