England's Dylan Hartley handed four-week ban for headbutting
Thursday 28 May 2015 11:04, UK
England hooker Dylan Hartley will miss the opening match of the World Cup after being handed a four-week ban for headbutting Saracens' Jamie George.
Hartley will miss England's three World Cup warm-up games and the tournament opener against Fiji at Twickenham on September 18.
The front rower, who admitted striking opposite number George with his head during Saturday's 29-24 defeat to Sarries, was named in Stuart Lancaster's 50-man preliminary squad for the upcoming World Cup last week.
Disciplinary committee chairman Sean Enright said: "There cannot be any place in our game for this class of behaviour, and that is why we have imposed this sanction."
Hartley has been criticised for his ill-discipline the past. He was handed a massive 26-week ban for eye-gouging in 2007, an 11-week suspension for verbally abusing referee Wayne Barnes during the 2013 Premiership final against Leicester and a three-week ban for elbowing an opponent in December 2014.
Hartley's latest misdemeanour takes his career suspension tally past the calendar year mark to 54 weeks - but crucially he has received the lowest possible ban for his offence.
His guilty plea could have swayed the three-man disciplinary panel in the Coventry hearing from adding extra punishments in reflection of his previous poor record
