by England baseman Joe Marler has thrown a hand grenade into the preparation for England’s test against New Zealand with a playful contribution to X via the haka.
Marler’s teammates will take on the ceremonial Maori war dance at the Allianz Stadium in Twickenham this Saturday, but the laid-back prop doesn’t seem to be a fan of it.
“The haka needs binning. It’s ridiculous,” he wrote on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, adding, “It will only do any good if teams actually give an answer to this.” Like the league guys did last week have done.”
The haka needs binning. It’s ridiculous.
— Joe Marler (@JoeMarler) October 29, 2024
Marler was referring to the eye-to-eye and nose-to-nose incident when the Samoan RL team performed the Siva Tau in Wigan ahead of their international match against England RL last weekend.
SPRAY IT.
Previously, there were serious tensions between England and Samoa in the league.
Bring back the haka confrontations in Union. pic.twitter.com/cSX14kXPLM
— Tight Five Rugby (@TightFive_Rugby) October 27, 2024
Predictably, some of his 160,000 followers took the bait, leading to some forceful responses from All Black supporters.
One user wrote: “An English guy says this is bloody hilarious; Worry about winning a few games first, okay?”
It remains to be seen how England tackle the haka, but Owen Farrell’s cheeky, grinning reaction ahead of the 2019 Rugby World Cup semi-final did his team no harm. England won 19-7.
However, another X user questioned the wisdom of his comment so close to the big game. “You just lost the game for your team! Congratulations!”
Marler was always the joker and it would have been fascinating to see how Marler would have reacted had he been in England’s 23-man squad.
