Jeff Probyn column: Sorry Eddie Jones, but just how honest a player is Dylan Hartley?

Dylan HartleyI suppose it was always on the cards and, the more people objected, the more likely it became: 's first foreign coach has just appointed England's first foreign captain.
is said to want to build a pack of forwards that will regain the reputation of previous generations and send “shivers down the spine” of those about to face them and, for starters, he has chosen as his captain to lay down a marker.
Jones likes Hartley's “aggressive, uncompromising” approach to playing the game and sees him as a role model for his new team, a leader who will make the whole team seem more threatening in a physical sense while dominating the opposition, but I have my doubts.
I have said quite often that I am not a Hartley fan and the main reason for that is because I feel he is not, as Eddie Jones has suggested, an honest player.
The reason I say that is, if you look at his discipline history, none of his faux pas have been as the result of a physical altercation or confrontation but have instead been ‘cheap shots' on unsuspecting or unprepared players.
Hartley, despite his history, is a good player who could have made a crucial difference to England's campaign, particularly in the games against Wales and , but is he currently the best option for captain?
As an England captain you don't necessarily have to be friends with all the people in the squad, (Will Carling and I are not on each other's Christmas card list) but you have to have their respect as a player.
Jones has backed up that sentiment with his comment that the captain should be the first name on the team sheet, yet Hartley has a serious challenger for his position in ' Jamie George.
With 66 caps to his name despite his bans, Hartley looks set to overtake Steve Thompson (73 caps) as England's most capped hooker and is the most experienced player in Eddie's first EPS, a squad that Jones emphasised would be picked on form rather than reputation.
Despite the rhetoric, Hartley must have been picked on reputation rather than form, as he has hardly started a game for this season and had been playing second fiddle to Mikey Haywood until it became obvious he was about to be named England captain.
As one of only three players, (Jack Clifford, Paul Hill and Hartley) added to the 13 matchday forwards from outside Lancaster's last squad, Jones could have used Hartley as the pack leader and looked for a less controversial captain.
The thing is, many dominant England teams of the past never needed the captain to be the most notoriously uncompromising player on the pitch to make their packs dominant.
In fact, most were captained by the person who was probably the most affable of all the players who could placate a referee after any incident.
The last thing any team wants is for a referee to view their captain as confrontational and I am sure that Jones will be emphasising privately to Hartley that he has to change the perceptions that surround him not just among players but match officials as well.
By choosing Hartley, Jones has made a statement of intent but not necessarily about the team.
Hartley is his choice and his choice alone, not influenced by politics or the fears of the media. In picking Hartley, Jones is saying I am my own man, I make the decisions.
So Hartley is England captain and will be working closely with Jones but his most important relationship will be with England's new forwards coach Steve Borthwick, who is tasked with giving England the dominant scrum that so eluded them during the World Cup.
With just those three new forwards, Borthwick has a big job to turn around what are basically the same building blocks to create a dominant solid scrum in a very short time.
Scrummaging is as much about balance and timing as it is about power and a hooker can be fundamental to getting those elements right.
Hookers must be able to move in order to strike for the ball so they are usually slighter than the props and don't take as much pressure, but they do hold the front row together, creating the platform on which a successful scrum can be built.
Jones knows that a dominant pack creates the foundation for a winning team, allowing your backs more time on the ball and the opposition less time in defence.
As a former hooker, he recognises that Hartley is good in the scrum and could make the huge difference needed in the limited time the squad have together before the start of the .
The addition of Hill to the matchday squad could see RFU president, Jason Leonard lose one of the many records he holds as an England player.
Jason is currently the youngest prop to play for England, winning his first cap in a Test we played in in 1990 at the age of 21.
Northampton's Hill will be just short of his 21st birthday should he get on the field in the equally hostile environment of Murrayfield.

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