Loves a scrum: Joe Marler

JOE MARLER says he feels increasingly like part of an endangered species. The bearded Harlequins loosehead is one of the most powerful scrummagers in the game, with that classic hollow back that is the hallmark of the great technicians.
Yet when Marler, who starts today for England against the Barbarians, is asked what the future holds for props of his ilk, he raises his heavily-muscled tattooed arms and mimics hanging by his fingertips from a cliff edge.
“I’m like that at the moment, just clinging on,” Marler says. He adds that the Barbarians ...