Joe Marler officially breaks rugby
Absolutely no one was prepared for the carnage that occurred on Thursday night as Harlequins played the Barbarians at the Stoop, a carnage that we may never recover from. And Joe Marler is to blame.
It is hard to know where to begin with the loosehead. Firstly, he was wearing leggings, which was already enough to make some props shudder. On top of that he was wearing a Barbarians sock, having played for them earlier in the week against the All Blacks XV.
That was just about enough to handle, but no one expected him to complete a length of the field try by Quins, and even chuck in a little goose step over the try line. It was at that point, rugby’s entire foundations were starting to crumble. Unfortunately, there was more.
The England prop then proceeded to attempt to convert his own try with a drop goal. The ball sailed through the posts and officially signalled the end of rugby as we know it. These are strange times.
Take a look:
In case you missed it, this is what @JoeMarler did last night 😱#COYQ pic.twitter.com/rGwfTzIb2Z
— Harlequins 🃏 (@Harlequins) November 18, 2022
Harlequins Starting XV
1. Fin Baxter
2. George Head
3. Wilco Louw
4. George Hammond
5. Irne Herbst
6. Jack Kenningham
7. Will Evans
8. Alex Dombrandt – Captain
9. Danny Care
10. Will Edwards
11. Josh Bassett
12. Lennox Anyanwu
13. Joe Marchant
14. Oscar Beard
15. Ross Chisholm
Impact Players
16. Jack Walker
17. Joe Marler
18. Simon Kerrod
19. Dino Lamb
20. Archie White
21. Jack Stafford
22. Hayden Hyde
23. Cassius Cleaves
Barbarian FC XV
1. Murray McCallum (Worcester*, Scotland)
2. Stuart McInally (Edinburgh, Scotland)
3. John Ryan (Munster, Ireland)
4. Scott Scrafton (Benetton)
5. Kiran McDonald (Munster)
6. Elliott Stooke (Wasps*, England Saxons)
7. Olly Robinson (Cardiff Blues)
8. Abraham Papali’i (CA Brive)
9. Francois Hougaard (South Africa)
10. Damian McKenzie (Chiefs, New Zealand)
11. Ignacio Mendy (Benetton, Argentina)
12. Luther Burrell (Newcastle Falcons*, England)
13. Levi Aumua (Moana Pasifika, All Blacks XV)
14. AJ Lam (Blues, All Blacks XV)
15. Mike Brown (Newcastle Falcons*, England) CAPTAIN
Replacements
16. Gabriel Oghre (Wasps*)
17. Hayden Thompson-Stringer (CA Brive)
18. Kieran Brookes (Toulon, England)
19. Graham Kitchener (Worcester*)
20. Iacopo Bianchi (Zebre, Italy A)
21. Gareth Simpson (Worcester*)
22. Rhyno Smith (Benetton)
23. Tom Daly (Connacht)
24. Cathal Forde (Connacht)
25. Jacopo Trulla (Zebre, Italy)
26. Marland Yarde (Sale Sharks*, England)
*denotes last club played for
