Joe Marler laments: 'I felt like Eminem'

Joe Marler has been practising his line-out throwing on a daily basis after confessing to doing his best Eminem impression in England's Calcutta Cup defeat by Scotland.

Marler temporarily stepped into the breach at Murrayfield on Saturday when Luke Cowan-Dickie was sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on, taking the hooker's role on the touchline in the 69th minute with the score tied at 17-17.

However, the veteran prop's botched throw to Alex Dombrandt failed to travel five metres and, as a result, England gave up a scrum close to their line which was then penalised, allowing Finn Russell to land the match-winning penalty.

It was an influential chain of events in a final quarter that was poorly managed by England - and Marler, in his own traditionally colourful way, accepts his role in the unravelling.

"I've been practising every day. Cockers (forwards coach Richard Cockerill) has been giving me the eyes - 'right, any danger this week mate?'. I was like, 'yes, OK, fine," Marler said, while preparing for this weekend's match against Italy in Rome.

"I just didn't throw it at the right time. I should have thrown it earlier at Dombrandt. Unfortunately I threw it later and he kept running past the five metres with the eyes of 'mate, why are you not throwing the ball at me?'.

"And I went 'I don't know, I feel like Eminem in 8 Mile when he chokes on stage with his rap'. That's how I've felt.

"I was very disappointed with losing as closely as we did. It was disappointing and I don't feel overly great about it, but I'm looking forward to tucking in this week and hopefully picking up the learnings of that last 20 minutes at Murrayfield."

Courtney Lawes will be unavailable for Eddie Jones' squad as he continues to recover from