The pre-match England Tweet Joe Marler desperately wishes he didn’t make
With Australia in such a front row crisis going into their clash with England on Saturday that they had to name veteran loosehead James Slipper on the bench as a tighthead, combined with the fact that England named a pretty beastly pack themselves for the Perth Test, it is understandable why England prop Joe Marler was quite confident going into the match.
The Harlequins prop has been rested this summer, so decided to give a little prediction going into the match, Tweeting “This pack will eat them alive.”
This Tweet looked to be quite a sound prediction in the opening stages of the match, as England’s pack was on top. When lock Darcy Swain got red carded in the first half, the 31-year-old would have thought he was good for his prediction. But there is one problem here, England are completely incapable of playing rugby for 80 minutes, and have been ever since their World Cup semi-final victory over the All Blacks. So a good first half, in which England only drew 6-6, was inevitably going to be followed by a bad second half, and boy was there. The Tweet did not age well.
Not only was England’s scrum eaten alive on a number of occasions by a hotchpotch Wallabies pack, but the team were eaten alive in almost all other areas of the game. In Marler’s defence though, he did not actually specify which pack was going to be crushed. He did express his regret after the game, reminding himself not to make pre match predictions again.
This pack will eat them alive
— Joe Marler (@JoeMarler) July 2, 2022
Note to self – don’t make pre match predictions 👀
— Joe Marler (@JoeMarler) July 2, 2022
However, Marler may not have learnt his lesson though, as he has decided to have a little wager with former Wallabies winger Drew Mitchell ahead of the second Test next Saturday in Brisbane. However, this time it could end up being slightly more embarrassing for Marler should England put in another performance like they did in Perth, or indeed like they have for the past 18 months, again. Take a look at the wager they’ve made:
If @wallabies lose next week, I’ll wear an England jersey on top, @BudgySmuggler on the bottoms and belting out ‘God save our Queen’ up Caxton street.
May the worst man embarrass themselves haha https://t.co/FBvQHDpUso
— Drew Mitchell (@drew_mitchell) July 2, 2022
