Wasps have called for rugby’s authorities to take further action following Sunday’s angry flare-up between the Lions and England team-mates James Haskell and Joe Marler. Haskell was sent to the sin-bin for grabbing Marler by the throat with both hands but Wasps’ director of rugby, Dai Young, believes the sport needs to crack down on the players who spark such incidents.
Quins subsequently went on to win a niggly Premiership game 24-21, inflicting Wasps’ first defeat of the season, but Young’s sympathies lay with Haskell after Marler, following a prolonged tussle between the pair on the ground, apparently squirted water at his England colleague’s face. “If someone rips your hat off and squirts water in your face, what do you expect?” said Young.
“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.
“We’ve all seen Hask over the years … you don’t see him react to much. You could see he was pretty annoyed. He didn’t throw a punch, he just grabbed the guy. He’s going to react isn’t he? He’s probably got more restraint than I would have had.”
Wasps are also understood to be reviewing footage of the game in an attempt to discover if a number of abrasions to Haskell’s neck were caused by an opponent’s fingernails.
Quins’ director of rugby, John Kingston, insisted he had not seen the incident but Young felt his team were harshly treated overall by the referee, Andrew Jackson: “What you want from referees is consistency. I’ve got to be honest I thought he was consistent … he gave us nothing all game. There was a lot going on out there. There was also lots of yap which I don’t think helps the game. I don’t like that sort of thing.”
In an abrasive contest, two other England internationals, Kyle Sinckler and Danny Cipriani, were sent to the sin-bin for technical offences, while Marler was substituted in the second half with a rib injury.
He and Haskell, making his comeback from finger surgery, did share a hug after the game but looking on from the stands was the England head coach, Eddie Jones, who is set to name an England training squad on Friday for a short camp in Oxford next week. If this weekend is any guide, it could be a feisty get-together.
