Owen Farrell will be available for the start of England's Six Nations campaign after being handed a four-game ban for a high tackle during a Premiership clash with Gloucester.
The England and Saracens fly-half was cited for a dangerous challenge contrary to World Rugby Law 9.13 after making contact with the head of Gloucester's Jack Clement. He subsequently appeared before a disciplinary hearing on Tuesday evening to discover his fate, amid suggestions his punishment could potentially rule him out of the start of the upcoming Six Nations campaign.
However, he has been handed a four-game ban which will be reduced to three games if he completes World Rugby's coaching intervention programme, meaning he will be available for England's opener with Scotland at Twickenham on February 4.
A Rugby Football Union statement said: "Farrell accepted foul play but challenged that it met the red card threshold, however, the panel upheld the charge and Farrell received a four match ban. This will be reduced to a three week ban if the player completes the World Rugby Coaching Intervention Programme."
Farrell will miss Saracens' games against Lyon, Edinburgh and Bristol in January, with his suspension for a fourth game against Leicester Tigers on February 2 being void if he completes the programme.
Citing commissioner James Hall said Farrell had leaned into the tackle and made direct contact with his right shoulder to the chin of Clement "with high force". Hall said that Clement entering contact at speed and Farrell attempting a dominant tackle "indicates that there was a high degree of danger". Concluding that there was no mitigation, Hall said: "[Farrell] has a clear line of sight, and significant time to select his tackle height. [Clement's] body position is of a consistent height going into contact."
A summary of Farrell's evidence said the No. 10 told the panel a number of times "that he felt he had made primary contact through the chest area and that he had made a fair tackle" and it was only when he got on the team bus for the journey home and watched clips of the challenge that he realised contact was made with Clement's chin, for which Farrell apologised. The summary adds: "He [Farrell] denied the suggestion made by the RFU that he had caused the chin to be pinned backwards by his contact. He felt that the contact with the chin was not significant. It was described as fleeting. He said his opponent continued to contest the ball following the tackle and then continued to play in the rest of the game."
The panel accepted that Farrell believed he had primarily struck his opponent's chest but took the view that footage shows he was wrong. The panel concluded that while the decision to tackle high was intentional, the contact with the chin was unintentional and was therefore reckless.
Starting with a mid-range entry points of a six-week suspension, this was reduced by two weeks due to what is described as relevant off-field mitigating factors, which include timely acknowledgement of his offending, "exemplary" behaviour prior to and at the hearing, expression of remorse, contacting his opponent to apologise and an "exemplary" reference from Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall. As for his previous disciplinary record, the panel judgement said: "The player has one previous matter on record from September 2020 for which he served a five-match ban for dangerous tackling and another old matter which occurred in 2016. Given the date of the first matter the panel conclude the player is not a repeat offender whose status warrants an increase in sanction for this reason."
In 2020, he was banned for five weeks instead a of potential 10 games, with the player's good behaviour and even his "work for charity" mentioned as mitigating factors by the disciplinary panel.
The latest incident occurred shortly before he dropped over the winning goal during Saracens' win over Gloucester on January 6, and actually went unpunished by the on-field officials, amid confusion over whether referee Karl Dickson could act upon the intervention of the TMO.
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