Stop the Hartley hysteria
HERE IS the voice of reason: opposition captain Benjamin Kayser, spelling out why Dylan Hartley should not face further punishment for what happened on Saturday.
Asked if the England skipper deserved a red card instead of the yellow he received for a swinging arm into Rabah Slimani’s face on Saturday, Clermont Auvergne’s hooker said: ‘Red? No, come on. If you start saying that any hit on the head is a red card, there are going to be 25 red cards a game.
‘The last thing we want is to go out and start playing on the rules and saying, “It was a cheap shot”. We are not football. We are just here to play hard. I don’t think it was a red card, just a yellow.’
Amen to that. It was an accident. Hartley will discover tomorrow if there is a citing and the threat of a ban. But there shouldn’t be. There was no malice, just recklessness which was appropriately punished.
The eyes were the giveaway. Hartley hurled himself into a ruck intent on a clear-out, but his gaze was fixed on another Clermont forward, not Slimani. He swung his right arm to generate momentum and ensure he bound on to his target, only for his right hand to connect WARREN GATLAND says he does not want to be Lions head coach again after what he endured during the New Zealand tour and since. It is a terrible pity. The Kiwi cares deeply about the concept and revived the Lions by overseeing a first series win for 16 years and an epic draw against the All Blacks. The terms of the job make it all but impossible. Who will do it next? The committee should be lining up Eddie Jones. Now. with the prop’s face. Referee Ben Whitehouse was horribly out of his depth, but he was spot- on in his handling of the Hartley incident.
This is a player still stalked by past crimes. Any whiff of indiscipline linked to Hartley prompts hysteria. Several observers suggested on Saturday that he received the yellow card on reputation. Put aside that drama and Hartley was outstanding in a losing Saints cause.
He will captain England next month, unless the judiciary react over-zealously. Jamie George is challenging hard for the No 2 shirt after starting in the Lions Test team, but his workload on that tour means he is expected to be rested for the autumn. If Hartley is suspended, George may have to start after all, but it shouldn’t come to that.