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Stormers' Deon Fourie has explained his 'scuffle' with Joe Marler
By Liam Heagney
Veteran Stormers forward Deon Fourie has got Joe Marler off the hook following allegations of skullduggery about the out-of-favour England prop arising from a first-half incident in last weekend’s Heineken Champions Cup round-of-16 tie in Cape Town against Harlequins.
The 36-year-old Fourie has been a revelation in the first season that South African clubs have been permitted to take part in the premier European tournament. His winning of four turnovers versus Quins moved his tally for the campaign up to a chart-topping 12.
A particular Marler incident with Fourie during the match was criticised by Swys de Bruin, the ex-Springboks assistant, when he highlighted some of the prop's in-game mischief in a review on the Super Sport Final Whistle programme.
An initial clip was shown of Marler being a nuisance after a scum, but it was a second clip involving a clash with Fourie that most drew the ire of de Bruin. That showed Marler reaching across at a breakdown and grabbing Fourie in an uncompromising position.
“Here is chapter two of the Joe Marler story,” said de Bruin on the South African TV show. “They [the Stormers] are defending, he comes in and look what happens, he is coming in on the clean. It’s not so kosher what he is doing there, and Deon Fourie doesn’t enjoy it. Deon said, ‘No mate, that’s not on, you can’t do that, it’s just not rugby’. He goes down and gets treated.
“But I want you to have a look at what he [Marler] really did, what really annoyed Deon Fourie… I have got to pick my words correctly… That is the last thing that you want, to get that treatment. That was Joe Marler. Do we need those characters? Yes. But maybe we don’t need that last action so much.”
The allegations by the South African coach generated negative headlines about Marler but Fourie has now moved to downplay the incident, insisting that the scuffle that materialised was about something else and not what had allegedly occurred at the breakdown when the game was in play.
He tweeted: “Just to set the facts straight between me and Joe Marler. The scuffle between us was about something else he did while I was sitting on the ground and waiting for the medical staff to clean the blood from my face. Nothing else happened. Except 32-28.”
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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