It only took Dylan Hartley six minutes to make an impact on the game, but not in the way Eddie Jones would have liked him to.
The England captain is public enemy number one in the rugby world after his filthy foul on Sean O’Brien during the Northampton Saints’ 10-37 Champions Cup loss to Leinster at Franklin’s Gardens on Saturday.
A week after experiencing the highs of leading his country to a record-equalling 14th consecutive Test win as they beat the Wallabies, Hartley languished in the lows of being given a straight red card just minutes after coming on as a substitute against the Irish province.
The referee took absolutely no time at all to give the hooker his marching orders for swinging arm directly at O’Brien’s dome in the 58th minute. He didn’t need to think about it much, the punishment was that obvious for the vile challenge.
O’Brien collapsed in a heap, was taken off the pitch to receive treatment and did not and did not return after taking the Head Injury Assessment.
Straight red 😡 https://t.co/L8gA9jSEkG
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) December 9, 2016
Former England and Ireland captains Lawrence Dallaglio and Brian O’Driscoll gave a particularly damning assessment of the incident after the game, while the wider rugby community were all questioning if these were the actions of a Lions leader.
Eddie Jones, who was watching on from the stands, did not enjoy what he saw either. There wasn’t even an attempt of a poker face from the England head coach as his expression let the world know exactly how frustrated and displeased he was with the actions of his captain.
You only see that look from two kinds of people – coaches who’ve been let down by their captain and those poor sods who’ve just remembered they’ve left the immersion on.
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