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Retiring Dylan Hartley explains why best day of his career wasn't with England
By Josh Raisey
Former England captain Dylan Hartley has described winning the Premiership with Northampton Saints as the best day of his career.
The 33-year-old retired on Thursday after missing almost a year of rugby with a persistent knee injury. He struggled to shake the injury off in time to make the World Cup with England and has now had to concede defeat in what he has described on Instagram as “a rollercoaster of a career”.
Hartley finishes his career as England’s second-most capped player with 97 caps, 30 as captain, with a win percentage in charge that only Martin Johnson has bettered of those who have captained England over 15 times.
The hooker led England to a Grand Slam in 2016, the Six Nations title in 2017, and he was also part of the title-winning squad in 2011. However, reflecting on his career, Hartley described winning the Premiership in 2014 as the “best day of my rugby career no doubt”.
This may come as a surprise after the glittering Test innings he has had with England, but it is also an insight into how significant that club victory was at Twickenham five years ago.
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Latest Comments
You miss the point. There is no pipeline of players. A coach cannot change that. That is up to the Welsh RFU, which have failed.
Rassie is a clever bugger, no doubt, but the Boks could play 52 players this year because of the systems they have put in place to find and develop players from schoolboy level up.
Go to commentsIn terms of player quality, that is a phenomenal backrow. In terms of balance, not so much. Lacks a heavyweight ball carrier and a lineout option. I'm sure they'd still cause havoc though.
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