Owen Farrell will miss England’s first two World Cup matches after the decision to rescind his red card was overturned on Tuesday night, dealing a hammer blow to his side’s faltering campaign.
The England captain has been banned for four matches, meaning he will sit out the key fixtures against Argentina and Japan – as well as Saturday’s warm-up match against Fiji. Crucially, the panel determined the suspension should be backdated to include last week’s defeat by Ireland, even though Farrell could have appeared in Dublin.
Farrell was initially given a six-match ban, reduced to four due to his “acceptance of foul play, clear demonstration of remorse and his good character”.
Last week Farrell’s red card was initially rescinded at his first hearing, provoking a fearsome backlash, with the player welfare lobby group Progressive Rugby slamming the decision as “making a mockery” of the sport’s commitment to on-field safety.
World Rugby subsequently appealed against that decision and at Tuesday’s hearing, the disciplinary panel unanimously determined that the sending-off should stand.
Farrell’s absence for what are arguably England’s hardest two pool-stage matches is a devastating outcome of a lengthy saga for Steve Borthwick, whose side have lost four of their last five matches to leave World Cup expectations at an all-time low. Last week Borthwick made clear his feelings at World Rugby’s decision to appeal against the initial verdict, questioning why the governing body was “picking holes” in a matter he felt had reached its conclusion.
His problems may get worse with the head coach on Tuesday night sweating on the outcome of Billy Vunipola’s disciplinary hearing after he too was shown a red card, against Ireland last Saturday.
As the only specialist No 8 in Borthwick’s squad, a ban for Vunipola would be another huge setback.
Borthwick has repeatedly said that he would only consider making changes to his squad once the outcome of the hearings was known but he now has a huge decision to make with Farrell ruled out of England’s first two fixtures.
Courtney Lawes is expected to lead England in Farrell’s absence while George Ford is the favourite for the No 10 jersey, though Marcus Smith is another option. Farrell’s second disciplinary hearing – and the decision to uphold the red card – centred on whether the fly-half’s tackle on Wales’ Taine Basham was “always illegal”.
Farrell was sent off via the newly-introduced bunker review system, having initially been shown a yellow card. The foul play review officer noted Farrell’s failure to wrap his arms in the tackle, upgrading the incident to a red-card offence.
The panel at the second hearing noted that the first panel did not consider Farrell’s failure to wrap, therefore determining that his actions were “always illegal”.
That in turn meant that mitigation should not have been considered in this instance, thereby rendering Jamie George’s push on Basham towards Farrell – the reason the red card was initially overturned – as irrelevant.
“The failure to attempt to wrap was judged to be an important element of the foul play review officer’s [FPRO] report and had led to an upgrading of the referee’s yellow card to a red card during the match,” read a statement from Six Nations, who oversee disciplinary proceedings for these warm-up fixtures.
“As this element did not feature in the original decision, the appeal committee decided it was in the interests of justice to hear the case afresh on that key point alone, which included hearing from the player. Following the review by the appeal committee of this key element, it was determined that the FPRO was correct in his decision leading to the red card. The appeal committee subsequently determined that the tackle was “always illegal”.
“When applying the terms of World Rugby’s head contact process, no mitigation can be applied to a tackle that is ‘always illegal’. The appeal committee therefore considered that the disciplinary committee’s decision to downgrade the red card to a yellow card had been manifestly wrong, which led to the Disciplinary Committee’s decision being overturned, the appeal brought by World Rugby being allowed, and the red card upheld.”
Once the panel had decided to award Farrell a ban, a four-match suspension was the best outcome he could have realistically hoped for given his previous record for dangerous tackles.
Last week Borthwick repeatedly made a point of saying that Farrell would have played in Dublin had it not been for the ongoing furore surrounding his disciplinary process and, following submissions from Farrell, it was determined that match should be included in the ban.
Last week the Ireland head coach Andy Farrell lashed out at the “absolutely disgusting” circus surrounding his son, while Borthwick took aim at the “personal attacks” directed at his captain.
He opted against playing Farrell against Ireland – insisting he would have appeared if not for the appeal situation – but England’s attack coach Richard Wigglesworth has praised his former Saracens teammate’s character.
“He is one of the strongest people you will meet and he has been excellent around the squad,” said Wigglesworth, before the outcome of Tuesday’s hearing was announced. “He could not have handled it better and I am sure facing a similar situation not many people would have handled it like he did.
“He has had that through a lot of his career. He is well versed in it being brought up around big games.”
