Dylan Hartley’s Turbulent Career

Dylan Hartley is one of the best-known rugby players in the United Kingdom, both for his achievements on the field and his many behavioural digressions during his career.
He is a New Zealand-born rugby union player and currently plays as a hooker for England and Northampton Saints. He is the most highly capped hooker in English rugby history.
His mother is English, which allowed him to play for England, even if he was born in New Zealand. He moved to Crowborough, East Sussex, in 2002 and was an active player at local rugby teams and the Beacon Rugby Academy.
After graduating from the Beacon Academy, Hartley represented Sussex and England U18 before moving to the Worcester Warriors academy in 2004.
Hartley was introduced to England’s age grade academies during a long holiday in Sussex. He was noticed by someone at the Worcester Warriors academy when he was 16 years old and was persuaded to make his switch to England permanent. Hartley, who was playing as a loose-head prop at the time, embraced the opportunity and accepted the challenge, which marked the beginning of his British career. His conversion to hooker occurred in 2005 when he moved to Northampton.
In 2006, he signed for the Northampton Saints senior academy and has been with the team ever since, making over 200 appearances for the club.
However, his path to the top of English rugby has been anything but conventional. Now at 31 years old, Hartley’s careers met a few bumps along the way. With a reputation as a tough enforcer, the rugby player has a lengthy disciplinary record, which led some people in the sport view him as a thug.
And this is mostly due to his acts of indiscipline, among which we can mention punching, biting, gouging, and the gravest crimes in rugby, abusing a referee, all of which landed Hartley plenty of time on the sidelines throughout his professional career, a total of 60 weeks to be more precise.
However, despite his infamous disciplinary record, Hartley was named as England captain by coach Eddie Jones in January 2016. Jones trusted that his experience as Northampton captain and his passionate approach to the game recommended him as a good leader for the England team.
Hartley captained England to successive championships, including the Grand Slam in 2016, the first time that England had done this since 2003, and to a 3–0 series win in the 2016 Cook Cup against Australia.
Recently, he missed out on selection in the British and Irish Lions squad to face the All Blacks in New Zealand. However, this snub didn’t disappoint him, as Hartley is fully focused on his job within the England team. He was selected to lead the Six Nations champions on a two-test tour of Argentina in June. He will captain a 31-man squad for the event and is determined to use his position to enable the world No 2 side to progress in the lead up to the 2019 World Cup in Japan.
For those curious to know how much money Hartley takes home, it seems that the Northampton captain’s club wage is around £500,000 annually (before tax). Aside from his club contract, Hartley also receives a significant lump-sum under England’s Elite Player Squad agreement.