RugbyRebels

Harlequins: Brown; Yarde, Lowe, Roberts, Visser; Botica, Care (capt); Marler, Gray, Jones, Horwill, Twomey, Robshaw, Wallace, Easter.

Replacements: Ward, Lambert, Sinckler, Matthews, Clifford, Dickson, Evans, Chisholm.

Grenoble: Aplon; Mignot, Farrell, Hunt, Dupont; Wisniewski, McLeod; Taumalolo, Heguy, Edwards, Hand (capt), Percival, Diaby, Alexandre, Setephano.

Replacements: Jammes, Barcella, Desmaison, Marie, Vanderglas, Hart, Gengenbacher, Estebanez.

Finally some thing too talk about

Win for Quins and a great lesson from Marler on how to kick a man when he's down. Nice one Joe but you've been sussed!

WiganShark wrote:Win for Quins and a great lesson from Marler on how to kick a man when he's down. Nice one Joe but you've been sussed!

That was off the ball, blatant and clearly caught on camera. There was nobody else close to the pair of them. Joe is in deep shiit. At around 50 min Marler also pulled off a powerful tackle on an opponent but seemed to add a forearm smash on the way down. Anyone notice?

Yes...from a ban for a racist remark to cowardly thug in one game. Even Ash wouldn't 'Stoop' that low

It's not much of a kick, but it's annoying as he'd got rid of a lot of the unhelpful prattish behaviour from his game. If he can't be trusted not to do these things he's not good enough to hang around the England team, and if he gets any ban for that he's only himself to blame.

What an utter bellend.

Hope he cops a long ban.

Digby wrote:It's not much of a kick, but it's annoying as he'd got rid of a lot of the unhelpful prattish behaviour from his game. If he can't be trusted not to do these things he's not good enough to hang around the England team, and if he gets any ban for that he's only himself to blame.

It is an obvious and deliberate kick to the head. That is nasty and much worse than calling an opponent names. The degree of force in the kick means nothing. He deserves to cop a long ban for that and if Eddie Jones decides to cut him loose from the England squad, so be it. England has plenty of decent looseheads. You would hope that his club would dish out a significant sanction too.

From the rugby perspective bit of a turgid game. Both sides had hands of concrete at times. Yes it was wet but these are professional players! Quins momentum was pretty slow which was why Grenoble were eating them for breakfast in defence in the first half. Care said he hope not to be one of Eddie's 5; well if he wasn't he will be now. He was pretty crap. Disappointing as his tempo gets Quins moving, though yesterday his passing was poor also and his kicks far too long. I'm hoping it was just the conditions (aside from the kicks).

Better second half of the second half. Utter class from Evans. Vision and execution.

Main thing at this stage is to win. Job done on that front.

And back to Marler - twat! What an utter village idiot! O'Shea is right; it is a shame as the rest of his game was top notch, but he needed to just concentrate on not doing anything stupid.

The degree of force certainly means something. Absurd to say otherwise.

Timbo wrote:The degree of force certainly means something. Absurd to say otherwise.

It looks a red card offence, force might come into play in terms of determining length of ban. Should still be a few weeks.

That said this is the citings lottery we're talking about, so he'll probably end up with a fair play award and a £21k bonus.

Timbo wrote:The degree of force certainly means something. Absurd to say otherwise.

Indeed, as we saw with the 29 year ban for the Argentinian lad who kicked an opponent unconscious. I can't see anyway Marler gets 29 weeks, unless he's caught an eye and there's some damage. He's an idiot though, and he might need someone to repeat Kohn's words that he's letting his team down.

Marler really is dumb isn't he. Will this rule him out of the summer tour?

twitchy wrote:Marler really is dumb isn't he. Will this rule him out of the summer tour?

The only thing I can see that might save him (aside from arbitrary disciplinary decisions of course) is if he hasn't actually made contact. The only angle I've seen shows him flicking his foot out and there being no immediate reaction from the Frenchman, which would be unexpected if there was any contact between boot and face.

Has anyone seen a better angle than the one they showed Conor O'Shea after the match?

Puja

More of a shin than a boot to the face but a stupid, reckless act that deserves to cop a good ban. Perhaps Eddie will have a few words with him. A pity because he looks to be coming into good form but there is no place in the game for that sort o overreaction, no matter the provocation.

Puja wrote:

twitchy wrote:Marler really is dumb isn't he. Will this rule him out of the summer tour?

The only thing I can see that might save him (aside from arbitrary disciplinary decisions of course) is if he hasn't actually made contact. The only angle I've seen shows him flicking his foot out and there being no immediate reaction from the Frenchman, which would be unexpected if there was any contact between boot and face.

Has anyone seen a better angle than the one they showed Conor O'Shea after the match?

Puja

The player on the ground did point at his nose (I think) whilst getting to his feet

Digby wrote:

Puja wrote:

twitchy wrote:Marler really is dumb isn't he. Will this rule him out of the summer tour?

The only thing I can see that might save him (aside from arbitrary disciplinary decisions of course) is if he hasn't actually made contact. The only angle I've seen shows him flicking his foot out and there being no immediate reaction from the Frenchman, which would be unexpected if there was any contact between boot and face.

Has anyone seen a better angle than the one they showed Conor O'Shea after the match?

Puja

The player on the ground did point at his nose (I think) whilst getting to his feet

I'd mark that down as playing to the ref more than anything.

Puja

Quins good enough to win easily. Getting Evans back is a major boost. I think he's the player Quins miss more than anyone else when he's absent. Entertaining distribution from Brown proving that perhaps he should simply truck it up every time.

Marler really is a tosser. These cheap, idiotic shots do him and his team no favours. Grow up Joe.

Just seen it, what an absolute arse. Firstly for doing it, and second for being stupid enough to do it. What, if anything, goes through his head?

Just when I thought it was safe to read Wales Online again....

I honestly can't get over it. It's not a huge contact, but it's fucking brainless. He may have been on the receiving end of 'banter' all game but surely it would have been drummed into his head to prepare for it and not to react to it. Shewerly?!

I'd like to see him rested for the summer.

WaspInWales wrote:
I'd like to see him rested for the summer.

Probably. But there'd be value too if he was back in time for the Wales game in watching some commentators whip themselves up into hysterics

Spiffy wrote:

Digby wrote:It's not much of a kick, but it's annoying as he'd got rid of a lot of the unhelpful prattish behaviour from his game. If he can't be trusted not to do these things he's not good enough to hang around the England team, and if he gets any ban for that he's only himself to blame.

It is an obvious and deliberate kick to the head. That is nasty and much worse than calling an opponent names. The degree of force in the kick means nothing. He deserves to cop a long ban for that and if Eddie Jones decides to cut him loose from the England squad, so be it. England has plenty of decent looseheads. You would hope that his club would dish out a significant sanction too.

You are joking. COS has already defended the kick stating that it was clearly not a red card offence and Marler is now a marked man.

With the state of discipline in the game, who knows whether he will cop a ban for this, it certainly looked like a totally unnecessary cheap shot.

WaspInWales wrote:Just when I thought it was safe to read Wales Online again....

I honestly can't get over it. It's not a huge contact, but it's fucking brainless. He may have been on the receiving end of 'banter' all game but surely it would have been drummed into his head to prepare for it and not to react to it. Shewerly?!

I'd like to see him rested for the summer.

It really is never safe to read that rag.

That was idiotic. Chris Ashton idiotic; seeing if you can commit a foul that is technically awful (kicking a prone player in the head) without any purpose, any damage done, any malice or any possible benefit to anybody, particularly when you know people are looking out for you. I cannot understand that at all.

Good win, but yeah.

Botica's face when Evans scored was priceless (or some sneaky editing trickery)

Never mind Marler - Jamie Robert's attempt at the "Ash Slpash" was even more embarrassing than the original. That deserves some real sanction.