Dylan Hartley’s performances for England in the Six Nations so far have been staunchly defended by the forwards coach, Steve Borthwick, who has backed his “brilliant captain” despite a groundswell of support for Jamie George to replace him at hooker. Borthwick also confirmed James Haskell is fit to make his first England start since last June after impressive showings off the bench against France and Wales.
Hartley trained with the first team at an open training session at Twickenham on Friday in an indication that he may keep his place against Italy a week on Sunday. Hartley missed three tackles and made six against Wales last weekend while George, who came on after 46 minutes, made twice that number.
George’s form for Saracens and from the bench for Eddie Jones has put him in contention for a place on the British & Irish Lions tour, despite him never having started for England. But asked how George’s expectations were being managed, Borthwick said: “Everybody is desperate to play for England. Jamie has done well. Dylan has been fantastic. The level of his performance has been excellent. I coach those players very, very closely. I think it is an enviable position that lots of people would look at.
“We have two top quality players competing for that position and in Dylan we have a brilliant captain. I don’t just mean match day, I mean every minute of every day he has been a brilliant captain for us.”
As well as his 12 tackles, George, who has 14 England caps, all from the bench, made eight carries to Hartley’s five in Cardiff but Borthwick pointed to other statistics as evidence of his captain’s performance levels.
“If you look at the way that the England scrum has gone in the first part of the Six Nations I think that it has been excellent and Dylan has been a central factor in driving that,” said Borthwick. “I can talk to you about the accuracy of his lineout throwing which I measure and it’s been excellent. The diligence that he’s put into that aspect of his game to improve that.
“You’ve got to look at the influence that you also have on the game and the influence that you have on the players around you. Dylan has been very impactful at that. Dylan’s impact upon this team is incredibly positive.
“Some of the best players, the best players in this team, in any team that I’ve ever been involved in, they have a positive effect on others around them. So people play better because they are there. We have players like that and I have played with players like that in my career.”
Haskell, meanwhile, has not been deemed ready to start against either France or Wales after coming into the tournament with less than an hour’s rugby under his belt this season but, according to Borthwick, is ready to retake the No7 jersey a week tomorrow.
Asked if Haskell was ready to play 80 minutes, Borthwick said: “I’ve no doubt he can. I think he’s proven with everything he’s done that he’s pushing, as they all are, to get into this starting team.”
Jones confirmed after the victory over Wales, in which his “finishers” played a crucial role from the bench for the second week running, that he would make changes in personnel against Italy.
During the training session on Friday – attended by Prince Harry, the RFU’s patron, and watched by 12,000 spectators – the indications were that Ben Te’o is set for a first England start at inside-centre with Owen Farrell moving to fly-half.
Jonny May and Jack Nowell are in the running for the wing positions with Mike Brown at full-back – Anthony Watson did not take part in the main training session, instead doing his own sprint work.
“Anthony’s returning from injury and looked very good today,” said Borthwick. “I’ve not spoken to anybody in terms of what he did today but he looked to be running very well. He’s been training very hard throughout this week.”
