Before Stuart Lancaster started his media conference one hour after the announcement that he had dropped Dylan Hartley from England’s World Cup training squad the head coach made it clear that he preferred to talk about Sunday’s match against the Barbarians and the preparations for the World Cup rather than the errant Northampton hooker.
The hooking is dead, long live the hooking. Most of the questions were about Hartley, who was removed from the squad after receiving a four-match ban this week for pushing his head into that of Saracens’ Jamie George in last week’s Premiership play-off semi-final – the player has replaced him in the 50 preparing for the World Cup – which meant he would not be available for the tournament opener against Fiji but Lancaster rarely referred to him in the future tense.
“My priority, having made the decision over Dylan, is to move on to the players I have available,” said Lancaster. “That is where I will be spending my energy and Dylan has to deal with the consequences. The disappointment of losing him is balanced by the fact we have a long time with the four hookers we have in the squad, three of whom will be involved in the World Cup. It is all about being ready for what will be a huge game against Fiji to open the World Cup.”
Lancaster had earlier in the month told Manu Tuilagi that he would not be involved in the World Cup after the Leicester centre had been convicted of assaulting a taxi driver and two police officers. It was a decision he made without regard to the consequences for England because the squad’s code of conduct had been breached.
Hartley’s case was different because his indiscretion had, again, been on the field. Lancaster had to weigh up losing his most experienced player – the hooker’s 66 caps compared with the 34 in total of the four players in the position who will gather on 22 June to start preparing for the World Cup – with the potential embarrassment of going into the Fiji match without a recognised hooker on the bench and relying on someone in the next two matches, against Wales and Australia, who had not played for four months.
“It came down to practicalities and there were three areas the decision covered,” said Lancaster. “First we could have been left wide open against Fiji and it is against World Cup regulations to go in with only two hookers who can play; second it is a huge risk to pick a player who had not played competitive rugby for four months; and lastly there was the factor of decision-making in big matches. You have to be able to trust players and Dylan has shown an inconsistency there.”
Hartley has started eight of England’s last nine Test matches, on the bench for the victory over Samoa last November. Leicester’s Tom Youngs, who has won 22 caps for his country and two for the Lions, is the likely first choice ahead of Bath’s Rob Webber, whose 12 caps include five starts and who is on the bench in Saturday’s Premiership final. Luke Cowan-Dickie and George are uncapped and will spend the next three months contending for the third slot in the World Cup squad.
“We have a lot of experience in the tight five to wrap around those players who are less experienced,” said Lancaster. “Jamie has done well to hold down a starting place in the Saracens side ahead of Schalk Brits, while we have had a good look at Luke in training this week: we can see the potential in him and I back Graham Rowntree [the England forwards coach] to get the best out of them.”
Hartley brought not just experience but set-piece prowess to the side. His lineout success rate is consistently above 90% and his throwing accuracy has been one reason why he has, since the start of the 2013 Six Nations, regularly been chosen ahead of Youngs. England, however, have refined their game in the second half of Lancaster’s reign without downgrading set-piece efficiency. A lineout expert, Simon Hardy, is part of the coaching team and back in 2003, when they won the World Cup, he turned the hooker Steve Thompson from someone who, in his own words, could not hit a barn door into an accurate thrower.
“Simon is a crucial cog in the wheel,” said Lancaster. “His work in the lineout is huge, as he showed with Steve Thompson. “We have 100% faith in Tom as a player and a leader. He is a character you can build a pack around, highly respected by his team-mates, as is Rob, who did a fantastic job for us in New Zealand last year. I have known him since he was 15 and the two young lads are exciting prospects. It is a big game for Luke against the Barbarians and we have to move on after Dylan.”
England XV to play Barbarians M Tait (Leicester); C Wade (Wasps), E Daly (Wasps), H Slade (Exeter), M Yarde (Harlequins); D Cipriani (Sale), L Dickson (Northampton, capt); M Mullan (Wasps), L Cowan-Dickie (Exeter), K Brookes (Newcastle), E Slater (Leicester), J Launchbury (Wasps), M Wilson (Newcastle), J Clifford (Harlequins), J Beaumont (Sale).
Replacements T Taylor (Sale), A Waller (Northampton), G Denman (Northampton), J Gaskell (Wasps), J Fisher (Northampton), W Chudley (Exeter), S Geraghty (London Irish), A Lewington (London Irish).