NORTHAMPTON SAINTS COACH Jim Mallinder downplayed the incident which could cost Dylan Hartley his place at the Six Nations with England.
The Saints overcame Leicester Tigers 23-19 on Saturday, despite Hartley’s early dismissal for elbowing Matt Smith after being powerfully cleared from a ruck by the Leicester centre.
Hartley’s reaction caused a brief fracas between the two sets of players, and could land Hartley with a ban.
Match referee JP Doyle initially seemed content to brandish a yellow, but following a long discussion with television match official Sean Davey, Hartley was shown a red card and sent on his way.
Despite being down to 14 men for over an hour, Northampton managed to claim an impressive win and top spot in the Premiership courtesy of Jamie Elliott’s late try and Mallinder believes the England hooker’s early dismissal inspired his side.
“In terms of the red card, it’s disappointing,” Mallinder said. ”Dylan’s got to keep his arms down, but he was being held and I don’t think there was any malice in it.
“I think Smith went down pretty easily to be honest, which was disappointing. It’s a tough game. If you looked at that 80 minutes of rugby, it was hard, physical, some great tackles. Some of them were quite high and people got penalised for those.
“I don’t think there was any malice in that and JP’s first reaction of a yellow card would have been the correct decision.”
Mallinder added: ”I tell you what Tom Wood said [at half-time]… let’s do it for Dylan Hartley. That was really the theme.
“You don’t want to be down to 14 men but what we have got is playing with 14 men against Leicester and knowing we can come back and win.”
Hartley previously missed the British and Irish Lions’ tour of Australia after abusing referee Wayne Barnes in the 2013 Premiership final, also against Leicester.
He’s a class A knob
How good is it that rugby can paused the game for one or two mins and check the video evidence. If they didn’t have Hartley would’ve got a yellow but instead deservedly got a red. And I would imagine this is helping to keep incidents like this out of the game as players know that 95% of the time they won’t get away from it.
Wonder will FIFA ever realise it’s the 21st century.
Why he is the club captain after all the incidents, is a mystery.
Thought the same myself but a friend of a friend knows Myler pretty well and he said basically the whole dressing room love him and see him as their leader and Mallinder see’s that!
Makes sense I suppose….
No malice in it? He deliberately elbowed Smith in the face? That, Jim Mallinder, does have malice in it. As for his reaction? He was deliberately elbowed in the face by a fellow professional and a player with a history of this horrible behaviour and you’re trying to have a pop at the innocent party….well done.
Mallinder is doing a Wenger on this one. Blatant red. No defending it.
Got to love The look Dan Cole gives him as he walks past him
His ban should be extended for saying “f*ck you” to the ref when he made his decision.
He did not, did he? That’s insane. I remember 2 back, he got sent off in the league final for calling the ref a “f*ckin cheat”. Awful attitude.
It’s behaviour like this that allows Hartley to continue being a thug and why, outside of their own supporters, no one likes Northampton.
And no doubt the spineless RFU will act accordingly (to the wishes of the Club owners) with a lenient slap on the wrist saying he was “provoked” and he was being held back (even if it was his own player holding him back) and give him a 1month suspension … just in time for the 6N return. You think it’s a joke, but just wait and see. The RFU will delay the decision until after Christmas and the New Year, let the furore die down.
Still an impressive win for Saint while 1 man down for close to the full game.
And Mallinder wonders why he is a repeat offender. Incredible.
Tosser.
Yup – it seems it’s a club thing. Calum Clark is a serial offender and filthy player who should have had a year ban for trying to break a players elbow (got 26 weeks I think). Plus Courtney lawes – who’s a good player but cheap shot merchant. Then you’ve Hartley – club captain with a ridiculous rap sheet. Gouging, biting, punching, kicking, elbowing and abusing refs….
Jeez what a cock. Hard to believe really.
Another brutal referee he maintained tat was a yellow when is something going to be done about the standard of refs. Patterson also in ulster game was been told by Nigel Owens how to ref the game.
The ref was bang on. At first he thought it was a stray elbow while been held back. He asked tmo does it need upgrading ,