Joe Marler cleared for England duty after three-week ban brought forward

The Harlequins prop was initially banned until midnight on Sunday 19 November but the EPCR has now changed the expiry date of the player's ban

Marler has been banned for striking Wasps lock Will Rowlands during Harlequins’ Champions Cup defeat last Sunday (Getty)

Joe Marler will be available for England’s second autumn international against Australia after the deadline for his three-week ban was brought forward on appeal in what has proven to be an embarrassing week for European Professional Club Rugby.

The Harlequins prop was initially banned until midnight on Sunday 19 November, ruling him out of England’s games against Argentina and Australia and ultimately costing him a place in Eddie Jones’ 34-man squad.

Marler, who was banned for striking Wasps lock Will Rowlands during Harlequins’ Champions Cup defeat last Sunday, saw a week taken off his initial four-week ban during Wednesday’s hearing for his guilty plea and genuine remorse, but it was then extended by four days to include the Australia Test as the independent panel handling decided that next weekend’s Anglo-Welsh Cup fixtures should not be taken into account as he was unlikely to play.

Had Marler been selected in the England squad, he would have flown with the rest of the team to Portugal this weekend for a six-day training camp and thus been unavailable for those matches.

However, confusion arose surrounding the suspension of Nathan Hughes, with the Wasps No 8 banned for two weeks but not having an extension put on his suspension as was the case with Marler.

The Independent understands that Marler was baffled by the ruling, and he and Harlequins appealed the decision with Quins’ director of rugby arguing that Marler would have played in their two Anglo-Welsh Cup games had he been available.

As a result, EPCR changed the date for the expiry of Marler’s ban, although while they acknowledged the lack of consistency between Marler and Hughes’ judgements, they added that “for the avoidance of doubt, the committee would not have altered its determination as to the appropriate period of suspension for Marler solely in light of the Hughes decision” and that “each disciplinary case is judged on its own facts and on the evidence presented”.

The alteration means that Marler will remain suspended for Harlequns’ Premiership clash with Worcester Warriors this weekend and the Anglo-Welsh Cup tie with Saracens next week, as well as England’s first autumn international against Argentina that falls on the same weekend as Quins’ second Cup game with Worcester.

Marler was baffled by the decision (Getty)

But he will now be eligible for the two internationals against Australia and Samoa, and while Jones was unlikely to bring Marler in for the final autumn international against the Pacific Islanders with Mako Vunipola, Ellis Genge and Matt Mullan in the squad, the availability of Marler to face the Wallabies gives him a big decision to make given he is able to draft in extra personnel throughout November.

The fiasco surrounding Marler’s case comes in the same week that the Northampton Saints director of rugby, Jim Mallinder, heavily criticised the citing process for Dylan Hartley’s charge, with the England captain being cleared of allegedly striking Clermont Auvergne prop Rabah Slimani last weekend. Mallinder believes that Hartley is being unfairly picked on due to his previous disciplinary record, having served 60 weeks’ worth of bans in his career.

“The decision to cite Dylan from Saturday’s game against Clermont was unjustified. This was a run-of-the-mill rugby incident during a high intensity game of European rugby,” Mallinder said.

“Anyone who watched the game could see that this was completely accidental – a misjudgement at a clear–out, plain and simple. When we should be preparing for a crucial league game against Wasps this Saturday, we have instead been distracted by what we believe was an unwarranted judicial hearing.

“Citings like this do beg the question of whether Dylan is being singled out for what has happened in the past rather than being judged solely on Saturday’s game.”