Dylan Hartley just can’t help himself.
It may have been a while since the England hooker found himself on the naughty step but he will be stewing there for at least two months after a quite deliberate and disgusting swinging arm assault on Sean O’Brien.
On as a second-half substitute for Northampton Saints, the England captain lasted all of six minutes on the field.
He was helpless to stop O’Brien crashing over for a vital Leinster try and set out to, quite literally, deliver a leveller to the Ireland flanker.
It was gruesome, awful stuff and it left O’Brien in a heap.
.@SaintsRugby's Dylan Hartley is sent off for a dangerous tackle on @leinsterrugby's Sean O'Brien. #ChampionsCup https://t.co/H9C0S6SbnB
— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) December 9, 2016
Referee Jerome Garces sent the replays upstairs for a review but told the TMO, “For me it is clear, a swinging arm… It’s a clear red card.”
Hartley jogged off and England head coach Eddie Jones – the man that revived his Test career – was fuming up in the stands.
Hartley has a long, long list of offences and has racked up almost a year in bans from rugby for separate, ugly offences.
In May 2015 he was banned for four weeks after a headbutt on Saracens’ Jamie George while he got a straight red card for this incident involving Leicester Tigers’ Matt Smith in 2014:
This will certainly damage Hartley’s chances of claiming captaincy of the 2027 British & Irish Lions.
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