The Owen Farrell verdict is out and people won't like it

BREAKING NEWS: England captain Owen Farrell will miss two of his country’s games at the World Cup in France.

Steve Borthwick’s flyhalf was originally cleared to play on with immediate effect last week when the verdict from his independent disciplinary hearing emerged over his red card in the August 12 Nations Series win over Wales.

Farrell was initially yellow-carded at Twickenham for crashing his shoulder into the head of the ball-carrying Wales replacement, Taine Basham.

That decision was soon upgraded to a red card on review by the TMO bunker.

However, the judiciary downgraded that sanction three days later to a yellow card, freeing Farrell to play on without a ban.

However, World Rugby last Thursday decided to exercise its right of appeal and that resulted in the case getting re-heard on Tuesday by a different judicial committee.

The verdict has since emerged and Farrell has been banned for four matches – the final two games of England’s Nation Series versus Ireland and Fiji and the opening World Cup pool matches versus Argentina and Japan.

A Six Nations statement read: “Following an initial Disciplinary Committee hearing for England number 10 Owen Farrell, who received a red card during the Nations Series match between England and Wales on Saturday, August 12, World Rugby lodged a formal appeal against the Committees’ decision to downgrade the red card to a yellow, appealing for the red card to be upheld.

“The Appeal Committee met on Tuesday, August 22 and unanimously determined that in the original hearing the Disciplinary Committee should have considered the attempt of the player to wrap his opponent in the tackle. This point did not feature in the original decision.

“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.

“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.

The suspension applies to the following matches:

Ireland v England – August 19

England v Fiji – August 26

England v Argentina – September 9

England v Japan – September 17

Source @RugbyPass