England’s faint World Cup hopes could be dead and buried…
England talisman Owen Farrell is set to face a disciplinary hearing on Tuesday, following his reckless red card against Wales on Saturday.
Farrell was initially shown a yellow card for his hit Welsh player Taine Basham with a shoulder-to-jaw collision, in England’s narrow 19-17 victory.
However, upon review by the TMO and Georgian referee Nika Amashukeli, the initial yellow was upgraded to red due to the high degree of danger and lack of mitigating circumstances.
The game itself was full of bite for what was essentially a World Cup primer ahead of next month’s pool stage fixtures, although neither side seemed to get the memo, with five yellow cards being brandished across the course of the 80 minutes.
Owen Farrell Yellow Card 🟨
‘Bunker’ review system back into play.#ENGvWAL
Edit: Has been upgraded to red 🟥 pic.twitter.com/c26hwm9Skf
— Darren (@SaffasRugby) August 12, 2023
Munster cult hero to decide length of Owen Farrell ban:
England are set to face Ireland and Fiji in their final two World Cup ‘warm ups’, before tackling the challenge of Argentina in their opening pool stage clash.
Six Nations Rugby have since announced the members of the disciplinary panel which will decide Owen Farrell’s World Cup fate.
An all-Australian trio of Adam Casseldan and former Wallaby internationals John Langford and David Croft, will assess the incident and determine the length of Farrell’s likely ban.
Langford is also a former Munster second row, having lined out for the province between 1999 and 2001, making 30 appearances for the southern province.
Speaking after the game on Saturday, Farrell’s England teammate George Ford leapt to the Saracens star’s defence, saying;
“He’s a leader. We’ll get around him, whatever the situation is. He’s huge for us, the way he drives us every day, he plays on the edge, of course he does, but that’s why he’s our captain.”
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