Dylan Hartley will not be rushed back, Northampton tell England

Dylan Hartley may miss out on the chance to press his World Cup claims before the end of the season with the Northampton director of rugby, Chris Boyd, due to make a late call on whether to select the hooker this weekend.

Boyd confirmed the 33-year-old – who has been sidelined with a knee injury since December – is in contention for Northampton’s last game of the regular season against Exeter on Saturday but said he would not pick Hartley solely to satisfy his England ambitions. Hartley, who underwent surgery in February, has been back in training for the last few weeks but if he does not make the squad on Saturday and Northampton – currently fourth and a point above Harlequins – do not clinch a topfour place his season would be over.

Jamie George established himself as England’s first-choice hooker during the Six Nations but Jones values Hartley’s leadership and Boyd believes he will be included in England’s World Cup squad regardless of whether he features against the Chiefs. If he does not do so, however, he could end up heading to Japan with no competitive rugby under his belt in 2019.

“Dylan is in contention for selection but we haven’t made that decision yet,” Boyd said. “If he’s ready to go physically and mentally and I think it’s the right thing to do for the team I’ll pick him. If I think it’s the wrong thing to do I’ll pick one of the other guys.

“I suspect he is desperate to get out there but he bought into the Saintsfirst concept like everyone else and he’s got to be in a position where, if he’s on the bench and we lost somebody after five minutes we’ve got to be happy he’s going to be able to play 75 minutes. I don’t think he’ll put this team at risk if he feels he’s not 100% right. The signs were good yesterday and he got through a chunk of training today. The signs are looking promising.

“England will name a wider training group and he’s got time to get into that environment. They’ve got pretournament games and there is plenty of opportunity to work out whether Dylan is fit to play. If Dylan is fit to

go to the World Cup I would expect that he would get picked.”

Boyd had initially hoped Hartley would be available to face Worcester but conceded he “wasn’t quite ready”. The New Zealander did however, suggest that even if Hartley is fully fit to face Exeter, he may not be selected due to the form of James Fish and Reece Marshall. “The other guys have done a really good job and for Dylan it’s always difficult,” he added.

“He is a mentally really resilient character but we’ve had two or three other guys train for the first time for six or eight weeks and there is always that bit of rust there. If it’s best for Saints that Dylan plays and he’s ready to go then he’ll be some part of the 23 but if it’s not then he won’t.”