Joe Marler told Wales legend he was done as he lands top rugby job
Former England prop Joe Marler has opened up on his retirement from the game, admitting he was "physically and mentally" unable to keep up with his team-mates anymore.
The 34-year-old hung up his boots for good in November, playing his final match in professional rugby in Harlequins' home defeat to Bristol Bears. That farewell came less than a month after he also brought his England career to an end, having won 95 caps and played at three Rugby World Cups, as well as winning three Six Nations.
One of the most outspoken and often controversial figures in the game, Marler had previously announced his international retirement back in 2018, before returning to play at the Rugby World Cup the following year. But this time, he says, it's for good, having already quickly settled into life after playing and landed a new job in rugby. Sign up to our Welsh rugby newsletter here.
READ MORE: The best Wales team Gatland can now pick from the Six Nations squad
READ MORE: England Six Nations squad in full as huge captaincy change announced
Looking back on how he came to walk away from the Test game, the former loosehead told the For the Love of Rugby podcast: "We were in Girona [with England]. I remember sitting there at the end of the week, on the step in the lovely sun, blowing out my arse and it was a really nice moment.
"But I was looking at all the young boys around and going ‘well, that’s it then’. The game has definitely passed me by, I can't keep up with these f***ers anymore. I can't physically keep up with them and mentally, I just didn't have the drive to try anymore."
On breaking the news to head coach Steve Borthwick, he added: "Steve did say ‘look, you’ve obviously put a lot of thought into it. I respect your decision [but] I wanted you to make it to the next World Cup’. And I laughed! I thought that was a good one. But he said: 'No, I’m being very serious'."
The podcast's co-hosts Ben Youngs and Dan Cole asked their former England team-mate if he had considered keeping going to reach a century of international caps, having fallen just five short of the mark. But Marler admitted he was not interested in all the fanfare and instead wanted to simply "slip away".
"Milestones have never interested me," he said. "I just wanted to beat Tim Payne’s cap record, which was 26. So as soon as I hit 27, I pretty much gave up then anyway, the next 70-odd I thought there’s no point! Milestones aren’t a big thing until you get within a few caps of doing it, then you’re sort of semi-thinking ‘100 caps would be a nice round number to finish off on’.
"But you look at the hurrahs that a lot of our former teammates have got, and then I think actually I wouldn’t want any of that whatsoever. I just want to slip away into the night and leave the sport."
After quitting England, Marler indicated that he would continue playing club rugby until the end of the season, but just a few weeks later, he brought forward his retirement plans having also realised his race was also run with Harlequins. While he had been at the Premiership side for 15 years, however, he admitted leaving was easier than quitting Test rugby - with a Wales legend one of the first to hear of his decision.
"Quins was easier than England, because I still had people at England that I was close with," said Marler. "I was willing to go to the well for them and I knew that they would go to the well for me. With England, it’s that elite environment, whereas with the club, the direction it was going in wasn't necessarily one that I agreed with and I didn't have those connections with a lot of the squad.
"That's mainly my fault. You get older and you can’t be bothered to make the effort. I’ve turned into that piece of s*** that I always looked up at and thought ‘who is this poisonous t*** that just wants to take the money and not actually commit to it?’
"I thought ‘I can't do this’, so I drove in [to training], tried with a bit of positivity and I f***ed up a couple of lineouts," he added. "I went, ‘I’m done’. I stood there and looked around for about five, 10 minutes, [Alex] Dombrandt turned around and asked ‘you all right mate?’ and I said, ‘Nah, I’m done’.
"Then I just went and got my jacket and walked out. [Former Wales prop] Adam Jones came out and asked if I was all right and I said ‘I’m done mate, I can’t do it.’ He said ‘What, done done?’ and I said: ‘Yeah, I’m done’ and that was it."
After bowing out against Bristol, Marler admits he is enjoying life after playing and is now getting stuck into his new job. The former prop is now the performance director of Team England Rugby Ltd (TER), a company established by the national team last season when they decided to split from the Rugby Players’ Association (RPA) and represent themselves in negotiations with the RFU and Premiership sides.
Admitting he was relieved after his retirement was confirmed, Marler said: "It had been on my mind for a good four or five months, since I broke my foot in the summer. I had four months at home with the kids, being normal, with them.
"Giving them so much time and being there for [my wife] Daisy a lot, which I hadn't been, it's kind of like, ‘f***, this is great. I can do this’. I want to give them more time now. They are at ages where they need a male figure in their life now."
On his new role, the ex-loosehead explained: “It sounds posh and official, but it’s basically having the backs of the England rugby team, doing a lot of the admin work, conversations between DoRs [directors of rugby], clubs and RFU to make sure they feel supported in decisions around operations, welfare if there are injuries, that they’re being consulted on things and it’s been done in the right way.
“It’s about building up relationships when it comes to the end of campaigns and people require rest, and taking the pressure away from the player of having to have those conversations. There are loads of boys in the squad who are young who would be too scared to speak to the DoRs without being judged for being soft, or being told, ‘We pay your wages, get on with it'."
“The boys needed to be looked after for a long period of time,” Marler added. “We weren’t looked after with our previous representation. So we went, right, we’re setting this Team England Rugby up. We’re moving away from the previous representation. And we are going to take control of it."
