ENGLAND HOOKER DYLAN Hartley has been cleared to play in next year’s Six Nations after receiving just a three-week ban for elbowing Leicester’s Matt Smith at the weekend.
Hartley pleaded guilty to the charge of striking Smith while playing for Northampton in their Premiership win over Leicester on Saturday.
The Saints captain faced the prospect of being handed a long suspension given his poor disciplinary record, but a Rugby Football Union hearing, held via conference call on Tuesday, opted for a more lenient approach.
A ban of six weeks or more would have jeopardised Hartley’s chances of appearing in the Six Nations, which gets underway with England’s clash against Wales in early February.
Ireland welcome England to Dublin on 1 March 2015.
Regardless, his international future remains uncertain in light of a previous disciplinary rap sheet including eye-gouging, biting, punching and swearing.
Here’s his roll of shame:
- April 2007: Banned for 26 weeks after gouging Wasps’ duo James Haskell and Jonny O’Connor.
- March 2012: Banned for eight weeks for biting Ireland flanker Stephen Ferris during Six Nations match.
- June 2012: Yellow-carded in first game as England captain against South Africa.
- December 2012: Given a two-week ban for striking Ulster’s Rory Best.
- May 2013: Eleven-week ban after being sent off for swearing at the referee, which cost him a place in the British and Irish Lions tour of Australia — his place went to Best.
It was only a booking offense really as he was been held and reacted without looking. But he is a pig and rfu were never goin ban him for 6 nations.
Rugby captain is a kiwi
Cricket captain is now irish
That gives me plenty of ammo to annoy my English mates ;)
It might nit be worthy of a massive ban but it certainly warrants more than what he got especially when you take into account his previous. But the RFU were never going to have the balls to step up on this one. The only plus is that any game he plays he is liable to do this kind of thing and he can actually be a handicap at times because of it. Roll on the 6 Nations.
I agree with your comments and there are a lot of non English players on cricket and rugby teams. But Hartley is not the English captain and technically
Morgan is not the cricket captain. He is captain of the one day international team.
I did just log back on when I remembered it’s captain of Northampton he is:) at Northampton he is adored btw. Everyone one loves a hard ass in there team. Even if he is an utter pig . I just think he has a head u want jump on and reminds me of steve Thompson another hooker.
I seen steve Thompson on against the head once and he actually came across as a good lad. He used drive jerry flannery mental :)
Lancaster said he was in last chance saloon, the last time. Will be interesting to see if he gives him another chance, he is always likely to let his team mates down.
Can’t say I’m surprised, should have been a lot longer
If you have been banned from ANY sport for 48 weeks of your career then you have something wrong between your ears.
I said it in the original article, and they haven’t disappointed. The spineless RFU were always going to dance to the Aviva clubs tune and give a lenient punishment to Hartley despite his desperate track-record. Imagine if it was a Welsh or Irish player being punished with the 6N on the Horizon?
Bans for serial offenders skills be cumulative. This guy is a sociopath and needs to be taken out of rugby for his own good and the good of the other players on the field.
Does anybody remember Matt Dawson’s post-6 Nations hypothetical Lions team earlier this year? He named Dylan Hartley as his captain stating that, while his selection would surprise a few people, Hartley would galvanise the entire squad of players.
At the time I thought that perhaps this was a genuinely held opinion. A close look at Hartley’s career disciplinary record after his latest on-field assault really is evidence of how often he was managed to embarrass himself while playing. He has proved again that he has a realistic claim to being the most divisive and ill-disciplined top level player in northern hemisphere rugby. I don’t think he has it in him to play within the laws of the game and at this stage, given his obvious compulsion to offend rules which are in place for the protection of players, he should probably be facing a much more extensive ban.
It also proves that his choice as Lions captain must have just been a gag on Dawson’s behalf, a way of fleshing out that ‘actual tv clown’ persona of his post-rugby career he continues to successfully cultivate. To claim he could galvanise any group of people, aside from a collection of psychologists maybe, is laughable.
What a crock of s__t Dilon Armitage got a ban of 8 weeks plus 4 weeks because he is a repeat offender only last week for telling a group of kids to f___off. ( no mean offence)
Therefore the precedent for repeat offenders is established as plus 4 weeks onto the offence.
New recommendation this year is two yellow cards and you get a minimum of 3 week ban on your third offence plus the ban for the offence.
Hartley is a serial repeat offender with 13 offences in the last 10 years with a total ban time of over 52 weeks. This makes Armitage look like an alter boy, especially when you take into consideration Hartleys offences which include biting, gouging, stamping and abusing the referee among others.
He is so bad that Lancaster warned him the last time that he had his last chance one more and he is gone.
We need balance and perspective here and a 3 week ban is showing that the tail is wagging the dog. This is a toxic ruling and if Lancaster has any Nuts he needs to show them now or he will lose all credibility as a coach at any level.
He’s a good player – I don’t like dirty players but we haven’t had a Hartleyesque player since our “physical” players like Neil best, trevor Brennan and the Claw moved on.
It’s anachronistic these days because of the consequences. I’d be more worried about when he does these things. Leicester are nearly always involved and sometimes in games like a grand final when he got his lions ban.
You could easily see him lose it after being goaded by Wales or the kings of sledging Australia next year. He is a complete liability. Can’t see him handling the stress over a home World Cup well.
Look this thug is allowed play because of England desire to win at all costs.
He will let them down on the big stage there’s no doubt of that.
Let him play and watch him do something to ruin either there six nations or World Cup.
I’d rather see a sportsman play than a thug ruin the sport and continually let his team mates down.