England prop Joe Marler has revealed how his wife rebuked him over his shocking comments made towards Bristol Bears flanker Jake Heenan.
Marler has been banned for two weeks with a further four weeks suspended for his vitriol made towards Heenan during a recent English Premiership match.
Harlequins star Marler, who accepted a charge of conduct prejudicial to the game, made remarks that reportedly related to the Bristol star’s mother.
Unbeknown to Marler, Heenan’s mother was in hospital with cancer, and a major scuffle erupted. He has apologised to Heenan for his comments.
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Marler has been no stranger to disciplinary action during his career, and speaking on the latest episode of his podcast ‘The Joe Marler Show’, the 83-Test-capped loosehead said his wife, Daisy, labelled him “a moron” for his latest unsavoury verbal.
“She turned round to me after, and she was like, ‘You’re an idiot, aren’t you? You’re just a moron’,” Marler told his audience.
“I went, ‘What do you mean? I thought you are meant to defend me’. And she went, ‘Why am I defending you? That’s not even a funny attempt. 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 is 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’.”
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He added: “I’m really sorry to Jake Heenan and his family, the guy I insulted or tried to insult, and also to my teammates and to the club because they must really now be at a point where they are 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? I have been back and forth about the whole situation of, ‘Oh, it goes on all the time; you should hear some of the stuff’. All this lot. ‘What’s the big thing, and would there be a hoo-ha if his mum wasn’t in hospital?’ Probably not.
“But, actually, 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.”
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