Joe Marler has claimed that he was ‘never going to be world-class’ during his career, but that he ‘maximised’ the areas in which he knew he was good at.
Appearing on Danny Care’s podcast, Hits Different, the former Harlequins prop discussed his retirement with his long-time friend, as they reflected on their playing careers.
Dishing up a spaghetti bolognese on the new Grilled format of the show, Care pondered whether the world ever got to see Marler at his very best.
“Never going to be world-class”
“I took my rugby career seriously enough for me to achieve what I achieved,” said the giant former front-rower. “There were times when I took it too seriously, and there were times when I took it not seriously enough.
“My goal for it all was never, ‘I want to achieve 95 caps’. It was always like, ‘I want to do this, I want to do that’. I would just want to make memories and have a lot of fun doing it. Chasing those medals or accolades was never a big thing for me.
“When people go, Oh, you got 95, why didn’t you just hold on? Five more, you could have got 100. You go, what for? So I could say I had 100? What difference does that make? Oh, yeah, but then you’d have been a centurion, right? What difference does it make? I still had fun.”
But the question that needed to be asked was, was he the best version of himself?
“I think I could have been better, but I couldn’t be much better. I sort of had a ceiling that I capped. I was never going to be world-class. I was always at a level where I knew what I was good at, and I tried to maximise that.”
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“Just stop being a d***head”
Marler was known for his immense scrummaging abilities and brilliant chop tackling, but away from the contact area, he was often involved a little more than his coaches would have liked.
“If anything, I look back at maybe how disruptive I was to other teammates or other environments sometimes,” said the 35-year-old.
Remembering the first time he addressed his behaviour, Marler recalled a teammate pulling him aside and saying, ‘Just stop being a d***head, like every time you get yellow card or red carded, I’m having to work that much harder. I’m 28 stone, mate. I don’t need to work any harder than I already am, just because you’re being a bit of a *******’
“There were a lot of times where I was disruptive, selfishly disruptive, but equally disruptive most of the time, where I thought it was for the good of the team, but there were definitely times at Quins where I’d really pushed it too far.
“That’s why I’ll always be grateful to Charles and Duncan, the owners. There have been coaches who have come and gone the whole time, the DORs, CEOs and all that lot, but Charles and Duncan were always there, and they always allowed me that time and space to make mistakes.
“I’ll always be grateful to them that they never, they came close to losing patience, but they never. They always turned around and said, ‘look, it’s absolutely fine, we just love what you do bring when you do bring it, just try not to get red cards as much as you do.”
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