If he had a cap for every week he has been banned, Dylan Hartley would still be a veteran, on 60. As it is, the England captain – barring injury, Lions call-up or, perish the thought, suspension – is about to win caps 85 and 86. Had he been a good boy, he would be on 100-plus by now. And he would be a Lion, certainly in 2013, possibly even now.
Regrets? “No,” he says, quietly but firmly. “It doesn’t define me. I’m OK with it.”
It’s hard to square any notion of a serial offender with the thoughtful and amusing interviewee Hartley has always been. But for his reputation, he could, maybe should, have been England captain for most of his career. He is relishing the chance to play that role to England’s young squad on their two-Test tour of Argentina and there won’t be a thought about the Lions.
“There’s no point dreaming or thinking about it. All my focus is towards that first game [next Saturday]. I don’t want to get sidetracked by maybes. I have had that many setbacks. You just learn to say OK and move on. I drew a line under [the Lions] straight away.”
His record as England captain is enviable and interwoven with that remarkable unbeaten run with which Eddie Jones opened his term as coach. Jones and Hartley seem to enjoy a certain chemistry, both of them hookers, both feisty, unconventional and intelligent. That relationship has earned Hartley an opportunity to play his way into form that is rarely extended to players at this level. The irony is that he was finally awarded the captaincy just as his status as England’s best hooker came under threat, just as injuries started to bite.
If the length of the season is a cause for concern, Hartley is relatively fresh and in form after a disrupted campaign. He even played 80 minutes the other week, most unusual for a front-row forward. “I can do it,” he says with a grin. “Just give me the chance.”
He is set to continue his captaincy for the foreseeable future, subject to the usual provisos. “There’ll only be changes if I don’t get better. It’s in my hands, and Eddie’s made that very clear to me.”
Next are these two Tests, in San Juan and Santa Fe, against Argentina, the side he made his first England start against – during the Lions tour of 2009. As ever, Argentina will challenge in Hartley’s department, the front row, but these days they are just as adept at the running game. Regular wins remain elusive for their Super Rugby side, the Jaguares, but they will benefit from a familiarity with each other that England, just like the Lions, are frantically trying to engineer.
England will build around a core of experience, led by Hartley with Chris Robshaw, Danny Care and Mike Brown, but beyond that some very young players are being introduced. Nevertheless, Jones has insisted that some of their recent training has eclipsed what they did in the Six Nations.
“It’s the youngsters,” says Hartley. “They’re driving it. Before they came into camp they knew the expectation and they are certainly delivering. I rang all of them. I got a lot of ‘yes sir’ and ‘thank you sir’ from the Curry boys. I worked out how old they were afterwards.”
The twins from Sale turn 19 between the two Tests. Ben was picked on the bench for the Barbarians game last Sunday but had to pull out, so Tom stepped up, came on early and was man of the match. No one knows which twin is which, but then no one knows a lot of these players.
It is certainly a new dynamic and Hartley appears to love being the grown-up in the middle of it all.
