Dylan Hartley reports to England base to continue rehabilitation

England have yet to set a date for Dylan Hartley’s return from his knee injury despite the Northampton hooker reporting to the squad’s Surrey base to continue his rehabilitation.

Hartley has not played since December 21 because of the issue and the co-captain had been pencilled in for a return in the Six Nations round-three match against Wales at the earliest.

Eddie Jones suggested he might need an operation to repair what Northampton boss Chris Boyd described as a “grumbly” knee and, while surgery has so far been avoided, assistant coach John Mitchell declined to provide a schedule for his comeback.

“Dylan’s been in for two days of rehab. It’s good to see him. He’s in a good place to return at some point, although we’re unsure when that point will be,” Mitchell said.

“He looks in really good shape and that reflects well on this environment and is a good advert for him as a leader – showing that when you’re out you can still look after yourself and present yourself in good shape.”

Hartley missed the standout performance and result of the Jones era after Ireland were dismantled 32-20 to launch England’s Six Nations title quest in stunning fashion on Saturday.

Key to the victory against the reigning champions was a ferocious defensive display that saw Mako Vunipola and Mark Wilson complete 31 and 27 hits apiece, but was headlined by a dominant tackle count of 46-9 in England’s favour.

Masterminding Ireland’s submission was Mitchell, the well-travelled Kiwi defence coach and former All Blacks boss who replaced Paul Gustard after last summer’s tour to South Africa.

“It’s a team effort, it’s not just myself. It’s owned by the players and is led by them,” said Mitchell, who has enjoyed a successful start to his second spell as part of England’s management team.

“All of the coaches have a marriage into it. It’s very much a team effort because you’re going from attack to defence and defence to attack – there are so many more contests now.

“It’s about not having to worry on second phase, not having ‘what ifs’ and being brave and clear in your role.

“Our tackles were effective but the players are wanting to get better in terms of their tackle dominance.

“Clearly you can’t do a huge amount of volume in tackle dominance but everyone has a work on in that area – more so the forwards. The backs have a different type of tackle most of the time.

“We acknowledge that it was a good defensive performance and was one that we enjoyed.

“But you know that there’s always someone who is trying to find a way to exploit your defensive system and find a way to attack it. We’re very mindful of that.

“We believe that our system caters for everything, we just have to regather our intent again.

“France are different opposition with different threats and they may arrive with surprise threats as well. We’ve got to make sure that we’re ready for that on the weekend.”