Joe Marler turns to psychological help to address on-field issues

Harlequins prop Joe Marler revealed that he has been seeking the help of sports psychologist Jeremy Snape in an attempt to revive his England career after his latest ban.

Marler, who returned from a two-game ban and £20,000 fine for his "Gypsy boy" comment on Wales prop Samson Lee was was cited again during the European Challenge Cup semi-final against Grenoble.

Marler was seen kicking ­Grenoble hooker Arnaud Héguy during Harlequins’ 30-6 victory at Twickenham Stoop for which he was handed another two-week ban.

However, the 25-year-old will be available for the Challenge Cup final against Montpellier on 13th May. Admitting he has disciplinary issues, Marler feels lucky to return back to action sooner than he expected.

The England international felt that the incident involving Héguy could have kept him out of contention for the rest of the summer including the Australian tour.

"I didn't think I'd play again this season," said Marler.

"I thought I'd be having the summer off as well, I thought I'd get a ban that would take me off the (Australia) tour.

"I'm very lucky to be in a position to pull on the shirt for Quins again and even luckier that it's a final and a chance to get hands on a trophy. Very lucky.

"I'm raring to go, chomping at the bit to get out there and prove to myself more than anything that I am capable of playing a game of rugby on the edge without being a d***, basically."

Citing the World Cup failure as the major reason behind his psychological issue, Marler felt he was disappointed with the outcome after England became the first hosting nation to not qualify for the knock-out stage following which head coach Stuart Lancaster was replaced by Eddie Jones.

Admitting the team were a "complete flop" during the high profile tournament, Marler believes he could have handled the debacle in a better manner.

"The World Cup was meant to be the biggest experience of our lives, the highest point of our careers, and we blew it," said Marler, who had three meetings with Snape.

"We won't have a home World Cup again as a group.

"It was that lack of admission that it was actually our fault, let's blame something else, let's not look within ourselves.

"The World Cup was the turning point for me. I'll be honest I had an impression that I thought there was a complete lack of support (from the media), an air that people were waiting for an opportunity for something to f*** up.

"That was my mindset, and that's not me saying that is how it was, but that is how I thought things were.

"From a personal point of view I took a bit of a bashing, during that World Cup, and as a team we were complete flops.

"Mentally I just went inside myself and was like 'sod this', fingers up to everyone.

"There wasn't any sense to what I was thinking, it was just easier to crawl under a shell and tell everyone to p*** off than it was to actually confront people or talk reasonably or rationally with people.

"I look back on it now, actually looking back and thinking on it, my mind frame was the cause of things that didn't even exist there."

During the Six Nations tournament, Jones publicly reprimanded Marler for his comments while stating "there is no place for the use of racist language in sport."

Marler was put on the bench in the next game against France with Mako Vunipola replacing him, even though Jones revealed it had more to do with strategy rather than a disciplinary action.

However, Marler stated that Jones has been very supportive to him and now the responsibility lies with the Harlequins prop to not indulge in any more disciplinary wrangles.

"The last couple of months just was the final nail really, to go, 'actually, stop pretending that I can keep dealing with it on my own'," said Marler.

"I'm getting there. I'm not sitting here saying I have a lot of problems or I'm a complete nut-job.

"I'm saying there's stuff that needs addressing in and out of rugby that I'm getting hold of now. It is making me feel better and so hopefully I can continue on that.

"Eddie Jones has been in touch and he's been pretty firm. As well as being supportive it's more in a 'come on mate it is time to wind your neck in' way.

"You can only be supportive so many times can't you? If I go out on Friday night and kick someone else in the head then I don't think that he is going to be supportive any more. There is a limit to his support."