Hartley feels like a teenager after concussion scare
ENGLAND SKIPPER RARING TO GO AFTER FIVE MONTHS OUT
DYLAN HARTLEY is fit for the start of the season after five months out with concussion – and feels like a new man following his enforced break.
The England captain has not played since the Six Nations clash with Ireland in March (bottom, left) and sat out the summer tour of South Africa after medics told him to take a total rest from rugby.
Hartley, 32, has since got married and generally put his feet up, but is raring to go ahead of Northampton’s pre-season game with Glasgow on Friday.
The hooker is back in full training – under a new boss at Saints in Kiwi Chris Boyd – and insists he feels like a teenager.
He said: “I’ve had a good balance between reconditioning, training, family and social life. Things got done and it was good family time. I’ve had a really well-rested summer.
“You don’t want to miss games – I got advice and the advice was the decision that was made for me – so once I had made peace with that it was really a good time for me.
“There was no rush, there was no target game for me to get back for or a game I needed to be back for. “As soon as I took my foot off the gas and stopped trying to make it back every week, which I was trying to do, I felt myself instantly get better.
“Removing those kinds of pressures has worked. I have had a good pre-season with the team and I am in a good place to compete for a spot.
“There’s a new air about the place and I felt like a 19-year-old coming back in on my first day of academy training.
“Now that Chris has turned up and put his mark on things, that learning process starts again because he speaks a different rugby language to what I’ve known.”
Hartley might be back on the international comeback trail, but Danny Cipriani and Chris Ashton could have their Test dreams blocked in the next couple of days.
Cipriani (bottom, right, outside court) faces an RFU hearing today after being convicted of assault and resisting arrest in Jersey last week on Gloucester’s pre-season tour.
And Ashton is up in front of a panel tomorrow after being cited for a tip tackle in Sale’s pre-season friendly against Castres last Friday.
It was thought Ashton (middle, in training) was sent off in that game for punching, but referee Romain Poite has revealed the red card was for a dangerous challenge on Castres scrum-half Rory Kockott.