By Ar.C.
Posted 4 hours ago, Updated 12 minutes ago
Owen Farrell, last Saturday, against the Leek XV. Mike Jones/News Images/PANORAMIC
The captain of the XV de la Rose, expelled against Wales for a dangerous charge, is doing very well for the World Cup.
A non-sanction which will still cause a lot of ink to flow. Owen Farrell was sent off last Saturday against Wales for a violent shoulder charge on the head of Welsh third-row Taine Basham. The English captain was risking big before the World Cup (September 8-October 28).
But the Saracens opening half or center was finally cleared on Tuesday by an independent disciplinary committee, his red card (decided after using the “bunker”) was purely and simply canceled, he can play again on Saturday (6:30 p.m.) against Ireland in Dublin.
Six Nations Rugby, which organizes preparatory test matches in Europe, explained in a press release: “After reviewing all of the evidence, the Committee has concluded that the ‘Foul Play Review Officer’ (the official in charge of examining the images in the bunker, editor’s note) was wrong, on a balance of probabilities, to turn the yellow card issued to the player into a red card. (…) The Commission considered that a late change in dynamics, due to the interaction of the hooker of the England team (Jamie George) in the contact zone, resulted in a sudden and significant change of direction by the ball carrier (Taine Basham). In the Commission’s view, this mitigation was sufficient to bring the player’s act of foul play below the red card threshold.»
And to conclude:Unlike the “Foul Play Review Officer”, the commission had the luxury of time to deliberate and review, in private, the incident and the correct application of the head contact procedure. Based on this, the Commission did not confirm the red card and the player is free to play again immediately.”
After this meeting at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, the XV de la Rose will play a final warm-up match against Fiji. At the World Cup, Steve Borthwick’s team will be in the same group as Argentina, Japan, Samoa and Chile.
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