Bad day for rugby’s ‘bad boy’

Sir, – On December 7th, your newspaper described current England rugby captain Dylan Hartley as “former bad boy Hartley”. At the time I thought that this was a premature statement as Hartley’s last suspension was in May 2015 for headbutting a player.

On Friday, December 9th, after his introduction as a substitute in the Northampton v Leinster European Cup match, Hartley was sent off after being on the pitch for six minutes, for a swinging arm to the head of Sean O’Brien.

In view of this, would you like to upgrade your description of Hartley to “former former bad boy”? – Yours, etc,

BRIAN CULLEN,

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Rathfarnham,

Dublin 16.