Joe Marler preparing for Welsh ‘bombs’ from wind-up merchant Warren Gatland

Joe Marler is expecting Warren Gatland to chuck a few verbal grenades in an attempt to get under the skin of the England players.

The 60-year-old is not afraid to use the media in an attempt to rile the opposition before a game, hoping it will affect their performance on the day.

Gatland has particularly targeted the Red Rose in the past, with Dylan Hartley and Kyle Sinckler among those to receive criticism.

This is a match which has often seen bust-ups in the past and Marler referenced those in his Daily Mail column, including the prop’s clash with Samson Lee in 2016.

Punishment

The loosehead was banned for two games and fined £20,000 for calling Wales tighthead Lee a “Gypsy boy”.

Meanwhile, four years later, Marler was also suspended for 10 weeks – which he never served – for grabbing Alun Wyn Jones’ genitals.

“A lot of players in our team are experiencing this fixture for the first time. We had a meeting about it on Monday night to try to best prepare them for it,” he wrote.

“Jamie George approached some of us older guys and asked if we would share a few of our experiences.

“We talked about the incidents with Kyle, Samson, Alun Wyn and told the guys to prepare for whatever bombs Warren Gatland throws out in the week.

“An image that always sticks in my head is from 2019, when their old captain Alun Wyn Jones did an absolute number on Kyle Sinckler.

“There’s a picture of Sink losing his head, and Alun Wyn is just there smiling at him. He wound him up, got into his head and squeezed penalty after penalty out of him.

“I remember getting my arse handed to me at every scrum by Adam Jones back in the early days and then getting subbed off after 44 minutes. I was thinking: ‘Oh my god, I’m never going to play for England again.'”

Purely rugby-based

Marler might have a grudge on the field, but the prop insists that it doesn’t extend to everyday life, even if the Welsh public aren’t so forgiving.

The 33-year-old revealed that he gets the odd negative comment here and there but insisted that it did not detract from his overall opinion of Wales.

“When Welsh people come up to me and have a pop, I sometimes tell them a little pork pie and say I’m half Welsh because I want them to like me,” he added.

“I’ve been cold-water swimming in Snowdonia, and it was fantastic. I ate Welsh cakes, too. It’s a lovely country with lovely people, but when it comes to rugby, we just seem to dislike each other.”

READ MORE: England achieve four-year first as Steve Borthwick names squad to face fierce rivals Wales