England’s Joe Marler was a notable absence from their summer tour of Australia, but ahead of the new season the prop insists he is ready for a fresh start for his country.
The 26-year-old featured in all five of England’s RBS 6 Nations clashes in 2016, starting three, but decided to skip the tour Down Under as he took a break from rugby.
Marler instead saw a psychiatrist – former England cricket off-spinner Jeremy Snape – in a bid to curb the temper that at times held him back last season, and watched on from these shores as Eddie Jones men enjoyed an historic summer without him.
But the Harlequins front rower does not regret his choice to stay behind at all, and now believes he is in the right frame of mind to attack the season with a new gusto.
“I was driving home when I was like, ‘I don’t want to be here’. I just didn’t have it in me,” Marler said. “I told Eddie Jones the following day and he was really good about it, wished me luck and that was it.
“I wouldn’t want to be running around the field with someone who is there just to pick up a pay cheque.
“I thought about what I would have thought as a kid if I saw my hero, or a player I looked up to, just going through the motions.
“Everything is hunky dory at the moment. I can cope with stuff under pressure now that things on and off the field are rosy.”
