Northampton’s Dylan Hartley banned for three weeks for elbow offence
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Version 0 of 1. Dylan Hartley will be available to play for England at the start of the Six Nations after being banned for three weeks following his red card playing for Northampton against Leicester last Saturday but the hooker still faces an anxious few weeks over his international future. Hartley’s disciplinary hearing was held in London on Tuesday evening via a conference call. By pleading guilty to striking the Leicester centre Matt Smith with his elbow, the hooker not only ensured the case would be dealt with before Christmas but guaranteed himself a reduced sentence. A guilty plea is a mitigating factor in deciding the length of a ban. The two weeks Hartley was given for the offence itself and a further two weeks for his poor disciplinary record – it was the fifth suspension of his career and the fourth in the last three years – was reduced by one, meaning he will be free to play from 12 January. The 28-year old will miss Northampton’s next three Premiership matches, against Harlequins, Newcastle and Sale but will be available for Saints’ final two European Champions Cup pool matches against Ospreys and Racing Metro before the England squad go into camp. The England elite squad will be announced in the new year. Hartley, who has won 61 caps, would ordinarily be an automatic selection, but when he was sent off in the 2013 Premiership final, when Leicester were also the opposition, and given an 11-week suspension that saw him forfeit his place in the Lions’ squad, he was warned by Stuart Lancaster about his conduct. The England coach said one more disciplinary blemish would see Hartley thrown out of the squad permanently and the question for Lancaster is whether he views Saturday’s dismissal as a serious offence or one which reflected the highly charged atmosphere of a derby rather than the player’s temperament. The judicial officer who heard Hartley’s case, Jeremy Summers, had the power to ban Hartley for considerably more than three weeks if he had judged the elbowing of Smith was a deliberate, calculating act. Hartley had been pulled out of a ruck, having flopped on the wrongside, by the centre who held on to his opponent who then lashed out. “The sanction reflects the player’s record rather than the seriousness of the offence itself and also the low end entry point of the offence,” Summers said. “That carries a two-week tariff. The entry point was aggravated having regard to Dylan’s previous record and a week was taken off to reflect mitigating circumstances [a guilty plea].” The call Lancaster has to make over a player who was England’s most capped during the autumn series of internationals at Twickenham is whether Hartley’s tendency to react when provoked makes him too risky a pick in World Cup year. England are in a group with Australia and Wales who will not waste an opportunity to wind up the hooker. As the Leicester director of rugby Richard Cockerill said after Saturday’s dismissal: “You would think he would have learned his lesson by now.” |