England D-Day for Hartley
Banned england captain dylan Hartley must pass a punishing fitness test tomorrow to prove he is fit enough to lead his country in the Six nations.
Having not played since his red card for northampton on december 9, Hartley’s shortterm future as skipper hinges on a solo circuit session tailored by eddie Jones’s conditioning staff.
The 30-year-old hooker will be put through his paces at northampton’s training ground, where he will then be told if he will start against France on February 4.
Jones said last night: ‘ We’ll decide one minute after he’s done the session. He’ll do a session that’s the equivalent of a game; a Test match is approximately 36 minutes of ball in play and you have to run around 120 metres per minute.
‘He’s got to be able to do a session of that quality — if he can do a session of that quality he can play a game. It’s old-school, run hard, get up, get off the ground, run again. It will just be him by himself. You’ve got all the GPS that measures everything.’
a six-week ban for a swinging arm on Leinster’s Ireland flanker Sean O’Brien means Hartley will not have the opportunity to build up his match fitness with northampton. Owen Farrell is tipped to take over as skipper if the 30-year-old fails his fitness test, but Jones is confident he will not have to bring in a replacement.
‘I’m anticipating dylan to go well because all his training parameters are good so far,’ said Jones.
‘I’ve never seen him look fitter. You’d want him to have been playing rugby but he’s certainly benefited from six weeks of strength and conditioning. That’s probably put him in better condition than he was for last year’s Six nations.’
Jones already has an injury list featuring Mako Vunipola, Billy Vunipola, Chris Robshaw, Joe Marler and Manu Tuilagi. Lock George Kruis is behind schedule in his recovery from a broken cheekbone and Jones said: ‘Kruis is going to be borderline for the French game.’
Initial medical reports suggested Marler will be sidelined until mid- February with a broken leg, but Jones has not given up hope that the loosehead can return early.
‘He might be all right for the France game,’ said Jones. ‘We want to win the World Cup in 2019 and to do that we need at least three quality Test players in each position. So it could be an opportunity for Matt Mullan, nathan Catt or ellis Genge.’