Joe Marler has been reprimanded for his spat with James Haskell during Harlequins’ victory against Wasps but the England prop is not facing a suspension.
Marler has been given a citing commissioner’s warning for his role in the incident – pulling at Haskell’s scrum cap and squirting his England and Lions team‑mate with water – in an acknowledgement that the 27-year-old was deserving of a yellow card at the time. Marler’s actions were considered to be contrary to good sportsmanship.
The warning will remain on Marler’s record for five years and will be taken into consideration in any future disciplinary hearings but he will not be banned after the citing commissioner did not deem the offence worthy of a red card. Haskell does not face further action after he was shown a yellow card.
The incident occurred in the 20th minute of Sunday’s Premiership match with Marler pulling at Haskell’s scrum cap before the Wasps flanker threw him to the ground, where the pair continued to wrestle before they were separated. As Haskell attempted to walk off Marler squirted him in the face with water from a bottle he was holding, much to the former Wasps captain’s anger. Haskell reacted furiously by grabbing Marler around the neck and throat and the referee, Andrew Jackson, after reviewing the footage, sent Haskell to the sin-bin.
Marler stayed on the pitch until going off with a rib injury in the second half and the Wasps director of rugby, Dai Young, was incensed by the Harlequins tighthead’s antics. “If someone rips your hat off and squirts water in your face, what do you expect?” Young said. “I thought it was very harsh on Hask. There comes a time when you’ve got to look at the guys who spark these things off. Of course someone is going to take exception to someone ripping their hat off and squirting water in their face.”
It is understood Marler does not have any other warnings of this type on his record but he has had disciplinary issues. He was banned for two weeks and fined £20,000 for calling Wales’s Samson Lee “Gypsy boy” during a 2016 Six Nations match and less than a month later he received a two-week ban for kicking the Grenoble hooker Arnaud Héguy in the head.
