Bristol Bears director of rugby Pat Lam says the club and flanker Jake Heenan have forgiven Harlequins’ Joe Marler for his outburst in last month’s Premiership clash at The Stoop which had led to the England international earning a suspension.
Marler was sanctioned this week following an incident in the 15-12 win for the Bears. As both teams were setting a scrum, Heenan and a number of teammates reacted to something the Harlequins prop had said. Exactly what it was wasn’t heard by match referee Karl Dickson at the time but microphones later revealed that the 30-year-old made an offensive remark about Heenan’s mother.
At a disciplinary hearing this week, RFU panel chair Gareth Graham said Marler’s comments “should form no part of the modern game," and imposed a six-week ban, four of which are suspended.
In a written testimony, Heenan admitted he “lost his head” in his reaction after referee Dickson failed to intervene, with the New Zealander’s mother currently ill in hospital - something Marler insists he didn’t know at the time.
Lam is happy the matter has been dealt with and still holds a lot of affection for Marler who has apologised several times to Heenan, privately and in public.
“It’s been handled,” Lam said. “As I said at the time, we love Joe. It was handled very well in the sense that he apologised to Jake straight away, that evening, and Jake accepted it.
“The formal process went through and he apologised again. As far as we’re concerned it’s closed and we all move forward.
“There’s still a lot of love for Joe and I think he’s shown a lot of remorse. Apologies are good but I think forgiveness is the best thing, so let’s all move on.”
Marler was banned for two weeks and fined £20,000 for offensive language used towards Wales prop Samson Lee in 2016, while in 2020 he received a 10-week suspension for grabbing lock Alun Wyn Jones' genitals during a Six Nations game.
The RFU have also ordered him to give a presentation to a local club or school, and to a Premiership academy, on the core values of the game.
Speaking on his podcast, The Joe Marler Show, 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 doing it?' I guess this is the point, is it?
“We always have a choice, don't we? We have a choice whether you can actually use this for good, regardless of what the RFU have done in terms of banning or setting an example.
"It's about what can I do to make this be useful and good for me moving forward. And I guess it is a realisation that I haven't got long actually being able to play the game left. So I want to use whatever time I have left at the club to actually embrace it and play the game."
