HART-ACHE FOR DYLAN
Lions leave out England captain
® by PETE SAMSON DYLAN HARTLEY is set for more Lions heartbreak when the squad to tour New Zealand is announced today.
The England captain was suspended for the 2013 tour to Australia and will miss out again.
Ireland’s Rory Best, Wales’s Ken Owens and Hartley’s England understudy Jamie George have been preferred as hookers by Lions coach Warren Gatland.
It will be a tough pill to swallow for the 31-year-old Hartley, whose leadership helped propel England to successive Six Nations titles. However George’s extra dynamism – displayed off the bench for England – is seen as more valuable to a Lions squad which will be led again by Sam Warburton.
Warburton, who handed over the Wales captaincy to Alun Wyn Jones this season, is sidelined with a knee injury but will be fit in time for the squad’s departure on May 28. George will not be the only super-sub unleashed by Gatland on the All Blacks.
Fellow England replacements Kyle Sinckler and Ben Te’o, who along with George have just one Test start between them, are set to be named in the 38-man party.
That means established England stars George Ford, Jonathan Joseph and James Haskell could pay the price for going missing in last month’s grand slam decider defeat against Ireland in Dublin.
Joe Launchbury, England’s player of the Six Nations, is also likely to be left out.
The All Blacks have a habit of accelerating into another gear when they deploy their bench. And Kiwi Gatland wants to match the world champions’ ability with the help of a trio who have carved out roles as second-half impact specialists.