School put Dylan in detention
EDDIE JONES has revealed a top public school threatened to stop playing rugby after he made “lunatic” Dylan Hartley England captain.
The England coach said his decision prompted a storm of protest to rugby union’s governing body because of the Northampton player’s bad-boy reputation.
But Jones says there is a good chance Hartley will remain captain for the autumn Test series because he is such a good leader, losing only one of 21 games.
“When we named Dylan captain, the RFU got a stack of letters,” said Jones. “One of the public schools threatened to pull out of rugby, because they thought, ‘How can you put this lunatic in charge?’
“Ian Ritchie [the RFU’s former chief executive] was resolute in backing the decisions I made.
“Yes, 100 per cent they complained because how many weeks has he been suspended? Sixty weeks? He is a lunatic – but a nice lunatic.”
LIONS wing George North is set to ride to the rescue for Northampton this weekend as the shell-shocked Saints attempt to atone for the hiding they suffered against Saracens.
North, whose Lions tour was cut short after he tore a hamstring in a tour match, came through 55 minutes for Northampton’s second string against Sale on Monday night and is likely to be parachuted straight into the East Midlands derby against Leicester.
Northampton director of rugby Jim Mallinder could also be tempted to include summer southern-hemisphere Test signings Cobus Reinach and Rob Horne – who only arrived in the country nine days ago – after their debuts for the reserves.
It is all hands to the pump at Franklin’s Gardens after the wretched 55-24 defeat by Saracens, which has placed the long-serving Mallinder and his coaching staff under scrutiny.
“We can fix this. We’ve got the players to do that but we certainly need to step up,” said Mallinder.
“We’ll be training hard and we’ll be giving it everything we’ve got this week. We’ll be putting everything out there.
“You think you’ve had a good pre-season, you think you’ve prepared properly with purpose and challenged yourself with good games at Glasgow and at home to Ulster. We thought we could have a good pre-season and were ready for it but obviously we weren’t. So what we’ve got to do is quickly learn and move on. We need to be better.”
Saracens are hopeful that George Kruis, who limped off after 14 minutes against Northampton, will not need another ankle operation but they are resigned to losing him for several weeks. Kruis, who missed the first two games of England’s autumn Tests last year after undergoing ankle surgery, will see a consultant later this week but Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall is optimistic his absence will be measured in weeks rather than months.
“It has been described to me as a bad yank to the ankle. I don’t really know what that means but it doesn’t look to be overly serious and hopefully that is good news, but we will know more after he has seen the consultant,” said McCall. “It is going to be weeks rather than longer and it isn’t going to be surgery. It is not the same ankle injury as last time – it is unrelated.
“The good news is this has happened very early in the season and he will be able to play some big games for us before the autumn internationals.”
The 27-year-old has been beset with injuries over the past year having also missed the Six Nations with a knee injury.
His latest absence presents an opportunity for Saracens’ teenage second-row Nick Isiekwe, who made his England debut in Argentina in the summer.
Isiekwe replaced Kruis at the weekend and, with Australian giant Will Skelton still recovering from a broken arm, he could start at Bath on Saturday.
Bath head coach Tabai Matson will leave the club next week to return home to New Zealand for family reasons.
Matson – who arrived at the club with director of rugby Todd Blackadder a year ago – will move on after the league game against Northampton on September 15.
“This has been an incredibly tough decision,” he said. “I’ve enjoyed every minute at Bath and we have such a great group of players here who I believe will achieve great success.
“I have made the decision that, as a family, we need to be at home in New Zealand and I appreciate the club’s understanding.”
Cardiff will be without Ellis Jenkins for four months with a hamstring tear.
We need to learn quickly and move on