England’s guff is hard to swallow

THERE was a hysterical reaction to Dylan Hartley’s foul on Sean O’Brien at the end of last year. The tackle was nasty and sourced in an aggressive, undisciplined attitude. It did not merit a life ban, though, as some of the sanctimonious squealing in this country demanded. That, however, is not to defend Hartley (left). He is a potential England liability, and that sense grew with the surly attitude he adopted at the jamboree launching the Six Nations. There was a dreadful amount of guff spoken, none more incredible than Hartley’s insistence that his red card against Leinster was due to poor tackle technique. Expecting people to believe that is astonishing.

Hartley swung his arm like a mace, and hurting his opponent was the obvious consequence.

Perhaps this is part of the Eddie Jones approach, whereby England project an unapologetic, hard face to the world. As long as they keep winning, they will feel justified in behaving as they do.

There was, though, the sense of a group starting to believe the headlines to judge by some of the rubbish that was spoken. For instance, it was breathlessly reported that Hartley had worked so hard at England’s training camp in Portugal that his statistics were 10 per cent above the average numbers produced by teammates.

Then their coach said they played a match at 87 per cent intensity in training. What does any of that mean? It’s designed to give the impression of ruthless precision. Let’s see about that.