Horseplay.

England and Harlequins prop Joe Marler is a bit of a character, to say the least. He’s outspoken and he’s quite bizarre at times – but mostly he’s just a downright funny guy.

He absolutely loves putting Israel Folau in his place whenever anytime he comes out with nonsense and generally doesn’t take life too seriously, poking fun at anything and anyone when possible.

After falling at the final hurdle against South Africa in the World Cup with England, Marler recently returned to his club Harlequins but sat out their game last weekend. A game that didn’t exactly go according to plan.

They were battered 53-21 by Clermont in the opening round of the Champions Cup with Fijians Peceli Yato and Alivereti Raka running absolute riot. But have a chance to make amends this weekend though, with a Premiership rivals Bath set to visit the Stoop in Round 2.

And Marler has offered quite the perspective ahead of that must-win game.

“I wasn’t hurting as much as the lads who were out there but I definitely felt it and I know how hard the boys have taken that,” Marler said.

“They will be disappointed with the account that we put out.

“But we’ve got another week to get back on the horse. And take that horse to the water and you can ask that horse, you can say: ‘Hey, Horsey, do you want to have a drink or do you want to swim?’

“It’s up to that horse then to realise what he wants to do in life.

“And that horse, at the moment, wants to go out on Saturday, he wants to clippity-clop all the way to the Stoop and he wants to say hello to those fans.

“And he goes: ‘I’m sorry about the result last week, but I’m going to give a better performance here against Bath.’

“He’s a slightly Irish horse.

“So we are looking forward like I say, to getting back on that horse.

Bizarre probably isn’t even the word.