Dylan Hartley faces missing the World Cup after receiving a four-week ban for striking an opponent with his head during Northampton’s Premiership play-off semi-final against Saracens last weekend. He will miss the three warm-up matches in August and September and the tournament opener against Fiji.
The England hooker appeared before a three-man disciplinary committee in Coventry on Wednesday night having been cited for confronting his opposite number Jamie George and leading with his head. Although contact was minimal and there was no injury, or simulation from George, it was aggressive enough for the Saracens’ flanker Jacques Burger to intervene, grabbing Hartley by the top of his jersey and shoving him backwards.
The citing commissioner felt that the act demanded a red card, although no action was taken on the field. Hartley pleaded guilty and with George not suffering an injury he might have expected his ban to be cut by half, as is customary when players do not contest a charge and show contrition. However, his poor disciplinary record worked against him. He is serving his fifth ban in the last three years and it means his career suspensions now amount to 54 weeks.
The panel’s chairman, Sean Enright, said Hartley’s conduct had been unacceptable in a statement that lacked the emollience of the Rugby Football Union’s judicial officer Jeremy Summers’s remarks after the hooker was banned for three weeks in December for elbowing the Leicester centre Matt Smith. “The offence falls within the low entry point for striking with the head,” he said. “There was no significant injury to the other party, the opposition player was not removed from the field of play, and the incident did not affect the game. However, there cannot be any place in our game for this class of behaviour and that is why we have imposed this sanction.”
Hartley has established himself as England’s first-choice hooker, not least because of his ability in the set-pieces, but Stuart Lancaster is said to be angry with the hooker’s latest disciplinary issue.
The England head coach will have to draft in another hooker to cover for Hartley’s absence in the warm-ups and he knows naming him in the 31-strong squad for the World Cup would be a risk, and not just because of the player’s disciplinary track record.
Lancaster will pick three hookers. If Hartley is among them and one of the other two is injured before the Fiji match, England would not have a hooker on the bench. The second encounter is against Wales and Hartley would be an unlikely starter, not having played for four months, although his suspension covers only games and he would be free to play a full part in training sessions.
Despite pleading guilty, Hartley has the right to appeal against the length of his sentence, which would have been a week more than he had budgeted for and one that may have significant implications for him. As World Cup hosts, England cannot afford the embarrassment of going into the opening match of the tournament without a recognised hooker among the replacements.
Hartley has served five bans during Lancaster’s time in charge of England. The head coach has defended his player, refusing to say after December’s three-week ban for elbowing the Leicester centre Matt Smith that the hooker was down to his last chance. But with his World Cup plans now needing revision, he may take a different view. It is possible we may hear that view when Lancaster speaks to the media on Friday before England’s match against the Barbarians at Twickenham.
The feeling coming out of headquarters is that the latest incident has aroused more ire than disappointment. Hartley confronted George after Northampton had scored a try and there was no element of provocation. It was a needless act and any damage to his career will be self-inflicted.
Matt Dawson, a former Northampton scrum-half and a World Cup winner with England in 2003, said that picking Hartley in the World Cup squad would be a risk.
“He could let them down big style,” he said. “Dylan is a great lad off the field but on it there is something missing. He has got a switch that goes. When you are involved in heated World Cup matches – and England have two of them in their group against Australia and Wales – you are playing against players who know how to flick that switch. His way of dealing with those scenarios could prove costly.”
