This rugby player’s rambling interview about horses gets weirder and weirder

A routine interview with a rugby player in England unexpectedly turned into one of the most delightful sports interviews of all time.

Joe Marler, England international and Harlequins prop who has been out with injury was discussing the team’s disappointing loss to Clermont Auvergne in the European Cup, and how they were going to rebound against Bath this weekend when things took a weird, horse-filled turn.

“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 to then realize what he wants to do in his life. 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 at home against Bath.’ He’s a slightly Irish horse. So we are looking forward to, like I say, to getting back on that horse.”

Full credit to the interviewer for not bursting out laughing at the fifth mention of the horse, though he finally broke a little at that “Irish horse” line. Honestly, this was all genius too. At a time when Harlequins are under immense pressure to return to form the veteran Marler shifted the entire focus of the week away from the game and only to his weird horse interview.

Like a true pro he had a great kicker to all this too. When the reporter asked if he was looking forward to get back on the horse once he’s recovered Marler quipped “I don’t like horses. I can’t ride.”