THE DYLAN HARTLEY red card tops the pile, but it’s only the latest in a growing string of incidents involving Northampton players going over the edge.
The England captain deserves a lengthy ban for his vicious, cowardly swinging arm to the back of Sean O’Brien’s head.
Not only has Hartley previously served a total of 54 weeks of suspensions for offences including gouging, biting, verbally abusing a match official, striking and elbowing, but concussion is the major issue in rugby right now.
O’Brien was forced off the pitch for a Head Injury Assessment as a result of Hartley’s dangerous actions, and did not return to the field of play afterwards. The Ireland flanker was not diagnosed with concussion, rather a neck injury, but the danger was still apparent.
Striking carries a low-end entry point of two weeks in terms of suspension, but the high-end entry point of eight weeks and upwards should apply to Hartley. He has proven time and again that he cannot control his violent streak on the rugby pitch and the EPCR’s independent disciplinary committee must act with strength.
The sport is becoming increasingly frustrated with the disciplinary process and its perceived leniency, meaning all eyes are on the Hartley case. A hearing and ban is expected in the next two days.
Hartley’s Northampton team-mate Calum Clark will be available for the return tie against Leinster in Dublin on Saturday, having served just a three-week ban for his deliberate elbow to the head of Donncha O’Callaghan.
“The player’s remorse before the panel was genuine and heartfelt,” read the RFU statement relating to that suspension, with the disciplinary committee finding it only worthy of a mid-range entry point.
Clark has history too, having served a 32-week ban for deliberately hyperextending the arm of Leicester hooker Rob Hawkins in a Premiership clash back in 2012. In 2008, he was sent off for head butting in an U20 international fixture.
Also back this weekend for Northampton is England international tighthead Kieran Brookes, who has just served a two-week ban for charging into a ruck without using his arms.
All in all, it’s not been a good few weeks for Northampton – even leaving the George North episode aside – and captain Tom Wood understands that the discipline simply must improve.
“I don’t want to talk too much about Dylan himself, but as a club the discipline is becoming an issue,” said Wood on Friday night, having bizarrely been substituted after Hartley’s red card to allow the Saints to get hooker Mikey Haywood back on the pitch.
“We have had three or four hearings in the last few weeks. In the Saracens game we had a man yellow carded when we were right in the fight. They’re accumulating.
“You can forgive any one individual or any one-off, but there must be some sort of underlying issue at the minute that we have to address. I don’t know if it’s individual responsibility or frustration bringing that out in people, because let’s face it we’re not on the form that we like, and maybe people are trying to solve problems and show how up for it they are.”
Hartley lasted just six minutes on the pitch on Friday, having started the game on the bench for Northampton – perhaps another sign that all is not well in the Premiership club.
His swinging arm was incredibly dangerous, with Wood suggesting that the hooker was looking to make a big impact on the game, with the Saints trailing 20-10.
“I can only assume that he is trying to make an impact and be positive,” said Wood. “I can’t speak for him but my impression is that he’s on the bench, he’s eager, and it’s a big European night and he wants to make an impact.
“If it was a one-off you’d say the guy [O'Brien] is half tackled, falling, and there are mitigating circumstances, but it’s such a big directive at the minute, contact to the head, there was only ever going to be one decision and you have to take that.”
While worrying about their discipline, Saints must now rally themselves ahead of the return leg with Leinster, who are not getting carried away after their five-try win.
Northampton certainly possess individual quality within their squad, but as they lie ninth in the Premiership at present, they urgently need to kick start their season. Another performance like last weekend’s won’t be good enough at the Aviva Stadium.
“It was a dreadful start by us,” said Wood. “We spoke all week about having a big start and coming out of the blocks, but we were just flat. We stood and watched them for 20 minutes.
“They’re too good to do that against. We could have played really well tonight and still got beaten. What’s disappointing is that we didn’t play for large parts.”
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Watch Royal Rumble 2003. Around the 8 minute mark Edge and Rey Mysterio give him a double dropkick but Edge goes right across his face and breaks his nose!
The worst one pat. Remember m n m? When the guy got the ladder right in the face. Complete botch. His nose spread across his face
Joey hasn’t been the same since and is effectively retired (training in nxt now). One of the worst injuries I’ve witnessed.
Oh God. Yeh, that one is foul!
I love watching NFL, but the number of former players committing suicide because of the CTE-related dementia is scary and really needs to be addressed.
It’s not just just the older guys suffering symptoms either, linebacker Jovan Belcher who was only 26 and still playing for the KC Chiefs last year, murdered the mother of his child and committed suicide.
How long before they wake up and change the rules?
Where is it claimed that this had to do with cte? The reasoning behind that particular tragedy says he had a row with his gf over whether their daughter was his or not.
I think it’s really admirable what chris is doing but other tragedies shouldn’t be cited to push an agenda…
Belcher was a 3 time All America wrestler as well as a crunching linebacker whose job it is to crash head first repeatedly into 250lb+ blockers and running backs… head trauma much?
It is also well documented by close colleagues and friends that he displayed all the early stage signs of cte, e.g. depression, memory loss, confusion, aggressive behaviour etc…
…but hey if you think shooting his girlfriend 9 times and then himself was a perfectly sane, rational response to a row over the daughter then fair enough.
Like I said I love watching nfl, but it doesn’t take a genius to realise that repeatedly leading with their helmets, as they are taught to do from a young age, causes major problems later in life.
Was the same story with the Chris Benoit murder suicide. Everyone put it down to roid rage or personal issues with his wife but Nowinski worked with Benoits father closely and when they did an autopsy on the brain of Chris Benoit they discovered that due to the number of concussions Chris Benoit suffered he had a brain the equivalent to an elderly person suffering dementia. It was then argued how many dementia sufferers kill their family but I would argue back how many are physically capable of doing so.
After this was high lighted WWE took steps to prevent this. Unprotected chair shots to the head are banned, certain moved such as piledrivers and top rope head butts (incidentally one of Benoits finishers) are banned. On the other hand American Football associations have stuck their head in the sand.
Billy Korgan.
Karl Pilkingtons twin. :)
I agree that the NFL has to do more to
protect players – the constant impact to the brain in the sport is definitely related to depression later in a players life, as seen with linebacker Junior Seau. I also think that the NFL isn’t strict enough in regards to PEDs – so many players nowadays are on HGH and other banned substances – the combination of both brain trauma and dangerous substances does even more damage to the body. No wonder ex players are suing.
Interesting piece, but the link on Twitter was called “We’re putting our kids at too much risk by letting them play certain contact sports. Here’s how we can change that:”
This doesn’t really come close to addressing that…