HARTLEY’S WOE
England skipper may face Test ban
NOT for the first time in his career, Dylan Hartley faces an anxious wait t o hear f rom t he ci t i ng commissioner after his swinging arm left Clermont prop Rabah Slimani with a bloody nose.
The Northampton hooker was shown a yellow card, although there may well be retrospective action to leave the England captain out of some of the autumn Tests. Hartley, who has served 60 weeks of suspensions in his career, could face a ban of up to five weeks.
The 31-year-old fronted a spirited Saints performance against the Top 14 heavyweights but his gung-ho display was drowned out by jeers and whistles from the crowd.
He struck his opponent in the face with a reckless clear-out after 30 minutes, leaving director of rugby Jim Mallinder to admit his captain’s error.
‘When you come to a place like this, you have to be physical in your clear-outs and you have to stay on your feet,’ said Mallinder. ‘ You can’t go diving off your feet and Dylan just needed to stay up there. But there is no intention there.’
The Saints wanted to meet muscle with muscle but they were smashed back by the power of Fritz Lee, Judicael Cancoriet and Sitaleki Timani, all pumping their legs to the intimidating beat of the Stade Marcel Michelin’s bass drum.
Referee Ben Whitehouse struggled to impose his authority on a match which was close to boiling point, with Clermont leading 14-0 at the break after a first half which lasted more than an hour.
The Welshman was often locked in confused dialogue with players and assistants alike, while there was also a lengthy stoppage for a broken leg for France No 10 Camille Lopez. It took six medics to carry Lopez off the pitch, with the fly-half’s screams heard throughout the stadium as he buckled under the weight of Piers Francis’ tackle.
His departure appeared to galvanise his team- mates. Lee touched down from the back of the formidable Clermont scrum for the opening try and, to a loud backdrop of ‘Camille!’ chants, replacement Charlie Cassang went over for the second.
It was looking all the more ominous for Northampton.
Just 29 seconds into the second half, Cassang sprinted 65 metres to score another try and at this point it seemed like Clermont would steam away to a humiliating scoreline. But this was not vintage Clermont.
They are currently ninth in their domestic standings and are suffering a hangover from the long French club season, having won the final on July 4 and returned to training on July 10. Thanks to a stroke of fortune, Northampton were gifted their first try.
Lock Christian Day clearly had a foot in touch but, despite pleas from Morgan Parra to look at the glaring images on the big screen, Whitehouse did not have t he conviction to overrule his touch judge.
Day scored several phases later from the back of a maul — and a 25-man brawl followed.
Replacement propKie ran Brookes was shown a yellow card as Clermont continued to marmalise the sc rum but, with Slim a ni sin-binned, Mallin der’ s side discovered their battling instincts.
Once again, Courtney Lawes fronted the defensive effort, timing his run of form to perfection ahead of Thursday’s England squad announcement. His side continued to threaten the Clermont line but too often the final pass went to ground.
And the French were intent on securing the four-try bonus point. Following a break from English exile Nick A bend an on, they impressed by turning on their power play for Etienne Falgoux to drive over.
‘I’m very proud of the lads,’ said Mallinder, despite his side now having the slimmest of chances of reaching the knockouts
‘They really fronted up. Attackingwise we were good, we got over the advantage line, we made lots of breaks, defensively we improved from last week.
‘There was some real heart, some real pride, some real passion, we will take that. We need to be a bit more accurate and we need to shore up our scrum and, if we can do that, we can compete with the best teams in Europe.’