Disciplinary failures plague Harlequins as Joe Marler's ban overshadows Marcus Smith news ahead of Wasps clash
England prop suspended until mid-January in what is the latest case of ill-discipline that is threatening to derail John Kingston's plan to get Harlequins back at the top of English rugby
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Your support makes all the difference.The glass half-full brigade among Harlequins fans will laud another day of European Champions Cup rugby against former London rivals Wasps at the Stoop on Saturday while celebrating securing the services of English rugby’s most exciting young talent.
The glass half-empty brigade will bemoan their team’s latest premature European exit, grind their teeth at their woeful Premiership form and roll their eyes at Joe Marler’s latest on-field brain freeze.
Let’s take the positives first. The Stoop will be buzzing on Saturday, admittedly in no small part down to it being a must-win game for Dai Young’s Wasps, who still retain skin in this particular European game, as two of English rugby’s oldest rivals slug it out for the third time in all competitions this season.
Harlequins vs Wasps is rarely a dull affair and too much water has passed under the bridge between the clubs to ever countenance the notion of a dead rubber.
Wasps captain Joe Launchbury alluded to as much this week. It will be fierce, committed and, weather permitting, played between two sides whose default positions is to put the ball through the hands.
With one win apiece so far this season, it appears an even contest. The glass half-full brigade must believe so, at least.
In 18-year-old Marcus Smith – who this week signed a five-year deal worth in excess of £1m to stay at the Stoop – Quins have a player with the potential to become England’s go-to fly half for a decade or more.
In Danny Cipriani, Smith will be going head-to-head with another teenage prodigy on Saturday whose future is once again up in the air following this week’s announcement that 26-year-old All Black No 10 Lima Sopoaga will be joining the Coventry-based club next season.
Smith at least, knows he is wanted. His glass is overflowing.
But while the optimists toast the long-term acquisition of their teenage sensation and bask in the glory of an all-English European pool clash there will be others among the Quins faithful, perhaps even the majority, who will be skulking in the shadows, cursing their club’s lack of progress.
Top of their list of grievances will be the increasing evidence of a breakdown in discipline, despite laudable attempts by director of rugby John Kingston to maintain a culture of player-led self-policing.
In Marler, Quins have an experienced international forward who has once again become a liability. Less than two years after a self-imposed sabbatical from the international fold appeared to have provided the overdue mental and physical rest he craved, Marler’s erratic on and off-field behaviour is once again proving a serious concern.
Increasingly incapable of recognising when the red mist is descending, the 53-cap veteran is playing like a rookie.
Goaded into losing his rag on countless occasions already this season, the entirely proportionate six-week ban Marler received for retaliating to a TJ Ioane cheap shot in last weekend’s defeat by Sale by aiming a shoulder at his opponent’s head was just the latest addition to his lengthening charge sheet. Lawrence Dallaglio and Austin Healey argued on BT Sport this week that Marler was harshly done by. They should watch replays of this corresponding fixture in October – which Wasps won 41-10 – when he was lucky to escape a red card for aiming a swinging arm at Will Rowlands head before completely losing the plot at the end of the game, when team-mates had to restrain him after he was verbally abused by a Wasps fan.
Quins and England will be without him until the middle of February and the 27-year-old would do well to take the time to consider how he wants to be remembered; as one of English rugby’s most durable, destructive and admirably confrontational loose-head props or as a pantomime villain intent on self-destruction.
Following Marland Yarde’s mid-season sacking for repeated disciplinary indiscretions and Kyle Sinckler’s seven-week ban for gouging in October, Quins director of rugby John Kingston is being badly let down by international players he needs to set standards. It does not bode well.
Out of Europe, ninth in the Premiership and struggling to maintain discipline, Conor O’Shea’s successor is hardly enjoying a honeymoon period.
He bore his teeth by getting rid of Yarde and has secured the services of one of the most highly-prized talents in the game until at least 2022.
But the prize Quins fans most crave is sustained excellence on the pitch. At the moment, that feels a long way away.
Glass half full or glass half empty? You decide.
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