Owen Farrell has received a shock reprieve after his head-high tackle on Taine Basham and will face no Rugby World Cup ban.
The England fly-half is free to play immediately, and will therefore contest selection for Saturday’s World Cup warm-up Test against Ireland in Dublin.
The 31-year-old has seen his red card from Saturday’s 19-17 win over Wales rescinded, with a disciplinary panel finding the officials at Twickenham made the wrong call in upgrading his yellow card.
An independent Six Nations disciplinary panel found that Farrell was left with no opportunity to react after Jamie George made contact with Basham, effectively forcing the head-high contact.
Even senior disciplinary department officials from varying unions had anticipated Farrell receiving a suspension in the region of four weeks.
So his exoneration has come as a major surprise to all concerned, and represents a major boost to England’s World Cup plans.
“The player acknowledged that whilst he had committed an act of foul play, he denied that the act was worthy of a red card,” read a statement from the Six Nations, who handle discipline for the World Cup warm-up matches.
“After reviewing all the evidence, questioning the player in detail and hearing submissions from the player’s representative, the Committee concluded that the Foul Play Review Officer was wrong, on the balance of probabilities, to upgrade the yellow card issued to the player to a red card.
“The committee determined, when applying World Rugby’s Head Contact Process, that mitigation should be applied to the high degree of danger found by the Foul Play Review Officer.
“The committee found that a late change in dynamics due to England No 2’s interaction in the contact area brought about a sudden and significant change in direction from the ball carrier.
“In the committee’s opinion, this mitigation was sufficient to bring the player’s act of foul play below the red car threshold.”
Six Nations chief moved to insist the officials from Saturday’s match cannot be criticised for their judgement in the match. That stance will only further cloud rugby’s already confused disciplinary processes, at a time when the sport is desperately seeking clarity amid grave safety fears.
England’s team barrister Richard Smith KC has once again led the Red Rose side’s legal approach, and head coach Steve Borthwick will regard this as another huge win.
“The committee believe it is important to record that no criticism is made of the Foul Play Review Officer nor would any be warranted,” read the Six Nations statement.
“Unlike the Foul Play Review Officer the Committee had the luxury of time to deliberate and consider, in private, the incident and the proper application of the Head Contact Process.
“The Committee believe this is in contrast to the Foul Play Review Officer, who was required to make his decision in a matter of minutes without the benefit of all the additional material including hearing from the player and his legal representative.
“On that basis, the Committee did not uphold the red card and the player is free to play again immediately.”
