Joe Marler will embrace his “fight or flight” moment against South Africa at Twickenham on Saturday when England attempt to complete a clean sweep of autumn victories.
Marler will step off the bench in the rematch of the 2019 World Cup final to reinforce an under-strength front row depleted by the loss of Jamie George, Luke Cowan-Dickie and Ellis Genge to Covid and injury.
Had it not been for his own case of coronavirus, Marler would have been starting but he only left self-isolation on Thursday evening and has been limited to one training run all week.
“Head on. I’ve thought about this,” said Marler, who played in the autumn opener against Tonga but sat out the Australia rout a week later.
“You know when you get adrenaline and adrenaline is used for fight or flight…that’s genetics, Neanderthals, the first men….the reason was to work out whether you could stay and fight or leg it because you’re really scared.
“That’s how I feel about the Springbok front rowers and their scrummaging and their passion for it. It’s very much fight or flight and I run towards the fight side of it.
“I love it because all six of them – and you could even look at their third string front rows as well – are arguably world class operators.
“And that’s what I want to do – I want to test myself against the best in the hottest environment and I’m really excited about it.”
