Joe Marler's response on twitter is not exactly going to help his case.
Joe Marler has been cited by the Six Nation Officials for playing with Alun Wyn Jones crotch during Saturdays match. Joe may have been joking ,but this is in bad taste and not something you see very often. I played rugby for over 16 years and would never of dream of touching anyone whether I was joking or not. You are likely to be flattened firstly and I think that would be justified. If you cross the invisible line that we now exists then you have to expect he punishment that is coming your way.
The rules clearly state the following leaving no grey area open to debate.
Law 9.27. A player must not do anything that is against the spirit of good sportsmanship - hair pulling or grabbing; spitting at anyone; grabbing, twisting or squeezing the genitals and/or breasts (female players).
I noticed "fans" thought it was funny, but then they would never have played the sport. I do believe the cameras have taken away the fun part of the sport for a player. Marler would never have done this unless he felt protected which the cameras obviously do. Players have to be aware that a camera is on you for the full 80 minutes and anything can be picked up and checked.
Possibly the only one place left to throw a decent punch is in the scrum depending on your reach. Marler as a prop would be a sitting duck and possibly Alun should have waited and bided his time. Marlers head would be about 30 cm away leaning downwards so with nowhere to go as his hands are bound on other players. The more I think about it the bigger fool Alun is. I think along the lines of the players sort it out is far better than disciplinary hearings.
With the evidence in the form of video footage Marler stands to lose 6 months salary or 24 weeks. This rules him out of the Lions tour,remaining Six Nations game against Italy so I expect he will retire now. Joe came out of retirement for the World Cup so he hasn't gone out in a blaze of glory. Not exactly something you want to be remembered for as that is something he will now have to live with. This is why I say Alun should have kept quiet and sorted him out on the field as it is better for both parties then.
The thing is with this incident is that Joe seems like a great guy and a joker. If he had come out immediately after the game and apologized publicly saying what he did was not right then it would have gone away immediately. It was obvious that this was going to blow up as the only person that missed it was the video referee.
