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Hartley says weekend's events threaten to 'end rugby as you know it'
By Josh Raisey
Former England captain Dylan Hartley has given his opinion on the events that took place around the Calcutta Cup this weekend.
Before the match, England were met with a wall of abuse as they entered Murrayfield. High performance manager Neil Craig was hit on the head with a plastic bottle, with some dispute over whether the bottle was thrown or blown by the heavy winds.
Ellis Genge’s interview after the match also received criticism, as he responded to the negative press England received after the loss to France the week before, all the while drinking a beer.
Hartley is not the first person to defend the prop in the wake of the interview, suggesting the events over the weekend could have damaging effects on the game.
He said: “If people are throwing things at the team & are disgusted that Genge has a beer post game & says what he’s actually thinking, you can say goodbye to personality & rugby as you know it.”
Former England flanker James Haskell is another player who has backed the 24-year-old and how he conducted himself in the interview.
The former hooker Hartley said that we want players to be “accessible, approachable & relatable”, but that is being compromised.
Eddie Jones has also been critical of the way his side were treated, highlighting the crowd’s reaction to Owen Farrell’s place kicks.
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England earned a hard-fought 13-6 victory at Murrayfield in truly horrendous conditions. Genge’s late try proved decisive in earning England the win, and keeping them in contention of winning the Six Nations. While there has been a negative reaction to his interview, there are as many, if not more, people who have backed the Leicester Tigers forward, particularly for calling to attention the criticism his team have received over the past week.
Hartley, who himself was a controversial figure at times during his career, clearly feels that the game should not try and quieten characters like that.
Watch: Eddie Jones warns against Six Nations expansion.
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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