Joe Marler ready for a brawl

Animated as ever, Joe Marler is looksing forward to a physical test against Ireland this Saturday.

Former Ireland head coach Eddie O’Sullivan has described how he expects Saturday’s game to be a ‘bar room brawl’.

Marler has never shied away from the physical nature of the game and embraces the challenge that Ireland will bring.

He said: “It’s probably a fair assumption, I quite like that. A nice clean bar brawl though, none of the dirty stuff. No gouging , just the clean stuff. It’s going to be tasty. They’re very, very aggressive at the breakdown. They love chucking numbers in there, I think off the top of my head you get 40+ attempts at attacking our breakdown from Ireland. It is going to be a ding dong.”

With Andy Farrell taking over from Joe Schmidt as Ireland head coach at the end of 2019, changes and improvements have been made over the last few years.

Marler said: “They’ve got more guys in the pack in the likes of Tadhg Beirne, Furlong, and Doris who are key men who are now stepping up to the plate in those shapes more as opposed to heavily relying on the backs to do some moves or wraparounds and things like that. You’ve now got these boys that are legitimate ball players.”

Tadgh Furlong is a familiar face for Marler, having played against him on numerous occasions and both touring together on the 2017 British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand.

Ahead of the game, Marler is full of praise for the man he’ll likely be scrummaging against on Saturday.

He said: “On the pitch he’s World Class. I think he’s actually stepped up his game around the field particularly in attack even more so this season. You’ve seen in this tournament that he’s standing more at second/third receiver off of the ten so they’re doing a lot of playmaking through him. He’s so comfortable on the ball. It’s great to see the likes of him and Kyle Sinckler taking front row to play to another level.”

In the past, physicality was often a dominating factor for England against Ireland, but the Ireland of today have proved to be a hugely physical side, which is something that could be a challenge for England this Saturday.

Marler added: “Most games are won by the most physically dominant team. They’re pretty good, so we’ll need to win that battle in order to put them under enough pressure and give us enough time to put our game on the park.”

Written by Imogen Ainsworth