Punishment falls short of crime for flawed Joe Marler – The Irish Times

Joe Marler: Harlequins, England and the Lions. A great player undoubtedly, but flawed. Sadly, and unacceptably, this man has a poor record. By any school of thought, his actions and words in recent years have brought the game of rugby into disrepute. His latest outburst was directed at opponent Jake Heenan in Harlequins’ recent defeat to Bristol.

Marler was found guilty last week, by an RFU judicial panel, of referring to Heenan’s mother as a worker in the sex industry. As the standards in rugby continue to crumble, the punishment by the judiciary, headed up by the RFU’s Gareth Graham, would surely send out the clearest of signals that this would simply not be tolerated. Everybody awaited a long and exemplary sentence — here’s what happened.

Graham reasoned that indeed Marler’s words had no place in rugby and that the game’s core values must be fully supported. Well done that man, or so it seemed. But no, the panel also concluded that Marler deserved a reduction in the six-week sanction imposed, and, extraordinarily, reduced it by all of four weeks. Marler will miss only two Premiership matches and be nice and fresh for the remaining Heineken Cup pool matches and a potential call-up to the England squad.

This paltry punishment lets down every participant club, player and referee, whether amateur or professional

It really is a most appalling ruling to come out of the courts of rugby, whose role is surely to safeguard the game from violence on the pitch, physical or verbal. It also points, once again, to the lack of wisdom in allowing individual competitions to look after themselves in terms of disciplinary sanctions. This paltry punishment lets down every participant club, player and referee, whether amateur or professional. Marler’s reported statement to the panel that he uses this insult as a “go to” line” to aggravate opponents renders the decision utterly absurd.

Let’s dig a little deeper.

In 2016 Marler was fined £20,000 alongside a two-week suspension for calling Welsh prop Samson Lee a “gypsy boy”. Then, in 2020, when, again playing for England against Wales, he was in serious trouble for his testicle twisting of Alan Wyn Jones, a 10-week suspension followed.

And now, two weeks (no fine) for this heinous verbal assault at an opposition player. It is, apparently, accompanied by a requirement to deliver a talk on the values of the game to a community group. Wow, that’ll really do the trick and what sort of message does it all send out? It seems, as time goes by, the sentence has actually become more lenient.

Where was the refereeing in all of this? Karl Dickson said he hadn’t heard the abusive words and then penalised Heenan for retaliation; a bit of common sense would have been a hell of a lot more appropriate. The retaliation was inevitable, with Heenan telling the panel that it was the failure of the…