Dylan Hartley is in danger of missing the World Cup after being cited for striking an opponent with his head during the Premiership semi-final between Northampton and Saracens. The England hooker has been banned for 50 weeks in his career and, if he is found guilty at Wednesday’s disciplinary hearing in Coventry, he cannot expect leniency.
Hartley, who missed the 2013 Lions tour to Australia because of an 11-week suspension for verbally abusing the referee Wayne Barnes in the Premiership final against Leicester and receiving a red card, will face a three-man disciplinary panel chaired by a judge after being cited for an incident involving his opposite number Jamie George.
Hartley strode towards George on Northampton’s line after a ruck and appeared to drop his head, although contact seemed to be minimal. The Saracens’ flanker Jacques Burger was angered enough to intervene and grab the top of Hartley’s jersey. The referee, Greg Garner,, who had reviewed a tackle made by the hooker on Billy Vunipola, did not ask the television match official to take a look at what had happened.
The recommended mid-range ban for a player found guilty of striking an opponent with his head is 10 weeks, which would finish Hartley’s World Cup before it started: any ban would start from when he is next due to play. England have three World Cup warm-up matches in August and September. The lower limit, applied when premeditation is deemed to be absent, is four weeks. A guilty plea and contrition can halve that but a player’s disciplinary record is also considered and Hartley’s is appalling.
He was banned for 26 weeks in 2007 for eye-gouging and in the last three years he has received bans for biting, punching, swearing at a referee and elbowing. The last incident was in December against Leicester after which he was supported by the England head coach, Stuart Lancaster, who may decide to plan for life without Hartley if the player receives another ban, no matter what its length.
If Hartley contested the citing and was found guilty, he could expect a ban of five weeks because there would be no mitigating factors for the panel to fall back on. That would rule him out of the warm-up matches and the first two World Cup group games against Fiji and Wales, which would leave England a hooker short if another got injured. If Hartley were to be ruled out, George would be among the candidates to replace him.
Hartley would appear to have more to lose in pleading guilty than in contesting the citing. Any contact was minimal, if enough to warrant a red card in football, rather than a butt. Lancaster’s problem is that Hartley again finds himself before a disciplinary panel after a big match and they do not come any bigger than in a World Cup hosted by England.
Saracens face Bath in Saturday’s Premiership final at Twickenham after defeating Northampton. It will be a match-up between England’s two leading fly-halves, Owen Farrell and George Ford. “I do not see it as a personal duel because George is all about the team,” said the Bath head coach, Mike Ford. “If it is for him to stand and pass all game because Burger is all over him, that is what he will do. If he has to kick to the corners, he will do that and he will go to the line and take on his good mate Farrell if he has to. The England shirt will not come into his thinking at all.”