Eddie Jones should stand by Dylan Hartley even if he is banned

England's Dylan Hartley lifts the Cook Cup after defeating Australia. Photo / AP

Eddie Jones should stand by Dylan Hartley. No matter the outcome of Wednesday's disciplinary hearing for Hartley's red card last Friday against Leinster - and things look bleak for the Northampton hooker, with a hefty suspension likely for the swinging arm that felled Sean O'Brien - the England head coach should back his captain.

There have been calls for Hartley to be stripped of the England captaincy following the latest in a long line of misdemeanours. Jones should resist that clamour.

Jones is strong-minded. He will pay little heed to public opinion. The baying mob can stay outside the Twickenham walls and make all the noise it wants. Jones will make his own call. And if he were to demote Hartley to the ranks, then it would be an astonishing about-turn in his affiliations.

It is almost exactly a year since Jones made a bold, and surprising, move to award Hartley the captaincy. It was a change of regime and a change of tone. Out went Chris Robshaw, the faithful head prefect, and in came the rough-edged Kiwi. Hartley made no pledges to reform his character and nor did Jones expect him to. He wanted a player cut in his own image: spiky, sharp-witted and colourful with a whiff of danger never far from the surface.

Of course neither man wanted to be embroiled in unsavoury events. Hartley recognised the need for discipline and self-control. Every player does. And, yes, he has been in the dock many times before and made the same promise to keep out of trouble. And he did. His play for England has been on-message. True, he has not always been in the best form, with injury severely curtailing his game time for Northampton throughout the year. Yet Hartley has been at the heart of a great English revival, captain throughout an unbeaten year.

Jones should stick with Hartley not just because England are on a roll (played 13, won 13) and he is fearful that changing a winning formula would be a risk. The likelihood is anyway that Jones will have to pass the captaincy armband to someone else for the opening match of the Six Nations Championship against France on Feb 4, given that Hartley might well find himself on the receiving end of an eight-week suspension.

Owen Farrell springs to mind as a suitable stand-in candidate. All fine and dandy, even desirable in that it will enable Jones to broaden his leadership base. But there is a principle at stake. And it is that Hartley has helped to build the mood and ethos of this team. To throw him to the wolves at the first sign of trouble would be to undermine and forsake the values that underscore that squad. England have come through several tricky situations across the course of the year - seeing off all-comers to win their first Grand Slam in 13 years, mounting a Rorke's Drift stand to keep Australia at bay in the second Test in Melbourne on their way to a clean sweep in the series and, finally, holding firm even when reduced to 14 men in the fifth minute against Argentina.

England have been tight-knit and together, backing their mates in adversity. Not one England player slated Elliot Daly for the rash aerial challenge that led to the red card against the Pumas. Instead they rallied round and got on with the job in hand. Hartley has been instrumental in that process.

It is true many players have never even been sent to a sin-bin in their careers, much less dispatched from the field permanently. And Hartley's rap sheet is pretty unedifying, with charges of biting and gouging and verbal abuse all on there. But if Jones wanted an individual with edge (and intelligence and empathy, for those are Hartley traits as well), then he can hardly complain when the selfsame player acts in character.

That is not to condone Hartley's action, which was reckless in the extreme, but to understand that such an eventuality is always possible with such a fiery performer. He ought not to be like that, but he is. And he will pay a significant price for it. The fact that he was in Northampton colours and not on England duty should not feature in the debate. As Jones waved his triumphant squad off from their Pennyhill Park training base only a week or so ago, he stressed to them the need to go back to their clubs and to play like internationals. That meant to perform with vigour and belief and desire, to show that they are not prima donnas who save their heart-and-soul efforts only for the big stage with England.

Hartley took things too far. His wild swinging arm was rash and indefensible. He deserves to be banned, and probably with a high-end sanction. But he does not merit being hung out to dry. England captain he is and England captain he should stay.