Whether or not you like Loose Head will come down in large part to whether or not you like Joe Marler.
The book effortlessly captures his slightly contrived cheeky-chappy persona and seems designed to appeal to a section of the rugby fan base who pine for the good old days when the sport was full of "characters".
Unfortunately for other readers this will come across as too much of a forced persona that leaves you questioning whether you've heard much from the real. Marler at all.
Marler is, to his credit, quite open about his relationship with England coach Eddie Jones and the tail end of the book deals with his mental health struggles, but this is sometimes overwhelmed by the anecdotes about silly pranks, drunkenness and club behaviour....
Joe Marler is one of the big characters in rugby and this book is largely what you would expect from him. High jinks and peer tests are common and it is an enjoyable and revealing insight to what goes on behind closed doors in high level rugby teams.
It’s no secret that he suffers from mental health issues and it’s a testament to him that he’s quite open about that, but it was a single chapter and I had anticipated a bit more.
The question is, why would you put a £14.99 price tag on it?? I can (hopefully) assume a large portion goes to CALM who he’s a champion of. Otherwise, I’d feel a tad ripped off to be honest.
