England rugby star Joe Marler has said that he was attempting to ‘spark interest’ in his side’s upcoming Test clash with the All Blacks by taking aim at the Haka.

The Harlequins ace called the iconic pre-match ritual ‘ridiculous’ and sparked fury by vowing that it should be ‘binned’. The comments have sparked immense backlash from New Zealand, with Marler being criticised for his remarks.

The saga has only added further fuel to the fire ahead of Saturday’s match at the Allianz Stadium, which Marler has now revealed is exactly what he had hoped would happen when taking aim at the pre-match spectacle.

He took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to tell all about his cunning plan to try and draw more eyes to the match. Marler said: “Context is everything. Just having a bit of fun trying to spark interest in a mega rugby fixture.

“Some wild responses. Big Love x.” The message was accompanied by a fishing emoji, implying that he was searching for some form of a reaction by making the initial comments.

Marler then sarcastically added: “Also needed to satisfy my narcissism.”

He previously deactivated his social media accounts just shortly after his tweet about the Haka, which read: “The Haka needs binning. It’s ridiculous. It’s only any good when teams actually front it with some sort of reply. Like the [rugby] league boys did last week.”

The prop did not delete the post though, which has been viewed by over 200,000 X users and received over 200 replies.  Despite stoking the fire ahead of the match, Marler will not be involved on Saturday as he reportedly left the England camp prior to Steve Borthwick making his squad announcement.