Six Nations statement: England's Owen Farrell banned after appeal 

England skipper Owen Farrell will miss two of his country’s games at next month’s Rugby World Cup in France. Steve Borthwick’s fly-half was originally cleared to play on with immediate effect on Tuesday of last week when the verdict from his independent disciplinary hearing emerged over his red card in the August 12 Summer Nations Series win over Wales.  

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

That decision was soon upgraded to a red card on review by the TMO bunker, but the judiciary – which consisted an all-Australian panel of Adam Casselden (SC, chair) and two former Wallaby players, John Langford and David Croft – 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 consisting of Nigel Hampton KC (chair, New Zealand), joined by Shao-ing Wang (Singapore) and Donal Courtney (Ireland).

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

A Six Nations statement read: "Following an initial disciplinary committee hearing for England No10 Owen Farrell, who received a red card during the Summer Nations Series match between England and Wales on August 12, World Rugby lodged a formal appeal against the committee's 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. 

“In considering sanction, the committee applied World Rugby’s mandatory minimum mid-range entry point for foul play resulting in contact with the head (six matches). Taking all considerations into account, including the player’s acceptance of foul play, clear demonstration of remorse and his good character, the committee agreed a four-match suspension. 

“The appeal committee accepted submissions on behalf of the player that the Ireland vs England match on August 19, for which the player was voluntarily stood down, would be included as part of the sanction.  Therefore, the suspension applies to the following matches: 

• Ireland vs England (Aug 19); England vs Fiji (Aug 26); England vs Argentina (Sept 9); England vs Japan (Sept 17)."