Joe Marler insists England will bounce back from their Six Nations defeat by Scotland

Prop Joe Marler says England no longer struggle with ‘in-house b***hing’ as they prepare to get their Six Nations campaign back on track in Italy.

According to the veteran forward, who made his England debut almost a decade ago, the current crop of players is the least likely to suffer from splits in camp.

Marler admitted there was a feeling of ‘self-pity’ after Saturday’s Calcutta Cup defeat by Scotland but claims the young squad remain united as they fly to Rome.

‘With the new generation of player coming through, the old hierarchical system that may have worked previously just doesn’t work that much now,’ said Marler. ‘It is more about open and honest communications, rather than the old school “here’s a stick”.

‘This group it is probably the tightest group I have been a part of, with a lot of the youngsters and the older heads coming together. The way we have responded to it has been much less in-house bitching as there may have been in the past. It has actually been a pretty level response.’ 

England suffered a final quarter collapse at Murrayfield, where botched substitutions resulted in Marler having to throw his first international lineout since 2012. He missed his target, failing to throw the ball five metres, and Scotland subsequently kicked a penalty to win the game.

‘I walked through my front door and Jasper, my eldest son, is like, “Good throw, Daddy!”‘ revealed Marler. ‘I just didn’t throw it at the right time. I should have thrown it earlier at Alex Dombrandt. Unfortunately I threw it later and he kept running past the five metre line. I felt like Eminem in 8 Mile when he chokes on stage with his rap.

Marler was left to throw in at a lineout with Luke Cowan-Dickie sin-binned – and was penalised

‘We’ve had chats about what potentially we could have done better in those situations. But again, hindsight is a wonderful thing. Hopefully if we’re in the heat of the moment in those situations again, we can get it right. If we didn’t then we’d have the chat again. Fool me once, fool me twice, chase me hard, have egg and rice.’ 

England will be expected to salvage some credibility with a convincing win over Italy, who have lost 34 consecutive games in the Six Nations. But Marler admits that the expectation to run up a big scoreline adds a unique pressure.

‘It can be difficult,’ he said. ‘From personal experience, you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Particularly from fans and writers that go, “If you put 50 points on Italy well you’re expected to, and if you only win by five points well you should have put 50 on them”. So that’s a tricky one to manoeuvre but it’s about focusing on the processes of it.

‘You just get on with it. Take your time to wallow and be disappointed but don’t let it last too long because we’ve got to crack on with the next one and win the rest of the games to give ourselves a chance of winning the competition.’