Joe Marler could find himself in hot water with the Rugby Football Union after appearing to spark an ugly brawl in Harlequins’ defeat against Bristol on Tuesday.

Marler seemed to bait the Bristol flanker Jake Heenan with an alleged comment that provoked a reaction from the New Zealander and could face further action.

The Bristol director of rugby, Pat Lam, said the Bears would not be making an official complaint about the incident but Marler could still be hauled in front of the RFU if the incident is included in the referee’s report or should the citing commissioner consider it something worth pursuing.

The Harlequins head coach, Tabai Matson, said he was not aware of the comment but conceded Marler can be “antagonistic”. Lam pointed to how he had never seen Heenan react in that manner, questioning whether the incident was in the spirit of the game.

He said: “I love Joe Marler, I brought Jake over from New Zealand to Connacht and to here, he is like a son to our family and I have never seen him like that. It is best to say one of the areas we are all trying to work on is the spirit of the game. Something was said and there was a reaction from Jake I have never seen before.

“We are all custodians of the game – players, coaches – and one thing we all value and we all work hard to keep is the right values and spirit. He reacted to something that was said. That is what I know happened. I will leave that to other people, we will just crack on.”

The incident took place in the first half as both sides were preparing for a scrum. Marler appeared to make a comment which Heenan reacted to before a melee broke out between both sets of forwards. “He does tease people [but] I’m not sure [what was said],” Matson said.

“I’m just commenting on what I saw from the sideline. I don’t know what was said but he’s quite antagonistic. He’s had to play against and I thought [the referee Karl Dickson] handled it well.”