Hartley lands the big get-out-of-jail card
DISCIPLINARY wonders never cease! Two Welsh disciplinary officers – Simon Thomas and Rhian Williams, and another from Italy, Marco Cordelli – decided on Wednesday to grant Dylan Hartley the biggest getout-of-jail card of his career, by giving him a six-week ban for his swinging arm ‘hit’ on Sean O’Brien.
Understandably, Northampton hooker Hartley pleaded guilty to decking the Leinster flanker during last weekend’s European Cup pool encounter when he was called to account at an EPRC tribunal in London. However, Hartley went into the meeting tooled-up. Riding shotgun was Richard Smith QC, the RFU’s legal representative since Clive Woodward brought him into the England fold in the build up to the 2003 World Cup.
Smith must have a persuasive way about him because the six-week ban very conveniently allows Hartley to be available for England’s Six Nations opener against France at Twickenham on February 4, as it expires on January 23.
This means that Hartley could even get a match in for Northampton – against Leicester in the Anglo Welsh Cup – the Saturday before captaining England against France, in the likely event that Eddie Jones retains him.
By the time the tribunal delivered its sanction the RFU hierarchy had already closed ranks around Hartley, captain of England in 13 of their 14 consecutive wins since the 2015 World Cup.
The RFU’s chief executive, Ian Ritchie, had announced the day prior to the hearing that he saw no impediment to Hartley continuing to skipper England as long as he has the head coach’s approval.
Jones kept his counsel while the rugby beaks were deliberating over Hartley’s sentence. However, he will have been delighted that their decision to give the England captain five weeks for the swinging arm offence, and a mere additional week for his year-plus rap sheet, kept Hartley in the fold for the 2017 Grand Slam defence.
Clearly, when you have a QC in your corner, previous misdemeanours – even those carrying a 54 week tariff – do not carry much weight
Had Hartley been given a lengthy ban, ruling him out for half of the tournament, then the clamour for Jones to dispense with his services would have amplified. Yet, my hunch is that anyone expecting Jones to take the moral high ground and punish Hartley further for jeopardising not only the captaincy, but also the trust between them, is whistling in the wind.
Professional rugby coaches tend to be very pragmatic, and Jones is no exception. Hartley will stay for as long as the head coach believes he is important to England’s hopes of winning the 2019 World Cup.
Jones could fire a shot across Hartley’s bows by dropping him to the bench against the French and starting Jamie George, but the reality is that he considers the un-saintly Saint to be essential to his team’s continued progress.
One of the reasons for this is that, apart from Hartley and George, the England hooker ranks are not quite as strong as has been suggested, or as Jones would like. This is because none of the EPS understudies – with Tommy Taylor of Wasps and Luke Cowan-Dickie of Exeter Chiefs next in line – have made the headway needed to challenge for a place in the England starting 23.
As for Hartley, the cheap shot on O’Brien has revealed that the poacher still lurks underneath the game-keeper’s coat. Unless the Northampton hooker can keep his finger off the hair-trigger for good from now on, Jones may reluctantly have to take the pragmatic view that the man he has entrusted the captaincy to is too much of a liability.