England have pledged to throw their full support behind Billy Vunipola after the No 8’s red card plunged his Rugby World Cup participation into doubt.
Saracens powerhouse Vunipola was sent off for a head-high tackle on Andrew Porter, as England slipped to a 29-10 defeat at the Aviva Stadium.
The 30-year-old has only just forced his way back into the England set-up under head coach Steve Borthwick, having been overlooked for the whole Six Nations.
The Sydney-born back-rower could now miss a sizeable portion of the World Cup however, with a suspension looking likely next week.
Owen Farrell will face an appeal hearing on Tuesday, over his rescinded red card from last weekend’s 19-17 victory over Wales at Twickenham.
Farrell was sent off for a high tackle on Taine Basham, but then saw that overturned in a disciplinary hearing.
The 31-year-old now has to sweat on the outcome of the World Rugby appeal, and will be required to attend the hearing on Tuesday.
England expect Vunipola’s hearing to be held on Monday or Tuesday too, leaving a busy schedule for the RFU’s disciplinary department and star barrister Richard Smith.
Borthwick insisted England will rally round Vunipola now, a character who wears his heart on his sleeve and is held in the highest esteem by the Red Rose squad.
“I spoke to Billy briefly in the changing room, and clearly, he is disappointed,” said Borthwick.
“He knows there is a process to go through this week.
“We want to keep players on the pitch for 80 minutes of every game and you are playing the number-one ranked team in their stadium, and it becomes a very difficult task.
“There is a disciplinary process this week and hopefully we will find a conclusion to both of them next week.”
England opted to stand Farrell down for the Ireland clash, even though they were able to select their captain.
Borthwick was unhappy about that limbo, and admitted continued frustration ahead of another turbulent disciplinary week to come.
England will host Fiji at Twickenham next Saturday, in their final warm-up match before the World Cup.
Vunipola faces the possibility of a ban as high as six weeks for his red card, and that would rule him out of all the pool stage matches and the World Cup quarter-final.
“We talked about the way this Test week was disrupted and how I had to adapt and we will need to adapt next week,” said Borthwick.
“It certainly hasn’t helped our preparation and we are going to have to minimise the disruption from it to get the performance we want.
“We thought we had reached a conclusion on Tuesday, we want to make sure both processes have a conclusion this week and don’t continue through.”
Maro Itoje also weighed in to back his Saracens and England team-mate Vunipola.
“We know he didn’t do it on purpose,” said Itoje.
“In rugby these things happen at such quick pace.
“He didn’t mean to tackle high. We know he always plays with his best intentions.
“It is what it is. The referee made the call. Obviously it’s something that as a team we need to make sure we’re getting better at.
“To win these types of matches, if you want to win consistently, you need to have 15 men on the field.
“When you have 14 you give yourself some work to do. We need to get better at that. We will have to wait and see what comes of it.”
