Joe Marler will be available for England’s second autumn international against Australia after the terms of his three-week suspension were successfully challenged.
Marler – who was banned for striking Wasps’ Will Rowlands with his arm during a Champions Cup match last Saturday – was not due to be available to play until 20 November, ruling him out of England’s Tests against Argentina and the Wallabies and as a result he was not named in Eddie Jones’s 34-man squad on Thursday.
The disciplinary committee has now ruled that Marler will be free to return on 13 November, however, boosting his hopes of featuring during the autumn after Jones said on Thursday there will be “movement in and out of the squad” across the November campaign.
As first reported by the Guardian on Wednesday, Harlequins took issue with how his three-week ban was spread out over four weeks as the disciplinary committee took into account his “likely playing commitment”. It ruled that, as he was almost certain to be named by Jones, he would have been unavailable for the weekend of 4-5 November with England in camp in Portugal. As a result, Harlequins’ Anglo-Welsh match at Saracens was not taken into consideration by the committee.
Harlequins had no issue with length of the ban but challenged its expiry date and European Professional Club Rugby released a statement on Friday confirming their director of rugby John Kingston had successfully argued the club’s case. Harlequins believed they had a case even before Nathan Hughes was handed a two-week ban on the same day, without any reference to his “likely playing commitments”, freeing him for all three of England’s Tests.
EPCR has blamed Harlequins for initially providing “no evidence” that Marler should have been deemed available for their Anglo-Welsh match and went on the claim that it was satisfied the ban’s terms should be changed only when England’s autumn squad had been announced.
In a statement, EPCR also moved to clarify that as the Marler and Hughes hearing were independent of each other, the committee would not have changed its mind solely in response to the double standards that had seemingly been applied on Wednesday.
It is a considerable boost for Marler, considering he established himself as England’s first-choice prop during the Six Nations before touring with the British & Irish Lions and is set to swell Jones’s ranks at loosehead, after Mako Vunipola, the in-form Ellis Genge and Matt Mullan were all selected on Thursday.
