Joe Marler has admitted he's "f***ed it all up again" and revealed his wife's anger after he insulted an opponent's sick mother during a game.
The England and Harlequins prop has broken his silence after being banned for calling Bristol flanker Jake Heenan's mother a "whore" during a match over the Christmas period. He was given a six-week ban by the RFU, although four of those were suspended. Heenan's mother was ill in hospital with cancer at the time of the sledge and he admitted he "lost his head" when Marler twice aimed the obscenity at him. Marler did not know of the illness and you can read the full details of the disciplinary hearing here.
It was the latest unsavoury incident involving Marler, who has previously been banned for calling Wales prop Samson Lee "Gypsy boy" in 2016 and grabbing Alun Wyn Jones' testicles during a Six Nations match in 2020.
Speaking on his own personal podcast, Marler said he realised he had made a grave error of judgement and revealed his wife Daisy was far from happy with him.
“I’ve f***ed it all up again," he said. "I’m really sorry to Jake Heenan and his family, the guy I insulted or tried to insult, and also to my team-mates, and to the club, because they must really now be at a point where they’re like, ‘here we go again’.
“At what point do you go, ‘yeah, you can say sorry, mate, but just stop f***ing doing it?' I guess this is the point, is it?”
He added: “I’m much better at that when it comes to a bit of chat or a bit of sledging. I’m usually better than just calling someone’s mum a whore. Usually, stuff like this is said. This is the norm. Now that may not be an excuse but is kind of a bit of a reason that you go, ‘well, it’s the norm, it’s normalised’.”
Telling of his wife's reaction, Marler added: “She turned round to me after and she was like, ‘f***ing hell, you’re an idiot, aren’t you? You’re just a moron’. I went, ‘what do you mean? I thought you’re meant to defend me’. And she went, ‘why am I defending you? That’s not even a funny attempt. It’s s***’. And I went, ‘yeah, you’re right, it is s***’.
“And then when I said, ‘apparently, his mum’s in hospital’, she went, ‘f***ing hell. You couldn’t even double down even worse’. She went, ‘why don’t you just stop doing it? Or, if you feel the need to do it, just don’t bring family members into it. You never know what’s going on in people’s lives and just because it doesn’t affect you on the pitch doesn’t mean it’s not going to affect other people. Just f***ing get on with it’. And I was sitting there like, ‘oh my God, that naughty schoolboy at the back of the thing’. And I went, ‘yeah, I know you’re right. You’re absolutely spot on’.”
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