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'It was a pretty long walk of shame': Dylan Hartley revisits his infamous 2013 Premiership final red card

By Liam Heagney

With the countdown now officially on towards this Saturday’s Exeter vs Wasps Gallagher Premiership final, Dylan Hartley has revisited his nightmare experience of the English league showpiece, getting sent off in 2013 for allegedly swearing at referee Wayne Barnes while playing for Northampton. 

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The green light was given on Wednesday for the 2020 Exeter-Wasps decider after the Coventry-based club came through the latest round of coronavirus testing unscathed, and the impending match-up has had former England and Northampton skipper Hartley reflecting on what happened to him seven years ago in the showpiece. 

Not only did his moment of madness end his final against Leicester, who went on to win, but the subsequent ban also cost Hartley his place on the 2013 Lions tour to Australia. While that tour damage was irreparable, the hooker failing to get selected for the 2017 tour to New Zealand, Hartley came back in 2014 to win the Premiership title with Northampton. 

Memories of the red card linger, however, Hartley even admitting on the latest episode of the RugbyPass Offload show that he would have been confident of contesting the sending-off at the disciplinary hearing but felt it was best for the game that he took the eleven-week ban and got on with life.   

“When he [Barnes] sent me off it was a moment of disbelief actually,” said Hartley on the show to co-star Simon Zebo and host Christina Mahon. “I couldn’t believe what was happening. It almost went like slow motion, like the whole world was ending. 

“Yellow cards are alright because you just jog off and know you’re going to come back on hopefully, so the quicker you actually get off for a yellow card, the time starts so you get off the field sharp. But red cards, it’s the slowest walk of your life. I knew the impact that that had. It was Northampton’s first-ever final in the Premiership, it was against our rivals Leicester. That season had been perfect for us, we were flying. 

“I let down not only the team but the town and then personally I’d been to the Lions camp the week before and would have done the messy Monday but it was a Sunday, had all that kit, even the squad photo and then they photoshopped Rory Best’s head. 

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“I wasn’t even thinking about that. It was just pure disbelief if I’m honest. It was a pretty long walk of shame. I went straight to the changing rooms and had a moment with myself… I thought the easy thing to do here is to sit in. I felt like getting a taxi home, out the fire escape kind of thing. 

“But I thought the right thing was to front up, sit on the bench full well knowing I’m going to have every camera poked in my face, all the photographers were there, and then at the end of the game I could have easily shied away from not getting a losers’ medal and confronting my teammates but I thought I have got to front up here. 

“It was difficult but I did the right thing. I did the wrong thing to get sent off but I did the right thing in my mind as a teammate and as a bloke to front up and get on with it. It wasn’t easy. 

“There is a piece in the book as well that there was an avenue to challenge the decision but being the grubby kid that I was it wasn’t the situation to do it in. The Lions tour had already started, I wasn’t really going to catch up on that tour. I rang Warren Gatland and said just crack on without me. I was going to take what was given. 

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“You have got to remember, me challenging the ref, the ref’s employed by the RFU, disciplinary is the RFU. There was actually a moment there where Wayne Barnes said he saw me call him a f***in’ cheat. 

“If you freeze-frame when the words are muttered – I did say those words but not aimed at him – he is actually looking the other way. If it went to Crown Court, if this was like an actual serious case in the court of law, I could have got that thrown in the bin but I just thought it’s too big a story.

“I’d played a lot of rugby that season and if anything whenever I got suspended I saw it as like a sabbatical and a chance to rest my body. I went to Los Angeles and had a nice holiday. I watched the Lions tour and I enjoyed all that.”

– To listen to RugbyPass Offload on iTunes, click here

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Jon 2 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 4 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

15 Go to comments
A
Adrian 6 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

15 Go to comments
T
Trevor 9 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

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