{"id":446632,"date":"2026-02-26T12:26:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T12:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/446632\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T12:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T12:26:11","slug":"eben-etzebeth-labelled-fake-tough-guy-as-joe-marler-names-most-feared-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/446632\/","title":{"rendered":"Eben Etzebeth labelled ‘fake tough guy’ as Joe Marler names most feared player"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Former England<\/a> loosehead Joe Marler<\/a> has named South African World Cup winner Bakkies Botha<\/a> rugby\u2019s most feared player, describing him as a \u201cnasty piece of work as a rugby player.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joining his former England and Harlequins<\/a> team-mate Danny Care<\/a> on his\u00a0Hits Different<\/a>\u00a0 show, Marler was tasked with determining rugby\u2019s most feared player since 2008 out of 16 players.<\/p>\n

The former Springboks lock beat Sebastian Chabal and Marcos Ayerza<\/a> on the way to the semi-finals, where he was pitted against former England captain Courtney Lawes<\/a>, who had progressed past Carl Hayman<\/a> and Danny Grewcock.<\/p>\n

On the other half of the draw, former Tonga<\/a> No.8 Chris Hala\u2019ufia made it to the semi-finals, beating Willem Alberts<\/a> and Duane Vermeulen.<\/p>\n

On his encounter with the former London Irish<\/a> and Quins back-row, Marler said: \u201cWhen he moved to London Irish, I remember playing \u2014 I\u2019m surprised I remember this \u2014 but it was before the HIA was brought in.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Ireland <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Wales <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cBen Botica, I\u2019m outside Bots at the Madejski. I\u2019m outside him and hitting a decent line, when I used to be able to run, and Bots has done a no-look like that. I\u2019ve caught the ball and, as I\u2019ve caught it, this unit has absolutely melted me, head high here. I\u2019ve just hit the deck and lost the ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cWatching it back and just being like, \u201cOh my God, he\u2019s a big hitter.\u201d I wasn\u2019t the only one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Care added: \u201cPeople were genuinely terrified of him. In training, he would just tickle you and laugh while he did it, then he\u2019d go onto the pitch and he would melt people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of the entire list of players, only one is still plying their trade on the international circuit, Eben Etzebeth. The Springbok great crashed out in the first round, however, losing to former All Black Brad Thorn<\/a>, with Marler saying: \u201cHe did what I used to do. All fart, no poo. Fake tough guy, for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thorn progressed to the semi-final, beating Etzebeth and Paul O\u2019Connell<\/a> along the way, and was pitted against Hala\u2019ufia.<\/p>\n

Marler then chose Botha to make it to the final, saying: \u201cHe\u2019s an out-and-out thug. That\u2019s what he played his game on \u2014 just melting people, but not legally. The things he did were more illegal than legal.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wasn\u2019t really a world-class rugby player. He was a world-class thug and was part of world-class teams, but Courtney was a world-class rugby player.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis board is about being most feared. Who\u2019s the most feared rugby player? Was I ever scared of Courtney? I was scared to maybe catch the end of one of his tackles, but he never really would tackle me, to be honest.<\/p>\n

\u201cWas I scared of Bakkies? I was always scared of him. I was scared of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having originally chosen Thorn to make it to the final, Marler reassessed his decision, placing Hala\u2019ufia in the final, saying: \u201cI was always scared of him as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was never really scared of you [Thorn]. I was just impressed by you. I wasn\u2019t ever scared of you, Courtney, because we had a good relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Botha and Hala\u2019ufia the finalists, Marler crowned the South African the winner, saying: \u201cSo the final: these two scumbags \u2014 scared of them. I didn\u2019t want to go anywhere near them. Filth. Horrible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former England loosehead Joe Marler has named South African World Cup winner Bakkies Botha rugby\u2019s most feared player,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-446632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}